By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
CARRBORO — The Carrboro Board of Aldermen gave final approval Tuesday night to an $18,525,685 annual budget for fiscal year 2010-11. The town’s tax rate remains at 58.94 percent per $100 valuation of taxable property.
At the board’s second to last meeting before the summer break, Mayor Mark Chilton thanked Town Manager Steve Stewart for avoiding a tax increase given a drop in revenues.
Stewart’s plan includes $560,500 in equipment purchases, much of that for replacement of a fire suppression truck and solid waste boom truck. Town employees will get a one-time bonus of $455 for full-time town employees and a pro-rated bonus based on hours for part-time employees. The budget also raises the town’s living wage to $11.78 per hour.
In other action Tuesday night, the board voted to delay action on a minor modification to the Ballentine Architecturally Integrated Subdivision conditional use permit. Builder M/I Homes is seeking the go-ahead for the 96-unit project off Old N.C. 86. The company wants to build 62 single-family homes and 34 townhomes in an area between Lake Hogan Farms and Orange County’s Twin Creeks Park property. Two other phases of the project are also being designed, according to M/I Homes’ Jeremy Medlin. Medlin told the board that based on feedback at a previous hearing before the board and further feedback from the town, the company is modifying its plan for the future phases of the project to increase the density and add a small commercial area, likely a small building with a couple of apartments above it.
That project won’t be ready for submission to the town for review until late summer or early fall, Medlin said.
Jay Bryan, who lives across Old N.C. 86 from the project, asked the board to consider sending it to the Northern Transition Advisory Committee for review. Bryan said he was concerned about the location of a proposed entrance for the development as well as its future phases.
Board members said future phases of the project would be reviewed by the advisory committee and delayed taking action on the first two phases of the plan until its next meeting on June 22.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board of aldermen:
• received a report from Friends of Bolin Creek on the group’s conservation and restoration project;
• received an update on the Bolin Creek Greenway plans;
• heard an update on Safe Routes to School plans for Carrboro and McDougle elementary schools;
• set the date for reopening a public hearing on plans for Smith Level Road for September 7;
• approved a resolution declining an offer from OWASA to purchase 73 acres of OWASA-owned land off Jones Ferry Road and Old Greensboro Highway;
• authorized the town manager to move ahead with the design of the Wilson Park multi-use path;
• amended the contract for use of the Century Center to include an anti-discrimination clause; and
• appointed filmmaker Richard Jaimeyfield, a resident of the Hillsborough Road neighborhood, to the town planning board.