INC NEWS - City Council members: Duke should fill in details on Central Campus redevelopment (Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

>Stith also singled out the question of commercial
space, saying he wants restrictions that make sure new
enterprises don't have an unfair competitive advantage
over existing businesses. (Herald-Sun)


Stith: Duke should fill in details on Central Campus
redevelopment
By Ray Gronberg, Herald-Sun, 27 July 2006 

Durham City Councilman Thomas Stith says Duke
University should give regulators more details about
the Central Campus redevelopment than it has so far
before he and his colleagues vote on a 128-acre
rezoning that would facilitate the project. 

Stith said elected officials "need to be very cautious
in giving Duke a blank check," and insist that the
university emulate other builders by giving the city a
good idea of how the project will be laid out. 

The development plan Duke has submitted to back its
request to apply university and college zoning to the
Central Campus area is mostly blank. In most zoning
cases developers give officials drawings that show how
they'll use a site. But the City/County Planning
Department has said it meets the minimum requirements
of Durham's land-use law. 

Stith thinks Duke should deliver more information. 

"While it might not be required at this point,
typically in other requests like this, we're getting
details even though they might not be required," he
said. "Certainly we'd want that in this case, given
the impact it will have in that area." 

The councilman spoke up even as neighborhood groups
and merchants were signaling that they'd ask the
Durham Planning Commission to again delay an upcoming
advisory vote on Duke's rezoning request. The
commission is scheduled to meet on Aug. 8, and already
has postponed a vote on the rezoning once. 

The leaders of the coalition of "stakeholder" groups
watching the zoning process, John Schelp and Tom
Miller, said in an e-mail to the commission Wednesday
that the additional delay would give activists and
Duke officials more time to agree about what the plan
should specify. 

Both sides are eager to meet to talk about the plan,
but vacation schedules have impeded efforts to set a
date, Schelp and Miller said in their e-mail. 

In interviews, both men said they agree with Stith
that Duke needs to flesh out its development plan, and
voiced confidence that it will. 

Miller, an activist in the Watts Hospital-Hillandale
Neighborhood Association, said he believes that by the
time the City Council votes on a rezoning, everyone
involved will have a clear idea of what the university
is promising. 

"We're less concerned about what's been filed than
about what's ultimately passed," Miller said. "I
believe Duke and the stakeholders will produce
something that everybody will be reasonably happy
with. We view what's been filed as a point of
beginning." 

Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood
Association, added that he's glad to see council
members speaking up in public, given that several have
voiced questions behind the scenes. 

"The council wants to vote on a rezoning case where we
walk in in agreement," he said. "If we walk in there
and there's disagreement, no one's happy. Let's work
it out." 

Other council members asked about Stith's comments
said they also want to see more from the university. 

"In general, the more detail, the better,"
Councilwoman Diane Catotti said. "And I have a history
of trying to work out stuff and trying to get as many
committed elements [in rezoning cases] as possible." 

Councilman Mike Woodard agreed. 

"I'd like to see as much specificity as we can see on
this, and that's something the neighborhoods have
asked for," he said. 

Schelp and Miller earlier this month gave the planning
commission a 12-point list of issues the stakeholder
coalition wants Duke and the council to address. It
covered things such as building-height limits,
open-space set-asides and the preservation of the
remains of what was once an expansive mill village. 

It also asked officials to figure out how to limit the
size and location of retail and other commercial uses
on the site, to make sure that they're there only to
support the academic mission of the university. Schelp
and Miller stopped short of offering specific advice
about how to do that, saying that the "regulatory
calculus necessary to accomplish our aims in a way
that will be comfortable for all parties is
challenging to us as laymen." 

Stith also singled out the question of commercial
space, saying he wants restrictions that make sure new
enterprises don't have an unfair competitive advantage
over existing businesses. 

The councilman said that the rezoning could give the
City Council another avenue to prod Duke officials to
address complaints about student behavior that
crystallized this spring after three members of the
school's lacrosse team were charged with rape. 

Despite all the issues on the table, Miller said he
doesn't think Duke's rezoning request will produce the
sort of town-gown squabbling that's occurred in
neighboring Chapel Hill. 

Thanks to previous talks between neighbors and Duke
officials, "there's a lot of trust built up, and I'm
reasonably confident about how this is going to come
out," Miller said.