[Durham INC] Draft April Minutes

Thu May 22 22:07:45 EDT 2014

For your review before the meeting next week.  Regards, pat

April Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of
Durham

NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt

April 29, 2014

Attending
the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Duke Park – Bill Anderson

Eagles’ Pointe – Donna Rudolph

Fairfield – Melissa Rooney

Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins,
Mike Shiflett

Old Farm – David Harris

Old Five Points – Lenora Smith

Old North Durham – John Martin,
Pete Katz

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

John Killeen – City of Durham,
NIS

Will Wilson – DOST

Jonathan Alexander– N & O

Meghan Makoid – TTA 

Eileen Apicella – TTA 

President Scott Carter called the
meeting to order; those present introduced themselves.  The agenda changed as Emma Kelly was
sick so couldn’t speak as planned.

Tom Miller moved that we approve
the March minutes, and the motion
carried.  

Melissa Rooney made a
presentation on the challenges of
installing solar at her house. 
She is getting great support from the solar community, but, even though
the covenants clearly say that solar is “encouraged,” her HOA’s Architecture
Committee said she couldn’t put panels on the (south-facing) south side of her
roof, which faces the street, and invited her to re-apply to put the panels in
the back (even though the application clearly
said the back wouldn’t work).  In
her neighborhood, the houses with south-facing back yards mostly have trees in
the back.  NC law says HOA may
prohibit solar in the “public” side of buildings, but Melissa presented
evidence that HOAs should be doing their best to attract solar.  The state
can’t pass anything forcing existing HOAs to do anything, and the county can’t
do anything.  The HOA could pass
restrictions on what their architecture committee can prohibit.  Melissa will work on a resolution or
strategy to bring to a future INC meeting, given these restrictions on what can
be done.

The Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit Project is now in the “project
development” phase, which will last 24 months and involves a lot of
environmental review (impacts on people, natural resources, historical
resources, etc.).  We did a
“fly-through” of the 17 stations on 17 miles of the proposed route
alternatives.  Once the planning
phase is done, we apply for federal funds to cover ½ of $1.2B (2012 dollars) it
will cost to build the system, keeping on the plan to be operating by about
2025/2026.  More information:  http://ourtransitfuture.com

Committee Reports: 

•       Zoning and Land Use: JCCPC told staff to meet with stakeholders to improve the draft rules
on cell towers.  What is most
important to us is getting rid of the distinction between concealed and
unconcealed towers which allows towers “near” neighbors with only staff
approval.  The group met with folks
from the cell tower companies, discussing set-backs (giving them something they
want, to trade for something we want) and standards the Board of Adjustment can
use in judging whether or not a tower is a “good neighbor.”

•       Membership and Outreach:  See the report on the
candidate forum below.

•       Nuisance Abatement: No report.

•       Traffic Enforcement
Committee: They are continuing to have
productive meetings with law enforcement.

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

o   Mike Shiflett will send out a report on the various planning and
construction activities. 

o   Bike Month will be in May, including Bike to School Day on May 9. Tons
of activities: http://bikewalkdurhamorg.blogspot.com 

o   Tour de Fat is June 21st.  http://www.trianglespokesgroup.org/tour_de_fat 

•       Public Spaces and
Environmental Issues:  They are working on a final report. 

The School Board Candidate Forum, which INC co-sponsored with the PTA
Council and the League of Women Voters, on April 22, was very successful. All
the candidates participated, and the questions showed some real differences
among the candidates.  We had
budgeted $200 for the forum, but only spent $22.13.

Various people are participating
in committees on the Mayor’s Task Force
on Poverty.

Durham is applying for a TIGER
grant (http://www.dot.gov/tiger) from
the US Department of Transportation, which would be used to create a master
plan for the Duke Belt Line.  If this grant is successful, we would
then apply for a bigger grant to buy the property and develop it.  The INC leadership wrote a letter
(Appendix A) to show community support for the project.  

Neighborhood Reports and Other Announcements: 

·       As Google considers high-speed broadband in the Triangle, what do we
need to do in terns of helping to get it?

·       Trinity Park is seeing one of those periodic rises in the amount of
off-campus bad behavior.  Duke is
being better about meeting with neighborhoods when there are issues.

·       There is still no official zoning application for 505 Gregson (the old
store).

·       In Duke Park, the “transitional office overlay” re-zoning was
withdrawn.  The neighborhood formed
a committee and met with the developer, who “re-calculated” based on the
resistance being demonstrated.

·       Nothing has been filed yet on the Watts Hospital Hillandale “transitional
office overlay.” 

·       Across from Martin Luther King Blvd. from WalMart, there is still a lot
of swamp and forest.  A 6-acre
parcel of higher ground has a lot of different zones on it, as people have
tried different ideas on what to put there.  Last fall, it was re-zoned to allow a gas station.  The outgoing president of a neighboring
neighborhood association ignored the notices about the re-zoning so the first
that neighbors found out about it was just before the final re-zoning vote in
December.  They complained, but the
re-zoning still passed.  Tom Miller
met with them to see what could be done, but the appeal window is closed.  They will be watching closely to see
that all the requirements of the re-zoning are being met.

·       Long Meadow has small neighbor-helping-neighbor program, Long Meadows
Helps.  About 20 people participate
as volunteers, helping with occasional tasks like being present for a repair person,
dragging heavy stuff to the curb, or trouble shooting a misbehaving
appliance.  Pakis Bessias passed out copies of the neighborhood’s fact sheet on the
program.

·      
The Durham Neighborhood
Compass, http://Compass.DurhamNC.gov, which was
shown to us last year, will have its official debut later this week. It is a web-based mapping tool designed to help users
identify areas of need and opportunity in their neighborhoods.

·       Don’t forget Thanksgiving in Spring (TIS) on Saturday, with pot-luck,
bike parade, illumination parade, and much more.  They thanked us for the donation.

·       Melissa Rooney has arranged for a history/memorial grove through the
Durham History Museum, Parks and Rec, and the Soil and Water Conservation
District, with 50% funding from DOST, to be installed by volunteers at Solite
Park in honor of Dorothy Kitchen, founder of the Duke String School. She
encourages anyone interested in doing likewise to contact her via email (mmr121570 at yahoo.com), and she will be
happy to let them know how to go through the relatively simple process.

·       The 10th Annual Beaver Queen Contest will be June 7th,
http://beaverlodgelocal1504.org/.  Voting (aka bribing the judges) will
start in about 2 weeks.

.

Appendix A: Letter on Duke Belt Line

April 22, 2014

The Honorable Anthony Foxx

Secretary of Transportation

U.S. Department of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20590

Dear Secretary Foxx:

The executive committee of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham is
pleased to provide a letter of support for the City of Durham’s application for
a TIGER FY 2014 Planning Grant. I understand that Durham’s application would
provide funds to prepare a master plan for the Duke Belt Line corridor on the
west and north side of downtown Durham.

The Duke Belt Line is a 2.2 mile contiguous rail corridor that is no
longer in use. Currently there is not a master plan for the corridor. The TIGER
planning funds will be used to create a vision for the Belt Line, build
excitement and support, and identify funding opportunities, including
public-private partnerships.

A trail in the Duke Belt Line corridor will enhance overall mobility,
livability, and economic competitiveness in Durham and regionally. The trail
will connect people to transit and jobs throughout the Triangle by improving
bicycle and pedestrian access to downtown Durham, the Durham Station (local and
regional bus service), the Durham Amtrak Station, and a future light rail
station.

The InterNeighborhood Council of Durham is an alliance of neighborhood
and community associations that works to promote the strength and vibrancy of
neighborhoods in Durham. There are several Durham neighborhoods within close
proximity of the Belt Line, and this proposed bike-ped project will provide
connectivity, health, economic, traffic, and other benefits to residents of
these neighborhoods as well as others citizens in Durham. 

I look forward to the opportunity to contribute my support, and that
of my organization, to this very worthy and needed project.

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