At a work session on Tuesday, the Carrboro Town Council received a presentation of a draft for the Downtown Area Plan (DAP). The DAP is a priority project within the larger Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan, a wide-ranging plan outlining the town’s goals through 2042.
Danny Wilson, an urban planning manager, delivered the Downtown Area Plan presentation. A representative of Freese and Nichols, the consulting firm hired by the town for this project, Wilson detailed the steps of the planning process, including analysis of existing conditions, establishing a vision and goals, identifying “character areas” within the town, creating renderings and strategies, and eventual implementation.
Wilson specifically described several ways the DAP fits into the Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in 2022. He said the DAP will contribute to elements of Carrboro Connects such as affordable housing, transportation, water and energy infrastructure, economic sustainability, parks and recreation, land use, and climate action.
Based on public feedback, Wilson listed five overarching goals. To build for climate resilience, the plan involves planting and protecting trees, installing and incentivizing green stormwater infrastructure, and enhancing public green spaces. For the goal of ensuring a range of housing options, they hope to support economic diversity and prevent displacement by maintaining access to affordable housing. The third goal listed was to expand transit choices and reduce traffic by improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, creating safe and equitable mobility options. To support small businesses and entrepreneurs, they plan to create affordable commercial spaces and foster a dynamic and inclusive local economy. The last goal was to maintain the integrity of historic buildings while also encouraging development that is sustainable and compatible with the town’s unique identity.
“The vision that we created, based on the feedback we received, is: Carrboro’s downtown area is a vibrant, walkable, and community-oriented space that balances preserving historic charm with thoughtful growth,” he said, outlining the project vision developed by the planners. “The downtown area serves every Carrboro resident, with particular attention to Black, indigenous, and people of color, and marginalized community members, as a place for daily needs, a place to gather with community, and a place to live. The downtown area fosters economic diversity, celebrates art and culture, and ensures accessibility for all.”
The presentation included renderings of future plans for downtown Carrboro, including this mixed-use development along a greenway. (Photo via Freese and Nichols)
Public engagement was noted as a priority at every step, with Wilson estimating that a total of about 580 people had participated in outreach efforts such as three community events, three stakeholder meetings and presentations, three Joint Advisory Board meetings, and a community survey. Six recurring themes emerged in the public feedback: affordability, public spaces, arts, green space, transportation, and organic growth balanced with historical identity.
“We approach projects with no preconceived notions of the community,” Wilson said. “We want to hear what the community wants, so we can craft a plan that reflects the community’s values and that the community being built is what the community would like to see.”
The presentation included renderings of future plans for Carrboro, including this downtown green space. (Photo via Freese and Nichols)
Following the presentation, several members of the council voiced comments and raised some concerns.
Catherine Fray, for example, said the presentation didn’t seem to address the issue of maintaining the downtown character through the implementation of the plan.
“Equity and anti-displacement are considerably more important than the visual,” they said. “Because it’s entirely possible to have a town that looks like it respects that historical context and welcomes in neighbors who have been longtime residents, but actually it’s a bit of a theme park and the longtime residents have long since moved out because they couldn’t afford to stay. So the affordability and the equity components of it, to me, have to have to take on some additional weight.”
Fray also pointed out a discrepancy they noticed in the transportation aspect of the plan, where the stated efforts to widen sidewalks and bike lanes seemed absent in the presentation.
“You talked about narrowing streets so that vehicular traffic in that space would be cautious and would be yielding by default to pedestrians as an example. What surprised me then, when I looked at the example street typologies, was that none of them actually showed narrowing of travel lines,” they said.
Another council member, Randee Haven-O’Donnell, wasn’t satisfied with the lack of public transit hubs in the plan, saying these were a necessity for Carrboro.
“Carrboro cannot survive on the folks who live in that downtown area; it is dependent upon people coming in. It is dependent upon being a destination,” she said. “Therefore, if we want to reduce car vehicle use, there needs to be micro transit hubs, not to mention the fact we haven’t even talked about how that can happen. But that needs to happen.”
Haven-O’Donnell also said she didn’t find the community feedback particularly well-represented in the renderings when it came to downtown commerce.
“The renderings do not show me where daily life needs are included, and yet, the feedback showed the basic needs was the largest interest,” she said. “It just shows that that’s the key interest of folks, to be able to shop for the things that they’re most interested in downtown. So I did not see renderings that suggested that Carrboro would be moving in a direction that could meet those needs, at least from the renderings.”
Council member Danny Nowell expressed that he didn’t consider the town’s current character to be quite as important compared to more tangible considerations when it came to discussions on building heights and appearances.
“I tend not to think too much about aesthetic and character considerations. Like the conversations that we have with neighbors, where these two values compete: affordability, which is always what we hear, and then character, which is usually like the second or third, depending on who you’re talking to,” he said. “For my personal calculus, I tend to be pretty dismissive of the idea of character and sensitivity about height, because I think what so many people like about our downtown is just, it’s familiar phenomenon. People hated brownstones in Brooklyn when they were built. People tend to react very strongly to change and to become very fond of it pretty quickly.”
The next steps of the process will be editing the draft for the plan, continuing public engagement efforts, and eventually recommending and considering adoption by the Town Council.
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