Last Wednesday’s Chapel Hill Town Council meeting featured a real humdinger of a presentation from Rod Stevens and Jen Keesmaat. First, some background: Stevens and Keesmaat are both planners; Stevens, of Bainbridge Island, Washington, wrote the 2021 Housing Report that said we need more housing, and Keesmaat, formerly Toronto’s chief planner, is currently leading our […]
Posted inChapel Hill, Housing
Chapel Hill’s getting ready to make it hugely easier to build “missing middle” housing!
Ok, now THIS is a big deal. Chapel Hill is getting ready to make it hugely easier to build “missing middle” housing. What is missing middle housing? It’s all the housing between single-family homes and big multi-family apartments like: Duplexes Triplexes, and Cottage apartments. For years, like many other communities, most land in Chapel Hill […]
Posted inHousing
Housing news: Starter homes, land for housing, rental units
It must have been a rough weekend for our neighbors who continue to mangle basic economics and use convoluted logic to argue that we don’t need to build more housing in Chapel Hill. Both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal released articles detailing the housing crisis affecting the nation as a whole, and […]
Posted inChapel Hill Town Council, Carrboro Town Council, Events around town
Civic Meetings: Week of September 26, 2022
Yo Chapel Hill and Carrboro: there’s a LOT going on this week, civics-wise. Let’s take a look at what’s on the docket. Monday Parks, Greenways and Recreation Commissions special meeting Our parks and rec friends are holding a special meeting to discuss the Splash Pad and Inclusive Playground Feasbility Analysis and Report Project. We’re major […]
Posted inBike Beat, Bike and Walk
World Car Free Day: My experience in Chapel Hill, NC
Yesterday was World Car Free Day. Events observe this world wide. Many of us, myself included, pledge to live a car free life every day. It is NOT always easy. The built environment in Chapel Hill, and in most places around the world, are stacked against us bike or transit-riding devotees: the transit system is […]
Posted inParks and Rec, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Town Council
We’re getting a park on the American Legion land. Why are people fighting it?
Imagine your town council proposes a 20+ acre new park and also much needed missing middle housing for municipal workers in your community. Oh yeah, and also some shops like the ones they have next to that amazing downtown park in Blowing Rock, NC. And, get this, the new park will be within easy walking […]