Several of Mebane’s city council members have expressed a degree of skepticism about the current draft of a proposed 2045 Comprehensive Plan.
The future land use plan is said to be “a guide” for future development within the city; it is ostensibly formulated based on various meetings and online surveys about what Mebane residents want to see in future development.
The council heard the initial presentation earlier this month at their October 6 monthly meeting. Then during a special meeting on October 22, the council plunged into specifics among the 55 project recommendations in the plan.
“Many goals are totally unrealistic or unachievable,” said mayor pro tem Tim Bradley during the special meeting. “Not all things [mentioned in the draft document] are within our control,” added councilman Jonathan White.
White had also drawn particular concern to some of the illustrative photos that were included in the plan as presented at the October 6 meeting, saying that the photos “give people the wrong impression” about future development.
[One that drew his attention (see below) was what appeared to be a 3-story apartment building that was shown as a future building on the site of the Grillworx restaurant at 528 West Center Street (US 70) near the entrance to the city’s Community Park.]
[Story continues below illustrations from Mebane 2045 Comprehensive Plan.]
At a minimum, White said the draft’s identification of certain new projects with specific, existing lots should be removed.
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White had also challenged that the public’s feedback was “very general,” but many of the recommendations in the plan are quite specific.
White particularly focused on the fact that the public wasn’t given “competitive priorities,” for instance never being asked about the increased taxes that would be necessary to achieve some of the policies included in the plan.
These concerns prompted a decision to review the plan further at a city council work session, which ended up being called for October 22.
On about a dozen of the projects, council members insisted that language to the effect of “continue to” or “maintain” should be added to many of the recommendations so as not to infer that the city isn’t already doing many of the recommended projects.
[The full list of the goals and projects contained in the draft 2025 Mebane Comprehensive Plan is reprinted here: https://alamancenews.com/excerpts-from-chapter-5-action-plan-of-mebane-2045-comprehensive-plan-draft-goals-and-projects/ ]
At one point, Bradley said he wanted to ask some of those who formulated these recommendations, “What do you think we’ve been doing?”
Bradley, White, and mayor Ed Hooks stressed that much of the council’s consideration about zoning is entirely dependent on what projects or proposed rezoning requests are brought before the city council by various landowners and developers.
For instance, one proposal was to “prepare a market study for new types of cuisine and facility options (e.g. restaurants, food trucks, etc.) in collaboration with partner organizations to identify opportunity to expand dining options and help celebrate different cultural traditions.”
Hooks questioned whether the city should be recruiting competition for existing restaurants in the city. Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr. raised the question of “whether this is a proper purpose for city government?”
In other cases council members sometimes wanted to insert the word “evaluate” or “consider,” rather than commit to a particular policy proposed in the narrative.
At the same time, White, for instance, didn’t want to commit to all the studies mentioned. “I don’t want this to turn into more studies and plans,” which could be costly, White said.
In other cases, various members (primarily Bradley and White) wanted to strike certain provisions altogether. “I don’t think funding issues should be in here (at all),” said White.
“I’m not comfortable with endorsing something that I haven’t seen but for five minutes,” White said with regard to a proposed policy change on allowed accessory dwelling units on residential lots across the city.
“I don’t think there are enough caveats in this document,” White added later.
After two-and-half hours of discussion, staff was left to delete some provisions and redraft many others for further council consideration.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 3 when the public hearing, recessed from its October 6 meeting, could be resumed. The council’s agenda for Monday’s meeting now includes a staff recommendation that the matter be carried over until its December 8 meeting.
Read the newspaper’s editorial page views on the subject: https://alamancenews.com/beware-comprehensive-municipal-planning-documents/
