Greene Tract Forest

Here's a letter from the Center for Biological Diversity about the Greene Tract:

"Dear Commissioners and Council Members: The Center for Biological Diversity and its 1.7 million members and supporters across the country urge you to protect the Greene Tract for its rare species, habitat diversity, carbon sequestration, and public use. The Board and the Town Councils should vote NO on this proposal and direct their planning departments to work on the previous 2016 Community Resolution that sets aside 20% of this property for affordable housing and puts the remaining 80% into an easement for conservation and public park use..."

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IMPORTANT: Orange County and Carrboro will vote tonight. Both meetings will allow public comment limited to 3 minutes. Please attend if you can

Here's what our elected officials (most of whom call themselves environmentally conscious) will be voting on this week. While there is a section labeled "preserve" it is meaningless:

1) It would allow development on almost all of the Forest, even in the “preserved areas” where the plain language of the proposal allows roads, retention ponds, sewer lines, utility easements and more to support the development (see the highlights).
2) It doesn’t incorporate a recent detailed study from their own environmental staff that highlights the unique environment officials are moving to develop. How can they disagree with their own experts?

Keep in mind the map does NOT show the roads, water lines, sewer lines, utilities, and retention ponds...all of which can be in the area labeled "preserved "

We have recently been made aware of a new report from the Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County environmental staff that outlines what they recommend should be preserved to ensure a sustainable ecosystem on the Greene Tract. This map differs from what the towns and county presented to the public at recent events despite being based on strong science. The public needs to know how (and if) this report is being used by our elected officials. Why would the elected official not choose to listen to their own experts?

greenetractforest.files.wordpress.com

Read our latest newsletter and send a letter to our elected officials to help save ChapelHill's largest public forest:

Help save Chapel Hill’s Largest Public Forest! Roughly 300 people concerned about the development and sale of Chapel Hill’s largest public forest attended 2 recent events and had a chance to speak up on current plans to cut and develop most of our public forest.

HELP SAVE CHAPEL HILL’S LARGEST PUBLIC FOREST

Last night at an online town meeting, more than 120 folks concerned about the development and sale of Chapel Hill’s largest public forest finally had a chance to speak up on current plans to cut and develop most of our public forest. The vast majority of those who spoke and commented were critical of current plans and asked for a more balanced approach as community members recommended in their 2016 report, “Mapping our Community’s Future.”

Despite repeated questions, officials could not explain to the public why we aren’t following that 2016 community-driven, broadly acceptable plan to construct affordable development on 20% of the Forest (at 33 acres, a project as large as Habitat for Humanity’s recently announced nearby Weavers Grove development and twice as large as Chapel Hill’s largest current affordable development on town property) while creating Chapel Hill’s greatest Forest Park out of the other 80% of the property. Instead, staff indicated officials intend to vote next week on “a resolution on a conceptual plan incorporating the newest proposal for the Greene Tract” but didn’t even provide us with details or language!


Not considered were innovative solutions like selling a conservation easement for 80% of the Greene Tract to preserve the majority the public forest as a park while also providing substantial funds to jumpstart the construction of another excellent Weavers Grove-type popular affordable development. Not considered was the fact that Chapel Hill ranks last in public forest and public parks after Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro. Not even discussed were the effects on flooding and the watershed of cutting down the public Forest around the headwaters of Booker and Bolin Creeks. It is clear that the rush is on to implement this development plan as quickly as possible!

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Write an email today to our three groups of elected officials and tell them not to vote on November 16th/17th. Here are some other suggestions for what else to say:

Tell them you support the 2016 community-driven plan to build a great affordable development on 20% of the Forest while preserving 80% for future generations.

Tell them you are worried that Chapel Hill and Carrboro rank way behind our neighbors in parks/greenspace.

Tell them how another successful development like Weavers Grove on 33 acres would allow us to add a great development and also create our town’s greatest park for our children and grandchildren.

Ask them why we need to construct another development almost twice as large as Eubanks Road’s Carraway Village – but this time on the public’s land – instead of focusing on building the affordable housing the community needs.

Chapel Hill Town Council: [email protected]

Orange County Board of Commissioners: [email protected]

Carrboro Town Council: [email protected]

Today our elected officials delivered a slap in the face to more than 100 citizens concerned about the loss of the public Greene Tract Forest - the vast majority of whom want both affordable/mixed development and a park.
The current plan is to largely develop this public park with a "preserved area" that will contain roads, utilities, and retention ponds. At today's meeting there were lots of people feeling disenfranchised, including a huge number of kids from the local middle-school mountain bike teams. For many of these kids, this was their first view of our government at work. What a farce. Voters came ready to speak but our elected officials decided it would be easier to skip public comment. Near the end of the meeting after many people had left there was a halfhearted attempt to ask folks to write a comment on a hastily-made slip of paper and drop it into a cardboard box with a handwritten label. Officials were clearly unprepared for the number of people who feel more community discussion is needed.

Officials also didn’t bother to post much information about the years of community planning that have gone into thinking about the property prior to 2019. No details or maps from the 2016 community report that took months of hard work by community members; no details of the community meetings and reports in 2002 and 2007. Why? Perhaps because all these community reports talked about preserving 80% or more of the land - a real park - and reserving the rest for affordable development - a balanced approach that would give us both another Weavers Grove and Chapel Hill's greatest park.

The staff from Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro are hosting a zoom meeting on the Greene Tract Forest tomorrow night at 5:30pm. If you are attending, you'll need to register in advance:

Greene Tract Community Meeting Chapel Hill Transit Service Changes: temporary schedule adjustments to increase the reliability of the bus system in the face of staffing shortages. More info: chtransit.org

An important read. Chapel Hill likes to think of itself as green...but it's planning is based on borrowed land

Chapel Hill ranks last in parks. We need to start preserving green space. Chapel Hill’s town parks are too small, too far away from residents, and inequitably placed. That must change. | Opinion

Here is Adam's latest article:
"After the pandemic our public lands and forests are even more critical to our health and well-being. Everyone, regardless of income, deserves great parks and open spaces in Chapel Hill. That’s why I’m running for Town Council - my latest op-ed!"

Provide Equitable Access to Our Forests and Natural Areas - The Local Reporter Our political debate around our public parks, public trails and public land in Chapel Hill is mired in how the world existed two years ago – not how it exists today....

Using heavy equipment to remove homemade signs seems like overkill, doesn’t it? It looks like they are "just" bulldozing the signs by the trail, for now. Not sure why. We need to tell our elected officials this is unacceptable.

A summer reading recommendation for local leaders while they "collaborate to plan for the future of the 104-acre Greene Tract and the permanent preservation of a 60-acre Headwaters Preserve" as said in a recently released joint statement on Greene Tract.

The Lorax (Classic Seuss) (Hardcover) Celebrate Earth Day with Dr. Seuss and the Lorax in this classic picture book about sustainability and protecting the environment! I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. Dr. Seuss’s beloved story teaches kids to treat the planet with kindness and stand up and speak up for others.