Incumbents win in Morrisville

One newcomer joins commissioners

Morrisville voters have kept their three incumbent commissioners and elected a political newcomer to an open Board of Commissioners seat.

According to unofficial results with eight of nine precincts reporting, At-large Commissioner Pete Martin, Linda Lyons in District 1 and Liz Johnson in District 3 have been re-elected to their third terms.

Mark Stohlman, who was unopposed, appears to have been elected to a first term in District 2.

Growth and traffic are critical issues for Morrisville, and the campaign reflected residents' concerns.

Stohlman, a certified public accountant, said that after he "gets up to speed" on budgeting issues, he will focus on the Park West Village proposal.

Plans call for redeveloping the former Bristol-Myers site at the southwest corner of the intersection of Chapel Hill Road and Cary Parkway into a mixed-use community. It would include 300 residential units, a theater complex with 3,000 seats, a five-story hotel and 740,000 square feet of commercial and office space.

Johnson, a community volunteer, said her priority would be to finish the updates to the town's land-use and transportation plans, along with completion of the town center plan, which includes transportation and land-use elements.

Lyons said she will concentrate on the town center plan and roads.

"When I try to get out of my driveway, I can't," Lyons said. "We need to go back to [the N.C. Department of Transportation] and push."

Martin said the town's long-range financial plan needs to include a line item for roads.

"If that's not being done, why do we keep building and building and building?" said Martin, who Martin defeated Michael Roberts, a member of the town's planning and zoning board, 397 votes to 302.

Lyons won over Heather Hudson, a manager with JED Management, 485 votes to 285.

Johnson defeated write-in candidate Richard Elliott, a retired corporate communications worker, with 517 votes to 162.