Ruby Sinreich's blog

This weekend, a group of people who have been involved since the very beginning of the Chapel Hill 2020 process (including the editors of OP) drafted a letter to town leaders asking them to take more time. You can see it at http://bit.ly/ch2020-letter. Currently the entire timeline from kick-off to plan approval is less than 8 months. Last week when UNC planning Professor David Godschalk gave a talk about comprehensive planning, he referenced the plan done in Fort Collins, CO which took 18 months to complete. That is the fastest of any of the other examples I've heard. The City of Austin is currently reviewing a draft plan after spending almost a year and a half on their visioning process alone.

A few days ago I sent the following message to my fellow members of the Outreach Committee for Chapel Hill 2020. Apparently having and stating strong opinions is incompatible with leadership in that process. Rather than spending time struggling to lead the internal outreach process, I think I will be a more effective and way more authentic advocate from the outside. It's a pity the Town can't make room for vocally opinionated comunity members to be leaders in creating our new comprehensive plan. We all have opinions. Some people are just more blunt about them than others. There are precious few "neutral" leaders who are qualified and motivated enough to serve.