INC NEWS - Duke talks Central with its neighbors with its neighbors (Duke Chronicle)

[John Schelp]

Below is a pretty good summary of last night's
meeting.

~John Schelp
Old West Durham


Duke talks Central with its neighbors with its
neighbors (Duke Chronicle, 17 February 2005)

In a town hall-style meeting Wednesday night, Duke
senior administrators updated Durham residents on the
status of the University’s plans for large-scale
Central Campus revitalization. Dozens of residents
showed up to the event, seeking to learn more about
the plans and to have their opinions heard.

In a presentation, which came a day after a similar
event addressed to students, Provost Peter Lange, Vice
President for Campus Services Kemel Dawkins and
Director of Community Affairs Michael Palmer stressed
that the plans for revamping Central are still very
much in the “conceptualizing” stage.

Though the University is only at the very beginning of
a process that could take decades, the short-term
priority is to provide new living space, with 1,200
beds slated to be completed on Central by August 2007,
Lange said.

Beyond the initial space concerns, however, Lange said
the goal is to have an “urban” Central that would
connect East Campus and West Campus rather than
function as a “peripheral” campus.

“We want Central to be a place where students do
things, where they live there, where they go there for
activities,” Lange said.

While Lange said he hopes the new amenities will make
Central a more vital part of the residential
experience, he emphasized that he did not want Central
to harm the surrounding community.

“Duke has a fundamental interest in the economic
health of Durham,” he said. “We have an institutional
interest in making sure adjacent properties are
thriving.”

The Central Campus Planning Committee, chaired by
Lange and Dawkins, has formed four subcommittees to
mull options for housing and dining, academic
programs, extracurricular activities and spaces, and
community relations. The four subcommittees are
scheduled to report back to the principal committee
Monday with broad recommendations rather than specific
proposals. That main CCPC branch will then deliver a
progress report to the Board of Trustees in May, but
Dawkins said that “even at that point we will be very
far from putting a shovel in the ground and building
anything.”

Many local residents in attendance Wednesday were
primarily concerned with how the Central development
plans would impact the Durham community and local
businesses. Some Durham residents have voiced concerns
that the new Central—which in concept could include,
along with academic, residential and student group
space, outlets like bookstores or restaurants—would
hurt local businesses and insulate students from
Durham.

Primary to their concerns is the type of zoning
ordinance under which the new Central will be built.
Although Lange and the other administrators stressed
that the University is not yet prepared to decide on
what kind of zoning it will seek for the area because
plans are not yet concrete enough, some residents
raised a number of concerns about potential zoning
implications.

Currently Central Campus is a residential zone, but
the new Central could conceivably be rezoned as a
university zone—like East and West Campuses—or even
partially as a mixed use or general commercial zone,
which would allow many types of businesses to locate
on Central.

University zoning allows for “limited retail...to the
extent that [retail facilities] are designed to serve
the campus population of the University,” according to
a March e-mail sent by City Planning Director Frank
Duke to neighborhood representatives. Businesses that
open on a university zone are property-tax exempt,
which some Duke neighbors have charged would provide
retailers with an unfair advantage.

Palmer said Wednesday that Duke was likely to pursue a
university zoning ordinance. “I don’t think it’s
anyone’s choice to do anything other than a university
zone,” he said.

But when John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham
Neighborhood Association, which includes Ninth Street,
asked Palmer why Duke could not commit to a zoning
plan now, Palmer responded by saying “we’re not in the
zoning phase at this time. We’ll make that [decision]
when we see the site plan—that triggers the process.
We want to go through the programming phase before we
do that.”

Members of the audience also urged the University to
add local residents to the planning committees, which
currently consist of administrators, faculty and
students. But neighbors were mostly focused on simply
being part of the dialogue with Duke.

“It’s a pretty difficult process to plan something
that’s 75 years in development, but it has to be
linked to the area around it,” area resident Tom
Newman said. “If Duke continues to show concern, if we
leave our attitudes at the door, I think this will
work out really well.”