Council update
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sally greene
Sep 23, 2008, 2:58:37 PM9/23/08
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Dear friends,
Here are some highlights from last night's Council meeting.
Halloween planning
Halloween in Chapel Hill has become too much of a good thing. Last year, an estimated crowd of 80,000 hit the streets of downtown, about 20,000 more than the population of the town! The Council has become concerned about the public safety issues surrounding such a crowd. Last night we received a report from police chief Brian Curran and Parks & Rec director Butch Kisiah on potential strategies for reducing the size of the crowd to something much more manageable. Ideas include limiting vehicular access to Franklin St. and eliminating bus shuttles. Also discussed was the idea of restricting the sale of alcohol. Chief Curran observed that just as the crowd didn't get to be this large in one year, it will take multiple years to bring it back down. He and Kisiah will continue these discussions with the downtown business community, the university, and surrounding neighborhoods. Here's the report that they presented:
http://tinyurl.com/4uj73a
2035 Long-Range Transportation Plan
We held a second and final public forum on the regionally required long-range transportation plan for 2035. In last meeting's report, I noted that the "highway intensive" option included the widening of Fordham Boulevard to six lanes. Backed up by the advice of our advisory boards, the Council voted not to recommend that option. The option we recommended is the "fixed guideway" alternative. See more below,
http://tinyurl.com/3s2hf8
Pedestrian improvement on MLK
In the first significant step toward implementing the Active Living By Design's recommendations for making MLK Boulevard more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists, we learned that the DOT has approved a pedestrian refuge island in the area near Shadowood Apartments between Estes and Piney Mountain. As anyone who drives that road knows, it's a very dangerous spot when the bus passengers get out. The crossing will be installed this fall. More:
http://tinyurl.com/4dmdz3
UNC semi-annual report
In its regular update on capital improvement projects, UNC announced a planned pipeline that is intended to carry methane gas from the Orange County landfill to a generator near the Duke Energy substation at Homestead & MLK, from which it would be used as a source of power for Carolina North. This is a very promising project. Some of the questions the Council had included whether this source of energy could be used to power the men's homeless shelter that is proposed for location on that site.
Upcoming meeting with UNC trustees
We heard from a committee of council members that has worked to plan a meeting that will take place this Thursday night of the Town Council and UNC trustees. The purpos of the meeting is to begin to develop a process for considering Carolina North. This public meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Friday Center. Although it will not be broadcast live, it will be taped for later viewing on Channel 18 and via streaming video on the town's website, http://townofchapelhill.org/. Future meetings toward this end will alternate in location between UNC and Town facilities. We learned that UNC hopes to see a development agreement in place by the end of June, when Town Council breaks for the summer. The challenge of this ambitious deadline now puts Carolina North firmly in the center of the Council's agenda.
And finally, one more reminder that Project Homeless Connect is happening this Thursday, Sept. 25. I will have the honor of introducing the event and introducing our own District Court Judge Joe Buckner. Judge Buckner well understands the importance of addressing homelessness to the social health of our community. Through the drug and family treatment courts over which he presides, many homeless people have received the structured help they need in order to get back on their feet. Judge Buckner deserves all of our thanks for the work that he and others in the court system do every day. Thanks are also due once again to Jamie Rohe for the superb job she has done in heading up the plans for this second annual Project Homeless Connect. It's going to be a great success. If you are interested in volunteering, there's still time! Contact Jamie at jr...@townofchapelhill.org
I appreciate hearing from all of you about any issue. It's come to my attention though that it isn't that easy to write me back! If you want to drop me a note, please write me at
sa...@ibiblio.org
Cheers,
Sally
http://sallygreene.org
http://greenespace.blogspot.com
Here are some highlights from last night's Council meeting.
Halloween planning
Halloween in Chapel Hill has become too much of a good thing. Last year, an estimated crowd of 80,000 hit the streets of downtown, about 20,000 more than the population of the town! The Council has become concerned about the public safety issues surrounding such a crowd. Last night we received a report from police chief Brian Curran and Parks & Rec director Butch Kisiah on potential strategies for reducing the size of the crowd to something much more manageable. Ideas include limiting vehicular access to Franklin St. and eliminating bus shuttles. Also discussed was the idea of restricting the sale of alcohol. Chief Curran observed that just as the crowd didn't get to be this large in one year, it will take multiple years to bring it back down. He and Kisiah will continue these discussions with the downtown business community, the university, and surrounding neighborhoods. Here's the report that they presented:
http://tinyurl.com/4uj73a
2035 Long-Range Transportation Plan
We held a second and final public forum on the regionally required long-range transportation plan for 2035. In last meeting's report, I noted that the "highway intensive" option included the widening of Fordham Boulevard to six lanes. Backed up by the advice of our advisory boards, the Council voted not to recommend that option. The option we recommended is the "fixed guideway" alternative. See more below,
http://tinyurl.com/3s2hf8
Pedestrian improvement on MLK
In the first significant step toward implementing the Active Living By Design's recommendations for making MLK Boulevard more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists, we learned that the DOT has approved a pedestrian refuge island in the area near Shadowood Apartments between Estes and Piney Mountain. As anyone who drives that road knows, it's a very dangerous spot when the bus passengers get out. The crossing will be installed this fall. More:
http://tinyurl.com/4dmdz3
UNC semi-annual report
In its regular update on capital improvement projects, UNC announced a planned pipeline that is intended to carry methane gas from the Orange County landfill to a generator near the Duke Energy substation at Homestead & MLK, from which it would be used as a source of power for Carolina North. This is a very promising project. Some of the questions the Council had included whether this source of energy could be used to power the men's homeless shelter that is proposed for location on that site.
Upcoming meeting with UNC trustees
We heard from a committee of council members that has worked to plan a meeting that will take place this Thursday night of the Town Council and UNC trustees. The purpos of the meeting is to begin to develop a process for considering Carolina North. This public meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Friday Center. Although it will not be broadcast live, it will be taped for later viewing on Channel 18 and via streaming video on the town's website, http://townofchapelhill.org/. Future meetings toward this end will alternate in location between UNC and Town facilities. We learned that UNC hopes to see a development agreement in place by the end of June, when Town Council breaks for the summer. The challenge of this ambitious deadline now puts Carolina North firmly in the center of the Council's agenda.
And finally, one more reminder that Project Homeless Connect is happening this Thursday, Sept. 25. I will have the honor of introducing the event and introducing our own District Court Judge Joe Buckner. Judge Buckner well understands the importance of addressing homelessness to the social health of our community. Through the drug and family treatment courts over which he presides, many homeless people have received the structured help they need in order to get back on their feet. Judge Buckner deserves all of our thanks for the work that he and others in the court system do every day. Thanks are also due once again to Jamie Rohe for the superb job she has done in heading up the plans for this second annual Project Homeless Connect. It's going to be a great success. If you are interested in volunteering, there's still time! Contact Jamie at jr...@townofchapelhill.org
I appreciate hearing from all of you about any issue. It's come to my attention though that it isn't that easy to write me back! If you want to drop me a note, please write me at
sa...@ibiblio.org
Cheers,
Sally
http://sallygreene.org
http://greenespace.blogspot.com
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