[Durham INC] DRAFT April minutes

Tue May 3 19:18:13 EDT 2011

I am missing the text of a resolution -- I'll type it in if I can't get electronic copy.  Any other additions or corrections, please let me know.  Regards, pat

April
Delegate Meeting

First Presbyterian Church

INC April 25, 2011

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Burch Avenue – Jennifer Skahen

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen 

Duke Park – Ian Kipp, Bill
Anderson

Golden Belt Neighborhood
Association – John Martin, DeDreana Freeman 

Long Meadow – Jennifer Grady

Northgate Park – Mike Shiflett

Old Farm – David Harris

Old North Durham – Peter Katz

Old West Durham – Eric Heidt

Parkwood – Mike Brooks 

TLNA – Susan Sewell

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller, Mike Woodard

Woodcroft – Scott Carter

Visitors 

Jim Wise – News and Observer

Lynwood D. Best – City of
Durham, NIS

Rukea Womack – City of Durham,
Parks and Recreation

Tom Miller called the meeting to order, and members
introduced themselves.  There was a
general round of thanks to DeDreana for the excellent transportation program
last month.  Also please get your
dues in.  

Lynwood Best announced that the next landlord training
workshop is May 18, 8:30 to 5, at the Solid Waste Management Auditorium.  The cost is $5, and the workshop would
be useful for anyone who deals with rental housing.  The brochure is at www.DurhamNC.gov/Departments/NIS/pdf/landlord_training_brochure.pdf.

Rukea Womack announced four events from Parks and Recreation:  Eath Day (May 1, with stuff for kids,
as well as shredding and e-recycling), Bimbe (May 14, headliners drawing 12,000
folks downtown), 3rd Friday Concert Series, and Warehouse Blues
2011.  More info at www.dprplaymore.org.

The March minutes should have shown Mike Shiflett being present.  David Harris moved to approve minutes
with that correction, Ian Kipp seconded and minutes were approved.

David Harris moved to approve a resolution on Randy Pickle; see Appendix
A.  Susan Sewell seconded and the
motion passed.

Randy Pickle had a seat on the
Captial Improvement Projects Panel; he was nominated for this seat by
INC.  This committee meets once a month, starting at 8AM, and provides
citizen oversight on projects being done as part of Capital Improvement
Plan.  INC doesn't have a
designated seat so we aren't guaranteed that our nominee would be appointed,
but delegates were asked to help find good people to serve on this panel.  We will put something on the list-serve
about it.  Susan Sewell moved and
David Harris seconded a motion to have the Executive Committee search for and
nominate a candidate; this passed.

There were a lot of things reported on the legislature:

·       Billboards – The proposed bill would
allow more billboards, more cutting of vegetation, more digital billboards and
no local control over any of this. 
Members of the legislative committee hearing the bill expressed concerns,
based on what they are hearing from citizens.  A poll shows 4:1 public opinion against billboards and
stronger opinions on specific things in the proposed bill.  They are negotiating on a new version,
but we don’t expect the “compromise” will be something we can live with.  Check www.savetheview.org
for current information.  The good
news is how much this bill has helped us link up with neighborhood groups
across the state.

·      
Neighborhood Protection Overlay – The
deadline for new legislation to be introduced is past, so we will work on
building support locally to introduce legislation next year.

·      
Homeowner Association Manager Licensing – A bill, stronger than the one last year and bundled with some other
ideas, has been introduced.  Members of INC that are HOAs should take
a look at the bill since some of the new requirements could be
onerous to small and voluntary boards (it's good to have due process, but
some angry owners go way beyond due patience).

·      
Theft of Copper and Other Metals – We looked at the question 2 years ago but never acted on a
resolution then.  S616, introduced by Senator Atwater, would at least set
up a legislative committee to look at this issue.  Bring information about damage that theft of metals is doing
in your neighborhood to the May meeting when we will vote on the resolution in
Appendix B.  

·      
Solar Panels – Carrboro wants to
prohibit HOAs from banning up solar panels, which seems to be against our
general philosophy of letting neighborhoods do what they think best.

·      
Resetting Priorities on Transportation Projects – This could affect the East End Connector.  It was referred to
the Transportation Committee.

·      
Passenger Rail – Making accepting
federal money for high-speed rail harder would affect light rail in the Triangle. 
This was referred to the Transportation Committee.

We discussed a number
of transportation issues:

·      
Alston Avenue widening –
It’s not clear at this point what INC can or should do to help the neighborhood
on this.

·      
Highway 54 study – They are trying to
plan for huge increases in traffic in what is already a failing
intersection.  DOT worries a lot
more about cars stopped on the off-ramp on I-40 than how unpleasant it gets for
the neighborhood.  The
neighborhoods in the area will continue to monitor the issue.

·      
Traffic Calming – More enforcement seems
to be making a difference in Old North Durham.  Burch Avenue has had some success with recording license
numbers of illegally parking cars in the neighborhood and telling the school who
is causing a problem.  East Durham
is getting fatter streets while other parts of town are getting road
diets.  We will have someone come
talk about PACE car program in June. 
Because of the economy, we are getting a lot more for our money in
capital projects right now.  David
Harris moved that we ask city council to fund the existing backlog of traffic
calming requests this year; Jennifer Skahen seconded
and after some discussion of whether to vote or wait until May, the motion
carried.

On the Golden Belt Resolution,
the re-zoning and street closing are apparently on hold.  A charette planning the area is
scheduled for late May.  The
neighborhood decided to support a minor special use permit for the new building
behind the church.

Looking at the city and county
budget hearings, one of our older resolutions was against unreasonable fees –
planning is supposed to be self-funding so developers sometimes feel like they
“deserve a yes” because of how much they have paid in fees and good ideas such
as down-zonings get discouraged. 
Tom will make these comments in the budget hearings.

There were a number of
neighborhood reports.

·      
Burch Avenue became a
National Historic District in September 2012, and folks are starting to take
advantage of the tax credits. 
Watts Hospital-Hillandale has developed some information they can share.

·      
Old West Durham – The
neighborhood will support the new apartment complex.  The neighborhoods around Ninth Street have presented their
comments on the draft rules, and mostly have questions on how to preserve plans
once they are approved.

·      
Old Farm – West Point
Park is still waiting to hear what state wants to do with Black Ridge.  Since the only copy of the Development
Plan for the site has gone missing, some kind of re-zoning will have to happen.

·      
Goldenbelt – Come to the
house tour on May 1 and see the wonderful things happening to
formerly-boarded-up houses.

·      
Duke Park – Come to the
house tour on May 7, which starts at the historic bath house.  The
neighborhood also brought up the concern that the city's coffers are filled by taxes
paid by affluent neighborhoods, but the distribution is overly lopsided toward
lower-income neighborhoods.  As an
example, the recent opening of the 2800 sq ft community center in Walltown cost
$9 million, while Duke Park has begged for decades for attention to its
historic bath house of the same size. 
The city estimates the conversion to a community center would cost
one tenth the Walltown expenditure, yet has offered just $150k towards that
effort.  Such "Robin Hood
funding" may eventually result in the loss of an Historic landmark, the
continued decline of restrooms that the City declared "unacceptable"
over 12 years ago, and a missed opportunity of creating a community center at a
fraction of the cost.  Bill Anderson
said that such examples must be examined in detail to fully understand the
general concern.  Chairman Tom Miller
asked that it be revisited in detail at next month's meeting, so that INC can
develop a position.

·      
Old North Durham – The
neighborhood has been trying to take responsible positions on Old North Durham
Park and on the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, and generally finding out how
messy being responsible can be. (Short version of a long conversation).

The meeting adjourned.
Appendix A: Resolution on Randy Pickle (get text from Tom)

Appendix B:  Resolution on Theft of Copper and Other
Metals

Whereas, the current laws
respecting the theft of copper, including the latest revisions passed by the
North Carolina General Assembly, have not been successful in stemming the tide
of copper theft; and

Whereas, though the economic
downturn has decreased the price of copper, the magnitude of the problem is
only increasing, and the injury done to the community is substantial; and 

Whereas, the State of North
Carolina and the several counties and municipalities are facing an extreme
budget shortfall, and that such a shortfall is not helped by the fact that
metal recyclers do not report metal sales to the taxing authority, and this
results in a tremendous amount of untaxed economic activity.

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY
RESOLVED that the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham thanks Senator Atwater
for introducing S616, asks the legislature to pass the bill to set up a study
committee, and asks the committee to look into alternatives which cause all
metal transactions to be reported to the Revenue Office, linked with a valid
tax id number of the metal seller, for all transactions above $10.00.

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