SUMMARY MINUTES OF A WORK SESSION
OF THE CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
MONDAY, JUNE 10, 2002, AT 5:30 P.M.
Mayor Kevin Foy called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
Council members present were Flicka Bateman, Ed Harrison, Mark Kleinschmidt, Bill Strom, Dorothy Verkerk, Jim Ward, and Edith Wiggins. Mayor pro tem Pat Evans was absent, excused. Council Member Mark Kleinschmidt arrived at 5:44 p.m.
Staff members present were Town Manager Cal Horton, Assistant Town Managers Sonna Loewenthal and Florentine Miller, Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos, Assistant to the Manager Bill Stockard, Senior Long Range Planning Coordinator Chris Berndt, Planning Director Roger Waldon, and Town Clerk Joyce Smith.
Town Manager Cal Horton said the proposal grew out of the Council’s wishes to look at and discuss options and choices related to the potential future development of Parking Lots Number 2 and 5 in downtown Chapel Hill. He said the Council wished to encourage new residential, office and retail, as well as affordable housing, in the downtown. Mr. Horton pointed out the areas in which the staff needed to add comment on. He said the staff would have to seek the assistance of people who knew far more about structuring development deals than the staff did, and the work on these deals would not be finished by September as originally expected.
Senior Long Range Planning Coordinator Chris Berndt made a presentation by slides.
Tonight’s Objective
· Discussion of Council’s Options and Choices for Developing Parking Lot 2 and/or Parking Lot 5
· Potential Request for Proposals?
History
· 2000 Downtown Small Area Plan identified opportunity areas
· UniDev Study of sites in 2000-20001
· August, 2001 Council asked for report on options for a Downtown Design Workshop
· Process to involve the community in developing options for downtown areas
Process
October, 2001 Council decided to:
· Hold Downtown Design Workshops
· Develop a visual model
· Consider issuing a Request for Proposals
Council Goals October 10, 2001
· Increase supply of downtown housing
· Identify sites for development of housing, office, retail space
· Promote higher/better use of Lot 2 and 5
· Provide sufficient downtown parking
· Enhance public spaces, open spaces
· Provide bicycle, pedestrian connections
Design Workshops
· Two Citizen Workshops held in February and March
· DesignVis produced visual models of sites
· Council received report of Workshops on May 13, 2002
Ms. Berndt displayed scale model examples.
Next Steps: Key Questions
· Does Council wish to consider Request for Proposals (RFP) now?
· If yes, which location(s)?
· Hold a design contest?
· Hire professional help for RFP?
Format for Discussion
· Suggest the Council discuss four main questions
· Also have detail on each site, for key decision points identified in memorandum
Discussion ensued in more detail for Parking Lot 2:
Scale: What is the appropriate height of buildings on Rosemary and Columbia Street.
Council Member Verkerk said, before the discussion of specifics, she would like to have a much clearer sense of what should be done with publicly-owned space—should it be kept in the public sector, or should it be moved into the private sector.
Mayor Foy said there were different suggestions for the use of Parking Lot 2 as it had been presented in the models, as more private space, and Parking Lot 5 would be more public spaces, including affordable housing. He said that it might be that Parking Lot 2 could subsidize what the Town decided to do with Parking Lot 5.
Council Member Bateman said this would help to keep parking space, which the Town could not afford to give up.
Council Member Strom said he thought if the two parking lots were separated, it would diminish the impact of both. He said he could not support a Request for Proposals (RFP), because he did not think the public mission had been defined yet. He said the projects needed more evaluation, and suggested a committee to bring the discussions to a higher level.
Mayor Foy said before the Council could move forward, it needed, as a group, to set some principles to move forward by.
Council Member Wiggins asked if Council Member Strom had said that a Design Contest would help the Council to have the vision and passion. Council Member Strom answered that would be defined as a goal in the public contest in the public interest. He said a contest should be clearly focused.
Mayor Foy suggested settling on a few of the questions of what would be public, what would be private, and what would be parking and where.
Council Member Verkerk said she would like to see the Town retain ownership of all of the property.
Council Member Ward agreed, and said this would give the Town future opportunities to reconfigure based on new needs.
THE COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO KEEP THE PROPERTIES IN THE TOWN’S OWNERSHIP, AS A BASIC PRINCIPLE (8-0).
Council Member Strom said the two sites needed to be planned simultaneously, as a basic principle, because of Town obligations, and the Council had the opportunity to create the tone for the downtown with the two locations.
Council Member Harrison agreed that the two lots should be considered simultaneously, and that growth in public transit services meant that we needed to consider a transfer station. He said the Design Contest should have specific parameters.
Council Member Ward agreed that the two should be designed together, and the economics would also come into consideration for the design process.
Council Member Verkerk reminded the Council that the corner behind the Post Office should also be considered at the same time.
THE COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY, AS A PRINCIPLE, TO CONSIDER BOTH PROPERTIES SIMULTANEOUSLY (8-0).
Council Member Wiggins said one of the suggestions at the Design Workshop she attended was to create a walkway behind the Post Office to tie it in.
Mayor Foy asked the Council how much open space it would want at both lots.
Council Member Kleinschmidt said depending on what was around the open space might define the dimensions of the space. He suggested defining what was proposed for the space, rather than dimensions, before determining the open space.
Mayor Foy said he thought both should be determined. He said he would like to have 30 or 40 percent of Parking Lot 5 as open, public space, which could be broken up.
Council Member Strom agreed with Council Member Kleinschmidt. He said he wanted to see about allowing for creativity and civic orientation in the designs.
Council Member Wiggins asked that a principle be that any development of Parking Lot 5 would not compromise the entrance to the Northside neighborhood. She said the designs should be to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods surrounding the lots.
THE COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY THAT, AS A PRINCIPLE, THE NEIGHBORHOODS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED IN ANY PLANNING OF THE LOTS (8-0).
Council Member Bateman pointed out that, although the provisions were good, there might be different interpretations of the principles, and the designs could be varied.
Mayor Foy asked the Council what was the idea for public space.
Council Member Ward suggested that this be fleshed out by the staff, to know what type of amenities the Town needed and would be a benefit to a lot, and would fit into the neighborhood. He said he did not feel ready to be specific, without some guidance from the staff.
Mayor Foy said he felt the Council should get somewhat specific.
Council Member Ward said he felt there should be a list of specific needs that the community had and then the designers could go forward with those.
Council Member Wiggins asked if the land that was leased would be better controlled in specific use, than the land owned by the Town.
Mr. Horton said the Town could establish any reasonable rules for control of the land that it owned or otherwise controlled.
Council Member Kleinschmidt said he did not worry about control, but he would like to see some open space that could be programmed for different types of gatherings.
Council Member Wiggins said the people who lived in the Northside neighborhood were more concerned about what would happen at night, after midnight, and into the morning.
Mayor Foy agreed that this concern should be taken into consideration.
Council Member Verkerk said what she would like to see on Parking Lot 2 was a pocket park.
Council Member Harrison said the Council should be careful not to replicate space for a use that was already available. He said he would like to have the transit transfer station as a principle, and he would like to see it in Parking Lot 2.
THE COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY NOT TO HAVE A TRANSFER STATION AT PARKING LOT 5 (8-0).
Council Member Ward said he could make a better decision if he knew what would be better for the transit system and he would like some feedback from the Transportation staff.
Council Member Kleinschmidt said he was not sure whether it was necessary to have a transfer station defined. He said there were other places that could be developed.
Council Member Harrison said he was not talking about a large building, adding that 6 or 8 parking spaces on Franklin Street were serving as a transfer station for the entire transit system. He said there was no need for a building.
Council Member Ward said he knew the Hospital was planning a transfer station at its location, and that might be suitable for a transfer station down the road. He said the transit system would be changing in the future.
Council Member Strom suggested forming a small Council Committee to bring back the parameters for the lots to take the next step toward the Design Contest.
The following Council members agreed to serve on a Council Committee to study potential future development of Lots 2 and 5: Dorothy Verkerk, Ed Harrison, Bill Strom, Jim Ward, and Mark Kleinschmidt.
Mayor Foy asked if that would be for someone to help with the proposals or if the Town was beyond that point. Mr. Horton said the Council would be past that stage. He said the Council had to be clearer in what they wanted to have, adding the Council needed to continue as a whole or some other manner such as a committee of the Council.
Council Member Bateman said she would vote for a committee. Council Member Verkerk said she favored a committee, as did Council Member Wiggins.
Council Member Ward said there should be an initial stage of a clearly identified list of functions that the Council felt should go into each of the lots.
THE COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO APPOINT A COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL MEMBERS HARRISON, KLEINSCHMIDT, STROM, VERKERK, AND WARD (8-0).
The meeting adjourned at 6:38 p.m.