INC NEWS - Neighborhood Asking For Help

[RW Pickle]

Forwarded to the list from another list. Contact info is at the end of the
message.

RWP
27 Beverly

Cleveland Holloway Neighborhood Needs Help

    Date: Fri Aug 3, 2007 1:09 pm ((PDT))

Hey Everyone-
I thought I would bring you up to speed about how the City is giving
away valuable land in our neighborhoods without consulting us. If
you're in Durham, this issue will eventually effect you as the City is
currently selling/giving away its surplus property (much of what they
took in the 60's during Urban Renewal) and they are not notifying
neighborhoods or considering the overall plan of the neighborhoods.

If you're interested, keep reading. I promise this is not a NIMBY
issue, but is something that all of Durham should be concerned about.
Also, if any of you have free time next Thursday and can come show your
support at the City Council work session it would be much appreciated.
The more people we have from different in-town neighborhoods the
better. Also, feel free to forward this email to any neighborhood
listservs you may be on.


Our Neighborhood:
Our neighborhood is by the main public library downtown. We are
roughly, bounded by Cleveland St, Roxboro, Holloway, and Canal and
include all streets in between.  We have the remnants of Mansion Row,
two local and national historic districts, and many lovely old
craftsman cottages and bungalows that people restore, love, and share.
We are an economically, racially, socially, and age diverse
neighborhood with many people who have lived here for over 20 years. We
have a blog at clevelandholloway.blogspot.com

What's going on:
The city is trying to get rid of surplus property that they have
obtained over the years. They created a policy that allows the transfer
of property for $1 to non-profits who build affordable housing. What is
supposed to happen is that they put the land out for bid and if no bids
come in, then those properties get offered to non-profits to build
affordable housing. Great idea and a win-win situation - City gets rid
of property, people get more affordable housing. However, this is not
what happened in our neighborhood. Here, the city specifically set
aside two parcels, one that is 1.5 acres on Roxboro St (currently an
overgrown area behind the First Baptist Church) and another on the
corner of Dillard and Holloway St that sits near the Durham Crisis
Response, WTVD, and the Holloway St National Historic District. These
parcels were NEVER offered for public sale. They have lists of
individuals (confirmed by City Council Member Mike Woodard) who were
interested in purchasing the land but who they did not call and did not
offer to sell the land to, even though this is the way it is supposed
to happen.

Very conservative estimates are that the Roxboro St parcel could sell
for $450,000 while the Dillard St parcel could sell for about $500,000
because of the location and lot qualities. The city is currently trying
to give these two very valuable parcels away for $1 each to two
separate non-profits, Housing for New Hope (Roxboro) and Dominion
Ministries (Dillard) to build a 10 unit efficiency apartment complex
for mentally ill and substance abusing homeless people and a level iv
24 hr lock-down facility for severely emotionally disturbed and violent
youth.

While our neighborhood does not question that mentally ill and
substance abusing homeless people and severely emotionally disturbed
youth need services, we are already shouldering a lot of social
services. Here you will find Urban Ministries- the shelter and soup
kitchen on Liberty St., the Durham Crisis Response Center, Genesis
House, The Salvation Army, Durham Health Department, Phoenix House,
Andover I, Liberty Street homes, and group homes and boarding houses
galore.

The reason that the two non-profits have given for wanting to
concentrate services in our neighborhood is that the land is cheap. (We
did point out that they were getting the land for $1)

No one from the non-profits came to consult with any of the neighbors.
No one from the city asked if we wanted more non-profit social services
in our neighborhood.

Meeting:
We will be attending the next City Council Worksession THURSDAY AUGUST
9th at 1pm. We will be speaking to council about this issue at 4:00pm.

Goals:
We want the city to rescind the land transfers. The property has not
been transferred and according to the City Attorney, the council can
decide at any point to not transfer the land and rescind the deal. We
want this to happen. These parcels should be sold at market rate to
developers who will, because of zoning & planning requirements, have to
include neighborhood input and support in the developments. These
parcels are the gateways to downtown. We have a rare opportunity to do
some really cool things that would attract people downtown and spread
developments from downtown and Central Park to East Durham. We could
have another Whole Foods or urban market. We could have a restaurant.
We could have a community center. We could have a museum. There are so
many things that we could have that our neighborhood wants. We do not
want more social services. We have enough already. If these projects go
through we will effectively be cordoning off the east side of downtown
Durham from development, economic revitalization, and growth.

Please forward widely. We need as many concerned Durham residents who
believe the city should rescind the deal at the next City Council Work
session Thursday August 9th at 4:00pm.

If you have any additional questions you can always email me,
natalie.spring at gmail.com, (do not respond to this email, it is
infrequently checked) the entire organizing committee
clevelandholloway at gmail.com, or give a call 919.682.8284


Natalie Spring
503 N. Queen St.