Ken Larsen's web site - Rams Days Inn/Fordham Boulevard Apartments development
Bad news: This project has been approved. Per FBC rules passed by the 2014 Town Council, all that was required was for the CDC and the Town Manager to approve it. The 2017 Town Council had no legal right to challenge. This disgusts me. Developers are in charge of Chapel Hill ... not the people or their representatives.
Here is a tree protection barrier I saw on January 26, 2018:
Development has begun.
Here is the history of this project:
May 2017: A new development proposal has been submitted to the Chapel Hill Town Council for the Days Inn property at the NW corner of Elliott Road and 15-501. Here are the details.
Ram's application for the Days Inn property:
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273 units 184 efficiency/1 b/r and 89 two b/r
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360 parking spots
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6 stories
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Impervious surface would increase from 40,269 to 112,000. 80% of the net land area will be impervious. Trees which help absorption will be clear cut.
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Form Based Code (FBC) wiped out Resource Conservation District (RCD) rules. FBC was adopted for the Ephesus-Fordham district in 2014.
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no ground floor retail....just a "club."
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will be applying for alternate green building status - NGBS (National Green Buildings Standard. According to Tom Henkel, it's not as good as the AIA-2030 standards for carbon reduction.)
One concern that I have is that it will be on a 100 year flood zone. See:
UK News story: Climate change is NOT main cause of floods, say experts: Building on plains and cutting down trees are among the true reasons
I live in the Briarcliff section of Chapel Hill. Sections of my neighborhood [although not my house] and nearby Colony Woods have been adversely affected by upstream development. [details]
For details on the project see http://chapelhill.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=11&event_id=1183&meta_id=176996