[Durham INC] DRAFT Sept minutes
Pat Carstensen
pats1717 at hotmail.com
Tue Oct 22 05:51:51 EDT 2013
Sorry about getting these revised minutes out so late:
September
Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham
NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt
September 24, 2013
Attending
the meeting were:
Neighborhoods
Cleveland-Holloway – Natalie
Spring, Jan Martell
Colony Park – Don Lebkes
Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen
Duke Park – Bill Anderson
Eagles’ Pointe – Donna Rudolph
Falconbridge – Rosemarie Kitchin
Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman
Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias
Morehead Hill Neighborhood
Association – Patricia Mohr
Northgate Park – 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, Mike Woodard
Woodcroft – Scott Carter
Visitors
Jim Wise – N & O
Lynwood D. Best – City of
Durham, NIS
John Killeen – City of Durham,
NIS
Don Moffitt – City Council
Will Wilson – DOST
President John Martin called the
meeting to order; those present introduced themselves.
John Martin gave the President’s Report for 2012-13. He thanked NIS and Lynwood Best for
being INC’s host for the meetings this year. INC spent almost no money; the accomplishments are due
to what volunteers have done.
Last fall, we had a great Neighborhood Heroes event, there have now been
two candidate forums (County Commissioners in 2012 and the first City Council
one this year), and overall we have had a positive effect on the
community. For example, because of
INC’s concern about the city not foreclosing on liens, the city has already
collected $200K from sending out letters threatening to start foreclosure. Thanks to all who have
contributed. Moving forward,
please join a committee or recruit folks in your neighborhood to
participate.
Peter Katz gave the Treasurer’s
Report. Twenty-one neighborhoods
paid dues last year. We spent only
$110, so the treasury now has about $3600; see Appendix A for details.
The minutes from the August
meeting were approved after Tom Miller moved to approve, and Rosemarie Kitchin
seconded the motion.
Candidates’ Forum: INC is partnering with
the League of Women Voters for two candidates’ forums. The report from folks who were at the
first one on September 10th was that attendance and engagement were
great. We had to do a little
scrambling to get an INC banner; thanks to Jan Martell, we had INC flyers to
hand out. The second will be on
Tuesday, October 15, broadcast live on Channel 8 (from the City Council
Chambers); doors open at 6:30 and questions start at 7. The Chamber of Commerce is paying for
closed captioning. Co-chairs Dick
Ford and Don Lebkes are seeking new questions pertinent to city matters (hard
services such as police, fire, street and building maintenance, traffic).
Cell Towers – Planning is collecting
comments on the revised cell tower zoning rules until October 8. Different wireless companies have
different technologies, so different needs about how tall and close together
their towers need to be, but with data growing and prices falling, all of them
are looking to build new towers.
We can have more short (75’-120’) towers or fewer tall (199’) ones. The new towers are likely to go where
the least opposition is – that is, the least organized neighborhoods. The proposed wireless tower zoning
regulations still do not address all our concerns about safety, aesthetics and
land use. For example, if the
industry says the tower is concealed, it is concealed. We need safety standards that are specific
to towers, not the generalized statements that apply to cases as small as a
garage being too close to the property line. We may want different tower standards in different
zones. The proposed UDO revision
has a lot of rules to make it easier to put in monopole/fake-pines that are too
short (60’) to be of interest to the wireless industry. The Zoning Committee will be working on
this.
Cleveland-Holloway Preservation Resolution: Natalie Spring gave some background on the neighborhood and the
proposed historic district. It is
important to have the 600 block of Queen in the plan because the topography of
the area means a “50-foot-tall-building” can have a 65’ face on Queen, with the
possibility of a garage exit for 250 apartments facing single family
homes. Following the
neighborhood’s suggestion, Tom Miller moved and Susan Sewell seconded that we
strike “Alternative A” from the text and add “with the original boundary and
including the 600 block of Queen Street” (Council may be voting on something
that doesn’t say “Alternative A”).
The amendment passed with two abstentions. Tom Miller then moved to approve the resolution, Rosemarie
Kitchin seconded the motion, and the resolution passed with two abstentions
(See Appendix B).
Committee Reports:
• Public Spaces and
Environmental Issues. No report.
• Bike, Pedestrian and
Transit. Scott
Carter mentioned a number of things going on: Watch for ME NC Campaign, the
grand opening of the final leg of the American Tobacco Trail on October 12, the
Main Street road diet with a replacement of the Campus Drive Bridge (running
late), 4 corridor studies about the need for bike lanes, and progress on the
bike lanes and sidewalks on Old Chapel Hill Road.
• Nuisance Abatement: No report.
• Zoning: The next meeting in October 1, and new members are always
welcome.
• Traffic Enforcement
Committee: Chair Phil Azar reported that
doing traffic enforcement (writing tickets) requires some equipment and
training, which the Police Department has in several units; however, without a
mandate /budget, the enforcement falls to the bottom of the priority list. For example, the Traffic Enforcement
unit (which has equipment and training) is mostly handling crashes. See the committee’s report in Appendix
C for more details. Note BPAC’s
recent survey showed that the #1 barrier to more walking and biking in Durham
is the sense there are too many unsafe drivers.
• All committees were asked to post meeting dates and project summaries to the
list-serve.
Annual Elections: Tom Miller moved to close
the nominations and elect the slate.
Mike Shiflett seconded this. The motion carried
Scott Carter,
President
Phil Azar,
Vice-President
Pat Carstensen,
Secretary
Susan Sewell,
Treasurer
Pete Katz, At-large
Dick Ford, At-large
John Martin, Past
President and Communications
Scott
Carter took over chairing the meeting and thanked John.
Neighborhood Reports and Other Announcements:
· Cleveland-Holloway invited folks to volunteer to help update Oakwood Park in November,
using the KaBOOM! grant they won.
October 5th is the historic home tour in Cleveland-Holloway (http://clevelandholloway.blogspot.com).
· Norfolk Southern has a new appraisal ($7.1M) for the value of the right
of way we would use for the Durham Beltline. Some snarky comments were made about where they get their
numbers.
· The next Neighborhood Pride Alliance meeting is Thursday at 5:30 in the
NIS meeting room.
· Don Moffitt said that the emerging issue for City Council is the
perception of systematic racism in the Police Department.
· The Chamber is holding at attempt to set a Guinness world record in the
size of a networking event, at the Durham Centre on Thursday.
The
meeting was adjourned shortly before 9 p.m.
Appendix A: Treasurer’s Report (9/24/2013)
Checking
Account Balance, 8/31/2012: $2470.56
Receipts
for 2013: 1250.00
Expenditures
for 2013: 110.00
Checking
Account Balance, 8/31/2013: $3610.56
Neighborhood Dues Paid:
Cleveland
Holloway $25.00
Colonial
Village 50.00
Colony
Park 25.00
Cross-Counties 25.00
Downing
Creek 25.00
Duke
Park
50.00
Eagles
Pointe 25.00
Falconbridge
Community Association 25.00
Long
Meadow
50.00
Morehead
Hill
50.00
Northgate
Park 25.00
Old
Farm 25.00
Old
North Durham 25.00
Old
West Durham 25.00
Parkwood 25.00
Stage
Stop
50.00
Trinity
Park
25.00
Tuscaloosa-Lakewood
50.00
Watts-Hillandale 600.00
Woodcroft
25.00
Woodlake
HOA
25.00
Appendix B: 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, with the original boundary – that
is, including the 600 block of Queen Street – 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
C: Durham InterNeighborhood Council
Traffic Enforcement Committee
Draft September 18, 2012
The Durham
InterNeighborhood Council Traffic Enforcement Committee seeks to improve the
safety of Durham neighborhood streets by encouraging the Durham law enforcement
agencies to enforce speeding and yielding to pedestrian laws on neighborhood
streets. We encourage Durham
residents to support local law enforcement in those efforts.
We are driven by our own
experiences and the experiences of friends and neighbors on Durham streets and
by statistics that show:
• Durham has the 3rd highest incidence of pedestrian crashes in North Carolina
even though it has the 5th largest population
in the state.*
• Over the last 5 years Durham's pedestrian crash trends
have increased even though they have decrease in other North Carolina cities.*
We are guided by the
following:
· Enforcement
is one of the three Es of Traffic Safety along with Engineering
and Education.
· Time and resources law enforcement devoted to traffic
enforcement should be measured and made available to the public. We can't manage what we don't measure.
· No one will know the names of lives saved through traffic
enforcement. That does not
make them less important.
· Traffic enforcement is part of law enforcement and is
an essential function of local government. Traffic enforcement may also be non-glamorous and
dangerous. It still deserves
community support.
· Although Durham has had success with Engineering
and Education, we will not reach our full potential without also
emphasizing Enforcement.
Possible Policy
Changes to Improve Enforcement of Traffic Laws on Neighborhood Streets
•
Encourage
citizens to call the Traffic Services unit at 560-4935 to request traffic
enforcement in their area. The
extension for traffic enforcement is called “TAC.”
•
Avoid redirecting
scarce police and sheriff traffic enforcement resources, except in
emergencies. Durham is not in a
state of constant emergency, and during periods of short staffing, we can plan
enforcement measures.
•
Direct Durham's
delegation to the General Assembly to request authority for local jurisdictions
to install speed cameras on neighborhood streets, especially near schools,
hospitals and parks.
•
Direct Durham's
delegation to the General Assembly to request that NC DOT state license tests
emphasize pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Licensing tests should reflect the state's increasing
urbanization.
•
Ask law enforcement
to report to the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission
(BPAC) on Enforcement measures with at least the same specificity
other departments and groups report to that group on Engineering
and Education matters and to work to define key metrics for
traffic enforcement.
•
Ask law
enforcement to make automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian crash data easily
available in a timely manner, and to weigh accidents involving bicycles and
pedestrians more heavily than car only accidents when deciding where to stage
enforcement actions. Enforcement
efforts should focus on human safety and not on car throughput.
•
Expect all
government agencies, including Durham Sheriff and Police Departments, to model
correct driving behavior. We
should all use turn signals, make a full stop at stop signs, and obey speed
limits.
•
Ensure that
racial profiling does not become an element of traffic enforcement
efforts.
* North Carolina Department of Transportation, Division of
Motor Vehicles Crash Database. 2005-2009 as cited by Durham Traffic and Police
Departments.
Help
Durham emphasize all of the Es of Traffic Safety. Including Enforcement!
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