For an overview of the July 9th Central West Steering Committee meeting, please see below!
Central West Focus Area
July 9, 2013, Steering Committee Meeting
Co-Chair Summary
By: Michael Parker and Amy Ryan, Co-Chairs, Central West Steering Committee
The Central West Steering Committee met on July 9th at the Chapel Hill Public Library from 6:00 – 9:00 PM. Copies of all meeting materials can be found at http://www.townofchapelhill.org/centralwest
All formal agreements of the Committee reflect the affirmative vote of at least 2/3 of the members present.
Agenda Items
1. Megan Wooley opened by sharing the goals for the meeting, with a particular emphasis on the committee’s making specific recommendations/decisions on issues such as land use and building height for selected CWFA sub-areas.
2. Acting on a motion made by Jared Simmons, the committee agreed to permanently extend the public comment period at the beginning of each meeting to 10 minutes. The 5-minute comment period at the end remains unaffected.
3. Acting on a request by Julie McClintock, a subcommittee consisting of Mickey Jo Sorrell, Sarah McIntee, and Lucy Carol Davis will work with Town staff to arrange a walking tour of the southern part of the planning area.
4. Community Participation: Several individuals from the community shared comments/opinions with the Committee.
5. The Committee agreed to move Whit Rummel’s presentation of his concept plan for sub-areas A–C prior to the discussion of land uses so that it could inform those discussions. He shared his ideas, which he titled the “Crossroads Center” and which comprise the property he owns, as well as property owned by Kathryn Butler.
6. The Committee agreed to modify its agenda by skipping discussion of the second part of the homework activity from our 7/1 meeting and moving directly to the discussion of specific sub-areas to allow more time for in-depth discussion of land use and other issues.
7. The following recommendations were made by the Committee after discussions of each sub-area (Note: the correspondence between letter designations and the actual location/geography is shown on the map from the committee’s homework activity; see http://www.townofchapelhill.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=19509.)
- Area H and the eastern portion of Area G should be used for multifamily residential purposes.
- Vehicular access to Area G will be from MLK Blvd., running south of the YMCA property.
- The small piece of Area H south of the RCD and adjacent to areas I and J will be for office/institutional uses.
- The western part of G will have a single structure with the potential for a mix of uses and well-hidden or underground/underbuilding parking at a scale/configuration that makes the structure economically and environmentally sustainable.
- Area I will have a mix of uses that will be developed as multi-story buildings on the street (the required setbacks, if any, were not decided); the buildings will be at least two stories. The development should be both economically and environmentally sustainable. Access to areas I and J will be on existing roads.
- The Committee recognized the environmental sensitivity of much of the land in areas G and H and recommended that building in the area follow best practices and strive for small footprints, allowing more height as a trade-off; therefore, the Committee recommends that areas G and H should incorporate best green practices and have environmental/green themes.
8. David Bonk presented an overview of the content and organization of the upcoming meeting (July 22nd) on Transportation. A discussion with David followed, and the Committee made suggestions about what information would be useful for their decision making. The Committee agreed on the proposed content for the meeting, which will include material on current and future traffic in the area (using a range of possible development scenarios), possible means of traffic mitigation, and bicycle and pedestrian connectivity and safety.
The Committee also requested that Todd LoFrese, assistant superintendent for support services with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools, be invited to attend this meeting to provide information about Estes and Phillips schools and student safety issues.
9. Megan Wooley presented a proposed means by which the Committee will accept and address community input. Key elements were:
Community members can:
– Post comments on the Design Chapel Hill 2020 blog,
– Email Megan at compplan@townofchapelhill.org, who will forward the information to the Committee, and
– Request Megan to post the information on the Community Input web page. Megan noted that all new material will be posted each Friday.
Committee members can request that time be allocated on Committee agendas to discuss selected submissions, subject to committee approval.
The Committee approved this approach.
10. Community Comment: The meeting concluded with comments from several community members.
The next Central West Steering Committee meeting will be on Tuesday, July 30th from 6:00-9:00pm, in Meeting Room B, at the Chapel Hill Public Library, 100 Library Drive.
2020 Buzz 