What local government did, 13–19 September

Durham County's commissioners settled the Emergency Operations Center on Monday. They appropriated $48.9 million and awarded Bordeaux Construction a contract capped at $45.4 million, both unanimous, for a building on Broad Street shared with the City of Durham and carrying backup 911 dispatch on its second floor. The city council takes its 53.1 percent share on September 21. Two items came off the county's consent agenda for public comment and passed anyway: the Durham Cultural Roadmap, backed by six speakers from the arts sector, and a resolution endorsing the Violence Reduction Working Group.

Apex spent the week unable to fill its own boards. The mayor withdrew his advisory board recommendations on Friday, and under the ordinance the council cannot appoint anyone without one, so about a dozen expired terms stay as they are. The council's proposed fix, a 30-day clock on the mayor plus the power to seat someone else after voting a recommendation down, reached the planning board Monday, which postponed it to October 12 rather than take a side. That same night twelve residents asked the planning board to deny the 32-acre North Salem Street planned unit development, most of them arguing that approving it rewrites the 2045 land use map instead of following it. The board recommended approval with two members against.

Land use filled the rest. Chapel Hill's planning commission voted Tuesday on rezoning the town's own Fire Station 4 site for up to 105 income-restricted apartments, and the council's Wednesday work session took up the ordinance rewrite that would trade the mandatory affordable housing requirement for voluntary density bonuses. Wake Forest held three hearings Tuesday and Knightdale three on Wednesday. Orange County commissioners sat with Chapel Hill's council on the Holy Trinity church rezoning on Old Lystra Road, which the town council votes on September 23. Pittsboro approved two rezonings Monday and rewrote its downtown tattoo studio rules from the floor. In Cary, staff told the council Tuesday that a provision signed on August 11 lets developers build housing by right, up to 60 feet, on any commercial or light industrial redevelopment site. It applies to Charlotte, Raleigh and Cary and nowhere else in the state. Raleigh's council was in retreat Friday and Saturday. Chatham County's appointed boards appear here for the first time: its planning board met twice that week, on the 15th with the county attorney about the procedures it works under, and its elections board set the machinery for absentee voting.

69 boards met across 20 governments, with 607 agenda items on file.

Written when 71 of this week's meetings had posted an agenda; 70 have now. The counts below are current.