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.
Patrick Brennan.
Patrick, I saw you up here. I'm here, Heather. Sorry. I'm here. Okay. Thanks.
And
then, John Figgs, Kelsey,
Jim Farron,
Reza, Annie, Kim Andrews,
Kim, I see you but I don't see you.
I don't know.
There I am.
Okay.
Okay, I got to know, got to know.
Okay, then again, I'm Heather Washburn and I'm here too.
So we're gonna go through the approval of agenda.
Did anybody have any questions on the agenda?
Tonight it's gonna be the approval of the past minutes.
Hopefully everybody's read those
and then the main part of this
is gonna be figuring out who the new chair is gonna be
and talk through chair, co-chair, and I don't, I think that anybody has come up as to be
rotating on thus far, so those are the two items.
Okay.
Any questions?
Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?
Motion to approve the agenda.
Okay.
Can I get a second?
I'll second.
go ahead and give it Jim Jim approved Jim second okay thanks Kim and then kind of
call to vote and if I I'll eight eyes raise your hand or yes hi looks like it's
unanimous submission carries are there any announcements no staff doesn't have
any announcements or petitions. Okay, did everybody have a chance to read through all
three months of minutes? Yes. Okay, did anybody have any questions or need to make any adjustments
to the minutes?
I'll take the silence as that we're good to go. So can I have a motion
to approve the minutes? I'll make the motion, Heather. Thank you, Patrick. Can I get
second. I'll second.
Where's that Kim?
Oh Fanny. Okay thank you. Sorry if I look down I can't see.
All right so next item is oh sorry we need a vote um can let's vote for approval of the minutes.
If you approve, please just raise your hand.
Aye.
It's to me like it's all.
Aye, so the motion carries and we can go on to new business.
So, we can have a discussion of let's do this.
Does anybody have a nomination for chair?
that you would like to put forward.
I'd like to nominate Patrick Brennan as chair.
I can't stop.
Patrick, how do you feel about that?
That sounds great to me. Thank you. I'm honored. Appreciate that. Thank you.
Okay. Does anybody want to speak on behalf of Patrick and why he would make such a great chair?
I've enjoyed having him as my co-chair.
I would say that he had been vice chair, very good comments, and he is the longest serving
member of the board and given the current board members, so it's a great choice.
I agree.
I think moving forward, it's going to be important to have somebody that has had some history
with some of the projects that they come back through and has had some time to see kind of how
this commission works and I think would be a very good leader.
Can we vote? Actually,
can we make a motion to nominate Patrick for chair? I make a motion to nominate Mr. Brennan
for chair of the CDC. Can I get a second? John is the second.
And are we all comfortable
if I just ask you to raise your hand in acceptance? So if you agree, just raise your hand.
Great.
So that passes unanimously
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
It's it's you know, we talk about community and we talk about what it means to be a citizen
I think it's all of us showing up once a month and
Wrestling with these hard questions and you know, we don't have to be here
But we all choose to be here and just so grateful to be a part of a group of people who wants to collaborate
who wants to work together, who wants to challenge each other and make our town a better place.
And Heather, you know, we hope to make you proud. You are in your chair, so we will learn from
your example and you will be on speed dial. I'm sure you know. So you've set a wonderful example
for how to work collaboratively and how to build consensus. And we really appreciate your
leadership. And if it's appropriate, I'd like to also nominate a vice chair potentially.
I am fine with that.
Who would you like to nominate?
I would like to nominate Kim Andrews, as the vice chair.
Kim, how do you feel about that?
I think that would be great. I appreciate the nomination.
Good, because I would second that.
You were on my list.
So it's a good day today because...
It's a good day.
Okay, so can we have...
we've got a nomination for Patrick.
can we get a second for for Kim? I second that. That was from Annie. Again if you agree please
raise your hand.
Fantastic. Unanimous motion carries and I would like the floor just for a moment.
So it was really hard to make the decision to roll off, but I feel like this commission
is in really good hands and I can go on doing other civic things.
Things that I would like to leave you in thinking about is that when you're evaluating
projects that are coming to the CDC, think of it in terms of Chapel Hill as a
fabric. Not an absolute, that it has to look one way, it has to have one
material, because a fabric of a community is deep and everlasting and
And having some differences between is actually what makes a community because their personality
comes through.
So always kind of try to put yourself in to their shoes.
And when I say their shoes, I'm talking about the community that's going to be in that
space or moving around that space.
So that's been a big thing of why I was on the CDC with what I could bring to it as far
as the building and community building and planning part of it.
So you guys have my email.
If questions come up, please feel free to email me.
Jim's emailed me.
I try to respond in a relatively quick manner, but I'm happy to answer any questions as things
come up because you guys are going to see projects that have come up before and sometimes it's nice
to have somebody that has the history. Patrick's got some history, but I've also been able to reach
out to previous CDC members when I've had questions, so I want you to feel free that
that that door is open. Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. Big shoes to fill.
Go ahead. I just want to say one more thing. Just we are so grateful for your service.
And I know it keeps saying it, but you've really led it by example.
Good. I'm Jim and I'm chair and vice chair. I view every voice on this commission equally as
important and working to build consensus and learning from each other. And so Jim,
Annie, John, Kim, Kelsey, you know we're gonna lean on you guys and look forward to
sort of getting to know each other better this process as well so thank you.
Annie, I see your hand raised but I'm not sure if that was the vote or if you
wanted to speak. I was just hoping to say a few words as well. Yes. A bit hard
to follow after Heather being such an important member of the Commission. But
if nobody was here, if somebody wasn't here when I shared this a few months
ago. I am also rolling off of the commission. When I was first appointed, it was because
I was filling in for somebody else who left halfway through their tenure, and theirs would
have ended during this meeting as well. I was asked if I would like to continue, and
I'm very sad to say that I won't because after I get married in August, I am moving
to Philadelphia.
Congratulations.
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.
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.
We hope you spread your civic duty wide. It takes a village.
Okay. So any other business that we need to address, otherwise I'm going to adjourn.
Just one final point. Heather mentioned about responding. She was very good at response.
You may want to consider sharing my last email to you was just your thoughts on evaluating projects.
And I noted it and it was very helpful. I've done a little research on evaluation of CDC types of things.
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.
I absolutely will be open and Jim is referring to this email in which he had
said that I'm just going to read verbatim. I seek to be both objective and
because this is Jim talking. With the CDC I've not been aware of any points in
viewing evaluation. I came across some tips to help in decision-making. One
One, does it fit the neighborhood context?
Two, does it present enough visual interest?
And three, is it functional and human, i.e., an accessible entrance, screen mechanicals,
for example?
And then four, does it use high-quality materials?
And then he asked me what I use to project evaluation, and I agreed with the ones that
he listed.
I said, I also look at scale.
Does the exterior feel overwhelming in mass, height, material changes?
Does it feel welcoming and harmony and comfortable?
I also look at a project's impact on the environment, its maintenance costs, and does it provide
opportunities for community interaction?
For developments, I always want to know how they are handling their stormwater
runoff.
Are they building community or are they building individual silos?
Are they providing opportunities for mass transit or are they promoting our car culture?
That's it.
Those were great points.
Yeah, thank you.
And I'm going to leave you with, my door is open.
Please ask questions.
I love our community.
So whatever I can do to help support.
All right, I'm letting you guys go and I'm saying bye. Bye