Growth & Development

Rosemary Imagined attracts younger voices to town dialogue

Rosemary Imagined, the town's initiative to transform Rosemary Street into a more vibrant part of downtown, held its second event last night at TRU Deli + Wine. Unlike most town events I've been to, this event was held as a social, where attendees could mingle and talk about their thoughts on Rosemary Street freely among each other.

I was able to attend most of the event, and I have to give Meg McGurk, the Executive Director for the Downtown Partnership, and Dwight Bassett, the town's Economic Development Officer, major credit for succeeding in opening the engagement process up to people you don't often see show up for public meetings. Specifically, there were far more young people at this event than any town event I've been to in the past - and given how Rosemary Street and downtown appear to be developing with our town's sizable young population in mind, it's great to see that we're being included in the process of determining what Rosemary Street will become in the future.

LUMO rewrite announced (and other things you have missed in Chapel Hill government this summer)

The Chapel Hill Town Council may still be on summer break, but staff and citizens have been busy!

Saw a local developer reading about this opinion on his smartphone yesterday. Impact on our development processes?

Keep Fleet Feet in Carrboro

Fleet Feet has been reluctantly considering moving their corporate headquarters and retail store out of Carrboro. This Tuesday, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen will consider an Economic Development Agreement under which Fleet Feet would stay in Carrboro and move into a new building at 300 E Main Street—putting their (greatly-expanded) national flagship store on the ground floor and their national headquarters above.

Understanding Development Agreements

Chapel Hill hosted another lunchtime presentation Tuesday, this time to discuss development agreements. UNC School of Government professor David Owens broke down development agreements as they exist under North Carolina state law while Chapel Hill Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives Mary Jane Nirdlinger provided a presentation on Chapel Hill's development process specifically.

I attended the presentation, and you can read my livetweets below. I found the presentation useful to better understand how the development process has changed and now operates in our town, particularly given the ongoing development processes for Glen Lennox and Obey Creek.

Development agreements are authorized under North Carolina state law (specifically, NC General Statutes §160A‑400.20 through §160A‑400.32). As written, state law gives much autonomy to municipalities to determine their own development processes and how to go about entering into development agreements. It's also worth noting that development agreements are designed for large-scale projects only (defined under state law as 25 or more developable acres).

A few other takeaways from the presentation:

  • Municipalities in North Carolina have the ability to alter zoning codes as they see fit. There is no "threshold" requirement for rezoning. However, rezoning cannot be included in a development agreement, but must be carried out before approving a development agreement that necessitates a zoning change.
  • Development agreements are useful because they're all-encompassing and outline very specifically the details of a proposed development. Once approved, an agreement cannot be altered without the mutual approval of both the municipality and developer.
  • Beginning a development agreement process does not guarantee approval of any development agreement.

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