INC NEWS - DPC Letter- Rezoning for Autopark at Southpoint

[Melissa Rooney]

I am writing to request that you please write the
Durham planning commission and ask that they deny the
request for Rezoning "The Park at Southpoint" from
'Medium Density Residential and Office' to
'Commercial' (case A07-15). The rezoning would apply
to ~40.6 acres north of Southpoint Auto Park Blvd and
east of NC 751.

In addition to the lack of committed elements in the
plan itself, my neighborhood (and those surrounding)
have had experience with the developer on another
project, and we just want to ensure that he must use
the land as he says (but has not written) he plans to
do...in a manner that complies with Army Corps and
Tree save requests, among other concerns. As the plan
currently stands, there are far too many possible
loopholes which could be of detriment (environmentally
and otherwise) to our part of South Durham.

Below is a sample email sent to the planning
commission. It would be beneficial if you would each
send a quick email weighing in on this issue. Their
meeting on this rezoning application is this Tuesday,
October 9.

Their email addresses are:

"'George Brine'" <gabrine013 at msn.com>, "'Don Moffitt'"
<d.moffitt at verizon.net>, "'Harry Dawley'"
<hfdrdd at aol.com>, "'Deborah Giles'"
<deborah.giles at durhamnc.gov>, "'Wendy Jacobs'"
<geewen at nc.rr.com>, "'Jon Kuczynski'"
<jck at csitedesign.com>, "'Corinne Mabry'"
<CORGEO1 at aol.com>, "'Jarvis Martin'"
<apprrtp at aol.com>, "'John Mozart'"
<jmozart at nc.rr.com>, "'Joseph Parker'"
<jparker at cimginc.com>, "'John Parrish'"
<jparrish43 at yahoo.com>, "'Lynn VanScoyoc'"
<lmv at duke.edu>, "'Benjamin Greene'"
<bgreene at scimedsolutions.com>,
steve.medlin at durhamnc.gov <steve.medlin at durhamnc.gov>

Thanks!
Melissa
P.S. I will NOT email and ask that you hold off on
sending correspondence. This issue is of proved
concern  right now.

_______________

"Rezoning for "The Park at Southpoint": case A07-15:

You are getting a rezoning request for this site
currently zoned Mixed Use.  The applicant wants it
changed to Commercial.  The original rezoning for the
land was approved by City Council only after a mixed
use was promised. The sketch of this new addition to
the current auto park shows 6 or 7 more buildings
labeled "Dealership".  If rezoned Commercial, these
might or might not become car dealerships since
general commercial zoning will accommodate just about
anything. Commitments should be required for exactly
the type of business that is actually going to be
there. 

There are another problems with the plan that I viewed
at a neighborhood meeting.  At first glance it looks
as though there are fairly good wooded buffers between
the site and the adjacent residential areas.  When I
looked more closely, many of the "trees" depicted on
the plan were on the area OUTSIDE the site boundary. 
Yet another problem - immediately to the north on the
western end of the property there are Army Corps Of
Engineers Gamelands.  The ACE routinely and strongly
requests that a 100 foot wooded buffer be left between
development and gamelands (for safety and for
stormwater runoff buffering). These same ACE lands are
also part of the Durham Inventory of Important Natural
Areas,  Plants and Wildlife - the Third Fork Creek
Bottomlands and Swamp Forest.  Neither the ACE
Gamelands nor the Inventory site was noted. No buffer
was shown on the plan I saw.

Neighbors living in the residential neighborhoods to
the east and northeast are quite concerned about the
increased use of their neighborhood streets for "test
drives". From the people I met at the neighborhood
meeting, I am not sure they are savvy enough to show
up and demand a committed element for more buffers and
a promise to keep their residential streets free from
test drives in the cars being sold at these multi -
dealerships.

In general, this plan should be denied unless there
are some really strong commitments and really good buffers."


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