The Carrboro Town Council held a meeting Tuesday night. Here are some highlights from that meeting.
Amendments to the Land Use Ordinance
The Carrboro Town Council initiated a public hearing on a small mixed-use project at 603 Jones Ferry Road with 14 live-work units. The building will have 1,200 square foot office space on the ground floor and 1,200 square foot residential units on higher floors. Heather Washburn, founder and president of Calico Studio, is the developer of the building and submitted two requests for the Land Use Ordinance (LUO) text amendments:
- To establish a new restaurant land-use category for the sale of coffee and other beverages and foods prepared off-site. This part of the proposed amendment establishes “Neighborhood Cafes” and sets parking standards consistent with non-residential uses.
- To modify the density and dimensional regulations for the Office Zoning District to allow for greater residential density.
While the council members agreed the applicant’s amendments were justified, Council Member Randee Haven-O’Donnell disagreed with their colleagues about how the council should make the changes. When Haven-O’Donnell motioned for the amendment’s approval, no other member seconded the motion, meaning the motion died.
Council Member Catherine Fray then submitted amendments to Washburn’s proposed amendment that went further in loosening regulations.
Procedurally, further modifications to the proposed amendment would require another public hearing session after the town could advertise it. Haven-O’Donnell said this is why they believed the applicant’s amendments should have been approved at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I don’t want to delay because I think some of the parking questions would be answered later [during an LUO rewrite],” said Haven-O’Donnell. “I think this is about creating this model and moving ahead more than it’s about how we need to do our own work on the Land Use Ordinance and the Comprehensive Plan and bringing them together. For that reason, I’m ready to vote to move this ahead.”
“I think that this land use ordinance proposed amendment,” said Fray, “is an excellent example of how we got to where we are with our land use ordinance today. I adore this project. I am not making an example of this project; I am making an example of this process.”
“This is how we have done business in Carrboro,” continued Fray, “where we have a very strict ordinance, and then each project comes before us, and we horse-trade, and then we come up with conditions specific to it. That adds cost to the project, which adds cost to the rent or purchase price of any housing units. It is an obstacle to a project that we love that does not need to be in place.”
Fray recommended removing neighborhood café square footage requirements (1,500 sq. feet) and making them consistent with other restaurant requirements in residential zones. Fray also proposed allowing a 2,000 sq. foot density per unit if the applicant provides 15% affordable housing units on the lot and having less- or no required parking restrictions on such lots.
After Haven-O’Donnell’s motion to pass the amendment as proposed by the applicant did not pass, Mayor Pro Tempore Danny Nowell made a motion to pass Fray’s land-use amendments. This motion passed unanimously 5-0 after Council Member Jason Merrill left the meeting.
The council closed the public hearing and confirmed it would advertise the new amendments before opening another hearing, for which it did not set a date.
Reallocating Funds from the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA)
The town staff presented the council with a plan to reallocate ARPA funds for town purposes using leftover funding from other projects. Staff presented three particular uses of funding:
- Two proposals from affordable housing nonprofit providers ($1.6 million)
- Maintenance and repair of recreation facilities ($245,000)
- Bolster the program providing financial assistance to qualified Carrboro residents (approx. $150,000)
The town plans to allocate ARPA resources to repair the Anderson Park Basketball Court and the MLK Jr. Pump Track.
Staff also explained why they are sunsetting a broadband project. They explained they did not have the requisite funding it would likely cost to support this effort, they would need more time to study the needs of internet affordability and equity, and they would not be able to complete the effort in the specified timeframe. Instead, they proposed to distribute the $250,000 for the project between (1) the Carrboro Family Financial Assistance Program ($100,000) and (2) to Affordable Housing Units ($150,000).
A breakdown of funding reallocation requests for two affordable housing nonprofit providers.
The council unanimously approved the funding and voiced their support for both affordable housing projects.
Town Council Extends Special-Use Permit for Pine Grove Mobile Home Park
The council unanimously approved an extension of a special use permit, originally granted in April 2011. David Bell, owner of Sustainable Properties, LLC, was present at the meeting to request the extension.
Bell said he received several offers to sell the property in 2018, 2020, and 2022, but the sale prices did not align with his goal of ensuring the site remains affordable.
“[The property] is essentially naturally occurring affordable housing,” Bell said. “After the approval in 2011, for a number of reasons, I ended up taking this project over. It essentially dawned on me that it is, in fact, very important to preserve this type of housing, and that is largely the reason that there have been the number of extension requests that there have been – because I essentially changed my goal to be able to develop it without displacement.”
Bell said the site faces several issues, including high utility costs and securing Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds for maintenance repairs on air conditioning units, sewer infrastructure, and pipes freezing in low temperatures.
“There is a reality,” Bells said, “that maintaining 50-plus-year-old trailers and infrastructure is expensive, and it’s just an ongoing thing – that is the reality. But the alternative is to remove them and to put housing that is essentially going to be out of reach of the existing tenants on site.”
Bell said he plans to maintain the site’s operation until redevelopment without displacement, or a sale to a nonprofit for around 80% of the market value is possible, which he said is his ultimate goal. Bell also said he is not considering a private sale due to concerns about the tenants’ living situations in the event of traditional development.
Mayor Barbara Foushee said she supported Bell’s goals with the land.
“I appreciate the development without displacement [goal] being top of mind for you, for the folks that live over in the Pine Grove Mobile Home Park,” said Foushee. “And doing the maintenance and everything associated with the upkeep – just know it’s appreciated.”
The council approved the special use permit extension through 2026.
To watch a full video recording of the meeting, click here.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled the name of Calico Studio as “Calico Studios,” and also incorrectly said Fray’s amendment changed the square foot density per unit to 3,000. The amendment approved changed the square foot density per unit to 2,000.
Photos via the Town of Carrboro
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