good evening everyone welcome to the people's house it's good to see everybody in here if you will please join me in a moment of silence thank you now pass it over to council member Freeman thank you it's our practice to stand to salute the flag and say the Pledge if you'd like to join us United States
all right Madam clerk will you please call the rooll good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor Proft and members of city council mayor Williams I'm here mayor Pro Middleton I'm here council member Baker here council member cavayo here council member cook here council member Freeman pres and council member here tonight is epic night's Proclamation over here over there over here it's good to see you all come on out anybody else yes all right cool I have the distinct honor and privilege of reading this Proclamation
that I was supposed to read the other night at their Gail but unfortunately I had to rush out so I'm sorry about that I felt horrible but as I told people there's one calendar that supersedes the entire city and that's when my wife has something on the calendar all right so um tonight I um will read this Proclamation for you all whereas empowered parents in community epic is a black Le Community rooted strength-based organization unapologetically focused on black Children and Youth and their success at school and life and whereas epic establishes powerful Community collectives led by black parents who are united in their mission to transform educate ation or outcomes for black children and youth through collaborative action and advocacy and whereas epic has equipped parents and caregivers end Duram with
the tools knowledge and organizing strategies needed to drive awareness and Champion Equitable opportunities for all children and youth impacting more than 3,000 members of our community since 2019 and whereas strong Community Partnerships serve to strengthen capacity and increase the successful black parent L initiatives to transform educational outcomes and whereas epic shares the city of Durham's goals to strengthen Community bonds and Foster belonging by Belong by Building trust maintaining relationships and empowering residents to actively engage in local government decision-making now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby Proclaim February 17th 2025 as empowered parents in Community Day in the city of Durham and urge all citizens to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies activities and programs witness my hand in the corporate seill of the city of Durham North Carolina this 17th day of February wonderful thank
you mayor Williams mayor P Middleton esteemed council members city manager Ferguson and respected staff of the Durham city I extend uh my appreciation for the opportunity to address you this evening my name is Vicky Miller and I am the chair of empowered parents and Community uh also known as epic it is with great honor that we accept this Proclamation on behalf of the Epic board of directors at Epic we embody the spirit of empowered parenting and Community engagement actively challenging and reshaping systems to uplift black children our organization is distinguished by its black leadership Community Centric approach and collaborative strength be based ethos all centered on ensuring that black children Thrive both academically in life's broader context this recognition from the city holds significant meaning for us and I would like to take a moment to acknowledge my fellow board members and dedicated staff of Epic who are present with us tonight I am um joined
by Vice chair Yolanda Brown executive director Javan Lewis and epic program Comm um coordinator mine Nathan Scott so with that thank you so much for this [Applause] Proclamation thank you all thank you all right thank you all for that I uh am now going to pass it to my colleagues
for comments but before we do that tonight I'm going to preempt our comments with a uh brief statement of my own on behalf of the city just a few days ago we uh experienced a um targeted operation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement uh better known as ice and it was here in our community uh let me say that uh whenever ice comes to a community they are not obligated to inform the local government um this is how our federal government is uh this is how it works with ice I I received several inquiries asking if I could confirm whether there was a raid or sweep or whatever uh happened with ice uh here in Durham and unfortunately I did not know uh no one on this Council knew uh we all found out through
communitybased um information uh in video that was captured um there has been some inquiry of whether the Duram police is assisting in these efforts so I wanted to take a moment to say here uh our Police Department uh paid for and funded by your tax dollars are uh tasked with um servicing the people of Durham protecting and serving the folks of Durham uh it is not their um it is not in their scope of work to extend their services to the federal government or to be an extension of such so therefore I am saying on the record uh that our police department will always uh do their job as they always have for the folks here in Durham and that um we have a strong record uh
that goes back years to city and standing with all the members of our community uh and all that are welcome this is a place for all kinds all types colors Creeds races ethnicities Once you walk in the borders of Durham uh you're durmite and we uh are an embracing community and we will continue to hold those values to be true and we will continue to make sure that we are um making sure that our law enforcement are doing the job that they tasking scope to do for Durham within Durham by Durham of Durham for the people of Durham thank you Mr manager do you have anything to add up mayor you you accurately captured the the mission of the police department as as we administer it thank you thank you and uh we will continue to do just that nothing will change I will now pass it over to my colleague starting with council member
cook good evening everyone one we have full house tonight um good evening to those watching at home um I just want to take a moment and appreciate what the mayor said and also um have just want to acknowledge that the fear in this community um is real we are worried about our neighbors and um we're all impacted and so I just want to acknowledge that that is it's a real fear and and um we're all we're all feeling that with you as well um sitting heavy on my heart as per usual is uh that I was in eviction court all week last week and um continue to see our neighbors and particularly our elders who are left without real options for housing and Durham um some of you made have seen
that there was a story out of Detroit where um a family was staying in a in a vehicle and they had been seeing in a vehicle for several months and um I'm just like sorry I'm try to cry okay um two of the children that were in that vehicle it stopped overnight they weren't able to get the vehicle turned on they weren't able to get heat and two of the children died from cold exposure a 9-year-old and a 2-year-old and um that's in a city where there are adequate shelter for folks and I'm constantly reminded in Durham that we have a line out the door for our homeless shelters and we do not have enough shelter um we're putting in the work we are trying but um if one if one single person doesn't have a place to go it is it is not adequate we are not doing a good enough job uh so that is feeling really heavy on my heart watching in eviction Court seeing the folks who are sort of on the precipice of being in this like absolute disaster um and then also
knowing that the resources really just don't exist on the other side so um that is a heavy thing to think about I also want to say Happy Valentine's Day to everyone and also um happy Black History Month I want to acknowledge how many amazing uh black artists we have in our community I think that this weekend was a really incredible Showcase of that folks didn't open mic at the pin hook there were several other activities that went on um and I'm just uh really always humbled by how much talent uh there is in this community so wanted to say thanks for that and um and also just to recognize that Valentine's Day doesn't have to be about a significant other it can just be whatever love you have to whatever other people remember when we used to give Valentine's out and um it was just to your classmates whoever you wanted to love so um hopefully a little bit more of that going on and my very last thing is that I just want to inform my colleagues that I will have to be leaving our work session hopefully not early but after about two hours on
Thursday uh so I just wanted to give you all a heads up about that we'll leave be done we'll leave the longevity up to you Council we maybe be done we'll see all right thank you that's all all right council member Baker it's h wonderful to see everyone in the audience this evening um thank you all for for being here and for showing up and participating civically um we had a very productive uh the council had a very productive uh City C IL budget Retreat on Friday uh there were a lot of uh very informative presentations that were provided by staff a lot of I thought very productive conversations that we had um and that is all available to to the public you can just Google um Durham City Council budget Retreat it should be the first or second item on the list get financial projections budget Outlook uh overview from Resident surveys um tax assessor office uh information um much much more uh lots of great information
on there so I would highly encourage you if you're interested in what's going on and setting the stage for the upcoming budget to to take a look at that um as we all know we're uh living under a increasingly a dire federal government um we could call it the dictatorship of the billionaires um and I I I think increasingly people are becoming worried about the situation uh at the federal level um even while so many residents across the country and in our city are living in in difficult situations living on the edge uh we have a federal government completely out of touch with what's going on in in the streets and proposing $4 trillion doll tax cuts for the rich and gutting of environmental regulations and all sorts of uh departments that provide services to to Ordinary People um and so we operate in that context that is the the the context in which we're operating um Meanwhile
we're losing too many people in our streets um to gun violence we're losing too many in people in our streets uh unhoused residents as uh uh council member cook uh pointed to um to traffic collisions and preventable forms of violence that are affecting mostly our young people and um I appreciate the words of of our mayor about ice uh we are losing people now um to to raids um by the federal government um and these particular raids I know did not make people feel safer in the neighborhood do not make people safer in our city um and only create a sense of fear break up families um and so that is something that that weighs heavy uh on me um lastly um I wanted to make plug uh Dr devarian Baldwin is a professor at Trinity College uh which is
m on Friday in case folks are interested it is open to the public and that is it for me thank you thank you council member car council member cavier thank you good evening everyone um just want to say thank you to my colleagues for their comments and I just wanted to add some additional comments um uh we know that um there were nine individuals detained last week by Ice Immigration and Customs Enforcement um and I think a lot of folks are rightfully scared and kind of In This Moment a lot of folks are also going well what can I do and feeling helpless
and uh there is a huge demand for for Need for lots of things in our community right now so if you are somebody who is feeling helpless in this moment I'm going to be listing out variety of organizations that are asking either for donations or volunteers so maybe you can't donate but you can offer your time um then I'm going to go ahead and listen so elesia Emanuel food pantry has seen an uptake of residents last last week they saw an uptake I think of 720 residents new residents who were in need of um the food pantry there church World Service which is one of our Refugee resettlement organizations uh had to recently Furlow two-thirds of its staff they also are in search of donations and um volunteers World relief our second Refugee resettlement organization we have two here in Durham I think they furload maybe about a third of their staff they're also need of donations um urban ministries and
families moving forward both uh serve unsheltered uh families and folks um and they are also in need of donations uh urban ministries often also needs volunteers SRA which is an organization that is responsible for doing a lot of the rapid response to ice they consistently have trainings so if you would like to get trained SRA is s i s IEM b r a you can find them online they also run a hotline so if you see the what we saw last week were really really Brave neighbors filming and trying to stand up to the folks who came and quite frankly kidnapped members of our community uh and there were two Durham residents who were filming them and asking them who who they were and trying to get them to identify themselves if you feel like you want to participate in that type of action then you should look up sambra again they are running uh trainings um as Centeno uh is also looking for donations and volunteers and the list goes on and on and on as we see
what the federal government is going to be doing we're going to have more and more unsecure residents not just immigrants and refugees but all kinds of folks there are lots and lots of residents who rely on snap in Duram there are lots and lots of folks who rely on Medicaid in Duram and so if you are feeling like many of us about not you know what what can you do um you know as a good Catholic go do some uh Community work you know um so that's uh that's what I have to share with folks additionally if you are not able to donate your time or resources because of whatever is happening in your own life which rightfully so uh there is a uh a bill hr32 no bailout for Sanctuary cities Act which is currently being discussed in Congress it would broaden so in North Carolina we have no Sanctuary cities that is something that the state the state general assembly preempted meaning it took it away that that power right from local municipalities back in 2015 but there are other communities
across the United States and it would also broaden the definition of what it means to be a sanctuary City so you could call your Congress person your representative is Valerie fushi uh there are other folks you have two senators that you could call and ask them not to vote for that and finally fin if you just need to do something silly or funny you can go to Google and update um the Gulf of America back to the Gulf of Mexico that is also something that one can do uh that is humorous in this moment of you know a lot of dark things happening so those are my comments this evening thank you um council member Freeman council member WR I there's so much I want to say but I'm not going to stop tonight um I did want to just um appreciate uh I believe poof is in the room and all of the students that are here I want to welcome you all and say thank you for being here and uh to all of the other uh folks I noticed a lot of colors and letters in the back Greek
letters I just want to say thank you for being here as well and welcome and um that was that's all for right now thank you thank you council member thank you Mr Mayor good evening uh Mr Mayor May PM city manager col colleagues folks in the room it's good to see so many folks filling our Chambers here and folks watching online um the first thing I do want to say is I want to appreciate all my my colleagues comments about this um this certainly scary and um fearful situation regarding ice raid and I appreciate the the statement that the mayor read we received all my colleagues here in the council received a bunch of emails this week about what's the city doing so I appreciate you lifting up what we're doing and also council member cavier lifting up what people can do who who care about the situation so much appreciated um I've got a couple comments first of all do want to remember Orville Powell who was um city manager Ferguson's predecessor between I think like 1983 1996 actually he was the manager when when Proft was hired in the finance department so um Mr Powell served over
m. at First Presbyterian Church downtown um and if you would like to go you're certainly welcome to attend there he was a member of First Press as well um second thing I want to say is that we did have a budget treat as council member Baker mentioned last Friday really productive Retreat I want to thank the manager and your staff for organizing a incredibly in informative and helpful event I just wanted to highlight because we often talk about the resident survey I want to highlight that there was as usual strong satisfaction among residents 79% rated durm as an excellent or good place to live and as always there's a high level
5% increase in the budget you all dug deep to fund that part of that a large part of that was funding s increases for Sal s I'm sorry increases for City staff salaries to bring them up to market right and so the message we heard of the retreat was that that is working we have more employees we have fewer vacancies and we have lower turnovers so again boosting pay was the right thing to do both for the workers themselves but also for our community so again thank you to the taxpayers for funding that increase to to fund those welld deserved increases for us city workers speaking of taxes I have another thing here that's really important in terms of Financial Security um so as you may know tax season has kicked off um this year for the first time there's a new program available called direct file direct file is a free program where you can file your taxes directly with the
2 million taxpayers across the state of North Carolina are eligible to file using direct file when filing is easy and free more households file their taxes making them potentially eligible for key benefits such as the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit um as you may know some taxpayers fall the threshold you need to pay taxes and therefore don't file taxes um but we know that Nationwide approximately one in5 taxpayers who would be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit don't get it in part because they don't file their taxes um we know um Statewide the direct file could bring in about2 200 to30 million do in credits to families in
gov but this is a really big new innovation in taxes uh and in tax Justice in North Carolina um let's see that's I guess the last thing I just on a lighter note I just want to let everybody know that next weekend I see the Wade Wild Cuts here from DPR next weekend is the the grand opening of the wheel skating rink which is the first phase of the expansion of the meric Moore Park this is really exciting stuff um it's going to start on Thursday with a grand opening and they're going to be events all weekend long so we've been waiting for this and it's so exciting so y'all I'm sure y'all want to go out to wheels and enjoy the uh the brand new facility there so thanks so much to DPR and the staff for making that happen um
that's all I got Mr Mayor thank you mayor Pro okay thank thank you your honor and thank you to my honorable colleagues and to all of our friends and Neighbors in chamber and on whatever platform you may be watching uh good evening uh very quickly Mr Mayor just wanted to send a shout out to Meals on Wheels durm had an opportunity to attend their Gail one of my favorite events uh on Durham social calendar this past Saturday night uh at the Washington Duke in Meals on Wheels um does just sacred work uh they many of you may have family members who benefit from Meals on Wheels or you might one they need them um for many folk it's a meal for other folks it's a human touch and human interaction with folk who come and they've been doing great work in our city uh for 50 years I want to send a special shout out to Jason peace who's the executive director had a great auction a great time uh with them and and we thank them for the incredible work that they continue to do more and more we're going to be focused on what we can do locally for ourselves Mr mer
thank you for your words uh of comfort and and clarification and knowledge to our to our community tonight uh with respect uh to what durm is doing and I want to thank council member riss for acknowledging all of the many of emails we we get them we get we're getting them the many emails that we've gotten from folk um we hear you and and at the risk of sounding presumptuous I I just want to say um to folk that sometimes um not saying something at certain times uh will do more good uh than saying something um we are in a period of heightened scrutiny uh sometimes you got to pop out and show people what you're doing but other times you need to just let the work continue to go on um I would rather have the work continue uh than to placard a bright light um and be holding a light and the work that the light Drew attention to
was suspended or interrupted uh because we we we shown a light on it so we hear you um the work is being done let us continue to hold each other up and love each other and support each other uh in this time sometimes clock management is what you need uh in a game and we're in a period now where we're doing clock management finally this is our last uh Monday night meeting during Black History Month uh Mr Mayor and colleagues I thank you a colleagues for acknowledging um council member cook for acknowledging a black history month on our first meeting of the year I entered into the record the second stand of lift every voice and sing by the poet James Wen Johnson and on this last uh night last Monday night uh meeting uh for Black History Month I'd like to for the record enter enter into the record the third stands of Lift Every Voice and singing I think it's it appropriate at this time God of our weary years God of our silent tears thou who H has brought us thus far on the way thou who H has by
thy might led us into the light keep us forever in the path we pray lest our feet stray from the places Our God where we met thee lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world we forget thee shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand true to our god true to our native land God bless Dam thank you Mr Mayor thank you young people have your phones pay attention I um would like to also give a shout out to Mills and wills and epic those were the two events that I briefly stopped by uh this weekend and um thank you for the work you all are doing um tomorrow is a really big day tomorrow
m in the in the uh the durm conven Center we will have City departments on blast we're going to have some community members tabling as well we are going to have the Durham Symphony performing we're going to have the Jazz ensembles we're going to have uh Hillside Dance Company performing and last year I uh proudly uh created a little controversy when I said durm is dope well that's because it is uh and I
blasted it all on the uh big screen and some of youall may not know this person but his name is DJ nabs DJ nabs uh was the DJ for Sierra and crisscross and I know I'm aging myself here now uh but a bunch of famous people and he's also famous but he's also a durmite uh he took the liberty of producing uh a song called durmas dope and we will uh hear that piece tomorrow uh but the theme of this year's state of the city is I love my city I truly truly love this city and so we will have that produced into a performance as well and that you'll get to see that performance tomorrow by het boy so I'm really excited uh the first hour um we'll be in the convention center Corridor and performances and tabling and then we'll get on to the program over in the Carolina Theater if you were there last year you saw it was a pretty big crowd well based on registrations we have
doubled we've doubled the crowd from last year or so it's going to be even bigger and for Black History Month I am so excited to honor each year I try and honor someone this year I will be um I will be reading a proclamation in honoring the first black mayor of Durham Mr Chester Jenkins and his wife will be there uh to receive this in his honor so I'm really excited about that as well so U colleagues I look forward to us being there tomorrow uh to the community I look forward to you all being there and I'm going to have a little Afterparty uh at V hippo afterward so going to have a little fun afterward and then I'll be extremely tired um coming up uh there will be we so I've been doing this tour around the community uh I want to thank the uh Special Assistant to the mayor Mr Derek Stanfield who uh who will be leaving and
um leading these initiatives uh even more throughout the year to come uh this is the mayor's uh personal finance Playbook and basically what that means is it's a tour on um financial literacy and economic empowerment and mobility and we are going all over the city you want to learn how to buy your first home you want to understand the importance of credit you want to know what you got what you going to do with Big Mama's House you know if someone leaves a house in your name or that you're responsible for estate planning Wills all of those things these are free workshops that we are going around the city providing um please just follow just make sure you're uh signing up on the newsletter and get when we're having these or either follow my socials mayor of Bull City uh on Instagram and um Facebook and uh in all social media platforms mayor of Bull City uh to keep
up with what we're doing um there is something that I usually don't do um but the perks of being mayor is sometimes you get to call an audible uh tonight I am going to um alter our program just a bit colleagues uh I believe that our government should work for all people and um we try to do that as best as possible uh we understand that there will be barriers sometimes but when I think about what's happening in our community with our young people um I I if I'm being at all honest sometimes I feel just pure helpless and you know we have to work within this bureaucracy that takes forever to yield results and we're responding to something that is immediate uh so tonight I am going to open up my announcements so my commentary uh to allow for some remarks
to be shared on behalf of folks that usually when we have open comments to the community they're at school uh and they came last Monday the last Monday night meeting they were not allowed to speak uh they didn't even know when to sign up or how it worked uh so they came in and then they left and I've been getting a lot of Outreach from these kids saying mayor we want to be heard uh so uh tonight I am going to ask ask a representative to um to speak you know you guys reached out to me I heard you and I'm going to yield some of my time tonight uh to let your voice be heard um to this community so do we have a representative they tried to sign up they were signing up on all types of things just trying to figure out how it works um so I'm making it audible
tonight and I'm going to use my my time and my prerogative as mayor to give voice to these young people so um it is you're representing representing all these folks here yeah yes thank you for coming state your name for the record my name is Joel Campbell all right good evening everyone my name is Joel Campbell I'm a 16-year- old from dur North Carolina I'm honored to be a part of the durm county the durm County Youth programming system especially here at the PO te Center like the PO te Center is just it's not just a center where you go and you got to sit there for a couple hours Listen to Somebody talk it's really like a a family like you know what I'm saying that's how I feel like with like with poofy that's like it's like my family and it's been a Lifeline for me and so many other people like I could you know what I'm saying I can name right now people that's standing in this building right now it's been a Lifeline for all of us and I lost my when I was 8 years
old I lost my brother the gun violence and it's just like at that time I was in the dark like a dark you know what I'm saying a dark stage in my life and it was like I didn't know really what to do until I got to middle school and I met Miss Destiny um in 2020 2021 2020 something like that yeah and it just been like ever since I met her it's just everything been like easier for me I've been able to evaluate situations that like you know saying that come at me when I have to deal with police offic in the city you know saying like C I just been knowing how to evaluate certain things and it was just like when I met Miss Destiny everything changed for me yeah that's all I want to say good evening everyone I am Cameron Clayton and I attend JD Clement early C I am here today to talk to you about the importance of youth programs in our community I believe youth programs are essential because they bring us together to network gain knowledge and build
meaningful relationships these programs keep us engaged in fun activities and provide valuable life skills such as financial literacy that is one of the reasons why I attend poof an after school program that focuses on three main pillars world traveling financial literacy and like preparation along along with my mom and family poof has also played a part of planning my future by teaching me how to save money book a flight start a business and manage my money wisely important life skills that we need as teens aren't always covered in schools so it is crucial to learn them while we are young this way we know what to be prepared for when we enter adulthood being part of this program has allowed me to travel internationally and just recently I had an incredible experience to explore New York City and see the ball job on on New Year's
Eve a lot of teams don't get to experience that how many programs are willing to take that risk to provide and make sure the team have fun and provide with those opportunities today I am asking for support support to help poof team Center to to help poof team Center to keep it open this program is not just beneficial for me it is also essential for all of us additionally I am also a member of involve her girls mentoring program which is housed inside of poth with further emphasis of the importance in membership and support of young girls in our community closing places like poof will not only impact me but it'll also affect other teens around us in this program thank you for your time [Applause] hi um I'm Kamaya Martin I am a senior at JD Clement Early College um today we are here to talk about just social issues
and problems in our community we sit here today as we could be doing something else in our homes right now but we're here today for you guys to listen to us and it's very important that you just take the time and realize that we need your guys help we can't do this alone you guys say it starts with us so we we started it we need help we have um programs like poof we have programs like team um purpose learning lab um I am like representative of at the Haven 360 project that we work with purpose learning lab and Miss Maya herself like Miss Destiny herself has worked together with us teens to build us to create a safe environment for us you want us out the streets but how can we get out the streets with no funding how can we work together without you guys it starts with you guys helping us out and we're here to cry out for help for you guys to actually listen to us and be there and hear our voices because our voices are not yet heard but we need you guys to just be there for us and just build our community we need you guys help thank
you greetings my name is Damon Malone Jr I am 13 years old and I'm currently in the eighth grade at James E Shepard IB Magnet Middle School I am also the CEO and checken knowledges of Bo peeps where I raise backyard chickens and sell organic eggs additionally I proudly serve as a junior counselor at purpose learning lab it is crucial that purpose learning lab receives its funding on time derms investment in purpose learning lab is an investment in its own future as our student workers make a direct impact on the community by driving Innovation education and social progress timely compensation reflects the value of our work in creating programs that Empower Youth and develop essential skills purpose learning lab offers Hands-On Purpose Driven and learning opportunities that prepare young people like myself to make meaningful contributions to Durham's economic and social growth investing in US is an investment in Durham's future please ensure that funding is provided without delay to support purpose learning lab now thank
you so I come to speak on behalf of the whole city and it has really nothing to do with just one organization I really just want to speak to the city yes we have a lot of kids here but we have a lot of Youth in durm county that need our help that need our voices so much potential sitting inside of each kid in this room right here but we're going to need help um when we talk about me and Destiny we talk about some of our feet are on the ground sometimes we're not even resting we're calling each other we're opening up doors U both of us she was in Charlotte today we had 53 youth today um in durm County just keeping them safe so when school's out we're open providing a safe haven for youth in durm County you talk about Recreation you talk about no place to go we're trying to make sure that we have access to all of these things that kids can really do great things with um we're asking for help to pour into these the mental health of Youth is just crazy right now we talk about a safe place but let's talk about the mental health let's talk about the support no we're not these big old organizations like the YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club but guess what when you come to our organization you see this whole room is
full with just people just like us we have a full room of people and we can show you there's purpose inside of each room and we're asking for just a little bit of help Destiny needs about $54,000 that's a year we're talking about 47,000 a month to stay open so that she does not have to close I'm like hey I'll open up one of my rooms let's let's figure out what we can do the local library if we don't have that space we need to make sure that we find a space in dur when you talk about Recreation when you talking about things to do we need to work together to make sure that this space stays open this is a safe space in East dur we're in the quarter so there's another safe space we have so many people that we are in places that people don't want to go where the light is so dim we stand in those places and we have not moved we've been there for about four or five years now and we made a decision to stay there so youth can continue to walk to us to get house to us we pick them up in Vans and cars so thank you so much thank you so
m. but these folks are at school so I wanted to make an exception tonight um but I do want to start seeing y'all at more Council meetings so you can see how this stuff works because one of you all need to be sitting in this seat in a few years you understand do you understand yes sir all right all right so at this time CNN yes at this time I will read the consent agenda priority I'm sorry priority items Mr manager I'm going to pass it over to you thank you honorable mayor mayor Proft members of council uh the city manager's office has two priority items this evening first regarding agenda item number 12 amendment number
one for the contract number 81 18421 with United minority contractors of North Carolina Inc for mwbe Workforce Section 3 and Davis bacon Consulting Services additional information requested during the February 6 2025 work session has been attached uh a second item agenda item number 35 overview of housing opportunities for persons with AIDS haa the additional information requested during the February 6 2025 work session has been added under the priority items by the city manager City attorney and city clerk section thank you those are my priority items okay thank you madam attorney thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor ptim members of the council it's good to see you the city attorney's office does not have any priority items but if I may take a point of personal privilege I would like to introduce the city attorney's office extern Darius Baker if Darius is here um Darius is a third year at UNCC law school he's been with us since January he will be with us through April
we've been very grateful to have him he's got a demonstrated interest in public interest law and litigation so this was the one council meeting the whole semester that he could swing so we really appreciate Darius being with us this [Applause] semester so so law school is easy for you now you've gone through the hard part the one L right he's a three yeah he's gone through the hard I hear the first year is the hardest yeah yeah yeah I tell you know Chelsea M um council member cook I let her know all the time like she and I the only lawyers on on Council uh she went to Stanford I went to YouTube still works you know so congratulations welcome all right um Madam clerk you have any uh priority items good evening again city clerk's office has no priority items great 11 thank you so much
all right 25 at this time I will read the consent agenda all right item number one Recreation advisory commission mayoral appointment item number three durm Performing Arts Center oversight committee appointments number four inter a local agreement for the distribution of sales tax between the city of Durham and Durham County item number five Durham Planning Commission uh annual report number six 2024 durm historic preservation commission annual report number seven 2024 dorm open space and trails commission annual report number eight 20 24 doram City County appearance commission annual report number nine
2024 doram Board of adjustment annual report number 10 2024 citizens advisory committee annual report number seven I I'm sorry number 11 homeless Services advisory committee annual report has been pulled number 12 amendment number one for contract number 18421 with the United minority contractors of North Carolina Incorporated for mwbe Workforce Section 3 and Davis bacon Consulting Services you pull that one number 12 has been pulled number 13 duror Convention Center Authority board 2024 anual report number 14 Durham cultural Advisory Board 2024 anual report number 15 Durham environmental Durham environmental Affairs board 2024 annual report number 16 um third amendment to lease with Duke
University and Duke University Health Systems Incorporated for the emergency communications 911 backup center number 17 solid waste management transfer station building number one renovation project design contract with DWT Architects and planners limited number 18 First Amendment to service agreement for project management consulting services with Turner and towns in hiri LLC number 19 ratification of 5 202 five fiscal year 25 festivals and events contract number 20 Second Amendment to the Professional Services contract with aw ADW Architects PA for the Durham city fire and Durham County EMS station 19 project number 21 Second Amendment to the workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act adult and dislocated worker program delivery contract with e youth Alternatives Incorporated DBA eert connects contract number 19714 number 22 Ben Bay Festival
headlining booking agent contract 23 2024 Recreation advisory commission annual report 24 sales and storage agreement for sodium chloride salt number 25 contract amendment number one for storm water infrastructure repairs number 25 has been pulled no wait set a res resource it was a res yeah it's a resource uh I retract I retract that it's not been pulled 26 utility Rec relocation agreement urra for storm water drainage system repair and sanitary sewer main relocation project with lrc dgb LLC and lrc Cordova LLC number 27 First Amendment to service contract with e+ technology incorporated number 28 contract with e+ Incorporated for implementation of the metropolitan area network number
29 number 29 2024 bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission annual report number 30 Municipal agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for North Roxboro Street and Horton Road and denfield Street project tip number w575 AI number 31 purchase of seven replacement light Transit vehicles for goam access number 32 purchase order for Premier water LLC for Iration Bas and pumps at the North durm Water Reclamation facility right uh General business agenda we have the Durham homeless Services advisor committee appointment which okay uh number 33 consolidated annexation palanco residence uh number 34 zoning map change Hoover Road in assemblage you remind me 11 and 12 I'll now entertain a motion
to approve the consent agenda with the exceptions number 11 and 12 20 11 and 12 so moved second right it's been moved in probably second it Madam clerk will you please open the vote please to vote and the motion passes unanimously thank you so much all right we'll go back up to number 11 so number 11 was pulled by Sarah de okay y good evening my name is Sarah deato as many of you know I'm the Project Director for legal aids eviction diversion program I wanted to speak tonight to offer our
support for the funding proposal that was in the hsac report and their funding request um you'll note that their goals include the prevention and ending of veterans homelessness and also they aim to prevent and homelessness for families Youth and children and their services through housing for New Hope and families moving forward and Alliance those coalitions and those that cooperation those agencies help provide services for people who are um imminently homeless or chronically homeless and I wanted to tonight suggest as well as our program is also seeking funding down the road that the council consider that any funding for the homeless service providers or in our community that legal aid we see people right before they become homeless in many situations and in many situations also as a tenant comes to us and they're facing eviction we often make referrals
to families moving forward we make referrals to housing for New Hope We Make referrals to Alliance we are able to give tenants who are facing eviction the opportunity to often give more time from their landlord to negotiate with that and to also connect again with those agencies in our communities um as we know right now every time we open the news there somebody somebody else is losing their job right now um with the federal government and also with um Federal funding and so there's we're going to see an increase and how that's going to affect evictions here in in Durham and so in addition to the funding that the city of Durham often gives to the homeless service providers in the community such as housing for New Hope Alliance and families moving forward I would just ask that you keep that in mind as you go into your budget discussions as it relates to funding our program so that we can continue to work together in the community with those agencies that provide those Services
thank you thank you move to receive the report of the homeless service advisory committee second can I get a second all right thank you there been mov than properly second Madam Clark please open the vote please close the vote and the motion passes unanimously thank you I didn't see number 12C oh yeah that's right council member W yeah thanks Mr Mayor yeah manager referred to in his in his priority member referred to the additional information that was provided following our conversation at the work session about the the goals for minority and women own business participation in the forever home um Investments major Investments City's making in so the the the uh the compelling interest our city has in making sure that's a way that we can support and expand our small business community that additional information was fairly brief and I was I was we were asking for a little more
data on how we'd reach that goal of 11% minority on firms and 7% W firms we got a small little slide and a slide deck but I was expecting like a larger report or something so it wasn't quite the information I was hoping to receive there um so I don't know whether um whether deut Chadwell U uh manager chavell can come up I'm also I believe uh comme development director Reginal Johnson is available via Zoom if you have a specific question could see if uh he has the information for you otherwise we can follow up with additional information if requested uh Keith I'm not sure if if you have comments additionally or if you want to let Reginal address a concern good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protim members of council I was just made aware that Mr Johnson was available when I thought otherwise was the case uh it may be appropriate that he be allowed to respond otherwise Mr riss will be happy to have that returned and U apologize for the mishap that uh this
was not as responsive as as expected and we could most expeditiously uh respond to it as you wish I appreciate that and just to be clear so then we got like total numbers but I think having some back up about like how many firms are benefiting right what's the size of their contracts a little more detail on that kind of information would be extremely helpful to the council as we think about it renewing and then expanding the contract for the for the contractor to continue the work again sorry for the misfire I think that the staff was expecting that a statistical response based on uh how they understood the question was uh would would be appropriate understand what you're saying we're happy to try and and have that provided for the very very next time that the council's together appreciate that thank you we just refer this refer back to that okay all right so uh colleagues we're just going to refer this back to staff so a motion is not needed at this time Point uh a question yeah to the staff this this isn't going to affect any timeline in terms of work or anything will
it no Reginal Johnson director Community Development Department it will not okay Mr Johnson do you want to respond to my colleagues inquiry because I'm I'm I want to get a sense of exactly what we're what we're being asked for um and did did you want to give a a response well uh thank you uh mayor proam it sounds like the council member wants a detailed report on the the firms that compose us exceeding the goals uh from and women on participation uh such as the name of the firm and amount of contracts we actually have that and we'll be glad to uh provide that council membera is that uh since they have that information is it okay we uh go forth with this or do you prefer to still refer back uh or what if you get when you get the information is there something different you're looking forward or what what what is the outcome you mean that's it um thanks Mr Johnson I'm glad you're
there yeah I just would love to see that just as again as we're making decisions on large contracts if that's information that's available and that can be be sent to that's fine then I just want to be able to see that make sure we have that kind of that that backup yeah I remember we had this conversation with um when Mr Jackson first came on board I believe I think that was something we talked about as well but I I know it's present so we can make sure we get that to you as well yeah in so far as this is an an amendment to an existing contract I don't I for me I don't think we've crossed the threshold where we need to refer it back I I take the staff members at his word that he has the information but given that I I don't I don't really see a need to hold up passing this contract tonight with that I'll offer the motion for item number 12 okay there's a motion on the floor is there a second
okay oh go ahead since staff said that they would refer it back that would be my um thank you I was uh I was deferring to uh director Johnson's opinion that he stated when he asked if if the delay would be a concern the answer is no that the delay would not be a concern uh that is not to say that we aren't prepared to move forward if Council adopts it this evening uh if the uh if the council's wish is that the additional information will help them decide whether or not to approve the contract I rest on Regal's recommendation that the time delay isn't a concern if Council does not think that information is is pivotal to approving the contract we're prepared to move forward this evening thank you for that clarification thank you Mr May I'm simply saying that my my re there's nothing there's no controversy here uh as as far as my resistance just request
for information um but I you know there there's nothing well yeah I'm I'm prepared to move forward the staff that they'll give us the we do this all the time staff gives us information per request all the time I don't see anything particularly unique about this particular contract it's more of it's an amendment to an existing contract that we've already we're already in so thank you Mr Mayor all right if there's a motion if there's no second then I'll just go ahead and refer it back if there's a second that I'll entertain it all right we'll just refer back to staff all right what was that other one that was it right now we're going do we need to address number two and Duram homeless Services advisory committee appointment um we uh we addressed this at the work session but we were tied and just decided to move it to um move it to the general business
agenda um Madam Clerk can you give us a report out where we are yes I um I followed up with council member Calo um this evening and we have a majority vote for Tasha de Melvin to be nominated and appointed to the seat all right thank you I believe that was the recommendation as well for that that's good all right uh can I get a motion to all right it's been moved is there a second all right it's been moved in probably second U to appoint um a resident to fill one vacancy on the dorm homeless Services advisory committee representing nonprofit organization with the term to expire on June 30 2026 um and that name is Tasha D Melvin all right Madam CLK please open new you vote one second okay we're if you all if
you can uh oh there we go all right open the vote is open colleagues all right M clerk please close to vote and the motion passes unanimously thank you all right we're moving along all right I uh now we'll go into our public hearings and I'll now receive the staff report for item number 33 Consolidated annexation palanco resident thank you Mr Mayor mayor Proft Middleton honorable members of council I'm Aaron Kane with the planning department I'm happy to be here with you this evening before I begin staff would like to State for the record that all planning department hearing items have been 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 Bryan Sawyer for
529 acres and located at 4873 Stanley Road this annexation petition is for a non-contiguous expansion of the corporate limits though a though contiguous to a satellite of the corporate limits as part of this annexation petition the applicant is not seeking a change in the underlying zoning District a direct translational zoning is one in which the existing County zoning is translated to The Identical City Zoning District upon the annexation into the property of the property into the city limits the property is currently designated established residential on the place type map the proposed residential 20 Suburban 20 zoning is generally consistent with the designated use shown on the place type map if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the place type designation of established residential thank you and staff and the applicants are here to answer any questions thank you you've heard you've
heard the staff report uh colleagues are there any questions for staff council member cook um hi good evening Aon good evening um I just had a quick question actually which is that can you explain to me how the um costs are borne of extending the water and sewer lines because I this is a pretty significant extension um and I imagine the applicant pays for that and I'm just curious if there are any offsets if there are any subsidies anything like that that helps people get connected no it would be the applicant or the property owners responsibility to Bear those costs and I'm not aware of any uh City subsidies for that um especially in this case no I'm not aware of anything and is it ever the case that folks go in with neighbors do you I'm just curious because it seems like it would be an expensive cost and I'm just curious how it's um yeah I can't speak to the costs uh specifically especially in the case I I don't know the
particular cost here um sometimes that may be it has not been in my tenure here that there's been a situation where say there's a say a group of neighbors that are looking to extend um I've not seen that but it certainly would not be out of the realm of possibility to do so thank you are there any other questions yes U council member Freeman thank I just had a general question and just using the opportunity to ask if is there any system in place to figure out um property owners in or coming in from out of state I just wanted wanted to know if there's a system that the planning department uses to identify property owners really so we used uh the rer of record on the from the reg County Register of Deeds office a um and what we what you can do is you can um look at the property owner and
then the address um the property owner should be a have an address in it you can compare that address to the address of the actual parcel to see if it is say an O owner occupied parcel or if the ownership is local sometimes they are llc's and the LLC will have a particular address that um have a particular address and that is the address on file and if the LLC is out of state in like Delaware where they don't identify who the people are is there anything that you ping around that um I haven't really come across that for the most part any time I've personally had to deal with an LLC ownership of a parcel it's it's been local or if it hasn't been local it's at least been registered with the state Secretary of State's office so we've been able to determine for example um who is who is an authorized signatory uh for uh acknowledgement of a zoning action or for an approval of
an annexation something like that it it has not been an issue thank you I'll have some followup but I just want to get that on the record thank you are there any other com uh questions all right you've heard the staff report I now declare this hearing this public hearing open uh how much time do you think you need maybe a minute and a half all right let's go ahead and put five minutes on uh is your name mayor this is a public speaker on the not the applicant oh okay y I was just looking at this like wait are you is it the are you the applicant I'm I I I'm not technically the applicant is the owner I think but I'm with the applicant I'm the land surveyor what's your name applicant Mary Elizabeth my name Gunn surveying so I'm represent the applicant is actually out of uh the country right the second so okay so I have you and Mr Baker and Brian sawer U Mr Baker for the next case I
believe yep sure right you sure yep you're right so I have you two for this one yes okay gotcha so all right we'll take it three minutes go okay hi thank you mayor mayor protemp and members of council for your time um thank you Aaron also for your presentation I'm Mary Elizabeth a land surveyor with Sullivan surveying um and as stated by Aaron the goal is to have this property um off of Stanley Road annexed um to have access for utilities and I hope this would be something that would be viewed as amiable by Council and hopefully can help to be beneficial for our property owners as well so thank you guys for your time and consideration gosh such a complex presentation all right thank you um actually those are uh Mr Brian are you resource or would you need to share okay gotcha all right
so those are all the speakers I have so at this time I'll declare the public hearing closed and I'm back before the council questions colle come back to um council member Cook's question uh so are you going to be running water down Stanley Road so I you will come to the uh Podium here get on camera get famous thank you for considering absolutely just say your name my name is Brian Sawyer I'm the general contractor uh there's no water on that street available for City Water our main purpose is to tie into the sewer and when there's already sewer on that that straet I'm sorry you're just tapping into the that's it all right any other questions questions or comments colleagues yep mayor pres thank you uh you're you're not the owner no I'm a general contractor this just for a
personal residence no uh yes private resident I think he plans on living there himself yes okay is he a is he a um head of a multinational multi-million dollar development company anything like that no he owns a a dump truck he's a trucker trucker how long has you been the DM um I think 20 years thank you that's it all right any other comments colleagues questions all right so at this time I'll entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing palano residents into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with ruio palanco and yenis Carolina Morales moved is red second been mov them properly second Madam clerk please open to vote please close the
vote and the motion passes unanimously council member C is your clicker working or you just you didn't vote it's unanimous okay it's unanimous but all right thank you and the last item number 34 much oh I'm sorry go move it too quick here uh the next motion the next motion um to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the residential Suburban 20 Falls Jordan District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential Suburban 20 false Jordan District B City jurisdiction we'll just read second we moved and properly second Madam clerk please open the votee please close the vote and Report out and the motion passes
unanimously thank you and lastly I'll entertain a motion to adopt the consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute section 160d d605 who to adop consistency second move the property second Madam clerk please open to vote please close the vote and the motion passes unanimously all right last item number 34 zoning map change who wrote assemblage now receive the staff report a request for a zoning map change has been received from oh yes from Dan juel of Thomas and Hutton for 63 Parcels of land totaling 23204 acres and located in East Durham generally west of Miami Boulevard in Hoover Road north of Ash Street and south of Harvard Avenue the current zoning is residential Urban 5 residential Urban 52 and Commercial neighborhood the applicant proposes to change this designation through a
32 zoning is generally consistent with the designated types of mixed residential neighborhood and established residential but is not consistent with the neighborhood services Place type if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the place type map to designate the parcels currently designated as Neighborhood Services to mixed residential neighborhood staff also recommends changing the parcels currently designated as established residential to mix residential neighborhood for consistency and to acknowledge the change in housing type thank you staff and the applicants are available for any questions thank you council member
cook hello again um could you just quickly tell us what the neighborhood services Place type designation is so it's intended for uh neighborhood commercial and Civic uses so think your smallscale retail retail uh Care Centers um the kinds of things that you would the kinds of non-residential activities you might want um near residential areas and there is still a significant amount of Neighborhood Services up there on on on that road this would just be eliminating for a few Parcels okay thank you any other questions for yes council member Mr can also along those lines so of the 23 plus acres in this in this case can you say what cuz I you there's different different place types in there right so what percent is the neighborhood services Place type which is right there right fronting on Miami right it's just those four partiel that um from a percentage of the land were maybe 10% I I couldn't give you an exact
amount right now but it it's small thank you all right so what this time I'll declare the public hearing open and Mr Baker you're the only speaker I have how much time do you need on this um Mr Mayor I think four minutes would be sufficient thank you you have five minutes good evening mayor Williams mayor protim Middleton members of the city council I'm Patrick Baker I live at 2614 Stewart Drive I'm an attorney with Morning Star Law Group I'm here representing the local ownership team of this assemblage along Hoover Road for this agenda item I'm joined tonight by some of our ownership team who are sitting right over there this is a rather unique situation since we are representing a group of local owners who have assembled one of the strongest infill developments that I can recall this local ownership group includes Derm Habitat for Humanity and our team has been working on this assemblage since
2019 the team has put together 23 Acres but only slightly more than 12 acres are developable for new housing the construction of seder and Creasy streets with sidewalks on both sides will create a grid network with Ash Street and Hoover Road when you add in the required stream buffers and the storm water control measures those factors all reduce the Acres that can be developed to just over 12 it is important to note that there is no housing at all on any of these Lots today I have to say I've worked in Durham for about 30 years and I did not realize this infill opportunity existed until we started working on this resoning since the Hoover Road assemblage owners are the applicant here and not a developer it precluded some of the options related to to compliance with our comprehensive plan however the owners have made a strong commitment to affordability along with the new streets and sidewalks that affordability commitment drives this infield development in order to locate new housing approximately 2 miles east
of downtown as shown in our development plan there's a commitment to apartments and Tow houses within this assemblage in order to diversify the housing stock in this corner of Durham since it was the desire of this ownership group ownership group to diversify the housing types in this area we knew we had to be a good neighbor and focus on community engagement accordingly in addition to our two virtual neighborhood meetings for which approximately 600 folks were notified we also had two lengthy meetings with Partners against Crime District 1 the first was on Saturday J July 20 of 2024 and the second was on Saturday November 16 of 2024 as a result of those meetings thead leadership of Partners against Crime district one provideed us with this letter of support we hope you can take uh this opportunity to review this letter now provide a copy of the letter from the pack one leadership to the clerk to be included in the record of this meeting while we have this letter on the screen I do want to profer on the record a contribution to Durham public schools
in the amount of $133,000 based on $500 per additional student prior to site plan approval if we are fortunate to receive your approval we'll send an updated development plan to Mr C to that effect to wrap up I do have to point out if you look at this slide on the left side about twoth thirds of the way down that John warilla is one of our ownership team leaders and he was recognized last year by preservation Durham for over 30 years of visionary leadership in our city we are blessed to have such dedicated and experienced folks working on this assemblage unfortunately however this assemblage has been used as an illegal Dumping Ground for many years the local owners have had to spend over $60,000 of their own money to clean up the illegal dumping you can see on these two slides regrettably this type of activity continues today and the ownership team regularly spends its hard earn money to get it cleaned up for all
those reasons along with the unanimous recommendation for approval from the Planning Commission we respectfully asked for your approval tonight so that this project can move forward our team will be happy to answer any questions thank thank you very much for your time this evening thank you all right thank you um at this time I don't have any other speakers so at this time I'll declare the public hearing closed back before the council colleagues Council M cook um I will be brief since you actually touched on one of the two things that I was going to ask about which was the school propers um the other thing that was brought up at the Planning Commission was um were excuse me policies 101 and 108 around native trees and plants um there was a um a note that this is in the priority for green infrastructure uh so is there and I I know what you said at the Planning Commission I know that these are local
owners um but you are profer other things so I was wondering if there were any propers you could make around that no no council member cook the only profer that we wish to put on the record tonight is the contribution enduring Public Schools uh those we reviewed attachment F very carefully prior of this meeting and certainly had a very good give and take with the Planning Commission uh back in December but in terms of the different infrastructure considerations that's very difficult for us to commit to since um you know different developers different home builders have different uh parameters for their types of development so as an ownership team we're just not able to commit to those any other questions council member Baker so I'm I'm definitely I'm happy to see the Sader Street connection I think that's going to be very important and we're closing the Felix Street connection but I'm I'm curious if that was ever even feasible to connect because of the utility easement that is
on the property and also on the adjacent property was that even ever something that could have connected to the north no because the the is a one of those big high tension wire easements and they don't allow public streets within that type of a an easement council member okay so it sounds like makes sense to to close that street anyway yes sir MH um the there is the the neighborhood services I usually think that's a very important uh future lineage Place type um I think in this case when we look to the east of this property uh and what is directly to the east is what we see things that are very much heavy commercial in nature there's cement propane uh cremation the water world uh is right there metal fabricators plumbing and HVAC and then there's 885 so so to kind of put like a neighborhood oriented uh Community non-residential there you know I even
though that's what's being called for in the place type map I'm actually comfortable with us being able to change that I don't see staff pushing back very hard in the staff report on that on that feature Place type map change either so I'm comfortable with that change as well um I do think um the affordable housing for 20 years I know that you said that you already came to the table with one profit that you wanted to make um but a lot of Planning Commission or Planning Commission commented that uh 20 years it would be better if it was 30 years is that something you'd be interested in in profer no sir we're we're the financing unfortunately hasn't gotten any better over the last year year and a half we were all optimistic that interest rates would start to decline uh and our our feedback in terms of I want to emphasize the 20-year Horizon only applies to the uh Apartments multifam uh and that's because the financing Market has not
improved if anything's gotten worse um and so it's very difficult to obtain financing for that we did commit to 30 years for the town houses because we know we can obtain financing to build those okay that's it for me for now thank you thank you council member Freeman R thank you Mr Mayor uh thanks for the presentation so yeah love the local ownership group love the engagement You' shared love the infill of this project appreciate the proper to DPS and also appreciate the the vote from planning Comm when we talked we we talked about the commercial and I wanted want to talk about a little more I mean counc Baker mentioned that briefly so admittedly it's it's a it's an odd Corridor I remember years ago driving out to the DMV there water world work or water world was out there um but it is a commercial Corridor and it's only a mile from Well's Village right um I think it's only half a mile from Well's Village actually I mean maybe a little more so it's it's it's close to a lot of stuff um it's definitely as we talked
about it's that kind of dut hole that's filling in dur which I think is appropriate very much appropriate part of our job in the council is not only to sort of approve things for what what it is now but looking forward to what that what that's going to be 10 15 years from now right and we talk a lot about building a 15-minute city and what I'm concerned about is that we like right now I get that the traffic counts are down because we built East End connector but that's still a commercial Corridor and what I'm concerned about is that we take away the neighborhood um Service as piece and then 10 years down the road I mean Brick Works is just around the corner right and that's like what that's 1,00 uh res or units there with also with commercial what I'm concerned about is that we if we take away the neighborhood services now are we going to say 10 years from now shoot we've got now we've got a we've got housing up to the street there we'd really appreciate having some Neighborhood Services right there on that on the on the Frontage so we looked at it really hard a council member wrist as a team and we have people who are much more capable than I
am evaluating that and yeah what's what's remarkable about Miami Boulevard is the traffic count actually dropped by 50% after East in connector opened and the folks on the team we met with real estate brokers we just could not identify a non-residential use that would work uh for that little Frontage along um on the north side of this assemblage what I think is more important actually is the point I made about diversifi diversification of the housing type that if you drive through the neighborhood there you'll see that it's it's really predominantly single family detached housing and so when we looked at and as Mr Kan mentioned and I agree with I think it's actually under 10% of the assemblage is Neighborhood Services we thought it was a better use of that property to bring further diversification of housing types to the to that part of Durham as opposed to put in a commercial that to be honest with you sir would just sit vacant I mean so like so how long is it
going to take to complete this development we're talking like five plus years I think less than that sir hopefully less I mean certainly our our objective is to move more exped expeditiously than that again I'm thinking about like what this is going to be five years down the road well keep keep in mind brick brick works will be adding 50,000 square feet of of non-residential space that folks in this neighborhood could I think would be able to walk to and and you got an easy conect fairly easy connection to uh wellin Village as well straight shot of Miami Boulevard so I think there's plenty of non-residential opportunities right in the vicinity there is just this this 5 to 10% of the assemblage on the north side of it simply doesn't make any sense to us to make that non-residential so what so what do you envision then coming what's going to be facing the street then facing Miami that when this is completed uh it would either be uh U some tow houses or some apartments that would be oriented you know to the street mhm okay thank you thank
you thank you um Mr May thank you colleagues and thank you um to this local ownership group this is um infield development which I I am in in my quest to keep Fidelity with what I voted for um in our comp plan in terms of deran growth boundary um I I I place a high premium on good infield development um not perfect but good really strong infield devel vment I think um the Planning Commission got this one right um and and the fact that what's interesting is that it was a unanimous vote but they still had caveats they still had Commons which I think is illustrative of good not making perfect the enemy of the good and I think their comments were useful the the challenge is when you have we want developers who have local values but with the Ledger of a multinational developer or multi-billion dollar developer um and so s when it's it's it's local folk they can't do all the things that
uh the big big boys or big girls big people can do uh that we'd like them to um I believe they they would if they could so I understand some of the limitations um a lot of time this was a Dumping Ground this this area a lot of times was was dumped on um we need uh some development there and we need we uh some good housing uh there um I'm I'm I'm pleased with the mix between its ownership and Rental what's the breakdown of that again um it would probably be ballpark 2/3 uh multif Family Apartments one/ third tow houses that's that's our best guess at this point in time yeah ball park yeah I I think this is a a a good a good um example of infill development again I think the Planning Commission um got this one right you know in an urban living in a city um it is not uncommon to to walk down the street of a city and two blocks is residential and then the
next block boom you're in some different type of of of use or that's what a city is uh often times in as our urban center gets uh more dense and and certainly we need to keep uh vigilance with with trees and and and and other things but I I think that um this is actually a good project um when it comes to infield development I'm excited about the local uh development group that's behind it uh I like the mixture of housing I I Echo council member um uh Baker's uh concern query uh what have you about the 30-year threshold for affordability as opposed to 20 I do like the extended affordability on on the town homes but I do also understand the limits of of a local group who may not have the the the revenue of a bigger player uh but I think has the appropriate values for our city uh in mind so I'm going to support this project look forward to and I thank the Planning Commission for their recommendation all right thank you um it's a great project I'm excited to have
it um I gave a t talk this weekend at Duke University and one of the things I talked about was you know the community in action and if a community community was an action word part of that means you know running into your neighbor you know and meeting folks in the grocery store and being able to create a space an environment where you know you can share pain but also share your promise it feels good to see folks that I see on a daily basis in the coffee shops or just in the grocery store normal folks that I not looking at some big company public company that's shared on the stock market uh in the Housing Industry but folks that live right in Durham um also making an investment in Durham an investment that reflects the that that responds to the needs that we have in Durham as well so um I am grateful for this project um and look forward to supporting you it's a good project all right with that being before you I I just wanted to ask
um a question to the applicant I I just wanted to know was this presented at the pack meeting or just yeah yeah yeah we had two meetings um uh back in July and then back in November I would say both meetings lasted about an hour we had big easel up and good well attended I just wanted to um thank you for doing that I appreciate it very many folks think take advantage of the community engagement that's already happening and so I do want to just note that yeah on behalf of our team we all really enjoyed those meetings they were very constructive thank you it's quite impressive you have a letter of support from Mr Chavis at that too so he's uh and Vivian McCoy yeah and and yeah Miss Vivian it's a high bar so good good work and with that being said I now entertain a motion to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility
325 and Falls joining Lake Watershed protection overlay protected area partial move is Right second second been moved and properly seconded mam clerk please open the
vote please close the vote and the motion passes unanimously thank you and lastly I will hand a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute section 160d d603 605 move to adop consistency second been moved and proberly seconded please uh open the vote please close to vote and the motion passes unanimously thank you so much thank you that was our last agenda item I do have uh something to address briefly um but I'll go to council member Freeman first thank you I just wanted to um just check in with City staff I noticed um with the comments that were made this uh evening with the students there was a there was a number of folks who who made mention of timely I'm sorry this it uh timely compensation and
I was just trying to figure out is there something where we're involved with compensation with this organization that's not timely I am unaware of us having any support of the organization or any formal relationship with them if if anyone has any information that conflicts with that please let me know but off the top of my head I'm not aware that we have any relationship with them so I'm just trying to I was just trying to figure out and and I didn't know Mr Mayor if you were trying to propose some type of support in place for this organization it wasn't just that organization that was uh they the youth wanted to um they wanted to be heard uh they are working privately to raise funds uh this is one of the organizations that inspired me to start the Bull City future fund uh they have applied uh so this wasn't a this wasn't break folks in and ask the counsel for money tonight this was recognizing that there are great things happening with our youth in this community and it needs some attention uh so I use my platform
tonight to speak to the Durham Community to uh just ensure that this is a priority for for everyone I I and I I neither am asking for a specific contribution to one organization this is more of a you know we just don't get kids to speak at City Hall much I so what I heard you say I just want to make sure I understood is that the bull City's Futures fund is an organization that people can support if they would like to support organizations like poof and the purpose learning lab and we we we are nearly at a half million dollars right now at the million dollar goal but applications are open and they have actually applied thank you yes just really briefly I will also say that poof is looking to purchase a new building because they did have to move and there is a fund are online if folks are interested all right uh so we have some weather coming up um and we don't know what it's going to bring uh colleagues
I'll ask for you of flexibility as we uh just prepare for whatever is to come we will send out some correspondents on how we'll address the meeting on Thursday if the weather gets really really really bad on Wednesday um I am going to have to request an excused absence for Thursday's meeting um and I don't I'm going to ask for the absence I don't know if I actually would need it or not but I'm going to ask for it tonight so um yeah so move um second could you facilitate that sure uh we have Madam cler would you please open the vote it's okay all in favor I those oppos all right Mr Mayor you're excused thank you uh as stated we are expecting a significant amount of snow um the staff
as great as they are already are at it and working to prepare uh for that and um yeah just just be on the lookout from manager Ferguson and myself to um present options for our meeting on Thursday question yes is a virtual option one of those options I just want to make sure cuz I need to clean up some space we don't know yet we just look for correspondence from um um from manager Ferguson the reason why I don't want to De I don't want to declare anything yet is because we need to look at some legal stuff with the attorney and uh see what our options are but we did talk about it today there are options to uh to move forward forward on Thursday uh and uh facilitate it at another meeting but I'll send those options out once we get a better understanding of what the weather is going to look like all right and shout out to uh Duke Ted x uh thanks for inviting me to be a
m. thank you all for a great meeting for