A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday night’s Board of Aldermen meeting regarding the abandoned property owned by CVS in downtown Carrboro.

The public hearing allows the board to hear comments from the public regarding a draft ordinance that was introduced earlier this fall that would give the town more power over commercial buildings at risk of being a health hazard to the community.

Mayor Lydia Lavelle said in a late-September interview on WCHL that the question she is asked most by residents concerns the vacant building on the corner of North Greensboro and West Weaver Streets.

“About once a week, ‘hey what’s going on with that building? Why is it abandoned? Why does it look so bad? What’s the plans?’”

CVS bought the building but a development proposal was withdrawn before the board held a vote, according to board member Damon Seils. Lavelle says the town has offered to clean the area up, but the company hasn’t responded.

“We’ve made some offers to CVS to tear everything down; we’ve made offers to use it for parking; we’ve made offers to maintain it while they decide what they’re going to do with the property. And it’s been met with really kind of, you know, crickets.”

She says in the building’s current state, it poses some health and safety concerns.

“You can see the ceilings are falling in. The ceilings are falling in, they might have varmints, you might have little critters kind of in there. You might have folks seeing it broken up and trying to jump over the fence to stay in there at night. You might be attracting rats.”

The draft ordinance would allow an administrator to enter a property if certain complaints have been made to the town. After that happens, the company will have a certain amount of time to repair any damages. If they’re irreparable, other plans may have to be made.

Lavelle said there are certain protections landowners have under the proposal as well, and that all she really wants is to clean up the property and make use of the building somehow.

Tuesday night’s meeting is set to begin at 7:30 in the OWASA Community Room at 400 Jones Ferry Road. The meeting is being held at the OWASA facility because Carrboro Town Hall is an early voting site in Orange County.

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