As part of a lengthy agenda on Wednesday night for the final Chapel Hill Town Council meeting before the summer break, the council was expected to consider a request from UNC Health Care to redevelop university-owned property along 15-501 at the western intersection of Eastowne Drive near I-40.
But at the beginning of Wednesday’s meeting, Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said that the applicant had requested to speak before the council considered the request. UNC Health Care CEO and dean of the UNC School of Medicine Dr. William Roper then requested the item be pushed until the fall.
“In light of some very recent – very recent – concerns, questions that have been raised, we’ve agreed with the mayor’s recommendation to defer action on this item until a near-future date,” Roper said. “This is something that we are anxious to answer anybody’s concerns because we think we have very good answers to the points that have been made.”
UNC Health Care officials wrote to the council earlier this year describing plans for the site, which were reduced from the original concept plan submitted to the town. The revised plans called for one six-story building with 150,000 square-feet of office space and a parking structure. The new six-story facility would replace four buildings currently on the site, according to the letter sent to the town in March.
Questions had come from council members leading up to Wednesday’s meeting, focusing on several aspects of the proposal: building height, traffic and environmental impacts as well as the pace at which the development proposal was progressing.
Roper told the council on Wednesday that the health care system’s growth was pushing the need for this facility.
“We have grown very substantially across the now-14-plus years that I have been privileged to hold the positions that I have,” Roper said. “When I came as dean and CEO, UNC Hospital was 600 beds; we are 1,000 beds now, and we are always full every day.
“And that same growth that has happened in the inpatient setting that I just described has happened even more so in outpatient services. We’ve had an explosion of the number of people who want to come here to be served.”
Many of the concerns expressed by the council leading up to the meeting were echoed in a letter submitted to the council the morning of the meeting from CHALT – the Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town – the political action committee which has seen several of its endorsed candidates win election to the council since 2015.
The letter from CHALT pointed to tree removal and advisory boards not having complete information when making recommendations, in addition to the concerns listed above.
Roper said patients coming in to UNC Health Care for treatment who were not familiar with Chapel Hill struggled with many things that are points of concern even for Chapel Hillians, including parking and wayfinding.
“It’s especially a frustration for people who come to us from a distance and who need to come for outpatient services,” Roper said. “But for them to come into the center of Chapel Hill and find their way in a confusing area, to a place that’s difficult to park and find the right clinic and so on.”
Other health care systems, including similar models operated by Duke Health just across I-40 in Durham, are utilizing these types of facilities, Roper said, and causing UNC Health Care to fall behind in some patient service aspects.
“The world is doing this kind of thing,” Roper said, “and we want to do it as well in order to serve our patients.”
Hemminger said that the town values its partnership with UNC Health Care.
“I know we will figure out in the next few weeks how we can move forward together in a path that works for both of us,” Hemminger said. “And we will look forward to those conversations and bring it back.”
The Eastowne redevelopment proposal was pushed to the fall, initially set for September 19.
Roper and Chapel Hill town manager Roger Stancil will both be retiring in the coming months. Stancil’s retirement is set for September 1. Roper is scheduled to leave his role at UNC in May 2019.
Photo via Town of Chapel Hill
What a disgraceful town council and mayor. Stop playing politics with economic progress.
I sometimes fear you are trying to keep people of color down by cooling the local economy.