MLK Rezoning Is a ‘Shotgun Wedding’ Between Town of Chapel Hill and Unscrupulous Developer
Submitted by Christopher Bowers
On the eve of a vote to approve – or not – a terrible rezoning plan that will reshape the northern part of Chapel Hill and the MLK Blvd region forever, we want to go on the record on all the reasons this is a colossal failure of the town on many fronts. Council has talked for years about protecting low-income residents without following through, opening us up to just the sort of exploitation this opportunistic developer is taking advantage of. The town council has abdicated its responsibility through inaction. It hasn’t shown leadership to tackle this issue head on. As a result, the owner of this property stands to make a huge profit from this rezoning to a much more intense use than its current zoning allows.
Lets be clear: what we are faced with here is a developer – Stackhouse – using “shotgun wedding” tactics by threatening the town that residents of Tar Heel Mobile Home Park will be evicted if they don’t get what they want. And what they want is not only terrible for The Park residents, it is in every way terrible for the whole town of Chapel Hill. This plan:
- Forces families to live in an industrial zone,
- Ruins our environment, including Lake Ellen,
- Does not meet the goals of the FLUM that the town has pushed so hard for,
- Provides few jobs,
- Provides little in tax revenue for use of such prime land,
- Does nothing to make this a more livable town.
In addition to altering this part of Chapel Hill forever, it is not at all clear how the town plans to enforce the protective covenants, or to prevent the developer from harassing the park residents. There need to be guardrails for the town to police the actions of Stackhouse, including monitoring the state of the park. In the end the residents of the mobile home park WILL face eviction. It is not a matter of if – It is only a matter of when. Allowing this change means Tar Heel Mobile Home Park will be gone within 15 years. The town needs to be responsible for housing those people when they are inevitably forced from their homes.
The town must have a legal plan in place, with funds set aside, should Stackhouse take actions against the members of the mobile park individually. They must implement a monitoring system that ensures that the rent increases by Stackhouse are true to the rezoning agreement of 15% above market value. The town should have the authority to review and challenge any data provided by them to justify any rent increases. An increase of 10-15% a month might not be much to some of us, but it is the difference between food and paying a bill for folks living on a modest income. Additionally, the town needs to look comprehensively at ways to protect all mobile home parks from these predatory tactics, such as using a mobile home zoning overlay.
For neighbors who do not live in Tar Heel, the town needs to ensure that there are proper safety measures in place regarding traffic, access, lighting and noise during construction, and operation of the expanded gas station and storage facility. It needs to protect the existing residents of the park and the surrounding neighborhood from increased danger from traffic in this already busy section of town. There have been serious injuries and deaths from automobile and pedestrian accidents in this area. What is the plan doing to mitigate this existing danger and prevent it getting worse?
Area residents and indeed many residents from all over Chapel Hill were unaware of the scope of this proposed zoning change. Many were outside of the 1000 foot notification zone. As we know, in the last year COVID 19 has upended all our lives forcing many to work and teach their children from home, some struggling with reduced or no income, with many people not venturing out almost at all to stay safe. Council has been operating remotely for all meetings. This has made the already daunting task of keeping up with issues and decisions such as these extraordinarily difficult. Sadly, it also meant we didn’t learn about this until it seems to be too late to have any ability to influence the development plan.
Finally, the town needs to know is that, while we were unaware before, we are painfully aware now. We plan to make sure a situation such as this does not happen again. We will organize a community group with the mission of keeping fully abreast of issues and be ready to mobilize quickly to make sure the needs of all residents are looked after. We will work with existing organizations to ensure that our town leaders take leadership and act to protect our community.
We will be active in local elections to hold our officials accountable. We will be watching.
Concerned Neighbors of Northern Chapel Hill
Christopher Bowers – Glen Heights Neighbor
Trish Galfano –Glen Heights Neighbor
(featured photo via Town of Chapel Hill)
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