A town-owned surface parking lot in Chapel Hill is getting a makeover soon – turning the land into a pocket park the local government hopes may be permanent.
After soliciting design feedback and holding an open house on Monday, the town is preparing to test out the lot on the corner of East Rosemary Street and Columbia Street to become a gathering place and more activated for foot traffic than vehicle traffic. The plan to close the lot and create a pedestrian-focused public space was among the initial designs for the large-scale redevelopment of the corridor approved by Chapel Hill’s town council in October 2020. With far more parking spots in the project’s new seven-story 125 East Rosemary Parking Deck, the roughly 70-space surface lot can be used for a pocket park – creating an option for people in that hub and across town to come to for a break.
At Monday’s open house in the Innovate Carolina Junction building, which was also part of the redevelopment, Town of Chapel Hill Project Manager Sarah Poulton walked visitors through the ideas of the pilot design that will be implemented to see how people engage with the reimagined lot. She said the features and amenities will be based community members’ feedback gathered earlier this year – but everything is meant to be temporary and flexible to new recommendations.
“The park that’s been planned here has been a little bit of a blank slate,” Poulton told Chapelboro. “We didn’t know exactly what it was going to have, so I think this is going to be a way to test a lot of different things in a small space to say, ‘Oh, that really worked well – people loved the little, plastic rocking horses,’ or, ‘No one cared about the tables with the umbrellas – they never opened them, that didn’t work.’
“I’m looking for that kind of feedback the entire [pilot] project,” the project manager added. “What worked, what doesn’t work…and it absolutely will inform what park gets put back here long-term and other things we do in town.”
Town of Chapel Hill Urban Designer Brian Peterson talks through the pilot designs for the pocket park during Monday’s open house about the project. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Brian Peterson, the urban designer for the town government, said the town’s approach to this initial design was to create different sections to see what resonates with visitors. On the corner of East Rosemary and Columbia will be a “gathering” space with picnic tables and temporary staging for live music programming. Another “explore/enrich/engage” section along East Rosemary will feature public artwork or a fixture that people can directly engage with, perhaps for a “selfie moment” as Peterson described it.
“We’re really trying to maximize this portion,” the designer said of the lot’s edges, “which is where you have people walking by [and] you can see it. If you had everything going on in the back, a lot of folks would say, ‘What park, what space, what plaza?’
“Because it’s so visible and it’s the identifying area,” Peterson concluded, “if this [section] is working as we expect it [to], it’s going to help activate everything else.”
The final design and the dedicated sections of the pilot park for 100 East Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill. Examples of potential amenities and features from other communities are featured beside the legend. (Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.)
A potential layout of the pocket park during its pilot if programmed for a larger market or festival-like event. (Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.)
At the center of the lot, the town will have a patch of artificial turf, shade structures and interactive features meant to be a “play and learn” area that the pedestrian walkways all direct toward. The layout will also separate space for different vendors to set up booths to help program the pocket park and test out its ability to feature a temporary market.
Peterson cautioned how the town’s design has several constraints – such as keeping the asphalt to return it to a parking lot if the project flops and maintaining the retaining walls lining the edges of the site. But he said the layout of the pilot, the future interactive features and decorative painting will help the Chapel Hill community begin to see the lot through a different lens.
“Part of this,” Peterson said, “is just getting in folks’ minds that this is a place where things happen. And then you plant the seed for that civic identity and consciousness – that this is not parking, but people see, ‘Oh, things happen here,’ [and] it adds to the downtown character.”
The changes for the lot will be coming quickly, as Chapel Hill aims to have the pocket park open in that form by the start of August. The pilot design will run through the end of the holiday season – giving the town ample time to gauge how the space is best being used. From there, Chapel Hill staff will share their observations with the town council, which will provide guidance on how to move forward with the local government’s land.
Poulson said the long-term goal is to create a permanent, popular downtown amenity. But first, she added, the staff need to hear more about what community members like about the pilot design as it is tested this fall and winter.
“Tell us what you think,” said Poulson. “We’ll have QR codes and the website posted everywhere. It’s an experiment for a reason, and we won’t know if it’s successful or not unless people tell us. It’s just really important to tell us what they think, come to the events, and see if they work or not.”
More details about the East Rosemary Street pilot pocket park can be shared on the project’s page on the Town of Chapel Hill’s engagement website, which is also a portal to share direct feedback with the project’s staff.
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