CHOCVB Board Meeting Minutes 051921

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DocuSign Envelope ID:502009F3-4D5D-4553-94B6-17FCBFF12415 New Business/ Roundtable • Mayor Pam Hemminger—Town of Chapel Hill - Expanded sidewalk program will continue for now and we are working on upgrading the way it looks. People really enjoy it. Look for outside dining to continue to grow. - There is a bill in front of the state legislature; House Bill 781, that we are hopeful will pass. It would allow us to create "social districts" downtown allowing people to wander with their alcoholic beverage within a certain area. This would allow us to expand the outside dining experience and allow for continued social distancing. - Saturday free parking downtown will continue until the middle of August. - The old "CVS" parking deck(aka "ugly deck") on East Rosemary is on schedule to be demolished late June/early July. The reconstruction will take a year for the new deck to be built. The Wallace parking deck will be full capacity and we are looking for other places to help people park during that year the new CVS parking is being rebuilt. Therefore, parking will be at a premium. - The proposed new hotel at the old town hall is coming before Town Council before we break in June. They are proposing a rooftop outside amenity for the public. - We are starting our short-term rental (STR) discussion this evening. We will be working to finalize some kind of outcome and voting at the end of June on that. - University Place (U Mall) redevelopment proposal on the agenda tonight. The redevelopment of University Mall includes turning them inside out with the stores all facing outward versus inside as they are currently. The redevelopment proposal includes adding residential units, more commercial space, and some green space. - The Aura Proiect on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Estes is also working through the Town of Chapel Hill's development process. - There are 41 development projects currently. - American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)funds—The Town of Chapel Hill is slated to get 10.2 million dollars over the course of two years but we have three years to spend that. We will be having public forums on how to spend these funds. We have been advised not to jump too quickly in spending these. We need to take out time and make sure we have good oversight and administration of these funds. We do want to get started with some monies towards our ReVive Project, grants and support for our local businesses to get them back up and running, especially the ones that haven't been able to open until just recently. - Governor Roy Cooper's May 14, 2021 Executive Order No. 215 "Lifting COVID-19 Restrictions . . "—Mayor Lavelle and I met on Friday after the Governor's orders came out. We weren't given much time to implement any kind of plan. Everyone is struggling with how to move forward. We'll see a lot of confusion and inconsistencies. Thankfully, in Orange County people respect the science and data. I talked to the school board chair yesterday,they are very concerned, and their parents are very distressed about doing away with masks because their young children cannot be vaccinated and they still want to go out in public like to grocery stores. Now they are not going to feel safe to do so. The News and Observer had a poll indicating people still want to wear masks and that they are feeling like we are not quite there yet with the vaccinations. - Chapel Hill Town Hall is still requiring its employees to wear masks. Town Council will continue virtual meetings until the end of June. - Our unemployment rate is below 3%,which means it is hard to find workers. - We are doing everything we can to encourage people to be vaccinated. 5 Page CHOCVB B 0 D Meeting May 19 , 2021