CVS Planning Major Development in Downtown Carrboro

These are more complicated issues than they seem on the surface but I think to a degree it's a matter of wanting to have your cake and eat it too.  (Or as the Unabomer put it, wanting to eat your cake and have it too, which if you think about it actually makes more sense.)  People want to see a lot of trees and have a small town feel and not see a lot of cars and have things be affordable for everyone and oh yeah, by the way, one last thing, be located right next door to a world class university as well.  I don't blame them.  I want that too.  And I want to richest, best looking, most charismatic and most popular person in the world as well.  But to use the words of the Beach Boys, maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray, it might come true.  Probaby not though.  No, change that to definitely not. So we have to make trade offs.  We can keep Carroboro exactly how it is and that is fine with some people, but doing so only makes it harder for anyone other than deep-pocketed types such as the CVS' of the world to start businesses in Carrboro and it also makes employees of the ever growing UNC have farther and farther to drive to get to work.  If you're well off enough to be able to live in Carrboro regardless and if you don't have to deal with the traffic generated elsewhere then that's fine.  But that's just a form of avoiding the main issue. An interesting way of looking at this is, if instead of wanting to expand, what if CVS was leaving?  What would the consequences be?  Well one consequence would be that the price of everything CVS sells that is currently sold in other stores would go up in the other stores that sell it.  Who would that help?  Who would it hurt?   It's hard to figure out but at the core the problem might be trying to be populist and anti-populist at the same time.  People want the good that come from things having masss appeal but not the bad.  And then they also want the good from having the small town deal but not that bad.  Hmmm.

Anita Badrock does a good job of listing some of the factors that have shaped the current development situation. All of the points she makes were made by some of us during the discussion of the tall building ordinance in Carrboro, the passage of which created a level of expectation regarding big projects that, in the end, resulted in no new buildings over 3 stories. I think a lot of opportunities for building were lost when we were constantly told to make them bigger, make them taller. The town and the locals lost.            There was a single owner of the corner property whose proposal generated many of  the suggestions for uses that have been discussed for the lot. Where did that project go? It disappeared under the weight of the demands and expectations that were put forward for the lot’s use, especially after the physical limitations of the lot and the costs of the venture were brought into the mix. I don’t see how the lot could have been used so densely, or even how people thought it could be.             Limiting uses on the corner isn’t a good suggestion. What would we say? No retail – that doesn’t make sense for a downtown property. No corporate retail?  – almost every business is a corporation of some form these days. Mom and Pop are likely an Inc.             I think the Bd. of Aldermen should work on framing a real and strong response to the developers. The mayor’s suggestion is sound traffic planning – GreensboroSt. belongs to NC, not Carrboro, and the state would likely require the alignment of the drives of the proposed project and the Carr Mill entrance, though their proximity to the Weaver/Greensboro intersection is still problematic. The board might also include a requirement for a substantial dedication to the town to increase the right of way width of Center St. This wider right of way could include a denser, wider, heavily planted buffer between Center St. and the proposed project than the ordinance requires. Perhaps that buffer could contain a fence to cut down on pedestrian cut through from Center St. toward Harris Teeter. This would do a lot to protect CenterSt.  In compensation, the towncould reduce it’s shading requirement for the new parking lot (giving back some of the parking to the developer), especially if they can lead the developer toward a green roof. This strategy could mean a reduced urban heat island as a net effect. 

I am a Carrboro resident but I guess I don't do my homework.  Are there still plans to develop the Art Center space?  If there are, this property is sort of the west end of that vision.  How do the current CVS plans fit?  I know the town puts special value on the "mill houses" west of Greensboro St. and north of Weaver St.  This property would seem to potentially provide a barrier (or a step down) between the mill houses and the new development.

Rather than making this conversation about CVS specifically,  it would be far better for this community to define and stick to the principles of how it wants to be and put policies in place that promote those principles.    If we stick to principles than anyone who wants to play by the rules is welcome, and that's the kind of community I want to live in.  

Seems ironic that a cooperative sells property to a corporation and then people demand the property be used as a cooperative.  According to the post by Jeff H, "Weaver Street Market needed money to help pay for debt they have incurred the past few years and they sold 3 downtown properties to CVS".  What criteria did the Weaver Street management apply to the sales process?  Did they consider the highest and best use for the community -- or were they solely focused on maximizing the price of the property?  Did the members of the cooperative (of whom I am one) have any meaningful say in the future use of the property ?  Darn it gets complicated.Wag more ....  Just saying!