UNC

After a grueling 90-minute discussion and approval of the downtown redevelopment project on Lot 5, the Chapel Hill Town Council addressed UNC's 3rd request to modify their overarching campus development plan. The Council approved most of the modification at a previous meeting, but held up a portion related to the Carolina Inn to address fiscal equity issued raised by Councilmember Cam Hill. (See tonight's agenda.)

There was discussion of whether guests staying at the Carolina Inn to are subject to the Town's hotel occupancy tax. Apparently guests are not charged if they are on University business. Councilmember Mark Kleinschmidt asked if this includes UNC sporting events, and Vice Chancellor Carolyn Efland replied that their official opinion is that such guests would not be paying the tax. Kleinschmidt said this should grab the headlines tomorrow rather than the Lot 5 approval.

The Manuscripts Department at Wilson Library at UNC will host its first panel discussion (in a weekly series of three) on Tuesday January 30, 2007 at 5:30pm. Each Tuesday, a panel discussion will be held to discuss a theme relating to the exhibit, "I Raised My Hand to Volunteer: Students Protest in 1960s Chapel Hill", which is now on view on the 4th Floor of Wilson Library.

This first panel is a very rare chance to hear key leaders and participants reflect on their involvement in the desegregation movement in Chapel Hill in the 1960s. On January 13, 1964 the Chapel Hill Town Council (then the Board of Aldermen) voted down an ordinance by a vote of 4-2 which would have provided public accomodations in all town businesses. The decision meant that theses businesses would remain segregated until the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

January 30: Panel Discussion, 5:30-7 pm, Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library
Pressing the Hold-outs: The Desegregation Demonstrations of 1963-64

Moderator: Sally Greene: Chapel Hill Town Council Member and UNC-Chapel Hill adjunct law professor

The Herald reports that the Chapel Hill Town Council has voted to authorize the mayor to start discussing zoning for the 900-acre property in the middle of town that is slated to become UNC's satellite campus Carolina North. If it's true (as the article below states) that this process will be similar to how the Town developed the OI-4 zone that now applies to all of UNC's main campus then I am very afraid.

OI-4 was developed by a small negotiating committee including the Mayor and two Council members who met with the Chancellor and other UNC leaders in private meetings, and led to a process that allows UNC to push through through huge projects (the latest was over 1 million square feet) in just 4 months - a fraction of the time the town usually needs to review a simple Special Use Permit.

Mayor Kevin Foy has gotten the go-ahead from the Town Council to start talking with UNC Chancellor James Moeser about a vital aspect of Carolina North -- a new zoning district for the property where UNC wants to build its envisioned research campus.