September 2007

Today I got the flyer below from Rogers Road residents who are organizing a posse to come out to the Assembly of Governments Meeting on Thursday Wednesday. The AoG is a periodic meeting for our elected officials from different jurisdictions to meet together.

Although the transfer station is not on the agenda, this could be an important opportunity for Chapel Hill and Carrboro elected officials (if not residents as well) to push the Commissioners to re-open what all have admitted was a badly flawed search for a location for the proposed waste transfer station.

The Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism

(CH-Carrboro Branch of the NAACP, Environmental Justice Network, West End Revitalization Association, Women's International League of Peace and Freedom, Orange County Progressive Democrats, and members of UNC-CH Faculty, Students, and Staff—--In Formation)

Support the Residents of the Landfill Neighborhoods*

at the

Ever since I was appointed to the neighborhood committee for the proposed Innovation Center last spring, I have been looking forward to learning more about this building that would be located near the intersection of Estes Drive and MLK Boulevard (about a mile from my home). However, I remain in the dark about this project as the committee was apparently never convened!

Tonight a concept plan for the Innovation Center is being presented to Chapel Hill's Community Design Commission, which gives feedback on developments early in the review process. At some point this summer, the location of this project moved from the Airport Drive area which is currently used by UNC for facilities services to what is proposed to be the main entranceway for the future Carolina North campus. This is a pretty big shock to those of us who understood that Carolina North would be planned carefully before it begins a 50-year development process.

I am attending the CDC meeting tonight and will report here what I learn.

Tomorrow September 22, 2007, around 10:10 A.M., Amtrak's Train number 80, the Carolinian, will run through Hillsborough. The train won't stop, but Orange County residents will be there encouraging local and state governments to add an Amtrak stop in Hillsborough in celebration of international Car Free Day.

Members of The Village Project and the Walkable Hillsborough Coalition will hold an event beginning around 9:50 A.M. on Saturday the 22nd to highlight the need for Amtrak service for Hillsborough and Orange County. The event will be held at the corner of Eno and South Nash Streets in Hillsborough, in view of the railroad tracks (opposite the former Flynt Mill). A rail stop in Hillsborough would help reduce traffic, global warming, and air pollution as well as provide County residents with more mobility options for work-related and recreational travel.

At tonight's Chapel Hill Town Council meeting they will be reviewing the Northern Area Task Force Report, which proposes a large number of significant changes to limit development and encourage more pedestrian-oriented growth. I still haven't spent as much time as I'd like digging into it. What do y'all think of the recommendations?

Also, I think the Rogers Road neighbors and their friends will be petitioning the Council. I don't know what their request is, but it may be about the Transfer Station which will be before the Council for a Special Use permit soon.

The Chapel Hill News wrote up a nice overview of the northern area suggestions, I'm posting the whole thing because I'm in a hurry.

GOAL 1: A landmark gateway that "announces" Chapel Hill at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Weaver Dairy Road.

Objectives: