Carrboro Town Council Work Session (11/12) highlights

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The council used a second work session with consultant Chad Meadows to connect the upcoming Downtown Area Plan with the UDO—what rules could actually shape what gets built, how tall, and where. Find the full recording on the Town's channel.

Highlights you’ll hear (generated by SeeGov):

• Streamlining downtown zoning: fewer, clearer districts and standards; potential incentives for taller, denser projects—while watching for the new down‑zoning limits and nonconformities.
• Climate priorities reset: flooding and stormwater take precedence over energy tweaks.
• Big trade‑offs: stronger flood and tree protections could raise costs. The group leaned toward mandating tougher floodplain standards, keeping streetscape/tree goals flexible, and setting stormwater mandates at a public health and safety floor—with incentives for regional/oversized facilities via agreements.
• Affordable housing reality check: hitting 1,000 affordable homes with a 15% target could mean ~6,500 new units over the plan horizon. Should timelines shift? Should preserved naturally occurring affordable housing count?
• Data centers: only through conditional rezoning—and with a community benefit agreement.

Public hearing on the draft downtown plan is tomorrow. If you care about height, trees, flooding, housing costs, or where data centers fit, this one’s worth a watch.

The Town Council meets tomorrow, 11/18 at 6pm at Town Hall. This meeting will continue public comment on the Downtown Area Plan. The agenda also includes an update from OWASA, restricting parking on Roberson Street, the data gap analysis from the Town of Carrboro and Center for Policing Equity partnership, and more.

WCOM 103.5 Carrboro Community Radio: tomorrow (11/18) from 1 - 2pm, residents of Weatherhill Pointe will talk about recovery and rebuilding efforts in their neighborhood which sustained devastating damage from Tropical Storm Chantal. They will also talk about their hopes for the meeting with OWASA regarding the University Lake Dam on Thursday, 11/20.