Our friends at The Daily Tar Heel published a curious little piece about Chapel Hill’s housing debate. The article says Town “is working to secure additional housing” (Yay!) but “some community organizations have cautioned that this new path brings its own social costs.” Hmm… The “some community organizations” is apparently one: CHALT. If you are […]
Posted inGreenway, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Town Council, Connectivity, Transportation
Chapel Hill’s Greenways: What’s next and what could be
This week, Jennifer Keesmaat and her team come back to Chapel Hill for another discussion about complete communities. At the previous meeting in August, she discussed her solution to Chapel Hill’s problems—greenways!—and suggested that she was interested in crowdsourcing where Chapel Hill might expand its greenway network. Of course, this is Chapel Hill, which means […]
Posted inTransportation, Triangle Region
A Planning Study to Nowhere: GoTriangle’s commuter rail plans
On Tuesday, GoTriangle, our regional transit agency, gave a presentation to the Durham County Commissioners on its latest feasibility study for commuter rail in the Triangle. The study, which cost $9 million, was intended to build support for building a commuter rail line through the heart of the Research Triangle, beginning in West Durham and […]
Posted inHousing, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Town Council
Ugly and Unacceptable: An Evening with the Chapel Hill Community Design Commission
If there were a soap opera about Chapel Hill, it would be called As the World Burns and the lead villain would be the Community Design Commission (CDC). Soap opera villains tend to be rich and powerful and will take any steps to protect their oil wealth or media empire. The CDC may not have […]
Posted inChapel Hill, Zoning
Chapel Hill’s inclusionary zoning policies don’t work
This is part of our harder truths series. Inclusionary zoning ordinances are among the most controversial approaches in modern urban planning. Briefly, these ordinances intend to expand the supply of affordable housing stock by requiring developers to include it as part of new development or redevelopment projects. (We are defining “Affordable” here using the guidance […]
Posted inCarrboro, Chapel Hill, Triangle Region
The Rural Buffer doesn’t work if Chapel Hill and Carrboro don’t keep up their part of the bargain
This is part of our Harder Truth series. The Rural Buffer, enacted in 1987, was not utilized correctly, and needs to be reconsidered. (If the town is not going to build densely, which was part of the Buffer deal, then we should scrap the buffer. The Buffer has ‘preserved open space’ in a hyperlocal way […]