[Durham INC] June minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

Please let me know about any additions or changes.  Regards, pat
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June Delegate Meeting

First Presbyterian Church

June 15, 2010

 

Attending the meeting
were:

Delegates and Alternates

Cleveland Holloway – Jennifer Deer

Colonial Village – Connie Hurt 

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen 

Duke Park – Bill Anderson 

Falconbridge – Rosemarie Kitchin 

Fairfield – Melissa Rooney 

Morehead Hills – Christina Fish and Kacie Martin

Old Farm – Fred Foster 

Old West Durham – John Schelp 

Olive Branch Road – Scott Pearson and Tina Motley-Pearson 

Parkwood – Mike Brooks 

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom Miller 

Woodcroft – Dan Ryan 

 

Tom Miller opened the meeting.  Delegates introduced themselves.  

 

Bill moved that we approve the minutes.  Rosemarie seconded the motion, and it
passed by voice vote.

 

Tom reported that he spoke at the budget hearing on our
resolutions on liens and on a penny for housing, as well as our objections to
fees for planning matters (appealing a decision by the planning director, for
example) that are higher than those for filing a case in federal court.

 

On the 751 Assemblage, the developers have asked for more
time (having previously done everything they could to hustle things along) now
that they are facing a protest petition. 
They basically threatened to sue if the opponents got more than a month
of delay, but managed to get more than a month of delay, until July 26, when
they want one.  The whole process
(for example, do we need to sign up to speak when the commissioners open the
hearing on July 14 and then continue it until later?) is ambiguous.  

 

Bill accepted Pat’s amendment:

WHEREAS a key
role of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham is to work for fair and open
processes; and

 

The resolution (see below) was passed by voice vote.  John suggests sending it, in the body
of the e-mail, to neighborhood list-serves.

 

Neighborhood reports:

·     
We need to keep pushing on billboards.

·     
Burch Avenue park renovation was fantastic.

·     
Old West Durham had a very fun Hop, Sip, and
Ride – free bus passes to go downtown, music on the bus, a fantastic bus
driver, and opportunities to visit downtown businesses.  

·     
The Beaver Pageant was as much fun as
usual.  In the process, they got
back the parking lot from use as a storage area.   

·     
Parkwood is having Independence Day celebration
on July 3, 9-11AM.  It’s free, with
lots of kids’ activities and a big parade.

·     
Watts Hospital Hillandale will have its
Independence Day celebration on July 4 at 2PM, with 61st year of a
parade, the pledge, flags, and cupcakes.

 

 The meeting was
adjourned.

 




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 a key
role of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham is to work for fair and open
processes; 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 15th day of June, 2010

 

THE
INTERNEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL OF DURHAM

 

 




 		 	   		  
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