TOWN PARKING LOT NUMBER 5 FOCUS GROUPS: DISCUSSION NOTES

Group Discussion Leader: Dianne Bachman

February 16

• Focal Point
  
  • Mixed-Use
    1. Commercial
    2. Cultural
    3. Residential
    4. Outdoor Dining (not a park)
    5. Open (visible/secure)
    6. Transition in scale
    o Reflective of surroundings
    o Sufficient height
    7. Parking (service parking only); Underground? Lot 2? Granville (adjacent). Ownership?
    8. Market option
    
    
• Parking Lot Number 5
  
  • Focal point
    
  • Commercial and/or cultural?
    
  • Open design (visible, secure)
    
  • No surface parking
    
  • Ownership determines success?
    
  • Possible residential (con: noise) (affordable?)
    
  • Food market option
• Parking Lot Number 2
  
  • Not appropriate for grocery store
    
  • Maximize/increase parking (bring people downtown); with commercial and residential (mixed-use)
    
  • Increase traffic?
    
  • Access via bridge from Bank of America deck
    
• University Square
  
  • Bring commercial to edge
    
  • small/small LARGE small/large
    
  • Transition in scale
    
  • Possible parking
    
• West Rosemary Street
  • Integrity (context) with surroundings
    
  • Increase in residents (presence)
  • Transition in scale. Commercial /Residential
  • Pedestrian infrastructure
  • Parking problems in residential district
    • Citizen and visitor; noise pollution
      
  • Housing (increase) on-campus to reduce stress

March 23

• Review of Feb 16
  
  • Focal point for its part of Chapel Hill
    
  • Connect Franklin and Rosemary
    
  • Diagonal movement
    
  • Good use or overuse of commercial development?
    
  • Downtown Chapel Hill lacks a town square
    
  • Savannah or Manhattan: would they ring their open space with commerce?
    
  • Underground parking
    
  • If a village atm.: where do we go?
    
  • Courtyard: town square or no?
    
  • Will anything detract from undesirable behavior?
    
  • Livability
    
  • 5 windows wide to 2
    
  • Hidden?
  • Do we want to truncate the building space?
    
  • Public space entirely on Franklin Street
    
  • Circular spaces/arcades
    
  • Connections: open air or through a structure?
    
  • Parking: Develop on Lot No. 2 or underground—no surface parking
    
  • Cultural aspect:: this is the center of Chapel Hill
    
  • Continuous retail creates a claustrophobic feel
    
  • It's not a center—it can be
    
  • Sense of Philad.—on par with Rosemary Deck
    
  • Lacks connectivity
    
  • If had been a park, no discussion of solving retail prob
    
  • Carrboro's not developing in front of Weaver St Market
    
    
• Transit Center Idea
  
  • Penn. schematic similar to Lot 5
    
  • Parking corridor
    
  • Lot 5 because of access
    
  • Central to community
    
  • Benefit greater: deck or transfer site?
    
  • Don't want to get people onto too many buses
    
  • Percentage of Lot 5 for the center? 75 feet wide
    
  • Retail enhanced by something that draws people in
    
  • Could we trade retail for transit in lieu of Lot 2 and West Rosemary?
    
  • Facilitates the need to reduce new parking
    
  • Pulse system
    
    
• Other ideas
  
  • If with the original idea having 2 constructions, the town square can be nearly as large if transit replaces one building
    
  • Transitional scale, up the density: build up four stories (downtown sense of scale/meet long term needs)
    
  • Residential atop building: downtown needs it for viability
    
  • Continuous four stories: canyon wall effect
    
  • 2, 3, or 4 stories? Arcade
    
  • Moving toward a new aesthetic
    
  • Economic feasibility for 2 stories: what developer would agree
    
  • Town square isn't always the most cost effective
    
  • Open up the town square
    
  • Consensus: 2 designs (Transit and Non-Transit)
    
  • Weaver Street market makes that space work
    
  • Other visual activity draws people to Caribou and Ben and Jerry's
    
  • Avoid the Pyewacket environment—spaces too small for retailers
    
  • Does residential cramp performance? Or do residents make that choice?
    
  • Don't call it a courtyard: make it a strong space for connectivity
    
  • Transit and/or parking: Town's call
    
  • Internal or external open space?
    
  • If we increase residential on West Rosemary, we'll have the market for a grocery
    
  • Don't need to load up with buildings
    
  • We need something special
    
  • Exceptional building design
    
  • Dimensionality: Weaver Street Market 15,000 sq.ft.; 140x180 nearly to Weaver St Market scale
    
  • Retail on the street level, office space and housing above
    
  • Chapel Hill came from the college. Most town spring from the town square
    
  • We can take this into our own hands
    
  • Affordable housing; mixture of workforce and market-rate housing; income mixing
    
  • Scheme 1 and Scheme 2
    

Group Discussion Leader: Robert Humphreys

February 16

• Lot 5
  
  • Mixed-use. First/second: commercial/retail; third/fourth: residential
    
  • Increase flow by closing street face; increases safety
    
  • Public space (active)
    
    • Plays, theater
      
  • Parking: Net gain underground
    
    • No fully leased; more hourly
      
  • Pedestrian bridge between Lot 5 and University Square;
    
  • second floor shops, etc.
    
  • Outdoor dining
    
  • Stepped back
    
  • Higher on north/east side
    
  • Stoplight at four-way of Church/Franklin
    
    
• West Rosemary Street
  
  • Grocery store
    
  • Mixed use (shops/housing)
    
  • Best location for housing (medium)
    
  • Better use of space (parking)
    
  • Smaller structures
    
  • Residential; medium density
    

• University Square
  
  • Parking decks behind
    
  • Improve sidewalk safety
    
  • Storefronts along sidewalk
    
  • Like the openness (set back)
    
  • Continuity along street
    
  • Brick walls unsafe (remove)
    
  • Public promenade
    
  • Wider sidewalks
    
  • Pedestrian opening in middle
    
  • Importance of visibility
    
  • Traffic flies by; no on-street parking
    
  • Limit amount of access to University Square
    
    
• Lot 2
  
  • Three stories on Columbia
    
  • Four/five stories toward Bank of America with deck first/second story
    
  • Feasibility of underground parking
    
  • Assuming Town ownership
    o Encourage long-term lease
    o Town needs to hold themselves to ownership
    
  • Closing the street face; chamfer the corner
    
  • Courtyard off of Columbia
    
  • More parking: Underground/rooftop
    
  • Mixed use (commercial/residential)
    
  • Public transportation drop-off (pulling off street)
    
  • Provisions for mechanical garbage, recycling
    
  • Appearance
    

March 23

• Scale: 2 or 3 stories at street
  
• Connection (pedestrian) between Rosemary and Franklin—how to treat? Emphasize diagonal that exists now? Make entry point in middle of block.
  
• Add crosswalk and signal @ corner of Franklin and Church
  
• Concern on part of residents (Northside)
  
  
• Transfer Center
  
  • Compromise Franklin Street street front?
    
  • Precludes usable open space (exhaust, etc.)
    
  • Recognize need for this downtown (but not Lot 5)
    
• No to "Weaver Street" concept
  
  
• Parking
  • (2 levels sub-grade) = 400 spaces
    
  • Scale: 3 stories on streets (variation in hts.); 4 stories office/retail on east (interior) side
    
    
• Architecture
  
  • Diversity of "looks" at first floor retail fronts
    
  • More uniform treatment at upper levels (residential/office)
    
    
• Program
  
  • Central "courtyard" open area: 100'x150'
    
  • sidewalk dining, public art, performances, walking
    
  • Retail space: 58,400 s.f.
    
    • Office space: 78,000 s.f.
      
    • Residential units: 36