Chapel Hill residents are fuming over the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's plans to turn the 975-acre Horace Williams tract of land into a research park.
Critics of the proposition complain that the community was not consulted in the University's decision to develop the land. "The town of Chapel Hill has not been involved in this phase of the planning," said Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf. "[The council members and I] all knew that [University officials] were planning to develop the area for quite a few months, but we hadn't been presented with anything," she said, adding that she found out about the details of the plan through newspaper articles published within the last two weeks.
The lot, located a mile and a half northwest of the main campus, was first discussed as a development possibility in September. At that time, Ayers Sans Gross, an architect hired by UNC, suggested a building plan for the tract that would turn it into a place where private industry and academics could interact.
Waldorf noted, however, that nothing has been decided yet. "This is not a solidified plan," she insisted. "The university folks characterize their plans as preliminary."
Pat Evans, a Chapel Hill council member, also described the plans as nebulous. "It has been my understanding that [this] has been an intellectual exercise as any owner would do when developing property... just a lot of brainstorming and planning."
Evans added that the recent criticism of the plan is unwarranted. "There is a meeting that the chancellor has stated will be on November 30, open to the public, in which information will be shared," she said. "Also, the University has [met with] the town, the manager, the mayor, and members of the planning staff in order to get feedback."
Jonathan Howes, UNC-CH special assistant to the chancellor for community relations, added, "A program for development... is still basically an internal process. It's not the kind of thing in which the community is normally involved... but in Chapel Hill, I guess everything is a concern of the community."
All controversy aside, UNC's Mark Crowell, vice chancellor and director of technical development, is enthusiastic about the plans to build a research park.
"I'd like to see R&D-heavy pharmaceutical companies, biotech industries... that might want to locate there and enter into new, innovative relationships with our faculty... [giving] the university a chance to expand relationships with other outside entities such as industries and labs. The university is really focusing on and re-emphasizing its interest in trying to have a place for companies to incubate and grow.... The research park will help us reach this objective."
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