A perfect storm of work, family and personal commitments makes it difficult for me to blog until the end of the month. If anyone would like to submit a guest blog, the Chapel Hill Watch space will be available for the next couple of weeks. Send your post to me in an e-mail, neoates at earthlink.net, and I will see that it gets put up.
— Nancy Oates
Opportunity
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 16, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/04/16/opportunity/
Leggo my logo
Chapel Hill taxpayers authorized town manager Roger Stancil to spend money on designing a logo that 
has a specific color and font for the town to use on street signs and elsewhere. Yet when local stores want to put their logos, in color, on a street sign, some council members waffled or flat out refused. What’s up with that?
Council members, along with town staff and a dozen or so intrepid residents, stayed up well past midnight Monday to tease out the issues of the proposed change to the sign ordinance. We appreciate their diligence. Signs matter, not only to the health of businesses that feed our town coffers sales tax and property tax revenue, but to residents whose property taxes must make up any shortfall from other revenue sources and spend time and expensive gas to drive out of county to shop after local businesses throw in the towel.
In a budget update earlier in the evening, Stancil admitted that the economic downturn had outlasted his short-term fixes and it was time to “reset the service levels to match the revenue.” We can’t afford to alienate businesses, yet University Mall manager Peter Deleon told of problems recruiting new tenants without adequate signage.
Council members agreed (some grudgingly) that our commercial centers need more effective signs. The disagreement came over whether to allow stores to use their colored logos. For those, like Penny Rich, who don’t know what a logo is, it’s the way a business presents its brand. It includes name, typeface (also known as font) and color. All three work together to allow buyers to “consume” rather than “read” a business name. When Wal-Mart shifted its target market from budget-conscious working class shoppers to budget-conscious middle-class shoppers, it replaced its patriotic red, white and blue brand name, written in a John Hancock-signature style font, with sensible, block letters and a sun-yellow asterisk. The idea is that the asterisk will instantly call up in consumers’ minds everything good they feel about shopping at Walmart, just as the red bull’s eye does for Target.
Sally Greene nixed logos and would consider only the store name in a uniform font and color. Rich might allow some variation in font, but no color or icons, specifically objecting to Chick-fil-A, whose logo has a rooster comb over the C. Jim Ward, Gene Pease and Matt Czajkowski supported logos in color; Lauren Easthom and Donna Bell hedged on the color.
The hour was too late for town attorney Ralph Karpinos to craft new wording off the top of his head. But council members were close enough on agreement to passing a new ordinance that they told Peter Deleon he could place an order for a new sign at U-Mall.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by NancyDon on April 14, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/04/14/leggo-my-logo/
Bookstore is not a library
While I was shopping in Dillard’s one day last month, Mr. Dillard himself and a regional manager were roaming the store. As I paid for my purchase, the salesclerk commented how fortuitous it was that the entourage happened by in time to see a customer buying something. Truth be told, the store was not exactly bustling with shoppers.
I thought back to that exchange when town manager Roger Stancil, at the March 28 Town Council meeting, decisively ruled out all alternatives for a temporary home for the library save the two spots at University Mall. The original plan was for the library to move to the mall during the renovation and expansion of the library building in Pritchard Park. But in December and all throughout the holiday shopping season, the town explored moving the library to the mall permanently, in the space occupied by Dillard’s. The implication was that Dillard’s was on its way out, certainly not a rumor Dillard’s would want circulated at the start of the 6 to 8 weeks that would determine its profitability for the year.
Among the options Stancil ruled out for the temporary relocation was the soon-to-be-vacant Border’s bookstore on Sage Road and U.S. 15-501. The cost would be prohibitively expensive, he said, more than $800,000 to upfit the store, not including the $80,000 to truck the books from the library. As I wandered through the emptying Border’s last week, I wondered what there was to upfit. Everything was right there: shelves, display racks, tables, upholstered chairs, information desk, separate children’s center, even the coffee shop that library patrons hanker after so. Had Stancil been first in line when Border’s began selling its fixtures, the town could have outfitted the entire temporary library for $10,000.
But I’m sure the pre-Christmas speculation of Dillard’s leaving town came at a price. No doubt Mr. Dillard stopped in to see mall manager Peter DeLeon during his visit last month and the talk of some sort of recompense may have come up. So the mall might badly need the $775,000 the library will pay for temporarily relocating there, not counting the $80,000 to truck over the books.
After council heard Stancil’s report, council member Matt Czajkowski brought up again the idea of non-Chapel Hill residents paying for library cards. The space at the mall is half that of the current library. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt suggested waiting to talk about that during the budget discussions in May.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 7, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/04/07/bookstore-is-not-a-library/
Preserve Northside
At the Town Council meeting on March 28, several Northside residents petitioned council for a moratorium on building permits. Although Northside was granted Neighborhood Conservation District status in 2005 to preserve the character of the historically black working-class neighborhood, developers have found ways to skirt the rules and continue building student rental housing under the guise of single-family homes.
Residents told of developers tearing down a 100-year-old cottage to build a five-bedroom behemoth in its stead. The large house was out of place on a street of two-bedroom bungalows occupied by longtime residents at or near retirement age, and specious as a student rental, given the town’s ordinance that no more than four unrelated people can share a house. Residents told of eight or nine students stuffed into one single-family house.
Council promised to review the NCD guidelines established for Northside. In the meantime, we could learn from Durham.
Preservation North Carolina has partnered with Preservation Durham to identify houses in historic districts originally designed for the working class that are now abandoned or in disrepair. Preservation N.C. buys the houses, arms them with covenants that mandate they be owner occupied and works with Durham’s Department of Community Development to secure federal, state and local grants to renovate the homes and put them back on the market as affordable workforce housing. The rehab-and-resell project is aided by Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, Neighborhood Stabilization Program dollars, Neighborhood Incentive Program money and First-Time Homebuyer Program assistance.
The houses are sold to homebuyers who make no more than 80 percent of the Area Mean Income. (In 2000, Chapel Hill’s mean household income was $51,690; 80 percent would be $41,352.) Reclaiming the homes revitalizes neighborhoods, provides affordable housing close to downtown and improves individual financial stability by turning renters into homeowners. The town benefits from the increased property tax revenue as the houses rise in value, and from lower crime rates as neighborhoods are repopulated with homeowners who have a stake in keeping the streets safe.
Preservation N.C., a nonprofit, can’t compete with for-profit developers who can pay a higher price for the aging houses in disrepair. So developers need to step up and do the right thing: Don’t tear down a small house and replace it with something that will change the character of the neighborhood. Just because you can make a buck, doesn’t mean you always should.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 6, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/04/06/preserve-northside/
Greenbridge short on green
As Greenbridge toes into the starting block of becoming a business school case study, its owners facing bankruptcy, I’m hoping someone who understands financing or the law will explain what I’m missing.
Greenbridge partners came together in 2006 and broke ground in October 2007 on the $54 million project that brought 97 condos on the market in 2010, 14 of them affordable units marketed through Community Home Trust, a nonprofit backed by the Town of Chapel Hill. As the eco-friendly technology and materials got ever more advanced – and pricy – the cost of the units rose. The initial presale prices rose along with it, and at least one person walked away from the deal when informed of the increase.
Still, by the beginning of this year, Greenbridge had closed on 36 units, and its partners said they had an additional 15 contracts. Then, last week, Bank of America, which had loaned Greenbridge $43.8 million, threatened to foreclose. The general contractor had filed liens against the building because the bank failed to release the final $1.6 million the contractor had billed. BoA said the amount was over the guaranteed maximum price for construction. Because of the liens, Greenbridge couldn’t close on the 15 contracts, giving the buyers an out. Some took it.
Bank of America has its own money problems. It is closing several offices nationwide and trying to reduce its exposure to risk. It was one of the banks that accepted bailout money in 2008 due to its poor risk-management practices. The bank could work out a refinancing deal with Greenbridge. Once the economy recovers, Greenbridge will be profitable. In fact, it sounds like Greenbridge would be able to meet its obligations if the sales of the 15 units on hold went through. Is this BoA’s way of boosting its assets – taking over a large project, holding it for a couple of years, then reselling it at a profit once the economy improves?
To generate cashflow in the interim, BoA might turn the empty units into rental apartments. But with anything short of 75 percent occupancy, it remains on the bank’s books as an unstabilized asset. The foreclosure/bankruptcy proceeding will likely take years to resolve. Good luck to any of the condo unit owners who want to resell during that time. All of this over a $1.6 million contract dispute?
Let’s just hope that Ram Development is watching this closely.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 4, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/04/04/greenbridge-short-on-green/
How to be heard
The way winter has persisted, especially after we had a few days of Southern spring, has everyone feeling peevish, and Town Council members aren’t immune. It didn’t help matters Monday night when the council meeting started off with an act of civil disobedience: Several people signed up to filibuster in order to draw attention to the specious firing of two sanitation workers.
I understand the protesters’ motivation to keep the issue alive until council discusses it in public. But isn’t the hope that council might overturn the town manager’s decision? The filibustering Monday night risked pushing some council members to become even more entrenched in their decision not to consider the issue with an open mind.
The filibustering under the guise of petitions to council took up the first two hours of the meeting. Even though one presentation for a special use permit request was withdrawn by the applicant, the council meeting didn’t end until 11 p.m. Laurin Easthom gave up sometime after 10:30.
Because it is in the best interest of all of us to have council make decisions before they become overly fatigued, Matt Czajkowski suggested that petitions be heard at the end of the meeting. Sally Greene objected, saying that petitioners might have children and babysitters they need to go home to. Czajkowski pointed out that other presenters, including town staff, might also. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt countered that he could talk to petitioners and ask them to consolidate their points to avoid repetition. Greene touched a nerve when she implied that might be perceived as stifling public comment.
Donna Bell said she instructs prospective petitioners on how to be more effective in getting their message across. I hope she tells them to face council, not the audience, when they speak. Michelle Laws, the head of the local chapter of the NAACP could have taken a leadership role in effective communication but dropped the ball completely Monday night, as she had during a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. David Price last week. At that meeting, Price’s staff wouldn’t let her cut ahead of the line of residents waiting to speak after she had spoken three times already, so she sat in her seat and spoke loudly to those around her, drowning out Price and others. Former Mayor Kevin Foy moderated the event, looking tanned and fit and a good 40 pounds lighter since he was on council. (From where I sat and the way he kept his hands clasped, I couldn’t tell whether he still wears his wedding ring.) Foy had to shush Laws that night, as Kleinschmidt had to Monday so that others could be heard.
Civil disobedience, to be most effective, should be a poke strong enough to get council’s attention without making them harden their defenses. Strength is in the number of people who speak, not the length of time they take at the podium. No point lobbying for change, if you can’t engage the decision makers to listen.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 30, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/03/30/civilly-disobedient/
Signs of change
I’m rattled. Last night’s meeting marked the second time that I agreed with Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt. I fear one of us is making a terrible mistake.
Dwight Bassett, the town’s economic development director, and Gene Poveromo, development manager, teamed up to present a modified proposal to the sign ordinance. The photos they presented showed tasteful signs that were in scale with the streetscape fronting the commercial centers. A development consultant, the manager of University Mall and a representative of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the revised Land Use Management Ordinance text amendment.
But a couple of residents spoke out against the revised text change, not so much against the ordinance amendment, it seemed, as against change in the character of the town itself. Both were longtime residents who mourned the way Chapel Hill had changed over the past few decades. One resident asked council to delay voting on the amendment so that she could round up 30 people to come before council to speak out against making the signs more prominent. Call me cynical, but I’d be willing to bet that the 30 people she had in mind are wealthy enough not to fret over the high property taxes we pay because we don’t have a strong enough commercial presence to offset residential taxes. One by one, council members seemed willing to delay the vote for another month.
But Kleinschmidt said he had received calls from small business owners whose businesses were drying up because potential customers had no idea that the businesses existed. One of the reasons the commercial area in Meadowmont is struggling is that businesses there have no visibility from the highway. After Laurin Easthom said she wanted to see a change, driving along U.S. 15-501 or N.C. 54, between where Durham ended and Chapel Hill began, Kleinschmidt spelled out the change.
“In Chapel Hill,” he said, “you can’t tell where the businesses are.”
Gene Pease, had he been at the meeting, surely would have backed Kleinschmidt.
It was ironic that Penny Rich, who pushed for a bill that would outlaw using a cell phone while driving, lobbied hard for outlawing logos on the signs. The mix of colors and fonts would look tacky, she said. Just imagine if University Mall’s sign had a Chick-Fil-A logo on it, she said, laying it as a trump card of horror.
Logos are a way of identifying a business without reading the words. Drivers barreling down a highway or main artery in town shouldn’t take their eyes and attention off their driving while they try to read and process the words on a sign to know whether the shopping center has a place to buy food or clothing or office supplies. Slowing down to safely read signs only clogs traffic behind them.
Council ultimately decided to delay voting on the sign amendment for two weeks so that residents could organize themselves and speak out. I hope the group includes a few brand managers and business people who can convey the reciprocal relationship between businesses and customers needing to find one another easily.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 29, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/03/29/signs-of-change/
Four and more
How many teenagers can stay home alone without parental supervision before it becomes not a good idea? The Town of Chapel Hill has set the limit at four. Except in areas zoned R-3, like Northside and a couple of historic districts downtown. Those neighborhoods can stuff many more than four in a residence, as long as they call it a rooming house.
At tonight’s Town Council meeting, a group of property owners in Cobb Terrace, one of the neighborhoods zoned to allow rooming houses, is asking the town to abolish the rooming house clause.
The town ordinance that prohibits more than four unrelated people sharing a house doesn’t specify whether they are teenagers, but in a college town, chances are they will be, or not far from it.
After a year or two of dorm life, some students are ready for a bedroom and bathroom with doors that lock and a kitchen where they can expand their menu options beyond ramen noodles. So they look for a house or apartment off campus, and to make it affordable, bring in lots of roommates to share the rent. The yard then becomes littered with cars that sometimes clutter the street. The noise level sometimes goes up. And sometimes things you might not risk doing on your own become attractive when a half dozen of your friends are egging you on.
But when a household ignores the no-more-than-four rule, the town shrugs it off.
About 10 years or so ago, the town established a Landlord Registry and required all landlords to pay $10 and fill out a sheet of paper that asked for their contact information and little else. The idea was that if a household was being a nuisance, the town could contact the landlord and threaten fines if the landlord didn’t get the tenants to shape up. But a couple years later, the registry was dismantled, and with it a place to lodge a complaint against unruly renters.
Landlords should hold tenants accountable for tenant behavior, and landlords should hold themselves accountable, too, by making sure that no more than four unrelated people are living in their rental unit. But with the rooming house free pass, neighbors have nowhere to turn should a household get out of hand.
Abolishing rooming houses in neighborhoods close to campus would be a gesture of goodwill to local property owners. Making public where and how to lodge a complaint against a household in violation of the no-more-than-four rule would be a nice follow-up step.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 28, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/03/28/four-and-more/
Listing service
The Town Council approves special use permits for local businesses, many of which belong to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. The Town Council does not belong to the Chamber. Yet you’d never know that from the Chamber’s website. Scroll down through the C’s on the Chamber’s business directory, and there you’ll find a listing for Chapel Hill Town Council.
Town Council members would be within their rights to join the Chamber, which is a 501(c)(6), meaning it is a nonprofit allowed to lobby. The status is the same structure followed by Boards of Realtors, Home Builders Associations and the League of Municipalities. But Aaron Nelson, the Chamber’s president and CEO, said that though politicians are often invited to Chamber events, they don’t attend for free.
“If I were to comp Joe Hackney’s breakfast, he’d have to report it, and so would I,” Nelson said. “We skip that by charging him. Then you don’t have to worry about someone trying to influence you with some runny eggs.”
Coziness between council and commerce doesn’t bother Durham. In fact, Nelson said, the City of Durham gives the Durham Chamber of Commerce nearly $100,000 a year. And a while back, maybe 20 years ago, Nelson said, Chapel Hill’s Town Council did belong to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber. Nelson believes that may have ended to avoid conflicts over endorsing candidates.
Nelson said the Chamber spends less than one-half of 1 percent of its budget on lobbying. The Chamber supports microenterprise predominantly, with about 80 percent of its members being organizations with 20 or fewer employees.
And we would certainly expect that the Town of Chapel Hill and its council would support local businesses. But given that the council does have the power to approve or deny SUPs proposed by businesses, having the council appear to belong to the Chamber sends the wrong message. It might imply that any business that has business before the council should join the Chamber first.
We recommend taking the Town Council off the membership directory. And while the Chamber webmaster is fixing the membership directory, update the board of directors page, which still lists only the 2010 board.
“I have to fix that,” Nelson said. “2010 went by really fast.”
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 25, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/03/25/listing-service/
In defense of churches
In a snippet from Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back,” a mother surveys a mess and says, “… ‘somebody has to clean all this away. Somebody, somebody has to you see.’ Then she picked out to Somebodies. Sally and me.”
Something we in Chapel Hill have to clean up is the problem of helping the homeless get back on their feet. Somebody has to step up. The IFC has for decades and now is shifting its focus to long-term solutions to homelessness. But some shelter clients may not be ready to move on to solutions. Many have mental health issues or addictions or both. The state is cutting its mental health services budget, betting that somebody will step up to fill the void.
Several churches have given financial and volunteer help to IFC’s programs. Some may well open their doors as a shelter. If they do, here are some of the issues they must contend with:
A place for the men to wash up. Most churches don’t come equipped with showers, other than perhaps the apartment for the church mouse, and it’s not right to expect the overnight caretaker to share his shower with a dozen or so men who live on the streets.
Laundering the pillows, sheets, blankets, washcloths and towels every morning. It’s expensive, and many churches are struggling to meet their budgets already as donations and pledges shrink in the recession.
Volunteer staff. Unless a church can afford to hire staff to stay up all night to run the shelter operation, it will rely on volunteers, who don’t always have the same commitment to work as they do to their paid jobs. Volunteers have to be trained to work with a special needs population. A plan has to be made to staff the place if volunteers cancel last minute or don’t show up at all. The majority of church volunteers are women, but in this case, more men would have to step up.
Health issues. Head lice and fleas come to mind. A church has to have a room without carpet or drapes or upholstered furniture to serve as a dorm. Often, someone will become ill in the middle of the night – not a life-threatening illness that requires an ambulance, but something that requires over-the-counter medicine or at least cleaning up a mess. (Just try to get that volunteer back again.) And is the volunteer liable if the over-the-counter medicine causes a deleterious reaction?
Security. Ideally, the dorm should be a room that can be sealed off from the rest of the church so that shelter guests don’t squirrel themselves away in other parts of the church where they’ll be unsupervised. Does the church have to have elevator access to the dorm? What is the church’s liability should a volunteer be hurt by a shelter guest?
Despite this, I’m certain churches will do their part. As a taxpayer, I’d like to see the government step up, too. The town spent nearly $50,000 on consultants to fire two town workers and to mediate a Neighborhood Conservation District process. That would have been a nice first step to providing emergency shelter.
– Nancy Oates
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 23, 2011
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/03/23/in-defense-of-churches/