AGENDA #4

TO:                  Chapel Hill Town Council

FROM:            Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager

RE:                  Work Session:  Carolina North Issues for Discussion

DATE:             January 10, 2009

The January 10 work session for Council on Carolina North is an opportunity for the Council to discuss your various perspectives on key issues and provide any appropriate guidance to Town staff as we work with University staff creating the framework for the development agreement. 

Previously, the Council agreed on a number of issues around which there was general consensus.  Staff is working together to identify Town and University interests in those areas and to propose options for addressing them. 

The Council also agreed that the nine issues listed below are most appropriate for policy level discussion between Council and Trustees. Discussion of these issues will be scheduled for the upcoming Council-Trustee meetings.   To facilitate that policy level discussion, today’s meeting is designed for Council Members to have an opportunity to discuss their views with each other before having discussions with the Trustees and Chancellor. For each issue, your staff has provided key questions to help stimulate your thought process.

On December 3, 2008, the Council and the University Trustees addressed the first three policy level issues and developed a general consensus for a starting point for the Carolina North discussion:

• Rezone entire property in Chapel Hill (630 acres) to a new zoning district to be developed;
• Focus the Development Agreement on 3,000,000 square feet of buildings; and
• Focus the Development Agreement on 133 acres.

The remaining items on the list of policy-level issues to be addressed in the review of the Carolina North proposal are provided below. You are scheduled to consider items 1, 2, and 3 (below) at the January 14 Joint Session with the University Board of Trustees. 

Remaining Group 1 Issues for Additional Council-Trustee Policy Discussion

1. Housing
• Who will live at Carolina North? Who are the target occupants?
• What is the right mix of graduate student, employee, and market housing?
• What is the timing/trigger mechanism for provision of housing? 
• What type of housing should be provided?
• How much housing of each type is needed?
• Where should the housing be located?
• Should there be standards as to who provides the housing?
2. Land preservation (undeveloped areas of the site)
• How will the areas not subject to the initial development agreement be zoned?
• How will uses on those areas (e.g. trails) be managed?
• What tools will be used to assure long-term protection of designated natural areas?
• What lands should be preserved? And, for how long?
• What are the guiding principles on the preservation techniques to be used?
• What options are available for the management and/or preservation of lands within the Horace Williams Tract that are not proposed to be developed in the long-range plans?
• Who would be assigned management responsibility for these areas? Are leases or conservation easements reasonable alternatives that should be considered?
3. Stormwater utility issues
• What will be the development’s relationship to the town’s stormwater utility?
• What management standards should be observed?
• Should the University participate financially in the stormwater utility?
• What should any fees be based on?
• What monitoring and reporting is needed?
4. Energy generation on site, cogeneration
• What kind of energy will power Carolina North?
• Where will the source be located?
5. Air quality
• How will air quality impacts be measured and mitigated?
6. Cumulative impacts
• To what extent should management of the cumulative impacts be an overarching goal of the new zone?
7. Sustainability Principles
• How will sustainability be defined at Carolina North?
• What kind of sustainable water management and wastewater treatment and re-use will be at Carolina North?
8. Fiscal impact: fees, payments, taxes, indirect benefits
• How should fiscal neutrality for the Town be calculated and measured?
9. Parking/Transit/Traffic/Road Issues
• How much parking and transit should be included in a first phase? 
• What is the timing/trigger mechanism for improvements and investments? 
• To what standard should internal roads be designed and built and where should they be located?
• Who will own and maintain the internal roads? 

ATTACHMENTS

1. Updated Timeline.
2. Horace Williams Citizen Committee Report.[pdf]
3. UNC Powerpoint slides from December 3 meeting. [5.3 MB pdf]