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 on the side. She was preparing to go on tour, so she wouldn’t be able to make our cake, “unless it was an emergency,” he said.

We contemplated what might constitute a carrot cake emergency, and figured we didn’t qualify.

That carrot cake emergency came to mind when I read the proposed Guiding Statements that would inform the Future Land Use Map. No. 8 reads in part: “The Town should preserve and maintain Chapel Hill’s attractive appearance and where necessary, create the quality of design and development the Town desires …”

Where might it not be necessary to boost the quality of design and development? And who decides? Have we just given the nod to the Pretty Police to determine what passes muster and, for those places that don’t, which get extra help?

The brightest red flag came from a sentence slipped into No. 2A: “The town should encourage … development of duplexes, triplexes, and accessory dwelling units in some existing single-family neighborhoods.”

If the town were to promote tearing down single-family houses and replacing them with multi-family buildings, homeowners would have a hard time finding buyers.

For most of us who own the place we live, our home is the biggest investment we’ll ever make, and the largest asset in our portfolio. Buying a home is a long-term investment; people expect to stay in it for several years. In Chapel Hill, people buy when their children enter school, and often stay through graduation or beyond.

And when they buy a house, the buy into a community. Would people be willing to pay top dollar for a house if they knew the town intended for the neighborhood to be dismantled, house by house?

Similarly, the town touted securing designation of a large tract of land as an Opportunity Zone, which would give federal tax breaks to commercial investors. Unfortunately, that land is one of the largest middle-class neighborhoods in town and the epitome of a walkable community. The modest single-family houses are within walking distance of two schools, the library, a coffee shop, drugstore, mall, post office and park. Oh, and buses run along the entire perimeter.

Town staff contend that the Opportunity Zone is really just the perimeter. But unless that is made clear in its promotion, expect resale prices of those houses to drop.

Words matter. One person’s opportunity is another’s lost real estate appreciation. Much more dire than a carrot cake emergency.

— Nancy Oates