Environment

According to Chapel Hill News Editor, Mark Schultz, Chamber of Commerce Director Aaron Nelson told him that our community is “a place where many people still think if you're a successful business person you're exploiting someone or destroying the environment.” (quote is Schultz paraphrasing Nelson)

Now, according to the Herald editors, I'm the farthest left person they know (a debatable point I suppose) and I don't think that. Nor am I aware of any who hold this belief.

So my question to Aaron is: do you really believe what you said to Schultz? if so, who are some of these "many people" you refer to? Or, did you, like Ed Harrison, inadvertently mislead Schultz and it's not your fault?

My question to Chamber members is: does it really serve your interests and your organization when your director makes such hyperbolic and divisive statements?

H671/S631 grants the NC Department of Agriculture sole authority for banning plants and seeds within North Carolina. The intent of this law appears to be preventing cities and counties from using their zoning authority to restrict the use of genetically modified plants and seeds within their jurisdiction. However, there may be equally unattractive unintended consequences. For example, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County (possibly Hillsborough too), currently restrict the types of plants used in landscaping new development. By using their zoning authority in this way, they protect our native species from the most egregious invasives such as bamboo, english ivy, etc. Native species are of critical importance in protecting our riparian systems as well as our local wildlife.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners is recruiting citizen volunteers for the Orange County Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Taskforce. This taskforce will evaluate the feasibility of establishing a TDR program in all or portions of the county. The taskforce will address: Sustainably balancing rural and urban areas, directing growth and development away from important natural and cultural resources and toward areas with municipal service potential and able to support urban densities, providing working farms with an alternative income potential, and developing policies to accommodate the sending and receiving areas of housing density and economic development to be added to the Comprehensive Plan. The County has hired a consultant to help in this endeavor.