Obey Creek: From Outreach to Inclusion

You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Obey Creek: From Outreach to Inclusion”.

by on May 13, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Land Use
Tagged ,
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 13, 2013

http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/13/obey-creek-from-outreach-to-inclusion/

Previous Post
Next Post
Leave a comment

9 Comments

  1. Nancy

     /  May 15, 2013

    From the discussion at the Town Council meeting Monday night, it sounds like council members strongly support a Central West-style process as part of a development agreement. Evidently, East West Partners wrote to council asking for its money back because the timeline for the development agreement is taking longer than East West thought. East West paid a $75,000 deposit for consulting services but had second thoughts when the town moved in the direction of a steering committee like Central West. Council offered to refund the money but didn’t back down on the steering committee process.

  2. Ed Harrison

     /  May 15, 2013

    “Evidently, East West Partners wrote to council asking for its money back because the timeline for the development agreement is taking longer than East West thought. East West paid a $75,000 deposit for consulting services but had second thoughts when the town moved in the direction of a steering committee like Central West.”

    The letter from Roger Perry contained no language at all to this effect. Any discussion of that originated with a council member at Monday’s meeting.

  3. Nancy

     /  May 16, 2013

    Ed — Is there a way to show the text of the letter online? As the bulk of the discussion by council was over the Perrys wanting their money back, someone must have inferred that from whatever the letter did say.

  4. Nancy

     /  May 17, 2013

    To view a copy of East West Partners’ letter, go to townofchapelhill.org, click on “Government” then on “Mayor & Council” then scroll down that page and click on the link “archive of council email.” The letter was posted 5/9 at 8:30 a.m., so in your search, put in parameters of “after 5/8” and “before 5/10” and it should take you to the page where the email to Jason Damweber appears. The letter is a pdf attachment to the email.

  5. jeanne brown

     /  May 17, 2013

    Thanks, Nancy, for providing that information.

    Also available in the archives is a memo from Roger Stancil which outlines a “Compass Committee” for the upcoming Obey Creek process (entitled “Committee for Obey Creek”).

    The committee is fashioned after the community engagement process used for Northside.

    Given talk about Glen Lennox and Central West, this is a departure from what was expected so I’d be interested to hear about that process from those who participated or followed it closely.

  6. Fred Black

     /  May 17, 2013

    Nancy, I don’t infer that from reading the letter. Did I miss something?

  7. jeanne brown

     /  May 17, 2013

    Fred,

    Unfortunately, the contract between the town and East West Partners was signed before council had reviewed and approved the plan and schedule for public engagement and technical review processes.

    At the April 29 work session, council members agreed that a steering committee or task force similar to the one in place at Central West should be included. In addition, council member Pease asked that the timeline be adjusted.

    As Ed Harrison alluded to earlier, many council members did not feel that East West Partners was asking for their money back; however, both council members Czajkowski and Ward felt it was important that everyone understood that the process would include a steering committee/task force and, would, therefore take a little longer than expected. They went on to ask staff to verify with Mr. Perry if he wished to move forward with the Exploratory Phase given those conditions or choose to use the SUP process.

    No official word is out about Mr. Perry’s answer but, presumably, Mr. Stancil’s memo suggesting a “Compass Committee” might indicate that an Exploratory Phase for Obey Creek is still in the works.

  8. DOM

     /  May 17, 2013

    Huh?

  9. jeanne brown

     /  May 18, 2013

    DOM

    I don’t know whether to answer “Exactly!” (as in why has it been so complicated to put a fair process in place?) or , given that you were reading this thread, ask what you were hoping to discuss about Obey Creek, Development Agreements……