INC NEWS - 2 things as neighborhoods meet this month

[RW Pickle]

The first is an INC piece of business.

Please mention this at your Jan. neighborhood meetings. This is the first
year where we are starting our calendar dues year, to run with the
calendar year (Jan.-Dec.). So from here on out (unless we change it for
some unknown reason), INC dues will become due in Jan. for that particular
year. This should make it easy for everyone to remember. Our dues are
still a bargain; $25 for the whole neighborhood organization! So send in
your dues for 2007! You can mail them to me (the Treasurer) at:

Randy Pickle
27 Beverly Dr.
Durham, 27707-2223

Make checks payable to INC (or the Inter Neighborhood Council)

The second item I'd like to get some feedback on relates to an upcoming
change in the UDO I have requested. The first week in Feb. (on the 7th),
the Joint City County Planning Committee meets to discuss the addition of
a maximum square footage for "home occupations" as found within the UDO
regulations. For the last 20 or so years (in the City), it has been 400
square feet or less than 30% of the livable space. When we adopted the new
UDO last year, we left off a maximum cap of square footage (like the 400
square feet it once was) and just left it at less than 30% of the livable
space. Their meeting in Feb. will be to discuss adding a maximum cap to
the UDO (as it was in the past before the UDO was adopted). See if there
are any feeling one way or the other about how much square footage should
be allowed from your groups. There are a number of options:

* make it the 400 square feet that it always has been

* increase the square footage to ???

* leave it at 30% and allow any size cap as long as it meets this requirement

* or any other solution you might want

This will just be the first meeting to discuss the change. If they decide
to do so, there will be the usual public comment periods etc. as it moves
through the system toward being adopted. Frank Duke asked me what we
wanted for a cap; I'm asking you if the 400 square feet it has always been
will work? He said he wouldn't oppose the ammendment, he just wanted a
square footage figure that was thought to be the magic number.

Just ask your neighborhood group and see what they think. Send any
comments you might have to me off the list server.

Thanks,
RWP