CHAPEL HILL - The Town Council wants more information about crime and the number of homeless people in Orange County as it considers guidelines for future shelters.

The council began considering guidelines Wednesday night proposed by the Planning Board. The guidelines come in light of the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service's plan to build a 52-bed transitional facility and 17-cot emergency shelter off of Homestead Road.

Although the guidelines come too late to affect the IFC's permit application, supporters and opponents of the project site had a hard time distinguishing the two.

The guidelines recommend that the town consider other social service programs within a quarter mile when it weighs future shelter projects. They also recommend the town determine the benefits and burdens that such services may have on their surrounding neighborhoods.

A Good Neighbor Plan was also recommended to provide ways for community members to be involved.

But the Planning Board did not feel comfortable defining benefits and burdens or specifying how close together shelters should be located.

"The planning board did not feel that we could speak in terms of a concentration in homeless shelters in Chapel Hill because we have precisely one homeless shelter," Chairman Mike Collins said.

Opponents of the IFC project site said the guidelines were overly vague.

The guidelines do not regulate shelter clustering, make provisions for sex offenders, or consider proximity to parks and schools, said Tim CoyneSmith, who lives near the site of the proposed shelter.

"There are major issues that need to be resolved," he said. "As written, the guidelines are not really implementable."

Nearby social services are a plus for the IFC's proposed facility, said Chris Moran, IFC executive director.

"Based on recommendations before you it appears that Chapel Hill will be better prepared to welcome a homeless person because they will be in better proximity to other social services and all other support groups that are needed to overcome this social problem," he said.

The Town Council requested more statistics about crime and the number of homeless people who need services in Orange County.

While homeless people in the county may be difficult to count, understanding how many people need help is necessary to create effective guidelines, said council member Matt Czajkowski.

"I can't accept that those types of general statistics can't be generated," he said. "If we can't have some sense of the numbers we're trying to serve, how can we have any sense of planning whatsoever?"