[0:01] It's 531 and I'm Heather Washburn, the chair, and we're going to start the meeting and we'll start with roll call.

[0:13] Patrick Brennan.

[0:18] Patrick, I saw you up here. I'm here, Heather. Sorry. I'm here. Okay. Thanks.

[0:23] And

[0:27] then, John Figgs, Kelsey,

[0:36] Jim Farron,

[0:40] Reza, Annie, Kim Andrews,

[0:56] Kim, I see you but I don't see you.

[1:01] I don't know.

[1:02] There I am.

[1:03] Okay.

[1:03] Okay, I got to know, got to know.

[1:06] Okay, then again, I'm Heather Washburn and I'm here too.

[1:10] So we're gonna go through the approval of agenda.

[1:14] Did anybody have any questions on the agenda?

[1:18] Tonight it's gonna be the approval of the past minutes.

[1:22] Hopefully everybody's read those

[1:23] and then the main part of this

[1:26] is gonna be figuring out who the new chair is gonna be

[1:31] and talk through chair, co-chair, and I don't, I think that anybody has come up as to be

[1:40] rotating on thus far, so those are the two items.

[1:45] Okay.

[1:47] Any questions?

[1:49] Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

[1:53] Motion to approve the agenda.

[1:55] Okay.

[1:56] Can I get a second?

[1:58] I'll second.

[2:05] go ahead and give it Jim Jim approved Jim second okay thanks Kim and then kind of

[2:14] call to vote and if I I'll eight eyes raise your hand or yes hi looks like it's

[2:25] unanimous submission carries are there any announcements no staff doesn't have

[2:32] any announcements or petitions. Okay, did everybody have a chance to read through all

[2:39] three months of minutes? Yes. Okay, did anybody have any questions or need to make any adjustments

[2:50] to the minutes?

[2:54] I'll take the silence as that we're good to go. So can I have a motion

[2:59] to approve the minutes? I'll make the motion, Heather. Thank you, Patrick. Can I get

[3:05] second. I'll second.

[3:11] Where's that Kim?

[3:16] Oh Fanny. Okay thank you. Sorry if I look down I can't see.

[3:22] All right so next item is oh sorry we need a vote um can let's vote for approval of the minutes.

[3:31] If you approve, please just raise your hand.

[3:34] Aye.

[3:39] It's to me like it's all.

[3:41] Aye, so the motion carries and we can go on to new business.

[3:49] So, we can have a discussion of let's do this.

[3:56] Does anybody have a nomination for chair?

[3:59] that you would like to put forward.

[4:03] I'd like to nominate Patrick Brennan as chair.

[4:09] I can't stop.

[4:13] Patrick, how do you feel about that?

[4:16] That sounds great to me. Thank you. I'm honored. Appreciate that. Thank you.

[4:22] Okay. Does anybody want to speak on behalf of Patrick and why he would make such a great chair?

[4:28] I've enjoyed having him as my co-chair.

[4:29] I would say that he had been vice chair, very good comments, and he is the longest serving

[4:39] member of the board and given the current board members, so it's a great choice.

[4:47] I agree.

[4:49] I think moving forward, it's going to be important to have somebody that has had some history

[4:55] with some of the projects that they come back through and has had some time to see kind of how

[5:01] this commission works and I think would be a very good leader.

[5:08] Can we vote? Actually,

[5:12] can we make a motion to nominate Patrick for chair? I make a motion to nominate Mr. Brennan

[5:20] for chair of the CDC. Can I get a second? John is the second.

[5:32] And are we all comfortable

[5:35] if I just ask you to raise your hand in acceptance? So if you agree, just raise your hand.

[5:48] Great.

[5:48] So that passes unanimously

[5:52] Heather, could I can I say just a couple of words? Yes, okay. I just want to thank everyone for their the trust they're showing me

[5:59] It's it's you know, we talk about community and we talk about what it means to be a citizen

[6:04] I think it's all of us showing up once a month and

[6:07] Wrestling with these hard questions and you know, we don't have to be here

[6:11] But we all choose to be here and just so grateful to be a part of a group of people who wants to collaborate

[6:16] who wants to work together, who wants to challenge each other and make our town a better place.

[6:20] And Heather, you know, we hope to make you proud. You are in your chair, so we will learn from

[6:28] your example and you will be on speed dial. I'm sure you know. So you've set a wonderful example

[6:33] for how to work collaboratively and how to build consensus. And we really appreciate your

[6:38] leadership. And if it's appropriate, I'd like to also nominate a vice chair potentially.

[6:44] I am fine with that.

[6:46] Who would you like to nominate?

[6:48] I would like to nominate Kim Andrews, as the vice chair.

[6:55] Kim, how do you feel about that?

[6:58] I think that would be great. I appreciate the nomination.

[7:02] Good, because I would second that.

[7:05] You were on my list.

[7:07] So it's a good day today because...

[7:09] It's a good day.

[7:11] Okay, so can we have...

[7:13] we've got a nomination for Patrick.

[7:15] can we get a second for for Kim? I second that. That was from Annie. Again if you agree please

[7:28] raise your hand.

[7:33] Fantastic. Unanimous motion carries and I would like the floor just for a moment.

[7:43] So it was really hard to make the decision to roll off, but I feel like this commission

[7:52] is in really good hands and I can go on doing other civic things.

[7:57] Things that I would like to leave you in thinking about is that when you're evaluating

[8:03] projects that are coming to the CDC, think of it in terms of Chapel Hill as a

[8:13] fabric. Not an absolute, that it has to look one way, it has to have one

[8:19] material, because a fabric of a community is deep and everlasting and

[8:30] And having some differences between is actually what makes a community because their personality

[8:38] comes through.

[8:40] So always kind of try to put yourself in to their shoes.

[8:46] And when I say their shoes, I'm talking about the community that's going to be in that

[8:51] space or moving around that space.

[8:57] So that's been a big thing of why I was on the CDC with what I could bring to it as far

[9:03] as the building and community building and planning part of it.

[9:10] So you guys have my email.

[9:13] If questions come up, please feel free to email me.

[9:19] Jim's emailed me.

[9:20] I try to respond in a relatively quick manner, but I'm happy to answer any questions as things

[9:27] come up because you guys are going to see projects that have come up before and sometimes it's nice

[9:33] to have somebody that has the history. Patrick's got some history, but I've also been able to reach

[9:38] out to previous CDC members when I've had questions, so I want you to feel free that

[9:43] that that door is open. Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. Big shoes to fill.

[9:51] Go ahead. I just want to say one more thing. Just we are so grateful for your service.

[9:56] And I know it keeps saying it, but you've really led it by example.

[10:01] Good. I'm Jim and I'm chair and vice chair. I view every voice on this commission equally as

[10:08] important and working to build consensus and learning from each other. And so Jim,

[10:12] Annie, John, Kim, Kelsey, you know we're gonna lean on you guys and look forward to

[10:19] sort of getting to know each other better this process as well so thank you.

[10:23] Annie, I see your hand raised but I'm not sure if that was the vote or if you

[10:27] wanted to speak. I was just hoping to say a few words as well. Yes. A bit hard

[10:31] to follow after Heather being such an important member of the Commission. But

[10:36] if nobody was here, if somebody wasn't here when I shared this a few months

[10:40] ago. I am also rolling off of the commission. When I was first appointed, it was because

[10:46] I was filling in for somebody else who left halfway through their tenure, and theirs would

[10:50] have ended during this meeting as well. I was asked if I would like to continue, and

[10:56] I'm very sad to say that I won't because after I get married in August, I am moving

[11:02] to Philadelphia.

[11:05] Congratulations.

[11:05] Thank you. Thank you. If I were staying in the area, I would have said yes in a heartbeat. So, even though I've only been able to be a part of this for about nine months or so, it's been a great honor. I've learned so much from you. I hope to join something similar in Philadelphia.

[11:22] I've lived in North Carolina my whole life and this area is very special to me. So I just wanted to say thank you for welcoming somebody very young who doesn't know anything at all and letting you from all of you.

[11:33] We hope you spread your civic duty wide. It takes a village.

[11:41] Okay. So any other business that we need to address, otherwise I'm going to adjourn.

[11:48] Just one final point. Heather mentioned about responding. She was very good at response.

[11:54] You may want to consider sharing my last email to you was just your thoughts on evaluating projects.

[12:04] And I noted it and it was very helpful. I've done a little research on evaluation of CDC types of things.

[12:13] And you came back to me with more thoughts. So definitely a great resource and hopefully you'll be open if we do have questions.

[12:22] I absolutely will be open and Jim is referring to this email in which he had

[12:30] said that I'm just going to read verbatim. I seek to be both objective and

[12:38] because this is Jim talking. With the CDC I've not been aware of any points in

[12:43] viewing evaluation. I came across some tips to help in decision-making. One

[12:48] One, does it fit the neighborhood context?

[12:50] Two, does it present enough visual interest?

[12:53] And three, is it functional and human, i.e., an accessible entrance, screen mechanicals,

[13:01] for example?

[13:02] And then four, does it use high-quality materials?

[13:06] And then he asked me what I use to project evaluation, and I agreed with the ones that

[13:14] he listed.

[13:14] I said, I also look at scale.

[13:16] Does the exterior feel overwhelming in mass, height, material changes?

[13:22] Does it feel welcoming and harmony and comfortable?

[13:26] I also look at a project's impact on the environment, its maintenance costs, and does it provide

[13:31] opportunities for community interaction?

[13:34] For developments, I always want to know how they are handling their stormwater

[13:38] runoff.

[13:39] Are they building community or are they building individual silos?

[13:43] Are they providing opportunities for mass transit or are they promoting our car culture?

[13:56] That's it.

[13:57] Those were great points.

[13:59] Yeah, thank you.

[14:03] And I'm going to leave you with, my door is open.

[14:06] Please ask questions.

[14:08] I love our community.

[14:10] So whatever I can do to help support.

[14:19] All right, I'm letting you guys go and I'm saying bye. Bye

Community Design Commission on 2026-06-23 5:30 PM

Transcript