Chapel Hill Town Council members are on board with the course and vision of the town's 2020 Comprehensive Plan, but questions remain on how to implement the plan's initiatives and balance priorities with funds.
The Chapel Hill Town Council members reviewed the vision, goals and next steps in the Comprehensive Plan process during a work session Monday night.
Council members heard from town staff and 2020 co-chairs Rosemary Waldorf and George Cianciolo.
The town of Knightdale is getting ready to review its comprehensive plan.
It’s been six years since the plan was adopted, and the town has seen quite a bit of development since then.
A comprehensive plan is something like the constitution behind the zoning ordinance. Areas in the town are designated according to what type of development the committee thinks should go there. Town Council has the final say.
But as with most matters, the Knightdale residents will be able to weigh in at a public hearing.
Then the ordinance comes into place and rules are adopted. or in this case, changed, to carry out the plan.
A group of Knightdale residents have already volunteered or been selected to take on this mammoth task.
They will meet the first Thursday of every month until the job is complete.
The committee also will look at transportation issues including mass transit.
Raleigh will hold a public hearing to discuss the latest draft of the city's Comprehensive Plan on Thursday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m. Residents can offer comments about the plan to both the City Council and the Raleigh Planning Commission. The hearing will be held inside the council chamber at the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex, located at 222 W. Hargett St.
Raleigh release a 380-page draft of the Comp Plan in December. The plan, which outlines how city officials think Raleigh should grow over the next 20 years, is meant to be a road map to the future. The city held a series of public workshops in recent months to gather citizen comments.
The City Council is expected to approve a final version of the plan later this year. After the public hearing the plan heads to the Planning Commission for review.
The city of Raleigh’s Planning Department is bringing author and land use strategist Christopher Leinberger to town on Wednesday as part of the department’s “Designing a 21st Century City” lecture series.
Leinberger will talk about the emerging challenges facing suburban communities. The event is being held downtown at Fletcher Opera Theater at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. It's free and open to the public and is scheduled to run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Check in and registration begins at 6 p.m.
Leinberger has made a name for himself commenting on the future of suburbia, most notably in a March 2008 article titled "The Next Slum?" that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. Leinberger is currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute. He's also a founding partner of Arcadia Land Company, a New
Urbanism/transit-oriented development consulting firm.
There's been much discussion in recent months about whether the current economic meltdown will make many suburban communities no longer relevant. (The latest issue of the Atlantic has a story by Richard "Creative Class" Florida on which parts of the country will emerge as winners and losers once the economy recovers. Florida predicts the Triangle will be one of the winners.)
It should be interesting to see how Wednesday's audience responds to Leinberger. Many people in the Triangle love their suburban lifestyle, and it may be premature to proclaim the death of suburbia in this part of the country.
The Carolina Journal's January issue has an article about Raleigh's updated Comprehensive Plan as well as a story about the fact that Planning Director Mitch Silver lives in a 3,565-square-foot home in North Raleigh. Titled "Green For Thee, But Not For Me?" the latter article also notes that Silver owns a Toyota Highlander.
The city's updated Comp Plan, of which Silver is a key architect, is designed to encourage urban living and more transit options and generally move the city away from the sort of sprawling suburban development that has characterized much of Raleigh's growth over the last 30 years. In the article, Silver says he eventually plans to move to a new home in Raleigh and bought his house quickly when he was preparing to move to Raleigh from Washington D.C. in 2005.
So what to make of this? Is Silver a hypocrite for living in a large house in the Evans Mill subdivision in North Raleigh and advocating that the city try and move away from such living? Would he have more credibility if he was living above a retail store in North Hills and taking the bus to work?
It's not all that surprising to learn that Silver lives where he does. For all the ambitious goals in the updated Comp Plan, it should be noted that the city is a long, long way from transforming itself into something that resembles a transit-friendly city with lots of urban living options.
What do you think? Is it fair to criticize the housing and transit choices of Silver, City Manger Russell Allen or any of the elected members of Raleigh's City Council?
