Click below to listen to the conversation between 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck and Aaron Nelson — President and CEO of The Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro.
Welcome to “Embrace The Space!” A monthly segment presented by Trinsic Residential Group, “Embrace The Space” features conversations with experts and professionals in town planning, discussing how differing concepts — from land use and housing to transportation and beyond — all come together to create a community that works, and works for people. This month, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck was joined by Aaron Nelson, President and CEO of The Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro.
For over 20 years, Nelson has acted as CEO of The Chamber, and that time spent means plenty of experience in how things work, and how to best help burgeoning businesses in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
“The Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit organization locally,” said Nelson. “And our mission is to serve and advance the business interest of our community and really help a community thrive. We’re focusing on supporting and serving businesses and nonprofits, and then what are the amenities of the community, the housing, the buildings, the infrastructure that’s required to have a successful thriving economy.”
Looking into the future of development, Nelson’s work mostly engages with currently existing businesses, but that doesn’t mean there’s not space to consider what’s ahead and the changes that will need to enable success.
“One of our goals is to accept the change that we’re going to need in order to be successful,” said Nelson. “A college town is an unusual place. Everybody thinks it was the perfect size the day they graduated, right? So everybody thinks Carolina was the right size in 1988 or 1994, whenever they left the university. Everybody wants the town to look like the day it did when they moved here. And so people have these nostalgic views of 1967 and 1991 when they arrived. But the reality is for our community to be successful, we must continue to change.”
The friction that comes along with change provides opportunities to grow, and creates space for new development — and new ideas — to thrive.
According to Nelson, Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s growth at an average rate of one percent per year doesn’t sound like much on paper, but that growth materializes quickly in the form of traffic, housing issues and other problems that prevent effective, thoughtful expansion.
“The last one through the door, doesn’t get to close the door behind them, and in our community almost 60% of people rent and they are not seeing those appreciations,” said Nelson. “In order to help moderate some of our housing price, we’re gonna have to dramatically increase supply … We’ve also learned you can work from anywhere, and so people will choose to our community based on its amenities, its quality of life, its schools, its parks and its Greenways — those will be critical to us attracting talent.”
“Embrace The Space” is a monthly segment presented by Trinsic Residential Group on 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com featuring conversations with experts and professionals exploring town planning, from land use to housing to transportation, and examine how so much works together to form a place where people can not only live — but thrive.
You can find more conversations like this in the “Embrace The Space” archive on Chapelboro, and each month in a special segment airing on 97.9 The Hill!
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