We did what this year?

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by on December 30, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in 140 West, Council Members, Downtown Chapel Hill, Economic development, Elections, Housing, Land Use, Library, Parking, Politics
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 30, 2013

http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/30/we-did-what-this-year/

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3 Comments

  1. Deborah Fulghieri

     /  January 3, 2014

    Hi Nancy,
    ETJ residents are paying a full one-third of town taxes for fire district designation (while town residents pay at an 8.8% rate), and annexation was never brought up for a vote. The prior mayor noted that the economic studies for annexing the southern ETJ found it to be a fiscally deleterious to the town. ETJ residents are still subject to Chapel Hill whims, rules and even scape-goating and mayoral castigation, without being allowed to weigh in on anything the town does.
    Cheers and Happy New Year.

  2. George C

     /  January 4, 2014

    Deborah,

    Unless I’m mistaken you still represent the ETJ on the Town’s Planning Board so does that not count as “weighing in”? Residents of the ETJ were invited to participate on the Obey Creek Compass Committee – does that not count as “weighing in”? And as for annexation being brought up for a vote, cities and towns are now required to be petitioned by 100% of the property owners of an area in order to be considered for annexation.

    I agree that ETJ residents might be considered to be subject to the “whims” of the Town but this situation was not created by the Town but rather by the State when it essentially eliminated annexation of most areas not already annexed. I think the fact that 20% of the Planning Board members (the ETJ and the JPA reps) are from outside the Town limits suggests that the Town is not hell-bent on suppressing this 3% of the population within its planning jurisdiction. I’m sorry that you feel differently.

  3. Deborah Fulghieri

     /  January 5, 2014

    Hi George, and Happy New Year,

    The Planning Board only gets to weigh in on projects that are brought before it, as you remember from your years on that board.

    I never said the Town was hell-bent; them’s your words.

    Annexation was not sought by the Town because of cost-benefit analysis years ago, when annexation was an easy stroke of the pen.

    Mayor Kleinschmidt is on video castigating ETJ residents as freeloaders on the good name of Chapel Hill (and memorably claiming that the North Chatham fire department takes its sweet time “pedaling up the road”).

    The Obey Creek Ventures LLC property is in the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction. Of the 17 members of the compass committee, 2 are ETJ residents, and 50% of the committee, by design, are Chapel Hill Town residents who do not live near it: http://www.townofchapelhill.org/index.aspx?page=2239

    Chapel Hill residents pay 8.8% fire tax, and the Town charges ETJ residents 15%. Orange County says that’s because it can and there is nothing anyone can say, do, or vote on.