“Chapel Hill is a small town that lives large,” someone wrote as part of the 2020 visioning process early on. And at one of the Tavern Talks last night, a large poster-board chart propped on an easel had all sorts of ideas for how the town could live larger still. There was no column for […]
Tavern Talks
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 3, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/02/03/tavern-talks/
Train wreck
A penny placed on the track can derail a train, and three pennies laid on the track of progress derailed Charterwood last night. Donna Bell was absent last night, so Gene Pease moved that her absence be excused so that her empty chair did not count as a “yes” for every vote council took that […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 31, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/31/train-wreck/
Food for thought
Good thing January has five Mondays, otherwise council members wouldn’t have stumbled out of last week’s meeting until the break of dawn. Tonight’s meeting is a continuation of last week’s meeting that Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt called time on after midnight. Fortunately for all of us, he had committed to participate in the homeless census that […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 30, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/30/food-for-thought/
The Roger Stancil Show
Town manager Roger Stancil is a completely different person in daylight than he is tucked away at the end of the dais during Town Council meetings at night. As guest speaker at the Friends of Downtown meeting Thursday morning, he was relaxed, gregarious and funny. Stancil referenced signs that have popped up around town since […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 27, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/27/the-roger-stancil-show/
Absentee voting
Viewers of American Idol know to call one number if they want to vote for one performer and another number to vote for another performer. Maybe Town Council has adopted a similar practice. Laurin Easthom left during a discussion of the Triangle Regional Transit Local Preferred Alternative issue. During a spate of late-night council meetings […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 26, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/26/absentee-voting/
Late night with Town Council
Town Council and town staff worked a double shift yesterday, given that all have full-time jobs and council convened at 5 p.m. to begin hashing out what to do about community response to the Yates Building incident. The Community Policing Advisory Board had requested approval to hire an independent investigator along the lines of CIA, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 24, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/24/late-night-with-town-council/
Affordable housing
Northside and Pine Knolls face a losing battle to remain affordable (and black, for that matter) unless we, as a town, address the demand for student housing near campus. Tonight Town Council will receive the Planning Department’s update on the town’s affordable housing strategy, a plan the council adopted in June of last year. One […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 23, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/23/affordable-housing/
Shortbread hearing long on complaints
During last night’s public hearing on the Shortbread Lofts, I had to knock my head against the wall a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t stuck in a time warp. It sure felt like Aydan Court all over again. You have a developer who has taken pains to fit the changing demands of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 19, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/19/shortbread-hearing-long-on-complaints/
Short shrift for Shortbread?
What better circumstances, if you’re a developer wanting to build an 85-unit apartment building, than to have the town change the ordinance, a week before your presentation, effectively limiting the housing supply of your target market in a neighborhood a few blocks away. No wonder the developers, known only as “Shortbread Lofts LLC,” who have […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 18, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/18/short-shrift-for-shortbread/
The other tax drain?
Deborah Fulghieri is an ETJ (Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction) member of the Planning Board. Here’s what she has to say on the recent sale of Eastowne Office Park, owned by Blue Cross Blue Shield, to UNC Health Care: It was a surprise to learn that Chapel Hill’s economic development officer does not live, vote or pay property […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 17, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/17/the-other-tax-drain/