As part of our move to sustainable energy practices, the University is partnering with Orange County on a project to turn the landfill gas from the Orange County Landfill on Eubanks Road into energy. On Monday, October 13, from 7 - 8:30 p.m. Orange County will host an information meeting on the project at the Seymour Center at 2551 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill.

Landfills like the one on Eubanks Road produce landfill gas, created as the waste stored there decomposes. The landfill gas then escapes into the atmosphere and is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This project would collect the gas and transport it to University property where it would be converted to electricity. This electricity would be used for power at the Giles Horney complex on Martin Luther King Boulevard and later for buildings at Carolina North.

According to the meeting agenda:

The Council will seek input from the public regarding the proposed process for guiding development at Carolina North. At the request of the Mayor this item has been moved to the beginning of the meeting due to extensive public interest

On Thursday evening September 25th, at 7 PM, the Chapel Hill Town Council held a special meeting at the Friday Center.  In addition to all of the Council members (except Councilman Bill Thorpe who is absent due to medical issues) the Council Members were joined by UNC representatives Roger Perry (Chair, Board of Trustees), Bob Winston (trustee, Chair of the Building Committee) and Jack Evans, who is is chair of the Carolina North project for the University.

One of the important points that was made early by Roger Perry was that he and Bob Winston speak for the trustees and he gave assurances that anything that they agreed to in principle would be supported by the Trustees.  Another important issue was that of timing.  Roger pointed out that in July there will be 6 new trustees (out of 13) and that these new trustees would come in with little or no background.  Thus he urged the Council to consider a timetable that would complete by the Council's summer recess the necessary steps (e.g., rezoning, development agreement?) to allow Carolina North to go forward.

This is interesting. I may have missed the announcement of this high-level negotiating process between UNC Trustees and the Chapel Hill Town Council. It's not clear to me whether it's open to the public, or if we just get to watch the highlights later.

[Long-time lurker, first time poster]

Two paths diverged in the woods and I took the third.

It occurrs to me that there might be another way to meet (or even exceed) AHEC's needs while also preserving land and avoiding a protracted debate and a souring of town-gown relations.

So far the paths being argued are:  1) Build a new airport in the county or 2) Base all operations from RDU.  I believe there is a third path that hasn't been considered.

In short, build a heliport.  Let that sink in for a minute and then read on for more...

We all know helicopters don't need much space to operate, so this is an easy one.  In fact, it could even be sited on the existing Horace Williams airport while still allowing for plenty of space for the new campus.

I took some photos today but they are truly horrible. Wlil post later. Some of my biggest impressions so far:

1. The empty Pfizer campus, and the Chamber director talking about nearby businesses that are about to go under from losing the business from 2,000 employees & 1,000 contractors that used to work there. Are you listening Carolina North folks?
2. There are lots of tall buildings (5 - 10 - 15 feet stories) and most of them look really nice and seem to work well. Some of them don't though. I talked with some folks tonight about how Chapel Hill lacks the regulatory tools to analyze tall buildings. How do we know how tall is "too tall", what are factors that make it work or make it fail? One local suggested that I meet a woman from their downtown commission, but I'm really more interested in the perspective of a City Council or Planning Board type.

Kudos to the UNC-CH Board of Trustees for rejecting a recent architectural plan for the inaugural building at Carolina North. It seems they felt the proposed design of the Innovation Center was not innovative enough to mark the entrance to the modern new campus which they plan to build in the northern heart of Chapel Hill. I was glad to see that the BOT has such high expectations for the building, but was a bit concerned about administrators' refusal to consider locating the building anywhere other than the grand entrance.

I still don't understand the logic behind UNC doing construction before completing the plan for the larger campus into which this building must fit. I really don't feel I can support any thing on that site until we see that it will be part of a commitment to use Carolina North to enhance Chapel Hill and not just UNC's bottom line.