All posts in category Parking

3 Birds struggles to fly

When it first hatched in 2010, 3 Birds could have nested anywhere in the country. The three founders – Layton and Kristen Judd and Leonard Wohadlo – chose Chapel Hill, in part because of the proximity to the young talent pool provided by UNC. Initially, 3 Birds hired as many as a dozen interns a […]

Can we afford to be generous?

Raise your hand if you live in Governors Club and regularly ride the bus. Jim Ward fingered you at last Wednesday’s Town Council meeting during a discussion of whether the town should subsidize Chapel Hill residents who ride TTA commuter buses from the Eubanks Road park-and-ride. Beginning Aug. 15, the town will charge $2 a […]

Parking pickle

Town Council members spoke as one voice at Monday night’s meeting to make sure Chapel Hill taxpayers who want to park won’t be taken for a ride. UNC will start charging employees for its park-and-ride lots come August, forcing Chapel Hill to keep pace. After all, if commuters have a choice between a $2-a-day lot […]

Whose fair share?

Turns out 123 West Franklin’s parking spaces and grassy courtyard weren’t for the public after all. In trying to defend its miserly contribution to affordable housing in the face of several council members’ criticism, developer Cousins Properties pointed to the courtyard green space and the pool of 150 to 200 metered spaces in its parking […]

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 […]

Park it where?

Never have I been so glad to work from home as after listening to the presentation on the state of the town’s transit system. For an hour and a half last night, Chapel Hill Transit’s interim director, Brian Litchfield, waxed eloquent about where we are and where we’re going, bus-wise. Federal and state funding projections, […]

“Towing” the line

Maybe because I’m a rule follower I don’t get the appeal of appealing the permanent injunction issued Aug. 2 against Chapel Hill’s towing and cell phone ordinances. But last Wednesday, in a special Town Council meeting called before the Sept. 4 deadline to appeal, six of nine council members voted to file an appeal for […]

Compliance

Town Council meets Wednesday night in closed session to discuss what, if any, further action to take after the court issued a permanent injunction against the town’s towing and cell phone ordinances. As an olive branch after he won his lawsuit, the owner of George’s Towing put up new signs in the lots he monitors […]

Signs of ill will

You know those times when everything seems poised for success, then some hours later, relationships have frayed, the evening is in shambles, and everyone goes to bed angry? Town council had one of those nights last night. When the meeting opened, everyone seemed in fine fettle. In talking about the proposed downtown business incubator, council […]

Towing the law

At tonight’s meeting, Town Council intends to fix a law of unintended consequences. In February, council enacted a law governing tow trucks and included a stipulation that a sign in the tow-truck enforced parking lot include a phone number that would be answered immediately by the towing company. A month later council passed a misguided […]