AGENDA #2.2

 

MEMORANDUM

 

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

 

FROM:            W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

 

SUBJECT:       Public Hearing on a Request for a Land Use Plan Amendment to Identify the Locations of Potential School Sites on the Land Use Plan

 

DATE:             May 24, 2004

 

 

The purpose of this public hearing is to provide citizens an opportunity to comment on a request to identify the locations of potential school sites on the Land Use Plan.

 

BACKGROUND

 

The Town of Chapel Hill Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Council on May 8, 2000, designates 5 potential school sites identified by the Chapel Hill - Carrboro Board of Education on the Land Use Plan. 

 

On September 7, 2003, the Chapel Hill - Carrboro Board of Education approved goals for the Chapel Hill - Carrboro City Schools Superintendent which included the following:

 

“10.      Identify at least two additional potential school sites and take initial steps to acquire future school sites.”

 

School System staff have reviewed the existing sites identified on the Town of Chapel Hill Land Use Plan, and in collaboration with Orange County environmental resource staff, geographical information systems staff and the Town’s Planning Department, have explored the possibilities of other locations for school sites.

 

On December 18, 2003, the Board of Education approved the sites listed in Attachment 1 for submission to the Town Council for inclusion on the Land Use Plan and on January 12, 2004, the Town received a formal request to amend the Land Use Plan to show the sites listed. The list includes some sites that are included in the Plan, plus new sites and deletes some sites which are no longer available.

 

On April 26, 2004, the Town Council called a public hearing date of May 24, 2004, for this requested amendment to the land use plan.  The Town Council also referred this proposal to the Planning Board for a recommendation, and to other Town advisory boards for comment.

 

On May 18, 2004, the Planning Board considered this request and recommended that the Town Council approve the requested land use plan amendment.

 

DISCUSSION

 

The Town of Chapel Hill Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Council on May 8, 2000, designates potential school sites identified by the Chapel Hill - Carrboro Board of Education on the Land Use Plan.  As stated in the Plan:

 

“This designation will allow the School Board to reserve a school site when a subdivision application is submitted for approval, if the subdivision application includes part or all of a school site designated on the Land Use Plan. If the School Board decides to reserve a site, it will have 18 months from the date of final subdivision approval in which to acquire the property.”  (Page 63 Comprehensive Plan)

 

The Plan is based on Section 4.6.13, Reservation of School Sites, as set out in the Town’s Land Use Management Ordinance.

 

On June 23, 2003, at the Town’s request and in response to a petition from the Chapel Hill – Carrboro Board of Education, the State Legislature enacted legislation for the Town which extended the scope of reservation to other forms of development requiring approval as Site Plans, Special Use Permits or Special Use Permit modifications.

 

On September 22, 2003, the Town Council adopted Sections 4.5.8 and 4.7.8, Reservation of School Sites, as modifications to the Land Use Management Ordinance to include these new provisions.  If the School Board desires to reserve a school site designated on the Town’s Land Use Plan, it will have 12 months from the date of final approval in which to acquire the property in the case of a Site Plan, Special Use Permit, or Special Use Permit modification.

 

The procedure for considering an amendment to the Land Use Plan to identify the revised locations of potential school sites identified by the Chapel Hill - Carrboro Board of Education includes calling a public hearing and receiving a recommendation from the Planning Board.  

 

SITE DESCRIPTIONS

 

Please see Attachment 2 for a map of the sites described below.

 

New Sites: Sites in this category are proposed to be added to the Plan.

 

1. Legion Road: This site is located in the Town limits and contains approximately 35 acres. The property is adjoined by single family residential dwellings to the east, a rest home facility to the west, and Ephesus Elementary School and Ephesus Park to the south. Office and commercial uses are located on the opposite side of Legion Road. The property is designated as Parks and Open Space on the Land Use Plan. Zoning is Residential-2, 4 units per acre. Access is available off Legion Road which is a collector street in the Town’s highway classification, meaning that it provides access between local neighborhood streets and arterial streets.

 

This site was previously considered as a potential school site during the preparation of the Comprehensive Plan. On January 31, 2000, during a work session on the draft Comprehensive Plan the Town Council agreed by consensus to delete a proposed school site in this location.  The reasons cited for the deletion were that access to the location, in particular local intersections, was inadequate for this use and that the site should be preserved as open space.

 

2. Eubanks Road: This site is located in the Town limits and contains approximately 30 acres. It is designated as Mixed Use-Office Emphasis on the Land Use Plan. Zoning is MU-OI-1, Mixed Use/Office-Institutional. Access is available from Eubanks Road which is a collector street in the Town’s highway classification, meaning that it provides access between local neighborhood streets and arterial streets. The property is within one half mile of an intersection with I-40.

 

In 1986, the Town Council denied a special use permit application for 120 town houses. The Town Council cited that the proposed development was premature to the provision of public and private facilities to serve the area and was in advance of the pattern and timing of development envisioned in the Comprehensive Plan. Improvements to water and sewer services are planned in the area as part of the new Town Operations Center slated for completion by the end of December 2006.

 

3. Weaver Dairy Road: This site is located in the Town limits and contains approximately 45 acres. The property consists of two triangular areas of land with a connecting linear strip. On the Land Use Plan the western eastern area is designated as Mixed Use-Office Commercial Emphasis and the eastern area as Medium Density Residential, 4-8 units per acre. The corresponding zoning is MU-OI-1, Mixed Use/Office-Institutional and R-3, Medium Density Residential, 7 units per acre. The property abuts I-40 to the north and is within one half mile of an intersection with I-40. Access is available from Weaver Dairy Road which is an arterial street in the Town’s highway classification, meaning that it is a primary transportation facility connecting major centers of activity in the town. The property is presently wooded. To the west is a wooded tract, to the south an office park and to the east multifamily dwellings.

 

4. Weaver Dairy Road:  This site is located in the Town limits and contains approximately 12 acres. The property is designated as Mixed Use-Office Commercial Emphasis on the Land Use Plan. Zoning is MU-R-1, Mixed Use, Low Density Residential. The property abuts I-40 to the north and is within one half mile of an intersection with I-40. Access is available from Weaver Dairy Road which is an arterial street in the Town’s highway classification, meaning that it is a primary transportation facility connecting major centers of activity in the town. The property is presently wooded. To the south and west is the Chapel Hill North Shopping Center, to the east a wooded tract.

 

5. Horace Williams Tract: This site is located in the Town limits and contains approximately 900 acres. The property is designated as University on the Land Use Plan. Zoning is part OI-2 and part OI-3, Office and Institutional and part R-2, Residential 2, 4 units per acre. The property has access available off Airport Road NC 86 (arterial), Estes Drive (arterial), Seawell School Road (collector) and Homestead Road (arterial). The property is adjoined by residential neighborhoods to the north, east and southwest, and by office uses to the southeast. Chapel Hill High School, Smith Middle School and Seawell Elementary School are located to the northeast.

 

The report “Principles, Goals and Strategy for the Horace Williams Property” accepted by the Town Council on March 22, 2004, includes a recommendation for the reservation of school sites on this property:

 

“Goal 1E: Reserve School Sites at Carolina North and secure financial commitment from the University to build schools needed to meet the additional demand for pre-kindergarten through high school as a result of this development”.

 

Potential Sites Already Designated on the Land Use Plan: Sites in this category are already on the Land Use Plan, but are proposed for broadened review under the new broadened legal authority.

 

6. US 15-501 South: This site is located outside of the Town limits, but inside the Town’s Urban Services Boundary and contains approximately 89 acres. The property is designated on the Land Use Plan as Low Residential, 1 unit per acre. Zoning is R-LD1, Residential Low Density, 1 unit per acre.  Access is available off US 15-501 South. To the west across US 15-501 is Dogwood Acres, to the north, south and east the property is adjoined by sporadically developed single family dwellings on large lots.

 

On May 10, 200 4, the Town Council received a petition from Eric Chupp for Kovens Construction Company which makes a request for the Formation of a Mayor’s Committee to Provide Guidance in the Planning and Design of land in the Urban Services Boundary. The petition was referred to the Mayor for action. The site is included in this area.

 

7. Eubanks Road: This site is located outside of the Town limits, but inside the Town’s Urban Services Boundary and contains approximately 20 acres. The property is designated as Medium Density Residential, 4-8 units per acre. The corresponding zoning is R-2, Residential 2, 4 units per acre. The property is also located in the Chapel Hill Transition Area of the Joint Planning Orange County - Chapel Hill - Carrboro Land Use Plan. Access is available off Eubanks Road. To the north are the UPS building and the Town’s Park and Ride Lot, to the east the Northwood subdivision and to the south the Larkspur subdivision.

 

In May 2003, a conditional use rezoning application was submitted to the Town Council for this and 2 adjoining parcels of land.  The applicant requested rezoning the property from Residential-1 (R-1), Residential-2 (R-2), and Mixed-Use Office/Institutional-1 (MU OI-1) to the Residential-5-Conditional (R-5-C) zoning district. An application was also submitted for a Special Use Permit for a Planned Development to allow construction of a multi-family residential development on 35 acres. The proposed development would consist of 19 buildings, including 13 apartment buildings with a total of 282 dwelling units, as well as 6 accessory buildings.

 

A petition for voluntary annexation was also received. On August 25, 2003, the Town Council considered the annexation petition and declined to proceed with annexation on the basis that annexation of this property was detrimental to the Town’s greater control over the timing of growth and the shaping of its corporate limits.

 

On October 15, 2003, a joint planning hearing was held for the rezoning application. The Planning staffs of Chapel Hill and Orange County recommended denial of the proposed amendment to the Joint Planning Area Zoning Atlas because they believed that the requested rezoning was not consistent with the medium density designation of the Land Use Plan. The application was referred to the Chapel Hill Town Council and then to the Orange County Planning Board for a recommendation to the County Commissioners. Since the joint planning hearing the applicants have not indicated when they intend to submit a revised application.

 

Sites to be Released by Board of Education: Sites listed below are proposed to be taken off the Town’s Land Use Plan.

 

8. Eubanks Road:  The property is also located in the Chapel Hill Transition Area of the Joint Planning Orange County - Chapel Hill - Carrboro Land Use Plan. Since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan in May 2000, the Town has approved the development of the Larkspur II subdivision on this property which is under construction.

 

9. Erwin Road: Since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan in May 2000 this property was purchased by the Town of Chapel Hill for open space preservation.

 

NEXT STEPS

 

Following this Public Hearing the next step for consideration of the requested Plan amendment is:

 

·        June 14      Town Council Consideration of Amendment to Land Use Plan

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

 

Manager’s Preliminary Recommendation:  We recommend that the Council refer comments made at this public hearing and any comments received from Town boards and commissions to the Manager and Attorney.

 

The following recommendations which have been received from Town advisory boards are summarized below. Please see summaries of board actions and recommendations in the attachments. Any other advisory board recommendations that are received will be provided to the Town Council at the public hearing.

 

Historic District Commission Recommendation:  On May 13, 2004, the Historic District Commission voted 8-0 to make no comment on this matter.

 

Planning Board Recommendation:  On May 18, 2004, the Planning Board voted 7-0 to recommend that the Council approve the requested land use plan amendment.

 

Transportation Board Recommendation:  On May 18, 2004, the Transportation Board voted 5-0 to recommend that the Council approve the requested land use plan amendment. The Board also suggested 3 other sites for the Board of Education to investigate.

 

ATTACHMENTS

 

1. Letter from Chapel Hill – Carrboro City School System, January 8, 2004 (p. 7).
2. Location Map (p. 9).
3. Planning Board recommendation (p. 10).
4. Historic District Commission recommendation (p. 11).
5. Transportation Board recommendation (p. 12).