INC NEWS - Groups ask to delay vote on Duke's rezoning (articles in N&O and Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Groups ask to delay vote on Duke's rezoning 
Herald-Sun, 10 July 2006  

Neighborhood groups will ask the Durham Planning
Commission to postpone an upcoming advisory vote on
Duke University's Central Campus rezoning by a month
so they can figure out what officials should ask of
the school. 

Such a delay "shouldn't cause too much heartburn"
among Duke officials since it "says right on the
development plan" that Duke has no immediate intention
of building anything, said John Schelp, president of
the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. 

Schelp added that he and other activists were
concerned because they were "surprised to see how
little of what" they've discussed with the university
in recent months made it onto the largely-blank
development plan Duke filed in support of its rezoning
request. 

Duke officials want the City Council to apply Durham's
"university and college" zoning rules to the 128-acre
property, replacing the residential zoning that now
covers it. A favorable council vote would simplify the
review process Duke has to navigate before getting
permission from regulators to start erecting new
buildings there. 

The university's still-evolving plans for Central
Campus call for a first-phase redevelopment of the
site that would contain less than 1 million square
feet of floor space. The school's executive vice
president, Tallman Trask, has said campus leaders
would like to break ground in about a year. 

Schelp said the coalition of neighborhood groups and
merchants who've been monitoring Duke's planning
process remained interested in making sure there were
limits on campus retail development. It may ask city
officials to impose square-footage limits to ensure
that whatever Duke builds isn't big enough to compete
with existing businesses, like those on Ninth Street. 

It also may request some sort of building-height limit
that would tighten from west to east across the
project site, which stretches along Erwin Road and the
Durham Freeway from Trent Drive to Campus Drive,
Schelp said. 

Another concern is the fate of three creek valleys on
the site. "We want to make sure those are protected,"
Schelp said. 

Schelp added that neighbors were pleased that Duke
seemed to be backing away from the possibility of
asking a major retailer like Barnes & Noble or Borders
to run a campus bookstore on the site, but would "like
to see it in writing." 

Asked about the bookstore recently, Trask said a
full-blown Borders or Barnes & Noble "isn't going to
happen" on Central Campus, and added that even if Duke
invited one of the mega-retailers to manage a
smaller-scale operation there, "it wouldn't be branded
as such." 

Administrators are now "leaning toward selling things"
at a Central Campus bookstore that people might come
to existing university stores to buy, like Duke
souvenirs and paraphernalia. They are also interested
in placing it in an accessible location, Trask said. 

Duke's submission of a largely-blank development plan
-- it showed only the 150-foot transition buffers that
Duke has to establish at the edges of its property, a
couple of stream buffers, three wetlands and five of
the many buildings that now stand on the 128 acres --
didn't surprise Schelp all that much. 

"Nothing surprises me with Duke," he said. "This
happens a lot. Duke has all these committee meetings
where they tell us what they're going to do, take
questions, and say, 'We'll get back to you.' That's
not a conversation with partners. That's a lecture in
the classroom with teacher and student. But we
recognize that Duke does it its way, and we move
forward." 

Durham's unified development ordinance, however, says
a development plan must include a "schematic layout of
the proposed development, showing the general
locations of various uses, building envelopes, maximum
building heights, parking and service areas, access
points and circulation routes, and open space and
recreation areas." 

Planning Commission members routinely criticize zoning
applications that lack a detailed development plan,
but their votes and advice are not binding on elected
officials. 

The commission is scheduled to consider the Central
Campus rezoning during a meeting that will begin at
[6:00] p.m. Tuesday in the City Council's meeting
chamber on the first floor of City Hall. 

--- 

Planning meeting 

The Durham Planning Commission is scheduled to
consider the Duke University Central Campus rezoning
during a meeting that will begin at [6:00] p.m.
Tuesday in the City Council's meeting chamber on the
first floor of City Hall. 

********

Delay proposed on Duke rezoning
News & Observer, 11 July 2006

Neighborhood advocates hope to slow a proposed
rezoning of 128 acres of Duke University property.

John Schelp and Tom Miller, neighborhood
representatives, sent a letter Monday to the Durham
Planning Commission asking the advisory board to delay
consideration of Duke's application to change the
zoning for Central Campus.

Duke plans to transform the land between the
Gothic-style West Campus and Georgian-style East
Campus into a mix of new student housing, academic
buildings and retail stores.

The university hopes to persuade city and county
officials to put the property under the rules of the
university and college zoning rules rather than the
residential zoning regulations that govern its use
now.

Over the past two and a half years, neighborhood
advocates and merchants have raised concerns about new
campus retail that could pull customers away from
homegrown Ninth Street businesses.

They also have pushed Duke to protect environmentally
sensitive streambed hollows.

The planning commission is set to meet at 5:30 p.m.
today in the City Council's meeting chamber on the
first floor of City Hall.

In their letter, neighborhood advocates said they want
to see maps and notes designate more natural areas and
open space.

They also want rules that would protect the location
and appearance of the historic homes in the proposed
district. And they want the plan to include limits on
parking as well as the size and location of all
stores, restaurants and entertainment planned for the
new campus.

****