CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Roughly 800 feet is all a handful of residents along Beatties Ford Road are asking for as the city of Charlotte plans to move ahead with a widening project along what is becoming a major thoroughfare.
It's not the widening that Paul Holmes and his neighbors object to--it's the city's plan to put a concrete and landscaped median in the middle of what will be a four-lane roadway between Capps Hill Mine and Slater roads.
"That's not too much to ask for," said Holmes, who wants the city to paint a median in the middle of the roadway instead of the raised median that would force him and a handful of his neighbors to drive those 800 feet to make a U-turn if they want to turn left out of their driveways.
The city engineer who drew up the plans said the design is safer--since major thoroughfares with a median have 64 percent fewer crashes than those without.
Tim Greene also said it would be safer for pedestrians because it would give them a place to stop in the middle as they try to make it across the expanded, four lane road.
But Holmes isn't convinced and was scheduled to take his case to City Council members at their meeting Monday night, where he planned to remind them that they have made accommodations for other, bigger, names lately.
"Pretend I'm Chiquita Banana, pretend I'm Met Life, pretend I'm the Panthers ... Accommodate! That's what you do with businesses," Holmes said.