Council looks to wrap up business

Hindsight is 20/20.

As the fiscal year comes to a close, Chapel Hill Town Council members are re-evaluating 12 busy legislative months.

Since July, town officials have renamed Airport Road, faced University expansion and waded through a mire of debt brought on by costly development projects.

Most council members agree that naming the thoroughfare after Martin Luther King Jr. has been a great success.

“I think renaming Airport Road was one of our greatest accomplishments,” said council member Cam Hill. “But we could have just done it. We got more complaints about the way we did it than the renaming.”

Town officials appointed a special committee comprising about 20 members to discuss the change which was finalized May 8.

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt said the deliberations were excessive, but he thinks the final product is an invaluable asset to the town.

“It helped the whole community understand race,” he said. “We are not a society that has been totally cured of our racist past.”

Mayor Pro Tem Edith Wiggins said the process helped the change to be a success.

“I am very happy with the process,” she said. “(The committee) involved a diverse group of citizens that carefully listened to the public’s concerns.”

Council members were slated to discuss several other major projects at their Wednesday meeting, one of the last meetings of the fiscal year.

Among those were some proposed zoning changes to Office/Institutional-4, a special zoning standard created in 2001 to address on-campus development.

Possible changes to the zoning district might determine the role the town council has in future University development.

“The town felt like it needed help in the development process,” Hill said.

The proposed changes would give the town more weight in the construction process.

Development of parking lots 2 and 5 are also expected to begin moving forward.

Earlier this month, a committee composed of most council members recommended that council consider Ram Development Company for the project.

Phase one of the project, which includes the construction of a mixed-use facility on lot 5 across from University Square and expansion of the Wallace Deck on Rosemary Street, is slated to be discussed at Wednesday’s business meeting.

“It’s better to go through it slowly, to consider all the possibilities,” Wiggins said. “Even though we’ve worked with a consultant, the council has been in charge.”

The budget for fiscal year 2005-06 also has absorbed the time of council members. A budget work session was set for Wednesday.

A plan to develop the University-owned Horace Williams tract is forcing the town to relocate several of its departments after 20 years of almost rent-free space there. The town paid a small leasing rate of $1 annually.

The eviction notice gives the departments until 2006 to vacate, which adds pressure to the construction deadlines of the new facility on Millhouse Road, said council member Ed Harrison.

The new Town Operations Center will require about $1.75 million in debt payments from the town. This could help to force the town’s property tax up by 2.9 cents per $100 of assessed property value.

In January the council decided to employ a private consulting firm, Maximus Inc., of Raleigh, as well as a citizen committee to help the town prepare its budget — something Kleinschmidt said he has not seen in his four years on council.

“We wanted a citizens’ committee outside of the political sphere,” he said. “(The committee and Maximus’ consultants) came up with some very creative solutions, even as we told them to keep everything on the table.”

The budget is set to be passed June 27.

Council members also were slated to discuss creating several Neighborhood Conservation Districts that would limit development in the neighborhoods as well staff shortages in the town planning department, among other things.

For updated coverage of the town council meeting, please go to http://www.dthonline.com.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.