Worries over Glenwood Avenue project lead to ‘listening sessions’

Residents worried about the N.C. Department of Transportation’s plans to remake the Glenwood Avenue interchange on the Beltline will have a chance to share their concerns at one of four public meetings next month.

NCDOT calls them “listening sessions” and says it’s the first time the department has used them to gather feedback on a highway project. Each session will be limited to no more than 150 people who will meet with a facilitator who will help draw out their ideas and concerns.

NCDOT came up with listening sessions after residents along Ridge Road voiced anxiety about the Glenwood Avenue interchange project. They worry that the state’s efforts to improve the flow of traffic and reduce accidents around Crabtree Valley Mall will funnel more drivers onto their residential street, which parallels the Beltline.

Three of the four meetings will be held at Martin Middle School on Ridge Road; the fourth will be at Ridge Road Baptist Church. They begin Tuesday, Sept. 18.

The meetings will allow residents to be involved in the project from the beginning, Joey Hopkins, NCDOT’s lead engineer for the Raleigh region, said in a statement.

“We know how important this is for the community,” Hopkins said. “We need access to your thoughts and feelings about this project, and these listening sessions will give us that opportunity.”

The $231 million project aims to relieve one of the city’s most congested areas by changing the way people drive between the Beltline and the mall. Possible changes include reconfiguring the Glenwood Avenue interchange; improving the intersection of Glenwood with Lead Mine and Blue Ridge roads, and extending Crabree Valley Avenue, the street that runs behind the mall, to the east and creating new exit and entrance ramps with the Beltline.

NCDOT officials began meeting with business and community groups about the project this spring. They insisted they had not settled on any designs and were only seeking general information that would guide their work. But residents along Ridge Road were skeptical and soon began placing signs reading “Save Ridge Road” in their front yards.

NCDOT’s community liaison, Caroletta Daniels, met with residents Monday night at the Glenwood Citizens Advisory Council meeting and made a good impression, said Robert Rice, the council’s chairman.

“Overall, members are very pleased that NCDOT is willing to gather opinion and feedback at this stage of the process,” Rice wrote in an email after the meeting.

But some still worry that NCDOT may be trying to mollify residents without really listening to them, Rice said, and others fear ideas and concerns raised at one of the meetings won’t be shared at the others. He said the CAC will ask NCDOT to summarize what it heard at the four meetings and then return for a “moderated town hall meeting.”

NCDOT asks people to pre-register for one of the four listening sessions by going to www.ncdot.gov/projects/i-440-glenwood/. The meetings will take place at Martin Middle School on Sept. 18 from 6 to 8:30 p.m.; Sept. 25 from 6 to 8:30 p.m., and Sept. 29 from 9:30 a.m. to noon, and at Ridge Road Baptist Church on Sept. 20 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Martin sessions will be limited to 150 people, while the Baptist church meeting will be capped at 100.

“We set a cap to be sure that the small breakout groups did not exceed a limit that would diminish from the intimate listening environment we want to provide,” said NCDOT spokesman Sean Williams. “That being said, if there is a huge outpouring of demand, we may schedule more sessions.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 12:54 PM.