Carolina North plans shown

The Carolina North meeting, which took place Tuesday afternoon in the UNC School of Government, attracted residents from the University, the Chapel Hill community and beyond.

This meeting represents the second monthly session that has been held to present the progression of work on land-use scenarios to the public.

The comment cards collected following the initial public meeting have greatly influenced the planning of Carolina North - a mixed-use academic development on the 900-plus-acre tract of University land north of the main campus.

Comments received from attendants of the first public meeting have allowed representatives of Carolina North to narrow down the three land-use scenarios that were presented at the first meeting to an "East-West" scenario and a "North-South scenario."

These two alternate scenarios are named for the location of their central axis, which runs from east to west in the "East-West" scenario and from north to south in the "North-South" scenario.

John P. Evans, professor of operations, technology and innovation management in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, presented a 15-year estimate for land allocation in Carolina North.

Although much of the land will be used for housing, corporate space, research and academic buildings - including the School of Law - 70-75 percent of the land will be conserved for at least the next fifty years.

"The University will not allow that land to remain perpetually undeveloped," Evans said.

The "East-West" scenario and the "North-South" scenario both aim to respect the ecology of the site.

"Both patterns of development have an environmentally sound basis," said Luanne Greene of Ayers Saint Gross, a firm providing master planning and architectural services for college and university campuses.

"Any design that we use will support a sustainable, high-performance campus," Evans said.

Transit has also been a primary focus in the planning of Carolina North.

"We need a variety of transit services because there are a variety of types of trips. For example, we have people commuting twenty miles from Wake County that need a certain type of transit and another type of people that commute across campus that need another type of transit," said George Alexiou of Martin-Alexiou-Bryson, a transportation planning and traffic engineering company.

"There is no one-size-fits-all. We need to tailor transit to fit all needs, in order to accommodate the full range of transit trips that occur during the day."

Some responsibility for regional transit is owned by other authorities, including Chapel Hill transit, which is also currently engaged in planning efforts.

For this reason, Carolina North representatives recognize the need to design in as much flexibility as possible as far as the types of vehicles and transit that can be accommodated.

"We will have much more direction by the end of year depending on how transit evolves," Alexiou said.

Carolina North representatives plan to submit a draft of their proposal to the Board of Trustees in July.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.

Officials present new design plans for Carolina North

Two site scenarios
presented:
One is a mix of two previously previewed designs
Development plans submitted for first 15-year phase
Focus on public transportation integration
Final submission of plan to BOT in Sept. 2007
Final submission of plan to town in Oct. 2007