Council to Tackle Parking, Occupancy Limits

The public hearing and debate will consist of the top 17 most controversial issues.

Town Council members will discuss a multitude of topics from parking and occupancy restrictions to floor area ratios and the nonconformity status of undeveloped land.

An official report by the town staff stated that all 17 of the issues have significant policy ramifications, which was the reason for their inclusion. The meeting also will clarify the meaning of many of the issues.

Council member Jim Ward said one of his priorities for the meeting is to elucidate the nonconformity status for undeveloped land issue. "I want to make sure that I and the citizens understand the various components of the nonconformity issues and how that applies to different situations in the town," Ward said.

Branson Page, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation, said the two most important issues relevant to students that will be discussed at the meeting are parking and occupancy restrictions.

Page also said he plans to attend the meeting and speak to the council about the issues concerning UNC students. "I think I will say something to the effect of we were concerned that there wasn't enough attention paid to accessibility and affordability for UNC students," Page said.

The town manager's office recommended modifying occupancy restrictions to no more than four unrelated persons in a dwelling unit.

Council member Pat Evans said the policy of instituting occupancy restrictions is difficult to manage.

"I don't think there is any simple way to regulate occupancy," she said. "I think the best thing is to deal with the ramifications of the numbers of people in the units."

Ward said it is problematic to enforce a policy based on relationships. "I think having an ordinance that relies on relationships is impossible to enforce," he said. "I think also there is a lot we can do with better enforcement of current regulations."

The town manager's office also recommended that the town keep maximum parking around 25 percent above minimum parking. Minimum parking is the least amount of off-street parking spaces a developer must provide while maximum parking limits the number of spaces a developer can have.

Compared to the duplex ban, the regulations and issues that will be discussed at today's meeting might prevent students from attending, Page said. "The fact that there is no one specific item might deter students from coming," he said.

Evans said that the importance of the parking and occupancy issues needed to be stressed. "I'm sure that (those issues need) to be brought to the forefront."

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