I stayed up late last night to see whether the planets had aligned, or at least be awake to see what would happen next after Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and council member Matt Czajkowski appeared to be on the same side of a growth and development issue.

Zinn Design Build presented a preliminary plan for Aydan Court, a residential development proposed for a nearly 6-acre parcel off N.C. 54 in Durham County, just behind UNC’s Paul Rizzo Center in Meadowmont. The area abuts the Waterfowl Impoundment area, and when the Zinn team presented a preliminary proposal to Town Council in March of last year, then-Mayor Kevin Foy had a strongly negative reaction to it and lashed out at developer Carol Ann Zinn.

But last night’s presentation was to a different council. The seven council members on the dais – Gene Pease and Penny Rich were absent – for the most part exhibited a sense of playing as a team. And when citizens spoke out against development being so close to the impoundment area, Kleinschmidt let them know that the Zinn property would be developed in some manner; it would not remain open land.

The project Zinn proposed last night consists of three three-story condo buildings with a total of 87 units built over underground parking. The units are geared toward the middle market.

Council members’ main concern was siting the project as far away from the impoundment area as possible. Council member Ed Harrison suggested building fewer buildings but making them taller. That would make the units pricier, however, because a four-story building would require two levels of parking and require that the buildings be framed in steel instead of wood. And Zinn, a savvy businesswoman, has a good read of the market. Consumers seem to be more cautious with their spending, and she predicts less demand for high-priced housing.

“The last thing this town wants is another high-rise luxury condo building at an entry point to Chapel Hill,” Zinn said.

Czajkowski noted that to work together, there must be tradeoffs. That’s why Zinn was up at dawn this morning preparing for early-morning meetings with her design and construction team about how to make the council happy.

“We want to do the best we can to satisfy as many of the council’s and citizens’ concerns as possible,” Zinn said.
– Nancy Oates

No sooner did we learn that Parking Lot #5 will continue to serve our automobile parking needs for at least another three months than the problem of bicycle parking appears on the Town Council agenda. At its upcoming business meeting Wednesday night, council members will discuss proposed changes to the number of bicycle parking spaces around town.

Three years ago, in June 2007, council enacted vehicle and bicycle parking space requirements now a part of the Land Use Management Ordinance, and asked that the bike parking requirements be reviewed by the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board and the Transportation Board. In September of the following year, the boards recommended an increase in the number of bike parking spaces for commercial areas. While well-intended, they seemed somewhat unrealistic. For instance, the number of required bike spaces at University Mall increased from 170 to 344 at a time when the mall would have felt lucky to have 344 shoppers in total at one time, regardless of how they got there.

Some people thought the new requirements stepped over the line of optimistically preparing for a lifestyle change into clutter. Picture the 109 bike spaces required for Lowe’s Home Improvement turning the parking lot into a park-and-ride lot for bikes.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, Transportation Board and Planning Board return to council on Wednesday with new recommendations for bike parking, this time addressing requirements for multi-family residential buildings.

Currently, LUMO requires one bike space per six residential units. The Transportation Board recommends one space per three units. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board and the Planning Board push for one space per two units. The staff preliminary recommendation split the difference between existing and recommended spaces and backs one space per four units, expecting that most bikers will take their bikes inside their apartments overnight, rather than keep them chained outside.

The staff also recommends a drastic reduction in the number of bike spaces for commercial areas. Those 344 bike spaces at U-Mall would be pared to 43. And Lowe’s would cut its 170 bike spaces to 14, a more realistic number of people who would shop for lumber, plants, toilet seats and fluorescent bulbs by bicycle.
– Nancy Oates

For more than a year, our refrigerator has not kept food adequately cold. We compensate by making daily trips to the grocery store, because we don’t trust food that’s been in the refrigerator for more than a day. With hefty tuition bills, we didn’t want to make the financial outlay of buying a new refrigerator.

But during appliance rebate weekend in May, with the large discounts offered by stores desperate for customers, it looked like a good time to buy. While we were shopping, we found a bargain on a washing machine that we would need for a long overdue renovation we’re planning of some rental property. We raised our debt limit higher than we were comfortable, but we got two really good deals. Had we waited until our financial outlook were better, it would have cost us more money.

Then a tree that had been leaning in our backyard for more than 10 years tipped over. We consider it our own personal equivalent of Chapel Hill’s deteriorating police station. We knew we were going to have to spend a significant sum to deal with it at some point; we just hoped we could put it off until after the kids were out of college. But it didn’t work out that way.

The damage could have been worse, but the timing couldn’t. We can’t ignore the tree, because it is being held up by two other trees that caught it as its roots gave way, and the trunk hangs several feet over an OWASA easement scheduled to be mowed this summer. We can’t return the refrigerator and washer after this length of time. We can’t put off the renovation, because it must be done while the property is empty. Without a tenant, we have to carry the costs of the property without any rental income coming in.

So we’re boxed into spending money we don’t have.

We hope the town council’s decision to sell the bonds and start construction on the library doesn’t turn out this way. We hope that the police station won’t fall apart at a time when the town doesn’t have the money to spend to fix it. While we have to do some juggling in such a pickle, the town has an easy out – raise our taxes.

We hope the police station holds up a while longer – at least until our children are out of college.
– Nancy Oates