CARRBORO- Carrboro candidates focused on strategies to strengthen the local economy at a forum co-hosted by the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.

According to Mayor Mark Chilton, the abundance of free parking in Carrboro isn’t an oversight by town officials, it is part of a plan to encourage residents to shop downtown.

“We very consciously embraced a strategy of not charging for parking.” said Chilton. “The fact that all parking in downtown Carrboro is free is a real advantage that our downtown has compared with some business areas.”

Chilton and the four candidates for the board of aldermen discussed ways to revitalize the local economy while staying true to the principals of environmental conservation and social justice. They all agreed that shopping locally is the cornerstone of a sustainable community.

Incumbent Lydia Lavelle said she’d like to see the town’s revolving loan fund expanded to help existing businesses, as well as start-ups.

“We could possibly look at ways to use that to help existing businesses become aware that they can enhance their businesses and expand their businesses in a time of need,” said Lavelle. “I’m not sure they all know that.”

Fellow incumbent Dan Coleman said the town needs to do a better job of defining its growth goals and communicating that vision to developers.

“The thing I would like to see for the future is for us to be more proactive about what we want as a community. There’s a lot of controversy right now about what’s going to happen at the Lloyd property behind the Post Office. Wouldn’t it be great if we’d had something in place that said to prospective developers, “Here’s the town’s vision for that property”, then something would come in that really met our goals.”

Newcomer Michelle Johnson said she’d like to see Carrboro leaders push to put a half cent sales tax on next year’s ballot to help fund regional and local transportation projects.

“Light rail is going to take a long time to set up the infrastructure, but the immediate impact of that sales tax would be a large increase in the bus service and transit service.”

But challenger Braxton Foushee pointed out that getting funding for those projects could be an uphill battle.

“We’re going to have to do a good job of working with the now Republican- controlled majority in the House and Senate. And that’s going to be a tough sell, but we have to look to the state and national government first for the majority of those funds, so we’re going have to do a good job of selling it. I think we have the support of the community right now to do that, but we don’t have the funds.”

Nonetheless, all candidates said they would support the transit tax measure. The panel also unanimously came out in favor of the quarter cent sales tax proposal that voters will consider this November.

Carrboro candidates will have another opportunity to debate the issues when the Orange County Democrats host a forum on October 10th at Carrboro Town Hall.