Transit addressed at forum

Concerns about pedestrian accessibility and transit options for the first project of the University's proposed satellite campus dominated discussion at a public forum Thursday.

More than 100 interested students, residents and venture capitalists attended a discussion led by Carolina North executive director Jack Evans at the Robert and Pearl Seymour Center.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., a Pasadena, Calif.-based company is on board to build a business incubator on part of the property set aside for UNC's Carolina North.

The concept plan calls for the Innovation Center to be built at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the former Municipal Drive.

"(Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is) about the most pedestrian-hostile road around," said a professor who rides his bike to work along the street each day.

The Innovation Center will be home to office and laboratory space and is designed to foster the development of new companies. The planned 85,000-square-foot building will host companies to network and expand their businesses.

One student asked if there were provisions to allow undergraduate and graduate students space to develop their own business ideas.

Absolutely, University officials said, comparing the site to N.C. State University's Centennial campus.

Others at the meeting wanted to know how flexible the University's plans were in terms of the Innovation Center's location and whether it could be relocated farther away from the busy Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Evans said that ultimately, as Carolina North grows and develops, the University might choose to extend an express bus route to the campus. In the short term though, he said that the Innovation Center's one building likely would not create enough demand for additional transit to the area.

University Architect Anna Wu said the site previously housed the town's transit operations.

"We actually anticipate that when this building is first completed that the traffic will actually probably be less than its former use," she said.

In September, the University asked the Chapel Hill Town Council to approve a special-use permit to allow construction to begin on the center separately from the Carolina North campus. The plans will go before the council again Jan. 23.

Also on Jan. 23, UNC's Board of Trustees will receive plans for the center's specific design elements, which still are being determined.

"Our hope would be to dig into the ground a couple of months after the special-use permit is approved," Evans said.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.