Up to 9 street lamps to be installed as part of UNC safety effort

By Gregory Childress

gchildress@heraldsun.com; 918-1046

CHAPEL HILL -- Residents in the 400 to 600 blocks of East Rosemary Street aren't opposed to efforts to make neighborhoods safer.

But some of them do have a problem with plans by the Town of Chapel Hill to install as many as nine pedestrian-level street lamps on the north side of their street.

The street lamps are part of a neighborhood safety effort launched by UNC students in the aftermath of the 2008 kidnapping and murder of former UNC student body president Eve Carson.

UNC students donated $80,000 to the town to install more call boxes and new lighting in neighborhoods near campus. Forty thousand dollars was set aside for street-level lighting in the Northside neighborhood, Cameron-McCauley street area and East Rosemary. The other half was earmarked for emergency call boxes.

"We're not in opposition to plans to enhance safety," said East Rosemary Street resident Vince Kopp. "We're just looking for the wisest and best expenditure of the money."

The residents made their case before the Town Council earlier this month. The matter was referred to the town manager.

So far, the money has paid for some lighting improvements, but officials say a check won't be cut for the call boxes scheduled to come on line in the next week until they are operational.

The call box project became the subject of controversy after some residents who lived on McCauley Street, where one of the call boxes was to be installed, fought against it, saying the students didn't bother to ask them if they wanted a call box in their neighborhood.

Eventually, a decision was made to install the call box on South Merritt Mill Road instead of on McCauley Street.

Meanwhile, Kopp said residents believe the money earmarked for pedestrian-level street lighting on East Rosemary would be better spent on an emergency call box on the western corner of Hillsborough and East Rosemary streets, where UNC's Point-to-Point campus shuttle service picks up and drops off students.

The residents say they were not consulted before the decision was made to install the lighting on their street. They contend adequate lighting is provided by existing pole lighting on the south side of the street, lights from automobile traffic and landscape lighting.

"We're not sure why that area was highlighted," said James Semans. "There is not a high volume of student traffic in that area."

In a letter to Mayor Kevin Foy and members of the Town Council, residents wrote that for almost half of each academic year, the student population along their blocks drops to zero when the Delta Upsilon fraternity and the Alpha Delta Pi sorority closes for the summer and holidays.

"As East Rosemary Street residents, we empathize with the need of students who spend four years at UNC-Chapel Hill to feel safe and secure wherever they may be in town or on campus," the residents wrote. "We also want them to have fond memories of Chapel Hill's peace and beauty."

Aesthetics also have been a concern of residents. Kopp said one neighbor described the proposed lamps as "tacky."

"They just look cheap and are out of character with the neighborhood," Kopp said.

In addition, Kopp said there is concern that installing the street lamps could possibly damage the root systems of mature trees that line the street.