A University committee will study and recommend the best uses for the 972-acre piece of land known as the Horace Williams tract.
The 17-member committee, appointed by Chancellor Michael Hooker, will meet Dec. 11 to start work on determining the best uses for the property.
"The development of this property is critical to the health and success of the University, the state and beyond," said Susan Ehringhaus, the general counsel and one of three co-chairs of the committee. The other co-chairs are James Ramsey, vice chancellor for finance and administration, and Jonathan Howes, special assistant to the chancellor.
In his charge to the committee, Hooker asked the group to "advise me on preliminary matters relating to the creation of a biosciences research park on the Horace Williams tract." Such a research park might be similar to the Centennial Campus at N.C. State.
Based on Hooker's charge, Ehringhaus said she expects committee members who have not already done so will visit the Centennial Campus in the near future as well as consider the experiences of other universities with similar research parks such as Virginia and Michigan.
The committee will build on an earlier planning study of the Horace Williams tract and surrounding area conducted by the University in 1996. That study by the consulting firm Johnson, Johnson and Roy, Inc. included substantial input from the community and recommended a variety of uses for the property, Howes said.
"That plan talked about general uses based on the physical constraints of the land," Howes said. "Now we're talking about specific functions."
The Horace Williams Tract is located about 1.5 miles north of the central campus and is bounded by Airport Road on the east and Estes Drive and Seawell School Road on the south. The tract includes the Horace Williams Airport.
The property is named for Horace Williams, a Carolina graduate and philosophy professor who donated 700 acres of the tract to the University in 1940, the year he died. The University purchased various other parcels to bring the property to its current size of 972 acres.
The principal task for the committee will be determining the right mix of uses that best serves the University into the next century, Ehringhaus said.
"One can envision that establishing a biosciences research park doesn't exclude other functions that could be included within the environment of that park," Ehringhaus said. "The chancellor clearly intends for this group to reach out across campus and talk to as many knowledgeable people as possible."
Ramsey said that the committee will do preliminary work in areas such as construction management, financing, marketing needed to make such a project successful.
"This group needs to develop the game plan in how we move forward and to look at what has worked at other places and what hasn't," Ramsey said. "A lot more work will need to be done later by folks by on and off campus."
The committee's work starts just as the University is conducting a master plan of the central campus. That survey, being conducted by the firm of Ayers Saint Gross, is scheduled to be completed in late 1999.
The timing of the two efforts should ensure they are complementary.
"This means what we are doing is comprehensive rather than piecemeal and that one plan is integrated with the other," Ehringhaus said.
No timetable has been established for the committee to issue a report, but Ehringhaus said the committee will have a sense of urgency about its work.
In addition to Ehringhaus, Ramsey and Howes, the members of the committee are: Richard "Pete" Andrews, chair of the Faculty Council; Anne Cates, a University trustee; Jeffrey Houpt, head of UNC Health Care System; Susan Kitchen, vice chancellor for student affairs; Matt Kupec, vice chancellor for advancement; Thomas Meyer, vice provost for graduate studies and research; Eugene Orringer, associate dean of the School of Medicine; Risa Palm, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; David Pardue, a University trustee; Richard Richardson, provost; William Roper, dean of the School of Public Health; Edward Samulski, chair of the Department of Chemistry; Richard Stevens, chair of the Board of Trustees; and Robert Sullivan, dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Staff members working with the committee include: Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor for facilities services; Gordon Rutherford, director of facilities services; Linda Convissor, a planner with facilities services; Pat Crawford, associate University counsel; and David Godschalk, a professor of city and regional planning.
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