One theory has it that if we just make traffic bad enough, people will take the bus. Perhaps that was the rationale behind an item on the Town Council consent agenda coming up this week that would have prohibited turning right at red lights in 16 high-traffic intersections. A former council member proposed the right-turn-on-red […]
All posts in category Roads
Right on red
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 9, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/09/right-turn-on-red/
Traffic
Last week I arrived at a meeting after it had started because I had seriously underestimated how long it would take me to drive there. Now that students and professors are back and families have returned from vacations in time for the start of school, some 20,000 to 40,000 additional cars are on the street […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 2, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/02/traffic/
The cost of appearances
There we go again. Dipping into our savings to pay for nonessentials. Living beyond our means. Our new town manager presented his recommended budget, a 3.7% increase over what we spent the prior year, which would require only a 1.6-cent property tax increase (per every $100 of property valuation). The hiring process for our town […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 20, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/05/20/the-cost-of-appearances/
Ask the neighbors
The road to redevelopment is paved with community meetings, as residents in the Rogers Road area found out, and residents on the southern edge of the Greene Tract wished they’d found out. At last week’s Town Council meeting, we received an update on staff’s plans to create a zoning overlay for several parcels of land […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 25, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/02/25/ask-the-neighbors/
DOLRT bills: woulda, coulda, shoulda
Think of the transformative impact $14.5 million could have had on Orange County if we had spent it on extending bus lines so the modestly paid could commute to work and fewer people would have to rely on cars. Instead, Orange County commissioners gambled it away on studies, design and engineering for a light rail […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 4, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/04/dolrt-bills-woulda-coulda-shoulda/
Autopsy of a vote
After my colleagues on Town Council blew off applying for a quarter million dollars of free money toward the purchase of the American Legion property at the April 18 meeting, I was so disheartened I went out and got #NeverAgain tattooed on my chest. (Just kidding, Mom.) So when I walked into the April 25 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 30, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/30/autopsy-of-a-vote/
Guidelines Matter
In its quest to increase the commercial tax base, the Town Council in 2014 approved form-based code for the Ephesus-Fordham, now Blue Hill, district. FBC shifted approval for development projects from council to the town manager in that defined area around Rams and Village plazas and Eastgate. Council drew up some guidelines about maximum building […]
Posted by NancyDon on March 26, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/03/26/guidelines-matter/
Will we always have Paris?
Maybe Town Council’s next intercity visit should be to Paris, a city that Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane cited as her favorite because of its low buildings. At council’s Nov. 15 meeting, we reviewed a concept plan for a 5-story building of apartments, offices and retail, with 68 parking spaces on less than 4 acres at […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 27, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/11/27/will-we-always-have-paris/
The flip side of success
Town Council approved plans for a Wegmans to be built on the site now home to Performance Automall. While most residents of Chapel Hill and beyond welcomed the news, dozens of households had mixed reactions. If Wegmans is successful, it will bring in $336,000 in gross property tax receipts and as much as $1.5 million […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 30, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/10/30/the-flip-side-of-success/
What’s driving driverless cars?
As we plan for autonomous vehicles, bear in mind that the car, not the driver, causes the demand for infrastructure. At our Sept. 18 council work session, town planning director Ben Hitchings presented some futuristic ideas of the day when everyone owns, or at least uses, a driverless car. Our starry-eyed discussion focused only on […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 2, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/10/02/whats-driving-driverless-cars/