Category: environment

  • Recreation Fee Reduced Redux

    Last month I took my concerns about the proposed recreation fee structure amendments to Council (Parks Impact Fee: How Many (More) Goodies Do High Density Developers Need?). Tonight, Council revisits the proposal for possibly the last time. Unfortunately, the issues I raised Oct. 18th were ignored by staff. The reason I petition Council at their […]

  • Bolin Creek Beauty

    I’ve been highlighting the importance of treating the Bolin Creek watershed as a regional resource suffering from our piecemeal approach establishing adequate policies for its protection. The whole basin requires, and deserves, a greater level of cooperation between Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Orange County, Orange Water and Sewer Authority(OWASA), the State’s Divisions of Water Quality (DENR-DWQ) […]

  • Parks Impact Fee: How Many (More) Goodies Do High Density Developers Need?

    I spoke before Council this evening on the proposed changes to Section 5.5 (Recreation) of the Town’s Land Use Management Ordinances (LUMO). The changes, which were discussed over a decade ago, approved by the NC Legislature July 10, 2008, essentially amount to an impact fee paid by developers to support parks and recreation. To quote, […]

  • Well Done Rogers Road Coalition!

    Some welcome news on the Rogers Road front. The Rogers-Eubank Neighborhood Association has been awarded a Federal EPA Environmental Justice grant to help address some of the long term environmental issues that neighborhood has faced as a consequence of taking on our trash disposal burden. Recipient: Roger-Eubanks Neighborhood Association Project Name: PITCH (Partnerships in Transforming […]

  • A Busier Week: University Square Meeting, Aug. 18th

    In listing the roll of important events this coming week, I accidentally left out one that promises to be quite interesting. Cousins Properties Inc., which is leading the redevelopment of University Square for Chapel Hill Foundation Real Estate Holdings Inc., will host a public meeting Wednesday, Aug. 18, to discuss the long-term vision for the […]

  • A Bit Older, Less Grayer

    I ended up talking about the troubling aspects of both East54 and the Lot $5 with a native Chapel Hillian after a recent community meeting. While introducing myself they exclaimed “you’re Will Raymond? I saw you speak several years ago about the Town’s Downtown project” but, they went on, I “looked different”, even younger than […]

  • Bringing The BP Gulf Oil Disaster Home

    My folks used to take us to a pristine stretch of the Florida Panhandle west of Panama City. Back then you traveled through pine barrens on two lane blacktop and strips of red clay to get to some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Squeaky white quartz sand, partially comprised of the remnants […]

  • 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 […]

  • Library or Lot #5?

    Here is what I meant to say at this evening’s Council meeting. Like a lot of my remarks, I find myself editing on the fly, so what I managed to get out in less than 3 minutes wasn’t quite what follows but I believe I made the points I needed. The simple summary? We can’t […]

  • Who You Gonna Call? Deerbusters!

    Education and our own private “rabbit-proof” fencing seems to be the extent of Chapel Hill’s plan to deal with its exploding dear population. The Town is responding to my Mount Bolus neighbor’s Oct. 12th petition this evening with a proposal [PDF] to educate folks on how to deter expansion of the deer population. Unfortunately, rather […]

  • Trash Talk: Mal de M.E.R. No Longer

    Just back from this evening’s Orange County Board of Commissioners’ meeting. Tonight’s big agenda item, “What to do about the waste transfer station?” New County Manager Frank Clifton’s extensively reviewed the three proposed options: use the County’s Payfadar property (originally slated for a park) on Millhouse Road, pursue the ill-suited (and ever more expensive) Howell […]

  • Engage Now in the NC54 Planning Process

    Given the time of year and Durham’s recent problems in protecting the Lake Jordan watershed, the fiscal impact of mitigating damage which might well be shared by Chapel Hill’s taxpayers, I was tempted to title this post “Trick or Treat on NC54?” Even if the “development process is broken in Durham”, as LaDawnna Summers, who […]

  • Trash Talk: Council Confusion

    Council seemed somewhat confused in making the decision to take the Rogers Rd./Millhouse community off the table as far as the new County transfer site. Details on the site selection criteria and an analysis of anticipated municipal fiscal impacts have been available since Spring here. The community-based, technical and exclusionary criteria were well established prior […]

  • 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 […]