The Carrboro Town Council discussed a resolution concerning the Greene Tract area and reviewed the Town’s Police Department Quarterly Equity Report during its Tuesday meeting. Community members spoke about the Town’s Westwood Cemetery resolution during the public comment section of the meeting.
What’s new?
- Carrboro Planning Director Trish McGuire presented a resolution to the Town regarding the Greene Tract.
- The Greene Tract is a parcel of land jointly owned by Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill. The tract is located south of Eubanks Road and north of Homestead Road.
- The tract is approximately 164 acres. Roughly 104 of those acres are jointly owned by Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County, while 60 are owned and operated solely by Orange County.
- The resolution said that the Town seeks to contract a community engagement specialist related to the Greene Tract Master Plan. According to an information sheet linked in the meeting's agenda, a community engagement specialist would help prioritize "marginalized and disenfranchised communities," as well as benefit current residents living near the tract.
- The 2020 Greene Tract Resolution for a Path Forward stated that the goals for the land are to promote mixed-income housing opportunities, preserve valuable environmental features and promote cost-effective infrastructure.
- "The outcome of that master planning process will help answer that question for the Town about how exactly that will be developed, what entities will be involved in the development — like nonprofit housing agencies, others," Mayor Damon Seils said. "We’re going to need to answer that before we can answer the question of Carrboro’s role beyond the point of development."
- Carrboro Police Chief Chris Atack presented the department’s quarterly equity report.
- The report included statistics from the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.
- The report said that in the first quarter of 2023, the department received four total citizen complaints. Three of the complaints were decided to be unfounded. In the fourth situation, the officer was found to be acting in proper conduct, Atack said.
- During the fourth quarter of 2022, the department had one incident of use of force out of 651 incident reports. In the first quarter of 2023, there were nine incidents involving use of force out of 658 total.
- Some community members said they are frustrated with the possibility of Westwood Cemetery’s burial space expanding into allotted green space and feel that the Town’s resolution is unclear about that possibility.
- Council member Sammy Slade said he agreed with community members’ concerns about the undeveloped green space allotted as a part of the resolution.
- “It is very clear by some of the comments that it was ambiguous to the extent that a lot of people still consider this being cemetery space, which by default means undeveloped — could potentially be developed,” he said.
What decisions were made?
- The council voted 4-3 to move further discussion of the Westwood Cemetery to another meeting.
- “I could not be more disappointed," council member Barbara Foushee said. "The resolution is super clear. Nothing can even be done in that portion of Westwood."
- The council voted unanimously to adopt the resolution to contract a community engagement specialist related to the Greene Tract Master Plan.
- Carrboro’s adoption of this resolution follows the Chapel Hill Town Council’s adoption of this resolution last week.
What’s next?
- The Greene Tract resolution will soon be presented to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners. The council will meet for a work session on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.
