[Durham INC] Draft April Minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

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
















April
Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

April 24, 2012

 

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Bay Point – Kevin Fortin

Colony Park – Don Lebkes

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing Creek – Dick Ford

Duke Park – Bill Anderson, Ian
Kipp

Eastway Village – Dawn
Hill-Alston

Fairfield – Melissa Rooney

Falconbridge Community
Association – Rosemarie Kitchin

Golden Belt – John Martin

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Magnolia Park – Darius Little

Northgate Park – Mike Shiflett,
Cheryl Shiflett

Old Farm – Fred Foster

Old North Durham – Pete Katz

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan
Sewell 

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller

Wood Lake – Robbie Willmarth

Woodcroft – Jose Miguel Sandoval


 

 

Visitors 

Jim Wise – N & O

Will Wilson

Lynwood D. Best – City of
Durham, NIS

Mike Dupree – Durham SWCD

Danielle Adams – Durham SWCD

 

John Martin called the meeting to order, and members
introduced themselves.  

 

The 7th paragraph of the second page of the March minutes was amended to:

In
an effort to establish communal credibility, Mr. Jahn discussed a presentation
he made at the Glenwood/Raleigh CAC Meeting, which resulted in that body
deciding to utilize the program. Acting-Secretary Mr. Darius Little (delegate
of Magnolia Place Homeowner's Association) noted that they were only engaging
in a "two (2) month trial run," of Neighborship, not using the
program permanently, or decisively.

With that amendment, Rosemarie
Kitchin moved approval of the minutes, Mike Shiflett seconded and the motion
carried. 

 

Danielle Adams and Mike Dupree of the Durham Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD – http://www.co.durham.nc.us/departments/swcd/)
talked about their organization and what they are doing with respect to
stormwater.  The SWCD’s began in
the Dust Bowl era with the idea of combining federal resources with local
leadership to get conservation improvements on farms.  The Durham SWCD is a leader in working in more urban
areas.  There is a District Board
(elected officials) that allocates resources to address soil and water issues
in the district, employees who are county employees, and state and federal
agencies to help them.  They then
talked about the Community Conservation Assistance Program (CCAP), which is a
voluntary program to get educational, technical and financial assistance to
non-agricultural landowners who want to use Best Management Practices (BMPs)
for improving water quality – for example, rain gardens.  See http://www.co.durham.nc.us/departments/swcd/CCAP.html.  They also talked about how one’s choice
in landscaping practices, particularly fertilizer use, affects the environment;
see http://www.co.durham.nc.us/departments/swcd/CCAP.html.  With respect to maintaining BMPs, we
could be spending more on enforcement. 
Sedimentation and erosion enforcement is all complaint-driven.  Note that the regulatory framework discourages
being proactive; everyone gets ordered to make X% reductions, so no-ones wants
to “use up their low-hanging fruit.” 
Neighborhoods should feel free to invite Danielle and Mike to their
meetings to learn more about what they could be doing.  

 

Tom Miller also moved that the May meeting consider a
resolution giving the SWCD a seat at the Design Review Board.

 

We then discussed possible venues for the Neighborhood Hero Awards.  We would plan for 100-120 people.  The Senior Center doesn’t allow
alcohol.  Places like the
Washington Duke Inn are nice, but that might take most of INC’s bank
account.  MOTORCO has a nice space.  The committee will meet again at 5PM on
May 11, probably at MOTORCO.  The plan
is to start asking for nominations in June and have the event in late
October.  Neighborhoods should now
be thinking about their hero.

 

A presentation on Neighborship
for OND went better as they were able to use the internet.  OND will try it.  John Martin will continue talking to
them about using it for the INC website.

 

John Martin presented the Resolution on the Planning Process for the Creation of Local
Historic Districts to the JCCPC. 
It isn’t clear why, but Golden Belt and Cleveland-Holloway historic
districts are now on agenda for Planning Department.  We will need to continue monitoring this issue since
resources for more districts are not clear.  

 

Recommendations on a new minimum housing code will go to Council in June.  A committee worked on it, got rid of
some quirky old stuff (how many cabinets had to be in the kitchen, for
example).  We should have a
presentation at INC on it.

 

The Committee on Boarded
Houses is merging into the PRIDE alliance to be more effective.

 

John Martin is on the stakeholder list for the (Train) Traffic Separation Study.  They are still pretending they aren’t
thinking about anything specific.

 

The INC funds
have been deposited at Wells Fargo, which wasted a lot of Pete Katz and John
Martin’s time last week on a simple change in who can sign.  Pat Carstensen moved to transfer the
funds to Self-Help Credit Union, or to State Employees Credit Union if it is
too hard to get to Self-Help.  Tom
Miller seconded and the motion passed.

 

The candidate forum
was a great success.  Given how
much Bob Ashley added to the event, Dick Ford moved that we give $200 in his
honor to Preservation Durham; Melissa Rooney seconded and the motion carried.  Dick Ford and Don Lebkes will also write a thank you letter.

 

Announcements, reports, and miscellaneous news

·      
A bench at the Apex Street Bridge was dedicated to
Randy Pickle. 

·      
Melissa Rooney now represents environmental interests
on Jordan Lake Watershed Oversight Committee, whose purpose is “to guide the implementation of the Agriculture rules.” The Ag rules
directly impact suburban/urban rules because developers can buy down
Nitrogen/Phosphorous runoff requirements by paying farmers for their credits
associated with buffers around streams and retention ponds. There is also the
issue of all the fertilizer requirements on the Ag community while, in
comparison, the over-fertilization of urban and suburban lawns and landscaping
remains mostly ignored.  She would
really appreciate any comments/info regarding the links between
development/suburban/urban problems and ways they are connected (often made
worse by) to Ag requirements/credits/implementation.

·      
Go on Preservation Durham’s home tour in Forest Hills
on Saturday.

·      
Susan Sewell said that a new owner of the commercial
property on 15-501 wants to rezone the residential lot that TLNA successfully
fought to keep residential in 2005. 
TLNA is educating folks about it and will have more to report in coming
months. 

 

 		 	   		  
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