33 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(04/25/07 4:00am)
On Monday, junior Erin McKenney filled the glass wall of the recreation center below the Student Union with enlarged photos of students with butterfly collars, sideburns and tight blue jeans shooting pool, goofing off and bowling.
The black-and-white photos commemorate the 49-year history of the bowling lanes, which close for good at the end of the week.
Looking through the glass, from the old photos to the lanes today, it's clear that little has changed.
The wooden lanes are now antiquated - most bowling alleys having moved to synthetic material years ago. The machines need frequent repairs. Lanes 11 and 12 have been dark all year. Many of the arcade games are now classics.
"This place is really a piece of history," said McKenney, who's worked at the recreation center since her sophomore year. "Our goal now is just to see that we go out with a bang."
The center - which includes the bowling alley and an adjacent pool hall - will close once and for all at 1 p.m. Sunday, following a Saturday night bash with free bowling and food.
The Carolina Union Board of Directors made the decision in 2006 to close the bowling alley, rather than renovate it, after weighing the high costs inherent in both options and reflecting on the center's low use and steady losses.
Losses have averaged about $30,000 per year since 1995. One reason the lanes operate at a loss is that, at $2 per game and $1 for shoes, the prices seem as if they too belong to another era.
Don Luse, director of the Union, said he worried less about finances than the low number of bowlers.
"They're just not down there using it," he said.
The facilities are decrepit. The wood floors have been sanded so many times they are nearly worn through, McKenney said.
"They're splintering. Every time I oil the lanes, the dust cloth gets splinters."
The major renovation project that closed the Union from 2002 to 2004 largely neglected the bowling alley because of budget constraints, Luse said.
A 2006 report estimated that upgrading the lanes would cost $377,000.
Luse acknowledged that removing the machinery, tearing out the floor and converting the space will incur high costs, too.
Though attendance has dropped off, the lanes haven't been dormant.
On weekday mornings the place is still noisy with clattering pins. Every semester, hundreds enroll in the popular Physical Education classes that meet there twice a week.
Eric Biener, who teaches bowling classes, said that almost half of the students who showed up the first day were hoping to finagle a way onto the roster.
"There are only 40 spaces," he said. "You really can't hold much more than that."
Mike Murphy, like most in the class, is a senior who enrolled to earn P.E. credit toward graduation. And like most, he was drawn by the prospect of not having to shower between a bowling class and the rest of his day's activities.
"Sucks they're shutting it down," he said in class last Thursday. "This is probably one of the most fun classes I've taken."
When word dropped that officials upstairs were talking about closing the lanes, employee Antoine Dove said the staff began brainstorming ways to boost attendance.
"Everyone on staff was kind of upset about it," Dove said. "It was a job a lot of us enjoyed. Who wouldn't like working in a bowling alley?"
Their efforts focused mainly on advertising, but they said they could not secure funds from the Union.
This spring, resigned to the board's final decision to close the alley, employees shifted their focus to planning the last hurrah.
The closing bash starts at 8 p.m. Saturday and is open to the public. Free bowling also will be available Friday beginning at 8 p.m. as part of a Union-wide alcohol-free awareness night.
Luse said that he doesn't know how the space will be used but that he would like to see it become a late-night student attraction.
"When the building was planned in the late '50s or early '60s, bowling was important then," he said.
"Times change."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
(04/13/07 4:00am)
Sixty years have passed since members of a civil rights group were arrested in Chapel Hill for demonstrating against segregated busing on April 13, 1947.
White residents assaulted members of the group, who were on a 14-day journey through the upper South to exercise rights secured by a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said segregation laws did not apply to interstate bus travelers.
That afternoon, a Sunday, they boarded a Carolina Coach bound for Greensboro. They took their seats up front and refused the driver's order to move until Chapel Hill police arrested four of them for disorderly conduct. They were released after paying $200 in bond money.
White passers-by, including taxi drivers that observed the incident, menaced the riders and struck one of them, James Peck, on the head.
Tension grew following the arrival of a group of students, summoned by Presbyterian minister Charlie Jones to protect the riders.
Manny Margolis, member of the University's class of 1947, recalled standing with the riders and about 12 to 15 other students as the group of residents continued making threats and shouting insults.
"We had several cars down there to get those guys to a place of refuge," he said. "I recall there was a baseball bat or two, and whether it was in their hands or ours, I couldn't tell you."
Students drove the riders to the pastor's home and were chased by men who hurled rocks at the house and epithets at those inside.
Margolis, a Brooklyn native, said the racial attitudes he encountered in Chapel Hill troubled him, and he became involved in liberal activist groups on campus.
"Many of us were unhappy to be attending an all-white university."
Several years before the civil rights movement really took off, there already was an atmosphere of change on campus.
"Ideas were being circulated and exchanged," Margolis said. "People began questioning."
The next day, a UNC student misidentified as one of the riders was hit in the face by taxi drivers after conversing with a black woman, The Daily Tar Heel reported.
Bill Woestendiek, who was editor of the DTH, also joined the group that came to assist the riders.
On Thursday of that week, Woestendiek ran an editorial on the front page about the attacks.
"Shameful and disgraceful are mild words to describe the above-mentioned pages from the never-ending story of discrimination," the editorial said. As Woestendiek told it, students stood guard on the porch of the minister's home.
"People outside the house were yelling the usual things, 'nigger lovers,' stuff like that," he said Thursday in a phone interview.
The riders were driven by car to Greensboro, and the pastor and his family left town.
"The townspeople of what was the bastion of liberal thinking in those days ... threw rocks at us because we were defending the liberty of black people," said Woestendiek, who went on to a career as a journalist.
Bettie Jones Bradford, the pastor's daughter, was 12 at the time and saw the people throwing rocks outside her home but said she was not scared until later that night when the family packed clothes into the car and left town under cover of darkness.
Her father took an indirect route and left the headlights off in case they were followed, she said.
"I know Mom and Dad were nervous because my mother kept looking around," Bradford said.
Guests of other races were a normal affair in Jones' house.
One of those arrested was Bayard Rustin, a black rider who became prominent within the civil rights movement, organizing the 1963 March on Washington.
Bradford said that although race relations today are far from ideal, they have come a long way since the days of segregated busing.
"Now you look at Barack Obama running for president. That would have never happened back then."
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/28/07 5:00am)
The environmentally-friendly Greenbridge development approved Monday by the Chapel Hill Town Council will be something new for North Carolina and a benchmark for Chapel Hill.
(02/19/07 5:00am)
Members of the Chapel Hill Town Council are worried that the town might be getting more than it bargained for with the Lot 5 development.
Council members are asking for revisions to an agreement reached this month with Ram Development Co. regarding the major development slated for downtown Chapel Hill.
Under the agreement, which leases the 1.73-acre tract on Franklin Street to Ram for the price of $1 a year for 100 years, the town assumes expenses for any environmental cleanup the site might need.
But as of yet, no one knows how much money that could be or whether such a cleanup will be necessary. A 2005 study of the site - once home to a gas station - recommended an environmental assessment of the soil for possible contamination.
According to the report, contractors smelled a hydrocarbon-like odor while investigating the site.
"We want to make sure that this development proceeds without risk to the town," said council member Laurin Easthom, who objected to the clause at Tuesday's council meeting.
"That just raised a red flag for me."
Easthom said she wants the agreement amended with a cap on the amount of money the town will contribute toward any cleanup.
Council members Jim Ward and Ed Harrison also voiced concerns about the agreement.
Town Manager Roger Stancil will work to negotiate a change in the agreement with Ram.
Roy Vick, a N.C. soil scientist with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Science program, said it is not uncommon for the soil around gas stations to become tainted by leaky storage tanks.
Spilled fuel can stay in the ground for years, Vick said, contaminating water as it percolates through the ground.
Reports by Engineering Consulting Services Ltd., the company that has performed three assessments of the site, said there was no water table beneath Lot 5, meaning a fuel spill would be less likely to have poisoned nearby wells.
An earlier study was performed by ECS to determine the likelihood - but not the actual presence - of environmental contamination of the site.
The study detailed several underground storage tanks in the surrounding area but made no mention of an Esso station that occupied the site in the 1950s and '60s.
Ram does not yet have a permit to build the condominiums, retail space and underground parking lot it has proposed, but before construction can begin, the condition of the soil will have to be determined.
The resulting assessments could mean extra delays for the project if the site is found to be contaminated.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/13/07 5:00am)
An official redesign of campus mail, planned for next fall, could provide needed relief to employees overburdened by a disorganized system.
"It's about time," said Donelle Kelley, a mail clerk who splits his work day between the University Mail Services facility on Mason Farm Road and the package station in Hinton James Residence Hall.
Kelley, who sorts mail for the four "high-rise" residence halls, said he sees up to a half tub of misdirected or misaddressed mail every day.
Officials said they hope they can improve the situation by designing a streamlined delivery system with central accountability and electronic record keeping.
The new mail delivery system will include a package center in Morrison Residence Hall, which will serve all students on South Campus, and an automated records system. The changes also will put the job of sorting mail into the hands of student employees.
"The intent behind this is smoother service to the student, greater accountability for delivery and less cost for the service," said Larry Hicks, director of the Department of Housing and Residential Education.
Neither Hicks' department nor the post office keeps statistics on how much mail students receive each year.
But for a glimpse of that number, Kelley's supervisor, Archie Lassiter, estimated that each of the four residence halls served by workers at University Mail Services receives 150 pieces of mail per day on average.
That's more than 40,000 pieces of mail per academic year for each hall.
Under the new system, in residence halls where U.S. mail and campus mail is delivered to students in separate locations, resident advisers would sort both campus and U.S. mail, relieving U.S. Postal Service employees of the duty.
The post office would bring a tray of mail to each dorm, and on-call RAs would put it into individual mailboxes.
This means the University would own the boxes, not the U.S. Postal Service, allowing campus mail to be put inside them rather than delivered door-to-door.
Hicks said the new arrangement would save money by utilizing part-time student employees to sort the mail for all residence halls, though he said it is too early to say how much.
He added that savings could be redirected to the upkeep of the proposed South Campus package center in Morrison.
In the current system, a package might wind up at any of a dozen places on campus, Hicks said.
Packages are logged on paper wherever they arrive, and there is no central records system, which makes tracking down lost packages an exercise in patience.
With the new system, packages would be logged into a computer database, and students would be alerted via e-mail. Hicks said text messaging is being explored as another way to notify students.
Some of the confusion with the current system stems from residence halls having different ZIP codes. With overhaul of the campus mail distribution, Hicks said he hopes all residence halls will have a single ZIP code.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(02/12/07 5:00am)
Valentine's Day can be a painful time of year, but not just for the lovesick. Mail workers on campus say it's hell.
The gifts pour in: chocolates, flowers, cards, love letters and candygrams. It's their busiest week.
So as mail workers try to stay above water during the St. Valentine's Day inundation, administrators are redesigning the campus mail system, trying to give it some rhyme and reason.
"It amazes me how confusing it can get," said Larry Hicks, director of the Department of Housing and Residential Education and one of the architects of a new and improved system for campus mail planned to go into effect by next fall.
UNC's current mail system is disorganized, inefficient and confusing, officials and employees say.
Some students pick up mail in three different locations, and a package can show up anywhere, depending on the carrier company that delivers it. Different residence halls have different zip codes, and mail from administrators and campus groups is treated separately from outside mail.
Accounting for lost mail can be a nightmare, because there is no central registration system for packages and no single department that filters everybody's mail.
"Currently there are three different ways in which mail gets delivered to students," Hicks said. "We will be merging all those types of deliveries into one mail delivery service. Not only will that make it less complicated for faculty and students, but it will streamline delivery."
As it works now, students at most residence halls on campus pick up U.S. mail in their mailboxes, while campus mail - such as billing statements, registration notification and campus group announcements - is brought to their rooms by the resident advisers, who usually slip items under the door.
This is because the mailboxes at most residence halls are owned by the U.S. Postal Service, and laws prohibit unstamped mail from going into them.
Mail going to four newer halls - Craige North, Ehringhaus South, Hinton James and Horton residence halls - is sorted at University Mail Services, off of Mason Farm Road.
These dorms share the zip code for University departments and administrative offices, rather than the one used by most residence halls.
The different zip codes are a constant source of grief for mail service employees. Letters, magazines, newspapers and packages that get addressed with the wrong zip code usually end up at the wrong place.
It's an easy mistake. Craige Residence Hall takes the ZIP code 27514. Craige North Residence Hall takes 27599.
Mail workers at the package center are used to dealing with this error, but making sure the package gets to where it should takes time, familiarity with the system's quirks and some luck.
Archie Lassiter, a supervisor at University Mail Services, deals with misdirected packages every day.
"I've got a tennis racket in my office. Been there two weeks. I don't know where to go - $350 tennis racket from China," he said.
A big part of Lassiter's job is making sure these packages get to the right place. Sometimes students call looking for packages that never came.
Wrongly addressed subscriptions mean Lassiter sees the same newspapers and magazines regularly.
"They won't get this paper now 'til Monday," he said, pointing to last Thursday's Wall Street Journal sitting on top of a bin of misdirected letters and bills. "We got to turn around and send it to the right place."
Hicks said the plan for sorting out the University's mail situation hinges on two main goals. First will be organizing the system so that all mail gets delivered the same way and to the same place. The second goal is to establish a package center to serve all students living on South Campus.
"Beginning in the fall, all mail will be delivered the same way across campus, whether it be campus mail, department mail or U.S. mail," Hicks said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(01/31/07 5:00am)
A major downtown development slated for the corner of Franklin and Church streets, across from Granville Towers, moved forward Monday after months of negotiations.
Town Manager Roger Stancil released a draft development agreement, revealing more specific plans for condominiums and commercial space to replace Parking Lot 5.
The town is collaborating with Florida-based Ram Development Co. for the project.
The agreement released Monday concerns the financial details of the proposed development.
The town will lease the 1.73-acre parcel to Ram Development for the price of $1 per year for an initial term of 99 years. The agreement includes an option for Ram to opt out of the lease after 50 years with a $2 million payment to the town.
The plan is smaller than the original 2002 proposal, which included plans for Parking Lot 2 and the Wallace Deck, both downtown.
Chapel Hill Town Council member Cam Hill, one of three council members who negotiated in private with the developers, said rising construction costs cut the project's size.
Under the new smaller proposal, the town will contribute millions more than originally planned.
Council member Jim Ward said he is disappointed with the way negotiations have played out.
"Elements are so much different from what they were when they started," he said.
The draft agreement calls for underground parking decks to be built beneath the main complex. The town will buy the top level with its 161 spaces for $7.2 million.
Ram Development will allot 21 one-bedroom units to the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust as affordable housing, in accordance with the town's development policy.
The Chapel Hill Town Council will review the agreement during its regular business meeting Feb. 12.
Hill said he thinks the project already has encouraged downtown development.
But Ward said he would not vote for the agreement as it stands.
He said the developer should be required to make the buildings energy efficient, which has long been a priority for the council for new Chapel Hill developments.
The draft agreement released Monday says the development should achieve LEED silver certification, or higher than standard energy efficiency, only "if feasible within the project budget."
"I think it's irresponsible of us to move forward on a project that we have control of that does not require energy efficiency," Ward said.
He said that unless the agreement requires energy efficiency, the council will lose credibility when it makes similar requests to other developers. "We lose an opportunity to make progress by not requiring more of ourselves."
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Previously on . downtown lots
June 2002: The Chapel Hill Town Council decides it wants to build a mixed-use development and parking facilities.
June 2004: The conceptual master plans for the development of downtown parking lots 2 and 5 are approved overwhelmingly by the Chapel Hill Town Council.
Summer 2006: Cost estimates for the projects are much higher than originally proposed and the Town Negotiating Team meets with the developer to make the project economically feasible.
January 2007: The town
manager releases the draft
development plan for Lot 5, which is smaller than the original proposal.
Feb. 12: The Chapel Hill Town Council will review the agreement during its regular
business meeting.
(01/26/07 5:00am)
Franklin Street has a new cheering section.
Or at least that's how Pat Evans, executive director of the Friends of Downtown, described the fledgeling organization after its inaugural meeting Wednesday at The Franklin Hotel.
''I look at us as being the cheerleader of all of downtown," said Evans, who conceived and coordinated the booster organization.
"It's the heart of the community, and it's important both to the town of Chapel Hill and to the University," Evans said.
The group plans to discuss ways to make downtown Chapel Hill more enjoyable, and anyone can attend meetings.
Evans, a former Chapel Hill Town Council member, said she always has been keen on optimizing the downtown experience.
Close to 60 participants were treated to coffee, light snacks and an address by Rick Steinbacher, associate athletic director for marketing and promotions for the University and a former inside linebacker for UNC football.
Steinbacher spoke to the group about giving Franklin Street a bigger role in UNC athletic events, including the new "Fifth Quarter" transportation program that provides bus services from Franklin Street to park-and-ride lots up to three hours after football games. The idea is to keep people downtown longer.
"As I see it, it's a lot of people that have a lot of common interests that want to get a lot of good things done for the community," Steinbacher said of the group.
The Friends of Downtown is not to be confused with the Downtown Partnership, an organization of business owners that draws funds from the town and the University.
Money is the most obvious difference between the groups. The Friends of Downtown is using funds left over from a former organization, the Downtown Commission, which disbanded in 2005.
These funds amount to less than $5,000, Evans said, adding that if the group decides to take on a project, it probably will need to raise funds.
The group will hold meetings at 10 a.m. on the last Thursday of each month. The next meeting, also at The Franklin, will be a brainstorming session for ideas on improving downtown.
The Friends of Downtown has obtained status as a nonprofit organization so that it can accept tax-deductible donations.
Downtown Partnership Chairman Tom Tucker attended the meeting and said he thinks the group is a positive influence.
"The partnership is only nine people, and the organization of the Friends of Downtown allows us to draw on the experience of hundreds and hundreds of people who go downtown and participate," he said.
Tucker had a positive reaction to the meeting and said he hopes the two groups can collaborate on similar activities in the future.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/19/07 5:00am)
Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit agency that works globally to provide underprivileged families with affordable housing, seems an unlikely foe in a development battle.
But Wednesday's Town Council public hearing might spell peace between the nonprofit group and the Chapel Hill residents who long opposed its plans to put houses near their neighborhood at a development now dubbed Bradley Ridge.
The stir began in 2002, when Orange County Habitat for Humanity purchased a 17-acre tract of woodland near Sunset Road and Interstate 40. Homeowners nearby were miffed because the group had not consulted them before making a concept plan.
They opposed the plan's elimination of trees that buffer sound from the interstate and its call for duplexes, which they felt would change the look of the area.
"It scared the hell out of the neighbors," said Steve Herman, a member of the Sunrise Coalition, a group formed to contest Habitat's plans to build a development.
But Herman said it was troubling to be in conflict with the nonprofit.
"It was a hard position for me to take. I believe totally in what they're trying to do."
Worse, the group's objections to the plan's specifics were misinterpreted Herman said.
"They saw us as racist. There were letters and editorials that suggested that we were a neighborhood of prejudiced people, rich people in big houses that didn't want certain people in our neighborhood," he said.
"Early on, things were so hostile between the two groups, and we took snipes at each other at every opportunity."
But Wednesday, Habitat presented a new plan, and the Sunrise Coalition told the council it approves.
Council member Mark Kleinschmidt said he was surprised to see the groups in agreement.
"That is such an achievement," he said. "I can't overstate how remarkable that is given the struggle that this neighborhood has been engaged in over the last few years."
The new plan eliminates duplexes and has partnered the nonprofit with a commercial developer, Regions Development LLC, which will furbish roads, sewers and sidewalks. Habitat for Humanity will build about 40 single-family units in addition to homes proposed by Regions.
Susan Levy, executive director of the Orange County chapter of Habitat, called the partnership "a good, economical decision."
It also is beneficial for Regions Development, whose own development must include affordable housing under Chapel Hill zoning rules.
"This is the very beginning of the process in Chapel Hill, so we're kind of back to stage one," Levy said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(11/14/06 5:00am)
Chapel Hill residents and officials responded Monday to proposed modifications to the University's development plan.
At a Chapel Hill Town Council public hearing many residents expressed concerns about whether the plans would incorporate energy-efficient buildings and the University's commitment to reducing its reliance on carbon fuels.
The plan outlines new projects and improvements to the University's campus and facilities.
Included in the modifications are improvements to Boshamer Stadium, increased seating in place of the field house in Kenan Stadium, a parking deck near the bell tower and an addition to the Carolina Inn.
Residents who spoke also indicated widespread concern about the traffic impact on surrounding neighborhoods.
"My neighborhood has been a University parking lot for years," said Joyce Brown, a former council member who lives on Ransom Street.
Representatives for environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Students United for a Responsible Global Environment emphasized the need to consider environmentally-friendly methods at the planning stage.
Council members echoed the call for UNC to show a commitment to energy-efficient development.
"You're asked to self-impose a higher standard," Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom told the UNC representatives. "That's difficult, and it's expensive, but it's also really forward thinking."
Strom encouraged University planners to consider the concerns brought by residents at the meeting.
"I implore you to take them very seriously," he said.
University representatives responded to the concerns by saying that building designs have not been completed yet.
The plan also includes a project the University has begun that uses reclaimed water to help power its campus.
"It is our commitment to ramp up energy efficiency in our buildings," said Anna Wu, UNC director of facilities planning.
Council Member Cam Hill voiced doubts about the proposed addition to the Carolina Inn, which does not pay taxes to Chapel Hill.
"This will directly take away business from hotels in town that do pay property taxes."
Contact at the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(10/24/06 4:00am)
A proposal from Town Manager Roger Stancil to hire a consultant to assess Chapel Hill's technology needs and capabilities received mixed reviews at a Town Council meeting Monday.
Stancil proposed hiring RHJ Associates, a company he has worked with before.
Some council members complained that the firm's proposal was too general and did not offer enough technical information.
Another complaint was that RHJ's proposal did not include enough information about municipal wireless systems.
"I don't think they got the message that this was important to us," Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom said.
Council member Laurin Easthom said it might be in the council's best interest to look at other consultants.
"There are other consultants out there who might show more advanced technological knowledge on their proposal," she said.
The proposed cost of hiring RHJ would not exceed $40,000.
The firm's proposal also received criticism during the public comment phase of the discussion.
"I can tell you this proposal is a little bit dated," said Chapel Hill resident John Ager, whose background is in corporate information systems.
But Stancil vouched for RHJ's ability to serve the town.
"This particular consultant helps us to assess exactly where we are not only in terms of technology assessment but with our organizational structure," he said.
In addition to possibly hiring a consultant, the town also recently formed a committee to develop a master plan for technology.
Mayor Kevin Foy said the issue was not strictly about a town wireless program but about changes to the infrastructure.
"This is a proposal for internal work and contemporary assessment of where we stand," he said.
"Wireless may or may not come about in the future, but that's not what we're talking about here."
Other council members disagreed with him, saying that wireless access is a major reason for assessing town technology.
"I think we do need to be thinking about municipal wireless," council member Mark Kleinschmidt said. "I think the citizens who spoke articulated that need."
Council member Bill Thorpe weighed in to say he trusts Stancil's recommendation.
Thorpe made a motion to accept Stancil's proposal to hire RHJ.
Council member Jim Ward suggested the council defer a vote until RHJ provides more information.
Stancil said the information could be given at the council's next business meeting, which is Nov. 6.
Thorpe withdrew his motion until then.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(10/24/06 4:00am)
The Chapel Hill Town Council discussed a variety of topics at its meeting Monday night.
Ending panhandling
A task force appointed by the council during the summer to consider installing a "giving kiosk" in Chapel Hill to prevent panhandling came back with its recommendation.
Supporters wanted to create a kiosk that would accept money, which would be donated to charity.
Liz Parham, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said the group did not recommend adopting the kiosk.
The group advised that a broader committee should be established.
(10/23/06 4:00am)
Typically, politicians are pleased with developments that bring new jobs and business to a community.
(09/19/06 4:00am)
Residents of Hillsborough Street showed up at Chapel Hill Town Hall in full force Monday night to voice concerns about proposed changes to Town House Apartments.
The Chapel Hill Town Council heard a proposal to tear down the apartments, home to many UNC students, and replace them with permanent residences.
The project, called the Residences at Grove Park, would increase population density in the area considerably, which many residents said they found troublesome.
The site, located between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Hillsborough Street, currently has 111 housing units. The new property speculations would increase that number to 332.
Right now the idea is a concept plan. Florida-based Ram Development Co. has not yet submitted a formal application to the town.
Residents seemed most concerned about increased traffic on Hillsborough Street and changes to the character of the neighborhood.
"We literally and figuratively have bought into the concept of historical neighborhoods," said Nicole Calakos, who said she was speaking on behalf of her family.
More than 10 people approached the podium to speak about the plans. Many others made their opinions known with applause.
Though Town House Apartments draw many student renters, only one tenant showed up to protest the plan.
Chapel Hill realtor Bill Bracey said he thought students would continue to find a way to live in the development.
"Even if they cost $500,000, you'll have students' parents buying them," Bracey said.
But council member Ed Harrison was a little more irked about the potential effect on students.
"It does concern me that we are losing affordable rentals for students this close to campus," he said.
Hillsborough Street residents said that cars already travel dangerously fast on the street despite a blinking 25 mph sign that one resident complained was installed only after two years of requesting it.
"We like to laugh because even the city buses go faster than the speed limit," said Conrad Weiden, who lives on the street.
Members of the council all expressed their sympathy with residents' fears of amped-up traffic.
"This is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to Carolina North," said council member Cam Hill, referring to the projected impact of the University's planned satellite campus.
Several other developments on Hillsborough Street also threaten to increase vehicle use of the road.
"We need to understand these projects comprehensively and think about their impact on Hillsborough Street," Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/15/06 4:00am)
The Orange Water and Sewer Authority, which supplies water to much of Orange County, including the University, might raise the price of water significantly in the next few years.
Hikes in water prices are an annual occurrence, usually in the range of 5 to 6 percent, but several members of OWASA's board of directors have indicated that higher-than-normal increases could be on the horizon.
"We're facing some rate increases higher than we've been living with for a few years," said Milton Heath, a member of the OWASA board of directors who also is chairman of the financial planning committee.
A bigger increase in the price of water might accompany a structural reorganization of OWASA's rate systems, both of which could take effect as soon as October 2007.
The board voted Thursday to increase the debt services ratio, the ratio of assets to debts. To increase the amount of money in the pot, OWASA either has to raise prices or cut spending.
Board member Gordon Merklein, who voted for the measure, said it is important for OWASA's long-term financial viability.
"We don't want OWASA to get to a point where we are operating on the margin of financial stability," Merklein said.
Board member Terri Buckner said her dissenting vote was based on concerns about water's affordability.
"Water is becoming a scarce resource," Buckner said, "And we need to price it as such, but I personally think we ought to deal with the affordability for the community."
The way in which water prices are determined also might be changing.
During a presentation of the annual report Monday, Mac Clarke, chairman of the board of directors, told the Chapel Hill Town Council that OWASA is considering a system where those who use more water pay the most.
Clarke said OWASA is considering the changes because of several years of less than satisfactory revenues.
"We have to consider steps to restore our financial buffer, which has an effect on the rates because our only source of income is what the customer pay us," Clarke said.
A severe drought in 2001 and subsequent heavy rainfall stagnated water sales and revenue has not rebounded fast enough, Clarke said.
In his presentation to the council, Clarke said OWASA was exploring the possibility of overcoming financial stress by raising prices dramatically for a year or two, then bringing them back down.
Water currently costs $2.74 per 1,000 gallons from October through April and $5.20 per 1,000 gallons from May through September.
Clarke emphasized that the board had not yet discussed that option.
Clarke said Tuesday that some increase beyond the norm is likely, as is a restructuring of the rating system.
"I'm speculating here," he added, "Because I must emphasize the board has taken no decision in this area."
Typically, Clarke said, OWASA allows three months before rate decisions take effect.
Rate changes determined in June for the 2007-08 fiscal year would take effect Oct. 1, 2007.
Changes in pricing and rate structure won't be discussed at the board level until a study is completed in December.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/13/06 4:00am)
A longtime Chapel Hill Transit employee who lost her job driving a bus took her unusual case to the Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday, saying she just wants back the benefits she enjoyed as a driver.
Barbara Gear, 55, who has driven buses for the town since 1983, started working part time cleaning the transit department's office Monday.
Gear, who has seven grandchildren, has been blind in her right eye since her brother accidentally shot her with a makeshift bow and arrow when she was a child.
Despite her condition, the transit department hired her as a bus driver in 1983 after she moved to Chapel Hill from Fayetteville.
Gear was removed from her duties in late May after she was denied renewal of her Commercial Driver's License. She was granted a waiver excusing her from certain vision requirements in 2003, but the waiver expired in January.
She was out of work until July, when the transit department gave her a job driving a shuttle car, which does not require a special license. Now Gear has been moved again.
Gear has worked part time since she lost the bus-driving job, and said her hourly wages will decrease in two months from $16.74 to $12.50.
She said she is worried about her retirement because town benefits are set by an employee's salary at the date of retirement. She also said she no longer receives medical benefits.
N.C. Public Service Workers Union representative Ashaki Binta told the council that Gear lost her medical benefits, her scheduled work time and her status and that she deserved better treatment.
"We don't want her to lose the benefits she has accrued," Binta said.
Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos advised the council not to discuss the affair at its public meeting, and Mayor Kevin Foy referred the matter back to Karpinos and Town Manager Roger Stancil.
But Council Member Mark Kleinschmidt said that on the face of it, the town's treatment of Gear sounds like "business practice that I don't want to be a part of."
Gear said she didn't mind her new job, but that she would rather have a job driving the shuttle car.
"Since the day everything happened people have been in prayer with me for a good outcome."
Transportation Director Steve Spade said that he was not able to discuss a personnel matter with anyone other than the employee.
"I really can't comment except to say that we are working to provide answers to the council."
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/12/06 4:00am)
The Chapel Hill Town Council met for its first business meeting of the year Monday night.
Monday also was the first meeting for Chapel Hill's new town manager, Roger Stancil.
Stancil was hired to replace longtime town manager Cal Horton, who retired Sept. 1.
Stancil was not especially vocal during the meeting but provided feedback when asked.
Water prices flowing
The Orange Water and Sewer Authority presented its quarterly report to the council Monday.
(08/25/06 4:00am)
Environmental concerns again framed disagreement between town and University officials Thursday at a meeting of the Carolina North Leadership Advisory Committee.
(08/19/06 4:00am)
June 29 - UNC's neighbors have taken another step in their quest to get protection from the town against development that could change the face of their neighborhood.
The Chapel Hill Town Council moved June 26 toward adopting a set of building regulations for the Mason Farm neighborhood, which borders campus to the south.
The council voted to offer a contract to Clarion Associates LLC, a local consulting firm, to work with residents and property owners to determine exactly what those regulations would be.
"We've got to protect ourselves; otherwise, we'll be a rooming-house area," said Lee McIlwain, head of the Mason Farm neighborhood association.
Residents want the town to adopt a neighborhood conservation district for Mason Farm, an overlay district which would prevent developers from subdividing lots and converting homes into apartments, among other measures to preserve the look of a neighborhood.
McIlwain and another Mason Farm resident, Diana Steele, spoke at the meeting in support of a district for Mason Farm.
Steele, a UNC alumnus who lives on Mason Farm Road, said she fears losing her property to University expansion and eminent domain laws.
"The University is trying to double the size of Mason Farm Road," she said. "That would take my house."
Steele and McIlwain said they had no problems with the students who live in their neighborhood.
"They're wonderful," Steele said.
While the regulations brought on by the district would make it harder for developers to build apartments and subdivide lots, it would probably not protect Mason Farm from University projects.
Roger Waldon, a senior executive for Clarion Associates and former town planning director, said the district will not apply to state-owned land.
"State law tells us that zoning overlay does not apply to state-owned property," he said.
Jonathan Howes, special assistant to the chancellor for community affairs, also said the district would not obstruct plans for University development of the area.
Howes said that the University would like to see the road widened but that the decision was up to the N.C. Dept. of Transportation.
"We have always called in our campus Master Plan for a new main entrance to the campus somewhere on the Mason Farm Road," Howes said.
McIlwain, a retired professor of cell and molecular physiology at UNC, said he supports the interests of the University and its need for expansion.
"We just don't want to see our neighborhood gobbled up," he said.
Clarion recently worked for Chapel Hill in developing NCDs for the Pine Knolls, Greenwood and Morgan Creek neighborhoods.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(08/19/06 4:00am)
June 15 - Student Body President James Allred addressed the Chapel Hill Town Council on June 12 to voice his concern about a town initiative to protect Chapel Hill neighborhoods from overdevelopment.
Despite Allred's request, the council voted to create three neighborhood conservation districts in the Greenwood, Morgan Creek-Kings Road and Pine Knolls neighborhoods.
The council decided to delay a decision on Coker Hills, another neighborhood that might become a conservation district.
It was the second time since taking office that Allred has spoken to the council. The first was to speak in defense of postgame and Halloween celebrations.
At a public hearing session regarding the creation of neighborhood conservation districts, Allred voiced his concern that the initiative - which is designed to create regulations to hinder developers from altering existing buildings and changing the face of neighborhoods - would drive up rents for students.
"I'd ask you not to adopt these districts, or at least not yet," Allred said.
Several representatives of homeowners organizations spoke in favor of the measures, saying they would benefit the community.
However, Jaye Kreller, a realtor who lives in Coker Hills, said many residents do not think the restrictions will achieve their goal of keeping out developers.
"The setbacks are so restrictive that it could stop reasonable people from making reasonable improvements, thereby making us more susceptible to developers," she said.
Allred told the council that he was not speaking as a resident of Pine Knolls, one of the neighborhoods that would be affected by the change, but as a representative for University students.
"It's a question of who rents, and yes, it is the students that rent," he said.
Allred said he feared the restrictions would drive up demand for apartments, thereby raising rents.
"This is something that appears to favor owners of properties and disproportionately hurts renters."
Allred added that he thought the creation of neighborhood conservation districts would also decrease the availability of affordable housing.
"Most often the people who rent are the ones who can't afford to drive to school," he said.
"There are good merits to these districts, but I think it's important to come to some sort of a compromise that addresses the interests of both of these groups."
Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom said later that Allred's worries were a bit unfounded, since the council had removed lot size restrictions for the districts before creating them.
Removing restrictions will probably allow for many more apartment complexes to be built, Strom said.
"I think it's a stretch to say that the NCDs are going to negatively impact students.
"That said, it's a pleasure to see the student body president. I hope he'll continue to be involved in town policy."
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.