Elkin Hills Residents Seek BOT's Attention

Several members of the Elkin Hills community are planning to attend a Board of Trustees committee meeting today to protest the location of the Campus Services Support Facilities project.

The project in question will move the existing Printing, Ground, and Environment, Health and Safety buildings from their location on Finley Golf Course Road to the Giles Horney lot in the Elkin Hills area.

Members of the BOT already have approved the location of the building and expect to discuss the architectural design at the BOT Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting at 3:30 p.m.

But Elkin Hills resident Kathleen Kearns said community members strongly believe the approved location of the facilities is not appropriate.

"The planned location of the facilities is incompatible with a residential neighborhood," Kearns said. "We are concerned about the noise of the new facilities, local flooding and storm water and traffic."

Kearns said Elkin Hills leaders also are frustrated by other issues in the proposal.

"Almost every part of the proposal has been specifically prohibited by zoning," she said. "And we're worried about light pollution and environmental degradation as well."

Kearns said that although she does not expect community members to be able to offer input at the meeting today, she still expects five to 10 neighborhood members to attend.

"We don't really expect to be allowed to speak, but we will have a speech prepared in case we are," she said.

Both UNC officials and community leaders have met with a mediator hired by the University since the September BOT meeting, but members of the Elkin Hills area still are against the location of the proposed facilities.

"We still oppose locating the facilities in Elkin Hills," she said. "We will present our reaction to the plan and mediation suggestions at the meeting."

Elkin Hills community members first addressed the BOT concerning the issue at the September BOT meeting, where several neighborhood members raised discussion about the issue, Kearns said.

A short speech airing residents' concerns was read by an Elkin Hills resident at that meeting, but trustees gave community members little time to speak.

Trustees contended that the discussion of the facilities' location was not on the agenda for that meeting.

Trustee David Pardue, a member of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, said the agenda for today's meeting does not include any further discussion of the Campus Services Support Facilities' location.

"The location of the new facilities was already approved at a previous meeting," Pardue said. "The sighting of the location is not on the agenda, only the approval for the architectural design of the new facilities.

"I don't anticipate further discussion, but I would not rule it out."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.