County Commissioner Penny Rich asked the Chapel Hill Town Council this week to seek the Planning Board chairwoman’s resignation.
Rich’s letter to the council references remarks Chairwoman Del Snow made Dec. 11 to the Orange County Board of Commissioners. Snow asked the commissioners to delay a regional transit plan and a half-cent sales tax to pay for it while considering other options. Snow spoke about the Planning Board's opposition to the plan during the public comment portion of the meeting. The Town Council supported the plan.
Rich said it was “highly unusual” for Snow to represent the town’s Planning Board in speaking to the commissioners without having been asked to do so by the council. She also questioned Snow’s ability to serve in light of her part in a pending lawsuit over the town’s Charterwood development approval.
“Ms. Snow’s interests are in conflict with the town and the citizens of Chapel Hill and I don’t see how she can vote on issues to move the 2020 Comprehensive plan forward given her stated positions,” Rich wrote in her letter.
Snow responded in a letter to the council that Rich’s analysis “is just plain wrong.”
The Charterwood lawsuit is irrelevant to the discussion, because people who pursue a legal dispute with the town do not give up their right to serve the town. Policy disagreements also do not disqualify residents from serving, she said.
Comments
I hearily agree
Tue, 01/08/2013 - 10:34 — Claudiuswith Ms. Rich. It seems to me that Ms. Snow has proven time and again that she is innately at odds with the town's vision and well-being. Her self-serving, myopic NIMBY attitude should not be tolerated any longer.
By the way, does anyone know if Amy Ryan, who serves with Ms. Snow on the planning board and is currently applying for the open council seat, is also a part of the Charterwood lawsuit?