140 West construction could cause traffic jams

Years of planning: seven. Units of upscale condominiums: 140. Square feet of retail space: 28,540. Estimated value: $75 million.

Officials, business leaders and residents alike realize the implications of 140 West Franklin, a project launched by the Town of Chapel Hill as part of its Downtown Economic Development Initiative.

The development combines public, commercial and living spaces with the goal of recharging the downtown atmosphere. The structure, eight stories tall at its highest point, will replace the town-owned Parking Lot 5 at the intersection of West Franklin and Church streets.

At a public meeting last month, representatives from Ram Development Company, the firm chosen to lead the effort, said construction could start in as few as five weeks. The timeline depends on how soon zoning and building permits can be completed and processed.

The benefits are tremendous, officials say. But some residents are asking tough questions on how traffic, parking and business will be impacted, for better or worse.

Street closures

The decision isn’t final, but town spokeswoman Catherine Lazorko said officials are considering closing stretches of Church and West Franklin streets.

“That’s really due to safety concerns,” Lazorko said. “There’s a great deal of pedestrian activity through that area, and the town engineering staff believe that the closure would be the best.”

Town engineer Jay Gibson said the section of Church Street between West Franklin and West Rosemary streets would be closed to vehicular traffic for most, if not all, of the two-year building process.

The stretch would remain accessible to pedestrians throughout all six phases of construction.

Gibson also said the lane of West Franklin Street bordering the work site could close for the last half of construction.

“Our primary concern is the safety of the public, then obviously with that is to see a timely completion to the project,” Gibson said.

Parking

With the demolition of Lot 5 goes 103 parking spaces, a mix of leased and hourly spots.

But Kendria Sweet, a spokeswoman for Ram Development, said the town will actually net 58 parking spaces once the project’s underground parking deck is finished.

The development will feature up to 15 on-street parking spots and 330 garage spaces, 161 of which will be designated as public parking.
“When the process is completely done, there will be more public parking downtown than there originally was,” Sweet said.

To mitigate the effect of losing Lot 5 amidst already cramped downtown parking, the spaces will be redistributed throughout town.

“With the replacement parking plan, there is no parking lost,” Lazorko said. “I mean obviously it’s not going to be convenient for folks that are used to using Lot 5.”

Business

Antoine Puech, a general partner in the West Franklin Preservation Limited Partnership, manages the buildings that house the Aveda Institute, Kildare’s Irish Pub and Panera Bread.

Puech spoke up at the July meeting, saying both he and his tenants are concerned about the different effects construction could have on the businesses, located just down the street.

“They’re all very, very upset,” Puech said. “A lot of people park in Lot 5 and go to lunch or go to dinner. People are not going to want to park half a mile or a mile away and walk to these restaurants.”

To address the possibility of Church Street being blocked off, Puech said his firm has hired the nation’s leading construction and engineering companies to offer the town advice on alternatives.

“It’s their opinion it can be built without closing streets,” he said.

Jim Norton, the executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said no one can yet be sure of how business will be impacted.
“We don’t know until we have the final construction documents,” Norton said.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.