Planning & Transportation

Growth in the northwest part of town has been one of the most discussed issues in Chapel Hill during this Council business year.

I expect that the Council will approve a six month moratorium on development in this part of town at its meeting on Monday night. During this time the newly appointed Northern Area Task Force will craft a new vision for the area.

I am serving on this task force as are fellow OP'ers George Cianciolo, Marc ter Horst and Laurin Easthom. It is being ably chaired by Del Snow.

We had our first meeting last night, and I was pretty happy with it.

A few key goals that folks enumerated:

-Taking measures to make the area more friendly for bicycle and pedestrian uses.

-Ensuring that as redevelopment occures in this quadrant, folks are not priced out of town.

-Taking a direction with new development that emphasizes transit more.

Some folks who enjoy the public announcements of U bus driver Robert Moore were very unhappy to see him silenced after a recent complaint. So much so that they started a petition:

Dear Mayor Kevin Foy

For the duration of his ten years of employment with Chapel Hill Transit System, bus driver Robert Moore has consistently used the vehicle's intercom system to speak to the passengers on his various routes. These verbal exchanges involve Mr. Moore wishing riders well as they board the bus, exit the bus, and inspiring them with positive, self-affirming encouragement during the actual commute. Some of the addresses take on a call and response format between Mr. Moore and the passengers, for those who wish to participate. There is no coercion used on passengers who do not wish to speak, nor are there consequences of any kind for those who choose not to participate.

I am on the mailing lists for most of the local governments, and most of the info I get from them is dull press releases, public notices etc. I perked up when I saw this subject from the city schools "Press Release--Planner to visit class" but was even more surprised to see the following content:

Local developer to visit class

Local developer Roger Perry will speak to fifth grade students at Frank Porter Graham about residential planning on Wednesday, April 11, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The students have recently completed a unit on using Global Positioning Systems to study and create maps. The equipment was provided through a Student Enrichment Grant awarded to teacher Kristen Bedell by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation. The equipment used by the students in this unit is the same used by professional planners and developers to view plots and design projects.