Chapel Hill Town Council discusses the Good Neighbor Plan

Discussions at Chapel Hill Town Council meetings do not normally end with hugs.

But at Monday night’s meeting, Council member Matt Czajkowski asked two community members to hug after a discussion regarding the relocation of a Chapel Hill homeless shelter escalated into a conflict.

The conflict arose after Mark Peters, spokesperson for abettersite.org, voiced his concerns with the shelter and the process development committees have taken to the board.

But Chris Moran, executive director of The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, which houses the shelter, defended the decisions made by the Good Neighbor Plan committee. The council required IFC to create the plan when it approved in May plans to build a new shelter on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Moran presented the first quarterly report on the Good Neighbor Plan at the meeting.

The large, transitional shelter will replace the emergency shelter located at 100 W. Rosemary St.

Moran said the new shelter will serve as a transitional facility for homeless people who want to move from the streets into permanent housing and that the organization hopes to break ground on the new shelter next summer.

The Good Neighbor Plan committee, consisting of 19 business owners, town residents and IFC Board members, has been working on the plan for the past six to eight weeks, Moran said.

The plan will provide a framework for relations between the shelter and the community.

Steve Kirschner, a member of a neighborhood located near the new shelter location and member of the planning committee, said he was glad to be a part of the planning process and wishes other residents participated.

“If (the shelter) is going to be there, we want to put together the best plan possible.”

The board heard criticism from nearby residents who worry that the shelter will endanger their neighborhood public safety.

Others have questioned the transparency of the group’s process in creating the plan.

Peters, a Homestead community resident, said at the meeting he doesn’t think the development committee tried hard enough to include nearby residents.

He also has said the committee meetings are stacked with supporters of the new shelter.

But Moran said at the hearing he does not think the meetings were unfair.

“(The committee) is a well-represented group,” he said. “It represents the IFC board, surrounding neighborhoods, congregations, businesses and current and formerly homeless persons.”

He said the meetings have always been open, and Mark Peters and other members of abettersite.org were invited multiple times, but refused.

Council members Donna Bell and Gene Pease said the planning process could be reformed.

“I would hope that (the committee) could’ve gotten broader representation from neighborhoods,” Pease said.

The council discussed recording the Good Neighbor Plan committee meetings to improve transparency, which Peters suggested in the past.

Moran said recording the development meetings could be expensive and difficult. The committee is also not required to be open to the public or recorded.

But Moran said he would still ask the committee to reconsider recording the meetings.

He also said the committee hopes to finish the Good Neighbor Plan by November or December.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.