ATTACHMENT 1
EVALUATION OF APPLICATION PREPARED BY STAFF
SUBJECT: Public Hearing: Development Plan Modification No. 3 – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
DATE: November 13, 2006
INTRODUCTION
This is an application for approval of a modification to the June, 2004 Development Plan for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The site is the main campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The property is located within the Office/Institutional-4 (OI-4) zoning district and is identified as Chapel Hill Township Tax Maps 71, 73, 74, 86, and 87.
BACKGROUND
Office/Institutional Zoning District - 2001: In 2001, the Town Council created a new zoning category called Office/Institutional-4. The district was designed to allow Council review and approval of a general Development Plan for the main campus. The structure of the zoning regulations adopted in 2001 and amended in 2005 is that, upon University submittal of a Development Plan application, a 120-day period of evaluation and public review follows. Council action is required by the ordinance within 120 days of the acceptance of an application. Following approval of a Development Plan, the University submits building-by-building Site Development Permit applications. These detailed plans go through an administrative review and action process, with action required within 15 working days of acceptance of an application.
An overview of the OI-4 zoning district and the Development Plan process is discussed later in this memorandum.
Development Plans (2001, 2003, 2004): On October 3, 2001, the Town Council approved a Development Plan for the central campus. The plan proposed approximately 4 million square feet of net new floor area on campus, accompanied by a net increase of 1,550 parking spaces on campus. On June 25, 2003 and August 26, 2003 the Council approved Modification No.1. Modification No.1 approved 274,150 square feet of new floor area and 29 additional parking spaces. On June 14, 2004, the Council approved Modification No. 2 authorizing 269,700 square feet of new floor area. No additional parking spaces were authorized with Modification No. 2.
Site Development Permits (2002-2006 ): Of the approximately 4.5 million square feet of cumulative floor area authorized by the three Development Plan approvals, individual Site Development Permit applications for approximately 2.8 million square feet of floor area have been submitted and approved pursuant to the approved plans. Of the 1,579 parking spaces authorized by the three Development Plans, 691 new parking spaces have been added to the campus.
Office/Institutional-4 Zoning District Modification to the Land Use Management Ordinance - 2005: In 2005 the Town Council amended the Office/Institutional-4 Zoning District. Changes to this section of the Land Use Management Ordinance, with respect to Development Plans included the following new requirements:
In the addition to the above changes to the Land Use Management Ordinance, in 2005 the Council adopted several related resolutions that:
A copy of the current OI-4 zoning district regulations from the Land Use Management Ordinance, and related OI-4 performance standards for traffic, stormwater, lighting and noise, as adopted by the Town Council on July 2, 2001, are attached (Attachment 2).
Development Plan Modification No. 3 Concept Plan: On April 19, 2006, the Council conducted a public meeting at which the University presented a Concept Plan for the proposed Modification No. 3. Some of the elements described by the Concept Plan included approximately 810,000 square feet of new floor area; demolition and replacement of Davie Hall; expansion to Boshamer and Kenan Stadiums; relocation and improvement to the Ground Facilities; replacement of Skipper Bowles Drive tennis court with parking deck/tennis court; relocation of parking spaces from the Bell Tower Deck to the Craige Parking Deck; and construction of a reclaimed water storage facility. Property owners within 1,000 feet of the Development Plan boundary were notified and invited to the April 19, 2006 meeting. Council minutes from that meeting are attached to this memorandum (Attachment 3).
The table below provides floor area square footage and parking spaces numbers for the main campus pre and post Development Plan applications.
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FLOOR AREA AND PARKING SPACES |
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Previously Approved Development Plans Authorized Floor Area/Parking |
DP Mod #3 Nov 06 (proposed) |
Total floor area of approved Dev Plans and tonight’s proposal (by building classification) |
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Building Classifications (as defined by the applicant) |
Main Campus Floor area and Parking (Pre-Dev Plan) |
Dev Plan October 2001
|
DP Mod #1 June/August 2003 |
DP Mod #2 June 2004 |
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FLOOR AREA SQUARE FOOTAGE |
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Academic |
13,899,984 Square feet |
1,383,090 |
105,000 |
1,600 |
530,000 |
2,019,690 |
|
Athletic |
- |
- |
- |
145,000 |
145,000 |
|
|
Cultural |
102,725 |
- |
10,000 |
15,000 |
127,725 |
|
|
Housing |
635,612 |
147,550 |
- |
- |
783,162 |
|
|
Infrastructure |
135,600 |
21,600 |
100,800 |
48,000 |
306,000 |
|
|
Health |
831,350 |
- |
130,000 |
- |
961,350 |
|
|
Office |
163,200 |
- |
|
192,000 |
355,200 |
|
|
Research |
457,400 |
- |
|
330,000 |
787,400 |
|
|
Student Life |
307,300 |
|
28,000 |
- |
335,300 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
13,899,984 |
4,016,277 |
252,550 |
270,400 |
1,260,000 |
5,820,877 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Parking |
14,200 |
1,550 |
29 |
0 |
0 |
1,579 |
Prepared by Town Staff November, 2006
Approval of tonight’s proposal would authorize a cumulated total of approximately 19.7 million square feet of floor area and a cumulative total of 15,779 parking spaces on the main campus.
PROCEDURAL CONTEXT
According to the Land Use Management Ordinance, a Development Plan application is to address the following:
Environment:Development should minimize impacts on natural site features, and be accompanied by measures to mitigate those impacts.
Transportation:Development should be accompanied by measures to mitigate transportation impacts that are caused by the development.
Stormwater Management: Development should be accompanied by measures to mitigate stormwater impacts (quantity and quality) that are caused by the development.
Public Utilities: There must be a general demonstration that water, sewer, and other needed utilities can be made available to accommodate development proposed in the Development Plan.
Historic Districts: Special provisions apply to any development proposed within one of Chapel Hill’s Historic Districts.
A Development Plan is to also designate Perimeter Transition Areas, to be approved by the Town Council as part of the Development Plan, establishing appropriate standards at borders of the Development Plan, necessary to minimize impacts of development proposed in the Development Plan on adjacent property.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT APPLICATION
The materials submitted by the applicant included the following description for the proposed Development Plan Modification No. 3 projects. A summary of the floor area for this proposed plan is included as Attachment 6.
New Buildings
O-4 Medical Office Building
This new office building on North Medical Drive is currently planned to be 180,000 square feet. The building will provide space for a portion of the Medical School faculty and staff who currently occupy Medical School Wings B, C, D, E and F. This would allow future redevelopment of this area for hospital expansion projects and the replacement of the north chiller plant cooling towers. It would also help meet the unfulfilled demand for School of Medicine faculty offices that already exists on campus.
R-5 UNC Imaging Center
The Imaging Center is planned to be 330,000 square feet and would allow the School of Medicine to centralize all the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and other imaging processes in a single location; they are currently scattered throughout campus. This building will connect to the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center on its south side.
A-21 Bell Tower Academic Building
The Bell Tower Academic Building is planned to be 80,000 square feet. The addition of this new building to the Bell Tower area will screen the smaller Bell Tower Deck (P-4) from the green space. The design also includes a pedestrian bridge across South Road. The Bell Tower Academic Building is the only new footprint in this area. It will house research and office support services.
A-20 School of Information and Library Sciences
The School of Information and Library Sciences (SILS) would be housed in approximately 125,000 square feet on the south side of Blythe Drive. This facility will provide a consolidated location for the SILS program near complementary users on campus and will address the current deficit of classroom, library and office space for the school.
ATH-2 Kenan Stadium Improvements
Planned improvements to Kenan Stadium include additional box seats on the south side of the stadium and new seating areas on the east side. Additional restrooms, concessions, a structured concourse and a pedestrian connection to Rams Head Plaza are also included. New seats would total 8,804 and new building area would total 125,000 square feet.
C-6 Carolina Inn Expansion
This 15,000-square-foot addition would connect the existing east wing of the Carolina Inn to a renovated Whitehead Hall. The planned addition would provide additional guest rooms and amenities for the Inn.
O-5 Addition to Alumni Center
This 12,000 square foot addition the existing George Watts Hill Alumni Center is planned to provide more office and meeting space.
A-22 Replacement of Davie Hall
The replacement of Davie Hall would be a 75,000-square-foot building. This building would restore the streetscape and pedestrian connection along Cameron Avenue to the Coker Arboretum by siting the building away from the street. It will also provide updated classroom, research and office space for the Department of Psychology.
A-14 Dental Science Building
Approximately 175,000 square feet of additional space are planned for this building; the existing Dental Office Building and Dental Research Building will be demolished. An 84,990-square-foot building was previously approved at this location in the Development Plan. The larger facility is currently planned to allow the School of Dentistry to increase its enrollment by 75-100 percent to meet the health care needs of North Carolina. This facility will provide the research, academic and clinical science capacity to educate more dental students.
I-5 Chiller Building
This previously approved building would be relocated south as part of the reconfigured Bell Tower design, above. It would be located between UNC Hospitals and the proposed smaller Bell Tower parking deck (P-4).
Research Buildings R-1,R- 2,R- 3
This update to the Bell Tower Development includes the reconfiguration of Research Buildings 1, 2 and 3.
I-7 Reclaimed Water Tank
This tank is a joint project with Orange County Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) to provide a reclaimed water system on campus. It would be located just south of the Manning Steam Plant. This tank would be similar in size to the OWASA tank on Merritt Mill Road. A water storage facility is a necessary component of this overall project.
P-12 Tennis Deck Site
This new deck would be on the site of the tennis courts on Bowles Drive. The deck would provide parking on two levels with new tennis courts on the top of the deck. These new tennis courts would be accessible from the new open space created by the new Ram Village residence halls. This deck would accommodate the remaining 231 unassigned permit parking spaces created by the substitution of the Cobb and Jackson parking decks for the Manning Drive parking deck in Modification No. 1.
P-11 Craige Parking Deck Expansion
This expansion would add three new levels to the existing Craige deck. Approximately 990 parking spaces that were previously approved for the Bell Tower (P-4) site (890) and 100 unassigned spaces created by the substitution of the Cobb (P-X) and Jackson (P-X) parking decks from the Manning Drive parking deck in Modification No. 1 will be relocated to the Craige deck.
P-4 Bell Tower Parking Deck
To preserve an appropriate scale of development in the Bell Tower area, the design has been refined. A key decision that properly balances building and open space in this area is to reduce the size of the approved 1,600-space parking deck by 890 spaces for a new total of 710 spaces in the Bell Tower deck. These 890 spaces would shift to the expanded Craige Deck (P-11). A connector road that had been planned from the Craige Deck to Manning Drive would be eliminated.
Perimeter Transition Areas
The Office/Institutional-4 district requires that a Development Plan submittal designate Perimeter Transition Areas with appropriate standards at borders of the Development Plan necessary to minimize impacts of development proposed in the Development Plan on adjacent property. These Perimeter Transition Areas and associated standards are to be approved by the Town Council as part of the Development Plan. The areas proposed include:
I-6 Grounds Facility
This project would provide administrative, office and storage space for the Grounds Department. The Grounds Department is currently located in temporary facilities slightly north of the proposed site. The total size of these buildings and structures is approximately 48,000 square feet. The proposed site is south and west of Mason Farm Road and is on the site currently occupied by Odum Village buildings #700 - #711.
AS-23 Law School Addition
This project will add 50,000 square feet on 4 floors to the existing law school on Ridge Road. This expansion will accommodate additional teaching and office space for the Law School. No new parking is proposed with this project.
ATH-1 Boshamer Stadium Improvements
Planned improvements to Boshamer Stadium include additional seating, concessions and restrooms, a new batting tunnel, field and landscape improvements, lighting improvements, circulation changes and a field maintenance building. Pedestrian improvements on Ridge Road between Boshamer and Henry stadiums will also be designed as part of this project. The new building area is planned to be approximately 25,000 square feet.
A-5 Arts Common
This clarification of the PTA requirements for building height will reflect the buffering of mechanical equipment necessary to operate a musical performance hall.
EVALUATION
We have reviewed this application for compliance with the standards of Office/Institutional-4 zoning district and the Council-endorsed guidelines that set forth of noise and light, stormwater management, and transportation. We have also evaluated the projects proposed in the Perimeter Transition Areas and the Cameron/McCauley Historic District. We offer the following comments.
Noise and Light
The Development Plan application submitted by the University states that each Site Development Plan for buildings within the approved modification to the Development Plan will conform to the noise and light performance standards adopted by the Town Council on July 2, 2001. As provided for by the Council endorsed guidelines, information and compliance with the noise and light performance standards must be submitted with each application for a Site Development Permit.
Stormwater Management
The University Development Plan Modification application includes a section on Stormwater Management which indicates that development proposed with the Development Plan will be accompanied by measures to mitigate stormwater impacts (rate, volume and quality) during construction and resulting from the development. The Site Development Permit application for this component of the Development Plan must include a certification of compliance with required Stormwater Management Performance Standards.
Transportation
Issues presented by this set of modifications relate to transportation. A copy of the Transportation Impact Analysis Executive Summary is attached to this memorandum (Attachment 7). The following components of this request have transportation implications:
Bell Tower and Craige Parking Decks
This application proposes changes to the UNC Development Plan that involve transportation issues including: 1) Moving 890 of the 1,600 previously approved parking spaces at the Bell Town; and 2) Adding the 890 spaces to the existing Craige parking deck on Manning Drive.
Since the proposal intends to relocate 890 previously approved parking spaces to the Craige Deck, the number of net new parking spaces on campus would not increase. The main difference is in the location of the 890 spaces (reallocated from the deleted Science Complex parking deck to the Bell Tower parking deck). We believe there are no traffic impacts caused by this proposed reallocation of parking spaces on the main campus.
We believe, however, that the displacement of existing parking spaces from the Bell Tower surface lot and from the Craige deck, during the construction phase of these projects, may impact traffic and pedestrian movements and possibly require temporary improvements to the Town’s street system.
In order to address this concern we recommend the following stipulation:
P-4 Bell Tower Parking Deck and P-11 Craige Parking Deck: That the submittal of a Site Development Permit for the Bell Tower Parking Deck (P-4) and the Craige Parking Deck (P-11) shall include the following information:
Transportation impacts associated with the displaced parking spaces, may require that the University make temporary improvements to the Town’s traffic signal infrastructure or roadway improvements, as determined by the Town Manager.
We understand that the proposed NC DOT improvements on South Columbia Street, between Purefoy Road and Manning Drive, will be completed in 2010. We believe that the completion of the Bell Tower/Craige Deck projects will occur in 2011. In light of these schedules, we believe that there are no traffic impacts caused by this proposed reallocation of parking spaces on the main campus from the Bell Tower Deck to the Craige Deck.
Other Transportation Improvements
We have identified improvements and mitigation measures that we believe are necessary in order to accommodate the proposed development. We recommend the following:
Fordham Boulevard/Manning Drive Street Lights: That within six months of Council approval of the Development Modification No. 3, the University shall provide $50,000 payment-in-lieu to the Town of Chapel Hill for installation of street lighting on Fordham Boulevard between Manning Drive and Old Mason Farm Road..
Fordham Boulevard/Manning Drive Traffic Signal Upgrade: Subject to the approval of North Carolina Department of Transportation, the Fordham Boulevard/Manning Drive signalized intersection shall be upgraded with pedestrian “count down” heads with crosswalks within 12-months of approval of the Development Plan Modification No. 3 by the Town Council.
Mason Farm Road/East Drive Traffic Signal Installation: The University shall design and install a traffic signal with pedestrian amenities at the intersections of Mason Farm Road/East Drive and Mason Farm Road/West Drive within 12-months of the approval of the Development Plan Modification No. 3 by the Town Council. The design and construction details must be reviewed and approved by the Town Manager. Upon successful installation of traffic signals, the Town assumes the ownership and maintenance of the traffic signals.
Public Street Repairs: That the following streets abutting University construction sites and streets used as construction access, that have been damaged during University construction activity shall, be repaired and re-paved upon completion of adjacent University building projects proposed in Development Modification No. 3:
We have included these conditions in the attached Resolution A.
Perimeter Transition Areas
Several of the proposed projects are located in a Perimeter Transition Area. The buildings/structures and parking areas are the primary focal points in these Perimeter Transition Areas. However, areas of concern will differ for each map. The Land Use Management Ordinance requires that standards be provided for each area to minimize impacts of the proposed development on adjacent properties and specifically addressing:
In addition to the design standards required by the Land Use Management Ordinance, we recommend that parking spaces/areas, refuse facilities and stormwater management facilities be prohibited within the Development Plan Modification No. 3 Perimeter Transition Areas.
Each Perimeter Transition Area is described below along with the specific standards proposed by the University. We have also identified additional standards associated with landscaping, building setback and stormwater we believe are reasonable for each individual project.
AS-23 Law School Addition
This project will add 50,000 square feet on 4 floors to the existing law school on Ridge Road. No new parking is proposed with this project.
The following is a list of standards that the University is proposing for this Perimeter Transition Area:
We recommend the following additional stipulations for this transition area:
The following land use activities are prohibited within the Perimeter Transition Area boundary line:
These recommended stipulations have been incorporated into Resolution A.
ATH-1 Boshamer Stadium
Planned improvements to Boshamer Stadium include additional seating, concessions and restrooms, a new batting tunnel, field and landscape improvements, lighting improvements, circulation changes and a field maintenance building. The new building area is planned to be approximately 25,000 square feet.
The following is a list of standards that the University is proposing for this Perimeter Transition Area:
We recommend the following additional stipulations for this transition area:
The following land use activities are prohibited within the Perimeter Transition Area boundary line:
The maintenance and continued operation of the existing refuse/recycling facility is permitted within this Perimeter Transition Area.
This recommended stipulation has been incorporated into Resolution A.
I-6 Grounds Facility
This project would provide administrative, office and storage space for the Grounds Department. The proposed site is south and west of Mason Farm Road and is on the site currently occupied by Odum Village buildings #700 - #711.
The following is a list of standards that the University is proposing for this Perimeter Transition Area:
We recommend the following additional stipulations for this transition area:
The following land use activities are prohibited within the Perimeter Transition Area boundary line:
These recommended stipulations have been incorporated into Resolution A.
Cameron/McCauley Street Local Historic District
C-6 Carolina Inn Expansion
This 15,000-square-foot addition would connect the existing east wing of the Carolina Inn to a renovated Whitehead Hall. The planned addition would provide additional guest rooms and amenities for the Inn.
This site is located in the Cameron/McCauley Local Historic District. A review of this proposed addition has been conducted with the Chapel Hill Historic District Commission. Final building elevations for this proposed addition are subject to the review and approval of the Chapel Hill Historic District Commission. We recommend that approval of this application stipulate that the University’s submittal of a Site Development Permit for the addition to the Carolina Inn include verification that the proposed addition was reviewed and approved by the Chapel Hill Historic District Commission.
Resolution A includes this recommended stipulation.
DEVELOPMENT PLAN FINDINGS
For approval of a Development Plan in the Office/Institutional-4 zoning district, the Council must make the following findings, as set forth in Section 3.5.2 of the Land Use Management Ordinance: The Town Council shall approve a Development Plan unless it finds that the proposed development would not:
We anticipate that the University will discuss the four findings required by the Town Council during the Public Hearing portion of the process. Upon review of the application and information that has been submitted to date, our preliminary recommendation is that with the recommended conditions of approval, these findings can be made.
CONCLUSION
We believe that the proposed Development Plan addresses the required issues that are identified in the Office/Institutional-4 Zoning District.