Category: CarolinaNorth

  • The Estes Dr./MLK, Jr. Intersection: Crossroads to Chapel Hill’s Future

    The following letter does an excellent job summing up my reasons for delaying the July’s abbreviated community review process for the ciritical Estes Drive/MLK, Jr. intersection, the two congested transit corridors and the surrounding area which includes UNC’s Carolina North campus. The current CH2020 proposal calls for us to plan in haste and repent in […]

  • Radical Shift in Vision For Downtown

    Just got back from another presentation/planning charrette covering the Town’s new Downtown Development Action Plan and Framework. The plan, created with input from UNC, the Downtown Partnership, Downtown businesses and local citizens, is supposed to look at economic, cultural and social development opportunities over the next 5 to 8 years and layout a fairly structured […]

  • Can The Carolina North Process Apply To UNC’s Bingham Research Facility?

    Another issue on tonight’s Orange County Board of Commissioner’s (BOCC) agenda involved UNC’s Bingham Research Facility ( report on UNC’s response to environmental violations and plans for expanding the facility [PDF]). There’s been a number of recent (Chapel Hill News) stories (INDY) outlining the numerous environmental and policy missteps [PDF] made over the last few […]

  • Sustainability Task Force: The Whole or The Sum of the Parts?

    As some readers might recall, I was appointed to serve on Chapel Hill’s Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force early last year. Before we got started there were a few issues to address involving recruitment of a diverse membership to reflect both the concerns of the business community and the community as a whole. After settling […]

  • Chapel Hill’s First Budget Meeting of 2010

    I want to quickly respond to Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt’s comments this evening. First, spending $8-12M on the Lot #5 project, building luxury condos and enriching a private developer, is not the same as “protecting our Town’s infrastructure”. The Lot #5 (West 140) project is discretionary – the push to keep it going is […]

  • Sustainability Task Force: Ten New Candidates

    I was appointed as one of the “at large” members of the Town’s Sustainability Task Force several months ago. One of the first issues we took up was representation on the task force itself. Essentially, did the task force membership represent the reasonably broadest possible diversity of viewpoints and experience we needed to craft a […]

  • Carolina North: June 15th’s Missing Documents

    Quick note, the Town, this morning, has fixed the links and added the missing Carolina North material. Obviously well less than 24 hours prior to the “public hearing”. Certainly undercuts claims of transparency and support of public review. In any case, here is tonight’s agenda with the missing supporting material: Staff Memorandum Draft Ordinance New […]

  • Carolina North: Where is the Development Agreement?

    As some of you folks know I’ve been involved – as a citizen – fairly deeply in the attempt to create a successful agreement between UNC and the Town managing growth of the massive Carolina North project. The Carolina North project could either contribute greatly to or severely diminish the quality of life in Chapel […]

  • Penny Rich Up to Bat

    Seems like the municipal elections are officially on. Kevin bowed out as mayor. Mark bowed in. Laurin, not surprisingly, ready to go again. And now Penny. I ran with Penny in 2007 and welcome her 2009 run. She did her homework, was firm in her convictions, eloquent and handled some rather nasty rebukes by two […]

  • Carolina North: All UNC Students to Pay Parking Fees?

    Councilmember Jim Ward and Mayor Kevin Foy just floated the idea in tonight’s Carolina North work session of charging all UNC students, in conjunction with the University, a fee for bringing their cars to Chapel Hill. This Council already floated the idea of charging more for Downtown parking, an idea not only at odds with […]

  • Carolina North: The Hole in the Taxpayer’s Pocket Live ‘blog

    I’m at the roll-out of tonight’s UNC explanation of the tardy (a year late) Tischler-Bise Carolina North fiscal impact study. The classroom at the School of Government is fairly packed with elective and governmental staff folks (about 45 from all three governmental bodies – Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Orange County). Beyond a smattering of media folks […]

  • Carolina North: Explaining the Hole in the Pocketbook

    I haven’t said much about the fluffy TischlerBise fiscal impact study commissioned and worked on jointly by UNC’s administration, our local governments and TischlerBise’s consultants. Fluffy? Like previous UNC commissioned analysis – notably the previous Carolina North and Orange County Airport Authority economic justifications – the upside is mostly in intangible (i.e. hard to measure, […]

  • Feb. 19th: Busy Thursday

    A couple meetings tonight that folks may want to check out. First, a meeting on Northside and the corrosive effect burgeoning development, taxes and shrinking opportunities is having on that traditional community. From today’s Herald-Sun: Local activists united to address what they view as “historic discrimination, rising property taxes, and development that threaten communities of […]

  • Carolina North: Easthom – “Now is the time!”

    Council member Laurin Easthom says “Now is the time” for the community to get involved with the planning for Carolina North. Now is the time. Now is the time to comment on Carolina North, the largest development to ever hit the Town of Chapel Hill. The Town Council and UNC Trustees are meeting monthly to […]

  • Carolina North: Community needs to wake up and show up!

    [UPDATE] The Daily Tar Heel’s Emily Stephenson chimes in here (DTH ‘blogs). A story on yesterday’s poor turnout here. [ORIGINAL] Earlier today (Nov. 19th), UNC’s Board of Trustees approved the draft Carolina North design guidelines making the proposal official UNC policy. This evening, the first in a series of informational/public feedback sessions on Carolina North […]