The main UNC campus has one parking space for every 515 square feet of buildings. A transportation consultant has recommended cutting that by about 20 percent for the first 15 years for the new campus. A citizens group wants the university to go even farther, providing only one parking space for every 640 square feet of development by 2025.

This 30 percent reduction from the main-campus parking ratio is just one of many recommendations from Neighbors for Responsible Growth as the Town Council and the university prepare to finalize a development agreement for Carolina North later this month.

The two sides will hold a public information session Thursday at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. The Town Council is scheduled to vote on the development agreement on Tuesday, June 16, at 7 p.m. at Extraordinary Ventures, 200 S. Elliott Road.

Besides the parking decrease, NRG members also want to see off-road bike paths, supplemented by on-road bike lanes where necessary, connecting Carolina North to the main campus by 2015 and to the rest of Chapel Hill and Carrboro by 2025.

"Without a plan embedded in the [development] agreement for bicycle and pedestrian facilities, we won't get people out of their automobiles," states the NRG proposal.

The draft development agreement provides for traffic signal upgrades to include bicycle activation sensors near Carolina North and requires bicycle and pedestrian access to nearby bus stops but no extensive bicycle paths to areas beyond the campus.

The consultant Vanasse Hangen Brustlin's Traffic Impact Analysis recommends striped bike lanes on parts of Seawell School Road, Estes Drive, Piney Mountain Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. But those recommendations don't go as far as NRG would like. For example, the consultant recommends bike lanes on MLK only as far south as Bolinwood Drive near the Chapel Hill Police headquarters, whereas NRG recommends bike lanes or a dedicated path all the way to the main campus.

The Traffic Impact Analysis also calls for widening sections of MLK and Estes Drive near the new campus, but NRG wants the town to minimize any widenings.

The consultant warns that Carolina North will add more than 23,000 cars to MLK and Estes by 2025, but NRG, like some Town Council members, has asked for reduced parking ratios in order to force commuters onto bicycles and buses and reduce that number.

jesse.deconto@nando.com or 932-8760

INSIDE

Read more about Carolina North on PAGE A6.