Local residents, faculty, staff and students are invited to participate in a community meeting about Carolina North on Thursday, Oct. 4.
CHAPEL HILL – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites local residents, faculty, staff and students to participate in a community meeting about Carolina North on Thursday, Oct. 4. This meeting will follow the presentation of a revised Carolina North plan to the university’s Board of Trustees for action on Sept. 26.
The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. in Room 2603 of the School of Government’s Knapp-Sanders Building. Parking is available in the N.C. 54 visitor’s lot and the Rams Head deck. Chapel Hill Transit service is available via the RU, G, S and V routes. See http://www.townofchapelhill.org/index.asp?NID=399 for timetables of these routes.
Jack Evans, executive director of Carolina North, and other university representatives will present the same plan that will be submitted to the university’s trustees on Sept. 26.
As at the other monthly meetings held since March, attendees will have opportunities to ask questions and share comments. Comments from the previous community meetings influenced the draft that will be shared this month. All of those comments have also been posted to the Carolina North Web site, http://carolinanorth.unc.edu, along with materials shown at those sessions.
Evans has emphasized that the primary driver for Carolina North is the university’s mission – education, research, public service – and a responsibility to help meet the state’s economic development needs. Carolina North is what Evans calls a “growth campus,” one that can provide space for university activities that no longer fit on the main campus and to develop partnerships with the private sector to accelerate economic development.
An ecological assessment is helping guide UNC’s efforts toward sustainability principles and goals at Carolina North. Other input includes a report from the Leadership Advisory Committee that made recommendations for guiding principles for development.
Carolina North is envisioned as a vibrant, compact, mixed-use academic campus on the university’s 900-plus-acre tract, 2 miles north of the main campus. The Board of Trustees saw a draft concept plan at its July meeting and is expected to take action on a plan Sept. 26. The trustees have directed the administration to submit a plan for Carolina North to local governments by the end of October.
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415 or susan_houston@unc.edu