AGENDA #5d
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Response to Petition from Student Environmental Action Coalition
DATE: March 4, 2002
On February 11, 2002, Ms. Katherine Shields addressed the Town Council on behalf of the UNC Student Environmental Action Coalition. This memorandum responds to the request brought by Ms. Shields.
SUMMARY
Ms. Shields asked that the Council allocate $5,000 for the purpose of conducting a design contest focused on Town Parking Lot #5 (corner of Franklin and Church Streets). As explained below, we believe that the Council considered this proposal last fall and chose to pursue an alternative initiative.
PETITION
The petition suggests a design contest for Lot #5. The proposed contest would be for professional and amateur designers, and winners would be chosen by a diverse panel of judges representing the arts, environmental, business and community interests of Chapel Hill.
Ms. Shields suggested that such a design contest was necessary for the following reasons:
· It would be an investment in Chapel Hill’s future.
· It is crucial that the parking lot be developed in a way to maximize cultural and economic benefit to the Town.
· The parking lot’s potential will never be fully realized without a good design.
· The amount of money to conduct a design contest is small compared to money Chapel Hill has previously spent on consulting projects that have gone nowhere.
· A design contest would involve a broad spectrum of the community.
· The time frame established for the Town’s current Downtown Workshops does not allow for full community involvement.
· A design contest would allow individuals who cannot attend the current Downtown Workshops to participate and express their opinions.
· The amount of the prize would ensure that quality competitors were attracted, yielding a wealth of sound ideas for the judges to choose from.
Ms. Shields concluded by saying that a design contest would be a sound investment in the future of Chapel Hill, and that the benefits would far outweigh the cost. She also noted that the Student Environmental Action Coalition had asked the Town Council last fall to sponsor a design contest, and that the Council failed to respond to that request.
DISCUSSION
The Town Council has initiated a Downtown Workshop that includes Parking Lot #5 and three other key downtown locations, sites that were identified on Chapel Hill’s adopted Downtown Small Area Plan. This project was begun with Council adoption of a resolution on October 10, 2001, agreeing to a process, a schedule, and intended products. The process involves a series of meetings and workshops, four in all (two full-day Saturday sessions on February 16 and March 23, and two evening sessions). The process also includes preparation of a computer model that creates a virtual, digital environment displaying Chapel Hill’s downtown, that allows simulation and visualization of proposed downtown ideas. Representatives of the Student Environmental Action Coalition were in attendance at the October 10 meeting, and offered comments to the Town Council about the proposal.
The first two meetings have been held. Approximately 60 people attended a day-long workshop on Saturday, February 16. A key point of focus was Parking Lot #5, and many ideas were discussed. A follow-up meeting on the evening of February 19 afforded an opportunity for participation for individuals not able to come on Saturday. Approximately 30 people attended and participated in the February 19 session. The computer model was ready and was presented at both sessions, showing examples of what might be done with each of the four sites (including Parking Lot #5).
We believe that a number of excellent ideas were generated in these sessions. Work is now underway to illustrate those ideas using the computer model. The main objective of the March 23 session will be to examine the illustrated ideas to determine if they communicate what was intended. A final set of images and drawings will then be presented to the Town Council in May. The Council has indicated its intent to consider issuing a Request for Proposals for Lot #2, Lot #5, or both, seeking proposals that would implement the ideas.
We believe that the current process, spanning four months and involving four citizen workshops and two Council meetings, is a well-conceived, participatory process that is likely to generate useful ideas for the four key downtown sites. We believe that it is more likely to result in feasible development proposals, and will prove to be more participatory, than would be the case with the design contest alternative proposed in the petition. We note that a by-product of the Downtown Workshop process will be a model that can be used repeatedly in the future to help visualize downtown development proposals.
We also note that the Council did listen to the proposal for the design contest at the October 10, 2001 meeting, presented by the Student Environmental Action Coalition, as is indicated in the attached excerpt from minutes of that meeting. After hearing a number of proposed ideas that evening, including the design contest proposal, the Council adopted a resolution initiating the Design Workshop that is now in progress.
CONCLUSION
We believe that the current Downtown Workshop is a highly participatory process that will yield useful results, including viable ideas and proposals for Parking Lot #5. It was our opinion in October 2001, and remains our opinion, that the Downtown Workshop proposal is more likely to achieve the Council’s desired outcomes than would be the case with the alternative of a design contest.
After review of the record of October 10, we believe that the Council considered the proposal offered by the Student Environmental Action Coalition, and decided to pursue an alternate initiative.
ATTACHMENT
ATTACHMENT 1
Excerpt from:
SUMMARY MINUTES OF A BUSINESS MEETING
OF THE CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2001, AT 7:00 P.M.
Item 3 - Petitions by Citizens and Announcements by Council Members
a. Petitions by citizens on items not on the agenda.
3a(1). Tiffany Kiernan, Alice Teich and Florian Moeller on behalf of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) and The Boiling Point, a progressive student publication.
Ms. Kiernan, SEAC co-chair, reminded the Council that she had petitioned them before regarding a design contest and had proposed turning Parking Lot #5 into a Town Center. Ms. Kiernan said that UNC students wished to be more integrated into the Town. She pointed out that having a Town Center at that location would help achieve that goal.
Ms. Teich suggested that the Town ignore arguments of economic rationalization and focus instead on the quality of life in Chapel Hill. She argued that a Town Center would not affect property values and would maximize the land's use. Ms. Teich stated that more offices would not increase Chapel Hill's quality of life, but restaurants, snack shops, performing arts areas, public forums, poetry readings, cafes and a place to just hang out would do so.
Mr. Moeller suggested making the Town of Chapel Hill's "great quality of life" more than just an image. He recommended against turning Lot #5 into another place that would be "no place." Mr. Moeller said that this is what had been done with the "under-utilized" Rosemary Street Parking Deck.
Mayor Waldorf noted that this item was on the Council's agenda tonight. She invited the speakers to attend the workshop that the Council would approve tonight.