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The Chapel Hill Town Council removed its regulatory roadblock of campus
construction last week by approving the campus development plan that will guide
some $1 billion worth of construction through 2010.
The council also agreed to rescind the buffer zone that was created to shield
neighborhoods south of campus from the Dean E. Smith Center. The action will
free the University to build student-family housing on the north side of Mason
Farm Road on land formerly in the buffer.
The development plan was the missing piece needed to take advantage of a new
zoning classification for the main campus that the town council approved in
July.
Under the old zoning, the town set a cap of 14 million square feet of building
space to be allowed on the main campus, a cap that would have stopped the
University from growing as it must to meet not only enrollment growth but to
create badly needed research space for programs now stuck in crumbling,
antiquated buildings such as Venable Hall.
The new zoning district, called "Office/Institutional -- 4," removed that cap
and ties town control over campus growth to the eight-year development plan
that the council approved Oct. 3.
With the development plan in place, construction on any specific project can
begin once a detailed site and construction plan is submitted to the town
manager for a 15-day review.
Had the development plan not been approved, the construction schedule could
have been thrown off by months, and that was why University officials viewed
the town council's decision as critical.
Nancy Suttenfield, vice chancellor for finance and administration, described
the council's decision as a "huge moment" for the University because it clears
the way for construction on key projects. Suttenfield said the decision was
made possible through the hard work and cooperation shown by the staffs of both
the University and the town. "We are very pleased," Suttenfield said.
The development plan will add about 50 buildings to main campus along with
eight parking decks that will help accommodate the addition of some 3,300
students and 5,000 employees by 2010. In her comments before the council vote,
Suttenfield stressed that approval of the plan "will set in motion a new way of
development on campus, with focus not only on individual buildings, but the
campuswide and community-wide systems that underpin them.
"Particularly in the areas of storm water control and transportation, the
collaborative work between the town and the University on the OI-4 zoning and
the development plan signals a new direction for the University that we believe
will benefit the greater community."
A long, hard summer
Ever since the new zoning was approved July 2, the staffs for the University
and the town have worked feverishly to negotiate a development plan both sides
could accept.
The University sought the freedom to execute an unprecedented level of
construction over the next decade without delays.
The town sought assurances that the University would try to mitigate, when
possible, environmental and financial effects, and when not possible, to help
the town handle the costs.
Areas touched on ranged from storm water runoff to heavier traffic to noise and
lighting concerns for nearby residents.
On many of these areas the staffs were able to reach agreement.
But there was a political impasse that the two staffs, despite their best
efforts, could not negotiate away on their own -- the University's plans for
the Mason Farm Road area.
The University intends to build student-family housing there, as well as
designate corridors for both a two-lane regional transit corridor and a
four-lane southern access route that would allow employees and patients to get
from Fordham Boulevard to parking decks for UNC Hospitals without entering
Manning Drive.
Under the plan approved by the council, the exact location of the corridors was
left open, and the town manager will retain the right to review and approve
whatever routes the University presents.
What the council ended up approving was a carefully worded proposal known as
"Resolution A" recommended by Town Manager Cal Horton. The resolution was laden
with nearly 40 stipulations ironed out between the town and University staffs
since the spring.
The plan was approved by an 8 to 1 vote, but several council members who voted
for it said they did so under threat of seeing the town's regulatory control
removed by state legislators if they chose to do otherwise.
In the hours leading up to the vote, state legislators had communicated to them
the message: Either approve this plan or risk losing oversight authority over
University development altogether. They warned them that University supporters
in the legislature would not stand by and watch the town council interrupt or
slow the start of construction projects that state voters had approved nearly a
year ago.
For months, residents along Mason Farm Road have fought various aspects of the
plan, most recently at a Sept. 19 public hearing before the town council in
which they cited safety concerns, not for themselves, but for children who
would live in the newly built student housing.
Following the hearing, the town urged University officials to meet with
residents to see if better alternatives could be found.
They tried.
University representatives met with neighborhood representatives several times
after the Sept. 26 hearing. Those efforts came to naught, though, when
University trustees met on Sept. 27 and rejected a compromise proposal that
developed from those meetings that would have flipped the student housing south
of the proposed road location and transit corridor.
Trustees cited the same reason for rejecting the road plan as residents had for
wanting it -- safety, because students and their families would have to cross a
busy road to get to campus.
Work still unfinished
At that same meeting, the trustees embraced a proposal made by board
member Richard Stevens to explore the question of using state money to help
municipalities deal with the added expenses of hosting large tax-exempt state
institutions in their communities. Stevens argued that the question is larger
than Carolina and Chapel Hill but is an issue that affects all 16 members of
the UNC system and all 16 cities and towns where they are located.
The trustees directed Chancellor James Moeser to begin talking with legislators
about the possibility of introducing future legislation to study this issue.
The development plan the town council approved did not resolve the questions of
where the transit corridor and access road will ultimately go but simply left
it open for further negotiation.
Indeed, resolutions were passed after the decision that will keep the
University engaged with town officials and nearby residents to address areas
that remain either unsettled or in dispute.
Although the University already had committed itself to do so, for instance,
one council resolution calls on the University to work with representatives
from the Mason Farm neighborhood on the design of the student-family housing on
Mason Farm Road.
In the same vein, another resolution passed that will require the University to
work with residents of the Westwood and Cameron-McCauley neighborhoods on the
design of a three-story academic building to be built on top of a two-story
parking deck at the intersection of Pittsboro and McCauley streets.
Moeser, speaking before the Faculty Council on Oct. 5, said the positive vote
culminated months of intense work between the University and town staffs, but
he singled out Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf for her hard work and
leadership.
"None of this progress would have been possible without Mayor Waldorf's
willingness to support the joint town-gown committee that met from late last
year until the early summer," Moeser said. "Those discussions led up to the
zoning vote in July."
The University and the town have learned a great deal from the long and
difficult process, and what has been learned can be used to make future
negotiations better.
"We have strengthened our working relationships," Moeser said. "The approach to
development on campus will now be more global and campuswide instead of
piecemeal and project by project. The result will be better for both the
University and the community."
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