The Chapel Hill Town Council will hold the first of two public hearings Monday to evaluate the Charterwood development proposal (CHN April 6). Once again, another unappreciated Chapel Hill jewel is in danger.

Towering trees, having watched Chapel Hill grow for well over 100 years, would be bulldozed to make way for a parking lot.

The property lies on the west side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just south of Weaver Dairy Road. This gateway property is home to more than 200 trees with girths up to 49 inches. Despite Chapel Hill's new tree ordinance, they are all in danger.

It is also home to the headwaters of Booker Creek and is part of the Jordan Lake Watershed. For now, these massive oaks and maples, are in partnership with the land, absorbing stormwater, providing homes to birds and animals, helping to maintain the air quality, and cooling the air.

If this development is approved, not only will the beauty and the history of the trees be lost, but air quality and temperatures, soil moisture, and the control of pollutants entering the watershed will suffer as well. The tree canopy of this site will not be replaced in the lifetime of anyone born today or for the next 40 years.

Chapel Hill's policy of ensuring neighborhood protection is endangered as well. This one fragile 13-acre property is poised to hold a mix of one-family homes, townhomes, condos, office and retail space, 282 parking spots, and a hotel. Nearby businesses will be cannibalized by the development. Furthermore, day care centers, clinics, and houses of worship (also proposed) collect no sales tax.

Also planned is a disconnected 11-unit patio home cul-de-sac, behind the Chapel Hill Fire Department Training Center burn buildings, that would result in at the least two significant health and safety issues. Charterwood will clearcut the parcel up to the 25 foot "buffer" dividing the two existing neighborhoods from it. Minimal buffers will subject current residents to extreme noise, light and smoke pollution.

The applicant proposes to obtain the existing Department of Transportation retention ponds and maintain them. Neighborhoods south of here, such as Lake Ellen, Piney Mountain Road, and Eastgate shopping center, have all experienced serious stormwater related problems emanating from this area in the past.

Is it wise for the town to trust a private developer with this state responsibility? Of late, many Chapel Hill developers have experienced financial constraints in today's economic environment. Will the town be able to depend on private stormwater pond maintenance on this state road forever?

Oh, yes, the parking lot. One of the parking areas alone will use one acre for surface parking - one acre of 30 trees, in order to provide parking for almost 100 cars in this proposed "transit oriented development."

Land available for development is dwindling in Chapel Hill. As a result, we will be seeing more and more applications from developers that stretch the limits of our ordinances and ask us to re-assess our priorities.

No public purpose is served by foregoing our principles for Charterwood and other questionable developments. If we do so, a considerable public price will be paid.