Chapel Hill 2020 Themes

important to the community and are an umbrella under which the goals are organized.

The themes, and the goals associated with these themes, were developed by the community during numerous working sessions and outreach meetings and provided organization for the community’s discussions.

The six themes are:

• A Place for Everyone: This theme explored diversity and inclusion in a family-friendly, vibrantly creative environment. Participants focused on creating a welcoming community for all with special emphasis on the arts, teens, and the need for affordable housing.
• Community Prosperity and Engagement: This group focused on sustaining the financial health of the community by creating a safe, vibrant, and connected community. Participants examined encouraging economic development, supporting existing and new local businesses, and sustaining healthy neighborhoods.
• Getting Around: This theme included the study of all modes of transportation needed for an inclusive, connected community. Participants explored the potential for regional partnerships linking to thriving greenways, sidewalks, bicycle amenities, and other options within the town.
• Good Places, New Spaces: Exploring what the Chapel Hill of the future should look like, this group focused not only on downtown and also on land use throughout the town including in existing neighborhoods, balancing respect for the old with the prospect of the new. Discussions of development coexisted with consideration of open space and the rural buffer.
• Nurturing Our Community: Environmental sustainability is at the core of this theme. Participants examined the many aspects of people’s interaction with the natural habitat, from parks and open spaces to locally grown agriculture to protecting water quality and solid waste disposal.
• Town and Gown Collaboration: Collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC Health Care System on lifelong learning and innovation is the centerpiece of this theme. Participants aspired to use the intellectual and financial capital of the University and the UNC Health Care System to help the town flourish.

Foundational Programs

Protect and Provide for a Safe Community

Govern with Quality and Steward Public Assets