PTA Questionnaire

Posted by Mark on October 23, 2009

The Chapel Hill Carrboro PTA Council had these questions for candidates running for elected office this year:

1.  Growth of student enrollment has major impacts on the school district including a quarter billion dollar 10-year Capital Investment Plan (mostly for new facilities) and the upheaval of redistricting with the opening of each new school.  SAPFO was designed primarily to assure that new schools were constructed to keep pace with development and that developments are delayed until adequate school capacity is constructed.  If you are elected, will you continue to uphold SAPFO?

 Yes.  Passing SAPFO was a goal of my first campaign for Council in 2001.  I was very pleased to have voted for it and will continue to support it as Mayor.  In addition, I will vigorously advocate against any effort to dismantle the protection it provides our community.

 2.  Buildable land for school is becoming more difficult to locate.  The Town of Chapel Hill has a provision that allows the identification of future school sites in the town’s master plan.  What is your opinion on this provision?  Do you support continuing this practice in Chapel Hill or instituting this in Carrboro?   What should the school district do if they cannot find the necessary land?

 I support continuation of this practice.  I believe it has served the school system and the community well.  The plan allows the schools to identify potential school sites and gives the whole Town notice of where schools might be placed in the future.  I understand the role our school system has in making Chapel Hill such an attractive place to live and raise a family.  Should new processes be needed to identify additional school sites, I will draw on the good relationships I already have with both the school administration and the Board of Education to develop additional tools for site identification.

 3.  The school district and town have long partnered, especially in Chapel Hill, on a number of facilities for shared community use, such as the community gym at Rashkis Elementary School.  Rashkis is one of the most highly utilized shared facilities.  However, the new elementary school currently being constructed with a target opening in 2008 will not have a community gym.  What is your position on partnering with the school district on shared facilities?  Would you support partnering with the school district to include a community gym in the next elementary school, currently planned to open in 2010, if it is sited in your jurisdiction? 

 Yes.  Again, I think this partnership has yielded benefits for both the Town and the school system.  I believe it is an excellent example of how different elected bodies have cooperated to reduce costs and meet the recreational needs of our community.  I would support partnering with the district again, particularly if the site is in an area of town that does not have easy access to other facilities. 

 4.  Historically, towns partnered with the schools on creating safe environments for children, such as after school programs and stationing a police officer (school resource officer) in school buildings.  While that partnership continues to the benefit of children and the entire community benefits from reduced crime rates, the costs have largely been shifted to the schools.  What is your opinion on the shared responsibility of towns to fund programs that help achieve town functions? 

 As a former high school teacher, I know the value resource officers provide to schools and have witnessed their ability to reduce crime outside the school.  I believe the Town and the schools should share the costs of this program.  I have been an advocate for cost sharing for resource officers in the past and will continue as one while I am mayor.

 5.  Should town bus service be provided to the schools?  Who should fund this?

 I believe bus routes that serve our schools benefit not only students, parents, but also the community at-large.  I would like our routes to run close to, if not in front of, every school in the system.  They are important destinations for those who rely on public transit.  For those schools not served by routes, we should use the Transportation Partnership’s rules for determining who should be responsible for funding new routes.  If the route is a Chapel Hill route, Chapel Hill should pay for the route the first year.  If after a year the route’s ridership makes its continuation feasible, its cost should be added to the general transportation fund and the cost should be shared among the partners.

Neighbors For Responsible Growth Questionnaire

Posted by Mark on

Last Sunday the Neighbors for Responsible Growth held a meet the mayoral candidates roundtable forum.  The event was well attended and I enjoyed seeing so many supportive facees in the crowd.  Prior to the event, NRG asked us to provide answers to these questions (Note: answers required a strict word limit):

Neighbors for Responsible Growth (NRG)

Questionnaire for Mayoral Candidates for November 2009 election

www.nrg-nc.net

1. Introduction.  Please write a brief introduction for yourself containing information about how long you have lived in Chapel Hill, what your do for work, your outside interests, and your priorities for the Town.

I first moved to Chapel Hill in 1988 and have both an undergraduate and law degree from UNC.  I am currently the Executive Director of the Fair Trial Initiative. 

I am in my second term on the Chapel Hill Town Council and have also been an active member of the Democratic Party.  I enjoy spending time with my family and taking my Weimaraner, Elmer, to the dog park.

As Mayor I plan to build on my work as a Council Member to enhance our economic well-being, to protect our neighborhoods and community character by the preserving our community process, to work with the University to monitor the commitments made during the creation of the Carolina North Development Agreement, to implement our newly proposed Inclusionary Zoning ordinance, and to ensure we remain good stewards of our natural environment.

2.  We talk a lot about growth and where it should occur.  Clearly the Town Council can influence the rate of growth through its planning and zoning powers, granted by the NC Legislature. 

What are your goals and objectives for growth?   Building on a question asked at the Visioning Task Force focus groups, how much growth can Chapel Hill support and still maintain our values – the things that people like about living in Chapel Hill?  How would you determine growth rates that are “sustainable”? 

As a virtually built out community, Chapel Hill’s growth pressures are unlike any others in the region.  Since we are committed to not sprawling beyond our boundaries we must look inward for redevelopment and infill opportunities to accommodate growth.  Our Town can only tolerate growth that respects what already exists and preserves the character of our neighborhoods.  I believe our past successes have been dependent upon our citizen’s willingness to participate in our review process.  The community process has been essential to ensuring that our values are reflected in the way we have changed in the past, and must continue to play an important role if we are going to address the growth challenges we face in the future.  I believe sustainability is defined by our ability to ensure our infrastructure is able to accommodate our growth.   Without this commitment there is no growth rate that can be truly sustainable. 

3.  New development occurs on vacant land, or developers buy properties to redevelop for a completely different purpose.  Examples of the latter are East 54 and Greenbridge, and proposed projects such as Rams Plaza, University Mall and University Square.   Development of any type can bring desired amenities for the Town but can also cause undesirable consequences, such as a changed Town character, environmental damage, the loss of affordable housing, increased traffic, and the migration of small scale retail from present locations. 

Given that development and change are inevitable, please suggest ideas about how each of the unwanted consequences could be addressed in future development proposals.

The Visioning Task Force provides opportunity to develop a consolidated response to these undesirable consequences of development. I look forward to working with the task force’s recommendations and the community’s responses as we set a course for future development review. Some of these issues, specifically affordable housing and the loss of retail outlets are also being addressed through independent measures.  The proposed Inclusionary Zoning ordinance promises to transform the way we seek to increase our affordable housing stock.  I was proud to co-chair the committee that brought this proposal to the Council for consideration.  Our new EDO is working to implement a new strategy for recruiting and retaining business in our community.  The EDO provides a new resource to assist developers in identifying opportunities for new commercial activity.  For these measures to be successful we will have to rely on experienced leadership and a high level of citizen involvement.

4.  Chapel Hill prides itself on an open public process with fair, consistent rules and development review process.  Citizen Advisory Boards ensure that citizens are involved in decisions that affect them.  A Concept Plan process helps guide developers toward a concept desired by the Town. 

 

Please comment on whether the Town’s process is working as it should, and offer specific ways it could be improved.   Is the process achieving the results we want?

While many candidates are advocating truncating our development review process, I believe our successes have been dependent on opportunities for citizen input.  I believe there may be room for consolidation of some presentations that are made to our board and commissions, but I am reluctant to adopt any measures that would impact the quality of citizen input into the process.  Recent discussion of this issue has prompted me to ask members of our community who have participated in our process, “which part of the process did you believe was unnecessary?” Responses have revealed that citizens have found value in every opportunity to affect the outcome of the review process.  I believe it is the post-review part of the process that is in most need of additional resources.  Once a project is approved, the town must take every measure to assist a developer or a business in completing their project.

5.  For the last few years the Council has embraced a policy of encouraging higher densities along major transit corridors through zoning changes based on certain assumptions about transit and population estimates, e.g. a planned hotel on MLK near I-40, and the 54 East project already built at the proposed transit hub.

Do you support the policy of putting density on major transit corridors and why?  What changes, if any, would you want to make in the policy? 

Generally, yes, I support major transit corridors as the location for higher density mixed-use development.  But, I believe that we must be very careful about where along the corridors such development should occur and we must be mindful of how that development impacts nearby neighborhoods. I am anxious to receive the recommendations of the Visioning Task Force regarding where these locations will be. The first areas for higher density new development should be those areas where our town has demonstrated a tolerance for greater commercial activity.  Underutilized commercial space such as University Mall, and Ram’s Plaza are two such examples.  Both centers are already tolerated as areas of activity but are not the destinations they could be.  We have an opportunity in these areas to re-conceptualize as higher density mixed use developments that are already served by public transit and are already seen as centers of commercial activity.

6. Chapel Hill and UNC signed a Development Agreement in June 2009.   NRG worked with the Town of Chapel Hill and UNC to ensure that interests of Chapel Hill neighborhoods were taken into consideration, particularly in transportation planning.  Our recommendations and neighborhood concerns are found at  http://www.nrg-nc.net Section 4.16 of the Development Agreement calls for both parties to conduct an assessment of the Agreement,  within 3 years of the effective date.

When the review of the Development Agreement comes up, name three issues that you will consider to determine whether or not the Agreement is a success, and discuss in general terms what you will be looking for as measures of success.

(1)   We must remain vigilant to ensure that the town and the University abide by their commitment to make sure that road-way improvements and traffic calming measures are in place prior to the new building at Carolina North.  We will be successful if we are able to address the anticipated traffic volume and mitigate its impact in nearby neighborhoods.

(2)   The Development Agreement provides for perpetual protection for large sections of the Carolina North property. Other portions will remain protected for decades.  It will be necessary that we monitor the use of these protected properties so as not to allow even minor degradation of these sensitive areas. 

(3)   The Development Agreement contemplates Carolina North as a transit oriented development.  To be successful transit improvements will have to be in place prior to the opening of the new campus. 

7.  Public participation cuts across all aspects of Town Government.  During the Carolina North planning process, many neighbors emphasized the importance of improving public participation.  See attached NRG recommendations report.

What is your view of public participation in Town Council decisions, and your ideas for updating Town strategies to reflect current-day technologies and media?

Prior to my service on Council and during both of my terms on the Town Council I have seen the added value our community members bring to every decision from our development review process to changes in policies ranging from affordable housing to environmental protections.  As chair of the Council’s Communication Committee, I have worked to enhance community access to the Council actions through improvements in our e-mail notifications and our new presence on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.  As a user of modern communication tools, I know how helpful it can be to develop means to communicate with people in ways that are adapted to their increasingly busy schedules.  I am pleased that our staff is interested in adopting these new methods and look forward to our implementation of tools that allow citizens to communicate their concerns, praise and complaints to Town officials via these new technologies.

8.  The Mayor of Chapel Hill represents the Town to other jurisdictions, leads the Town Council Meetings and plays a facilitative role in helping the Council to reach decisions.

If elected, please describe how you would go about building a consensus on the Council.

I am honored to have developed strong relationships with every Council Member with whom I have served.  My experience has taught me to look beyond past conflicts and to recognize the value of the contributions of each member.  It is possible for the Council to disagree and have heated discussion over matters and still maintain mutual respect.  As Mayor I will continue to encourage lively deliberations, but do so in way that honors the perspective of each member.  This can be accomplished by recognizing conflict before they have a chance to erupt and working with members to look toward their common interests.  This is the process I have employed when working with developers and neighborhoods who have disagreed, often vehemently, about the impacts of a development.  I have a record of success in helping people reach consensus around very difficult issues and will put this experience to work as Mayor.

Anderson-Thorpe Breakfast Club Endorses Our Campaign

Posted by Mark on October 17, 2009

A very special thank you to the Hank Anderson – Bill Thorpe Breakfast Club for announcing their endorsement of Mark Kleinschmidt for Mayor of Chapel Hill.

From the Club’s press release:

The Anderson-Thorpe Breakfast Club was founded by Hank Anderson, the first Black Recreation Department Director in the South in the 1970’s to help analyze and remedy the issues faced by African-Americans in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro communities.  After Hank’s death, Bill Thorpe, who served on the Chapel Hill Town Council for 11 years until his death in 2008, led the Club.  The Breakfast Club spearheaded the efforts to name Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, and to improve the pay and working conditions of African-American and Latino employees at the University, hospital, schools and municipalities.  The Breakfast Club’s political agenda is a progressive and inclusive agenda that supports the State NAACP’s 14-Point Agenda, with particular emphasis on justice for young people in our schools, fairness in employment and housing, and dismantling institutionalized racism.

Congratulations to Jim Merritt, Laurin Easthom, Ed Harrison, and Will Raymond for receiving the Club’s endorsement for Town Council.

Independent Weekly Endorses Kleinschmidt for Mayor

Posted by Mark on October 15, 2009

Thank you Independent Weekly for this strong endorsement of our campaign:

It’s clear that Kleinschmidt is the sensible choice because of his track record of bringing together diverse interests, protecting the environment and creating economic opportunity. Kleinschmidt has a history of thinking through the issues and listening to residents. With Foy leaving, Kleinschmidt provides the best option to continue Chapel Hill’s success. He is a proven leader who first served our community as speaker of UNC’s Student Congress and has been an asset to Chapel Hill since. His experience during the last eight years working on Carolina North and a host of other issues with state and regional leaders is too vital to let go.

UNC Young Democrats Endorse Mark

Posted by Mark on October 13, 2009

We heard late last night that the UNC Young Democrats have endorsed the Mark Kleinschmidt for Mayor Campaign.  This endorsement has the potential to be very significant.  Last year they worked tirelessly to register thousands of new voters in Orange County toward the successful effort to turn North Carolina Blue!

Thank you for the supporting us UNC YD!

In light of the DTH’s coverage of Mayor Foy and his dog Sophie, some have asked me to show off our dog Elmer.  Here’s a recent shot of me and Elmer on our patio. I’m not sure Elmer would be as well behaved around Town Hall as Sophie is, but they say Weimaraners calm done a little as they get older.  We’ll see.