Chapel Hill

Over the last two years, Orange County Justice United has been working with renters to address discrimination and wrongs they have faced as tenants. These efforts spurred Justice United to work with renters in our community and the UNC Civil Law Clinic to develop the Declaration of Tenants' Rights and Responsibilities. The document, available in both English and Spanish, outlines renters' rights based on state statutes. 

Justice United and renters from our community have asked the Towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill and Orange County to endorse this Declaration and help to distribute it to all tenants in their municipalities. More details can be found in this article in the Chapel Hill News. 

Up on Monday's Town Council agenda is the next iteration of the advisory board reorganization process. I have generally supported reworking the advisory board structure to ensure that the work of citizen board members is meaningful and provides Council with the type of input they need in order to make decisions. Making advisory boards' role in development review clearer for developers, and citizens, isn't a bad idea either. But the proposal the Town Council is considering Monday night isn't ready for adoption yet. While I think the committee descriptions are reasonably sound in a broad sense, it isn't clear to me that the proposals have been fully vetted by the existing town boards to be sure that all current board responsibilities have been captured and assigned.