Members of the Meadowmont Village community expressed concern about a proposed expansion of a Kenan-Flagler Business School complex and the threat it could pose to nature.
Residents of Meadowmont were among the attendees of a public information meeting at Town Hall to review plans for the expansion of the Paul Rizzo Conference Center Thursday evening.
The center lies within a Natural Heritage Area that borders the community. The proposed expansion location is on a wooded slope where runoff pollution’s disturbance to animals is a concern.
Because the National Heritage Program is a not a regulatory agency, there is no provision to enforce the protection, wrote Linda Pearsall, director of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, in an e-mail to the Chapel Hill Planning Department.
The area provides a buffer against noise, lights, domestic animals and other types of disturbances associated with developed areas.
“These forests provide movement corridors connecting wildlife populations over the entire region,” botanist Misty Buchanan wrote in another report sent to the planning department.
But business school representatives said the construction site cannot be moved closer to the existing buildings.
A garden, two cemeteries and land reserved for a possible light rail system lay in between the current complex and the proposed site, said David Stevens, associate dean for operations and finance in the school.
Currently the center houses 116 guest rooms as well as offices and classrooms. The proposed about 90,600 square-foot expansion would include 72 additional guest rooms, three more classrooms, an additional dining venue and a 187-car garage.
