[Durham INC] DRAFT March minutes

Wed Apr 5 05:52:03 EDT 2017

Please let me know about any additions or corrections.  Regards, pat

March Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham
NIS Conference Room, Golden Belt
March 28, 2017

Attending the meeting were:
Neighborhoods
Colony Park – Don Lebkes
Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen
Falconbridge – Dick Ford
Golden Belt – DeDreana Freeman
Lochaven Hills – Tom Buhrman
Morehead Hill – Rochelle Araujo
Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins
Old Farm – David Harris
Old North Durham –Peter Katz, John Martin
Trinity Park – Philip Azar
Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan Sewell
Watts-Hillandale – Tom Miller
Woodcroft – Scott Carter, Jose Sandoval

Visitors
Will Wilson – DOST
Annette Smith – DPR
Dan Jewell - Coulter Jewell Thames, PA
John Killeen – City of Durham
Joy Mickle - Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People Housing Chair
Karen Lado – City of Durham Consultant on Affordable Housing
Satana DeBerry- North Carolina Housing Coalition

DeDreana Freeman then opened the meeting and those present introduced themselves.  John Martin moved and Tom Miller seconded approval of the January and February minutes; this passed.

On the future of Durham neighborhoods (we are avoiding the loaded word of “gentrification”), John Killeen first gave some background information.  Population in some census tracks has actually decreased since 1990 in spite of the overall growth across the county.  Bid-rent theory says that rents should decrease smoothly as you move away from downtown; what we actually see a “sloppy M” curve, with a dip for a ring with lower than expected rents.  Those who live in the dip commute to the same places as in Durham generally – Duke Hospital, downtown Durham, etc.  People moving to Durham from out of state are generally coming from places with high real estate values (for example, New York and California).  The panel of Dan Jewell, Joy Mickle, Karen Lado, and Satana DeBerry was then introduced.  Among their insights were:

·      Durham is the hottest market for multi-family housing in the southeast. We have seen a “sea change” in that we are no longer desperate to bring investment in to restart downtown and address blight, but now trying to preserve, manage and grow what we have.

·      Affordable housing is finally a problem of poverty, not real estate.  Overall wealth is not keeping up with housing prices.  In general, we have 2 populations increasing – those whose income will support higher real estate prices and those who are being increasingly challenged and are being displaced – while the population of those who need a subsidy for their housing is not growing much.

·      What is being built is struggling to match what people want.

·      We need to invest in some neighborhoods that have been systematically dis-invested in.  That is, instead of flippers making a huge profit on a property now costing $30K, can we make efficiency and other upgrades to get it up to $60K so it is affordable and attractive?

·      Durham has $5-6M / year to try to spread as far as possible.  We can “bend the curve” but we are not going to change the market forces.

·      Home ownership has not been a wealth-building tool for all families, with for example, red-lining and its off-spring limiting the increase in value of some properties.
Generally they thought that making housing more affordable means making development simpler in Durham.  We may want to have someone come talk about the future of water in Durham.

Old Business

·      Guess Road / Lochaven / “Publix” Resolution – The resolution, with high-lighted amendments made during the meeting, is in the Appendix.  City Council hears the issue on April 17th; please let members of council hear from you.  The resolution passed with 1 “abstain.”

·      Light Rail Financing – We are down to the wire on economic models and decisions – see http://ourtransitfuture.com for scheduled hearings and information sessions.  We may want to put together a panel on what is Plan B if light rail doesn’t happen.

New Business

·       NC 98 Corridor Study – It is studying the N.C. 98 corridor from U.S. 70 in Durham County through Wake County to U.S. 401 in Franklin County,  http://www.nc98corridor.com.  The issue for INC is that a lot of folks being pushed out of Durham by the rising cost of housing are moving out along NC98, and we are already seeing investments out there that will eventually raise the cost of housing there.  It would be nice if someone from INC would start attending these meetings.

  *   Neighborhood Heroes 2018 – We will be re-naming the event.  Debra will chair a committee.  Tom Miller, John Martin, and Pete Katz said they would be on the committee.  If you want to join the committee, let Debra know.

Announcements about community events:

  *   John Schelp’s popular West Durham hike will be April 15th.
  *   Come join us at Northgate Mall for Durham Roots Farmers Market "Soft Season Opener" on Saturday, April 1st! It's the start of the market's second year.  It's a little early for Durham-grown produce, but they’ll have plenty of protein and plant starts. Expecting the produce to come in later in the month, they’re putting off our Grand Opening until April 22nd.
  *   Trees Over Durham Forum: Trees create health, wealth, and social justice. Learn about trees and tell us what YOU think about the future of Durham’s trees! April 25th at the Durham Arts Council.

·       The City of Durham is excited to start building the next phase of the West Ellerbee Creek Greenway Trail.  This 10 foot wide trail will begin at Westover Park, pass under I-85, and end at Broad Street near Stadium Drive. When built, the new greenway trail will connect the existing West Ellerbee Creek Trail to the North/South Greenway Trail on Stadium Drive.  Construction will begin in April 2017 and will be complete by Spring 2018.

·       Earth Day celebration is April 22.

  *   There is a Yappy Hour every month.
  *   There are lots of family-oriented egg-centered events for Easter all over town.
  *   The first Northgate Park Food Truck Rodeo of the year was a great success.  They will happen on the 4th Thursday through the summer.

Appendix: Halvorson Resolution

Whereas the gap between statement of intent for mixed use developments found in the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) calling for “innovative” and “integrated” and the mid-20th century proposal by Halvorson is so immense,

Whereas this is not the first case we have seen of applicants avoiding the publically valuable step of obtaining a change in the future land use plan by this “Mixed Use” loophole,

Whereas, as desirable as a Publix might be, the public needs to be made aware that many other commercial uses can be substituted after the “Mixed Use” application is approved by the council,

Whereas the Publix announcement disrespected the process by announcing they were opening in 2018 without acknowledging the many regulatory steps that, as yet, have not been approved by the planning board or the city council,

Whereas with four grocery/shopping centers within three miles there is no shortage of shopping/commercial space in the area,

Whereas there are multiple sites available for development/redevelopment that will require no change of classification,

Whereas the neighborhood (Lochaven Hills) has concerns about the substantial traffic problems that currently existed and will be exacerbated by the Halvorson proposal,

Whereas stormwater runoff from a development of the magnitude proposed by Halvorson will have an adverse effect on the section of the Eno River just hundreds of feet downstream and flowing through the City of Durham's largest nature park, West Point on the Eno, which is the City of Durham's cleanest water quality and a location where thousands of people swim, fish, and play at Synnot's Hole,

Whereas the Citizens of Durham and the Eno River Association members have spent 50 years protecting the water quality of the Eno River, and protecting this resource should be of utmost importance to the City of Durham,

Whereas such a commercial area immediately next to Easley Elementary School will harm the atmosphere and the safety of the children and faculty of the school,

Whereas the Planning Commission, after due consideration, recommended rejecting the request,

Therefore the INC of Durham resolves:

  *   City Council should deny the request to rezone the land.
  *   As the current definition and description of “Mixed Use” is quite vague, the UDO needs to more precisely define what a “Mixed Use” designation should require in order to be approved.

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