INC NEWS - Durham's Trendy Ninth Street Could Get Facelift (WRAL)

[John Schelp]

Durham's Trendy Ninth Street Could Get Facelift
WRAL-TV, 13 September 2006 (Julia Lewis, reporter)

Durham city planners are taking the first step this
week to move forward with a project to rejuvenate one
of Durham's trendiest areas.

The city is asking for the public's input on changes
to Ninth Street, an eclectic mix of shops and
restaurants that serves as a gathering spot for Duke
University students and longtime Durham residents and
draws out-of-towners.

Meetings are scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m. and
Saturday at 9 a.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church.

For the past 15 years, the street has been on the
city's list of renovation projects, but it got pushed
back each year.

Local residents, such as John Schelp, already have an
idea of some improvements they would like to see,
including more sidewalks, more decorative streetlights
and buffer zones between commercial development and
neighborhoods. [see list of ideas below]

"What we want to make sure what does not happen is
that it goes corporate upscale," said Schelp, who
lives on the fringe of Ninth Street.

The city's vision for the future, though, stretches
well beyond Ninth Street. City planner Frank Duke said
growth and development are starting to surround the
area and that looking at how one affects the other is
critical.

"Right now, a lot of the vacant land in the area is
zoned industrial," Duke said. "The question is, 'Are
those industrial uses the kind of uses you'd like to
see?'"

It could still be months before the city planning
commission has a plan for the City Council to approve.


Click here to see video of WRAL broadcast...
http://www.wral.com/news/9842739/detail.html

****

Dear neighbor,

The board of the Old West Durham Neighborhood
Association submitted the following list of ideas to
planning staff working on the Ninth Street area plan.

The Ninth Street charrette takes place Sept 15-16 (see
details below). If you stop by the Ninth Street
charrette (Sept 15-16), please consider offering
some/all of the suggestions below. 

thank you so much, 

John Schelp, president
Old West Durham Neighborhood Association


* Build a two-block sidewalk on the south side of
Markham Ave (between Ninth and Broad streets). Four
pedestrians have been hit in this area of high
pedestrian traffic, including one fatality.

* With a number of pedestrians being hit by vehicles
at the crosswalk on Broad St at Perry, improve safety
measures by: 1) putting back yellow "Ped X-ing" sign
in middle of crosswalk, 2) add curb-necking where
curbs are brought out into Broad Street, to squeeze
traffic and give pedestrians less distance to cross,
3) add raised cross-walk with rough brick surface, and
4) lower speed limit to 25 MPH on Broad Street.

* Replace the eight street lights in the 700-block of
Ninth Street with the new "old fashioned" lights that
the City installed downtown. Do the same for Perry,
Markham, Broad, and West Main.

* Establish a two-block, east-west pedestrian route
from the mid-block of Ninth Street (next to the
Regulator) to Broad Street (East Campus). [input from
Ninth Street merchant]

* Change westward route of BUS-70 to continue straight
along West Main Street to Hillsborough Rd. For years,
this section of West Main was a dirt road called
Mulberry. Now that West Main is paved, there's no need
to send BUS-70 up Ninth St and left onto Hillsborough.

* Protect the "South Ellerbe Creek Natural Area" -- a
4.2 acre greenspace on Green St (between Ninth and
Carolina). The 303(d)/polluted status stream flows
through the middle of the parcel and has protections
from the Neuse River Regs. The area is designated on
Durham's open space plan and the Ellerbe Creek
watershed plan. City Council voted it into the CIP and
the greenspace has the support of the Ninth Street
Merchants Association, Duke University, Friends of
South Ellerbe Creek, Old West Durham Neighborhood
Association, Trinity Park Neighborhood Association and
other community groups.

* Our vision for the large grassy field at Erwin
Square is to have more residential use than anything
else. In particular, we'd lean more toward residential
use on the northern half and any mixed use
(office/retail/residential) on the southern half. Of
course, any support would depend on the Development
Plan in the rezoning application.

* That Green Street remain a "zoning firewall" --
keeping any commercial creep from moving northward.

* Place ped heads at Ninth and Green streets. Ninth
Street North occupies two corners, EK Powe Elementary
stands on a 3rd, and the White Star laundry is on the
4th corner. In addition, the well-worn pedestrain path
between the NC School of Science & Math and the 9th
Street shops crosses here. Improved safety measures at
this intersection are important.

* Add the Hillsborough Road corridor to the Ninth
Street Area Plan. This gap between Ninth Street and
the Duke Medical Center is very unstable. It's
difficult to gauge which direction this area is
headed. [input from Hillsborough Rd merchant] 

* We join other neighborhoods in requesting that
Duke's East and Central campuses be removed from the
Ninth Street Area Plan. One is a shopping district.
One is a university of higher education.

****