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Ensuring quality and affordable rural housing

February 4, 2010

Lisa Stifler is a Research Associate with the Community & Economic Development Program. Although rural areas are commonly considered to have lower housing costs than suburban and metropolitan areas, housing in rural communities is nonetheless a concern for many individuals, families, and communi … Read more

Using landfills to spur community and economic development

January 27, 2010

Lisa Stifler is a Research Associate with the Community & Economic Development Program. A number of rural counties throughout North Carolina have used local environmental problems and concerns to spur economic development.   In response to closed landfills, escaping methane gas from the landfill … Read more

Thinking about Water and Sewer Impact Fees and Affordable Housing

January 26, 2010

Jeff Hughes is the Director of the School of Government’s Environmental Finance Center and a School of Government Faculty Member A newly created local chapter of the affordable housing organization Habitat for Humanity begins planning the construction of their first group of homes in a fast growing … Read more

Exploring Water Partnership Opportunities in Surry County

January 19, 2010

Rick Morse is a School of Government faculty member. Over the past several months Jeff Hughes and Andrew Westbrook of the Environmental Finance Center, along with my Public Intersection colleague Lydian Altman and I, have worked with Surry County public officials to explore water partnership opportu … Read more

Preserving working waterfronts

January 6, 2010

Lisa Stifler is a Research Associate with the Community & Economic Development Program. One area of community economic development in NC that is often overlooked is around the working waterfronts along the coast, sounds, and other waterways.  NC’s coast has seen a rapid increase in development o … Read more

Taxation of Affordable Housing in Community Land Trusts

December 23, 2009

Imagine that you own a home, but not the land on which it sits. You’re a tenant on the land, subject to a 99-year ground lease. As a condition of the ground lease, you are permitted to sell your home only to a household earning less than the community’s median wage, and the ground lease sets a maxim … Read more

How do local governments create green jobs? Here’s one idea.

November 24, 2009

Tyler Mulligan is a School of Government faculty member. Have leaders in your community been using words like “green economy” and “green jobs?” What role can a local government play in enhancing the local green economy and creating some green jobs? This post explores one possible role: local governm … Read more

Student Corner: Yanceyville Prepares Downtown Revitalization Strategy – Caswell County

November 23, 2009

John Killeen is a City and Regional Planning graduate student working in Caswell County. To plan for best use of NC STEP resources, Yanceyville is generating action plans for the STEP priority categories. Siting and developing the Artisan Gallery is a strategy that is close to yielding results, with … Read more

Kelo Revisited: Eminent Domain for Economic Development in North Carolina

November 13, 2009

  Tyler Mulligan is a School of Government faculty member. A New York Times article today covered Pfizer’s announcement that it will be leaving New London, Connecticut, the city at the center of the landmark eminent domain case, Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005). In Kelo, a 5­‑4 m … Read more

Golden LEAF’s Community Assistance Initiative (CAI) in Lenior County: An Update

November 12, 2009

Will Lambe is the Director of the Community-Campus Partnership and the Associate Director for the Community & Economic Development Program. On Monday night, November 9, community leaders from across Lenoir County came together to hear feedback on project proposals that have been submitted to the … Read more