UNC researcher and Chapel Hill native David Schwartz turns his analytical eye toward some of the factors that may be fueling our mayor’s apparent urgency to approve Form-Based Code initially in the Ephesus-Fordham area. Schwartz realizes there is more going on with the Ephesus-Fordham issue than simply the mayor wanting to impress his colleagues in […]
All posts in category Land Use
Get it right first
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 12, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/05/12/get-it-right-first/
Wreck-reation
Folks who attended the Town Council meeting Monday night in the Southern Human Services building off Homestead Road were treated to new definitions of recreation space. The meeting included a continuation of a hearing on the proposal by Blue Heron to expand the Timber Hollow apartments by adding 109 housing units. Fancy units would be […]
Posted by Don Evans on April 29, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/04/29/wreck-reation/
Office-retail only
Ellie Kinnaird’s voice was drowned out during her final years in the N.C. Senate by affluent colleagues who, having reached a high level of creature comfort, put in place policies that closed off that path to others. After several years of advocating for laws that made life better for residents in all socio-economic classes, Kinnaird […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 14, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/04/14/office-retail-only/
Public-private = win-win
Chapel Hill needs a Stuyvesant Town, a large-scale complex of safe, well-built, no-frills apartments with rents affordable to your average working stiff. For some years during my New York days I lived in Stuy Town, an 11,000-unit complex built on 80 acres of what used to house leaky gas storage tanks and businesses and apartments […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 31, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/03/31/public-private-win-win/
Plans vs. promises
At its March 10 meeting, Town Council passed an Affordable Rental Housing Strategy that was such a foregone conclusion it should have been on the Consent Agenda. But without the fanfare of a staff-narrated PowerPoint and a time for public comment, council members and town staff would have been deprived of a feel-good moment. And […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 24, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/03/24/plans-vs-promises/
Senior special
A concept plan for a dense subdivision on the agenda at last week’s council meeting drew not a single resident to protest. Maybe this developer knew to schedule his presentation at the exact same time as a UNC men’s basketball game, or maybe this developer offered something that many of us have been waiting years […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 24, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/02/24/senior-special/
6,200 and counting
Some town leaders have had it with this hick town and want to take Chapel Hill to the next level of cityhood. Town Council approved the redevelopment of Central West. Obey Creek is on track to sail through intact as the developer wants it. And council is poised to allow developers carte blanche in the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 10, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/02/10/6200-and-counting/
Be our guest
Business investors have figured it out before some of the rest of us: Chapel Hill is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live here. When Town Council meets next on Wednesday (the regular Monday night meeting has been shifted due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday), members will consider a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 20, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/01/20/1722/
Who’s the boss?
A while back, someone I know made a disparaging comment to a Town Council member about town manager Roger Stancil. The council member responded sharply, “Don’t talk about my boss that way.” Pause while you think about what’s wrong with that statement. Not long ago, I gossiped to another council member about the other council […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 13, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/01/13/whos-the-boss/
We did what this year?
What a ride 2013 turned out to be. Yet despite the ups and downs, we moved forward. We began the year with Town Council members choosing Sally Greene over 10 other well-qualified and diverse candidates to fill the seat Penny Rich vacated a couple months before. In the November election this year, Greene was elected […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 30, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/30/we-did-what-this-year/