At last, the Chapel Hill 2020 Plan has been unveiled, and we have seen the future.  Or have we?

Over the last year, many, many people have expended a great deal of precious time and effort in attempting to formulate a comprehensive plan to guide Chapel Hill’s future.

The Chapel Hill 2020 Plan has been characterized as a vision statement  addressing critical areas of growth– transportation, technology, solid waste, environmental protection, affordable housing, social equity, and town and gown relations.

But the devil is in the details, and the road map to the future could lead to detours and dead ends. That’s because it fails to recommend ways in which the tax base can be more equitably distributed or to set priorities.

Take for example, the controversial subject of solid waste disposal.  The town has been wrestling with this issue for years, and it still doesn’t seem to be any closer to being resolved.

How do we satisfy the Rogers Road residence? Where should we build a waste transfer plant? These are questions that never seem to find answers.

We are suffering from a severe case of  indecisiveness– a condition commonly referred to as paralysis of analysis–spinning our wheels and never getting anywhere.

Identifying areas of growth and development may be the easy part. What we don’t need are any more studies.  Thousands of dollars have been wasted on studies that tell us what we already know.

Now that we have the people’s vision of the future, let’s spend some time taking care of the present. We’ve been gazing too long at the crystal ball and our eyes are glazed over.

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