[Durham INC] Corrected July Minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

July
Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

July 24, 2012

 

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Colony Park – Don Lebkes

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing Creek – Dick Ford

Duke Park – Bill Anderson

Golden Belt – John Martin,
DeDreana Freeman

Lochaven Hills – Nate Brown

Long Meadow – Jennifer Grady

Northgate Park – Mike Shiflett

Old North Durham – Pete Katz

Parkside – Darryl Roberts

Trinity Park – Philip Azar

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller

Wood Lake – Robbie Willmarth

Woodcroft – Jose M. Sandoval


 

 

Visitors 

Lynwood D. Best – City of
Durham, NIS

Drew Cummings – Assistant County
Manager

 

 

John Martin called the meeting to order, and delegates and
visitors introduced themselves. 
Mike Shiflett moved to approve the June minutes, Bill Anderson seconded,
and the motion carried.

 

Drew Cummings, Assistant County Manager, led a discussion of
the role of appearance, current programs around appearance, and current issues
and opportunities.  An attractive
environment is good business sense, a matter of civic pride, an element of
crime prevention, and good for the environment.  Appearance is a “snowballing thing” – if your neighborhood
looks good, you will probably spend more time making your yard look good.  In addition to the general good
appearance around town, specific targets would be around major developments, at
gateways and transition points, the downtown landscape and wayfaring.   Current programs include NIS’s
efforts to accelerate rehab (with or without sale) of abandoned buildings, city
and county solid waste, landscaping, and work on the “entrance” of the
Roxboro/Mangum exit to NC147.  What
else needs to be done includes permanent and dedicated funding for appearance
(it’s easier to get someone to pay put in landscaping than to keep it
maintained), volunteer opportunities (both events like Big Sweep and ongoing
efforts like Adopt a Park/Road/etc.) and donations and sponsorships.  It was pointed out that we often focus
on physical structures and slip over the human side, like the folks sleeping on
the street.  See also:

·      
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group, a clearinghouse
from the city and county:

·      
City County Appearance Commission http://durhamnc.gov/ich/cb/ccpd/Pages/Durham-Appearence-Commission.aspx


·      
Central Durham Gateway Plan (never funded) – link at http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/plans.cfm


·      
If you have questions or your neighborhood would like
to see the presentation, Drew’s e-mail is: dcummings at durhamcountync.gov 

 

The Neighborhood Hero
event will be at Motorco on October 23 (this is our normal meeting date).  The Herald Sun had an article on the
awards.  Mike Shiflett moved that we make the deadline for
nominations August 31, Tom Miller seconded and this motion carried.  Nominations should contain contact
information: nominator’s name and phone number (or other contact info) and the
nominee's name and contact info (so we can call them and invite them to the
awards event).  There aren't
"categories" because it is often hard to figure what category applies
– if Mr. Jones mows lawns for several older residents, is it human kindness,
appearance or crime prevention?  Things that a hero could do include neighborhood safety,
neighborhood activities (website, list-serve, fish-fry, parade, etc.),
appearance, and general kindness (food, help, etc).  There is a separate “Good Neighbor” award for someone who
has helped many neighborhoods.

 

There was an extended discussion of a Membership Drive Task Force and the INC website, which could be
more current in its content.  Dick
Ford passed out a sample tri-fold answering, “Why would a neighborhood join
INC?”  There are several lists of
neighborhoods around; Durhamhoods was seen as the best “hole to fish in.”    

 

We have a new bank
account with BB&T, without fees and other annoyance. 

 

Tom Miller will chair a nominating
committee for 2013 officers. 
Philip Azar, Pat Carstensen, and Mike Shiflett volunteered to serve on
it.  If you are interested in
serving on the committee or as an officer, please contact Tom.

 

Announcements, reports, and miscellaneous news

·      
Old North Durham and Trinity Park on the Duke Diet
and Fitness Center:  Old North
Durham may be sending out a resolution over the list-serve with a request for a
vote in August.  Trinity Park has
their regular meeting the first Wednesday of the month and is trying to find
out what the schedule for decisions by the city is.

·      
Watts Hospital Hillandale
has two zoning issues.  First, the
Commercial Neighborhood district – for businesses that are supposed to be OK
next door to residences – is supposed to have design standards, but they have
never been developed so there is no real protection there.  A CN re-zoning request, for property on
Guess Road, has come in for the 3rd time (they keep changing and
resubmitting it); staff is recommending approval since part of the area has
been in plans to be re-zoned CN. 
The issue for INC is the incompleteness of CN standards in the UDO.  The second issue is that the first
property outside the Ninth Street compact district that wants to use the Ninth
Street standards has come in; we’ll be finding more about it later.  The issues here continue to be whether
each compact zone will have rules that are sensitive to its specific location
and how do you ensure that the rules developed for one place are just used in
that place.    

·      
Mike Shiflett gave an update on transportation
projects. The traffic separation study on railroad crossings will come out in
the fall.  Also coming are public
hearings on downtown and Ninth Street parking.

·      
Watch out for theft of the copper in the ground wires
of transformers.

 

 

 		 	   		  
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