Date:
Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location:
Amity United Methodist Church, 825 N. Estes Drive, Chapel Hill
Via e-mail:
Join the Central West Steering Committee and your fellow community members at the upcoming Central West Community Session!The Central West Community Session will be held on Tuesday, September 10th from 6:30-8:30pm in the Fellowship Hall at Amity United Methodist Church located at 825 N. Estes Drive, Chapel Hill.The drop-in session will provide community members the opportunity to review the Steering Committee’s work to date (including the principles, objectives, and concepts) and to offer their thoughts and feedback.Help spread the word about the Community Session to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues! Attached to this email are flyers that can be distributed about the session.For more information about the Central West Focus Area process, please visit www.townofchapelhill.org/centralwestHope to see you there!Megan
Comments
Central West or Rosemary Imagined
How convenient that this is at the exact same time as the Rosemary Imagined social event. http://orangepolitics.org/2013/09/rosemary-imagined-social-eventSome of us actually care about downtown *AND* central neighborhoods. Since I'm on parenting duty that night, I might not make it to either one, so I guess that's efficient for me.
Can we have a central calendar for Town-sponsored events???
I am also frustrated by the number of events that are scheduled at overlapping times. Or, as in this case, at the exact same time. Can we PLEASE establish a central calendar at Town Hall? At least for town-sponsored events. maria Maria T. Palmer
Calendar
Since the town does have a central calendar on their website, I assume the problem is less technical and more logistical. Scheduling meetings is hard, especially when our overstretched planning staff have to coordinate work schedules, and deal with inadequate meeting space (exacerbated by the loss of the council chambers). Perhaps this is also a function of multiple groups of people trying to schedule things at the same time, and choosing the time that works best for the committee members rather than the public.It does seem as though the town might benefit from having a specific point person take the lead on getting these schedules straightened out and avoiding conflicts before they occur.
Thanks for the link
Good point, Jason. Maybe despite all the technology, we could still benefit from some human coordination. Maria T. Palmer
Simultaneous events
In the case of next Tuesday night, although the Town is rightfully publicizing both of these important events -- both having a similar theme -- the "Rosemary Imagined" one has the Downtown Partnership as lead sponsor, with the Town as the key partner. Have gotten used to double booking over the years, sometmes in different counties, but this is notable, given the high level of community interest in both meetings. Ed Harrison
12 meetings 1 month
How much longer will this nonsense (the attempt to "Design 2020" in six months) have to continue before the community pushes back?I can't think that even the staff can keep up with this pace, and they are paid full-timers. The citizens don't stand a chance.
Pushback
John, if you look back over the CH2020 tag here on OP, you'll see that quite a few of us pushed back against this high-speed approach to long-range planning. Other than a few Council Members (thank you, Lee Storrow and Ed Harrison) our letter - with 50 signatories including many 2020 leaders - were not even acknowledged. Here are just a few examples:
In fact, the Town thought this was such a great idea that they have used the same model as the foundation of most of their subsequent planning efforts. I can't even understand what they're thinking, but the one thing that is clear is that my efforts better spent eslewhere.
Yes. I do remember your
Yes. I do remember your efforts and those of others. At the time I didn't agree, and in fact even looking back, thongs were moving at a pace I felt was appropriate.But the 2020 initiative has deviated from what I perceived was the plan a year ago. If you recall, I created a graphic that show a suggested sequence of events and clearly laid out some dependencies between them. One suggestion which the graphic illustrated was that the tackling of the Future Focus areas should be staggered to allow some learning to take place - the lessons of the first one or two informing the subsequent efforts - and also to sensibly use the available staff resources. This recognizing that there are not enough staff to properly handle more than 2 or 3 Future Focus areas at the same time. (As an aside I'll note that as was suggested after the Bloomington visit, the town planning department is significantly under-funded and understaffed compared with many others of its size) The concepts in the graphic were developed and evolved and the staff does today have a roadmap to guide them through Design 2020. But the suggestions I just outlined have been ignored. I understand the thinking that the work should continue at a pace that avoids getting bogged down by the traditional Chapel Hill tendency towards overanalysis, excessive process, and a preference for more and more discussion instead of making hard decisions. But I've been on the Planning Board for six years now, and I have a pretty good perspective of how the Council, staff and citizens think about planning. The accelerated pace of 2020 activities just does not allow time for much analysis by anyone.I respect your decision to apply your energies in other directions. But there are not many folks here with a broad understanding of how planning really gets done - a town-wide perspective rather than a narrow focus on their own part of the town. The Town Manager is generally not available at the Design 2020 meetings (AFAIK). So I haven't had the opportunity to challenge him directly on the question of pacing. I would love to hear him explain his rationale. Maybe with the Council back in session, I'll have my chance. I would welcome any support from OPers who might also want to ask some pointed questions in public. Of course the various candidate forums offer other chances to air this debate. The more people that hear the questions, the better. I'm looking at you, WCHL and the Chapel Hill News.