UNC-Chapel Hill:
UNC-Chapel Hill:
Carolina North will be first and foremost a campus, conceived in the academic mission and ideals of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a flagship public research university charged with helping to lead a transformation in the state’s economy, UNC must compete with national peers for the talent and resources that drive innovation. Today, that competition demands a new kind of setting — one that enables public-private partnerships, public engagement and flexible new spaces for research and education.
Carolina North will best serve the university and the state if it also strengthens the local community, enhances its quality of life, respects its character and values, and embraces its spirit of collaboration. Much more than a technology park or overflow space for main campus, Carolina North will be a tree-shaded campus for living and learning, where people can live, work and study in one place. This and other progressive measures will help make Carolina North a model of sustainability — a campus that is socially, environmentally, and economically sound.
Building a New Campus for UNC
The process for the Town of Chapel Hill's consideration of Carolina North has begun, thanks to the leadership exhibited by Mayor Kevin Foy and Board of Trustees Chair Roger Perry and the collegial cooperation of the town and university staffs. Town and gown came together last month in an unprecedented session where all agreed that the time had come to discuss the process for considering the new mixed-use academic campus two miles north of Carolina's main campus. At its meeting earlier this month, the Town Council kept the process moving by authorizing joint staff work with the University to devise and propose a review process for Carolina North. Adding to the anticipation about the new campus, Dean Jack Boger recently announced the intention of the UNC School of Law to relocate to Carolina North.
At the same time, the University is putting together its request for a special use permit to build the Innovation Center, a business accelerator for faculty members who have formed small companies to develop products or services based on their research. This partnership with Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a leader in business accelerators, and the companies it creates, will pump new tax dollars into the community and support the local economy. Later, these new companies will create products and procedures that improve human health and the welfare of us all. Because of the faculty's urgent need for this facility and the University's desire to partner with Alexandria because of its previous successful work, we are applying now before submitting the full plan for Carolina North. However, the Innovation Center is planned as an integral element of the Carolina North campus. We consider its prime location at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Municipal Drive the front door for Carolina North.
It is an exciting time for the University and the community as we stand on the verge of creating a whole new campus for the nation's oldest public university. Rarely does a university have the chance to expand in such close proximity to its main campus on a piece of property that includes natural resources to be preserved and developed areas to be improved. We have that opportunity at Carolina North, a unique opportunity to make a statement about UNC and its role in the 21st century, in our stewardship of the Horace Williams tract.
We have already set certain goals for how we build Carolina North. One of the most important goals is that we want to limit construction over the next 50 years to only 250 acres of already developed land, leaving the nearly 750 acres that remain—mostly forests, trails and wetlands—undeveloped yet managed for recreational use by the public. Our planning staff and consultants Ayers Saint Gross have also worked diligently to create a master plan that is a model of sustainability: incorporating public transit, alternative sources of energy, green construction methods and water reclamation.
With the fundamentals of the design's infrastructure well established, now is the time to turn our attention to its external features: how it will look. Both the UNC Board of Trustees and Town Council—as well as various citizens speaking at public meetings or commenting in local newspapers—have expressed a desire that Carolina North make a statement in its appearance. We want it to make a statement, too. But what statement will it make?
Our planning staff and consultants are turning their attention to this challenging task. They have been asked to develop a framework to guide the design of future development. The framework will examine issues of buildings and landscape to assure that Carolina North will be aesthetically pleasing, functional and forward in vision, reflecting an institution with roots deep in history and yet enabling an important mission of future service to the people of North Carolina.
It is a very exciting moment, and I am glad it has finally arrived.