N.C. Central trustees OK expansion

DURHAM -- Amid some community protest, the board of trustees at N.C. Central University this morning approved a master plan that would lead the university to buy about 140 private homes and other properties near campus.

The purchases would take place over the next 10 years or so.

Trustees approved the plan unanimously and with no discussion after 20 citizens commented on it.

Outbursts from Carolyn Green Boone, the great-granddaughter of NCCU founder James Shepard, highlighted the public comment portion of the meeting.

Boone has vigorously opposed the plan and its process, saying the development will harm historic neighborhoods. She also has charged that Chancellor Charlie Nelms has essentially ignored her requests to meet and discuss alternatives.

"We're the founding family of this university and we feel totally disenfranchised," she exclaimed while addressing trustees. After her two-minute time allotment had expired, Boone returned several times to the lectern with additional thoughts, by the end eliciting groans from many in a packed audience.

Nelms defended the campus planning process, pointing to four public forums the university held in recent months.

"There were adequate and extensive conversations, and we did not end them until all had been heard," he said.

While opponents of the plan urged citizens to speak out today against the plan, many residents said they supported the university's desire to grow.

Josephine Strayhorne, a 1940 NCCU graduate who has lived on East Lawson Street near campus since 1934, said she supports the university's plans and will willingly move along and sell her home.

"I will adjust in this late date in my life," she said, drawing laughter and applause. "I don't know what rest home I'll go to yet. I'm looking at them all."

The plan is a response to severe parking and housing crunches on campus as well as to the need for new facilities for the growing institution.

But some residents fear historic neighborhoods will be flattened. Others worry they won't get fair value for their homes if the university wants to buy them.

These are old neighborhoods, with homes passed down from one generation to the next. Many residents are elderly.

The plan would break the campus into nine precincts, grouping related facilities and services. For example, it would create three dedicated housing zones, a research corridor and an administrative center. It also would include a new football stadium as part of a relocated athletic complex.

To do all this, the university needs to move deep into the heart of the neighborhoods to its north and south.

In the first phase -- which the plan suggests implementing by 2010 -- NCCU would have to acquire 36 properties, most of them just north of campus in clusters between Lawson and Dupree streets. That property acquisition is already under way. By Phase 3, NCCU will have purchased about 140 properties.

Several key projects are driving the expansion. The nursing program is growing fast and has received planning money to evolve into a full-service professional school. To do that, NCCU must soon have a new nursing building. A growing football program and other expanding professional programs also are in the mix, officials have said. At some point, athletic facilities may be moved off campus because it would be difficult to expand the existing football stadium, officials have said.

If the plan is approved, the university will start contacting the owners of property it wants to purchase. The State Property Office is responsible for negotiating purchases.

Though the area around campus is a historic district, NCCU officials have said the university has checked each property it wants to purchase, and none is designated for protection by the state's historic preservation office.

The plan is divided into four phases of development that would be complete by 2024. Planners say the first three phases, to be concluded by 2017, are more specific than the more speculative final chapter.

Other key components:

- At least two new parking decks.

- A new student union and the demolition of the current facility.

- A new library and the renovation of the current library.

- Several new commons areas aimed at encouraging students to gather.

- A new convocation center on Fayetteville Street.