By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL – Taking steps toward a development moratorium for the Northside and Pine Knolls neighborhoods, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously on Monday to schedule a June 20 public hearing regarding the moratorium, setting the wheels in motion for a possible June 27 decision.
In March, the council received a petition from Sustaining OurSelves Coalition (SOS), which includes the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and St. Joseph’s CME Church, requesting a freeze on development in the neighborhoods, as well as improved enforcement of existing zoning and occupation regulations and tightening of restrictions in the Northside Neighborhood Conservation District.
Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward said he fully supports a development moratorium.
“My biggest concern is in this redevelopment,†he said. “It’s not just the loss of those houses; it’s the tearing up of the fabric of that community.â€
Residents have expressed concerns that the neighborhoods are losing their history as developers come in and modify single-family homes for student housing. In 2004, Chapel Hill established the Neighborhood Conservation Districts to help prevent student-housing development, but according to town senior planner Rae Buckley, the zoning changes haven’t helped much.
“What we’ve been hearing lately is these regulations are just not enough,†she said. “People can figure out their way around those regulations.â€
NCD regulations prohibit new duplexes, limit single-family dwellings to 2,000 square feet and limit bedroom-to-bathroom ratios for houses occupied by unrelated residents.
Buckley identified several properties in the neighborhoods that were redeveloped – within regulations – for student housing, with as many as eight bedrooms.
The moratorium would apply to properties within the borders of the Northside and Pine Knolls Neighborhood Conservation Districts and properties located on the north side of Rosemary Street, South Graham Street, Merritt Mill Road and Pritchard Avenue Extension.
The Northside NCD is bounded by North Columbia Street to the east, West Rosemary Street to the south, the Carrboro city limits to the west and the Tanyard Branch Trail to the north. The Pine Knolls NCD includes the area bounded by Crest Street to the north; Merritt Mill Road, Raintree Lane and Edwards Street to the east; Fordham Boulevard to the south; and the Chapel Hill city limits to the west.
If approved, the moratorium would apply to all projects for which an application was not accepted prior to the council’s vote on Monday. Council member Donna Bell, a resident of Northside, said she supported the moratorium as a way to give the town time while it develops strategies to preserve the neighborhood.
Residents urged the council to act quickly on the moratorium.
Hudson Vaughan, association director at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History, said he and his colleagues had identified more than 30 properties “at risk†for sale and development, including homes already for sale, empty homes and those lived in by residents more than 80 years old.
“Waiting all the way until September would mean a really horrific summer for a lot of those at-risk properties,†he said.
Michelle Laws, speaking on behalf of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and SOS, asked the council to impose the moratorium to slow down “growth that is tearing the community apart.
“We cannot forget about the citizens who helped build this community,†she said.
Vernelle Jones, a former longtime resident of Northside, said she moved out of her home because of student-housing developments on either side of her property that brought student neighbors who had loud parties late at night and threw garbage in her yard.
“I had no choice in order to maintain my peace but to move to Durham,†she said. “Consider and do something about what is happening to Northside. … Help us to preserve our history.â€