City Council · Regular Meeting · April 3, 2023

council meeting to order for this Monday April 3rd 2023 at 7 pm here in City Hall Chambers we certainly want to welcome all of you who are in attendance here we have a sea of pink and green tonight we have a sea of red and white tonight we have a very full house tonight we have people all out in the foyer area we are so happy to see you all here tonight as we get ready to conduct the people's business here we thank those who are joining us remotely as well I like to have a moment of set of meditation at this time so that we may Center ourselves for the evening ahead

thank you all for that I now ask for councilwoman Deidra Freeman to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you it's our practice to stand and salute the flag ship foreign if you will call the road mayor O'Neill I am president near Pro tem Middleton I'm here councilmember Caballero here council member Freeman president councilmember Halsey Hyman President councilmember Johnson here councilmember Williams here thank you thank you so much before we get started we have to take a a moment to recognize the loss

that the city suffered over the last week with our budget director Mr John a law I'm going to ask our city manager to give a few remarks today and on Thursday because this is a week of mourning for us here in the city he has worked long and hard for the city of Durham I did not meet him until last year over Zoom and he masterfully carried us through the budget process and so he is already being missed and we want to acknowledge him and his family tonight city manager Paige thank you madam mayor and thank you for a moment of privilege on behalf of the administration and the all of the city of Durham we deeply mourn the death of our trusted colleague and friend John allor for nearly 25 years John served in and

excelled in several City positions in our finance department in our budget Department he most recently served as the budget and Management Services director a position he had held since January of 2022. those who knew John knew him as a dedicated and a passionate public servant and a loving father of three daughters we also appreciated John's many talents and interests as he was a celebrated author a podcaster and an avid biker we are all keeping John's family in our thoughts and our prayers and he will be greatly missed thank you madam mayor thank you city manager Paige it is at this time that we turn to our ceremony items for tonight and we have several we'll be celebrating the first we will have a proclamation to be read

by councilwoman Freeman on the fair housing month Proclamation the next one is Chelsea Cook day Proclamation the third would be the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated Alpha Zeta Omega chapter day Proclamation and then I will read the peace month Proclamation the AKA Proclamation will be read by councilwoman Monique Jose Hyman and Mama cookie day Proclamation will be read by councilwoman Johnson thank you madam mayor and I am presenting this proclamation to Miss Shanetta Burris president and Chelsea Cook of the chair chair of the diversity Equity inclusion committee I'd like to join me

foreign whereas the Fair Housing Act enacted on April 11 1968 enshrined into federal law the goal of eliminating racial segregation and ending ending housing discrimination in the United States and whereas the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination and housing based on race color religion sex familial status National of origin and disability and commits recipients of Federal funding to affirmatively further fair housing in their communities and whereas Durham is committed to the mission an intent of Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities for all and whereas our social fabric the economic health and environment are the strengths and diverse and inclusive communities and whereas more than 50 years after the

passage of the fair housing act discrimination persists and many communities remain segregated and whereas acts of housing discrimination bar and barriers to Equal Housing opportunities are repugnant to the common sense of decency and fairness now therefore I Elaine M O'Neill mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina due hereby proclaim the month of April 2023 as fair housing month in Durham and hereby urge all residents to be a community committed to fair housing and to promoting appropriate activities by private and public and type entities to provide and advocate for Equal Housing opportunities for all residents and prospective residents of Durham witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this the third day of April 2023 Elaine M O'Neill mayor [Applause]

thank you and I'll turn it over to you good evening Madam mayor mayor Pro tem and members of the city council my name is Shanetta Burris I am the President of the Durham Regional Association of Realtors and Sharon's uncle is our chair of the Dei committee on behalf of our association the Realtors and all of our members we'd like to thank you for declaring April fair housing month every American has the right to fair housing the right to live where they choose the right to raise a family and the ability to own a home a home presents many things it represents family community But ultimately it's where the heart beats for all of us as Realtors we completely support fair housing and are sworn to uphold a code of ethics that bounds us to a higher

standard of fairness it is our mission to have housing options available for all so that the dream of home ownership can be a reality and not just a dream so thank you so much for inviting us here tonight we appreciate everything you do for us thank you [Applause]

good evening everyone I am so excited to present this Proclamation for Mama cookie day [Applause] um is there anybody you want up here with you anyone else that you want up here there's a whole crowd of folks out in the hall yeah anybody who you want to come up thanks all so much for being here I'm sorry we couldn't fit everybody in it's a big night tonight at City Hall whereas Chelsea Cook Harwell Bradley was born April 4th in Durham North Carolina and has been a dedicated Grassroots leader for the people of our city and whereas Chelsea Cook witnessed Durham families going hungry during the pandemic and spearheaded the creation of fed up a food distribution program that fed thousands of Durham residents throughout 2020 and 2021.

and whereas Chelsea Cook has Decades of experience working in Durham as a fast food worker a certified nursing assistant and a home care worker and whereas Chelsea Cook has been paid poverty wages and jobs throughout the service industry and use this experience to fight to raise the minimum wage to a living wage in North Carolina and Across the Nation [Music] whereas Chelsea Cook has been badly hurt on the job due to unsafe working conditions and has worked through the pandemic without being provided proper protective equipment by her employers and she has used these experiences to organize and demand safety for all essential workers and whereas Chelsea Cook has experienced the systemic racism and lack of worker protections faced by many black workers in the South and has used this experience to speak out for economic Justice and racial Justice for All workers and whereas Chelsea Cook has spent the last eight years helping build a

worker-led organization in Durham that has spread across the South and personally helped educate thousands of workers about their rights and whereas Chelsea Cook worked for decades in the service industry without a voice on the job or the chance to join a union and has used this experience to unite with other workers and launch the Union of Southern service workers in November of 2022. and whereas Chelsea Cook is a founding member we got a little bit of a delay for the folks outside sorry y'all um whereas Chelsea Cook is a founding member of the Durham workers Rights Commission and whereas Chelsea Cook is a symbol and a representative of Durham's low-wage service workers who are tirelessly organizing fueled by hope and a commitment to Justice now therefore I Elaine M O'Neill mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby Proclaim April 3rd 2023 as Mama cookie day oh

this one's for you [Applause] wow wow I know I ain't got for three minutes I just want to thank my God Almighty for making this happen for me first I want to say Durham I was born and raised in this city and I love my sitting I want to thank my family they are everything to me especially my amazing Sons Earl and Raymond where you at Raymond they're my boy they're my boy Earl brought me back to the movement where when we first met and when Earl brought me back the movement where when he took me to my first raise up meeting that anyway I started though he introduced me to the organization and the rest is history I want to thank my grandparents who raised me they will be so proud to see me get this honor today

oh so much of who I am to my grandparents my granddad daddy Joe was a powerful force in life he was a strong strong union man he was a black man living in a world that wanted to crush him and follow him but he knew that he had power and he knew that workers had power he taught me that he loved my fighting spirit and he always had my back now my grandma Ola Mae wasn't he was an amazing woman she raised eight of us after our parents passed on she worked all her life at the barbecue stand I remember how hard she worked even when her body was breaking down her legs were swelled from standing at that barbecue stand all day long the skin on her legs were split open and she didn't even she would take rags and wrap her legs and still go to work and stand and fight for us

I actually mine why you kept working she said because I have to take care of all you children [Applause] when I'm a service worker and I can tell you that it's the same way today and then and that's why I'm organizing and building this Union so when my children and grandchildren won't have to fight like I have had to fight and that brings me to my union the Union of Southern service workers I want to thank my union family too they are my comrades and we are working toward the same vision our vision is to transform these low-wage service jobs into good union jobs our vision is a Durham where workers can afford to live our vision is a Durham where working people especially black and brown people

have the power to make decisions about our community our vision is a Styles where we have safe jobs where workers can set the health and safety conditions at our jobs to all my fellow workers we know there's a state to crisis in the service industry that's why we're going on strike tomorrow in Durham Columbia and Atlanta Georgia we are demanding we are demanding safe jobs now so the best way you can honor me is to come out on strike with us tomorrow I want to thank Durham Community Land Trust for allowing me to be able to have affordable housing off on the West End that's where I grew up in and I'm still there I want to thank the city council for honoring me today I appreciate everything that y'all do because without y'all that wouldn't be a Durham Elaine I thank you I thank you I thank you Jillian Johnson thank you this is my rider she has stuck by me through so many fights my fight is not

over it hasn't started I am still going to be standing strong I want to thank each and every one of you for giving me this honor today there's no words that could ever take his place raise up raise up all right thank you thank you [Applause] [Applause] pull that line all right friend to my childhood everybody [Music] cookie mama cooking mama cooking see that's me calling you to my childhood friend we grew up on the West End together right around the corner from each other

we've known each other all our lives you know there was a time when they say nothing good comes off out of the West end but we stand here to say and say what we're still proud stand proud [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] foreign folks a moment to clear out of the chambers everybody and we're going to talk honor the big big sisters today that's a pretty picture

pretty pitch [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] [Applause] right now [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] almost out it's a day of Celebration everybody [Music] okay [Music] I think we almost have the door closed

thank you thank you so much all right thank you thank you good evening to my residents of Durham good evening to Mayor my mayor to our city council to our city council members um and I just want to say thank you Chelsea Cook because you're fighting for social and economic Justice and that is right after my heart I would like to call Dr Camilla Ezell our chapter president of alpha Zeta Omega chapter Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority to come forth please and this is a very dear to my heart about 36 years ago I became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at the age of 18 at the State University of Binghamton New York um and where my life began of service and scholarship and just following wonderful women so this is so much an honor for me Proclamation whereas Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority

Incorporated the oldest Greek letter organization established by African-American women college women was founded at Howard University in 1908 and whereas the alpha Zeta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority was charted on April 14 1928 in Durham North Carolina and where and was the first black Greek letter sorority in Durham as well as the third chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha to be established in North Carolina and whereas the alpha Zeta Omega chapters members comprised of over 400 professional college educated women who have a Heart for Service who share the diverse gifts and dynamic talents to positively impact Durham and its citizens and whereas since 1928 the alpha Zeta Omega chapter has continuously served the Durham Community by facilitating programs that address education Economic Development health and social

social justice and whereas April 14 2023 will Mark the 95th Anniversary of alpha Zeta Omega chapter so be it resolved at April 14 2023 be proclaimed as Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated Alpha Zeta Omega chapter day in Durham community now therefore I Elaine O'Neal mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do herepi Proclaim April 14 2023 as Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated Alpha Zeta Omega chapter day in Durham and we as we urge all residents to extend congratulations to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated on their 95th Anniversary and appreciate them for doing all their work that they have done in Durham witnessed by my hand in a corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina the third day of April 2023 Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority

[Applause] thank you so much Carl Rist evening mayor Madam mayor mayor Pro Temp and all other members of the Durham city council I am Dr Kamala azelle and I am the President of the alpha Zeta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated mayor O'Neal the members of alpha Zeta Omega chapter thank you for this honor we also thank you for your leadership and commend you for your dedication to and passion for serving the citizens of Durham we are proud to work alongside you and other members of the council who desire the best for those in our community Through The Years Alpha Zeta Omega chapter has implemented many community

service programs and initiatives and we have been fortunate to Foster relationships allowing us to partner with several organizations who share our passion for creating opportunities for a better life Alpha Zeta Omega chapter has been serving the great city of Durham since 1928 for 95 years we have done what we could to execute our mission which is to improve the quality of life for those in our community this is our community we are proud of this community and we will do what needs to be done to ensure that those living in Durham have an opportunity to thrive and succeed service is in our hearts whether we are in pink and green or not as there is currently a heightened and intentional focus on middle and high school students in Durham and their safety survival and advancement please know that Alpha Zeta Omega chapter remains committed to focusing on our

programs that were created for these students our youth leadership Institute for ages 11 through 13 meets regularly at the Durham County Main Library also our debutant ball Cotillion which is the culmination of an educational social cultural and life empowerment program for high school girls is this Saturday at the Durham Convention Center our pink pearl Gala scholarship Gala is April 29th also at the Durham Convention Center both of those events have a focus on providing high school students an opportunity to earn higher education scholarship dollars we have sponsored our annual scholarship program for high school students since 1944. our scholarship application is currently live and on the website and we encourage all Durham High School seniors to apply thank you and so again and so again mayor O'Neill I thank you for the opportunity to speak and Alpha Zeta Omega chapter thanks you

for this awesome recognition we will continue working with you for a bigger and better city of Durham thank you I am going to take a point of privilege and ask all of my sorority sisters because this is my chapter please come up so we can take a picture real quick

foreign foreign [Applause] thank you all for coming tonight [Music]

thank you right we have more people coming in so we're gonna take about 45 more seconds oh

my God love you okay lots of people listen most people we see how people come in into Chambers everybody give us a couple of more minutes to get folks seated all right we'll go ahead and get started we have a full night this is our last

Proclamation for this evening and as you know every once a month I have been trying to gather our thoughts about a about a particular attribute and so this particular attribute came to me a couple of weeks ago um by an aka Miss Danielle Nolan and she asked me and this had to be about two to three weeks ago to think about peace months and I think that was so appropriate and so I'd like to share with you this Proclamation where is our daily lives a field with news regarding inequity discrimination violence and death often causing feelings of sadness uncertainty fear and whereas by recognizing the importance of respect being patient with one another extending

Grace and the need to bring Harmony to Durham all members of our community will be made aware of the need for peace in our city whereas the purpose of Peace months is to remember that violence and retaliation in any form are never the answer whereas we all experience hardships and how we respond is what dictates our character and whereas when we remain Relentless in our optimism we can better recognize growth and conceptualize the Gap and opportunities for the advancement of all people and whereas we should make peace our priority when making decisions we should be mindful of how our actions affect others during our day-to-day activities and be aware that everyone deserves life happiness and peace and whereas by coming together as a

community we are striving for greatness in creating opportunities that enable Durham to be a welcoming inclusive kind safer and more secure place to live work and play and where is the city of Durham honors those who positively impact our community and World by promoting peace now therefore I Elaine M O'Neill mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby proclaim the month of April 2023 as peace month in Durham and hereby urge all residents to work on mindfulness self-control and remain optimistic while always spreading kindness and respect generosity and consideration of others witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham this is the third the day the third day of April 2023 I as your mayor

hereby declare peace over this chamber I hereby declare and decree peace over this city hall I hereby decree and declare peace over this Council and I hereby declare and decree peace of our employees and I hereby decree and declare peace Over All the city of Durham [Applause] we will now begin the people's business and I'll start with our announcements tonight and I will look to my left first to see if their attorney I'm sorry Dr Jose Harmon again thank you mayor thank you residents for coming out tonight to my

colleagues I just wanted to say that I had the honor this weekend to be invited to the First Lady T at North Carolina Central University which is a tea that is sponsored by the first lady Miss Juanita akele who also had a scholarship fundraising for the NCC ladies soaring for Eagle promise and that was really dear to my heart because it's all about mentorship and a lot of these young women are first generation college students like myself and without these scholarships they would not be able to attend nccu and so I want to thank her for inviting us the mayor was also there to bring readings and again she also thanked us for acknowledging the program when we did our mentorship honoring for the for January uh 2023 so I want to say thank you to the first lady of nccu also uh this is Child Abuse Prevention month 2023. I invite you to recognize that the month of April is to

nurture positive childhood experiences and it starts with us and it starts with education and partnership I also want to just take a point of privilege to just say a little story about two weeks ago a man walked in the city hall and asked for help and the front desk person at City Hall said I'm going to refer you to one of our city council members and that man was a single father with three young ladies three little girls getting ready to be evicted and he called me and I immediately started to work on trying to get different people in the community to work together to try to get him a voucher that he has been trying to get for months and pulled in all the level of collaborations that I have from being a social worker from being in the community and he called me on Friday and he said uh Dr Hyman after months I was able to get the

voucher and now myself and my three little girls will not be homeless and so and so while I know this is just one family but it's for people who are not homeless because we took the time and I in this the front desk person took the time to get that person to me so when I put my name in the Hat to be a city council member it was about service it was not about a title it was not about power it was about service and so I'm going to leave this with people passion collaboration and service for all people of Durham which is in my heart thank you [Applause] any further announcements on my left looking to my right now Mia protein thank you madam mayor good evening your honor and good evening to

friends and Neighbors in the chamber and all who may be watching wherever you are um it's been a tough couple of weeks for us with the I know Madam may I want to thank you for acknowledging the life and light of John Allure and what he meant to all of us of course we've had some very significant continue to have very significant gun violence uh issues as well um and some other things have gone on it's been a tough couple of weeks for our city and for our Council I firstly want to say uh Madam mayor I want to thank you the mayor a few weeks ago was real a few months ago was really excited about this initiative she had seen in Wilmington North Carolina called the Harrelson Center and she came back and said you got to see it it's great and she seemed really excited about it but on Friday I had opportunity to join her honor in Wilmington to see it for myself and I have to say um she was right that I had to see it for myself I want to thank the folk down there who we experienced in Wilmington showing us essentially the shopping center for Social Service interest I do

not know what integration into our own City would look like or what appropriation of it would look like but it was something definitely worth seeing and had a fantastic time touring it with the mayor and others on this past Friday so I want to thank the mayor I also spent some time in Washington DC at the National League of cities Congressional cities conference and had opportunity to sit on a panel there to get to brag about Durham and the work we've done there was an initiative that NLC gave us a grant to participate in called citizen cities assessing fines and fees equitably and Durham LED in that in terms of the work we did around water equity and water bill so I was honored to be able to to sit on that panel but I did something else whenever I'm in Washington I have a tradition to sneak away and go to the memorials before the King memorial was built didn't go to it after the King memorial was built I'd go back there and read the words on the walls particularly the one that talks about out of a mountain of Despair a stone of

Hope being crafted but I would always go to the Lincoln Memorial and I would look at the Gettysburg address and I would look at the second inaugural and I would read it out loud because when I was coming up part of my therapy and dealing with the speech impediment was to get passages of things that moved me and to read them out loud and to practice them out loud so whenever I'm in DC I do that I've been reading the second inaugural address for for many many years but but I thought about my city on this particular trip President Lincoln was no Paragon of morality for his whole life he did not he was not born enlightened on slavery he he migrated and he evolved in his first inaugural address slavery was not the big sin that it was in the second inaugural address he certainly evolved but at the end of the second inaugural address the president uh said these words which of course live in immortality he said with malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right

let us strive on to finish the work that we are in to bind up the wounds of the nation and it said Nation but I thought City when I read it um he wasn't talking about a city he was talking about the nation and at the time the president delivered it it was pretty clear that the the union was going to win the war militarily but the president did not take time to Globe it was not about personal Victory he knew that there was something larger than himself and larger than the war it was about the nation it was about the city it was about finishing the work to bind up the wounds we've had some wounds and today and I'm so grateful Madam mayor that you've read the piece I didn't know you were going to read the peace resolution today that that this would be a month of peace and I want to say after reading that um that I accept that challenge so I want to say uh to her honor mayor O'Neill

to The Honorable Monique Halsey Hyman to The Honorable Jillian Johnson to The Honorable Leonardo Williams to The Honorable Javier Caballero and to The Honorable di drana Freeman let us get back to work let us move forward to bind up the wounds of our city and get to work and as we do it my commitment to you and I hope our commitment to each other is we will do it with malice toward none and with charity for all thank you manamere [Applause] any other announcements well I have a couple this evening um so it's going to take me a second to read through one I want to address the process by which the allegations

have come to us concerning one of our Council colleagues and one of the letters um that I will read into the record is actually one of two that you may find of Interest the first one came from Attorney Kim rayberg attorney here she initially wrote to the city council a letter I will not read that letter I think that one has already been made public but I will read a response from The Institute of government who I contacted uh attorney rayback Berg had also contacted them and then because I've had a long-standing relationship with them through my public career I contacted them as well to ask them to provide some directions with what we were facing and I asked Professor Robert Joyce Professor uh

love lady and Professor McLaughlin who responded to two questions that I had I thank you and this is my questions to them good afternoon professors I thank you for talking with me today and looking over the letter from attorney rayberg and I have two questions number one what are the options for Council to consider for next steps and number two what are the parameters for communication with the public in an open meeting or otherwise I share these letters with our Council and I would like to read this one into the record and this came from Professor Robert Joyce at the school of government at UNC mayor O'Neal I'm sorry that the city is facing what is potentially a difficult situation I hope everything works out in the best interest of everyone here are your questions and my best answers

what are the options for Council to consider for next steps I've just now seen Kim Raber's email to you of just a few minutes ago that lays out the options as to discussed today in a telephone meeting that included Kim Mark Haberman hey Goldman a lawyer in private practice who is an instructor at the school of government Adam Lovelady a faculty member at the school Chris McLaughlin also a faculty member and me I agree with Kim's assessment of the options and I repeat them here number one the council could decide that no action is called for at this time number two the council could decide that since the allegations involve possible criminal conduct the matter should be referred to law enforcement with no further Council action number three the council could discuss the matter in Open Session and vote to censure the

council member involved a vote of censure carries no legal consequences number four the council could decide that in order to be in the best position to protect the interests of the city and investigation should be undertaken because the result of such an investigation could conceivably lead to consideration of removing the council member involved from the board great care should be taken to preserve the due price rights due process rights of everyone involved that might best be done through the engagement of a lawyer from somewhere other than Durham to conduct the investigation on behalf of the board a lawyer experiencing such investigations would be able to work with the council to set the structure and procedures of the investigation two what are the parameters for communication with the public in an open

meeting or otherwise it seems to me that two considerations are at work at the same time first the council has an interest in the transparency of open government and in keeping the public informed of the work of the council second because of the nature of the conduct asserted to have occurred especially its possible criminal nature the unwarranted or premature release of information could work to the disadvantage of the council member involved in the city given the interaction of these two considerations I think that council members should limit public comments in open meetings or outside of meetings to the greatest extent possible consistent with reasonable transparency discretion is called for I don't believe I can be more specific than that Public Service alas does not always

follow a smooth path I hope these thoughts are helpful Bob Joyce that will conclude the reading of his memo in the record I now turn to my brief comments with regards to the allegations made concerning one of our accounts of colleagues which allegations were given to us by our City attorney that matter has been referred to the appropriate authorities those authorities will investigate those allegations During the period of and until the conclusion of that investigation I would ask all of Durham residents to stay focused on the issues that face us likewise I would request anyone who is contacted by those authorities to please act truthfully in accordance with any

questions that you may be asked we as a council our task was seeking and enacting policies that enhance the growth and safety of all of our residents this is a heavy lift when we think about the challenges that we all face crime affordable housing and the rapid growth of our city to name a few Durham has been faced with daunting challenges before and we as a community are well able and equipped to meet those that stand in front of us but we must remain focused and diligent to make sure that Durham is a community that is truly a safe place to live work and play as your mayor as your mayor as your mayor

I am committed to this cause and I ask that we allow law enforcement to do its job while we continue to stay focused and move our city forward we can do this because we are Bull City strong we are Bull City strong I will be making no further public comments on this issue while it is under investigation and I would ask all to do the same [Applause] my second announcement would be that our staff would like to receive two proclamations on Thursday April 6 and if

you all would just give me a thumbs up on this it will be uh the proclamation first Proclamation will be the National Public Safety telecommunicators week and the second will be the national Community Development week Proclamation any objections to those being heard on Thursday that's kind of unusual thumbs up all right this unanimous thank you staff got it done the third announcement I have on last week I sent a letter uh to uh about 40 people who signed up to speak to us on the unified development ordinance text Amendment simplifying codes for affordable housing development scad we had a great a great interest in this and I asked them to make sure that we uh do due diligence and looking at what is coming before the city council in May we have a unique opportunity to really

really learn some things and to be very Innovative in this space in terms on how we communicate across the aisle so I sent the letter to both the proponents and the opponents and ask if they would meet while we are waiting for our city staff to help us to begin to understand what will be coming before us doing that interim if they would be willing to meet across the aisle I've had two persons who have desired to do that the first would be Mr Jane Chavis Mr James Chavis is offered to host this at Holton and Mr Tom Miller Mr Chavis is here also has called me today I left an email with my office to call me today and would like to speak about it as well I would urge us I know this is not a courtroom but there are some things that are good about a courtroom and in a courtroom you can ask really have a discourse about the very worst of life in life

situations and it be done in a calm manner where you have to explain what is going on in terms of the law and in terms of facts in a case to a jury of ordinary citizens who can understand there is no reason why we cannot make this where we have a a dialogue that is both informative and without any animosity or any Discord it happens every day in courtrooms all across America so I would urge you all if you did sign up if you have any interest in that that you would model that for us so that when you come back we can have a really good discussion about this amendment this very important uh maybe life-changing Amendment for years to come so please let's do this right let us take the time to dig deep understand where the opposition is

coming from or where the proponents are coming from so that we can be ready to move forward in a in a transparent manner that is easily understood for all who be would be involved and that will conclude my announcements for tonight everybody that was a long time wasn't it we are now I will now recognize our city manager for any priority items she may have good evening Madam mayor Mr Mayor Pro tem and members of the Durham city council I have one priority item for you this evening and it is agenda item number four which is fiscal year 2023-24 budget development guidelines page three of attachment two was modified from City Council budget requests will be considered to funding for City Council budget requests Advanced during the special budget work session on March 23 2023 will be considered thank you that is all I have

thank you city manager Paige I now turn to City attorney rayberg for any priority item C Mayhem good evening mayor O'Neill mayor Pro Tim Middleton and members of the city council the Durham city attorney's office has no priority items this evening thank you attorney raber I'm now turn to our city clerk clerk Schreiber thank you madam mayor the city clerk's office has no priority items this evening thank you so much the next order of business is the consent agenda the consent agenda consists of items that the council has previously considered in a work session all items on the consent agenda may be approved by a single vote of the council items may be removed from the council agenda by a council member or a member of the public and those items will be considered separately at the end of the meeting tonight I will proceed to read the title of each of our entire agenda as a matter of fact item number one Durham city county appearance

commission appointments item two February 2023 bid report item three industrial pre-treatment program performance audit February 2023 item four the fiscal year 2023-24 budget development guidelines item five the American Rescue plan act Opera project culture and arts invests to restart item six the city of Durham and keep Durham beautiful Inc cultural road map development of Grant budget ordinance item seven human relations commission 2022 annual report item eight housing appeals board annual report for fiscal year 2022 item nine the resolution and agreement for donation of surplus personal property to built to last Innovations lab Inc

item 10 2023 National Police Athletic League mentoring Grant project ordinance item 11. contract amendment number one st-286 petition streets 2021 number 12. the interlocal agreement with Durham County Soil and Water Conservation District for water quality improvement measures number 13 the Second Amendment to contract with Powerhouse recycling Inc for recycling services for electronic equipment item 19 the American Rescue plan act offer project I can never say this word except for mawanda entrepreneur entrepreneur something about my time won't do it accelerator plus Youth Science technology engineering and Mathematics stem our general business agenda public hearings item 15 the Consolidated annexation 901 903 Sharon

Road item 16 Consolidated annexation 1300 Oxford number 17 the Consolidated annexation 2142 East gear item 18 is the zoning map change 2201 West corn Wallace I will not we have no Port items I will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agency it's been ruled by Leonardo Williams seconded account by councilwoman Freeman Madam clerk please open the vote if you would please close the vote and Report out the motion passes 7-0 thank you so much the eyes have it and the consent agenda is approved unanimously

now we have a about 25 people online uh tonight and we also have probably it looks like about the same amount of people who are would like to speak to various items because of that and we're going to try as you know we try to balance time on each item for each speaker but I want you to please keep be mindful that tonight I may change it from three minutes to two because of the vocal people if you're on one of those long items so that we can make sure that we can hear from everyone I want that wants to be heard tonight and so now we will turn to our public hearings and our first public hearing is the item number 16 I'm sorry 15. the Consolidated annexation 901 and 903

78 acres and located at 901 and 903 Sharon Road this annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits the applicant intends to develop 63 units consisting of 34 town homes and 29 single-family residences

the current zoning is residential Rural and residential Suburban 20 Falls Jordan District B for the initial City Zoning of this site if annexation is approved the applicant proposes to change this designation to residential Suburban 10 Falls Jordan District B The Proposal is a general rezoning with no text or graphic development plan this request received a recommendation of denial from Planning Commission on December 13 2022 by a vote of 11 to 1. the properties are currently designated low medium density residential on the future land use map the proposed residential Suburban 10 zoning is consistent with the designated future land use if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the Future land use map designation of low medium density residential as a reminder three emotions are required for this application the first is to adopt an ordinance annexing the property and entering into a utility extension agreement the second is to

approve the zoning ordinance and the third is to approve the consistency statement thank you staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you Miss Roper you have heard the report from staff and I'm now going to declare this public hearing open first are there any other questions any questions for staff for from members of the council all right there seems to be none we will turn now to our speakers who have signed up to speak to us tonight and I believe that we have Miss Tina Motley Pearson on line along with Miss Mary's prestige I believe as well no Miss Mary Siege Miss Motley Pearson if you are there oh great

first all right I'm sorry he goes first attorney Baker how much time do you think you'll need uh very brief because we're just here to ask for a continuance Madam well you want to start off with 10 minutes we just need to ask for a continuance Madam mayor you're asking for a continue yes I may just to introduce myself Madam mayor mayor Pro tem members of council my name is Patrick biker I'm with Morningstar Law Group we're here tonight representing dries Holmes and we respectfully are asking for a continuance to your May 15 city council meeting we would like to add text only development plan to this proposal before the council tonight so we can add text commitments in order to make this a stronger application for the community and we were recently hired to work on this proposal and have not had time to move forward with that we've talked to the planning department and understand that the May 15 agenda would would work for the planning staff so be happy to answer any questions but respectfully ask continuance to Monday May 15 2023

what is the pleasure of the council any questions any objections any thumbs up know them thumbs up all right your motion to continue is hereby granted we'll see you in May May 15th for all those who have signed up to speak on this matter May 15th May 15th we now turn to item yes Miss Chavis let me ask one of the council persons to step to the side to see what it is he's asking about because I can't on number 50 you want to talk about the

talk about you mean the meeting you would like to make an announcement about the meeting at Holton okay uh if you could get that give that information about the meeting to our clerk I will announce it for you okay if you would give her that information thank you all those who signed up if you remember to come back on May 15th we now turn to item 16 which is the Consolidated annexation 13000 Oxford uh mayor Neal mayor Pro tem Middleton and honorable council members good evening Brooke Roper with the planning department happy to be here with you tonight a request for a utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and

25 acres and located at 1300 old Oxford Road this annexation petition is for contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits to allow for the development of two to three commercial office and storage buildings currently allowed within the unified development ordinance the properties are currently designated industrial on the future land use map the proposed industrial Light zoning is consistent with the designated use shown on the flum the future land use map if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the Future land use map designation of industrial as part of this annexation petition the applicant is not seeking a change in the underlying zoning District a direct translational zoning is one in which the existing County zoning is translated to identical a City Zoning District upon

the annexation of the property into City Limits a translational zoning does not include a development plan and any future development May proceed according to what the zoning would allow while the current use of the property is an abandoned manufacturing facility and recreational courts future development under the existing zoning of industrial Light allows for agricultural activities a variety of public and Civic uses such as schools places of worship and medical facilities commercial uses such as restaurants retail and indoor Recreation Office Space and light industrial facilities as a reminder three motions are required for this application the first is to adopt an ordinance annexing the property and entering into utility extension agreement the second is to approve the zoning ordinance and the third is to approve the consistency statement thank you staff and the applicant are available for questions thank you again miss Roper you have heard the report from staff and I'm now

going to declare this public hearing open I first saw there any questions for staff from members of the council all right we will now turn to our applicant I have to remember this process again it's been a moment and ask you to state your name and how long you think you'll need to begin with I think I'll need about three minutes to go through our presentation and then I do have a presentation um and would you state your name yeah sure my name is Katie Hamilton and I'm here on behalf of Gander development we're located at 2310 South Miami Boulevard Suite 235. all right we'll start you off you said you have a presentation as well as some comments yes Madam mayor okay we'll we'll start you out with 10 minutes okay we'll start there and work backwards well Madame you're in city council thank you for taking the time to consider our proposed annexation of 1300 old Oxford Road and I'd like to thank staff for their thorough report

a staff has done a pretty good job of going through this proposal from a regulatory perspective I'd just like to take a quick trip through the background of this project this site is northeast of the Bragg town community and in the Northwestern portion of the Oxford Hamlin community and we're in the Northeast quadrant of old Oxford Road and Hamlin Road and this property we purchased in August of last year when we purchased this property we learned that we are pretty much surrounded by recognized environmental conditions including a groundwater contamination issue to our East on the former Mitsubishi site following this understanding we spoke with our environmental consultant and learned that installing a well to gets water was not feasible because of that groundwater contamination we could pull that plume of groundwater contamination towards our site and our well following that conversation we spoke with City staff to learn what our

options were for getting clean drinking water because we're not a residential property we're a non-residential property our only option is to Annex into the city to connect to city water so we started our annexation process um and during this process we have had three formal meetings with the Oxford Hamlin Community Coalition the Bragg town community and then multiple conversations that were informal with their leadership through Zoom teams meetings phone calls and emails as a result of these meetings we've included a tax commitment in our site plan because we realize we don't have the zoning process to recognize the neighbor's concerns so one of the text commitments that we added to our site plan was to notify the neighbors via email through their Community email about any Rock blasting that would occur on site we've also agreed to marketing the southern portion of the site to local retailers and we do intend to use the southern portion of the site for a

retail use because we recognize that our site is a transitional site between the larger industrial properties to our north and east and this established communities to our South to go into the sorry my I don't know if my presentation is not seen But to go into the context we do have a lucky enough position of having water on all three sides of our site including the future Greenway to our East Old Oxford to our West and Hamilton our South we also are completely surrounded by sewer unfortunately we can only connect to one of those sewer lines which is in Old Oxford Road right in front of that Cardinal Storage that's to our West so we're going to need to extend that just just shortly to bring it to our side of the road so with that we understand that the infrastructure needed to be installed for this site is minimal and that this annexation will be a net positive for the city again we appreciate your consideration and our

proposed annexation and I'm here and available for questions or any concerns you'd like to share thank you thank you so much I would ask if our colleagues have if my colleagues have any questions right before I turn to our speakers it's their way we could get a copy of that presentation and I didn't I didn't have it sure I mean I'm happy to send it um sorry it was pulled up on this screen but I don't know how to make it share to the other screens but yeah just shoot an email okay I will try to see as we're taking out our speakers uh we will try to see if we can have that done are there hopefully they're working on it right now okay okay so hopefully we'll get that done we have several uh folks here in the audience to speak to us tonight you will be given uh three minutes a piece uh the first is

Helena Craig she's here the second will be Miss Natalie Pickett and the third would be Katie Hamilton I do not think we have any online speakers I'll just check without all right you have three minutes thank you good evening State council members and mayor Neal um I'm Natalie Pickett I live at 1111 Paul Road in Durham a very short distance from this property um since and sorry I'm here representing Oxford handling Community Coalition as well since this is not a rezoning case we have had fewer advocacy tools at our disposal than normal that's just part of the process specifically not having that leverage via Tech equipments and design plans design commitments those other

elements of development plans right so at this time since there's no development plan required since not a rezoning case we do not feel like we have enough firm information about the developers plans to be strong proponents or strong opponents however we chose to speak tonight as proponents since there isn't kind of a neutral position available but wanted to also express our engagement on this project as mentioned by the developer and our community perspective so please know that we are very much still in the middle of our advocacy efforts to ensure that the eventual development helps and does not harm the Oxford handling community members uh in the absence of that type of Leverage in the annexation process we have work to build rapport with the developer and are advocating our concerns and ideas directly with them so far we feel like they have been very open to neighbor input and feedback but we will continue to be diligent in the hopes of their site plans continue to reflect our ongoing engagement with them as an example of this we do recognize and appreciate the site plan Tech's commitment to notify Oxford Hamlin Community Coalition ahead of any blasting so that we can make sure all of

our neighbors are aware of it not just those within the very small required notification area as we have said before from this Podium we know that development is coming to the Oxford handling Community but we will continue to insist that that existing Oxford Hamlin residents be engaged with collaborative but collaboratively by developers like in this process thank you Q good evening all Helena Craig at 1017 old Oxford Road good to see you all really in the interest of keeping it short I just wanted to give some credit to this developer for going above and beyond in terms of actually making things that there's really not even a process to give us a proper but just as a good faith effort to notify neighbors a blasting given that we still want to raise a concern we have several neighbors that are impacted by Wells and a septic that could be damaged by the blasting so the good faith effort to them to reach out to us at an organization to notify our neighbors

should be appreciated and should be extended by other developers honestly that's all I wanted to add thank you so much for coming to speak with us this evening just wanted to make sure there was a married Miss Mary stage that was listed but we don't see her on the internet at this point in time just want to make sure that that is correct that is correct all right thank you and we have completed our three speakers all right I will ask if you would like to speak in Roberto at this time if you have any other things that you would like to say and we'll see if you're at the same time we'll see if your presentation is available no I appreciate the Oxford Hamlin Community coming out and I am in the process of emailing you the presentation now um it was pretty short I just you know showed the words from the vocs that were next door that I don't know how to

pronounce because landscape architect by trade and don't really know how to say those five letter words or five syllable words thank you so much thank you I will now declare this public hearing to be closed and the matter is now back before Council thank you good evening just wanted to thank developer in the neighborhood for working together I appreciated the emails I received from everyone and it was clear that there was a lot of collaboration so it always makes our job easier when that happens even when um as was clearly stated this was not a requirement so I appreciate both the neighbor advocacy and then also the the developer for being really intentional councilwoman Friedman thank you similarly I was in a co-signed council member cavaliero's comments and just say that I think that it's a pre it's very much appreciated for a developer to actually take into account

that there's no on-ramp for the residents in the community and I want to figure out if there is a way to make sure that that does happen because it is it is very vital to the process moving forward peacefully thank you thank you Leonardo Williams did you have something just real quick uh the residents how close are you all to the county line or not even residents how close is this project rather to the county line um so it kind of Wiggles around us okay so uh to the r West directly is the county line but then the welcome group property is actually to our East and that's been annexed so um it's it comes up East Carver Street and the property to our West is inside the city limits but then it like when you watch it it actually is coming up East Carver street with nothing on either side for a little while being annexed then our property to our West is

annexed and then my understanding is the welcome groups uh welcome Venture Park got in I believe it got annexed I know it got zoned so I'm assuming they annexed with it tar East so it's okay thank you um the reason why I ask is just around I heard one of the residents mention uh some of the residents from Wells and I just you know when it comes to blasting we're having those concerns in southeast Durham and I'll be visiting out there uh to just look at the proximity and uh uh thank you guys for working together I'll be doing the same over there yeah um so yeah we do have a tax commitment for that um and then you know the well issue is when we completely understand being as that's the entire reason we're here before you thank you thank you ma'am thank you so much Leonardo Williams and thank you all right colleagues there are three motions uh that we need to entertain this evening regarding uh 1300 or Oxford

uh the first motion on number one is to adopt an ordinance annexing one three zero zero Oxford into the city of Durham effective June 30th 2023 and to authorize the city manager to answer into a utility extension agreement with Gander Development LLC move this red it's been moved by mayor Pro tem second in by Javiera Caballero I believe or councilwoman Freeman right all those we have our clickers so uh Madam clerk if you would open the vote if you would please close the vote and Report out the Motions passed 7-0 the second motion for our consideration is to adopt an ordinance a minute amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the industrial Light IL Falls slash Jordan District B

F slash J dash B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as as industrial Light i l false slash Jordan District b f slash J B City jurisdiction been moved by mayor Pro tem and seconded by Leonardo Williams Madam clerk if you opened the vote if you were close to vote without the motion passes 7-0 the last motion for our consideration on this item is motion number three to adopt a consistency statement as required by ncgs 160d-605 move to adopt consistency second it's been moved by mayor Pro tem second and by councilwoman Freeman if you please open the vote foreign vote and Report out the third motion passes seven to zero

thank you we now turn our attention to item number 17. 29 acres and located at 2142 East Gear street this annexation petition is for contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits the intent of the annexation is for the development of a convenience store with the gas station the properties are currently designated commercial and low density residential on the future land use map the proposed commercial neighborhood and residential rural zoning is consistent with the

designated use shown on the future land use map if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the Future land use map designation of commercial and low density residential as part of this annexation petition the applicant is not seeking a change in the underlying zoning District a direct translational zoning is one in which the existing County zoning is translated to The Identical City Zoning District upon the annexation of the property into the city limits a translational zoning does not include a development plan and any future development May proceed according to what the zoning would allow while the current use of the property is a vacant commercial residence future development under the existing zoning of commercial neighborhood and residential rural allows for retail sales and services in public and Civic uses as a reminder three motions are required for this application the first is to adopt an ordinance annexing the property and entering into a utility extension agreement the ex the second is to

approve the zoning ordinance and the third is to approve the consistency statement thank you staff and the applicant are available for questions thank you Miss Robert you have heard the report from staff and I'm now going to declare this public hearing open first are there any questions for our staff from members of the council thing none we will now go to our applicant and we have one proponent to speak as well Mr Tim Sievers and Mr Mike Andrews Mr Sievers how much time do you need tonight sir that's two to three minutes mayor all right we'll start you with five okay good evening mayor Neal mayor Pro tem Middleton council members my name is Tim sivers with Community previously known as Horvath Associates with me this evening is Courtney McQueen also with Community as well as the owner and developer thank you staff for that project presentation before you this

68 Acres that is adjacent to recently approved annexations our site plans been in the review process for a few months now includes both on-site and off-site improvements those on-site improvements include approximately a 3 000 square foot convenience store with fuel sales in addition an area for a second use like a small restaurant isn't provided for and accounted for with our stormwater control measure tree coverage is provided at the back of the site the existing cell tower is not being modified as well as the existing pond on site is not being modified the off-site road improvements include a 10-foot shared multi-use path a Northbound left turn lane on Gear street at the intersection with East Club as well as multiple sidewalk connections the access point on East gear contains a concrete median which will restrict access to a write-in right out access only to provide better traffic movement

this convenience store will be within walking distance of the recently approved apartment units directly to the South as well as a residential development to the east that's currently under construction tonight I ask you to vote in favor of this project to allow the use of this commercial Zone with the annexation the landowner and developer as well as my team is here for any questions thank you for your time thank you I have two additional cards one Mr Mike Andrews who is speaking as a proponent and Mr Gorham g-u-r-r-a-m are your your proponent as well sir thank you I do not have any other cars or any additional speakers would that be correct online that is correct Madame mayor thank you all right Mr Andrews you have three minutes followed by Mr Gorham who would have three minutes as well good evening mayor O'Neill and mayor Pro

tem Middleton and city council before I make any comments I do want to stand here and express my condolences to you and the family of Mr Alor and uh to the other city employees that work with him daily uh I greatly understand that loss and I also want to congratulate all those that will recognize tonight in the ceremonial items before the meeting started I'm here as a proponent for Mr Gorham and the applicant I've known him for over 25 years he's a hard-working individual in the area that he is expressing to have this construction there is no walkable currently area for residents to come and provide services for uh candy soda popcorn gasoline and all the development that has gone on in that area I think would be a great benefit

for that intersection and for the future development what I understand is uh these proposed um school I think that'll be directly across from this intersection so I greatly would appreciate your consideration for this applicant thank you good night thank you so much we now turn to Mr Gara if you would like to speak sir you have three minutes and I do believe we have Miss Andrews having her hand raised if she wants to speak to this issue she will be next as the proponent or opponent I believe thank you you may proceed sir good evening Madam mayor and the council members my name is srinivas guram and I'm here with my family today and I'm a small business owner and run to convenience stores with gas in Durham where we have been doing business over 20 years my wife and I immigrated to the US from India in 1998. with the person to run

our own business our kids were born and raised here in Durham and we are proud to be part of this community for so long or business business has impacted not only our lives but our employees and customers please try to make our community a better place through our business we want to expand our business and are planning to build a convenience store with gas in 2142 East Gear street we will continue to create employment within the Durham community through this project with this annexation approval we will be able to achieve this thank you for your time thank you sir I believe that will conclude our in-person speakers but we did see a hand raised to see if Miss Andrews wanted to speak on this matter Miss Pam Andrews ma'am can you all hear me yes we can ma'am are you speaking as a proponent or an opponent I am a proponent tonight I know that's hard to believe but I am all

right I just want to call in tonight I I've been at a service for my pastor that married me and Mike and built my home and I couldn't not show up for his service tonight so um but I had promised Sam and Sheree I would be there tonight for them as well and I just wanted to call in and say what amazing Community people they have been for the Oak Grove Community they open not one store but then a second store and the people in that Community look at them not just as a gas station but as friends and many people go there and treat them as family they have been a part of our lives for about 25 years we've watched their family grow up but I want to say tonight that with all the development in that area where I grew up off Junction Road there is definitely a need to have extra supplies available you've got a school across the street apartments and everybody needs a last minute run in grab a banana grab an apple and salmon tree try provide healthy snacks as well as just the typical junk food so again I asked you

to support this family tonight they are very humble family and are very positive for our community I thank you all so much have a great evening thank you so much I believe that would conclude all of our speakers tonight on this action on this matter and I will now declare the public hearing to be closed and the matter is back before Council colleagues we have three motions that we need to consider for this matter motion number one will be to adopt an ordinance Annex in 2142 East Gear street into the city of Durham effective June 30th 2023 and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with Akai Aki Investment Group LLC moved is read removed right that would has been moved by mayor Pro tem the second and by councilwoman Jose Harmon if you would open the vote Madam Clerk

if you were close to vote and Report out please the first motion passes 7-0 we now turn our attention to motion number two which is to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the commercial neighborhood CN and residential rural RR fall slash Jordan District b f slash J B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as commercial neighborhood CN and residential rule are our false slash Jordan District b f Dash slash J dash B City jurisdiction second didn't move by councilman Jose Harmon uh seconded by mayor Pro tem Madam clerk if you open a vote if you would please close the vote and Report out the second motion passes 7-0 the last motion before our consideration on this item is motion number three to adopt a consistency statement as

required by ncgs160d-605. to moved second it's been moved by councilwoman Johnson seconded by mayor Pro Tim Madam clerk interview open the vote thank you and if you please close the vote and Report out the potion passes 7-0 thank you we now turn our attention to item number 18 I believe on our agenda also a public hearing and while those parties are coming forth I would like to make an announcement to two uh Mr Johnson and Miss Lisa l-e-i-s-a-b-u-t-l-e-r the items that you are signed up for are not agenda items on tonight you would have an opportunity to come back on Thursday at one o'clock

to sign up for our citizens comments to address these items I just didn't want you to stay in Chambers all night waiting but those items are not on our formal adopted agenda and I would ask that you come back if you so like on Thursday at one o'clock at our work session and sign up as a Citizens matter and we'll be sure and hear your words at that time thank you so much yeah I'm just sending an item number we're calling now item number 18 which is a zoning map change 2201 West corn Wallace and we will now hear from Miss Roper Neil mayor proton Middleton and

024 zoning is inconsistent with the designated future land use if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the Future land use map to medium-high density residential and retain the current Recreation and open space designation this case received a recommendation of

denial from the Planning Commission by a vote of zero to nine um excuse me nine to zero at the November 15 2022 meeting as a reminder two motions are required for this application this first motion is to approve the zoning ordinance the second motion is to approve the consistency statement thank you stop and the applicant are available for questions thank you Miss Roper you have now heard the report from staff and I'm now going to declare this public hearing open first are there any questions for staff from my colleagues we will now turn to our applicant and ask if you would state your name we have um uh a lot of people online uh to speak tonight as well and just to prepare we have about 10 or 15 people here as well so we will take persons who are

in the audience after the applicant as I said earlier we try to keep the time equal on both sides so we may have two minutes of Peace for those we'll start the applicant off of 10 minutes at this point in time and then we will go from there good evening we do have a presentation we'd like to present and we're trying to figure out how to set that up while they're trying to do that I could go ahead and introduce myself and introduce the individuals that are with me that's somebody else's that's the previous dude why was the old one

thank you while they're getting ready Mr finner I receive your card but I would ask you also to return on Thursday to speak at one o'clock at our work session thank you Mr Finley if you would if you could come back on Thursday to speak doing citizens matters yeah thank you I apologize about this I thought we could set it up here I can make introductions if that's okay I'm Ernie Brown I'm the application I'm the applicant I'm sorry uh that's come before you I am here I'm actually a local guy and hope this is the first of

many opportunities I get to present in front of you to expand the housing choices that we need in this community uh I have with me Tim Somerville who's with Steward engineering and Jeremy Porter who is with Ramey Camp is the traffic engineer the first slide is actually we what we decided to do is like to look at what the concerns that we heard at the from my conversations that I've had with the community to also the concerns that we heard at the Planning Commission and then try to figure out how we can answer those concerns to let them know like you know that we are listening to them and how to plan them out the first slide that I would need to probably turn that over to Jeremy Porter to talk about traffic and what we're planning on doing to mitigate the issues with our traffic on that road okay

Madam mayor mayor Pro tem council members good evening thank you for your time my name is Jeremy Potter I'm with Raymond Camp Associates I'm their director of North Carolina and I bring over 20 years of traffic engineering and transportation engineering experience with me as I already mentioned earlier the project team heard the concerns in regards to traffic with this project back in the fall and what we wanted to do this evening was to come out and address those concerns directly unfortunately we don't have the slide right here but essentially we coordinated and collaborated with ncdot in the district office on a traffic impact analysis oh here we go it's up on the screen now so what we did was conduct a traffic impact analysis for this site coordinated with ncdot in the district office for approval what the analysis indicated and recommended and the design includes is a left turn lane as you see that begins at the site driveway and

extends back to The Interchange at Cornwallis Road the analysis as we've got indicated up here indicated we would need to include enough storage to hold two of those left-turning vehicles to turn left into the site and what this design indicates is the left turn lane would actually begin at the driveway extend all the way back to the interchange which will provide for at least three if not maybe a little bit more storage for vehicles so what that does is it alleviates the concern for left turning Vehicles turning off of Cornwallis into the site that concern of cueing and blocking traffic on Cornwallis or coming from 15501 to turn right onto Cornwallis it was a concern of maybe traffic being blocked and what this left turn lane would do and what the analysis shows is it would alleviate that blockage and the storage would have enough to hold those Vehicles so that

anybody coming off of 15 501 and turning right or anyone traveling on Cornwallis past 15 501 and past the site would not be blocked by any of those left turning Vehicles so that's what we're wanting to at least help exemplify this evening because we understood that was a concern at the at the November November meeting um on the next slide as kind of a check of existing traffic we had a project team member go out to the site and what you're looking at here are photos taken a couple of weeks ago as you see March 16th and March 17th looking to the left and to the right from the proposed site so that's looking Westbound and eastbound on Cornwallis to show you kind of the the light traffic that's expected during the am and P and peak hours as you can see it was a 510 520 540 and other times during the morning hours as you can see there was very little traffic out there so that was kind of our check to kind of see what the analysis was showing versus

existing traffic with the analysis showing light traffic and this was showing that as well but with that I will turn the presentation back over to Ernie the next slide please some of the other concerns that they had was dealing with a lot of our life safety vehicles and with the safety of with the school buses and the picture that you see on the left-hand side was from the presentation that was done at the Planning Commission and so I took it to heart and I actually called the fire chief at the local station and asked them do you guys have the capacity to take on this additional housing and as as a comment you can see right there I can kind of read it a little bit covering up is basically we're well equipped we had the additional units most of the concern for when they're adding housing isn't from Enfield but rather from when neighborhoods or Annex outside and they have to more of a sprawl the next slide is our discussion on the impact of schools seventy percent of these units will be

either smaller Studios and one bedrooms and therefore we are not really seeing a very much of a significant increase in schools but we also don't believe that there's going to be any additional school bus runs that will be needed any digital school bus runs from what you see here the next slide will probably I'll turn this over to Tim to have more of a better discussion about the impacts to stormwater thank you and good evening council members I just want to point one thing out on there the the number on the development plan of proposed one and two bedroom Studios is actually 65 not 70. this was the older presentation we couldn't get uploaded but if you could go to the next slide um so one of the concerns we heard at the Planning Commission meeting was related to parking we will be providing up to 134 parking spaces for the 90 proposed units that equates to about one and a half spaces per unit the development is

also going to encourage the use of bicycles by providing on-site bike storage on-site repairs facilities and access to e-bikes if you go to the next slide another concern we had heard was about flooding on neighboring properties this site along with several of the adjacent sites are within a mapped floodplain as you can see on your screen here we are proposing no development within this existing floodplain and this floodplain is a is part of an approximate 3000 acre drainage area and this site is three acres that represents about one tenth of one percent of that entire drainage area the site is also located at the bottom of the drainage area and therefore any Peak flow that is generated from the site will be gone through this flood plain before the peak flow from the 3000 acre reaches the reaches the flood plain and I can go into that more if you have questions on that later and we will not be increasing the peak 100 Year Storm

from the site um if you go to the next slide I just wanted to point out that this request is less intense than what could be built out there now we can get more units at a higher density with less impact to the environment if you go to the next slide so I can not ecological concerns that were brought up from an ecological standpoint this development will be required to capture all storm water as reasonably practical and treat for the removal of total suspended solids a majority of the site will remain as it currently is we're only disturbing about 28 percent of the overall site stream buffers flood plain and will be preserved to encourage natural filtration to the already treated storm water next slide please and I just wanted to speak there we're proposing to remain buffers around the site as you can see here we have 80 foot trees for a 49-foot building next slide

there's a concern previously about the buffer in this picture is actually taken on our property looking to the left and all those trees you see in the picture on the left will be remained in the next slide and there is about 200 feet of existing trees that will remain between the property and the adjacent house as someone expressed concern at the Planning Commission meeting about that um and one more and this is shown on the future land use map though because this is an old side sorry the future Place type map has Apartments and Townhomes for the site um so it's providing what Durham's looking for for different housing types and different options if that'll give back to her next slide please this is our final slide I what I thought I would focus on here is like what are our options if somebody wanted to live

in this area and they worked at either downtown Durham or Duke uh what I've showed here is what the one mile radius average home price had sold in that area was 683 613 which based on today's mortgage rates that's about forty six hundred dollars a month and that does not include taxes and insurance one mile radius of what's pending is 584 665 which works out to just under four thousand dollars a month not including taxes and insurance the neighborhood that's directly next to me one of the homes actually just sold about a month ago for 833 000 which was a three it was a 57 increase in three years meaning that somebody were to try to buy a home in Canterbury their mortgage not including taxes and insurance would be fifty six hundred dollars I've had several conversations with Karen Lotto when she was in the position of uh Durham affordable housing plan and we spoke about not just this project

but about the five projects that I'm currently working on in y'all's community and we discussed multiple different kinds of options of housing multiple different kinds of housing between cottages co-housing and whatnot we brought this one up because it is my first opportunity to be in front of you guys she mentioned to me that she doesn't know how you can incorporate affordable units in this small of a project and and said that she would say for offering cash would be acceptable we've worked through and we are offering five units at a 60 Ami and then after doing some more digging into it we're also looking to make a cash contribution towards the affordable housing fund of a hundred thousand dollars thank you right all right are there any questions for our applicants at this time

all right everybody we are close to the nine o'clock hour when we have to take a break so I would like to go ahead and take that break now so that when we come back we will Begin Again with all of our public speakers we're going to take about 10 minutes to give them a break and then we'll come back and we will go back to our citizens who are in the audience waiting to speak to us and you will also have an opportunity for rebuttal I think you use almost 12 minutes not quite 12 minutes of time so all right we'll see y'all back in 10 minutes

org and through their social media everyone in Durham should be able to find a home they can afford that's why

com We the People Nosotros de Gente We the People hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal and shall be afforded the inalienable right to fair housing the city of Durham and HUD are committed to ensuring that everyone is treated equitably when searching for a place to call home [Music]

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okay [Applause] just do what she's saying all right it is now the 903 hour I do

believe that we have a quorum will will hope that our other two council members and the attorney would come back but we're going to try to go ahead and get started we have uh a number of people who are in the audience tonight and we are now turning our attention back to item 18 which is a zoning map change at 2201 West Cornwallis we're going to begin with persons who are in Chambers with us tonight uh to speak with us about this matter and then we will turn to our public speakers on the internet so I'm going to call five names if you will come and I would ask

we have nine cards I believe for an audience but we have about 20 on online so I am going to ask you if you could please uh limit your comments to two minutes a piece so that we can make sure that everybody is heard I think our applicants used about 12 minutes so they would then get the balance we will balance it out with whatever time that they need to address any rebuttal so we're going to start with uh and please now I'm known to kill a name okay so just bear with us on this I'm going to start with five five names Brent strong s-t-r-a-w-n Mr Allen dippy standing d-a-n-e-e-n Warner Paloma Linton and Carisa Edwards and please forgive me if I did

not pronounce your name right all right Mr strong if you just take your name and then you may have your three minutes of time I'm gonna give my time going right there I guess if I can see yeah they'll put it they'll give it great thank you good evening my name is Brent strong I live at 1234 birch bark in Canterbury subdivision which directly butts the property under consideration I teach at Duke where I'm a professor in the Divinity School and also the law school thank you for your attentiveness to this proposal and for listening to our concerns about it back in November the Durham Planning Commission recognized that those of us directly affected by this development had legitimate worries our concerns relate as we've already heard tonight especially to Traffic Safety pedestrian bicycle and vehicular including school bus routes and the proximity of Durham fire station 11. the concerns also relate to environmental impact especially on the Sandy Creek ecosystem and the flooding issues well known in the protected Wetlands behind Canterbury and even more so in the

Colony Park neighborhood Downstream my own property sits on the flood plain it's one of the circled properties that the developer just showed I've experienced firsthand the negative effects of oversaturated area with water that makes it very easy for trees to fall over like the one that hit my house in September my family moved to Durham from Gwinnett County Georgia home to one million residents part of metro Atlanta we moved in 2019. there we repeatedly witnessed Professor would you would you suspend for just a moment staff would somebody get that door please close the uh door thank you sorry sir there we repeatedly witnessed new housing developments built in our area with no attention to much needed infrastructure support already crowded schools Services of various sorts and roads were not renovated fixed or expanded just choked and strained Durham is far from Gwinnett thankfully but the infrastructural concerns recognized by the Planning Commission warrant serious consideration and yet since they're unanimously negative vote

in November the developer has not reached out to our HOA once we've heard no word of revision or redress of the legitimate issues that have been raised by our neighborhood and others until tonight which the presentation strikes me as a kind of a doubling down and somewhat confusing attempt to justify a plan that was already considered carefully and rejected in November by way of contrast the Canterbury subdivision went through no less than three different iterations each time thoughtfully improved in direct response to the concerns raised by affected neighbors I'm grateful for their work and the improved Community I live in as a result I'm delighted to live in a desirable place like Durham development will and must happen in a great City like ours but let it proceed carefully and wisely and with the best interests of the land and present and future citizens in mind I respectfully ask that you reject this proposal as inappropriate in its current form thank you thank you Mr strong

Mr dippy if you just state your name and you will have your three minutes sir good evening Madam mayor members of city council my name is Alan dippy I'm a resident of 2514 Tryon Road in Durham I was also The Colony Park neighborhood I wanted to add my perspective to this conversation as a longtime bike commuter to Duke University uh who at one time peddled daily on Cornwallis Road including in front of the frontage of this property uh I say one time because several years ago I changed my route to a much longer more circuitous route using Ridge Road Pickett Road and others uh it's a much longer ride but it kept me off of Cornwallis Road all together um and that's a concern I've heard from other Riders and and they've made similar decisions when we're considering a development that's attempting to work around a dearth of adequate required vehicle parking by providing uh e-bike and

scooter availability I think we have to look closely at the roadway in terms of safety for all users while I'm generally a huge fan of of anything that gets more folks on on bicycles in our city huge fan uh I I think that this attempt to paint Cornwallis Road is some sort of bike and scooter friendly facility is just flat out inaccurate in my experience it has a number of factors working against it the eastbound lanes are intermittent not congruous so cyclists can be forced from four feet of space into a a narrow bike lane sometimes abruptly it's arguably even more precarious than the opposite the westbound side of Cornwallis which has no bike Lanes at all uh anyone who's driven East in the morning or west in the afternoon on this stretcher Road knows that the sun glare is blinding making it very difficult to see cyclists during Peak Peak commuting hours and additionally Cornwallis Road heads

downhill from both directions as it approaches 15 501 at that interchange which means that assuming the light is green you've got cyclists going at a higher rate of speed and the cars many of which are taking a right turn onto Highway on-ramps are also going faster in all my commutes on this route I've I've managed to avoid any accidents but the the closest calls I've had and the ones that keep me off that road now were being cut off by by drivers turning onto those ramps one of which is very close to the this proposed development's egress so uh matamir City Council Members I hope you'll agree that this proposal is simply too large for this sliver of space and no Fleet of e-bikes or bike or strollers scooters excuse me is going to change that I thank you for listening foreign [Applause]

Warner for your three minutes if we would just state your name this morning uh yes my my name is Denise Warner I live at 202 may we drive in Canterbury and I I come to you as an opponent of this project and I'm speaking as a grandmother but also as a Hospice chaplain where I see far too many accidents because of things that happen with cars on roads that are insufficient but I want to tell you a story I came here right before the pandemic to be close to my son and his family and my two grandkids who at the time were six and eight they were so excited about coming to my area where I was going to be living because they live on the other side of Durham and they said oh my gosh we're going to be able to come here ride our bikes on Cornwallis get up to Duke Forest go to different city parks and then I moved in and I realized how absolutely dangerous Cornwallis Road is I do not know where the applicant got

those pictures at eight and three and five that is not the way it is that is not the way it is whatsoever it's uh it's an absolute mess because of what my former colleague said there is no shoulders it's a narrow road it's a double yellow line road at 35 miles an hour and people don't do that just this weekend when I was going 35 guess what two people passed me on a double yellow line to get around me because I was going 35 miles an hour it's also a yields when you come off that road from 15 501 they don't yield they come around to get and turn right on Cornwallis they don't stop and if there is a stacking Lane there they're going to bump right into all those cars because it goes right into that interchange at the at the same time what you're doing on this road is not being able to see especially in the morning like my colleague said

the sun blindness is amazing you're coming you're coming down the hill going east into town and the blindness is so bad you cannot you would never be able to see any cars coming out of that driveway where it is for this proposed project I ask you to please consider the dangerous situation we have I do not need to see any more people in hospice because of accidents that happen on ill-equip Road thank you for listening foreign if you will state your name please yes good evening mayor members of the city of Duran Council my name is Paloma Littleton and I live in 12 14 Birch Back Road in Canterbury and I come here to respectfully opposed to the proposed resonating base of safety traffic concerns so one of the major concerns is the proximity to the proposed entrance to the 15 501 and the required of this

unsafe left turn there is just 60 feet from this exit from the exit of the 15 501 to the entrance of the community there is the potential of more than 600 new trips and this is going to cause a backup into the 15 501 and congestion in Cornwallis Road in the current infrastructure at this intersection intersection is inadequate to handle the proposed increased demand as of the Planning Commission heated the North Carolina Department of Transportation had not approved any specific plan for this intersection apparently as we heard today this is the first time that we hear that because the Builder has not been in contact with our community now they are proposing to build a 3-4 car Spillway and intersection still I don't see how within 60 60 feet cars that are exiting the 15501 can safely split into two

2 miles away and there are no safe pedestrian Pathways we heard about electric bikes scooters as a way of transportation there are no bicycle Lines no soldiers and I want to remind that Cornwallis is designated by the city of Durham as an

orange Road this Orange Road is just for experienced Riders is not for commuters and we don't want scooters in the highways so this intersection also another concern is the parking space is not appropriate is not adequate foreign for 90 units the developer is considered one car per unit this is not realistic we hear about the school buses we heard about the Durham fire station unit is a main exit Road for this fire station we don't want congestion in the main road of emergency services for this I respectfully urge you to consider this potential narrative impact on traffic safety and on the surrounding Community thank you so much thank you you see it whoops [Applause] hi good evening my name is Carissa Edwards I live at four Creekview Lane

which is the townhouse community directly south of the site we are a community of 40 year old wooden town homes that I guarantee are not even at the 30 percent value that the developer quoted earlier is the average home price we're rotting it's cute I also want to implore you tonight to consider the difference between Community sacrifice versus something being done at Community expense communities neighborhoods are built on sacrifice it's a cup of sugar it's a pair of earplugs because there's a five-year-old who lives upstairs it's dealing with construction noise and general more traffic in Durham as we grow and get bigger but there's also a difference between that and being at community's expense for this particular Builder he's proposing up until night tonight nor affordable housing and no contribution I understand he said differently tonight I also understand that commitment is not in writing uh also this developer has presented the minimum amount and not a percentage more

for tree preservation or for open space requirements however he's quite uh generous with his impervious surface as he has proposed 28 impervious surface which is above the amount recommended by North Carolina the detail I'd like to include to you given that my background is in construction as a previous assistant project manager on a 54 million dollar apartment complex is that that 24 percent is done or is used with the idea that the surrounding percentages are porous surfaces on this particular lot since the other surfaces are Wetland and floodplain and stream buffer they are not porous so when we consider the combination of the developers impervious surface plus the already impaired surfaces that's not a technical term we're looking at a number that's closer to the 80 percentile range along those lines this lot directly drains down into the Sandy Creek Park

the emphasis there and the relevance there being that in 2006 Durham city council approved and institutionalized multiple million dollar project to stabilize the Sandy Creek Watershed just to sustain at the existing conditions in 2014 after a nine-year review period those efforts were deemed to be successful but that project that taxpayers contributed multiple Millions dollars towards is now directly Downstream of a development that is going to produce an incredibly impaired surface I'd also like to bring to the council's attention some consistent inconsistencies even within the developers current plans there's an inconsistency towards the maximum Building height on page one of exhibit D 60 feet maximum Building height page three of exhibit D 48 feet maximum height the lot is Seven

Acres yet even tonight the developer and his team gave you a percentage that he admitted was based off a three percent or excuse me a three acre lot again I repeat the lot is seven I appreciate the developers creativity from a personal standpoint however thank you [Applause] I will now call the last four names for persons who are present with us in Chambers this evening Mr Lewis Carson Mr Rich Foley Leslie lover and Evan rossoff and please forgive me if I didn't pronounce it I think we have been given three minutes is that right oh okay yes sir if you just say today thank

you good evening my name is Louis Carson my address is 2510 linear place I would like to ask for the city council's help by voting against this proposal the Planning Commission and their November hearing voted unanimously against this proposal I asked City Council Members to do the same please the size of this building is too big I ask for your help to deny this project until it's reduced in size size reduction will be the best way to address storm water runoff problems and traffic safety issues I'm not against development here however there are problems with this development it uses Sand Filtration for storm water control instead of a retention Pond which slows water flow and improves the quality of the water I ask for a retention Pond out of the flood plain that's the same type as the one in the next door neighborhood there are serious traffic safety issues with the current proposal the entrance to the development is very close to the

2 miles away there's no overflow parking on Cornwallis Road finally I would note that the Traffic Engineers photos shown earlier tonight were all taken during spring break at both Duke and UNC these problems are exacerbated by a size of 90 units and four stories it seems to me a reasonable size would be half that the only mechanism to reduce size is to ask for denial by the city council thank you for your consideration on this finally I would like to express my sincere thanks to the mayor and to the council members for their service to our

great City [Applause] state your name sir my name is Rich Foley I live at 2522 Lanier place in the Welcome Circle neighborhood I will limit my comments to the issue of pedestrian and bicycle safety every year I run a marathon every year I bike a century that's 100 miles in a day I train for these events by always running right from my very own front door which means that the 100 miles of a year the hundreds of miles that I run in a year the thousands of miles which I put on my bike every daily workout puts me on exactly this section of Cornwallis Road twice since it's the only way in or out of my neighborhood on the one hand our neighborhood seems to be ideally situated only a half mile on Cornwallis gets you to The JCC and to an access point for the albula trail which is an absolute Gem of our community the trail itself provides further access to Duke Gardens and to Duke West Campus

on the other hand that half mile on Cornwallis takes us across the access point of this proposed development which is then immediately followed by Crossing two sets of on off ramps for 15 501 where there isn't so much as a single crosswalk as things currently stand the situation is at the very limit of what any sane pedestrian would venture the level of additional traffic that comes with this particular proposal but more importantly the contorted Logistics of how this new trafficker would get in or out of the development so close to those 15 501 ramps this would effectively sever the connection from pedestrians and cyclists between our neighborhood and so much of what it is that makes living there a joy by profession I'm an actuary as such I'm not prone to exaggeration or hyperbole when I I look at my shoes a lot so when I say that this intersection is dangerous and this specific proposal for development is potentially life-threatening I hope you will take these concerns seriously particularly

given my unusual experience in cycling and running this proposal as it stands threatens to cut off our community entirely of the pedestrians and cyclists aren't Community entirely where no sane person would venture out under any circumstances without first turning yet another car key in yet another car ignition and I urge you to vote against it thank you very much thank you Mr Foley Miss lover you just State your full name for me please honor Leslie Ann laufer either 2619 West Cornwallis Road I've been resident there since 1978 which is a long time ago um hard to believe um I only have two I had more comments but I only have two now because everything has been so well addressed with regard to the traffic if this goes through I would note that since November uh what's in there is now the note that the ncdot has recognized that there would be a problem a potential problem with the left-hand turn lane and a

three-car storage at that site it is also stating that at some point the ncdot May trigger at although at what point whether it's after a certain number of casualties whether it's after something else will trigger a right hand only Ingress in egress the developer has committed texturally only to pay for the left-hand turn rain lanes and any accoutrements there too acquisition for the left-hand turn lane or the extra bicycle lane fronting just this because there's nothing no bike Lanes to connect to no sidewalks to connect to the the developer has not committed to paying for any improvements to the road that might be necessitated by turning this into a right hand only Ingress in egress which means traffic will be funneled up up Cornwallis Road or down Cornwallis Road into already existing neighborhoods further endangering our kids walking in the neighborhoods playing in the neighborhoods as well as pedestrian and cyclists funneling traffic into other neighborhoods what can help

I don't want it he hasn't addressed whether he will pay and he should be there should be a textural commitment to pay for any con any further Road improvements including but not limited to roundabouts both east and west of The Interchange and land acquisition there too in order to mitigate if this project should go forward and I am an appointment of the project um to mitigate if it's not in text it's not a commitment regarding finally and regarding affordable housing the PDR special district has specific words that talk about Innovative design I don't see why we can't make we can't reserve our PDR Special Districts for affordable housing and why is this not even Even If This Were affordable what's not it's basically a substandard affordable Innovative um housing it's warehousing residents into these Anonymous generic units with no outside access it's not green no

commitment to be green or energy efficient as far as I can see there are no Community or social spaces and as I understand I'm not even sure there's a basketball court planned or a playground the front units face 15501 with all of the noise and pollution and it is noisy at 11 o'clock at night walking through that neighborhood I can hear the traffic so and I'm I'm on the other side of welcome maybe a half a mile up um more like an extended stay again I would just say this is the wrong size and scale for the site as far as affordable housing goes it falls far short of it to create decent affordable multi-family spaces on a human scale thank you I am Mr Evan rossoff is he still with us tonight e-v-a-n-r-o-s-o-f-f on 2619 West Coal Wallace

all right we will now move to our speakers on the internet we have several of those tonight as well we will start with Mr Robert Allen Mr Allen and we will follow Mr Allen with Miss Pamela Trent Mr Robert Allen oh okay thank you Mr Allen we have Miss Pamela Trent listed as a resource person on the internet there is no Pamela Trent in the cube thank you Miss Sarah Schultz s-c-h-u-l-z there's no Sarah Schultz Ilana Miller she has not indicated what side she

would be speaking for e y l a n a Miller Miss Miller is no longer in the queue Mr Arthur Zuko z-u-c-o Mr Zuko is here Mr Zuko is registered as an opponent Mr Zuko can't oh there you are Mrs Zuko you would have three minutes great thank you uh my name is Arthur Zuko I live at 115 Sunburst Drive in the neighborhood after a 9-0 Planning Commission denial the applicants changes today are noted however they cannot make more land nor improve an impaired flood plain only worsen it a development has to make sense land and access Law Court Wallace must be able to support the plan development size of 90 units and 130 plus parking

spaces this development does not meet that criteria the lot must be able to support the stormwater needs and not pose flood risk in this development does not meet the criteria the development must not pose unnecessary bikers on our roads and emergency responders through congestion despite a 20-minute picture assessment on spring break on a Friday morning after a 9-0 Planning Commission vote against the development where we here we are council members I respectfully ask you to vote against this submission this development does not make sense it does not meet the criteria of making sense please vote against thank you thank you Mr Zuko I'll now turn our

attention to Miss Janice Gilchrist g-i-l-c-h-r-i-s-t Madam mayor there is no Janice Gilchrist in the cube Brandon Warner w-a-r-n-e-r Warner is not in the queue Sean Curtis c-u-r-t-i-s there's a Sarah Curtis but no Sean it's the same I'm sorry no Sean cars s-h-a-w-n okay Thomas Billington b-i-l-l-i-n-g-t-o-n yes Mr billington's in the queue Mr Billington you would have three minutes sir

Mr Thomas Billington can you hear me sir yes start all right and we can hear you as well Mr Billington you may proceed I will thank you so much for your time tonight um I live at 1233 Birch Park Road which is directly adjacent to the proposal on their discussion uh some of my biggest concerns are Traffic Safety compatibility and flooding when it comes to Traffic Safety the only access point to get in and out of this development would be very tight and hazardous to the residents living there and additionally Cornwallis is very unsafe as mentioned plenty of times time for bikeless um today so despite the bikeability proximity to various amenities almost certainly these amenities will need to be reached by a private vehicle which is inducing more automobile traffic and higher vehicle miles traveled which is increases the auto dependency contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and worsening terms traffic violence problems and as for compatibility I

favor Redevelopment and more affordable housing but Redevelopment compatible in scale and design not a massive structure containing more than 100 000 square feet a wall 60 feet high 60 feet wide and 360 feet long step back only 21 feet from you know our property line from one of our neighbor's houses it's in our backyards with no mature tree buffer looming over our community and lastly the potential flooding which is a new development of 90 units and impervious services for parking would cause additional runoff issues for Downstream residents already experiencing flooding this will add more water volume to the flooded area in conclusion I believe an apartment building of this size is not an ideal use on this specific parcel too much density in one place this would be a good location for Durham to put a small park or the developer to significantly scale back on the number of units and lower the building height and these are concerns shared and extracted from what the planning commissioner said thank you so much for your time thank you Mr Billington Miss windy EDS edds

Madam mirror there's no Wendy ads in the queue Susan Baker Susan Baker was in the queue I don't see her any longer no longer there Elizabeth dondero d-o-n-d-e-r-o [Music] Madam mayor there's no Elizabeth dondero Larry Reed r-e-d yes Mr Reed if you could hear me if you can hear me sir if you would state your name and you would have your three minutes sir good evening my name is Larry Reed I live at 2407 Tryon Road in Colony Park we sent a series of photos to you all at the end of the week that shows the multiple flooding events that we have

experienced already in our community my next door neighbor Chambers has had flood damage Carson Dewitt's the photos show the floods water coming right up to the back door of their house we have had to move our cars higher up on welcome to avoid the flood waters coming into our driveway and uh Lucy Lincoln who just recently passed away her daughter has been complaining for years because she lives immediately adjacent to our community lot we send photos showing that Tanglewood is flooded over cutting off the access from Tryon Road to Tanglewood to welcome not only that our community lot which has been critical to our community our community built a picnic shelter there we have our community events our community meetings and picnics on Memorial Day Fourth of July Labor Day a variety of events like

that and that is threatened by the flooding that we have there we also have playgrounds we've built we have Cub Scouts Boy Scouts Church meetings there and they're all if you'll see those photos have been flooded over we have a picture of a young boy with his bicycle flooded up to the axle riding in our community lot not to mention the flooding of our little neighborhood pool so our concern is we are Downstream from this community and as other people said the Overflow the uh runoff that will come Downstream from that from all that impervious space that is there will make life much worse for our community which has been here for decades and our immediate folks such as we who are threatened with this we have to have flood insurance as our neighbors do and our concern is this can only exacerbate the problems to uh to me our immediate

neighbors our community and dealing with that and our road systems and along this way so we really ask that you protect us we've been living here for decades and we would hope that city council would protect us from exacerbating the flooding conditions that threaten our homes and Community survival at this point Point thank you very much Miss Amy Ryan Robinson w-y-r-o-n Robinson metamere there is no Amy Byron Robinson in the queue Mike kerlowski k-i-r-l-a-u-s-k-i yes Mr krolowsky's in the queue Mr kurlowski if you can hear me sir if you would state your name and you would have your three minutes sir yes thank you hi council members my name

is Mike krolowski and as a HOA board member for the adjacent community of Canterbury I have a whole new level of respect for what you do I've helped manage this community of 58 homes for the past couple of years and let me tell you I've had to deal with a wide array of issues and disagreements I say this knowing it pales in comparison to I know what you have to deal with however since this hearing was announced we have seen a unified consistent response from our community and the surrounding ones that continues to astonish me just since February we've seen 219 people take the time to scan our signs sent you over 150 emails that I can assure you are real people who care and have visited our webpage for this just this rezoning 2213 times now in this community we have a vast array of people and most understand the growing need for housing in Durham and many want to help but they want it done right and they want it done responsibly they also made it very clear to three different iterations of our HOA board three public developer sessions and the planning Commissioners that they

don't feel like they should have to give up their concerns in order to arrive at an agreement with a developer a developer who just focuses on maximizing profits and manipulating laws and ordinances and wasting time taking pictures of traffic during spring break instead of listening to our concerns a developer who is design engineer misstated the direction of Sandy Creek during the Planning Commission that's the design we're looking at tonight we can assure you from the golf balls that are taken out of the Sandy Creek Park every year that the golf balls unlike trout are not swimming Upstream they are Downstream from our property this is a developer and Engineering Group who behind closed doors are probably saying some interesting things right now and about Durham there's no way we can get a plan approved like this here it's too large I give it a shot the city council will prove anything yeah they're desperate for housing they're ignoring all the Udo even when the Planning Commission is unanimously opposed council members I ask you what message do we want to send to the developer what do you want the word on the street to be the Durham is open for business or that

Durham is open for exploitation please hear the concerns of the hundreds of people who've participated on this case promote housing fairness but build responsibly and fairly to your existing residents while we grow folk no on cases like this or any like it when you see similar warning signs send a message to developers they must take our concerns seriously if the developer truly expects usage of public transit and bicycles to qualify the project that's your time sir sir thank you so much thank you so much Mr Mr Jeff kalio k-a-l-l-i-o Mr Calio is not in the queue Mr Brant strong I think Mrs strong is present thank you Mr strong Miss Sarah Curtis s-a-r-a Curtis this time yes Miss Curtis is in the queue Miss Curtis you have the floor ma'am if you will state your name you have your three minutes man

hi this is Sarah Kurt a resident on Evan Street and we're just here to support uh in opposition of the project um and agree with all of the uh current um facts that have been stated and opinions and just uh would like to to um I'm sorry uh yes we're in opposition of the project thank you thank you Miss Curtis we turn our attention to Miss Janice Smith j-a-n-i-s-e Smith s-m-i-t-h Ur there are two of them we have two j-a-n-i-s-e Smith Miss Janice Smith one of you would please come on the line you have three minutes if you will state your name ma'am

Miss Smith we see your hand raised are you unmuted ma'am Miss Smith can you hear me yes I'm here all right Miss Smith is it just one Janice j-a-n-i-s-e Smith we have you listening I think so I'm sorry about that that's okay Miss Smith you have your two minutes ma'am thank you I'm also in opposition to this I live at 4 Waterstone Court part of the Trinity Ridge Neighborhood um and I agree and just want to reiterate everything that was said about the traffic concerns the flooding issues I also really want to highlight that those pictures do not accurately represent the traffic in the morning or the afternoon those people clearly are not taking their kids to school in the morning on a normal school day which can back up over half a mile on Cornwallis so I don't know what trick they were playing to give you those pictures but

they do not currently accurately represent the traffic on Cornwallis which is pretty um backed up and heavy in the morning and the afternoon and is getting heavier throughout out the day so I just want to reiterate those pictures do not accurately represent what traffic is actually like so thank you very much for your time thank you turn our attention to Johnny j-o-n-i how Meyer h-o-h-m-e-i-e-r oh all right okay ma'am if he would come forth we have you listed as being on the internet yes I registered but I was able to make it down in person so thank you very much for having me good evening everyone I just wanted to say that um I heard from your own lips this evening as well as several people here on the council the word safety and from what

I've heard from all of the presentations here today this does not sound like a very safe proposal for development in the area and also the picture of the bus the school bus there I believe the concern really is for the not necessarily the growth of additional students but the ones that are currently getting on and off school buses that the traffic and the increase in traffic and potential for possibly passing school buses or illegal u-turns and so forth very unsafe situation so thank you very much I am opposed to this and thank you for listening to the Planning Commission thank you turn into the internet Mr Stephen Barnes I have you listed as an opponent but we don't have an actual uh item is this agenda item you would

like to speak to sir um this is Stephen Barnes I'm actually for the uh case that was postponed until May 15th all right thank you so much sir if you will come back then and please if you just make sure that we have a number we don't we didn't have a number for which one you were trying to address okay thank you for being with us this evening I returned to one speaker in the audience I just received this card from a Mr Rick Larson we have three minutes sir and then we will turn return back to our applicants thank you I I don't know if the council members have been able to see the flooding photos that we sent today um but I we do have a presentation that we'd like to provide you I'm not sure how to get there on here

[Music] help Brooke um I just know how to get to the the there we go okay thank you thanks so much Madam mayor mayor Pro tem Mr Mr Middleton council members thanks for the opportunity to speak in opposition to this proposal I had a long list of topics and I'll just focus in on uh two one is the flooding as you I think have heard we're about

200 yards Downstream on Sandy Creek from the proposed development and our neighborhood as has been mentioned has been inundated by Sandy Creek for for many years so here's can you see these photos here's 2018 here's 2015. here's 2013. here's 2011. I think Larry referred to this photo um 20 2008 this is our pool uh which we're currently getting ready to renovate um it's a oldest continually operating pool in in Durham County and uh when when something like this happens uh it's not not good for the um any of it as you can imagine so the flooding issues are are real and adding impervious service Services as we've talked about up just Upstream whether whenever those those flows come out it doesn't matter this is this is what happens it's it's a very serious issue for us so I hope you'll take that into

2 miles to walk to the local bus station but local bus stop not a safe walk let me tell you and secondly as as Alan talked about riding a bike or an e-bike which we have on this road is is dangerous it's just not it's not made for that kind of alternative transportation so um yes we need more housing in Durham no question about that what we need is uh housing that is done responsibly site appropriate to the right scale and that

has access to public and alternative transportation this is not that proposal this is an attempt to put market rate a major development on a very small site that sits in a flood plain so thanks for your consideration foreign speakers here who are speaking as opponents we now turn to applicants for rebuttal it looks like you have about 45 minutes and you may ribbon again thank you for your time to have a rebuttal I've asked actually the staff to pull back up our presentation because a lot of the concerns we would be able to present in the photos I will ask that both the engineers that are with me address where their specialty is the first one being Jeremy to discuss

traffic and the concerns we heard and then for Tim to discuss the storm water issues and then last I would like to actually discuss what I've done actually up to community outreach over the four years that I've been working to bring this project to council Madame mayor mayor Tim and council members thank you again if we can go to the next slide okay perfect um we did hear a lot of concern in regards to the the traffic flow through here and we just wanted to reiterate one more time that our study was coordinated with and approved by the North Carolina Department of Transportation and their District Engineer's office and what is shown here is kind of that visual depiction of what that turn lane would look like and the design of that turn lane based on the analysis would hold the vehicles that are projected to be turning into as a left into the

development so there would not be a concern of traffic coming down Cornwallis or coming off 15 501 to turn right onto Cornwallis and being blocked by Vehicles so that was one thing we did want to point out that that was coordinated with the district engineer um we also do recognize and agree that we've coordinated with the district engineer in regards to the intersection and the intersection at the district engineer dictates later on to change to a Right End right out that is something our client has agreed to part of the discussion with the Department of Transportation was to start out with this left turn lane due to the fact that if you did not have that turn lane it would potentially force and it was right in right out you would force Vehicles further down Cornwallis to make a U-turn wherever they kind of wanted to or you need to provide a U-turn bulb out and right away at that point so there'd be some property impacts if you wanted to have a bulb out for a U-turn location if you did not provide that left turn so

that was something that we coordinated with the Department of Transportation on so what they agreed was if this was right in right out you would have to have some sort of a U-turn location and obviously we wouldn't want drivers to just kind of pick their own location at random of making a U-turn you'd want to designate that which would require right away and construction and property impacts which is why this initial concept was discussed and agreed to with the Department of Transportation because this does provide the storage that was required and dictated by the traffic analysis uh we also had some other concerns about bike and pet safety they were understood and our client has been committed and is willing to commit to to working with the district engineer obviously with this intersection and collaborating with the district and Department of Transportation if there are some safety improvements that need to be made with regards to this development and adjacent to this development I mean those are conversations that developer and our client obviously are willing to have to address those safety concerns but obviously want to talk through this

again and just just indicate that this was coordinated with the Department of Transportation and approved by their District engineer yeah thank you again for hearing us um a lot of people talked I tried to take as many notes as I could so I've tried to address everything related to some of the items that I heard um one of them we kept coming up was trying to do things that are not in the unified development orders that it's not possible we cannot do that the site plan will be fully in compliance with everything that is in the unified development ordinance there's a comment about the parking where proposing a up to 134 parking spaces which is about one and a half spaces per unit the Udo does require two there are stipulations in there to reduce that number um a few of them we will be utilizing one is providing additional tree safe area above the minimum of 20 percent can get

you reduction in parking and also the affordable housing component providing the affordable housing units allows a reduction in the parking so you know we're not providing the two per unit but we'll be utilizing other areas to meet the minimum requirements for parking as well as other items if I may have missed anything I apologize um another one that kept coming up was the downstream flooding and if you could go to maybe four slides from here one more thank you so as I noted earlier our proposed site is located in a FEMA map flood plain as well as both of the adjacent neighborhoods as well as some other pictures they are in a matte 100 year flood plain they are going to be subject to flooding um you know the pictures that were shown I you know I sympathize I understand that

flooding is a concern but this development is not going to impact it's not going to raise that flood plating um the overall drainage area to this site is over 3000 acres we're and I'll get to what someone else mentioned earlier were you know we're about three acres of development so that's one tenth of a percent of the overall drainage area that is not going to have any effect on the flood plain I also want to point out too as far as hydrology goes the way you map a hydrology is you figure out what the peak flow is from the overall drainage area the entire 3000 areas three thousand acres and that's how much water is going to be coming down to this point at the peak flow that could take several days as you know when we get a hurricane or you know big storm comes through it takes four or five days before that flooding really reaches this its maximum area with this site being right directly at the flood plain with the impervious surface that

39 Acres

39 Acres of Natural Area I feel like that's the best Steward of the land rather than just wiping it all out and only Paving 24 of it I think that's all the notes that I had that um I wanted to address so thank you for your time and we're available for any questions the last thing that I will address with you guys is they mentioned that I

haven't reached out to them since Planning Commission up until Planning Commission I have been working on this site for four years and I've had at least uh five to eight Zoom calls emails with the HOA next door I've met with individuals at Canterbury actually at namu to discuss this project I've actually been to individuals houses that live in Canterbury to address and not talk to them about their concerns and they all seem to kind of basically kind of understand where I was coming from so I have had several conversations I stopped having conversations when the president of the HOA told me that I was not allowed to speak to anybody who lives in Canterbury I had to address all of my conversations with the community to help that is well the one last thing I guess I could say is I'm an avid e-biker I'm a Believer in e-bikes I was excited to

hear about the Durham Bulls durable sorry Bull City e-bike program I'm a believer that it can help people make their paychecks go further by using it as a alternative and I have actually ridden on my e-bike from this site to Duke Hospital to downtown Durham to Fosters and googlehof back to this site and I will tell you I felt very comfortable on it but I also ride one every day and we have 35 minutes and so I will tell you that my father is a preacher so if I need to turn that attribute on I can thank you for your time this evening and I would like to address uh there are two people I believe who join the queue uh late uh I am sorry I believe it's Mr James Rucker and Mike Mr Michael Hennessy I've been informed that you have joined the queue and would like to

speak I'm sorry we won't be able to accommodate that request tonight if you are looking at me on the internet this is the list that we develop in advance for people who would like to sign up in order that we may have a proper record um I would ask that you contact our clerk's office and provide your comments in a written form for us to receive but we are trying to balance those who are here those on the internet and to make sure that our time allotment is correct as we're supposed to balance that which is why we try to do it in a format that is fair to all parties so if you have joined the queue late tonight we will not be able to accommodate your requests but we would ask that you put those comments in writing to us appreciate it at this time I will now declare the public hearing to be closed

and the matter is back before the council for any discussion amongst my colleagues thank you madam mayor I want to thank all of the residents and citizens and neighbors Who Bore with us tonight to come out to speak on this matter to the developers as well um a couple of things firstly I want to address any concern about the the Udo um it's it's not unified development options it's an ordinance so we have to abide by the the Udo there's no options or or skirting around so I I want to uh that does not mean that there aren't legitimate questions to put to developers but the Udo isn't ordinance it's law um in any suggestion that the council tries to skirt that or just ignores it um Raleigh's watching we don't get to do that so I just want to put that Assurance out there um with that said this is a fascinating case because I unlike expanding our

boundaries of the city this is infield development and which usually um folk get excited about when when it's not expanding um the boundaries if it's done right um I think one of the comments I read from one of our planners was that too much density in one in place in a city that that's why buildings are taller in cities because you're stacking rather than going out I think the joke in planning is folks support development but the only things they don't support are height and sprawl other than that you know you can do whatever you want so for an infield development height is is is how we do that in a growing burgeoning city um rather than expanding our boundaries so I I do want to that's something we have to think about as council members when we make of these type of decisions I'm also I'm fascinated by the some of the comments about the number of units um I I don't want I don't want to do

violence to anybody's comments but but um is is it the case that if the developer had just said 45 rather than 90 this really would be all right um that this would have disposed of any of the uh discussions we're having it would have addressed the stormwater issues that would have addressed the traffic issues if the number were 45 as opposed to 90. I really think there's a much more nuanced uh and deeper conversation um going on here with respect to to uh how do we manage a growing city how do we I think someone use the words protect our residents but also welcome new residents who will then become protectees as well um I'm always fascinating these conversations because a lot of the the arguments made would preclude where you live being built um in many of these discussions actually some of the arguments that are made were the same arguments made before your house got built um and and so we as a council have to

continually uh manage that that tension between those that are here and those that are coming because they are coming and and we can't stop uh that with that said I did the developer I did have a question you and you I just wanted to revisit um how many how many Community meetings did you have one of the comments about the from the uh from the uh planner was that you showed disregard for the local communities and greater Durham so just give me briefly how many sessions did you have with with community members what was the attendance like and are you hearing anything tonight that you didn't hear at those sessions I we had I had several if I probably had this so actually Katie Hamilton was an individual that was helping me originally with this when she was working with Steward engineering and I asked her if she could remember and she said we did between 10 to 15 meetings between me and her just her and just me meeting with them to discuss their concerns their concerns were height and the fact that the building would be too

close to their current house there's a 50-foot buffer between my project and their community and this 50-foot buffer is y'all's Greenway buffer that has grown trees that we went out and measured that were between 80 to 120 feet high this building is roughly 48 feet high and in this building the site actually sits lower than the community next door so it won't have a four foot feel to it based on the distance the 50-foot buffer of trees that are between us and the fact that the site actually sits lower than some of the houses that are in Canterbury and I asked I'm sorry last thing the I did meet with them and I actually had really positive feedback when I met with about 12 to 13 of them at namu to discuss with them because actually ironically enough meta gentlemen our kids were swimming together and we just started talking about what we do where do you live kind of thing and found out he lives here and so I asked him I said

I know you guys have concerns folks please please I'm going to ask you please please let's have a uh one of the members that was there was the vice president of their HOA I believe or their Treasurer and what I asked him is I said hey I want to be a good neighbor I want to you know not feel like this is going to be contentious and I offered things to them I said do you have a site that's next to me I said what would you guys like to do with it and they said we'd like it to turn into a green space So I offered to that group that we would test the soil and see if that is a site that the dirt that is there that was dumped from when their development was put in if that is something that could be masqueraded across mine and smoothed out and giving them an actual pad ready for them to do something with or is it dirt that is useless and needs to be hauled off the group that I met with seemed very on board with giving me the opportunity to do that that is when I then heard from their current president ho I don't know

he was the individual that actually sold his house I don't know if he's the president anymore he's the one that reached out to me and said any Communications with anybody lives in Canterbury has to come through me and when when when was that representation made to you I met with them probably uh this past summer and that's when I started having conversations with them and I felt like they were actually productive conversations and then once the gentleman I believe his name was Chris he's either the vice president or he's the treasurer of the HOA at Canterbury he brought that to the current HOA group there's I believe they have four I'm not sure and that is when he called me and said the other guys don't want to work with you and he actually voiced his opinion that he was not of the same mindset as them uh right I'm going to ask you not to speak thank you thank you all appreciate you

thank you with respect to the the five units at 60 Ami how long is that with that commitment be for for those units that's 60 I didn't have a timetable on it I mean I believe y'all's uh original is 30 years right um I think I'm going to yield now to uh for now to my colleagues um and they usually ask all the things I want to ask I'll yield now thank you madamir sure thank you councilwoman Caballero thank you madam mayor I have a couple questions for staff hi good evening um what could be built by right here let me pull that up

so uh the most intense use under the current zoning designation is six units for residential Suburban 20. portion of the site and a fast food restaurant with a drive-through window of the commercial for the commercial General portion of the site thank you could I assume that the amount of trips for a fast food restaurant with traffic would be higher than the what the applicant is asking for right now um yes yes Bill judge assistant Transportation director the um the fast food trip generation site for the commercial portion would be significantly higher in terms of number of trips than uh than the 90 proposed Apartments um I can find the exact but it's at one of the tables in the staff report in one of the appendix the exact number of trips thank you

um I have a question for the applicant now and this is to your best of your ability and I understand you may not be able to give me the best number but for six units I'm assuming single family would what would be the cost on the market once it's done for that for each unit depends on the square footage of the home I you know if you were trying to kind of maybe match some of the things that have been built recently well I would if I would if I was going to use the neighborhood next door I mean the most recent comp that just sold was 833 thousand dollars thank you thank you um that's all the questions I have right now thank you councilwoman Johnson thank you madam mayor uh one quick question did y'all's traffic analysis include capacity counts on Cornwallis can you tell us what the capacity is on Cornwallis right now and the current like usage

correct so the the maybe what you're asking the aadt the annual average daily traffic is around 5 000 vehicles per day but our Capacity Analysis um for a two-lane roadway where you have signals the best way to analyze that is at those intersections since it's not free flow traffic all the time so what our analysis looked at um or those two signalized intersections obviously and at 15 501 and Cornwallis and then the side interest driveway because the best way to analyze that since it's it is interrupted flow is to look at those intersections individually to analyze those as opposed to a full two-lane roadway capacity but the current AIDS around 5000 if that answered your visual question okay thank you and so what were the levels of service at those intersections and what impact would your development have on them let's see okay so at 15 501 southbound

ramps and West Cornwallis the difference between the background conditions and the combined conditions uh was nothing they were both operating at level of service C in the AM and the level of service B in the PM at uh 15501 Northbound ramps in West Cornwallis Road in the am the intersection and the background condition and the intersection of the build condition we're operating at a level of service and in the PM or that was for am excuse me in the PM they're both operating in the background and the bill condition is a B level of service so a very very minimal impact if if anything noticeable thank you any other councilwoman Freeman thank you I just wanted to just flag that level of service is that from the traffic study that was done during spring break or is this a different traffic study that was that was from the full traffic impact analysis that was conducted and approved

by Dot and I just had another question um is it the norm to to do traffic analysis for school buses based on one school is it the norm to do elementary middle and high school is it the norm to do every possible District bus that could be used considering 90 families or 90 units being used like how do you decide don't know if understand your full question of you noted that there was um only four school buses that would be in use and so I was just trying to figure out how you figured the four as opposed to the 50 different schools that was actually a picture that we took from the Planning Commission um presentation that was given by the community to us so we actually spent a lot of time actually going back to the Planning Commission writing down people's concerns grabbing screenshots and then looking how we can understand

where their concerns are and what some of the facts really are so how do you figure the number of schools the school buses we did not give that number of four this property in and of itself and the majority of these units are either Studios or one bedrooms and we do not really see that big of an impact onto the schools because we kind of see these as individuals that are moving to the area that want to be close to Duke Hospital a lot of the people that are in healthcare profession my wife's in health care profession and I do know that when you work long hours being really close to the hospital is extremely important to them and so we kind of see this property as an opportunity to expand those choices for individuals that are starting off their careers at Duke thank you um I just had another question for staff and it may be more reflective than not but just trying to figure out the

do we currently have a policy around um previously built subdivisions in the flood zone or a flood plain or a hundred year storm water flooding area good evening Sarah Young with the planning department council member if I'm asked if I'm understanding your question you want to know what is it that we have to potentially address her regulatory standpoints in these older neighborhoods that were built before stormwater controls before some of our environmental regulations is that your question exactly so good at this so we there is not a mechanism to retroactively require that anything that's already been built have improvements made however I will say that at the time of site plan which is when the detailed stormwater analysis for a new

development happens they do look at historic flooding in the area and they will if they believe that the impacts of the new development will make conditions worse they will require additional stormwater controls for that new development which is not normally required so normally stormwater standards require that um you treat what is on your site and what will fall on your site it generally keep it from going beyond your site but in conditions like this they often look at historical flooding and they may require additional controls because of that and just because I know this site very well I just wanted to kind of elaborate a little bit further in saying that it's one thing to address storm water when your sewer outflows are overflowing into folks homes currently I don't know that there's a measure of storm water flow that we could create that would stop that and so I do want to just know that um it's I'm

sorry that we lost Miss Lucy I know that she's been battling you know the sewage that was coming into her home for a long time and I really want to say that if her daughter is listening that if she wanted to reach out I'm ready and available to try and figure out what we need to do to address it as I thought that we had um covered it and it doesn't sound like we have I'm a little concerned on what that means for new development even if it is infill but I do know that that strip that long sewer sewer outflow strip um kind of created that issue for that one household and I'm not sure whether it's expanded any further over the last couple of years with a lot of the you know the a lot more rain and a lot more flooding occurring in that area that's something that we can certainly Circle back and try and connect folks if they'll make contact with us if there's a sewer overflow issue that's a little

bit separate and a different issue that we can the city does have resources to make sure that that is not happening and is there any Grant or current funding resources that we're lining up for infrastructure that would address that current flooding that's been occurring in that community in that Community for the as long as I can remember I honestly don't know the answer to that question I'd have to defer to someone else okay any other questions from Council Leonardo Williams thank you thank you madam mayor uh let me get my notes here so many of my questions were asked I I am going to ask that staff answer one more repeat repeat an answer for me what is it currently zoned for again uh rs20 residential 20 and Commercial General

okay gotcha and he stayed at about a fast food drive through or something like that yes uh so the most intense use under the current rs20 and Commercial General zoning designation for transportation related impacts it would be six single-family units and a 5 000 square foot fast food restaurant with a drive up window um I I also wanted to ask about the the uh right now is being proposed for 90 units so if it is like let's say 60 units would it have any significant difference in regards to traffic yeah traffic land um preservation

sorry I can take that again Bill judge Transportation uh not uh particularly we we require a traffic impact analysis at 150 peak hour trips this these 90 units are only generating yeah probably about 40 percent of that so it's well under our threshold so even lower density would likely with some of the existing spacing issues that the neighbors spoke of you would you would still have that whether you had 60 units or 45 units we'd still have some of those same concerns but the proposed the two to three car storage for the left turn lane should be more than adequate for for 90 units okay thank you I think also one thing that so um one thing that's really standing out is the flooding component of the land did you all offer anything about about a retention pond at all did you mention that or not

I'm going to ask Tim to respond to that okay our proposal is that we will not be increasing the peak flow from the pre-development condition beyond the 100 Year storm in order to accomplish that we will do a downstream and Upstream flooding analysis as well as provide a retention structure due to some topography on the site a retention Pond is probably not likely but it would be some type of underground device to control the water flow from the site underground world groundwater okay um my glasses on so I can see my notes Here all right and regarding the uh the entrance and where it is you mentioned earlier about a write-in right out but I didn't hear what you said after that it was about a u-turn

okay so through the coordination with with ncdot in the district office you know what um was kind of agreed to with DOT was to look at that turn lane um that would extend from the proposed site driveway back to The Interchange at Cornwallis in 15501 um one thing that's that's the our client has indicated with the district is it the district ever determined they wanted to make that driveway a right and right out that our client is is agreeable to that however if that was to happen someone who's wanting to turn left coming from 15501 or coming from the East they would have to find somewhere to make a U-turn to come back out to be able to turn or make a U-turn to come back and turn right into the driveway in order to do that you'd have to have some sort of accommodation facility something further to the west of the site driveway whether that be a U-turn bulb out or what have you which would require some sort of radio acquisition to create that U-turn bulb out so that someone could coming from the East make their way into

the site development so as it's shown right now and as coordinated with DOT a left turn would be allowed into the site now coming out of the site it would be a right only coming out but you could turn left into it or right into it but coming out of it you'd have to only be able to turn right out of the it to head to 15501 does that help answer the question got it got it I just remember hearing that Ben mentioned um okay thank you Mia pro team thank you madam mayor and thank you colleagues I was right you always ask the questions um that I had but my final I guess um this this case for me um reminds me of why this job was so much easier before I had it um because the choice what's operative for me is the choices between a lot of people think when the council says notice something it's over but all

of our no's are a yes to something else um all of them so for me it comes down to is it a better choice faced with a growing city a city we're not a town we are a city a growing city um is the is is it better to have six single story uh single family homes there or a fast food restaurant or 90 apartment units with five units at 60 Ami um and if anyone thinks that that there's an easy answer to that have at it but but but the bottom line for me is is which is the more desirable outcome um you know there's no there's no neighborhood or area in this city that has been Exempted or it's cloistered from the effects of growth I used to be able to walk from my home to a golf course and hit golf balls I can't anymore um that Golf Course is gone and there

are a bunch of houses there there's more traffic on my street I have to wait longer till I turn out um and I'm on Council but but there's no neighborhood so I get it when folk talk about how their neighborhoods are changing how they're they're they're being impacted by a growing city I feel it personally um so I guess colleagues for me when it comes down to and I I still don't know and and your comments and questions have been very helpful um is 90 units with the growing population better than six Homes at possibly 800 Grand a piece thank you madam mayor any other comments um councilwoman yes thank you I meant to ask this earlier so I apologize we got a email from a resident it was very thoughtful and I appreciated it and he did ask about prioritizing the inclusion of public access point to the Future Sandy Creek Trail extension and I just wasn't sure that hadn't come

up but I didn't want to at least raise it so that I was you know being thoughtful about what this resident said I believe you're asking about the buffer that we have that's going in between us and Canterbury yes yes ma'am um in our site plan that we've been working on we actually had part of our original site plan for us to put in the first leg of that Greenway as I mentioned earlier I'm a big advocate of e-bikes and so I really hope that that Greenway goes the full extension that it's planning on going so we are committed and want that to happen thank you Madam mayor that's all I have any of the comments from the council thank you we will now move to the two motions for our consideration this evening motion number one is to adopt an ordinance a minute I'm sorry go ahead excuse me proper planning uh staff just wanted to restate the profits that the

applicant noted earlier thank you um the first one being 100 000 to the Durham dedicated housing fund and five units at 60 percent area median income staff also just wanted to note that there is a needed change to the development plan the first tax commitment list 60 foot as the maximum Building height however the graphic development plan shows 48 within the building envelope therefore the maximum Building height should be updated to 48 feet instead of 60 feet on the text commitment number one I believe the building is slightly higher in 48 I believe it's 48 and a half feet so I think I said 49. yes ma'am councilwoman Johnson thank you madam mayor can we also confirm that those five units at 60 of Ami will be affordable for the 30-year affordability period that's a question for y'all

your your five affordable units at 60 of Ami will those be affordable for 30 years yes ma'am thank you councilman do you have an idea when you would if this is passed when you would start yes so I've already started on my architectural drawings and we've have a site plan that we have been working on so after this hopefully is approved we will move towards working on trying to get our site plan approved get our construction drawings done and then hopefully break ground once we've gone through the whole process of architectural design and full engineering me for asking questions that you may have already answered the rest of the land the the wetlands is there anything that you plan to do back there I can't remember you answer that originally I thought that it'd be a cool spot to have a disc golf course um you know walking trails I mean something that you can do through

something that is in a flood zone something that you know people can can be active in but I mean I that's not anything that we've we've kind of basically put everything on pause until tonight all right I I guess I'll be making a decision in the next few seconds I still don't know but um think I could appreciate the additions that have been made since you met with the Planning Commission um I'll ponder thank you all right Council thank you um I did want to say I did meet with residents I think either last week or the week before um in this in this um I think from several different neighborhoods it was a small group and I and I appreciated the time um just want to share where my mind is so you all know so full disclosure I was I didn't know how I was going to vote I understood Community concerns uh resonated with me I wanted to make sure

that's why especially when there's cases that I would consider for lack of a better word controversial I try and really drive it I did not do any like trespassing on the sign um sometimes I do that today I did not um but I did when I met with the neighbors Drive behind Colony up picket to get that sense of it and then drove you know where the actual site is today and drove through many of the neighborhoods from many of the residents who are here this evening my kid has a um my kid goes to orthodontist there um so I know the area fairly well when I drove it which was around 5 30 I try and go when it's going to be high traffic so that I can see it legitimate legitimately there was not a lot of traffic I thought oh maybe I know DPS was on spring break last week maybe there's still some kids um I will be voting yes and I think part of the reason it's it's to the mayor Pro tems point and one of the reasons I asked I always want folks and I was very clear with residence last week what is it that you're going to get if we say no

it's already in the city limits sometimes when it's an annexation folks don't have the capacity to do you know Water and Sewer that's expensive that this is an infill development and so left with that choice it is really I can do six probably very expensive homes and a fast food restaurant which does not allay your concerns around traffic or I can say yes to 90 units at rent that I understand is extremely pricey but I think a lot of homes in that area are also very very expensive that is some pretty Prime real estate in Durham and it always has been it's close to Duke it's connected large Lots in some of those older neighborhoods gorgeous mid-century homes um and that that doesn't actually get us to a place where I feel we're we're winning as a community we desperately need housing I know that this developer isn't from Durham but he is from a community right next door this isn't an out-of-state developer I know lots of

024 move this red second the move by mayor Pro Tim seconded by councilwoman Johnson Madam clerk if you open the vote if you close the vote and Report out

the motion passes four to three with council member I'm sorry with mayor O'Neill and council member Freeman and Hyman voting no our second motion for consideration is motion number two sorry that is the second number two to adopt a consistency statement as required by ncgs 160d-605 to adopt consistency second been moved by mayor Pro tem uh seconded by councilwoman Johnson Madam clerk if you would open the vote if you will close the vote and Report out the motion passes six to one with the council member Jose Hyman voting now all right thank you all that is our agenda for tonight our last agenda item is other matters is there anything to cut please we're still in session everybody is there anything that will

claim our attention tonight as a council foreign well it has been a great evening we thank you all for joining us by way of TV and we thank you all for joining us in person tonight it is once again adjourned meeting is adjourned at 12 Oh No 10 37. 10 37 on what's today's date everybody April 3rd 2023 Bull City strong peace is the lifestyle right