Hillsborough’s Board of Commissioners recently passed an interlocal agreement to advance a seven-year project of building a train station just outside of downtown. When done, it could bring a passenger line stop to Orange County.

The idea of bringing a train station to Hillsborough began years ago when residents who commuted to Greensboro gathered thousands of signatures on a petition to bring a stop to their town. The efforts led the town to purchase 20 acres of land by a straight section of tracks its historic railroad used to run on and other trains run on every day.

Hillsborough Planning Director Margaret Hauth said since the town purchased the land, which is south of the town off NC Highway 86, it’s always had long-term development in mind.

“Seeing if we were able to put a train station there,” she said, “it would generate an activity node that would support some more intensive mixed-use development around it. [It would] provide an opportunity for another compact activity center in town.”

The interlocal agreement the town board signed with the North Carolina Department of Transportation and GoTriangle on April 15 officially begins the seven-year, $8.1 million process of building the station. It commits the town to management of construction, as well as ownership and maintenance of the eventual building, while the other two organizations are funding partners.

Public Space Manager Stephanie Trueblood said she believes the project will take all of those seven years to complete. But when finished, she said the town hopes to use the train station as a focal point for people commuting in and out of Hillsborough.

“The facility will likely also include bus services, possibly a park and ride, and connections to our greenway system,” Trueblood described. “We really envision the site as a multi-modal transit hub with the train station being one component.”

Trueblood says this project is likely to drum up a different reaction than the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project due to its lower cost and already existing railroad lines. But one group impacted is the Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association, which uses the baseball fields on the site. Trueblood said the town is working with HYAA to identify a new spot for the affected sports to relocate when the station is built and completed.

She said, though, she largely believes the project’s timeline will help Hillsborough residents adjust to preparing for the train station.

“By the time the station is actually in place,” said Trueblood, “I think it will have become familiar to people. It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s not going to happen rapidly. In my opinion, those projects tend to become easier for people to understand and accept because they get to grow and change over time as people are coming into town.”

Hauth said while the town has already gotten some inquiries from developers about what else could be built on the 20-acre tract with the train station, the town has no short-term plans to determine what else may go there.

“We want to get the ball rolling on the train station and then live with it for a while, live with Collins Ridge for a while, maybe get a little further down the road,” said Hauth. “That piece of land was a major investment from the town and we do not want to make any hasty decisions on the use of the larger tract of land.”

The Hillsborough Board of Commissioners was slated to have further discussion about the train station at their meeting on Monday. The virtual meeting was cancelled, though, since it was the only item to be on the agenda. Trueblood said the town will likely begin seeking a designer for the station in the summer.

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