Will Dyson says he has a problem with making Academy Street four lanes, besides the fact that his restaurant has been there for 25 years. He says the street has been the center of all kinds of retail, cultural, and recreational activities for years.
"This is the only small-town feel that remains in the town of Cary," Dyson said. "If this turned into a thoroughfare, a highway if you will, I don't know where Cary would go."
Madeline Beddingfield has lived on Harrison Avenue for 48 years and says a four-lane road would ruin one of Cary's oldest neighborhoods.
"It's going to be almost in my kitchen when they get it out there," Beddingfield said. "You hate to see it go away."
"I feel like when they widen the road, there will be more building on the road and things like that," Beddingfield said.
Dara Blakeley just moved across the street from Beddingfield. She does not think either alternative is a winner.
"It's bothersome just to bring that much traffic through the area and to widen these streets and to take down all the beautiful oak trees," Blakeley said. "I just think it would destroy downtown Cary in general."
Residents even took their fight to the Cary Town Council meeting on Thursday night.
"To run a thoroughfare through Academy Street and Harrison Avenue would totally destroy the integrity of downtown Cary," said Cary resident Bob Godbold.
Before any decision is made, a planning board will review all three options.
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