[Durham INC] Resending INC minutes in advance of next week meeting

[Pat Carstensen]

March Delegate Meeting

InterNeighborhood Council of Durham, Via Zoom

March 25, 2024


Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Burch Avenue – Richard Ziglar

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen, Ed Harrison

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Merrick-Moore – Bonita Green

Morehead Hill –Rochelle Araujo, Jess Pollard

Northgate Park – Debra Hawkins

Old North Durham – Mimi O’Brien, Ann

Old West Durham – Daniel Singer, Kate Young, John Wood

Trinity Park –  Mimi Kessler. John Hodges-Copple

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan Sewell

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom Miller, Sherri Zann Rosenthal, Deborah Horvitz, Catherine Risgby


Guests

Aidil Ortiz

Angel Iset Dozier

Susan Schaeffer

Nicole Hablenk

Antoinette Joyner – Hillandale

Leah R.



President Mimi Kessler called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone.


Angel Iset Dozier and Aidil Ortiz introduced themselves as the Community Partners Team of the Reimaging the Durham Freeway project; their job is to listen intently to find out what the community wants, and document these views – to make the work community-led.  There is also technical team (in the Transportation Department and with a consultant) to do look at “little nuts and bolts” to do transportation (not just cars!) analysis and develop alternative plans.  The federal DOT program to reconnect communities is making grants to try to remedy damages to communities made by freeways construction (for example, in Durham, the freeway took out 34 of the 50 community connections that used to exist).  Our program is called “pathways to connection” since we don’t want to presume that the answer has to be to continue to have a freeway.  The objective is to get community input and use it to create a plan.  A group of institutional stakeholders is also  meeting quarterly.  The study area is from Swift Avenue to I-885, roughly. Hayti Reborn has some powerful videos on how building the freeway disrupted communities.  There are a number of events (tours, concerts, etc); sign-up is on the website.  There is also a survey on the website: https://www.durhamnc.gov/5201/Reimagine-Durham-Freeway.


Tom Miller moved and someone seconded to approve the February minutes; this passed.


The website committee met and decided that we need a page that has issues and projects and that the home page needs to be livelier.  The brochure committee didn’t meet.  Thanks to Susan Sewall for the creating a form for neighborhoods (or other organization) to fill out to become members (or confirm membership); even current memberships should fill in their information.


Please pay dues; seven neighborhoods have paid.


John Hodges-Copple is part of group that is concerned about moving Durham School of the Arts out of downtown.  The cost of the new building has gone way up, and it now sucking in money that would go to elementary schools.  There is a petition to at least pause and reconsider.


Sherri Zann Rosenthal has created a development score card, working with a Public Policy student. They found that most of the information for scoring isn’t on Durham’s development rezoning application.  Perhaps the Neighborhood Meeting process currently being revised by Planning can be a context to get developers to voluntarily provide information. Other ideas to implement? Sherri will share the v.2 draft of the Scorecard with INC delegates who want to provide feedback.  She also asks if INC might take a role in implementing the Scorecard.


Richard Ziglar reported that the Duke University rezoning is going before the Planning Board; the proposal contains none of committed elements that Burch Avenue wants to protect them from high traffic.  The site in the Burch Avenue is the old laundry and is full of asbestos.  Please write the Planning Commission to press them for committed elements.


Neighborhood Reports

  *   Northgate Park food truck kick-off is this  week.

  *   There are now Pauli Murray quarters and Susan has some.


Adjourn.   We may have an in-person meeting in May.



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