Category: UNC

  • Easthom: Let’s Revisit Lake Jordan

    Tomorrow Council member Laurin Easthom is petitioning her colleagues to sharpen up their decision to allow Orange Water and Sewer (OWASA) tap Lake Jordan for less than dire and near catastrophic need. Several weeks ago Chapel Hill approved an amendment to language of the 2001 Water and Sewer Management, Planning and Agreement (WSMPBA) which gave […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • WCHL Commentary: Library Expansion Next Year or Lot #5 Project, Not Both

    Ron Stutts and WCHL 1360 invited me to do a commentary on a Chapel Hill issue. I chose to speak out on the fiscally imprudent idea that we can “have our cake and eat it too”. Run this and the following four year’s budget numbers, look at anticipated impacts – funding Town retirees’ health-care, fixing […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Orange County Justice United Northside/Pine Knolls Census

    Big thank you to all the volunteers, including many, many UNC students who turned out this morning to help Orange County Justice United do a survey of the Northside and Pine Knolls areas in order to: Position community priorities in the public eye, Build relationships and get support for their social justice agenda by residents […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Tar Heel Basketball, Proven Excellence

    Though I wished UNC had clinched the ACC championship, tonight’s 89-72 stomping of Michigan State provided a conclusive and satisfying end to UNC’s great 2009 basketball season. In case you haven’t heard the rumble rolling forth from Downtown, UNC fans are as jubilant as the players. I’ve had the uncanny luck to have seen the […]

  • 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, […]

  • 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 […]