Town council torn over land conservation issues

University officials are compromising with the town after months of debate about Carolina North.

The Board of Trustees now says they will not develop part of the property for a period of 100 years after previously saying that they would protect the land for only 50.

Chapel Hill Town Council members had demanded trustees designate certain areas in the development area of Carolina North as permanent conservation areas.

They said lands of ecological significance demanded permanent conservation particularly a 53-acre area in the southwest portion of the proposed satellite campus on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

At a meeting with the trustees Wednesday" most council members expressed support for the compromise.

""Don't think of this as" ‘It's going to be gone in 100 years' think of this as 100 years of time we've bought to demonstrate that the land is worth protecting" Mayor Kevin Foy said.

UNC Board of Trustees chairman Roger Perry and most council members said they are willing to adopt the new timeline.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward was the only dissenting voice, saying trustees were devaluing the land in the temporary conservation area.

One hundred years protection doesn't have significant value to me" and it shouldn't for others who want to protect this land in its natural condition Ward said.

Perry said he was disappointed in the reception for the land compromise.

As opposed to you we do not think its importance is as great as fulfilling the mission of this University to the state of North Carolina Perry said. By golly" we think we've really gone the extra mile.""

The map also featured a larger area covered as a conservation area because the borders were smoothed out and drawn as a simple polygon rather than an exact border.

Even with a vocal agreement" the town council still needed to discuss the matter further" council member Mark Kleinschmidt said.

""If the last nine years has taught us anything" any decision about Carolina North has to be justified" he said.

Council members applauded the concession as a major step forward in the process to approve a final development between the town council and trustees by June.

The council and trustees also discussed housing on Carolina North, saying it needed to be determined by square footage rather than estimating the possible number residents.

The trustees and town council will meet again May 21.



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.