Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Cicadas and the Spinners, a competing soundtrack. Through every ancient family reunion t-shirt, it's peeling ink. Through every look under the hood, just to check if that oil looking right, or if the AC ain't leaking. Through every press of a whispered, just right, into the crown of another black woman in her salon chair. Through every Easter pageant, the baby's just learning that to speak is to rise again, held by people who believe you can fly. Now that enough time has passed, take the dough from that proofing dark and place her in the oven to grow. This is the ritual. We gather. We shape. We wait. We warm until potential is transformed into the promise our ancestors made, and we will keep forever. Thank you. And if you want to hear more Juneteenth poetry and culture, we'll be at Hargraves Community Center on Friday at 4 PM. I'd love to see you all there. Thank you.

Thank you for that poem, Dr. Bennett. I believe the title was Freedom Rising. Excellent, wonderful for the occasion. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I have several proclamations, but the first thing that I want to start with is a statement of support for the Orange County Crisis Diversion Facility. The Orange County Board of County Commissioners will be taking up this matter this evening. And I, along with Mayor Anderson from Chapel Hill, Mayor Mark Bail from the town of Hillsborough, and of course, my colleagues are signing on to kind of help this along. The commissioners are the decision makers. But we certainly realize the benefit of having a crisis diversion facility in Orange County. So on behalf of Chapel Hill, Carver, and Hillsboro, we strongly support the funding and development of the proposed crisis diversion facility in Hillsboro and commend Orange County for advancing this critical investment in our community's behavioral health infrastructure. For many years, local governments, health care providers, first responders, behavioral health professionals, and community stakeholders have identified a significant gap in Orange County's crisis response system, the lack of a dedicated facility where individuals experiencing complex mental health or substance use crises can receive timely, compassionate, and appropriate care. Through the county's sequential intercept mapping process and subsequent behavioral health task force recommendations, the need for a crisis diversion facility emerged as a top community priority. We have seen examples of similar diversion facilities firsthand and can attest to not only the need, but the significant benefit that will come to Orange County as a whole with this type of facility. This project aligns with Orange County's longstanding commitment to improving access to mental health care, reducing unnecessary involvement in the criminal justice system, and advancing equitable health outcomes. It represents a proactive investment in community well-being, public safety, and dignity for residents of all ages. The facility's proposed location near existing health care resources in Hillsboro will further enhance coordination of care and access to services. We believe the crisis diversion facility will become an essential community resource that benefits residents throughout Orange County. We encourage continued collaboration among local governments, health care providers, community organizations, and residents as this important project moves forward. Local governments are experiencing unprecedented budget challenges in FY27, and we appreciate Orange County's financial situation and challenges to fund all identified needs in the county. Our hope is the diversion facility will receive funding in the new budget to enable it to proceed and provide essential services in the near future. And in talking with a couple of the commissioners, I do hear concerns about about how they would cover the operating costs, you know, for this facility. And I understand that. But, you know, I just kind of suggested, hey, you know, just expand the conversation, you know. And I believe that it can be figured out about how to do it. Orange County, like a lot of other states, governmental entities during this challenging budget cycle, they're feeling it. And I understand them being skittish. But I do trust them to make the best decision about this crisis diversion facility. And so with that being said, I will ask for a motion from my colleagues to join me in signing on to the statement of support for the Orange County Crisis Diversion Facility.

So moved. Seconded.

It's been moved and properly seconded that we all sign on to the statement of support. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Thank you, colleagues. So we're going to go back just a little bit. I see Community Home Trust in the house. And I know that they were not able to be here on June 2nd, but I do want to make sure I invited them back. And I'm going to present the Community Home Trust Day proclamation. And receiving is Bretta. Is that Bretta Stroud? No. Everybody, everybody coming up. I see the ED, the Sanchez and Bretta. Okay, okay. All right. Okay, okay. And whereas Community Home Trust is celebrating 35 years and has provided permanently affordable housing opportunities for over three decades. And whereas the organization supports diverse populations, including working families and essential workers. And whereas community home trust ensures long-term housing affordability through its community land trust model. And whereas access to safe and affordable housing strengthens communities and promotes economic stability. Now, therefore, I, Barbara M. Foushee, Mayor of the Town of Carrboro, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim June 1st, about all month, June 1st, 2026, to be Community Home Trust Day. And this was proclaimed the second day of June 2026. I am excited and happy to present it to the Executive Director, Kimberly Sanchez, and welcome whoever's going to talk. Let's say a few words. Yeah, and then we'll get the picture. OK, thanks.

Thank you. It's so nice to see all of you. I appreciate the time. I just want to take a few minutes. Not only are we celebrating 35 years, but this year we will also hit 300 homes. 300 permanently affordable home ownership opportunities. Yes. And also want to thank you all very, very much for your continued support of Community Home Trust. We are just really, really grateful because you trust us to take these homes into our inventory and to keep them maintained literally forever, literally forever under our 99-year ground lease that renews and renews and renews and renews. And also want to really thank you for your advocacy with developers. I hope that you know, and if you don't, that in the fall, we will receive four new homes in Carrboro at Jade Creek. through the voluntary inclusionary housing, which we don't say. So we say thank you very much for asking developers to do the right thing here so that we can bring them into our inventory. Really, really appreciate it. Thank you.

Yes. Is there anyone else? Who was that? I get to speak for everyone.

I'm a UDD. I mean, hey, what do you want? So we want to take a photo.

Picture. Do any of the rest of you want to come up here? Yeah, you too, Councilman Majora. Somebody, oh, there she is. You've arranged us. Tell us. I'm going to.

You've got to come up front. I've got to come up front. Sorry. Yeah, that's perfect.

I'm going to face swap.

Thank you so much. Good to see you.

I'm going to move to Juneteenth, a proclamation for Juneteenth. Michelle Bloom from Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Resources will accept and say a few words, maybe a little bit of promotion. A proclamation in honor of Juneteenth. Whereas Juneteenth is the oldest national commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. And whereas Juneteenth takes on more significance this year because it marks the 160th anniversary of the holiday and continues to be a day of reflection on the ongoing fight for equality and justice. And whereas Juneteenth is a celebration of black history, culture, and resilience, and provides a platform for community engagement and education. And whereas on June 19, 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston Island, Texas, with approximately 2,000 troops. The Civil War had ended the previous month, and these Union forces were tasked with taking control of Texas and enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation. And whereas that same day on the balcony of Ashton Villa, General Granger read his general order number three, which stated, the people of Texas are informed that in accordance with the proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. And whereas the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, but the slaves in Texas were unaware of it until being told by General Granger. Reaction to the news ranged from jubilation to shock, and the freed slaves took to the streets to celebrate. Whereas in the years that followed, June 19th was commemorated by the holiday of Juneteenth, combining the words June and 19th. And whereas on January 1, 1980, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday. And on August 23, 2007, North Carolina approved Session Law 2007-450, an act recognizing Juneteenth National Freedom Day in North Carolina. Whereas, although Juneteenth is not a North Carolina state holiday, on July 14, 2020, the Carrboro Town Council adopted a resolution designating Juneteenth as an official paid holiday for town employees and urged state and federal legislators to sponsor legislation making Juneteenth an official state and federal holiday. And whereas on June 17, 2021, the United States Congress approved the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, and President Joe Biden signed the bill the following day, making Juneteenth National Independence Day a federal holiday. Yes. And whereas the annual Chapel Hill-Carborough Juneteenth celebration will be held on Friday, June 19th from 4 to 8 p.m. at Hargraves Community Center and will include fellowship, music, speakers, vendors, and amazing food. And now, therefore, I, Barbara M. Foushee, Mayor of the Town of Carrboro, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim Friday, June 19, 2026, to be a date for the celebration of the Juneteenth National Independence Day in Carrboro. I encourage all residents to carry the spirit of Juneteenth with them. all year long, and learn more about the history of Juneteenth. This, the 16th day of June, 2026. And Michelle is here. And Michelle, the microphone is yours. Let me hear it move.

She just said half of my speech, so thank you, in the proclamation. But good evening, mayor, council members, town managers, staff, and community members. On behalf of everyone who has worked to preserve, celebrate, and share the history and significance of Juneteenth, I'm honored to accept this proclamation. As Mayor Foushee mentioned, it's been 160 years that those Union troops did arrive in Galveston, Texas, to announce the freedom of slaves. And this is after two years that the Emancipation Proclamation was given. So this is two years after the fact. Troops did arrive in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, in April of 1865 at St. Paul AME Church to announce the enslaved African Americans were free. So that's a little history for you on Chapel Hill, Carrboro area. But you all have little gifts of the flag before you, which this is the actual Juneteenth flag, which you may have seen coming into town hall. The flag, which represents our United States flag colors, also allows African-Americans to know that they are Americans, that they are free. The star in the middle, which represents Texas, the long star state in which, again, Galveston, Texas is where the Union troops marched in to announce. This represents freedom throughout the nation. The curved line represents a horizon, so a new horizon for our future. And also it signifies hope and opportunity as well. So again, as we gather to recognize Juneteenth this Friday, June 19th at Hargraves, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., I just want everybody to acknowledge the sacrifices, the contributions, of those who came before us and recommit ourselves to building communities where opportunity, justice, and belonging are available to all. And I do feel Carrboro embodies that. So I thank you all.

Yes. I love the comments as well as the history. Thank you so much, Michelle. It's good. I'm going to move to Disability Pride Month. And accepting will be Krista Caraway. Excited to have her here and also to hear from her. Disability Pride Month. Whereas Disability Pride Month is celebrated nationally and internationally each July to commemorate the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, a landmark civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities. And whereas approximately 15% of the world's population are disabled, representing a rich spectrum of identities across age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and socioeconomic background. And whereas, Carrboro is home to a vibrant and diverse disabled community whose presence, leadership, creativity, and advocacy deeply enrich our town. And whereas, Disability Pride Month is an opportunity to honor the history, culture, and contributions of disabled people while affirming disability as a natural and valuable part of human diversity. And whereas this month challenges ableism, combats stigma, and promotes full inclusion and equity by recognizing that disability is not a deficit, but a vital part of who people are and how they move through the world. And whereas Carrboro is committed to being a town where all people, including those with disabilities, can live with dignity, safety, access, joy, and pride. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Barbara M. Foushee, Mayor of the Town of Carrboro, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Disability Pride Month in Carrboro, North Carolina, and call upon all residents to join in recognizing and celebrating the disabled members of our community with visibility, respect, and solidarity. This the 16th day of June 2026. Krista.

Thank you, Mayor Foushee, Town Council, and neighbors. Thank you for this proclamation and for recognizing Disability Pride Month. As an autistic woman, a parent, an advocate, an educator, an author, and a member of this Carrboro community, I am honored to accept it on behalf of this disability community. When many neighbors hear the word disability, they think of limitations. I think of people. I think of my neighbors. I think of families. I think of children and adults who want the same thing everybody wants, to be seen, to belong, to contribute, to be loved, and to have the opportunity to thrive. Disability is not a dirty word. Fred Rogers once said, Anything that's human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be manageable. Disability is mentionable, and it's human. One in four Americans lives with a disability, and if we are fortunate enough to live long lives, most of us will join the community ourselves at some point. Disability is not about them, it's about all of us or your future. This is why inclusion cannot be something we add later. It cannot be an afterthought, a separate space, an adapted program, a separate program, or a temporary fix. True inclusion begins with disabled adults are present from the start, at the table, at the meeting, in the planning, in leadership, in decision making, not as a box to check, not a special project, charity, or photo opportunity, as neighbors. When we make space for disability, we create a better world for everybody. The same is true when we embrace the full diversity of our community, the richness of different races, cultures, religions, languages, identities, socioeconomic backgrounds, abilities, and life experiences. A truly inclusive community recognizes that every person has inherent worth and something valuable to contribute. I hope we continue moving toward a future built on universal design and human-centered thinking, not only in our buildings, sidewalks, websites, and public spaces, but in the way we see each other and in our thinking. The future where accessibility is expected, not requested. A future where we presume competence, even in those that are non-speaking. A future where disabled people are invited into the conversation before decisions are made, not after. Nothing about us without us is more than a slogan. It's an invitation. An invitation to get to know your disabled neighbors, to listen to lived experience, to work alongside us, to learn from us, to create communities where everyone belongs. Fred Rogers taught generations of us what it meant to be a neighbor. Being a neighbor is more than kindness. It is making room for one another. It is seeing one another. It is recognizing that every person has dignity and worth. To be seen is to be valued. To belong is to be known. So my challenge to all of us during Disability Pride Month and the rest of the year is simple. Be our neighbor. So listen to our disabled voices. Presume competence. Make room at the table before the meeting begins. Help create communities where no one is an afterthought. Because when disabled people belong, everyone benefits. And when we build communities where everyone belongs, we create a future that is more compassionate, more accessible, more just, and more human for all of us. Thank you for recognizing Disability Pride Month and for helping build a community where every person is seen, valued, welcomed, and loved exactly as they are. Every action has a ripple effect while yours harm or heal. Thank you.

Thanks.

I appreciate you.

Sorry. That's okay. I messed up your stuff. That's okay.

Oh, hold on. Bring some, yeah. Come on back.

I'm going to have you up here reading. Here you go.

And also, congratulations to your high school graduates. Yeah, wasn't that amazing? Krista had two high school graduates in commencement on Saturday, and so I know that was a very proud moment for her and her family. Town of Carrboro, proclamation honoring. Recreation and Parks Month accepting will be J.G. Ferguson, Recreation and Parks Director. And here he is. He's always just so sharp. Okay. Okay. What? You know, I like the casual side. You're doing a little bit more there. Looking good. Proclamation honoring Recreation and Parks Month. Come on out. No, no, no. Take your time. It's fine. You as well. All right, thanks. Whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month, and the National Park and Recreation Association has designated this year's theme as the power of parks and recreation. And whereas this year's theme, the power of parks and recreation, celebrates the many ways parks and recreation reveal the power of what connects us. The power of connection. Parks and recreation is where relationships grow, cultures meet, and communities bond. The power of play. From playgrounds to programs to youth sports, play fuels creativity, joy, and lifelong learning. The power of community. Public spaces offer room for everyone to gather, celebrate, and heal. The power of nature. Nature restores and inspires us and parks ensure everyone can access its benefits. The power of belonging. Welcoming parks and programs make every person feel valued. The power of well-being. Parks and recreation advances health, resilience, and shared community benefits. Whereas the town of Carrboro strives to maintain safe and healthy park amenities for all ages, and the town strives to offer a comprehensive recreation program including youth and adult classes, youth and adult athletic leagues, camps, workshops, clinics, and community events such as Carrboro Earth Day, the Elizabeth Cotton Freight Train Blues Concert Series, the Chapel Hill Carrboro Juneteenth Celebration, the Carrboro Music Festival, and many more. Whereas Town of Carrboro Parks and natural recreation areas improve water quality, improve the quality of the air we breathe, produce habitat for wildlife, add to the ecological beauty of the community, and provide spaces for residents to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the town's Recreation Parks and Cultural Resources Department is committed to advancing town pillars of racial equity and sustainability in all programs, facilities, and services. And whereas the dedicated employees of the Recreation Parks and Cultural Resources Department have an average of over 20 years of service in the field of parks and recreation. Now, therefore, I, Barbara M. Foushee, Mayor of the Town of Carrboro, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim July 2026 to be Recreation and Parks Month in Carrboro. I encourage all residents to enjoy our parks and natural areas, to take advantage of classes, camps, programs, and events provided by the Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Resources Department, and to share appreciation and thanks with the department's many dedicated employees and volunteers. This is the 16th day of June, 2026. And JG, would you like to say a couple of words? All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and council members. First, I would like to thank all of you for your continued support of our department and all things that our staff does. In honor of the theme this year of power, our staff puts a lot of power and energy and does a fantastic job to always provide for our community of Carrboro. And so I really want to give them all the thanks, because without them, none of this is really possible, what we do and what you do for us, and the support from our manager's office as well. So we want to thank all of you for all that you continue to do for us, and we appreciate it. As the mayor said, we do a lot of events and programming. I think Carrboro is known for events, bringing people together, and it's amazing work that we do and continue to do and enjoy doing. Michelle's got an event coming up, as we talked about earlier, on Friday the Juneteenth, and so it's another way of bringing our community together and embracing one another. Also on the side of our facilities, our staff's doing a great job of enhancing all of our facilities, seeing new signage go up out of our park systems and improving playgrounds and, again, making a place to safe play for all of our residents to come out and enjoy all of our park facilities. And finally, I'd like to thank other staff departments that we partner with that help us with public works and public safety and communication engagement. Those are our main users that we work well together to bring all these events to you. So, again, it's a big team effort, and I'm proud of Carver and our staff always working together to provide for our community. Very good. Thank you. Thank you.

That's the last proclamation. I need a drink of water. Thank you. We are at the town manager's update. Town Manager Tony, do you have updates?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. No, I'm excited. This is our last meeting until the fall. And I really just want to take a moment just to express my gratitude to piggyback off of what JG just stated. We just have an amazing staff, great team. They do work very well together. It looks like everybody except for Home Trust is staff. So why don't all the staff just stand? And I just want to... say thank you yes y'all stand look at kevin fashion uh they do just such great work and we're not always perfect but they always strive for excellence and they continue to raise the bar even when the bar is high and so i just want to say thank you all for your work

Thank you so much, Town Manager Tony. We're down to the public comment period. I don't believe I've received any names for public comment. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to give public comment that did not sign up about anything? All right. We're going to move on to a hefty consent agenda. A whole 16 items of consent agenda. Council members, I know that you've had the opportunity to look over these and probably put any questions forward to the town manager if there were any. But I will certainly entertain a motion to pass these 16 items in a single swoop if there is nothing else further.

I move the consent agenda.

Thank you. Seconded. All right. It's been moved and properly seconded that we pass the consent agenda. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. The consent agenda is passed. Thank you. And Town Manager Toney, we're down to the first item of the general agenda.

OK. There are two items on the general agenda. They are both information items only and do not require action. The first one is a 2026 hurricane season outlook and preparedness. Riley Stahl, as you knew as my management analyst, has transitioned into a new role to support Chief Potter, who also serves as the emergency manager. And Riley is now the emergency

planner position so she's going to give an overview congratulations thank you thank you all right you're going to do the presentation nice yes welcome yes thank you madam mayor and town council it's my pleasure to present to you for the first time in my new role on this year's hurricane outlook and some preparedness updates on the staff side and some recommendations for our residents So as I just mentioned, today we're going to be talking about the outlook for 2026, what NOAA has put out to expect for this hurricane season, our annual preparedness updates, some lessons learned for Tropical Storm Chantal and how we're going to use those lessons to be more prepared in this upcoming hurricane season. And then lastly, some readiness improvements and recommendations for our residents. The outlook for 2026, as you all may know, hurricane season officially started on June 1st and will run through November 20th. NOAA has predicted that this year we will have a less active season. So that means that we have a 55% chance of below average activity. So that is a good thing. That's good news. But what that means is that we can still expect one to three major hurricanes. There's no telling exactly when those will be and where the effects will be felt, but we just know that those are on the horizon. And as we learned last year from Chantal, it really only takes one major storm to disrupt our activities. That's what's on the horizon right now. There is the first tropical system of the 2026 hurricane season is forming. We don't expect that it will have any impact on our area at this time. So looking back at Tropical Storm Chantal, one thing that I just want to call out is that Chantal was the largest emergency management and recovery operation in recent town history. As you all know, it had major impacts on our facilities, on our equipment and on staff time, so we're still working on recovery from that. We experienced town-wide EOC activation, significant flooding and infrastructure impacts, extensive debris removal operations, damage to town facilities, fleet and equipment, which you all know we're still dealing with now, FEMA public assistance, and we have those recovery efforts still ongoing working with FEMA, and then a regional coordination across multiple agencies that we partnered with during that disaster. So some key lessons learned. What worked in our area is our regional coordinations. When we called upon our partners, they were there to help us. Our EOC operations were working exactly how they're designed to. Our public works response and our public information sharing. So that was something that we felt worked well in the Incident of Chantal as well as in the aftermath and then some things that we're going to continue to improve on our information management Recovery documentation to make that recovery process easier flood monitoring beforehand so that we can prepare the community as much as possible Planning and trading on our public works public safety side and for staff and residents and then EOC staffing capacity Which you'll hear more about in just a second And the second is here. So EOP updates. So the county has undergone a comprehensive EOP update. So some of the things they were focusing on in that is a shared operational framework, clear coordination of responsibilities within the county and their EOC and how that affects the municipalities within Orange County, and then improved interoperability so that we all know our roles and we can function better together. And then on the Carbro, we also underwent an EOP rewrite that has just recently been completed. We have updated our activation levels for different emergencies, defined departmental responsibilities, improved the documentation process, and completed integration with the county plan. So now we're all operating at the same speed. In the departmental responsibilities, we also have outlined the responsibility of our policy group, which includes you all in your roles during an emergency. And we'll bring forth some training on that hopefully this fall. This is a list of some things we've done since Chantal to make ourselves better prepared for the next emergency. One is hiring my position as an emergency management planner so that I can hopefully give us some preparedness before the next disaster happens. Improved evacuation messaging, which I'll also go into, I think, on the next slide. Enhanced EOC planning capabilities. So as part of our EOP was adding more departments, more positions in our EOC so that we are able to build out that planning capacity. FEMA recovery process improvements. We adopted our hazard mitigation plan. We recently approved our stream gauges. You all approved three stream gauges in this year's budget, so we're gonna be working on that and how those can help us monitor potential flood conditions. Improved regional coordination with our partners and completed additional training and exercises. So back to that evacuation messaging, one project that I've been working on since starting my role is something called Ready, Set, Go. This is something that's used in jurisdictions all across the country, and it is an evacuation protocol. So you can see I have it listed here. Ready is a message that will go out. In our case, what we've decided is that this is something that will go out as a news press release on social media. And this is basically telling residents that we have severe storm on the way. Be prepared. Have your go bags ready. Know where you're going to go in the event of an evacuation. Set, it will be sent out as a OC alert, which I'll have some more information on in a coming slide. So residents, we encourage all residents to sign up for OC alerts so that they can be the first to be informed in the event of an emergency. So set means that the storm is coming. You need to make your final preparations and be ready to evacuate. And then go means go now. Your property are in danger of immediate flooding. So it's time to seek shelter. We are adopting this model in partnership with Orange County, Chapel Hill, and Hillsboro. And we're planning on offering this information in our top five community languages. This is the graphic. This will be the first informational graphic that Orange County and Carrboro will be pushing out later this week. So this is a part of a larger information campaign on hurricane season and Ready, Set, Go so that whenever people see these notifications pop up on their phone, they know what they mean and they know what they need to do to prepare at each step. What to expect this hurricane season? You can expect enhanced monitoring on the part of town and emergency management staff to send out alerts ahead of severe storms. EOC activation as needed with that built out capacity that I mentioned earlier. Regular council briefings from emergency management staff to you all so that you're staying up to date. public information updates shared through our communications teams on social media and our website, regional coordination among our county partners and beyond, and then damage assessment and recovery planning. Hurricane season preparedness. So we're hoping to have more events this summer that will go into how residents can practically prepare for hurricanes. But some things I wanted to mention is preparing a go bag. So we are hoping to have an actual workshop on this that I'll be planning this summer for residents that don't have a go bag. So we encourage all residents to prepare a go bag for themselves and their family members. some of which include a gallon of water per resident per day. So we ask residents to prepare to sustain themselves for the first 72 hours after a major incident. So that would mean three gallons of water per person in a household. And we ask residents to consider other things like their vital prescription medication, dog food, baby formula, diapers, a change of clothes, power banks, all those necessities that you would need to take care of yourself for those first 72 hours. Another big push, as I mentioned, we want to suggest all residents to sign up for OC alerts. That is really our first point of messaging whenever an incident does occur, whether it be flooding or any other sort of large-scale incident. Road closures can even be put on there if it's major enough. So that is a major suggestion. I have the QR code over there to the right that residents can scan and sign up for OC alerts. Following Town of Carrboro and Orange County on social media, as I mentioned, the first step of Ready, Set, Go! will be shared via social media. And we ask that those residents that do follow our social media, you share it with your neighbors, share it with your colleagues, share it to your social media stories so that as many people can be notified as possible. We ask residents also to stay up to date on a weather forecast so that they can be prepared for inclement weather. And then also readyorange.org will be a resource for all preparedness information from Orange County during the event of emergency. In closing, even though we expect a below average hurricane season this year, preparedness is a year-round effort and we always want to be prepared for that one next large storm. We want to take the lessons that we learned from Chantal and continue to drive meaningful impacts. We want you all to know that our county and town emergency operations plans have been updated and improved and that we will continue to share those updates with you so that you all understand your role better as our policy group we are making investments in preparedness and mitigation efforts and we want you all to know that carbro is in a better position than last year for our next major event and that's it i'm happy to answer any questions alongside chief potter

That was very good. Very good presentation. We appreciate the information. Love that ready, set, go. And all the other information that you provided, which is really useful. Council members, are there questions or comments for Riley or Chief Potter?

Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. I was looking through the QR code, and I remember that I did something like this last time. And I noticed, and maybe I went to the wrong thing, but you have to create an account. I imagine you have to create a full account in order to get the notifications in. Yeah, that's what I'm looking at. And I see that there is the language dropdown, so I really appreciate that fact. I wonder, is there a way we could put any kind of disclosure at the top or anything, kind of letting folks know that their information will not be shared outside of town regulations? Because I'm thinking of some of the folks that might not be willing to put all of their information will probably be the ones that are most impacted by some of these alerts.

Yeah, OC Alerts is managed by Orange County, but I can definitely pass along that suggestion to them.

That'd be really great. Thank you so much. Aside from that, I really like the fact that there's a drop-down menu on language, so just appreciate that.

It looks like there are no other questions or comments. I had one before you get your folder, Chief Potter.

You're like, I'm out.

I had one. With the federal funding cuts... I was wondering and am concerned and believe I read something somewhere that there may have been some cuts as it relates to NOAA or, you know, being able to forecast the weather and all things that are involved with that. Are you aware of that? Is that actually true or are you still getting what you've always gotten and anticipate continuing to do so?

So there have been cuts, obviously, broadly across the federal government. We still have a very close partnership with the National Weather Service Office out of Raleigh. They provide, during disasters, they provide updates. They also provide remote support during events. So for, like, the Juneteenth event, for the Pride event that's in a couple of weeks, for July 4th event, they provide remote meteorological support for those events as well. So we've seen no meaningful change interactions with the Weather Service. They're actually improving, I think, and really kind of adding some staff members and adding some capabilities. So it's a great partnership, and I hope that that continues.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Good to hear there's no impact. And that was it. We received the information, and thank you so much. Great presentation.

I do want to say, too, that the Ready, Set, Go, that has been all Riley. Ready, Set, Go, Riley. That has been something that she took on as her first project and has really started that movement across the county.

Very good. Love the graphic. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Next item, town manager.

Okay. Next item, this is the item we've all been waiting for. This is an update and continued discussion on the Unified Development Ordinance rewrite with our project consultant from Code Right. It looks like John Fusa is going to tee this up, followed by Chad.

Welcome, Mr. Fusa, and also Chad. How are you doing?

Very good. Thank you, Mayor and Town Council. I'm very pleased this evening, and for the record, John Fusa, Director of Planning, Zoning, and Inspections, very pleased this evening to welcome our code expert, Consultant Chad Meadows of Code Right back for an update for you on where the Unified Development Ordinance Project at the code diagnosis phase stands. This is a major milestone, and since I started with the town in December, I think I've spent every day, week, and month both thinking about and working on the UDO and the co-diagnosis with Chad and his team. our terrific planning team who work on the project, who are here tonight, and our stakeholders. So much work has gone on behind the scenes. We're now pleased to be in front of the curtain, so to speak, to update you this evening. And kind of our progress recently has built to this update and engagement with you. We've recently been updating and engaging with town boards and commissions. Those events happened on May 21st and June 4th. We've also updated and engaged with our development community stakeholders that happened on June 3rd. And that kind of updating engagement has all kind of been building to this evening with Chad's update and discussion with you. Chad, tonight we've planned for about a 30-minute block, but of course variable. The first part will be a brief presentation of about 10 minutes or so, and then questions, comments, discussion with you and Chad. So I think, and that's about it. And so now, without any further ado, I'll turn it over to Chad. Now, I wanted, Lamar, did you put on the presentation? I got you. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I just want to confirm that that's the one that we loaded, that was open and loaded. Okay. We did. So thank you. I just wanted to confirm that. Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Thank you, sir. Good evening, mayor and council. It is a pleasure to be back. Thank you so much for the chance to be before you again. I really, really do appreciate your time. I appreciate the investment. I appreciate the investment that you guys have made, the administration has made, the people who live here have made in this project. It's been a good project so far. I look forward to continuing. I'm here tonight to talk for 10 minutes and then answer your questions. If I get longer than 10 minutes, throw a shoe at me or something and we'll press on. These are the things we're going to cover. I'm really going to keep this at the high level tonight in anticipation of y'all's question. We'll also talk a little bit about the schedule. We've been delayed, yes. A lot of reason for that is we've been waiting for a repeal of Senate Bill 2024-57, the downzoning bill. I will just digress for a quick moment and tell you a story. I am working for Mills River. Mills River, North Carolina, is the one community that received an exemption from 2024-57. Back on June 4th, in June of 2025, Mills River was exempted from the downzoning bill to enable the jurisdiction to prepare its unified development ordinance. This year, seven days before the UDO was to be voted on, Senate Bill 1074 was amended to repeal the exemption for Mills River. So... A bit of a scramble. Mills River did adopt their UDO on 6-11-2026. If the bill passes, Mills River's UDO will be unilaterally rescinded by the General Assembly. Now, the Mills River UDO was structured to comply with down zoning, but because they were exempted, there were some adjustments to density, some adjustments to the range of allowable uses for a variety of problems I don't need to go into right now. But what this experience over the last month has taught us, basically three things, okay? One, there's not going to be any repeal of the down zoning legislation, okay? There's not going to be any exemptions. I know of many, many local governments who have requested exemptions this legislative session. Those are not going to be entertained. Finally, and perhaps most concerningly, I believe that we're now entering the era of what I'll call unilateral recension, where the General Assembly may be stepping in and voiding local government regulations of its own volition. So that's troubling for us and shines a bright light on all local governments here in the state of North Carolina and the challenges that we're facing. Things are not like they used to be. And that's why we've been going slower. There are plenty of local governments around you who had UDOs that were drafted well in advance of ours who still have not adopted their development regulations. And so this is a problem that everyone is experiencing. Nonetheless, we're moving forward. Let's talk about our schedule. From here, The diagnosis, we move on to the annotated outline. It's the dress rehearsal for the UDO. There'll be a draft, a staff review, a community review, a council review, and then this will become the basis for the initial draft of the UDO. Now, we've started the annotated outline, and we expect to wrap that project up in September. How are we going to get to having a draft version of the EDO done by June of 2027? We understand that this is a very important date for Carrboro. We are working towards this date. Some of the things that we're anticipating are, one, a focused annotated outline done by September of this year. We'll start drafting before the annotated outline is done. We anticipate two modules for an initial draft instead of three in pursuit of trying to get the document through the process. We anticipate managed engagement, engagement that is effective but also that doesn't slow the process down. We also expect a speedy revised draft. Remember, you get two bites at the apple as we're drafting this ordinance. So we want to be able to recognize that. Now, there's some other things that we've thought about and that we can share with you if you're interested about how we might continue with this process. But June 2027 is the date that we are working towards. Assuming the General Assembly doesn't throw us any curveballs, we think that we can make that date. That said, we are willing partners here. We understand the tradition of engagement and the tradition of careful, thoughtful progress, and we share that stance. So for us, making sure that y'all's code operates, is legal, effective, and doesn't land us where Mills River might be in a week, which is no ordinance at all, we need to be very careful. And so we commit to you to do that. The code diagnosis is why we're here tonight. This is the roadmap for the new UDO. It's a framework for the discussion about the potential changes to the current UDO. It's a shopping list, in effect. It looks at what the policy guidance tells us from Carrboro Connects, from the downtown area plan, looks at that in terms of what your current regulations call for, how they operate, and tries to highlight the gaps. This is what our regulations do. Our policy goals say we'd like to go in this direction. What do we need to do to our regulations in order to achieve our policy goals? So the code diagnosis is our recommendations for change. Now, as John mentioned, we've discussed this document with your boards and commissions. We've discussed it with the development community, and we anticipate community engagement opportunities next month. We've heard a lot about open space. We've heard a lot about environmental protection. We've heard a lot about stormwater. We've heard a lot of questions about planning board's role in a revised code situation. We've also heard some concern from the development community that a lot of the recommendations that we've proposed won't move the needle in a significant fashion. So this is some of the input that we've received thus far. We have made a commitment to everybody who participates with us to append the code diagnosis to include their written comments so that everybody's aware of all of the input that we've received, we'll extend that invitation to council tonight and ask that if you guys have comments above and beyond what we discussed today, that you share those with us and that we append this code diagnosis document with that information. Whatever we hear, we will take to heart and utilize to prepare the annotated outline. Okay? Project objectives. This is sort of shorthand for the project goals and the anticipated changes we would see from the document. First and foremost, increased predictability. When I read the book, I understand what it says, and the outcome is what I thought it would be. More housing choice, better climate resiliency, and continuing the spirit of public engagement here in Carrboro. One of the things that's come up for us through this part of the process is our need to balance priorities. For example, we have a lot of comprehensive plan policies that call for stronger standards, like more environmental protection. But there's also a desire to manage costs. How do we have stronger standards and not create higher development costs? How do we streamline the development process but continue to recognize the importance of public participation? How do we do redevelopment here in Carrboro? You guys are largely built out. There are some large sites in the north part of town, but for the most part, you're built out. How do we manage redevelopment in a down zoning limited environment like we've got now? These are challenges. Increasing densities and having more environmental protection and the roles for mandates versus incentives. These are all priorities. that have been expressed to us that while they're not at cross purposes, they are going to require some balance. And that's part of what we're thinking through and encourage you guys to give us direction on these as we go forward. I'm not going to spend a lot of time reciting the key themes. Again, there's 70 recommendations. They're organized into eight themes. It's very normal for these recommendations to evolve. There's a summary list of these recommendations on the first three pages of the code diagnosis, and then it goes into great detail with respect to some of the direction that we would propose. We start with simplifying the UDO, making the document easier to use, safeguarding equity, rethinking how do we refacilitate public engagement and focus it on the most important parts of the process. How do we adapt to climate change in ways that don't make development overly expensive, right? How do we address housing choice and continue to incentivize the private sector to help the town provide affordable housing? Integrating the policy guidance that's in Carrboro Connects and in your downtown master plan, making sure that that stuff fits seamlessly with your other regulations. Predictability is a huge issue on the part of the community, on the part of the development folks who work here, being clear about what the rules say and how to interpret the outcomes. Legal sufficiency. It's a new ballgame, guys. We are in a new world with the General Assembly. We have the downzoning bill to deal with. We have pending legislation that's on the platter for 2026 that has some continued troubling aspects to it. I'm happy to talk about that later if you'd like to hear more about that. And then finally, incorporating incentives, leaning into a win-win situation where we make it easier for applicants and developers to do the right thing. Project directions, where are we going with all of this? What should we be expecting? Obviously, ongoing discussion of priority balancing with you, with the community. You should expect non-substantive document formatting and organization for greater readability, just going into basic, you know, Cooking and cleaning related aspects of your ordinance. Clean it up, make it easier to read, easier to follow, easier to navigate. Procedural streamlining. Wherever we can, make the process faster, easier, more efficient, more understandable. Reduce the reliance on discretionary reviews, like special use permits. Codes that rely heavily on discretionary review are codes that lack sufficient detail in terms of standards. increase the codification of those standards. Let's be very clear and telegraph to the community what it is that we're looking for here in Carrboro. Let's take the time to figure out this is the kind of development that we'd like to see here. And if you bring us this kind of development, your path to approval will be more predictable, faster, easier. And that may come with more staff level decision making. With codification, you can have a greater sort of comfort level that the kinds of development that you're anticipating are more likely to result. continued focus on incentives, particularly with respect to affordable housing and the environmental protection. We are in a Dillon's Rule state. I know you know that. We have some limitations on the kinds of things that we can do here in North Carolina with respect to inclusionary zoning, with respect to environmental protection, and those conditions are worsening for us. They're not getting better. They're getting worse. So this idea of voluntary incentive, this is going to win the day for us going forward. I cannot stress enough to you the situation that we might be in where we're seeing the General Assembly stepping in and rescinding your regulations. That is becoming a reality for us in the state. Increased use of conditional zoning, again, in line with use of incentives and negotiation. And then finally, increased public scrutiny where it matters the most. When we're drafting the regulations, when we're deciding the kinds of development that we'd like to see here, that's where public engagement really makes the most sense and instances where an applicant might be seeking to deviate or waive development standards that are in the codified regulation. That's the place where public scrutiny is most helpful. And so with that, our next steps. Continued discussion, revision, refinement of the code diagnosis. We feel like the document is in its complete state. interested in and happy to append it with information that we receive and review that information as we go forward with the annotated outline, which we would expect to do June through September of this year. When you guys come back, we hope to have the annotated outline with a happy bow for you to look at. It will be about the same size as the code diagnosis, maybe even a little bit bigger, with a lot more detail on the various code sections, structure and layout. Also, last but not least, continued public engagement, particularly with respect to the code diagnosis in July, something that's recorded, something that's made available for the public. That's not to say this is the only engagement. It's just the engagement associated with this document. And I am happy to either tell you about some troubling legislation or answer your questions or both.

Thank you so much, Chad. Do we want to hear about the troubling legislation? I actually have questions.

You want to go with the question and then come back?

Council Member Frey has probably more than one question. Possibly.

Carry on. I will do my best.

Thank you.

Chad, I wonder if you could talk about your strategy going through the annotated outline and beyond. You've used the balances of the theme. This is something you brought to us before, balancing the different priorities. The code diagnosis has a lot of places where you've picked up on threads from our work session last fall or picked up threads from our other documents and the comprehensive plan. But there's still a lot of explores, considers, perhapss. What's the strategy for getting clear directions so that you can resolve those open areas?

So that's a fantastic question. We have made progress. At least at this point, we're able to articulate those things that we need to balance between, which six months ago we weren't sure about. So that part's done. With respect to this idea about codification, increased use of incentives, sort of the removal of discretionary review procedures, we think that's the right way to go and suggest that you go forward with that. There are a lot of technical aspects that we do still need to have some additional discussion on. For instance, stormwater. We are intending to meet with town stormwater staff to continue to understand what are the challenges that they are looking for, what direction do they think is appropriate, and then comparing that with what we know the General Assembly is going to look at and be okay with or those things that might cause problems. Same with housing. Housing is such an important issue. We have yet to meet with the town's affordable housing folks and iron those aspects out. Procedurally, we got this. This is something that we're very comfortable with. Most of the development standards, pretty comfortable with. The issue of down zoning is settled for us. We're not going to lower densities. We're not going to reduce the range of allowable uses. That's just not going to happen. We do think that we've got a solution in terms of how we apply your development standards to new development and to changes to existing development. And you will be probably the fourth or fifth local government, should you choose to adopt the UDO when the time comes, to adopt this approach that we are working through right now. So there will be at least four folks in front of you I never seek litigation, but it sure would be nice if we could have a little bit of guardrail from the courts on this issue because there are so many open questions. I cannot express the frustration that exists in the communities across the state about how do we do this. It's a real problem. It truly is. So we're working through that. Some of the stuff we know. Some of the stuff we're talking to your staff. Some of the stuff we probably won't settle until we get to an annotated outline. And that's the role of that document, is to sort of give you our sense of direction.

Thank you. I know it may be a list, but could you highlight, so not to put too fine a point on it, we knew that we wanted to mostly up zone and mostly increase a range of uses. Broadly speaking, our project here is not necessarily in conflict with the stated goal of the down zoning bill, understanding that because that legislation has been structured very poorly and confusingly that we might trip into it. Are there particular areas where you currently see that there is both sort of a clear goal for the community, and it is actually in conflict with what we understand right now of the downzoning bill.

Yes, absolutely. And it turns primarily on the creation of nonconformities on existing development. So that's one of the pillars of this piece of legislation, the no lowering densities, the no reductions in allowable uses, and no creating nonconformities. without prior landowner consent. So anybody who's got vacant property, we can draft standards and apply those standards to that vacant property without worry. Why? Because there's no nonconformity to be created. I mentioned before, Carrboro is a built community. You are largely built out. A lot of the development that you're going to see, particularly around the core, is going to be redevelopment. That is existing stuff on the ground. If we seek to come in with newer standards, changes to what that kind of development is going to be subject to, we have to be very careful about how we steer clear from creating a nonconforming situation, from adding a standard to those lots, to that development, that that development can't comply with or doesn't comply with upon adoption. That would be a down zoning. So we have to navigate that carefully. And it's going to call for some tough choices when we get to that point about how we structure the applicability to the standards. I know there's a real desire to have more environmental protection, more stormwater control, more flood control, more soil protection. These are all aspects that are higher standards than what you have today that could be considered down zoning. And we know that the General Assembly has come out at least with respect to riparian buffers and said quite clearly no local government shall adopt a regulation that is more restrictive than the state maximum. And that's where we're headed. So those are areas that we need to continue to think through. How do we do this? Incentives, voluntary approaches, conditional zoning, those are all mechanisms that we have available to us, at least at this point. And we would expect to lean into that. But we need to discuss it. And we need to understand how you guys feel about the priorities.

Are there any standards that look to you currently like they would be in there that are stricter other than stormwater?

Stormwater flood control, I don't necessarily think design per se. I know that there is a desire to create a condition where traditional single family residential development is is disincentivized or at least is not as incentivized as it is today, that will be an area where we need to be careful. I think there is a path forward. I'm optimistic that we can achieve some of the things that the town wants to do. But I just can't stress enough, I don't have a playbook back here. I don't have the code that we just did for somebody else. This doesn't exist. We're on the frontier here. And this is money. This is potentially adult money. We could be in a litigation situation. And now judges no longer even have the discretion about whether or not to grant damages. They're mandated to. So proceed with caution, because I don't want to be sued either. And I'm on board with you guys. I'm in this boat, just like you.

Has anyone tackled specifically flood area restrictions since the down zoning bill was adopted?

No, they haven't. Now, I will say there is a new state flood ordinance that includes a community flood hazard area, which allows you to go above and beyond the basic FEMA standard, should you choose to do so. So that's a positive, right? How that's going to roll with Jones Street, I don't know the answer. we do have the ability to say, for example, go to a 500-year floodplain or outright limit development inside of a 100-year floodplain or have deeper controls on fill or overflow parking in floodplains. And I think through the changes in the state model ordinance, we've sort of got an entree into that, at least something to hang our hat on.

Thank you. OK, sounds good. I think that's my questions. I yield back, Madam Mayor.

All right, thank you so much, Council Member Frey, for those questions. Are there other questions or comments for Chad at this time? I think you probably it's a good time to talk about this pending legislation you said you were going to get into since we don't have any more questions right now.

I'm going to talk about two bills. And the first one is probably not going to be an issue for us. And that's the bill that actually floated out last year. I think it has really, really, really good intentions. It's intended to allow us to apply stormwater control provisions to redevelopment sites. And it's positive on the negative side in caught up in the balance is your ability to require parking That your your parking standards would be preempted and therefore You know, I that may be an issue for you It might not be an issue for you if you are a community that has a lot of narrow streets I know you guys have already waived parking requirements for residential. The question is do we take the next step? And one of the important aspects that we see in these communities is there has to be ample off-street parking availability that is provided primarily by the local government because the private sector has very little incentive to make those provisions. There's a sort of a shift in thinking about how we provide parking, particularly in our most dense areas. And the responsibility has a tendency to shift from the private sector to the government in that regard. So file that away for thinking. I'm not sure what will happen with that bill. It was proposed last year. It didn't pass. This year, we have Senate Bill 1047. Remember, we have an omnibus regulatory reform bill every year. This is this year's omnibus regulatory reform bill. We are adding rezoning and conditional zoning approvals to permit choice. Okay? So permit choice is if I submit to you an application, it's declared complete. You change your rules before the decision is made on my application. I get to choose which set to go forward under. Okay? Not that big of a deal, but this is a growing trend. We're seeing an increased deference to applicants to the private sector. The most troubling part, at least for me personally, about this bill are the shot clocks. And a shot clock is a set amount of time that you have to review and decide an application. If you fail to meet the shot clock, that application is automatically approved, period. So the shot clocks work like this. You've got seven days when an application is submitted to make a determination about whether or not it's complete. The applicant has time to revise their application if it's not complete. When it's submitted to you, you have another seven days to complete your re-review of whether or not the application is complete. Once you've declared the application complete, you have 20 days to do an initial review of that application and share that information with the applicant. The applicant has 15 days to respond. You have 10 days to re-review. At that point, when that 10-day clock on re-review has run, this is what happens. A 90-day clock starts. And this is for every single Application, subdivision, site plan, rezoning, development agreement, all of it, 90 days. Okay? Failure to decide within 90 days equals approval, whether or not it meets your standards or not. It is totally unclear and unaddressed about phasing. So if you've got a subdivision plat that's got three phases, does that mean all three phases have to be done or just one? I don't know. It's not clear. Multi-part development applications. What if I have a special use permit, a site plan and a subdivision to do? Is that 180 days? Is it 270 days? Is it 90 days? We don't know. It's not clear. This will undoubtedly result in more application denials, simply because there's insufficient time to review the application. If you are a jurisdiction that has multiple review bodies reviewing these kinds of applications, and guess what you are? you're going to have to speed up the process in order to make the 90 days. So this is a very, very impactful piece of legislation, whether you adopt this UDO that we're working on or not. These shot clocks are going to rework how you do development review and application processing, top to bottom. Historic districts, you don't have any. But if you were to have one, 50% of the property owners would have to sign the petition to be in the district. And approval requires a 3 fifths majority. OK. Residential zoning, changing. Some have said there's a limitation on lot size. I don't necessarily agree with that. I do agree that how we categorize residential districts needs to change, and we will be categorizing residential districts if this bill passes based on allowable densities. Another significant change. Whether or not it's already in the books, I'm not sure. I felt like this was already the rule, but embedded in this regulation is as follows. Yield on your property flows from the gross acreage, not the net acreage. So you don't discount land area for roads or land area for wetlands or riparian buffers. Applicants get density credit for the gross acreage of the site, whether those lands are buildable or not. So you could see a 100-acre parcel that has 99 acres of wetlands on it, and they still get the density for the 100 acres. Fee estimates. Your staff is going to have to post your fee schedule. Your staff is going to have to provide to every applicant twice what the fees for their applications are going to be. And that includes system fees after approval. At the beginning of the process, when the application is determined to be complete, you're going to have to let the applicant know exactly what the fees are going to be for their application. Further on down the road, you're going to have to let them know again once an approval has been made what the application fees are going to be. applicants have the authority to proceed directly to Superior Court and file civil action against you if you have not followed what your fee schedule amounts were. So the relative importance of determining the fee amount now takes on much more significance because once you tell them what the fee is, that's it. And obviously that raises questions. What happens if the application changes? Does the fee change? Not sure. Don't know. Assumedly it would, but it's not clear. That bill, 1047. I still remain optimistic. We haven't lost conditional zoning yet. There is another bill about accessory dwelling units and density and things that y'all will support. So there's not really too much concern there. But you may recall last year there was a bill that was going to rescind conditional zoning flexibility. That hasn't been floated this year, thankfully. But this is where we are. And we find ourselves, I think frankly, in one of the most hostile climates towards local government regulation. that I've seen in my career in North Carolina. And we have to proceed with caution. We are now seeing punishment of all for the alleged misactions of the few, which is some would say tyranny.

Yeah. I mentioned earlier about the development community, and they were kind of feeling like maybe none of this is necessarily helpful to them. Can you share a little bit more information about what you were hearing from them?

I surely can. I surely can. And so I'll step back and share just a little bit more information for context. So when we started the project, we had a meeting with the development community. And boy, they were mad as hornets. They really, really were upset about almost everything. And we took their information in. We took it on board. And we balanced that against some of the other goals that we've got from y'all's adopted policy guidance, from the information we heard from you, from the people who live here. We put that information in the code diagnosis. One of the appendices talks about the issues that were raised by the development community. We did that specifically so that we could be clear to them that we were listening and that we were attempting to address their concerns. We had a meeting, as John mentioned, on the 3rd of June where we invited those same Mattis Hornet development community folks to come to the meeting. We had four people there. So it wasn't as many. We begged. I sent out two emails myself begging for their comments on at least look at the first three pages. You don't have to read all, gosh, 100,000 pages of this thing. But at least look at the first three pages and give us your thoughts. We've gotten one set of comments so far. So we have not gotten a lot of comments from the development community. What we heard from the people who were in attendance is as follows. There's not a lot of large land area left in Carrboro. And therefore, this is a time for bold strokes. This Unified Development Ordinance is just biting at the edges and is not dealing holistically with the challenges and problems that they face. That was one sort of sentiment. Another sentiment was, quite simply, the development community will simply move elsewhere. That if their perception among the development community is that the expectations of the town are too much in light of the profit margin that's available to develop here. They will simply go elsewhere. And it was also said that that's already happening. You know, whether or not that's true, I don't know. I think there's still a lot of opportunity here in Carrboro. And my guess is that you won't see applications disappear anytime soon because a lot of people want to be here. But we do need to be mindful of our process, particularly in light of the legislative and legal climate that we're in right now. It is a different world than it was just a few years ago. So those were the kinds of, that's why I say there was not a lot of fear. There was feeling that we just weren't moving the needle sufficiently. There's continued sort of pushback against the housing goals of the town. And I tried to explain as gently as I could that those goals are not going away, that those things are an integral part. of what Carrboro is about. And while there may be some people who would like to see those kinds of things vanish, that's just not likely. The need for housing options, the need for density, the need for people to have a place to live here is just too great. And we're just going to have to try to figure out a way to deal with this. Whether or not they love that answer, I don't know, but that was the answer that they got.

Thank you for that, Chad. Any other questions, colleagues, or comments?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to get the number on that initial bill. You mentioned 1047, but was that the first one?

Right, and I'm sorry, the other one slipped my mind, but I'll send an email to staff and give you that number. I'm not as up on legislation as I used to be. Getting older.

It's hard to keep up with. It's too much.

Gosh, it sure is.

Yeah, it's a lot.

We have about 16 pretty impactful bills this time. That was it.

That was it. Council Member Romero.

Well, assuming that we're going to continue moving from the diagnosis to the outline, there were just a couple things that I noted that I was hoping would be explored a little more fully as we get into the annotated outline. I noticed a lot of the kind of... Kind of transportation goals that we see in the comprehensive plan, using NACDO as a reference, 20 miles an hour. I saw that in the appendix, didn't see much of that in the kind of body of the diagnosis. So I hope to see that fleshed out a little bit more as we get into the outline. And then really like the idea of incentives over regulations. Didn't see much about it, but I'd be curious to see or hear your thoughts as we, again, kind of get further into the outline where floor area ratio can kind of play in as an incentivizing tool. If people are hitting some of these things, they get increased floor area ratio. One of the things that jumped out to me that seemed at odds with some of our policy goals of increasing the affordable housing stock is the recommendations to carry forward SUPs for single room occupancies. That is one of the historically better tools for addressing deep affordability, especially 30% AMI. So I'm curious, just kind of as we look at that a little bit closer, how that plays in and how that maybe in alignment or at odds with our goals. And then with stormwater, and again, kind of looking at ways that we can both kind of do good redevelopment and kind of encourage good stormwater control. Having some of those stormwater things be about net change. Obviously, if it's a greenfield development, your net change is all of your change. But if we're talking about redevelopment, if you've already got 3,000 square feet of built out space and we're giving floor area ratio incentives, and we're not really changing the footprint dramatically. Again, we want to kind of push our incentives towards the type of future Carrboro we want to see, which is more densely developed, closer to town, to make better use of our infrastructure. Don't need to address any of that right now. Just those are things that kind of hopped out to me and like to see those kind of .

Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. And yes, stormwater, I'll start. I'll work my way up from the back. Stormwater is probably the largest challenge because a lot of the existing development that you have in place today did not have to comply with stormwater, right? And because of the down zoning bill, guess what? It's not going to have to in the future, because we're not allowed to make it unless we have a artful approach to applicability, which we would propose. It's way too soon to go into the details on that, but that information is coming. The reason I mention it is that's an area where we really do need to lean into the incentives. And I would suspect that there is a remote possibility that the town might have to take a greater leadership role on intra-regional stormwater measures here in town to create the conditions necessary to support the redevelopment that we'd like to see. We're probably not going to treat site by site stormwater improvements in a meaningful way. This is a role where the town can step in, utilize its powers, its authorities, its wisdom, and create sub-regional stormwater solutions that allow increased redevelopment without running afoul of our stormwater goals. So I'm trying to give you sort of a foreshadow for you where your stormwater stuff is probably going to go. Frankly, it's a lot like affordable housing. You can continue to incentivize the private sector to participate in the provision of affordable housing. You should do that. You do it quite well. We would suggest you lean into it even more. But at the end of the day, is incentivize private sector going to solve the housing problem? Answer, no. The town, the government is going to be the cavalry who comes in and solves that problem. The development community can participate, but to think that they would be the one who solve all the problems, probably not realistic. Likewise, the stormwater. The transportation is also an interesting issue. The fact that you've got an existing infrastructure that is the way that it is in the built areas. And how do we manage that? And who's going to pay for those upgrades? Can we pass those costs on to new development? Perhaps. But that means that new development is going to be more expensive. which we said we didn't necessarily want to do. And so the outcome is, again, like stormwater, like housing, it may be necessary for the town to lead the charge in terms of the funding to increase the kinds of transportation opportunities that you'd like to see. And I know that's not the answer that you want, but... um you know we we really you know in in a situation where we're in a dylan's rule state with down zoning limitations and a funding mechanism that's built largely on new development and you're in a redevelopment setting we got some challenges to work through um and i think that we can configure the regulations to do the best that they can do um and you know to to steal the phrase from the development community nibble around the edges um but i also think there's going to be an increased role for the town in at least some of these platforms that is a way to move the needle in a meaningful way. You mentioned support for incentives over mandates, and I agree. I think incentives are wonderful. The challenge with incentives is how do we price them correctly? How much floor area incentive is worth the cost of the stormwater improvement that's going to solve a larger area? Those are very difficult questions to get to and answers are even harder to find. We're working on it. But that's been sort of an age-old problem with all of the sustainability incentives is how do we price them appropriately? I know I didn't answer your questions, but I sure do appreciate you raising them.

Yeah, and that's fine. And like I said, I wasn't expecting answers on the fly, but just ways to address those. And I think kind of back to street design standards, totally understand that we're pretty well built out, so I'm not expecting a developer to come in and redo our streets for us. But again, this is a design ordinance or a development ordinance that has a heavy design component to it. if we at least have kind of in clear terms what we expect new streets to look like if and when we ever get them. I guess that's more kind of my- Yes, absolutely.

And set the stage for negotiation for those redevelopment contexts where we can. And there's a lot of art to this, you guys. It's hard to do redevelopment. I know that you know that. Saddling redevelopment with additional expenditures to help retrofit your systems makes it even harder. And that's our challenge that we're navigating.

Good. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you so much, Council Member Merrill. Council Member Frey.

Thank you. OK, so coming back around, Chad, for the comment portion. I have to admit, I was kind of appalled to hear that you say that the delay that we got to get from our last work session to the code diagnosis was in part waiting for the down zoning bill to be repealed. But I said, let's assume it's not going to be, and let's get going before they come up with something worse. It's my hope that we will be able to find ways to address those few places where we do, in fact, come into collision with it. My read overall right now of the code diagnosis is that your approach may be more cautious than is warranted. Let me give you an example, a specific one that doesn't actually touch on down zoning at all. You suggest that we might want to consider expanding the district where home occupations and other distributed small businesses are allowed.

Neighborhood supporting stuff, small-scale stuff, right?

Neighborhood supporting stuff, small-scale stuff, stuff that's not causing large traffic noise, that kind of thing. Right. And so you said, well, right now they're limited to Rogers Road, and you might want to expand that further. I guess what I'm asking is, because we are coming at this as a rewrite, looking at the kind of Carrboro that we want, sort of starting over rather than just trying to update the existing code and bring it into compliance.

Sure.

Why do we need to restrict those kinds of occupations at all?

You have it in your current regulation. We would suggest that you broaden it, and not just in Rogers Road, but everywhere. The question on the table is, how far do we go with that? And that'll be something that your community is going to let us know what their comfort level is. For me, I love the idea of broadening the range of allowable uses in residential neighborhoods. The reality of the situation is slightly different. And that is, if there is not a market that exists to support that kind of development, it will not last. It will come and it will go. If we facilitate that kind of development happening in existing structures, then we're not going to see new structures that are built for the sole express purpose of a use that's going to be bid out or will ultimately fail. And that's why I would suggest that we allow this as a secondary use in existing homes. and in accessory structures on lots that have that. I think there's caution warranted, but I think we should open it up and at least not let the regulation be a hurdle to it. At the same time, I just want to urge caution in that the market was going to be the one who decides whether or not those activities are going to be sound, or they're going to last, or they're just going to turn into another empty building. Hopefully that won't happen.

So I'm saying this not in the sense of, I'm saying this not because I think that merely removing the regulation means that all of these home businesses will immediately bloom, that the regulation was the only thing in the way, but I would ask you to keep an eye on where does Carrboro's regulation, whether it's a new one that we are proposing or one that already exists in our existing code, where does it actually pertain to creating the environment that we want to. And if it doesn't, there are many regulations in Carrboro's ordinance today that simply do not pertain to that goal. In those cases, when I talk about the fact that the point is for this to be a new UDO and not simply a modernization of the existing one is to say, if there is no pertinent reason, I would ask you to make your default approach to remove it rather than simply to update it and perhaps expand a little bit. And that's what I mean about the cautiousness of the approach.

I want to repeat that back so that you know that I got what you said. So your suggestion is that, where possible, the new UDO not simply carry forward a limitation or pick around the edges of a limitation. If there's a limitation that is significant and it impacts the consensus of the community about what's desired here, then that regulation should be just removed wholesale. Certainly, from a downzoning perspective, that's great. Anything that increases development potential is the antithesis of downzoning and certainly would not draw the ire of the General Assembly. The thing that I want to be conscious of is twofold. One, that in our zeal to make these changes, we don't run afoul of the people who live in those communities and call for use types that they believe aren't consistent with whatever it is that they've got going on in their neighborhoods. The other thing is being respectful of the capacity, the infrastructure capacity that we do have here, at least with respect to transportation and stormwater. Those are going to be challenges in the developed areas. And so I understand what you're saying, which is, Chad, open the doors and let the sun in. Let's have this vibrant, complete community that has all of the uses. And I understand that. And I will do my best to remove any overly cautious provisions. I guess I've just been doing this too long. I don't know. But I think... I think that's a fair point and we will strive to do that. And if there are regulations out there that we feel like are overly cautious and that we feel like we need to abolish, what we'll do in the annotated outline is footnote those for you. And we will say to you, here's the standard that we think lines up with the toss it out, it's overly cautious. Here's the potential downside for doing that. And then let you guys make that decision as we go forward. Is that fair?

That works fine, yes. Yeah. I think my other note here is I would just strongly encourage you, where you find that you've got balancing challenges remaining or new ones popping up as a result of outreach, if you have the chance, bring us some concrete examples. I'm just thinking about from this kind of change management work when I do it is it really helps to bring people a test case. I imagine this is something that you're going to do later when you're testing the proposed code. But it may be helpful to elicit good feedback from the public or from us to say, OK, well, here is a potential development, and here are the ways in which it pokes at the different balancing challenges. It can help get people thinking more concretely instead of in the abstract. DAVID BATTS- Indeed.

And I would expect us to start moving more in that direction. Um, more concrete examples of, um, where these challenges lie and where the priorities, you know, ultimately land. Um, I, I, I've talked a lot about stormwater tonight. That's one, I, I realize it's kind of esoteric, but you know, there's a desire to have more and better stormwater, right? That's great. That's gonna take up more land and it's gonna cost more. Um, and if we want to have, you know, more reasonably priced development or keep the cost of development steady, and we want to increase the stormwater requirements, somewhere, somehow, we have to manage that. And if it's not going to be at the cost of development, then it's going to be some other location is going to bear that cost, some other party, some other entity, you, the town.

That is also a lot easier if we have more development.

Agreed.

OK, awesome. Thank you very much, Chad.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Chad, take a seat. Drink some water.

Thank you very much. Thanks for the questions. We look forward to taking the next steps, and I appreciate, again, the chance to work with you guys and to learn from you. It's been truly, truly wonderful, and I look forward to continuing as we go.

Thanks so much. Appreciate the presentation. And I believe the next item, Mr. Joyner.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. We have a couple board appointments. I think you have the sheet in front of you. We have Racial Equity Commission and we have Economic Sustainability Commission. And I will turn it over to the Mayor unless there are any questions.

Are there any questions about these appointments for the town clerk?

Ready?

So the first one, we have the Racial Equity Commission, one reappointment and two appointments. Council members, are there names that rise to the top or that we want to put forth for a motion for the Racial Equity Commission? Okay.

Madam Mayor, I would move that we reappoint Liz Carter, appoint Tiz Giordano, I can't say that, I'm so sorry, and June Johnson to the commission.

Thank you.

Seconded.

All right. It's been moved and properly seconded on reappointing Ms. Liz Carter to his Gordano. I may be saying that incorrectly as well. And June Johnson to the Racial Equity Commission. Are there any questions or further discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0 on those names. Next, we have the Economic Sustainability Commission. Two appointments for this commission. Are there names that rise to the top that we can get a motion on?

Madam Mayor, if there's no other discussion, I would move that we appoint Zachary Fields and Julian Goldner for these appointments.

All right. It's been moved and properly seconded that we appoint Zachary Fields and Julian Goldner to the Economic Sustainability Commission. I don't think there's any further discussion or questions. So all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0 on those names. And thank you so much, colleagues. And I will now entertain a motion to go into closed session for personnel matter.

So moved. Seconded.

All right. It's been moved and properly seconded that we head into closed session. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Move into closed session. Excuse me, Mayor.

Will you let the public know if they're? OK. No vote. So there will be no open session point or moves made. So thank you.

Thank you for that. Five minutes.