World Class: It Ain't Always Pretty

Anita, thanks for the photo and Dan thanks for posting it.

I slowly drove the length of Mason Farm Road this afternoon,

paying careful attention to how the university was buffering

the construction from the homes on the south side of the road.

The answer is there is almost zero buffering. The owners

of the homes on the south side of MF Road must be in tears, and furthermore, if they decide to sell and move, who else but UNC would want to buy their homes? With this construction, the dominos will fall, so that UNC, one step at a time, will simply take the triangle all the way to the bypass. The triangle to which I refer is that area bounded by Mason Farm Road, South Columbia

Street, and the bypass.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE NEXT SENTENCE:

This is the first UNC construction done at a campus edge

that abuts a neighborhood under the aegis of the UNC

Development Plan as approved by the town as part of the OI-4 zoning.

Please visit the site and see if you think that this manner

of town regulation of UNC construction is working.

I am embarassed by our university planners,

by Ayr-Saint-Gross, and by our previous town council

for allowing this to occur.

Joe,

I've been wanting to look up IO-4 specifications on buffering but cannot since the town web site remains down. Do you (or anyone) recollect the partiuclar requirements. Surely this was a major part of the negotiation and it's hard to believe that what we're seeing is what was agreed to (even considering the make-up of the Council in '01).

--Dan