More on Glen Lennox

Today's article in the N&O outlines the forces at work in Old v New.

"People are on guard for not having Chapel Hill become a generic place," Mayor Kevin Foy said. "Not everything is open for redevelopment."

"This is almost a test case; it's a line in the sand for how Chapel Hill is going to grow," said Ernest Dollar, executive director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. "There has to be a delicate balance to preserve the idealized Chapel Hill that people come here for but still grow as a town. And I think that unwise growth and unwise development could really hamper and destroy the things we love about this town and brought us here."

Molly McConnell figured she'd die in Glen Lennox. "Really, I thought this was my last stop before God," she said. But now, she said, she's thinking about finding a new place for herself and her beagle, MercyMe Lily Grace Happy Dog.

Foy said the public outcry shows how many people feel about the neighborhood. "Glen Lennox has become one of the iconic places in Chapel Hill, not because of its architecture and not because of its layout, but because of the people who have lived there and the life experiences they've had over the last 50 years," he said. "When you take that and say we're going to take out every trace of that neighborhood, I think people are justifiably appalled."

Glen Lennox Apartments opened in 1950 to address the housing shortage after World War II. Early residents included veterans, married students, retirees and new families -- much the same as its residents today.

The decision to rebuild Glen Lennox was something Grubb said he wrestled with for a long time. He remembered the fervor of the community from his days at UNC-Chapel Hill's law school and anticipated the reaction to the proposed plans to be strong.

But Grubb and his team of architects had a vision: Build a great urban development and help the town grow.

Grubb was at a board meeting in Raleigh a few weeks later when someone said losing Glen Lennox's green spaces and quaint homes would be a loss for Chapel Hill.

"It really hit me, and so I kind of said, 'Well gosh, my momma probably hates the plan we came up with,' " he said.

Developer Roger Perry, who built Durham's Woodcroft and Chapel Hill's Meadowmont projects, said Grubb Properties may have "underestimated the community's psychological ownership" of Glen Lennox.

He said he empathizes with some of the difficulties Grubb has faced.

"What is always troubling to people in my business is people who are not rational and not interested in building consensus and not willing to understand practical realities," Perry said.

The company will participate in discussions about the neighborhood's designation as a conservation district but still intends to come up with a new design. This time, Grubb said, they'll take their time. "I think there's a great opportunity for it [Glen Lennox] to become as special as it used to be," he said. "It doesn't have to happen immediately."

Glen Lennox neighborhood conservation

Glen Lennox neighborhood conservation effort moves forward

Jul 3, 2008 News

by Rich Fowler | Staff Writer | The Carrboro Citizen - Carrboro,NC

Glen Lennox area residents are one step closer to getting a Neighborhood Conservation District. At its meeting last week, the Chapel Hill Town Council allowed residents to go forward with the NCD process, which allows the planning department to hold an informational meeting for area landowners.

The NCD petition was filed soon after Grubb Properties, the owner of the Glen Lennox apartments and shopping center, announced a plan to redevelop the area into a high-density neighborhood similar to Meadowmont.

But at the council meeting, Clay Grubb, president of Grubb Properties, said he didn’t think the plan was sensitive to the history of Glen Lennox.

“I apologize,” Grubb said. “We were not prepared to submit that plan, but we felt like we had no choice at the time. That was a plan that was done hastily.”

He said he’d be happy to halt plans while all parties involved talked it over.

Grubb said he didn’t feel the NCD process was fair, because his company owns the 440 apartment units and shopping center, which make up a little more than one-third of the area.

Mary Dexter, who filed the original petition, said the proposed Glen Lennox redevelopment plan wasn’t the only reason for an NCD. “We’re working on saving a neighborhood, not just apartments,” she said. Dexter said area residents were concerned about teardowns and “McMansions” in their neighborhood.

“We have common historical values, we have common architectural values,” she said. “We are a neighborhood, and you are part of it.”

The next step is that the planning board will schedule a meeting to tell landowners how the NCD process works, what it protects and what it doesn’t protect. Notices will be sent to all landowners within a 500-foot radius of the proposed NCD before the meeting.

There are currently six NCDs in Chapel Hill, including one in Northside and the most recent one in Coker Hills.
The council took no action on a proposed moratorium on development along NC 54 east of 15-501 up to the town limits. Projects already under construction as well as those still in the application phase would not be stopped by a moratorium.
Because of the way the development process is set up, the proposed redevelopment of Glen Lennox, along with any other future proposed projects along NC 54, would still be subject to a moratorium if the council chooses to pass one when it meets again in the fall.

Michael Collins, vice chair of the planning board, said the board unanimously supported the original petition for a moratorium on NC 54. “The applications seem to be coming fast and furious,” he said. Collins said that perhaps it was a good time to step back and discuss what the council and citizens want along the road.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward said that passing the moratorium now wasn’t an either/or issue. He said that passing one right now wouldn’t be effective, because the town would wind up losing a lot of time under a moratorium when the council wasn’t in session.

“It has our attention, and it will gain more attention and thought over the next few months,” he said.

“We have common historical values, we have common architectural values,” she said. “We are a neighborhood, and you are part of it.” Yup, that is what this is all about.

Glen Lennox wants meeting

Up the road a piece, an NCOD in process while a development is in planning stage.

Glen Lennox wants meeting
Chapel Hill News - Chapel Hill,NC,USA
CHAPEL HILL - A majority of Glen Lennox property owners have asked the town to hold a meeting so they can learn more about creating special zoning rules to protect their neighborhood.
The request for a Neighborhood Conservation District information meeting will go to the Town Council June 25. From there, it will go to the Planning Board, which could hold the meeting late this summer.

Sixty-one percent of property owners asked for the information session. Another majority would have to submit a second petition to actually start the NCD planning process.

Grubb Properties has proposed replacing the 440 apartment units and shopping center in the Glen Lennox community between N.C. 54 and U.S. 15-501 with a multi-story mix of housing and commercial space.

The developers will take their concept plan, an informal first step in the town's review process, to the town's Community Design Commission in August. Submitting a concept plan gives the town an early opportunity to provide feedback. ...

This will be about a 2 year process on both tracks. Seeing where the tracks lead is going to be anyone's guess. According to the story, "this is the first time residents are asking about an NCD at the same time a developer is proposing such a big change to such a big portion of a specific neighborhood. 'What we don't have is anything with any certainty,' planner Rae Buckley said Tuesday."

I hope they have a big room at City Hall.

NCD: At a Glance
Chapel Hill's land use management ordinance adopted by the Town Council in 2003 has a provision for creating Neighborhood Conservation Districts. The purpose of an NCD is to protect distinctive, older neighborhoods or commercial districts that contribute significantly to the town's overall character.

Did you see that: The purpose of an NCD is to protect distinctive, older neighborhoods or commercial districts that contribute significantly to the town's overall character.

Raleigh can't quite get that into their heads. We ALL go up or down by how we do this Land Use Dance.

More discussion at:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/orangechat/