[Durham INC] Draft August Minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

As usual, please let me know about additions or corrections.  Thanks, pat

August Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham
NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt
August 23, 2016

Attending the meeting were:
Neighborhoods
Colony Park - Don Lebkes
Cross Counties - Pat Carstensen
Golden Belt - DeDreana Freeman
Lockhaven Hills - Keith LePage
Long Meadow - Pakis Bessias
Morehead Hill - Rochelle Araujo
Northgate Park - Debra Hawkins
Old North Durham - John Martin, Pete Katz
Old West Durham - John Killeen
Tuscaloosa-Lakewood - Susan Sewell
Watts-Hillandale - Tom Miller
Woodcroft - Scott Carter


Visitors
Will Wilson - DOST
Lynwood D. Best - City of Durham, NIS
Robert Meehan - Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association


President DeDreana Freeman opened the meeting.  Those present introduced themselves.

Robert Meehan of the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association presented information on new approaches to managing stormwater.  For an urban area, there is a lot of green space along Ellerbe Creek, but run-off from impervious surfaces is still a problem.  Years ago, long stretches of the creek were straightened, which helps with flooding but harms water quality.  We get "trash islands" and the water quality is pretty poor when it gets to Falls Lake.  Two new ideas are:

  *   Water-friendly streetscapes with bio-retention strips between the sidewalk and the street and permeable pavements.
  *   Various improvements to residential property, including directing your downspouts to your yard instead of a driveway, using cisterns and building rain gardens.  See www.creeksmart.org<http://www.creeksmart.org>.
Other updates for ECWA include expansion of Pearl Mill Nature Reserve thanks to Duke Power, the new The Rocks Nature Reserve, and the October 8th Nature Tour (http://www.ellerbecreek.org/explore/2016-nature-tour.html)

John Killeen is working with some students on a project of applying some "gentrification" / neighborhood change metrics that were in an article in Governing magazine to Durham.  There will be a presentation on this in the fall.

John Martin moved to approve the June (and if necessary, May) minutes, Tom Miller seconded, and the minutes were approved.

Committee Reports
The Nominating Committee reported that they have a full slate for the 2016-2017 year.  We will vote next month.

Planning and Zoning Committee: City Council will take up Golden Belt Historic District on September 6th (the day after Labor Day); the question is the 1.5 to 2 blocks owned by the Rescue Mission at the southeast corner.  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. Folks need to show up to the City Council meeting and contact council to support the INC resolution.  More generally, we need to get more planning resources to East Durham.  The expansion of the Cleveland-Holloway Historic District is next on deck; they are racing the tear-downs of houses, with replacement with big, looming mini-palaces. In general, the increasing popularity of some neighborhoods, including Old West Durham, Old North Durham and Northgate Park, is resulting in a lot of tear-downs there.


Neighborhood Reports

  *   The Monarch Festival is October 8th at Sandy Creek Park, 10-4.  Also that day, as previously announced, is the Ellerbe Creek Nature Tour.
  *   AT&T and Google Fiber installation crews have caused a lot of problems in Pat Carstensen's neighborhood.
  *   Northgate Park Food Truck Rodeo is this Thursday.
  *   Lynwood Best announced the new City Hall on the Go, which can come to your neighborhood.  https://durhamnc.gov/2883/City-Hall-on-the-Go




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20160825/ba61b1e4/attachment.html>