Five reasons Aura does not measure up to the kind of development Chapel Hill needs.

Aura speeds climate change: (1) increases carbon emissions by allowing 650 parking spaces for vehicles; (2) uses massive amounts of concrete and pavement that will raise temperatures via heat island effect; (3) reduces carbon capture by radically reducing tree cover.

2. There is no Town traffic plan in place to manage future development on Estes Drive, an important east-west connector.  Aura allows 650 parking places that will contribute 3000 trips a day that add to current congestion. The Traffic Impact Analysis study showed that even with all planned road improvements in place, congestion will be worse at the majority of Estes intersections after Aura.

3. The project design includes a dangerous 3 lane full access entrance on Estes Drive that will permit traffic turns causing potential fatalities and injuries involving vehicles and pedestrians on the multi-use path. The Town Traffic Board denied approval of Aura for this reason.

4. Aura provides mostly expensive rentals ($3000 a month) that we don’t need. Subsidies agreed to for the 15% of owner occupied units are minimal.

5. Impervious surfaces are so large that the engineered solution will allow 3 times as much run-as present.  A six foot planting strip is not wide enough to grow the trees needed to provide shade and infiltrate groundwater.