Town officials plan upcoming budget

Chapel Hill officials are working to outline the coming fiscal year’s top priorities before the next budget session.

Each town board and commission, including economic growth, public arts and transit, will submit goals to the mayor’s office in order to help the Chapel Hill Town Council form guidelines to keep in mind as they help lay out the budget.

Economic Development Officer Dwight Bassett said his division has established two strategic initiatives which seek to improve office and retail development that it will forward to the mayor’s office.

Bassett said the department has evaluated an office market survey that looks into office space in Chapel Hill and the market demand of that space.

“We have a desire, long term, to grow that (office) absorption and increase our market demand of office space to about 30,000 square feet,” Bassett said.

Public Art Administrator Jeffrey York said his department is working to incorporate cultural arts, specifically in terms of performances and music, into their plans for next year.

“We are working on trying to find a particular venue or place to hold cultural arts events,” York said.

He said there are several projects the department is currently working on, including the collaboration between the town and the 140 West development as well as the renovation and expansion of the library.

York said he thinks the 2011-2012 fiscal budget will either be the same as or slightly constricted from the current one.

“I think all the departments may be asked to cut two or three percent, but I’m not anticipating it going up,” he said.

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said transit will also be on the town’s top priority list in next year’s budget, along with updating the Comprehensive Plan and stimulating downtown development.

The plan seeks to outline future actions the town can take toward improvement.

One of the plan’s proposed ideas is the Growth Management Report, which will outline the town’s growth patterns, describe downtown development projects and evaluate funding for bikeways and greenways.

Council member Ed Harrison said the town council can’t predict how the budget will look for Chapel Hill due to the changing state legislature and its own funding.

“We’re trying to get some idea of what direction the state legislature will go, but it will be hard to tell,” he said.

Harrison said the N.C. League of Municipalities, of which he is a member, will keep towns like Chapel Hill updated on what they see as trends in the state budget that could affect them.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.