Lot #5 Downtown Development RAM building design based on Nov. 20th public hearing proposal . The model is in proportion and the proper height. It wasn’t until I laid out the model that I realized how large a beast we have here…
Looking North towards Lot 5 Dec2
Lot 5 Hovering above Baptist Church Steeple Dec2
Making some progress on a GoogleEarth visualization of downtown.
Here’s some data if you want to either visualize Chapel Hill within GoogleEarth or want to start fresh with a re-import. Small caveat on the GoogleEarth import – don’t turn on the terrain as I still need to tweak the elevations to get the right output.
If anyone manages to adjust the terrain before Sunday, please consider routing the changes back my way….
Tools:
Data:
Hope to have Granville Towers and RAM’s Lot 5 proposal by Sunday. And, with any luck, a decent flyby to demonstrate the visual impact of the 104′ leviathan.
I believed the Town’s web site covering the Downtown Development Initiative would be updated after Nov. 20th’s public forum. After ten days, I finally sent in a formal request.
Here is Town Manager Stancil’s response:
Dear Mr. Raymond:
Thank you for our email message at 10:49 am on Dec. 1 to the Manager, Mayor and Town Council in which you requested that we “publish the remaining reports, discussions notes, comments, etc. that went into forming the “new deal” over the Summer”.
To the extent that there are documents related to the negotiations that took place this past summer which are public records under North Carolina law, we will be pleased to make them available for copying.
We are in the process of reviewing the staff files to determine what materials are public records and can now be released. However, it will not be possible to complete this work and determine what documents can be provided until next week.
Your message also states that “the final deal is set and the public still doesn’t have those details.” As the Agenda materials for the Council’s Dec. 4 meeting indicate, the Council is being asked to consider whether to authorize the completion of a Development Agreement to be brought back for the Council’s consideration in early 2007.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Roger Stancil
Town Manager
Thank you Roger for getting back before close of business.
CitizenWill readers, I apologize for not moving more quickly on my request for further information.
This Monday (Dec. 4th), Council will take up the composition the Roger Road Area Task Force, I posted on earlier, and the possible future annexation of the eastern side of Rogers Rd.
If you’re interested in working with the Rogers Road community to correct these longstanding problems, Monday would be a great time to turn out and let your views be heard.
Click images to expand.
This is still very raw, but I thought I’d put out this demo to stir some thought within the community. Visualization tools like GoogleEarth (GE) can help remove some of the difficulty in assessing the visual impact of new development.
Our town’s planning department has the raw data needed to create a GoogleEarth representation of our town which I plan to massage and then release into the public domain for other citizens to elaborate on.
Why GoogleEarth?
While GE is a proprietary tool, the datasets it uses are exportable. So, Google owns the tool, not the data.
Our planning department should be creating GE or NASA Wind World representations of Chapel Hill as a matter of course – it would help both them and the community create a common visual-based framework for development discussions.
The free and OSS tools used:
GE has a movie making module but that requires an upgrade to GE Pro at $400 per year (not quite ready for that…)
The Rogers Road community has taken it in the chin for way too long. The promises extended these residents when the landfill expanded into their backyards have never really been fulfilled. Decades old problems with sewage and other infrastructure continue to persist.
Finally, a structured process is being developed to deal with some of Chapel Hillian’s closest neighbors:
11/30/2006 — The public is invited to an open house from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, at the Faith Tabernacle Oasis of Love located at 8005 Rogers Road to discuss planning for the Rogers Road area.
In the coming months, the Town of Chapel Hill will launch the discussion to begin the process of drafting the Rogers Road Small Area Plan, which is expected to involve intensive community participation. The plan would provide a vision and guidelines for the future development of the area, including the Greene Tract, and take a detailed look at the impacts of providing public services, especially sewer, and of developing an affordable housing site.
The Greene Tract is jointly owned by Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County. In 2002 the Chapel Hill Town Council adopted a concept plan for the Greene Tract which stipulated that about 18 acres of the 170 acres in the Greene Tract would be set aside for affordable housing and about 86 acres would be set aside for open space.
The Chapel Hill Town Council is soliciting residents to serve on the Rogers Road Small Area Plan Task Force. The composition of the task force, to be approved by the Chapel Hill Town Council, will include residents from the Rogers Road area, elected officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County, non-profit housing representatives, and other citizens of the greater community.
Planners anticipate that the Town Council will appoint members to the task force in January 2007, with the first meeting to be held shortly thereafter. The process to develop the Rogers Road Small Area Plan may take approximately 17 months to two years. Residents interested in serving on the task force are encouraged to call the Chapel Hill Planning Department.
Anyone unable to attend the open house may contact the Town of Chapel Hill Planning Department to express their views, to gather more information, or to apply to serve on the task force.
Contact Frost Rollins at (919) 968-2728 or e-mail frollins@townofchapelhill.org.
[UPDATE]
How could the negotiations team done a better job informing the public throughout the process?
Here’s two examples from Greensboro’s District 5 Council member Sandy Carmany covering their coliseum issues, this one from a year ago and this one from November.
Sure, she wasn’t hampered by reporting on material potentially shielded under NC’s open meetings laws, but, then again, not every decision or thought process going into RAM’s “new” deal was by necessity shielded.
The only Council member directly involved in the negotiations, Sally Greene, has done the best informing the public of her thinking process on Lot 5 though nothing I read prepared me for such a right turn.
Original post:
Council had an excellent opportunity over the last week to answer the critics of the new Downtown Development Initiative Lot #5 deal.
Over the Summer, the public’s investment in the deal ballooned 15-fold, from $500K to north of $7.2M (with additional revenue hits, etc.). The Wallace Deck portion excised. Public space diminished. Boutique shops up, affordable commercial space missing. $385-$415 per square foot property, slated, as one critic pointed out, probably for affluent student housing.
What, over the Summer, caused the deal to change so radically for what I, other downtown business folks, two Kenan-Flager business school professors and many other concerned citizens consider the worse?
Council could’ve released more information – to provide a solid foundation for the public’s understanding of “the deal”. I’ve followed this deal quite closely. I agreed to “bite my tongue”. to not criticize the problematic elements of the original deal, to wait on the “new deal” which would correct the more egregious of the public’s concerns.
I’ve spent hours trying to pull together all the whispers, hints, etc. that incidentally wafted the public’s direction over the course of the Summer. But what I have is not enough.
The Council has the responsibility and obligation to fully disclose the details, to the fullest extent
allowed by law, of this deal.
Mr. Manager, Mayor and Town Council,
Thank you for being more timely this week and publishing the RAM development agenda item before close of business. Unfortunately, the agenda item is fairly light on the background of the “new deal”.
Would you please publish the remaining reports, discussions notes, comments, etc. that went into forming the “new deal” over the Summer?
I know that there’s some legal issues involved in releasing all of the notes – legal issues that will become moot after you sign the deal – so I’m not asking for ALL the information now (though I will be exercising a citizen’s FOIA prerogative ASAP).
I’m asking that you release everything you can prior to the meeting, including information not protected under the confidentially agreement but also not,to date, publicly disseminated.
For instance, would you please provide details of your consultations with the Local Government Commission (LGC) on financing?
This would include notes, reports, detailed analysis, etc. Please be thorough in your disclosures.
I’m interested in the LGC’s take on leveraging the secured debt, effect on our town’s debt ratings, thoughts on the quoted interest rate, etc. Essentially, I imagine, the same kind of financial analysis that a private business uses in evaluating the risk-rewards of taking on debt.
Finally, the main conduit for publishing this data has been the DDI website which hasn’t been updated since Spring. I’ve asked the Council to update the information on the RAM deal in a timely fashion. Several folks told me to “hold my horses”, that I needed to wait until the “final” deal was set.
Well, the final deal is set and the public still doesn’t have those details. I was hoping that this issue would be addressed over the last 9 days but it hasn’t.
The public has one weekend to review these critical additional details.
Please, if you can’t update the website, then submit them to the citizenry directly. If emailing or providing paper copies is easier, that’s fine.
I’ll make sure they get into the public domain over the weekend.
Thank you for your prompt attention,
Will Raymond
WCHL1360 covered yesterday’s Downtown Partnership update.
Listen [MP3] to what Director Liz Parham and local “top flight” business guy Scott Maitland had to say.
And Dan S., if you’re reading this, thanks for the sly hat tip.
[UPDATE:] WCHL1360 with the audio [MP3]. President Friday expands on his concerns about salary inequities in the UNC system with WCHL’s Jon Hill. Last week a survey was published showing disproportionate wage inflation at the highest levels.
Thanks Bill.
[UPDATE 2] The HeraldSun weighs in with this soon to evaporate editorial titled “An expensive coach” and the Chapel Hill Herald which raises this “bonus” question:
That is the reality, and while it may not be terribly palatable at an academic institution, it’s not likely to change — despite repeated concerns expressed by faculty, denunciations by university leaders or moaning by newspaper editorialists.
But what should be a concern are some of the terms of that contact. Apparently, the towering salary is not enough. In addition to his nearly $2 million a year, Davis also could receive thousands more in bonuses.
There are bonuses written into his contract that call for more money if he stays to the end of his contract. More money if he takes the football team to a bowl game. And more money each time the team’s graduation rate equals that of the overall student body.
Isn’t all that what the university is paying for already?
When you’re doling out so much money, shouldn’t the expectations be, for instance, that you will honor your legal contract, win more games than you lose and maintain a reasonable semblance of academic integrity?
Original post
Nearly $2 million per year for UNC’s new football coach? Yikes!
And I thought Jack Evans, UNC’s Carolina North quarterback, at $208+ K, was overpaid.
Luckily it’s not all coming out of the taxpayers’ pockets but that’s beside the point.
What does it say about UNC’s priorities that the same week UNC ditched all those loyal Dental School technicians due to “budgetary” constraints and floated a $4,000 tuition bump their new athletic “silver bullet” is hired on with a salary more than 100 times some support folks salary?
Nuts.
Former UNC President Bill Friday also thinks the current Moeser administration has its priorities out of whack:
The new coach will make an average of $1.8 million a year and Bill Friday who was president of the University for 30-years is calling a foul. “Any time an institution pays a coach tens more than a distinguished professorship, it’s making a statement.” Friday add, “We are out of control. We aren’t running our own destiny.”
Friday also served 15-years as co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Sports which pressed for reforms inside the big business of college sports. Friday says UNC is taking a step back by throwing big money for an entertainment enterprise. “We teach, we carry forward research, we serve the public. That’s the public trust we hold. We are not an entertainment industry.”
Robert Poitras, representing the West-End business community announce this evening at the Downtown Partnership forum that the West End business community plans to field a “business candidate” for Council in 2007.
Interesting.
Has election 2007 already begun?
Posted these individual citizen comments from the Nov. 20th Public Hearing on the Downtown Development
First, kudos to the Downtown Partnership (CHDP) for finally pulling together a decent website (though disabling ‘right clicks’ is cheesy).
There’s a nice calendar widget, some news of the day, list of eats and drinks, services, shops, fun, etc. that are both fairly extensive and accurate.
Way to go Liz and company.
Today the CHDP is presenting their “State of the [Downtown] Union”:
CHAPEL HILL, NC, November 15, 2006: The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership (CHDP) is hosting an Annual Meeting and Public Forum on November 28, 2006 from 4:30pm to 6:45pm at the historic Varsity Theatre, 123 East Franklin Street.
During the meeting, the Downtown Partnership will share the progress made in downtown and by the nonprofit organization over the past year.
“The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership began our work last fall with a series of surveys designed to better understand the needs and concerns of the downtown businesses, property owners and consumers. We’ve spent the past year focusing on four of their top concerns: safety, cleanliness, panhandling, and parking,†explained Downtown Partnership Executive Director, Liz Parham. “We’ve incorporated the methodology of the Main Street Program to build partnerships and bring people together to find new solutions to some old problems. We look forward to reporting on our initiatives.â€
After CHDP highlights the progress of the past year, facilitators Andy Sachs and Peter Filene with the Dispute Settlement Center will encourage attendees to express their ideas and concerns that they feel should be addressed. The Downtown Partnership will use this information to develop the 2007 Plan of Work at the CHDP Board of Directors Annual Retreat on December 6th.
Ruby, over on OrangePolitics, notes that the CHDP has sponsored several forums with problematic start times and locations.
Other than catering to the Downtown merchants, who else is supposed to attend what amounts to a public forum put on by a taxpayer funded organization? A 4:30pm start time is tough for a Chapel Hill citizen working in RTP, but, I have to admit, great for me.
The last update forum was well attended, so I hope to see a similar turnout today.
From the Chapel Hill Fire Department website:
The primary mission of the Chapel Hill Fire Department is to protect life, property and the community environment from the destructive effects of fire, disasters or other life hazards by providing public education, incident prevention and emergency response services.
Thank you folks for all the long hours and hard work.
If for some reason you missed the official announcement , our Town graduated its first class of firefighters Aug.11th.
Lucky for us, youTube’s RyanJef recently posted this movie to celebrate
7/28/2006 – The Chapel Hill Fire Department will graduate its first Fire Academy in 13 years at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, in the Council Chambers at Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The graduation will include a badge pinning ceremony and presentation of awards.
To attract more candidates and improve workforce diversity, the Fire Department has begun to provide training; previously, new hires were already-certified firefighters. Candidates are selected through a multi-step process of testing, including physical exams, agility tests, interviews, background checks, and application reviews. The academy, which began April 18, included 16 weeks of training in areas including basic firefighting, hazardous materials, emergency medical response, basic rescue, child safety seat installation and physical fitness. Graduates will be North Carolina-certified Level II Firefighters.
The graduating class includes 10 Chapel Hill firefighters, one Efland firefighter and one Parkwood firefighter. Four of the new firefighters will replace current vacancies, and six will fill new positions that were authorized by the Town Council in 2005. Three will be assigned to Fire Station 2, and three will be assigned to Station 3.
The Town Council has authorized an additional six new firefighters in the coming year, and the next academy will take place in April 2007. Applications will be accepted beginning in November 2006. To find out more, visit the Town website at www.townofchapelhill.org/fire,or contact the Chapel Hill Fire Department at (919) 968-2781 or fire@townofchapelhill.org.
Thanks RyanJef.
Early in the evening, downtown resident Don Stanford spoke of “magic bullets”, the promises of NCNB Plaza (“remains one of the eyesores of Franklin Street…”) and the progression from it to Rosemary Square to Granville Towers (“…high rises in a sea of asphalt…”) to Wallace Deck.
During his presentation I noticed some eye-rolling but it’s hard to dispute his observation about Lot 5’s character:
This design doesn’t have anything to do with Chapel Hill. It doesn’t have anything to do with North Carolina. It doesn’t have anything to do with the South. I defy you to find anything [about the external design to] determine in any manner anything about it that says Chapel Hill or college town.
Chris Culbreth, a second term member of the Town’s Community Design Commission (CDC), stayed late Monday, Nov. 20th, to comment to Council on the proposed revisions for the Process for Revision of the Comprehensive Plan
Interestingly enough, he spent more of his limited time counseling Council on the Downtown Development Initiative (DDI) juggernaut than the process revisions – including this digression on how developers are already factoring in Council’s temperament:
[Lot #5] is going to be a key building because the people who see that are going to come and build things following – and some of those people were here tonight – all the guys who bring us their plans of what their going to develop were sitting in the audience tonight to see what Lot 5 went over – so they can figure out “what we can get approved next”…
He then held up another RAM Development proposal, 425 Hillsborough St., of which I’ve been somewhat critical of for a few reasons, as an example of a kind of urban density at odds with our Town’s stated goals of walkability, livability and sustainability before turning back to the Lot #5 precedent:
…this building, Lot 5, and how it’s going to be built, and how it looks, will be a precedent for these others that will be developed. And I don’t want it to turn out to be like Rosemary Village, for example, it was built and it’s all students and sold in less than a year. No professional is going to want to live there. And the way it was built – it doesn;t even communicate to the neighborhood [Northside] behind it..that’s a transitional neighborhood…we want those neighborhoods to come into Town…
The other developments that come into place, they’re going to use that [Lot #5 density and design] as an example and our concern is the massing of these buildings and how it’s going to function…
As Chris pointed out, the CDC reviews development projects and provides feedback to developers prior to Council. Chris has long familiarity with many of the projects coming before this Council – projects the Council has generally been satisfied with, at least as far as general design goals.
Council should weigh this members counsel in light of that experience.
The Community Design Commission is charged with the following:
To initiate, promote and assist in the implementation of programs of general community beautification in Chapel Hill and its environs;
To seek to coordinate the activities of individuals, agencies, organizations and groups, public and private, whose plans, activities and programs bear upon the appearance of Chapel Hill and its environs;
To provide leadership and guidance in matters of design and appearance to individuals, organizations and groups, public and private;
To make studies of the visual assets and liabilities of the community, including surveys and inventories of an appropriate nature, and to suggest standards and policies of design for the entire community, or any individual project to be undertaken therein;
To prepare both general and specific plans for the improved appearance of the Town of Chapel Hill and its environs…
