The Chapel Hill Town Council scheduled a public forum for Feb. 22 to hear public comment on proposed regulations for cell phone use while driving in town limits.
The forum came out of a suggestion by council member Penny Rich that the town consider banning driving while using a phone, a move that may require the town to go to the legislature for approval.
Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said after the forum that the council would have to consider whether to add it to the town’s legislative agenda. He said it is unlikely that action would be taken up in the upcoming short session of the legislature.
In other action the council:
• authorized a contract for $509,000 for drainage improvements near the intersection of Pinehurst and Burning Tree drives;
• heard an annual update from the Chapel Hill and Orange County Visitor’s Bureau and a request from director Laurie Paolicelli that the town help the bureau in setting up a tourist shuttle that would run a loop through campus and downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro, with stops that would include University Mall, the Carolina Basketball Museum, the N.C. Botanical Garden, Weaver Street Market and Morehead Planetarium;
• approved a change to the rules for the town’s Affordable Housing Fund to allow renovation funds to be used for rental properties. The change was requested by the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services to allow it and other agencies that offer rental housing access to town funds.
—From Staff Reports