[Durham INC] DRAFT May Minutes

Wed Jun 9 18:19:41 EDT 2010

Please let me know about any additions or corrections.  Regards, pat

May Delegate Meeting

First Presbyterian Church

May 25, 2010

Attending the meeting
were:

Delegates and Alternates

Jennifer Skahen – Burch Avenue

Erin Kennedy - Colonial Village

Pat Carstensen - Cross Counties

Bill Anderson - Duke Park

Melissa Rooney - Fairfield

Mike Shiflett - Northgate Park

David Harris - Old Farm

Fred Foster – Old Farm 

Brett Walters – Old West Durham

Scott Pearson – Olive Branch Road

Tina Motley-Pearson – Olive Branch Road

Mike Brooks - Parkwood

Susan Sewell -- TLNA

Tom Miller - Watts Hospital Hillandale

Scott Carter – Woodcroft

Visitors

Lynwood Best - City of Durham (NIS)

Lorisa Seibel – Durham Affordable Housing Coalition            

Minutes

Tom Miller opened the meeting.  Delegates introduced themselves.   We approved
March and April minutes by voice vote.

After a discussion of the Penny for Housing Resolution (having adequate housing code
inspection to maintain housing stock is important to neighborhoods but there
was some concern about recent news stories on affordable housing), we passed it:

INC urges the Durham City Council
to include in the 2010-2011 budget funds equivalent to one penny of the tax
rate for housing programs.  

The 751 Assemblage is 167 acres near Jordan Lake that is
proposed for a zoning change from RR (1 house per 3-5 acres) to mixed use (for
which the development plan would have 1300 housing units and 600,000 square
feet of commercial space, plus promises of a school police substation, and so
on).  Melissa Rooney went through
the history:

·     
April 13 –
Planning Commission votes 11-1 against it.  Developer laughs off all proposals that would make it more
acceptable to the community.

·     
May 7
– Citizen request for a deferral of Board of County Commissioners decision to
give more time for protest petition and discussion of city water.

·     
May 11
– Melissa told decision deferred until June 14, and later informed the new date
was June 1.

·     
May 19
– Melissa files appeal (with $695 fee) to Board of Adjustment on the unusually
and unfairly short (a mere 8 days) deferral.

·     
May 21
– The Planning Director indicates the appeal was valid, which would delay the
decision until the end of summer.

·     
May 23
– News leaks that Board of County Commissioners is going to hold a closed
session – maybe for something else, but it sure looks like they were trying to
simply ignore the appeal.

·     
May 21
– Protest petition filed. 
Developers request their own delay and immediately get the most time allowed under the law to attack the
protest petition.

The discussion revealed a deep distrust of what is going on
with the Board of County Commissioners and sense that the Commissioners feel a
need to keep their thumbs on the scales of justice, using legal strategy coming
straight from the developers, blatantly stealing the process and manipulating
it to be benefit of those with money and the exclusion of everyone else, and
generally bullying neighborhoods, staff and anyone else that dares to raise a
peep.

Bill moved and David seconded that Tom should write a
resolution (see draft below) and we should have our June meeting early (on June
15) to vote on the resolution and work out what we can do in support of that
resolution.  This passed so the
next meeting is June 15.

On the digital
billboards, neighborhoods should do their own resolutions.  At the statewide level, there is an
attempt to legislate a moratorium until the federal government finishes a study
about their safety (the bill is tied up in an unfriendly committee, but thank
Representative Luebke for introducing it).

We passed the Liens Resolution
by voice vote.

INC urges the Durham City Council
to devote the resources and take the steps necessary to enforce its accumulated
liens for housing violations and to direct the funds collected to housing and
housing enforcement.  

Neighborhood news:

·     
Tom has INC badges if anyone is speaking for the
organization.

·     
Lynwood Best reported that the Landlord Training
Workshop went well.

·     
The Beaver Pageant is June 5.

·     
Burch Avenue has won a KaBOOM! grant to
revitalize their pocket park.  They
could use more volunteers and food and raffle items when they put everything
together.

·     
TLNA is working to incorporate students into the
neighborhood better – will have a September “welcome event.”

The meeting was adjourned.

DRAFT 6-1-10

A RESOLUTION of the 

INTERNEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL OF DURHAM

WHEREAS
developers have petitioned the County of Durham to rezone approximately 167
acres in southern Durham County on the shores of Jordan Lake from low density
residential to mixed use allowing for approximately 1300 dwelling units and
nearly 600,000 sq. ft. of non-residential uses; and

WHEREAS certain
Durham residents and neighborhood organizations oppose the proposed rezoning;
and

WHEREAS the
Durham City-County Planning Commission, in  fair and open proceedings at its meeting in April 2010,
voted overwhelmingly to recommend denial of the rezoning following a public
hearing and an exhaustive inquiry into the merits of the matter; and

WHEREAS the
matter was then scheduled for public hearing before the Durham County Board of
County Commissioners on May 24, 2010; and

WHEREAS the
neighborhood opponents of the rezoning made a timely request for a postponement
of the hearing under the provisions of the Unified Development Ordinance
reasonably expecting thereby to delay the matter by at least two weeks; and

WHEREAS the Board
of County Commissioners, interfering in the customary procedures for rezonings,
and to render meaningless the grant of extra time sought by the neighborhood
opponents of the rezoning, rescheduled the hearing on the matter to June 1,
2010, only eight days later and not even one cycle of the board's regular
scheduled meetings; and

WHEREAS a
resident of Durham County appealed the decision of the Board of County
Commissioners to the Durham Board of Adjustment on the grounds that the Board's
decision was contrary to the letter and spirit of the ordinance and unfair; and

WHEREAS the Board
of County Commissioners then further interfered in the customary procedures for
rezoning by proposing to hold a closed session on the proposed rezoning on May
24, 2010; and

WHEREAS no closed
session was held because property owners neighboring the subject property made
a timely filing of a protest petition in anticipation of the June 1 hearing and
the appeal to the Board of Adjustment was withdrawn; and

WHEREAS one of
the owners signing the petition is the government of a neighborhood association
organized pursuant to a declaration of restrictive covenants and that even
though the signatures of such organizations on protest petitions in past case
have been found acceptable, Durham County government has cast doubt on the
ability of such organizations to execute protest petitions in matters relating
to these developers; and

WHEREAS the Board
of County Commissioners, following communication with the developers' attorneys,
again rescheduled the hearing on the rezoning to June 23, 2010, in order to
give the developers time to overcome the protest petition; and

WHEREAS, rather
than allowing this rezoning case to follow the customary procedure for such
matters, and without due regard for the recommendation of the Planning
Commission, and without concern for the due process rights and welfare of the
citizens of Durham, the Board of County Commissioners has at every step,
intervened in this matter to twist the process to assist the developers and to
confound the neighborhood opponents, and has thereby considerably undermined
the trust of Durham citizens and neighborhood organizations in the fairness of
the government of Durham County generally and the ordinances governing
development particularly;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham, through its
government and its members, protests the unwarranted and unfair interference of
the Board of County Commissioners in the procedures regulating this rezoning,
and further that the InterNeighborhood Council, its government and its members,
call upon the Board of County Commissioners to deny this rezoning petition in
conformity with the recommendation of the Durham City-County Planning Commission
because to do otherwise would reward the inappropriate and unfair conduct of
this matter at the expense of the trust and welfare of the citizens of Durham;
and

BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED that the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham calls upon the Durham
County Government to treat the protest petition signed by a neighborhood
organization in this matter as valid in the same manner as such petitions have
been treated in past cases.

Adopted this _____ day
of June, 2010

THE INTERNEIGHBORHOOD
COUNCIL OF DURHAM

    By:
_____________________________________________

Thomas R. Miller, President

_________________________________________________________________
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