Economic Development

Won’t DOLRT Spur Economic Development?

It should be noted that the GoTriangle’s TOD Guidebook greatly overstated the potential for future development in Chapel Hill, Orange County. The Town of Chapel Hill wrote GoTriangle asked for more realistic estimates for stops in Chapel Hill.  County Commissioners questioned estimated future revenues which left out capital costs of building infrastructure.

  • There are only four stations planned for Orange County: UNC Hospitals, Mason Farm, Hamilton Road and UNC Friday Center. UNC is the primary land owner in three of them where the light rail route enters Orange County. UNC has not shared its plans for its properties and does not pay taxes.
  •  The potential for economic growth around Chapel Hill transit stops is limited.  Three of the stops are on land owned by UNC. Hamilton Road is largely build out, and UNC lands near the Friday Center station stop border the federally protected Corps of Engineers wetlands.
  • Only Gateway offers some economic development potential, but most of the areas is located in Durham County, and the portion on the west side of 15-501 is owned by UNC Health.
  •  Some projects have already been permitted and built along the Durham portion of the rail line.

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is elegantly explored in this article by Tony Blake, Don’t Count your TOD Chickens.

Only one station is located on non-UNC property but there is little possibility or potential for Town or County growth at the Hamilton Road stop. East West Partners recently redeveloped this station area with a large mixed mixed use development including retail, hotel and apartments.  The complex has received mixed reviews and retail has struggled. On the south side of the 54 East development lies the UNC owned Finley Golf Course. Eliminating the golf course could result in partial redevelopment in the areas that are not in the flood plain. Glenwood Elementary School is a small site owned by the school system but there are no current plans to sell the property.

It should be noted that two of the station stops Hamilton Road and Woodmont (which is in Durham County) were proposed as possible candidates for elimination in the Go Triangle agreement if cost cutting measures were needed.

What happened at the GoTriangle Station Workshops?

Gotriangle received a grant and hired a consultant to plan land use around the station areas in Durham and Orange Counties.  At the outset there were three major problems with this Gotriangle effort:

  • First, the primary property owner, UNC, was not part of any of the sessions so the resulting ideas and concepts don’t serve the needs of the principle client and beneficiary, making any ideas discussed unreliable. If light rail is approved, UNC is expected to bring their Carolina North campus to the 54 Corridor – further limiting the possibility of growth for the Chapel Hill and Orange County commercial tax base.
  • Second, none of the places Orange County earmarked for economic growth and major investments are near the planned light rail stations.
  • Third, the stations are not located at places in Chapel Hill where the 2020 Comprehensive Plan stipulates that growth will occur.

The enthusiasm for Orange County economic development along the rail line does not match the facts on the ground.  Check out this zoom in map of the light rail in Orange County.  When the route enters Orange County it travels through Corps of Engineers wetlands adjacent to a major water supply water supply Jordan Lake.  Then the route travels through neighborhoods such as Downing Creek in Durham and then Meadowmont, Laurel Hill, and Morgan Hills in Chapel Hill, Orange County. It is unlikely that  residents of these areas thought that voting for a transit tax would mean that a new rail line would serve as an impetus for “redeveloping” their neighborhood, yet at a workshop the redevelopment of Meadowmont was seriously discussed.

While the Gateway station is in Durham County, a last minute change in the implementation agreement moved the station closer to the Orange County line and to the potential redevelopment of Easttowne by UNC Health, the new owner. This parcel is located on the west side of 15-501. A bridge would need to be built over 15-501 to make this area walkable.  Since UNC is the land owner, the land is not subject to taxes.

Top