[Durham INC] January Minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

I think I sent these out before, but here is the latest version


January Delegate Meeting

St. Luke’s Church

January 26, 2010

 

 

Attending the meeting were:

 

Delegates and Alternates

Jim Tuttle – Colonial Village

Don Lebkes – Colony Park

Pat Carstensen - Cross Counties

Bill Anderson - Duke Park

Rosemarie Kitchin - Falconbridge    
      

Melissa Rooney – Fairfield 

Jay Levy – Forest Hills 

Craigie Sanders - Grove Park

Christina Fish – Morehead Hill

Moe Rivera, Pete Katz – Old North Durham

Brett Walters, John Schelp – Old West Durham

Mike Brooks -- Parkwood

Tom Miller -- Watts Hospital Hillandale

Scott Carter -- Woodcroft

 

Visitors

Kerry Sutton – Fieldstone on the Eno

April Johnson – Preservation Durham





Tom Miller opened the meeting and those present introduced
themselves.  Tom passed out copies
of the City/County Planning Department directory of neighborhoods and asked
delegates to make sure the information on their neighborhood is correct.

 

Sue Ann Lewis from the NC School of Science and Math
presented information on an attempt by the students at the NCSSM to set a new
Guinness World Record in how much food can be collected in 24 hours.  The food will go to the Food Bank.  You can bring food to their collection
point on March 20, have a collection point in your neighborhood, or contribute
money to a “virtual collection point.” 
They are also looking for sponsors and responsible people to be
witnesses.  For more
information:   http://www.ncssm.edu/fooddrive/

 

Tom and April Johnson led a brief discussion of Historic
Preservation Ordinance Revision and Local Bill.   It has become clear that the Historic Preservation
Commission can delay demolition of historic properties, but not prevent it.  Preservation Durham is bringing in a
national speaker to talk about the politics of preservation, and they are
looking for co-sponsors (INC doesn’t have $1000 to help on this).  April also talked briefly about her
work in documenting the building and social history of historic black
neighborhoods in Durham.

 

The October and November/December minutes, which were sent
to the list-serve, were approved.  On
financial and membership reports, dues are still $25 but neighborhoods that can
afford more should pay more.  We
will be sending out reminders to pay dues and neighborhood application forms so
we can do better at credentializing delegates and alternates.

 

We continued going through the bylaws.  We voted to change “Newsletter Editor”
to “Communications Chair” throughout the document.  We discussed that it would be a good practice that if the executive
committee is contemplating taking some action for which there is not time to go
to a delegate meeting, they should at least ask for comment via the
list-serve.  We tabled having a
vote on the revisions until February.

 

Bill Anderson gave an update on the Spare a Change campaign
to get people to give money to groups that help the homeless, instead of
contributing to panhandlers.  No vote
was needed, but help at getting the brochures distributed would be good.  More information at: http://canyouspareachange.org/

 

On the Jordan Lake boundary, Judge Manning’s ruling only
applies to the one property (essentially adds an exemption), which leaves the
question of where the line is for other properties.  There are also deeper issues, such as where the UDO
delegates decisions to the staff and how we deal with the mistake on the
validity of the protest petition.    The resolution from last year didn’t deal with these
questions, but neighborhoods could bring in new resolutions.

 

On potential revisions to the billboard ordinance to allow
digital ones, there has been continuing media coverage, of issues such as
contributions to politicians and the high support for the existing
ordinance.   Elected officials
have become aware about the risk of needing to pay to take down a sign if we
need to widen a road.  If
neighborhoods have not passed a resolution in favor of the current resolution,
they might want to do so.  Any
ordinance resolution would have to go through the usual sequence:  staff helping write a revision,
discussion at JCCPP, and then hearings and votes by the Planning Commission ,
City Council and Board of County Commissioners.

 

As part of what will be a very hard budget process (since
the decisions will mostly be on where to cut how much), there will be a
neighborhood engagement workshop on February 27 at Holton School.   Representatives of neighborhoods
will deliberate at tables, making trade-offs collectively, and then present
their results.  INC is looking for
neutral facilitators to lead discussions at the tables.

 

We are still looking for a new meeting place.  One possibility is St. Joseph’s Church,
which would be free, but not available on Tuesdays.  If you have ideas about a place, please contact Tom Miller.




 		 	   		  
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