New campus pushes talks
Town, UNC discuss Carolina North
By: Sara Gregory, City Editor
Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: City
Town and University officials charged with plotting the course of the school's growth chatted Sunday about where a major expansion is headed.
Discussion about the University's proposed satellite research campus, Carolina North, proceeded cautiously after some members of the Chapel Hill Town Council expressed reservations at their annual retreat Saturday.
Mayor Kevin Foy emphasized that he did not want informal discussion to be interpreted as decisions on the part of the council, which indicated it would seek public input first.
"This is supposed to be a conversation," Foy said. "We are not making decisions."
Carolina North, to be located on the University's Horace Williams property, is planned as a research and innovation campus. Faculty, employee and graduate student housing also is planned, in addition to retail space.
The meeting among the council, UNC Chancellor James Moeser, Carolina North Executive Director Jack Evans and trustees Roger Perry and Bob Winston comes just more than a week before the council sees the concept plan Jan. 23 for the Innovation Center, a business incubator and the first building slated for construction.
Sunday's conversation sought to identify the process for moving the plans forward.
"We really are driving toward the creation of a process," Moeser said. "The key issue is how we get to that process."
At immediate conflict is the special-use permit the University requested to allow construction to begin on the Innovation Center before the master plan is approved.
Several council members said Saturday they did not want the University to make a habit of requesting special-use permits for each building of the campus.
"That's not what we want either," Moeser told the council. "If the town will work with us in good faith to bring this, then we won't bring any more."
Perry, who is chairman of the Board of Trustees, said that the University has a "unique opportunity" with the Innovation Center but that its success depends on timeliness of receiving approval.
Discussion about the University's proposed satellite research campus, Carolina North, proceeded cautiously after some members of the Chapel Hill Town Council expressed reservations at their annual retreat Saturday.
Mayor Kevin Foy emphasized that he did not want informal discussion to be interpreted as decisions on the part of the council, which indicated it would seek public input first.
"This is supposed to be a conversation," Foy said. "We are not making decisions."
Carolina North, to be located on the University's Horace Williams property, is planned as a research and innovation campus. Faculty, employee and graduate student housing also is planned, in addition to retail space.
The meeting among the council, UNC Chancellor James Moeser, Carolina North Executive Director Jack Evans and trustees Roger Perry and Bob Winston comes just more than a week before the council sees the concept plan Jan. 23 for the Innovation Center, a business incubator and the first building slated for construction.
Sunday's conversation sought to identify the process for moving the plans forward.
"We really are driving toward the creation of a process," Moeser said. "The key issue is how we get to that process."
At immediate conflict is the special-use permit the University requested to allow construction to begin on the Innovation Center before the master plan is approved.
Several council members said Saturday they did not want the University to make a habit of requesting special-use permits for each building of the campus.
"That's not what we want either," Moeser told the council. "If the town will work with us in good faith to bring this, then we won't bring any more."
Perry, who is chairman of the Board of Trustees, said that the University has a "unique opportunity" with the Innovation Center but that its success depends on timeliness of receiving approval.
Be the first to comment on this story