Carrboro Town Council approves budget, considers land use

The Carrboro Town Council met on June 18 to discuss the fiscal year 2024-25 budget, developments on Town-owned land and equity in the Carrboro Police Department. 

What’s new?

• Summit Design and Engineering Services presented a report on the potential development of Town-owned land for possible affording housing use. 
  • The report did not make any plans for development but rather assessed if it would be possible on the Town-owned parcels of land found on Pathway Drive and Crest Street.
    • “I think that this needs to prompt really serious conversations about whether this is meaningful, but that we still have more process even before we would get to the point of even deciding whether we would want to proceed with the concept plan,” council member Danny Nowell said. “My anticipation is, when we hear back from staff, there would be feasibility about the investment of a concept plan.”
  • The Town’s next steps may include making sure that any potential development is in line with Carrboro’s Land Development Ordinance.
    • “These are the best Town-owned lots we have for affordable housing. It does not make them good — it just makes them the best that we have,” council member Catherine Fray said. "And that's now that we have some more granular information about the challenges that we are looking at that tells us where our next steps are.”
  • The report is an early step in identifying potential land for development.
    • “As the community, and as you all go through the reports yourselves, I'm sure that you'll have more questions. That's where we are. In the meantime, we'd like to do a public engagement piece with the community, with Carrboro residents, just to talk about this process that we've gone through and since the report,” Anne-Marie Vanaman, Carrboro Housing and Community Services director, said.
• Chris Atack, chief of the Carrboro Police Department, presented the council with the police department quarterly equity report for the second and third quarters of 2023. 
  • The report detailed statistics such as the number of citizen complaints and the demographic information for search warrants.
  • The report found that minor registration and equipment stops are overall low in number unless there is a safety hazard, there are few complaints and that use of force is infrequent. 
• The council chose to postpone voting on a Pay Parking Ordinance to Sept. 17. 
  • The ordinance would establish a paid parking program in parts of Carrboro. The Town currently only has free parking.

What decisions were made?

• The Carrboro Town Council voted to approve the proposed budget for the FY 2024-25. Darrell Keyes, comptroller of the Town finance department, presented the budget to the council and answered clarifying questions before the council voted. 
  • The budget will be around $68.3 million, a reduction from the FY 2023-24 budget, which was $88.1 million.
    • The general fund will be around $32.7 million and around $41.5 million will be spent on capital projects.
  • The budget was adopted unanimously. 
• The council also voted on revised land use ordinances for residential density and cafés which was approved unanimously.

What’s next? 

The Carrboro Town Council will meet again on Sept. 10. 

@dthcitystate | city@dailytarheel.com