AGENDA #7
MEMORANDUM
TO: Town Council
FROM: The Mayor’s Downtown Task Force
SUBJECT: Mayor’s Downtown Task Force Report Executive Summary
DATE: June 18, 2003
BACKGROUND
At its September 23, 2002 business meeting, the Town Council set a work session to review downtown and public safety issues. That work session was held November 4, 2002. As a result of the work session, Mayor Foy convened a Downtown Task Force to help address the numerous issues that the Council and citizens identified as important to downtown Chapel Hill. In appointing members of the Task Force, the Mayor looked particularly to developing a group that could bring fresh perspectives and diverse interests to the discussion. The Task Force was designed to help devise implementation strategies, not to duplicate efforts of other groups that have studied downtown.
The Task Force was appointed March 10, 2003, and charged with advising the Council on downtown issues that are within the purview of the Town’s authority, including:
In addition, the Task Force examined the University Retail Group (URG) study of downtown Chapel Hill in an effort to provide recommendations for implementation.
Members of the Mayor’s Downtown Task Force are Ken Broun, Jonathan Howes, Michelle Lewis, Dean Linke, Chris Moran, Vivian Olkin, Roger Perry, Robert Porter, Beverly Scarlett, and Tom Tucker. The Task Force met six times between March and June, 2003.
The University Retail Group Study-In Brief
The URG study provided a candid look at many issues confronting downtown. A synopsis of this view is provided in the executive summary:
“The bar is lowered for merchant admission by the desire to maximize rent. With only a few exceptions, landlords and tenants are not making major investment in buildings and improvements. Buildings, outdated and physically challenged, are gerrymandered and gerry-rigged to squeeze every possible cent of sales by the merchants and rent by the landlords with the least investment. The environment being created has become detrimental for quality merchants who are too few in number and too widely dispersed to leverage their strength, create a synergistic environment and attract new and complementary stores.”
The Executive Summary listed the following recommendations:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Task Force Recommendations
The Downtown Task Force members, in a general way, endorse the URG report. The Task Force believes that a major bookstore should be located downtown. Also crucial to the future of downtown is a grocery store and the location of nearby housing to support it. To this end, downtown should become a Neighborhood Conservation District with its own set of incentives and restrictions, and a prototype of second-floor development should be created and marketed.
The Task Force offers the Council the following recommendations. The primary recommendation is establishment of a new model for downtown management, which the Task Force believes is the key to addressing most of the other goals for downtown’s continued vitality.
1. New Downtown Management Model - The Task Force concludes that the Town needs a Downtown Development Corporation, which would be headed by an executive director. This corporation and its executive director would be proactive in the marketing and business development of downtown. A majority of the corporation’s board members would be appointed by the Town Council; possible funding sources include the Town, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and the private sector.
2. Increase Residential Presence Downtown - The Task Force believes it would greatly benefit the downtown, and the community, if more people lived in and near downtown. People living downtown breathe life into the area in distinct and visible ways, including the ability to support and maintain a pedestrian-orientation, with commensurate lack of dependence on automobiles. The Task Force also believes that the development of residential space downtown should be encouraged because it would be a more efficient use of the second and third floor spaces along Franklin Street that often remain vacant. Similarly, new development in other areas of downtown should promote second and third floor residential units. Recognizing that there may be State regulations that would hinder such development, the Task Force recommends the creation of a prototype of second floor residential development that could be used as a model for local owners and developers. This would provide the opportunity for town staff to identify obstacles to such development, and solve problems before they become permanent impediments.
Finally, the Task Force recognizes that the Town, as a major downtown landowner has an opportunity to increase downtown residential space by incorporating residences into Town developments on parking lots 2 and 5, the land behind the old post office, and the old municipal building. The Task Force encourages the Town to consider incorporating residential housing into one or more of these developments.
Finally, the Task Force recognizes the Town as a major landowner downtown. The downtown post office and the land behind it might be used for court facilities or even a bookstore serving the campus. Whatever the precise use of the old post office, and the old municipal building, both inside and out, should be respected, especially including preservation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals of the 1930s. The Task Force supports the work of the Town Council’s Committee on Parking Lots 2 and 5. Both lots serve to better integrate and connect Franklin and Rosemary streets. Parking Lot 5 offers an exceptional opportunity for public gathering space and outdoor dining, as well as for continuing the line of storefronts along Franklin Street.
4. University-Owned Property – The University, like the Town, is a major property owner downtown. How the University chooses to use its properties has the potential to contribute significantly to the vitality of downtown. The Arts Common and the Morehead Science Museum and Planetarium expansion are exciting and significant projects for downtown. The University parking lots on West Rosemary Street are significant in terms of size and location. Currently, as flat parking lots (like the Town-owned lots), they create “dead space” on West Rosemary Street. The Task Force encourages the Town to continue discussions with the University regarding potential alternative uses for this land, including ideas such as a supermarket express with underground parking.
5. Support IFC Planning - The Task Force urges the Town to support IFC’s plans for the homeless shelter, and supports a review of the long-term use of the municipal building. The Task Force notes that the long-term location of the homeless shelter should not be linked to concerns about panhandling. Clients of the shelter and people who panhandle are different people. More transitional housing needs to be built for former shelter clients and others, and the Council should encourage the County to lift the Section 8 ban in Chapel Hill.
6. Transportation - Transportation issues should be foremost among the issues that a Development corporation confronts. For example, reworked bus routes could better serve IFC property on Homestead Road, relieving some of the pressures on the shelter. Continuing to build excellent public transit, in this and other ways, is essential to the future of downtown. The Task Force concludes that the future of downtown rests on much more than the number of parking spaces; expanded parking is not a cure-all for downtown’s difficulties. At the same time, more spaces could be used by people patronizing downtown businesses rather than by students going to class. Merchants, property owners, and the Town might together develop a package for effecting such a change, likely including a parking validation program. More must be done to simplify and publicize both public transit and parking alternatives. In particular more must be done to make known Orange/Person County Transit Services from Chapel Hill/Carrboro to the courts in Hillsborough. Merchants must be made aware of the existing parking token program. Signage needs substantial improvement so that Chapel Hill’s residents and visitors alike can readily find all existing parking downtown.
7. Multi-Street Downtown - Downtown includes not only East and West Franklin and East and West Rosemary streets, but also Henderson Street, Columbia Street, Church Street, Graham Street, and several other downtown streets. These streets should be integrated and interconnected, and served by continuous lines of store windows as much as possible. Downtown should be marketed both to developers and to the public as a multi-street entity rather than a single street.
8. Encourage modern building standards - The Town should encourage property owners to upgrade and retrofit downtown buildings to meet modern standards and needs. In addition, the Town should consider turning to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for a building-by-building economic viability study.
9. Implementation - The Task Force recommends that the Town Council schedule a Work Session in early September to discuss this report. In addition, prior to that work session, and during Council’s summer recess, the Council should solicit written reports from various downtown constituencies regarding the contents of this report. All of this information should be considered along with the Task Force’s recommendations at the Work Session.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Mayor’s Downtown Taskforce Report Supplementary Information June 23, 2002 (p. 5)
2. Downtown Economic Development Programs in North Carolina chart (p.16)
3. Orange County Community Resource Court Information (p. 19)