
{"id":16884,"date":"2011-03-24T10:32:14","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T14:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=16884"},"modified":"2011-03-24T10:32:14","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T14:32:14","slug":"community-house-plans-debated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/03\/24\/community-house-plans-debated\/","title":{"rendered":"Community House plans debated"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16886\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16886\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/03\/24\/community-house-plans-debated\/img_23981\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16886\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_23981.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"IMG_23981\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16886\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_23981.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_23981-113x75.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_23981-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_23981-120x80.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16886\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY KIRK ROSS. Council members look on as architect Josh Gurlitz describes the IFC plans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The public hearing on the Inter-Faith Council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed Community House opened Monday night to a packed house, as IFC supporters and those opposed to a the facility\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s location filled not just the main meeting room of Chapel Hill Town Hall but an overflow room and the town employee break room.<\/p>\n<p>Residents of neighborhoods around the proposed location near the intersection of Homestead Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard sported \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Better Site\u00e2\u20ac\u009d stickers, while Community House backers wore buttons with the address \u00e2\u20ac\u01531315 MLK\u00e2\u20ac\u009d above a rendering of its front door.<\/p>\n<p>The evening opened with a presentation of the IFC plans, which call for a two-story 16,250-square-foot building, proposed for a 1.8-acre university-owned parcel. UNC is providing the property at virtually no cost.<\/p>\n<p>Housing would be located on the second floor, which would include a dormitory with beds for 20 residents and smaller rooms to be shared by either two or four men, with a total of 32 beds. The IFC also wants to make a downstairs meeting area useable as an emergency shelter for up to 17 men.<\/p>\n<p>IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presentation was followed by a presentation by residents near the site who have used the website abettersite.org to rally neighbors against the location. The group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s main concern is that the new facility combined with other nearby facilities places an unfair burden on their neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Several speakers Monday night said that with Freedom House, a substance-abuse recovery center, and IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Project Homestart, a transitional shelter for women and families, nearby, it is too much to ask neighborhoods like Parkside, Rainbow Heights, North Forest Hills and others to take on another facility. Other chief concerns included Community House\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proximity to Homestead Park and several preschools and the inclusion of the 17 emergency beds, which they said would allow intoxicated men to stay at the facility.<\/p>\n<p>IFC supporters reiterated that Community House\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s main role will be as transitional housing to get homeless men back on their feet. Chris Moran, IFC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s executive director, said the organization wants to see another emergency shelter in the area and would likely use the 17 cots on hazardous weather nights.<\/p>\n<p>Council members acknowledged that the emergency beds were a sticking point.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Matt Czajkowski said if the IFC could find a way to drop them from their plans \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there would be rejoicing throughout the community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He also said he was concerned about the proximity of the facility to Homestead Park.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Donna Bell said one possibility would be for the emergency shelter to expire at some point to give neighbors some certainty and IFC and others greater urgency in finding an alternative.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of council members also agreed that a mechanism for maintaining a Good Neighbor Plan worked out with representatives of local neighborhoods and law enforcement be written into the facility\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s special-use permit.<\/p>\n<p>The council agreed to resume the public hearing on the matter on May 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The public hearing on the Inter-Faith Council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed Community House opened Monday night to a packed house &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":16886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16884","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=16884"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16926,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16884\/revisions\/16926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}