INC NEWS - Duke asking for 20, 000 sq ft stores on Central Campus (article in today's Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Duke promises to limit store sizes
By Ray Gronberg, Herald-Sun, 3 October 2006

Duke University has pledged to make sure its Central
Campus redevelopment won't include any retail stores
that are larger than 20,000 square feet, which a
university consultant says is about the size of an
Eckerd drug store. [Ed: the number of stores was left
open by Duke.]

The proposed per-store size limit is intended to
address fears that additional on-campus retail could
undercut businesses along Ninth Street and in other
Durham commercial districts, and was among 11
conditions the university said Monday it's willing to
accept if and when the City Council rezones the
128-acre Central Campus tract. 

Architect George Stanziale, who is helping Duke
navigate the rezoning process, said university
officials have also tried to assure neighbors that the
restrictions embedded in federal tax law would limit
the school's ability to bring chain retailers to
campus to compete with established Durham businesses. 

Stanziale acknowledged that neighbors who've been
talking with campus administrators in recent weeks
aren't convinced. "They understood, but maybe didn't
have a level of comfort with [that]," he said. 

Duke's submission also included a more-detailed,
"illustrative" version of the university's development
plan for Central Campus, Stanziale said, adding that
it should give people "a much better understanding" of
the school's intentions than did the bare-bones
drawing it submitted earlier this year. 

The school's filings met a Monday deadline for turning
in material for a Durham Planning Commission meeting
next Tuesday that's supposed to begin the public
review of Duke's zoning request. 

Commission members delayed their hearing and
non-binding advisory vote twice this summer to give
university and neighbor representatives time to hammer
out a deal on restrictions that will accompany the
move to apply "University College" or "UC" zoning to
Central Campus. 

The zoning change is supposed to speed the approval
process for the $240 million in new construction the
university expects to occur there over the coming
decades. 

Duke administrators have said the first phase of the
project will include less than 1 million square feet
of floor space. 

A spokesman for the neighborhood coalition that's been
monitoring Duke's plans said Monday that it's likely
the upcoming Planning Commission hearing will leave
several issues unresolved -- for the City Council to
settle. 

Neighborhood groups in Durham have willingly followed
that tack on other projects, with "stormy" but
ultimately successful results, said Tom Miller, an
activist with the Watts Hospital-Hillandale
Neighborhood Association. 

Miller said the most difficult point in the
negotiations has been to find a way to address the
worries of neighborhoods adjoining Ninth Street and
other commercial districts who "want those business
areas to be stable" so there isn't a wave of blight
that washes into residential areas. 

Duke officials share that concern, Miller said, adding
that he's optimistic about ending up with a deal with
which everyone can live. 

Campus leaders "want this plan to be a long-range
plan," Miller said. "They want to not close any doors,
they don't want to make a commitment they'll have to
change later, they don't want to be put in a position
where they might be perceived as changing the deal on
people." 

But another neighborhood leader, John Schelp of the
Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, wasn't so
positive about the university's bargaining tactics or
the prospects for a deal. 

Schelp was hoping Monday for a statement from Duke
that would attach square-footage limits to specific
types of enterprises, and labeled "vague and
inadequate" what the university proposed instead. He
also wasn't happy about hearing the wording of the
condition for the first time from a reporter, rather
than from campus officials. 

He said that in addition to worrying about Duke going
after off-campus customers, merchants are worried
about the possibility of it trying to monopolize
student-generated trade. "A shop that sells Duke
apparel is OK, but a shop that sells general apparel
isn't OK," Schelp said. "There are other stores nearby
that sell clothes." 

Like Miller, Schelp said he expects negotiations to
continue, after neighbors compare notes about Monday's
filing. 

"This discussion is going to have to continue after
the deadline," he said. "We're not going to make a
snap decision after 3½ years. It's not fair, and we've
already indicated that to Duke."