Let me see whether I have this right – a developer can come into town, get town approval to build a project of high-end apartments and condos that displaces residents who have trouble affording living here, and we as taxpayers have to pay to make housing available to the displaced residents? That’s pretty much what […]
All posts in category Council Members
Joint Investment
Posted by Don Evans on March 19, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/03/19/joint-investment/
Consensus? Maybe Not
Every time I hear someone on Town Council urging us to come to a consensus, I can’t help but think of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s definition: “The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes but to which no one objects.” We […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 4, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/03/04/consensus-maybe-not/
Move in
At last Wednesday’s Town Council meeting, the town’s Housing & Community staff presented an innovative plan to encourage municipal employees to live in Chapel Hill. Stronger communities result when people live in the town where they work, and work in the town where they live. Not to mention the improved functioning of the town in […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 26, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/02/26/move-in/
Happier New Year
We started a new tradition this New Year’s Eve – we wrote all the bad things that happened in 2017 on little slips of paper, then tossed them into the fireplace. It was not as big of a bonfire as I expected, given the national politics and ripples into global and state affairs. And it […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 1, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/01/01/happier-new-year/
Lessons of War
Sometimes you can find words to live by where you least expect it. In a war movie I saw recently, a SEAL unit came under fire. “I’ve been shot!” one SEAL cried, whereupon his ranking officer replied: “That’s in the past. Don’t live in the past. Let’s move.” Stay with me here for what that […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 18, 2017
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/12/18/lessons-of-war/
The View From Here
After I was elected in 2015, I asked to occupy the seat on the dais once held by former Council Member Matt Czajkowski. I had long admired his intellect and insight. He was able to perceive unintended consequences in council decisions that eluded his colleagues on the dais. But his trenchant observations often brought out […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 11, 2017
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/12/11/the-view-from-here/
Park, Housing: Not an Either-Or
In 2003, as a taxpayer I voted against spending more than $16 million to expand and renovate the Chapel Hill Public Library. The town had a small but functional library, surrounded by the woods and trails of Pritchard Park, and while the demand would only grow as the town grew, it seemed to me we […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 4, 2017
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/12/04/park-housing-not-an-either-or/
Growth on what conditions
For 10 years before becoming Chapel Hill’s planning director, Ben Hitchings held the comparable role in Morrisville. There, he used a process called “conditional zoning” to develop and redevelop parcels to spur growth. At council’s Nov. 15 meeting, we heard a staff proposal to add conditional zoning to our Land Use Management Ordinance. CZ makes […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 20, 2017
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/11/20/growth-on-what-conditions/
A win for Chapel Hill
Who won last Tuesday’s municipal elections? The residents of Chapel Hill did. Chapel Hill voters elected four newcomers to the four Town Council seats. (Mayor Pam Hemminger, whose only opponent was a write-in candidate, won re-election.) The council members-elect are younger than the incumbents they are succeeding, and for the most part, seem less entrenched […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 13, 2017
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/11/13/a-win-for-chapel-hill/
Sitting on the Historic District Commission
In an interview aired on National Public Radio recently, Magazine Editor Hall-of-Famer Tina Brown described her desk-on-a-treadmill, noting, “Sitting is the new smoking.” That shot a little dart of fear in my heart, because my role as a Town Council member requires me to sit a lot. Council meetings, work sessions, committees, task forces and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 23, 2017
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/10/23/sitting-on-the-historic-district-commission/