Public opposition scuttles Six Forks Road development plan

More than five years after the city launched an effort to plan for growth along a busy stretch of Six Forks Road, the City Council decided Tuesday to try again.

With the Six Forks Road Corridor Study, the city sought to craft a blueprint for future development and traffic along the road in the North Hills area, from the Beltline north to Lynn Road. The effort began with a public meeting in September 2012.

But as the plan neared completion in recent months, some North Hills residents were alarmed by proposed zoning maps that showed multi-story buildings and new connector streets sidling up to their neighborhoods.

So on Tuesday, the City Council member who represents the area, Dickie Thompson, proposed that the parts of plan that relate to future zoning, street connections and building heights be rolled over into a new plan — the Midtown Small Area Plan — that is just getting started. The council agreed without discussion.

The council did not reject the entire Six Forks Road plan; it will hold a hearing June 5 on the parts of the plan that cover the movement of cars, pedestrians and cyclists along Six Forks. That includes widening Six Forks to a consistent six lanes, divided by a median, with new sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes.

"The transportation portion is pretty straightforward," Thompson said. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of controversy about that."

Now the public will get another chance to weigh in on the more controversial parts of the Six Forks plan through another series of public meetings and hearings for the Midtown Small Area Plan. The plan will cover a broader area, from the intersection of Six Forks and Atlantic Avenue north to Millbrook Road, and take about 18 months to complete, said Kenneth Bowers, the city planning director..

“There will be a pretty extensive public process associated with that," Bowers said. "It covers a larger study area than Six Forks did, but has more of a focus on land-use issues.”

Asked if he was disappointed that a major part of the Six Forks Road Corridor Study didn't have enough public support to get through the City Council, Bowers said every effort to get the public involved in city planning is "a learning experience and a learning opportunity to do even better the next time.”

This story was originally published April 3, 2018 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Public opposition scuttles Six Forks Road development plan."