November 2014

Carrboro Fall Forum Part 3: Buildings and Renewable Energy

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

Orange County Launches Family Success Alliance

Recently, the Orange County Health Department launched plans for the Family Success Alliance, modeled after the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone

With its inception as the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families in 1970, the Harlem Children’s Zone aims to disrupt generational poverty with a holistic, long-term approach providing education and support from early childhood through college, supportive services to families to prevent homelessness, and health services including obesity prevention.  Serving over 13,000 children and 13,000 adults in 97 blocks of Central Harlem, the engaged children (70% in the served blocks) have a 92% college acceptance rate, 100% of pre-K participants are assessed as school ready, and the 800 local employees fuel economic growth.  The Harlem Children’s Zone also serves as the Model for President Obama’s Promise Neighborhood Initiative that has awarded 58 grants to communities across the country to implement similar programs. 

This Week in Orange Politics: November 3-9

Tuesday is Election Day. Don’t forget to go vote if you haven’t taken advantage of early voting during the past couple weeks. You can find your polling place on the state Board of Elections website.

Partially because of the elections, the Hillsborough Town Board, Carrboro Alderfolks and county School Board will all be on break this week. The Chapel Hill Town Council will be on Obey Creek and hold a work session on a yet-to-be announced topic. The Chapel-Hill Carrboro School Board will also consider the superintendent’s review state school boards association agenda and the county commissioners will get some preliminary information on financing major projects and equipment purchases.

Here’s the full summary:

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS

  • There is no meeting this week.

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL

Spanish radio election ads

Tonight I was listening to FM101.1 La Ley and heard two senate ads in Spanish back to back. The first was by Ben Carson PAC. The theme was that Hagan sends her kids to private school but opposes vouchers while Tillis gave vouchers to thousands of kids (hispanos). The second ad was by People for the American Way. The theme was that Tillis cut millions from education and health but gave rich Carolinians lots of tax breaks. VOTE! (This is my second attempt to post this, the first one didn't show up.)

Election Day Open Thread

Happy Election Day! Polls are open from now until 7:30pm. If you're out voting today, what are you seeing at your polling place? If you're working a polling site, how's turnout looking where you are?

Obey Creek Negotiations to Formally Begin

At a special meeting on Monday, the Chapel Hill Town Council decided to formally move into the negotiaton phase in the development agreement process for Obey Creek, a proposed mixed-use development across from Southern Village on 15-501.

Developer East West Partners presented a revised proposal to Council Monday. While the overall size and mix of the project has not changed, the layout and some design elements have changed. The proposal, as it currently stands, will develop 35 acres and preserve 85 in perpetuity. All buildings will be LEED certified.

The mix of uses is proposed to include 400,000 square feet of retail space, 250,000 square feet of officespace, and 600-700 residential units, including a senior housing component. All parking on the site would be structured except for street parking along streets within the development.

East West Partners also provided a model of the current proposal to help councilmembers and members of the public better understand the scale of development (see photo).

Where Will The Kids Live?

For a number of reasons, primarily the lack of availability and cost of land, the focus of new residential construction has become apartments. All of the major development projects currently moving through the pipeline – Village Plaza Apartments, Obey Creek, Glen Lennox, The Graduate, The Edge – are almost exclusively apartments for their residential components. And in the case of Obey Creek, about half of the apartments are targeted to those over 55.

So where will the kids live?

In Chapel Hill, as in so many communities nationally, apartments are seen as a poor choice for raising children. Historically, many of us want backyards and grass for our kids. In fact, many developers tout the fiscal advantages of creating environments unappealing to families with children – few pupils for our schools and ample school taxes.

Community Organizing to Improve Housing Conditions in Orange County

Extensive mold and other serious maintenance issues, unannounced inspections, living with no water, play equipment removed, violence, disrepect by management, inability to use shared resources, children not allowed to play outside.....

Would you be surprised to know that these are just some of the complaints coming from our neighbors who live in affordable housing complexes throughout Orange County (Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough)?

Orange County Justice United is partnering with residents in all of these complexes to organize the community, conduct neighborhood audits to acertain the extend of the issues, present these findings to management, and have the issues addressed.

The Gateway Village Apartments in Hillsborough is one such housing complex. A story about our work together can be found here.

We know that there is a shortage of affordable housing in our communities. We must work to ensure that the affordable housing that is available, is welcoming unless we want to be a community of the wealthy.

This Week in Orange Politics: November 10-16

Carolina North will top the agenda for the Chapel Hill Town Council’s Monday business meeting Monday. Throughout the rest of the week, the council will also consider transportation improvements in the Ephesus-Fordham area and Obey Creek. The Carrboro Alderfolks will discuss a potential new zoning classification, while the county commissioners will talk ETJ and curbside recycling. The Hillsborough Town Board will start the public outreach process for its Vision 2030 document, while the county school board will set the school calendar for next year.

Here’s the full summary:

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL

Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board Seeks Applicants to Fill Vacancy

With Mia Burroughs winning a seat on the Orange County Board of Commissioners last week, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board has announced its process to fill the vacancy she will leave when she officially resigns on November 30, 2014. The deadline for applications is next Wednesday, November 19.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has provided this informational packet for individuals interested in applying for the seat. Additionally, an information session will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November 17, at Lincoln Center (750 S. Merritt Mill Road, Chapel Hill) for applicants to learn more about the roles and expectations of the position.

The Board will interview candidates at a special meeting on Monday, November 24, at 6pm at Lincoln Center, with a vote to be taken at its December 4 meeting. The selected appointee will be sworn in on December 18.

Pages

 

Community Guidelines

By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.

 

Content license

By contributing to OrangePolitics, you agree to license your contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Creative Commons License

 
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.