Title
Request-to-Set a Public Hearing for the Carrboro Downtown Area Plan
PURPOSE: The Town Council is asked to set a public hearing to consider adopting the Downtown Area Plan, which explores opportunities for growth in the downtown area and along Jones Ferry Road in line with the Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan. A resolution setting a public hearing for October 21, 2025, has been provided.
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Department
DEPARTMENT: Planning and the Manager’s Office
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Council Direction
COUNCIL DIRECTION:
_X_ Race/Equity _X_ Climate _X_ Comprehensive Plan ___Other
Council Direction Statement
Setting a public hearing for consideration of the adoption of the Downtown Area Plan follows the same procedure as the Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan. It provides a final opportunity for recommendations from advisory boards and commissions and an opportunity for public comments from the community. The Short REAL for Small Area Plans and the responses to the Climate Action pocket questions will be provided with the public hearing materials.
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Information
INFORMATION: Freese & Nichols, Inc. (FNI) has been developing a Downtown Area Plan as directed by the Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan. The scope of the project is to refine goals of the comprehensive plan specifically related to the downtown area, direct future implementation, and inform other work such as the development of the new Carrboro UDO.
Outreach activities incorporated a variety of strategies to collect feedback from the community. The draft plan includes an overview of outreach (pp. 102-118 of Attachment B). A detailed summary of engagement to-date in May 2025 was provided to the Town Council for the work session (May 13, 2025 – Agenda Item 25-017).
After direction from the Town Council for strategic engagement with community members of color, staff and the consultant team led a series of events this summer to garner more feedback. Questions from the community as to how the plan will be used and lack of clarity on the relationship between the vision and the representative renderings, as well as comments from the Town Council in May prompted FNI to make contextual edits to the plan. Comments and summaries from these events are provided as an appendix to the plan and will be included as a separate attachment for the public hearing.
Attachments to this item include a resolution to set a public hearing (Attachment A), and the draft plan (Attachment B). The draft plan is largely the same as what was presented at the work session with the addition of the implementation chapter which has since been completed. The draft plan will be updated after the advisory boards complete their respective reviews to incorporate final changes before the public hearing. The public hearing draft will be posted on the project website prior to the hearing.
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Fiscal and Staff Impact
FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact relating to setting a public hearing. Costs and staff time are associated with public hearing and advisory board review.
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Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION: The manager recommends that the Town Council consider the resolution (Attachment A) setting a public hearing for October 21, 2025, and referring the item to the Planning Board, and all other active advisory boards and commissions.
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