The gavel came down on our final meeting of the 2019 fiscal year at 11:34 p.m. last Wednesday night. Community members packed the auditorium at Town Hall at the beginning of the meeting for various last-minute petitions, and many town residents stayed almost all the way to the end to weigh in on the Future […]
All posts in category Land Use
The flummox of FLUM
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 1, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/07/01/the-flummox-of-flum/
Kneecapping our best intentions
Chapel Hill residents take housing affordability seriously. Are we on Town Council poised to undermine progress we’ve made? The budget we passed last week included a property tax increase that would fund the $10 million bond voters approved last year to be spent on increasing the supply of affordable housing. Some years back, council approved […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 17, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/06/17/kneecapping-our-best-intentions/
If we build it …
Which came first — residents with a plethora of discretionary income? Or craft breweries, tapas bars and the availability of Starbucks’ White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino on every street corner? If we build it, they will come, goes the adage. Last Friday morning at the town’s Economic Sustainability Committee meeting, Alisa Duffey Rogers, project manager of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 10, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/06/10/if-we-build-it/
Rogers Road victory
The historically black Rogers Road neighborhood crossed the finish line this past week on quality-of-life improvements years in the making. Town Council approved rezoning that would protect the neighborhood from the over-development expected once the sewer line extends into the area. The neighborhood, north of Homestead Road and east of Rogers Road, sits just south […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 27, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/05/27/rogers-road-victory/
The New Historic District
As the Town Council’s liaison to the Historic District Commission since the 2015 election, I’ve had a front-row seat to many redevelopment proposals by people who have no clue what value historic neighborhoods add to our community. The presentations follow a form so uniform that it appears to be an Internet download. The presentations apparently […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 13, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/05/13/the-new-historic-district/
Whose opportunity?
Trump has come to Chapel Hill. The federal Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, signed into law in December 2017, created an investment vehicle to allow the very wealthy to avoid paying taxes. The idea was presented to the public as a way to attract new development to high-poverty areas. A thousand such areas were identified […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 8, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/04/08/whose-opportunity/
Losing our towns
When we take road trips, I sometimes like to get off the interstate and drive some state and county roads to see the different Americas in our country. There are so many. Over the decades that I’ve done this, I’ve come to appreciate the stability of life in small and midsize towns, despite the vastly […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 25, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/03/25/losing-our-towns/
Words matter
For our rehearsal dinner, my husband-to-be and I wanted to serve a carrot cake from a restaurant that was special to us. The restaurant owner gave our contact information to the woman who baked the cakes. The next day her husband called and explained that his wife was an opera singer and baked the cakes […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 4, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/03/04/words-matter/
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/
Mortgaging Our Transit Future
By Bonnie Hauser I’m fascinated by the enthusiastic support that many of our elected officials have for Durham Orange Light Rail (DOLRT). County leaders have already committed nearly $2 billion of local sales taxes and fees to the $3.3 billion project and are preparing to commit more. Do they understand the growing risks and concerns […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 4, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/02/04/mortgaging-our-transit-future/