[Durham INC] FW: DRAFT March minutes

[Pat]

Resending the minutes in advance of the meeting tomorrow night…..  Sorry about it being a little at the last moment.

From: pats1717 at hotmail.com
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 07:43:22 -0400
Subject: [Durham INC] DRAFT March minutes




Note that the NIS room is available on April 29th so our April meeting will be the fifth Tuesday, with the School Board Candidate's Forum on the fourth Tuesday.  Hope to see lots of people at both events.
Please let me know about additions / corrections to the minutes.  Regards, pat
















March Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of
Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

March 25, 2014

 

Attending
the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Colony Park – Don Lebkes

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing Creek – Dick Ford

Duke Park – Bill Anderson, Loren
Hart, Ian Kipp

Eagles’ Pointe – Donna Rudolph

Falconbridge – Jim Carroll

Forest Hills – Donna Laws

Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins,
Mike Shiflett

Old North Durham – John Martin,
Pete Katz

Stage Stop – Dolly Fehrenbacher

Trinity Park – Philip Azar

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan
Sewell 

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom
Miller

Woodcroft – Scott Carter, Jose
Sandoval

Woodlake – Katrina Portwood

 

Visitors 

Lynwood D. Best – City of
Durham, NIS

Will Wilson – DOST

Jim Wise – N & O

 

 

President Scott Carter called the
meeting to order; those present introduced themselves.  Scott Carter reminded folks to print and bring their own agendas and copies of the minutes to
the meeting, if they want a hard-copy. 
If you have suggestions for presentations at the meetings, please send
them to Scott and/or the Executive Committee.  There were no changes to the agenda.

 

Tom Miller moved that we approve
the January minutes, with the
updated information that the report from the Public Spaces and Environment
Committee will be delayed until next month.  John Martin seconded the motion, and it carried.  In the treasurer’s report, Susan Sewell said that as of March 1, the
balance is $4178.48 and twelve neighborhoods have paid their dues.

 

Ian Kipp gave a presentation on Thanksgiving in Spring, which will
occur on May 3; see http://neighbor.ly/projects/thanksgiving-in-spring.  This placemaking event, which celebrates the uniqueness and fun of
Durham, includes many of the things we love; food, community, bikes, and new to
this year, lanternmaking and the event's finale, Illuminate Durham – with LED
lights. 

Because of a Bulls Game, the ¾ of mile community pot-luck meal is
moved to Roney Street, behind the Farmers’ Market. The bike parade (2-3PM),
meal (3-6PM) and the Illuminate Durham (Lantern Parade, after dinner) segment
of the event will all be in the Central Park/Farmer's Market Area.  Get involved by making a donation on
the neighborly site, volunteering to help, or just showing up.  Also, if you are part of a
neighborhood, community, or virtually any other type of group, consider coming
en masse, and doing something fun and special. Ian will send out more
information to the list-serve. 
Mike Shiflett moved and Bill Anderson seconded a motion to donate $100
(and any old INC balloons that still inflate) to the effort; this motion
passed.

 

Committee Reports: 

•       Zoning and Land Use: At the city and county budget hearings, Donna
Rudolph asked about planning staff for improving the cell tower siting rules
and John Martin raised the question of planning staff for historic
districts.  In both cases, the
planning department says they have enough staff and what they do depends on
priorities set by JCCPC.  The
priority list is “opaque” and to be fair, it isn’t easy for Planning to keep
shifting staff as the priorities “evolve.”  That said, we need broad grassroot support for raising the
priority of neighborhood concerns, not having them pushed aside every time a
developer comes in. INC’s proposal for better
cell tower rules goes to the JCCPC on April 2; Planning has been unwilling to
discuss anything with us.  Donna
distributed a flyer that could be used in neighborhoods to spread support for
our proposals; she will also send a soft copy for those who want to use it on
their list-serves.  (As an update,
their comments released on March 27 basically dissed us and our efforts.)

•       Membership and Outreach:  The committee plans to
meet with the city-wide PAC / facilitators on March 26 to talk about working
together.  They will then be going
to the individual PACs and will ask over the list-serve for support at those
meetings from the neighborhoods that already have both PAC and INC reps.  Earth Day is April 27; Mike Shiflett
plans to be there with brochures. 
We will have a few brochures at INC meetings if anyone has places to use
them.

•       Nuisance Abatement: They are continuing to work on data and metrics.

•       Traffic Enforcement
Committee: NE Central Leadership Council
endorsed INC’s resolution on traffic enforcement, as long as it isn’t used as
another way to single out minorities. 
BPAC has also endorsed the resolution.  The committee had a very positive meeting with the police on
March 21.  There were broad areas
of agreement, and there will be opportunities to affect the pedestrian and
bicycle safety component of the department’s strategic plan.  See Appendix for details.

•       Bike, Pedestrian and
Transit:  There
were a number of updates:

o   The Comprehensive Parking Strategy for downtown and 9th
Street is available at http://durhamnc.gov/ich/op/dot/Pages/Comprehensive-Parking-Studies.aspx.  The short answer is that free parking
on the street is going away.

o   Using some of the proceeds from the sales tax for transit, TTA and
DATA have more frequent service and new bus shelters.

o   Sidewalks, bike facilities and some road improvements on Old Durham
Chapel Hill Road will start construction this year or early next year.  The Town of Chapel Hill voted to do the
most extensive version on their part of the road and was thanked for that.

o   The East End Connector still has a couple places where bike and
pedestrian need to be improved; BPAC has written a letter on this.

o   Bike Month will be in May, including Bike to School Day on May 9.

o   We are a bronze level on being Bike Friendly and this year hope to
move up to silver.

o   Courtesy and rules are an issue near the new bridge on the American
Tobacco Trail, and efforts to post reminders and do education have begun.

o   DOST has recommended moving the $2M earmark from the Duke Beltline
trail to the Panther Creek Trail because of the lack of movement from Norfolk
Southern.  The issue with the
Panther Creek Trail is that the railroad right of way is already abandoned, so
there are lots of landowners to negotiate with. 

o   In connection with transit and affordable housing, Cinemotorco will be
showing a film on affordable space for artists on April 6.  See http://motorcomusic.com/cinemotorco-behold-a-miracle-in-durham


•       Public Spaces and
Environmental Issues:  Folks are encouraged to get in on the fun of Charge Ahead Durham (http://www.chargeaheaddurham.org)
to get ideas to save money, help the environment, and get neat prizes.  The Draft Downtown Open Space Plan,
which is pretty ambitious but very thoughtful, is now available (http://durhamnc.gov/ich/cb/ccpd/Pages/dosp.aspx);
there is an opportunity for public input at the Planning Commission meeting on
April 8.

 

INC will be co-sponsoring, with
the PTA Council and the League of Women Voters, a School Board Candidate Forum on April 22, from 7-9PM.  It will probably be at Hillside High
School.  John Martin will be the
moderator.  Tom Miller moved that
we budget up to $200 for the event although we have not be asked for money yet.  John Martin seconded and the motion
passed.

 

Because the Candidate Forum is
the same night as our April meeting,
Tom Miller moved that we move the April meeting to April 29th if the NIS room is available.  Bill Anderson seconded, and it
passed.  As an update, the room is
available, so the meeting will be the 29th.  

 

Scott Carter represented INC at
the kick-off of the Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty.  There were stakeholders from many groups there – over 100
people.  A lot of data was
presented on the 10-12 census tracts that are “most distressed” based on
unemployment, poverty rate, and per-capita income.  One tract in NE Central Durham will be worked on first as a
pilot, with efforts in 5 areas (education, health care, employment, housing and
public safety), but they are holding off activity until the residents can be
consulted about what they want.

 

DeDreana Freeman has applied to
be a city appointee to the Planning Commission and gave speech on why she
should get INC’s support.  We
should choose a set of appointments we want to track and have a say about, be
working on encouraging folks to apply for those positions, and have a process
for selecting who we will endorse. 
However, what happened at this meeting was Tom Miller moved that we
support DeDreana’s application, Bill Anderson seconded it, and the motion
carried.

 

Neighborhood Reports and Other Announcements: 

·       Watts Hospital Hillandale is facing a “transitional office overlay”
re-zoning.  The transitional office
overlay seems like a remarkably dangerous idea in that as long as a building
looks vaguely like a house, it is treated like a house, with no provisions for
parking and no restrictions on how big it is.   The site of the proposed re-zoning, just south of St.
Lukes Church, is big enough for 4 lots, each with a 5000 square foot
building.  Duke Park may be facing
one of these too.  

·       Watts Hospital Hillandale brought copies of their most recent
newsletter to share.

·       John Schelp’s annual West Durham hike will be on April 27th
this year.

·       A workshop for Neighborhood Watch Coordinators will be March 29th
at the Holton Center.

·       Northgate Park’s food truck rodeo season kicks off on March 27th.  You can like them on facebook to get
the latest news.




Appendix
A:  Cell Tower Hand-Out 

CAN A CELL TOWER POP UP NEXT DOOR?  Yes! Right now,
in Durham, a cell tower can operate in a residential area without notification
of or input from surrounding homeowners.  We are wireless
consumers, but aren’t we also residents who deserve regulations that engage
us in balancing and managing technology’s impact on the safety and
quality of our neighborhoods?  

TO CHANGE LOCAL CELL TOWER POLICY, SUPPORT the
resident-friendly proposal neighborhoods submitted to local policymakers. COUNTER
official’s push-back-to-change-comments at March hearings on 2014 priorities: “Adopting the neighborhood’s proposed wireless ordinance
regulations is time-consuming for planning staff and there are many other
priorities.” and “Residents making decisions will complicate doing
wireless business in Durham.”



SPEAK OUT NOW OR STAY SIDELINED. Before April 1, urge
city council and county commissioners to adopt the neighborhood-recommended
cell tower regulations as a 2014 priority.



E-mail six City Council
members & Mayor Bell:  Council at DurhamNC.gov  Or send mail or
fax to: 
City Council members, Office of the City Council, 101 City Hall Plaza,
Durham, NC 27701  Fax 919-560-4835

E-mail all five County
Commissioners: commissioners at dconc.gov Or send mail or fax to: 
County
Commissioners, 200 East Main Street, Durham, NC 27701, Fax 919-560-0013

City
Council / County Commissioners: I urge the adoption of the recommendations for
the regulation of wireless communication facilities proposed by The
InterNeighborhood Council (INC) of greater Durham, and request their
integration in Durham’s City-County Unified Development Ordinance as a 2014
priority. Sincerely, (your name & address)    -You
can include any of these talking points or your own reasons-

①    Durham’s residents deserve to be informed about and engaged in
the decisions and regulations that determine how, why, and where wireless
services are delivered in our residential zones.

②    Adopting the neighborhoods’ proposal to regulate cell towers in
residential zones aligns with city and county strategic plan goals, namely:
strengthening the quality and enhancing the value and livability of
neighborhoods, and fostering informed public engagement.

③    Both city and county want quantifiable outcomes to goals. 
Impressive numbers will be well-served by resident-friendly wireless
regulations.  The vast majority of the 282,000 city and county residents
(your constituency) is affected by this issue today and going forward.

④    Durham’s
dynamic growth (9% in 5 yrs) is attractive to the wireless industry; it can
thrive here as in other venues with regulations that engage citizens.  As
a good business partner the industry should be willing to answer residents’
questions and concerns in the format of a public hearing, and should expect to
work within residents’ safety and aesthetic requirements

→ACT in this critical window of opportunity for change! Comments? Contact Donna Rudolph, Eagle’s Pointe representative
to the InterNeighborhood Council of greater Durham, 8002 Somerdale Dr, Durham
NC 27713, pisco at nc.rr.com         

 




Appendix
B: Report on Meeting with Durham Police Department (DPD) on Traffic Enforcement

Jeff
Bakalchuck, Mike Shiflett, Steve Hopkins, Pete Katz and I met with the Chief
Lopez, Deputy Marsh, Captain Sarvis and a gentleman I believe was the head of
DPD operations (COO type).  Shortly after or as part of introductions,
Jeff presented the chief with a highlighted copy of the BPAC survey, 

The
meeting ran approximately an hour.  Based on the selected DPD
representatives and their level of preparedness, DPD is taking the INC
resolution seriously.  The tone was serious, respectful, cooperative,
candid and the results may be quite productive.

1.
 DPD is working on a strategic plan with a pedestrian and bike safety
component.  

2.
 In the next two - three weeks, DPD will reconvene a meeting, presumably
with the same people, although I see no reason why INC representatives can't
shift based on our needs.  At that meeting, they will share the components
of the resolution that they are incorporating into the strategic plan and a
reaction to specific elements of the resolution.  We’ll then know how
productive things are.

3.
 We have offered to postpone meeting with the City Manager until after the
next meeting in the hopes that by the time we get to City Council we are either
in 100% agreement or we can say this is where there is agreement, this is
outside DPD’s area of responsibility, and this is where we disagree.
 Hopefully, we stand shoulder to shoulder in agreement. 

4. DPD
seemed amenable to having a single point of contact (Durham One Call?) to
request more traffic enforcement on neighborhood streets.  DPD also seemed
amenable to having greater and more meaningful centralized
reporting.  

5.
 There was some resistance to a dedicated traffic enforcement team with
city-wide responsibilities.  That said, also seemed amenable to
encouraging greater traffic enforcement on neighborhood streets at precinct
level.

6.
 Committee encouraged to meet with county manager as well as sheriff and
“Troop C” of the (presumably state Highway Patrol) with some responsibilities
in Durham.

 

  

 

  

 

 



 		 	   		  

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