[Durham INC] DRAFT July minutes

Thu Jul 25 08:06:38 EDT 2013

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

July
Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

July 23, 2013

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Duke Park – Bill Anderson

Eagles’ Pointe – Donna Rudolph

Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias,
Sheri Tibbs

Morehead Hill Neighborhood
Association – Patricia Mohr

Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins,
Mike Shiflett

Old North Durham – Peter Katz,
John Martin

Old West Durham – Eric Heidt

Stage Stop – Dorothy Croom,
Dolly Fehrenbacher

Trinity Park – Philip Azar

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan
Sewell 

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller

Woodcroft – Jose M. Sandoval

Visitors 

Jim Wise – N & O

John Killeen – City of Durham,
NIS

Will Wilson

Arielle Clay

Pam Karriker

John Martin called the meeting to order, and delegates and
visitors introduced themselves.  Pat Carstensen moved and Peter
Katz seconded that we approve the June minutes; this was passed.

Debra Hawkins gave an update
on the Neighborhood Event at Central
Park.  The new date for the
event is September 15th, from 4-6PM.  Deb will send out an announcement to the list-serve, letting
neighborhoods know about opportunities for a table and making sure there aren’t
any conflicts with the date. 
Several neighborhoods indicated already that they want to have a
presence.  The History Hub might do
a kids’ activity where the kids would go to different tables and booths in a
kind of treasure hunt.  There would
also be food trucks, which would probably help pay for the event.  Tom Miller moved, and John Martin
seconded that INC authorizes the committee to spend up to $500 on the event;
this passed with one abstention.

John Martin reported that Dick
Ford and Don Lebkes have been working on a candidate forum.  We will be teaming up with the League
of Women Voters.  No-one has talked
about any costs.  There will be 2
forums, one for the primary and one for the general election, both to be held
at the downtown library.  The dates
will be:

·      
Primary – Tuesday,
September 10, to include just the races with enough candidates to require a
primary (mayor and District 4)

·      
General – Tuesday,
October 15

The body then discussed the Cleveland-Holloway Local Historic District;
see Appendix A.  The issue is
maintaining neighborhood character, integrity and control by avoiding holes in
the historic district.  Tom Miller
moved the resolution, with a second from Bill Anderson, to put it on the agenda
for August.  Tom Miller then moved,
with a second from Bill Anderson, that the issue is urgent enough that
Executive Committee can make a decision on it if the issue will come before
City Council before the next delegate meeting; this passed with one abstention.

Pat Carstensen and Tom Miller
reported on legislation on protest
petitions.  Protest petitions
have been part of zoning rules since local governments were allowed to zone in
1923; they allow property owners in or near a proposed re-zoning to ask that
any approval require a super-majority of the decision makers.  One of the provisions of the so-called
regulatory reform bill in the NC General Assembly would take away this property
right.  Currently conferees are
creating the final version, and we are hoping that enough alarm has been raised
across the state to keep the protest petition clause out of the final
version.  There was concern about
maintaining our non-partisan status if we are doing something that looks like
lobbying, and also a request to provide more explicit talking points, forms,
and so on if someone is asked to take action about legislative issues.  An informal committee will be working
on a proposal for neighborhood reaction to legislation; more volunteers are
welcome. 

We voted last month to endorse
a Cell Tower Resolution.  A new cell tower proposal has come in
for around the corner of Guess and South Lowell Road.  After a lot of discussion, we agreed that John could send
another letter about the resolution.  

Pat Carstensen described 2
proposed re-zoning around NC54 and I40
that would significantly contradict adopted (by the Metropolitan Planning
Organization, on which the city is represented) transportation plans for the
area; in particular, there was a significant investment in money and citizen
participation in producing a long-term plan for the NC54 corridor.  Cross Counties, Downing Creek and
Falconbridge are tracking the re-zonings. 
The concern we were bringing to INC is that the Planning Department
ignored the NC54 plan (when asked, they said that council never voted on it);
this raises questions about what is going wrong with the Planning Department. 

Various committees than made
reports:

·      
Zoning and Development. 
Co-Chairs Tom Miller and Pat Carstensen reported that they are working on the
interface between residential and non-residential areas, have looked at commercial
areas in neighborhoods, will be looking at office areas next, and are setting
up a next meeting for August.

·      
Traffic Enforcement. 
Chair Phil Azar reported they are concentrating on understanding what data are
available – for example, getting a report on where the speeding issues
are.  See the detailed report in
Appendix B.   

·      
Public Spaces and Environmental Issues.  Co-chair Deb Hawkins said the committee is taking bond money for
trails, one of the 4 identified neighborhood issues, off the list because policy
on borrowing means there will be no new bonds until 2018.  On the other three issues identified,
they are making contacts with other organizations to see where the gaps are. 

Tom Miller volunteered for the
Nominating Committee to find officers for next year.  Others are encouraged to join him.

Announcements, reports, and miscellaneous news:

·      
Northgate Park’s next
Food Truck Rodeo is Thursday, with a variety of food trucks.

·      
National Night Out is
August 6.  Tuscaloosa-Lakewood and
Long Meadow are having a joint event. 
Anyone not having National Night Out in their neighborhood is invited to
a Nachbacrschafts-Biergarten, with or without ledehosen, at Tom Miller’s yard
in Watts Hospital Hillandale.

·      
Deb Hawkins reported that
Durham Central Market needs investors, by the end of August, for the
getting-opened costs.  http://durhamcentralmarket.org 

·      
DeDreana Freeman reported
that property acquisition for the Alston Avenue widening has begun.  Also Old East Durham is planning a
block party for August 3.

The meeting was adjourned. 

Appendix A: Resolution on the Proposed Cleveland-Holloway
Local Historic District

Whereas local historic
districts protect the uniqueness of our neighborhoods and our City, and

Whereas local historic
districts protect the economic and social diversity of our neighborhoods, and

Whereas the City has
already recognized Cleveland St. and Holloway St. as local historic districts,
and

Whereas the City has
recognized five other local historic districts, and

Whereas the proposed
expansion is already recognized as a National Register historic district, and

Whereas this expansion has
been supported by the professional staff of the Durham City-County Planning
Department, and approved by the Historic Preservation Commission, and 

Whereas, 'Alternative A'
includes the entire National Register Historic District while 'Alternative B',
for no historically appropriate reason, excludes an entire city block in the
middle of the historic district,

Therefore, be it resolved
that the InterNeighborhood Council supports the expansion of the Cleveland
Holloway Local Historic District, "Alternative A," as proposed by the
Neighborhood, and supported by the Planning Department and the Historic
Preservation Commission, and urges the Durham City Council to approve this
expansion as soon as possible.  

Note: 
This is based on the following Old North Durham Neighborhood Association
Resolution on the Proposed Cleveland-Holloway Local Historic District

Whereas local historic
districts protect the uniqueness of our neighborhoods and our City, and

Whereas local historic
districts protect the economic and social diversity of our neighborhoods, and

Whereas the City has
already recognized Cleveland St. and Holloway St. as local historic districts,
and

Whereas the City has
recognized five other local historic districts, and

Whereas the proposed
expansion is already recognized as a National Register historic district, and

Whereas this expansion has
been supported by the professional staff of the Durham City-County Planning
Department, and approved by the Historic Preservation Commission,

Therefore, be it resolved
that the Old North Durham Neighborhood Association supports the expansion of
the Cleveland Holloway Local Historic District, "Alternative A," as
proposed by the Neighborhood, and supported by the Planning Department, and the
Historic Preservation Commission, and urges the Durham City Council to approve
this expansion as soon as possible.  

Appendix
B:  INC TRAFFIC
COMMITTEE 

2nd INC Report 

The
Committee met again at Geer St. Garden at 6:30 Wednesday, July 17. 

Next
Meeting:  Wednesday, August 21, 6:30, location TBD (Please check with
Philip 919 491 6002 or pazar at nc.rr.com for confirmation of time and final location
if you'd like to participate) 

Citizen
attendees included: 

Matt
Dudeck 

Barry
Ragin 

Debbie
Royster 

Floyd
Jackson 

Janice
McCarthy 

John
Martin 

Dale
McKeel, representing the Durham Transportation Department 

Timeline 

The
committee met with the intention of starting on a community traffic enforcement
plan, but after significant discussion, decided on the following
timeline: 

Month
1 – Focus on collecting data.  What's already available.   

Month
2 – Determine desired metrics 

Month
3 – Have proposal on what we'd like to see the City/County/Community focusing
on to lower pedestrian (includes bike) accidents in Durham. 

Work
for Months 1 and 2 can proceed simultaneously. 

Part
of rationale for timeline was tying into implementation of WatchForMe NC
campaign rollout in Durham, and committee agreed to help ensure that police are
used as little for education and encouragement around campaign so that they can
focus on what citizen groups cannot – enforcement. 

Data
Collection 

•               
Dale McKeel was asked to, and agreed to, try and determine what metrics
the police currently collect around: 

-
Enforcement and crime data 

•               
How many tickets and where - speeding & crosswalk 

•               
Number of tickets given (by month) for traffic violations (separate
from DUI or drug or gun interdiction efforts).  Some geographic breakdown,
if possible. 

•               
Speeding data 

•               
property damage data 

•               
power loss data 

•               
crash data 

•               
fatalities and injuries data 

•               
overlay data with crime- "rolling broken windows" looking for
correlation between traffic crime and more serious crime. 

•               
how many times police have set up sting (Speeding, crosswalk,
checkpoints) 

•               
Number of traffic enforcement operations (by month).  Some
geographic breakdown, if possible. 

•               
how many police are certified 

•               
how much equipment is for enforcement 

•               
 percentage of time those are in operation individually and
together. 

•               
Number of cars equipped to enforce speed limit 

•               
Number of motorcycles equipped to enforce speed limit 

•               
Number of officers certified in speed limit enforcement 

•               
Availability of equipped cars and motorcycles available for traffic
enforcement (as opposed to being down for repairs or assigned for other
duties) 

•               
Availability of certified officers available for traffic enforcement 

•               
Ideally, there'd be several – at least three years of data. 

If
Dale is unsuccessful at getting this information, we will seek to gather data
through personal connections, and through the PAC system. 

We
want our recommendations to be SMART - specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic and timeframed. 

The
principle is:  You can't manage what you don't measure.   

Communication 

A
traffic blog has been set up.  Initially limited to committee participants
until such time as there is sufficient content built up to go public.  http://wearedurhamtraffic.blogspot.com/
The name, address, and platform are all malleable. This is just the jumping off
point. Author invites were sent to everyone on the email list. Please contact
Matt Dudek (Matt.dudek at gmail.com)
for access if you don’t have it yet. 

Miscellaneous 

Additional
members of public have asked to be put on the committee email list.  (Not
necessarily full members of committee, but want to be
involved/informed/supportive.) 

Committee
is not about specific people, incidents or neighborhoods, but specifics form
important subtext.   

The
names of peoples whose lives may be saved through traffic enforcement,
education or engineering will never be know, but that does not diminish their
importance. 

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