At a public hearing Tuesday on revisions to the town’s land-use ordinance, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen refused to vote on a proposed amendment related to types of group housing allowed in town limits, citing inaccuracies in wording.
The aldermen delayed voting on the proposal, a clarification of a June 2004 amendment that brought the town’s land-use ordinance into compliance with the federal Fair Housing Act. Its approval would further clarify the types of group homes permitted in residential zones.
The proposal will also bring potential group-home projects into the normal review process applied to all new developments, which includes community input.
“Under the proposal, these homes can’t go into neighborhoods as a matter of right,” Town Attorney Mike Brough said of the federal act.
But aldermen and representatives of local mental health care facilities voiced opposition to the specific portion of the proposal that would divide group homes that provide mental health care into two categories.
The second type, known as group B homes, includes residents who might be a danger to themselves or others, although no such facilities now exist in the state.
Any person meeting those requirements would be institutionalized, not placed in a group home.
Brough said the language of the proposal is comparable to state definitions of mental illness and retardation.
Mental health care workers found the wording of the proposal stigmatizing to their clients.
