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Community Mitigation and Enhancement: Crest Street, Durham, North Carolina |
Introduction
In 1959, the East-West Expressway (a 10-mile, limited access highway) was planned near the central business district of Durham, NC. The East-West Expressway was to pass through a mixture of industrial, railroad, and older residential land uses and was designed to connect I-85 with I-40 in central North Carolina. It would serve a severely congested area of Durham, then a rapidly-growing city of over 100,000 persons and now part of the "Research Triangle" area. By the early 1970s, about half of the East-West Expressway had been constructed. The right-of-way for part of the project had been acquired with urban-renewal funds and as a Federal-aid project. In 1973, plans were proceeding for right-of-way acquisition for the remainder of the highway when the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) required the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to prepare and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969.
The remainder of the East-West Expressway traversed a small African-American neighborhood known as Crest Street. Crest Street had been in existence for over 100 years, originally as an agricultural settlement of former slaves on the outskirts of Durham. Later, Crest Street became a semi-urban, residential neighborhood near the rapidly growing employment centers at Duke University, the Veterans Administration Hospital, and industries in the area. Plans for the East-West Expressway called for relocating the residents of Crest Street to another area in or near Durham. The residents of Crest Street, who were well acquainted with the unpleasant experiences of other African-American neighborhoods relocated by other segments of the East-West Expressway during the 1970s, decided to oppose the expressway.
The leaders of the Crest Street neighborhood worked closely with a dedicated group of professionals from FHWA, NCDOT, the City of Durham, Duke University, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and others to develop a comprehensive mitigation and enhancement plan to preserve the cohesiveness of Crest Street. Developing and implementing the comprehensive mitigation and enhancements plan preserved this truly cohesive neighborhood and fostered warm feelings among the participants and residents.
From 1973 to 1983, the opposition, which began as a heated disagreement with racial overtones, became the impetus for one of the most creative community mitigation and enhancement efforts the Federal-aid Highway Program ever experienced. The mitigation and enhancement plans for Crest Street serves as an outstanding example of how Federal, State, and local governments can work with an affected community and its residents through a collaborative problem-solving approach to develop a solutions that benefits the community itself, the overall economic development of the city and region, the environment, and public health.