Town council discusses plans for northside

A project that could bring an elementary school to the Northside community is still trying to gain approval.

The proposed three-story Northside Elementary School would cover 100,000 square feet and serve 585 students in the historically black neighborhood.

Disagreeing with one of the layout details presented at Monday’s public hearing, the Chapel Hill Town Council pushed its decision to grant planners a special-use permit to Oct. 28.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward disapproved of the amount of space provided for cars in the drop-off area by Caldwell Street.

He said the large space — almost 900 feet of driving area — would lead to excessive carbon emissions when parents line up their cars every morning and afternoon.

“What’s the air quality with 900 feet of stacking distance?” Ward said. “We can’t live like we could 20 years ago. That’s the last century’s way of doing business.”

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen said with six or seven buses planned to serve the school, up to 80 percent of Northside students could ride the bus.

“Realistically, some parents offered public transportation will choose to drop off their student by car,” Pedersen said.

But the drop-off lane Ward called “abysmal” to the environment contrasts with planners’ otherwise environmentally friendly approach to building the school.

Architect Steve Triggiano said the building’s windows would be oriented as to allow as much natural daylight into the school as possible.

Northside would also flush its toilets with rainwater from outdoor cisterns and heat its water with solar panels, he said.

Without the board’s approval of the drop-off area, the N.C. Department of Insurance would reject the entire project, Triggiano said.

Plans to bring a school to the site between Church Street and Edwards Street have been in the works for more than a year.

The eight-acre site is the former location of the Orange County Training School, the first local public school for black students.


Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu