[Durham INC] Rolling Hills

[M. W. Shiflett - Hotmail]

I completely disagree with the thought of having this prime piece of Durham property turned into a park!

And I agree a lot with Pat on this.

>From my perspective,  the City ought to consider land-banking Rolling Hills, and at some point in the near future, opening it up to the highest bid private developer to build market priced housing that might include a percentage of mixed income residential units and true mixed uses that will benefit both the residents of that area AND the surrounding neighborhoods!  

In my mind,  relegating the first phase as low income rental (as reported in the Herald Sun this morning) is just another failure waiting to happen.   

But I have to defer to the intelligence of our elected officials (and staff) who obviously know more about what needs to happen there (politically speaking) rather than using common sense while considering cost/benefits over time.

If downtown Durham is looking for prime green and park space,  it ought to be considering the potential benefits of converting the old Duke Diet and Fitness Center into a Sustainability Campus with educational, recreational and storm water mitigation infrastructure that could truly benefit not only redevelopment in the surrounding neighborhoods but also provide opportunities for higher density projects in our downtown.

This could be accomplished by creating a sort of 'storm water transfer credit' mechanism that would allow private development to happen where we want it, increase the tax base and create higher densities where there already is the infrastructure in place to accommodate it.

I'm a supporter of higher value greenspace in strategic locations that can serve multiple functions when spending precious tax dollars, not just create (and have to maintain) more pocket parks that might look cute but don't do more than fit just one piece of a very complex puzzle.

This makes more financial sense, doesn't it?

Mike Shiflett


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Pat Carstensen 
  To: inc listserv 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 6:42 AM
  Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Rolling Hills


  I don't know that we would want to have the whole area being a park because
    a.. In the long run, we want to have population density near downtown and any rapid transit that goes through downtown
    b.. Pragmatically we want to have opportunities for local folks to make money building there


  But re-thinking how to develop the area with significant open space and perhaps denser development where we do build has a lot of advantages
    a.. There's little greenspace near downtown and this would be a great place for it (going to the open house today on downtown open space plan would be a great first step) 
    b.. There might be significant savings in building the infrastructure costs


  Regards, pat


  Info on the Open House to talk about the downtown open space plan:
  When:             Wednesday, March 9, 2011, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.



  Where:            Golden Belt

                          807 E. Main Street, 3rd Floor

  (Large Conference Room in the City’s Neighborhood Improvement Services Department)

                          Durham, N.C. 27701





------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 06:21:37 -0500
  From: Ken at KenGasch.com
  To: inc-list at durhaminc.org
  Subject: [Durham INC] Rolling Hills

  I would suggest making Rolling Hills a city park. We have plenty of housing stock that is empty and simply boarded up.  Local folks can fix them up thereby creating local jobs.  Additionally, a high concentration of low-income housing does not work.  You have to "mix it up".  


  Ken Gasch



  _______________________________________________ Durham INC Mailing List list at durham-inc.org http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Durham INC Mailing List
  list at durham-inc.org
  http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20110309/2a842562/attachment.html>