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Claremont plans worry public

Posted on June 21, 2012June 27, 2012 by Susan Dickson

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

CARRBORO – Following the April approval of the second iteration of Claremont South, the developer has again proposed revising the development, this time such that it could include a hotly contested charter school.

On Tuesday, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen reviewed only the affordable-housing component of the project, proposed for 38 acres on the south side of Homestead Road, north of Wexford. The board had been previously scheduled to consider an expedited review of the modified project, but the developer withdrew that request late last week and has yet to submit a formal application for the modifications.

In 2009, the board approved Claremont Phases IV and V, which were proposed to include 96 residential units on the same property. However, Omar Zinn of Parker Louis LLC, the developer, returned to the board in 2010 to discuss the state of the housing market, and then worked to develop a revised proposal including 92 single-family residences and a small commercial component, which the board approved in April.

Earlier this month, Zinn came back to the town with early plans to again revise the project to increase the amount of commercial land, add a charter school to the site, change a portion of the housing to either townhomes or apartments and increase the overall density to 117 residential units.

Zinn said the residential units would consist of 37 single-family homes and 70 to 80 multi-family units, either townhomes or apartments. Twenty-five percent of the units would be size-limited units, per the town’s requirements. The town requires developers to either include 25 percent size-limited units or 15 percent affordable housing.

When developers choose not to include affordable housing, they are required to meet with the board to discuss it. More details regarding the project will come back before the board in the fall, after the application has been formalized.

In the meantime, neighbors, school-district officials and others have expressed concern about the inclusion of the charter school in the project. The school – the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School – has been the subject of controversy since its application was first submitted to the state, receiving criticism from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP. Both organizations have raised concerns about the school’s for-profit management company, National Heritage Academies, and say the school targets minority students, which would lower diversity rates in schools.

The school received fast-track approval to open this fall from the State Board of Education earlier this year, but reapplied to open in 2013 after notifying the state Department of Public Instruction that it would need to delay its opening after having experienced delays finding a site.

The board of aldermen did not discuss the school component of the project or any other details on Tuesday, saying they could not consider details of the project other than its affordable-housing component until the application is formalized, given the quasi-judicial nature of hearings surrounding conditional-use permits.

Several neighbors of the project spoke to the board regarding their concerns, but were repeatedly urged by the board only to discuss the project’s affordable housing.

Resident Miriam Thompson was critical of the lack of affordable housing in the project, saying that student rentals are taking over what remains of affordable rentals.

“They are not providing affordable housing to the people that I represent,” including children who “are being traumatized because they are being displaced,” she said.

Julie McClintock, president of the Friends of Bolin Creek, began to speak regarding environmental impacts of stormwater runoff on Bolin Creek, but was asked to hold her comments until the fall.

“I’m really concerned that you’re putting us in a vulnerable legal position,” board member Jacquie Gist said in response to McClintock’s attempted comments.

Neighbors also asked for increased transparency in the development process.

2 thoughts on “Claremont plans worry public”

  1. Chris Weaver says:
    June 25, 2012 at 8:26 am

    It would be nice in these type of reports that certain terms be defined so that the public may not be lulled into the vague parameters of them. One such term is “Affordable housing” . With out a set definition, repeated at every use…How is any one person to understand what this REALLY means?
    Hey….we are talking the land of “free” buses here…as the public become used to “free lunch”…what’s the leap in projecting these European ideals into terms like “Affordable Housing”?
    Affordable to WHOM?
    This implies application of parameters established by one set of people, For/Upon a target set of people, so that the first set can enforce parameters upon ANOTHER set of people(developers), for the purpose assuaging not only the burden for the target population but equally the empathetic heartstrings…. of those dictating the the rules. This type of top down control is fraught with generalities that are often not based in reality and work against the capitalist free markets (what remains of).
    What is affordable to an outside controlling source, and what one is willing to pay…in an environment massaged by European “free stuff” ideals is not a formula for success for any party…certainly not SELF-sustaining.

    I love the creativity of this Developer. In one paragraph, this reporter shows us the mind of a creative thinker(s) and their independence in thinking of new solutions to changing markets. The Freedom in which they address changing markets is only limited by the constraints, restrictions, fee structures,taxes and fostered public sentiment that historically is resistant to their profession….yet they persist.

    This Independence day I will raise a glass to all throughout the Nation and particularly in Orange County NC …that in creativity, independence, and remaining liberty…and orchestrated resistance….persist in their pursuit of the American Dream.
    Chris Weaver

  2. Dan Coleman says:
    June 27, 2012 at 6:51 pm

    Although I certainly cannot claim to understand all of the subtleties of the above post, I can answer the question “affordable to whom?”

    As is understood by most who’ve paid attention over the past decade or more, our inclusionary housing strategy is based primarily on placing units in the Community Home Trust that are affordable to those making no more than 80% of the area median income.

    That said, I am curious about the seeming criticism of “top down control.” Affordable housing might be created by the “top down” initiative of a developer or by the “top down” requirements of a democratically elected local government body.

    A “bottom up” approach would imply that those needing the housing would have the ability to both articulate and satisfy their needs. If Mr. Weaver has ideas on how place land, materials, skills, and organizational capacity in the hands of those who currently do not have access to them, I am sure the Board of Aldermen would be interested. But it should be pointed out that almost all of us live in homes created with one of the “top down” mechanisms.

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