SILER CITY — The Siler City Downtown Advisory Board presented its recommendations for several improvements to downtown Oct. 7 at the Siler City Board of Commissioners’ regular board meeting.
Advisory Board Chairman Jackie Adams presented the board’s recommendations. The board was created in 2018 to create recommendations for the town board’s consideration. Prior to the meeting last week, the board established a downtown district overlay and gained the town board’s approval for a referendum on beer and wine sales in town.
Adams noted that the Downtown Advisory Board’s newest recommendations were focused on South and North Chatham Avenue on either side of Raleigh Street downtown. Adams noted that several of the recommendations were already included in several department budget requests for the next budget year. That process will begin in January. Recommendations already included in a departmental budget request included increased facade grant support, an additional officer for downtown and replacing existing parking signs and stripes. Adams also requested financial support for the Downtown Advisory Committee to attend the 2021 Main Street Conference.
Other suggestions included replacing trash receptacles and eliminating rolling carts where dumpsters are available with the second recommendation being part of normal operations and would not require additional costs. Adams also requested that storage be removed as a permitted use in the Unified Development Ordinance for the downtown district and that the town adopt a commercial maintenance code. Both of those last items would be completed within the Planning Department budget. Finally, Adams requested that left hand turn restrictions for Chatham Avenue and Raleigh Street be discontinued, however, as the roads are maintained by N.C. Dept. of Transportation, that would need to be a action completed in conjunction with NCDOT. Adams estimated that the additional budgetary costs for the recommendations would be $34,315.
“These are all recommendations,” said Adams, who is a candidate for Siler City Mayor and the owner of Oasis Fresh Market and Deli on South Chatham Avenue in Siler City. “We are at the mercy of the board and the mayor.”
The board appeared supportive of the recommendations, but requested additional information. Commissioner Chip Price noted that the recommendations required more thought than simply agreeing at that moment. The board asked if many of the recommendations were those that would be discussed during the regular budget process as they were included in several department budget requests. The board asked that town staff confirm the budgeted numbers on the recommendations and the requests be divided in such as way as to know which ones will be discussed in January and what would require budget amendments.
Reporter Casey Mann can be reached at CaseyMann@Chathamnr.com.
Downtown Advisory Committee Recommendation
For North and South Chatham Avenue