Would Demolishing Century Center Save Carrboro Money?

GOVERNMENT

Carrboro’s Century Center is so energy inefficient that “you might be better off taking it down and starting from scratch,” town staffer Aaron Kienow said.

Carrboro’s comprehensive plan sets a goal of reducing municipal greenhouse gas emissions by 80 % between 2010 and 2030. As part of that, the town commissioned energy audits of Century Center, Town Hall, and Fire Stations 1 and 2 to determine the cost of improving the buildings’ energy efficiency. The 1924 Century Center serves as home to the Carrboro Police Department and as the meeting place of choice for church groups, dance clubs, book clubs, and other organizations. In 2024, the council budgeted $409,000 to replace the aging cooling system and give it digital controls.

At the Town Council’s Sept. 15 meeting, Kienow, the town’s Climate and Energy Program Manager, said in a presentation that Century City was the most energy-inefficient of the four buildings. Half the energy it uses goes to provide gas heating and much of the heat then escapes through the brick walls — “beautiful structural brick, but brick isn’t the best insulator.” Century Center used almost as much gas heat in June as in January: the HVAC air handler chills the air passing through it to 45 degrees, so it has to be reheated.

Lighting is the second-highest energy use: the lights are older fixtures rather than energy-efficient LEDs. The center’s two water heaters were installed in 1999. Kienow quipped that it must have been a good year for heaters, as 10 years is the typical lifespan.

Replacing the lighting and heating systems would require additional changes. Before installing a solar array on the roof, the roof would have to be replaced. The electrical systems are at capacity because the town installed two EV chargers, making it difficult to install new equipment. Before installing new wiring or HVAC equipment, the town would need a full architectural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing survey, Kienow said, “because it’s a 1924 building with multiple renovations. The town lacks blueprints and needs to map what is behind the walls.”

Kienow’s presentation listed possible fixes, such as software that can synchronize heating and cooling to match occupancy in different spaces, rather than heating the entire building uniformly. Other fixes include adding insulation, replacing the water heaters, installing LED lighting and bringing in newer control panels that can handle solar panels and heat pumps.

Kienow said that while the upgrades would make Century Center more energy-efficient and cut future power and gas bills, the new equipment wouldn’t pay for itself. It would need to be replaced long before the energy savings earned back the costs. Tearing down the Century Center and rebuilding it to higher energy-efficiency standards would generate a higher return on investment because the savings would be greater.

The council discussed Kienow’s report but took no action.

Outrage from Alabama Avenue

During the meeting’s public comment period, multiple Carrboro residents spoke out against plans to build tourist homes in the historically African-American Alabama Avenue neighborhood.

The project consists of homes at 100, 104, and 106 Alabama Avenue. At the September 3 Planning Board meeting, Jory Perkins, representing the developer, said he hadn’t heard “that neighbors had a negative response to the project.” The public comment period provided multiple negative responses.

Anissa McLendon said 100 Alabama had been a wooded lot filled with pine trees for close to a century. “In four days this was butchered when 80 percent of the pine trees were cut down.” She and several other speakers said there’d been no advance public hearing, no opportunity for residents to express any objections. Other residents said that the development and loss of trees would worsen drainage problems in the area by increasing stormwater runoff from the lot.

At the Planning Board meeting, Delores Bailey of Empowerment Inc. objected to the tourist homes gentrifying the neighborhood, “noting that 2,200-square-foot homes next to 800 or 900 square-foot homes would not make the neighborhood better,” according to the meeting minutes. Several September 15 speakers expressed similar views. Carrboro resident Tamara Sanders said the town needed rules for short-term rentals and a council work session to address gentrification.

Dr. Michelle Laws said that while Carrboro does great work preserving history, the town is less successful preserving legacy: “the ongoing impact and footprint left behind for future generations. Legacy, she said, is “the seed we plant,” and projects such as this put legacy in jeopardy.

Transit planners correct their assumptions

When people take a bus to get across Carrboro, they’re using the system differently than they did six or seven years ago, Caroline Dwyer of Chapel Hill Transit told the Town Council. Blueprint 2035, the subject of Dwyer’s presentation, seeks to update trans planners’ pre-2020 assumptions about travel patterns, development and funding. Then planners will use that information to improve what’s working and rethink what isn’t. Among the things that aren’t working:

All routes have limited weekend and evening service.
Different routes provide duplicate service in some areas, which wastes limited resources.
The 1.5-hour F route is so long that delays are inevitable. One disruption has a domino effect on the rest of the route.
Other routes use outdated assumptions about travel time, so the schedules are no longer accurate.
Bus drivers want more flexibility in their work schedules than they did a few years ago.
Carrboro’s cul-de-sacs and dead-end streets complicate the routes.

Dwyer said improving the system will require working with the public and learning their priorities. For example, would residents prefer buses to run late at night or to show up at the bus stop more frequently? Chapel Hill Transit will begin the next phase of soliciting public input this month.

Fraser Sherman has worked for newspapers, including the Destin Log, the Pensacola News-Journal and the Raleigh Public Record. Born in England, he’d still live in Florida if he hadn’t met the perfect woman and moved to Durham to marry her. He’s the author of several film reference books and has published one novel and several short story collections. This reporter can be reached at: Information@TheLocalReporter.press