Chapel Hill’s Arab Spring?

3 Comments

1. 

   bart

    /  September 27, 2016

   So…. American Legion can get much more than tax value for its property.

   Good on them. I’d be lucky to get tax value for my house.

   So, no one is really willing to build retail since it doesn’t make as much money (and all that would be approved are boutique business and non-profit centers) and there are apparently gobs of people with fistfuls of cash who want to live here despite our traffic?

   Anyway, if so, that leaves either lots of smaller places with taxes spread out amongst lots of people or fewer, bigger places with higher tax payments per head and fewer people?

   That’s it? That’s the choice? I’m guessing Costco AND a park are not an option?

   Sheeesh. Honestly, I’d rather see a big box that could bring in very much needed revenue along with a park rather than another school-road-infrastructure choking multi-family housing compound.

   My second choice would probably be large houses on big lots to minimize the aggregate impact on all of the above.

   Seriously, hundreds of apartments or condos with parking, a token park with token parking, a bus line just to facilitate students moving in and what else would be needed?

   Oh yeah, another elementary school.

2. 

   Plurimus

    /  September 28, 2016

   bart, you cynic.

   Don’t worry, be happy! All the hipsters say that building dense high rent apartments and expensive condos with inadequate parking will lead to more “walkability” and more bike lanes and public transit.

   If you listen to the developers, these places don’t add to school population because the people living there are students and seniors, never mind the other services. The argument therefore is these places should have a commercial tax treatment.

   Meanwhile back at the ranch, the surviving politicians that brought you this mess from behind closed doors are being fined a paltry $500 by the state for inaccurate and misleading campaign finance reports that conveniently hid developers contributions from voters until after the election. The rest have passed through the revolving door and now work for the developers.

   I don’t envy the TC in their deliberations. Single family homes would potentially have greater impact, but the Legion would not get 10 million for a 4.8 million dollar property. More apartments and density is a gamble based on dubious economics. Parks are expensive unless they are theme parks. Schools are currently inadequate, and need repairs, however school age populations are declining and senior populations are increasing. CHT is in financial difficulties and most of the transit dollars are going to a ridiculously expensive light rail system that is fraught with inadequacies and does not serve the density the previous leadership approved.

   The good news is Chapel Hill has lots of options has bright and enthusiastic population to draw on and is relatively well off. The bad news is if the leadership continues to make the kind of decisions that were made before, those advantages will be squandered quickly.

3. 

   David

    /  September 28, 2016

   “Turkish Spring” may be more apropos: The current discord over the future of the American Legion property is reminiscent of the 2013 protests over Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul, though, thankfully, without the tear gas and water cannons.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taksim_Gezi_Park