Nearly 20 years after its inception, UNC-Chapel Hill administrators appear ready to start making moves to develop Carolina North.
The 1,000-acre space is about two miles from Carolina's main campus, along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The plan is for the land to become a mixed-used development combining housing, research, and retail facilities; as well as several hundred acres of green space.
This morning, the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees budget and finance committee approved $8 million in initial planning for the project. The full board is expected to vote on the initial spending authority on Thursday.
"While there have been similar things done around the country, what we have here is unusual," Roberts told committee members Wednesday morning. "Most universities would give anything to have this amount of developable land available to them this close to the main campus."
Phase one of the project will span about 250-acres, to create a "live, work, play, learn" development. Roberts said a main priority is creating more residential space, as the affordable housing crisis continues to grow in Chapel Hill and surrounding areas.
Initial plans include creating 2,200 undergraduate student beds as well as graduate student housing.
"The Triangle area as we all know is one of the fastest growing in the country — that's helped create and exacerbate a local housing crunch," Roberts said. "As we try to attract and retain the best talent, the lack of affordable housing options in the town has become an increasing challenge for us ... we think that the acreage at Carolina North allows us to both address the town's housing challenges (and) our own housing challenges."
Another aspect of the project is to increase UNC-Chapel Hill's academic and research facilities. Student enrollment in STEM majors has grown from about 33% to 50% in recent years, but Roberts said UNC-Chapel Hill doesn't have enough modern infrastructure to keep up with that demand.
"When you look at biology and media and computer science, exercise and sports science, those programs all require not just modern facilities, but facilities that need to be updated and refreshed and improved as technology advances," Roberts said. "We need more capacity for those programs as they become increasingly popular and as we add to them over time."
UNC-Chapel Hill's facility problems aren't limited to academic buildings. The Smith Center, home to Carolina's basketball games for the past four decades, has needed repairs for years. Administrators are considering rebuilding the iconic space at Carolina North, moving it from its current on-campus location.
Ahead of the committee meetings today, former basketball coach Roy Williams posted a video urging campus officials to instead renovate the Smith Center and keep it on South campus. Others have shared similar sentiments, worried an off-campus Dean Dome would be too far removed from student life.
"I was Coach Smith's assistant for ten years. We had many discussions about basketball, about life, about the golf course, everything," Williams said in the video. "But I do know during the conversation about what to get out of this building, the Smith Center, that Coach Smith wanted this plan on campus. That was his wish, there was no question."
"We want Carolina basketball to be special, Carolina basketball to be different," Williams continued. "And the Smith Center is part of that."
Roberts said he and his team haven't made any decisions about the arena. He plans to form two stakeholder committees on its future — one made up of students and the other of so-called "basketball folks."
"We're continuing to have discussions and sincerely seek as much advice and input and feedback as we can," Roberts said.
Last year, the General Assembly passed a law that allows UNC System schools in four counties, including Orange, to build large scale projects regardless of local zoning rules.
The university will also gather input from faculty, staff, town leaders, and various stakeholders about other components of Carolina North in the coming year. Administrators say they plan to break ground on the project in 2027.
Administrators plan to use the initial $8 million funding allocation to hire consultants to "refine" Carolina North's design and set a total budget for the project. UNC-Chapel Hill's CFO said a mix of sources will finance developments including state trust funds, third-parties, debt, and private donors.
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