UNC-Chapel Hill will draft a 230-acre learn-live-work-play footprint within Carolina North on and around the former site of the Horace Williams Airport, located along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill.
Phase 1 planning will assess student housing, academic and research space, multi-family residential, hotel and ground-floor retail.
"We have a fundamental obligation to the people of this state. As North Carolina continues to be one of the fastest-growing states in America, the demand from qualified North Carolina students is only going to increase. If we do not create the physical capacity to serve more of them at the same level of excellence, we will either have to turn away thousands of our own citizens or diminish the quality of the education we provide. Neither is acceptable for the state's flagship university," said Chancellor Lee H. Robert.
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Artificial intelligence will operate as a shared, community-governed resource under the new model.
Physical and digital links to UNC Health and the main campus will help students be able to research in an easier way that supports hands-on learning, applied research and faster discovery.
Public transportation is set to improve as new developments will allow parking to flow more efficiently, better pedestrian flow, and efficient ways to merge onto I-40.
The beginning stages of site preparation and infrastructure work should begin ahead of a projected groundbreaking in summer 2027.
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