Next Monday (February 18th), the Chapel Hill Town Council is holding a public hearing on two major planning documents for our town: the Parks and Greenways master plans. As chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission, I can tell you that this day has been long in coming. Work on these plans began over two years ago, but staff was asked to wait until after the completion of the Chapel Hill 2020 visioning document to submit them for approval, so the plans could be as unified in their language as possible. When adopted, they will be considered part of the Town's comprehensive plan.

As Chapel Hill continues to grow (with a projected population of 70K by 2025), there is a need to conserve the open space the town has left, create better connectivity for non-vehicular transportation, and provide venues for citizens to engage in active, healthy lifestyles. Also, in most of the assessments that Town has done in the past few years, citizens have rated  trails and recreation opportunities as one of the Town's biggest needs. With these goals in mind, the two master plans recommend the following:

Parks master plan recommendations:

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Previously on CityBeautiful21 I talked about Informal Markets -- events that are marked by an agreed-upon time and place to sell and buy goods, but may lack features of a permanent retail establishment.  When I think about the things that the town of Carrboro has going for it, our talent for finding room for Informal Markets is near the top of the list.  When I began researching this post, I was not surprised to find that Carrboro has been finding a place for Informal Markets in the community for over 35 years.

Like Krakow, Carrboro has nurtured an informal market into a formal one in the heart of the community- the Carrboro Farmers' Market. On their website, the Farmers' Market even refers to itself as a previously informal market!