Chapel Hill officials and residents celebrated on Tuesday the official start of a decade-long project, which will be funded by a partnership between the town and University and is expected to shape the future of both.
The comprehensive plan, known as Chapel Hill 2020, will focus on interrelationships among themes like land use, transportation, housing and the community atmosphere. It will also create a framework to guide Chapel Hill’s Town Council in managing the town’s future for the next 10 years.
The town council allocated funds for the project in June as part of its annual budget, marking it as a priority for 2011-2012 and approving up to $250,000 to cover all expenses.
The town’s allocation includes $35,000 dedicated to the town’s collaboration with UNC for the project. The University matched that, putting forward $35,000 for the project.
“That might sound like a lot of funding to an uninformed person,” said Catherine Lazorko, spokeswoman for the town.
But she said that the comprehensive plan is resident- and staff-driven, making it less expensive than comprehensive plans in other cities, which are often consultant-led.
“This is definitely going to be a Chapel Hill-unique kind of plan,” she said.
David Knowles, a member of the plan’s initiating committee, said the town’s funds have been essential to starting the project and will remain important as the town progresses through its three-step planning process.
He said the plan was launched when an initiating committee met in May and June to organize the process and also recruited Chapel Hill 2020’s co-chairs, Rosemary Waldorf and George Cianciolo.