UNC

Just got an info item that will be on the Chapel Hill Town Council's agenda tonight. Apparently the "Innovations Center" is on next week's agenda (1/23/08), but of course the Council needs to know about the plans for Carolina North to understand the context for this first building. So UNC proposes to toss off a presentation about the Carolina North Master Plan at the same meeting and then go on with presenting the concept plan of the Innovations Center.

I would think the Town would need a moment to actually comprehend the plan before trying to understand something that is supposed to fit into it. But of course that would assume that UNC actually wants elected officials, staff, or citizens of Chapel Hill (and Carrboro) to analyze, understand, or respond to anything they're doing.

It sounds like UNC's plan is just to do a quick presentation, and listen to public comment at this meeting - with one week's notice - and then just go along their merry way building the first phase Carolina North without any substantial input from the community.

As part of their annual planning retreat this weekend, the Chapel Hill Town Council will be holding a special planning session with UINC officials to discuss Carolina North. The meeting is open to the public, although no public comment will be allowed. I haven't been able to find an agenda or list of attendees, all I know is that it's from 1 to 5pm Sunday at the Southern Orange Human Services Center on Homestead Road.

From the Town eNews (which isn't archived online, grr):

Stated goals for the Sunday meeting are to engage Town and University representatives in a shared discussion about Carolina North. They will identify common interests and decide how to address those interests.