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|  | March, 2009 |
| | Carrboro Aldermen Approve Claremont The Carrboro Board of Aldermen approved the fourth and fifth stages of the Claremont development in Carrboro. The project is located along Homestead Road and will include 27 townhomes and 69 single-family homes once built. The central issue in the approval of the project's final stages was the connection of the new development with the neighboring Wexford development. Wexford neighbors were deeply concerned about a road connection between the neighborhoods and the amount of new traffic it would create. The Carrboro Aldermen reached a compromise over the connection issue by requiring the Claremont developer to build a bike and pedestrian connection with a roadway sufficient enough for a firetruck. The roadway would be blocked by bollards and only used in case of emergency. For the full story from the Carrboro Citizen, click here.
Council Denies Aydan Court Project At a Chapel Hill Town Council meeting last week, the Council voted unanimously against extending the R-SS-C development zone beyond downtown setting up a furious hearing with Aydan Court developer Carol Ann Zinn. The Aydan Court project followed the R-SS-C zoning discussion and needed the zone to be approved in order for the condominium and townhouse project to potentially be approved. Zinn aleged the Council was unfair in its process saying, "I think what you have done is outrageous. I think it's a discredit to the trust that we as citizens put in you for a fair process with integrity and transparency." Click here to hear Mayor Kevin Foy's response to Zinn on WCHL 1360AM. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here.
Carolina North Fiscal Impact Study Finalized
Economic planning consultant TischlerBise released the fiscal impact study of the first (15-year) phase of development at Carolina North. The report shows that sales and property tax revenues would offset the costs incurred by local governments. The Town of Chapel Hill is the one jurisdiction that stands to lose somewhat in the project as the report shows a $12 million loss over 15 years, largely coming from a fire station that would need to be built in year 9. "This [report] says it shouldn't be terribly difficult to make this fiscally neutral," said Jack Evans, the Carolina North project's executive director. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District is facing a budget shortfall of $875,000 for fiscal year 2009 and is looking at ways to close the gap. Superintendent Neil Pedersen submitted potential action steps that include reductions in non-personnel expenses in the central office and the loss of a reading teacher at East and Chapel Hill High. Other potential cuts include reductions in after school programs and media center specialists. Click here to hear a sound clip from School Board Chair Lisa Stuckey and for more information about this story from 1360AM WCHL. Students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools continue to outperform their counterparts across North Carolina in reading, despite a drop in reading test performance. This year, significant changes were made in the tests given to students in grades 3-8, including setting higher standards for attaining proficiency. As a result, 78.5 percent of CHCCS students posted proficiency in reading while in 2008, that number was 93.4 percent. The drop in scores in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district is approximately one-half of the decline seen statewide. “In raising standards, we may make students better readers in the end, but the presentation of the results the first year with new standards can be demoralizing to students and staff," said Executive Director for Testing and Program Evaluation Diane Villwock. For the full story, click here. Chapel Hill Town Council Adopts Improved Parking Regulations At their meeting on Monday, March 16, the Chapel Hill Town Council adopted a number of important downtown parking policy changes including a "courtesy ticket" and improved parking signage. The changes were put forward by the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and were unanimously adopted by the Council in a 9-0 vote. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber President Aaron Nelson spoke in support of the recommendations at the meeting. The new "courtesy ticket" will give first-time parking offenders a free warning ticket that tells visitors and patrons of downtown they've parked illegally or overstayed at a meter instead of issuing a financial penalty. The move is aimed at welcoming and encouraging visitors to come downtown. Further, Town parking lots (Lots 2, 3, 4, 5) will be renamed to more geographic names giving people a better sense of their location and when combined with new, improved signage should make it easier to locate parking downtown. The Council also asked the Town Manager to review the impact of potentially making parking free in Town lots after 6pm and increasing on-street meter rates by $.25 per hour to offset the difference. Other changes include the following: developing a parking board to oversee policy and parking operations for the Town, move toward unified payment systems for all parking, evaluate event parking fees, work to add additional public parking using private lots, and begin planning for the future needs of parking. From Chapel Hill eNews
Orange County Manager Resigns
County Manager Laura Blackmon, the first female manager in Orange County, sent a letter to County employees on March 9 announcing her resignation. In the letter, Blackmon announced she and her husband are leaving to go to Tennessee and she will be resigning in June. Blackmon will have been manager for about two and a half years by that point and did not give specifics for her resignation in the letter. The resignation comes amidst an $8.7 million budget shortfall and citizen uprising over recent property revaluations. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here.
Planning Board to Bring New Petition Before Council
The Chapel Hill planning board submitted a new petition to the Town Council at the March 23 meeting regarding a Land Use Management Ordinance text amendment. Citizens and developers spoke against a past petition by the planning board saying it would force more commercial projects through the Special Use Permitting (SUP) process and add unnecessary delays to projects. The planning board responded by delaying the issue and and instead submitted a new petition that would allow redevelopment and renovation projects greater than 20,000 square feet in the downtown to be exempt from the SUP process so long as there are no exterior building changes or additions in square footage. From Staff notes
Commissioners Say "Too Late" To Rescind Revaluations
In a work session last week, Orange County commissioners agreed it was too late to rescind the property revaluations that have alarmed thousands of property owners in the county. County Attorney Geoff Gledhill advised the commissioners that state law does not allow counties to rescind revaluations. Were the revaluation rescinded, commissioners pointed out that it could double the current $8.7 million budget shortfall and exacerbate major budget cuts. Regarding the impact of the increases, tax assessor John Smith said the majority of taxpayers would see a tax increase. Data from the county show that more than 250 households saw an increase of more than 100 percent in their home value. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here.
Carrboro Merchants Launch WalkCarrboro.com
Jesse Kalisher, president of the Carrboro Merchants Association, has led a new effort to draw residents and tourists to 22 Carrboro businesses through a Web site called www.walkcarrboro.com. The Web site lists various Carrboro businesses and also includes a map helping people navigate the town and parking. Beyond the site, Kalisher printed 10,000 copies of the map, which was designed by Carrboro artist Richard Clout. For the full story from the Chapel Hill News, click here.
New LED Lights Installed in Downtown Chapel Hill A new pilot program between the Town of Chapel Hill and Duke Energy launched last week when Duke installed light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, along part of East Franklin Street. The project is a 12-month program that is testing the performance of the lights, which are supposed to use less energy, burn brighter and last longer than traditional high-pressure sodium lights. The LEDs came from RTP company Cree and cost about eight times more than traditional lights. Chapel Hill is the first town in North Carolina to try the lights and will use data and information from the pilot to decide whether to use LEDs more broadly. Residents are encouraged to submit comments about the lights here. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here.
Water Partnership Inches Closer Orange County Commissioners moved closer to joining the Jordan Lake Regional Water Supply Partnership, electing to place a draft memorandum of understanding for the Partnership on an upcoming agenda. The Partnership brings together the cities of Durham and Cary, Chatham County, Orange County and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority to jointly address water supply planning, future allocation requests, and a possible future intake facility. Commissioners expressed some reservation that the City of Durham would act as the lead agency in the effort and that no elected officials would be part of the partnership management team. The Commissioners will vote on the draft memorandum on Tuesday night. For the full story from the Herald Sun, click here.
Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force Created
The Chapel Hill Town Council approved the creation of the Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force at a recent Council meeting. The Task Force is the idea of Mayor Kevin Foy and would be charged with making recommendations to the Council "regarding the design, timing, scale and appropriate location of higher density, mixed use" and "sustainable development along major transportation corridors in Chapel Hill." The Task Force will consist of 11 members, five citizens-at-large and six members from various town boards and commissions. At the Council meeting, members modified the committee somewhat agreeing that at least one spot be reserved for a businessperson. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here.
County Facing Major Budget Shortfall
Orange County Government is facing an $8.7 million budget shortfall this year, which amounts to 5 percent of this years $183 million budget. The shortfall is equal to 6.2 cents on the county's property tax rate. County Manager Laura Blackmon has listed various ways to make up the shortfall including service reductions and school district funding. For the full story from the Chapel Hill News, click here. The Triangle
More Development Eyed at Southpoint WRS Realty Inc, a developer of Wal-Mart shopping centers, has made an offer of more than $20 million for a 55-acre plot of land near Southpoint Mall in Durham. The 55-acres are west of Fayetteville Road in the Kentington Heights neighborhood. While a deal has not yet been reached, Kentington residents have sought to sell their land for some time to a commercial developer. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here.
Durham Crime Dropping in 2009
Crime figures for the first two months of 2009 were down considerably compared to that period of 2008. Violent crime, which includes murder, rape, robbery, and agravated assault, was down 36 percent. Property crime was down 1 percent. According to Police Chief Jose Lopez, police have worked hard to identify suspects in multiple robberies which likely has reduced the violent crime rate. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. Poll Shows Initial Support for Transit Sales Tax A new poll released by the Regional Transportation Alliance, a Triangle business leadership group, cites some support for a regional transit system funded through a sales tax. The poll interviewed residents of Orange, Durham and Wake Counties and found that 53 percent of respondents would vote in favor of a half-cent sales tax increase for new and/or expanded public transportation. The same poll shows that 57 percent of residents would not support a property tax increase for public transportation. Interestingly, only 9 percent of those surveyed said regional transit should be a top priority for elected officials. Twenty-nine percent of residents said attracting more jobs to the area should be elected officials' top goal. For the full story from the Triangle Business Journal, click here.
Census Shows Raleigh Area is Fastest Growing Census figures released last week show the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area is the fastest growing area in the country. The Raleigh-Cary area includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties and grew by 4.3 percent from July 2007 to July 2008. The closest area in terms of growth is Austin, Texas which grew at a rate of 3.8 percent during the same period. The figures for Raleigh-Cary do mark a slowdown for the area from the previous two years when it great at a rate of 4.7 percent. The Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area did not crack the top ten but still grew at a steady rate of 2.5 percent. Durham, Orange, Chatham and Person counties make up that area. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. New Commercial Tenants Leasing Smaller Spaces Robert Bach, Chief Economist with Grubb and Ellis, reported last week that real estate tenants nationwide are using less space per deal. Bach sites that the average industrial lease signed in the first quarter of 2009 was 22,974 sq ft, which is the lowest its been this decade. In the office category, the average lease signed was 12,808 sq ft which is 50 percent smaller than the quarterly average from 2000 to 2008. The report states three reasons for the reduction in square footage: 1) Tenants signing new leases may have recently laid off staff and are "right-sizing" their space, 2) Tenants may be less optimistic about future expansion plans and are less aggressive in the amount of space being leased, 3) Smaller companies are scooping up the good deals being offered by landlords while larger companies are waiting for the economy to improve. From Grubb and Ellis "Weekly Market Insight"
MBA Estimates Major Increase in Originations The Mortgage Bankers Association upped its expectations for 2009 saying the low interest rates and new federal programs will spur significant refinancing. MBA's original national estimate for 2009 originations was just shy of $2 trillion; its revised figure is $2.78 trillion. Should the numbers this year actually pan out, it would make 2009 the fourth-biggest mortgage year in history. For the full story from the Triangle Business Journal, click here.
Federal Action Helping Local Real Estate Market
Local real estate agents say they are seeing some positive signs after the Federal Reserve's purchase of more than $1 trillion in troubled mortgage debt and treasuries. Sammy Martin, one of the owners of Franklin Street Realty, says he's seen rates around 4.75 percent for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and that there are 275 homes for sale in Chapel Hill that are less than $350,000. Martin says sales were really slow during January and February but that March figures are triple the amount seen in the previous two months. For the full story from 1360 WCHL, click here. |
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