To my recollection, in late 1996 or early 1997, a group of elected officials, including Jacquie Gist, Joyce Brown and me, began meeting with residents of the Rogers Road community at the Faith Tabernacle Oasis of Love Church. The purpose of our meetings was to establish a list of things that our local governments owed to the neighbors of the Eubanks Road landfill. Collectively, we were the Landfill Compensation Working Group and we met for about 9 months and made a report to the local governments laying out 14 proposals for compensation to the affected communities.

I would direct readers’ attention to the minutes of the Assembly of Governments meeting for October 30, 1997 at which the local governments discussed the Working Groups recommendations:

http://server1.co.orange.nc.us/MinIndex/Minutes/1990/19971022.pdf

Let me excerpt some highlights from the 11 page document linked above:

The various governments assembled agreed to implement a number of items that were recommended by the Working Group, but the Chapel Hill Town Council members (with a few exceptions) and the Orange County Commissionners (with some exceptions) vigorously opposed a number of the key compensation items that the working group had recommended. The Carrboro Board of Aldermen collectively, along with Council members Joyce Brown and me worked hard to pass as many of the recommendations as we could. Let’s take a look at the contentious issues of the time:

Establishing a Park

The Assembly of Governments refused to adopt item 12 on the compensation package list:

“The Working Group recommends that following the closure of The Eubanks Road landfill, portions of the landfill (as allowed by regulations), the Neville tract, and at least 50 acres of the Green tract will be used for recreation facilities . . . Council member Chilton stated that the park portion of this agreement is a strong moral commitment to establish the park. The capped landfill may not be suitable for recreation purposes. The use of the Greene Tract would be a way of fulfilling a moral commitment . . . A motion was made by Council member Chilton, seconded by Alderman McDuffee, to approve this item, as written. Vote: Motion Did Not Pass”

Tragically, the local governments were not willing to commit to creating a park as had apparently been promised decades before.

Self-determination of the Rogers Road Neighborhood

Nor were the majority of the elected officials willing to allow the neighborhood to decide for itself where the eventual town line ought to be. Here is item 11 from the Working Group’s proposed compensation package:

“The Landfill Owners Group will work with the Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro planning departments to sponsor a public information meeting regarding the planning boundary (future annexation boundary) between Chapel Hill and Carrboro. A “ballot” should be prepared identifying at least three options: 1. Leave the planning boundary as it is, along Rogers Road; 2. Move the planning boundary east, placing the entire Rogers Road neighborhood in Carrboro’s future annexation area; 3. Move the planning boundary west, placing the entire Rogers Road neighborhood in Chapel Hill’s future annexation area (see Hazen and Sawyer report for map). Additional options may be identified and added to the ballot. All households in the area which may potentially be shifted shall be given the opportunity to submit one ballot selecting their preferred option . . . “

Despite impassioned pleas from me and others on the Working Group, the self-determination model was rejected:

“Council member Chilton stated that this was not a recommendation for a legal[ly binding] process. This was created by the Work Group as an information process so that the neighbors could let the units of government know of their preferences . . . Council member Chilton stated that this suggestion originated from a group of neighbors regarding how they would like to pass their ideas onto their elected officials . . . VOTE: Motion Did Not Pass”

Water and Sewer Service

“The Working Group recommends that water and sewer mains be extended to provide service to the area along the entire length of Rogers Road . . .”

The proposal for water and sewer service was quickly rejected by the majority, over my objection. Instead the Assembly of Government pursued a compromise position in which water service only would be provided and a complex conversation ensued. The minutes are very clear though that several of the elected officials present, including me, pushed hard to make a commitment to at least provide water service, but the Assembly of Governments as a whole refused and adjourned for the night. Eventually, I believe, the Assembly of Governments reconvened and approved water service only - but definitely not sewer.

Since 1997

I have to tell you frankly that October 30, 1997 was a very disappointing night for me. I and others on the Working Group had struggled with these issues for months. As the meeting adjourned, one resident of Rogers Road ran over to me and hugged me and Jacquie Gist, telling us how proud she was of how hard we had fought for her community, but I couldn’t share in her happiness. The majority of the elected officials of the County had endorsed only the simplest items in the Compensation Package, and they passed up the opportunity to do anything hard or expensive for the community.

It was an especially disappointing moment for me because it was to be one of the last meetings that I attended as a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council. I left office in early December of 1997 and in 1998 moved to Canada to get married and start my family. What I did not know that night, was that this was not to be the end of my involvement with the Rogers Road community. Not by a long shot.

Sewers for Rogers Road

Four years later, I returned to Orange County with my wife and son and once again began working on affordable housing issues in Chapel Hill and Carrboro as the Director of the non-profit affordable housing organization EmPOWERment, Inc. My role at EmPOWERment put me in touch with the larger affordable housing community, including Habitat for Humanity. I soon began meeting with Habitat’s Buiding Committee including past Habitat board chair Rich Leber. Rich asked me for advice about the direction that Habitat should go with their construction projects and we soon hit upon a remarkable opportunity for Habitat to become more and more involved in construction along Rogers Road.

And I immediately recognized that this was an opportunity to get our local governments to invest in the Rogers Road community in ways that they had refused to 4 years earlier. The minutes of the March 28, 2001 Chapel Hill Town Council meeting reflect that I was one of several speakers who endorsed the funding of a Habitat for Humanity development on Rogers Road: http://townhall.townofchapelhill.org/records/minutes/2001/010328.htm

Also, with the thought in mind that running the sewer lines is only one aspect of the problem, I supported Alderman John Herrera’s plan to increase public subsidies to $2,000 for connecting existing septic systems to sewer lines at the January 25, 2005 Board of Aldermen meeting.

And I advocated for running sewers along Rogers Road on several other occasions both publicly and privately. One specific example was in connection with the proposed construction of a county office building on Eubanks Road at the Board of Aldermen meeting on September 6, 2005: http://townofcarrboro.org/BoA/Minutes/2005/09_06_2005.pdf . . .

Finally, even as I write these words, final surveying is under way to extend OWASA sewers further to the north from Homestead Road. The latest extension will bringing sewer service hundreds of feet closer to many of the homes on Rogers Road.

While our community has a long way yet to go in order to complete the process of making sewers available for everyone on Rogers Road, the fact is that I have spent years hard at work on making it happen. And I do not plan to stop pushing this issue until the residents of Rogers Road are served in a manner that they can afford.

Self-determination for Rogers Road revisited

When the Board of Aldermen began looking at annexing areas along and just off of Rogers Road in 2004, I could not help remembering that night in 1997 when the Assembly of Governments had refused to let Rogers Road neighbors have their own say about what town they wanted to be in.

I brought the matter up at least twice, including at the September 9, 2004 Board of Aldermen meeting. I objected to including the Rogers Road homeowners in Annexation Area B because the matter of the planning boundary in that area was still unresolved from 7 years earlier. Again I refer to the minutes of the meeting: http://townofcarrboro.org/boa/Minutes/2004/09_14_2004.pdf

As the Daily Tar Heel reported it: http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2004/09/22/City/Annexation.Would.Raise.Taxes-1360281.shtml

“”I’ve heard from residents out there (on Rogers Road) before that they don’t want the neighborhood split,” Chilton said. Residents of the community should decide whether they want to be annexed by Carrboro or Chapel Hill, he said. “I guess I don’t see taking steps to annex part of the neighborhood as the first steps in the process of straightening out where the town line ought to be,” Chilton said.”

The Transfer Station

When the County Commissioners were considering where to locate the proposed solid waste transfer station, they asked for my input. On March 13, 2007 I gave them my response and I also posted it here and on OP: http://orangepolitics.org/2007/03/commissioners-discuss-waste-transfer-station-tonight/

The BOCC at first seemed to take some of my comments to heart, declining to make a siting decision at their meeting that week, but at the very next meeting, they utterly ignored my points and the many objections of the neighbors and selected their site on Eubanks Road. Where does that leave us?

The project is being proposed by the Orange County government and is to be located in the zoning jurisdiction of the Town of Chapel Hill. The Board of County Commissioners have the power to decide to proceed with the project or not. The Town Council has the power to review the permits for the project. This matter is far from done and the County has yet to demonstrate that Eubanks Road is the best site - or even the only site available.

This entry was written by Mark on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 and is filed under Community, Issues. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.