UNC-CH Carolina North Campus

[orulz]

I venture by UNC Hospitals quite often. The cancer center building is very large and complicated, and it's slowly taking shape, but the Physicians Office Building across Manning is very impressive as well. It sits on a hill and really towers over the street. Wonder if there will be any way to get into the building from the street. UNC is usually pretty good about that, particularly since a sizeable contingent of their workers ride the bus. Looks like they're getting ready to build the new skywalk over Manning to replace the one that was torn down for the cancer center.

UNC Hospitals seems to benefit a lot from its geographically compact layout; it's a bit hard to imagine how they could manage to start expanding up on CN, and still retain all of that efficiency. I wonder what sort of jobs would be likely to move first? Research? Dental school? Nursing school?

[DanRNC]

I go by the Cancer Center construction site every day and have noticed the same thing about the pace-it seems to be built with a ton of concrete which judging from the plans will be the area of a lot of imaging equipment (MRI, CAT, etc.) for radiation oncology. GE is going to equip the facility with all their latest gear as a collaboration with UNC.

[DanRNC]

I have added a link to the March 27 meeting. Not much more than what has been presented already as far as the concepts. It seems like the School of Pharmacy, RENCI, and the new Institute for the Environment will be the first major occupants.

Meeting

[ChiefJoJo]

There is definitely no consensus on CN. Of course that's nearly impossible. Public meetings are always funny--you get the comments like, "Don't build it." Then some people like the proposed density, and some people question it.

[DanRNC]

The NC Cancer Hospital, although going slow, seems to be taking some form. It looks as if there will be a massive atrium at the entrance. This looks like one of the most complex buildings I have ever seen being built-at least it won't be a box.

Cam

[DanRNC]

It looks like CN may be inching head a little bit more with the addition of a VC/incubator facility.

Story

[ChiefJoJo]

UNC says, a lot of Carolina North will be made up of relocated staff, and not new researchers and students. Apparently, that did not ease concerns of those at the community meeting, who had concerns about traffic congestion. I believe Citizen Will was there.

I know CN has not released any detailed plans, but citizens will certainly want more than the pie-in-the-sky monorail plan a la Centennial Campus. They will want to see whether there will be a light rail conection, rapid bus service, where those connections will be made, and last little detail of how they will be paid for.

[DanRNC]

UNC says, a lot of Carolina North will be made up of relocated staff, and not new researchers and students.

[DanRNC]

Here are the presentations from the community meeting.

Plenary

Breakout Sessions

[ChiefJoJo]

Here's another N&O article on CN.

THe focus is potential energy savings and just how the campus would be powered and how much much renewable energy could be utilized... also talk of transit and parking:

"Transit-oriented development does not mean that there will not be parking on Carolina North," Evans said. "We're not backing off on our commitment, but I suggest that we all ought to recognize that there's a balance."

"If you're not going to limit the parking up front, you're not going to get the transit," McClintock responded.

Evans said the university did plan to limit the parking to approximately six spaces for every 10 employees in order to encourage transit ridership.

Has anyone heard whether the plan is only for bus service down MLK or have their been any talks of light rail--after all there is the rail line (NCRR?) from the west of the CN campus down to the cogeneration plant.

[ChiefJoJo]

UNC-CH Board of Trustees approved plans for Carolina North. There's a 15-year plan and a 50-year plan, and the infrastructure alone could cost $220M (doubt this includes any type of transit cost either).

[ChiefJoJo]

The Chapel Hill Town Council gets a first detailed look at the plans for Carolina North today. I also recall an article saying that UNC Law School wants to locate to CN.

As has been the case with the campus development plans up until now, I expect plenty of objections regarding parking, lack of transit, and maybe some accusations of strong-arming by UNC. We'll see...

I do think in many ways, although Centennial Campus got a nearly 20 year head start, Carolina North will benefit from being developed during the era where sustainability, transit, mixed-use, walkability, etc are all seen as crucial to it's success--some of which is being driven by the towns.

[orulz]

A PDF document of a presentation (given last week) on the current working master plan for CN is available here.

[ChiefJoJo]

Reaction was mixed on Carolina North at the town council meeting last night.