Shelter Guidelines / Planning Board

January 19th, 2011 Council Meeting

• The youtube video above addresses some key misstatements made during the meeting
• We produced this video to show that Sally Greene's assertion about places with specific shelter siting ordinances not having SUPs turns out to be incorrect
  
• We produced another video to show that the planning board's answer to Gene Pease's question about the quarter mile decision was gilding the lily (complete with the audio from the shelter subcommittee meeting where this decision was made)
  
• We presented this Presentation for this meeting of the major issues with the shelter guidelines
• We provided this markup of the proposed shelter guidelines
  
• Here is the town's video of the meeting
  

Overview

Last January, the Town Council removed the 25-bed limit for homeless shelters that existed in the town’s Land Use Management Ordinance.  During this discussion, two council members requested the Planning Board study siting requirements for new social service facilities.  The request was made in response to citizen opposition of the site for the new men’s homeless shelter and because there is currently no specific documentation for siting homeless shelters and other at-risk social services in Chapel Hill. 

The process for siting new social services like a men’s shelter is the same process for any development, a Special Use Permit (SUP). A written plan (in addition to the SUP process) for siting new social service facilities would provide “rules of the road”, giving the community an understanding of where services can be built while providing valuable information to developers who plan to build new social service facilities.  

A Planning Board subcommittee met periodically last year to create a document.  After eight meetings, about fourteen hours of discussion and review, the Planning Board subcommittee produced a 1.5 page document called Shelter Guidelines.

On October 18^th the subcommittee sent the Shelter Guidelines to the Planning Board and on November 16^th the planning board sent  the Shelter Guidelines to the Town Council. The Town Council discussed the Shelter Guidelines on January 10^th 2001. 

Video with Comments from November 2nd Planning Board Meeting

Video with Comments from November 16th Planning Board Meeting

Herald Sun Column and Chapel Hill News Column

Watch this youtube video for an overview of the major issues presented at the 11/16/2010 Planning Board Meeting.

The shelter guidelines still suffer from the same issues documented for the Oct/Nov Planning Board Meetings.

The guidelines that the planning board amended on November 16th has finally been released on January 6th. 

Here are the most significant issues with the current shelter guidelines:
They still do nothing to resolve the problems documented in 2010
They fail to acknowledge that clustering at-risk services are undesirable.  If they use the proposed formula, then all at risk facilities will continue to be encouraged in Homestead Park area of town.
They fail to provide remedies for shutting down facilities which result in negative impacts (no  "Teeth")
They allow 25 shelters in one square mile without even notifying the town council that other at-risk facilities exist in the area.
They leave sex offenders out in the cold
They fail to require public criteria and siting process for facilities which receive
They fail to define shelters properly in the land use management ordinance
They continue to permit new facilities and expansion of facilities in the "Homestead Road At Risk Campus"