Aldermen try to preserve town feel through zoning

As residents walk through Carrboro, town officials hope they’ll notice shop fronts and nice homes, not out-of-place monoliths.

To preserve the human scale and look that is characteristic of the town, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted Aug. 23 to adopt a downtown neighborhood protection overlay district as part of its land-use ordinance.

Since an overlay is a set of guidelines for each zoning classification, established land-use ordinances still apply to lots within the new overlay district.

The purpose of the new district is to specify design requirements for 55 commercial lots situated across the street from residences.

“We’re moderating how tall a building can be and moderating the horizontal span of it,” said James Carnahan, chairman of the town planning board.

Carnahan also sat on the downtown commercial-residential interface subcommittee, which helped design the district.

With steadily growing development and the town’s Vision 2020 plan — which calls for an expansion of downtown commercial zoning — Carrboro formed the subcommittee to help preserve its small-town atmosphere.

The group, made up of aldermen, planning board members and citizens, was charged with mapping out downtown area, including zoning changes and creating open spaces.

“We want there to be a gradual transition (between commercial and residential) — a buffer area 50 feet deep,” Carnahan said.

But exactly how tall a building can be depends on the design — generally two stories, with as many as five stories allowed if each story after the second does not increase the height of the facade of the building.

Though they understand the purpose of exceptions to the two-story rule, some of the aldermen find such vague rules troubling.

“I think the overarching idea of that provision is to not use such a massive design, but still have usable square footage on that third floor,” said Alderman Alex Zaffron.

Alderman John Herrera was not convinced and voted against the ordinance. “This should be so simple, and we’re making it very complicated,” he said.

“We need to set a policy that is very clear from the start, so we wouldn’t have to micromanage. There are a lot of tiny exceptions everywhere.”

Even with the new overlay district, the minutiae of downtown design prompted the aldermen to specify more exact rules.

The aldermen did not pass a section of the overlay ordinance that, despite the exceptions to the two-story rule, would force any developer proposing a building taller than two stories to acquire a conditional-use permit.

“We don’t want a bad design to goober things up,” said Alderman Jacquelyn Gist, who would like to see stricter conditional-use requirements.

The aldermen voted to hold a public hearing on setting a square-foot limit — Chapel Hill's limit is 20,000 square feet — that, if exceeded, would demand a CUP .

“Downtown is very compact, and any major building would have a serious impact,” said Mayor Pro Tem Diana McDuffee.

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