Carrboro may put brakes on projects

CARRBORO -- The town's Planning Board asked the Board of Aldermen on Tuesday night to consider suspending development in the Northern Study Area, 3,787 acres north of town where many developers are looking to build.

The temporary halt on development would mean no rezonings could occur, no major subdivisions currently under review would be approved, and no new development permit applications would be accepted for building in that area -- an effort to slow the town's growth.

But Alderman Jacquie Gist said she has heard from the New Horizons Task Force and the Northern Transition Area Advisory Committee -- both advisory boards geared toward residents of the northern part of town -- that the Planning Board had not consulted them about a possible moratorium.

So, the board decided Tuesday that it needs to refer the proposal to these two committees first, along with the Town of Chapel Hill, the Orange County Board of Commissioners and UNC-Chapel Hill since they each have a stake or interest in the designated area.

Planning Board members fear that if development proceeds too quickly, Carrboro may lose sight of its goals for that area -- such as affordable housing and diversity of housing, while providing commercial space and enabling several transportation options.

The town had already placed a development moratorium on the Northern Study Area from November 1997 to December 1998.

But brothers Adam and Omar Zinn, of Zinn Design Build development and building company, don't think a moratorium is a good idea.

"A moratorium, it seems to me, is for a desperate situation," Adam Zinn said, urging the board to consider alternatives. It's already a lengthy and difficult process to complete a development, he said, and a moratorium would make it more difficult.

"It just doesn't seem fair to stop development in its tracks," Omar Zinn said.

If the Board of Alderman decides to take the moratorium route after other involved parties are consulted, the aldermen will have to draft a proposal for the moratorium. Then the proposal must then be sent to the county commissioners and the Chapel Hill Town Council for review. The aldermen must hold a public hearing on it before deciding whether to adopt it.