Evaluate Impacts & Benefits of Multiple Development Scenarios for Obey Creek
- Target:
- Chapel Hill Town Council
- Region:
- United States of America
In 2013, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted to enter into a Development Agreement process with Obey Creek Ventures to negotiate development specifications for a site located on South 15-501, across from the Southern Village (SV) Park & Ride and Southern Area Community Park.
The developer's proposal envisions a large project concentrated on 34 acres:
• Up to 1.6 million sq ft of buildings; this is five times larger than SV Market Street mixed-use core and 20% larger than Southpoint Mall.
• An additional 1.0 million sq ft of parking for more than 3800 parking spaces.
• Building heights ranging from 3 to 8 stories (up to height 120').
• Buildings similar in density and height to the UNC Hospital Campus.
• 90% increase in 15-501 traffic at Market Street and Sumac Road intersections, adding more than 16,000 trips per day.
The purpose of this petition is to encourage Town Council, their staff and consultants to evaluate additional options and to use the resulting information to negotiate an optimal outcome for the town and its residents.
Dear Mayor and Town Council:
As tax-paying citizens of Chapel Hill, we are concerned about the size and scale proposed by Obey Creek Ventures for southern Chapel Hill, and we believe Town Council will make a better decision if it evaluates more options than the minimum and maximum scenarios in the current proposal.
Therefore, we respectfully ask that Town Council engage their Technical Team to evaluate the impacts and benefits of multiple scenarios for development of the Obey Creek parcels so that Council can weigh the trade-offs between its competing priorities. A finer-grained understanding of the possibilities will enable Council to negotiate a better Development Agreement.
At a minimum, Council should request calculations for traffic generation and net revenue to the town for the following sized mixed-use developments, each with no more than 50 percent of square footage allowed for residential use:
450,000 sq ft (50% larger than the size of Southern Village mixed-use Core)
800,000 sq ft
1,000,000 sq ft
It is our belief that this level of due diligence - weighing the financial costs/ benefits to the town against the negative effects of traffic congestion and change in character of southern Chapel Hill - is in the best interest of both southern Chapel Hill and the town as a whole. Please make an informed decision.
Sincerely,
Citizens of Southern Chapel Hill
The Evaluate Impacts & Benefits of Multiple Development Scenarios for Obey Creek petition to Chapel Hill Town Council was written by Citizens of Southern Chapel Hill and is in the category Local Government at GoPetition.