Council downs development plan

Chapel Hill Town Council members offered a variety of criticism Monday to a plan for an addition to the Meadowmont development.

But the developer remains unfazed.

“That’s the Chapel Hill process. We’re not new to the process,” said James Baker of the Lundy Group Inc. Baker spoke on behalf of the project’s developer, Castalia Group LLC.

Criticism spanned almost every facet of the 76,000-square-foot, mixed-use project, proposed for a lot on Barbee Chapel Road near its intersection with N.C. 54.

Baker emphasized what he said is the plan’s striking architecture and relatively discreet presence, but the council was not swayed.

“Let me just be blunt. There’s nothing about the plan that I like,” said council member Dorothy Verkerk, who went on to compare the proposal to a “19th-century insane asylum of brick.”

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt said he also dislikes the proposed appearance of the building and the way it would be landscaped, with three tiers of parking and three rows of oaks and sycamores to screen it from the road.

“It looks like one of the mistakes in (Research Triangle Park),” Kleinschmidt said.

Some council members thought a building closer to the street might be more appropriate.

The development’s original plan called for the location’s architecture to accentuate the entrance to the development.

“I just wonder if the point of having striking architecture at the entrance of this development is lost if it becomes invisible,” Kleinschmidt said.

“I don’t understand why you want to hide it.”

Council member Cam Hill shared similar sentiments.

“If you’re going to have striking architecture, have striking architecture and sell it to us,” he said.

Another issue was the view the building would present to anyone entering town on N.C. 54.

Joddy Peer, the project’s architect, emphasized during his presentation that the building is screened from the road in that direction by rows of trees. But council members said they thought more needed to be done.

Several council members noted that when Meadowmont was first proposed, the view from N.C. 54 was a major concern for residents.

Council members also asked the developers to reduce the amount of parking lots the plan includes, possibly by increasing the amount of parking under the structure.

Baker said that he was glad he heard the council’s concerns and that the developer would work to address as many as possible, though there are limits to what can be done.

“There’s no physical way to respond to every comment.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.