How Do Developments Help Chapel Hill?

Have you driven along Elliott Road lately? The east end, between the bypass and Village Plaza stores. I have, and I wish I hadn’t. The Village Plaza Apartments, all seven stories of them, are growing fast. This project is moving right along.

Other voices, voices that we respect, tell us that we should stop our bellyaching about developers in Chapel Hill. Developers are not the bad guys, we are told. They create homes and neighborhoods where we live, raise our families, and enjoy our Chapel Hill surroundings. It’s true. They do this. Well, some of them do.

Those of us who worry about all this construction are accused of opposing change, any change. But that’s a bum rap. Of course, Chapel Hill will experience change. Change is inevitable. Some of it is good. Some of it.

Some of it is not. Look around. You can begin with the seven-story monstrosity on Elliott Road. Or drive long the north side of NC 54 east of the bypass.

So I have a serious question about some of these developments, which is simply this: How are they improving Chapel Hill? How are these buildings and altered traffic patterns making our town better? Do they add something positive?

Some do, but it’s very clear that some others fail this simple test miserably.

No, developers aren’t evil people. They would deny that they are out to destroy our once-beautiful community. Some of them just want to make a profit.

Fair enough. There’s nothing wrong with that, unless you spoil a once-beautiful town in the process.

— Raleigh Mann

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