On June 3, 2014 by a vote of 8-3, Greenville County Council in the third and final reading of the ordinance (PDF) moved the Roads Advisory Commission report to the ballot for the voters to decide if they want to increase the sales tax by one cent to fund:
- Road Improvements
- Bridge Projects
- Pedestrian Amenities
- Resurfacing
Bike Walk Greenville is very pleased that the Council has moved the Roads Advisory Commission recommendations forward without changes, and as reported earlier:
There are projects that improve safety and access for active transportation in all four lists, as many of the road projects also include bike lanes and sidewalks. There is the Hampton Avenue pedestrian bridge replacement on the bridge list and cyclists will clearly benefit from the repaving projects as we feel those bumps far sooner than motorists. There are trails and bike lanes as well as sidewalks in the Pedestrian list.
The pedestrian amenities include 101 separate projects at a total estimated cost of $48,223,630 which is not an insignificant amount of investment!
The full list of bike-walk projects is available to view or download (PDF).
Bike Walk Greenville has joined with the Greenville Chamber of Commerce backed “Citizens for a Better Greenville County” to engage Council to get this on the ballot.
The next steps for this group will be to help develop a clear message to the voters of what is included in this referendum and why they should vote YES. There will be a strong effort by the NO tax folks to defeat this measure, so we will need to clearly articulate our message.