Moratoriums are, as Planning Board chair James Carnahan put it, “a crude tool.†Crude, but effective. And, sometimes, entirely necessary to give a local government time to adjust to meet a demand not anticipated.
They are also all the rage this spring in Orange County. Carrboro signed on to the idea on Tuesday and, should the Board of County Commissioners agree, the six-month clock would start ticking in mid-April.
In early May, Chapel Hill is scheduled to consider a moratorium of its own.
The focus for all these public bodies is what can happen as growth pushes farther into undeveloped or under-developed areas north of the town.
That the area south of Interstate 40 would fill in has been known — and planned for — since the completion of the highway was just a gleam in the eye of NC DOT engineers.
The corridor that runs from Sage Road, though Weaver Dairy Road and extension and on to Homestead Road has been envisioned by planners as a major northern transportation route since the 1980s. And Carrboro has held decades of discussions on the future of the town’s northern transition area.
But it is walk-the-walk time here and for our neighbors next door. Should the county agree and Chapel Hill also sign on, both towns will need to work quickly to shape market forces that left unaltered promise to turn the northern region into a patchwork of suburban subdivisions with large lots, large homes and a dearth of commercial opportunities.
Six months is not a long time, but the plans and the strategies are already on the table. The key will be making them happen and trying to impress upon developers that density and mixed-use are the way to go.
Step one in getting developers’ attention happened Tuesday night — albeit with a crude tool.
How it’s done
We’re sure you’ll agree; Monday was an awfully nice day for a conservation easement dedication.
Anytime we can put a little buffer between what washes off our lawns and roadways and the streams that feed ours and others water supply, we’re better off. As any young sciencist from Frank Porter Graham Elementary School will tell you, just take a look at the benthic macroinvertebrates.
Of course, the little path that will someday wend its way from Merritt Pasture to Smith Level Road is likely to be seen as much more. This is open rebellion against the tyranny of the automobile — a suburban to urban pathway that connects an area that has filled out in the last decade. This is a corridor that affords safe crossing of U.S. 15-501 and a safe bikeway and path to three schools. It connects neighborhoods long-split by Fordham Boulevard and links Southern Village and Culbreth and, someday, will continue with a bike and pedestrian path into the towns.
The new greenway is an example of the kind of partnership between governments, agencies and non-profits that leverages that ever-shrinking amount of land available for conservation. Most importantly this is a promise kept — a promise that a vision this community had decades ago of a transportation and greenway network that is off the grid in a different way.
Final loss
The final loss of the Men’s basketball season was the hardest to take of them all. It happened not on the court, but in a hospital room far from campus.
If you ever watched Jason Ray make his rounds as Rameses during half-time or a long break in a game, you saw how the children flocked to his side as parents filmed away. He understood that cheering on the team was one part of the job, but that being there for the kids was just as important. He was patience personified with a real heart for the job and he left us far too soon.