Knightdale hopes plan boosts funding for roads, sidewalks

Eastern Wake News, 2012-11-27

By Paul A. Specht, Eastern Wake News (Zebulon, N.C.)

Nov. 27--KNIGHTDALE -- Every town wants more sidewalks and safer roads. But Knightdale staff has drafted a plan that could help ensure those amenities come with new development.

The recently drafted Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan recommends changing the town's Unified Development Ordinance to encourage improvements to roads and sidewalks. The drafted plan is under review by several town committees before going to Town Council for action.

Here are some of its recommendations:

-- Hasten the development approval process and lessens filing fees for developers that follow the town's guidelines,

-- Include a provision in the UDO that requires developers to install sidewalks along their right-of-way,

-- Increase the required width of sidewalk easements,

-- Require developers intending to add bus or shuttle park-and-ride locations to build sidewalks, bus shelters, and/or transit easements,

-- Allow developers to build smaller parking lots than UDO standards require so long as they include amenities such as benches, wider sidewalks, or recreational trails.

The plan also identifies intersections and corridors and Knightdale that need safety improvements, mainly along Knightdale Boulevard and Smithfield Road. For instance, the plan recommends push button signals at many intersections along those roads.

Completion of all recommendations in the plan would require a combination of tax increases, cooperation from new developers, and grants. Knightdale is pinning its hopes the latter.

Already, in the last year or so, Knightdale received about $430,000 in grants to build sidewalks on Smithfield Road from Knightdale Boulevard to Edinburgh's Keep, and from Main Street to Knightdale Boulevard.

"Once you have a document like this in place, you're more likely to get grants from government agencies," said Councilman Dustin Tripp. "(The agencies) are more likely to fund towns that have an organized plan in place."

Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen called the drafted plan "aspirational," saying it's "not anything we'll impose on existing businesses."

Specht: 919-829-4826

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(c)2012 the Eastern Wake News (Zebulon, N.C.)

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