AGENDA #3a(3)

Mayor Foy and Town Council,

My neighbors and I have been working over the past year to put our neighborhood (the Franklin-Rosemary Historic District) on the National Register of Historic Places. As you know, the area North of Rosemary is already on the National Register, and we are trying to expand the protection to cover the entire local district.  The expansion would include the area South of Rosemary down to the old Tavern on Hillsborough Street, West to Cobb Terrace, and East to Tenney Circle (roughly).  

We were informed in June that the National Register Advisory Council, which met on June 8, 2006, has approved the Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Expansion Study List application. The expansion area is now on the State Study List.

During a meeting with Gene Poveromo, Senior Planning Coordinator, Dana Stidham, Planner, Kay Pearlstein, Senior Planner, and members of the NC State Historic Preservation Office (NCHPO), we discussed the next steps, which included hiring a consultant to prepare a proposal for the preparation of the Chapel Hill Historic District National Register boundary Expansion.

The State Historic Preservation Office has given us a list of consultants who successfully completed National Register nominations according to State Historic Preservation Office Standards. We sent out several requests for Proposals, and, based on the estimates and qualifications review, we have selected a consultant from that list, Ms. Sherry Joynes Wyatt, whose estimate for the work is $5,000.  

Our group has taken this process as far as it could on its own and we now need to fund the consultant’s work. According to the NCHPO, there is a competitive grant process that could fund a significant portion of the project fees. Those applications must be sponsored by local government, such as the Town of Chapel Hill.

Therefore, we respectfully request that the Town participate in this community preservation effort in the following ways:

1)  By sponsoring the grant application.

2)  By providing staff resources to complete the grant application. For instance, it would be useful to further this process for the Town to make available to us and to the consultant all relevant documents concerning the history of our neighborhood. We would also like to have the assistance of the Planning Office for coordination assistance on this project.

3) By funding the consulting fees that would not be covered by the

grant  - approximately $2500.

Our neighborhood is concerned by the mounting pressures put on our town by developments and campus expansion projects. Now is the time that we all work together to ensure that our endangered neighborhoods get all the protection they can receive. By standing behind such grass-root initiatives, the Town will send a clear message that it intends to establish a balance between the need for growth, and the necessity to respect our heritage.

We are looking forward to working with you on this project,

Most respectfully,

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Tanya Freeman	Elisabeth Benfey
407 Hillsborough Street, Chapel Hill, 27514	403 Hillsborough Street, Chapel Hill, 27514
919-928-0232	919-967-6903

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