[Durham INC] DRAFT June minutes

Sat Jul 20 18:57:38 EDT 2013

Resending this in preparation for Tuesday's meeting.  Regards, pat

From: pats1717 at hotmail.com
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 07:05:53 -0400
Subject: [Durham INC] DRAFT June minutes

June
Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

June 25, 2013

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Cleveland-Holloway – Jan Martell

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing Creek – Dick Ford

Duke Park – Bill Anderson, Ian
Kipp

Eagles’ Pointe – Donna Rudolph

Fairfield – Melissa Rooney

Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman

Morehead Hill Neighborhood
Association – Patricia Mohr

Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins,
Mike Shiflett

Old North Durham – Peter Katz,
John Martin

Stage Stop – Dorothy Croom,
Dolly Fehrenbacher

Trinity Park – Philip Azar

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan
Sewell 

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller

Woodcroft – Scott Carter, Heidi
Carter

Woodlake – Robbie Willmarth,
David White

Visitors 

Jim Wise – N & O

Lynwood D. Best – City of
Durham, NIS

John Killeen – City of Durham,
NIS

Will Wilson

Jessica Moore – Open Art Society

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

John Killeen, NIS, gave an
update on the Neighborhood Compass
project.  He passed out an
information sheet and gave a demonstration of the website, which will not be on
line until August. Neighborhood Compass is part of the Strategic Plan goal of
having thriving, livable neighborhoods; it will integrate city, county, and
other data to let us track progress on neighborhood improvement and see shifts
in the overall quality of life.  It
will also identify where we want to get more data; for example, solid waste
would need a scale on the truck if they wanted to know where garbage is coming
from in more detail than just by route. 
The tool uses data on individual locations, but all the user sees is the
data aggregated to census block or neighborhood.  There were lots of good suggestions about the tool and some
concern about how the maps could be misinterpreted about the character of
neighborhoods. 

Jessica Moore talked about the
Open Art Society (http://www.openartsociety.org/project/).  It grew out of the Durham Storefront
Project (http://durhamstorefrontproject.org).  Their TBD project will pair artists
with neighborhoods to do an art installation or artwork.  They are starting with a pilot project
in Northgate Park (on Lavender Street) and will be looking for 4-5 other
neighborhoods for 2014.  Please
contact Jessica if your neighborhood is interested.

On the Cell Tower Resolution, Tom
Miller proposed an amendment in the text (see Appendix A).  The amendment passed unanimously.  The resolution was then passed with no
“no” votes and two abstentions.  

Dick Ford, Bill Anderson, and
Mike Shiflett talked about the roadside
solicitation ordinance (don’t call it “panhandling”), which is meant to
make our streets safer for everyone. 
Some people wanted to repeal it, but a subcommittee of the Homeless
Services Advisory Committee has come up with a compromise that decriminalizes
occasional solicitation, works on improving services, and addresses clogging of
the courts.   

Various committees than made
reports:

·      
Zoning and Development. 
Co-Chair Tom Miller reported that they are working on the interface between
residential and non-residential areas; the next meeting is July 10th.

·      
Membership and Outreach.  Co-chair
Dick Ford said the brochure is completed, thanks to Jan Martell, and they have
sent out initial e-mails to suggested contacts.  Debra Hawkins gave an update on plans for a neighborhood block party.  They would like to have it at Durham
Central Park on August 25; please ask your neighborhoods if this is a good
place and time.  Rent would be
$250, which would cover toilets and trash pick-up, and there might be costs for
music and so on.  It could still be
revenue neutral with sponsors.  We
would have tables for INC, any neighborhood that wants to display information
and possibly city/county services. 
There would also be food trucks and fun for kids.

·      
Nuisance Abatement.  No
report.

·      
Traffic Enforcement. 
Chair Phil Azar distributed a report on their June meeting (see Appendix
B).  Looking at statistics shows
this problem is important.  

·      
Bike, Ped and Transit. 
Chair Scott Carter said they updated the name of the committee and will be
meeting on Wednesday at Geer Street Garden.

·      
Public Spaces and Environmental Issues.  Co-chair Deb Hawkins they will be working on some small projects
around the maintenance of parks; if you want to join the committee, they will
be meeting at 6 PM before the INC delegate meeting.

John Martin will ask the
list-serve for volunteers for the Nominating Committee to find officers for
next year.

Announcements, reports, and miscellaneous news:

·      
Northgate Park’s next
Food Truck Rodeo is Thursday, with Durham Ukulele Orchestra, the t-shirt design
contest, and a variety of food trucks.

·      
On the Duke Beltline,
Norfolk Southern is doing a new appraisal.  A new 501C3 group may be formed to raise money.

·      
National Night Out is
August 6; registration closes July 8.

·      
Cleveland-Holloway won
their KaBoom grant.

·      
Patricia Mohr of Morehead
Hills had some questions about sidewalks and streetscape projects, which were
answered off line.

·      
Heidi Carter answers
questions about the proposed single-sex academies, one for boys and one for
girls.  It would not be an
alternative / for-truants school but have a mix of challenged,
middle-of-the-road, and high-achieving students.  They would be looking for opportunities for partnerships
because of the extra cost.  It
would open for the 2014-15 school year, possibly in the space of the WG Pearson
Middle School, with next year being used to
nail down details such as whether it would be a magnet, in-district charter or
a partnership with a charter.  

Appendix A: Resolution by
the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham on the siting and approval of cell
towers in residential areas:

Whereas site
plans seeking to place Freestanding Wireless Communications Facilities (cell
towers) in residential zones should require local knowledge and opportunity for
citizen input, and

Whereas,
Amendment TC1100007 to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), which was
adopted by the Council on March 18 and went into effect June 1, shifted the
approval authority for such towers from a board of ten administrative staff
(the Development Review Board) to a single administrator (the Director of
Planning), and

Whereas, Durham
is still out of compliance with state statutes that required local governments
to eliminate from their development ordinances unjustifiable administrative
discretionary authority by Jan 1, 2010, and

Whereas, In
March and April 2013, INC presented to Council, County Commissioners and the
Joint City County Planning Committee a review of the UDO, which found that the
existing administrative-only approval of Freestanding Wireless Communication
Facilities has no legal base, and that such discretionary decisions require
special use permits which are the province of quasi-judicial and/or legislative
entities, entailing public notification and hearings, and

Whereas, we
appreciate that in response to citizen requests Durham City Council has
committed to revising its regulations for Wireless Communications Facilities
but we are concerned about cell tower site applications that may surface during
that interim, therefore

We request that
City Council place a moratorium on approval of cell towers in residential zones
until such time as the city and county elected officials [amended from “legislators”] will have revised the existing
wireless communications regulations in the UDO to alter the present process which
allows cell tower siting in residential zones without resident notification or
input.

              Adopted by the INC Delegate
Assembly, this 25 day of June, 2013

              THE INTERNEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
OF DURHAM                    

               John Martin

                 President

APPPENDIX B: Report from INC
COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT

Summary
of Meeting on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 

@
Geer Street Garden

 Introduction of
     attendees with focus on personal reasons for participating

  Laura Marshall
      (now a Durham resident, yeah!)
  Matt Dudeck
      (late, boo!)
  John Martin
  Barry Ragin
  Provisional
      Chair: Philip Azar (Matt agreed to help out as at least provisional
      chair) (Matt gets a yeah!)

 Absences excused for
     Sima (Seraphima Rombe-Shulman), DeDreana Freeman, Janice McCarthy (effort
     to make sure we pick a doodle time acceptable to all)
 Quick review of some
     motivational data beyond personal stories:

  Durham is the 5th
      largest city in the state in NC, but in recent years it has had the 3rd
      highest number of pedestrian crashes.
  There are clear
      hot spots, with a focus in and around urban neighborhoods. Transportation
      Dept. has done a good job of documenting the issue.
  Durham is
      growing rapidly. There is increased density sought in and around urban
      neighborhoods, so the problem can snowball unless addressed.
  Chapel Hill
      recently won an award for being a AAA traffic safe community. Durham's
      pedestrian crash statistics won it a pilot of Watch4MeNC campaign on
      pedestrian safety. This is an unacceptable comparison.
  Have seen some
      increased willingness to devote police resources to Enforcement, which
      along with Engineering and Education are the three Es of Traffic Safety.
      (Yeah!) Hopefully, that will continue to be the case.

 Still
     open for more members. Just let me know at pazar at nc.rr.com or 919 491 6002. We know
     that there are related groups out there, and would love for our group to
     be made redundant by other groups elevating the importance of Enforcement,
     which is of course one of the three Es of traffic safety along with
     Engineering and Education. Major next step before and after next meeting
     is to put feelers out to others for collaboration opportunities.

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