OP Editors's blog
The following overview was written by Jennifer Player, new Director of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County to share key features of this exciting new project proposed for Chapel Hill to provides essential permanent affordble housing and more senior housing.
More than a year ago, two local nonprofits with a combined 70 years of service to Chapel Hill, began discussing a potential development partnership. As a result of those conversations, Carol Woods and Habitat for Humanity of Orange County developed a shared vision to create a vibrant, mixed income, intergenerational community off of Sunrise Road in Chapel Hill.
Since Orange County passed our transit plan in 2013, Chapel Hill Transit has been able to add more service and significantly address the need to replace existing buses. GoTriangle and Orange Public Transportation have also been able to add service and vehicles, but we are focusing on CHT here.
To highlight the new service we just got this past August 2018:
- CW Route extension of it's peak evening service
- D Route extension of it's peak evening service
- All routes with existing Saturday service had that service extended from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm
Service
The table below summarizes the increased service since 2013. This represents around 10,585 new annual hours of service.*
We've compiled issues of interest coming before or at play in each of our municipalities and the county this Fall, which we’ll be following. Here goes:
Carrboro
The Carrboro Board of Alderpersons gets back to regular work with a meeting on September 4, 2018. Here’s a snapshot of what’s on their horizon:
- Public hearing on Weaver Street Market renovations
- Report on NC 54 West Corridor Study
- Update on the 203 South Greensboro project (Southern Branch Library)
- Public hearing on Lloyd Property conditional rezoning (it’s back!)
- Update on the Old 86 commercial development concept
Chapel Hill
The Chapel Hill Town Council re-convenes on September 5, 2018. Here’s what we and they have to look forward to this fall:
As we’ve covered before, there are many mobile home parks in Orange County and they are some of the most affordable types of housing we have. Many, however, are situated on land that is valuable and ripe for re-development (we are keeping an eye on the mobile home park on MLK and Taylor called the Tar Heel Mobile Court as the gas station in front of it has recently closed).
What do we owe as a community to our marginalized, historic neighborhoods in a community built around a university? What do we owe to students from a university on which our communities thrive? Should we view students moving into existing residential neighborhoods as a threat or should we expect this change and manage for it?
The neighborhoods closest to the university are the most impacted by students as they move in. Impacts include more noise, foot and car traffic and sometimes more trash. They also result in co-learning, resource sharing and greater vibrancy. The challenge is that many of those neighborhoods are historically African American neighborhoods that have already faced cumulative impacts of systemic racism, dis-investment and gentrification.
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