[Durham INC] DRAFT September mintues

Mon Oct 1 16:46:01 EDT 2012

Please let me know about additions or corrections.  If you want a soft copy of the buffer presentation, please let me know.
Regards, pat

September
Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

September 25, 2012

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing Creek – Dick Ford

Duke Park – Bill Anderson

Falconbridge Community
Association – Rosemarie Kitchin

Forest Hills NA – Erik Miller

Golden Belt – John Martin

Lochaven Hills – Nate Brown

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins,
Mike Shiflett

Old East Durham – Chloe’
Palenchar

Parkwood – Mike Brooks

TLNA – Susan Sewell

Trinity Park – Philip Azar

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller

Wood Lake – Robbie Willmarth

Woodcroft – Scott Carter

Visitors 

Lynwood D. Best – City of
Durham, NIS

Chuck Eppinette – ECWA 

Mike Fowler – Wildlands
Engineering

Crystal Muller – Brown and
Caldwell

Lance Fontaine – Stormwater
Services, City of Durham

Beth Timson – Parks and
Recreation, City of Durham

Tania Dautlick – Keep Durham
Beautiful

John Martin called the meeting to order, and delegates and
visitors introduced themselves.  Tom Miller moved and Rosemarie
Kitchin seconded that we approve the August minutes; this was passed.

Lance Fontaine of Stormwater
Services led a discussion of stream
buffers along restored streams in parks in Durham.  In stream buffers, native vegetation
with deep roots protects water quality by slowing run-off so sediment settles
out, using the nutrients in the run-off, and stabilizing stream banks.  This vegetation also provides habitat
by cooling the stream and giving creatures a place to live.  In particular, trees in stream buffers
will cut heat-island effects, soften the impact of falling rain, and help the
rain get deeper into the soil.  In
Durham, 43 out of 68 parks have a stream in them, so public land is a good
place to start with improving water quality.  Of course, we need to balance stream buffers with active and
passive park uses, and figuring out this balance has been an evolutionary
process.  Mowing costs $433.13 /
acre / year.  On the other hand, we
want the parks to look good and ballplayers don’t want to be constantly losing
balls in the “brush.”  The “ideal”
stream used to be straight and bare of brush, so we have worked with the state
Ecosystem Enhancement Program to restore curves, riffles, water detention
areas, and bank covers.  Initially
these restorations looked raw, but they are now better; we are also seeing the
benefit of restoration in cleaner water and more interesting creatures in the
water.  The state runs the
conservation easement for a while after the restoration, but the first
restorations are now going back to city management, plus the state has gotten
more flexible.  We then discussed
issues folks are seeing, such as the fact some trees are being removed or pruned
at the golf course in improve visibility of fairways.  More information:

·      
No mow video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAmWnQFkDNk

·      
Resources and
opportunities: www.keepdurhambeautiful.org/environmentalresources.pdf

·      No mow
information: www.keepdurhambeautiful.org/letitgrow.pdf

·     
Soft copy of presentation – John and Pat have copies

·      Lance’s
email:  Lance.Fontaine at durhamnc.gov

The Neighborhood Hero
event will be at Motorco on October 23, starting at 7PM (but you are welcome to
come early and help set up). 
Winners will be notified soon. 

The Membership Drive
Task Force has made a brochure and letter on why neighborhoods should join
INC, but needs some more pictures. 
The next step is to start talking to neighborhoods; Tom Miller, Mike
Shiflett, and Susan Sewell volunteered to help.  We should ask neighborhoods that made hero nominations and
aren’t members to join.  Making it
clear what dues are used for (mostly events) and that $25 dues are just a
suggestion might help raise more money. 
There was also the idea of getting the attention of HoAs when they first
form.  

Pat Carstensen said she found a cache of old newsletters and will try to remember to
bring them in.  It used to be
standard practice – and seems a good one to resume – that neighborhoods brought
copies of their newsletters to the meetings so we could share good ideas.  Neighborhoods are also asked to include
“member of INC” somewhere on their newsletters.  Bill Anderson also brought up the idea of INC being an “ad
aggregator” – helping potential advertisers get their ads in the appropriate
newsletters. 

On the Durham Can You
Spare a Change, Bill Anderson reported that Rebecca Broad says the website
is still operating and she is working on it.  

If you want to volunteer to be an officer, please talk to
Tom Miller, but the Nomination Committee
says it will have a full slate to propose in September.

On the resolution on
University / College Zoning (see Appendix A), Pat Carstensen moved and Rosemarie Kitchin seconded the resolution; it passed unanimously,  

The Nomination Committee proposed the following slate.

·      
President: John Martin,
Golden Belt

·      
Vice President: Scott
Carter, Woodcroft

·      
Secretary: Pat Carstensen,
Cross-Counties

·      
Treasurer: Peter Katz, Old
North Durham

·      
Member, At-Large: Susan
Sewell, Tuscaloosa-Lakewood

·      
Member, At-Large: Ian
Kipp, Duke Park

·      
Member, At-Large: Mike
Brooks, Parkwood

·      
Communications Member:
Dick Ford, Downing Creek

Both John and Scott said they would not be president next
year, so someone else needs to be thinking about taking on this job for
2013-14. 

Announcements, reports, and miscellaneous news

·      
In Golden Belt, another nice old house was demolished
because of inaction of Durham Housing Authority.

·      
Northgate Park’s last food-truck rodeo of the year
will be October 18.

·      
Northgate Park also asked for any advice, based on
other neighborhood experiences, about recycling in the parks.  Forest Hills has been doing it for a
while and has volunteers who get the recycling the curb to be picked up.

Appendix A: A Resolution by the InterNeighborhood Council of
Durham on

University-College
Zoning in the Durham UDO

WHEREAS, the city and county of Durham have established in
the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) a zoning type for universities and
colleges encoded as the UC district which allows development freedom in the
interior of campuses while providing for a 150 foot deep transitional use area
of less intense development at the campus edge; and

WHEREAS, the city of Durham has applied the UC district to
the east, central, and west campuses of Duke University; and

WHEREAS, the Durham City-County Planning Department now
proposes the establishment of a second type of university-college zoning to be
encoded as the UC-2 district which is intended to respond to the complaints of
North Carolina Central University about the stricture of the original UC
district regulations; and

WHEREAS, under the UC-2 district as proposed, the
transitional use area would be reduced in depth from 150 feet to just 75
feetWHEREAS, the laws of the State of North Carolina make a significant
distinction in the power of cities and counties to regulate the use of land
owned and controlled by the state as opposed to land privately held; and

WHEREAS, the campuses which are intended to be zoned UC-2
are state institutions subject to only to the city’s limited regulatory
authority; and

WHEREAS, the statutory distinction between Durham’s
authority to regulate private property as opposed to state property provides a
reasonable distinction between the intended applications of UC and UC-2 zoning;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the InterNeighborhood
Council of Durham by its delegates duly assembled that the City and County of
Durham should adopt the proposed UC-2 zoning type and apply it to North
Carolina Central University and Durham Technical Community College only if the
UC-2 zone is limited in its applicability to state-owned universities and
colleges which provide post-secondary education and degree programs.

This _25th_ day of _____September___, 2012

_____________________________________

John Martin

President

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