The Daily Tar HeelFriday, October 30, 19875
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Watershed Issue domiesites town elections
Randy Marshall
Cy 8AKDY Dt?.:CDALE
end SUSAN KAUFFMAN
Staff Writers
The Carrboro town elections have
focused primarily on the impact of
development on the University Lake
watershed, but the seven candidates
for the Board of Aldermen and the
mayoral seats are not running one
issue campaigns.
Development beyond the
watershed and the impacts of growth
on town facilities are also public
;
concerns that elected officials will
have to tackle in their upcoming
terms. The candidates have studied
these issues and often agree on
solutions to the problems, but the
proposed Amberly project has been
a pivotal point in discussions.
The Amberly project is a 158-unit
development proposed for 215 acres
since July, when the board approved
construction.
Orange Water and Sewage Asso
ciation (OWASA) has since imposed
a two-year moratorium on develop
ment in the watershed until a water
quality study is completed and
analyzed.
The project has also been chal-
on the watershed. The impact of the lenged by a group of citizens and
development on water quality and adjacent property owners who filed
growth has been a point of contention a lawsuit Aug. 27 against Carrboro
RanHv Marshall the. nnlv innim.
and Philip Szostak, the developer of nt m the racC) said hc
the project. voted last spring to table the Amberly
Because University Lake provides proposal until OWASA could pro
water to about 55,000 people in vide objective environmental data.
Carrboro, Chapel Hill and parts of Marshall said he supports balanced
Orange County, watershed develop- growth in Carrboro. "Government
ment has become a widespread has to allow certain development," he
controversial issue. sai.
. He said the lack of affordable
Two candidates are running for the housinc concerns him. esneciallv
mayoral position and five candidates wnen neocle who work in Carrboro
are running lor the three board
positions in the Nov. 3 elections.
Mayor
Eleanor Kinnaird
Eleanor Kinnaird, an opponent of
the Amberly project, has challenged
the incumbent mayor for his support
of the watershed development.
"Amberly is the emergency issue of
the campaign," she said. "Our water
source is endangered."
Growth presents a broader prob
lem for town officials, she said.
Density, increased traffic congestion,
overcrowded schools and increasing
police calls are placing more pressure
on public services than the town can
handle, Kinnaird said.
She said she wants to clarify a local
misconception that development only
improves a town. "We put out a good
deal more in services than we get back
in taxes," she said.
Kinnaird said she would levy
impact fees on developers to regulate
growth and limit development to
what the town infrastructure can
support.
She said she also plans to consider
adopting a "point system," whereby
local governments can more closely
evaluate design and open space
proposals made by developers.
As a bicyclist who rides back and
forth to work on campus, Kinnaird
said she wants to improve the bike-
Aldermen
Jay Bryan
v.
way system in Carrboro and provide
more alternatives to automobile
traffic.
Buses should run twice as often
during the day, which would not cost
the city much more than current
operations, she said.
moved to Carrboro in
a teaching assistant at
Kinnaird
1964 and is
the University music library
Jay Bryan described the Amberly
development as a density issue which
evolved into a water issue. He said
water quality concerns everybody,
and he supports the moratorium on
watershed development while
OWASA completes the impact study.
If the watershed land were deemed
unsuitable for development, Bryan
said he would compensate the private
landowners.
Bryan also champions the cause of
historical preservation in Carrboro.
"The National Historic Register
honored Carrboro by designating two
areas in town as significant to local
and national history," he said. "It is
now up to our local government to
preserve them officially."
Bryan supports controlled growth
and has served on the Carrboro Year
2000 committee, organized to mon
itor town growth. He also co-founded
Friends of Old Carrboro and cur
rently serves as president of the
group.
He moved to Carrboro in 1975 and
is a , local lawyer with a general
practice.
"I liked the hard-working,
community-oriented, unpretentious-
cannot afford to live there.
As principal of Carrboro Elemen
tary School for the last 12 years,
Marshall said he does not like the
fact that many of his teachers cannot
afford to live in town.
"We have two choices," he said.
"We can make housing cost less or
give people more money to be able
to afford housing."
Marshall said he wants to consider
offering city employees a monthly
' , ,
' ""'
Li- yJ, . i
and services between the towns. He
said he wants to decrease friction
stipend to contribute to their house between the towns, but he does not
payments u they live m Carrboro. He support a merger.
said he believes that townspeople
benefit when policemen, firemen and
teachers can afford to live in their
neighborhood.
Marshall advocates greater coop
eration between Chapel Hill and
'Carrboro is unique and we must
preserve the differences between it
and Chapel Hill," Marshall said.
Marshall chaired the Carrboro
Year 2000 committee and was
appointed by the board to fill a vacant
Carrboro, possibly pooling resources alderman position 16 months ago.
Steve Oglesbee
ness of the town," he said.
Bryan said his legal training would
because he understands the legal equitawe settlement compensation
Steve Oglesbee does not support
the Amberly project because the town
should not promote development at
the expense of the quality and
quantity of the water supply, he said.
But Oglesbee said he would not
ignore the financial needs of the
people who own land in the
watershed. "All the municipalities
involved should come up with an
technicalities concerning town
government decisions.
"I would not need to rely solely
on the town attorney's recommenda
tions on legal matters," Bryan said.
Jim Porto
Carol Drinkard
Incumbent Mayor Jim Porto, who
is seeking his third term in office, said
he has been incorrectly accused of not
caring about the environment.
A strong supporter of controlled
growth in the University Lake
watershed and town development,
Porto favors the extension of water
and sewer lines into the watershed.
He said individual septic systems
maintained privately would threaten
the water supply more than the
community system requested by the
developer of the Amberly project. But
the OWASA Board of Directors
rejected the developer's request for
public water and sewer lines to the
project last week.
Work on the proposed Amberly
project should proceed as planned,
Porto said, because the developers
followed the correct procedures when
they applied for zoning and construc
tion permits.
"I feel this case is a due-process
issue," he said. "We can take into our
own hands the making of the law,
but we are obligated to uphold it."
Porto has recently pushed for
board action to relieve the town's
traffic problems. He said he wants
to test one-way thoroughfares or
redesign intersections to move cars
more efficiently during peak traffic
hours.
He said he plans to focus on
building low-cost housing for
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he believes the apartment market is
saturated.
"The University is an important
part of both these communities,"
Porto said. "We have an obligation
to provide services students need,
such as bus service and bikeways."
Before being elected mayor in 1983,
Porto chaired the appearance com
mission for four years.
Porto is the business manager of
a local law firm. He holds a bachelor's
degree from Duke University and a
master's degree in public affairs from
N.C. State University, and he
Carol Drinkard said she supports
the Amberly project as it has been
proposed because she does not think
the extension of water and sewer lines
into the watershed would promote
environmentally harmful growth. She
said she opposes the use of individual
septic systems in the watershed.
Drinkard said the town should deal
with growth, and the watershed
separately. "It would be nice if we
didn't have to develop the watershed,
but we have to be realistic," she said.
Drinkard said she thinks local
development will accompany eco
nomic growth. She stressed that
slowing or stopping development will
not help to lower taxes, but will stifle
the town's prospects for economic
growth.
She also opposes the OWASA
policy of establishing the service
guidelines by which developments are
approved for water and sewer lines.
OWASA should not have the final
word on which developments get
water and sewer services and which
do not, Drinkard said.
Instead, she said OWASA should
for the landowners " he said.
He said he considers himself
especially qualified to serve on the
board and evaluate water quality
issues. He has 12 years of experience
in the professional field of environ
mental virology, where he conducted
scientific studies in home waste
disposal systems.
He is currently Director of the
Tissue Center at the Lineberger
Cancer Research Center.
Oglesbee said he is concerned
about growth and development
outpacing the capacity of the town's
infrastructure. He said he believes
part of the answer lies in assessing
impact fees on developers, ,
. ."We already gained , the .legislative
approval to assess them, but nothing
has been done," Oglesbee said. "The
person causing the increase in
Qi
La i
burdens on the roads and town
should pay the cost instead of the
general taxpayers."
Oglesbee has dealt with traffic
problems while serving as chairman
of the Transportation Advisory
Board. He said he is proud of the
fact that Carrboro has the best bicycle
system in the state and he wants to
expand it.
Frances Shetley
But when the market opens up, she
said she would push for high-density
development sites, separated by
larger green spaces.
"High-density doesn't bother me,"
Drinkard said. "It's neichborliness
Frances Shetley said the watershed
and traffic control are her greatest
concerns for Carrboro.
She said she opposes the Amberly
project as it is planned, but will wait
for results from the OWASA water
quality study to draw conclusions
about watershed development and
density of growth.
Shetley said the protection of the
watershed is the most important issue
nf the ramnnion heranse nf the
'Zau:.,. " looiongior a pace W live." water snnnlv.
nave uetii appiuvtu uy iuvai gutiu-
ment. OWASA's policy-making She has served on the Open Space
capacity is "absurd " she said. Committee and the Downtown
Housing and other special student Development Commission.
needs should be a primary concern
for the town because students make
up about one-half of the town's
population, Drinkard said.
"I've heard there's a glut of
multiple-purpose housing that rent
moderate-income residents during attended graduate school in the UNC is low and they're just giving them
the next two or three years, although School of Mathematics.
awav." she said.
Drinkard is a children's dentist and
has lived in Carrboro for about seven
years. She became interested in town
government after attending the
Princeton Public-Private Confer
ence, a meeting for people devoted
to solving the unique problems of
college communities.
Attention UNC Students.
Be among the first to see the 1987-88 basketball Tar Heels, including the
debut of Carolina's new freshmen!
Student tickets are now available for the Blue-White basketball games. The
first game will be played in the Smith Center immediately following the
Carolina-Clemson football game on November 7. The halftime will only be
five minutes so you can get out in time for your Saturday night plans.
The second Blue-White game will be played at 7:30 PM on Saturday evening,
November 14 in Carmichael Auditorium (Nostagia Night in Carmichael).
HOW TO GET YOUR TICKETS:
Present your student ID and athletic pass at the Smith Center Box office
between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Students may also purchase guest tickets for
$5.00 in addition to their complimentary student ticket.
BLOCK SEATING AVAILABLE
Student groups of 50 or more are welcome to send a representative to the
Ticket Office with the groups athletic passes for block seating.
11 I U J-
fT) American Hoart
JJ Association
WERE FIGHTING FOR
YOUR LIFE
water supply.
But she also wants to relieve traffic
congestion problems in Carrboro.
"Right now, we have to deal with the
fact that people are having trouble
getting to work on time in the
morning," she said.
An extensive bus service and more
frequent trips to outlying areas would
alleviate traffic problems, she said,
and an increased bus service will help
commuting University students and
staff who do not own cars.
Shetley was active in deciding
which items were included in Carr
boro's bike referendum, but she said
the town needs more bike paths.
"The more people we get on bikes
and out of cars, the less congested
traffic will be," she said.
On the issue of development,
Shetley said the town should extend
more services to existing apartment
complexes before any more are built.
No more apartment complexes are
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needed at this time, she said.
" WeVe got to think of what we can
do for them," Shetley said. "If we let
them in, we owe them something."
Shetley helped organize the
Appearance Commission in 1973.
Since then, she has served on and
chaired the Board of Adjustment and
the Transportation Advisory Board.
She is also a member of the Carrboro
Bike Network.
She said she is running for the
board position now because she has
the time available to put into causes
she has supported for years.
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