Approval Process Begins for Chapel Hill High School Expansion

The academic year is winding down at Chapel Hill High School, but town officials are gearing up to consider the demolition and expansion of buildings on its campus.

According to Kay Pearlstein, a local senior planner, the proposed project would raze two antiquated structures and replace them with modern academic facilities.

“The high school project includes demolition of two of the buildings and an addition that would include two buildings,” she cited.

The Chapel Hill Town Council heard a presentation from Pearlstein on Monday along with comments from Ashley Dennis, a representative of Moseley Architects.

“We are proposing to deconstruct two of those buildings,” she explained. “One of them we would deconstruct prior to the construction of the new, and then one [we would] deconstruct after the new buildings are built so that students can remain on campus — that’s an important element of this project.”

Over 160,000 square feet of floor area and 350 parking spaces would be added to the campus of Chapel Hill High School if the project is approved by town officials.

Pearlstein noted that hundreds of thousands of square feet could still be developed on school property without the need for town officials to rezone that parcel of land.

“The total amount of floor area that would be allowed on the 92 acres is 702,000 square feet, and with the three schools and including the expansion to the high school, it would be 451,000 sqaure feet,” she summarized. “There is plenty of room for future expansion.

Concerns over the value of the proposed expansion were voiced by Council Member Maria Palmer, who stressed that the project may be too narrow in scope.

“I find that extremely disappointing; I’m extremely disappointed that we’re not increasing capacity,” she stated. “Kids are leaving the public school, and in part I think it is because we are not providing what everybody needs.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Mayor Pam Hemminger as she made closing comments on the need for school renovations to account for population growth.

“I would love for you to find a way to add some more capacity to this,” she offered. “If there’s a way to increase capacity even slightly here, I think it should be explored since you’re going through all this.”

Based on a timeline presented by Dennis, the demolition and construction phases of the project could take up to 30 months after a tentative start date in 2018.

“We’re looking at the summer of ’18 to start construction,” she reported. “It would open in 2020, so it’s a two-year construction period, and then the deconstruction would follow that.”

The project is expected to undergo reviews from town staff members over the coming months before council members reconvene to consider its authorization.

Image from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.