Charlotte Street could soon have consulting firm studying improvement plan
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Asheville City Council will likely move the Charlotte Street improvement project one step closer to a groundbreaking Tuesday night.
The council is expected to approve $155,000 for a consulting firm to begin design work on the project to reduce car lanes and add bike lanes to a stretch of the heavily traveled corridor. The goal is to slow traffic so that it goes the adjusted 25 mph speed limit set more than a year ago.
“Charlotte Street for a long time has been a release valve for people coming off (Interstate) 240,” said Will Hornaday, spokesman for the Charlotte Street business association.
Hornaday said that while the tentative plan to reduce lanes to three and add two bike lanes at the 40-foot wide road isn’t a perfect solution, he thinks it’s still a good thing.
“This is a first step,” he said.
Patrick O’Cain, who owns Gan Shan Station, a Thai restaurant on Charlotte, is encouraged at the idea the project will slow traffic.
"I like the plan to bring it down to three lanes," he said.
O'Cain, like other business owners along the corridor, are concerned about pedestrian safety, though, at this point, no plan incorporates any sidewalk improvements to Charlotte Street in the first phase.
Hornaday, who is well-versed on the varying plans, said there is no money budgeted in $1.25-million project for sidewalk improvements. Hornaday said the majority of the money will go to improve storm drains on the road that ponds heavily during rains.
Not everyone is excited by the project.
“This affects everybody, regardless of where you live in the neighborhood,” said Suzanne Escovitz, president of the Grove Park-Sunset Mountain Neighborhood Association.
Her concern is that the city is turning a blind eye to the large traffic volume that uses Charlotte Street as a connector from the north side of Asheville to downtown and to get on area interstates.
“The city needs to look at it’s own past traffic studies,” Escovitz said. "You can imagine what traffic’s going to be like if it (Charlotte) moves down to one lane each way and a turn lane.”
She also thinks the city is shirking on the project by not fully funding a complete overhaul and investing in re-doing the sidewalks to make them wider or safer.
The plan is not final. There will be additional opportunities for more public input before the slated spring 2019 groundbreaking.
