For the first time, UNC-Chapel Hill officials showed town leaders what the proposed extension of their campus could look like.
CHAPEL HILL -- The Chapel Hill Town Council had already seen some isolated projects that make up what's been coined Carolina North. But until now, they hadn't seen the project in it's entirety.
"The university has put together a plan. They've shown it to people in the university and they've had public meetings but they haven't had a chance to show it to the council," said Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, of UNC's plans.
So UNC senior officers and Chapel Hill leaders sat down Sunday afternoon to discusss plans for the new campus.
"You might want to ask us, 'well what's your five-year plan as well as the next 15 years?' Those are all reasonable and realistic questions and I think in that context we want to have this conversations," said UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser.
Carolina North plans
The University wants to build Carolina North on a 1,000-acre tract of land between Seawell School Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
It will sit just north of the current campus and its use will primarily center around research, although school leaders say its use will grow over the next half-century.
"What we're trying to do is imagine, project what the university's needs are over that 50-year period and to start with a plan with how we might use the land and how we might use the infrastructure so we can accomplish the university's mission," said Carolina North Executive Director Jack Evans.
A mission both sides say could increase growth and opportunity for the Town of Chapel Hill.
A public hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 23. The meeting will be held in the Town Council chambers and will begin at 7 p.m.