By Mindy Morton
On June 19 the developers of Claremont South subdivision, Parker Louis LLC, are going to ask the Carrboro Board of Aldermen to expedite the process of obtaining a conditional-use permit. Their hope is to be able to sell their parcel of land to the National Heritage Academies for the purpose of constructing the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School.
This charter school has already faced controversy from our community. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education and local chapter of the NAACP oppose the school, saying that it is not needed in this county. The school is not needed in our district, and the impact of the school will actually do more harm than good. Since the school cannot be built by August 2012, their current State Board of Education application is now null and void. They have submitted a new application, stating that the school’s delay was due to difficulties in obtaining land. The parcel of land off Homestead Road is land they needed. However, if the application is not approved and the land is already being prepped for the school site, we will end up with empty land or, worse, an empty building filling our landscape.
This location for the school is also being opposed by many neighboring subdivisions. The traffic concerns that already exist due to added day-care centers and the number of high school drivers along Homestead Road are very troubling to the citizens in this area. If this conditional-use permit is expedited by the board of aldermen, a rushed traffic study may not best express the issues the increased traffic will create. Charter schools don’t provide busing, so the parents bringing their students to school would add tremendously to the congestion at drop-off and pick-up time. There is no public transportation at this end of Homestead Road either, so a “greener†alternative is not an option.
Heavy exhaust fumes and wasted gas by parents are not the only environmental concerns involved with the placement of this school. It is being opposed by the Friends of Bolin Creek and other environmental-protection agencies. There are horned owls that live in the forests around this parcel of land. There are also large numbers of deer, foxes and other wildlife that would lose their habitats if this area of land were to be plowed down. The land is adjacent to Bolin Creek, a tributary of Jordan Lake. The Bolin Creek watershed has been identified by the State Division of Water Quality as a 303(d) impaired stream. Many EPA grants have been obtained and battles fought to keep our watershed areas clean and unpolluted.
Carrboro is required by state law to reduce nutrient loading into Jordan Lake by 35 percent total nitrogen and 5 percent total phosphorous. Of the three sub-watersheds feeding Jordan Lake, this one has the largest nutrient reduction requirements. The Claremont South development as it is proposed contains a very high level of impervious surface. Though some aids have been proposed by the developer to help with runoff, they do not address the total volume of the stormwater entering the creek or the erosion that would occur.
With so much opposition from our town’s leaders and neighboring residents, I believe the board of aldermen should not act in haste.
Aldermen, please consider these land and zoning changes carefully. Do not expedite the conditional-use permit. Take your time and be sure this is what is best for everyone and everything in our town.
Readers, please let the Carrboro aldermen know of your concerns for our community and how you’d like to see the changes in our area addressed. It is up to all of us to let our concerns be known, so our elected officials can act in the best interests of everyone.
Mindy Morton is a resident of Claremont.
I agree with this article. The environmental impact of this development will have far reaching effects on water quality and the general creek environment. I also think that this particular charter school will be siphoning off state school funds and sending them out of state to a Michigan corporation. These are tax dollars paid by residents to educate our students. It would represent a large loss of revenue to our own public school system. I am concerned about the sudden rush to change building plans . As of last month, these plans did not exist, so why is there a sudden rush to expedite? Shouldn’t plans that effect the environment and our community be well thought out and judiciously reviewed?
The applicant has withdrawn this item from the Board of Aldermen agenda for next week. It will not be rescheduled until the fall. Thus there should be plenty of time to consider the merits of the proposal one way of the other.
Those concerned about the charter school need to be aware that, when deliberating land use decisions, the Board of Aldermen cannot consider who a tenant will be for a property. This is true whether the prospective tenant is Hampton Inn, Lee School, CVS, or PTA Thrift Shop. We have to consider whether the proposed land use is best for the welfare of the town and whether it meets the requirements of the Land Use Ordinance.