TO: Mayor
and Town Council
FROM: Mayor pro tem Pavão
Council Member Brown
SUBJECT: Energy and the Comprehensive Plan
DATE: March
5, 2001
The Goals, Objectives, and Policies adopted June 12, 1989, had the
following energy policy: The Town shall encourage site planning, landscaping,
and structure design which shall maximize the potential for energy conservation
by reducing the demand for artificial heating, cooling, ventilation, and
lighting, and facilitating the use of solar and other energy resources.
Since the 1989 Comprehensive Plan adoption, the Town has done a great
deal of work related to energy. The
recommendations of the Chapel Hill Energy Task Force resulted in retrofitting
most Town buildings with energy-efficient lighting and developing a Town
ordinance regarding energy that has become a model in the country. The Town has also joined the Million Solar
Roofs program, as well as the International Council for Local Environmental
Initiatives. Yet the Comprehensive Plan
adopted May 8, 2000, omits the energy policy from the 1989 Comprehensive Plan.
This is a petition to the Council to request that the staff determine how
best to include such an energy policy in the current Comprehensive plan and
inform the Council as soon as possible.
The request is then that the Council go forward with that process
quickly when such determination has been made.