Town Wants Bills on State's Agenda

Staff Writer

When Chapel Hill Town Council members meet with state legislators on Friday, they will present a town wish list of proposals they hope will be brought before the N.C. General Assembly.

At a public hearing Monday, the council took suggestions from residents and, along with its own proposals, drafted requests including changes to the county's Human Rights Ordinance, the authority for towns to regulate alcohol sales and an entertainment tax.

But, the ultimate decision of whether the state legislature will consider the requests during its long session this year will be made by Orange County senators Eleanor Kinnaird and Howard Lee, both Democrats, and Democratic representatives Joe Hackney and Verla Insko, council members said.

At Monday's public hearing, Joe Herzenberg, a former Town Council member, asked the council to support the Orange County Board of Commissioners' bid to include homosexuals in the county's Human Rights Ordinance, which deals with race, religion, sex and age discriminations.

Herzenberg said his request for the amendment, which only the state can make, might not make it past Friday's meeting. "Its chances aren't great but they are better than they have been in the past," he said.

"The chair of this committee is Ellie Kinnaird, who has been very sympathetic to this cause."

Cara Crisler, who spoke on behalf of Sierra Club, made several requests concerning the impact of growth on the town. "The main issue was focusing on compact mixed-use development to help the town distinguish its urban and rural areas."

Crisler's other suggestions included new zoning laws to create more diverse housing, studying ways to promote alternative forms of transportation and requiring adequate infrastructure to handle new development.

Council member Joe Capowski said he thought the council would support Crisler on the public facilities requirement. "We want an ordinance that would require land be developed where there are sufficient public facilities to handle that development," he said.

The council might also ask the state legislators to grant it the authority to regulate bars and the sale of alcoholic beverages, issue driving citations by using video traffic surveillance and enact a $1 tax on tickets for all large-venue events in Chapel Hill.

The ticket tax idea, brought to the council a few weeks ago by resident Roland Giduz, has been suggested in the past, but University officials have opposed it, Giduz said. "Many people fail to see that this is the fairest possible tax because it is a luxury tax. It's not something you have to pay."

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