AGENDA #8
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Kathleen Kearns, Chair, Horace Williams Citizens’ Committee
SUBJECT: Progress Report
DATE: June 9, 2003
The Horace Williams Citizens’ Committee is pleased to present its first report to the Town Council. The Council’s charge to the Committee requested a report within 90 days after the Committee began work.
ORGANIZATION OF COMMITTEE
In October 2002, the Town Council established a Horace Williams Citizens’ Committee to identify key issues related to the potential development of the Horace Williams property by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. By January 2003, Council had selected 22 committee members, including 11 citizens with special expertise, five neighborhood representatives, three Council members, and one representative apiece from UNC, Orange County, and Carrboro. On March 4, 2003, the Committee met for the first time.
INITIAL WORK
The full Committee has held five meetings to date and is continuing to meet on a monthly schedule. Portions of the early meetings were spent reviewing the planning history of the Horace Williams property, land use, zoning, and jurisdictional information, and key planning documents, including the 1997 Chapel Hill Planning Panel Report, the 1998 JJR Report, the 2000 Ayers Saint Gross Plan, and the Town’s new Land Use Development Ordinance. Mr. Tony Waldrop, UNC’s Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, made a presentation on the status of the University’s Carolina North planning efforts. (UNC has named their proposed development on the Horace Williams property Carolina North.)
A website for the Committee contains agendas, meeting summaries, maps, background reports, contact information, and related links. It is located at:
http://townhall.townofchapelhill.org/planning/HWCC/HWCC_new.html
DEVELOPMENT OF DRAFT PRINCIPLES
The Committee established five subcommittees to address the topic areas identified by Council and several additional topics. The subcommittees have each held several meetings to draft principles related to their areas of concern. These draft principles are being discussed thoroughly by the full Committee to resolve any contradictions among various subcommittees’ work and to address issues that affect more than one subcommittee. The full Committee aims to reach consensus on all principles before submitting them to Council. In any case where consensus cannot be reached, a principle adopted by majority vote will be accompanied by a minority report summarizing the dissenting view.
SUBCOMMITTEE PROGRESS REPORTS
Members are Al Burk (chair), Joe Capowski, Linda Convissor, Pat Evans, and Blair Pollock. Initially called the Housing, Schools, Neighborhood Interface, Aesthetics and Scale Subcommittee, this group is addressing those topics and also civic interests, including community facilities.
They are considering:
§ diversity of housing levels, types, and values
§ parking standards
§ environmental building standards
§ the inclusion of schools and community facilities
§ the placement of entryways to the Carolina North campus
§ buffering of existing neighborhoods
§ traffic and road patterns and design as they impact existing neighborhoods and streets
§ placement, mixture, and scale of commercial and retail space
§ aesthetic issues related to building design and utility facilities
Diane VandenBroek (chair), Margaret Brown, Mark Kleinschmidt, and David Otto make up this subcommittee. They are discussing:
§ open space preservation
§ greenway development and accessibility standards
§ preservation of undisturbed land, plant species, and wildlife
This subcommittee includes Randy Kabrick, P.E. (chair), John Boyer, P.E., Barbara Driscoll, and Julie McClintock. In their meetings, they are considering:
§ remediation of existing waste sites, landfills, and underground tanks
§ collaborative water and sewer planning, including water management and wastewater treatment and reuse
§ minimization of solid and hazardous waste generation
§ landscaping to minimize pesticide/fertilizer use
§ controlling stormwater
§ controlling sediment, erosion, and noise during development
§ maintaining air quality
§ utilizing sustainable design principles
Members are Margaret Morse (chair), Joyce Brown, Cam Hill, and Ruby Sinreich. This subcommittee has reviewed the work of earlier Town and Town/Gown groups during the 1990s and 2001 that addressed fiscal equity issues related to UNC development. Their discussions have revolved around:
§ identifying fiscal equity issues
§ assessing impact on infrastructure, the environment, and the Town’s tax base, particularly as the Town becomes a more fully developed community
This subcommittee includes James Coley (chair), Buck Branson, Joyce Brown, Kathleen Kearns, Del Snow, and Bill Strom. Issues this subcommittee is discussing include:
§ minimizing the impact of Carolina North on traffic, commuter safety, and air quality
§ use of transit-oriented planning principles
§ advantages of a small footprint
§ compliance with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan as it applies to natural areas and the protection of neighborhoods
§ creation of a new zoning category for the Horace Williams tract
Inter-subcommittee issues raised to date include:
§ the provision of utilities to the site
§ the total square footage of the project
§ the degree of street, bikeway, and pedestrian connectivity through the site and to existing neighborhoods
§ the relationship of housing and transportation/parking goals
§ establishing differentiated parking standards for residential, retail, and institutional uses
§ the maintenance of roads on the tract
§ impact of timing/phasing of development
The Committee plans to continue working through subcommittee and full committee meetings in June, July, August, and September. By mid- to late-September, the Committee anticipates preparing a full report to Council that will include a set of proposed principles and recommendations about the timing of public hearings.
REQUESTS OF COUNCIL
1. The Committee requests Council’s guidance on whether a report in September 2003 will be timed to meet Council’s needs. The Committee’s report could be ready for the September 22 Council meeting; alternatively, it could be prepared for a Council meeting on October 13 or later.
2. The Committee requests Council’s guidance on what level of specificity in the proposed principles will best meet Council’s requirements. Currently, the Committee is aiming to present principles in the form of broad statements backed up by more specific, measurable goals, including targets.
3. The Committee understands that UNC’s Carolina North subcommittees plan to present draft criteria and guidelines for development to the Carolina North Executive Committee on June 12. Subsequent to that presentation, the Executive Committee may direct UNC and its consulting team to create an initial draft of a conceptual plan for Carolina North; that product likely will be available in the fall.
The Committee requests that Council ask UNC’s Carolina North Executive Committee to give Council time to review the Horace Williams Citizens’ Committee’s full report before UNC draws up this conceptual plan. This would allow Council, if it so desires, to transmit some or all of the Committee’s proposed principles to the Executive Committee as community input to be considered as UNC develops this initial conceptual plan.
4. Several subcommittees are discussing parking standards for the mix of uses proposed for the Horace Williams property. The Committee requests that the Council consider including standards for the Carolina North development in its upcoming Parking Study.