By Allie Maupin
Carrboro Commons Writer

Come July, Chapel Hill may look like a ghost town, but just down the road in Carrboro local businesses say their sales remain relatively strong throughout the summer.

Hillary Vandewart prefers summers in Carrboro to Chapel Hill due to Carrboro’s diverse mix of restaurants and shopping.
Staff photo by Allie Maupin

In the summer months, the student population of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area shrinks from more than 27,000 to about 6,000.

While Chapel Hill businesses are significantly affected by the summer migration of students, local business in Carrboro remains mostly unaffected.

“We expect summer to be a great time for us,” said Kevin Murach, a Fleet Feet employee and UNC-CH student who plans on remaining in the area this summer. “The lack of students around really should not be much of an issue for us.”

Jenny McMillan, owner of Nested, a gift shop located on East Main Street, said her business comes in cycles but that summer is not particularly a slow period.

“I don’t have a huge student customer base,” McMillan said. “I think it’s probably like that for a lot of stores in Carrboro.”

Many businesses cited Carrboro’s settled, family-focused residents as a reason sales do not dip.

“I think more people permanently live around downtown Carrboro than in Chapel Hill,” said Murach. “Summer is not a down time because most our regular customers are still here.”

McMillan also attributes the seasonal differences in the two towns to the types of business each one attracts.

“Franklin Street is totally student-oriented,” she said. “There is not much to buy there besides cheap food and blue T-shirts.”

Hillary Vandewart, a UNC-CH student who spent last summer in Carrboro, agreed that downtown Carrboro has more to offer in the summer.
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By Morgan Siem
Carrboro Commons Writer

As Kathy Buck explained, each cohousing community has someone known as a “burning soul.”

Kathy Buck plans to complete the Eldergreen project, a seniors-only cohousing community, within five years.
Staff photo by Morgan Siem

Buck and her husband, Ken Moore, are the burning souls for Eldergreen, a community they are planning based on the concept that residents will be older than 55 and want to live in a community atmosphere while consciously working against environmental degradation.

Buck, 61, and Moore, 67, are looking at Carrboro as a potential site for Eldergreen, where they plan on spending the rest of their lives.

“We’re building it to live in it,” Buck said. “This is not to make money, it’s for us to have a place to live.”

The vision statement of Eldergreen says, “We embrace living in harmony with the earth and a commitment to caring for one another to provide for aging in place as we move with meaning and joy through the second half of life.”

Buck envisions 20 to 30 living units comprising Eldergreen.

“What is out there for a senior?” Buck asked. The options are going to a nursing home or living on a golf course, a playground for seniors, she said. “What a boring life!”

There is a trend in the medical world toward aging in place. In this format, care is delivered to the individual at home.

“The negative is that you’re trapped alone in your house, and I want to talk about aging in community,” she said. “This is like trying to create an extended family.”
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By Katie Spencer
Carrboro Commons Writer

Carrboro town officials have called on UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students to size up downtown parking issues.

The parking study is a part of a workshop course in the university’s Department of City and Regional Planning. It is designed to give students a chance to put their academic knowledge to use with real-world problems, like finding a place to park for Saturday afternoon errands.

Carrboro resident Sue Morgan looks for a parking spot at Carr Mill. “Parking decks are not very much in the spirit of Carrboro,” Morgan said. “But if people insist on having cars, they have to have somewhere to put them.”
Staff photo by Katie Spencer

The 10 students in the class have been checking parking turnover rates in public lots and surveying business owners to learn just how much parking is needed and when, said Daniel Rodriguez, associate professor and instructor for the course.

“Downtown Carrboro is the wild west of parking,” said Patrick McDonough, a Carrboro resident who has a master’s degree in transportation and land use planning.

Chava Kronenberg, a graduate student who will receive her master’s degree in city planning in May, said the specific problem spots the class has found are behind Open Eye Café on Roberson Street and near Cat’s Cradle on the night of a big concert.

While the group will present their full findings and recommendations to the Board of Aldermen on April 17, Kronenberg did say that 40 percent of the cars chalked in public lots were staying long past the two-hour limit.

Her group estimated that shifting these long-term parkers to lots on the fringes of downtown would increase parking spaces by 30 percent.
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By Allison McNeill
Carrboro Commons Writer

In Fall 2008, some Carrboro elementary students will find themselves at a different elementary school than they previously attended. Multiple factors contribute to the recent construction of new elementary schools across the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district.

Karen Aldridge, school social worker at Frank Porter Graham Elementary, says, “Smaller classes lead to improved learning for everyone.” The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board is preparing to decide what site will be the future home of Elementary School 11.
Staff photo by Allison McNeill

Morris Grove Elementary, the district’s 10th elementary school, located on Eubanks Road, is opening this fall, and discussions for Elementary School 11 are already in the works.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education is “looking at considerations” for possible locations for Elementary School 11, school board Chairwoman Pam Hemminger said.

A long-range facilities committee was formed to discuss Elementary School 11, including possible locations. The committee is “composed of members from different political entities that govern” throughout the school district, Hemminger said.

School board Vice Chairwoman Lisa Stuckey said the committee has been meeting for several months. Its last meeting has been held, but a final report has not yet been written, she said.

The School/County Collaboration Work Group outlined specific qualifications for a site in a 2007 draft of school construction standards. The specifications for elementary schools include that sites must have 16 acres of land, that the land must be flat enough to build on and that it must be within the water and sewer boundaries, Stuckey said.

These requirements represent a traditional school, one that is on a site that allows for future building expansion, outdoor play areas, full athletic facilities and on-site parking, according to the S/CCWG proposal.
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By Ann Ansley
Carrboro Commons Writer

Carrboro no sooner wants a bar or restaurant in its residential areas than it wants high rises in its downtown.

At a March 25 public hearing, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen unanimously voted for conditional use rezoning for the property located at 102 Center St., a move intended to restrict the potential commercial uses for this historic mill house.

This house at 102 Center St. could be the first of many to be rezoned for conditional commercial use. As a result, the house will only be able to serve specific commercial uses in order to maintain the historic and residential aura of the neighborhood.
Staff photo by Ann Ansley

The decision comes on the heels of a Feb. 19 board meeting in which Jane Hamborsky, founder of Center Street Preservation and owner of 102 Center St., requested that the property’s zoning classification be changed from residential, or an R-7.5 zoning district, to fringe commercial, or a B-2 zoning district.

At the hearing, many Carrboro residents and board members expressed their concern not only for this specific rezoning of 102 Center St., but for what could become an increasingly “slippery slope” for the looming commercialization of Carrboro.

“My main concern is creep,” said board member Jacquelyn Gist. “Every time you change something, then what’s next to it becomes more susceptible to commercialization.”

Several other community members voiced their worries about maintaining the historical value of the neighborhood if the property were rezoned to allow commercial use.

“Once you have a B, then what will you have next?” said Jeff Herrick, who has lived since 2000 at 109 Center St. in what was originally Carrboro’s first schoolhouse. “I’m here to say this is a residential neighborhood and we really like living here, and we’d like to keep it residential at all costs.”
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By Tracey Theret
Carrboro Commons Writer

By the end of next year, Carrboro residents who prefer to putt with a disc won’t have to venture out of town to get their golf fix.

The Carrboro Parks Project, a nonprofit that works to improve parks and open spaces in town, plans to raise money to install a disc golf course in Anderson Park off N.C. Hwy. 54.

“It’s a chill sport, but it has a competitive edge, too,” said Krista Moll, a Raleigh resident who travels to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Outdoor Education Center, the disc golf course closest to Carrboro.

Raleigh resident and disc golf fan Krista Moll lands a toss in the target at the course closest to Carrboro, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Outdoor Education Center.
Staff photo by Tracey Theret

She and three friends spent a sunny Saturday traversing the course with a golden retriever named Jackson tagging along. Moll said the Chapel Hill course is their favorite out of the five they have played and that they will try out the Anderson Park course when it’s complete.

Much like the traditional game of golf, the objective of disc golf is to complete the course with the fewest throws of the disc, according to the Professional Disc Golf Association Web site.

Players toss the disc from the starting area of each hole, or the “teepad,” with the goal of landing it in the target. Targets often consist of a pole with a metal basket attached at the top, with chains running from the top of the pole to the bottom of the basket.

The proposed course will be free and open to the public, as are most courses .

“It’s a spontaneous kind of sport,” Moll explained. “No one judges you and you can come and go as you want.”

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Arcadia, photographed from the air by Arcadia resident, pilot and Carrboro Citizen publisher Robert Dickson.

by Allie Maupin
Carrboro Commons Writer

With its landscaped footpaths and open space, Arcadia feels more like a small country hamlet than a residential neighborhood off busy Hillsborough Road in Carrboro.

The custom-built homes are positioned on small lots in close proximity to each other and cars are parked around the perimeter of the area, creating an atmosphere of community that is unparalleled in other neighborhoods. The concept, known as cohousing, is changing the way residents view where they live.

“The idea is to bring us together as more than just people that happen to live near one another,” said Giles Blunden, the architect behind Arcadia and a resident of more than 10 years. “Cohousing is living with intent as opposed to just buying real estate.”

Robert Dickson, who has lived in Arcadia for the last three years, said the biggest change in going from suburban living to cohousing is the increased interaction with neighbors.

“I lived in a suburban area in Fayetteville for 27 years,” Dickson said. “I drove my car into my garage and there was not much interaction. Here it is everyday. I generally have more interaction in one day in Arcadia then I would have had over a month in Fayetteville.”

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by Kennedy Carruthers
Carrboro Commons Writer

One would think that North Carolina’s most sustainable building would be applauded by Carrboro residents.

But for some concerned Carrboro residents, the Greenbridge development’s sustainable features have not outweighed its downsides.

“I see no positive side of this for the town,” Alderman Jacquie Gist said of the Greenbridge development.

UNC-Chapel Hill senior Jenna Nash, 22, stops en route to Carrboro, where she frequents on weekends, to survey the construction site of the future Greenbridge development.
Staff photo by Kennedy Carruthers

The $50 million Greenbridge project will sit on West Rosemary Street between North Merritt Mill Road and North Graham Street. Although the site is located between Chapel Hill and Carrboro, it falls in Chapel Hill’s zone jurisdiction. The project replaces properties that had been the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant and the former Mason Motel.

Once completed, Greenbridge is expected to reach 136 feet—10 stories of condominiums with initial asking prices between $350,000 and $1 million. Retail space will assume the entire first floor, according to Greenbridge development’s Web site.

But Gist said Greenbridge is too tall and that it does not comply with Carrboro’s height standards.

“I do not like it. I feel it is right on our town line,” she said. “Carrboro will be greatly impacted…it’s just going to loom over Carrboro.”

Gist is also unhappy with the asking price and said the “10 stories of condominiums for rich people” will draw a different crowd to the Carrboro area.

“Yeah, it’s sustainable, but how can you call it sustainable if you market to elite?” she said.

Alderman Lydia Lavelle, who joined the Board of Aldermen in January, was on the Carrboro Planning Board when Chapel Hill presented Carrboro with plans for the development.

Lavelle said the Greenbridge developers came to Carrboro and sought the opinions of aldermen and planning board members.

“They talked about the scope of the project and asked for input,” she said.

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by Ann Ansley
Carrboro Commons Writer

Jambalaya. Crawfish bread. Fried alligator.

These are a few of the traditional entrees found on menus in restaurants scattered along the Louisiana coastline.

UNC-Chapel Hill freshmen Nicole Bieber and Ricky Hurtado engage in conversation beneath the ‘gators at the bar in Crawdaddy’s.
Photo by Ann Ansley

But now they are conveniently available for the palates of Carrboro’s inhabitants.

Crawdaddy’s Cajun Cafe opened Jan. 14 at 302 E. Main St., the previous location of Bandido’s Mexican Cafe.

But as Crawdaddy’s owner Tony Sustaita will tell you, this restaurant is quite different from Bandido’s and anywhere else in the Orange County area.

“The most important part of the restaurant is having good food and good service,” said Sustaita. “But we went a step further and wanted people to have a good time.”

The cafe features a number of unique and colorful decorations. Sustaita spent the last eight months acquiring the restaurant’s ornamentation, which includes two alligators above the bar. One of the alligators has in its mouth an arm with a Duke University banner in hand, while the other alligator has a ram on its back. Sustaita said he wanted to make it clear which university Crawdaddy’s supports.

In keeping with its mantra of fun and entertainment, Crawdaddy’s plays loud, festive music and hosts bands that play on the small stage of the restaurant. So far, The Haw River Rounders, a fiddle, banjo, washboard and harmonica group, have played, as well as the Latin band that previously played in Bandido’s. There will also be open-mike nights soon, said Sustaita.

Crawdaddy’s features an array of Cajun dishes largely compiled by Sustaita. In the months preceding Crawdaddy’s opening, Sustaita spoke with a number of chef consultants, researched and visited other Cajun restaurants, tried six different recipes for jambalaya and had taste tests before finalizing the menu.

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