A petition with over 80 signatures was presented to the Chapel Hill Town Council in their meeting Monday night.

Residents were upset with how the town handled the possible purchase of the American Legion property, which Woodfield Acquisitions has agreed to buy.

Woodfield is planning to build approximately 600 apartments, along with retail and office space.

“We petition the mayor and town council to correct the missteps that have been made thus far in the town’s consideration of the uses of the Legion property,” said Isabel Calingaert, who spoke for the petitioners. “Start over with a transparent and participatory community discussion of how this unique property can be developed in a way that would benefit the landowners and also serve the interests of our whole community.”

The town was granted the right of first refusal on the property in 2005. In September of 2015, town manager Roger Stancil was given an offer to purchase the property for 9 million dollars.

The council was given 60 days to decide and in a closed-session meeting in November, the town waived its right of first refusal and agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Woodfield.

In the meeting it is noted that Stancil said the town did not have the money to buy the property.

“The MOU should be rescinded to make clear that the town has not given any commitment to the Woodfield proposal and that any development application submitted will be evaluated without any bias towards approval,” Calingaert said.

The memorandum details that the developer will be responsible for construction of a two-lane road providing access to Ephesus Church Road and construction of a trail that will be open to the public, should it begin construction on the property.

The memorandum does not give Woodfield the ability to start construction. Some residents have called for the town to purchase the property and turn it into a public park.

Lynne Kane, who lives near the property, also spoke at the meeting. She expressed her disagreement with this idea.

“There is always a tendency to say ‘don’t do it, don’t do it, we need a park,'” Kane said. “I think we need to recognize that we have a tremendous amount of green spaces because the dominant voices for so many decades were only interested in green spaces and always opposed development.”

Before construction begins, the developer will have to go through the application process.

 

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