The old joke goes that a naïve business owner admitted he lost money on each product sale, but said, “I make up for it in volume.” Chapel Hill town staff are familiar with that business model, and after the Town Council retreat this past weekend, we are, too. We learned that for the past couple […]
All posts in category Land Use
Operating at a loss
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 28, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/28/operating-at-a-loss/
Flooding and the FLUM
At our Jan. 9 work session, Town Council took up the topic of the Future Land Use Map. Council must approve the FLUM before the Land Use Management Ordinance can be rewritten. Toward the end of the evening, Alisa Duffey Rogers, hired by the town to lead the LUMO rewrite, cajoled us into a game. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 14, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/14/flooding-and-the-flum/
Plunge Into the New Year
For the first time in my life, I live in a neighborhood with a swimming pool. To celebrate the New Year, some of my neighbors and I took a polar bear plunge. That the weather was a mild 66 degrees helped, but not as much as you’d think. The water felt every bit the liquid […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 7, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/07/plunge-into-the-new-year/
Goodbye, 2018
Everyone wants progress; no one wants change. – Soren Kierkegaard We should unfurl that wisdom on a banner over the dais in Town Council chambers, because that sums up the theme of nearly every council meeting. Development proposals dominate our weekly agendas. Every new development brings with it troublesome side effects. In order to be […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 31, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/31/goodbye-2018/
People + Places = Community
I spent last Saturday morning in a workshop sponsored by the Historic District Commission that emphasized the importance of community to our quality of life. I spent the afternoon talking with low-income seniors and people with disabilities about how the town could be more livable for them. The issues they brought up had at their […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 3, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/03/people-places-community/
Improving with age
An out-of-state developer recently purchased two houses next door to one another in one of Chapel Hill’s historic districts. The Historic District Commission is bracing for the prospect of demolition applications for the two gracious historic homes. State law, which trumps local laws, does not protect historic properties. If a Historic District Commission denies a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 25, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/25/improving-with-age/
Resiliency
Do weather events seem more severe in recent years? The Triangle Regional Resilience Partnership checked our perceptions against the data and found that, yes, flooding of greater intensity happens more frequently, and droughts last longer. The trajectory is unlikely to reverse itself anytime soon, despite our efforts to take the bus more frequently or adjust […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 12, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/12/resiliency/
What Dylan Teaches About Aging
I went to a Bob Dylan concert at DPAC this past weekend, the first rock concert I’d been to in decades. What a change between then and now. One similarity, though: Audience members were still my peers age-wise. Back in the day, I went to concerts with other teenagers and 20-somethings. Last weekend’s Dylan concert […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 5, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/05/what-dylan-teaches-about-aging/
How old is too old?
Age discrimination reared its ugly head at last week’s Town Council meeting. And this time, because we were talking about edifices, the youngster took the hit. Staff made two proposals — the first to donate town-owned land to be used to relocate nearly century-old tiny houses to be used for affordable housing; and the second, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 15, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/10/15/how-old-is-too-old/
What happens in Lawrence …
At the very last session on our intercity visit to Lawrence, Kan., participants stood up, Quaker meeting style, to say thank you to someone or to commit to something. It had been a jam-packed, eye-opening, exhausting three days, and we were trying to synthesize all we had learned before climbing back aboard the bus and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 1, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/10/01/what-happens-in-lawrence/