Raleigh’s Big Branch Creek Greenway Connector project is supposed to be a win for the community — expanding access to parks, preserving natural spaces, and linking neighborhoods. But newly obtained records reveal the city may be barreling ahead with a plan that is legally questionable, environmentally damaging and likely to be way over budget.
At the Sept. 8 Greenway Committee Meeting, city staff told attendees they had no cost estimates for alternative routes but were committed to keeping the project within the $4.5 million parks bond budget.
That assurance now appears misleading. I uncovered through a public records request construction costs estimates dated 25 days before that meeting. Those estimates forecast $4.73 million in spending for Segment 1B alone — for a mere 0.57-mile stretch of the entire 3.5+-mile project.
To put that in perspective: the $4.5 million bond allocation was meant to fund the design and construction of Segments 1A, 1B, and 4, plus the design and study costs for Segments 5 and 6. Spending the entire connector project bond funds, and more, on half a mile of greenway would leave the rest of the project under funded. And that $4.73 million estimate doesn’t even include litigation, design, geotechnical, construction administration, or maintenance costs. When those are factored in, project costs will easily surpass $5 million.
The proposed route through the Anderson Forest subdivision is also legally fraught. In 1986, subdivision developers granted the city an easement expressly conditioned on a restriction prohibiting greenway trail construction through Anderson Forest. The city’s acceptance of the easement was a promise not to build a greenway through the neighborhood — a promise that should be kept.
Yet, the city could move forward by initiating eminent domain litigation against nine Anderson Forest families. This means forcibly taking private land from residents whose taxes help fund the project.
Alternative routes exist — and they’re cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly to Big Branch Creek and its buffer.
The proposed Plantation/Belvin route is estimated at $2.72 million, according to an engineering firm’s estimates provided to the city, and was supported in the city’s phase 1 public engagement survey. While the City never priced a potential Plantation/Hines route, it may cost even less given the city’s existing right-of-way, and this route already serves as an informal path connecting Hines Drive to Wake Towne Drive. Both alternatives would add sidewalks as a neighborhood amenity, improve safety by lessening users’ exposure to busy Six Forks Road and a trail path subject to flash flooding and reduce future costs associated with stream bank stabilization and greenway bridge and trail maintenance after every hard rain.
There’s also the question of the proposed Midtown multi-modal bridge on which this entire project hinges — a bridge whose funding is not fully secured and may never be. Without it, the city risks spending more than $5 million on a greenway to nowhere — a greenway that violates long-standing easement protections and environmental safeguards.
Beyond the numbers, there’s a deeper issue of fairness to the affected families who will lose both their privacy and the unfettered use of their backyards to public greenway trails. Adding insult to injury, these homeowners could still be asked to pay property taxes on land principally used by the public. They even could be sued and held liable to greenway users injured while crossing their properties.
With over 120 miles of existing greenway trails, the seizure of private properties for a budget-blowing half-mile greenway to nowhere is simply unjustifiable.
Raleigh residents deserve better — transparency, fiscal responsibility and a deeper respect for private property rights. The city should abandon this ill-conceived route, reassess its priorities, and pursue alternatives that better protect its taxpayers and preserve the environment. Greenways should connect communities, not divide them.
Elizabeth Scott is a retired attorney. She and her husband have lived in Raleigh close to 40 years and in the Anderson Forest neighborhood for 32 years.
