Park Place near
the Cary/Morrisville border
Just over the town line in Morrisville, construction has been
completed for new commercial properties inaccessible to pedestrians
from a nearby Cary neighborhood. This illustrates the potential
complexity of coordinating projects to make neighborhoods
pedestrian-friendly, because it involves two towns and a state road.
Sidewalks connecting a Cary neighborhood of hundreds of
new homes stops here on Chapel Hill Road/NC 54. In theory, the
sidewalk will be continued if and when highway 54 is widened.
However, such widening projects often occur years after properties
are devleloped, and in the case of NC 54 are outside the town's
control. No timetable currently exists for this project.
About 1/4 mile past the end of the residential sidewalk is
the new Park Place development in Morrisville, featuring restaurants,
a movie theater, a supermarket, and many other retail businesses and
services. Each establishment features a large parking lot setback
from the roadway, some nearly 1000 feet, with no sidewalks or
handicap-accessible paths connecting it with the street. The high
traffic volume and a steep drainage ditch immediately beside the road
make walking along this stretch of road treacherous for
pedestrians and aggravating for motorists.