Storyline · 1981–1987
Chapel Hill had regulated density by floor area ratios since 1981 and added limits on dwellings per acre in 1983, and in 1984 a court upheld its denial of the Oxford Hills apartments. In 1984 Chapel Hill residents worried about water, traffic and open space formed the Alliance of Neighborhoods, and a town task force warned that developments already approved would strain water and roads. The Alliance's petition for a six-month moratorium on new development drew 3,835 signatures, but in November the council turned it down and set hearings on growth rules instead. In 1985 and 1986 the council tightened its Development Ordinance, lowered its density caps and adopted a new land use plan, and it issued no apartment permits in 1986 as a glut left more than 1,300 apartments vacant.
In 1981 Chapel Hill replaced its rule of minimum land area per dwelling with floor area ratios in each zoning district as its main control on density, and in 1983 the Town Council added limits on the number of dwellings allowed per acre. In 1983 Goforth Properties, Inc. sued the town after the council denied a special-use permit for the Oxford Hills apartments, a 180-unit complex off Old Oxford Road. In July 1984 Orange County Superior Court upheld the denial, which town attorney Grainger Barrett had defended; the decision was appealed, and many expected it to be a landmark North Carolina zoning case.
In the summer of 1984 council member Nancy Preston proposed a moratorium on development approvals so Chapel Hill could step back and re-evaluate its plans; the Town Council did not approve it. That summer residents worried about water, traffic, trees and open space formed the Chapel Hill Alliance of Neighborhoods, which by November spoke for 49 neighborhoods and 16 apartment complexes and wanted town ordinances changed so that growth would be better managed rather than kept out. On September 24 the council's Task Force on Growth Management, chaired by David R. Godschalk, reported that developments already approved could add 10,000 residents in three to four years, raising water demand past what University Lake and the quarry could safely supply until OWASA's Cane Creek reservoirs came in. It recommended an adequate public facilities ordinance to withhold approvals beyond water, sewer and road capacity, and an update of the 1977 land use plan.
On October 22 the Alliance gave the council a petition signed by 3,835 people asking for a six-month moratorium on new subdivisions, apartments and condominiums. The Daily Tar Heel reported that the council had approved more than 3,700 housing units since March 1, 1983. On November 12 the council approved growth-management recommendations but not the moratorium; Town Manager David Taylor said a moratorium would not change the market demand behind growth and could push building outside the town's planning district. That fall the council also lowered the number of dwelling units allowed per acre in its zoning districts. The council set hearings and work sessions from December through February on floodplains, buffers, building heights and density.
In February and March 1985 the council made eight changes to the town's Development Ordinance, among them a resource conservation district that all but barred building near floodplains, wider vegetated buffers, a five-acre minimum for planned developments and a 50-foot height limit outside the town center. On March 11 it denied ordinances to rezone 45 residential tracts; council member Jonathan Howes called the proposal "a wildly unnecessary overreaction," and Beverly Kawalec said the council had already taken major steps toward reducing density. On April 1 the council named Godschalk, a UNC city and regional planning professor, to the seven months left in the term of council member Winston Broadfoot, who had died in January; Bill Thorpe said he wished the public had had a chance to question him first. On April 9 the council approved the 171-unit Cambridge Place development off Weaver Dairy Road and denied the 91-unit Windy Hill development on Erwin Road, several members complaining of poor land use in its plan. Windy Hill's builder, Ghidorzi Construction, sued, and on July 8, ordered by a court, the council granted the permit "under protest" and planned to appeal; the same night it permitted the 72-unit Mill Race apartments east of Hillsborough Street once the developers agreed to fence off trees and keep buildings to four stories. On August 22 Planning Board member Lightning Brown resigned, saying the board's new committee review system shut out citizens, developers and minority views, and urged that a student take his seat. New housing starts in 1985 were the lowest in three years, and development coordinator Stephen Sizemore said the council had turned toward single-family subdivisions and away from apartments and condominiums.
On January 27, 1986 the council voted 7 to 2 against council member Julie Andresen's proposal to apply planned limits on building height and density to any project not approved by that day, leaving the limits to cover developers who had not submitted plans by January 13. On February 24 it voted 7 to 2 to cap new housing at 3 to 15 dwelling units an acre depending on zoning, down from as many as 20, and 8 to 1 to reduce the floor space allowed per acre; Mayor James C. Wallace and R. D. Smith dissented, Smith arguing that the limits would end affordable apartment building. On March 3 the council adopted new goals and objectives for growth management, and on July 14 it unanimously adopted a land use plan replacing the 1977 plan, cutting the planned density of vacant land to about 4.1 people an acre from 7.5, along with a plan for the area of joint planning with Orange County. At a Growth Shapers Conference held by the Chamber of Commerce on October 2, planning director Roger Waldon named community appearance, traffic and affordable housing as the Planning Board's main issues for the year. The town issued no building permits for apartments in 1986 or early 1987, as a glut left more than 1,300 apartments vacant; long-range planner Arthur Jackson expected the opening of I-40 to absorb the surplus. On January 12, 1987 the council approved preliminary plats for the 25-lot Mill Race subdivision off Hillsborough Street and the 40-house Windhover subdivision near Erwin and Weaver Dairy roads.
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People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Jonathan Howes, a former mayor of Chapel Hill who served in Governor Hunt's cabinet and later worked in the UNC chancellor's office on urban planning, gave this illustrated talk on the past and future of the Chapel Hill campus. Cassette, 1998.
Thomas E. Ross's geographic study of American Indians in North Carolina. It examines Native peoples' history, cultural assimilation, and social and economic conditions across the state, with statistics. Published by Karo Hollow Press in 1999, eleven preliminary pages and 242 pages with illustrations and maps.
Deed transcripts for the town lots of Chapel Hill and adjoining land from 1790 to the 1930s, compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway. Each transcript keeps only the working facts: grantor and grantee, price, acreage and the metes and bounds of the parcel. Self-published in 2014 as Issue 1G, 702 pages with maps and facsimiles.
Stewart E. Dunaway worked through Hillsborough, N.C., lot by lot, giving each town lot a synopsis of its history, a plat showing where it sits and transcripts of the deeds he could locate for it. The second issue runs to 720 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles.
Stewart E. Dunaway's 2015 addendum to his history of Hillsborough's town lots, adding deed records arranged by lot number and further town history, with the expansion of the 1890s covered for the first time. Self-published in North Carolina as version 1.0, 446 pages with illustrations, facsimiles and maps. Topics include deeds, court records, land titles and real property in Hillsborough.
Stewart E. Dunaway's abstracts of civil suits over land heard in the Hillsborough District Superior Court between 1778 and 1806. The district covered Orange, Wake, Granville, Caswell, Person, Chatham and Randolph counties, and the papers concern boundaries, ownership and disputed tracts. Published through Lulu in 2011, 337 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles.
William M. Rohe's history of Research Triangle Park and the region around it, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2011. Topics include regional planning and the economic and social conditions of the Research Triangle Park region, one corner of which is Chapel Hill and the university. 298 pages with illustrations and maps.
Stewart E. Dunaway's two-volume edition of the Orange County land entry book, the register in which settlers first claimed vacant land from the state before a grant was surveyed and issued. Volume one covers the first thousand entries, all made in 1778; volume two runs from 1779 to 1795. Each entry is reproduced from the original in the State Archives with an abstract of its contents. Self-published through Lulu in a second version dated 2010, two volumes at 28 cm with facsimiles and maps.
Edward J. Kaiser's history of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1945 to 2012, published by the department in 2013. The title nods to John A. Parker, 1909 to 2001, who figures in the book. One hundred eighty-six pages with illustrations and portraits at 28 cm.
Mark Chilton's short history of transportation planning in the North Carolina Piedmont, drawing lessons from earlier projects. Subjects include the Cape Fear Navigation Company and river navigation, and the railroads of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, including the State University Railroad Company whose spur brought trains to the two towns. Chilton was mayor of Carrboro when the book appeared. Published by Hand Made Books, Carrboro, 2012, 92 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.
Stewart E. Dunaway's four-volume set of ejectment cases from Orange County, reproducing the original documents and maps from the North Carolina State Archives with partial transcriptions. The volumes cover 1778 to 1814, 1817 to 1832, 1833 to 1849 and 1850 to 1902. Ejectment suits contested title and possession of land, and the cases include surveys and plats. Self-published in 2010.
Stewart E. Dunaway's transcription of letters exchanged between Jesse Benton and Thomas Hart from 1780 to 1790, concerning Hart's affairs at Hartford, his place at Hillsborough. The letters concern the economic and social conditions of Hillsborough in the eighteenth century and the Revolution in North Carolina. Self-published through lulu.com in 2009, 68 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, and part of the library's Wall Local History Collection.
Albert N. Link's early history of Research Triangle Park, published in 1995 by the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina. Topics include research parks, research institutes and industrial research in the state, with the park's own history at the center. 149 pages with illustrations and maps.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Chapel Hill's growth debate and its density limits, 1981–1987.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/growth-debate-storyline-1984/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
