Earlier this year, I asked the Carolina North Leadership Advisory committee to do an environmental assay of the highest caliber. It will be interesting to see this phase of Biohabitats’ research.
And kudos to UNC for scheduling two (2) sessions to accommodate the public. Yes, they’re both on the same day but progress [...]

We lost that argument when we passed parking lot#5 as designed.
One of the chief criticisms of the new Downtown Development Initiative (DDI) is that the Lot 5 building is setting a poor precedent for what is yet to come…

[MOVIE]

Councilmember Jim Ward tried to put the brakes on Council’s pellmell acceptance of “the new [...]

Lot #5 Downtown Development RAM building design based on Nov. 20th public hearing proposal . The model is in proportion and the proper height. It wasn’t until I laid out the model that I realized how large a beast we have here…

Looking North towards Lot 5 Dec2

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Making some progress on a GoogleEarth visualization of downtown.

Here’s some data if you want to either visualize Chapel Hill within GoogleEarth or want to start fresh with a re-import. Small caveat on the GoogleEarth import - don’t turn on the terrain as I still need to tweak the elevations to get the right output.
If anyone [...]

I believed the Town’s web site covering the Downtown Development Initiative would be updated after Nov. 20th’s public forum. After ten days, I finally sent in a formal request.
Here is Town Manager Stancil’s response:

Dear Mr. Raymond:
Thank you for our email message at 10:49 am on Dec. 1 to the Manager, Mayor [...]

This Monday (Dec. 4th), Council will take up the composition the Roger Road Area Task Force, I posted on earlier, and the possible future annexation of the eastern side of Rogers Rd.

If you’re interested in working with the Rogers Road community to correct these longstanding problems, Monday would be a great time to turn out [...]

The Rogers Road community has taken it in the chin for way too long. The promises extended these residents when the landfill expanded into their backyards have never really been fulfilled. Decades old problems with sewage and other infrastructure continue to persist.
Finally, a structured process is being developed to deal with some of Chapel [...]

First, kudos to the Downtown Partnership (CHDP) for finally pulling together a decent website (though disabling ‘right clicks’ is cheesy).

There’s a nice calendar widget, some news of the day, list of eats and drinks, services, shops, fun, etc. that are both fairly extensive and accurate.
Way to go Liz and company.
Today the CHDP is presenting their [...]

From the Chapel Hill Fire Department website:

The primary mission of the Chapel Hill Fire Department is to protect life, property and the community environment from the destructive effects of fire, disasters or other life hazards by providing public education, incident prevention and emergency response services.

Thank you folks for all the long hours and hard work.
If [...]

Early in the evening, downtown resident Don Stanford spoke of “magic bullets”, the promises of NCNB Plaza (”remains one of the eyesores of Franklin Street…”) and the progression from it to Rosemary Square to Granville Towers (”…high rises in a sea of asphalt…”) to Wallace Deck.
During his presentation I noticed some eye-rolling but it’s [...]

Chris Culbreth, a second term member of the Town’s Community Design Commission (CDC), stayed late Monday, Nov. 20th, to comment to Council on the proposed revisions for the Process for Revision of the Comprehensive Plan
Interestingly enough, he spent more of his limited time counseling Council on the Downtown Development Initiative (DDI) juggernaut than the [...]

A quick reminder of this evening’s public forum [Mon., Nov. 20th] on the failing Downtown Initiative.
Tonight’s agenda starts with this gem

The 2000 Comprehensive Plan’s goal for downtown is to “enhance the downtown’s role as the center of the community, with a pedestrian orientation and a human scale.”

I consider the 104′ multi-building development on lot #5 [...]

CountryCrats RobertP has an excellent recommendation for keeping Joe Lieberman in line

There really is only one thing the Senate Democrats, with their old-fashioned Senate rulebook, can do [about Lieberman siding with the Republicans]. Promise him, in private, that if he switches they will pocket every bill he ever proposes, interrupt every speech he ever seeks [...]

Usually politicians will attempt to sell a policy by claiming “if not adopted we’re gambling with our children’s future.”
The corrosive affects of NC’s lottery continue to spread, as demonstrated by this report in today’s N&O:

In August and September, teens under age 18 were paired with state agents and made visits to 348 lottery sales outlets [...]

District referendum won 18703 (68.52%) to 8593 (31.48%). The negative consequences of this decision will not be fully apparent until 2010 and beyond.
With reform in the air, with winning candidates Nelson and Gordon both saying there’s more to be done, with every media endorsement suggesting further action, the next phase of broadening electoral participation [...]