CHAPEL HILL - Innovation was the night's topic, but UNC-Chapel Hill's Bruce Runberg was prepared for the same old battle with the Town Council.

As part of a semi-annual report on campus development, Runberg, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning, asked the council to speed up its review of the Innovation Center, a planned 80,000-square-foot building where UNC-CH faculty could turn their research into commerce.

The building had been planned for the south side of Estes Drive near Airport Drive, where UNC-CH has other facilities. But six weeks ago, the UNC-CH Board of Trustees endorsed a new site for the Innovation Center, and the university subsequently submitted a concept plan that the town's Community Design Commission will review Sept. 19. The new site is off Municipal Drive -- the planned entrance to the future Carolina North satellite campus.

It was that change of venue that had the Town Council fuming Monday. They were expecting a master plan for Carolina North before approving any individual buildings. "What happened?" council member Sally Greene asked. "Where's the master plan?"

"It was envisioned that you might have a question," Runberg said. He was ready with a one-page handout designed to remind the council that the Innovation Center had always been running ahead of the Carolina North schedule and that town representatives raised no objections during the year that a Leadership Advisory Committee met to discuss the campus.

"It's not something we're hitting you with cold," he said.

Council members contended that their silence was based on the Estes Drive location. Interviewed after the meeting, Runberg couldn't protest that point.

"I'm very bothered by this," council member Mark Kleinschmidt said. "You may have seen my jaw hit the floor when you passed that expedited review petition around."

Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom complained that UNC-CH was trying to move ahead with the first phase of the campus before the completion of a Chapel Hill Transit Master Plan, which he said may end up showing that the Innovation Center site ought to instead become a transportation hub. "It really is a setback to the cooperative tone that the LAC set," said Strom. "You're really undermining the process."

Council member Jim Ward said moving ahead without the campus master plan or the transit study was "a slap in the face of both of those processes."

Runberg said the Innovation Center would be consistent with the not-yet-complete master plan and asked the council not to judge the proposal until the university presents the plan this fall.

He said the university's chosen developer, Alexandria Real Estate from California, is being courted by other universities, and losing them could mean delaying an urgent need for faculty researchers. "We really need to have your help with flexibility on this," he said.

The council referred the request to the planning staff.

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