The Daily Tar Heel
Printing news. Raising hell. Since 1893.
Friday, March 29, 2024 Newsletters Latest print issue

We keep you informed.

Help us keep going. Donate Today.
The Daily Tar Heel

Column: The community voice guides development of the Greene Tract

Greene Tract
A residential neighborhood situated next to the Greene Tract on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019.

The Greene Tract — a 164 acre property jointly owned by Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro — is in the news.  It’s a distinctive natural area next to the historic Rogers Road Community and the closed county landfill.  Last Monday, the Chapel Hill Town Council passed two resolutions that advanced the recent planning for the Greene Tract.  

Critical planning milestones were reached in 2016 when the community outlined their priorities for development of the site, and in February 2019 when all three local governments agreed to redefine the preserved areas across the 164 acre tract.  

Community-first planning has been a hallmark of this initiative.  Monday’s decisions advanced those principles.  

The planning concepts started to falter when general uses (affordable housing, a school site, recreational space) were placed on a site map with estimated acreages.  The school site was too small and the roads and infrastructure needed to serve the land had not been decided. The property is landlocked, and new roads will be needed to access it.  

That’s why, in addition to passing a compromise resolution, the town council passed a separate resolution to conduct an environmental assessment and connectivity study to clarify how much land is available for housing and other uses, and how much infrastructure (roads, water and sewer) will be needed.  As they passed their resolution, the council acknowledged that the acreages were wrong, but were consistent with resolutions that the other governments signed.  The acreages will be corrected after the two studies are completed in early January.   

It’s worth noting that over two dozen speakers shows up in the packed council chambers. About one-third were neighbors of the Greene Tract.  The rest were politicians and political advocates.  The neighbors all wanted the studies and felt that acreage designations were premature. The politicians and their supporters didn’t want any changes.  

Neighbors noticed.  Why did so many politicians come out to speak at a public hearing? What does that do for the balance of power?  Don’t elected officials have enough  access to each other and to staff?  Will loud political voices drown out important community voices in the public square?  Important questions to anyone concerned with progressive democracy.

The good news is that there is widespread agreement on affordable housing as a priority for the property. There is a difference in opinion about how much. 

The 2016 community plan suggests density of four to six homes per acre, which is consistent with the character of the surrounding Rogers Road neighborhood.  The county has stated a preference for 10 - 20 units per acre introducing the idea of apartment buildings and other dense structures. Once the studies are done, another lively debate is expected.

Despite the political agendas and contradictory voices,  Mayor Pam Hemminger and the Town Council found a way to embrace the priorities of the community and move this process forward.  They laid out an aggressive timeline for community meetings and studies that should help to soften the politics and inform decision-making going forward.  

Hopefully the other governments will join them and their neighbors and move a community-first process forward quickly.

This column was written by Orange County Voice founder Bonnie Hauser. 

To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.

Special Print Edition
The Daily Tar Heel's Collaborative Mental Health Edition