City Council · Regular Meeting · August 5, 2024

The Pledge of Allegiance it's our practice to stand and salute the flag if you'd like to join us.

Andice all right due to my being out of order we've already called a role so now I will go to my left to council member cook for announcements I'll be brief we had a session earlier today so many of us already did our announcements I went first I did not get my chance to thank city manager page I thought you were going to announce your retirement but so I didn't want to do it first so my my bad but then I saw I just wanted to add on to what my other colleagues have said I've only been here for six months and you have imparted just an amazing amount of information and helped me so much through this transition so thank you so much and we're happy to have you for a few more months here and then we will be sad to see you go but I think you leaving an extraordinary Legacy in in the city of Durham so thanks for your service thank you council member yeah I.

Already made my comments during the work session today it's great to be back in this room with you all and thank you all so much for coming to this meeting look forward to this meeting and look forward to the rest of the year working together with you all to get stuff done all right Council mavo thank you Mr Mayor I don't really have anything other than I'm going to mention the bond again plan on that almost every single announcement until November so I want to thank staff for getting the website up if you go to the city's website you will see information on the infrastructure Bond you will also see lots of community events throughout the fall gearing up to when we vote early voting starts in October and I just it is really really important that Durham turns out for the selection for many reasons but for Durham city residents often you don't have a you know City business on your ballot on an even year this year you do there's.

Two B ballot measures one for sidewalk streets to sidewalks and streets and one for three Parks and so it's very very important that Durham turns out for this critical infrastructure and you will be hearing a lot about the bond from me and my wonderful colleagues thank you thank you Council M Freeman thank you I also shared a lot during announcements at work session so I won't do the same but I will just add that the communi in Partnership and their transformational Justice initiative will be hosting the expungement clinics in August October and December and they are looking for attorney volunteers and so I did want to make sure that I lifted that up and ask that if you are an attorney in our community and you're interested in getting trained on how to do the expungement Clinic that you reach out to Andrea muffin Hudson with the North Carolina bail fund as she she'll be leading that effort and so I did want to make sure folks new and that's all.

Thank you oh and Happy black August and making sure to lift because we weren't here for July disability pride month and also so there's one more but it'll come to me thank you can you repeat the organization that you mentioned there earlier the North Carolina bail fund bail fund yes with the trans transformational Justice initiative through communities and partnership they'll be hosting town halls and expungement clinics throughout the month well throughout the rest of the year I think Beyond and that is attributed to the arpa dollars that they received so so thank you perfect thank you council member rist thank you Mr Mayor good to see all the folks in Durham here good to see you all again after a month away I also shared comments in the work session don't need to repeat those I will if I if I may take a moment of personal privilege just to say my wife and I during July were Overjoyed to hear that our oldest son Jeremy way out in California and his.

Girlfriend Jess got engaged so we're so proud for them look forward to that and I actually that follows on the heels of like council member cook and council member Baker announcing that at our last meeting so I think it's quite appropriate also I should say is look over and see Mr Johnson from Community Development Mr Johnson knows Jeremy about as long as anybody in his life he we were colleagues together in grad school when Jeremy was born so it's a great sort of like you know bookends on that so so thank you for letting me share that thank you Mr Mayor well you know it's a council of Love May pro thank you your honor and good evening to my honorable colleagues everyone in the room and those watching on whatever platform you may be watching it's a great break good to be back I'm always excited and humbled to be in this room this room that belongs to the people I'm I'm humbled because this room really represents the way we.

Disagree and degree in our system this room represents our coming together to deliberate without guns or knives or striking each other but talking to each other and carving out shared space so it's really good to be back in this room and and honored to be here with my colleagues Mr Mayor I earlier today I also express my gratitude to the to the city manager This brilliant city manager and I'll associate myself with all the comments that were made didn't make any announcements but I did want to make one announcement tonight first I'm really excited about this budget that is now in force there's a lot of money in this budget for a lot of great things and one of the things I'm excited about is is our guaranteed income initiative here in the city of Durham which has gotten a bunch of attention and you've heard a bunch of different opinions on guaranteed income I'm looking forward in the next few weeks and months to concretize that conversation and centralize it based.

Upon Durham data points not anecdotes or not folks feelings about it gut feelings but what actually happened when Durham did guaranteed income and what we want to see happen with the next iteration of it there's money in his budget for that I'm looking really forward to leaning in I want to thank my colleagues for embracing that among the many wonderful things that this Council embraced in this historic budget that was passed at the end of June so looking forward to getting back to work on behalf of the people thank you Mr Mayor and thank you colleagues thank you and I think Madam manager has an announcement that she was joking about retirement did y'all catch that face all right yeah we we it's been a long day for the council to allow us to have a full month we decided to reschedule the J the July meeting to today so we've already had a work session today and we had a photo shoot this evening and and now we're having a.

Council meeting and then we have another meeting on Thursday and then another one on Friday so it's going to be a hectic busy week in addition to all of your full-time jobs all of our full-time jobs I wish us luck one earlier today I I mentioned a few dates there will be some meetings you won't see me here but I promise I'll be doing great work on behalf of Durham has been a very successful six seven months of U bringing resources home and I look forward to continuing that workor also I have a few friends here or friends of the council and I would like you all to come stand up here for a moment if you are with bike dorham I know you were not expecting to come all the way up but you're here so earlier today and she's acting all shy but I saw on Instagram you were dancing on the DI ear no I wanted to publicly thank you all there you know as May protim said.

There's a lot of money in this budget but anytime there are community members who look at our budget look at the projects and say we want to partner with the city often times we get complaints at the city you know as policy makers but when someone says we want to partner with you we want we see you're you're going the right direction we're going to do our part and no we're not going to level with you you're an institution but we are community members coming together you know for a very good purpose and we want to we want to partner with you and add to that so we had $500,000 allocated for the is it I'm forgetting the project in so many we have $500,000 for project and bike Durham added to that $60,000 and I just wanted to thank you all for just being great Partners great friends and putting forth the work as an organization that's really Purpose Driven and I thank you and share.

The picture with me I'll put it on my socials and share it with everyone so just wanted to say thank.

You all right as council member Freeman stated no I'm sorry council member cabier stated we have the bond on the ballot this year it's going to be really important there there there are a lot of things we need to invest in in this city I know we can't do it all at once I know we don't always get what we want when we want it but we do what we can when we can as we can and I hope that you know we'll will be supporting the bond referendum this year while you're on that ballot just get to the ballot please okay I can't go deeper than that just get to the ballot so make sure you're registered to get to the ballot so that you can support what good for our community and you can take that how you will I believe that's all oh yeah also this year this summer the city of Durham is what I'm calling a Bloomberg model City we have had lots of investments from the.

Bloomberg philanthropies foundation and there are more to come when Mayor Bill Bale was elected so was Michael Bloomberg they had a great friendship and Steve sh mayor sh when he was involved he was a Bloomberg fellow with Bloomberg philanthropies philanthropies and brought a lot of Amazing Ideas to the city such as the deer program licensed restoration we were able to do public art by painting our crosswalks that was supported by Bloomberg The Innovation lab that we have here was supported by Bloomberg the what else the deer program debco the bull campaign after co and and and other ISS other matters mayor O'Neal focused on finding housing for justice involved individuals and now it's my turn fortunately to continue the engagement and involvement with the Bloomberg organization to work with Mayors around the world and this year I'll be headed to just got back from New York City was sending staff members from my office and the budget office to New York next week to gather these resources and help me.

Activate them here in Durham so I can't wait to share what those ideas are as I was telling my friends earlier and looking forward to head heading to Mexico City soon to continue working with Mayors around the world to play around with these ideas put them in practice and bring them back to Durham so glad to represent us on that scale and with that being said we are 15 minutes in and we're going to get to work so I will now head over to the manager for priority items thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protm members of the Durham City Council I would like to take a very brief moment personal privilege to make a few remarks as this is my first full meeting of the council to announce my retirement from the city of Durham after 36 years of service.

Here I really I am very grateful for the unwavering support and the guidance I have received from you mayor previous Mayors the city council previous council members your trust in my abilities and your commitment to our shared values shared Vision have been the driving force behind our accomplishments together we have achieved notable milestones we've overcome challenges and we've created a legacy that will continue to benefit benefit generations to come this is very important because I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the entire municipal government staff those here in the chamber and those listening or who will watch this video at a later time their dedication their hard work and unwavering ing commitment to the well-being of this community have been the backbone of our success I have been privileged to work with such an exceptional team and I am confident that they will continue to serve the community with the same passion and Excellence into the future although I will be retiring from my role as city manager at the end of the.

Calendar Year my love for this city and its residents will endure I will always cherish the memories the relationships and experiences I have gained during my 36 plus years here rest assured I will continue to support and contribute to the community as a resident and the number I was going to say the number one but I think I'm going to be the number two cheerleader the number one cheerleader is here to my left but we are and forever shall be Bull City strong yes yes huh yeah we we gonna take a lot of selfies take a lot of self all right was that your priority item that's my priority item sir all right Madame Clerk as I go to our friends are standing right here you guys can see the clerk Madam attorney good evening Mr Mayor mayor ptin Middleton and members of the council the city attorney's office has no priority items.

Tonight thank you Madame clerk good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protm and City Council Members the city clerk's office has no priority item tonight thank you so.

Much I will now read the consent agenda and as I'm getting into this I want to thank the new faces that are in the room I have been getting some corresponden of folks saying hey I just want to start coming to meetings and I love that I I really appreciate that so welcome to you as well all right so now I'm going to read the consent agenda item number one mayor Hispanic Latino committee appointments number two racial Equity commission appointment number three Duram Board of adjustment appointment number four citizens advisory committee appointment number five Recreation advisory commission appointments number six dur Planning Commission appointment number seven Workforce Development board appointments number eight Durham bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission appointment number nine approval of city council minutes number 10 fictitious employees performance audit June 2024 number 11 Solid Waste and Recycling performance audit June 2024 number 12 contract with submittable Holdings Inc for software software stream to streamline American Rescue plan act Grant processes number 13 fiscal year 20242 Capital Improvement plan budget ordinance.

Amendments number 14 resolution to authorized Kroger opioid settlements and a second supplemental agreement for additional funds number 15 agreement to fund hati reborn Justice movement HR JM using city of Durham Grant funds number 16 pre-development agreement with Habitat for Humanity of Durham for the Bean Street assemblage number 17 Cooperative group purchase contract one fire aial ladder platform truck number 18 contract with governmentjobs.com Inc for software to manage job Recruitment and applicant tracking functions number 19 resolution accepting two North Carolina land and water fund grants to construct the South lb storm water project I can hear people cheering on the TV right now number 20 South El El storm water project Declaration of covenants number 21 one American Rescue plan act arpa project digital literacy training and computers Mr Mayor I don't want to pull that one but I just did want to recognize what a great project that is giving priority to DHA residents for an in Innovative U digital literacy training program funded by arpa funds and one of the folks who.

Worked on that who's no longer with the city but worked with Technology Solutions Jenna Brian is in the audience so thanks for being here Jenna thanks for the great idea it's a wonderful project so thank you good work thank you council member r number 22 construction award to Carolina Civil Works Inc for the Ino River Lift Station and lick Creek lift station valve replacement project number 23 amendment number one to professional Engineering Services contract number 18428 with Hazen and SAA for design of the tier Quarry raw water storage and pumping facilities project number 28 ground lease agreement with Southside revitalization phase three phase four limited.

Partnerships all right and then we have a few public hearings that is our consent. Agenda and I would now entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda so move second it's been moved and properly seconded Madame clerk will you please open the vote will you please close the vote and Report. Out the motion passes 70 all right thank you so much so who's W6 Mr I don't think my vote I think am I W6 I think might be W6 tonight we have MI6 CIA I don't know.

W6 colleagues just give me a moment to make sure the the vote is recorded.

Properly all right so colleagues we're going to do that vote again if I could just have a hand vote all in favor all right so it looks like it's unanimous thank you so she's going to work on trying to update the system if it doesn't work we'll just continue Madam Clerk just give me a head nod or text when it's Mr may I kind of like calling him W6 special agents special ops W6 all right so so we're going to move to our public hearings 7:24 we are moving and the first up is item number 24 Consolidated annexation Clayton Road Town Holmes thank you Mr May thank you Mr Mayor mayor protm Middleton and honorable council members Aaron Kane with the planning department I'm happy to be with here with you tonight before I begin staff would like to State for the record that all planning department hearing items have been ad advertised and noticed in accordance with state and local law and Affidavit of all notices are on file in the planning.

Department a request for a utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change has been received from Jared Edens for five Parcels of land totaling 5.75 acres and located at 1019 1023 1025 1027 and 1029 Clayton Road this annexation petition is not contiguous to the prime primary corporate limits the requested zoning map change to plan development residential 6.89 7 is to allow up to 35 townhouse units the properties are currently designated mixed residential mixed neighborhood residential and Suburban commercial on the place type map the proposed 6 PDR 6.89 7 zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type of mixed residential neighborhood but inconsistent with Suburban commercial if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the place type of the one parcel currently designated Suburban commercial to mixed residential neighborhood so that all Parcels in the development are the same place type and consistent with the proposed zoning the mixed residential neighborhood designation is consistent with the proposal as it introduces an additional housing type to an area that is.

Primarily single family residential thank you and staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you so much you've heard the staff report colleagues are there any questions yes all and this is before opening to a public hearing okay great just a couple questions to get started can you talk to me about the rules generally around cemeteries and development because I know there's a cemetery on this premises I know there's there's slated to not be development on that Cemetery I also know for my legal training that exhuming bodies is a whole thing so I'm just curious what normally happens when we're zoning around around cemeteries so the zoning usually will not affect the cemetery itself if you were if this case were to have a graphical development plan most likely that graphic development plan would identify the location of the cemetery and the building and parking envelope would not include that Cemetery this case has a textual development plan and not a graphic one so we have no way of.

Showing that but when it gets to the site plan stage that Cemetery would be identified so do we are there rules in place that if you are developing and there's a cemetery that's pre-existing on the property that you have you have to leave it intact or what do we know the I you're getting a little bit out of my jurisdiction on this one do you know. Maybe good evening Sarah Young with the planning department so the state has a regulatory authority over cemeteries we in our local ordinance do not have any regulations that pertain to cemeteries do we know what do state anything about that we do not okay I'm just curious I I feel like we we hear oh we're we're going around the cemetery but in my mind that's probably required to go around the C build around the cemetery yeah there my understanding is that it is a pretty extensive process with the state to move grave sites and so most folks opt not to do that okay.

Cool that's my only Cemetery question but I have a couple others can you just give me a little bit of an explanation on erosion control sediment basins their function and what we're looking for when we see an increase what that means so a storm water control measurement or stor control measure on SCM otherwise known as a retention Pond or various other terminology the main purpose of that is to you know the the water flows to the storm water control measure the retention pond it's going to capture that water and then slowly release it out it's not going to completely stop the water from leaving the site but it basically slows down that water so you don't have a a greater rush or greater speed of that water leaving site it's also meant to control sediment eventually many of those storm water control measures will will start to fill up and they will need to be dredged that that erosion will need that that runoff will need to be removed at some point but yeah it's.

Going to it's going to now that's for a a post-development situation if you've got a construction situation then you're going to have certain measures that need to be put in place to control runoff control erosion make sure it's not getting off the site or try to control that as much as possible yeah something you want to add yeah so erosion control does some of what permanent storm water control does but not all of it it mostly just slows things down the often times folks will construct these temporary erosion control measures that then get converted into the permanent storm water ones sto permanent storm water ones tend to be larger so sometimes the temporary measures are upsized already knowing that they're going to handle they're going to be converted to the permanent on so they're related but they can be separate okay and because this one this project has a a sediment Basin erosion control sediment Basin increase in size that was committed to and so that is the post construction per.

No that is the during construction one well what phase are we looking at if it's the erosion control Basin that is the temporary one during construction so that's what's going to catch you know the majority of the runoff from the exposed dirt basically okay thank you and then my last question and I really apologize for not giving you a heads up about this question but so it goes when we were preparing for both a work session and a meeting today and I work another full-time job so do you have a sense of how expensive it is is to build an affordable unit in Durham or to build any residential unit in Durham I did some research I just want to know if you you have a sense of it that is such a that is such a variable question right like a residential unit is not a residential unit the standard deviation of the cost of a unit from the median is going to be very great are you building a.

Garden Style apartment are you building a taller building is it for sale is it for rent what are the interior fixtures what are the E what is the exterior so much that goes into it varies and as we get commitments for affordable units one of the things we always ask of our applicants is to make them appear especially from the outside just like all the others right so that's going to be a variable as to whether or not units are going to be affordable to be put into the particular development I'm not sure if that so do I do I know what like the average cost of building a unit in Durham is one I don't to I don't know that that's necessarily a whole lot of helpful information because there's such a variance from what that mean is when we're getting these projects with commitments to build units do do the Developers report a cost they do not okay no and the city does not put money into that that is just simply a.

Cross subsidization that they are internalizing in order to be able to cover the difference in rent that they would be getting okay thank you those are all my questions thank you Mr Mayor yes thank you and I'm just following up from one of the questions that my colleague asked in reference to the site level plan can you can you say say whether or not I'm trying to recall if the Tex if the textual Amendment approach was used for Fox Crossing versus a graphic so there were two Fox Crossings and I believe Fox Crossing 2 used a textual development plan I believe Fox Crossing one used a graphic because it was submitted prior to the changes that were made to the Udo to provide greater flexibility to submitting a textual development plan and so to that point I just want to say for for two I would like to figure out how to get I guess a little bit more nailed down or understand exactly because what I'm hearing from the community is that the.

Envelopes moved at the site level and or moved from the proposed site plan at the site level admission and then they changed it again and so there's some I just have a question about how we're reviewing it at the site level at this point because of Fox Crossing to sure so generally so for Fox Crossing 2 I believe that was a textual development plan so we would have no building and parking envelope on a development plan for the site plan to follow cor right for Fox Crossing one being a graphic development plan they would have been required by ordinance to have a park building and parking envelope velope and any activity for construction would have had to fall within that envelope on the site plan I can't speak to the specifics right now maybe that's a conversation we can have online but we can make sure that we can look at the site plan that was submitted and make sure that it followed the development plan but that is something.

That as a general rule our site plan reviewers do look at the development plan and make sure what's being built what's being proposed on the site plan is within the parking and building envelope that Council approved on the development plan and who are those reviewers they're within the planning department in the major development review group this this is really rich information I want to bring us back to this case I'm I'm learning a lot though I'm listening I'm like wow this is this is interesting well I just want to say that it's relevant in that if we approve at the textual level just noting like this site plan level this this a little bit questionable activity going on I appreciate it this is good information are there any other questions before I open it to a public hearing all right at this might I I just want to I'm not sure what my colleague has said but we we have routinely approved zoning cases with just textual before so I I don't I don't want.

I mean probably hundreds I so I don't I don't want to suggest that there's something a miss about whether it's graphic or textual I just want to for the record reflect that I I voted for many of them as as have all of us actually thank you all right yeah thank you I good information we're gonna we're gonna stay focused on this case and now we're about to get really on this case and I'm going to open this up to a public hearing officially open it up and I have very few signups here actually I just have the applicant welcome and welcome back because you're here a lot yeah so thank you how much time do you think you need I don't think I will need more than five minutes all right Madam C could you please put seven minutes on and thank you Mr Kane for your presentation I'm Neil G an attorney with the Morning Star Law Group at 700 West Main Street in Durham I'm new to this.

Project having just been engaged last week because the applicant is not able to be here tonight so I'll do my best to fill in this is a small residential project on just over 5 Acres the project is made up of five Parcels they are each roughly about an acre a piece I bring this up because the requested rezoning is consistent with the place type map designation for four out of five Parcels but the northern parcel has a Suburban commercial Place type map designation while I cannot speak specifically to why the designation is different for that parcel I think if you zoom out on the playsite map you can see that it's at the edge of the Suburban commercial Place type designation in other words changing this one acre to residential is not going to materially alter the vision for this region on the place type map there's still a large Suburban commercial area designation left moreover that particular parcel has an existing cemetery on it which has been alluded to and that cemetery is.

Towards the front of that parcel towards Clayton Road we have a commitment that we will not be disturbing the cemetery but I wanted to bring this up just to illustrate maybe one more reason why the Suburban commercial playside map designation might not make sense for that individual parcel with a less intense residential development I think a long-term the the long-term preservation of that Cemetery will be more successful interestingly if you do a survey of the existing housing stock in the area you will find that there really are not a lot of town homes right here in fact there is a mix of uses with manufacturing and flex space kind of to the West there's a school to the South and really a lot of single family detached homes or housing in this area so the addition of town homes is going to add to the housing options for folks we did receive a unanimous recommendation of approval from the Planning Commission which I think you all know is pretty rare but this is a.

5 acre track that by right could be developed with something like 11 single family detached homes so in my mind I I mean this seems like a pretty straightforward and small sensible project finally I did just want to note that there have been no additional changes since the Planning Commission a few items were added during the Planning Commission meeting but those already are reflected in the packet we've got the oversized snc ponds which has been mentioned earlier we have monetary contributions to DPS and the dedicated housing fund we also are doing a 10-ft shared path along the frontage along with Road improvements right at the entr entrance and there are various design commitments as well I'm available to answer any questions you have happy to talk more about innc ponds and hope to have your support tonight for a small and sensible project thank you very much thank you so much and all right the yeah this is the other person is okay I don't have any signups colleagues any questions council member.

Cook all right I I have a whole list of questions and and I heard you say that you just got on this project a week ago I hope you'll you'll be able to answer at least some of them for me so you heard my questions before to the staff and the reason that I was asking that about specifically about the price on developing development of a unit unit is that we are seeing commitments of actual units of affordable units and this as you stated earlier does not include any affordable units it does have a small amount towards the affordable housing fund and I just I'm going to say that commissioner cutright on speaking on a different project not on this one but he did note how funds are a pretty inefficient system to meet the real needs of affordability in our community given the cost that it takes to build an affordable unit which is why I was I was doing some research on that last night and what I was Finding.

Was that it it can cost anywhere between 2 and $300,000 to build an affordable unit one affordable unit out of these would be roughly in that 5% range that we've been seeing so my question is given the fact that there are no units that have been proferred are we able to see a larger commitment in terms of the monetary donation that would actually make a difference in terms of affordability so and I can't I can't make any additional commitment to that tonight I mean I appreciate your question where you're coming from I will I mean so like I said nothing about the project has changed since the Planning Commission what you're referring to the you know the monetary contribution to the dedicated housing fund was something that the Planning Commission was aware of they were also aware of the ex non-existence of actual affordable units in this project this is at Max 35 town home units which is very difficult for the a builder to underwrite U affordable units in there because they can't really.

Spread the cross the cost of it across other well too many other units so that that makes it very difficult for a project of this size to really offer to put units in there as far as the monetary contribution I think I mentioned the client is not here tonight so I really can't make a commitment in that regard but you know like I said the commitment is the same as it was at the Planning Commission which ultimately did unanimously support this project yeah I did watch the Planning Commission and also the applicant at that time stated that they did a survey and didn't find any Rock but that they would be doing more looking into whether they could commit to no blasting so are you saying that you also can't make any commitments about blasting tonight either right so what we found it was they did some I believe it's a penetrating radar tests they found that there was no Rock bed within at a 15ot depth on the site at least that's what their.

Preliminary studies suggest and so that strongly suggests that there will not be blasting at the site but it's not something we can commit to because we don't have I we're not 100% certain that we're not that we're not going to hit rock but there seems to be a very strong likelihood that there will not be blasting necessary for this project I'm just I'm just going to express on it's not your fault but it is a little frustrating because like those those statements were made as like we will follow up on this and then you're coming here unable to to offer any different differences than what we saw at the Planning Commission so it is a bit frustrating to hear that conversation at the Planning Commission and then to be having this conversation today just want to express that again not anyone's fault I the other question and and again you you might not have any information on this but has there been any extra Community involvement because I know at.

The at the time that the Planning Commission happened there were only three attendees that came to the one Community meeting and commissioner copac raised the issue and and I agree with him that this is a more rent burdened and and higher percentage of people of color area and so I'm just wondering if there has been anybody that has reached out since that time or any more engagement not to my knowledge I mean certainly not in the last week since I've been involved in the project but I did ask this question to the applicant I mean there there just has not been a lot of community engagement on this project they had the community meeting they had the public hearing and I think you've seen the level of Engagement there has been in the community and then I guess my final question is I mean and he talked a little bit more about it in the Planning Commission you you noted it a little bit here too that there's sort of this.

Northern space around where the cemetery is that there's not going to be development however there's no commitment to any open space on the project and and I know it's it's not very many town houses but it is several acres and so I think there would be space for that I'm wondering if that if the cemetery is causing an issue with that or if there's just so it's well it's five acres but there's no specific commitment to open space because the Udo already requires open space so there will be open space with this development okay but no dedicated any open space that's interactive or has any structural on any well actually so the Udo requires a certain amount of open space overall and it requires a third of that amount to be I'm going to say active open space so you know that has amenities so to speak in it so those are those would be required of any development with this project there's no specific commitment to it but they.

Will be there okay required to be there those are all my questions thanks colleagues any other Council I got a couple question but let me I also want to pick up on U my colleague council member Cook's question about affordability so so I hear what you're saying about there's with a smaller development it's like 35 units right that there's less units to spread the cost of affordability across because I'm also concerned about affordable housing right but it I mean are you suggesting there's some kind of economies of scale because it seems like if you if you do a 100 units and 6% are affordable that's six units you got to spread the cost those six over the 100 right so whether it's whether it's two units spread across 35 or four across 70 are there economies of scale there or isn't it the same so so part there are economies of scale that go into it but you know part of the it every I think Mr Kane was saying this earlier.

What it costs to build a unit is kind of a nebulous question it really depends on the site and it also depends on the infrastructure that's there at the site so you know part of the let's say new development process when you're when you're building a new sub division is the cost of bringing all the utilities to that site is the cost of bringing every utility to each parcel which that gets I mean that's going to change on depending on every project but there's no doubt about it that the larger the project is the the greater the ability is to spread that cost over more units part of this is a is a market analysis that that takes place right so for example you could build a house on this property that you try you market for just $3 million or whatever does that mean it will sell no right like so they have to balance all of these factors when they're looking at any type of development obviously real estate.

Investment real estate development is a risky business so there's a lot of factors that go into it I'm not sure how to answer your your question but I will say the larger a project is the that the more likely you are able to underwrite some of the additional costs or you know for for affordable housing a smaller project makes it very difficult to do that okay thank you my next question is about so as I think you know I'm on the I'm on the bike cestrian advisory committee I'm also on the no right so so this idea of vision zero and safety for for bikers pedestrians drivers is critical we just had two two people die in motorcycle access in the last couple weeks right so I know that the I know that the the U Builders committed to a 10- foot wide shared path along the frontage on Clayton Road right MH there was also a request from Transportation about another 10-ft shared use path along the west side of.

Clayton Road to avoid sidewalk gaps that was not that was not they didn't choose to do that I wonder if you could yeah right so that's that is primarily because that's offsite the right of way for the sidewalk doesn't exist so in order to to build That Sidewalk we'd have to acquire additional rideway which is not something that the city I don't think legally is able to help if we were to make that type of commitment because we're not able to secure the right away ahead of time it would be you know a little bit foolish to make a commitment to provide an improvement essentially on someone else's property without actually having the ability to do that so the I mean I understand the request it's sensible but the reason the request wasn't made is because the right of way today is insufficient to cre to fill that Gap and there's no guarantee that we'll be able to get that right of way in order to build the sidewalk which would then.

Hamstring the project if we made the commitment but those other property owners were unwilling to provide the right away so fair enough on that then there was also a request from BAC from there the the the committee of beack that does review all these proposals for an on-road protected bike lane using Ballard along Clayton Road how about that yeah so I that is a request that comes up a lot from BAC and and has come up consistently and I'm not sure why I've had conversations with folks that are on bpac the that the on Street bike lane whether it's baller protected or whatever is not favored by ncdot and in fact that commitment which which used to be fairly standard to have 5T of additional pavement for for a bike lane that has gone away and instead is being replaced in favor of a 10-ft multi-use path that's why it's 10t the the requirement under the Udo would be a 5-ft sidewalk the 10-ft sidewalk allows for both bicycle and foot traffic.

Call that pedestrian traffic so the the the commitment they're asking for for bike facility is already I mean there's already bike facility provided with the commitment we've made with the shared use path you're saying that's exactly what it's for that's what a shared use path is for for it's for sharing with pedestrians and bicycles okay I was again as a member of BAC I want to make sure that those those recommendations are are carefully considered so I appreciate that I'll go back to BAC and talk more with them about sort of you know what they're you know what what they're looking for with this request for the for the bike facility Well I I mean I I would definitely encourage it because like I said this request comes up from bpac often and it's inconsistent with the guidance that developers or applicants are getting from ncdot and from and from the city for that matter because the on street bike lane is just not favored any longer and so I.

Don't know for quite some time now we've been doing a 10- foot side path instead to accommodate both the bicycle and pedestrian traffic thank. You all right may ro thank you Mr Mayor thank you what what is the amount of the contribution to the dedicated housing fund $35,000 and what's the contribution to the during Public Schools $5,000 what did the anticipated in perfect science but anticipated price point to the units yes so looking at the market as it is today if they were building these today they believe they could deliver these in the 299,000 range for sale for sale that's right right really really quickly I I'm going to support this project it's a relatively small project relatively small footprint when I say relatively to to what normally comes before us I'm going to trust the expertise on the Planning Commission on this one I think they got it right I think your comments were on point in terms of impact in terms of environment different form of housing.

In the area as well yeah I think they got this one right I'm going to trust their expertise I recommend we do the. Same thank you mayor proen council member thank you just very quickly I will also be supporting this project I think that we've seen similar anytime we get into that 50 unit or less there's been several in the last year which we want they they're often smaller developers we've seen a number of you know local firsttime projects come before us with this with this Council since December and I don't think if I'm not mistaken I don't think any of them have been able to pull off an actual unit all of them have been able to contribute to the fund and I think that that part of that issue is exactly what you have named Mr go it's just harder to make it work when we're not dealing with you know several hundred units so my vote of yes is consistent with some of the other kind of smaller.

50 and under I think there was one near the off hillindale maybe off of one yeah and there was one the coill and then the Riverside graduate there's been a number of those that we've seen this past year I don't know any of them I don't think any of them were your case because they were small enough that they just came before Council so it's consistent with what this Council has approved to date knowing that it is harder and also we want some of these smaller developers and smaller sites to come in we don't want kind of get poned if we we don't want the really big ones but then we also don't want the small ones because we can't get units I mean it just ends up being that we don't want anything so I will be supporting it thank you can you all hear us thought there okay if if we could have the volume turned up a little bit I thought it was just my ears need a ear cleaning or.

Something but I can't really hear you up oh that's much better it's like magic thank you all little Reverb all right colleagues any any other comments all right just I I think this is a really good project I do have a question for staff could you come up for a. Second okay could what's the average home cost right now in Durham in our metro area if I excuse me if I'm remembering correctly I believe it's a little north of $400,000 425 oh yeah I want to say I Saw 4 16 was the most recent but it's it's in that low 400s right now thank you what's the going rate if these were going to get today again 299,000 is what they were thinking they they would be able to deliver these at today for sale for sale right I think this is a great project I look forward to supporting it I I like that it's manageable I also want to make sure that you know something I want.

I'll make a comment after we get out of close session just to Stage your remain to the topic thank you so much all right if there are no other comments then I'll declare this public hearing closed and back before the council all right colleagues I've heard your comments I will. Yeah entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing annexing Clayton Road tow houses into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with Eden's Investments Incorporated so moved second it's been moved and properly seconded we will take a vote by hand oh oh no we're ready okay move the propably second M clerk please open the vote please close to vote.

Yeah my is not working the motion passes oh your your clicker didn't work I'm sorry I voted yes but yet my my thing's okay then it's got a problem five to two all right so we'll go back to hand votes but Madam cler do you have that recorded 5 to2 5 to2 with cook and Freeman voting now all right thank you so much and I'll now also entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential Suburban 20 and Falls Jordan Lake Watershed Protection District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as plan development residential 6897 and Falls Jordan Lake Watershed Protection District B City jurisdiction moved is red second it's been moved and properly seconded all in favor please show by raising your.

Hand all opposed motion passes 5-2 with council members cook and Freeman voting no thank you lastly I'll entertain a motion to adopt the consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute section6 D- 605 move to adopt consistency second and move the properly second it Madam Clerk I'm sorry all in favor please show by raising your hand the motion passes 7 to zero thank you so much I was going to make a comment that you know I think that as we are seeing these cases come forward just you know being able to see all of the components what it takes to to create it and and comparing it to just the market in this current day the morning information the better it'll it'll be very helpful and I'm saying this just out into the universe of developers as you all are bringing projects to us bring your best put forward and and we could you know be able to make those sound decisions without having to dig too deep but this that that was a.

Really easy Pro easy case to follow and looking into that information thank you I will now move on to item 25. Excuse me mayor Williams mayor protm Middleton and honorable council members a request for a zoning map change has been received by from Kelly Kion of 54 friends LLC for one parcel of land totaling 0.582 acres and located at 1414 NC Highway 54 the current zoning is residential Suburban 20 the applicant proposes to change this designation to office and institutional with a textual development plan to allow up to 6,000 square ft of non-residential building space the properties currently designated Neighborhood Services on the place type map the proposed office and institutional with a textual development plan zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type thank you and staff and the applicant are available to answer questions thank you you've heard the staff report colleagues are there any questions for staff yes counc member cook hello okay hey I and this is again U my apologies for not looking.

This up but you said it was generally consistent with the place type map wouldn't that depend on the the usage of the building yes and I believe in the stat I believe in the development plan it talks about it being limited to office uses and generally in office and institutional the office uses that are are the ones that are permitted in that zoning District generally be looking for what we're looking for in Neighborhood Services okay I have a couple more I'm just going to take some oh I.

Know and what does this designation allow for at its Max because there there was some talk about that 6,000 square fet was the maximum and that was I I assume a restriction that the developer put on themselves but correct what is allow is there a maximum square footage Allowed by Max in this you mean if they didn't have the development plan and they were just going to office an institution without a development plan without a restriction what would be the max if you were already zoned for this would you have any restrictions in terms of square footage in terms of square footage yes and no so in terms of square footage no we don't have a a something in the Udo but you would be limited for height you would be limited for building coverage you would have certain other restrictions that would essentially limit the amount of square footage your building could be but I don't believe we have a per se maximum square footage thank you and then there was also a.

Little bit about that there had been some designated for recreation and open space because it was a potential flood plane and I'm wondering if you could just talk about the correlation between the two of those so generally on our place type map we have tried as much as poss possible to align the recreation and Open Space Place type where it applies to where we are we have known flood planes of the most recent mapping and so that just really provides an identification for as developers are going in or or the general public or yourselves as elected officials where we would like to try to avoid having you know development having impervious surface and disturbance in those areas okay and is that is that just due to a security nature is it due to an environmental nature like what is the is there a reason behind that a reason behind having the recreation and open space designation on flood planes yes yeah so to ident so because flood planes we don't we do not prohibit development.

In the plug plane we have pretty big restrictions on that development and so we're really looking for that in an ideal world where we everything would be built exactly the way our place type is we wouldn't have development in those areas because of the environmental damage that would do okay it is environmental okay thank you those are my questions all right at this time I'll declare this a public hearing and I have one sign up the applicant Mr Neil go welcome back how much time do you think you need five minutes Adam clerk please put seven minutes on the clock and thank you Mr Kane again for your presentation this is again Neil G Attorney At The Morning Star Law Group 700 West Main Street and Durham unlike the last one I've been with this project since the beginning so I know a little bit about it and this is even smaller project I think the best way to describe this request is to go into a little bit.

Of the story of this property the property was acquired by my client which is a small business owner who is looking to establish their office in this location when they acquired the property there was a derck residential structure on the property in fact it was the subject of notices of violation from neighborhood Improvement Services for various issues so that's what they inherited kind of their first act as the new owner of this property was to resolve those citations obviously they wanted to do that in the most cost-effective way possible and in this case it actually meant demolishing the existing structure which was so far in disrepair and also needed as asbestos abatement so that's what they did and they and there are no longer any outstanding NIS citations on the property nor is the structure on the property any longer obviously that was a little bit of a setback for them but they are interested in establishing their office here which is why we're moving forward to rezoning the.

Requested zoning here is well I think the request is straightforward is for o and I the site is about half an acre it can basically fit one structure on it you know not that that's technically a requirement but it's a small parcel that would you know if you were establishing an office there you can basically fit one building on there it has Frontage on Highway 54 and Dresden Drive this is actually a very V busy segment of 54 and so ncdot informed us that access will have to be only from dresen Drive which is reflected in our zoning commitments the oi zoning District which we've requested is fairly Limited in what's allowed to to begin with basically the district allows residential uses and office uses but not really a whole lot of retail or Services we have taken it a step further and eliminated some more uses specifically residential and drive-throughs obviously the owner wants to use it as an office but it also makes sense to preserve at least some flexibility in.

The Zoning for you know potential future uses we did have two Community meetings and we also have had further correspondence with Mr Barefoot who is our direct neighbor to the north in fact it was his concern that led us to add a zoning commitment to beef up the storm water management for the site again the project received a unanimous recommendation of approval from the Planning Commission I think it's a small straightforward office project on a corridor where you kind of see that thing that type of thing already just down the street there's a dry cleaners and then like a realtor's office they're all right here fronting Highway 54 so I'm available to answer any questions you have thank you for your time to tonight look forward to.

It thank you so much you've heard the report I don't have any signups from any other speakers so colleagues are there any question any other questions okay I have some questions for you attorney go you just had stated that y'all had had beefed up the storm water management there were some comments in the Planning Commission requests for a 100-year storm as opposed to I think yall had a 25 year and you noted some difficulties in increasing from the 25 could you just talk a little bit more about y'all have not increased from that is that correct no we have not we're sing 25 year I mean this that's really an engineering problem it's a small site they got to fit a building they got to fit parking they got to fit utility that type of thing and the infrastructure including the storm water I we just don't know that there's enough space to handle the 100e storm there's nothing I mean we're just not at that level of.

Engineering so I mean any kind of storm water management on this site which we've beefed up already over what the udio required is well in excess of what was there previously which was nothing right it was a single family home didn't have any kind of storm water controls and so our neighbor to the north who had concerns about flooding that's understandable however what they were experiencing was the straight runoff that had there was no treatment no attempt even to control that so any kind of new development here whether we beefed up the storm water control measur is actually going to result in an improvement over that situation but we we did go up to the 25e storm the 100e storm it could be possible it's just not something that we're really comfortable committing to because we just don't have that level of engineering figured out yet gotcha okay and then at the Planning Commission you talked about that you would have a more detailed conversation with your client regarding.

Some of bac's specific asks yeah sure did and the okay BAC had several I don't know comments that are well they're a little bit difficult for us to understand some of them expand so I'll start I just go through them if that makes sense that's fine that'd be great yeah so there was one about building raised crosswalks across any car access point to keep pedestrians at the level of the sidewalk we don't have any access so there's already existing sidewalk on 54 we don't have any access from 54 so there's not going to be any driveways there dresen drive is currently developed it's got sidewalk on the other side of Dres and drive it's unclear to me whether there's actually going to be sidewalk on this side and if there is would only be on our you know parcel so just that depth there would be a driveway there and we're comfortable having you know keeping the elevation the same there if there is sidewalk but I don't know that.

There will be there isn't sidewalk on that side of dren to begin with okay the next request was about a 12ft wide multi-use path connect to a the 10ft wide multiuse path on dresen drive so we've not made a commitment I mean the the path already exists and we've not made a commitment to make it larger the looks like there's a commitment there to 5T of additional right away right for Highway 54 that's correct yeah and it's not where the request is no I you're right it's Dres Ro for the for the so that's what I said so some of these were the way that they were written was a little bit just confusing about which street did applies to but let me put it this way we are dedicating 5T additional rway on 54 and we are not we've not made any commitments that would affect what what's happening on 54 which is you know a well traveled Road as it is but the commitment to include a 5- foot buffer between dresen.

Drive roadway and the New multi-use Path I mean there the we did not make that commitment there is a multi-use path there already wait I'm sorry you said I thought you said there was the the on 54 there on 54 but not on dresen on the other side of Dr on the other side of Dresden yeah there right so we don't we don't have a that's what I'm saying we can't buffer from it it's on the other side you yeah and they did request bicycle parking that's visible 254 I think that was I'm guessing was spefic specific to kind of the the multi-use path itself we we haven't made that commit we're not touching that path that's on 54 that exists already so this site doesn't have any bicycle parking requirement given its size so we've not made a commitment for that and Native Street trees along 54 I don't you know I don't actually recall having that conversation with my client I don't know why that would be a problem but the high visibility.

Crosswalk across stren Drive unclear to me that there is going to be a crosswalk on dresen Drive so we didn't make that commitment either so I think a lot of these commitments are are really looking at making 54 and this this experience for bicyclists and pedestrians safer which is a laudable goal but I it's just there there's so many items that are outside of our control as applicant just on that corner parcel to address these things and they're not necessarily in line with what our understanding is the city has plans to widen 54 I believe which is why they are asking for or whether it's the city or ncdot which is why they're asking for U rideway additional rideway there so you know we're the sidewalk is actually relatively new in front of this parcel I think it was put in in like 2019 or something like that so you know we're we're we've not really made any kind of commitment to disrupt what's already there we have made a commitment to dedicate the.

Additional 5T of RightWay and I assume that there will be plans in the future where they're going to rip all that stuff up anyway okay my last question is going to be a deep dive legal question so bear with me actually before you can just I'm glad you picked up council member cook on the the bpad comments again that's something I'm going to raise every time the on of the crosswalk so so you're right there's no existing crosswalk there but I guess the request is to have a crosswalk across resident to connect to the sidewalk that's on the other side right yeah no no I I understand what the request is I'm not sure that a crosswalk across shesin Drive is going to be allowed I mean this is right on Highway 54 this isn't like I don't I don't know that there that that is a pedestrian movement that is being encouraged right so I'm not making a commitment to do crosswalk there however if it comes up.

At the time of site plan that's City wants a a a stripe crosswalk there that's not an issue but to commit to it now I think is suggesting that that is something the city wants it's not my understanding I understand that that it it was a suggestion from beack but because the sidewalk continues down 54 right so so oh yeah the sidewalk on the other side of dresen I'm I'm Sor I'm sorry the sidewalk across dresen on 54 same side that had been there for a while the new sidewalk is actually one in front of our parcel that that's that's was was added in like 2019 I believe so that but that other sidewalk has been there for a while you are correct down 54 exactly down 54 that's been there for a while and that's the whole issue is connectivity right so I mean one would assume that's what the sidewalk is for you know ultimately but it's it's not necessarily safe to cross you know there are movements you.

Don't necessarily want to encourage even though they might be necessary for people to make from time to time I think that's why the request is there to sort so you could if you wanted to continue walking down 54 there'd be a safe way to do that so but I I appreciate it if it comes up in site plan I hope you'll consider that oh yeah if it comes up in site plan then we'll do it but to make the commitment now I don't think we can because we we don't know that that's what the city wants just real quick let me close this public hearing officially okay and so I'm declaring the public hearing closed at this time if I could to address the crosswalk issue across dresed Drive the issue is that on the West Side the ramp the Ada ramp does not line up with the ramp on the east side and so you'd have a diagonal crosswalk that would essentially start putting you out into the lane of traffic that.

Crosswalk on the west side looks like it's an older one the way we used to do things the one on the east side is is you know new school that's old school They Don't line up well and so we would not want that crosswalk the way it's currently configured now should NCD at some point I know they have plans to eventually widen that portion of nc-54 that will all get straightened out once that's widened and we can have a crosswalk that's much safer thanks I didn't recognize that that was the issue but yeah I the I know what you're talking about those Ada ramps do not line up great legal question okay so the manager of the LLC who is also the applicant is using this address as the manager address for the LLC on the Secretary of State website but it's neither the registered agent nor the primary office is that strange I have no idea I mean Morning Star is also listed as the representative on I mean you are also on.

There as a point of contact for the entity on this yeah yeah I'm not a corporate attorney at Morning Star Law Group we definitely do entity formation I'm not I'm not even sure what your question is I mean I to me it is strange and I just am curious about it because I was looking at the Secretary of State website it's strange to me that then the 1414 North Carolina Highway 54 is listed as the manager's address add for the LLC this the deed is is in the llc's name not the manager's name I just thought it was interesting that she the applicant Kelly Ken has has this address listed as her managerial address for the LLC and we're going through this rezoning and she doesn't own it to my knowledge there's no male receptacle there right no building there I don't I mean I don't okay I just was wondering if you had any information since it wasn't Morning Star it's a fair question but I assure you I that's not what I do.

I also don't know and I also understand because I do housing and I don't know so that was just an interesting question that I had thank you that's all council member Baker I think these these bpack questions bring up some interesting conversation because I I I really don't like seeing our zoning map change reports with lots of of BAC recommendations and responses to them that say no commitment has been made to address this request and I think it's a combination of factors here bpac is looking at a sight and is making you know sort of judgment calls based on knowledge of best practices and and I don't want to ask them to be less bold because I want them to be bold in their recommendations I also want to balance that with what's realistic and there are a number of different things here some of these are going to be addressed at the site plan stage some of these are issues of we are AB buding ncdot right of away and there's just.

A lot of questions and ncdot doesn't follow design best practices so I'm just wrestling a little bit with that Carl I'm looking at you because you're our our bpac liaison so maybe just a conversation to have with bpac and see what they need need to help so that we can make sure that they've got the the resources that they need to to be fully informed or maybe there's another way of providing recommendations or they get some staff support or whatever whatever might be necessary because I I would like to have to eventually get to a point where either we know some of these things are going to happen because they are embedded in our design standards or you know we know what the priority is or you know we know that there are one or two recommendations that we really need to go to bat for even if a applicant doesn't want to do them so just just wanted to just wanted to lay that out there because I.

Do think that these are that these are really important that these recommendations are are really important and I and I want us to I want us to take them seriously and council member cook you know I think about that question a lot about in terms of who owns the property sometimes there's a pending sale you know LLC you know sometimes you know T typically has like a corporate owner that owns many many llc's and I like to know that information and I have seen I've SE I have seen other communities do provide information in in different sorts of ways I think I think that would be something that would be interesting to explore is having being fully informed about about who who we're dealing with and and I think that can help inform the conversation so I think this is a case I'll be supporting it Planning Commission supported it unanimously so I'll follow their lead on this one thank you go ahead C biger I appreciate your.

Your your respond to that yeah I think I think what's going on here is is in part what we want from our advisory commissions right so bpac is like they're not thinking necessarily about what makes the best site plan or the most you know they're thinking about what's connectivity like for bikers and pedestrians that's what their that's what their screen is and so the folks that review every application for Zing are looking at exactly what does this do for our bike and pedestrian Network right so that's what they're but I think your question's good and maybe just sort of figure out are there some things we need to really hone in on that that are absolutes or musthaves or something but I think yeah I think they're trying to they're trying to do what we all want to do is create a better connectivity for bikers and.

Pedestrians all right thank you so much I I just just had a quick question for staff as well more of a practical question and and this is very general but how much when it comes to infrastructure I I'm I'm all for you know getting no offense to you all applicants or developers out there but I'm all for getting out of the builder at the moment at the time as much as we can but in reality how much of this infrastructure on building should we consider consider on the city Side as well from a practical sense like what what are some common practices that you see so I mean you're if you're that that's that's getting policy issues and budget issues that I'm not and that's that's it's kind of like the how much does it cost to build a house question right it's it's very site specific if you've got a flat piece of land with not a lot of RightWay issues it's pretty easy to build a sidewalk if you've got topography issues.

If you've got land ownership issues that that becomes very difficult and what you thought was a half million doll sidewalk project becomes a 12 million sidewalk project pretty quickly and we're all well aware of when those have happened we do have Udo requirements for building sidewalks and bicycle facility shared use paths and so forth that we do require those at site plan or we get them committed during the zoning bigger picture issues do become state and city thank you I I asked that qu I asked that question partially rhetorically and partially out of curiosity simply because the the the implications of trying to enforce all of the the preferential addition I would call them it's great to get them while we can but My worry is the implication is the cost is pushed off to the person at the end of the at the end of the line and I just want to make sure that as we're considering infastructure hopefully in the future we position the city to be we position ourselves well enough.

To be more of a partner in development rather than just pushing it off to someone or or an in where we have no control over the outcome on the resident of whoever may be living in that place or utilizing that space and we can't say we want affordable housing or we want affordable anything when we're having all of these upfront things and then we push it to the end and the Builder or whoever is responsible says now because of everything I had to do I'm pushing it off to you resident and now we said in the beginning we want a affordable housing but we don't get it so I'm I'm asking that question and stating that just to shape you know the conversation and look at both ends of it so thank you Mr Mayor on that I mean to be clear like on this case for example I mean roads are already there right water so already so the Public's got a big investment existing sidewalks are there.

So I think we're just asking the development communities to be part of that I mean you all we talk about this almost every case right so I think we're trying to balance that what the private developers can do in addition to what the public has and will do no totally totally I think this was another case where it was a it was a great Exemplar of you know what's available to us as far as information you know and I looked at I looked at the amount of you know request from from from from the comments bab had and and I'm thinking you know what how how would that how would those comments have been shaped if everyone started out at the initial phase of trying to develop a particular site you know so rather than things happening in isolation but I have some ideas for that coming up in the future where we can as we're looking at developing sites or building communities rather than everything being in succession we could we could have.

More a planning upfront planning. Stage just a quick question I know you closed the meeting I just want to make sure that you state or say or at least let us know that there's no one signed sign up to speak this is a public hearing and you know I think we've been clear that folks needed or folks in the room can sign up to speak and folks online cannot but you want to make sure that people understand it's a public hearing they should be able to just yeah I I stated it I I've been just really trying to be really consistent with the rules I didn't have anyone signed up so I I stated that no one signed up and you know we try to be consistent as much as possible all right so I don't have any other comments we will now entertain our.

Motions all right Motion One I'll entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential Suburban 20 and false Jordan Watershed protection overlay District B and establishing the same as office and institutional with the textual textual development plan and FSE Jordan Lake FS Jordan Watershed protection overlay District B so moved second second it's been moved and properly seconded all in favor please show by raising your hand right the motion passes unanimously thank you and motion two I'll entertain a motion to adopt a consistence consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute section 160d d605 so moved second been moved and properly seconded please show by raising your hand if you're in favor thank you the motion passes 70 thank you so much.

All right and time 8:30 all right let's see if we can get through this one before having to take a break but if not we'll take a break at 9 o'clock and the next one is item number 26 this is the last public hearing Mr King thank you Mr Mayor mayor proem and honorable council members a request for a utility extension agreement voluntary annexation an initial zoning map change has been received from Erica leam of Mi homes of Raleigh LLC for one parcel of land totaling 13.22 acres and located at 433 Sharon Road the annex this annexation petition is for a contiguous annexation of the primary corporate limits to allow up to 100 tow houses and accessory uses the properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place typen at the proposed plan development residential 7.69 zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the place type designation thank you and staff and the applicant are available for any questions thank.

You before opening to public hearing colleagues are there any questions all right mayor protim of VI you can take over and council member cook go ahead thank. You I have several questions this is going to be do my best on comprehensive plan consistency and how we make determinations around it sure so how do we choose the policies to determine the comprehensive plan consistency so when we get that consistency statement it does not include all of the things that are relevant to the sections in the comprehensive plan so for example I think this one has like item 33 and then it jumps to 37 it includes ones that on our consistency statement are listed as not applicable but I'm wondering how we determine which ones get skipped over from the from the comprehensive plan if some of them are not applicable anyway why do they not all get on there MH so there's gosh aund are there 200 there there's two it's it's a little over 200 policies in the comprehensive plan in.

The comprehensive plan you'll notice that many of them are signaled with a d which stands for development oh I've got questions about that too great okay y so those are the ones that we targeted for inclusion in in our staff reports and reviewing those policies for whether or not applications are consistent with those and I believe for those it's 32 33 somewhere around there so not all of those ones are included and also when and then there are other ones that are includ like there are other ones that are included that don't have that demarcation okay so that's it's I mean my reading of it that's not consistent so how do how do we choose we that happened around the time that I started here we went through a process internally with staff and looking at which policies were most applicable to to these and again we I thought we were doing the ones with D's if we miss some then we'll go back and and look at that but if there are.

Policies that we're not including that you'd like to see included certainly let us know which ones those are and we can take an assessment of that thank you yeah I had a minor computer malfunction earlier which my it Department did a great job in in restarting but I had all my tabs open including all of the items next to this checklist but I'm also curious I mean I I'm hearing you say that that the plan was sort of to put the the ones that were demarcated as the more important on there when we get our checklist though we don't we don't see that they're not weighted any differently than any of the other policies that are on that list is that true what what do you mean by weighted well I mean if if we've got this comprehensive plan and and it shows that you know I and now I I can't remember off the top of my head but if it says item 40 is a really important one and then you've given us.

3940 and 41 and so when we're looking at the consistency statement we only see you know Advocate or applicant meets five of 10 but what we don't see is that the five that are not met were all designated as more important like they don't get any different weight depending on that designation we no we have we have not as we go through as staff to determine whether a project is consistent with the policies or not we don't wait one policy over another that's kind of a policy direction that that you all would take and as to which policies you all feel are more important we we don't make a judgment on that totally yeah I mean it to me it's just is a little bit difficult because we're given that the comprehensive plan consistency statement as part of our as part of our documentation and and there's you know several attachment so we're we're looking through quite a bit of documentation before we get started on on these zoning projects.

And yeah I mean it's just a little bit hard to then make a value call if if every time I feel like I have to go back to the comprehensive plan and look at all of the policies that were not included and so it and and I'm just I'm struggling because I I do want to be consistent with the comprehensive plan and and I've heard my colleagues up here talk about oh it meets this number or this number you know we have a clear majority or something like this and I'm and I'm concerned that if we aren't waiting them appropriately or if we maybe aren't including all of the ones that might should be included that we're getting numbers that don't make sense it's not like anything that we can solve tonight I was just curious about it I'll keep looking so when you have that attachment in your packet always the same policies for every case okay we not we're not changing the policies now some might not be applicable in one case and.

Are applicable in another for example there are policies there you go there are there are policies regarding mobile home parks right well if if the site is not a mobile home park then that policy doesn't apply right there are certain policies regarding flood planes or Greenways if there's no planned Greenway or no flood plan on the site that policy does not apply but another project it may apply because it has a or flood plan so but yeah the list of 32 33 34 policies are the same for every case that you see we don't change that up okay thank you yeah and for folks watching I just I want to our comprehensive plan I've talked about this before but this is a this is a plan that this board adops prior to my sitting on it in October of 2023 it's with input from the Durham Community and lots of work with our staff about what we want to see in terms of development for Durham and so when we're looking at consistency statements we're.

Looking to see if the applications that we're getting are consistent with these community-led goals for the development of Durham so this the reason for my questions and I did not know that all the lists were all the same so that is that is interesting and and I'm going to look through because I do think that they're oh are you about to tell me they're not the same well okay so the the main part is the same Sarah reminded me that there are at the very bottom of that attachment there's Place type policies and so we only apply the we only are bringing you those for which are applicable to that place type right so if it's a if it's a project that's in a mixed residential neighborhood Place type we're not giving you an analysis of the general Industrial Place type policy so that is the difference there will be a on the place type policies they will be specific and applicable to that particular place type.

But the the long list before you get to that they're always the same right okay because I got tripped out because I what I was seeing was that we were skipping over ones that were relevant to the type of zoning we were looking at but what you're saying is that if we get a type specific type of zoning we're getting the same list of however many policies each time list might change depending on the typee yeah you'll see at the at the yeah you'll see at the bottom of that attachment there's a separate box that says Place type policies those will change based on the place type for which the application is being made the rest everything before that the policies are always the same their applicability May different but we're giving you the same policies every time okay and then this is actually on to the talking about whether or not it's consistent with its designation do you all have a specific methodology that you use to determine that because I mean.

I'm I'm reading these definitions and I do think that they're subjective and so when y'all make a recommendation or you say that this is generally consistent do you have a methodology are there is there a checklist for these various things how are we coming up with is it Vibe check like how are we coming up with General consistency right so General consistency is what we're doing is we're looking at the application we're looking at the place type there's not a checklist right there's t Transit opportunity area has five specific Place type policies the rest of them are two maybe one some of them have zero so it it's hard for us to you know have a checklist or a scoring mechanism or anything like that it is it is rather subjective and we're looking to see if what they're asking for is again basically meets the intent of the policies are they again in general getting at what is being asked for in the policies yeah Vibe check it it's on vibes okay yeah so.

Specifically this one mixed residential neighborhood that's coming up for this project to bring it back to relevance do we compare I know that this is one that we look at the surrounding areas to determine if there is diversity in types of housing do we look at approved developments and current developments or do we only look at structures that are already existing we look at approved we do not look at proposed developments we do look at approved developments so if there is a if if we have an application and it's for tow houses and a predominantly single family area but there's also three nearby approved but not yet constructed townh houses developments we would note that we would do our best to note that yes let let me Chim in real quick I council member cook I appreciate this and this deep dive I want to make sure we can get to the case this is relevant to the case I about to ask a very case specific question so in.

The just and also just I want to make sure that we are taking advantage of these resources as well just so we not prolonging this prod the process as well but go ahead yeah I'm just going to push back about that a little bit because I do think that's important that it's in public because this is a comprehensive plan this is the this is the Public's goal for Durham and we're getting recommendations for staff that stuff is going onto our public agenda and when we see something that says this is this is consistent we need to know what that means that was come up totally got it just I just want to make sure we're utilizing the resource person so that we won't have to prolong as much but go ahead so at the Planning Commission meeting on this specific on the specific project it was stated that there were no tow houses in the surrounding areas but there are actually quite a few developments that have already been approved and are some are in.

Construction that do have tow houses and so was I'm just wondering where the where that it seems like there's a little bit of a divide there there there there may have been we'll we'll make sure to keep a better track of that going forward okay thank you those are all my question thank you for letting me Grill you sorry all right thank you okay all right and and just for just we're going to get on to the case I just so we can make sure we're all clear about what the conversation is here and and I'm responsible for this sometimes too I like to ask questions to make sure that whoever is listening and paying attention can understand what and why we're asking it on the other side of that each council member is given contact information to the resource folks that are for each agenda item and I will say to the council I'm going to encourage you to do your community outreach to our constituents meet with.

Community members so that we can have these engagements this does not have to be the only venue that we're engaging so I I want to be respectful to everyone's time I want to make sure we're using all of the resources and I also want to encourage being able to you know expose the process to help you also public understand how we get to the decisions that we make so I just want to make sure that all of that is clear that's it's not council member cook or anyone else is not censoring you but also at the same time making sure we're U utilizing all of our resources now we're going to get to the case here and I'm going to declare this in open public hearing and I will invite the applicant up how much time do you think you need I'm going say like 10 minutes Madam Clerk please put 12 minutes on and thank you again Mr Kane for your presentation last one I'm still nil go attorney with the Morning Star.

Law Group at 700 West Main Street and Durham U to close out our Trio tonight we've yet another small project but this time it's on about 13 acres and it is a residential project let's start first with considering the place type map which is mixed residential neighborhood for this piece of property we are only proposing one housing type which is Town Holmes but the immediate surrounding area currently offers only one housing type which is single family detached that's what is in both Sharon Farms to our East and the Brightwood Trails to our South directly to our West is the 509 Sharon Road Project which will be about 40 town homes on about 5 Acres so even between the two projects this one and 509 Sharon we're looking at town homes on rough just on under 20 acres which is an important threshold in the comp plan because the comp plan provides guidance that you know under 20 acres well I say I should say 20 acres to 50 acres the guidance is that.

There should be at least two housing types here we have under 20 acres and it's all one housing type in this case Town Holmes which is the to which is the housing type which is missing from this general area I also want to talk about the property a little bit the current owner has owned the property since 1967 so it's a long time this is a 13 acre property with one house on it I think we all can agree that that is an inefficient use of property interestingly the property is today mostly devoid of trees this is essentially a cleared site also the adjacent properties on three sides of the spel are already annexed into the city limits this project will reduce the size of an existing jurisdictional doughnut hole and these factors together make this a location for residential development today the site has run on Sharon Road and on Pim brro drive to the South the site plan for the community to the west shows another road stubbing to.

This property so there will be three points of access on this Pro or to this property which will provide greater connectivity not only for vehicles but also for the sidewalk Network because these are all New Roads that will have sidewalk this type of incremental Improvement to connectivity is in line with the comprehensive plan I already mentioned that the site is basically devoid of trees today there are some trees on the site near the southern border generally speaking and you can see on the development plan that we have committed to providing 20% tree preservation what you cannot tell is that basically means we are committing to saving every existing Tree on the property except for those that will be removed for the required Road Connections that equates to about 20% tree preservation tonight I want to add a commitment to provide 20.5% tree cover which that will be made up we're still going to be committing to the 20% tree preservation but we also are adding a commitment to plant back F I'm sorry.

0.5% new trees for tree cover purposes there will of course be even more trees planted on the site based on the udo's Landscaping standards but those are not necessarily considered tree cover but this is a project maybe one of the few maybe the only one that will actually result in more trees being on the site after development than before which I think is pretty cool I also should note that we already have committed to using native species for required plantings throughout the site I think that's pretty important good commitment here we also already are committing to handling the 100e storm which we understood to be an important issue from area residents and to help achieve this we're we're going to reduce our maximum impervious coverage area from the Udo 70% to 60% we don't have a fully engineered site plan so we can't say for certain where that impervious surface coverage will end up but we have enough information to make a commitment tonight to reduce our maximum lot impervious coverage from 70% to.

60% we also want to add a commitment to achieve Green Building metrics residential units will be designed to meet bronze or higher ngbs or achieve an energy score energy star score of at least 75 we have run all these new commitments by staff already unfortunately we did not get it to them in time for them to be included in your packet so that's on us but I think these are great improvements to the project nonetheless as the development plan stands currently we do have a monetary contribution of DPS and the amount of 24,000 we also have a monetary contribution to the dedicated affordable housing fund of $120,000 we tonight I want to remove that commitment and instead make a commitment to provide 5% of the housing stock as affordable at the 80% Ami level for a period of 30 years my client on this project in my homes is candidly they are not an affordable housing developer however they have been very committed to providing affordable housing in the in the communities.

Where they work and they have recently found a partner that they can work with in Durham and so we're able to make that commitment tonight which I think really strengthens this project and moves it a lot closer to the goals of our community like other projects you've heard tonight I think this is a small sensible project it is in line with the comprehensive PL it's already consistent with the place site map just as it was and with the new improved commitments it provides you know much needed housing affordable housing it also provides housing Variety in this region and robust storm water controls native plants I think there are a lot of reasons to vote Yes and I hope you will tonight our team is available to answer any questions that you may have and thank you for your time tonight thank you I'm I'm just going to jump in and ask a quick question as we're getting ready for our speakers what when you all are looking at the housing types you're.

Looking at the area overall is that accurate just to give you a context I'm asking because what what would prevent from having more housing Types on the site yes so the answer to that question I would say is yes and no so the place type map in this area is pretty interesting it's got the mixed residential I think that's right mixed residential neighborhood Place type map designation however the size of that designation on this place type map is very small the communities that are right adjacent to us are not in the mixed residential neighborhood Place type so they're not really part of the consideration from like a comprehensive plan standpoint as to are you having a variety of housing in this place sight map designation you know that's that's per Place type map designation so that's one consideration and from that perspective the mixed residential neighborhood Place site map designation this area is quite small I believe it's around 20 acres all of it together this project is 13 acres of it.

And then from Mi homes marketing perspective yes they are absolutely looking at what's available in the area they also are looking at what makes sense economically for their project and also for the people of Durham for housing in this area so what is available already directly immediately adjacent to this property is just single family homes that's all that's that's all there is there are some Town Holmes being built at 59 about the zoning allows for 40 but I think the site plan show something like 37 town homes on the adjacent site and so that went into Mi home's consideration for this site this is in in you know in the grand scheming things is for them a small project it's at most 100 units so for them it's difficult to establish two different product lines that make sense for you know how how they Market their properties so they're looking at this site as a small development on their books that's going to be all one unit type which in.

This case Town Holmes thank you remember I asked this question for some later times all right I'm going to move to our speakers I have Tammy Saga Pam Andrews Pam Williams Donna stanback and Becky Freeman are we here in that order okay and I'm still getting some Reverb on my mic you can hear me in the. Back take that back you all sit back down oh sit back down all right yep back down I have started with online trying to be assistant here I have Wanda Allen Tina mle Pearson if you all can Miss Wanda can you hear me yes I can hear you hey there miss Wanda you have three minutes welcome hello thank you hi I'm Wanda Allen my address is on record yes I want to address tonight the issue that we have keep bringing up before the council you'll see photos you probably have seen the photos on social media that clearly shows that the news settlement and erosion standards are not working you will see that this project will have.

An impact on the this project will clearly have an impact on our creeks and our Lake you also will see tonight some of the Retention Ponds are topping out and running over directly into our streams photos that you will also have seen on social media and as well as in the TV media show The Creeks before construction they are clear and once the construction begins they turn blood red so you also know that we have a problem because their taxpayers are continuously having to pay to clean this up so just for a reminder and FY 24 of produc River Basin was $1.3 Million alre scrubber was 2.5 million to clean up Falls Lake the North Carolina land and water states that 57.7 million and then on February the 28th at the City Council meeting you guys said it would cost about $18 million to do the l Creek faas three so that adds up to $ 79.3 million that we as taxpayers are having to foot to clean up this.

Development so we're what we want you to do is take a stand do not continue passing these developments until the settlement and control standards are revised to handle this type of soil this is your opportunity now you guys to take a different route thank you thank you Miss Allen Miss mle Pearson can you hear. Me yes can you hear me I can welcome you have three minutes thank you good evening mayor Williams and members of Durham City Council my name is Tina mle Pearson and of course my address is on record my colleagues are covering environmental issues so I'm going to cover infrastructure or lack thereof in South East Durham so you know we we keep talking about Durham being the fourth largest city in North Carolina and oh my gosh how we have grown in numbers of people but we don't have the services to support the growth for instance the closest police station to answer our calls in southeast Durham is in Well's Village near hallway Street and they are short.

Staffed according to a recent report from CBS 17 on May 3 2024 there are 140 police officer vacancies in Durham so they have to have officers come in off the clock and of course the response times are lagging we're also in desperate need of a new fire station it should also be noted that station 8 does not even have a ladder truck again as more people move to the area the statistics for more accidents goes up maybe the current fire station could handle one accident but what about two accidents at one time more people more potential accidents and speaking of more people and accidents North Colina Highway 98 is over capacity with over 15,000 annual average daily traffic per per ncdot 2023 counts additional developments in the area will increase traffic by 3,236 vehicle trips per day along North Carolina Highway 98 Olive Branch Road Sharon Road and camp Road in Durham if Durham is the largest city in North Carolina it doesn't function like it please vote no on the Alfred track these.

Issues need to be addressed before we keep adding more development in this area thank you so much and have a good evening thank you so much all right now in the order I called up you all now may come up. Welcome you have three minutes each okay if you can get that on the screen presentation perfect you have a presentation okay awesome thank you Tammy SAA my address hold on one second I let's make sure that mic is on can you hear me now yeah that's much better okay I was too far away okay tamy sua my address is on record thank you city council for letting me speak here before I start talking about this Slide the one thing that I want to point out I want you to think about as we go through our slides is that there is 1,700 ft from this annexation site to lick Creek and the Topography is downhill so anything that's done on this annexation is highly likely will be going straight to di l.

Creek so I want you to think about this so there's 30 foot drops so site will require blasting so a couple of things that we want to make sure that it's asked and I think Neil address this is we want all buffers to be undisturbed preserve the grass the trees to help reduce sediment loss from the site we'd like 50 foot roadway buffers with one capacity with trees and shrubs request that planting of trees and shrubs along boundary to be completed prior to masquerading to minimize dust on homes and in ponds and I also want to point out that there's no continuous sidewalk for pedestrians and back bike Lings along Sharon Road here is the updated map of what's out here in southeast Durham there's 42 dense developments under construction 17 more of approved that's 59 developments 41% in this area are approved Town Holmes 20% are departments and 39% are single family homes in this area you've got the town homes to the right under construction and then you have the two developments around.

There and I want to point out to the topography to the right that's where with with the Downs slope it's going to go straight to LIT Creek plus you have Sharon Farms Pond to the right of this as well so really the environment environmental concerns is what is utmost important in this annexation and then here again here's a picture of the consequences of all this development 59 developments and 42 under construction right now going straight into Raleigh's drinking water which is going to be more cost for them to filter out and to clean out and what we're doing on erosion control is not working and it's going to be really interesting to see how Debbie when Debbie comes this week to see how our Creeks are changing even more more thank.

You move you got it thank you okay next up I we have three minutes is that right I got it each okay all right want to make sure good evening my name is Pamela Andrews Wake Forest highway I brought my sample of Creek today I just want to share concerns about offer track specifically due to storm water and erosion control issues du to Mass grading clear cutting and Blasting policy 86 which is right here it does address in the comprehensive plan the need to protect water sources that provide drinking water for adjacent counties Mass grading is causing traic Bas and soil to flow into Falls Lake weake counties drinking water as seen in this photo I think I got it the new the new sedimentation erosion control amendment was put in place last May 2023 with hopes to stop the sediment pollution known as tomato soup there were new steps required including flocculence and the steps are on this slide but the amendment is not working in a letter in.

June to the storm water employees I we wrote an exchanged he told me there are 302 active land disturbance permits at that time 34 were in Lick Creek Watershed alone just lit Creek a total of 2,000 acres is being disturbed just in that one Watershed only seven of the 34 sites were required to follow the new guidelines 80% were not sediment still flows into the Creeks as shown in this photo from May 29th 2024 which I took note there are only 5.5 erosion control technicians to monitor the 302 permits the NC sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 prohibits sediment from leaving the job site developments who pollute are violating their sediment and erosion control permits which prohibits off-site sediment this supports the Clean Water Act the lawsuit by sound rivers and local plaintiffs has moved forward in federal court concerning violations to the Clean Water Act in a thorough favorable opinion US District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder ruled that the motion would not be dismissed as requested by the developer the damage to.

The environment and our Creeks is real Lick Creek is 1,700 ft from this property as Tammy mentioned after Mass grating and Blasting of the earth settlement will flow down this steep topography to the creek no doubt as hurricane Debbie looms over the next few days please come look at the Creeks After the Storm passes see the volume of sediment that we're talking about moving towards Falls Lake it's mindboggling please halt development and revisit this amendment I might add my last few seconds I had a lady reach out to me today who called there's a CBS 17 story supposed to Air Tonight on her story I have not personally met her yet but storm water erosion is flowing over her property as it's heading to Creek and little lit Creek please please help us in our Creeks thank you thank you so much next.

Up good after afterno my name is Pam Williams speaking to that speak louder to the mic okay my name is Pam Williams my address is on file I am not opposed to the development but I am opposed to the minimum open space Recreation Area tree coverage impervious service although I understand it has been improved a little bit by 10% and the minimum roadway boundary buffers butter environment Al considerations such as additional tree coverage more boundary buffers and butter storm water practices need Implement in this area on no on this particular slide roadside roadside buffers or roadway buffers are proposed along this U arterial right there's none proposed for this project we request a 50ft roadside buffer with a capacity of of one providing trees and shrubs along Sharon Road this will provide an attractive Vista and additional ground cover the developments on Sharon Road constructed in 2018 as shown here on this picture show a fence that has deteriorated with no trees and shrubs example two of what's being built on.

S on Sharon Road this was built by Emma homes minimized buffers create unslightly roadway Frontage for the citizens and over 11,000 vehicles per day that must travel along Sharon Road minimum setbacks do not provide any privacy for the homeowners and easy access from the public sidewalk or safety issues these trees will not produce any measurable shade until 10 and 20 we need better than the and all here I'm showing you an example three of what is recommended this is on Sharon Road also setbacks and Boundary buffers on our major roadways have apparently increase from what was required in 2010 has shown on Orchard Ridge town homes and bright leaf subdivision on Sharon Road in addition Dale wman finel Farms provided the 25 to 35 foot seat setbacks on Leadville Road in addition to the 25 foot RightWay dedication Orchard Ridge was at least 35 has at least a 35 foot buffer and the town homes can hardly be seen due to the dirt Mound trees and shrub the good Landscaping with more and.

More developments and climate issues shouldn't we be pushing to provide more instead of less for our environment there must be a better balance between the need for dwelling units and environmental Pro Provisions also for the last 20 seconds this is behind my house this is on May the the 6 on the right where they had start just started blasting and Grading then the one in the middle is July 25th after a rain came after the long drought and as you can see the water is running very red and then this is five days on the right five days after so this is a th so if you can compare the two thank you thank you and and I'm going to press pause right there I am 9 minutes over and we have some support staff in the background that are their hands are hurting right now understand so I'm going to take a u I'm going to take a a 10-minute break and we'll be back at bad math 9:20 so 11 minute.

Break e.

Okay.

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Such as mailboxes telephone poles fire hydrants trees and other carts three your cart should be no more than 3 ft from the curb four no vehicles should be blocking your carts the mechanical arms on our trucks need direct access to your carts and cannot reach around vehicles to find more information about garbage and recycling pickups go to this web address.

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All right thank you so much we are about to get back started and right now yep all right welcome you have three minutes. Okay okay good evening mayor Williams and Durham City Council my my name is Donna stanach and my address is on file we request that the developer commit to no blasting if blasting occurs then over 200 homes will be at risk for home well or septic damages with no recourse for the citizens Durham city holds the bond on the blasting companies for one meal can Durham city please help the residents that have suffered from damages like Junction Road and others no reimbursements have been made for the damages by the city blasting while other cities are being compensated we don't understand because we've actually got a picture of one situation there from Raleigh that where the blasting went through and they got it and they cleaned up all the dust and everything around there the impacted citizens do not have the funds for the lawyers besides the home and the forest damage blasting.

Creates erosive soil that becomes settlement runoff violating the sediment Pollution Control Act we also request that the planting of trees and shrubs along the boundary be completed prior to the mass grading to minimize the dust on the roads and in the ponds and especially that due to blasting oh but need to advance the chart here you can see some of the air pollution there on the chart this is very needed because there's a lot of people in that area surrounding that area also we are still very concerned about the well damage as I mentioned and the Durham County residents on Junction Road are fed up after nearly two years without Safe Drinking Water see the woman in the picture she is setting up trying to capture the rainwater and that was done by channel 17 the this is simply inhumane it's easy for let's say politicians to say you can simply be annexed into the City and get water but it's not that easy civil engineers must Draft plans at a high.

Cost to the homeowners and then someone must pay for the pipes to be constructed an estimated from the article that I we got was 600,000 for this neighborhood who can afford this the residents and others impacted deserve better the water flowing in their homes wasn't filled with settlement before the developments blasted around them also I'd like to make a comment about the traffic on Sharon Road is ridiculous I have gotten caught in it and it's backed all the way up to this development of an afternoon from Highway 98 and you have similar situation on Shar at Highway 70 thank you so much thank you welcome Miss Freeman.

Hi what happened to it I don't know oh oh okay good good evening Council I'm Rebecca Freeman at and my my address is on file I wanted to talk you to a little to you this evening about the amenities there are no amenities to walk or bicycle to considering the distance and safety in this area that's up on the screen there are eight townhouse developments on Sharon Road some of the numbers of homes are ST view is 230 is under construction Sharon Grove is 2 20 under construction Wesley DS is 150 under construction so there are a number of them that are under construction and have actually built out apartments are approved at w Forest Highway and Sharon Road and a number of single family dwellings inclue higher density tracks have been recently developed there's not just local traffic on Sharon Road and wayforest Highway Sharon Road is an active major carrier from Highway 70 to Interstate 85 W Forest highway is an active major corridor from Durham to W Forest there are continuous pedestrian.

Designated sidewalks along there are no continuous sorry pedestrian side sidewalks along Sharon Road or wait Force highway there are no continuous bicycle designated corridors along Sharon Road or wait Force Highway and at their intersections there there are no pedestrian crossings that are safe to be to be used road shoulders are very narrow and often overgrown with weeds and Thorns there is no place to safely walk or bicycle the bicycle pedestrian advisory commission made five recommendations to offer track plans none were included none no Transit is PL plan for this area no scheduled Road improvements for this area please explain the 25 ft rway dedication on Sharon Road Alpha track has the highest density with a PDR of 76 7.69 eight and the offer track has the highest impervious rating of 60% of the developments around there the highest you can get a 70 they are at least a little bit lower but it's very very high all tree preservation is in buffers there is a limited number of trees on.

This acreage I understand that and they don't have that much to go around without trees and with tric soil this site is destined to have erosion control problems big time what would be required of the developer to stop erosion is a big big problem as you've heard in the previous people that have talked with no mature trees intermingled with the town homes this this development is destined to be a heat island this needs to be addressed there heat islands in the city now and this the Urban Tree and Forestry program is working to try to eliminate those onethird of the open space is required to be active recreational open space what is this plan to be what is the description of this there's no nothing in the plan about this is it in the drainage area in closing the alha offer track presented is is too dense with this area and it's too in such a congested area that we need something different planned on this track thank you very much thank.

You right those are all of the speakers I have signed up here and at this time I am going to declare this hearing public hearing closed and back before the council I'm sorry oh I'm sorry we are not I'm not closing this public hearing yet Mr go do you have any response all right I do not have any other speakers so at this time I will bring this public hearing to a close and back before the council before we get into questions I did want to address the water situation and not let that be lingering staff this this County water situation could is that something we can do or is that I I I remember in the past I know there been new stories on it but I don't want the new stories to be like considered just the only source of information I've seen this before about something about a water tank and County residents having to it was just in the presentation so I want to just make sure that we aren't.

Having residents without clean water Junction Road yeah Junction Road so I'm more so asking you to clarify the question and put it on record that this is not a city the city's not doing this to folks but you can address that I'm understanding your question correctly and I may def I may have to phone a friend from the administration but residents have been given options for how to move forward I think the county presented them with some options for Community well or other things and on the city Side to access City Water and Sewer they have been staff has met with them and talked through the process for annexation to petition for that okay so I just wanted to make sure I I stated the public that we are aware of it we've provided an option as much as we can under the jurisdiction that we have it is a county matter that I hope can be addressed addressed and I I know how news stories can report they just sometimes report the sensationalism of.

It but I just wanted put on the record that the staff is aware. Colleagues council member cook all right attorney go these are going to be questions for you council member could you pull your mic closer to you no I can't but I will slide oh I see they're a little different FR I'm not going to okay so at the Planning Commission you noted that and forgive me I'm not I can't remember if you actually presented this one or if your colleague did I think it was your colleague yeah okay so he had stated that the development across the street did not require blasting and that that was leading him to believe that this project would not require blasting but y were going to look into it more are you ready to commit to not blasting on this project no we don't have enough information to commit to not blasting here and I I believe ER correct me wrong the project across the street that he was referring.

To is MI homes project that so I think that project across the street is what is a project that was built by the same developer Mi homes which is why we had the information about the project across street it did not require blasting but we do not have enough information about this site to make a commitment that there will be no.

Blasting and then also at the at the Planning Commission there was some conversation around the BAC suggestions and connectivity promotion and I believe that yall stated that you were not going to proceed with with any of the bpac recommendations is that still correct so I don't know that that's what was said at Planning Commission there were there are a number of BAC comments and some of them as we've talked about earlier today are maybe inconsistent with the guidance we've gotten from other departments so we've not included those the second one talks about building a race crosswalk across the Sharon Road access point to keep pedestrians at the level of the sidewalk while crossing so that's a commitment that we are we can make tonight as long as it's subject to approval at time site plan by I think it would be Transportation or public works I'm not sure but that's a commitment we can add it's just unclear that that's what will be desired there from the Department the third commitment is about a 12-ft.

Multi-use path we we have committed to a 10-ft multi multi-use path M and then build a 10-ft pedestrian and cycl successful connection to wellwater Avenue along the northeast border so we looked at this one we don't have a connection to wellwater I'm at least the way it looks at on the map I don't think we touch that street and instead there is intervening HOA owned property there that I'm not sure is is set up for cross access so we didn't make that commitment there are there will be connections to pimbrook drive which I I believe that's the one to the South yeah that's so pimbrook drive there will be a connection to pinbook drive will match that road section that's coming through there which I believe has sidewalk and and it's also a road okay and we're required to make that connection just to be clear that's not an additional commitment that's just kind of required by the Udo I mean does say inter packet that that because that.

The pemrick one also says like n none provided here in the packet so that's why I think part of the question was so it's showing here in our materials that that that connection is not being right we didn't make a commitment it's already required in the Udo yeah yes that is that is correct they would need to connect to Penbrook Drive and they would need to provide the roadway to City standards which would include sidewalks regarding is that a commitment you're making regarding the raised crosswalk if yeah with the caveat that it would have to be approved at time time plan so it would be yeah and and also appr subject to approval by ncdot since Sharon Road is a state road thank you for that clarification I would add that caveat as well thank you okay and then just one more question and again it was your colleague but at the at the Planning Commission the statement was that there were be talks about adding affordable units in.

Addition to the cash propers but I think I heard you earlier say that these units were actually going to be a substitute for the cash propers that profer is that correct that is correct okay so no cash profer at this point and only the 5% units right yes thank you I have no further questions council member C over yeah I just wanted to raise this because the crosswalk has come up in other circumstances and I think part of the the issue is that the approval comes from ncdot and sorry could you speak into that a little bit yeah it's on it's just not just have to I think they're just not as sensitive tonight anyway the issue has come with the rais sidewalk before same thing a bpac ask the developer and it was a different case but it was a it is non alignment between ncdot and and what B bpac is requesting and so I think that I will not be surprised I appreciate the the profer but I won't be surprised if.

If the return from ncdot is no so I just want to share that with colleagues because this has come up on a number of cases where bpac makes a request there's a at least a investigation done by the applicant to see if it's possible and often the return especially if it's a state road is ncdot does not want it so I think that that's just something that as policy makers we those of us who are on Mo and in other spaces you know again having those conversations with ncdot around the commitment of vision zero and complete streets that they've adopted and so have we but really what does implementing that Vision look like so I think in some and it's unfortunate for our applicants so again really appreciate the profer but I'm just raising that so that colleagues aren't surprised if that comes back from NC the way it does thank you so if anybody out there's interested in trying to get on a DOT board did I just respond to to that just.

For the what you said I agree with I also will point out and I see that bill judge is here from city transportation the feedback we get from city of Durham Transportation when it's a city road is often times I mean typically they don't want to raise sidewalk there Rise sidewalk is generally my understanding an eom a you would use in a high pedestrian traffic area and it is for safety reasons but if you don't have a high pedestrian count then the race the race crosswalk tends to be an impediment particularly for like emergency service Vehicles so they typically don't want them unless you have a lot of pedestrian activity but that I mean and that's that's coming directly from the city at least in conversations that I've had with the city so sometimes it's not a do Road and they you still get the same result.

Bill judge Transportation I would just clarify the the design is more related to the driveway and the speed or the prioritization of pedestrians over Vehicles so in this particular case ncdot is requiring a right turn lane into the driveway they are very unlikely to allow that sort of Street type connection because they're going to be looking to prioritize the right turn Vehicles over the pedestrians so that you know we do utilize the sort of raised sidewalk type across driveway in many places often yeah even up and down yeah commercial corridors you'll see that utilized at you know high volume driveway so it's it's more just a function of whether or not not you're designing to accommodate pedestrians or vehicles thank you and and I guess that's my point that we're going to consistently have that kind of philosophical issue right with the with with the with ncdot that has so much control over our roads so I always appreciate bac's comments but it is something that we have to get better at.

Figuring out how do we push ncdot and then also how do we get our advoc to ask for things that okay if it can't be that what else is there what is the other tool that gets us more safety thank you yeah we'll keep pushing like we have these interstates to go through the go through the city we're working on it thank you Mr Mar and thank you colleagues so this case is kind of hanging in balance for me to something you said early this evening I just say one more time what the profit is in terms of affordable housing so 5% of the final unit count would be provided at a rate which is Affordable to households earning 80% of the Ami for a period of 30 years 30 years yep the cash profit if I read correctly was $120,000 correct okay I I guess what's impactful for me is that apparently the Planning Commission found that unimpressive because they clearly heard $120,000 which is on a higher end of of.

What we normally get for these profits for the affordable housing fund but they did and I read the comments even the no comments are kind of soft NOS in some of these comments one comment says that actually it's a no but it said I'm not necessarily opposed to this development as it adds housing stock to The Limited stock we currently have but the environmental impact others talked about it already being clearcut and lending itself to development because of the lack of trees already on that site which I found interesting was a split decision but even the NOS if you read the noes and the majority of the NOS mention the absence of affordable housing even in light of the $120,000 profer which you've now put on the table you know I was saying to my colleague council member R earlier I I'm I don't have a problem with the good cop bad cop thing I I think that if if developers are responding to the Planning Commission even after the fact after the.

The meeting and they're coming back and making substantive changes that comport with what they've asked for I don't think that's a bad thing think that's a good thing actually and I think that's a testament to their impact I I do want to say a couple things I I always appreciate hearing when members of our community come out and preserve roal German has been stalwart and and they've been impactful as as well particularly with respect to our our sediment requirements now we may differ on whether or not we've had enough time to gauge whether or not those changes are actually taking impact it's going to take some time for the projects that have been passed according to those changes to gauge whether they're impactful or not so we differ on that but I do think that the the the work that they've done in the impacts are are substantive and and codified actually which is a good thing Mr leam and M my Holmes Raleigh are they currently in any litigation or being.

Sanctioned any way or or scrutinized in any way for doing any damaged to anyone's homes and Blasting is your client currently have you had you mean from I mean in my homes so this is Eric leam with Mi homes is that is that okay is that Mr leam do you mind they're a they're a large company so the she might be able to answer that question with respect to like Durham or Carolinas have you had any complaints or any lawsuits leveled against you within this area within our our purview anyone with respect to blasting no not since I've been at with the company which is about six years okay thank you so I heard a few things very quickly I I heard moratorium full stop which I don't I don't think we're legally empowered to do and if we are that that's another discussion then I heard moratorium on blasting which I don't think we have the power to do but let me say this if if we had if we have the power to.

Institute a moratorium on blasting I'd support it if if if if it's deemed that that is not too substantive or heavy-handed an impact on the profitability I know the context legal context in which we operate in North Carolina if that would deemed that it's not a substantive impact or undo a burden on developers and if industry best practices provided them with another way to do it and we're and we have the power to say you have to stop blasting I'd support it so I'm on record saying that I don't think we have the power to do that so we have a more we have a recommendation for a moratorium then we have a moratorium on blasting but then we also have engagement about buffers and and and standards so it seems as though there's kind of a descending order if one doesn't work then the next thing then the next thing which I appreciate I don't think that's a bad approach but as as a policy maker what I look for are.

Concrete on-ramps that will actually impact the policy for example saying that a developer you know well because and the Planning Commission is saying some of these things out loud that I can't say out loud I can't say to a developer if you don't do affordable housing I'm not voting for your development I can vote against it and I can say it internally but I can't say that out loud as a fiduciary of this city I can't say that we wrote the Udo we establish the standards hey if you don't exceed the standards that I wrote then I'm going to ding you no I need to write whatever standard I want into the Udo and whatever the Min the our minimum needs to be our maximum whatever we think it should be and and councilman Bak baker has been stalwart and talking about the importance of rewriting this Udo but as a representative of the city I can't establish the rules and then say hey if you follow this particular rule I think you should exceed.

No it's my responsibility to write the rule I want them to follow so some of I'm not opposed to some of the things that are being proposed many of things many of the things I espoused before I got this job and learned what the limits of this job were and are so so I just want to say respectfully to to our folk out there that some of the things that that we're being asked to do in my assessment I've heard it from from legal Folk here in City Hall from the league and I I've asked we just cannot do and we certainly can't say it out loud and tether it to our votes create a causal linkage between our votes that's going to bring a whole another world of scrutiny for our city that we just simply do not don't want so with that and the generalize concerned one of the one of the comments was addressing environmental impact in this region and and the conversation about what we need to do generally in.

That region be it environmental be it infrastructure be it fire or police cannot be linked to one particular case I know it's a case-by casee basis and and it creates a Nexus but for me my vote I I I I don't know how to get to I'm not going to approve anything else until we address this without some clear indication of what addressing this looks like is it zero sediment is that what we want do we build fire stations before people live there in anticipation of the people moving there do we put those resources in a part of the city where we could be putting them somewhere else where there actually are people do we put infrastructure in anticipation of thousands of people coming or do we build it as they come these are all decisions that that go into the the calculus of being good stewards of our of our funds but I I I say all that to say that that we're we hear you and we're listening but when we actually.

Put it into the the crunch machine of actually making policy there's some there's some really specific questions we have to answer so I'm going to support this this particular development in large part because the things that the Planning Commission asked for in spite of the $120,000 offer you have talked about you have made a profer too which makes me feel better about supporting this project thank you Mr Mayor and thank you members of the community all right yeah council member Baker the development that's happening in southeast Durham is durhams and probably the triangles greatest environmental crisis the triangles greatest climate crisis and it's happening because what's the growth that's occurring in southeast Durham is not happening in a in a way that is sustainable it is not following the practice of the 3DS density diversity and design it is not preserving the right land in the right places and constructing dense walkable places in the right places it is simply corporate driven sprawl single family or townhouse single family attached or detached.

Sprawl with little tiny bits of autoc centric commercial with in with huge distances between them it has we are not requiring any public dedication of parks in these areas which we are allowed to do under State enabling legislation I hope we will do once we adopt the new Udo we have the power to do all of these things through our regulations we also can simply set a standard that through the discretion and review process which this is resoning is is a discretionary review process special use permit would be discretionary review process anytime a development comes before an elected or appointed body that's the discretionary review process and that's an opportunity to set a standard communicate that standard clearly to developers assuming we want development which which I do and and make sure that developers are aware and know of the vision and the values of the elected body of the community and of the comprehensive plan I think that we have not been following our comprehensive plan I think that that has resulted.

In this environmental and climate crisis that we are in and I think that's why we see so much of the communication from the community that we have been seeing I think that's why we are you know if you if you go to an aerial of Southeast Durham and you zoom in you can see it with your own eyes unfolding you can see the sediment in the streams you can see the cold sacks after C the Sachs you can see the lack of Street connectivity and if you go there just drive through there you can see that the design standards that are being applied to our streets and to our public right of ways are not consistent with the values of walkability the values of bikability the values of Transit and creating a place that we all care about and a place that is sustainable something that something that makes Durham a better place something that really truly embodies the values that we all know that Durham residence hold that is.

Something that has been taking place over the past months over the past years and little by little it has resulted in not just thousands upon thousands of Acres but literally square mile after square mile We've grown by 10% of our land area in the past five years and we continue to grow in this same way whether or not it's consistent with the comprehensive plan or not and that's something that needs to change and we can change we can change as soon as we decide that we want to we want to embody that change we can the day that we decide we want to we want to change it we can and it's going to be more robust once we are able to apply that through the UniFi development ordinance the new UniFi development ordinance which I hope that we will we could easily re rewrite the Udo and not accomplish those goals so we're going to have to be very careful through the Udo and the other way we can do it is by.

Setting the standards through the description of review process and ensuring that our bodies elected and appointed bodies are holding developers to account for the kinds of developments that we want I have spoken with corporate developers some of the large corporate developers out there and I think it's important to acknowledge the importance of calling out corporate developers because they either own a significant chunk of the land out there or they will at some point own a significant chunk of the land out there and they will be the ones that construct the their their developments out there that means that there's essentially a form of Monopoly a form of monopolizing of the land out there and when that happens they can construct whatever they want because there's a need for housing in our city and we are not providing our residents even though we are building more housing we are not providing more neighborhood types and the kinds of neighborhoods that people want to live in kinds of neighborhoods that are sustainable kinds of.

Neighborhoods that are walkable we talked a little bit about raised crosswalks and how raised crosswalks might only happen in places where you're going to find pedestrian activity well that's not going to be something we'll ever have to worry about if we continue to grow and develop the way that we have been growing and developing there will be no pedestrian activity we won't have to worry about those kinds of things because everyone will be in their cars and that is the city and the land that we will leave to Future generations and that will be our Mark and our handprint on the land that we leave to to the next to the Next Generation I say all that as context by itself I think that it's what I just said is extremely applicable to other Parcels that we have seen in the recent past over the past several months when it comes to a site like the one that we are seeing today you know I came into this meeting almost surely assuredly voting voting against.

It the reality is that when we are talking about sites that are not completely on the outskirts of our city the decision becomes a little bit more difficult so this is a smaller site there is less that you can do with it it is directly surrounded on all four sides by development it's surrounded on the west south and east by annexed land land that has already been annexed into the city the north development that that has been there it's established that is in the county and so that does make this kind of decision a little bit more a little bit more difficult which I would just distinguish from a large number of rezoning and annexation cases that we have seen in the past and I hope I hope that all of these cases can be learning opportunities for us do we value the environment do we value climate do we value walkability and do we want to build a city that makes Durham better that is consistent with the comprehensive plan that's consistent.

With the values of our community and I hope that we will think about that when we when we move forward I'm not sure what will happen with this case but I want us to think about that when we move forward because when it comes to cases that are more typical of infill which I think we might call this some form of infill because it surround on all four sides by development these kinds of propers the tree cover and prvious surface ngbs and provision of of some affordable units they they are meaningful in ways that that are that that do not outweigh inconsistency with the comprehensive plan which we often see in the cases the larger cases that are On The Fringe of the of the city that we see so frequently I do have one quick question for staff just that was raised I wasn't going to ask this question but I'm actually just curious for academic purposes I actually think that there are there is a necessity occasionally.

In certain places for blasting so I do think that that it's important to have blasting as as a possibility in some places and and prohibit in other places I'm just curious and maybe you don't know and maybe this is something for a future date is it possible to prohibit blasting it I mean it's certainly possible is it legally is it legally possible in that's a question for Fred is that something you don't have the that happen to give up the Bic up here that's a question that we would like to answer it another time let's do that another time yeah I would like to get the answer to that though at some point in the future and like I said for me I do think that there's a place for for blasting in some in some developments so those are my comments I think that we can we can if we all come together up here on on Council and decide that we want to hold developers to a higher.

Standard than we have been holding them we can do that the day that we decide to do that and we also need to do that through our new unified development ordinance so let's keep a close eye on that let's work closely with our community on that and our boards and commissions and I am still on the fence on this particular case just because it is smaller we have gotten good commitments and it is also surrounded on all four sides by development so that makes it a little bit more challenging thank you.

Thank you so there's you know the question I think it's really interesting the initial package provided by the applicant was not something that was substantive I'll just say that I did not find it to be things you know we have seen other applicants who have offered more and so I am very appreciative of the propers that were made this evening otherwise I would have vot voted no I think there is that back and forth where if you vote something down down or you ask for a delay often what we see is a return of a project that is better that is the dance that we do with rezoning and it is more art than science and so I appreciate that we have 5% commitment I appreciate the decrease and impervious surface and the other things that were added I think we got into it with the BAC comments and there's some deeper conversations need to be that need to happen there and and how we get our our bike Community Advocates to really push.

The tools that that are going to get through I know this part of town very well in fact many of your electives live in this part of town because that's where they could afford a home and that is the truth of the matter many of us were just in Oak at a conference we spoke about it afterwards I traveled in Northern California and up through Oregon and ended up in Portland and the level of homelessness that you see in California and Oregon are not something we really experience in dur and they have tenant controls that we don't have many many of them have a lot of protections for tenants that we don't have and they still have a very large homeless problem and it's basically because pal California did not build enough units for the population it had and now the population with means The Californians who are able to are leaving because it's gotten expensive it's hard there is climate catastrophe it's Fire season it's quite frankly scary to be.

Out there when it's Fire season you can see where the trajectory of the West Coast in the next 30 to 40 years and it is also a very good road map of what will happen in North Carolina if we don't build enough housing for the folks who are here and the folks who are coming it is critical that we build housing it is critical that we build more densely to say that building more densely is not environmental a good environmental practice is wrong I was a sustainable development minor 20 years ago it was a huge part of what we studied was around sustainability practices and building and compact tighter cities are better and that is what we are moving to we are not there that's what the comprehensive plan is leading us towards we are not there we're not going to get transit tomorrow but we're never going to get transit if we just build single family homes which is essentially what many of these byright cases will allow us to do.

Right now we're going to get 100 Town Holmes is it exactly what I want no is it better than the other things right around there yes is it higher standards that they wor than 5 years ago yes 5 years ago we didn't get 5% of units it took three councils to get that out of our development community and now it's consistent it actually is disrespectful to the work of the folks before you the folks who sat here and got what we got through diligent work in a state that preempts you that does not care about Urban cities and certainly does not care about the residents in urban communities even though we pay for the majority of the state so I will be supporting this case is it perfect absolutely not does it move the needle where we need to be yes why because it gives us better it provides 5% of affordability it improves on the environmental standards from before it gets us closer to Transit because there's going to be more.

Roofs I can't control for all of the other things but I can control for that and so I will be saying yes and for the development Community yes bring us your best don't bring us mediocre we know the difference thank you thank you wrist thank you Mr Mayor just real briefly yeah like many of my colleagues I was on the fence coming into this meeting on this case it's imperfect U but I do want to appreciate the the profit of the 5% affordability that's critical I mean affordability is is a huge issue continues to be one of the biggest issues in the city of Durham I'll refer the folks in the audience and my colleagues to to an article last week in the Washington Post you can it's an article about rents Nationwide you can search by County average rents in the last year and then since 2018 our average rents since 2018 went up about like 31% as they have around the country our average rents in the last year have.

Gone down. 3% right and I we hear a lot of talk about corporate developers those rents aren't going down just because people are like if if that's the if the word is they're just greedy corporate developers they're not lower rents just to be good right the truth is that what we're doing here making tough calls about conversations around environment infrastructure housing results in we have more Supply that supply and demand equation is working in Durham our rents have gone down because there is more affordability there's more Supply and Durham so I think that's a good thing even though these are never easy cases as we evaluate them one by one I would like to ask Mr go real quick you mentioned that Mi homes has a a partnership with affordable housing developer I'm just curious what that looks like yeah with that yeah so Mi homes I I've been working with Mi homes for years I don't know how at least six years you said you've been there for six.

Years and I've worked with them in Durham I've worked with them in other municipalities in my homes has this is the way I would describe in my homes they acknowledge that they are not themselves an affordable housing developer however they are very in tune with a housing affordability and they try in pretty much every municipality that I've worked with them in they try to find partners that can help them that that can help them and that they can help to deliver affordable housing and so sometimes these how do I put it Partnerships happen during the life of a of a project right so and for this particular project I know in my homes was working on a different project in Durham that that's how they got the I guess inroad to this particular developer and they are not they're not local right they're out of Texas okay okay and so you know this is a new partnership that they're trying out and if it works out then in my homes will be pleased to.

Do more and more of that but I you know I guess the point I want to make is for Mii homes this is always evolving situation I know on projects that I have worked with with Mi specifically they have partnered with Habitat for Humanity they have talked to Habitat for Humanity for projects here in Durham and have not recently been able to you know come to an understanding or agreement on how it would work so they've gone to look for other partners they have partnered with litec developers and this is not a litec developer that they are partnering with on this but they they're going to continue to look for these opportunities wherever they're doing work so my hope sincerely is that they continue to do work in Durham because they are really in my opinion Innovative at least in my Client List they are very Innovative in this space is trying to figure out how to deliver for w inter I appreciate that and I'll be supporting this case thank you council.

Member I appreciate my colleague's comments I just wanted to add a couple of things to kind of bring it back but first I I want to talk about this Narrative of supply and demand because I feel like it comes up consistently we are taking a correlation and attributing cause to it affordable housing is a nuanced issue it is not simply a supply and demand issue I feel like I hear this narrative come up all the time we have extremely high vacancy rates in Durham right now and also we did see Wild inflation in prices during covid so when we see these drops in prices we can't just say that because we've been approving a bunch of developments that that's the reason that rents have gone down it might be part of it but it is not the sole reason there are so many complicated factors that go into affordability and I've talked about them before and I just am going to keep harping on them because it's not simply.

Also a price point it also requires that you have amenities close by it requires that you have Transit it requires that you have an environment that is sustainable that it's you're going to be able to breathe in 20 years I mean there's all of these things that go into what it actually means to have affordable housing and we get up here talk about it in a really monolithic way I think we just really do a disservice to our community and and we're really not up here I feel like trying to grow and listen and learn if we're if we're kind of repeating these narratives that have I think led us down a really dangerous path in terms of of rent and affordability we had this conversation earlier in which my colleagues were really emphasizing the fact that purchasing land in this country is a source of wealth only because of a terrible capitalistic society that has allowed us to live in a place where not everybody has housing right and like we.

Can all agree that this is not a good system and so it's just it's hard to hear these narratives that sort of go against that idea coming to light in this conversation so I just want to push back about that we have to really talk about Nuance up here it's not enough to say that we're doing something that's creating affordability in Durham when we've got a lot of work to do I think in that realm I want to associate myself with council member Baker's statements I think this is a complicated case for the reasons that he listed he also talked a little bit about and and also the mayor protim talked a little bit about how we are up here doing approvals of developments one at a time and then we are sort of expected to be also taking into account an entire region and I wanted to talk about commissioner copac stated this at the Planning Commission and I thought it was really well stated that we were try we trying.

To meet the objectives of the comprehensive plan through individual projects and what he said is that if we're going to do that then what we have to look at is that each of these projects meets the minimums in terms of affordability in terms of community goals in including environment right in terms of environment all of these things we have to be looking at every individual project and making sure that each of them is Meeting those needs because we are not able to do anything as a collective whole in that region and so if we're going to be doing a case-by case basis each of these ones that come before us we really need to know that they're going to be adding something to this region not taking something away so that's something I just want to State somebody else I think I can't it also might have been commissioner copac talked about the the growth of this area and and everyone here has noted it I think everyone has driven through.

Southeast Durham it it is like devastating I think to see the clear cutting that's going on and the leveling that's going on in in a place that that was green it's also a pain in the behind to drive on these roads everybody knows there's no question about it it's it's not great it was compared to the fact that like sort of building a mini City in southeast Durham but if we were building cities there would be a city center right like there would be some sort of plan like cohesion like council member Baker stated some like thought towards connectivity and walkability and that's not what we're seeing instead we're seeing this sort of just halfhazard one developer at a time chunks small chunks large completely disoriented and chaotic and I don't think it's a good Legacy I I feel really really really uncomfortable leaving that Legacy of development in this area I also want to read just briefly since is going to go all the way Circle back I want to read the policies and.

Comprehensive plan that govern this designation so we're looking at mixed residential neighborhoods we we heard from the applicant earlier smaller than 20 developer AC developable Acres they don't have to mix housing types but it should be mixed with the immediate vicinity I raise some questions about whether or not that really is true we're seeing a townhouse which is technically a different thing than a single family home but they are still single family homes they are just attached rather than detached so not too much diversity in terms of housing but policy or sorry page 193 of the comprehensive plan it talks about goes into further description about a mixed residential neighborhood and it states mixed residential neighborhoods are new places typically built on previously undeveloped or forested land we have here these neighborhoods are designed to add a diversity of housing types at different price points and densities to serve residents with a diversity of needs ages incomes and Lifestyles while the primary use is residential residents are served by supporting commercial.

Civic and institutional places in immediate areas like schools community centers libraries and small scale grocery stores residents living in mixed residential neighborhoods can easily and safely walk bike and roll within and around their neighborhoods to get to supporting places and Transit stops publicly accessible amenities like Parks trails and recreational facilities are found throughout so we're going to talk about the definition of these places that is what is written in our comprehensive plan I don't know that sitting up here on this Das that I have yet to see a South East Durham application that has met this mostly because as we've talked about there is no plan for connectivity and and so we might have some of those things in the immediate vicinity and this one is actually relatively close by if you can ever get there to a grocery store but there's no way that there's ever going to be 15 minutes walkability or safe biking in these areas the very next page goes on to say that.

Development of a new mixed resident of a new mixed residential neighborhood should be supported by existing public infrastructure like water sewer Transit service and Roads or phase to coincide with Capital Improvements we do have the expansion of 54 but outside of that we haven't really seen a lot of Capital Improvements that are slated to go at the same time and I understand that there's a push and pull of what happens and how development occurs and do things follow the roofs but again if we are trying to meet our comprehensive plan those are the definitions that have been written in I also want to bring attention to the fact that the Udo which we are also you know following we have this project meets 11 exceeds five but does not meet seven that gives it a score of 56% in Udo and then it does score slightly better in the comprehensive plan of at 69% all that being said again I'm I'm going to Echo my colleague and say that.

I'm undecided I do think that because we have been I think not responsible in terms of looking at these individual projects we've sort of left ourselves with this small attractive land that might not have any other good use here and I am hopeful in hearing the Partnerships that this developer has formed in the past and clearly a commitment to affordability so I'm I'm hopeful that that they will do good work on this trative land but I do think that we need to have a serious conversation moving forward about what we're willing to accept on this Council mayor Pon thank you Mr Mayor and I'm going to thank my colleagues in in my almost seven years on the council i' I've yet to be involved in unserious conversation about the matters that come before us the comprehensive plan is a plan it's not a governance document before we and by the way this comprehensive plan was not passed unanimously it was a split vote it's not a governance document it is.

It is an aspirational document much like we hold these truths to be self-evident that all people I should have said are created equal and we know we've struggled as a nation and we still struggle to make that real but it is still our Central Credo and I I want to say respectfully to my colleagues you know it it's never occurred to me that when I may have a disagreement with my colleagues it's never occurred to me that an option for me was to question their ability at appreciating Nuance or question whether they knew what their job empowered them to do or not it never occurred to me to question whether or not they care about the future of our city to me it just was that we we we saw things differently or see things differently but we're all in good faith trying to solve the same problem I actually want to associate myself with everything that council member baker said including the last part waxed very eloquently about the.

Overarching problem in the macro sense and then said something that I think is very instructive but it's complicated right when we try and distill still the macro down to actual policymaking it is complicated and there are many nuanced factors in the decision but my starting my default position is that everybody on this day as past and present that I have served with bring their best self bring their best intentions they're highly intelligent people that understand nuance and they understand their job what they can and cannot do listen there there's no this isn't an ego thing for me I I've been doing this job for almost seven years I'm the mayor protim of the city I'm the president I'm one of the most influential organizations in the state if there's a cheat code that I'm not getting about my job and what I can do and what I can't do I'm listening I'm I'm here for it to explain to me the powers that I have that I.

Wasn't aware that I have and and we are I think we're all willing to do what we can do but what I what I want to strongly caution us against as a person who has his words parsed all the time I what I want to strongly caution us against is to be mindful I think somebody up here said our intent versus our impact I think it's it's it's we we step to a line when we start talking about the ability of these elected people elected people to deal with Nuance to deal with layers to imply that the best interest of the future of the city is not for in our minds to suggest that we don't care about the environment build baby build as we've said it's complicated I live in southeast Durham I I I live with the impact but as a decision maker I also know that what I say no to is yes to something else something's going there and part of my job is to manage outcomes.

And I'll go toet to Toe with anybody in the city in terms of espousing Grand Vision and I'll meet you anywhere anytime but when it comes to actually the nuts and bols in making the policy and taking the vote I'm glad to hear that we understand after all is said and done that it is complicated that this particular case even in of itself in light of all the problems and issues that we face in southeast Durham is complicated it's nuanced but I look forward to joining with my colleagues moving forward in learning what we do not know about our job in hearing from our legal people hearing from any call the school of government call anybody else about what we can do and what we can't do because if I'm missing something I'm here to learn I'll be supporting this case thank you Mr Mayor thank you we are almost at two hours on this case I'm going to try and bring us to a close I just you know I.

Think that there's been some rich debate Rich comments up here tonight you know I mayor protim you you stated something I was going to say I want to make sure that we're not insinuating that our comprehensive plan is a law that we have to follow as we do the udio but more so a guiding document and I think that is important that we do try and adhere to it as much as possible aspirational is probably the best word to to describe it so I want us to be very careful about how we portray that but at the end of the day supply and demand is actually in fact something you cannot Overlook I that that's fact also to council member Cook's point it is very nuanced affordable housing but I think you know at the end of the day we're wasting our time trying to talk about an affordable unit you know we want to talk aspir ational in reality then we need to talk about affordable living we.

Need to talk about all of the components but we also cannot ignore reality we can be as academic or you know we could be intellectual as much as we want and we could talk about this in a very idealistic sense but at the end of the day when you walk outside go down City Plaza Road or Street get on Highway 70 and go out there what you're going to be dealt with is the state of North Carolina you're going to be dealt with the hand that we have been given and we can sit in here we can walk in the mud all we want about what we idealistically want to see at the end of the day we're in North Carolina and that doesn't mean that we can't be we we're not that doesn't mean we can't discuss these cases it does not mean that we cannot get the best out of these cases that we want but I want to make sure that we're being realistic and we're being honest.

About the cases that we have before us with the conditions in the state we cannot ignore North Carolina we can not ignore the fact that you know there there are implications whether you vote one way or the other at the end of the day I don't care how idealistic we want to get about these cases at the end of the day you vote Yes you're going to get one thing you vote no you're going to get another and the fact is when you vote no you're going to get if we vote no you're going to get what it is zoned for and you know what you can still say what you'd like to see on here you can still say what it should be here but you're going to get it's Z for and once it's passed us that's it so we can't ignore the implications of our votes we can't ignore the fact of the matter is at the end of the day we can talk we it can be.

As nuanced as we want but at the end of the day you're going to get what it's known for or you going to get what is requested for and in that process I agree we can we can talk about the nuance and like I said earlier we can get as much out of it at this point in time as we want but we cannot not ignore the hand we've been dealt and we can and and we also cannot we can't we can't expect that we're going to have the perfect scenario present when all of this is happened in the past so we have to incrementally get there and I don't need to be an urban planner I don't need to be a engineer civil engineer I don't even need to be a developer to understand that it is basic common sense so we have to understand the leverage that we have in the specific point in the process we can describe the players in the game or you want at the end of the.

Day this is reality and when we leave here tonight this spot of land is going to have X number of units or a higher X number of units and we can get out of it what we can get out of it we got some profit tonight I'd like more because we always want to have more but otherwise we're just we're just talking about idealism and conceptualism as much as we want to be and not being realistic affordable housing it's just it's in my book is not as realistic or practical as affordable living and I think affordable living is what we're trying to address and get to with the comprehensive plan and we'll get there as as but it's not going to happen overnight and we can't keep decreasing the amount of units that we get trying to get to more density it just doesn't make sense so with that being said I'm going to bring us to before you before you Mr Mayor I would like to go ahead I just wanted to.

Track back to the question for Staff first while they do come up I I did want to make sure that I did associate myself with the comments of council member Baker and council member cook and I want to appreciate at face value mayor Pro Tim's request and hope that we do get a chance to have the conversation because there are many municipalities across the state who have implemented different ideas around how development works and I think that we can always learn more from our our neighbors I did want to just ask if there was a a price tag attached to that cost for the community well versus the city annexation I had hoped that someone else would have asked the question and I was hoping I didn't have to ask it but it didn't get asked and I did want to ask are are you referring to Junction Road and potential Community Wells on Junction Road yes that that information I do not have.

And just just just one one thing to share is I I do hear my colleagues I've been here seven years as well and I think that we continuously have this break in our development cases where there are those who want to make sure that we get what we can and some of us who feel like we can do something different and I don't know that you know the I don't want to go back and forth but I do want to make sure that we do come to some Landing place because I do know that there are serious concerns with that Creek and it is and is specific to Southeast Elby or Southeast Durham and I know that this is a Sur like this is all in my opinion this would be the cases I would have not voted on and to add insult to injury and add another one feels wrong just knowing that that's I mean it's clearcut so that means all the rain or blasting or any soil movement is.

Going to end up in the creek just doesn't feel right and so I do have to say that I cannot support moving forward with this this evening but I am appreciative of everyone that comes out regardless of whether you're new or you've been here a thousand times and just keep coming and making sure that we're hearing you it's important that the people are involved in the in the process and you're the unpaid eyes and years on the on the street so I I just want to say thank you outside of that and that's if if we could get some pricing around that because I do think you know trying to alleviate someone's water issue you know two years in running I don't think that they would take it lightly you know if there was a solution that they could afford and if there's something we can do to help them afford that then I think that's something as a city since we've on routed all of these developments we should be able to offer.

Some support in that and so I'll leave it at that are you referring to the Junction Road I'm I'm referring to the to the homeowner who has been without the. Junction okay that all right colleagues I am going to now bring us to a vote.

All right I'm going to I'll now entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing alred track into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with Mi homes of r LLC moved is red second it's been moved and properly second please if you all in favor show by hands all right all opposed show by hand M clerk did you get that yes Mr Mayor the vote passed four to three with council members cook Baker and Freeman voting no thank you I'll now entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential rule residential Suburban 20 and false Jordan Watershed Protection District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as plan development residential 7.69 and false Jordan Watershed Protection District B City jurisdiction move is R second and moved and properly second it all in favor please show by hand all opposed show by hand please the motion passed 5 to2 with council members Freeman and cook voting.

Now and motion three to adopt a I'll entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute 160 D- 605 Mo to adopt consistency second moved and properly seconded all in favor please show by sign of hand the motion passed unanimously thank. You all right colleagues that is our agenda for the evening thank you all so much thank you everyone for coming out tonight and I will see you all on Thursday we are Jour at 1029 May.

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