Update: We corrected the stormwater mitigation cost estimate for the lot behind the KFC on East Main Street to between $100,000 and $200,000.
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
While stopping short of calling outright for a Chapel Hill-style special taxation district for downtown, Mayor Mark Chilton and members of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen said maintaining plentiful, free parking downtown will be difficult if funded only by the town.
At a work session on parking at Town Hall Tuesday night, the board reviewed a parking study being conducted in conjunction with the town by university planning students. The study will examine the availability, use and future projections for downtown public and private lots, and town planners are hoping it will deliver some additional insights into solving an anticipated crunch for parking spaces as downtown develops.
At least two projects in the pipeline will reduce spaces in widely used privately owned parking lots downtown — a lot leased by the town adjacent to the rail line on East Main Street and a portion of the Carr Mill Mall lot on Roberson Street.
A more in-depth review of parking was initiated after the developers of Roberson Place, at the corner of Greensboro and Roberson streets, asked for less parking than current rules require. That move was met with protests, with several residents and business owners writing to the board asking that the development not be granted a reduction in parking.
The board of aldermen held a lengthy discussion on parking at its recent retreat, sketching out a list of discussion points including:
• the importance of free public parking;
• striking a balance between accommodating people who drive downtown versus encouraging everyone to drive downtown;
• a desire to maintain an environment where people can park and walk to multiple businesses;
• a desire to look at multi-modal solutions;
• interest in the Blue Urban Bikes program;
• integrating public transit;
• residential parking permits for downtown neighborhoods;
• the need to understand fiscal implications of any proposal.
The town is also collecting responses to a parking survey sent to local businesses.
On Tuesday, Chilton said that if the board is serious about maintaining free parking, it will have to find a way to pay for it that’s fair.
Chapel Hill charges downtown property owners 9 cents per $100 valuation to help pay for services and infrastructure and fund its downtown commission.
Board member Jacquie Gist asked whether the town should consider a similar method to fund parking infrastructure.
Board member Dan Coleman said the town may also have to consider fees for some spaces – possibly some of the on-street parking.
Chilton said the town will have to strike a balance.
“Downtown parking benefits everyone,†he said, “but to different degrees.â€
Since businesses downtown will receive a major share of the benefit, Chilton said, asking the business owners to help pay for the cost should be considered. Chilton also suggested that the town consider working with developers who are planning to build parking decks as part of their projects. Chilton said he knows of at least two projects in which decks are being contemplated.
The scarcity of suitable sites and the cost of adding space were underlined at the meeting in a brief presentation by James Harris, the town’s community and economic development director, on the potential for a new town-leased lot behind the KFC on East Main Street. Fixing the lot to comply with stormwater rules would cost between $100,000 and $200,000 for roughly 26
additional spaces.
Town Manager Steve Stewart noted that estimate was before repair and improvements to the lot itself, which is not now in usable shape. That and the small number of spaces the town would gain make the project unlikely, he said.
In other action Tuesday night, the board reviewed a set of proposals from the Northern Study Area Plan Implementation Review Committee for how to proceed with planning for the 3,800-acre Northern Study Area.
With one objective being to identify potential commercial spaces, the committee named three areas as ripe for a mixed-use development. The three sites are the 64-acre Hogan tract on Homestead Road, the 59-acre Hogan Heirs tract bordering Twin Creeks Park and Duke Forest and a 27-acre tract on the corner of Eubanks Road and Old N.C. 86 that is proposed for development by Adam and Omar Zinn.
But the 17-member committee had a difficult time agreeing on several other recommendations and forwarded to the board competing proposals for how to proceed. One controversial idea is to allow for small-scale commercial development along the major arterial roads. Another would eliminate the west side of Old N.C. 86 from consideration for the next round of development.
Chilton, a member of the committee, said he would like to see the area west of Old N.C. 86 downzoned to prevent it from being developed for a number of years. Coleman agreed with Chilton, saying that the area should grow more slowly.
But board member Joal Hall Broun said she was wary of the idea and that it might lead to sparse, large-lot development in an area that might work for commercial or denser development. Broun asked that a site on the west side of Old N.C. 86 that the committee said might be suitable for commercial development be added to the list of potential mixed-use sites to give residents in the area an indication that it might be possible.
Broun said the town should initiate a discussion with landowners in the area and the community at-large about the idea.
The board agreed that a community forum or a public hearing should be held on the ideas for the Northern Study Area to help flesh out community concerns and committee members’ ideas on the how to move forward.