Carolina North might have seen stalled progress, but officials updated Chapel Hill Town Council on its environmentally-friendly achievements at a council meeting Wednesday.
The planned research and academic campus two miles from UNC has been a project between the University and the town, and discussions culminated with a development agreement in 2009.
Among other ecologically friendly goals, the project aims to provide more efficient power to several UNC buildings north of Franklin Street and to reduce methane gas emissions from a local landfill by converting them into energy.
“The fact that the University is going to capture that gas is a spectacular success,” council member Matt Czajkowski said.
Anna Wu, University architect and director of facilities planning, presented updates on the Carolina North greenway, the landfill gas pipeline, the ductbank and the proposed conservation areas.
“What we propose is really to significantly increase quality, while at the same time maintaining quantity,” Wu said.
Wu said the Greenway project will be completed by fall 2012 and a new generator site for the landfill gas project will be in place by August 2012.
Several proposed nature conservation areas redistricted in the past year were presented in the report as well.
Notable
The council voted unanimously to pass a proposal to rezone the Glen Lennox area and to make it a Neighborhood Conservation District.
They also passed a resolution to close the right-of-way at Dawson Place on Rosemary Street.
Quotable
“We would like to express our deep appreciation to the Town of Chapel Hill for the opportunity to participate in the NCD process,” said Mary Dexter, a Glen Lennox resident.
“I think we’ve developed an excellent base to move forward into this coming year,” said Bruce Runberg, assistant vice chancellor for Facilities Planning and Construction on the Carolina North project.
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