2018 Season Finale

As the bad news piled up — cruelty and crassness at the national level and callousness from state legislators — a friend commented: “I no longer feel proud to be an American.”

I know the feeling. At last Wednesday’s Town Council meeting — our last of the season — we treated the public to 5 ½ hours of cringe-worthy politics. I was disheartened to realize that I was now part of a council that Chapel Hill Watch would have had a field day with back in the day.

We began by voting to invest more than $34 million in a new police station on University-owned land without asking for any guarantee that we could rent the land for more than 30 years or building in remuneration of our investment should UNC choose not to extend our lease.

We ended the night with a majority of council members engaging in a whisper campaign to besmirch the reputation of an applicant to one of the advisory boards.

In the middle, we had the horse-trading around proposed changes to the Form-Based Code in what’s now known as Blue Hill. Ultimately, a majority passed a convoluted version that would not result in anything other than the typical ground-floor retail with apartments above that we see all over town, but was onerous enough that property owners felt it would hamper their options for redevelopment.

Clearly, the FBC needs amending. When it was proposed in 2014, town staff came up with a mix of office, retail, hotel and residential space that would generate enough revenue over 20 years to repay the $10 million we borrowed for stormwater and road improvements to handle the extra density.

But because the FBC does not include any contribution to affordable housing, the area became a magnet for luxury apartments. All but a couple of the parcels have been redeveloped into upscale rentals — nearly 2,000 units have been built or approved, and another property owner has a potential buyer to convert retail space into residential. We aren’t going to be able to hit our target returns if all of the acreage is developed as residential.

All of the parcels that have not yet been redeveloped have some sort of commercial enterprise on them at present. I supported a code amendment that would ensure they remain 100% commercial. Previously, staff singled out only two property owners to abide by that constraint who, naturally, felt picked on.

The complex proposal staff brought to us shortly before the meeting last week offered a list of options, including density bonuses and square footage swaps, and recommended that any changes apply to all parcels. But it did not seem to mandate enough commercial space to make a difference. Competition among council factions ensued, resulting in a suboptimal outcome.

During our summer break, I hope we will reflect on why we ran — presumably to shape Chapel Hill into a place where people of a wide range of demographics can thrive. I hope we will return at the end of August with renewed resolve to act in ways that enable us to feel proud to admit we are on council.
— Nancy Oates