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Send the Lullwater Park Concept Plan Back to the Drawing Board

A perspective from Julie McClintock and Gordon Whitaker

 

The latest concept plan for Lullwater Park is deeply flawed. This proposal for a mix of rental apartments and townhomes on a narrow strip in northern Chapel Hill between I-40 and Weaver Dairy Road repeats many of the problems of past proposals for this arguably unbuildable site. We urge the Chapel Hill Town Council to send the proposal back to the developer’s drawing board.

Historical context is important.  Several years ago, the Council asked the Town’s development director and urban designer to come up with a master plan for this undeveloped property located along I-40 from Old University Station Road to the Carol Woods Retirement Community. None of those plans advanced due largely to the significant and costly problems that trouble this large parcel. Because of extensive wetlands on the site, the need for a 100-foot buffer along I-40, and extensive easements for high tension electric lines, only about two-thirds of the property is developable at all. In addition, significant stormwater management and transportation challenges and the noise and pollution from i-40 preclude  livable high-density development on this property. Moreover, the high costs of the property, of moving an existing OWSA trunk sewer, and of constructing streets and utilities, have been cited by developers as preventing inclusion of more than a token number of affordable housing units in the proposal. According to the town’s “Complete Communities” consultant, there are some lands in our town where housing should not be built: This is one such property.

Any plan for this difficult property needs to meet the straight face tests that it can benefit our town by being a “Complete Community” in fact, rather than by marketing.

Traffic. Without substantial changes to Weaver Dairy Road, the proposed Lullwater Park concept plan faces serious obstacles to traffic flow into and out of the development.

Old University Station Road is proposed as the major access street to the western side of Lullwater Park. Old University Station Road is a side street with one lane in each direction. It dead ends at Weaver Dairy Road where traffic can only turn right (westbound) due to the presence of a median barrier. That barrier also prevents Weaver Dairy eastbound traffic from heading north to Lullwater Park. Allowing for smooth traffic flow in and out of Lullwater Park via Old University Station, would require substantial redesign of traffic along that section of Weaver Dairy Road. Nearby intersections (for access to Timberlyne Shopping Center on the south and Perkins Drive providing access to the Chapel Hill North Shopping Center on the north) would necessitate adding turning lanes and traffic signals.

Alternative access to the western end of Lullwater Park is proposed via Adair Drive. This route also poses challenges. Adair Drive is a narrow private drive that provides access to apartment buildings between Chapel Hill North and Lullwater Park. It is not a public street. Furthermore, Adair Drive dead ends at Perkins Drive. Perkins Drive connects Martin Luther King Boulevard to Weaver Dairy Road. Its southern intersection with Weaver Dairy Road is blocked by the same median barrier prohibiting cross-lane turns as at Old University Station Road. The northern end at MLK allows turns in both directions and has a traffic signal. However, that intersection is very near the entry to Chapel Hill North Shopping Center and is frequently congested already.

At the eastern end of Lullwater Park, vehicles would enter and exit the development through a single street proposed for construction just west of the Coventry townhouse neighborhood. Traffic on Weaver Dairy Road is already heavy especially before and after the school day at East Chapel Hill High less than a mile east of the proposed new street. A traffic signal and turn lane would seem essential at this new street so that traffic from it can safely enter Weaver Dairy Road. Without a signal it seems likely that traffic waiting to turn left and head east on Weaver Dairy will back up considerably on the new street, particularly at rush hours. With a signal, however, it seems likely stopped traffic headed west on Weaver Dairy might block the nearby intersection at Coventry.

According to the concept plan, there is no bicycle lane projected for any of these streets providing access to Lullwater Park, further complicating traffic flow.

Transit access. While the development is presented as being transit accessible, the reality is more complicated and would not be “transit friendly”. The western portion of the property does offer potential access to the existing NS route that runs along the MLK corridor. However, it already is very dangerous and difficult for pedestrians to safely cross MLK to the southbound stops along this stretch. Extensive improvements to pedestrian crossings would be needed to make transit a feasible, safe option for the residents of the western portion of Lullwater Park. To underscore the point, the Chapel Hill Police Department reported a pedestrian fatality on September 8th on MLK.JR. Blvd. near Perkins Drive.

While the developer notes that residents also would have access to the proposed NS BRT route, that route is still in the planning phases and is substantially delayed.

Meanwhile, residents of the eastern portion of the development would have little meaningful access to mass transit. Those residents would need to walk a mile or more (depending on unit) to access the current NS route and the proposed NS BRT. While the T route nominally serves that end of Weaver Dairy Road, service has been reduced to a bare minimum for most of the past few years, and even the normal schedule calls for just one bus per hour. For most people in the eastern end of the parcel, cars will be the only practical transit option.

Storm water management. It is questionable that stormwater can be contained on this site. The concept plan states that “Stormwater detention will be provided in multiple on-site underground detention systems, using best management practices.” The property proposed for development is atop a ridge, with drainage mostly to the south. While this proposal recognizes the Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) throughout the property, a storm water management plan designed to avoid flooding would be required. Otherwise, the RCDs and areas below them will be subject to increased flooding from the new buildings and parking lots uphill from them.  We fear constructing underground stormwater reservoirs will require disturbance in the RCDs, especially where buildings or paved parking is proposed adjacent to the RCD.

Given the high percentage of impervious surface proposed and the more frequent and severe storms predicted, storm water collection on site will go only part way toward preventing stormwater from leaving the property at high velocities, endangering properties nearby at lower elevations. Affected properties include existing multifamily townhouse and condominium communities at Coventry, Weatherstone, and Kensington Trace.

We are also concerned about where water would be released from those underground facilities, given the fact that all proposed development is above RCDs or neighboring properties. An area between Kensington Trace and Weatherstone adjacent to Weaver Dairy Road already sits in a designated floodplain. In the eastern side of Lullwater Park, one proposed parking lot is atop a steep bank just north of Coventry town houses and apparently across an ephemeral stream. Another parking lot abuts the RCD. Where would any underground stormwater retention tanks release the accumulated water they without flooding the RCD?

Another defect in the plan is the intensity planned for the narrow strip of land  along the proposed new access street into the property from Weaver Dairy Road. Heavy rains already flood the backyards of some Coventry townhouses. Without careful management of runoff from this narrow strip, storm water will flood both the access street and the adjacent properties in Coventry and other neighborhoods downstream. Where would any underground stormwater retention tanks in this section release the accumulated water without flowing into existing neighborhoods?

Crowded town houses. The long, narrow section of the property fronting on Weaver Dairy Road is only 225 feet wide and the proposed development there does not fit the site. As the topographic map indicates, the land there slopes southeast (toward Coventry) from 542 feet at the northwest corner of the strip to 510 feet at Weaver Dairy Road. In some places the slopes are steep. The proposed site plan does not take the slope of the land into account and packs development tightly.

Within this narrow strip the proposed plan calls for an astonishing amount of construction:

  • a new access street on the east side north from Weaver Dairy Road,
  • a sidewalk on the west side of the new street,
  • 24 three-story town houses with parking in the bottom story,
  • 12 three-story carriage houses with parking in the bottom story,
  • alleys between the rows of town/carriage houses for access to their ground level parking.

These town/carriage houses will be surrounded by pavement. Only one small lawn/tree plot is indicated for this entire area aside from the buffers on the sides of the property. This plan does not create the Council desired “complete community” where people would enjoy living. What is now a forested area will become a densely packed area of impervious surfaces increasing temperatures and runoff into existing multifamily communities.

I-40 pollution.  Finally, on the north side of the property three-story town/carriage homes are proposed at the edge of a 100-foot buffer along I-40. These proposed three-story residences would look down directly onto the highway. Taller apartment buildings would be less than 200 feet further from I-40. Noise from highway traffic will increase after the highway is widened to six lanes. The noise and air pollution from the round-the-clock interstate highway traffic will create health hazards for residents of buildings located so close to I-40.

Take this concept back to the drawing board!

“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.

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