INC NEWS - Great news: City Council OKs Central Campus; Duke agrees to 12 binding elements sought by community (Herald-Sun, N&O, Chronicle)

[John Schelp]

Durham gives nod to new Central: Vote praised as
victory for Duke, city
By Anne Llewellyn, Duke Chronicle (17 Jan 2007)

Durham City Council unanimously approved Duke's plans
to rezone and renovate Central Campus Tuesday night,
which will now allow the University to push forward
with tangible plans for the new campus.

The vote comes after years of planning and months of
negotiation and compromise with members of the
community who were concerned about campus construction
and its possible impact on local businesses.

To placate fears, University officials agreed that
total retail space open to both University and local
customers would not exceed 50,000 square feet, and
that no single retail or restaurant space would exceed
20,000 square feet.

Restrictions on the height of new buildings, buffer
space adjacent to non-University-owned properties and
protection for historic buildings were also guaranteed
by University officials.

"How can it be that a city so maligned in the national
press as a cauldron of conflict can produce an
agreement so important and difficult?" Provost Peter
Lange said.

He noted the importance of the moment, not only for
the Central Campus plans, but also in light of the
ever-present spectre of the lacrosse scandal.

"In this year, when so much that has been so unfair,
inaccurate and at times downright false about how
Durham supposedly is divided against itself, overcome
by community tensions and driven by supposed town-gown
conflicts, it is noteworthy that we can come to you
with this consensus proposal, the product of numerous
productive meetings, a great deal of thoughtful
discussion on all sides and compromise on issues small
and large, some of them technical and others with
major policy and financial implications," Lange said.

John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham
Neighborhood Association, echoed the conciliatory tone
that characterized the evening. Though he praised the
final product, Schelp frequently had voiced his
frustrations with and opposition to components of the
proposal throughout much of the planning phase.

"Today we celebrate a victory for Durham," he said.
"We have been able to help Duke help itself become a
better neighbor."

Several City Council members said they were pleased
with the final rezoning proposal.

"This is a win-win situation for the community and
Duke," said council member Eugene Brown.

During public discussion, however, the plan received
some opposition. Community activist Victoria Peterson
criticized what she characterized as the criminal
behavior of Duke students.

"I'm very embarrassed, and Durham should be
embarrassed how Duke has put shame on this community
nationally and worldwide," she said. "This campus
needs to get some kind of control before they reach
out further into the community."

With the Council's approval, the administration is now
able to take more concrete steps toward implementing
the plan.

"We're very pleased, of course," Lange told The
Chronicle after the vote was recorded. "It's always
nice to come to a stony and positive result."

http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/01/17/News/Durham.Gives.Nod.To.New.Central-2651004.shtml&mkey=2159195

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Council permits Duke rezoning
By Ray Gronberg, Herald-Sun, 17 Jan 2007

A unanimous City Council voted Tuesday to rezone 128
acres of Duke University's Central Campus, clearing
the way for the school to spend more than $500 million
in coming years to add classrooms, housing and other
facilities to the property.

The vote came after Duke officials and the leaders of
a "stakeholders group" of neighboring merchants and
homeowners told the council that they had reached
agreement on a set of 12 conditions that will govern
the university's development.

City/County Planning Director Frank Duke said the
players in the talks were still tinkering with some of
the conditions as late as Tuesday morning. But the
changes that resulted didn't affect the most important
of them, one establishing limits on campus retail
space.

As presented to and approved by the council, the
retail condition allows Duke to build up to 50,000
square feet of retail space that would be open to
people not affiliated with the school. No single
retail space or restaurant on Central Campus can have
more than 20,000 square feet of floor space.

Duke officials can build additional retail space --
beyond the 50,000-square-foot cap -- that serves only
university faculty, students, staff and alumni. They
agreed to give city/county planners the right to
scrutinize the location, design and signs of those
stores to ensure that they "serve primarily the
on-campus population," and reject any that cater to
the public.

A point that emerged last week as the major remaining
point of disagreement between the two sides --
building-height limits along Erwin Road -- ended with
the university's agreement that "occupied buildings"
along Erwin between Oregon and Anderson streets won't
be taller than 90 feet.

The leaders of the stakeholders group, John Schelp of
the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association and Tom
Miller of the Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood
Association, joined Duke University Provost Peter
Lange Tuesday in asking the council to approve the
rezoning.

Schelp called the agreement a victory for [neighbors
and merchants near campus,] Duke "and all of Durham,"
and said neighbors would keep an eye on the
implementation of the retail condition, which is meant
to protect merchants on Ninth Street from competition
from campus-based retailers who benefit from Duke's
exemption from property taxes.

Lange said the vote defied what he termed the
caricatures the national press corps covering the Duke
lacrosse case has floated about the state of the
community.

"In this year when so much that has been so unfair,
inaccurate and at times downright false [has been
said] about how Durham supposedly is divided against
itself, overcome by community tensions and driven by
supposed town-gown conflicts, it is noteworthy that we
can come to you with this consensus proposal, the
product of numerous productive meetings, a great deal
of thoughtful discussion on all sides, and compromise
on issues small and large," Lange said.

Duke's expansion indeed proceeded through Durham's
zoning-review process without the sort of public
rancor that accompanied neighbor UNC's attempt in 2001
to secure approval from Chapel Hill's Town Council for
a similar request.

Elected officials in Chapel Hill went along with UNC's
request only after state legislators threatened to
revoke the town's authority to impose zoning
restrictions on that campus.

But Duke's path to approval did hit some bumps along
the way, most notably last summer when leaders of the
private school coupled their rezoning application to a
largely-blank set of drawings that omitted details
about the Central Campus development.

Negotiations over the retail limits were long and
drawn out, with the two sides dickering over a
disparity of only a few thousand square feet in the
size of the eventual retail cap.

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Council OKs Central Campus
By Michael Biesecker, News & Observer, 17 Jan 2007

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the City Council
effectively cleared the way for Duke University to add
a massive new Central Campus that will be its biggest
expansion in nearly 70 years.

The council rezoned more than 128 acres situated
between the university's existing East and West
campuses for what Duke officials estimated would be
$500 million in new development. The university will
still need to return to the council with detailed site
plans before construction can begin.

The 7-0 vote came after the university made several
key concessions to appease critics from nearby
neighborhoods.

"In this year when so much that has been unfair,
inaccurate and at times downright false about how
Durham is supposedly divided against itself, overcome
by community tensions and driven by supposed town-gown
conflicts, it is noteworthy that we can come to you
with this consensus proposal," Duke Provost Peter Lang
told the elected officials.

"How can it be that a city so maligned in the national
press as a cauldron of conflict can produce an
agreement so important and difficult? Perhaps, no not
perhaps, certainly, it is because the characterization
-- really one should say caricature -- of our city has
been so wide of the mark."

Over the next 40 years, Duke plans to transform the
property into a mix of new student housing, university
buildings, arts centers, classrooms, student eateries
and other campus-based shops.

It was the commercial components of Duke's plans that
most worried neighborhood advocates. They expressed
concern the new development would further isolate the
university's students from the city, giving them few
reasons to venture off campus and hurting established
businesses on nearby Ninth Street.

Concerns also were raised last fall when the
university pledged to provide a $2 million "gift" to
the city's coffers, but only if the council approved
Duke's plans for revamping Anderson Street, the public
thoroughfare that runs through what will be the heart
of the new campus.

Duke won over its critics in the past month in a
flurry of negotiations that continued right up to the
start of Tuesday's council meeting. University
officials agreed to a dozen legally binding conditions
that will limit the height of future buildings,
curtail the amount of retail space, require the
planting of bigger trees and other concessions.

"A Congolese proverb says: 'No matter how long the
night, the day is sure to come,' " said Old West
Durham Neighborhood Association President John Schelp,
who until about two weeks ago had opposed Duke's
rezoning. "Well, the day has finally come. After a
long, oftentimes difficult journey, we have reached
agreement on all 12 committed elements, and we support
Duke's rezoning case."

But lest anyone think it was all hugs and kisses,
community activist and frequent Republican candidate
Victoria Peterson took to the lectern and delivered
the meeting's only negative remarks on Duke's
expansion.

Peterson invoked the spector of the Duke lacrosse
sexual assault case and colored the university's
student body as a universal threat to public safety.

"We've had rapes on Duke's campus, several rapes on
Duke's campus. We've had other violent crimes. Persons
living around that campus have complained about the
Duke students and their behavior," said Peterson, a
staunch supporter of Durham District Attorney Mike
Nifong. "I'm very embarrassed, and this community
should be very embarrassed, how Duke has put shame on
this community, nationally and worldwide. ... We
cannot allow a university to have rapes on that
campus, many times, and nothing has ever been done
until we have a young woman go public trying to have
justice and we rake her across the coals. No. We
cannot have no more expansion of this university until
they clean up their mess."

Peterson's comments drew the immediate ire of several
council members, who sought to invoke rules limiting
comments directly to the rezoning matter as she loudly
asserted her First Amendment rights to free speech.

After Peterson interrupted council member and Duke
employee Mike Woodard when it was his turn to speak,
Mayor Bill Bell said he would ask her to leave if she
opened her mouth again. The board then quickly voted
to approve the measure as Peterson sat silently in the
front row.

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