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Shopping center wins OK

Posted on September 27, 2007September 27, 2007 by Staff

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

After hearing from residents of Lincoln Park and after a lengthy discussion and debate, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen gave final approval Tuesday night to the Shoppes at Jones Ferry.

The final vote was 6 to 1, with Alderman Joal Hall Broun the lone dissenter.

Plans for the project, located on 7.71 acres now being used as a construction yard for contractor Calvin Mellott, include an “L”-shaped row of shops and a Harris Teeter grocery store.


The developer, Northwest Property, wants to construct three buildings on the site — the 52,250-square-foot Harris Teeter, a 17,550-square-foot building that could house 11 shops and a 7,900-square-foot building that could house five shops. The plan also includes roughly 350 parking spaces.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the project continued to draw criticism from residents on Barnes Street and elsewhere in the Lincoln Park neighborhood who are concerned about its effect on traffic and the overall character of the neighborhood.

Several residents also said the town has not done an adequate job of keeping the neighbors informed about the project.

Elizabeth Carter, a Lincoln Park resident and a member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education, said the town needs to “go the extra mile” to make sure that those who live in the neighborhood, many of whom are retired, are kept informed.

“We’re a small, quiet neighborhood,” Carter said. “But as you heard here tonight, we can make some noise.”

The comments of many of those from the neighborhood were punctuated with “Amens” from those gathered in opposition to the project.

Robert Dow said the plan doesn’t make sense given the number of grocery stores already in the area.
“Carrboro can do better than this,” he said, “”both in terms of process and the space itself.”

Lindsay Griffin, a Barnes Street resident who last week helped gather 70 names on a petition, asked the board to remember that her street is a critical thoroughfare for the neighborhood.

“It’s our only way in and out,” she said, arguing that adding store traffic would make the already congested traffic situation get “really bad, really quickly.”

The criticism did not sway the board from eventually approving the project, but it did lead to a major modification — the town will require that a planned entrance on Barnes Street be accessible for emergency vehicles only.

The compromise came after aldermen Jacquie Gist, Dan Coleman and Joal Hall Broun all said they would not approve the project with an entrance on Barnes Street.

At last week’s hearing on the matter, representatives of the developer said that Harris Teeter officials would not proceed with the store location unless there were an entrance on Barnes as well as a main entrance on Jones Ferry Road.

The board briefly considered giving the project’s planners time to talk through the compromise with the company, but after learning that the contract on the parcel would expire before the next board meeting, the aldermen decided to move forward.

After reopening the public hearing to see if an ingress-only option or an emergency-only option would pass muster, the board decided to approve the plans, but included the emergency-only on Barnes Street condition.

The final working of the permit conditions did not address what might happen should a traffic light be installed at the Barnes Street and Jones Ferry Road intersection. Board members noted that should a light be put in, the owners of the shopping center could come back to the board seeking a modification of the plan.

Broun said one of the lessons she hopes the town will take away from the hearing is that some of the long-range planning done for downtown and the northern growth areas has been lacking elsewhere.
The board of aldermen also agreed to reconsider proposed sidewalks for Barnes Street.

1 thought on “Shopping center wins OK”

  1. J Gist says:
    September 28, 2007 at 12:34 pm

    An update
    The developer has decided not to go ahead with the project because we would not allow them to have anything other then emergency access on the Barnes St side.So this development will not happen
    JAcquie Gist,Alderman

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