This Week in Orange Politics: September 15-21

It’s a busy week this week across Orange County. The Carrboro Alderfolks will consider an interlocal agreement for work in the Rogers Road neighborhood, while the Chapel Hill Town Council will tackle several proposed developments. The Chapel Hill Carrboro School Board will receive a 2014 accountability report, while its Orange County counterpart takes a break. The County Commissioners will consider what to lobby the General Assembly and make appointments to several boards.

Here’s the full summary:

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS

  • Regular Meeting: Tuesday, September 16th, 7:30pm at Carrboro Town Hall
    • See full agenda here.
    • Notable agenda items include:
      • The Board will consider the interlocal agreement between itself, the County, and Chapel Hill to pay for the preliminary engineering and outreach efforts in the Rogers Road neighborhood prior to the extension of sewer.
      • The Board will consider applying for and participating in a Livability Assessment Pilot Project through the Triangle J Council of Governments.

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL

  • Public Hearing: Monday, September 15th, 7pm at Chapel Hill Town Hall
    • See the full agenda here.
    • Notable agenda items include:
      • The Council will open public hearings for three proposed developments: New Life Fellowship Church on Sage Road, the Courtyards at Homestead (a 63-single family home development proposed for Homestead Road), and the Graduate (a ~90-unit apartment building proposed for downtown).
      • The Council will also review concept plans for the proposed Grace Church Expansion on Sage Road and Tri-City Medical Building on Barbee Chapel Road.

CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION

  • Work Session: Thursday, September 18th, 7pm at Lincoln Center
    • See the full agenda here.
    • Notable agenda items include:
      • The Board will consider alternatives to designating Memorial Day an inclement weather makeup day and will receive the 2014 accountability report.

HILLSBOROUGH TOWN BOARD

  • The next Regular Meeting is scheduled for September 22nd, 7pm at the Town Barn, although this may be re-scheduled because most of the commissioners are attending the InterCity Visit in Athens.

ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

  • Regular Meeting: Tuesday, September 16, 7pm at the Southern Human Services Center, Chapel Hill
    • See the full agenda here.
    • Noteable agenda items include:
      • Discussion of items to include with the state association of county commissioners’ legislative agenda
      • Appointments to several boards and commissions
  • Joint Meeting with the Mebane City Council, Thursday, September 18, 6m. Mebane City Hall, Mebane (a dinner will preceede the meeting at 5:30pm)
    • ​See the full agenda here
    • Noteable agenda items include:
      • An update on the Chinese candy factory coming to Mebane
      • Discussion on new regional transit routes and the siting of a Mebane Park and Ride lot

ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION

  • The board’s next meeting will take place Monday, September 22.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • September 21-23: The Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce InterCity Visit to Athens, GA (many elected officials and two OP editors will be attending, follow the visit via Twitter using hashtag #ICV2014)

Issues: 

Comments

Orange delegates to the state county commissioners meeting should begin building alliances with commissioners from around the state who understand that lack of home rule is the biggest impediment to progressive policies being adopted in NC. Some may say that it is an impossible and unrealistic task, but history is full of victories that were achieved by those who at least tried to do the right thing.

Another component of addressing this issue would be to get lawyers from several counties researching and communicating on potential legal strategies and opportunities to challenge the legislative stranglehold on local governance.

Thanks for bringing up this issue. With increasing Republican control of county governing boards, this is a challenge, but there are many Commissioners, include Rs, who understand the issues with lack of home rule. 

The current legislative majority, with its hostility to any other level of government or other party, has actually attempted to go  *well beyond the limits in NC law*  on home rule. The examples I gave last year at a National League of Cities conference were Charlotte (taking away the nation's 6 busiest airport from the state's largest city), Asheville (taking away a water system noted for watershed protection) and Durham (a legislator from west of Charlotte forcing the city to annex a large development, when a comprehensive report had shown that the annexation would cost the city money).  The first two are now court cases, and the legislators aren't doing well in that venue, where facts could actually matter. 

These latest egregious efforts are precisely why the time is now to start building coaltions for future democracy.

that we don't need home rule. Just a few modifiactions and clarifications 

http://sogpubs.unc.edu/electronicversions/pg/pgfal06/article2.pdf

 

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