The town of Elon is about to break ground on landscaping project that has been quietly germinating at one of the community’s most prominent intersections for the better part of six years.
This beautification endeavor at the juncture of Haggard Avenue and University Drive stems from a recommendation that originally emerged in 2019 when Elon adopted a new master plan for recreation and parks.
Lori Oakley, the town’s planning director, attributed this incipient vision to a consultant who had worked for the municipality when the master plan was firmed up.
“The consultant had come up with a very elaborate plan for the land,” she recalled in a report to the town council last Monday. “That elaborate plan raised some concerns for our DOT officer who believed it would attract visitors to the site.”
According to the town’s municipal staff, the state’s transportation department was reluctant to see the 3.85 acres alongside this crossroads turn into a permanent hangout. In the meantime, the cost of the consultant’s plans proved far too high for the town to absorb on its own.
This state of affairs remained the status quo until 2023 when the town’s staff members embarked on a scaled-down plan to spruce up the intersection in tandem with the New Leaf Society – a Burlington-based nonprofit group that’s devoted to the beautification of communities throughout Alamance County.
Oakley recalled that this downsized landscaping plan is currently earmarked to receive $10,000 in the town’s annual budget. Oakley admitted that the full cost of the plan will greatly exceed this allocation, which she said has prompted the town’s staff to break up the venture into two distinct phases.
Oakley informed the council that the first phase of the project comprises some grading, sodding, and planting with an estimated cost of about $32,000. Although this sum is still three times what the council has budged for the endeavor, the city’s planning director said that the New Leaf Society has agreed to chip in $23,000 to allow the work to begin later this winter.
Oakley went on to pass out some full-color schematics for this project courtesy of Matt Roberts, a landscape architect who volunteers with the New Leaf Society. The town’s planning director invited the council to direct any questions to Roberts, who was on hand that evening along with the New Leaf Society’s director Katie Snider.
After Oakley completed her briefing, Elon’s mayor pro tem Monti Allison suggested some other areas that may be in need of the same beauty treatment as Haggard Avenue’s juncture with University Drive. Meanwhile, councilman Randy Orwig observed that the DOT’s concerns about visitors have already materialized thanks to some eye-catching sunflowers next to the road. Snider attributed this enticing flora to the DOT’s own annual plantings.
In any event, the prospects for Elon to improve on the DOT’s work seemed like a fairly safe bet to councilman Quinn Ray.
“[We’ll be] putting some effort into it,” he assured the rest of the council during last Monday’s discussion. “It’s not just throwing seeds out and letting sunflowers happen.”
