People are living at Greenbridge! Has the sky fallen on Chapel Hll yet?

When I served on the Planning Board we reviewed and recommended approval of Greenbridge (with conditions). One of the things I liked the least about the design was the yellow brick on the exterior of the building. Now that it's built, I still don't like the color but it doesn't jump out at me so it doesn't bother me as much as I expected.

I know some folks think the sheer height of the building (10 stories at its tallest) is ugly or out of place, but I think that tall buildings are the future of Chapel Hill. In a decade it'll just be one part of a more urban Chapel Hill skyline, and it will probably compare favorably to it's companions both aesthetically and environmentally.

It might be hard to judge since the whole building isn't in use yet, but what do you think of it on the surface? 

The Orange County Board of Commissioners will place a 1/4 cent sales tax on the ballot this November. Revenues generated from the tax, which is expected to raise $2.3M annually, will be allocated for economic development (42.5%), repairing older school buildings (42.5%), public safety (15%). The tax will not be applied to food or pharmaceuticals.

Of the $977,500 expected to be raised for economic development, the county manager has proposed that 30% ($293,500) go to building infrastructure within the economic development zones and 15% ($146,625) go to a small business loan fund such as the one Carrboro initiated many years ago. I haven't seen anything designating the use for the remaining $439,875 (55%) other than a report in the CH Herald about the need to offer incentives.

When we go to polls in November, we will not be voting just for the new sales tax, but also for this allocation plan. Can you support it? Does this plan signal a new day to you?

Given that development plans have slowed, one of the more immediate remaining questions about Carolina North is how people will get there.  The Town of Chapel Hill has been studying the issue of how to best move pedestrians and bicycles, especially. They held several public meetings, and this week they released a recommendation.  I'm very happy to see the town staff favored Route A, which uses Cameron Avenue, the Libba Cotton bike path, and the right of way around the rail line as it goes north from Carrboro to the Horace Williams tract. (See map below.)

I was push-polled by Edge polling on behalf of the Lawson campaign or some other Republican PAC this evening.  The questions were reasonably straightforward for the first 5-7 minutes, then got more paranoid about illegal immigration and whether or not the country had abandoned the Constitution.  It closed with something like, "David Price, a college professor and your current representative, is an 11-term incumbent who supports Barack Obama's takeover and bailouts for companies that are too big to fail, and votes with Nancy Pelosi more than any other member of Congress.  If this makes you more likely to vote for him, press 1.  If it makes you less likely, press 2."

Final question, same button choices:

 "BJ Lawson is a father, a medical doctor, and a successful small businessman who is reported to have strong grassroots support who will lower taxes and restore the Constitution blah blah blah..."

In case you haven't noticed, I am on vacation and not able to visit the site regularly. I've been out since Monday, and I'll return about a week from today. Until then do not expect blog entries to get promoted to the front page or anonymous comments to get approved (although I'll drop in and check up IF I can).

Happy summer to you!

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen has announced that he will retire at the end of the coming school year.  Dr. Pedersen has been superintendent since 1992 and has worked in the district since 1987.  The school system issued a press release with an overview of changes and accomplishments during his tenure.

It's absolutely stunning for any school district to have a superintendent serve for such an extended period of time.  It's probably difficult for our community to conceive of how things might be difference if we had a succession of 5-6 superintendents in the same time period. 

Yes, it's yet another urban development with no name! (Or more accurately: that steals it's name from it's location. See: East 54, The Franklin, McCorkle Place, etc.) It's hardly the most important thing about this development, but it still bugs me to no end. Doesn't anyone else think that we are losing character when we fail to properly NAME our places?

Anyway, I'm glad to see this is finally getting underway.  After years and years of participating in planning meetings that led to the creation and eventual approval of this plan, I will NOT be stopping by this information session tomorrow. And neither will the dozens of Chapel Hillians who will proceed to complain loudly about the project as soon as the first shovel hits the dirt. Sigh.

The Southeast High-Speed Rail (SEHSR) project seeks to build a 110mph Acela-like passenger train system connecting DC to Charlotte (and beyond), via Richmond, Wake Forest, Raleigh, Durham and Hillsborough, using a straightened version of the current Amtrak route.  The environmental impact studies currently being developed for the Petersburg VA - Raleigh section includes a bike-ped inter-urban greenway.  Charlotte is independently working with consultants to develop a bike-ped urban corridor parallel to their portion of this rail line.  Carrboro's very successful Libba Cotton greenway closely parallels an active freight line that runs north through town past WSM and Horace Williams to join the current Amtrak (future SEHSR) line just southeast of Hillsborough.

A few weeks ago I attended a meeting to hear the presentation of a group of consultants that have been working for the Town of Chapel Hill and the Downtown Partnership to create a "Downtown Development Framework and Action Plan." I didn't know much about this plan before showing up at the meeting, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it includes some pretty radical ideas for downtown Chapel Hill and they do not include trying to emulate Southpoint Mall!

The draft plan can be downloaded as a PDF from the town web site.  Here's my brief analysis...