By Elyse Archer
By Carrboro Commons Writer

Residents of Carrboro’s Barnes Street are breathing a sigh of relief. Their fight to stop the building of The Shoppes at Jones Ferry has paid off, at least for now.

B.J. Johnston, a Barnes Street resident, says he is glad that there is no immediate threat to his neighborhood.
Elyse Archer photo

Northwest Property Group, the developers for the shopping center, have made no further moves to purchase the land after backing out of their proposal at the Sept. 25 Carrboro Board of Aldermen meeting, said Carrboro land use planner James Thomas.

The proposal for the shopping center, which would have been built on the corner of Barnes Street and Jones Ferry Road, included a 52,250 square foot Harris Teeter, as well as two other buildings totaling over 25,000 square feet in size, according to Carrboro Board of Aldermen meeting agendas.

The proposal was approved at the Sept. 25 board meeting, but Northwest Property Group declined to follow through with the plan due to heavy restrictions on the entrances that would be permitted into and out of the shopping center. Many of the restrictions imposed by the board arose out of Barnes Street residents’ concerns about the impact the new shops would have on the traffic flow on their street. An entrance was proposed that would connect directly to Barnes Street, which led many residents to worry about the impact that the increased traffic would have on their neighborhood, Thomas said.

B.J. Johnston, 26, a Barnes Street resident, expressed relief that the shopping center, as of now, will not be built.

“The traffic flow there is already pretty heavy,” he said. “I have to wait forever to get out to Jones Ferry, and if a big Harris Teeter was built there I can only imagine how much worse it would get.”

Similar concerns expressed by other residents prompted the board to add a stipulation to the proposal, stating that the entrance on to Barnes Street would be for emergency vehicles only, Thomas said.

“Harris Teeter wanted two entrances into the shopping center and wasn’t satisfied with that,” he added.

Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Jacquelyn Gist emphasized Carrboro’s allegiance to its citizens, first and foremost.

“The road on Barnes Street would have destroyed that community,” she said. “Sure, the tax revenue from the Harris Teeter might have saved residents about $100 a year, but am I willing to sell Carrboro’s soul for a savings of $100 a year? Absolutely not.”

She maintained that while economic growth is important to Carrboro, it will only be done with the best interest of its people in mind.

“Barnes Street is a very moderate income community,” she said. “Why should a lower-income community bear the brunt of the sacrifice for the rest of us?

Economic development is for the benefit of the people who live here, not for developers or investors.”

The future of the land is now up in the air, and Thomas reported that no plans are currently being discussed.

“There is a valid conditional use permit that goes with that land, not the applicant,” Thomas said. “Someone could go in there, buy that land, and start the project right now, if they wanted to.”

While there are no immediate indications that this will happen, the land is still up for grabs and will likely be developed at some point in the future, according to Thomas. At the Board of Aldermen’s Sept. 25 meeting members explained that they want much more commercial development downtown, and that they have committed to doubling the town’s commercial tax base.

Gist is still hopeful for the future of the land.

“I suspect that within the next couple of months, something will come along that meets the needs of both the town and the people,” she said.

Mayor Mark Chilton expressed similar hopes for the land.

“I would certainly like for an arrangement to come along that suits everyone’s needs,” he said. “To what extent that will turn out to be true, we will see.”

For more information on the Jones Ferry land use issue, contact James Thomas at (919) 918-7335.