to: Mayor and Town Council
from: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
subject: Woodmont on NC 54 East: Zoning Atlas Amendment, Master Land Use Plan, and Special Use Permit Applications
date: September 8, 2008
Tonight the Council continues the Public Hearing from May 12, 2008 for applications from Capital Associates for a Zoning Atlas Amendment, Master Land Use Plan, and Special Use Permit for the Woodmont development. The site is located on NC 54, east of Barbee Chapel Road. The purpose of this cover memorandum is to forward the Town Manager’s recommendations to the Council for the above applications. Please refer to the three accompanying memoranda for additional information.
Due to concerns about the form of future development for the Town, traffic on NC 54 and anticipated recommendations of a NC 54 Corridor Study, and how these broader issues relate to the Master Land Use Plan and the potential for flexibility with future phases, we offer the following options:
Please refer to the Master Land Use Plan memorandum for more information on these options. We recommend that the Council approve the Zoning Atlas Amendment, the Master Land Use Plan with expiration date of seven years, and the Special Use Permit Phase I applications.
The community, the Council, and staff have been engaged in conversation concerning the form of future development for the Town. Discussions over the past nine to twelve months have involved the development of Carolina North, opportunities for expanded mass transit along selected corridors, energy management and carbon reduction, other higher density and mixed-use developments, and population and employment projections. Related actions have included enactment of a higher density Town Center zoning district allowing for the Greenbridge development and the 140 West (Lot 5) project, approval of the East 54 development on NC 54, and adoption of the Northern Area Task Force report.
Additionally, on March 26, 2007, a Council member presented a petition asking the Council to consider joining Durham County for a special study of the NC 54 Corridor. The study would focus on the portion of NC 54 west of the Interstate 40 interchange to Fordham Boulevard, addressing roadway capacity and development issues along the corridor and preparing strategies to reduce congestion. These strategies could include roadway, transit, bicycle and pedestrian improvements. The proposed study would include analysis of the Town’s regional connectivity as well as transit service. We understand the study has received $200,000 in funding from the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization and has been included in the Durham City/County Planning Department fiscal year 2008-2009 work program. The scope of work, required jurisdictional funding, and details concerning the participation of Chapel Hill have not been determined.
Although the site proposed for the Woodmont development is classified as Low/Medium Residential on the Land Use Plan, it presently includes some non-residential land uses and portions of the site have commercial zoning. The Town has identified this area as part of the NC 54 transit corridor in the 2035 Chapel Hill Long Range Transportation Plan land use projections. The preliminary work of the Chapel Hill Long Range Transit Plan has identified this area as a potential location for compact, transit-friendly, walkable, mixed use development. That preliminary work, as well as the recommendations of the Strategic Transit Advisory Commission (regional commission dedicated to pursuing transit options for the Triangle area), identified NC 54 as a principal regional travel corridor, appropriate for higher intensity transit (either fixed guideway or bus rapid transit) which would make the corridor inherently more suitable for higher intensity development.
The Manager’s Revised Recommendation includes minor revisions described in the attached memoranda. Based on the information in the record to date, I believe that the Council could make the findings required to approve: 1) the request for a Zoning Atlas Amendment, 2) the application for a Master Land Use Plan with a short effective date, and 3) the application for a Phase I Special Use Permit.
My recommendation is that the Council 1) enact an Ordinance, approving the request for a Zoning Atlas Amendment to rezone the proposed Woodmont Development site from Neighborhood Commercial (NC) and Residential-2 (R-2) to Mixed Use-Village (MU-V); 2) adopt Revised Resolution A, approving the Master Land Use Plan with a short effective date of seven years; and 3) adopt Revised Resolution A, approving the Phase I Special Use Permit application.