Chapel Hill residents voiced an array of concerns about the state of development in the Ephesus-Fordham district at Monday’s town council meeting.
Here are some residents’ words:
Jean Yarnell: “Ephesus-Fordham district form-based code only addressed water quality, not water quantity or flooding.”
Esther Miller: “I spent a half an hour . . . the other afternoon, right after school, trying to get through on Estes from Carrboro back to my neighborhood because there’s no place to go. The traffic has no place to go.”
Diane Willis: “The citizenry answered your surveys and said we want three-to-four-story buildings and human-scale development, not seven-story buildings with no affordable housing of any kind, no energy efficiency, no provisions for green space for the public.”
Residents were responding to the nature and pace of development since the town council approved a new type of zoning in the district called form-based code. The code sets parameters for building height, parking space and other details, and it authorizes the town manager, instead of the town council, to approve projects that meet the criteria.
Since the council enacted the new code ten months ago, the town received three project applications, and one, Village Plaza Apartments, has been approved and is now being built. The district has seen only two developments of a similar scale over the last several years.
At Monday’s meeting the town discussed amending the text of the code, including aligning the regulations with the town’s comprehensive plan and rewording the design guidelines.
In responding to residents’ concerns, Member Jim Ward said he voted against form-based code; he said the code, unfortunately, doesn’t incentivize affordable housing.
Member Lee Storrow said the parking guidelines ensure that seven-story structures will not be built “at every parcel.”
Member Donna Bell said that town leaders have listened to residents; they may feel unheard because they have experienced unexpected outcomes.
“It’s not that we don’t think about or care about our citizens who are living in a floodplain that were sold houses that are going to flood,” said Bell. “But we have committed to looking at the development at the upper end. We have committed to having some control over both quantity and quality of the water in the Ephesus-Fordham development district.”
After the planning commission reviews the text amendments and makes recommendations, the council will continue the public hearing on September 21.
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