By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

The clock could start ticking on a six-month development moratorium on roughly 3,700 acres on the north side of Carrboro.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners are expected to take up the proposed moratorium passed by Carrboro earlier this month. If the county approves the plan, the moratorium would take effect.

County officials will consider the proposed moratorium at a joint planning public hearing with the Chapel Hill Town Council tonight.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said Tuesday evening that he feels the county is likely to approve the plan.

“The commissioners have not raised a lot of questions,” he said. “I think they probably will pass it.”

Chiton said if the commissioners don’t approve the moratorium, it won’t happen, even on land that’s solely within the town’s planning jurisdiction.

In past meetings, board of alderman members have noted that much of the developable portion of the area is in the joint planning jurisdiction.

“If they don’t approve it, then there’s no moratorium,” Chilton said. “We could have written [the moratorium] a different way, but we opted not to.”

Last weekend, about 30 residents and town officicals met to review the process for implementing town plans for the area.

The town wants to put a hold on development in the area while work is done to encourage
a greater mix of housing types as well as ways to improve prospects that developers
will consider commercial uses for some properties.