[Durham INC] Draft July Minutes

Fri Aug 6 06:33:30 EDT 2021

Please let me know about any corrections or additons, thanks, pat

July Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

Via Zoom

July 27, 2021

Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Bragtown – Vannessa Mason Evans

Burch Avenue – Richard Ziglar

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Forest Hills – Sarah Morris

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Merrick-Moore – Bonita Green

Morehead Hill – Rochelle Araujo, Bruce Mitchell

Northgate Park – Keith M. Cochran (delegate), Daniel Singer, Deb Hawkins

Old West Durham – David Eklund

Trappers Creek / Greymoss – Will Wilson

Trinity Park – Philip Azar, Mimi Kessler, Diane Amato

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan Sewell

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom Miller

Guests

Annette Smith -- Durham Parks and Recreation, Durham Parks Foundation

DeDreana Freeman

President Will Wilson called the meeting to order, and those present introduced themselves. Tom Miller moved to approve the June minutes, Sarah Morris seconded, and the minutes were approved.  The agenda was adjusted to add discussion of  a nominating committee and candidate forum.

Nominating Committee -- The committee will need to confirm which officers are willing to continue serving and recruit people willing to become the vice-president and possibly other offices.  Philip, Will, Vanessa and Sara volunteered to be on the committee.

Candidate Forum -- If we do the forum on zoom, it has auto-captions and recording.  Will will reach out to some of the people who have worked on a forum before to see if any of them is willing to work on a forum this year.

Trinity Park Neighborhood Fiber Installation -- The full Trinity Park board met and passed a resolution similar to what was brought in last month.  They had Verizon managers and the relevant city staff person on the call and let them know what kinds of damage has been done by fiber installers.   The city holds those who cause damages responsible, but citizens have experienced long periods of waiting for issues to get resolved.  We’ve heard stories all over the city with similar issues.  With Tom Miller, they put together a resolution for INC (see Appendix).  Tom moved to substitute this resolution for the one sent out in the agenda and to approve this substitute resolution; Susan seconded.  This was approved unanimously.

Bylaws Revision -- The committee has not made as much progress as hoped, but Tom and Philip have a work plan on getting it done this summer.

Development Project Updates

Duke University sent out letters to neighbors of a patchwork of their properties for which they want to change the zoning to UC (University Campus).  Only one “patch” has a development plan.  This is a concern to Burch Avenue because Burch Avenue is concerned about traffic impacts of any new ingress / exit to Duke properties in their neighborhood and although the university has said they will not add new ingress / exits, there is nothing in the requested rezoning to formalize this commitment.  Notices were late or not sent, so there is possibility of forcing Duke to do another neighborhood meeting.  Other neighborhoods would also be affected; we will get the map to the list-serve.  The neighborhood is getting organized, has met with the planner working on the rezoning request and will be working on strategy.

A new round of “omnibus” changes to the UDO is coming; there is concern that the sum of the changes will make it easier for the redevelopment of Northgate to go through without needing a rezoning.

Bragtown is continuing to meet with the developers with interest in the area.

A new planning tool that maps development proposals once they have a planning number may be useful to neighborhood folks.

  *   A webpage on the Planning Department’s public engagement efforts: https://durham.mysocialpinpoint.com/land-use

  *   The interactive map: https://durham.mysocialpinpoint.com/land-use/map#/sidebar/tab/about

Watts Hospital Hillandale has 2 developments in their area: the hotel and a potential rezoning from the old Best Products on Hillsborough Road into a large apartment building; depending on buffering and traffic, the neighborhood could support it.

Carpenter Point is facing development in a swampy area that they thought couldn’t be developed and has not gotten much response when they try to raise concerns.

Merrick-Moore has an industrial neighbor that is trying to create a new access to his property through the neighborhood so he can avoid going over the railroad from the closest road.

How should we use over $100 million in one-time federal funding coming to Durham? The survey is at: https://forms.gle/hB7VPMWz5URn483a6 Spanish: https://forms.gle/WzXAjZScTZpVeaCz8

Annette asked folks to help counter the rumor that the City of Durham has made some plans for the Wheels property; they have made no plans and will not without a lot of community conversation.  Parks and Rec is in conversation with Merrick-Moore about the rest of the park there; the soccer park happened before the Equitable Engagement commitment was started.

National Night Out is Monday.

Appendix: Resolution on Fiber Installation

WHEREAS, Durham residents in several neighborhoods have reported to INC that the installation of underground internet lines and cables in the city street right of way have in some instances occurred without adequate notice to residents whose homes abut the right of way and that in other instances the installation of said internet lines resulted in damage to other utilities and facilities located within the same right of way including residential water and sewer lines, gas lines, and drainage lines causing significant anxiety, disruption of utility services, inconvenience, and cost to said city residents and the city itself; and

WHEREAS, clear lines of responsibility for, and the resolution of problems relating to, damage, services losses, and costs relating to the installation of new utility services in the street right of way do not currently exist;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the InterNeighborhood Council calls upon the City of Durham and the firms owning and controlling the several utilities using public rights of way and utilities easements to do a better job of installing and repairing utility lines so as to cause the least surprise, damage and risk to the residents of Durham; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the InterNeighborhood Council asks the Durham City Council and relevant City of Durham departments to:

1. Review and benchmark against best practices the process by which the City permits

and supervises internet providers and other utilities and their subcontractors, with a goal of ensuring

safety, decreasing disruptions, and increasing communication with affected residents;

2. Report the findings of this review to Durham City and County elected officials in periodic open

public meetings, the initial report expected within three months;

3. Require positive identification of all utilities and other facilities, public and private, before digging or boring in street rights of way and utilities easements is allowed to begin;

4. Place stop orders on utilities and other work near gas lines until the above review is

complete and any necessary changes are made to digging and boring policies and procedures;

5. Require that fiber optic providers communicate with affected residents before and during

any digging in the right-of-way; and conduct a review of all communication processes,

including appropriate prior notification, identification of responsible parties, and

escalation processes; and

6. Establish an effective process for complaints and the prompt and fair resolution of complaints about digging and boring in the public right of way and public easements.

Adopted this ___ day of _______________, 2021

_________________________________________________

Will Wilson

President

_________________________________________________

Patricia Carstensen

Secretary

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20210806/dfb701e0/attachment.htm>