[Durham INC] DRAFT July Minutes

Tue Aug 4 12:40:01 EDT 2015

The open resolutions were sent on a separate e-mail.  Somehow I only got one sign-in sheet so if I have omitted your name or misspelled it, abject apologies.....
As usual, please let me know about additions or corrections
Regards, pat
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July Delegate Meeting
of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

NIS Conference
Room, Golden Belt

July 28, 2015

Attending
the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Cross
Counties – Pat Carstensen

Downing
Creek – Dick Ford

Long
Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Morehead
Hill – Rochelle Araujo

Northgate
Park – Debra Hawkins, Mike Shiflett

Old North
Durham – John Martin, Pete Katz

Old West
Durham – Vicky Welch

Trinity
Park – Philip Azar

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood
– Susan Sewell 

Villas at
Culp Arbor – Cathy Abernathy, Lisa Brach

Woodcroft
– Scott Carter

Visitors 

Lynwood
D. Best – City of Durham, NIS

John Goebel– DOST

John
Killeen – City of Durham, NIS

Will
Wilson – DOST

Erik
Landfried – Durham Coalition for Complete Streets

Marion
Lamberth – Brownfields assessments

President
Phil Azar opened the meeting.  Members
introduced themselves. There were no adjustments to the agenda.  Scott Carter moved to approve the June minutes, John Martin seconded and
delegates voted to do this.  The
treasurer reported that we have same amount of money as last month and 14 member
neighborhoods. 

Erik
Landfried, Durham Coalition for Complete Streets, defined complete streets as streets designed for everyone (all ages, all
modes), with all stakeholders being engaged early and often in the design and
implementation process.  The focus is on
outcomes: safety (fewer traffic-related fatalities and injuries), improved
health (due to more activity), equity (people who don’t have cars have better
options) and the economy (better access to key destinations so better business,
and avoiding costly changes that happen when some stakeholders find out at the
last moment). Durham doesn’t have a complete street policy although more than 10
NC cities do; Charlotte is a national leader in complete streets.  Pedestrian crashes have grown 58% in last 5
years in Durham and we now lead the rest of NC in pedestrian crashes involving
children.  Wide streets take a long time
to cross, so medians, fewer lanes of traffic with bike lanes and parking, and
so on make crossing safer.  One thing to
work out is how the fire trucks and emergency vehicles move through. The
Coalition has a petition calling on City Council, the Board of County
Commissioners and City/County staff to prioritize complete streets in Durham
and ensure they will be implemented through policies, plans, public process,
staff and funding.  Delegates asked if
there could be examples and projects from all parts of the city/county (e.g.
East Durham).  The group felt that we are
overwhelmed with resolutions right now so we will wait for individual neighborhoods
to sign the petition. 

Committee Reports

Zoning – Not anything to report

Pocket Neighborhoods – Continuing to meet with groups
with common interests.

Legislative Update – The bad news has been on the
list-serve.

Outreach and Membership – The INC brochures will be in
National Night Out bags. On the INC forum for candidates for City Council, John
Martin is willing to be moderator, the committee is asking city if we can use the
City Council chamber, we are asking the Chamber of Commerce for funding, and
the forum will be after the primary.  The
League of Women Votes is doing theirs at 6 PM on September 15 at the Durham
County Main Library.

Nominations – Working on it.

Old Business

The over-arching transit resolution was
deferred until next month.  

New Business

Compact Design around Light Rail
Stations – There
was some confusion between the transit resolution and the compact design one;
although they both address communications at public meetings, the subjects of
the meetings differ (routes versus development near routes), the organizations
hosting the meeting differ (TTA versus Planning), and the remedies sought are
not quite the same.  The process for the Ninth
Street Compact Design District had a number of factors working for it: a long
history of support in the area for density and work on Duke University
development plans had created a more-or-less unified sense of what neighborhood
stakeholders wanted (protection of green space along Green Street, transition
areas, enhancement of existing businesses, etc.), a cadre of professionals
volunteered to represent neighborhood stakeholder interests, and developers who
were ready to work on the area could talk directly to neighborhood stakeholders
and work out very detailed win-win solutions (rather than having neighborhood
stakeholders create paper documents that later planners try to apply when the
developers finally appear – and mostly get twisted to suit the needs of the
developers if the Chapel Hill experience is typical).  The proposed resolution is a way to try to
extend these advantages to development rules at the other stations in
Durham.   We will vote on this resolution
next month. 

Neighborhood Summit – If we want to do one, we needs
leaders. We will put it on the agenda for on agenda next month. 

Neighborhood Reports 

Colony Park – Don Lebkes sent the following
message via e-mail: On behalf of myself and my neighbors in and around Colony
Park I want to thank INC for the advice and support we received from the INC
membership.  There was standing room only
at the July 14th Planning Commission hearing and the Commissioners allowed a
fair, thorough, and detailed discussion of the W. Cornwallis Development Plan.  The Plan was voted down 10 to 1 by the
Commissioners.  The next hearing will be
at the City Council proper on Sept. the 8th. As I expressed to the membership,
Colony Park and adjacent neighborhoods are for respectful, thoughtful
development that fits in to area that will be developed. 

Durham Open Space and Trails – John Goebel said that a lot is going on.  The West Ellerbe Creek Trail extension will
start construction soon.  Rocky Creek
Trail is on the TIP, and a RFQ for a master plan supported by TIGER grant is going
out soon on the Duke Beltline.  City
Council has 0 trails beyond these 3 in the budget for the next 10 years,
because they had no input on what the ideas folks have been discussing will
cost, so they are working on a costing out a number of trails.  A Healthy Durham Bond would support these
trails, among other things.  

Northgate Park will host vigil on Thursday for
the Joy Mart shooting.  Debra Hawkins will
post the details 

WHHNA will have a bier garten as part
of National Night Out.

Brownfields Grant – Marion Lamberth (mlambco51 at aol.com) handed out a FAQ sheet
on the 3rd EPA grant for brownfield assessments, for small businesses who want
to purchase land or building and need to get that property assessed.  This will spur development.  http://durhamnc.gov/Pages/NNDetails.aspx?detailId=986

Downing Creek is working with elected officials
– they act very concerned, but it is frustrating in that they seem to be
listening to someone else more.  The
observation was made that government agencies try to communicate and are told
to listen, but they consider themselves to be the experts and it’s easier to
talk to other experts.  We have to figure
out a way to do better than that.

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