Orange County NC Website
010 <br />The projected growth areas include property located along the northeastern border of <br />Carrboro and Chapel Hill, most of which was within the Town's Extraterritorial <br />Jurisdiction, and the areas designated Transition Areas I and II by the 1987 Joint Planning <br />Agreement. The bulk of this area was located outside of the city limits, but within the <br />Town's planning jurisdiction, and was termed the Northern Study Area (NSA). Based on <br />the jurisdictional categories included in the Joint Planning Land Use Plan, the land area <br />within the NSA may be classified as follows: <br />Classification Area (Acres) <br />City Limits 740 <br />Extraterritorial Jurisdiction 253 <br />Transition Area I 1,319 <br />Transition Area II 1,475 <br />The Northern Study Area plan proposes to cluster a bulk of the new residential <br />development by encouraging village-scale development, to conserve natural and <br />environmentally sensitive areas, allows density bonuses for affordable housing meeting <br />certain development criteria, and sanctions neighborhood- and community-scale <br />commercial centers. The overall target density for the northern Study Area is <br />approximately the same as the current density of the town: 2.1 dwelling units per acre. <br />The target density for mixed-use areas is approximately five dwelling units per acre. <br />These development management options have been selected in order to minimize the <br />negative impacts of new development on environmental quality, transportation, taxation, <br />and existing neighborhoods. These elements should discourage a sprawled pattern of <br />monotonous development, preserve Carrboro's unique, small town character, and allow <br />the creation of new, neighborhood-scale communities which can be connected to existing <br />and new areas via a network of open space corridors. Ten goals and supporting <br />objectives were established by the planning process for the Northern Study Area. <br />This plan attempts to balance community, conservation and development objectives <br />within the Transition Areas and extraterritorial jurisdiction that lie to the north of <br />Carrboro's town limits. Community and conservation objectives include allowing <br />patterns of growth which minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts on <br />the community and allow for the efficient provision of town services, the provision of a <br />variety of housing types and styles, development of a multi-modal transportation system, <br />conservation of natural and environmentally sensitive areas, and the protection of <br />environmental quality, and the encouragement of active farmland preservation. <br />The proposed JPALUP amendment eliminates the one-unit-per-acre cap on density within <br />Transition Area II, and adopts, by reference, the NSA plan. <br />2 <br />