Ken Larsen's web site - Plans by Ram Realty Services for Village Plaza in Chapel Hill, NC

 

December 20, 2016:  In an N&O story by Tammy Grubb, she reported that Ram Realty Services plans to build apartments in Village Plaza.

 

Here are a couple of images of the proposed new buildings:

 

 

The above drawing looks west with Fordham Boulevard in the foreground.

 

 

Here's a flood zone map of the area:

 

 

I excerpted this map from http://www.ncfloodmaps.com/ and editted in black lines to show Elliott Road and Fordham Boulevard.  I also drew in the proposed new buildings using red.

 

The blue areas represent 100 year flood zones.  100 years is a long time, but flooding has become increasingly more frequent and more severe in recent years.  [details]

 

Yellow represents 500 year flood zones.

 

Within the last two years a lot of upstream developments have been approved.  Those will add more impervious surface and likely will expand the areas of blue and yellow ... in my opinion.

 

It should be noted that the RAM project has not yet been officially submitted to the Town of Chapel Hill. 

 

January 3, 2017 email from resident Neva Whybark:  "Recently when I bought some groceries, I asked Johnny Mariakakis if the Days Inn sale would affect him.  It won’t, he said, since he owns that strip of property.  He then showed me a ring binder of pictures of how Days Inn itself and that property have been flooded in the past which he said he had showed our mayor when she came in to talk with him about his neighbor the Days Inn.  So, we know that Days Inn and the site have already been comprised in recent past floods and can imagine what more impervious surface runoff would add in future floodings.  Also Johnny said the water has been up to the back of Stein Mart.  We probably all have seen the sand bags against the Eastgate storefronts in the past, and I am not sure if the problem of the flooding of Eastgate itself has been solved or not."