The Chapel Hill Town Council has approved a plan that will tighten building restrictions and close loop-holes in the Neighborhood Conservation Districts in the Northside and Pine Knolls neighborhoods.
The council voted unanimously to pass the plan, which will tightens rules, calls for more preservation and education programs and stricter enforcement of already existing town ordinances.
Members of the neighborhoods and representatives from the Sustaining OurSelves coalition, which wrote the plan, spoke at the meeting, along with some investors and property owners.
"This isn't just about these two neighborhoods. It is about Chapel Hill and its future as a whole town, the sort of community it's going to be," said Alexander Stephens, associate director for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, which is a part of the SOS coalition.
The plan calls for an additional town employee to enforce occupancy rules and ordinance violations, limits parking to four cars per house, reduces the limit for building height.
The council imposed a building freeze in the community since June, after admitting that some property owners and developers were taking advantage of loop holes in the area's construction restrictions. That freeze is set to expire at the end of January.
In addition to the costs of another town employee and more enforcement, the plan proposes to contract with a local nonprofit to help preserve the culture and history of the community for $75,000 a year, plus $25,000 to create a website documenting the area's history.
Town Manger Roger Stancil has said he doesn't know how the town will pay for the provisions outlined in the new plan, and has said that the town will need to prioritize and make cuts during this year's budget process.
Town Council member Gene Pease agreed.
"I don't know how we're going to pay for some of these great suggestions in here and I think we're going to have a lot of discussion about priorities," he said. "I'm most concerned about how we pay for enforcement ... so I think that's going to surface in the budget conversation pretty heavily."
The new rules will apply to all property owners. Those who bought property and submitted a permit for a project before the building freeze will not be exempt.
Property owner Showchien Hsieh asked the board to let her and owner Whitney Long continue with permits they've already submitted to the town.
"To change the rules ... is very unfair and punitive to residents who have already made significant investments," she said. "We have made substantial expenditures and efforts submitted in May, not knowing that the rules were going to change."
Council member Ed Harrison said municipalities frequently change the rules and that it's not uncommon for people to get caught up in it. But Council member Matt Czajkowksi questioned the message that the change would sent to other property owners in town.
"We are changing the rules in the middle of the game," he said. "I think we have the ability to do that, but I don't think it sends a great signal to other people in the neighborhoods in Chapel Hill that we will change the rules without any significant conideration of those people for whom the rules are being changed."
Council member Penny Rich disagreed. Developers should have respected the rules in the first place, she said.
"It is very unfortunate that people didn't play the game fairly to start with ... I don't think there should be a grandfather clause."
Katelyn Ferral covers Orange County for The News & Observer and The Chapel Hill News.
