The Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization is scrapping a two-year effort to develop its Wilmington Collector Street Plan.
Feedback received from three public hearings held in October indicated a lack of desired public support. A notice released by the MPO Wednesday states feedback received was still beneficial and would be put toward other projects in the future.
“During these public workshops, the WMPO heard strong opposition to the collector street plan’s recommendation for interconnectivity. The Wilmington MPO appreciates the interests and concerns from the citizens while updating the Wilmington Connector Street Plan,” the release states.
“While it is imperative to plan for the future of the community so as to ensure the safety and mobility of the people in our region, it is also important to have community support for these long-range efforts. Since community support was divided at best, we have elected to discontinue work on the plan and will not recommend adoption of the plan or map.
“Even so,” the notice continues, “we have received beneficial information (cross-sections, innovative stormwater design, etc.) from this effort that we hope to use in future planning efforts unrelated to the collector street plan.”
The plan aimed to designate certain roads as collector streets, meaning those that “provide access and link trips to the wider network of streets which connect with highways,” as stated in the draft plan’s executive summary. Collector streets essentially fall between arterial roads, which link larger highways at higher rates of speed, and local streets that access private properties.
