UNC works with consultants to create ‘place vision’ for Carolina North expansion

UNC's major Carolina North development continues to move forward.

As the project enters its first phase of development, the university has hired consultants to create a "place vision," which they describe as a "North Star" for the project. 

Blaine Merker with Gehl, Gullivar Shepard with MMichael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc, and UNC’s Executive Director of Real Estate Development Tiffany Lacey joined Tom Bythell, the UNC Arborist and Carolina North Forest Manager for a tour of the trails Friday morning.

The group visited different parts of the UNC campus and speaking with stakeholders throughout the week.

Blaine Merker is a partner at Gehl, an international urban planning consultancy.

That company will work on the place vision for Carolina North, with plans for it to be complete at the end of the summer. 

“It's a way of discovering what the DNA of a place is, what's working in the community, and what the needs are in the community,” Merker explained. "We give that to the architects and the master planners to kind of be their north star for what the site is actually going to have on it.”

Tiffany Lacey is UNC’s Executive Director of Real Estate Development.

"The place vision is really the narrative story of how people will experience Carolina North to be in several years time,” Lacey said. "It's really important to set this north star to guide our future decision making, not only in the master planning, but what academic programs need to be up here, what athletics programs, and also what community-facing uses and retail will be up here. So, this will sort of set the scene." 

Gehl and other consultants spent the week in Chapel Hill, speaking with residents, students, business owners, UNC administrators, and Carolina North Forest trail users. 

"Across the board, everybody loves this forest and this place that people have been using for decades. There's a lot of stewardship here,” Merker said. "It's an open secret. Everyone knows that the forest is here, but it also feels like everyone's secret natural playground too." 

During the June 8th stakeholder advisory meeting, UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts pointed to the opportunity Carolina North offers.

“When you look at the need to expand enrollment, the need to create these modern facilities and the need to try to address the challenge of insufficient housing supply in the town of Chapel Hill, we can address all of those with the Carolina North site,” Roberts said.

Roberts cited what he says coaches call insufficient practice facilities for men and women’s lacrosse, men and women’s soccer, and insufficient competition and practice facilities for track and cross country.

“Many universities are facing the same kinds of challenges, insufficient space for both intercollegiate athletics and student rec facilities, a need to expand, a need to build more housing, a town that is constrained, a need to build more modern research facilities,” Roberts said. “Most universities can’t do anything about it. They’re landlocked.”

But UNC can.

Carolina North includes 947 total acres; the proposed development site is 230 acres, covering the footprint of the former Horace Williams Airport.

Carolina North Forest is about 750 acres with more than 20 miles of trails; those will remain protected and untouched by the development. 

“We’re so fortunate to have this resource, which, after all, belongs to the people of the state of North Carolina, to try to address these challenges,” Roberts said. “But we want to make sure that we’re doing it the right way.”

Whether a new basketball arena will be at Carolina North remains up in the air.

After Gehl finishes the place vision, UNC will use the remainder of 2026 to get feedback from the rest of the community before moving into master planning.

"There's a lot of people moving here, and at the same time, it's tough to buy a home here and stay here for a lot of people,” Merker said. “I think there's a sense of, it's a great place to live, but we also want to make it easier for people to be here."

Carolina North is planned to have student housing, academic and athletic facilities, and a mixed-use component with retail and other housing.

“That's housing that's available to everyone; you don't have to be a student or employee to live at Carolina North,” Lacey said. "We'll be looking to have retail, neighborhood service pieces; we really want this to be a place for the community to feel welcome and be here every day."