BACKGROUND
Meetings
The Committee held an
organizational meeting on May 15, 2003
to establish Committee leadership and a meeting schedule. Ms. Delores Bailey
was elected as the Chair of the Committee and Ms. Esphur Foster was elected as the Committee’s
Vice Chair. To date, the Committee has
held twelve meetings; two of these meetings were joint meetings with the
Planning Board.
We note that five Committee
members appointed by the Council did not regularly attend meetings. R.D. Smith and Ed Caldwell were not able to attend
due to illness, and Sydalg Severe resigned from the Committee when he moved out
of the community. Investors Rick Perry
and Matthew Robbins each attended one meeting.
All meetings were open to the
public, and each meeting agenda included opportunity for the public to speak to
the members of the Committee.
Vision Statement
To make certain that all members
had a common understanding of the neighborhood’s goals, at an early meeting the
Committee discussed and developed a Vision Statement. The Vision Statement expresses the
Committee’s goal of ensuring that new development in Northside is consistent
with the housing style and character of the neighborhood.
The following Vision Statement was adopted by the Committee
at a meeting on October 2, 2003.
Our
charge is to ensure that the Northside neighborhood will continue to be just
that a neighborhood.
·
We want to preserve the history, charm and
composition of a proud and historic community.
·
We want to promote and protect the diversity and
family character of the neighborhood.
·
We want to protect the family atmosphere and
ensure that all future development is comparable with the majority of the
neighborhood in scale, function, and appearance.
·
As properties change ownership we want to make
certain that families seeking homeownership have opportunities to buy a home
and can afford to live in our community.
·
We would like to promote more affordable
homeownership opportunities for low and moderate income families and
households.
·
Lastly,
we want to nurture an environment that promotes community interaction and
fosters a safe and proud neighborhood.
These are the
goals we endeavor to achieve through the development of the Northside Neighborhood
Conservation District.
Boundaries
The boundaries of the Northside
Neighborhood Conservation District are the Tanyard Branch trail to the north,
North
Columbia Street to the east, West
Rosemary Street to the south, and the Carrboro
city limit to the west. We felt that
this boundary covered the portions of the neighborhood that would benefit the
most from a Neighborhood Conservation District.
Please see Attachment 1 for a map of the District boundaries.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In accordance with the Town’s
Land Use Management Ordinance, the Northside Neighborhood Conservation District
Advisory Committee proposes the following recommendations for a Neighborhood
Conservation District for new development in the Northside neighborhood. This section is divided into three
parts: recommendations for no change to
the current regulations
Land
Use Management Ordinance; recommended modifications to provisions currently in
the Land Use Management Ordinance; and recommendations for new guidelines
currently not addressed in the Land Use Management Ordinance. Please see Attachment 2 for a summary of our
recommendations.
Recommendations for no Change to the Land Use Management Ordinance
1.
Front Yard Parking
The Committee believes that the
Town’s current front yard parking regulations are sufficient and voted 12-0
with one abstention to recommend that the Northside Neighborhood Conservation
District limit front-yard parking to 40% of any lot.
2.
Occupancy
After much discussion, the
Committee voted 7-6 to recommend that the Northside Neighborhood Conservation
District would follow current
regulations restricting occupancy to four unrelated people per dwelling unit. Some dissenters
felt that four people per house was too many and would have preferred that the
limit was three unrelated persons per household. Another dissenter would have preferred limiting
occupancy to two persons over eighteen, and felt that decreasing the occupancy
limits would make the neighborhood less attractive to investors and more
attractive for families.
3.
Minimum Lot Size
The Committee feels that the current
regulations are sufficient and voted 13-0 that Northside Neighborhood
Conservation District require a minimum lot size of 5,500 square feet in the
R-3 zoning district. The Committee
members recognized that if the minimum lot size was raised, most lots in the
Northside neighborhood would be non-conforming.
4.
Impervious Surface
The Committee sees no reason to
change the current Town-wide regulations and voted 13-0 to recommend that the
Northside Neighborhood Conservation District include an impervious surface
maximum of .24.
Recommended Modifications to the Current Provisions in the Land Use
Management Ordinance
1.
Maximum Residential Building Height (primary)
The Committee
voted 13-0 to recommend changing the Town’s existing regulation for primary residential
building height from 29 feet to 20 feet.
2.
Maximum Residential Building Height (secondary)
The Committee
voted 12-1 to recommend lowering the secondary building height to 35 feet. The
dissenting voter felt that 35 feet was still too high.
3.
Maximum Town Center Building Height (primary and
secondary)
The Committee
voted 13-0 to recommending modifying the maximum primary building height in
Town
Center to 40 feet, and 50 feet for
the secondary height. However, if the
property is adjacent to an R-2, R-3 or R-4 lot, the Committee recommends that
the maximum primary building height should be 30 feet.
Recommendations for New Provisions to the Land Use Management
Ordinance
1.
Duplexes
The Committee
voted 9-3 to ban the construction of new duplexes in the Northside neighborhood
as part of the Neighborhood Conservation District. A
dissenting voter stated that he believed that the vote to ban duplexes was made
with inadequate information.
The Committee’s
discussion of this item included concerns that banning duplexes may eliminate a
form of affordable housing in the community, and that the Committee’s other
recommendations (i.e. limiting house size and floor area ratio) may address the
Committee’s concerns about duplexes. We
believe that the current mix of single family house and duplexes contributes to
the character of the neighborhood. Some
residents on the committee have observed that duplexes are not being occupied
by families and are not currently part of the neighborhoods affordable housing
stock. Therefore, we do not agree that
banning duplexes in the community would affect the number of affordable housing
units in the neighborhood.
Please see Attachment
3 for questions raised by Committee members about duplexes and responses from
the staff. Please see Attachment 4 for
map of lots grouped by minimum square footage for single family or duplex lots,
and a map of vacant lots grouped by minimum square footage for single family or
duplex lots, and Attachment 5 for a map analyzing the size of properties within
the District.
2.
Maximum House Size
3.
Maximum Floor Area Ratio (single family or single
family with accessory apartment, and non single family)
Due to the
similarity in our rationale for establishing both of these standards, we will
discuss these two items together.
For many years,
residents of the Northside neighborhood have expressed their concerns to the
Council about the development of houses that are not consistent with the
character of the neighborhood. New
houses are being built in excess of 2,500 square feet, and some property owners
have added large additions to homes so that they exceed 2,500 square feet. However based on information received from
the staff, 88% of the houses in the neighborhood are less than 2,000 square
feet (Please see Attachment 6).
Therefore, the
Committee recommends a two-pronged approach to address this concern:
(1)
The Committee voted 13-0 to recommend limiting the
maximum house size for new homes to 2,000 square feet in the Northside
Neighborhood Conservation District. We
understand that a property owner has the right to appeal to the Board of
Adjustment for a variance to the regulations if they can prove a hardship. Therefore, we also recommend that the
Northside Neighborhood Conservation District include a provision that will
allow a maximum of 2,500 square feet if a variance is obtained.
(2)
The Committee voted 13-0 that the Northside
Neighborhood Conservation District should include a maximum floor area ratio of
.25 for single family or single family with accessory apartment, and .162 for
non single family.
We believe that
establishing a maximum house size and maximum floor area ratio could help us
achieve the goal of improving the appearance of new development in the
community.
4.
Bathroom to
Bedroom Ratio
The Committee
voted 8-3 with two abstentions to recommend that the Neighborhood Conservation
District include a provision to regulate the number of bathrooms to bedrooms as
follows: if a dwelling unit has two bedrooms or less, the bathroom to bedroom
ratio can be 1:1; if there are more than two bedrooms, the ratio must be less
than one.
This idea was
introduced during small group discussion at the Chamber of Commerce’s charrette
on duplexes in October. As mentioned
above, we have seen a recent trend of newly constructed homes with four
bedrooms and a bathroom attached to each bedroom. We believe that this provision could increase
compliance with the Town’s occupancy requirements by making housing less
attractive for multiple people. We also
believe by making this a measurable standard, it will be helpful to the staff
when reviewing development applications. Dissenting
voters felt that this was an unreasonable restriction and that this provision
may not decrease occupancy or increase adherence to the Town’s occupancy
regulations.
5.
Zoning Compliance Permit Notification
Members of the Committee
feel that there should be an improved notification process for significant
development in the neighborhood. Therefore,
the Committee voted 8-2 to recommend that the Northside Neighborhood
Conservation District include a provision that owners within 1000 feet must be
notified if a change in floor area is proposed or for the addition of a
garage. A dissenting voter expressed concern about the cost for this additional
mailing.
OTHER
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Committee also discussed
several issues that are not zoning issues, but are important to us. These issues include:
- Enforcement – The Committee is concerned about how
the Town would enforce the regulations of the Neighborhood Conservation
District. We want to be sure that
once the Neighborhood Conservation District is in place, the Town will
make every effort to obtain compliance with all regulations.
- The Town’s Notification Process – The Committee raised
concerns about the process used for notifying property owners about new
development. Residents would like
to be more informed about development that occurs in our
neighborhood. The Committee
recommends that the Town develop an improved process for informing
residents of development in the Northside neighborhood.
- On Street Parking –Committee members expressed their
concerns about on-street parking and the Town’s residential permit
process. It was discussed that the
residents of a street currently have the ability to petition the Council
to restrict parking on their street.
The Committee recommends that the Council adopt a more aggressive
information sharing process on the Town’s parking ordinances to educate
neighbors about established regulations.
COMMUNITY
PARTICIPATION
On November 19, 2003, the Committee invited residents and
property owners to attend a community forum to inform them of the Committee’s
work and to request their feedback on the Committee’s recommendations. A summary of the comments received at that
meeting will be distributed to the Council.
NEXT
STEPS
We ask that the Council adopt the
resolution included in item __ b to schedule a public hearing on our proposed
recommendations for January 21, 2004.
The Committee members agreed to
continue to meet in January to discuss additional standards for the
Neighborhood Conservation District that we did not have time to address, and to
develop design standards. We propose to
hold a design charrette on a Saturday morning in late January to develop our
recommendations. It is likely that the
Committee will hold several meetings after the charrette and return to the
Council in March with a request to modify the Northside Neighborhood
Conservation District to include the additional standards.
CONCLUSION
The Committee would like to thank
the Council for the opportunity to work with you to develop the first
Neighborhood Conservation District in Chapel Hill. We believe that developing a Neighborhood
Conservation District for this neighborhood will achieve the sentiment
expressed in the Vision Statement and will preserve the Northside neighborhood
for the future.
ATTACHMENTS
The Committee used the following
information prepared by the staff during its discussions:
1.
Map of Neighborhood Conservation District Boundaries
2.
Zoning Worksheet – Summary of Recommendations
3.
Questions Raised by Members of the Committee Re:
Duplexes
4.
Map of Lots Grouped by
Minimum
Square Footage / Vacant Lots Grouped by
Minimum
Square Footage for Single Family or Duplex Units
5.
Map of Property Sizes in Northside
6.
Memorandum Re: Analysis of Building Size by Square
Footage
