The Inter-Faith Council is in the process of splitting up its Community Kitchen and Men’s Shelter. The new transitional housing facility has opened on Homestead Road in Chapel Hill, and now, IFC leaders are looking to relocate the Community Kitchen to West Main Street in Carrboro, to share space with the food pantry on that site.

Tuesday’s discussion in the topic by the Board of Aldermen began with a dry dissection of zoning and land use, but quickly shifted to a heated debate on how best to help those in need while addressing the worries of nearby business owners.

“I found it really offensive, the way it says ‘Diners shall be instructed to disperse from the property after exiting.’ That’s disgusting,” said Randee Haven-O’Donnell, responding to a proposed regulation in the land use ordinance designed to keep crowds from loitering outside the kitchen after meals. “It’s one thing to say we have to feed hungry people, but if we’re not going to be fully consistent with how folks need to be respected and given dignity, we’re failing.”

The Community Kitchen serves free food to anyone who’s hungry. According to the IFC, between 75 and 125 people eat lunch or dinner at their current facility. Lunch is served for an hour and 15 minutes. Dinner lasts just 45 minutes.

Town staffers say the volume of guests arriving and departing in such a short time poses planning challenges. They put forward a land use plan that calls for a crowd management plan, as well as stipulations requiring security personnel, additional lighting, and more trash cans.

Alderwoman Bethany Chaney opposed these constraints, saying they stigmatize those in need.

“What I’m afraid that we are doing by making a very expansive change or addition to the land use ordinance here, is making bad policy that will victimize people further,” said Chaney.

Several on the board chastised town planners for catering to what they deemed baseless fears.

But Alderwoman Jacquie Gist pushed back. She says she’s heard from many business owners in Carrboro worried about the relocation of the Community Kitchen, and she urged her peers not to downplay those concerns.

“What we do, is we look for ways to make it work, without blaming the person who’s worried, very justifiably, about the impact on their business or their home,” said Gist. “We don’t say, ‘Oh, you’re making unfair assumptions.’ No, they’re not. They are based on reality, and we’ve got to address that stuff up front.

I’m asking some of these questions because of the citizens of Carrboro who have come to me and said, ‘These are things I’m worried about and I’m scared to ask them because somebody’s going to think I’m a jerk.’ We have got to have a way to have this conversation without people being judged.”

All agreed the community needs a chance to weigh in. Board members say they don’t want to see Carrboro’s process become as polarized and negative as Chapel Hill’s year-long battle to approve a site for the IFC’s new Men’s Shelter.

Mayor Lydia Lavelle offered an olive branch to board members on both sides.

“I think really, folks, we’re all a lot closer than it seems right now,” said Lavelle. “Everyone here has good intentions. Everyone here wants to find a way to move this forward and have this community conversation.”

The board voted 5-2 to send the ordinance back to town staff for revision, with Gist and Haven-O’Donnell opposed.

The revision will come back to the board for comment. Once the land use plan is approved, the IFC will likely move forward with a request to rezone the site on West Main Street.