Live Blog: Sierra Club-Chamber Forum for Chapel Hill Candidates

Q2: How do we create more jobsSchuler - first, have incentives to have businesses develop, people willing to take a chanceDehart -  1/4 sales tax - I am in favor of it. Every Sat. we have 60,000 people come in for football. Be welcoming to folks Storrow - 1 specific thing = Entrepreneur Center at UNC in Carolina North with braintrust at UNCWard - 1/4 sales tax is a shot in the arm for this county and the towns, Durham Tech OC campus is a good place to train for new jobs, need incubator space for ideas Mark K - many people have come to him to talk about new ideas for businesses, supporting the 1/4 cent sales tax, be committed to facilitating business. 

Dale - I have started businesses, incubators do not create a lot of jobs - a lot goes in, but not a lot are hits. SHould invest in small businesses that have been around a while.Baker - need to look at how state gov. has gutted employers and make sure we do not here in the town, need a revolving loan fund like in Carrboro.Sookram - need to re-write the sign ordinance so people know where businesses are.  Matt C - Durham is exciting, being able to live and work in Chapel Hill is very importance, need to more businesses in Durham to Chapel HillCho - need to overcome idea the CH is not business friendlyBell - make is easier for mobile food units, that small business has been shown to have potential to become a larger business, our ED dir. has been good at looking at green industry. 

Dale - have easier-to-use transitMatt C - no question global warming is horrifying, issue is primarily from utilities and cars, Cho - I think human existence is related to global warming, on planning board we encourage green options, also on T-Board we encourage that. I am the only candidate I know who is not using yard signs to be responsible.Bell -  Need to have a regional plan not just a town plan, need to have an affordable housing plan, need to ed. people about living more simply.Baker -  increase density where transit goes, support 1/4 cent sales tx to allow schools to be greener, get the transit tax on the ballot to get light railSookram - need safe crosswalks with blinking lights, need later bus serviceDehart - all are concerned, I serve on T Board - requiring electric charging stations, need to reduce coal burning at UNCStorrow -  UNC is a giant elephant as a force of emissions, was involved in the coal-free initiative, need to have county cmsnrs put transit tax on the ballotWard - buildings use 50% of the energy, need LED lighting, we now have a sustainability officer to help us institute green elements 

Sookram - make advertising easierBaker - town start a local purchasing effort, help chamber promote 'buy local', permitting office that is centralized with just 1 person Bell - talked with manager stancil about helping small businesses navigate permitting process, UNC is a great resource for helping create businessesCho - agree with others, need to simplify the system of permitting , pro-business direction would be a good oneMatt C - comments that the water given is not from a local place, affordable office space is needed, would have been great to have office space at East 54Dale - need marketing to get people downtown or to the U Mall, Mark K - as mayor you are a 1-man marketer for CH,  town has made great progress with easing permitting processWard - Visitors Bureau is funded by town and county through hotel tax and goes to support business - not from your taxesDehart - want us to invest in the Visitors Bureau more, Downtown Partnership needs to be supported

Sookram - make advertising easierBaker - town start a local purchasing effort, help chamber promote 'buy local', permitting office that is centralized with just 1 person Bell - talked with manager stancil about helping small businesses navigate permitting process, UNC is a great resource for helping create businessesCho - agree with others, need to simplify the system of permitting , pro-business direction would be a good oneMatt C - comments that the water given is not from a local place, affordable office space is needed, would have been great to have office space at East 54Dale - need marketing to get people downtown or to the U Mall, Mark K - as mayor you are a 1-man marketer for CH,  town has made great progress with easing permitting processWard - Visitors Bureau is funded by town and county through hotel tax and goes to support business - not from your taxesDehart - want us to invest in the Visitors Bureau more, Downtown Partnership needs to be supported

all YES except Tim Sookram

With the expansions of the towns in the coming years, what should be done to make sure water allocations are adequate, re: Jordan LakeStorrow – challenging, I support insuring that we haveenough water, would have supported allocation from Jordan Lake, don’t want tolose that water in the futureWard – do support protecting our water allocation, this is aregional issue, now support the Jordan lake allocation, but does not becausethen OWASA wanted to trigger first, think we should conserve firstMark K - community can conserve and reuse, don't want to take anything off the table Dehart - wants to keep Jordan Lake as an option - hope you never have to use it though.Schuler -  keep option open and keep seat at the tableBell - always thought we needed Jordan Lake as a back-up as last resort, it is OWASA's job to keep us informed about the carrying capacity with waterMatt C -  we were told that Jordan Lake can't just be for emergencies, water is expensive as a utility and we need to conserveBaker - people need to continue to conserve, not comfortable with going into Jordan Lake allocation unless stipulation that is is only for an emergency.Cho - conservation is important 

DeHart - I don't think we need to change anythingSchuler - I am not up to speed on this, but doing homework, we need to be open to ideasStorrow - NoWard - Southern part of county has a mall coming - Star Point, mostly in Chatham and we could annex land?Mark K - we do not have an agreement with Chatham to control sprawl now and this is a problem, there is a lot of growth happening there.Matt C - I am thrilled to hear Mayor say we should look at our Southern border, we agree here! We have high housing prices because we have created scarcity with buffer, building up is still expensive as a housing option.Bell - I am a proponent of diversity, agree with Mark and Jim, no change nowBaker - do not support modifications, on Chatham side I am willing to look at options so we don't have highrises next to sprawl, do not believe that rural buffer creates higher housing pricesCho - it creates a challenge, but want to maintain buffer 

Sookram – guess we should build another school or banchildrenBaker – we will need to have a realistic discussion aboutwaiving SAPFO for a time to deal with this.Bell - use this as a sign to keep development limited to what resources we have, need to have state money stay for education, not how leg. is handling things nowCho - troubled with caps being set by school board instead of the councilMatt C - not in favor of banning children! If we don't modify SAPFO then we can only develop commericallyDale - why are we building when we can sell what is on the market, if we build a large dev. like Meadowmont, put in a school for it. Mark K - don't abandon SAPFO, school system that is one of the best in US should not be undermined, town should help schools get through permitting process smoothly, for record Meadowmont and WV did add schoolsSchuler - cap has a safety valve,Storrow - need to have great relationships with municipal partners, I do not support ignoring the cap, need to have dialogue with developers - just because apts are built does not mean no children will live there.Ward - we need school number 11 and it will be interesting to her from cty on timeframeDehart - we chose CH based on school system and we need to keep schools supported 

1/2 up and 1/2 downSorry didn't look up in time. 

Mark K - will add 40,000 bus hours from this! We need to get it on the ballotWard - need to support it, bette the bus system the more can use it and not carsStorrow - CH transit is fantastic, echo Ward and Mark K, rides bus on MLK a lot, we can move folks to use it if it is fasterSchuler - right now it is time consuming, but transit is a public good, we need better discussions to get more ridersDehart - I serve on the T-Board and grateful for opportunity, town had been a leader, it is hard to ride from where I live, we need to make it easier Sookram - need to divide it into 2 issuesCho - T-Board meets every 2 weeks with staff to see how to improve transit and we talk about how to integrate with Triangle Transit, regional transit is going to take a number of yearsMatt C -  need to focus on making it cheap and fast, we have to find ways to maintain serviceBaker - I rode a bus today. We should be knowledgeable about it, I have been serving around transit since I was a student, must improve the funding and support the transit tax 

Dale - I don't know the process well, but know it is difficult, need to create clear rules, without over-managingMatt C - does not believe that a longer SUP process makes for a better result, we must zone property for what we want and I do not believe that means we will lose controlCho - second Matt, streamline and combine boards and commissions, should tag applications so we can track them, this impacts affordable housing because ht process is long and expensiveBell - should streamline, believes the environment will not be at risk, SUP may not be the most productive, but I am not ready to throw away the process because it gives good results. Baker - went through a pilot joint board-process for the application this summer, looking for a way to streamline without doing away with good resultsSookram - keep the good parts, shouldn't take 18 monthsStorrow - SUP process has flaws, but I am not ready to throw it out, Current council is working to improve it. Combined boards review is a good idea, should think of othersSchuler - need to look at private sector for guidanceDehart - need to streamline w/o compromise on the env. protections, need to be more objective. Look at what Asheville is doingWard - town has implemented strategies already, as part of 2020 identify where more density is palatable Mark K - downtown is one place for more density, Courtyard project is an example and was expedited, we need to target density 

Ward - 400-800 more is needed? What study says that? Would form partnerships with private entities.

Schuler - I am working with IFC on Good Neighbor plan, Dale - important to provide the emergency beds, my father was homeless,  17 beds doesn't seem like enough

Matt C - sometimes it is hard to converse about difficult issues, I am not suggesting throwing out the SUP processMark K - SUP process is not perfect, trying to make it better, 2020 Vision process is exciting, I want to see 10,000 people engaged to vision to use all of the town, people's Comp. Plan 

Mark K - we have authorized it, people already can on their propertynow raise hands: YES Cho, Matt, Jason, Donna, Lee, Carl..... 

Ward - no, not enough, not big enough units, IZO is helping, but we need more work, this shouldn't be a place to gaze at rich peopleDehart -  This is something I know something about, we need to have a plan because taxes are really expensive, met Dr. Friday and has taxes are really high and he is 91

Bell - OWASA defines, emoergency resource is not easy - not easy to get water from Jordan LakeWard - we may want easy access to Jordan Lake, but it is not that easy. Should refrain from using it as much as we can. May be putting businesses dependent on water out of business 

 Storrow – civil servants are overburdened with more work,no raises, we may need to increase propeorty taxes to raise pay of our workers

Cho - yes, I doSookram - that's awesomeDale - downtown very important, homeless people don't bother me because I am big. 

Dehart - great program, we signed up and had an evaluation of our home - it is already very green. This is a great way to protect the environmentMark K - helping people recognize their carbon footprint is critical, I am proud of this program, Phase 2 is just starting, we won an award for this program Baker - this program is designed for homeowners and only 53% of residents are homeowners 

Dehart - great program, we signed up and had an evaluation of our home - it is already very green. This is a great way to protect the environmentMark K - helping people recognize their carbon footprint is critical, I am proud of this program, Phase 2 is just starting, we won an award for this program Baker - this program is designed for homeowners and only 53% of residents are homeowners 

Cho – yes, I would decisions have already been made, Iserve on the Good Neighbor Plan Dehart – I live near many social services. I help serve atthe IFC, but everyone needs to share it.