Town council gives lot 5 design firm the go-ahead

The Chapel Hill Town Council had a few words for the recently chosen developer of lot 5 and the Wallace Deck: “Be creative, but no Norman Rockwell, please.”

During a design work session Monday, council members told representatives from Ram Development Company to provide a forward-looking design for downtown Chapel Hill.

Phase one of the downtown redevelopment project will create a mix of retail and residential units at lot 5 at the intersection of Franklin and Church Streets and at the Wallace Deck on Rosemary Street.

The company’s proposal includes 233 residential units and some 31,000 square feet of retail space. The development, which will require an $8 million public investment, will also include 35 affordable housing units, priced between $95,000 and $139,000, public open space and parking.

While Mayor Kevin Foy expressed his distaste for the idea of “design by committee,” the council will have the last word in the final look of the town-owned property.

Calling for an “iterative process,” council member Bill Strom expressed concern for the current designs offered by Ram.

“We don’t want to have any big surprises at the end,” he said.

Council member Cam Hill encouraged the Ram design team to avoid the mundane.

“Be creative,” Hill said. “(The site plan) is going to work according to our needs, but what is really going to make it cool is what it’s going to look like.”

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt seemed to speak for the entire council when he showed his disdain for the replicated nostalgia of places like The Streets at Southpoint in Durham. “I hate that manufactured Main Street look.”

Ram’s current design seems to favor a neotraditional style reminiscent of the town’s current buildings, which has become the hallmark of its urban design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company, whose leaders co-authored the book “Suburban Nation.”

Ram President Casey Cummings assured the council that his firm would not pursue the lowest common denominator.

“I don’t want to give the impression that we are going to make everybody happy.”

While much of the debate hovered around issues of taste, larger public goals also were addressed, such as affordable housing and public space.

The awkward inclusion of open space in Ram’s proposal for the Wallace Deck led council member Dorothy Verkerk to suggest abandoning the requirement for this lot.

“The open space that we have now doesn’t work,” Verkerk said.

But Foy cautioned council members against this.

Ram will present the council with 3-D models of the open space on lot 2 as well as photographs documenting potential architectural styles for the sites during a meeting June 29.

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