Workshop
seeks vision for housing
By Geoffrey Graybeal : The Herald-Sun
ggraybeal@heraldsun.com
Oct 4, 2003 : 6:26 pm ET
CHAPEL HILL -- About 80 residents gathered Saturday morning at Carol Woods Retirement
Community to plan a nearby low-cost housing subdivision. Habitat for Humanity turned to a
charrette, a deadline-driven open design workshop, to get a vision for its 17-acre property on
Sunshine Road. "It's a problematic site but a charrette is a problem-solving exercise," said
leader David Godschalk, a well-known professor of city and regional planning at UNC. "Be creative,
have fun and generate something that will be worthwhile to the community," Godschalk told
participants, who divided into five groups to create traditional subdivision, cluster, planned
development and "blue sky" designs.
Each group had a professional architect or planner to offer advice and sketch out the group's vision.
Under the town's zoning regulations, Habitat could seek approval for up to 68 units and officials have
mentioned the possibility of two-thirds being single-family houses and the rest single-family attached
townhouses. The Habitat design team will use the ideas from the session to create two or three
drawings, and then have a public session for people to see the drawings and make comments.
Habitat's next step would be to prepare a concept plan to submit to Chapel Hill.
Both the professional and community designers are faced with a number of challenges with the site.
The land is bordered on the north by Interstate 40, so there must be a 100-foot buffer between the
development and the road. There are also resource conservation districts, natural areas of land that
must be left undisturbed and two areas that could be classified as wetlands on the site. A stream
runs through the property, as does a transmission line easement. There are also pockets of hardwood
trees and potential drainage issues with the site. Planner Scott Radway told his group to look at the
constraints as absolute, but to also look at ways to work around them. "It sounds like there's no
absolutely fixed answer to anything," he said.
Residents near Habitat's land have raised a number of concerns, and they contend in part that Habitat
should stick with the current zoning of the land. Ginger Road resident Anil Grover is concerned about
noise, traffic and depreciating real estate values. "I am the most affected because the most buildable
land is just in my backyard," he said. Grover did not feel his concerns were taken into consideration
during the design workshop. "I feel the process is lopsided," he said. "At my table, more than 50
percent [of the participants] are from Habitat. It's not a fair process."
Many design participants spoke of the importance of preserving the existing neighborhoods near the
Habitat site. Others expressed concerns about the density. "I feel very strongly about preserving the
existing character out there," Town Board candidate Doug Schworer told his fellow participants. "I am
not a huge proponent of building a high-rise back there. I just have this feeling that in order to get
where we need to, that's the way we're going to have to go."
In one group, Emma Battle said she wanted the homes to be like the nearby Chandler's Green
subdivision, or as she put it, "single family homes with a nice, friendly, Chapel Hill look and feel."
Reprinted with permission from the The Herald-Sun
By Geoffrey Graybeal
Oct 4, 2003 : 6:26 pm ET
©Durham Herald Company, Inc.
http://www.heraldsun.com
By Geoffrey Graybeal : The Herald-Sun
ggraybeal@heraldsun.com
Oct 4, 2003 : 6:26 pm ET
CHAPEL HILL -- About 80 residents gathered Saturday morning at Carol Woods Retirement
Community to plan a nearby low-cost housing subdivision. Habitat for Humanity turned to a
charrette, a deadline-driven open design workshop, to get a vision for its 17-acre property on
Sunshine Road. "It's a problematic site but a charrette is a problem-solving exercise," said
leader David Godschalk, a well-known professor of city and regional planning at UNC. "Be creative,
have fun and generate something that will be worthwhile to the community," Godschalk told
participants, who divided into five groups to create traditional subdivision, cluster, planned
development and "blue sky" designs.
Each group had a professional architect or planner to offer advice and sketch out the group's vision.
Under the town's zoning regulations, Habitat could seek approval for up to 68 units and officials have
mentioned the possibility of two-thirds being single-family houses and the rest single-family attached
townhouses. The Habitat design team will use the ideas from the session to create two or three
drawings, and then have a public session for people to see the drawings and make comments.
Habitat's next step would be to prepare a concept plan to submit to Chapel Hill.
Both the professional and community designers are faced with a number of challenges with the site.
The land is bordered on the north by Interstate 40, so there must be a 100-foot buffer between the
development and the road. There are also resource conservation districts, natural areas of land that
must be left undisturbed and two areas that could be classified as wetlands on the site. A stream
runs through the property, as does a transmission line easement. There are also pockets of hardwood
trees and potential drainage issues with the site. Planner Scott Radway told his group to look at the
constraints as absolute, but to also look at ways to work around them. "It sounds like there's no
absolutely fixed answer to anything," he said.
Residents near Habitat's land have raised a number of concerns, and they contend in part that Habitat
should stick with the current zoning of the land. Ginger Road resident Anil Grover is concerned about
noise, traffic and depreciating real estate values. "I am the most affected because the most buildable
land is just in my backyard," he said. Grover did not feel his concerns were taken into consideration
during the design workshop. "I feel the process is lopsided," he said. "At my table, more than 50
percent [of the participants] are from Habitat. It's not a fair process."
Many design participants spoke of the importance of preserving the existing neighborhoods near the
Habitat site. Others expressed concerns about the density. "I feel very strongly about preserving the
existing character out there," Town Board candidate Doug Schworer told his fellow participants. "I am
not a huge proponent of building a high-rise back there. I just have this feeling that in order to get
where we need to, that's the way we're going to have to go."
In one group, Emma Battle said she wanted the homes to be like the nearby Chandler's Green
subdivision, or as she put it, "single family homes with a nice, friendly, Chapel Hill look and feel."
Reprinted with permission from the The Herald-Sun
By Geoffrey Graybeal
Oct 4, 2003 : 6:26 pm ET
©Durham Herald Company, Inc.
http://www.heraldsun.com