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W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

306 North Columbia Street

Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27516

919-968-2744 Bell South

919-682-8636 Verizon

919-969-2063 FAX

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Note: Mail sent to or received from the Town Manager is subject to publication under the provisions of the North Carolina open records law.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Russell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 10:00 AM
To: Roger Waldon
Cc: Manager
Subject: Petition to Town Council concerning Duplex Dwelling Units at Columbia Place

Petition to Chapel Hill Town Council from Columbia Place Homeowners’ Association

Approved by Columbia Place Board of Directors, March 4, 2003. Response should be directed to the President of the Board of Directors, Janet Smith, at [email protected].

Petition: Columbia Place Homeowners’ Association requests the Chapel Hill Town Council to recognize the ordinance in effect when Columbia Place was built and the units purchased, which limits to two the number of unrelated persons who may reside in a single dwelling unit. In effect, we are requesting the Town Council to grandfather in Columbia Place with regard to the new Land Use Management Ordinance, which increases to four the number of unrelated persons who may reside in each side of a two-family duplex.

Background:

Columbia Place is a two-family duplex development with 33 buildings, each having 2 dwelling units. The complex was built between 1995 and 1999. The Chapel Hill Development Ordinance under which the construction was approved was Adopted May 11, 1981 and Revised with Amendments through October 31, 2002. On January 27, 2003, the Town Council replaced the Development Ordinance with the Land Use Management Ordinance.

Columbia Place Homeowners’ Association is concerned with the increase in the number of unrelated persons who may reside in each dwelling unit, of from 2 to 4 persons (note 1, below). It is particularly concerned with the possibility that the new regulation might be applied retroactively to Columbia Place which was approved for construction under the Development Ordinance which has been replaced. All of the original owners of these dwelling units purchased them while the Development Ordinance was in effect.

Both the old and new ordinances specify that a single dwelling unit in a duplex building shall have no more than 3 bedrooms. In addition, the Covenants of the Columbia Place Homeowners’ Association specifies that each dwelling unit shall have 2 off-street parking places. The buildings were constructed with these two restrictions in effect. However, because some of the units are being rented to 3, 4 or more unrelated individuals, each person usually owning a vehicle, we are experiencing extreme pressure on the limited off-street and on-street parking, resulting in congestion, blockage of driveways, sidewalks and mail boxes, and possible danger when emergency vehicles cannot move through the area or turn around. By allowing 4 unrelated individuals to live in dwellings restricted to 3 bedrooms, overcrowding is being allowed and owners are implicitly being encouraged to illegally convert some space into 4th bedrooms.

Note 1: Town of Chapel Hill. "Chapel Hill, North Carolina Development Ordinance," October, 2002 Edition, Section 2.39, pages 7 and 8. "A duplex structure with more than three (3) bedrooms within either dwelling unit shall be classified as a Rooming House unless each dwelling unit is occupied by persons related by blood, marriage or domestic partnership, with not more than two unrelated persons." Implied here is that a duplex dwelling unit with either more than 3 bedrooms and/or more than 2 unrelated persons is a rooming house.