The Historic Rogers Road area, where residents have been deprived of sewer service for decades, became part of Chapel Hill’s extraterritorial jurisdiction on Wednesday night.
“I would like to say that it takes a lot of faith for this community to grant us this authority,” said Chapel Hill Town Council Member Maria Palmer, who was visibly moved that this moment had finally arrived. “Undeserved faith, but we appreciate it. And we will keep the faith with you.”
She had just made the motion to approve a resolution to extend extraterritorial jurisdiction to the Historic Rogers Road Area. The residents she addressed with those comments packed the meeting room at Chapel Hill’s Town Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. on Wednesday night.
Expanding the town’s ETJ to include the historically black neighborhood would solve a problem identified by the town attorney.
Under a joint planning area created by a 1986 agreement between Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County, the area that lies mostly east of Rogers Road is Chapel Hill’s responsibility. However, it was outside of town limits, and therefore, ineligible for funding for most projects.
Inclusion in the ETJ means that Chapel Hill could use Community Development Block Grants to fund projects, as a majority of the affected households qualify as low-income.
Wednesday night’s vote on the issue followed a vote taken within the Rogers Road community to accept the plan. After decades of broken promises, residents were skeptical.
Longtime area resident Jeanie Stroud said that it was hard to believe this conversation was still going on, after she and her neighbors were promised sewer service back in the 1980s.
“I spoke with a 92-year-old lady, a good friend of mine that I call to check on, two weeks ago,” said Stroud. “And I asked her what she was doing. And she was in there trying to get her commode to flush. And as she would attempt to flush that commode, the bubbling would come up, of sewage, in her sinks, as well as her bathtub.”
The fiscal impact of the plan to extend sewer service to 86 properties is $5.8 million. Chapel Hill’s share matches Orange County’s, at 43 percent, or about $2.5 million. Carrboro pays the rest.
Minister Robert Campbell is president of the Rogers Road Neighborhood Association, as well as being president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro chapter of the NAACP.
He said that despite skepticism, he believed this was a chance to right old wrongs.
“We can close the doors on ideas that were birthed out of the Jim Crow era,” said Campbell, “and help us, as a community, working together, to move forward to establish a resilient community for all God’s people.
“We are too diverse to see things in black and white.”
Toward the end of the hourlong discussion before the vote, Council Member Matt Czajkowski praised Campbell for his leadership on the issue, which prompted a standing ovation.
“In countless council meetings, and other meetings, I have seen the reverend patiently and articulately arguing for, hopefully, really, what we’re about to see come to pass,” said Czajkowski. “And so, I just want to say: Job well-done, sir. And I hope all of you will join me in doing that.”
Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Council Member Ed Harrison were unable to attend. The rest of the Council voted unanimously to authorize Town Manager Roger Stancil to proceed with developing a long-term plan for the area that would preserve its character, while pro-actively managing its future.
In another unanimous outcome, the Council voted to expand the ETJ to include the Historic Rogers Road area. The meeting continued, but the room all but emptied of spectators, presumably for celebrations elsewhere.
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