The proposed Carrboro’s Bolin Creek trail (10 feet wide) would follow the existing 30-foot-wide OWASA sewer easement, which doesn’t have trees in it. That’s because tree roots could hurt existing sewage pipes, and our water utility OWASA needs to occasionally access the pipes along Bolin Creek with utility vehicles. 

There is a chance that some trees may need to be removed from the corridor. But Carolina North and the Horace Williams Tract are just under 1000 acres together. It is expected that the path will take up just under 3 acres total, much of it in the existing easement.

The proposed 10-foot-wide paved Bolin Creek Greenway would go along a 30-foot wide OWASA sewer easement. It is kept clear so OWASA’s trucks can routinely roll over and perform maintenance, and to stop tree roots from infiltrating poop-filled pipes.

But the sewage easement was not designed to be the incredibly popular recreational trail that it has become in the last several decades. The resulting land is hard-packed, causing significant erosion and sedimentation and contributing to the degradation of the creek.  Town staff wrote a memo that attributed the sedimentation to six reasons, one of which is the heavy current use of the trail.

Critically, the staff memo notes that the easement is essentially impervious. Greenway opponents often cite research about the negative impacts of locating pavement next to streams, but also carefully elide the fact that we have a 30-foot wide impervious path next to the creek right now.

A major argument for co-locating the greenway with the sewer easement is that doing so would actually shrink the total amount of impervious surface along the creek because in dedicating ten feet to pavement for trail users we can reclaim the other twenty to forty feet with seeded shoulders and other vegetation.

Chapel Hill has greenways along Booker and Bolin Creeks and they were built to withstand high-velocity floods. You can read more in this assessment prepared by the town, which also notes that very little damage has been caused over the past 40 years due to floods along the creek. 

Greenways can also serve as natural floodplains. By restoring developed floodplains to their natural state, many riverside communities are preventing potential flood damage. (Greenways don’t prevent flooding, but can help mitigate their damage depending on how they’re constructed.) 

A blog post by Mecklenberg County, NC explains why flooding greenways is actually a good thing. Greenways "serve as buffers or “no build” zones. These buffers store excess stormwater runoff and protect surrounding natural areas that are able to absorb flood waters and filter stormwater pollutants. The natural vegetation in these buffer areas also helps reduce the chance of erosion and moderate water temperatures."

An assessment noted "the narrow 10-foot-width of the trail will not, in and of itself, add anymore additional impact in either velocity or volume of stormwater than what is already being experienced by the impervious social trail that laces throughout the corridor along Bolin Creek. In fact, building a defined trail corridor...and completing environmental restoration will serve to improve the overall environmental health of the corridor and reduce the impact to the stream corridor."

 The existing 1000-acre forest is a wonderful ecosystem, and surrounded by lots of urban and suburban development, as Chuck Flink pointed out. He wrote, “the impacts are already occurring and will continue to occur in the future. The responsible thing for the Town to do is to try to accommodate human use and work to restore landscape degradation that has occurred through the decades.”

We know from eBird counts that bird variety and counts have not changed along Bolin Creek Trail, Morgan Creek Trail, and Booker Creek Trail in Chapel Hill. In fact, providing a safe, accessible paved trail allows more birders of all mobility ranges to access the trail and see various species. A 10-foot-wide paved path along 2.8 miles of an existing sewage easement in an 1000-acre piece of land will not change the width of the corridor that animals have.

 Wide forested corridor improve bird diversity. The birds and wildlife on Chapel Hill’s section of Bolin Creek have not been affected by the paved path in Chapel Hill (the eBird counts remain the same).

Greenways can also be designed with protective features for wildlife, and encourage people to stay on a path - protecting the many species that call our forest home. A paved greenway along the creek will allow more residents to experience the wildlife found along Bolin Creek -- bird watchers are frequently along the paved paths in Chapel Hill.

Bolin Creek has been impacted by decades of human activity. In many places, there is no vegetative buffer between the area that is heavily used and the creek itself, primarily due to extensive trail braiding, so runoff flows unfiltered into the creek.  There are sewer manholes next to the creek, sewer pipes that carry wastewater across the creek, and the Bolin Forest HOA has built several play structures right up to the creek’s edge.The trail along the creek is severely braided in some areas where trail users are avoiding puddles by going around them, widening the trail and encroaching further into the forest. 

OWASA trucks go on the existing Bolin Creek Trail in Chapel Hill and the Booker Creek Trail in Chapel Hill to examine their pipes. The foundation of the Carrboro trail would be no different. Greenway designers are well used to working within difficult terrain, as they have in both Chapel Hill and Hillsborough.

There is a portion of the sewer line near Pathway Drive which is slated for replacement in fiscal year 2026 (and may be pushed well beyond that, as frequently happens), but if and when a greenway is built, OWASA would coordinate with the towns, as they do with every other OWASA project across Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

About 27% of greenhouse gas generated in the US comes from transportation, and 52% of all trips in the US are less than three miles. One important way we can fight the climate crisis at the local level is by creating opportunities for our residents to reduce their reliance on cars and building a culture of active transportation that scales with our increasingly dense town. A greenway network in Carrboro (that will connect to a greenway network in Chapel Hill) will take cars off the road. 

Most greenways in North Carolina get built with a mix of federal and local funds, including bonds. Federal guidelines typically require a paved path to be ten-feet wide, but there is no requirement for ten-foot gravel buffers on both sides. Good engineering practice is to secure the paved surface with two-foot constructed shoulders. The existing sewer easement along Bolin Creek in Carrboro is already wider than that. The Bolin Creek Greenway in Chapel Hill used both federal and local bond funds and does not have ten-foot buffers on both sides of the path.

First, greenways serve more than just bikers - the primary users of Chapel Hill's Bolin Creek Trail are pedestrians. Focusing entirely on bikers and on a path that goes along existing roads may help road cyclists is limiting -- a greenway serves many more people.

Second, the Seawell School road would either go along the existing road - which has blind curves - or involve cutting down a significant number of trees.  UNC owns the Carolina North Forest and has said that they prefer the Bolin Creekside alignment because fewer trees would need to be removed for a path.

The Seawell School Road path is also not equitable in the same way. It would help the existing neighborhoods of northern Carrboro, but not anyone who lives along Greensboro or along Estes. There are no plans to connect Estes Drive with this, so it would remain unconnected and unsafe for kids in neighborhoods along Greensboro or on Estes south of Sewell School Road to bike to Chapel Hill High School.

We would not let our kids ride it. 

Walking along an accessible, safe paved trail makes it easy for people of all ages and all mobility levels to experience Bolin Creek. Greenways are beneficial for many reasons - and one of them is that many people prefer not sharing the road with cars.

The 1000 acres of Carolina North Forest adjacent to the trail will not change -- there are dozens of trails for mountain bikers and off-road runners that will remain exactly as they are today.

Currently, people who use wheelchairs and strollers and walkers can easily access greenways in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte and Cary — but they can’t do so along Bolin Creek in Carrboro.

Bolin Creek is currently inaccessible to residents pushing strollers, residents that use wheelchairs, elderly residents who have become less surefooted, and residents that have a vision impairment or other limiting circumstances.

Approximately 1 in 9 American Adults have a mobility disability. As our community ages, many people will find themselves relying on a scooter, cane, or walker to get around. Already, we’re hearing from people who cannot enjoy the beauty of Bolin Creek in Carrboro because the ground is rutted and filled with roots and holes. And everyone in Carrboro of all ability levels should have safe, protected access to trails that help them get into nature, see birds, and recreate. 

There are multiple sources that indicate the culture of Carrboro is one that embraces projects that produce outcomes resulting in greater equity and climate resilience. The town’s recently adopted Comprehensive Plan calls for just that, and a connected greenway network that takes cars off the road and opens up natural areas for more residents delivers both of those outcomes. Additionally, the town’s biennial community survey showed an enormous interest in greenways. 

The master greenway planning document recommends Wilson Park (which already exists and has 100 spots) and working with the high school to allow parking on weekends.  There is no mention of building parking facilities in neighborhoods. Most people who access the trail will do so on foot or bike - parking lots also exist at the Community Center Park in Chapel Hill, and Umstead Park in Chapel Hill.

A "neighborhood way" on Cobblestone, through the disconnected cul-de-sacs, and a sidewalk along Homestead has been proposed as an alternative to a connected greenway network. There are a number of shortcomings to the Cobblestone neighborhoodway. First, Cobblestone is steep at nearly 5% average gradient over a quarter mile. It's so steep that it is listed as a competitive segment on the exercise app Strava. 

Second, Cobblestone connects to Hillsborough, which is a busy arterial road with a 35 MPH speed limit. The town has committed to building bike infrastructure that can accommodate riders between 8 and 80 years-old, and riding with traffic and up steep hills does not meet that criteria.

 Finally, it again only addresses bikers -- and the primary users of the Bolin Creek Trail, the Morgan Creek Trail, and the Booker Creek Trail in Chapel Hill are all pedestrians.