The Chapel Hill Community Design Commission reviewed concept plans for two potential projects for the town, one of which would transform the town’s emergency services and another that would redevelop a movie theater.

The Town of Chapel Hill has been working to build a new Municipal Services Center for years. The building would provide a new facility to combine the services of Chapel Hill and Orange County Fire and EMS services, as well as police and other department administrative offices.

Despite an agreement with UNC to develop land off Estes Drive falling through in 2018, it appears the town has settled on the land where Fire Station 4 currently sits off Weaver Dairy Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Plans submitted for the Tuesday meeting show a revitalized use for the 2 acres of land, which include constructing a four-story building, a parking deck, a sally port and additional stormwater management.

Being at the corner of two major thoroughfares, the plans show how each emergency service to use the center would have a unique traffic pattern to enter and exit the property, including pedestrians. The submitted design attempts to emphasize the building at the corner to have a pedestrian focus, which is impacted by the potential of installing a bus stop for Chapel Hill’s planned bus rapid transit system.

An aerial view of the spaces within the proposed design for Chapel Hill’s new Municipal Services Center. (Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.)

In addition, the commission also provided initial feedback to some development near the Timberlyne shopping center. The Cary-based company Parkway Holdings Phase 2 LLC submitted designs for a medical office building where the Regal Timberlyne movie theater currently sits off Banks Drive. The six-screen theater, which has been closed since March due to state laws amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, would see its north and south wings demolished to create more parking space for the office.

A report from the Herald-Sun says a web posting from Foundry Commercial listed the theater’s property for sale back in January. According to the manager of Parkway Holdings, the company plans to close on the land in the coming months.

Concept art for the redeveloped facade of the property at 120 Banks Drive in Chapel Hill. (Photo via TMTLA Associates.)

The Herald Sun reports the commission praised the plans to modernize and change the building, which would see updates to its exterior and its heating, plumbing and air condition systems. The developers also said they would replace a fence behind the theater in order to improve connection to the nearby Walgreens pharmacy.

The Community Design Commission took no action on either project, per usual, providing only comments to the applicants and for the Chapel Hill Town Council.

Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.

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