Date:
Location:
Come to a public meeting to learn about the next step in the Town's radical/visionary new plans for downtown. I highly recommend checking out the presentation made by the consultants back in June. Link below, and blog coverage here.
The future of downtown Chapel Hill will be discussed during the presentation of the draft Downtown Development Framework and Action Plan to Town advisory boards and commissions on beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, in the Council Chamber of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The presentation will be made by Dan Douglas of Kling Stubbins, and questions will follow the presentation.
The Town of Chapel Hill created a master plan for downtown, the Downtown Small Area Plan, in 2000. The Town Council initiated a new Downtown Master Plan as one of its goals for 2009. In November 2009, the Town, in conjunction with the Downtown Partnership, issued an RFP, and Kling-Stubbins of Raleigh was selected to complete the Downtown Development Action Plan and Framework.
A planning team held two meetings in April 2010 for interested parties to share their opinions on development in downtown Chapel Hill. A first draft of findings was presented to the public during a planning charette on June 10. The June 10 presentation is available online: www.townofchapelhill.org/modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6806
For more information, contact Dwight Bassett, Economic Development Officer for the Town of Chapel Hill, at 919-969-5010 or dbassett@townofchapelhill.org.
Comments
Bad scheduling
By the way, I must mention how annoying it is that this meeting is at the same time as the regional transit workshop! http://www.orangepolitics.org/events/public-workshop-on-regional-transit Way to split the crowd. :-(
True
Especially since the date/time of the transit meeting has been public for over a month...For those trying to split the difference, the transit meeting is at the Carrboro Century Center from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M. It is mostly open house format, so drop in at any time. There may be minor summary presentations at 4:00 and 6:00 also, but I will double-check and confirm.
Not to worry!
The TTA will be holding five other meetings around the Triangle over the next few days, open to anyone from anywhere. They will be virtually identical to the one in Carrboro. http://www.ourtransitfuture.org/index.php/get-involved/calendar-of-events/
I really like this plan.
I really like this plan. It takes care of the two major issues I see with downtown, the inability to get around easily by bike or car, and difficulties in getting permits to build. The problem with making these changes is the prevailing citizen view of Chapel Hill is that building roads is bad, and more construction is even worse. Building roads is going to mean putting in construction through residential areas, and anyone living near a new road is going to scream bloody murder at the town council. Look at what happens when you try to put in a low-traffic connector between neighborhoods today!Somehow the current view of what's good for Chapel Hill is the outmoded 60's vision of sprawling cul-de-sacs and parking lots, and I don't know how to begin to change that.
I'll be there
Maybe I'll see some of you there -- if I'm feeling particularly snarky, I'll wear one of my Duke national championship t-shirts. ;)
Twitter coverage
Just realized that I never reflected my live tweets about this event back here on to the blog. Here they are in chronological order: