AGENDA #11
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Transfer of land for Meadowmont Elementary School and Authorization to Submit an Application for a Special Use Permit Modification
DATE: February 12, 2001
The attached resolution would authorize the Town Manager to:
- transfer ownership of 22 acres of land designated as a school site in the Meadowmont School/Park Special Use Permit to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, and
- authorize the Manager to submit an application for a Special Use Permit Modification that would split the 22 acres for the school site from the 70 acres remaining in Town ownership as parkland.
In 1997, the Town Council approved a Special Use Permit covering 92 acres of land at the eastern edge of the Meadowmont development. (Please see the attached location map, and the copy of the permit attached.) The area included 70 acres of parkland and a 22-acre site for a school. The developer agreed to deed the school site to the Town if the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education committed before July 2003 to use it as a school site, and if the School Board obtained a Special Use Permit by July 2005.
In February 2000, the developer deeded the 92 acres to the Town; the deed for the 22-acre school site included the provisions noted above. Both the deed and the Special Use Permit provided for the transfer of the school site to the Board of Education.
The Superintendent of Schools has requested that the Town deed the school site to the Board of Education. Please see a copy of his January 9, 2001 letter attached.
We believe that the deeding of the school site by the Town is the next logical step in implementing what was contemplated in the Master Land Use Plan and the Special Use Permit for this portion of the Meadowmont development. Regardless of whether the land is so transferred, if the Schools do not meet the two conditions mentioned above, the land would revert to the original Grantor, the Meadowmont Development Company.
Currently a single Special Use Permit encumbers the future school site and the parkland. It will need to be modified to accommodate the school plan as it will be developed. We believe that the modification to accommodate the school should also include the bifurcation of the Town’s and the School Board’s land. If a single permit covers both parcels, it would be necessary for the School Board and the Town Council to agree and to both go through a Special Use Permit modification process if either wants to modify its portion of the land. Therefore, we believe that it would be more practical for there to be two separate permits, one for the school and one for the parkland.
The deed from Meadowmont Development Company includes restrictions on floor area to be built on each parcel, regardless of the higher zoning limitations. These limits protect the right of the developer to build a given amount of floor area on other areas covered by the Meadowmont Master Land Use Plan. Although the floor area allowed by the deed restrictions on the school site is probably less than half of what the Schools might need, the much larger amount of floor area allowed on the park site could probably more than accommodate the remaining need. Because almost all of the park site is in the Resource Conservation District, it is highly unlikely that the floor area could be used in the park.
We believe that when the Schools are farther along in their design, the Town could consider a request to transfer most of the floor area allowed on the park site to the school site. The Town Attorney advises that such a transfer could be done with the consent of Meadowmont Development Company. Because it does not affect Meadowmont’s total allowable floor area and would not add any practical limitations to the park development, we believe that such a shift could benefit all parties.
A similar restriction is found in the deeds for the park site and the school site regarding a limit on impervious surfaces. Because Meadowmont is located in the Water Quality Critical Area of Jordan Lake, limits on impervious surface have significant implications. The impervious surface of all of Meadowmont is being considered together, rather than figuring the proportion of pervious and impervious surface on each sub-component of the development. Therefore, it is important to the developer that the impervious surface on this land that it is giving to others not use more than a given proportion of the total.
It should make no difference to the developer whether the impervious surface is divided proportionately between the school site and the park or whether it is preponderantly on the school site. Because the park site is in the Resource Conservation District and little impervious surface is contemplated for it beyond a restroom facility and a picnic shelter, we believe that it would be possible, with the consent of the Town Council the Meadowmont Development Company, to transfer much of the impervious surface allowed by the deed restriction to the school site. When the school design is further along, the Schools will know whether it will be necessary to request some of the impervious surface now designated for the park.
That the Town Council adopt the following resolution that would authorize the Town Manager to execute a deed on behalf of the Town to transfer the 22 acres designated as a school site in the Special Use Permit to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools; and to participate in the application for a modification of the Special Use Permit for the limited purpose of bifurcating the present permit along the boundary between the schools’ land and the Town’s. The Town would not be an applicant for the development of an elementary school.
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE TOWN MANAGER TO SIGN A DEED ON BEHALF OF THE TOWN TO TRANSFER 22 ACRES TO THE CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO CITY SCHOOLS AND TO PARTICIPATE IN THE APPLICATION FOR A MODIFICATION OF THE SPECIAL USE PERMIT ENCUMBERING THE SCHOOL SITE AND THE TOWN’S PARKLAND IN MEADOWMONT (2000-02-12/R-14)
WHEREAS, the Town Council has approved a Master Land Use Plan for the Meadowmont development and a Special Use Permit for 70 acres of parkland and 22 acres for a school site; and
WHEREAS, Meadowmont Development Company has deeded the 92 acres to the Town of Chapel Hill; and
WHEREAS, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Superintendent has requested that the Town deed the 22 acre school site to the Schools;
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the Town of Chapel Hill that the Town Manager is authorized to sign a deed on behalf of the Town to transfer the 22-acre school site to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Manager is authorized to participate in the application for a modification of the Special Use Permit which currently encumbers both the school site and the parkland to allow the permit to be divided into separate school and park permits.
This the 12th day of February, 2001.