Here's a reminder that UNC will be holding informational meetings for the community about their plans for Carolina North at 3:30pm and 5:30pm today. This new 900-acre campus for UNC will be located at the northwest intersection of Estes Drive and MLK Blvd - smack dab in the middle of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community. If done well, it has the potential to be a model of sustainability supporting education, transit, green space, smart growth, and environmental preservation to benefit the entire community (as envisioned by The Village Project). If done poorly, it could drag us down to level of sprawl and traffic that plagues much of the rest of the Triangle.
Let's keep our eyes on UNC, and help make sure they get it right by giving them the feedback they need as early as possible. Apparently these informational meetings are going to be monthly events, so please send them your feedback about how they can make the meetings more accessible to the public in the future (for example, I'd find it easier of it was off campus - but still transit accessible - and later in the evening).
Just a reminder that we will hold our first set of monthly Carolina North meetings tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 and 5:30 p.m at the School of Government. Please see email below for details on bus service and parking.
Hope to see you there. If you have any questions, you can reach me at 962-9245.
LindaFrom: Convissor, Linda
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 9:24 PM
Subject: Carolina North Meeting: March 27, 2006Dear Friends and Neighbors:
I am writing to invite you to the first in a new series of meetings about Carolina North. The first meeting will be Tuesday, March 27 with others to follow on April 24 and May 29, the last Tuesdays of the month.
To accommodate different schedules, we will hold two sessions. The information reviewed at both will be the same so attend whichever is most convenient for you. Both sessions will be on Tuesday, March 27th in room 2603 of the School of Government:
3:30 PM. Parking available in either the Hwy 54 Visitor Lot or in the Rams Head deck.
5:30 PM. Parking available as above or in the School of Government parking deck.
Information on transit service to the School of Government is below.
At the meetings, University representatives will present potential uses of Carolina North and three conceptual approaches to its development. Attendees will have opportunities to ask questions and share comments. The feedback will help the university as it develops a concept plan for the UNC-owned property.
The draft conceptual plans that will be presented draw on the guiding principles developed by the Leadership Advisory Committee for Carolina North, an ecological assessment of the property and sustainability strategies.
An RSVP is not required, but it would help with meeting logistics if you would contact Tiffany Clarke at tclarke@email.unc.edu.
For Carolina North information, visit our web site at http://carolinanorth.unc.edu.
If you are a neighborhood or community contact, please forward this to your group as well as any others who may be interested. We hope for extensive participation from the community. My apologies in advance to those who may receive duplicate emails.
As always, please feel free to contact me. We know there is great community interest in Carolina North and look forward to your input at this early stage.
Best,
LindaThe School of Government is served by numerous bus routes, including the FCX, G, HU, S, V and the RU. Please check the Chapel Hill Transit site at http://www.townofchapelhill.org/index.asp?NID=399 for maps of the routes, exact schedules and real-time transit route information.
I hope to attend and maybe even live blog the 5:30 session. Please post your own thoughts, especially if you attend one of these meetings.
Issues:
Comments
Maybe make deliveries
Maybe make deliveries between 2-5am? That might impact the concrete folks, though...
There's a lot going on here,
There's a lot going on here, and it's all good discussion. Lots of back and forth.
Question: Does Carolina North, UNC, and the towns include infrastructure in their accounting of land used for "development?"
I ask, because, looking at the Interwoven plan, I'd say the plan is well over 300 acres, and I believe the towns and UNC are feeling pretty righteous about the "only 250 acres" clause in the LAC report:
"Over the next 50 years, the University will develop its building needs on 250 acres of Carolina North. It will commit not to develop on the remaining acreage during that 50 year period." [That sounds like a good survey question. Is anyone conducting a survey?]
I believe the _only_ covenant the towns and UNC has with its citizens is its information. If LAC says 250 acres, sells that to the town, and then its folk, then, well, if it turns into 300 acres, that might account for a 250 year old hickory tree (like the one in the middle of the proposed road connecting with Weaver Dairy Extension).
Moreover, do the schools and other plots the towns negotiate into the mix figure into the accounting of "development" - ie. total acreage? Shouldn't the townspeople have a concrete answer to that question?
So the question remains: is infrastructure (ie roads, drainage, sidewalks, bike lanes) included in this figure of "250 acres." If not, then what mechanism is in place to halt the "oops...we really meant 350 or 900 acres" response?
I don't mean to be antagonistic; I'm humbly expressing an appeal for rigor - in community covenant.
Having said that, I'd also post a question: if Carolina North were tabled for 25 years, whom among us would wake up, look out at the sunrise and say, "golly, sure wish Carrboro / Chapel Hill had built that mixed-use research campus 25 years ago"?
What if the towns encouraged the university to envision something really progressive - habitat preservation and restoration? If a vote were held today for / against Carolina North what do you think would happen? What if something like The Horace Williams Arboretum were on the table? Might that be more in tune with our times?
The local presidential candidate, John Edwards, believes in creating a "Greencorps"
"Create GreenCorps: Idealistic young Americans can help fight climate change by conducting volunteer energy audits, weatherizing homes, installing home solar panels, and training neighborhood groups to do the same. Edwards will create a GreenCorps within AmeriCorps to create opportunities for them to serve."
I wonder if this vision includes paving a significant section of the local greenscape - his own backyard.
Seems there are a lot of studies about traffic, economics, coal transport - I wonder if we're all just missing the big picture - there's a forest. It's beautiful. It could be a stunning natural preserve in our backyard. Considering the level of sprawl in this part of NC, a forest of this size may be akin in value to the last unicorn.
As a participant in this community I really want to know if the towns and UNC include infrastructure in acreage assessments. It's just Math, right? A road of x feet wide for y feet long = an area that can be converted to z acres.
If the towns and UNC are saying 250 acres, that means, to me and _many_ others 250 acres.
And if we're collectively uncomfortable with this level of accountability, then let's take Carolina North off the table and encourage UNC and the state of North Carolina to preserve this invaluable resource.
It was a pretty poster. I
It was a pretty poster. I was a little baffled by this section:
Pave a forest, build a building to study environmental impact?
Why not build a higher building on the current campus, make sure that building is "green," with southern exposure and visit the local forest for field work? Use what is learned in the lab to preserve the local natural areas.
(I'm just crazy, right? My apologies in advance...)
The Village Project has
The Village Project has posted some comments on the March 2007 Carolina North plans. We have sent these comments to UNC and have created a small slide show to illustrate some of the ideas we are talking about. Everyone is welcome to view the slideshow (all HTML) here. The link to the slide show can be found at the bottom of the page, beneath the comments.
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