Carrboro considers rule changes and financial help to keep the ArtsCenter in town
This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. June 15.
The ArtsCenter’s future was decided March 16, after Town Council members found that the developer has met the site’s stormwater conditions “to the maximum extent practicable.”
The council spent about two hours March 2 asking questions and listening to town staff, residents and the ArtsCenter development team talk about the $5.5 million project at 315 Jones Ferry Road.
The site, secured after a two-year search, is critical to keeping the nonprofit arts agency and live performance venue in Carrboro, project official Dan Jewell has said. The ArtsCenter has made its home in a former Piggly Wiggly store at 300 E. Main St. downtown for over 40 years.
But the new location also has challenges, including its small size and stormwater runoff.
The approved plan would add a two-story, 12,600-square-foot building to the undeveloped, 1.36-acre site, half of which is covered by a stream buffer. Another portion has an Orange Water and Sewer Authority sanitary sewer easement.
The council unanimously denied an amendment to town stormwater rules in early March that would have let the project exceed the annual runoff volume limit — one of three local stormwater requirements.
The town’s advisory boards have suggested giving the project a waiver instead of changing the town’s rules and potentially creating a loophole for other developers and projects.
The project is one of the more complicated that they have faced and could set the tone for the future, council member Jacqueline Gist said. The best option is to deny the amendment, she said.
“I don’t want to put that broad language in the ordinance itself, because I’ve seen broad language in the ordinance that was meant to be for the good, (and) I’ve seen it manipulated and used as a loophole too many times,” she said.
Council members also pushed Tuesday for other solutions, such as more pervious pavers to increase the amount of water draining into the soil, and a green or “blue” roof to reduce runoff from the building. A blue roof captures stormwater and releases it slowly.
The approved project would include 2,400 square feet of pervious pavers in the parking lot, and it also would include underground stormwater storage and sand filter systems. The additional pavers and a special roof could add at least $500,000 to the cost, project official Ken Reiter said.
Council member Susan Romaine again asked whether the town might have money to help in its revolving loan fund, grants or other financial resources. She and other council members voted unanimously to have staff look into the options.
“I think this is something that we’re going to be dealing with more and more in the coming years,” Romaine said, where “we’ve got a project, and it’s just got enormous community benefits, and yet it is ... exorbitantly expensive for the project to be able to afford to pay for all of the infrastructure needed to be in compliance with our stormwater regulations.”
Neighbors concerned about overflow parking
The council also encouraged the development team to spend more time talking with neighbors concerned about stormwater, but also about the potential for overflow ArtsCenter parking to end up in their neighborhood.
The site would have 41 parking spaces, and ArtsCenter officials expect visitors to use after-hours and overflow parking at OWASA’s offices across the street and in public parking lots about a mile away.
Frank Horton, who lives on Prince Street, said he doesn’t support a stormwater waiver for The ArtsCenter, and he wonders whether the small lot will meet the nonprofit’s needs as adequately as its current location does near the Cat’s Cradle. He asked for a fence to keep people from parking in his neighborhood and cutting through to the building.
Project officials said there may be other ways to discourage people from cutting through, especially since a fence might not cover the entire property line because of the stream buffer. They also suggested the town enforce parking in the neighborhood.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 8:26 AM with the headline "Carrboro considers rule changes and financial help to keep the ArtsCenter in town."
