CHAPEL HILL -The town council voted 6-2 Monday night to approve the Inter-Faith Council’s plan for a 52 bed transitional housing facility that includes 17 emergency cots. Neighborhood opposition to the shelter’s relocation centered around those 17 cots, but IFC lawyer LeAnn Brown told the council there was no room for compromise on the issue.

“We believe these 17 cots have to happen”, she said. “We simply cannot compromise either the safety or the human dignity that is involved in including this in our project proposal.”

Even before deliberations got underway, the council faced a legal challenge from an attorney representing neighbors opposed to the relocation of the men’s shelter from its current location downtown to the corner of Homestead Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Lawyer David Rooks charged that Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and council members Penny Rich, Matt Czajkowski and Ed Harrison could not consider the IFC plan impartially based on statements made during the 2009 campaign in a candidate survey by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.

Council members Sally Greene and Jim Ward were also implicated for having participated in the site selection process conducted by former mayor Kevin Foy, though both said they were not party to Foy’s negotiations.

“The first that I knew about the negotiation… was when Mayor Foy came to the council in closed session and said that the negotiation had been conducted,” Greene told the audience. “As a council member I participated in assent to a decision that had already been negotiated and proposed, but I was not involved in that real estate deal.”

Under advice from Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos, the council voted to overrule the legal objection and continue deliberations with the eight council members in attendance.

After hearing several hours of public comment in front of a packed room, the council voted to approve the IFC’s plan, rejecting arguments from Matt Czajkowski and Laurin Easthom that rules governing the emergency cots should be laid out in the Special Use Permit. Instead, the council approved a resolution mandating a Good Neighbor Plan be drafted and approved before the IFC signs its lease on the new property.

Mayor Kleinschmidt urged the dozens of neighbors who have vocally opposed the IFC move to participate in the creation of the plan to make sure their voices are heard.

"I realize that those who oppose the Special Use Permit might feel a great deal of disappointment, but I hope you don’t turn away from this process, because what I see the council doing tonight is ensuring that it doesn’t stop here.”

Kleinschmidt offered the support of his office to help the two groups find common ground after months of heated debate. The council will review a first draft of the Good Neighbor Plan next fall.