INC NEWS - Durham residents seek to keep say in growth (News & Observer)

[John Schelp]

Durham residents seek to keep say in growth
By Matt Dees, News & Observer, 16 May 2008

Some of Durham's many neighborhood activists are
worried that speeding up the development review
process means cutting them out of it.

Outrage has radiated from neighborhood e-mail lists
since the city staff announced last week a plan to
examine over the next nine months every facet of how
development proposals are vetted, with an eye toward
streamlining.

Developers say the process is deeply flawed, if not
broken.

The myriad departments that review a project often
send mixed messages, and there's a general lack of
drive in City Hall to review projects in a timely
fashion, they contend. Developers have gotten some
support from Mayor Bill Bell, City Council member
Eugene Brown and others who have pushed the staff hard
in recent months to come up with a reform plan.

But citizens groups contend that the process is
laborious for good reason: Land that can be developed
is becoming scarce in Durham, so a rigorous review to
prevent bad projects is essential.

They're worried that developers now have the ear of
city leaders.

"This is a very sneaky attempt to undermine the
neighborhoods by going around the neighborhoods and
getting everyone on council lined up before opening up
the plans, " said John Schelp, president of the Old
West Durham Neighborhood Association.

City officials laid out a timetable for examining
different elements of the plan in each of the next
nine months -- rezonings in June, site-plan reviews in
September and so on.

Members of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce and
other development leaders have been at the table with
city staff members as they've formulated the reform
plan. Schelp said residents have not been granted such
access.

The process laid out last week would be the first
broad examination of development procedures since
2005, when the city and county adopted a comprehensive
land-use plan and a related set of zoning laws known
as the Unified Development Ordinance.

Developers must get permission to rezone their
property if a proposed project doesn't jibe with
existing law.

Don Moffitt, a planning commission member, questions
whether that should even be an option.

The comprehensive plan, produced after three years of
community discussion, lays out how Durham County
should and should not grow in certain areas. Moffitt
said he thinks it should be reviewed every three years
and changed if needed. Outside of that, he said,
developers should submit only plans that conform with
zoning laws.

"I am deeply disturbed by the process today, never
mind the changes they want to make to it, because it
treats the comprehensive plan as nothing more than an
impediment to rezoning," Moffitt said.

"We're down to the most valuable property in Durham
County, and we should be treating it that way."

Developers argue that clogging a development proposal
at City Hall helps no one -- including those worried
about incompatible growth.

"We're not asking for a reduction in requirements or
for city staff not to pay attention to things," said
George Stanziale, co-founder of a design and
engineering firm with an office in Durham.

"The process needs predictability. [Developers] want
to know how much time and how much cost is going to be
involved, and they want to be able to count on that."

Too often, Stanziale and others say, city staff
members don't follow the letter of the law when
reviewing projects. They'll ask for items, such as
construction of sidewalks on property the developer
doesn't own, that aren't required by ordinance. That
contributes to a bad reputation among developers,
which could scare away good development while not
necessarily preventing bad, Stanziale said.

"If we submit a plan that meets each of the
requirements, then theoretically we should be able to
go through a single review," he said.

Schelp said residents don't want unnecessary delays
either, and he points out that his neighborhood has
supported high-density developments in its midst.

But citizen review and comment, he said, should not be
treated as an afterthought.

Schelp and many others were irked by a proposal last
week to curb the ability of the City-County Planning
Commission, a citizen advisory board, to delay
decisions on proposed projects.

Residents living near a proposed development often
first learn of it 10 days before it goes to the
planning commission, via a legally required notice.

That leaves little time for neighborhood groups to
make thoughtful comments, Schelp said, which is why
the suggestion of limiting the commission's ability to
delay a decision is meeting resistance.

"The planning commission is one of the few places
where a neighborhood can have a say," he said. "We
need more neighborhood involvement, not less."

But Nick Tennyson, executive vice president of the
Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and
Chatham Counties and a former Durham mayor, said
residents "get the first bite of the apple" in the
form of the comprehensive plan.

"The burden of proof that it should be changed rests
with somebody coming in saying it should be changed,"
he said.