June 2013
From Facebook:
On June 2nd, 1913, the University of North Carolina and the Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated the Confederate Monument, better known as Silent Sam.
During the last century, Silent Sam has stood at the gateway of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "greeting" students, workers, professors, community members, tourists, and the like. And for the last 100 years, the University has chosen to celebrate the history and identities of those who wished violence and subjugation upon people of color. They have done such by choosing silence.
On June 2nd, 2013, the Real Silent Sam, Reverend WIlliam Barber of the NC NAACP, and our greater communities have chosen to speak out. We will raise our voices in celebration of a New South. A south that celebrates those who built this university brick by brick. A south that celebrates the workers who maintain the campus. A south that empowers students of color who have been welcomed by the university, as opposed to its landscapes, both physical and hidden.
We ask you to join us at Silent Sam on this day, to ring in the New South, with performance and community love.
On June 2nd, 2013, the Real Silent Sam, Reverend WIlliam Barber of the NC NAACP, and our greater communities have chosen to speak out. We will raise our voices in celebration of a New South. A south that celebrates those who built this university brick by brick. A south that celebrates the workers who maintain the campus. A south that empowers students of color who have been welcomed by the university, as opposed to its landscapes, both physical and hidden.
We ask you to join us at Silent Sam on this day, to ring in the New South, with performance and community love.
Date:
Sunday, June 2, 2013 - 4:00pm
This will be the biggest Moral Monday yet, and is our unique opportunity to put our collective foot down against the corrupt, malfeasant Republican takeover of our state. There will be an especially strong Orange County contingent, including elected officials.
Please join us!
MORAL MONDAY MASS RALLY:
Education, Economic Justice and Voting Rights:
Pillars of Democracy!
Bicentennial Mall - Across from NC General Assembly
16 W. Jones Street, Raleigh, NC
Monday June 3, 2013 5:00 pm
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RISK ARREST TO ATTEND THE MORAL MONDAY MASS RALLY! The vast majority of people will be there only to attend the rally and serve as supporters. You can even go inside the NC General Assembly, but must leave when asked if you do not want to risk arrest.
For those who make the personal decision to petition the legislature through nonviolent civil disobedience, based on your own moral conscience, it is CRITICAL that you attend a briefing and information session beforehand:
Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Information Session
Martin Street Baptist Church
1001 E. Martin Street, Raleigh, NC
Monday, June 3, 3:00 pm
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/334641253331262/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/128838747317762/
Date:
Monday, June 3, 2013 - 5:00pm
Location:
North Carolina General Assembly, Jones Street, Raleigh
Since I mentioned-it yesterday during the Orangepoltics' Open Editors meeting, I thought to share the matter here online at Orangepolitics.org.
I was struck by the bubbling passion from parents and property owners who spoke during last Thursday's (May 30, 2013) County Commisioners' meeting. In short, those who spoke before the Commisioners pleaded for a tax increase, in part, to fund an 8.8 million dollar deficit for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Systems.
As discussion continues over this matter through the budget season and to gain a better perspective on how this tax increase should come about, I think it would be helpful forVictoria Templeton, Hunter Pendleton, and James Easthom to take hold of this dialogue and elaborate on the means to make-up the 8.8 million school budget deficit.
Similarly, if this has been addressed in a prior post, kindly forward me the details.
In my review of past OP content on taxation, it's been a while [3-4 years] since post were made about special use tax or property tax.
![[After getting out of jail. Photo by Jeff Herrick.]](https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/296118_10151396065301459_540901996_n.jpg)
I'm pretty sure that no other municipality in North Carolina could have done business from prison in Raleigh tonight. But Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton (who helped instigate Mega Moral Monday) as well as Alderpeople Michelle Johnson, Damon Seils, and Sammy Slade all committed civil disobedience with about 140 other people - including Chapel Hill Town Council Member Donna Bell and OP Editor Molly De Marco - by refusing to leave the rotunda in the N.C. General Assembly.
Among the 1,000 protesters outside the NCGA were a quorum of Orange County Commissioners (Bernadette Pelissier, Penny Rich, Renee Price, and Mark Dorosin), a Carrboro Alderperson (Randee Haven-O'Donnell), OP regular Mark Marcoplos, and two more OP editors (Travis Crayton and myself).
Today the North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed a trial court ruling from last year that placed an injunction on Chapel Hill's ability to enforce its Towing from Private Lots Ordinance. The law requires signage, provides for limits on fees, and requires multiple forms of payment be accepted by the towing company. This is a big victory, not only for Chapel Hill, but for every community in North Carolina that regulates this kind of activity (Durham, Raleigh, Asheville, Charlotte, to name a few). It is especially welcomed following last year's NC Supreme Court decision in Lanvale v. Cabarrus County that had county and municipal officials concerned about how far local governments could go in implementing local ordinances to protect its citizens. (Not to mention the War on Cities the Gen Assembly has been fighting for the last several years). Here's a link to the decision. Very interesting read.
Continuing our series about upcoming municipal elections, here's a look at what's happening in the northern part of the county in the race for Hillsborough Town Board. As a reminder, election filing opens in just a few weeks on July 5th. (You can read my post about Chapel Hill Town Council here and Molly's post about Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board here.)
There are two incumbents up for re-election this year:
Mike Gering was first elected to the Hillsborough Town Board in 2001, and has announced that he will not be seeking re-election this year. "The town is in good shape, and I believe change is healthy - both for me and for the town," Gering said in a news release, as reported by the News & Observer.
Frances Dancy also faces re-election this year. Dancy will complete her fourth term on the Town Board this year, and has not yet announced whether she will seek a fifth term yet.
“The story of Rogers Road is not a new one. It is one that has been played and replayed throughout the state of North Carolina and across the country, involving different people and places. It is a story of local politics and community organizing, land-use decisions and their consequences, of the impact each of our actions has had on others whom we have never met and may never seek to find.”
-Emily Eidenier Pearce
As most know by now the folks living in the Rogers Road Community have been advocating for both the landfill to close for forty years and they have asked for specific issue to be resolved including providing water and sewer to remediate some of the impacts that the landfill has had on their community. You might also know that the landfill will close at the end of this month. And while the landfill closure has been a long time coming, the folks of Rogers Road's request for water and sewer has remained unmet. We have had work groups, task forces, and meetings with residents and the Rogers Road Neighborhood Association, and still the challenge of how to provide water and sewer remains.
On February 21st, 2012 the Board of County Commissioners agreed to create another task force, the Rogers Road Task Force, to look at funding sources for a Community Center and sewer improvements. The first meeting of the task force was held on April 30, 2012. The task force will end in July and are tasked with providing a final report at the Assembly of Governments meeting in September. And now, on June 12th, 2013 we will continue to discuss how to provide water and sewer to this community. Time is running out.
A full complement of Task Force members was in attendance at today's meeting of the Historic Rogers Road Task Force. The Task Force is nearing it's end and as Alderperson Michelle Johnson notes in her recent post, there is a lot on the line. Most task force members came to the meeting expecting to talk about two options: annexation of the Eubanks-Rogers Road Neighborhood or development of an Extra-territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). Instead, Orange County Assistant Manager Michael Talbert proposed a third alternative that I'll call the Hybrid 77% Plan (but some at the meeting jokingly called the Talbert Plan).
The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and the Town of Chapel Hill Economic Development Office are hosting this event. The information they have provided follows:
Information, Conversation, Imagination!
Community Invited to Participate in Rosemary Imagined
Join community members, Town and University leaders, and downtown business and property owners from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 25,
for the first in a series of community meetings about Rosemary
Imagined. The kick-off will be held in the Sky Lounge at Greenbridge,
601 Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill. Rosemary Imagined is an innovative
community-led planning initiative that will refine our thinking of how
Rosemary Street fits into the development and growth of downtown Chapel
Hill. Come for information, conversation, and imagination about Rosemary
Street and share your thoughts! Light refreshments will be provided.
This community event is part of a 10-month process of engagement with
the Town of Chapel Hill and the community to bring together several
recent efforts by the community into a complete vision for the future of
the Rosemary Street corridor. The Rosemary Street corridor was
identified during the Chapel Hill 2020 process as one of the five Big
Ideas; the "Big Ideas" are initiatives that embody the essence of the
Chapel Hill 2020 goals and will serve as a beacon to guide the efforts
of the Town and the community as Chapel Hill's future is created. In
addition, the 2010 draft Downtown Framework and Action Plandeveloped
strong new ideas about connectedness of streets and neighborhoods and
has been followed by the adoption of the Northside and Pine Knolls
Community Plan.
Rosemary Imagined process began in April with a grassroots effort to
identify community stakeholders. The stakeholders hosted focus groups
and identified themes, ideas and opportunities for Rosemary Street. The
ideas generated from these meetings, as well as a series of community
meetings, will be used in framing a plan for the corridor. The results
of Rosemary Imagined will be the basis for reevaluating the draft
Downtown Framework and Action Plan and providing a new recommendation
for the Council to consider adopting as a part of the Chapel Hill 2020
comprehensive plan.
For more information, visit www.rosemaryimagined.com. Contact Dwight Bassett at 919-969-5015and Meg McGurk at 919-967-9440 or contact them at info@rosemaryimagined.com.
Date:
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location:
Sky Lounge at Greenbridge, 601 Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill
Join with the neighbors and other community members to close the landfill. Parking will be at the Solid Waste Building on Eubanks and then participants will walk over together.
Date:
Saturday, June 29, 2013 - 12:30pm
At their meetings last night, both the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and Orange County Board of Commissioners considered resolutions concerning the Rogers Road Task Force. The Carrboro Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a resolution expressing their support for full sewer service for all of the Rogers Road neighborhood. By contrast, the Board of County Commissioners rejected a separate resolution put forward by Commissioner Mark Dorosin that would have expressed the BOCC's intent to participate in the provision of sewer improvements. Only Dorosin and Commissioner Barry Jacobs voted in favor of the resolution.
Chapel Hill hosted another lunchtime presentation Tuesday, this time to discuss development agreements. UNC School of Government professor David Owens broke down development agreements as they exist under North Carolina state law while Chapel Hill Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives Mary Jane Nirdlinger provided a presentation on Chapel Hill's development process specifically.
I attended the presentation, and you can read my livetweets below. I found the presentation useful to better understand how the development process has changed and now operates in our town, particularly given the ongoing development processes for Glen Lennox and Obey Creek.
Development agreements are authorized under North Carolina state law (specifically, NC General Statutes §160A‑400.20 through §160A‑400.32). As written, state law gives much autonomy to municipalities to determine their own development processes and how to go about entering into development agreements. It's also worth noting that development agreements are designed for large-scale projects only (defined under state law as 25 or more developable acres).
A few other takeaways from the presentation:
- Municipalities in North Carolina have the ability to alter zoning codes as they see fit. There is no "threshold" requirement for rezoning. However, rezoning cannot be included in a development agreement, but must be carried out before approving a development agreement that necessitates a zoning change.
- Development agreements are useful because they're all-encompassing and outline very specifically the details of a proposed development. Once approved, an agreement cannot be altered without the mutual approval of both the municipality and developer.
- Beginning a development agreement process does not guarantee approval of any development agreement.
Fleet Feet has been reluctantly considering moving their corporate headquarters and retail store out of Carrboro. This Tuesday, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen will consider an Economic Development Agreement under which Fleet Feet would stay in Carrboro and move into a new building at 300 E Main Street—putting their (greatly-expanded) national flagship store on the ground floor and their national headquarters above.
I was excited to receive notice a few moments ago that Orange County's Manager Frank Clifton will retire effective September 29th. The Board of County Commissioners will now have an opportunity to recruit a leader who can truly advance the values and visions of Orange County residents. manager Clifton's letter is below
June 27, 2013
Chair-Commissioner Jacobs, Vice Chair- Commissioner McKee, Commissioners Pelissier, Rich, Dorosin, Price and Gordon - CC: John Roberts-County Attorney and Donna Baker-Clerk to the Board
Soon, I celebrate another anniversary of my 39th birthday. My wife and I have decided to pursue challenges and opportunities that allow us to achieve goals we value together. Hence, per my employment agreement (90-day written notice) I advise of my intent to resign as Orange County Manager effective September 29th, 2013 and register for retirement from NCLGRS thereafter.
Via NCWARN:
N.C. Utilities Commission public hearing on the rate hike requested by Duke Energy.
Duke Energy is rigging rates to force you to pay for climate-wrecking power plants we don't even need. The company creates demand for electricity by attracting data centers and other large users to North Carolina by offering dirt-cheap rates. The cost of building these new power plants is shifted onto smaller customers. Residential rates will increase an average of 13.9% if Duke gets its way, and rates for small to medium-sized businesses will go up as much as 10.7%.
Date:
Tuesday, July 2, 2013 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location:
Orange County Courthouse, 106 E. Margaret Lane, Hillsborough
As you might have noticed about a month ago on June 3, Orange County (finally!) joined Twitter and Facebook in an attempt to enhance their social media presence and public engagement/outreach.
I say in an attempt because if you've been following the County's Twitter or Facebook, you've probably realized just how awful the tweets and updates from the County have been.
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