More housing is on its way to downtown Chapel Hill.

The Town Council unanimously approved the Shortbread Lofts, a 7-story, apartment complex on West Rosemary Street Monday night, saying it will bring more people downtown and offer more rental opportunities for residents.

The vote was 7-0, Council member Donna Bell was absent and Council member Laurin Easthom excused herself from the vote because her husband's law firm represented the developers.

The Chapel Hill Town Council will reconsider a proposed apartment building for downtown tonight.

The 7-story Shortbread Lofts would sit at 333 W. Rosemary St. with 85 apartments, 121 parking spaces and a first-floor of retail. We wrote about the project here , in January, when many on the council criticized its planned mustard yellow color and modern, flat front facade with metal-looking panels.

In an e-mail to the Town Council this week, Pat Evans, president of the Friends of Downtown and a former council member, asked the council to approve the project:

"An economically viable and sustainable downtown needs housing to support the existing downtown and to attract new business.  ShortBread Lofts located in a prime redevelopment area of West Rosemary Street will provide needed housing and will encourage a diversity of new businesses to locate in our downtown.
Simply put, please support this project that provides additional housing and improves an area in the downtown that needs redevelopment," she wrote. "I like the project.  The only thing that would make it better would be the use of red brick."

The council will also receive a report from the Community Policing Advisory Committee tonight and hear comments from the public about the town's budget priorities. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.

The Chapel Hill Town Council will revisit the Yates Motor raid tonight when an advisory group formally tells the council it does not want to help set up a website to collect public comments about the Nov. 13 incident.

The council had proposed the website as a way to solicit anonymous witness testimony. It rejected the Community Policing Advisory Committee's request for an outside investigator, which the committee said would help it establish a factual timeline of events on which to base policy recommendations, its official charge.

The committee rejected the website 8-1 two weeks ago, saying there would be no way to verify the website comment's accuracy. (See our story here.) Instead it asked to work closely with a consultant the town has already hired to review the police response to the Yates Motor building occupation and suggest areas where policies can be strengthened. 

Eight people were charged with misdemeanors after a group of self-described "anti-capitalist occupiers" entered the long vacant building and announced plans to turn it into a community center.

Tonight's meeting begins at 7 p.m. in Chapel Hill Town Hall.

For recent opinion columns on the Yates Motor incident see:

"Police panel lacks any true oversight" By Geoff Gilson, CHN Feb. 26 (Click here.)

"An argument for commnity rights" by Barbara Trent, CHN Feb. 26 (Click here.)

Too much density and too much height was the message Monday night from the council to the developers of a proposed student housing complex.

Developers presented their concept plan for Trinitas, a 90-foot tall student housing apartment complex proposed for 602 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. We first wrote about the plan here in January.  The project is being proposed by Trinitas Ventures, based in Lafayette, Ind.

Trinitas would add 319 apartments in four buildings, each seven stories tall, on the site. It would sit behind the Northampton Apartment complex. The Granville Towers student housing complex on West Franklin Street has 1,300 beds. Developers would tear down the Central Park Apartments that are currently on the site. Travis Vencel, the developer is asking the town to grant the project an exception, so that it can be built up to 90 feet tall.

The town's new Community Policing Advisory Committee rejected the Town Council's request to help create a website for residents' comments about the Yates Motor Co. police raid.

The committee, which had asked for an outside investigator to look into the Nov. 13 raid on the vacant former car dealership downtown, said a website would not produce reliable information. After listening to them, Chapel Hill Town Council member Jim Ward, who was among those who had supported the website, said he was "fully swayed" by the committee's objections.

"I'm convinced it's not the way to go," he said.

Member Jessica Smith, an attoney who had originally proposed the outside investigator, said the website would not help the committee establish a factual record of events on which to base policy recommendations, its main charge.

"It makes no sense for me to review something you have absolutely no means to test the veracity of,"she said. "This proposal is just one step further down the road of degraded information."

Residents from neighboring towns and counties can now buy affordable housing in Orange County.

The council voted 8-1 Monday to loosen rules for who can buy homes through the Community Home Trust, an organization which manages affordable housing for the town's inclusionary housing program. The housing program requires developers to  make 15 percent of units in new developments meet affordability guidelines.

Now residents who live and work outside of Orange County can buy a home through the Community Home Trust if after it's been on the market more than 90 days. The group has had trouble selling one particular house and has experienced the same challenges as the rest of the housing market, said Robert Dowling, the group's executive director.

Food trucks are now welcome in Chapel Hill, provided vendors follow the town's new rules.

The Town Council quickly and unanimously passed new rules for food trucks and trailers Monday night with no discussion. Chapel Hill joins Carrboro, Durham and Raleigh in allowing food trucks to do business, though in Chapel Hill they are limited to private, non-residential property.

The Chapel Hill Police Department will undergo specialized training in “peaceful intervention in civil disobedience” in the wake of its raid on the Yates Motor Co. building last fall.

In a memo to the Chapel Hill Town Council tonight, Town Manager Roger Stancil stands by the tactical team raid that removed seven people from the long vacant car dealership on West Franklin Street Nov. 13.

But Stancil says the Police Department’s experiences, policies and training “did not prepare us well for this combination of circumstances.”  

Town staff have not commented on the raid since a press conference the next day.

In his memo Stancil said the decision-making process the day of the raid was compromised by “a breakdown of communications, both internally and externally.” He did not elaborate, and the council has not yet discussed the memo.

The raid has strained community relations and the town has hired Investigative Security Services to help it design new policies and training that reflect the community’s values, Stancil says.

Orange County is still looking for the best short-term solution for its garbage.

And so far, there’s snags in all the possibilities.

County leaders have decided to close its landfill and possibly truck its solid waste to Durham, but Chapel Hill and Carrboro say its too expensive.

A new task force will decide how a sewer system and a new community center will be built for residents living near the county landfill.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners, Chapel Hill Town Council, Carrboro Board of Alderman and Hillsborough Board of Commissioners consented to establish the task force during a joint meeting Thursday night.

The boards met to discuss the future of the area’s solid waste and how the county will mitigate the effects of the landfill on its neighbors.