Residents petition for Chapel Hill 2020 extension

Some residents think the eight months the town has set aside to form Chapel Hill 2020, a new plan to guide its future growth, will not be long enough.

A group of petitioners plans to ask Town Council to extend the process until 2013. The council started working on the plan this fall and plan to conclude it in June.

Petitioners said they want the extension to ensure that they can become fully informed and address all aspects of the plan — which they say is a increasingly complex document — before presenting it to Town Council.

“It’s worth doing right this time around,” petitioner Will Raymond said. “I have no desire to stretch it out more than it needs to, but quite clearly, we need more time.”

Raymond was one of 33 who had as of Sunday night signed a petition drafted by Jeff Miles, Molly De Marco, Allison De Marco, Jason Baker, Erin Crouse and Ruby Sinreich last week.

Sinreich posted the letter on Orange Politics, a liberal-leaning blog on local politics and also emailed it to other residents.

But Rosemary Waldorf, Chapel Hill 2020 co-chairwoman, said specifics will be tackled after the comprehensive plan is presented to Town Council in June.

“We’re doing major, big-picture type of work. It was never believed that by June of this year that all of the documentation will be done,” Waldorf said. “Everyone has to get on the same page about what is actually due in June and what comes later.”

Waldorf said a total of 33 petitioners seems small in comparison to the 150 to 250 people who attend planning meetings.

But Raymond said the plan is nowhere near completion.

Raymond served on the Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force in 2009, and said the group worked for 18 months on a comprehensive plan before Town Council dissolved it because of tensions between its members.

“Now 2020 is not even at that point when the task force was stopped,” Raymond said. “It’s only a third of the way through, if that.”

And petitioner Amey Miller said the community lacked the information to form an independent opinion.

“We’re scrambling to catch up on the information,” Miller said. “We really want to understand more deeply.”

She said compared to other communities, Chapel Hill’s process seems hasty.

“There are communities that plan for 18 months to 2 year periods,” Miller said. “Eight months is pretty tight.”

Community group Neighbors for Responsible Growth is also spreading the word about the petition in the hopes of gaining more signatures.

Waldorf said although she thinks June is a realistic deadline, she also believes in a concrete plan to improve Chapel Hill.

“The most important thing is to come up with a good plan that is responsive to the mayor and Town Council’s needs,” she said.

Residents hope to give their 2020 extension petition to Town Council before its retreat in February.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.