CHAPEL HILL - Town and UNC officials want to know what you think about plans for a greenway connecting the main campus and Carolina North.

The final draft will be presented to the Chapel Hill Town Council in September, along with UNC's first progress report on the future satellite campus.

The plan calls for UNC and Chapel Hill to create an alternative bike and pedestrian route between the campuses that does not use Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and avoids steep grades.

Two proposed paths - routes A and B - go west on Estes Drive Extension and south to Carrboro, while the third stretches east across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, past Amity United Methodist Church and south to Hillsborough Street. The routes are a mix of paved sections and existing greenways.

In April, Route A was named the leading route, because it requires minor changes and crosses mostly town- or state-owned land. The route turns south from Estes Drive Extension at Village Drive, veering off to parallel the existing rail line. In Carrboro, it crosses East Main Street at Lloyd Street and follows the Libba Cotton bike path to Cameron Avenue.

However, it's nearly a half-mile longer than the other routes at 3.27 miles. It also requires Chapel Hill and Carrboro to pave a section of Broad Street.

The shortest path, Route B, leaves Estes at Umstead Drive and cuts between the Exchange Pool and Umstead Park across town-owned land. That route comes out onto Church Street and continues across Rosemary and Franklin streets to University Square. It's more challenging and requires creek crossings at Umstead Park. Plus, narrow residential streets could limit bicycle access.

If Carrboro's not interested, the town could look at combining the two routes, linking Village Drive to Jay Street, and then moving southeast to McMasters and Church streets.

The public got its first look at the draft plan Thursday, when roughly 30 people turned out for an informal discussion. Most seemed to like Route A.

Will Raymond, who lives in the Mt. Bolus neighborhood, said it is the logical choice.

"We need to have a strategy to get people back and forth to the campuses, and a way for people from the neighborhoods to get back and forth," he said.

Raymond, who regularly rides his bicycle around town, said cyclists don't always use the same route. The connector should give people choices, with signs directing them to each leg of the greenway, he said.

The Carolina North campus will cover roughly 250 acres of the 1,000-acre Horace Williams tract off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and will be built in phases over 50 years.