Oxford adopts route for northwestern trail arc, approves funding method for Housing Trust

Following a lengthy discussion and several public comments, Oxford City Council voted 6-1 to adopt a new route for the northwestern arc of the Oxford Area Trail System (OATS) during a Dec. 17 meeting.

The route, which was recommended to the council by the city's Parking and Transportation Advisory Board, will stretch from the Oxford Community Park to the Black Covered Bridge. Unlike a majority of the OATS so far, which has been in primarily rural or wooded areas, a significant portion of this arc will follow Hester, Jacob and Northridge Drives in the public right of way.

Mayor Bill Snavely voted against the resolution, saying he adamantly opposes the proposal to put a new trail across dozens of front yards along residential streets. Multiple residents said during the meeting that they'd voted in favor of the OATS levy in 2018, thinking it would be a rural trail, and they did not support the residential path. Snavely suggested going toward the rear end of buildings, but a number of residents opposed that suggestion during the transportation board's October meeting.

"It's a damned if we do, damned if we do, damned if we do set of paths," said council member Alex French, who ultimately voted in favor of the transportation board's recommended path. "There are people who will point-blank block this if we try to move it back behind people's houses, farther in the rural area."

French said the neighborhood path could function as a placeholder option to move the plan for a complete loop forward. She supported keeping the existing sidewalks and making the streets explicit "sharrows" — routes with markings and signage to encourage bikers and drivers to share the road.

The transportation board's official recommendation was to replace the sidewalks with more significant bike paths similar to the current OATS segments. Keeping the existing sidewalks and putting sharrow markings on the streets were considered as secondary options, though. The sharrow option would be cheaper by far — a preliminary cost estimate from Bayer Becker put the cost at nearly $2.3 million to replace the sidewalks with a bike path, while the sharrow option would cost just $225,000.

Multiple residents raised safety concerns both during the October transportation board meeting and the December City Council meeting. Drivers often use Northridge as a cut-through area and ignore stop signs and speed limits, both of which could put bikers and pedestrians at risk.

"I can't imagine anyone wanting to go through the neighborhood, because it's not quiet, and it's not safe," said Ann Wicks, who lives on Northridge Drive. "... I have a hard time getting out of my driveway as it is. I'm really frightened that I will miss someone on the sidewalk or someone on the street."

Council member David Prytherch proposed an amendment to the resolution that commits the city to studying and addressing "traffic safety issues in the effected street corridors" through enforcement and future traffic calming measures. The amendment passed unanimously.

While the resolution passed does establish an intended route for the northwest arc to follow, it does not commit the city to firm details regarding the exact path. That will come in the engineering phase, Assistant City Manager Jessica Greene said. She estimated that any progress on the northwest arc would first require funding, and the earliest the city would begin applying for grants is the summer of 2026.

Council unanimously passed another OATS-related resolution to clarify that property owners will not be responsible for maintenance of the trail if it replaces their sidewalks.

Council approves new funding mechanism for Housing Trust

Later in the meeting, council members voted unanimously to support allow funds generated by the city's hotel tax to be put into the city's Housing Trust Fund if the revenue generated by the tax exceeds the budgeted amount in a given year. The idea was proposed by council member Jason Bracken at a previous meeting as a way to support affordable housing projects, which the city has identified as a top priority.

Oxford currently has both a 3% hotel tax and a 3% convention tax. The convention tax supports Enjoy Oxford, the city's visitors bureau, while the hotel tax collected from hotels goes into the general fund and the hotel tax from short term rentals like airbnbs goes into the city's Housing Trust Fund.

The new resolution impacts the hotel tax collected from hotels only. If the amount collected in the general fund is above what the city budgets for in a given year, then up to $50,000 can be redirected to the Housing Trust Fund.

"I really hope this generates revenue, but if it doesn't we have to come back with other revenue to find a way to fund [the Trust]," Bracken said. "[Housing] is one of our biggest commitments, and we're not currently funding it."

Two residents spoke against the resolution. Pete McCarthy said he opposes the use of hotel-generated funds for housing. He compared it to using part of the police budget for housing rather than asking the police department what it could do with excess funds.

"We're trying to bring business into town," McCarthy said. "I don't see the Housing Trust Fund in that category. It seems like we're stealing from [the hotel tax] when we should be investing in the business community."

Two residents also spoke in favor of the resolution. Carla Blackmar Rice, the board president for MOON Co-op, said she sees housing investments as a form of economic development because it can help businesses attract staff.

"One of our challenges [at MOON] is finding and retaining quality employees. A big part of that challenge is finding places where they can live affordably in our town," Blackmar Rice said. "I think that's a challenge that many businesses share."

Oxford City Council's next meeting, the first of 2025, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 7 in the Oxford Courthouse.