Planning & Transportation
Earlier this evening town staff briefed the public on the results from the Future Focus sessions held last week. The meeting followed a pretty basic format. During the first and last 30 minutes, participants were free to roam around five different rooms, one or each of the special study areas that town previously identified. In the hour between, Mary Jane Nirdlinger, the town’s assistant planning director, gave a presentation synthesizing the results while taking questions from the audience.
On Wednesday
and Thursday of this week, the town of Chapel Hill conducted charrette-style Future
Focus sessions designed to understand how town residents would like to see
Chapel Hill grow from the urban design perspective. The overall event was split into three sessions, one on Wednesday evening and two identical sessions on Thursday. The first session included several presentations on town growth and an urban design exercise where participants were asked to rate 50 different images on their favorableness for fitting in downtown. The second and third sessions were map mark-ups for five study areas along key transportation corridors (i.e. MLK, 15-501 and 54).
The Chapel Hill 2020 process has a special presentation on Friday 2/10 at noon in Town Council Chambers,
" The Light Rail and Bus Rapid Transit: Chapel Hill's Future Transit Network."
Here's a link to the PR:
http://www.ci.chapel-hill.nc.us/index.aspx?page=22&recordid=4534&returnURL=%2findex.aspx%3fpage%3d1656
Based on much experience with presenter David Bonk, even though he'll be dressed in a suit, he will be plenty willing to move the event into informal discussion. I'm hoping for some turnout, as I believe the local public needs to get more familiar with these alternatives as the Orange Commissioners move now into finalizing a bus and rail plan.
I plan to attend, traveling there and back by bicycle on what promises to be a nice day weatherwise.
BTW, thanks for folks starting to pay much attention to the Orange Commissioners' discussions, including attending and speaking at their meetings. The work session at Southern Human Services Center next Tuesday night won't have public comment, but should have interesting discussion.
Yesterday I received a call from a woman who lives in a tent she assembled in the woods east of the railroad tracks near land that Chapel Hill purchased from the estate of Leo Merritt. I have known her for several years and she has been a part of the downtown Carrboro community for a long time. I had mixed emotions about what she had to say. She is moving next month to be with another member of her family in a nearby state. On the one hand, I am happy for her that she will (presumably) have more formal housing arrangements, but on the other hand I will miss seeing her around Carrboro.
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