Is there room in the park for affordable housing? Chapel Hill returns to Legion Road.
Everything is on the table as Chapel Hill restarts planning for 36 acres of largely undeveloped land at the former American Legion post, several council members said Wednesday.
The process of deciding whether to build a park — and housing, commercial development, or a mix of uses — could begin in earnest this fall, with a vote in early 2023, town staff said.
Some on the council questioned that timeline, including Mayor Pam Hemminger, who called it “a little unrealistic.”
Council member Michael Parker was less concerned, saying the vote could be delayed if the council needs more time.
“Nothing is set in stone, but right now, all we have is supposition, and we need some hard facts, and then the council will be able to make decisions,” he said.
The town has owned the Legion Road property since 2016, when Hemminger and three new members joined the council and reversed the previous council’s determination that the town lacked the money.
The town paid installments on the land, cobbling together $3.6 million in cash and $4.3 million in voter-approved debt that had been budgeted for other projects. A task force engaged residents to determine their wants and needs, while town staff suggested part of the land could be sold to pay for the park.
By 2020, when American Legion Post 6 moved to its new retreat center on N.C. 54 West, COVID-19 sidelined the project.
Two years later, residents again are mustering opposition to anything but a park on the site, sending a deluge of emails to the mayor and council since Parker and four other members submitted a petition May 18 to restart the conversation. Council members Camille Berry, Paris Miller-Foushee, Tai Huynh and Karen Stegman also signed the petition.
“One of the purposes of this petition is so that we can actually get a park, and a world-class park,” Parker said. “We bought that over five years ago, essentially nothing has happened, and it’s long past time to build something, build the kind of park that our community needs and deserves, and I think this is a way to do exactly that.”
Recreation options in Chapel Hill
The Legion site has long been an unofficial park, where neighbors enjoyed fishing and hiking trails through the woods behind Ephesus Elementary School and the town’s 10-acre Ephesus Park on Ephesus Church Road. In recent years, neighbors have volunteered to manage the land, clearing away invasive plants.
Only about 28 acres can be developed because of a creek buffer and pond along Legion Road, town staff have said.
Three more parks — Burlington Park, Booker Creek Basin Park and Community Center Park — are nearby but can’t meet the growing need for a large community park in northeastern Chapel Hill, staff said. They noted the town’s 2022 Community Survey, which also identified parks, greenways and recreation facilities, especially splash pads and pickleball courts, as top priorities.
“People are talking about having to leave town to engage in parks and recreation, and go to surrounding areas to just participate in the types of programs they would like to see, whether that’s tennis, or pickleball, or people running, biking, open space users,” said Tyler Steelman, chair of the town’s Parks, Greenways and Recreation Commission.
“I think if people are leaving, that’s a sign that there’s some dissatisfaction ... and can help point us in direction of what can we add and how can we better serve the residents we have with the space that we have access to,” Steelman added.
Skate park, inclusive play, other needs
Parks and Recreation staff also provided the council with a report outlining the department’s needs Wednesday. The town already had identified more than $25 million in renovations and repairs, including $1.15 million to replace the turf at Cedar Falls Park and $1 million to rebuild the tennis and pickleball courts at Ephesus Park, Director Phil Fleischmann said.
The parks commission whittled that list to 13 high-priority projects earlier this year, focusing on areas with a heavier demand, health and safety concerns, and projects that meet underserved residents’ needs. Staff noted that includes roughly $1 million to build an inclusive playground at Cedar Falls and critical repairs to the skate park at Homestead Park.
Council member Adam Searing, who made recreation, trails and open space a centerpiece of his 2021 election, said Wednesday the town has talked about the inclusive playground, splashpads and other projects for years.
“I think at some point, we need to look to us,” Searing said, as he advocated again to spend some of the town’s $10 million in federal American Recovery Plan Act money on recreation.
“This is a need that our community has been saying again and again and again for years and years that they want, and we’re just not doing it,” Searing said.
Park, housing, and a land sale?
Council member Amy Ryan praised the decision to buy the Legion property, but she was just as quick to argue against selling any of it.
“I can see argument for if you sell things off, you can build the park quicker, but I think having land is the more valuable piece, and I’m happy to land bank it until we have money and bandwidth to develop it in the way that we want to,” Ryan said.
She urged the community to avoid “the trap of pitting housing against parks and open space,” since “both are good for our community and we need both for a healthy town.”
The town also shouldn’t pit parks against town growth and development, Council member Paris Miller-Foushee added.
She advised council members to reflect on the original intent of the 2016 decision and consider the critical need for affordable housing to serve lower-income families and workers.
“This is a great opportunity to achieve a number of council-stated goals and to build complete communities that are transit-oriented and walkable, that provide housing that is affordable and accessible to parks and green space, and what I’m excited about is the potential to build an inclusive community where people of all abilities and socioeconomic status can participate and thrive,” Miller-Foushee said.
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 8:32 AM.
