Last night, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved a resolution modifying the boundaries of the Greene Tract and laying out conceptual plans for the 164 acres of land off Eubanks Road and the Historic Rogers Road Neighborhood.
The Chapel Hill government now joins the Town of Carrboro and Orange County, which both adopted their own resolutions outlining the vision for the land Tuesday night.
In 1984, the Greene Tract was jointly purchased by Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro to host a future landfill. Since then, how to allocate the land has been the subject of countless meetings, public outreach sessions, and community debate.
While divisive, Carrboro Town Council member Susan Romaine said this new resolution outlining the site’s conceptual plans is a big step in the right direction.
“I feel like there’s been some moments here where it’s felt a little bit like we are pitted against one another in terms of how we divvy up the space between affordable housing and preservation,” Romaine said. “This should really be a celebration.”
With the three local governments passing this resolution, town and county managers now have the authority to sign off on the Greene Tract’s 60-acre Headwaters Preserve. The boundaries of that land, which was deeded to Orange County in 2000, were recently redrawn to “best preserve highly sensitive areas.”
Outside of setting aside the 60 acres of county owned land for the Headwaters Preserve, other visions for the Greene Tract include:
- Dedicating 22 acres of land for the joint Greene Tract Preserve
- Dedicating 66 acres of land for future development, with a focus on affordable housing
- Dedicating 16 acres of land to a future public school and outdoor recreational site
Greene Tract land distribution (photo via Orange County Government)
Carrboro Mayor-elect Damon Seils said while all three jurisdictions have agreed on these visions for land allotment, there is room for change down the line.
“It’s not a development document. It’s not a development plan,” Seils said. “We’re essentially being asked here to affirm acreage and land use designations that we on this council have actually affirmed three times. We did so in 2019, unanimously. We did so in 2020 jointly with the commissioners and the Chapel Hill Town Council. And we did so again this year when we adopted the interlocal agreement. In all three of those instances, we agreed to these designations.”
Upon passing these resolutions, Seils said the only thing that’s truly new is applying what the local governments have learned from the environmental assessment done two years ago. Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Renee Price said they used that information to redistribute the land and limit the environmental impact of proposed developments.
“We hired SynTerra consultants to come in and do an environmental assessment and that’s what caused us to shift some of the lines,” Price said. “So, we took away 23 acres over here and put 23 acres back over there.”
The conceptual plan applies the most stringent protections to both sides of creeks and streams, which are designated as part of the 22-acre Greene Tract Preserve. The plan also reflects decisions made in 2019 to preserve at least 82 acres of natural space and to create more affordable housing.
Proposed connectivity plan for the Greene Tract, showcasing proposed buffers around streams (photo via Orange County Government)
The local governments said the next step is to begin talking about options for housing types and density, connectivity, and community amenities on the site.
Learn more about the Greene Tract here.
Lead photo via Orange County Government.
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