Citizen Will

Month: February 2007

  • Downtown Development: The LEEDs Trade-Off, AIA 2030 Up Next

    Sally Greene suggested trading formal LEEDs certification, which RAM’s VP Casey Cummings said cost $225K, for a required %20 energy reduction, as measured against ASHRAE standards. Cummings claimed that $14.5K of the $225K involved energy modeling and measurement – the rest involved paper shuffling. After reviewing the current proposal, it is still not clear that […]

  • Downtown Development: Feb. 12th Citizen Comment

    Endorsing the flawed deal: Anita Badrock Chapel Hill/Carrboro Chamber of Commerce Criticizing the misbegotten proposal: Andrea Rohrbacher former Council candidate, Chair of the Downtown Partnership, representing the Sierra Club. Francis Henry downtown business owner, longtime resident of Chapel Hill. Jean Brown Chapel Hill/Carrboro school advocate Tom Henkel Long time resident, brilliant alternative energy consultant. Mike […]

  • Godzilla vs. Bambi::RAM Development and Chapel Hill

    If I worked for RAM Development, I’d be dancing quite a jig this evening. Not only have they negotiated the sweetest of deals – their own publicly underwritten Downtown tower of wealth – they’ve gotten the friendliest of non-reviews by the majority of Council. Maybe folks will like “rah rah” growth RAM Development style. If […]

  • RAM’s VP Casey Cummings – The Sixth Beatle?

    Is RAM Development’s Casey Cummings the sixth Beatle? I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get some video snippets (wish the Town was streaming video!) to get direct confirmation but it sure seemed like he was comfortable jumping up to the podium sans a request of Council. I’m not quite sure the propriety of his […]

  • Downtown Development Intiative: Thank you Sir, May I Have Another?

    I missed the exact vote but the Council has not only authorized the Lot #5 development but put it on a fast-track. Talk about compounding a mistake. What’s clear, especially after this evening, is the bulk of Council does not comprehend the consequences of their decision. From my understanding, the SUP (special use permit) gives […]

  • Downtown Development Intiative: Easthom, Ward on Hazardous Waste Liability

    Live ‘blogged from hearing: Laurin Easthom picked up on a point that I didn’t have time to speak to this round: hazardous material remediation. It’s incredible that a hazardous waste assay hasn’t been done on a piece a property that is known to have had oil and gasoline exposures. Back in the ’80s I used […]

  • Downtown Development Intiative: Feb. 12th’s Comments

    Tonight’s vote is not about whether Chapel Hill is a town or a city or whether we need to vitalize Downtown or not. We know that Downtown needs help. Tonight’s vote is simply about whether the RAM proposal is a good deal for the town’s citizens – both now and in the future…. After reviewing […]

  • The Sad Story of Council’s Downtown Development Initiative

    They say, the story is buried in the details. After reviewing hundreds of pages of confidential documents and listening to hours of ridiculously poor audio recordings of confidential meetings, I can, sadly, stand by my public assertions that the private-public Lot #5 development Council will most probably be thrusting upon us this evening is a […]

  • Confidential Lot 5 Memorandum and Notes: Update I

    Confidential documentation of Downtown Development Initiative.

  • Downtown Development Initiative: Listen and Learn How Negotiations Went Awry

    I worked to elect all three Council members – Cam, Sally, Bill – intimately involved in the RAM negotiations. I’ve found them to be good folks with a keen interest in promoting what they think is best for our community. And that is why listening to these audio recordings was one of the most dispiriting […]

  • Confidential Lot 5 Memorandum and Notes

    In preparation for further comments, I’ve scanned in the “confidential” negotiating documents the Town provided Dec. 8th, 2006. Directory listing of current documents here. Table of Contents: