Storyline · 1988–1992
In 1988 the Chapel Hill Town Council spent $1 million in 1986 bond money on 50 acres south of town for a community park. After putting off a $5 million parks and open space bond, it backed a $9 million bond in 1989, and voters approved the bonds that year. The town added 28 acres to the park and approved its master plan in 1990, bought Merritt Pasture in 1991, and in 1992 funded park repairs, a parks and greenways plan and a park in North Forest Hills.
On February 8, 1988 the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to spend $1 million from the 1986 bond funds on a 50-acre tract off U.S. 15-501 south of town, to hold a community park with athletic fields, trails and a recreation center, a fifth fire station for the south end of town, and a park-and-ride lot about 1.3 miles from downtown. That August Jim Wallace introduced a $5 million bond referendum for land for parks, greenways and open space, meant for the November ballot. On September 12 the council voted 8 to 1 to put it off, probably to March after a public hearing on January 23, 1989; speakers wanted more time to inform voters. David Godschalk cast the only no vote.
On January 23, 1989 the council voted 8 to 1 for a $9 million bond to buy open space and parkland in place of the $5 million version, as Town Manager David Taylor had recommended, and set a public hearing for February 27, with a referendum planned for May 2 if the council approved the bond after the hearing. Godschalk again dissented, saying other needs came first. Voters approved the parks and open space bonds that year.
By September 28, 1989 the National Park Service had approved a $35,000 Land and Water Conservation Fund grant to help the town develop its 50-acre Southern Community Park, about a mile south of the U.S. 15-501 and N.C. 54 intersection, for two regulation soccer fields. The town already had $450,000 to $500,000 for the park from its 1986 bonds, and Parks and Recreation director Mike Loveman hoped to begin construction the next fall. In March 1990 the town paid $658,000 from the 1989 bonds for 28 more acres near Dogwood Acres, giving the park 78 acres. In late May or early June the council approved a master plan, to be carried out over 20 to 30 years at a rough cost of $5.8 million, with a community center, athletic fields, trails, playgrounds, a pond, picnic areas, a park-and-ride lot and a fire station; the first phase was to use $377,000 left from the 1986 park bonds.
In September 1991 the council voted 7 to 1 to buy Merritt Pasture, a 30-acre field along U.S. 15-501 at the town's southern and western entrance, for $400,000 from the 1989 bonds, to keep it undeveloped and protect the stretch of Morgan Creek through it; Julie Andresen voted no, saying the town could not afford it. On January 27, 1992 the council voted unanimously to spend $258,700 of the $273,630 left from the 1986 bonds on renovating Umstead Park and its building, with a new restroom and picnic shelter, and on the Community Center's gymnasium floor and pool heating. On September 29 it unanimously approved a $900,000 plan worked out over the summer by the Parks and Recreation Department and the Greenways Commission: $200,000 for park improvements and land, $150,000 for greenways and $550,000 for new facilities on town land, among them a 75-space parking lot at Cedar Falls Park, playground equipment for disabled children at Umstead, Gomains and Community Center parks, and an extension along Bolin Creek. On December 7, over objections from some neighbors about traffic, crime and property values, the council unanimously granted the special-use permit for a park of about 9.5 acres in the North Forest Hills subdivision, with play structures, a half basketball court, shelters with restrooms, a six-car lot and paving of Collums Road; the town had spent $144,000 on the land and planning and budgeted $158,000 more.
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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 parks and open space bonds, 1988–1992.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/parks-open-space-storyline-1988/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
