Questions and answers here.

Here are the questions and answers participants raised in the November 16, 2020 Town information session for the Aura development. We have grouped them into four subject categories in order to assist the staff. The answers to the questions asked have finally been answered here.

A:   Why is this project needed and how does it benefit Chapel Hill residences?

  1. Why are you building hundreds more apartments when there are already 5191 apartments under construction. approved or in the planning process? FYI, there are only 77 town houses underway and we need more of these.
  2. Who are your target renters?
  3. Once it’s built, there’s no way back. If we compare data then and things are not as good as you promised, who’ll be held responsible?
  4. How is the town reviewing the total need for apartment units in Chapel Hill when reviewing this proposal?
  5. Concerned about so much housing when there are loads of units already under construction. How will the applicant ensure retail that will be a benefit to the community?
  6. 410 apartment and townhouse units are too many. Can you reduce the number? That would help with traffic.
  7. Please explain where in the flowsheet of project development comes the consideration of what the town needs, how much it costs for services to support the influx, and how the town regulates business/resident costs, and the overall impact of urbanizing/degreening the town 

B: Traffic and worsening gridlock on Estes Drive

  1. TIA on Town website was prepared by VHB dated April 24, 2020. Did you do the traffic study while Estes Elementary & Philipps were closed? That would make no sense!
  2. Are there any new traffic signals planned on Estes?
  3. Piggybacking on RL’s comment: The TIA needs to have the right assumptions for (a) BRT, in light of the major expected delays; and (b) Azalea Estates, where 150 units will be moving in soon enough.
  4. Can staff address how they are following these details in the traffic analysis?
  5. Have any of you experienced picking up or dropping off kids in Estes Elementary & Philipps Middle?
  6. In peak times, traffic piles up WAY beyond Somerset Dr.!
  7. At 5 pm on weekdays, the traffic often extends back to the schools on Estes Drive.
  8. Did the traffic study take into account the new development east of Somerset drive?
  9. What difference will these new lanes make to the Somerset neighborhood?
  10. I’d also like clarification on the new TIA that will be made available- are you saying this TIA was done both before COVID-19 AND after the changes you discussed in this meeting? I thought the previous plan was from April?
  11. Please provide timeline when traffic study was done.
  12. Street activation is greatly over-rated. No one will want to hang out at the corner open area with many lanes of cars sitting there close-by at peak hours of the day.
  13. Has the city sponsored its own traffic study?
  14. How has the impacts of Azalea Estates been taken into consideration?
  15. To reiterate an earlier question, what is the plan from the developer to engage local community stakeholders in future, iterations of the plans?
  16. Another question for staff: If the analysis takes into account only approved projects, doesn’t that mean the analyses inherently undercounts actual expected future traffic?
  17. Because we all know the Rummel property and others will soon enough propose their own developments., wouldn’t it make sense to factor into any TIA for Aura some reasonable assumptions about potential projects on those other currently undeveloped lots?
  18. Which advisory board handles traffic?
  19. Please include Whit Rummel in the next public meeting.
  20. Providing urn lanes at the intersection of Estes and MLK seem irrelevant because of the bottleneck at the schools, Franklin St, and Carrboro 

C: Environmental Impacts

  1. I live in Coker Woods and have been experiencing serious flooding issues since the trees in the lot were harvested. Would like to make sure this issue gets resolved.
  2. Could you think of any good (benefits) coming to the surrounding neighborhoods from this development?
  3. How is Somerset treated in your plans?
  4. Will the buildings have solar panels?
  5. We have a lot of Coker Woods residents here. How will you work with us?
  6. To what degree have you worked with neighbors?
  7. I think it would be great for the buildings to be more distinctive. They look just like all the other apartments being built along East Franklin, 15-501, Durham, etc.
  8. A wall on the north borderline where the property meets Coker Woods needs to be discussed.
  9. How much buffer is planned between the proposed townhomes and homes in Coker Woods?
  10. How will the local community be engaged on an ongoing basis to address the concerns around tree cover, aesthetics and quality of life impacts on the local community?
  11. Coker Woods also has concerns about separation along the north border with both Coker Woods and Shadowwood. What are plans for a boundary wall?
  12. Very concerned about your northern building height and the border wall detail. How much buffer will you put on the north border? How do you protect privacy of the Coker Woods neighborhood?
  13. You said there were conversations with the church. When and with whom were these conversations held?
  14. We haven’t heard anything about access/pathway through Coker Woods properties on the borderline, or the discussion of a tall wall.
  15. Where is your garbage area?
  16. How will Somerset neighbors access this development/green space? Will walking paths/sidewalks be added along Estes? Curious as I thought Azalea Estates would be adding sidewalks along Estes but it doesn’t look like it.

D: Higher Taxes and Strain on City Services  

  1. Jumping in late (after getting soooo frustrated with the Central West consultant process). Why not 55+? Less traffic, and seems more needed than more luxury apts
  2. 50k ft^2 for viable and also to bring in the tax revenue to offset additional services, police, roads, schools, etc
  3. We might also consider that there is already lots of empty retail space just up the road on MLK and over at Eastgate.
  4. The corner active space no longer makes sense since nothing is happening across the street at UNC except for a Solar Farm .
  5. Good change to make underground stormwater storage.
  6. Please do a cost benefit analysis of the project.
  7. So many retail businesses and restaurants are closing (Franklin Street) b/c of high rent rates, poor landlords, etc. The newer apartments on Eubanks also have ground level retail that hasn’t rented yet due to high rates. What is your plan to assure retail will thrive in this area?

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  Additional questions about Aura sent to Acting Planning Director February 10, 2021
Feb 10, 2021

Judy (Johnson),

 
Thank you for setting up this evening’s “Aura Traffic Public Meeting”.
 
As you requested, we are submitting a number of questions about the Aura TIA study as well as the overall Aura project plan. The following questions are in addition to the 51 questions residents submitted to Planning after the developer’s Aura Public Information presentation on November 16, 2020.
 
We are still awaiting a response to these 51 questions which were reorganized into groups and resubmitted again in December.
 
Questions for Traffic Consultant:
 
1. How can we sure the one day in January 2020 that the traffic count data was collected is representative of annual periods of peak traffic?”
 
2. Was the January 2020 traffic count data seasonally adjusted? If so, how much?
 
3. Since data collection was done only from 7-9 am, 11 am -1 pm, and 4-6 pm, how do we know that peak hour traffic does not occur in a different time period, particularly on a rainy day, e.g. 2-4 pm when the two public schools and the church school on Estes let out and parents pick their children up?
 
4. What is the rationale behind the specific percentage “vehicle trip reduction adjustments” made for pedestrian, bicycle and bus trips?
 
5. What quantity of children from the planned Aura development have been considered when evaluating parent trips on rainy/snowy days to drop off and pick up their kids at the local schools on Estes? These trips will surely impact the current AM hour traffic and may better represent the PM peak traffic than the current 4-6 pm data collected.
 
6. Why was the unknown size of University Place redevelopment on Fordham considered as part of the assumptions for determining the minimal background traffic growth of 0.5%/year, yet the stated background growth did not consider the very real growth of the many new apartment buildings on Fordham just north of University Place that are already under construction or in the planning process, e.g. Elliott Road Apartments, Keystone Apartments, Park Apartment redevelopment, University Inn redevelopment, etc? Will the residents of these 2000 new apartments never use Estes to go downtown, to go to Carrboro, to go to northern Chapel Hill? Thus, is 0.5%/yr background traffic growth a reasonable assumption for the Aura TIA given all the coming growth? Elsewhere in Town on recent TIA’s, background traffic growth has been stated at 1.5%/yr.
 
7. The applicant’s latest plan set shows a right-turn lane on Estes Dr. extending from MLK to just before Aura’s driveway, and a separate right turn lane between Aura’s driveway and Aura’s eastern property boundary. Why not connect these to make a longer, continuous right turn lane, thus providing more usable stacking space during especially heavy traffic conditions?
 
8. The Estes Dr. connectivity project will add a second left turn lane from Estes Dr. onto MLKjr Blvd. Since Eastbound and Westbound Estes traffic is well into Level E service during AM and PM peak hours even after “Improvements”, have you considered whether, in connection with Aura, one or both of the left-turn lanes should be lengthened further (to the east)? By comparison, the applicant’s latest plan set shows a much longer right-turn lane.
 
9. What is the margin of error for TIAs in general and this TIA specifically? Are the general assumptions and methodologies used subject to some kind of back testing? What level of confidence or caution do traffic experts attach to these types of analyses?
 
 
Questions for Town Staff re Aura:
 
1. Which entities – Chapel Hill government, the developer, or others – have responsibilities for tasks related to approving, financing, constructing, or overseeing the effectiveness of the traffic enhancements proposed for Estes and MLK? What is each entity responsible for?
 
2. Please identify any dependencies that could prevent any of these entities from fulfilling their responsibilities, eg, for any tasks requiring state or municipal funding, please state if the funding has already been secured or, if not, what approvals are needed to secure funds?
 
3. For any commitments of the developer related to this project – eg, related to the traffic enhancements, mix of uses, affordable housing, stormwater, green space, and overall appearance – which town entity is responsible for enforcing those conditions, and what process will the town follow in holding the developers accountable for any failures to satisfy those commitments?
 
 
Questions for Town Staff re neighboring Azalea Estates Senior Residences:
 
1. We note that the nearby Azalea Estates project has been allowed to complete constructing the housing complex and move in residents, but the developer has left its border along Somerset turned up from the construction, unfinished, and ugly. When will the responsible Town staff intervene to get the project completed?
 
2. When can we expect a stop sign at the egress to Azalea Estates on Somerset Dr to be installed? There have been several “almost” accidents from cars leaving Azalea without stoping to look for traffic on Somerset.
 
 
… Fred Lampe For Concerned Central West Citizens