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Town Center Plan
January 2007
at a slightly higher density than that found
elsewhere in the vicinity, so townhouses and
small-lot detached dwellings are shown.
Transportation Improvements:
The intersection of Highway 54 and
Morrisville-Carpenter Road could bemanaged
with a one-way pairing of Highway 54’s
travel lanes. The potential advantages of
this design are several. First, it would allow
the preservation, rather than the removal or
relocation, of the central visual element for
which Morrisville is known: the remarkable
collection of vernacular houses, stores, and
outbuildings in their original locations at
the rural crossroads and along the railroad
tracks. Second, the roadway design would
send a clear signal to motorists of their
arrival in a unique place, underscoring the
town’s identity as the best surviving example
of an end-of-the-19th-century rural railroad
village in Wake County and enhancing that
identity as a market advantage and resident
or visitor experience.
In addition, the one-way pair could reduce
pavement width on Morrisville-Carpenter
Road west of the intersection with NC 54 to
Town Hall Drive, which has two potential ma-
jor advantages. It would facilitate pedestrian
crossing of the road within the historic rural
crossroads, and it would allow all the older
or historic structures sited along both sides
of Morrisville-Carpenter Road to be retained.
These would have to be removed or relo-
cated if the road were more conventionally
widened without the one-way pair. In short,
the one-way pair option may be a workable
way of addressing transportation needs while
also allowing the preservation of large areas
of the vernacular historic context that would
be altered or removed entirely with a con-
ventional road-widening solution. The com-
munity gave a strong indication of its sup-
port for this approach, with 7 of the 8 citizen
planning teams from the design workshop
endorsing some version of the concept.
Parks and Greenways:
The larger study area should be tied together
with a network of parks and greenways,
sidewalks and historic sites – another
theme strongly supported by the citizens.
Interpretive markers, special signage and
visual elements, and public art (including,
for example, an iconic water tower sculpture)
could be placed at appropriate locations
throughout the study area. The site where
Civil War soldiers dug rifle pits could be
preserved as a historic park and natural area,
Chapter 2: Planning Process & Concept Design
The Concept Design recommends establishing a rural
heritage park that could provide a site for festivals,
historic reenactments, and other community events.
(Photo: Town of Morrisville)
The Concept Design includes transportation improve-
ments, including roundabouts such as this one. Round-
abouts keep traffic moving while maintaining a slow
speed that is safer for pedestrians, and can help mark
the entrance into the core of the Town Center. (Graph-
ic: Raybould Associates for the Town of Morrisville)