For Immediate Release Press Contact: Elliot Baron (919) 357-7804
November 10, 2008 email: [email protected]
Southern Village Developer Wants to Rezone Open Space
Neighbors resist D.R. Bryan and John Fugo plan for commercial hotel in parking lot
Chapel Hill, N.C. – In Southern Village, a number of neighbors are organizing against a scheme to rezone open space to permit developers D.R. Bryan and John Fugo to build a hotel in the middle of the community’s commercial center. Over 100 residents have signed a petition in opposition. The proposal on file with the Town of Chapel Hill, calls for a structure up to six stories tall, which would be twice the height of surrounding buildings on Market Street. The landscaped parking lot presently provides convenient access for customers visiting offices, restaurants, shops, or the local grocery co-op, Weaver Street Market.
The proposed hotel will eliminate open parking and require people to park in underground facilities with limited parking spots. Traditionally, this type of parking is unattractive, due to safety and logistics, to people with disabilities, elderly, single women and families with children.
Commercial development in Southern Village was officially completed in 2005, when the final building, which houses Harrington Bank and Chapel Hill Pediatrics, exhausted the remaining allocation of office and retail space under the original development agreement.
‘Open space is the trade off for increased density. Now that the surrounding area is built to a higher level, D.R. Bryan wants to return to the open area that made that possible and add a massive new building,” observed resident Elliot Baron, of Westside Drive.
‘The proposed change in zoning would significantly change the quality of life in Southern Village forever. The hotel would be within two blocks of an elementary school, and change outdoor, safe parking to enclosed, less safe parking,” writes Dierdre Imershein on Parkview Crescent.
‘The village is already overbuilt, there is very little space to breath, with the exception of the green… which produces both a feeling of distance and safety. The proposed plan would eliminate connecting streets… further contradicting the initial visions and description of Market Street consisting of ‘Attractive two-and three story buildings [according to its own literature] adds Aysenil Belger, a Glade Street resident.
Many residents’ feelings were summed up by Ann Bohner on Overlake Drive who writes, ‘The very size of the proposed hotel and underground parking contradict the idea of living in a village, which was the original vision, and why we homeowners moved here in the first place… I believe the additional business the proposed hotel would bring in would be more than offset by the residents who would do less shopping in the area, due to the loss of the existing surface parking lot.”
The concept plan is scheduled for public hearing with the Chapel Hill Council at 7:00 PM on November 17, 2008 at the Town Hall, located on Martin Luther King Boulevard. In order for the proposal to move forward, the council will have to not only rezone the space, but according to the submitted plan, freely ‘modify” regulations to allow a substantial reduction in the parking requirement and a significant increase building mass, ‘We are requesting a modification to the floor area ratio to allow 148,000 square feet of floor area rather than the 39,321 s.f. permitted.” [under the requested new zoning designation].