Chapel Hill's tightened budget to impact 2020 plans

Chapel Hill 2020 is encouraging residents to dream big, but officials want to make sure they keep the bottom line in sight.

Town manager Roger Stancil made a fiscal presentation to officials and community members, who then explored ways to tackle some of the town’s budget issues at Thursday’s Chapel Hill 2020 meeting.

The meeting, which was held at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School, was the third key working session for the assigned citizen theme groups contributing to the town’s new comprehensive plan.

Stancil said groups should take into account the tightening budget when considering Chapel Hill’s future plans.

“The scaling back will influence the way people think about Chapel Hill 2020 and how you pay for what you want, especially in a community that hasn’t generally had to think about that,” he said.

The town, which ran a deficit last fiscal year, should streamline public services and allocate resources more efficiently, Stancil said.

“We’ve run out of easy strategies to balance the budget,” he said.

Stancil said keeping taxes low and refraining from public employee layoffs and benefit cuts will make Chapel Hill more desirable to potential businesses and residents, including recent UNC graduates.

He referenced the loss of a new Wal-Mart to Chatham County as motivation for Chapel Hill to become more business friendly.

Steve Wright, the town’s public art coordinator, attended his first Chapel Hill 2020 meeting Thursday to advocate for the arts to be considered in the new plan, even as the town looks to balance its budget.

“An artistic community is a desirable community to live and work in,” he said.

Wright said he also wants to stay optimistic.

“We want to dream big and let that dictate what type of budget 2020 will have instead of assuming bad economic times will continue for the next two decades,” he said.

To address the economic issues, the audience split into six assigned theme groups, such as “getting around” and “community prosperity and engagement.”

The “place for everyone” theme group discussed concerns about maintaining funding for non-profits and other plans to benefit the community.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward, who sat in on the theme group’s discussion, said they should consider inflation when thinking about non-profit funding.

“In general the same dollar amount is going less far than before,” he said.

Robert Dowling, executive director of Community Home Trust said the non-profit organization, which receives funding from the town, has not seen a change in the amount they receive in four years, making it hard to continue its mission of providing affordable housing.

Attendees at the meeting said they hoped to make Chapel Hill more accessible to all demographics — so they will focus on programs like the Home Trust moving forward.

The groups will meet Dec. 15 at East Chapel Hill High School for the next working session.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.