Although Chapel Hill town committees and university panels havebeen working with consultants for years to create developmentguidelines for the research park, many town officials complain theyhaven't been aware of such a plan. Early next year, planners at theuniversity hope to present a proposal to university trustees for acampus that would employ up to 25,000 people.

The campus would also have residential facilities to accommodate3,000 residents who would live in a village setting within the townof Chapel Hill. Offices, research labs, and neighborhood stores andservices are also part of the proposal. An interim master planstating the park would contain eight million sf of building spaceand over 25,000 parking spaces has been presented to UNCadministrators. UNC's main campus currently has about 13 million sfof building space.

Financing the project is only one of the challenges theuniversity faces. One proposal is to use state money to constructthe buildings and then lease the space to recoup those investments.Another expense would be cleaning up an old landfill andchemical-waste deposits on the eastern edge of the property.Administrators say the cost of cleaning up those sites could easilycost over $30 million.