Good Neighbor plan debated at Town Council meeting

The Good Neighbor Plan, which is being created to form positive relationships between the future Interfaith Council shelter on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and its immediate neighbors, came under fire at its first quarterly hearing Monday night.

Chris Moran, executive director of the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, discussed updates to the Good Neighbor Plan, which the Chapel Hill Town Council adopted in May.

Chapel Hill resident Mark Peters raised the concern that the previous meetings discussing the plan have not been open to the public, and the council recommended that audio recordings be made of all future meetings.

Moran insisted that plan meetings have always been open, but many community members, including Peters and council member Donna Bell, said they felt otherwise.

Notable:

-Town Manager Roger Stancil said cuts to the Homestead Aquatic Center represent the beginning of many painful decisions to come in the next few years.

Butch Kisiah, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the decision to close the pool at the Homestead Aquatic Center during the middle of the day was not easy to make but was necessary due to $40,000 of mandated cuts. Council member Gene Pease supported the decision, saying he thought the department made the right choice.

But council member Matt Czajkowski said he felt the cuts are not fair to the community.

-Discussion of the Charterwood Special Use Permit Application and Zoning Atlas Amendment Application was pushed back to Nov. 14, in order to review additional materials.

Quotable:

“You’ve got a lot to say, so I don’t understand why you don’t go to the meetings. What you have to say is important and a lot of people put trust in you.” – Council member Penny Rich to Mark Peters

“The predominance of the (Good Neighbor plan) committee membership is affiliated with the IFC. Any vote that goes forward, the IFC will vote for it and the neighbors will never win.” – Mark Peters