Today’s Commentator is Ken Larsen

FBC or Form Based Code is a tool that Chapel Hill leaders have adopted to expedite the development approval process.  I’m all for expediting that process, but in their haste to approve FBC, serious errors were made.  One lies with parking.  They introduced a formula that lowballs the number of parking spaces that developers are required to provide.

The Chapel Hill FBC specifies that a developer be required to provide only 1 parking space per one bedroom apartment and only 1.25 spaces for a two bedroom apartment.  To me, that’s too low and will result in fights over parking.  Like it or not, people own cars, and apartments will often be shared by multiple car-owning people.

This and other FBC issues were presented to the Town Council in 2014, but they chose to ignore such feedback.

Unfortunately, the results of a flawed decision are not immediately apparent.  If you permit a developer to skimp on parking spaces, it may be several years before a development is built, gets fully occupied, and parking problems surface.  This is all the more reason to proceed with caution.

Problems such as this FBC parking issue can be avoided if a Town Council actively listens to citizen and planning board feedback.  However, that hasn’t been happening.  The hubris of the current Town Council has resulted in many flawed decisions.  If they could put their egos aside and place serious value on citizen feedback, problems can be avoided.

Please vote in the November 3rd election.

— Ken Larsen.

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