We’ve gotten spoiled. With Town Council’s newfound determination to end council meetings before midnight, and breaking out council discussions in midweek work sessions at the library (which are not on TV nor videoed and accessible by computer), the regular Monday night meetings end two to three hours after they begin. Tonight may be an exception. [...]
All posts in category Land Use
Feature presentation
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 20, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/20/feature-presentation/
Obey Creek: From Outreach to Inclusion
Southern Area resident Jeanne Brown has this to say about the evolving community engagement process for Obey Creek: Three years after Town Council members asked to know what a Development Agreement for Obey Creek would look like, a long-awaited public engagement process is beginning to take shape – thanks to council suggestion that staff, East [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 13, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/13/obey-creek-from-outreach-to-inclusion/
The bleaching of Chapel Hill
Last week I walked along MLK Jr. Boulevard to go from my house off Piney Mountain Road to Harrington Bank. Schools had a delayed opening that day, and I passed several groups of high school students waiting along MLK for the school bus. Presumably they lived in the modest rentals and mobile homes in the [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 6, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/06/the-bleaching-of-chapel-hill/
Save Del Snow
If you had told me six months ago that someday I would lead the cheering section for Planning Board chair Del Snow, I would have called you crazy. And now look. After Town Council’s Feb. 27 vote approving Bicycle Apartments, Snow wrote a letter to council questioning why council members didn’t postpone the vote until [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 6, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/06/save-del-snow/
Our anti-social Town Council
There’s nothing in the town’s bylaws that says Town Council members have to be socially responsible. Or that they must exercise foresight in their decision making. Or that they should do their best to make certain the social fabric of our community is kept intact. But it sure would be nice. The council extravagantly funds [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 4, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/04/our-anti-social-town-council/
What’s another $50 million?
Watching Parks & Rec director Butch Kisiah and various paid consultants and volunteer committee chairs present the master plans for Parks & Rec and Greenways, I learned that I’m not the only one with Lexus tastes on a Civic budget. The plans looked great: adding 10 miles of greenway trails to the town’s existing 13 [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 19, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/02/19/whats-another-50-million/
Too big to donate?
Shortbread Lofts got off easy when it came to making a contribution toward affordable housing. Should that set precedent for downtown redevelopment projects going forward? Cousins Properties apparently thinks so. Cousins makes a return visit to council tonight for a zoning change and special use permit to tear down the existing University Square buildings at [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 11, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/02/11/too-big-to-donate/
A sense of place
Bonnie Hauser, president of the grassroots organization Orange County Voice, sends this holiday greeting from New England: This year, and every year, I spend Christmas in western Massachusetts (“the Berkshires seem dreamlike on account of their frosting…”). A few inches of snow, a little sun, and a brisk 30 degrees – warm for the area, [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 1, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/01/01/a-sense-of-place/
Council rejuvenated
Council members showed their better selves at last Monday’s meeting. They asked questions that indicated they had read and understood the reams of material in their binders. They stood firm on what they thought was best for the town. They called out 123 West developer Cousins Properties about discrepancies in the number of parking spaces [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 19, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/19/council-rejuvenated/
Banking on buffers
Call me a cynic – as if that never occurred to you before – but I can’t help wondering whether there is a connection between Roger Perry telling Town Council last week that he might spread his buildings in Obey Creek over all of the buildable acres (even though the land is laced with a [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 14, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/14/banking-on-buffers/