Environment
Parking, like traffic, is a recurring theme in local conversation about growth and development. We often hear from some community members that there is nowhere to park in downtown Chapel Hill/Carrboro, that a lack of parking is hurting local businesses, and that the parking minimums required for the Ephesus-Fordham renewal district are insufficient.
But the facts simply don’t support these claims. The reality is that providing more parking – especially surface parking – is fundamentally incompatible with urban land uses.*
Numerous urban planning scholars have researched parking, and their research has consistently confirmed that more parking is not desirable on any metric – unless, that is, you want more people to drive and create more traffic.
Walkable, dense neighborhoods are good for us. That’s what this recent CityLab article concludes, citing numerous peer-reviewed research studies. And not only are these kinds of neighborhoods good for us, they’re good for the sustainability of our communities long term. For example:
Join us for this third session of the Carrboro Planning Board's three-part fall forum series on community-scale energy use and climate change
In this session, we'll hear about and discuss:
- Climate Protection Planning in Carrboro (Randy Dodd, Town of Carrboro environmental planner)
- Solarize Orange County (Rob Pinder)
- Passive and Active Solar Energy Opportunities for Your Home, featuring an Interactive 3-D Model (David Clinton, architect and principal at Szostak Design Inc, and Planning Board member)
- Energy Conservation (John Hines, marketing representative of Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation)
- Base Hits, Strike Outs, and Home Runs: Twenty Renewable Energy Businesses I Have Loved (Lyle Estill, vice president of Piedmont Biofuels and serial entrepreneur)
We'll have light refreshments and plenty of time for questions and discussion. See you Wednesday!
Also:
- Chapel Hill Transit routes CW, F, and J stop in front of the ArtsCenter.
- There's a beautiful new bicycle corral at the ArtsCenter entrance.
- There's free car parking (and covered bicycle parking) in the 300 East Main parking deck.
Date:
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Location:
Carrboro ArtsCenter, 300 E Main Street, Carrboro
This is a county wide event to introduce the 2014 State of the Environment Report written by Orange County Commission for the Environment. Guest speakers will also be talking about Jordan Lake, Invasive Species, Forests and Climate Change.
Date:
Saturday, October 11, 2014 - 9:30am to 12:00pm
Location:
Maple View Dairy Farm Education Center
The Chapel Hill Town Council was to continue its discussion this evening about how to fund the extension of sewer service to the Historic Rogers Road Neighborhood, in its first meeting of the 2014-2015 session. However, town staff is again recommending a continuation of the public hearing.
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