October 1, 2007

Mr. Kevin Foy, Mayor

Mr. Roger Stancil, Town Manager

Town of Chapel Hill

405 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

Chapel Hill, NC  27514

Dear Mayor Foy, Mr. Stancil, and members of the Town Council:

In July 2007, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership formed a Wayfinding Task Force to begin to discuss how our community may develop a collaborative, comprehensive directional plan that will shepherd visitors to our town and University attractions in an effort to improve the visitor experience.  The topic of wayfinding has come up repeatedly over the past two years in downtown, specifically as it relates to parking.  However, the task force wishes to convey that a Wayfinding plan is much more than highway or parking signs. A comprehensive plan is designed to help navigate people in a complete fashion from the highway to their destination.  The economic benefit of improved signage is thought to result in longer and more comfortable stays, more frequent visits, and ultimately resulting in more opportunities for visitors to spend money in our community.

Following the mission of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, we brought the Town, the University, and the business community together to begin discussing this topic. We are now in the process of defining of goals for each entity represented and will soon begin drafting the scope of services that such a plan might entail.

In an effort to better understand the scope of this project, task force members have been talking with Wayfinding consultants and comparable communities to learn more about their process for developing such a plan and the costs associated with the design and implementation of a complete signage system.

Although still very much in the early stages, the Task Force envisions this as a partnership effort that could be funded by a number of different sources as defined by the scope of services and the goals of each representative.   We welcome any thoughts or ideas that the Town Council may have to improve this initiative and move this process forward. 

Thank you for your time in relation to this effort. 

Sincerely yours,

       Liz

Elizabeth H. Parham, CMSM

Executive Director

[Attachment – Chapel Hill Wayfinding (a working document)]