CH2020
A little over a year ago I attended a public meeting in the basement of the Chapel Hill Library. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t been to many public meetings and I hadn’t the slightest idea what the Comprehensive plan was or what in the world these folks were initiating. It ended up being the start of a very interesting year.
After all, I was attending that meeting solely to report back information to then recent UNC graduate Lee Storrow.
During that spring, Lee had been appointed to the initiating committee and also decided to run for Chapel Hill Town Council. While the former was public, the latter was still mostly under wraps – most people in town had no idea who Lee Storrow was. Due to an unfortunate scheduling coincidence, Lee was unable to attend every meeting.
Unsurprisingly, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously (I think) adopted the
Chapel Hill 2020 comprehensive plan earlier tonight. Despite the objections of many citizens on a number of fronts and the reluctance of some of the council members themselves, the process will now exit the extensive community input phase and enter a period of “continued engagement.”
Though it’s unclear at this point what form that community involvement will take—from what the planning staff said tonight it appears it will mostly be small area meetings—it’s clear that if nothing else, the process has stirred people to get involved in ways that may have not been before.
As the June 25 deadline for completion and possible adoption of Chapel Hill’s new comprehensive plan draws near, kudos and congratulatory pats on the back abound. Unfortunately, I am not able to join in the current Chapel Hill 2020 lovefest. While there are many positive points that can be made, the final product is certainly not shaping up to be anything we should celebrate.
CH2020 co-chairs George Cianciolo and Rosemary Waldorf have touted this process of creating a new plan as “our people’s vision” with “a wide-open opportunity to break with the old ways of doing business.” Additionally, at the May 21 Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, there were but a few exceptions to the parade of valentines for the 2020 leadership and town staff.
There is no doubt that a great deal of time and effort on the part of a lot of people went into this thing. I certainly applaud the months of arduous work and self-sacrifice by all of those involved. However, let me suggest an alternative, far less rosy perspective of the 2020 process and its resulting document.
The Independent Weekly has a new reporter on the Orange County beat, Billy Ball. He has some enormous shoes to fill since Chapel Hill native Joe Schwartz left the paper and the country. Ball is doing pretty well so far and asking good questions. I can't help but notice a few gaps in his knowledge of local issues, but that can be rectified with time.
In this week's article "City or Town?" Ball takes a look at Chapel Hill 2020 in advance of the draft comprehensive plan coming before the Town Council for inevitable approval on Monday. Although he doesn't ask the questions I'm most interested in now, such as how will the Town answer the many outstanding questions and gaps in the plan, I do appreciate him pointing out that "Some of its harshest criticism has come from within the committees that molded Chapel Hill 2020."
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