carrboro-town-council

Carrboro’s Town Council kicked off last night with an earlier start time — 6 instead of 7 — and several proclamations acknowledging National Hispanic Heritage Month, Diaper Needs Awareness Week, that Reproductive Rights are Human Rights, and the 50th anniversary of Chapel Hill Transit. 

Council also recognized National Voter Registration Day on September 17th and Mayor Foushee encouraged every eligible resident to ensure that they are registered to voter and have acceptable voter ID. 

  • You can register to vote and obtain a free voter ID at the Chapel Hill Public Library every Monday from 5-7 through October 14. 
  • There will also be a Carrboro in Motion this Saturday at 11am outside the Willow Creek Laundry Mat on Jones Ferry Road where you can register to vote, receive information or town services, and do Zumba. Food will be provided.

Six members of the community gave public comment – five in support of the resolution to declare Reproductive Rights are Human Rights. Their comments were moving, informed by research, and represented a wide variety of reproductive rights organizations. The sixth commenter, Shelly Welch, asked the Council to look into better enforcement at the Merritt’s Gravel Pit along Smith Level Road.

We then turned to the agenda items. First up, the dead tree.

Carrboro dead tree removal

As we reported earlier in the week, there’s a huge dead oak tree at 710 Rosemary Street on land owned by the Love Overboard Kennels & Grooming. The tree’s branches have been falling for months – earlier this month, they knocked out Internet access to surrounding businesses. There have been near-misses with pedestrians and cars. It’s a hazard.

For seven months, the town has tried to work with the owner to remove the tree and make it less burdensome to remove. There’s a lengthy timeline the town compiled — and no resolution. The town conducted a survey and concluded that the tree is not in the ROW — that is, it’s fully on the landowner’s property.

Last night, the council held a quasi-judicial hearing — which is different than a legislative decision. They were asked to direct the town manager to direct the town staff to have the tree removed by next Monday, September 16.

There was no contention over the fact that the tree was a public hazard, as Councilmember Catherine Fray noted. The question, they noted, was over who should pay for the removal: the town or the landowner. No other body could find any documentation that the tree was anything but a private matter — utility companies and NCDOT were both involved. Town code says that either the landowner needs to pay for the tree removal herself, or the town can remove the tree and bill the owner.  

Council decided that public safety concerns ultimately eclipsed the inconvenience of the landowner and ordered the tree to be removed this Monday. They also gave the landowner a 90 day window to reimburse the town, instead of 30 days.

Town of Carrboro organizational structure and staffing assessment

The town contracted with BakerTilly to do an assessment of the Town of Carrboro’s organizational structure, staffing, and efficiency. (Here’s the presentation.) They made a number of recommendations for the next 18 months or so, including that communication from town residents and Town Council be streamlined through the manager’s office, and that the town create a number of new positions including a Climate Action role separate from planning or stormwater, and a Deputy Planning Director (currently the planning director has way too many direct reports.) They also requested some changes to optimize fire department staffing and 

All of the recommendations seem pretty reasonable and are based on recommendations and data from staff and the town. 

Paid parking in Carrboro is off the table, for now

This was a big one: as we previously reported, last June, the town sent out a survey on paid parking. As we’ve pointed out before, the Town of Chapel Hill charges and enforces parking, while the Town of Carrboro currently has “free” parking and no enforcement of time limits. People appear to be parking in Carrboro and taking the bus to UNC or Chapel Hill. This results in less turnover for businesses, fewer parking spots for residents, and Carrboro essentially subsidizing parking for Chapel Hill.

The results of the survey were pretty clear: most people were against this. 1,703 surveys were completed, from 928 residents, 76 downtown business owners, 102 downtown workers, and 602 households with income under $80,000. (Full presentation.)

Council’s discussion about this was pretty nuanced and robust, and it was clear they were listening to community feedback. The tl;dr is that paid parking will not be implemented at this time. 

Some highlights:

  • We don’t yet know the impact of the new parking garage that will open next to the new library. Or wayfinding, which will improve and be implemented this fall.
  • A lot of people don’t understand the difference between private lots in town (which are most of the lots, and would not change) and public parking (which is relatively few of the lots and are largely leased from private businesses.) 
  • Council Member Danny Nowell made some great comments and used the issue as an opportunity to direct staff to study the feasibility of pedestrianizing the block of Weaver between Main and Greensboro. (HOORAY!)
  • Parking demand and management are going to continue to be studied before we take any actions, and Council Member Fray requested that council bring this back for a future work session so they can continue refining the draft ordinance in order to have something we could deploy should the need arise.
  • Some good things will come up through the downtown area plan, like how streets are designed and how crosswalks are sited.

Also:

The town received its first fully electric vehicles as part of its public works and police department crisis diversion program fleet. 

  • At 9am Saturday, meet at the Century Century for Cleaning Carrboro, a program developed by Carrboro Parks and Rec to beautify the town.
  • The Town received a national award for resident satisfaction and overall quality of services. 

Give input

  • Give input for the Carrboro Downtown Area Plan. Take the survey and/or join the Community Visioning Workshop set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, at Carrboro Town Hall, 301 W. Main St. Drop in and provide input by visiting various activity stations. Stay for pizza!
  • The public is invited to the Greene Tract Community Workshop from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, at Morris Grove Elementary School, 215 Eubanks Road, Chapel Hill, NC. The goal of the workshop is to review how community feedback on the initial Greene Tract direction has been incorporated into an updated Conceptual Master Plan and share next steps for the project. To register for the workshop or request interpretation services, please visit https://www.orangecountync.gov/3470/Community-Engagement—September-22-2024

Melody Kramer is a Peabody-award winning journalist whose work has appeared on NPR and member stations around the country, as well as in publications ranging from National Geographic to Esquire Magazine....