The Town Council adopted the so-called “text amendments,” which radically rezone single-family neighborhoods by permitting developers to build duplex apartment buildings of up to 3,000 square feet on single-family lots, was approved by a vote of 6 to 3 at the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, June 21. The following account relies on Don Liner’s report of the meeting.“The final changes will serve the seemingly insatiable market for student housing near campus or in neighborhoods near bus lines. Other neighborhoods full of modest family homes will be vulnerable to having large, overbearing duplexes built on lots that now contain much smaller, relatively affordable houses.
The vote. Adam Searing, who had opposed rezoning since the beginning, voted no. Amy Ryan, who had supported the rezoning proposal since the beginning, voted no. Perhaps her vote had something to do with her being up for re-election in November. Camille Berry, who had supported rezoning all along and spoke in favor of it on Wednesday, voted no. Go figure.
Haphazardness. The final vote was marked by haphazardness, confusion, and seat-of-the-pants government. You can see for yourself by watching the video of the meeting. The link to the full video is here: The public hearing, discussion, and voting begin about 1:04 (video time) and extend to 2:50. The council’s haphazardness and confusion about what they were voting for can be witnessed beginning at 2:35.50.
Of course, the rezoning proposal itself was haphazard because there had not been adequate study of the likely effects of the proposal on family neighborhoods and in particular the effects of student housing on family neighborhoods near campus or those near bus lines. The planning staff had stated that studying the effects of student housing demand on neighborhoods would require more time. No account was taken of the many neighborhoods that have modest, relatively affordable family houses that will be torn down and replaced with 3,000 square feet duplexes (for example, the first two blocks of Barclay Road, north of Umstead on MLK Boulevard, have 41 houses that average less than 1200 square feet).
The potential harm was finally recognized. On June 15, six days before the vote, Mayor Hemminger and two council members, Jess Anderson and Amy Ryan, finally acknowledged the harm that rezoning could cause by calling for “guardrails” and other measures. Those measures included developing a design book (cookie-cutter duplexes?), imposing parking limits, and excluding duplexes in historic districts. Their memo is attached.
So as the vote was being called, Amy Ryan offered some friendly amendments, including an amendment regarding parking space limits for duplexes. Consternation ensued. Did they want a minimum or a maximum parking requirement? More confusion. Even after the voting had begun, the planning staff had to interrupt to get clarification about what they were voting for. Obviously no one had thought much about this issue beforehand.
The final amendment was to limit parking spaces to four spaces for a whole duplex. No one mentioned that the student-stuffer duplexes already built have eight bedrooms, so we can probably expect the renters to have eight cars themselves and also have visitors in cars. So, will the extra cars park on the street or on the lawn?
Takeaways. First, we need a better and more serious town council if we are to save Chapel Hill from further depredations by developers. We can make some of the changes we need in the fall election, when the mayor’s seat and four council seats will be open. Candidates must file with the Board of Elections between July 7 and 21. Adam Searing has already announced his candidacy for mayor, and we know there are well-qualified candidates willing to serve on the council.”
The sad fact is that now the only defense against the invasion of the developers is for single family home owners to obtain restrictive covenants.