[Durham INC] DRAFT June Minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

Please let me know about corrections and additions.   Regards, pat

June Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham
NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt
June 28, 2016

Attending the meeting were:
Neighborhoods
Colony Park – Don Lebkes
Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen
Duke Park – Dan Read
Lockhaven Hills – Keith LePage
Morehead Hill – Bruce Mitchell
Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins
Old North Durham –Pete Katz
Old West Durham – John Killeen
Trinity Park – Philip Azar
Watts-Hillandale – Tom Miller
Woodcroft – Scott Carter

Visitors
Will Wilson – DOST
Lynwood D. Best – City of Durham, NIS
Annette Smith – Durham Parks and Recreation



Vice-President Peter Katz opened the meeting.  Members introduced themselves.

Since new officers will be installed in October, Pat Carstensen moved and Peter Katz seconded the appointment of a Nominating Committee consisting of Tom Miller, Keith LePage, Peter Katz, Philip Azar, Deb Hawkins, and anyone else they recruit.  This passed.

On the Golden Belt Historic District resolution (Appendix A), the Rescue Mission owns about 1.5 blocks with a few houses still standing; of these, 5 houses are old enough and sufficiently unmodified to qualify as historic and 2 houses don’t qualify as historic. The area is the last intact mill village in Durham, with the mill itself and more than half of the houses, so folks can see what the character of a mill village was. What the Rescue Mission wants to build would require a re-zoning anyhow from the current residential zone, and re-zoning to OI would eliminate the historic district overlay (unless they went to an OI with historic overlay). Only the Rescue Mission spoke against the district. The motion passed.

With minor grammar amendments, the resolution on Bike Boulevards (Appendix B) passed.

Committee Reports
Planning – On Colony Park’s continuing saga with the proposed Pulte development, city Council voted to agree with the Planning Commission on the amendment to the comprehensive plan, which was a vote against change. Then the developer asked for a continuance to try to get the re-zoning that would go against the future land use plan (in NC law, the governing body needs to “consider” the comprehensive plan, but need not follow it, but the UDO says a plan has to conform to the comprehensive plan, in which the future land use plan is empirical enough that you can see clearly whether it conforms or not). If the city has voted something down, it can re-consider it at any time in the future (motion for renewal procedure) – but they can’t revive the comprehensive plan vote because council voted in favor of something. There were lots of e-mails prior to the meeting about how unfair it was to revive this without going through all the steps of a planning matter. The whole issue of reviving losing votes is scary as we are vulnerable to something coming back 5 years later, with no more than having it in the agenda – we can never finally win.  Tom Miller will write up his thoughts about what we need to do, including:

  *   We have lots of text policies (“squishy bits”) in the Comprehensive Plan that are never cited by the staff, and should at least be highlighted for governing bodies to consider.
  *   There should be a table showing what Future Land Use categories conform to what zoning districts.
  *   We may want to re-consider the “conform” requirement since figuring out if all the text policies in the Comp Plan clauses are OK is hard (checking if the proposed re-zoning conforms to Future Land Use plan is pretty easy, but not the squishy bits) and because sometimes the good compromise doesn't exactly conform to the Comp Plan.
  *   Due Processes like notification and public hearing need to be followed when Council does invokes the motion for renewal process.

Berini Drive is coming up and we need to watch it.

There is a new Planning Commission member and more openings will be coming up, so look for good people.

Planning Academy turned out to need 4 sessions (total 6 hours).  It helped people – with quite a diversity of folks being faithful about doing homework and attending – to understand planning philosophy; the planning exercises were helpful. Don thinks it was positive enough for both participants and planning to continue.  Maybe we should do a thank-you letter?

Liaison to DOST (Deb and Will) – DOST will not meet in July. There is finally a Urban Open Space Plan draft plan but is mostly a stream buffer plan, so missing air quality, socio-economic and other considerations.  There was more public involvement with the downtown part.

Neighborhood Reports

  *   Phil Azar reported that PAC1 is also thinking about $$ for a neighborhood advocate.
  *   Trinity Park will have their home tour in October (You can buy an ad).
  *   Watts-Hillandale’s 67th annual 4th of July Parade will be at 10 AM at Oval Park. Please come.
  *   Pat Carstensen will forward to the list-serve the e-mail on the new ordinance on scooping poop.
  *   It’s a quiet time in Northgate Park since the food truck rodeo was last week.  Northgate Mall has free screenings this summer.
  *   Come to Durham Roots Farmers Market. There will be tomatoes soon.
  *   In Old West Durham, John Killeen spearheads doing movies in Oval Park.  They will have only 3 screenings this summer, mostly for OWD and Watts Hillandale. August will likely be a bike movie.


  *   Durham Parks and Recreation has 2 more movies and 2 more concerts this summer. For a second year, we got funding from the National Recreation Park Association for projects on parks to build community; this year, we will be resurfacing the Hillside Park skating rink and improving the spectator shelter. We also got a KaBoom grant for Crest Street Park and will need volunteers to supplement neighborhood and Blue Cross / Blue Shield workers on August 24th. There are lots of other park and trail projects planned and going on, based on ½ penny for parks that have for 2 years. We will consider having a presentation on all that is going on.  Please give money to Durham Parks Foundation.


Appendix A: Resolution on Golden Belt Local Historic Preservation District

The InterNeighborhood Council of Durham supports the effort of the Golden Belt Neighborhood to establish a local historic district, and urges the City Council to approve the boundaries endorsed by the Historic Preservation Commission.


Appendix B: Resolution on Bike Boulevards
Whereas, the Inter-Neighborhood Council of Durham ("INC”) has received a presentation on Bike Boulevards and was impressed at the ability to improve bike and pedestrian infrastructure in the main using city maintained and controlled roads as opposed to state maintained roads;

Resolved that the Inter-Neighborhood Council of Durham:

1.  Supports building 1 or 2 pilot boulevards as soon as possible in advance of designing and building a complete network;

2.  Supports the concept of Bicycle Boulevards in Durham and, pending the results of any pilot, urges the Transportation Department to design and implement a Bike Boulevard system with the goal of connecting neighborhoods, jobs, government services, and open spaces and trails; and

3.  Urges, with respect to any pilot, a full bike boulevard system, or individual bike boulevards, that the Transportation Department move forward  in consultation with neighborhoods, affected neighbors, the Bike and Pedestrian Commission, Durham Open Spaces and Trails and other stakeholders;

Duly adopted this _____________ day of _______________________, 2016.

By; _____________________________

Name: __________________________

Title:  ___________________________

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