Carolina North Faces Early Hurdles

RALEIGH — In early December, officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill unveiled their plans for “Carolina North,” a satellite research campus on the university-owned Horace Williams tract off Airport Road in Chapel Hill. It will be somewhat similar to the Centennial Campus of N.C. State University, but there remain a few obstacles before construction can begin. The first hurdle is financing, which for infrastructure alone could reach $100 million by some estimates. There is also the Horace Williams Airport, which North Carolina legislators mandated cannot close before Jan. 1, 2005 — a mandate that came in response to an earlier attempt by UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser to close it.