
{"id":16211,"date":"2011-02-24T11:39:14","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T16:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=16211"},"modified":"2011-02-24T11:39:14","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T16:39:14","slug":"aydan-court-still-draws-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/02\/24\/aydan-court-still-draws-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Aydan Court still draws concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The last time developer Carol Ann Zinn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Aydan Court project was reviewed in a public hearing, she and then-Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy engaged in a heated colloquy after the mayor and council appeared ready to reject a rezoning request for the project.<\/p>\n<p>Zinn castigated the council and said she had been misled by them during a preliminary review of the project. Foy, in an uncharacteristic display of anger, strongly disagreed.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday night at Town Hall, a different mayor and council opened a public hearing on the latest iteration of the project, which is located on 5.8 acres off N.C. 54, across from the Downing Creek Parkway.<\/p>\n<p>The new plan calls for 90 condominiums in three three-story buildings and 146 parking spaces.<\/p>\n<p>Zinn and engineer Bruce Ballentine sought to assure the council that the new plan took into account longstanding worries about the development\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proximity to nearby Jordan Lake gamelands and the Upper Little Creek waterfowl impoundment, which is adjacent to the site.<\/p>\n<p>Ballentine said it was a challenge to take into account concerns raised by the council in the previous plan but still make it economically viable. He stressed that although the project is far denser than the current zoning on the site allows, the design affords greater protections from stormwater runoff and other impacts than if the project were to be a cluster of about 15 large homes, as the zoning now allows.<\/p>\n<p>Although the plan is new, objections raised during the hearing were familiar, part of that driven by a recent review of the property that puts most of it within a state natural heritage area because it is part of the area\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dwindling reserves of bottomland habitat. <\/p>\n<p>Del Snow called the idea \u00e2\u20ac\u0153misguided\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and said the new design should not change the fact that the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s natural areas need to be preserved.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mitigation of damage should not be considered protection,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she told the council.<\/p>\n<p>Julie McClintock and Madeline Jefferson of Neighbors for Responsible Growth said the plan, which would require a change in zoning by the council, contemplates far more density than anticipated for the area throughout several long-range planning efforts. The site\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s R-1 zoning, McClintock said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is not a holding zone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and she asked that the council not change the zone nor grant a requested exception to the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steep-slope rules.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153An exemption should be for exceptional circumstances,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not for 90 condos on natural heritage land.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Council member Ed Harrison said he was concerned that the project would add density along the N.C. 54 corridor but was too far away from a transit stop to be able to take advantage of commuter buses.<\/p>\n<p>Zinn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal also included a request to swap some or all of the project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affordable-housing component for a payment in lieu.<\/p>\n<p>Both Robert Dowling, executive director of Orange Community Housing, and Habitat for Humanity director Susan Levy urged the council to consider their organizations\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 growing needs for maintenance funds as well as indications that state and federal housing money is likely to drop significantly this year.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Matt Czajkowski agreed with an assessment by Dowling that the affordable condominium units that have come on line in the past few years are not as favored by families. He said the agencies need the funds more than more condos.<\/p>\n<p>The council recessed the hearing until March 28.<\/p>\n<p>In other action Monday night, the council reviewed a proposal driven by the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economic-development office that would allow 11 major commercial centers around town to increase the size of theirs signs as well as the information they contain.<\/p>\n<p>Current rules limit the size of the signs to an overall area of 15 square feet and a height of 8 feet and limit information on the signs to 10 items (words, graphics and symbols) and the number of anchor tenants that can be listed to three.<\/p>\n<p>The new proposal would remove the limits on information that can be displayed and increase the overall area to 216 feet, with the display area ranging from 50 square feet for centers on 35 mph roads and 72 square feet for centers on 45 mph roads. The height of the signs would also be raised to 10-12 feet depending on the speed limit of the adjacent street.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal, which was drafted partly in response to a request from University Mall owner Madison Marquette as part of its upfit of the mall, took some council members aback.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Sally Greene said the jump seemed extreme, noting that the 216-foot maximum was larger than Durham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n<p>Chapel Hill Economic Development director Dwight Bassett said the sign change is needed because the current rules are far too inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What you see with most shopping centers is signage that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t identify the tenants,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The 11 commercial centers that would be allowed to take advantage of the proposed change include Chapel Hill North, East 54, Eastgate, Mark Properties on Elliot Road, Glenwood Square, Meadowmont, Rams Plaza, Southern Village, Timberlyne, University Mall and Village Plaza (Whole Foods).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last time developer Carol Ann Zinn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Aydan Court project was reviewed in a public hearing, she and then-Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy engaged in a heated colloquy after the mayor and council appeared ready to reject a rezoning request for the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16229,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211\/revisions\/16229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}