good evening everyone welcome welcome welcome to City Hall and we are getting the business started tonight all right we will uh we'll just uh hold for a moment of silence in honor of a yearning for peace around this world and this in these streets thank you all right we'll now uh go to council member Freeman for the uh Pledge of Allegiance let our practice to stand to salute the flag and if you join me thank
youat Madam cler if you will please call the road mayor William I'm here may protm Leonardo Williams I'm here council member Baker here council member cabayo here council member cook here council member Freeman pres council member rist here thank you this is first all right we're going to do it at that Podium right there and I'm going take get it up for you thank you not numbered okay you just organized those for me
the proclamation first so uh usually and I want you to have your uh guests come up as well in just a moment they can all come and stand in just a moment uh usually I read proclamations uh that's one of the roles of the mayor to um celebrate uh proclaiming a particular attention to a day uh but then again sometimes we get a chance to provide the highest honor of the city and that is the key to our city uh and this is our highest gift our most honorable way of thanks for the service one has done uh in this community the lives that have been
impacted by their work uh their commit commment to our community and uh it is my honor tonight to provide a proclamation to Dr Johnson o a and it reads as whereas Dr Johnson o e has served as the 12th Chancellor of North Carolina Central University inccu since 2016 joined 16 uh joined nccu as Provost and vice Chancellor for academic Affairs in 2016 and served as interim Chancellor from December 2016 to June 2017 and whereas Dr Johnson o EA brought 37 years of dedicated service to higher education transforming the lives of thousands of students including senior administrative service in public private and church Affiliated institutions prior to coming to
nccu and whereas Dr earned a bachelor's degree in telecommunications and a master's degree in media technology from Alabama A&M university and a doctorate in human communication studies from howt University whereas Dr E is well known as a motivational speaker consultant writer editor and documentarian and he is also active in Civic cultural and church related organizations business advisory groups while serving on the boards of maid and Durham r TP Foundation the 50 group and the Wataga club and whereas Dr E's introduction of the eagle promise initiative has begun become the Cornerstone of the University's strategic priorities under dr's leadership the university has increased its enrollement to over 8,200 students in undergraduate graduate in professional programs Dr EA has led the largest infrastructure expansion at the
University to date with capital projects valued over $400 million including a new student center a new School of Business three new residence halls and a 247 Collaborative Learning and Research Center additionally EA was instrumental in securing approval for nccu's Millennial campus designation in October 2018 and whereas Dr Johnson o E's commitment and dedication to higher education will serve as a legacy and road map for others now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina Proclaim May 6 as Dr Johnson o ACC day
I uh in just a quick quick story I I keep telling this story when I met doc like I call him doc but Dr EA um it was actually uh when he was first introduced to the uh to the Alumni Association and I went to this meeting and many of you all know I am a bandhe head I was in the marching band I was drum major and all I cared about was my marching band and at the time I knew we needed more funding for the marching band I didn't really care about how the institution worked and so when I met him I was like hey so what are you gon to do about the band he said oh well we have a lot of things to take care of you know we're going to get to it and all I could hear was he said we were going to get to it so I went back and forth with him and he went back and forth with me and he said let's step outside now the way I grew up when someone says let's step outside it has a certain
indication he didn't mean that but you know cultural differences um however I obliged and I went outside I was ready and uh he explained to me he said listen we're going to get to it but we have some troubling things we have to address right now and uh and I I just you know I never knew how big of the the world it was in our institution as a double eagle of nccu but that was the day that his passion was defined for me and I've been supportive of of Doc ever since and just really appreciate all of what you've done uh for not only Central in CCU but the Durham community and as well as nationally and globally thank you so much Mr Mayor got it thank you to The Honorable mayor Williams esteemed council members all of the
alumni on the council and for the city of Durham and of course to the wonderful people of Durham good evening even and I'm so glad that the mayor clarified the stepping outside thing because I thought he was expected me to fight him outside but what I was trying to do is really to explain to him let's talk about this a little bit outside so that we wouldn't disrupt the other means uh I am Mr Mayor I am deeply moved and honored to receive the key to the city this evening this moment holds a significance that transcends words particularly as I reflect on on my journey as Chancellor of North Carolina Central University I am truly grateful for the privilege of being a part of the fabric of Duram North Carolina a city that I have come
to love dearly throughout my tenure as Chancellor I have witnessed firsthand the extraordinary Spirit and the pride of this city it has been my greatest honor to contribute to the rich history and success of the city nccu as you well know holds a very special place in the history of Durham and the state of North Carolina as it was founded in 1910 and later became the first state supported liberal arts college in the nation not just in in in North Carolina our university has been a Beacon of Hope and opportunity empowering generations of students to achieve their dreams and change the course of history in every field of human endeavor moreover nccu stands at the heart of a global Innovation Center nestled with North Carolina's largest
continuously running the resch Triangle Park together with the city of Duram we have led the way in pionering initiatives that drive Innovation Foster entrepreneurship and shape the future of of our city and Beyond as I accept this key Mr Mayor I do so with a profound s sense of appreciation for the trust and the support bestowed upon me by this city and his cherished residents I am deeply humbled by this honor and pledged to continue championing the values of Education Innovation and service long into my retirement with profound humility I accept this key recognizing that it symbolizes not only my efforts but the collective dedication of nccu to the growth and the prosperity of the city of Durham I would be remissed if I
did not express my deepest gratitude to those who have supported me throughout my tenure particularly my wife wiita and my children and more importantly my colleagues who are here behind me our vice chancellors for Affairs our leadership team who have equally worked very hard to make sure that we can fulfill the dreams of the Durham resident and of course finally to the leaders and the citizen of Duram my gratitude knows no bound it has been the highest honor and privilege to serve alongside all of you and I eagerly anticipate bearing witness to the continued growth and triumphs of this remarkable city thank you Mr Mayor but he on thank youate I had to make an Aggie stand up
here with me while we did that by way I know you have some Aggies here as well yes I can't remember if I saw my uh that was my first key to the city all
right congrats to nccu the a is retiring in case I didn't state that he's uh served this time well he's now uh retiring from nccu and we'll uh move on to other things council member R Mr Mayor mayor PM members of the council city manager paage good evening citizens of Durham also good evening I'd like to call up Jennifer from come on up from new Hub bird Alliance um so as Jennifer is coming up I just want to say Mr Mayor as you know when this when this um Proclamation came through I was eager to to be the one to read this um I should say that um I have a somewhat complicated actually this came right from from this from the new Hub what was used to be called new Hub ottoman Society just recently rebranded right as as of a week as a New Hope bird Alliance um I was excited about this but I have a somewhat complicated relationship with birds you see um so my parents and my grandp were all big members of the ottobon society
organizers volunteers spent a lot of time involved in the ottobon society so I spent a lot of time as a kid going on bird walks there were not always the thing I wanted to do as a Rowdy kid you know um but as an adult I really come to love the the the time we spend together and what I learned about birds and I've really gained a deep appreciation as an adult for birds so I want to thank you all at New Hope bird Alliance for bringing this resolution forward and for bringing back these fond memories of going on bird hikes with my parents so thank you so um whereas the term aerial insectivores refers to species of birds that eat insects while on the wing including Swifts swallows night jars and fly cats catchers and whereas Studies have shown that certain species of aerial insectivores have declined by more than 13% since 2012 and are projected to decline further and whereas Studies have shown that aerial insectivores such as chimney Swifts consume as many as 5,000 insects
per bird per day including mosquitoes and flies and whereas aerial and sectores inhabit all areas of the city of Durham and whereas many aerial and seav Wars live in colonies that many that may uh I'm sorry live in colonies and many remain active in the evening after working hours enhancing the appeal and ease of of observing them and whereas social events for viewing aerial and sectores have attracted viewers to local commercial establishments for viewing events and could benefit even more local businesses if better known and whereas viewing Nature has been shown to reduce stress and promote health and whereas knowledge of specific practices for conserving and protecting the populations of aerial and seavor would benefit from the designation of the year of the AEL and seav War now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina to hereby Proclaim 2024 year of the incav war in the city
of Durham and hereby urge and encourage use of the best practices for conserving aerial insectivores in Durham the document that New Hope New Hope bird lines has submitted to the Durham County Durham City County Planning Department witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this first day of March 2024 Leonardo Williams mayor city of Durham thank you mayor Williams thank you council members and thank you council member rist for pronouncing that mouthful aerial in seavor I thought about saying AI but that would be confusing um it's also confusing that some of these birds are called Swift but not that Swift um but I if I have a couple of minutes to say a few words about why these birds uh need to be protected how do they how they can be protected but most of all how they will benefit the citizens of Durham so connecting to Nature is a a way to
maintain mental health and these are birds that live in man-made structures so you'll see them going into chimneys on Paris Street on Watt Street you'll see them uh flying above the city you'll see them behind Patterson Place big box stores out in the middle of a field uh living in purple martin houses and uh they are consuming insects the best practices for encouraging them can save you money so one of them is to please turn out unnecessary lights at night the city could save electricity uh in individuals could save electricity and the birds would not be confused tonight for example as many as 50,000 Birds may fly over this area on their migration path and lights especially those that beam up uh confuse them and get cause problems with their migration another way to save money and save the birds is to abandon uh spraying for mosquitoes it
doesn't work and it's very expensive they're much Le less expensive ways of dealing with them and you are killing the very things that these birds eat as well as possibly harming yourself because there's no safe natural insecticide um and people don't realize that a third way maybe not to save you money but um bring you some cheap entertainment is to uncap chimneys these birds especially chimney Swifts live in chimneys I have them living in my chimney it's very entertaining you can hear them come down the little birds beg The Nest itself is a couple of twigs glued on with bird saliva sounds yucky but dries up and that disappears uh by the time you're ready to start start a fire in your chimney so these are all ways of of thinking about bringing support to birds that actually support humans um and that's what I have to say if there are any questions happy to answer them thank you okay
so I I try to spread out the um try to spread out the proclamations as best as possible but sometimes uh I do take the uh Liberty and luxury as mayor when it's personal and uh wanted to present the one myself uh simply because I I know of you know just I can never know what it's like to be in your shoes or any of your shoes um however I just for the public quickly Whenever there is whenever there's a there's a homicide on the streets of Durham this Council gets a text message the entire Council every single time and we get all the details as as much as we can get and we're getting a text
message we're getting a text message the people standing behind me see the bodies on the ground we get a text message they get the body on the ground they have to investigate why that body was on the ground sometimes the bullets that put that body on the ground are sometimes flying at them and when we're running to take cover they're running to apprehend the situation never let us take for granted this particular role ever I don't care what your stance is I don't care what research you
read article you've presented at the end of the day we have dedicated people in our city that put their lives on the line for a job to keep us safe and I never want us to take that for granted so I will always stand tall and I may not be able to do your job but my job is policy and I'll always be on the front line for you and I will take those Jabs any day for any of you some promis I tell people not to make because they may not be able to keep them but I can bet you for sure I'll always keep this
one now to your Proclamation whereas the Congress and President of the United States have designated May 15th as peace officers Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as National Police Week and whereas the officers of this city of Durham the city of Durham Police Department play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedom of the citizens of Durham and whereas it is important that our citizens are aware of and understand the dangers and problems encountered and the duties and responsibilities incurred by their law enforcement officers and whereas it is equally important that our Law enforc Enforcement Officers recognize their duty to Serve the People by safeguarding life and property protecting them against violence or disorder and by
protecting the innocent against deception and weak against oppression or intimidation and whereas the men and women of the city of Durham Police Department unceasingly provide a vital public service now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby proclaim the week of May 12th through 18th 2024 as police week and May 15th 2024 as Peace Officers Memorial Day end Duram and call upon our citizens to join in commemorating law enforcement officers ped and present who have rendered a dedicated service to their Community I also o encourage our citizens to honor those peace officers who have lost their lives or have become disabled in the line of duty so witness my hand in the corporate seill of the city of Durham North Carolina this sixth day of May 2024
[Applause] wow thank you Mr Mayor mayor protim my Durham city council manager Paige um and the community of Durham and leaders here that we have and um wow usually I'm able to pull myself together that was tough so next week law enforcement officer ERS from across our great nation will gather to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and service to their communities we have recently been reminded of the dangers that our officers face each day and the profound
impact that their service has on our entire Community as we remember their loss it is also important that we honor their courage their selflessness and their commitment to Justice in this moment and Beyond I challenge each of you to renew your commitment to supporting those who continue to serve for it is in them that the legacy of the Fallen lives on our profession is a noble calling I have zero regrets it is true we all know the risks we all know that at any moment any time that we could be the ones that fall and yet through it all the tragedy the long hours the occasional vitri all
we persevere we are resilient we draw strength from those that came before us and from those that were lost far too soon I want to just take a moment to to remember those officers um that were killed last week officers that have faced violence in our country and I want to just extend a prayer to one of our own that's still currently hospitalized officer Brienne Jones on behalf of the men and women of the Duram Police Department I want to thank you all for your continued support and for this wonderful uh well-meaning and and the words in this Proclamation so thank you very much [Applause]
good evening everyone can um Eric note come up this is for drinking water week uh whereas water is a basic and essential need of all living things and whereas only tap water provides Public Health protection fire protection support for our economy and the quality of life we enjoy whereas the city delivers a reliable supply of highquality award-winning drinking water whereas the city continues to be a leader in Source water protection and recognizes the potential impacts of climate change on this precious natural resource and whereas dedicated individuals and organizations have made significant contributions in developing operating and maintaining our water
infrastructure and educating the public on the value of this resource now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do here here by Proclaim May 5th uh 2024 as drinking water week in Durham and hereby urge all residents to celebrate our staff that produces manages and maintains the city's water resources and to help make Durham a more sustainable Community by embracing waterwise habits witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this the sixth day of May 2024 [Applause] thank you thank you mayor Williams members of the city council and citizens of Durham I am Eric note plant operator at the Williams water treatment plant is it is an honor to be here today to accept this Proclamation on behalf of my fellow operators in water supply and
m. every day our team has served pretty much the entire population of Durham three to four times that's more than a million customer touch points
every morning providing service like this requires an amazing team and we have one part of our responsibility to ensure our water supply is safe and reliable is to educate the Next Generation about the importance of drinking water each year our water efficiency team sponsors a poster contest that highlights the value of water this year's theme was be a water wizard we received more than 300 entries and that made judging very difficult our nine finalists you can see their Creations on the screens maybe um went on to win eight of the nine top spots at the state competition we will be announcing the winners on social media later tonight I would like to thank you all for taking time to recognize the vital role Safe Drinking Water plays in all of
our Lives we appreciate the support of the city council the city Administration fellow city employees and of course the residents of Durham who make this community such a great city thank you all who who's your friend there way drop [Applause]
Wayne Drop he's why I ran ladies and gentlemen it is my honor Mr Mayor thank you for this uh great privilege to read this proclamation to my honorable colleagues everyone in the chamber good evening I have the great honor of reading a proclamation for National panhel and Council of durman Orange County days and I'm going to invite uh Truitt O'Neal to stroll up here and anyone else you may want to join you chapter presidents yeah you come up first little what's going on yes sir yes sir come on
up I'm I do we need to put on Wipe Me Down get y'all up here faster come on I'm pleased to be joined by the mayor and our city manager Wanda pagee who both have their own affiliations Proclamation where yes sir shows whereas the National panh helenic Council of durm and orange counties nphc Doo has been an integral part of the community for over 40 years and was officially chartered on March 26 2022 and whereas the nphc of durm and orange counties has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to advancing educational opportunities promoting voter education and supporting local
public schools and whereas the council has played a crucial role in fostering social engagement and building Fellowship among the members of the divine nine which include Alpha F Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Kappa Alpha Sai Omega SciFi Delta Sigma Theta F Beta Sigma Zeta fi Beta Sigma Sigma gamma row and Iota feta and whereas the National panolin Council was formed on May 10th 1930 at Howard University and later Incorporated in 1937 establishing a legacy of unity and Collective action among its member organizations and whereas the nphc promotes Community awareness and action through educational economic and cultural service activities adhering to
its mission of unanimity of thought and action and addressing problems of mutual interest to its member organizations now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby proclaimed May 10th 2024 as National panh helenic Council of durm and orange Cy's day in durm and hereby urge all its residents to take note of this observance witness my hand and the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this the sixth day of May 2024 Leonardo Williams [Applause] mayor sorry everywhere I go I'm a little little taller than the microphone um good evening ex uh esteemed members of the Durham city council mayor Williams protm Community leaders citizens and and members of the divine
nine once again my name is TR O'Neal I'm a proud alumnist of North Carolina Central University and a member of f Sigma fraternity Incorporated and I'm honored to be here to speak on behalf of the National pantic Council of Durham and orange counties as a president of the council I'm proud to represent these individuals and their organizations behind me this year as a collective body we are proud to commemorate the 94 years of the international organization and more than 40 plus years of dedicated service to the city of Durham our steadfast commitment to our foundational pillars of scholarship service leadership development Civic engagement Brotherhood Sisterhood and cultural heritage drives our mission positively to impact our community during the covid-19 pandemic our D9 member organizations rally to support our schools we embodied the pillar of service by actively participating in community initiatives like Mrs Parker Professor food Razer led by nccu alumni DPS Lakewood Elementary
media specialist turquoise Legion Parker we provided labor volunteers and monetary donations to the initiative ensuring that students receive the essential meals they needed during school closures our efforts extended Beyond Lakewood reaching other schools and underscoring our deep commitment to educational support across Durham public schools in addition to educational support our Council actively engages in initiatives that provide direct Aid to families during critical times our Thanksgiving getaway is one such initiative where we support DPS families providing funds to enhance their Thanksgiving holiday meals now the scope of Engagement has significantly grown over the years initially focusing on our annual Christmas toy giveaway and our nphc do cookout uh we have expanded to include a broad range of community engagement opportunities the uama projects wehe headed by mphc Doo's Iota FAA council
member kg supports blackowned businesses by hosting our community and social events at blackowned businesses including Mike D's barbecue Ana spot Missy Lanes favorite desserts Bara soul and more this strategic Choice supports the local economy and lines with our uh organization goals allowing us to make a broad impact with unified efforts as for political engagements another p uh pillar of our work uh over the last four years we've hosted numerous forums including the Durham votes candidates mix and mingle which provides a platform for Meaningful interactions between the community and political candidates and as a as sitting council member sitting here this evening we appreciate all of you for making time to meet our members and the community during these events as we look to the Future please know that the initiatives mentioned tonight are just a few of the many projects the NP CDO will continue to support and create we look forward to
many more years of providing additional opportunities to serve and and activate community members in Durham creating a positive impact thank you for recognizing our efforts it is your support that helps amplify our impact and together we can achieve remarkable things for the community of Durham thank you [Applause] than for
don't B e
thanks all right um colleagues we're going to we're going to go ahead and get to it get to the business but I do want to recognize one more thing it's not a s not we're not reading any more proclamations tonight but we do have some special guests in the in the room and uh Derek you'll get this you'll get it right better than me do you mind um uh just uh acknowledging our guest tonight please it's been an honor having them here for the last two weeks and we spent a little time together right before the uh meeting started tonight yes so we have have uh Stanfield Derek Stanfield special list to the mayor we have a group of students from 12 countries that are visiting the Duke Sanford School of public policy they're ldf fellow so if you could join me in standing up as we acknowledge them uh all coming from the Middle East
thank you all so much for joining us tonight and um as I said earlier stay as long as you can um but it's an honor to have you all and uh as he said they from uh 12 12 different countries and and I just want to take a moment to say that uh some of them are experiencing things that we would never ever even could imagine in our life you know and they're here spending time with us tonight uh and I just want to honor that and thank you all all right well we will uh now move to Priority items actually announcements by Council I'm sorry I'll start down here uh council member cook all right good evening thanks so much everyone for being here um I have a quite a lot sitting heavy on my heart tonight I'm just going to talk about a couple things um I think that my colleagues are probably going to speak to some of the other ones that are um resting on on us all I'm sure that have been occurring over the last 3 weeks since we've had another of these
meetings um the first thing I want to say is that I was really honored to be invited to the nccu graduation this past weekend um and Dr echin definitely stole some of my thunder things that I was going to say about how awesome um nccu is uh right here in Durham we have what was the very first naal in the in the nation state supported liberal arts college for black folks um it's just an amazing history and graduation was so incredible I was really Blown Away there was a student that was honored for um receiving a prestigious scholarship to study Portuguese at Colombia next year um the student body president was moved to tears when she was talking about her senior class so it was really an honor to be there um and I was really grateful for that opportunity um meanwhile down the road at my alma mater UNC things were looking a little bit different over the past couple
weeks there was many like many other universities Across the Nation um an encampment in support of a ceasefire that was Seated on pulk place um the scene of a lot of um historical movements in the past led by students without much warning uh the chancellor called in police from University UNC um affiliate universities and um our students were removed they were um pepper sprayed many of them were arrested this is a it's a really it's a really difficult thing to to watch um your own alma mater do things that feel so counter to what you thought was what the school stood for several of our colleagues at Chapel
Hill have um condemned that action by the chancellor um and I wanted to quote what they said there were um this was from city council members in in Chapel Hill that the reaction created an environment that inevitably resulted in an escalation of force and I want to associate myself with those comments previously we've seen actions over the decades led by students and at UNCC what we have often seen is our Administration coming out to meet the students where they're at to listen to their demands um and to give them warning so that they can choose if they would like to participate in Civil Disobedience um and in the past several students have chosen to do that right but many also have left and that was not the situation that we saw last week we instead saw no warning and folks pepper sprayed it and round it up um in in something that I I saw as an escalation of force and I think that was the that was the study uh reporting that came out
of the campus at that time something that's particularly heavy to me is that anti-Semitism has been used as a justification for these reactions we hear a lot about Jew safety particularly today on Holocaust Remembrance Day and as a Jew this is really really difficult for me um because it feels like we are being used again and again to justify actions you've heard me say it and I will say it again and again but criticizing a genocide is not anti-semitic it is in fact at the core of what Judaism stands for so so today we are watching a Silence of press and a simultaneous Invasion into the last Safe Haven in Gaza Rafa a place that is now
hosting one of the densest populations in the world um over a million people at least we don't really know how many folks are there because people are having to live in encampments um without basic resources and without food and even despite all of these horrific things the reactions to our students standing up has been dismissive and so I just want to state today that students and particularly Jewish students who's who have been parts of these encampments whose role in this movement has been largely ignored um we see you we support you I support you I'm I'm so humbled by the students who see the treatment that they're getting both by the press and our nation's leaders um and worldwide
and they continue to stand up for a ceasefire and for just causes I think we have a lot to learn from students I'm still learning from the young people I'm so impressed and I just hope that we can really look to their leadership and join them in imagining a world that is better than this one that we are currently inhabiting thank you all for being here thank you Mr Mayor thank you for that thank you thank you thank you council member cook uh for your words um they were very powerful and I want to associate myself with them um additionally along with all of that news last week uh the general assembly the Senate and the general assembly passed uh an anti-immigrant Bill uh House Bill 10 uh the governor Cooper has vetoed it twice before it is
expected the the language is different um than what the house has already passed in the general assembly so it's going to go to crossover and it's expected to pass this coming Wednesday uh the expectation is that Governor Cooper will will veto it again but because of current configuration in the general assembly where there is a republican super majority there is an expectation that it will pass um I just want to read a little bit about what this bill entails and what it will mean for uh our immigrant Community here in Durham and quite frankly for our law enforcement uh because it is going to change um that Dynamic significantly and actually put all of us at risk because of it um so so the bill would require sheriffs to honor Ice uh immigra Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to detain for at least 48 Hours individuals suspected of being in the country illegally so if if you are detained for some other reason and you're brought
into Jail uh local prisons would foot the bill for the processing and housing of detainees while Federal officials review the immigration status All Counties would be required to share detention datab databases and attempt to find out the immigration status of any person in the local jail so currently and I do want to thank our current Sheriff this is not our current Sheriff's practice it has not been his practice it's actually one of the reasons he ran and won when he did in 2018 um and the reason that it is imperative that sheriff and local control are allowed to decide whether they are going to cooperate with ice is because it affects everyone's Public Safety if there are members in your community who are not going to call or interact with law enforcement because of their own fear around their immigration status everyone is in Jeopardy uh we know it affects women significantly especially in domestic violence situations because if there is a domestic violence situation in that home they are more likely to not call police because if you know that
potentially your primary bread winner is going to be detained and put in jail and there and then deported you're not going to call the cops it's just what it is additionally in North Carolina we do not have uh an immigration Detention Facility so if you are detained in North Carolina and let's be clear they can detain you and they're still going to check your immigration status regardless of what whatever your status may or may not be because they have that right um in North Carolina if you are on Ice hold and they come collect you uh you are going to end up in Georgia if you're a man uh at steuart Detention Facility and there's a facility in South Carolina for women I have been to that facility it is in the middle of nowhere it is at least a 10-hour drive it is extremely isolated it's south of Atlanta and if you are charged with something here the chances of a prosecution team trying to extract you for something while you've been put into Federal custody is very small so on top
of it it means that you're not really getting due process in your own Community because you have been taken by Ice um that facility is full of what is mostly very young men if they're 18 um who have tried to cross a border um often fleeing uh really horrific circumstances at home in their own home countries and I'll will say this is actually connected back to what we see in the Middle East because our country for the last several decades has decided to be the major exporter of global violence and guns and arms that's what we export to the rest of the world and that then plays out in all of these Global conficts and folks have horrific things happening in their communities and so then they flee and often end up on our border so if we want to stop which I often hear well we don't want folks coming here if we actually want to stop that cycle it takes the US stopping its
current foreign policy practices especially in places like Central America that have wreaked havoc for Generations so that the the stem of people fleeing violence to our own borders will stop it will not stop until we change our foreign policies and we are the people who ultimately determine that as voters so in November I urge all of you every election matters your Council matters your County Commissioners matter your Sheriff matters your general assembly me Members matter if you want a different world this is one way to get a different world vote for people who actually believe in the humanity of others who actually believe that all life is dignified so um I said on Governor Cooper's um Hispanic and Latino advisory Council we are putting out a statement and one of our asks is going to be for electeds across the state to sign on against hb10 um I will say uh it's very disheartening that these bills just keep
coming back and keep coming back this is round three I've been going to the general assembly on and off since 2018 to help stop a bill like this Latino activists immigrant activists have expended a lot of time and energy fighting against bills like these and yet here we are so it is a sad day for North Carolina it's a sad day that we have legislators who would rather waste time instead of ensuring that the quality of life for North Carolina residents that we all pay taxes to instead of actually improving our quality of life they are hellbent on causing more violence more harm in our communities and making us more unsafe thank you thank you for that and um just I hope I hope everyone heard another reason why we need to vote it is literally serious life of death council member Freeman thank you I I want to
wholeheartedly say I sign on to the request for hp10 to be removed I um want to appreciate council member Cabo's like steadfastness around immigrants and it's not just limited to Hispanics it's also Haitian and other African um countries um these these the unsaid piece of this is that race and racism is at the base and keeping and honoring whiteness keeps this moving forward on a consistent basis and if you don't understand that I need you to grasp that and especially in this year in this cycle with this election coming forward um because we're losing and it's not just voting it's actually having people of actual Humanity running for office um and so I want to encourage you not just to vote but to also consider what you could be doing to serve in our community uh whether it's locally Statewide or
nationally because it's it's just not we're at we're at a deficit on this side and I know um we need more people that honor our values honor our values uh I did want to just say that I also appreciate council member cook um just highlighting the Holocaust Remembrance Day it strikes a different chord um just looking at the death toll rise and knowing that there are women and children suffering in the middle of this so-called war and I'm I'm going to leave it at that but I I just want to say on a on a lighter note I see some of the folks in the community and the audience who do some of this work locally to try and support our families and our children and I want to say thank you for being here and I want to also say that I hope that we continue to find ways to support you and the work that you're doing um however that needs to be I hope it's it's a
proposal that comes forward to council or a proposal that comes forward to city manager however that looks I look forward to supporting that and then I also wanted to note I really do uh appreciate the art uh competition for the water that is really an inspiring um show of talent and I noted that even though we're not announcing the competition winners that a number of them were for Voyager Academy and uh I know that um there are many artists there that are un um UNT touted so I want to tout them want to make sure s a big shout out to those all the artists that submitted everyone who submitted the 300 and some OD students who decided to put their talents to work for the city of durm and send that submission in and then I I mean it's a long evening of uh announcements and proclamations I do have to just say as a as an eagle that I want to thank Dr okley Aki for his time and commitment to North Carolina Central
I want to congratulate all the graduates um who graduated this Saturday and walked across the stage and I want to also just just kind of send out a whole happy May it's that season of graduations um and a congratulations to all the graduates who will be graduating this year uh this is definitely a great season um in that regard and I'll also add an early happy Mother's Day to all the mothers um and stepmoms and all the bursing women of the world world who who provide us with a chance to be these humans on this Earth so um and then lastly I will share that I did have the opportunity to attend um Dr pasel mua's retirement celebration and I do want to highlight that his work and his commitment to the students of this this city and county are not U missed on me and just know that his talent will be
missed and so I hope that he'll continue to provide some oversight and support in other ways uh for the City and County of durm and I look forward to reading his book I also had a chance to to support a local nonprofit who is now doing a food market for old East Derm on driver Street their grand opening for the communities in Partnership um black and Latino um or black black latinx uh Farmers bringing their actual items to Market and so I want to make sure that you all aware and can support as well and I want to make sure I send a special uh appreciation to executive director Otis Otis um Otis and and Tanisha here this evening for the invitation to their youth house and I hope that we get to hear more about it and I look forward to being support of that thank
you council member RI thank you Mr Mayor um I'm going to put on my book Harvest hat I'll start on a lighter note so I wanted to thank um Dr Alfred at mer Moore Elementary and the staff at book Harvest for inviting me out this morning to witness the books on break program um organized by book Harvest so every student in mer Moore Elementary today got 10 books that they could uh select and take home and keep forever the whole idea is about giving kids a chance to practice reading over the summer um last year book Harvest provided over 14,000 students in 35 Public elementary schools and child care centers with over 70,000 books that was just for last summer um so I just wanted to thank book offs for the amazing work and encourage my colleagues if you have the opportunity to participate in similar books on break events taking place this month it is so much fun these kids are so excited and the it's just palpable how they like run up and grab books out it's so much fun so I encourage you to do that um so a more somber note I wanted to note that I took part in the monthly meeting last week of the Trinity Park neighborhood
association um this the neighborhood where I live in um like many neighborhoods across the city Trinity Park neighbors are concerned about the uptick and shootings lately um on the agenda of the meeting was a discussion about the homicide that took place not this weekend but the weekend before at the corner of Maine in uh Morgan streets um that's the second homicide in that location since last October um this is tragic regrettable and a great loss to the families involved and to our community um the president of the neighborhood association association will be reaching out to the city manager um Miss Paige um to request a meeting to discuss the city's response and I just want to thank the city manager in advance for making that uh request a priority so thank you very much um third I was absolutely crushed to hear over the weekend that two pedestrian accidents occurred in our city one fatal um I know we're investing millions of dollars in our sidewalk repair and construction um we've got it we've got we've got some of that on on our agenda
tonight right um and we're also considering a bond issue this fall to invest even more but these Investments cannot come soon enough to keep residents safe and actually achieve our vision zero goals so I want to ask all of us to recommit to our vision zero goals that no one whether pedestrians or B bicyclist or or drivers of cars will die in Durham from accidents on our streets so encourage us to recommit to that and invest as much as we can as quickly as we can to make sure all residents are safe on our streets thank you Mr Mayor thank you mayor pro thank you Mr Mayor and to my honorable colleagues for excellent uh remarks and announcements tonight first off Mr May congratulations on your first key to the city uh a city once gave me the key but they took it back because I kept going to Walmart and making copies um I'm sure that that won't be a problem with Dr Aran Leia I'm sure I want to send a shout out to urban ministries of Durham who had a wonderful celebration a couple of weeks ago for 40 years of service uh in our community they had a wonderful event there empty bowls Javiera Caballero uh mayor was there too so he may he may shout him
out so I'm sorry if I stole you thundering that I had to eat and run um I also want to shout out the durm Center for Senior Life who had their 75th anniversary gala if you've never been to a a senior party in durm whether it's the holiday party or a party at the senior center you have not been to a party uh they they had a wonderful time I want to thank the leadership there and and Quin Murphy from uh abc1 uh for sharing co-hosting on that evening had a wonderful evening of of Fellowship uh when you hit 55 you're eligible to go uh and participate in the activities at the senior center for Life Senor Senior Life Center here in Durham um I hope that that's the goal for every resident of this city no matter where you are in your life now at some point I hope you will consider availing yourself of the wonderful services and and atmosphere there at the Duram Center for Senior Life so I want to congratulate them on 75 years I want to continue to send out prayers and best wishes to officer Bri Jones who was alluded to uh earlier this evening uh as she continues to recover
after injuries received the line of duty um thank you Mr Mayor for that wonderful proclamation to Chief Andrews earlier I want to send a special thanks to you my colleagues on the day and and to the staff this is my first meeting a full meeting of the council since assuming the presidency of the North Carolina League of municipalities I cannot tell you what it meant to me colleagues the first off those of you who could not make it who sent well wishes and congratulator congratulatory messages and those of you who came to Winston Salem to celebrate with me at my swearing in staff you mam manager Mr Mayor uh council member cook and council member cabero uh for being there attorney um Rist City uh clerk uh shriber to uh city city assistant city manager and Chief of Staff commissa Wallace to our communications director uh Bertha um Beverly pardon me I want to thank you all so much for being there I cannot tell you what it meant to me I'm excited because this is the first time
in in many many many years that a big city has held the gavel of the league now I'm I'm fully uh mindful that my responsibility is to further the agenda and the concerns of the millions of people that the league represents but I do plan on doing it in durm the durm way durm is perhaps the most welcoming and affirming City uh in our state and I want to use that energy here that we have in Durham to to eviscerate that notion that there's a divide between urban and rural uh that we can't come together on a on a an agenda as we've been doing with the league for over 80 years an agenda that Services all no matter whether you live in a hamlet a small town a village or one of our major cities um somebody once said that we have the same problems just it's a number of zeros in our population but we Face the same problem so colleagues thank you so much for your well wishes and for your support um as I take on this new role uh repping for Duram even though I'll be working for the state finally thank you thank you so much thank you finally I want to dovetail on on
council member rist's comments um about the gunfire in our city which continues um there are folk who live in communities in this city who have been dealing with it for decades every night hear gunfire um who have lost family members over the years continuously sometimes in the same family there is no zip code there is no area of your city there is no census track that will insulate you from gunfire so I want to just recommit tonight that as we focus on all of the important things that claim our attention as a council that we continue uh to keep this issue uh at the Forefront durm is dope and all of the stuff that they say about durm is true but we will always have an asteris next to our com next to our celebration as long as two miles from our city center our young people are jumping in bathtubs at night when it's not bath time because they're ducking and covering gunfire it's got to be a priority for us uh we've got to throw everything we have at it that comports with our values uh and I hope for the residents of Trinity Park
and for the residents of McDougall Terrace and Oxford Manor and corn Wallace as well uh that we will put all of the Power and and influence and tools of this government uh to work on this issue so we can take the asteris away from our celebrations of how great our city is thank you Mr Mayor I appreciate you thank thank you thank you and and I'll be fairly quick because thing about going last is most of what I would normally cover is already been covered uh so uh you know to urban ministries durm Senior Life um that you being you know elected as president of the state League I man PR I don't think you really did a good job at really saying what it actually means the North Carolina League of municipalities is the largest and most influential and Powerful organization that represents cities and towns across the entire state of North Carolina there are millions of people
represented by this organization and uh while I I sit on the executive on the actual board of directors um our May protm is the state president of that organization that is a really really big deal uh we uh we get to have our legislative asks twice uh last time we got some Transportation policies passed through the general assembly because of the league not only do we send our own uh legislative agenda but now we have the president and a board member uh both from Durham on this board uh so I foresee some significant in uh you know influence coming from Durham to the state of North Carolina thank you Mr um we uh for you all that don't know we have a police officer and may Pro just mentioned as officer Jones uh she was you know she was she was on duty she was she was advancing to an emergency and unfortunately uh you know had a really
bad car accident uh without going in too much detail this was extremely serious and she is still uh she's still in in her situation uh just respecting her privacy but I do ask that we you know keep her in your prayer and keep her held up lifted and as soon as she's able to receive visitors I will be in that hospital room to uh to visit her um but yeah it was it was really serious um Emily K Center held its Mother's Day ball and we uh did a really good job at raising money for um providing services for children uh in Durham and and Emily K Center is a hug huge partner with Duran public schools and uh in other schools throughout the city and uh just it's really it's really great to have that that partner where you have a center that focuses solely on uh you know our youth what they're going to do you know after high school but
mainly they focus on kids that are interested in going to college and they have uh programs that are quite robust uh and they they're very intentional about ensuring that they are accessible to every child uh especially those who are most in need in the city and it feels good when you can raise almost a half million dollars for our youth to make sure that they have what they need I know many folks who have been uh whose children have been a product of this program and I see I've seen it you know at at work uh so was great to be at that uh also um Lincoln Health Lincoln Health celebrated an annual Awards lunch in and they recognize Giants uh Giants um in our community and just want to highlight them colleagues I am going to when we go to these events I'm just when I get on stage and share remarks I'm going to start asking are there any council members in because I'm noticing some of y'all do what I do you get places late and I miss you and then I don't recognize you and then uh commissioner
Alam has to show me up and she gets on the on the stage and she's like and we have council members here council member Freeman and and R and I'm like oh my God I felt but I'm on the record saying I was embarrassed and I apologized about that um I was there first thing I was not late just so you know well no you were sitting behind someone I couldn't see you um but I just want to highlight the Lincoln Community Health Center and their work that they continuously do uh back in 2011 or 2012 I was chair of the board for the North Carolina foundation for public school children and we were desperately you know just in need of money and we came up with an idea we said let's start a Javiera Caballero let's do a Javiera Caballero and that first Javiera Caballero we uh we we raised about close probably about $80,000 well 11 years 12 years later 11 or 12 years later um we are still hosting at Javiera Caballero and I had the honor of
being the MC it was a full circle moment and and we raised over $300,000 and and I want to thank my colleagues for showing up that night want to thank uh my colleagues here on Council for showing up uh the County Commissioners the county commissioner elects Durham was in the building and uh you follow my socials you would see those pictures up the photographer the photographer was pretty dope too um but that was a really good evening um and also H shout out uh to the Duke school and Carrington Middle School and I'm going to say this publicly if you you have children at your school please have them sign up to come to City Hall for a field trip uh this is a this is a hard job it gets really stressful so we appreciate the light moments when we get to actually talk about what government does and uh tomorrow will'll be uh the the students wrote me letters um I could
I could actually understand most of their handwriting uh they wrote letters and uh tomorrow uh I responded to every letter and we're going to go drop those letters off at the school tomorrow morning so I'm really excited about that but please use use City Hall as a field trip to get our kids more civically engaged Cu uh our general assembly hasn't done a good job with that I shouldn't say that on record right all right all right and um uh last the last two things here um you know well of course congratulations to all the graduates that graduated from my moderate CCU yesterday and all the graduates that are about to graduate from uh from from duke and also the students that are graduating from durm Tech and our high school high schoolers shout out to the Teacher of the Year this I don't know if this has ever happened but um can't remember his last name first sergeant but two years in a row Hillside High School has had the Duran Public Schools teacher of the year and the principal of the year for the
second time uh they're doing something pretty uh pretty pretty amazing over there so uh kudos to uh Hillside High School and um first sergeant for Not only was he held back in high school but now he's the district teacher of the year so really excited about that um lastly our small businesses I I don't talk about this a lot I try to just work on policy toward it but obviously I think many folks know my wife and I own restaurants uh here but this isn't about us this is about what our city takes so much pride in you know being a foodie town and right now I and I'm glad to see it but there are folks actually talking about what's happening with the restaurants downtown and what's happening with our small businesses let me tell you as a practitioner of it we are struggling they are struggling bad and we don't have enough pool to bring people here you know we don't have a big
Convention Center where it's always full you know um we we're really relying on the folks that are in this community and there was someone that made one of the most ignorant comments said well maybe maybe they should uh stop inflating their prices for the rich people downtown you know when when you're actually in the business and know what you're talking about when you realize that you're a victim of price gouging from the actual Transportation food companies and you're trying to survive I just want to say that our small businesses across the city I hear you I feel the pain along with you and please don't be distracted by ignorant comments like that and we'll continue together to call on our community to make sure that we support part of one of the reasons why durh is so dope all right and lastly I will continue to highlight this there's a lot going on in this world there's a lot going on ac across this
country in the last two weeks we've had 11 shootings and we've had 11 shootings and uh we've lost about four or five people I've held two Town Halls uh and I will come to your neighborhood if you invite me to talk about what what is happening and what I hope we can do about it uh but I I I will highlight the fact that the people who are pulling these triggers and the people who are on the receiving end of these guns look just like me they're young black boys that's just a fact and I got to I I I have to speak my truth I don't hear a whisper and that's painful so I hope
that as a as a matter of fact not hope we must must we must multitask we must as a matter of fact we we have students that are protesting right now about what's going on around the world that has to happen too we can't be we can't be numb to hatred we can't be num to killing but we also have to make sure people are safe and we also have to take care of our own backyard you have to do both and it requires us to do that as a people because if we're silent that doesn't do anything but allow us to continue to deteriorate so speak up I appreciate it speak up around the world speak up across the state across this country but I really hope you also speak up right here in
Durham CU it's happening on a daily basis and I've said before it's starting to creep and it's going to get in those neighborhoods that we're not used to seeing so with that being said uh there will be some initiatives that are coming up uh that that I'll be really pushing privately as well as publicly and um we we just can't be quiet folks we can't be quiet and it's very complex it's really complicated but we're durable we can handle it it can be both all right we've never had celebration uh in celebratory items for an hour and a half and I won't let this happen again now we're going to get to the business all right so Madame manager Let's uh let's get to your for thank you Mr Mayor Williams Mr Mayor
Pro Tim Leonardo Williams and members of the Durham city council I have three priority items for you this evening agenda item number six Lofts at Southside phase three amended development loan commitment the additional information requested during the April 18th 2024 city council work session has been attached agenda item number 20 General obligation Bond referendum presentation and discussion the additional information requested during the April 18th 2024 city council work session can be found under priority items by the city manager City attorney and city clerk and finally agenda item number 21 city of Durham classification and compensation study presentation the additional information requested during the April 18th 2024 city council work session can be found under priority items by the city manager City attorney and city clerk that is all I have for
you this evening thank you thank you so much Madam attorney thank you mayor Williams mayor pron Leonardo Williams it's good to see you and members of the council it's good to be here the city attorney's office has no priority items this evening I love when you say that thank you Madame clerk good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor proam and council members it's nice to see you all tonight um the city clerk's office has no priority 30 items this evening thank you so much do I have an Eloise onell in the room I and I could be mispronounced we've been trying to figure out the last name but Eloise or ELO okay uh it was uh signing up to speak on aordable digits of the phone number last four digits of the phone number is 1311 okay uh you signed up to speak [Music]
for affordable housing for V you know what I think this is for an item was this to speak on a particular item uh tonight okay got you why is it which one you don't have to go into detail I just needed to know which agenda item it was okay that's fine you know what cuz I don't want to put you on a spot like this I want to get someone over to help you uh just make sure because if it's a general comment then I have to invite you back on Thursday if it's an agenda item tonight then we'll we'll be able to get you inserted on that one we're going to make sure you're going to be a professional counsel speaker when you leave here all right all right thank you
all right everything else is indicated all right at this time I will go ahead and read our consent agenda item number one participatory budgeting steering committee appointment item number two resolution to set a public hearing to consider permanent closure of 479 lir feat of daian 47 479 near feet of do Avenue D oh yeah D I'm sorry uh number three resolution authorizing the conveyance of surplus properties to Durham Community Land trustees Incorporated and the approval of the development agreement for the purpose of affordable housing development I don't want to pull it I just want to appreciate staff on getting this moved forward thank you staff you appreciate it number four resolution authorizing the conveyance of surplus properties to Black lamb Development Corporation and the approval of the development agreement for the purpose of affordable housing
development number five contract amendment number one with mccor MC Baron Salazar Salazar sal sal Salazar development for lws at Southside phase three and phase four site preparation and environmental assessment again I don't want to pull it but I do want to appreciate I think this has been about 12 years years in the making so it's finally good to get to phase three thank you number six uh loss at Southside phase three Amendment development loan commitment number seven losss at Southside phase four amended development loan commitment number eight resolution authorizing the conveyance of surplus properties to Habitat for Humanity of Durham Incorporated in the approval of the development agreement for the purpose of affordable housing development number nine utility utility system revenue bonds series 2024 number 10 dorham station Transit Center improvements project
authorization to negotiate and execute a guaranteed maximum price Amendment to the construction manager at risk contract for Construction Services number 11 contract st-33 2C pavement condition survey 2024 number 12 cont contract amendment number one for w94 sidewalk repairs 2024 number 13 contract amendment number three for s- 317c utility locate Services number four Street and infrastructure acceptances number what did I say three I'm sorry number 14 Street and infrastructure acceptances number 15 construction of 17 rectangular rapid flashing beac rrfbs at school and Trail Crossings not pulling it but it is a start um I I I just appreciate taking action around school zones and safety um
and we'll continue to try and do more number 16 Transit Grant project ordinance Amendment for Durham station number 17 blanket purchase order agreement with core in Maine El P for Neptune water meters and components number 18 agreement between city of Durham and orange water sewer and Authority Orange Water and Sewer Authority regarding Mutual aid for drinking water supply number 19 proposed Water and Sewer rates for fiscal year 2024 2025 yeah General business number 22 Consolidated annexation Kate estate number 23 Consolidated zoning map change Fox Crossing 2 24 fiscal year 2025 storm water rates and GBA General business agenda number 25 summer cramp
summer camp funding request all right I'll now entertain a motion to uh approve the consent move so move second they move the properly second all um Madam clerk please open the vote please close the vote the motion passes unanimously yeah let's
colleagues we're going to go ahead and address number five first 25 first I don't know why I'm missing um first the first digit tonight um so council member Freeman this is your item just a point of order do we not need to approve the consent agenda we did it was unanimous I thought you said priority items to include the priority items so we only voted for the priority items yeah so we just do that uh the priority items have motions during the work session thank you so we're going to start with number 25 and council member freem resource person on this uh just
uh reiterating this continued support for the education 360 camp that was held last summer uh with students from Cornwall students and parents and families from corn Wallace and just continuing um the work supporting families and children um from black black artist summer plane art and murals to summer camp um just calling on my colleagues to support the children in our community and just acknowledge that they're still recovering from the trauma of gun violence and covid that's all thank you all right um uh we have some speakers here for uh item number 25 I don't have an order okay
um we will we will go with speakers and then we'll bring it back before the council first Speaker I have is uh built to last Dr Joyce Blackwell to The Honorable mayor Williams mayor protim Leonardo Williams City manag Paige and other members of the city council good evening I'm Dr Joyce Blackwell the executive director of BU toas Innovations lab Incorporated bu toas is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides access to training access to opportunity and by the end of this year um if we remain on track access to
Capital and we provide these opportunities to historically underrepresented businesses in Durham as well as residents who live in the cities marginalized and minoritized communities thanks to the generous funds received to date from the city of Durham we have been able to set up the organization and began to offer services to our core focus groups more specifically we have been focused on providing training as well as mentoring and networking opportunities to childcare entrepreneurs as well as aspiring child care providers and creative artists who want to become entrepreneurs we are also providing training to enco entrepreneurs the 55 plus um employ um individuals who were terminated or released from their positions that they've been in for over 30 years in many instances during the height of the co um covid-19 um and as a consequence many of them could not return to work um agism
is really real but they could not return and decided that they could not afford to stay home and so many of them with a life savings on average of $99,000 realized that they needed to do something and so many of them have decided to use their skills their experience Etc to open their own businesses also of course we desire to assist Durham in ACH in achieving its goal of shared economic Prosperity by utilizing our resources to help create a more inclusive business ecosystem and to date we have been providing training to at least 30 childcare providers in Durham we also have a weight list of a little over um with 15 persons on that weight list and that is growing each and every day there is definitely a need it's the same thing with the creative artists of course we we have um while we have been extremely busy it has been a challenge and continues to be a challenge therefore I come before you today and request that
you consider Bill to last for any fun any funding that you may receive for fiscal year 20242 five we are in our needs of funds to continue to build capacity currently with the number of things that we are doing it's just myself who's full-time and a part-time administrative assistant and while I could use my skills for grant writing and and to to pursue corporate funding most of my time is spent Grassroots um working at the Grassroots level so thank you thank you so much next I have uh Miss Denise rson with uh Durham Freedom Schools summer camp just if you can give it to the clerk she'll make sure we get
it um good evening mayor Williams and uh uh mayor protm and and the members of city council good evening um my name is Denise Rosen and I am the Project Director for Durham's Freedom School program um children's defense fund Freedom schools and I come before you um because we are we have brought this program back to Durham we started in 2023 if you know anything about children's defense fund it was started by Marian Wright Edelman and the Freedom School program started has its roots in the 1964 Mississippi movement where they were teaching mississippians how to read and write in order to vote so 40 years later we are now back um doing Freedom schools and this is now the second year um I independently after I retired from during Public Schools um started Freedom schools last year with the help of the mount level Community Partnership for racial Justice and this year um we are now going to serve 110 children we are going to um serve 50 Children atep 50
Elementary School students um at Epworth United Methodist Church and 50 middle school students um at Shepard middle school so as you will see and you do not have your um you don't um have the handout but basically Freedom schools is to empower children between the age with with the grades of K through 8 okay to have an appreciation for reading one thing um about it about Freedom schools is that it's literacy Rich um during the course of the summer young people are reading about 50 books books um that are selected and curriculum written by um CDF Freedom schools in addition to that we provide Steam and arts um and um Arts and Cultural kinds of activities so that our children um will be able to have a holistic program so during the mornings they do reading um and other activities in the afternoon it is strictly for enrichment we do have our three pillars our lit literacy curriculum and
instruction we do have a family component where we have um Family nights every single week where parents come and discuss various topics that um influence their child's education and to really kind of see how children are doing and we also have an intergenerational component where we employ um college students to come and work with the young people during the course of the summer and this year we are hiring 13 college students to work with us um we do have a social justice compon it um and I could mention that um our mayor Williams was our speaker last year when our subject was gun violence um he came and talked to the children about how they can be empowered um to fight this crisis in their Community um we also took them by Amtrak train to the international Civil Rights Museum last year so they got a chance both them and their parents um had the chance to visit that museum um and go by Amtrak so I mentioned um
parent nights and the Need For Freedom schools is it's just literacy okay um I know my time is up I can't talk about Freedom schools in two minutes okay um it is so much but Durham needs this program and I'm asking that if you have any additional funds um because I'm told that they've already been spent I know um to please consider Freedom schools you know in that thank you thank you so much and um please make sure you get in touch with me I have a few college students that are looking for uh just volunteer um time to Summer um yep thanks for coming Mr Cass Abdullah good evening uh mayor mayor Pro Tim uh City maners and the city council
my name is our brother CIB Abdullah I am the executive director for believers United for Progress we're located on faville street right next door to WD Hill Community Center and right down the street from North Carolina Central uh we have been in existence since 2005 and we are 501c3 I am here uh requesting um funding for two uh items one is our food and security program and the other item is the whole Center our food insecurity program there's two things that we do we give our food boxes every week which is around 160 to 180 food boxes and we run a free Community Kitchen every day Monday through Friday we service any place from 85 to 100 people our main source is the food bank
we are I believe the largest agency that gets food from the food bank we get any place from 7,000 to 10,000 pounds of food every week from the food bank that equates to uh 23,000 food boxes a year which consists of 7,800 uh families per year a population we serve as a human population in durm uh 50% of our African-American brothers and sisters 35% of our Latin X brothers and sisters 15% of our Caucasian brothers and sisters and others the second uh request we are in the process of developing The Hope Center the Hope Center would be a central location composed of over 100 units that provide services to the
community we want the Hope Center to be in fade place that would be the the the glue and cohesion to keep the community sound in that area because there is room for everybody in fade Place uh with that we would have many opportunities to bring supporting factors to the community to help stabilize the community and I'm going to put a figure on it for the food insecurity uh project we were requesting $200,000 for the Hope Center we were requesting 5 million to establish the development of the Hope Center thank you so much okay and and I I just want to note that I recently spoke about a um a chef she was she was cooking right
after the shooting uh right there at WD Hill uh and she was brave enough to go out there that next day and serve the community she was able to do that because of Mr Abdullah he does it every day that location and uh thank you for coming to show your work tonight I have uh Christopher oh yeah Megan hey Christopher and Megan Wilder good evening Mr Mayor proam and councel and everybody um please excuse my husband he is on a phone call with some of our students um we had to push it back a little bit so it's just me right now um my name name is Megan Wilder I am the executive director of Bull City best best standing for building educating strengthening together um I'm here today
because Durham Bull City needs us um we believe in the heart and the soul of the children and of the staff I am a beginning teacher Mentor for Durham Public Schools I've worked for Durham public schools for about 16 years years I am also the niece of Dr James E and Annie day Shepard and if you know anything about North Carolina Central University and my aunt and uncle you know that they did a lot for the city and for the Youth in Durham um so I am carrying along their legacy um my husband was born and raised here in Durham he grew up at the John Avery Boys and Girls Club that you all may see and pass by on uh 147 that we're kind of just watching disintegrate um we love that building and we kind of have built dreams in the parking lot of that building and a couple of those dreams um start with our initiative so one is the Annie project
and that is something that we do by monthly um we have packed over 200 Essentials gift bags for the houseless end Durham and the student athletes and the students that come to Bull City best um pack them themselves and their families and we um give them out throughout Durham and then we also by monthly pass out um food we get maros pizza and we get coffee and hot chocolate and donuts and we also do that for the houseless and we have our students down there um so that's by monthly and that is our Annie project we have a building bridges project which this year this year we did 300 book bags for local Durham students um we did specifically WG Pearson Elementary Lakewood Elementary and then we had a couple of open drives where anybody as a Durham resident could come in and get a book
bag that was filled with various items um we have an initiative that we hope to launch if we get funding um called Kun um which is the German word for arts and I have my background in dance and um the Arts are a major part of what we do and what we really want to start up um we also have our best Ballers initiative which is a basketball team but we are more than just basketball we are being CPR are certified um please um consider us for funding for next year thank you thank you uh last speaker I have is uh Otis lion Tanisha Adams for campaign for change good afternoon everyone um I won call out names but thank you for the opportunity just want to um appreciate the mayor for calling me at the last
minute I don't really know I'm self pitching anything right now I just want your support in the future because we already in motion to do what we're doing a little bit background about me my name is Otis Lions I am the ex exective director and founder of campaign for change been in existence now for 23 years it's anti-game anti-drug Focus this is my partner Tanisha Adams on the new project we're doing want to give a little background about me real quick and um I started one of the first gangs in dur not proud of it and at the age of 19 I was sentenced to a 30-year sentence in prison um my sentence was overturned after about 5 years and I just made it my business to create a program and organ organization that could help kids like me kids that's in private communities the parents be on drugs or that is nowhere to be found and that became my passion so I formed this nonprofit organization called campaign for change um and since I existed starting in 2000 we have been known for
our Innovative Outreach um resonating with the gang culture I'm really focused on gangs and ceasefire and um gun control gun violence and all the murders um one of the things that we developed was the Don basketball league in 2012 and we end up having 140 kids be a part of it and we used basketball as the hook but basketball wasn't what we was doing we uh we realized that Durham highest crime rate was on the satday from 5 to 9 so we created the basketball games from 5 to 10 and before we played the games we had three classes U from 3 to four four to five so that worked extremely well then Co hit and when Co hit I had to reach back and think about what can we do now because the game population and the crime kept growing and I realized during my 23 years of campaign for change really 43 years of experience 20 years of selling drugs
gang banging and destroying my community and 23 years of now being an advocate for the kids I realized we all was dropping the ball my organization other organizations other programs you can have the best programs in the world but if you don't change the mindset of these youth that's being attracted by this gain violence and these guns you're you're just having a great program and they're not going to come to it so I thought about it and if you can Vision if you will if you have a drug addiction you you have to go to a detox center if you have a alcohol addiction you have to go to a detox center so I formulated it was a n a vision n years ago I formulated what they call the G transitional house which they are go they'll go to the house and they'll be Deb brainwashed re-educated and talk trades so they can be become productive citizens where that's where Tanisha came in she's a realtor license Minister she has this wonderful house 5,000 ft house that we already developing and
establishing this gain transition house nobody ever done it before one of the key factors I just want to say that we partnering with the da and basically they're not going to come to the gang transas house so the da instead of sending the prison or instead of sending them to the tens Center they will send them to the gang transitional house so please support us we have a uh document there you can read a overview of us thank you sorry if I miss anything it's all good thank thank you all um it's a lot of good work going on in this neighborhood that's all speakers I have um I will bring it back before the council now yes thank you I really appreciate the opportunity to hear from some of our Community Resources I did have a question for Mr lions and Miss Adams am
I saying that right Adams I know that three minutes is not always enough and I just wanted to follow up you said the gang transition house and I know I had a tour you you actually are in the process of working on developing this gang transition house and I just wanted you to at least state if there was a number that you had in mind for support uh what that would look like I number far stall far stallas right now I have sent Miss paig as well as we just met with the county manager we're requesting five $100,000 as the partnership 250 for the city 250 uh from the county uh we have a lot of other private sectors that's supporting and getting behind this as well we met with over 30 some individuals and Company owners and CEOs and and we try to invite people to come to the house so they can really see the vision we invite any of you uh at any
time on the document you can call us and and set up a meeting or email us we invite you to the house thank you any more questions it's definitely a beautiful home yeah and thank you um Miss Freeman and the mayor for taking your time out to come and see the house thank you I did want to um note I didn't I left that part off about creating the pool that would kind of follow up to support in the future ongoing opportunities for folks in the community to provide services for our children I think um that uh this speaks to that and there are a number of ways we can support I will say for the for the gentleman Mr cin Abdul that the food and security program with the county has um really been kicking off and I would definitely try to figure out how to connect um both of them the new Africa and and the county supports and I I think um for the Bull City I'm sorry
best Bull City best I think that the I mean these are great ways uh for us to support our students and families in our community and I really hope that there'll be support to move forward thank you yes uh same and I I when this when this item came you know we've had some rich debate about it rich uh conversation and I just wanted to make sure that you know I didn't want it to be and council member Freeman I know this wasn't your intention but also just from the public looking in I didn't want them to think that there's only one thing happening there's so much good work happening and you know part of my push with this is establishing a Community Fund you know I now we have recorded in the record forever the amazing work that's been done in this community and this is just this is not even scratching the surface you know and and if anyone you know we can create a fund where people can actually invest in and make their Community better I think
we see some of the examples that we have here and I think that that's how we can also you know it's it's it's really like Mutual Aid you know is making each other better um so um this this was an opportunity I know we we're probably going to get into conversation about this this one item but this is the point that I know I was making that I I'd rather focus on creating that type of fun um than than just you know one here one there one here one there here so thank you any other comments yeah okay thank you um I just wanted my my recollection was at the work I have a couple things my recollection at the work session Madam manager was that you were including something in your budget which you're presenting to us uh at our next meeting that that you had heard council's uh concerns specifically around summer camps and some some kind
of pool of money and I just wanted to make sure I had heard that correctly yeah uh thank you for the opportunity to speak um that is exactly what you heard um along with all of the other priorities and the direction that we have received from the council um as we have proceeded during this budget process um it is it is my intention to uh in the in the manager proposed budget propose um a a a sum of money it never means it is approved nor does it mean it's the final number but as we negotiate very very um very a lot of priorities this budget season it would be the government's um um administration's effort as a beginning amount for a for a fund and you will
receive that on the 20th I do not want it to seem as if it is going to you know be responsive to all of the asks not tonight or any other um you know response to everything that we receive through communication through uh conversations we have uh with you know with the residents and you know and organizations that are doing great work but it will will be along with a lot of other initiatives and priorities in the budget that I propose on the 20th I have a couple more I appreciate that um I just so you mind if I ask her a question about that just real sure you do you that Madam manager will that fund be publicly accessible for people to either match it or contribute to it or do we need to identify nonprofit to do that type of work so so typically when we are when we have a you know a a a pot
of money that is set aside for a particular purpose that we want to um we want to encourage Community Partners to engage with us to provide the work uh not work that we're actually uh you know in that we are performing inside the government it does start with some type of process you know we set sort of parameters around um you know with the community and with the council um on on the objective of the fund and then we would it is always you know in the best interest of everybody involved and for efficiency for us to receive proposals uh whether it is a large pot of money like the $22 million that we have for arpa or small amounts of money um we're going to have more proposers than money so we have to have a process in order to prioritize and bring recommendations to the council for approval approval so it would be you know the the government's uh amount that
is included you know it it it doesn't it Prelude additional donations or funds to I'll clarify that question after uh council member go ahead thank you so I uh council member Freeman thank you for the memo um my understanding at least where we left it at the work session was that we were discussing the the 41,000 and it was essentially amending our current budget to include uh for this current um we are munding the budget for our current fisal year because of the timing of the camp um and that was what I know I agreed to add to the agenda the memo that's in front of us is a little different than what we talked about on on that Thursday and so I am just a little um especially in light of what the city manager just said that that there is going to be a resolution provided by staff um I certainly don't feel comfortable um doing any of the second
2 million ask so that's been my you know and I think many of us have raised that that you know that was a major kind of issue was that we would prefer a clear a clear process uh since it is public money these are tax dollars um everybody pays for this uh and as we know with arper where we had $52 million much much bigger than I'm sure sure what the staff was going to be able to propose in our budget we had $52 Million worth of asks with arpa dollars or we had $52 million
and I think over hundred million worth of asks when we opened it up to community easily um yeah um so to to um Madam manager's point the ask there's always more than what we can do with with city dollarss um and I do appreciate the mayor's um discussion of of a fund you know what what can we do if the city puts a little bit the county puts a little bit private um philanthropic dollars can go into it uh that's a longer term solution than what I think we're trying to figure out tonight but um I certainly uh not comfortable with what what the memo States right now thank you recording stopped okay um I actually don't I need to wait I'm okay you're good I it just reminded me we do need to take a break so okay um I'm just gonna picky back just a little bit um on what council member Cabo was asking um
so she actually asked my first part of my question but um manager paig I just I was hearing these folks talk and they said that they had discussed um some numbers with you and I'm wondering if the um I know we've we've heard about this summer camp potential fund but not everything that was talked about was summer camp specific and I'm wondering if there were other asks that have made it or might make it into the proposed budget for the next fiscal year um that came from the organizations that we heard from tonight or if there is anything outside of the summer camp that is being proposed so I can certainly say that anything that you heard tonight um is is not in the proposed budget it's just it's basically just tonight there was one um request that was here this evening that did come to us it is not it is not the first time that uh campaign for change has made a
request um to the city and the city has supported campaign for change in initiatives over the years um over many years and it just depends on you know what cycle we're in and what pots of money are available um you know to to support organizations that are providing great work in the community thank you thank you colleagues thank you Mr may I want to thank council member Freeman for her advocacy um on this issue with respect to the fund and who can apply to it I think if if I recall the thrust of council member Freeman statements the summer camp had a certain impact it it it it effectuated certain impacts in young people's lives and I think that if we focus more on the impact of the organizations more so
whether whether they're a summer camp or whatever I mean we can Contour the fund for for organizations that have that type of impact it just happens to be a summer camp but the main point at least as I heard her was what it did for young people the way it reshaped their con and recontoured their lives so as far as the fund which I support um we can you know we can Contour it for impact rather than actual uh anatomy of the program such a so a campaign for change a a summer camp uh um Freedom schools can can uh approach this fund based upon their impact I I do want to say in terms of the the first ask this this is precisely what we said would happen uh I mean these folk are here tonight this isn't a budget hearing they're speaking to this item because this item it has money attached to an organization to have impact so the the the procession will begin as well it should and which which leads me to my discomfort in in inside of here's the
deal if heart of champion is is uh eligible for 2024 money then all of these organizations are um every one of them uh is eligible or or meets I think the test of litmus test for consideration for this current year an amendment and if we're not going to do that for all of them then heart of the champion has already gotten this kind of consideration once already and as I said you know to my honorable colleagues at our last meeting I think we have to consider precedent and what what what precedent uh we're setting I am fully supportive of the fund for 2425 but what do we say to these organizations if we're going to once again um do an ad hoc intervention in our current budget for the same organization two years straight who I feel would qualify for this budget next year um what do we say to them why did why are they getting this due consideration for this particular year and also probably be eligible for next
year as well but these other other organizations that have come that we knew would are not is it simply because they asked or simply because they have a council member advocating for it um so I I think that's something we need to keep in mind in terms of precedent setting and message sending um there's no doubt in my mind at Heart of it Champion will get funding will qualify for funding in this fund whatever fund we set up for 2425 but they've already gotten a a ad hoc specialized consideration once I don't understand or I'm fearful of the message we will be sending we do that again for this particular organization and then invite them along with the others that we heard tonight for 2425 thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor thank you um yeah first of all I want to thank Council M Freeman once again for your advocacy here I don't think there's a bigger advocate for children and families on this Council so thank you for that um I also want to thank the folks who come tonight the amazing set of groups that are providing support for kids whether it's a camp or otherwise is like inspiring to
see that and the passion behind that work um I also want to say I be remissive I didn't mention this as the city council representative to the recreation advisory committee that our own Parks and Recreation Department directly provides all kinds of summer camp opportunities you can go on the website there's traditional camps there's there's um specialty camps there's half day camps there's a teen camp um deput city manager Chadwell could tell us more about those that work coming out of DPR but there's there a lot that we're doing directly so I want to make sure everyone knows that the city cares deeply about summer camps and supporting our kids in the summertime um I support the idea of a fund um for next year as we're talking about but agree with others that that that to make a decision now based on uh the current budget seems like process-wise not the best way to go so that's my feeling on the matter I'm not to be honest I'm not sure what our motion is before the council I'd love some clarification because I know the memo has I think there's three separate motions in the memo so just want to make sure I'm clear what we're ultimately going to take a vote on before we get there I wanted to just um note that I only included the second
motion um just in just in highlighting some of the conversation and that there was no guidance so I just wanted to give some guidance it is okay to leave that one off just acknowledging that the city manager is moving forward but I do think that the uh processes should not come before children um and their need in a especially in a Cornwallis neighborhood where gun violence is prevalent and um I do want to say that that I appreciate all of the organizations that do good work in our community but it is very um specific that this process was laid out and I tried to incorporate this timeline so that they could be included so that it it essentially highlights how we're leaving Community out of the process and so do want to especially for summer camps and for the parks and rec comments comments just noting that this parks and recs is usually full by March April May and P parents families anyone trying to find summer camps for children in K through 6 because they cannot be left
home left Home Alone um is specific and so just noting like there's a there kind of like Child Care need here there's also um kind of an equity aspect in that corn Wallace is where four-bedroom apartments live like are in our community where there's the most need and least resources and then the amount of um the amount the 41,000 is a very minor amount I mean I think we could cover that with the shortage or actually the vacancies that we have in our in our budget just I mean from a number of departments it's not that big of an ass and I do want to be clear that putting process before the children is a harmful message to send to the community because I do think that the children need need to come first in this conversation and acknowledging that the families who are struggling um don't always know how to act and what to act for so I made the ask and even still with all of the wherewithal of being on this Council for seven years I still cannot manage to to navigate the time frame and that was why
I made the request so I can understand that folks can't support it whatever their reasoning is um that's on you but as a person who's lived in his community has children and has worked with uh children in the community for over 15 years I think it's important to make sure that I push as hard as possible to at least get one of the items in this year's cycle and then for the next cycle a multitude of them uh it's it's not lost on me that that process comes first for a lot of folks on this Council but I can't say enough that that there are rules and rules are sometimes meant to be broken when they don't work for the people who are harmed the most that's all thank you May FR thank you I don't think there's any person on this Council that puts process before people um I'm certainly not going to attack people for voting against shot spotter um which I think saves lives so I I just want to go on record I honor um the opinions and and the best selves that I think every person on this Podium brings to the
conversation um I think I think the issue council member is that um it's a specific it it's not even for the the Cornwall neighborhood I mean I supported $10 million for the fville street Corridor not a particular organization on fville street I think the issue is that this organization has already gotten this consideration once and and I I didn't use process I used precedent the word precedent what precedent are we setting and establishing uh again I stand by the comment that every organization that came before us tonight touches children they are just as uh think worthy of getting a special consideration for this current year as opposed to next year as any of the other organizations so um I don't think we're playing process before people uh we're trying to reach as many children as possible um without sending the message that we have arbitrarily or whatever cherry-picked one particular
Camp not not even a whole Community a particular Camp an organization out of a a plethora of of many um well-meaning and wellestablished uh organizations uh yeah thank you Mr mayor council member thank you I just want to say I mean I think part of the the thing around this is where it does get tricky I mean the reason we have process is because we this isn't our money this is tax money this is everybody's money in this room and if we don't actually have rules that's actually how corruption and cronyism begin and so while this is not the case in this I know that you have no personal relationship with this camp that has been clearly stated multiple times um um that that's the reason at least for me uh that's one of the most important things I can do as an elected official how am I using public money and am I using it in the right ethical way and I think that's why there's a lot of rules around ethics and politicians and how they're using public money and it's one of the reasons that politician often politicians often get in trouble uh over and over and over again
because this is shared money we collectively put this into a pot and we make decisions and the seven of us have to make those decisions for almost $300,000 three thou 300,000 people and last year it was a $610 million budget and it is one of our most important charges and so I take it very seriously even if it's only $41,000 and I will continue to do that because that's what I think is to that is to me being an ethical uh decision maker and everyone approaches this job differently and that's fine uh but process is important because this isn't my money this isn't the money that I have earned to spend this is collective dollars thank you I I would love to just be clear I didn't indicate process wasn't important and I think ethics is very important as well which is why I think it's ethical to be upfront and
transparent that this is a camp um that has benefited those children in Cornwallis neighborhood and their families and so I would like to make the motion to approve the city manager to allocate the funds for in the FY 2024 budget for the heart of champion summer camp and allocate funds for the 2025 to cover July and August months so I haven't entertain a motion just yet um I I and we'll get there because we need to break for close caption um M clerk I got your message definitely um just real quick you know the public to understand where we are uh last year uh at the end of a meeting um during the budget deliberations I believe it pretty much gotten past the the main part um council member Freeman did uh you know propose a camp uh the council obliged and basically said we'll
we'll do it this time but let's make sure it's in the budget process next year um and I I believe the next meeting we had someone at that meeting said well you gave it to them what about us and because we did well we had to give $50,000 to that group uh to fly kids across the country uh for a track meet and it hurt me to my core because I felt that we had politicized kids and we we had to make it right because we chose one over another rather than taking a you know more holistic approach to it uh so it was basically basically put in the budget process as it was supposed to be this year unfortunately it did not receive enough support because the interest of the council at large was to um you know address maybe having a fund where we can just have groups summer camps organizations apply to it um and that would keep us from choosing one over another but Al you know making it a
process where people can meet a particular criteria uh and hopefully we can get to that point unfortunately it was bought back up to be on the agenda work session and we had uh we had a spirited debate about it and that's how we got here tonight uh and again you know I know where I stand is there's a lot of work and I'm glad folks came out uh tonight and I I I wanted to make sure folks uh took advantage of this opportunity to also State the good work that they're doing uh and to make sure that we can use you know a fund where people can actually not only the city the city can put up our part if we choose to make that policy but also um the private Community private philanthropy can all invest in it you know to where you know it could be a life fund whatever you want to call it to where people organizations that set that meets the criteria we've done this before with small businesses the blueprint is there and now we're looking
to do the same but for Youth and our community God knows we need it so uh that is what I'm that's what I'm proposing that's what I hope we can address and get to um I I I don't want to you know this isn't a matter of process over kids uh I've been in this community as a parent for over 15 years working in this community as a teacher uh in many of the communities most of the communities where it's hard to find teachers uh to go uh and as a matter of fact uh campaign for change came to my classroom when I first started teaching at Shepard Middle School school so uh I appreciate the work that's been done there's a whole lot of work to be done and now we have innovative ideas and I think that Durham needs to get on the ball with supporting these and through the government is not the only way the government can put up its part through Collective taxes but it's time for the business Community the philanthropy Community the private Community the big
bucks to invest in the quality of life life in this city and that is what I support and and and that's why I won't choose just one organization we can we can I mean we're talking about kids here of course their lives are impacted um but we also have a responsibility um that that many don't and that is make these types of decisions to do what's right uh so now our entertain a motion uh to approve the city manager to allocate funds in the f year 2024 that's this year's budget uh for heart of a champion summer camp and allocate funding for 2025 to cover the months of July and August 2025 so move second it's been moved and seconded M cler can you please open the vote
can you please close I'm sorry the motion fails 4 to three with mayor Williams mayor protm Leonardo Williams council member cabayo and council member rist voting no thank you we'll uh at this point uh we'll take a break uh colleagues let's take a uh let's take a 10-minute break we'll be back at 9:31 thank you for e
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all right let's start bringing it back I thinking I would hopeing out of here by I'm ready to ready to get started I lost my counsil
council member Caballero if you see any council members let them know we are ready thank you we are ready to get started all right we'll go I need a quorum oh I have a one two three four
8 acres and located at 2625 Ferell Road the annexation petition is non-contiguous to the primary corporate livits and would create a new satellite the applicant intends to construct a
single family house on the property and access Water and Sewer services the properties are currently designated existing residential on the place type map the proposed residential Suburban 20 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 as part of the annexation petition the applicant is not seeking a change in the underlying zoning District the property is currently undeveloped and the current zoning would permit a single family home the zoning inside of the parcel would ow for additional single family dwellings on the site the Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of this request on a 10 to Z vote at its March 18th 2024 meeting thank you and staff is available to answer any questions thank you with the uh new PA voice um we we noticed it okay um colleagues you've heard the
staff report are there any questions for staff just um just a one and it's um unrelated I I do want to go back to item 25 and I know we moved on but I didn't want to just make sure that the framing was correct because the summer camp item um didn't just come the night of city council meeting there was actually a number of meetings um where the conversation was ongoing and so I just wanted to make a point to clarify the framing around that because it's not just um it wasn't just a a last minute thing it actually came to us similarly with the community request um in the same manner with a presentation and I just actually advocated for it that was all thank you any questions for staff regarding this agenda item yes good evening so um I watched this on the Planning Commission and um and I've read sort of the impact statements that are provided uh generally we are
straying away from satellites this one does appear to be relatively a significant distance from the border could you just speak to um the impacts and and what staff sort of recommends around Contin contiguous properties contiguous yeah yes so generally we do try to stay away from satellites um what's happened in this situation is that there are a number of properties surrounding this one that have already had water and sewer supplied to them um they are not within the corporate limits but they do already have water and sewer access this particular parcel had to do a recombination had to buy some land and therefore create a new lot um in order to be able to access the existing sewer line that made them ineligible to uh apply for access to Water and Sewer without annexation so it's making them go through the annexation process
very quick question um can you explain the impact I know that we have the cost benefit analysis here of other services police fire um trash pickup those kinds of things well so by being part of the city they would be eligible for all those services so they be solid waste um police fire and so forth that other surrounding properties would not have access to since they are not part of the part of the Interior limits I can't speak to exactly the cost um of each of those of each of those services and the cost to each of those departments um however based on the analysis done by budget and Management Services it is got it pulled up here go got it up sorry good evening SAR young with the planning department the memo does include a breakdown of
cost for fire police as I'm scrolling um Public Works indicates no additional cost for them Solid Waste um and transportation so those numbers are on pages uh four and five of the cover memo so it's possible we might find a situation where trash trucks are driving all the way through the county to get to this one parcel they call the police police department is driving all the way across the county to get to this one paral that is certainly a potential situation in this case yes Madam manager yes I would just like to add a little to what has been said so far regarding the cost benefit and the interplay between the Departments that respond to the uh applications and how that translates
into additional cost for the Department uh it is a combination of U what the planning department um you know puts before those departments in terms of where the location is and and the Departments that have to actually serve it are the Departments that calculate those cost and then when you see the attachment that actually shows the cost benefit it is over a period you will see from 2023 to uh 2023 2024 to 2020 to 2030 uh 2032 33 so that it can actually you know cash flow in terms of the additional cost both operating and capital Investments over that time over that time period offset by the revenues so it is a combination of an operation Department actually evaluating the additional cost and the budget
Management Services Department incorporating those costs as the project matures okay so is it um so we we find this consistent with uh comprehensive plan policies it's it's not cons consistent in terms of it being a satellite annexation it is consistent in terms of it the cost benefit analysis showing a positive Revenue over the lifespan of the analysis okay any other questions all right well this is a public hearing I will now open this public this I will now declare this public hearing open I don't have any speakers um we have the applicant here
tonight I don't think so actually no even need right good evening thank you guys for hearing us my name's Rebecca Kates this my husband Nate Baker Kates do you have any questions for us uh May time thank you so much Mr Mar thank you uh colleagues good evening are you a large uh multinational development firm no I'm a mother of seven that's it what is it you want to build here just a single family home thank you create generational wealth I um I think one of the things and and this is this is actually one of those cool moments where you can kind of peel down under process actually uh and and and talk about folk I think one of the
reasons why this is always um almost non-controversial is is because it's precisely not the type of thing we're concerned about and that's been in some folks assessment um deleteriously affecting the fabric uh of our city this is single the Planning Commission I think got it right to direct um direct translational zoning rarely I don't think there's ever been any controversy uh around these um once upon a time we didn't even the Planning Commission didn't even uh hear these cases they just did a resolution about direct translational but I think I think statutory changes now required them to hear them but it was it was 10 I understand why I understand why it's always been the case with these small parcels and and um private residents uh that we try and help out out um in our city and our County so thank you I look forward to supporting this thank you Mr Mayor thank you thank you any other colle all right uh this this a public
hearing there any other uh comments yes yeah um I I will be supporting I think I will be supporting this case just there I think for me there hes inity is is around the satellite annexation which and you look at the map and you look at where the um where the sewer and the water is it makes sense they can tap in I get it but um on the six years or seven years I guess seventh in my seventh year um you know you're pretty much like don't do the satellite indexations um so I think that that that's some hesitancy at least from me it was good to see that Planning Commission uh voted for it unanimously I appreciate the staff analysis on cost of the city and here it is when you're an to the city you are a city resident you pay extra property taxes so even if um that cost analysis is a little wonkier off um their their taxes will be increasing because they're now going to be if approved they would be City residents so I will be supporting this thank you thank sorry my alarm is going off
restaurant all right um well oh counc just one more comment Mr Mayor just um because we deal with these these resoning issues a lot um you know and I'm also I'm the city's representative on both the Jordan Lake one water advisory committee as well as the upper New River Basin Association one in addition to the turbidity we talked about a lot these meetings we also track bacteria in the water and one of the best ways not to have bacteria in our water is to have families on Water and Sewer not septic so I think it's a great I think the more we do this the better we are in protecting our our streams and lakes from bacteria so thank you as well I'll be it's definitely been a long road I've worked endlessly for probably three years trying to well I like when people get on City water because of what he just said look forward to supporting it um Yep this is a this is a speaker card this is a speaker card I need you all to
fill well need you to fill one of these out just so I can have it on uh in my documents okay yes sir just see the clerk right over there thank you all right um yeah council member uh Baker yeah no I'm I'm going to be um supporting this as well um it just is it's surprising to look at the map and see um you know a DOT that's so far away from the city um and I think it it speaks to the awkward situation that the state legislature has put municipalities in and not being able to proactively um Annex Annex land and have to rely on voluntary annexations um because then inevitably we see Lea frog um annexations and and sort of islands sticking out there and um those those can pose some sort some challenges um as they as they add up um so that that was the the that was the question that was the motivation behind behind my question um and um as
you can see we have to we have to make difficult decisions um based on um uh the position that the state legislature has has put us in past um but I will I'll will be supporting this thank you see it's not you it's the general assembly all right um colleagues I will now declare this public hearing closed and back before the council if there are no other comments I will entertain a motion to conduct the to adopt an ordinance annexing cak's estate into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility into an utility extension agreement with Nate Baker and Rebecca Kates move to Red second and move the property seconded Madam clerk please open the vote please close the
vote the motion passes unanimously thank you In Motion two to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the residential Suburban 20 false Jordan Lake Watershed overlay District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential Suburban 20 Falls Jordan Lake Watershed overlay District B City jurisdiction so moved second it's been moved and property second uh Madam cour please open the vote please close the vote right and again the motion passes unanimously thank you and motion three to adopt the consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute SE section 160d d65 so move second move and properly second Madam clerk please open the vote please close the
75 with a textual development plan the design uh the applicant is proposing
75 zoning is generally consistent with the place type the Planning Commission recommended Denial on a 7 to6 vote at its February 13th 2024 meeting since that meeting the applicant has increased the percentage of income restricted units from 3 to 5 5% thank you and staff and the available or staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you you've heard the staff report colleagues are there any questions yes council member cook hey hello um I saw on here that we've got I was looking at the
comprehensive plan policy consistency statement on the zoning Change Report um have those numbers shifted at all because I know that there was some change in the proffers during the Planning Commission there was I don't believe they did but I can double check and get back to you I didn't think any of them were I just wanted to make sure thank you colleagues any other questions before we open the public hearing for staff all right I we now declare this public hearing open and have the applicant how much time do you think you need um probably 10 minutes all right Madame clerk please put an hour on Ni No 12 [Laughter] minutes I'm pulling up a presentation oh that's not
us well let Do It um and good evening mayor Williams mayor protim Leonardo Williams and members of the city council I am Neil go an attorney with the Morning Star Law Group at 700 West Main Street um and tonight I'm representing KDM development out of Raleigh we also have our traffic engineer Nate ban of McAdams and Tim cyers our site engineer with City uh Kenyan Burnham and Peter cren of KDM development also are with us tonight and uh for what it's worth KDM development is the market rate developer for the Cub Creek mixed income multi family development in bragtown um which is partnering with Ted hun Kelly development which is the lowincome housing tax credit developer for that project in bragtown so this isn't their first uh project in Durham um I hope everyone on city council has had a chance to visit the site uh Fox Crossing
one phase one I'm happy to report that phase one uh will be opening soon for new residents providing 168 much needed new apartment homes for dermit on the south side of ly Road our KDM development team is proud of the curb appeal and the bill quality uh that you can see here with box Crossing phase one and uh we hope to continue that with phase two uh which is the 25 A2 Acre Site we're considering tonight for resoning um for the record our team does want to um you just touch on I guess the uh where Fox Crossing fits into the section of Durham uh sorry about that uh I have been in Durham my whole life and uh I've been working on development projects in our region for uh more than a decade and during that time it's kind of amazed me how um in the Triangle region it has kept expanding to kind of further out areas of Wake County um like Holly Springs and zebulin while the four
or five miles that separate downtown Durham from RTP remained essentially undeveloped or underdeveloped and fortunately I think that's no longer the case Durham has over the last few years developed or redeveloped some some of that you know Two Three Mile Stretch from durm Tech South to RTP um so on this slide you can see scel properties Regional Commerce Center on the west side of Durham freeway and of course there's durm Tech uh and they've been a tremendous community resource for our residents for many years and uh dermtech is only about miles away from Fox Crossing in addition we are uh Morning Star I should say is working uh on the annexation for Parmer Edge life science and light manufacturing business park which is shown here in yellow um that site is already zoned industrial Light so it's just an annexation um and we hope that development will bring good paying jobs to the section of durm as well and uh for the past year or so uh I have been working on the team for a very dense uh mixed use Community called Brick Works
you can see it there in blew 1,800 units roughly with roughly 50,000 sare ft of non-residential space possible there um you know so ultimately Fox Crossing Phase 2 and and along with phase one is kind of a great infill development that I think substantially and successfully fills in the gap between downtown and RTP um given the job training and opportunities that are nearby and will be nearby I think it makes sense to increase the potential number of apartments on this 252 Acres site uh currently the zoning would allow for 217 units by right and we we are seeking to increase that to 320 units um and as you can see this property does present some challenges um it's got a 200 foot stream buffer for Li Creek and 68t wide Duke Energy easement at crisscross property um in addition I it's important to highlight that we are following the relatively new uh Place type which I
think wisely designated this area um you know near the East connector on the north and east and as a mixed use neighborhood uh this project in addition to the multif family component has committed to providing at least 2,000 and I believe up to 7,000 square ft of commercial or Civic space on the site um now since the Planning Commission um we took the feedback there we also had a a another neighborhood meeting after the Planning Commission we've taken the feedback from that meeting um and added some commitments to our project based on the input there um you know we we have eliminated some uses from the PDR uh the ones here clubs and lodges wireless communication facility drive-through facilities Convenience St with gasoline sales we also would add a commitment to handle the 100-year storm and um uh I get oh and I did want to address one other item that came up in I guess
both the the Planning Commission and the um neighborhood meeting which is the connection to uh Spring Street um and well to address that and I guess other traffic issues I I'll turn it over to our traffic engineer Nate uh boan for a minute and I'll be back Nate if you want to just address that absolutely good evening mayor Williams mayor Pro 10 midleton and members of the city council my name is Nate ban I'm the traffic engineering lead with McAdams and I was the traffic engineer of record for Fox Crossing 2 My office address is 621 Hillsburgh Street in Raleigh I perform the traffic impact analysis for Fox Crossing 2 uh based on my professional experience we anticipate approximately 20% of the residential traffic from Fox Crossing 2 will use uh Spring Street uh which is what you see pictured here uh this distribution was reviewed and approved by ncdot and City staff prior to the preparation of the ti I want to draw the city council's attention to the fact that if we are fortunate uh enough to receive the approve for Fox Crossing 2 our team will construct a public
turnaround at the end of Spring Street uh that will provide a dramatic Improvement to Public Safety for this neighborhood uh we will construct a circular bulb in compliance with city of Durham standards this new bulb area will enable public services such as fire trucks ambulances and trash trucks as well as delivery trucks school buses and the general public to turn around at the end of uh Spring Street rather than trying to turn around in the driveways uh or or back out uh or or turn around in other other ways such as backing down the street um that that you see pictured here uh lastly we perform traffic counts on LY Road as part of the ti that was submitted with the Fox Crossing 2 resoning uh based on those traffic counts my professional opinion is that ly Road carries approximately 1,500 vehicles per day at this time I also performed research relating to the traffic count on LY Road prior to the opening of the East End connector uh the traffic count taken by ncdot in 2017 found that Len Road was carrying 3,200 vehicles per day at that time accordingly traffic count on LY Road has gone down by approximately 2,000
vehicles per day uh since the East End connector opened uh in coordination with ncdot and City staff as part of the ti process uh the project team is also committed to constructing a left turn lane at our access driveway on LY Road uh while spring Street's pavement width is not optimal based on modern city standards the safety improvements described along with the reduction of traffic on L roads since 2017 demonstrate that this resoning is appropriate uh for these 25 acres we are considering tonight uh thank you and I'll pass it back over to Mr G thanks Nate um and uh in in closing I think it's important to understand this rezoning request in the context of what could be done under the current zoning versus what the request would help achieve um as stated in the staff report uh the current zoning uh would allow the property to be built for up to run 217 apartments and ultimately what that means is that under either District or either scenario the Udo is going to mandate a second point of access via Spring Street so
that aspect Remains the Same in either scenario um with this rezoning we can achieve a greater density and a greater mix of uses than is allowed under the current zoning uh the request uh also makes commitments to affordable housing DPS and the environment none of which are required under the current zoning and for what it's worth we have increased the affordability duration from the 20 years that we presented at Planning Commission to 30 years so really every aspect of this request represents an improvement over the status quo and for all of these reasons we would respectfully ask for your approval our team is happy to answer any questions you may have and we thank you for your time thank you I am going to uh I have some signups here I'll start with my online folks did she see Melody come on Melody Peters did she come on okay Tim Timothy
Jones all right Timothy Jones can you hear me Timothy Jones I can hear you hey great welcome you have three minutes awesome thank you good evening Mar Williams mayor protim Leonardo Williams and members of the council my name is Tim Jones I'm the homeowner of 819 Midway Avenue my wife and I have own this home and been residents of Durham County and the city since 2015 as business owners in our community we can understand and appreciate your objective of welcoming and housing the influx of new residents to our city and we appreciate your taking time to consider creative and bearing Housing Solutions to the gring population as homeowners and area that fox cing is planning to occupy we care deeply about the plans for this neighborhood I'd like you to ask you to
find my address on the map attached to this agenda item but unfortunately you cannot find it because we were not considered in the planning efforts by foxgate Crossing developers though we live less than half a mile from both entrances or proposed entrances to foxgate one and two you will not find our address on that map we understand from the durm comprehensive plan you have a goal of Resident wellbeing which is why I'm here tonight via Zoom to speak about my concerns Fox great foxgate Crossing one has not yet opened therefore we do not yet know the real traffic ramifications of adding 170 units St our neighborhood at this point it's my understanding that fox great Crossing 2 PLS add initial 321 if each of these apartments have two cars we're looking at something around 980 travelers to our small neighborhood Road each day according to the traffic impact analysis just mentioned and published with these meeting notes the
intersections that impact us all receive C or Worse grades currently and these all descend e or F grades after the completion of the project and unfortunately the traffic analysis fails to consider Carter Avenue which connects to Spring Street or Midway Avenue both both of which will be directly impacted by the proposed project as a parent it's frustrating to me that my elementary aged children cannot safely check our mail due to the current existing traffic on Midway Avenue Fox Crossing one has not opened yet and the existing traffic is unsafe what the traffic analysis fails to address is that many people avoid the intersections unpleasant by taking Midway Avenue adding additional cars to our roads without significant Investments to road infrastructure is dangerous to my family we ask that you oppose zoning change until such times the city or the developers can demonstrate good faith efforts to mitigate the anticipated traffic dangers with Solutions such as a different
entrance plan speed bumps sidewalks on Midway Avenue Carter Avenue and pleas we trust that this council is dedicated to the safety and well-being of our children homeowners in our small community and elderly neighbors we respectfully ask that you will take the time to drive to our neighborhood and see for yourselves what we are talking about thank you your time thank you so much next I have Donna stanback yeah hey there welcome you have three minutes good evening um mayor Williams and council members um uh I feel like um just to note that only 13 of the 22 policies were met uh comprehensive plan policies were met by this proposal um uh
5 miles is over 50 minutes away so this is mostly an automobile accessible
development in the middle of so much traffic um and some of these businesses that are mentioned in the proposal uh I'm looking at the um zone map Change Report are across 885 and there not any Crossings you know for pedestrians in that manner um concern was expressed as how this would be environmentally friendly as this was the headers of Little liit Creek this proposal has one vehicular and two utility stream Crossings so three stream Crossings note the sewer follows the creek bed is the creek bed disturbed by the sword that's a a question I guess for Neil um so uh the other thing is during construction can we the uh applicant
promis that there will not be any storm water and and uh tomato soup from the construction I I noticed a put the 100e storm water plan but what we've been seeing is that so much of the damage is done during construction I'm very concerned how the comprehensive plan policy 94 of 25% tree canopy being native trees is called an exceed when the policy 85 only has 7% trees for that thank you Miss stanback thank you so much next I have Miss Pam Williams no what about Melody Peters did you see them okay all right I'll now move to our in-person
speakers Mr Mayor pardon I see P Williams in Q and her hand is up you see her Madam clerk M Williams can you hear me yes I can hear you there you go welcome you have three minutes okay thank you my uh internet is going in and out so uh please bear with me I'd like to add to what uh Tim Jones said earlier about the traffic analysis the traffic analysis fails to include the current traffic on us70 and Pleasant Drive the current traffic on us70 based on ncst traffic counts is 4,300 as shown in the impact uh traffic impact statement it shows 39,500 which is a 2021 traffic count uh the traffic has increased seven over 7% each year in the last two years and that's what makes up that 14% increase
so really we have 45,000 vehicles on us70 the same thing is true with Pleasant uh Drive the traffic has increased a thousand in the last uh two years which is a 30% increase in the traffic it was 4,000 in 2021 and now it's um 5,000 right at 5,000 now so I have concerns about the uh growth rate of 3% that was used in the traffic uh analysis I also have concerns about the uh the streets the Spring Street is like he it's only like 15 16 feet it doesn't even have uh pavement markings nor do Carter Street Midway does have pavement markings but these are narrow roads there is no continuous sidewalks in this area anywhere to get to anywhere and also to get to the other side of Andre Avenue there's a railroad track so you're not going to be able to get from here over
to the commercial development that Neil was talking about uh you can't get to the park because it's on the other side of I 8 I 885 there are also two other uh developments Apartments one's got uh 350 Apartments at South Miami Boulevard that's been approved that's in the same vicinity also and Avenue apartments with 521 this area is really um bomb started um so there's no real amenities around this so it is auto Centric as Don said I would like to also request a 100 foot undisturbed buffer along uh both sides of the creek um the utility plan is showing it parallel in the creek I would like to ask that the uh utilities not be within the 100 foot buffer of the creek um especially since they're only showing 7% tree preservation uh we need as much
tree and grass coverage uh existing tree and grass coverage as possible uh for runoff and to contain this is headquarters of little Lick Creek where we also already have flooding Downstream from it and they just did The Grove Park um uh restoration project to try to improve some of little lit Creek thank you so much thank you so much okay thank you very much and have a great evening we we know each other well now you all right she knows I try to catch the break all right and I have Melanie is there a Melanie Peters in here oh okay there you go she's online and in person uh good evening you sitting on your phone also or oh no you went online why I did I just wanted to make sure I Was Heard
thorough um good evening uh thank you very much uh mayor and uh council members for being here for all the time you offer our city I do know it is a public service and we are very grateful for your time and effort and staying and waiting and listening to us tonight it is a very very long night but this matters greatly in fact I do want to point out that my house is on that uh picture that the lovely lawyer show I own that house uh at the end of Spring Street on that lovely yellow house built in 1929 the original farmer of Sharon ACR I own 103 and 105 been a taxpayer 22 years in Durham love Durham Durham Public Schools proud Durham School parent and product of Durham public schools and a public taxpayer so please I ask you to vote no in the rezoning I ask you to vote no for the utility okay because it matters your vote does matter matter it matters to all of the people that have been here and waited some waited and couldn't keep waiting um
Spring Street I I heard the lawyer say it's a not an optimal size optimal was the word um there's no way there's no way 400 200 300 apartment traffic from those apartments can come and go down Spring Street safely I can tell you that right death will occur it will not happen safely um and so just take a take in line the the traffic studies the e and the fs um surely to come the water Lick Creek Lick Creek runs all through there um I brought it a picture but you've all seen it all right this blue right here okay this is lit Creek lit Creek has been uh been damaged for years it's already getting D's and E and it's water and we need to raise that we we have nowhere to go but F so what are we going to do to make it better all right please Durham Udo needs strong protection for our Creek and our waterways in Durham please require developments to do turbidity sampling of
their discharges so they don't continue pumping dirty water into our Creeks I cannot tell you water is life and I love all the celebrations we did tonight Durham water is so wonderful Lick Creek goes into Falls Lake Falls Lake is not our drinking water but it is somebody's it is Wake County all right please also I would love just to ask I left to ask for every developer every tree you cut down I want you to plant one in its place because when I look at this map and this orange it should all be green it should all be green we need green space in Durham we need smart development I want affordable housing like everybody else but I don't want it in a hight trffic area where there is not safe walkways not safe buildings not a community center we do need affordable housing but we need it in a different place please I'm asking you tonight we make it ease and Fe and ease but do not fail the citizens of Spring Street and Road in Sharon Acres Community thank
you well all right um Paul Paul jeffre on if you get if you get state your name make sure I respect it with the pronounce uh appron Joe Fen joean I have a slideshow to bring up U this Fox Crossing presentation is still on screen so Madam cler you can wait until he get it presentation up oh by all means thank you togg between slides yeah there you go do I just um you can just press the down button that should and go up down okay Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protim members of the council city manager City attorney
thank you my name is Paul jofrey and 49 years a resident of Durham and for the past 23 years with my wife Patricia Sykes a resident of 705 Pleasant Drive just 300 yards from the proposed ly Road access of Crossing to uh as others have said these streets are tiny this is Spring Street which is the proposed second access for Fox Crossing 2 this is the 200 block two cars with um bins uh to the side do not have a lot of room to pass one another uh this is the width of Fox Crossing um excuse me Spring Street close to the 100 block uh with the car stretched across uh one car at the more narrow 100 block of Spring Street and uh the end of Spring Street actually is a neighborhood recreational location uh this gentleman his father
enjoyed speaking with them and getting their permission for this picture pedestrian safety has come up tonight this is the intersection of Midway we had a speaker from 8:15 Midway earlier Midway in Lind Street uh no shoulders no curbs no sidewalks a pedestrian walking if they they have to leave the street quickly uh have a three-foot drop into a drainage Stitch with um stone for drainage uh let me go forward a moment um pedestrian safety this stop sign I took this picture on February 17th of this year uh it is the second time that stop uh excuse me speed limit sign has been mowed over uh it was previously replaced two months prior to this uh on um April 13th there was an accident 3 miles to our West on 885 back in traffic up completely back over the East End connector individuals sought a cut through and this is Lyn
Road uh backed up to Highway 70 this is Pleasant Drive backed up between 70 and Ander Avenue um it took these cars 45 minutes to an hour to get what they thought was going to be a 10 to 15 minute cut through back UPS like that don't happen often but this is another picture of the same stretch three accidents within minutes of each other three days following that backup on these two corridors on the right hand side is Highway 70 on the left hand side is 885 in the middle it's hard to see is andur Avenue daily afternoon you see red streaks totally disproportionate with the rest of Durham the uh aner Avenue and Highway 70 landlock sharing Acres neighborhood Spring Street ly Road there is no way out except by way of Pleasant Drive and youran Highway 70 unless you take the trip to wellin Village which is not the destination a lot of people are going for work and other purposes I have so much more to say and
my time is running out I'll be happy to take questions I invite questions thank you very much thank you huh not looking Peters again okay you're really thorough I see you're also taking up space for other people who want to sign up so I'm gonna get you um John Curry she makes sure I wasn't going to miss her Mr mayor council members I name is John Curry we're not lawyers we're just concerned citizens and taxpayers I live at 1222 ly Road my
family has lived here continuously and paid taxes for over 84 years Fox Crossing one is a directly across the road from my house their exit is uh directly across from our driveway potentially 336 cars will be added to the traffic problem on our narrow road Fox Crossing 2 would be next door to my home with their main entrance just 75 yards from my driveway 640 additional cars could be added to our small community Fox Crossing one is about finished and anyone who lives on L A Pleasant Drive would tell you that 336 additional cars added to the already heavy traffic will cause Havoc to consider another 640 cars to the problem is just beyond
reason I'm basing the number of vehicles on two per apartment this small community would be absolutely overwhelmed by this great number of vehicles any reasonable person could see that 320 or more apartments with all their vehicles is certainly not a good fit for our community whatever the uh we're not stupid but we realize that the developers don't care about what happens to us once they build their buildings since I have some time left I want to talk about the creek the headwaters is at Spring Road and Carter Avenue I've lived this community all my life and fresh water runs into that Creek and it's the last refuge for the
animals that are now on in Wesley Downs across the highway that's already been approved they can come under the highway to this section but if this development goes forward they would have nowhere to go except the East End connector uh there's all kinds of wildlife in those woods dear all kinds of Aquatic Life in in the creek and I'd hate to see all that ruined thank you thank you very much and the last card I have is Adam gross thank you for allowing me to speak tonight this is my first city council meeting um I sent all of the members of city council as well as the mayor an email with a petition I learned about this very recently unfortunately it
seems like as the developer described it they're trying to fill in a gap and we seem to be that Gap so I'd actually like to speak to the community members that I spoke to who were unable to make it tonight like Miss Wanda who had to leave early who's had a lot of issues with this developer um they're trying to move a light pole back under her house they've had issues with storage in her backyard I'm sure she would have spoke to that I met a new mother young mother on the corner of Carter Avenue just bought her first home with her family she's worried about the speed people already speed through our neighborhood quite often her children play in that street I mean I live on Pleasant Drive between Spring Street and ly Road there is a whole group of kids in the houses behind mine that play in that street I met the Justice family who lived on Spring Street for Generations they have their elderly father who walks every morning down Spring Street to the corner and back I was able to talk to him on Saturday that man is 40% blind and I had to hold the pen over to where he could sign his name on the that
petition I met an older working gentleman who works evenings and was unable to be here tonight he told me two words he said why wasn't I told and how could they do this we've heard a lot about traffic we've heard about how it's been getting better it has not the entire Community every single member of this community that I talk to said the traffic is already bad enough we do not need this and we do not want it I do not see how a cesac will widen a road or get people to slow down I strongly oppose this and I think that this marginalized community in a poor neighborhood in East STM should not be over looked one more time thank you I yield my time thank you and good job your first time speaking those are all the speakers I have uh Mr go do you have her butto sure just quickly I want to address a couple things that were said
um it's important to understand that this project is ultimately it's consistent with the uh comprehensive plan that's how it's laid out in the staff report and one of the reasons you know I think it was mentioned a couple times this doesn't meet the 15minute walk I mean that's what the mixus neighborhood designation allows you to do create housing next to goods and services and this project does both and so it might be true that you can't walk somewhere within 15 minutes a day but you that's what this project would actually uh Implement is some is housing next to goods and services uh that you could walk to within 15 minutes that's one of the ways to implement the mixed use Neighborhood Place type that is outlined in the uh comprehensive plan and on that I also just want to mention um I don't have the verbiage in front of me um and I didn't see it specifically outlined in the staff report but the guidance in the comprehensive uh plan for the place type for the mix use neighborhood Play Type says specifically or suggest
specifically that um this mix use neighborhood designation is appropriate in undeveloped or underdeveloped areas near established neighborhoods and on the outskirts of the city that's what this is so there was a lot of talk about the lack of um infrastructure in the in the uh established neighborhoods and and things like that and I and I don't disagree that those things exist um however I think the lack of adequate infrastructure and historic development shouldn't act as a bar for new development that is um Guided by and in line with the goals and guidance in the comprehensive plan um I I can understand I mean I guess what I'm saying is it is possible that the comprehensive plan and development that is consistent with the comprehensive plan is not always going to be consistent with previous and historic development and there may be a good reason for that and that and that and maybe that's the case here but ultimately the phase one apartments are
built on one side of the road base two that's what's being um proposed here on the other side of the same street and um you know Durham is in need of Housing and the i in my opinion the way to get that housing is through density this project provides density um you know apartment s density uh in in area that I would argue we can ill you know uh we we can we as a city cannot really afford to continue to uh develop things at at lower and lower densities um so you know I think this project is consistent with the comprehensive plan as outlined in staff report it provides more density than the current zoning allows and um also for what it's worth this the uh traffic study I think the counts were done last year yeah so I mean I the the counts are what they are I I think there are some published numbers from 21 but the accounts for the traffic study were done last year so they a little bit more
accurate than um I think maybe a speaker had suggested uh look forward to getting your feedback answering your questions and and thank you for your time tonight thank you um colleagues any questions yeah go ahead okay I always have questions and I usually go for so I'll just sometimes you're yes and no look the same fine um okay I am going to start with a staff question so um our our traffic assessment is this project as compared to current Fox Crossing one has not opened yet I looked for the June 2020 analysis for Fox Crossing one I did not find it do you do we have an idea of
what that analysis looked like at that time do we have an idea of what traffic increase we're looking at with Fox Crossing one in addition to Fox Crossing addition to Fox so usually and I think Shan Eagan may be available online um remotely usually when a TIA is done and reviewed approved projects are incorporated into the track graic numbers so I'm assuming that's the ca that's the case here then Fox Crossing one since it was approved project at the time the Tia was done would have been Incorporated um and at least a model of that background traffic would have been included in the assumptions so when I am looking at the potential impact of proposed designation that is assuming that Fox Crossing one has already opened and is already working it is assuming that at some point yes
Fox Crossing one is open and again if Sha's available remotely he can confirm that online he's on okay great um but that's that's usually how that works yes so it would be included good evening this is Sean Egan director of Transportation uh good evening mayor uh mayor proem and members of council uh there is uh a uh traffic impact analysis memo uh included in your packet it notes approved developments and background growth there are seven approved developments in the vicinity of this area on all of those all of the traffic impacts of those seven developments the first one on the list is Fox Crossing one but all of the traffic impacts of those seven developments have been incorporated into the traffic analysis for this proposal thank you Sean I mean I guess my my
question that or the thing that I'm trying to understand is if we are assuming the an the impact as though these developments which are approved have already opened but we also very much know that Fox Crossing one has not opened yet as per the presentation that was just given I'm I'm having a hard time understanding how to look at these numbers and make them useful um so we have this this added impact but we haven't actually seen that impact so we just have numbers we don't know what that is going to look like that sounds like we we we do not have actual counts at this time we would simply uh have to base the projections on the models that we run okay thank you um can I get the traffic person up sorry um um I wrote your name on but I forgot it sorry could you introduce yourself one more time and and then I want to hear
you went very quickly through your report so if you could slow down just a little bit for me um I my understanding was 20% of this traffic will use Spring Street the other 80% were looking at the exit off of Lynn that is in combination with Fox Crossing one which also uses Lynn as its main entrance no there was did you just clarify these streets for me one more time yeah yeah absolutely so uh introduce myself again my name is Nate BN traffic engineer with McAdams um so the Fox Crossing one project um will have uh both an entrance off land as well as an entrance off Pleasant um and so they'll have uh the two different uh points of access for that that project um I believe they're set up where Pleasant is kind of the the main uh the main access for for Fox Crossing one um where they've constructed a left turn line for that project as well um and so yeah uh like you mentioned uh 20%
uh would was the assumption that we used in our our traffic study based on coordination with City staff as well as ncdot um for for what we uh conservatively estimated would utilize Spring Street um and that other 80% would utilize the access off ly uh for Fox Crossing 2 um and if I could also just uh answer your your earlier question a little bit more um so the the the ti looks at three different scenarios uh the existing analysis scenario truly is just based on the traffic counts uh then we project that volume out into the future uh that's when we add in those those seven adjacent developments um as well as a 3% uh annual growth rate up to our buildout year um that's what we call the the no build scenario um that's kind of our our Baseline uh for what the future would be like without without this project um and then we add in uh the the site traffic for this project as well um that way we're able to get kind of an Apples to Apples comparison of what our impacts
are um and how we would um potentially impact intersections in the future so do we have we have an understanding of I know okay understate pleas that is the main entrance and exit of Fox Crossing one do we have an understanding of the impact on ly from Fox Crossing one is that something that you would know um it would have been in the Fox Crossing one Tia um I'm in trouble finding it don't have that TI up in front of me at the moment um but that would have been captured in our no build analysis scenario okay thank you all right I have some questions for the developer do everyone okay so um I watched the Planning Commission which you were not present for this um this proposal uh it was late things were Silly um but some things came up that I
would like to just readdress sure the first one is that several of the Commissioners asked for a more specific narrowing of the non-residential so they talked to about that 2 to 7K being a pretty large range um and also and I know we've you talked a little bit about this in your presentation about um narrowing down the use so do do you have any more specific since the Planning Commission on size of that non-residential I mean the size hasn't changed we're still we on the development plan it's still a minimum of 2,000 a maximum of 7,000 um we just to be clear we do not have a user um outline for that so like we don't know what the use is we've obviously eliminated certain uses from the you know possibility there but the size is is still in that 2,000 to 7,000 sare foot range okay and we're not able
to narrow that down at all I'm well here let's uh yeah go ahead it's all right with you all hi guys Kenyan Burnham with the KDM development uh 8480 Honeycut Road and r so part of the reason we try not to uh narrow down our the size of a commitment too much on a retail user on a project like this is a lot of times our end user whether that be a a cafe or a diner or something to that effect that ends up wanting to take that space is going to have some sort of prerequisite requirements that they'll want uh for that space so you may have a coffee shop for example that comes in and they want to be in a space that's 4,500 Square ft and you know I've committed to not putting more than 4,000 on the site and that eliminates the possibility for that particular user so it's more about the kind of the backend ability to actually fill that space when we go to build it out and kind of creating a little bit more flexibility in that build Pursuit while also making some commitments to certain uses that I think the neighbors had concerns with uh
making those you know prohibited under our classifications right so we haven't done any restrictions outside of the prohibited list there's not we don't have a priority list I understand the difficulties of not being able to put something in before the Gres are there um I do understand that but we don't have a priority list cuz I mean the the things that have been suggested are like in all three of these categories right it's like maybe it's a daycare or maybe it's a coffee shop or you know or maybe it's a Wei work right it's it just feels like all of these it could be anything and the reason I'm asking is because we we're talking about 15-minute neighborhoods and and it's hard for us to think about and conceptualize what a 15-minute neighborhood looks like if we don't know what's going in right it's just a difficulty and I understand the limitations there but that's the reason for my questions um another thing that came up at the Planning Commission was um commissioner CE asking about widening the buffer I think he specifically said that he doesn't
normally care about buffers all that much um but this uh piece of land felt particularly sensitive given that it was the lit Creek Headwater have yall had any conversation about that uh I mean so the site not about widening the buffer I mean we're we are respecting and and providing the buffer uh I believe it's 100 foot buffer on both sides so it ends up being a 200 foot buffer on the site the way the the uh stream lays out on the site okay and I think I heard you say this before but I just want to make sure did you say that you were extending the um the income restricted housing from 20 to 30 years yes okay I just wanted to make sure I heard that and then my last question is um why only 25% native trees this is like a a large piece of forested land and so that the I think the commitment and I'll look at Tim there's a 7% tree preservation commitment which
is different than the uh commitment for Native plantings the native plantings are additional plantings that are required for landscaping and so that was where the 25% of the the additional Landscaping would be native um trees and and I and I I I think we are happy to say all of those trees would be native uh for for additional landscap but that is that is uh just to be clear that's landscaping that's separate from the tree preservation that's already committed to I understand that yeah I just thought it I mean we've just been seeing lots of folks talk about 100% native trees and I was just surprised to see 25% so yes so I think the commitment generally is that we would use native trees where the Durham landscape manual allows for required plantings okay I don't have any further questions at this time there you are thanks council member Baker got a few questions for staff a few questions for the developer um first
question for staff is just um is the does the Mt does the major transportation overlay app apply here I don't believe so okay I'll double check the staff report but I don't believe so okay um I was just curious because it it directly abuts um limited access uh roads yes but uh when the MTC buffer was created 885 didn't exist and so it has not been placed on 885 since oh 88 yeah yeah right okay okay um is that something that's on our radar is that something that we're thinking of of applying I it has not come up in previous conversation but it's something certainly something we we take a look at that you can take a look at it absolutely see uh I guess I follow up Qui quickly
to you um what kind of buffer are you looking at directly adjacent to the freeway I mean the the required landscape buffer which in this case would be I believe a 30 foot uh required landscape buffer 30 foot yep okay um I only I only asked because of course um noise pollution from from limited access freeways are have pretty major impacts so I was just curious about that um let's see I'm going to go ahead and move to questions to the developers so affordable housing um let me just make sure I'm I'm clear 5% of the proposed units at 80% area me income or below for 30 years is that currently that's correct the commitment we've been seeing six to 10% in market rate uh resoning cases
um in some cases that's also going down to 60% area mean income you have any interest in making that kind of commitment yes so we looked at the 60% Ami and uh KDM they didn't feel they could make that work on this project I don't know if K you want to speak to that so part of it just speaking frankly to y'all part of it comes down to you know I and I think I made this statement in some private conversations as well uh leading up to this that you know we're happy to come in and put all sorts of you know conditions and you know affordable commitments into our projects it's what I'm also trying to make sure I can do on the back end is go out and get a loan to finance this when it comes time to build it and the present environment um you know is not fantastic for any kind of multi family construction I'm sure you guys have heard that statement before but uh it is it is certainly exceptionally difficult as it stands currently to get a construction loan to build uh a project a multif family project really anywhere in the country um but you know it we're certainly seeing it here in the triangle and Durham um so you know we're trying
to speaking frankly trying to create a project that we feel very confident that when we get through this process we continue to move forward and go to build this asset one day um we're able to get that bank loan we need to to build the project just speaking honestly to you in a different environment we have you know more flexibility but in today's market it's it's a it's it's difficult just trying to give you a straightforward answer on that as best I can we've been seeing some developers recently making commitments to to Green Building um for example um with with language committed that says all primary buildings shall shall meet ngbs National Green Building standards uh silver or gold certifications that's something that you would be interested in making commitment to yeah so um me personally I'm not particularly well versed in a lot of those standards I will say um we do qualify for quite a few energy tax credits as our projects are currently constructed our assets are actually surprisingly a lot more efficient than I think most people realize um you know we just recently ran an analysis based on our Energy Efficiency on a project we're
building with identical specs in Charlotte and uh qualified for uh I have to speak a little bit probably get a little more detail on that but it was yeah energy star certification for so we'd be happy to commit to an energy star certification on this asset as well it's something that um you know is is easily attainable uh for us on on these assets and we do actually and we do it as well because we we do actually care about trying to make sure our assets are efficient and energy energy certified is something that KDM uh does it does matter to us so that's something we're doing anyways we're happy to kind of formalize that into a condition as well if that if that's something you okay does that work for staff that's fine okay see um there were a number of comments from bpac and I think it typically we have responses in the staff report um to those comments um is there a reason why we don't have responses just because the developer didn't provide responses yeah so we provide those comments from BAC to the the applicant and it is you know we will
provide those responses back to you if we receive any okay got it got it um did you all see the bpack comments yes um and for some of them uh well let me say I saw them uh now like uh since the Planning Commission I suppose but um some of them are are things that are already going to be taken care of uh so number one like include sidew uh within the development footprint connecting spring and Lyn that ultimately is required uh under the Udo so there's not a commitment to be made there um ensure the sidewalk connection and high visibility protection Crossing with ADA Compliant ramps between residential areas and secondary retail um this is a text a textual development plan we don't necessarily I mean I we can't really speak to that at at the moment where those things will exist on the site um and whether they'll be how how they will be integrated uh it's not that anyone is fundamentally opposed to this or anything like that but it's just
I mean the request I think is a little bit open-ended in a way that we didn't feel we could make that type of a commitment staff is that would that not just be required comment number two from bpac the high visibility portion of it ADA compliance absolutely is Ada ADA compliance it's the high visibility and that we do not require in the Udo at this time yeah and um and uh the the kind of same um thinking with the raised crosswalks uh and I will say what I have found in uh other projects that I have um you know explored this on there are scenarios where race cross crosswalk is not appropriate and I don't know if that is one of these scenarios or not we're just not that far into the site plan or development side of this to know um whether this would be an appropriate site or not I think in general raise crosswalks and I don't I know I've had conversations with earlene I don't see
her um but you know raise crosswalks or kind of keeping the The Pedestrian level at the same height a realm is can be appropriate and achieved I think safely on let's say driveways but not necessarily at like curb cuts for roads um and sometimes that is going to impede traffic in a way that makes it less safe so again I think that kind of depends on the design stage of it um building covered bicycle parking for residents I don't know that we have discussed that specifically yeah so I mean I don't I don't have a direct response to that one um the it it the other comment is that the application calls for sidewalker multi-use path if do um requests it and they are encouraging do to request it and we have committed to it if they do request it um and then about the go dur future bus stop for route two long Lin
Road as far as I know there is no such uh stop planned uh there are stops along aner um that are like less than half a mile away from from the site yeah oh there's one at Fox CR phase one so I don't know that there's another future uh route to bus stop that's not when we looked up that's not what we found would you be open to makeing Commitment around uh item number two from bpac and maybe we can add language of unless recommended otherwise by by City staff high visibility pedestrian crosswalks I mean yeah sure yeah I I don't I don't see why that wouldn't does that work that'll be fine yeah I'll we're just learn the flexibility of unless City staff determines otherwise we we could have that subject to approval subject to approval during the site plan stage
yes and then step this is um this is subject to the connectivity requirements right you do yes um that's it for me for right now all right yeah like okay um I actually I'm good I don't I don't have any questions oh um are you going to come back around when it's time for com is this just questions are you going to come back around to us questions comments so just get the first round out I'll come back around okay great I'll come back around I don't have any questions right now thank you council member Freeman r I do have two questions um so the first one is about this issue of stream Crossings and I'm looking at the um at the comprehensive plan policy review this is like policy 79 and I don't know if this is a question for
staff or for the um applicant um so it say so this is policy 79 protect derms most sensitive natural areas Etc policy not met proposal commits to limiting the project to one vehicular and two utility stream Crossing so just just help understand so what's so and that's that's what this is what you propos right and that doesn't meet the policy just want to understand that a little better I I think it's more about uh in terms of meeting the policy it's hard on these textual development plans because we don't have a Graphic we can't see exactly where the stream Crossing is going to be where the building and parking envelope is and so forth and so um just seeing say two two utility Crossings instead of of one it can be from the staff reviewer's point of view that well maybe there could be a way to to design this so there' be only one Crossing but without that graphic it's it's hard for us to determine so yeah and just to respond to that I mean the the the way I would say it is
there is no way to develop this site consistent with the comprehensive plan for a mix use neighborhood without uh some stream Crossings and to get above the 100 units we have to have a we have to Loop the water line which is why there are two uh utility stream Crossings we have we have limited the number of vehicular stream Crossings to one which again to develop the site consistent with the comprehensive plan you have to cross the stream there's no there's no two ways about that thank you um the second question pull it up here is about that again I don't if this is for staff or the consultant but it's about this um the summary level of service data and the traffic impact analysis I just want to make sure I understand that um so what what you were describing earlier is that under the I think this page three so under the no-build scenario what this graph shows is that currently Pleasant D and Lind Road existing right now have have a b grade right sorry let me pull up the one
you're referring to Rex let me go through all so like so yeah if you so it shows that start let's stop at the top so us7 South Mi Boulevard to LY Road existing is like in the AM is Level C PM is D and then the no build alternative which is when all this all these developments are built out if I understand that correctly shows that same Corridor as D and so level service going down there right sorry which intersection you're looking at 70 and 70 yeah sou Boulevard and Lyn Road and Lyn oh I'm sorry um yeah so in the no build um so depending on what type of intersection you're looking at it's going to be uh either an overall intersection delay or it's going to be a specific movement uh a situation like this your stop control is your only uh movement that would have any delay uh so it would be the stop control turning off of Lin onto 70 um in the no build uh you're correct it would
be a D in the AM and an e in the PM um in the build condition we would add 6 seconds of delay and the am which would technically trigger uh the E threshold but it would be minimal it was it's tiptoeing the the threshold um already in the no build condition so we're we're just adding the six six seconds and it's tripping it into the e um and then in the PM uh it it maintains the E uh but it it goes up 6 seconds as well and then so for u70 South M Boulevard and Pleasant Drive that's the next scenario shows existing Cur in 2023 uh level service D AM and PM and then again no no build or the build in 2028 goes down to F and E for both those correct yes that that's correct and and that's uh with the uh compounded growth the 3% uh growth rate from 2023 up to 2028 as well as the uh seven adjacent developments
that we've we've added uh that's that is the the no build condition that you're looking at um and then with our our build condition um is with our site traffic added in uh to get an Apples to Apples comparison we don't look at at any sort of signal timing modifications which is why uh there you see uh another scenario below it which is when we uh modify the green times at the intersection uh which dot undertakes that every so often uh as development occurs anyway um and so with that um it would maintain an e uh in both the am and the PM okay and then thank you for that so then the next is Pleasant Drive and ly Road and that shows under existing is like condition is like greated B right and the no build scenario same thing is great at B so that's so there's so that seems like that's a at least what what the data shows is actually less impact or Le less um um challenges with the sort of like the the roads yeah very very minor
impacts of that intersection and so Pleasant Drive in Spring Street again shows uh level B for both the AM and PM and existing and continues level B for the no build that's correct okay thank you that's all the questions I had I have some comments later but time thank you Mr Marin thank you colleagues and thank you all for hanging in with us this evening um I want to say at the outset I I think it's it's it's kind of refreshing to be dealing with a case that actually does not expand our Urban footprint we're actually talking about resoning within the urban tier this is not an annexation which I think raises you know the question of of and we I think we're kind of touching on it tangentially what what does urbanization look like in a growing city and how does that impact all neighborhoods in the city and because one of the challenges and and listen in my own neighborhood I'm dealing with um I have a single home
in in Durham where I live lumbley road is not that wide we've approved apartment complexes on Miami I know folk are going to cut through lumbley to get to the page Road Extension to get to 70 rather than go down Miami to 70 um so I couldn't I couldn't insulate my own neighborhood from the impacts of growth in in in and and growth in an urban environment so I I think and I appreciate some of the questions and concerns that my colleagues have brought up about what does it look like I don't know of any neighborhood in within our Urban tier that at this point presents as perfect for this type of development every neighborhood in this city and we've had some come when we've done rezonings it's it's traffic it's it's the things that make cities cities and I just think philosophically the the arguments that we hear sometimes to keep rural rural can't possibly be interchangeable with infill development
or doing Urban expansion they they they can't all be interchangeable um um on the one hand you're you want to preserve a bucolic kind of peaceful environment on the other hand you're trying to put people in you know decent places to live in a growing Urban footprint they they can't be uh interchangeable um I I do have a question because I I I read the planning commissioner comments one of the votes seemed to hinge by the commissioner's own admission on on I don't know how to say your attitude more so than the substantive um concern one of the Commissioners said that my vote was mainly about a sense of inevitability and being dismissive to some of the community concerns in some of the meetings sounds like it would have been a yes except that maybe had some concerns stylistically with with the team could you tell me how the community meetings went so I saw that comment and I full disclosure was not the one who presented a Planning Commission I watched the meeting I had
trouble understanding the the why the comment was made um and I also was not personally at the community meeting my colleague was uh what I can say is that this applicant you've seen it here tonight has been responsive to the concerns that have been raised and has added commitments to the development plan based on whatever you know items that were raised by planning Commissioners items that were raised by the neighbors and even tonight items that were raised by some of your Council colleagues as well um I wouldn't describe that as being dismissive um and I think that this project has improved over time through the process which I think is kind of what the process is supposed to do well well thanks for that and and I I look for in the planning commissioner comments comments that are actionable um sometimes they're editorial if somebody writes I think they should do this I mean I I don't I don't know how I don't know how to translate that into
action or if they have an opinion on how something should should just be um sometimes it it sometimes it seems like some of the comments um present as if the Udo does simply doesn't exist like some of the things that that are asked for are already statutorily going to happen have to happen um we're not going to allow developers just to you know build whatever the heck you want rough shot over the law um hope you're not going to try that um so so the comment it was a it was a 76 vote as I said one of the comments one of the uh Commission seem to be hinging on yes and as I dug down into their comments to see what was actionable um yeah I didn't really see anything that that ran a foul of the comprehensive plan or anything that was you know statuto not permissible what I do see is Detention of what it looks like to develop within our Urban footprint and what a growing city looks like another example I I lived um talk about older Comm established communities
with apartment complexes and using their narrow streets there's an apartment complex before I was a homeowner in durm I lived at Park Ridge Estates off of 54 that a buts wood craw very old established Community those houses back there you can exit on the 54 and on the days when the traffic was bad I'd cut through the the other exit into this established neighborhood with narrow streets to get out of it um so that exists within our Urban footprint that that's what um the tension uh of a growing city I I don't and and I take very seriously when when residents come and listen to them very carefully and I I guess my my struggle is is I ultimately how do we insulate neighborhoods within our Urban tier from the effects of urbanization I couldn't do it from my own neighborhood I don't know how to um do that there is no neighborhood in this city that is not feeling the effects or
or will be insulated some are more well organized than others some are wealthier than others some may have more influence and they may be able to stem the inevitable for some time but we are a city um there are people moving here at at an incredible clip um we do need housing uh everywhere and and I heard a comment about you know what's interesting is that affordable housing does not mean that these people don't drive and I think there's been a conflation of affordable housing with just poor folk who always take there are plenty of folk who live in subsidized situations afford who also Drive um and our our value our our goal as a city has been has been to put affordable housing everywhere not just um where there's Transit Corridor and when we have done that on the most expensive real estate downtown you got to put serious subsidies uh downtown as this city which we've done so so we want affordable units everywhere um and if if there's going to be retail there I don't who knows what
the market will put there but whatever is there um you know A smart business person will will look at who lives there what they need and will exploit that retail space accordingly or they'll be out of business um so I'm glad about the ability I you know I like Ninth Street I like how folk who live on Ninth Street can come down and go to shops or whatever all types of sunry businesses um walk to them so I'm I'm I'm glad that the retail space is is is part of this project I think the Planning Commission had it almost right and by my Reckoning one of the Commissioners actually would have been a yes were it not for you guys being so mean or or not not stylistic enough um so I'm going to be supporting U the project I do um take serious and I thank council member uh Baker uh for pressing on on some of the um the the building the the LED and and and um architectural uh things that comport with best practices in terms of uh energy use and things I I am very
appreciative of that but I think the um in reading through the commissioner's comments I thought I think that they had it mainly right um all of our neighborhoods are being impacted including mine and I'm the mayor of protim the city and I couldn't stop it uh in my not that I was trying to in my neighborhood but um yeah this is what urbanization looks like and those would be my comments of and questions Mr Mayor so I'm done I won't need another visit thank you thank you um council member thank you um so I drove the site I met with a development team I think I don't know Wednesday of last week and before that I had the opportunity to drive the site and it is a weird site I mean what neighbors are saying about Spring Street it's an odd Street it's a small Street um and when we um so two things I guess last year I think it was last year year uh when we passed our Urban growth boundary I think folks got really
excited because people kind of said oh we're going to we put this kind of flag on the ground around sprawl right we don't want our city to sprawl we want to be very conscious about our our uh um our water sources when you make a decision like that whatever's on the inside of that line you have to build up or your house prices go up even even worse than what they are right now um and so I think that that was a part of a trade-off in a way that maybe residents didn't quite understand when we made that decision about an urban growth boundary so anything on the inside of that Urban growth boundary is going to densify at some point everything even places like Duke Park and Trinity Park I know the horror people are going to buy those houses and they're going to tear them down in the next 20 to 50 years and they're going to build up and that's going to make a lot of people sad and it's going to make a lot of people upset but that is what happens you don't see Mansions you don't
see gillionaire mansions on Fifth Avenue like you did uh what was the show the the like um oh I was on HBO was really Gilded Age we do not live in the guilded age we are not the the the the Vanderbilts do not own you know mansions on Fifth Avenue everything along Central Park urbanized because that is what happened to New York as population increases and that's what's going to we're not going to be New York but that's certainly what's going to happen in Durham in the next 20 30 50 years and I understand a lot of folks don't like that um I understand that that is not maybe what folks envisioned when they either moved to Durham or they grew up here um but that is the reality of the situation when you live in the state that has the third fastest growing population and it's not just going to be Durham it's all of North Carolina uh and and that is that is just a hard reality and I don't I don't as an elected uh person on this board I I don't see the point in not being transparent about that with residents I'd rather everyone
we do it as best as we can we do it as as as the least harmful way we possibly can which is why we have really stringent environmental codes as much as everyone says we don't we have some of the most stringent in the state um we have passed a very Progressive and uh good comprehensive plan that is going to push us to this idea of a 15-minute city which which is why you have a requirement here to have a little bit of something besides residential to start imagining that world where you can walk to the coffee shop down the street from your house if you take Pleasant and you connect to Andre and you see that there's a bus on Andre you can already start to see what the city's going to have to do around and that's on us right that's building sidewalks making sure our bus transport is transportation is better uh you can already see why somebody would potentially want to live in one of these apartments you can get to downtown pretty quickly on a back
road up the way you can imagine a space in a time where you could get an ebike when we when we do the infrastructure correctly to connect you to downtown to connect you to other places are we there now no but if we continue to build single family homes we are never going to be there that is not a possible that is not what we can see in our future so we are in a hard Place imagining that world and it sucks I'm just going to say if you're the neighbors right around there I I I understand it doesn't feel good um I grew up in Charlotte I watched all the Farmland uh get swallowed up all the forced annexations by municipalities uh you didn't have a choice you just got a letter in your mail that said you were on City water and you got trash and then you had to pay a lot more taxes um but that wasn't necessarily a choice you made um and so I will be supporting this I will say that I I appreciate that this developer um and this is a difference they hold on to their properties for
longer they don't just build it and then sell it and I think that that makes for a better neighbor um I think that does actually matter for the neighbors that are already there um I also you know if I were soon out of college or in my early 30s I would live in one of those apartments you don't have to mow your yard you can just be kind of seems pretty amazing and I know the rents I know you guys can't 100% guarantee the rents but um you know a a person with the roommate is going to have a rent of about 975 maybe a thousand and then you're going to have your utilities and that's pretty good for Durham is it great no but that that is a lot of people can afford that that rent and that means that we don't have to use government dollars to subsidize that rent that means that the Market's providing that that means we can take
our dollars which we do the city of Durham and residents we have probably the most aggressive affordable housing policies in the state um we can take those Collective dollars that I was talking about earlier and put them to the Willard streets and to the other uh affordable housing communities that we are building and so I will be supporting it especially because I know I can do this and get these extra things or it's going to be a byright 24 apartment um unit development so th those are the that's the reality of what we're dealing with here um thank you yeah I appreciate everyone's comments on this I think that this project um has a lot lot of really good pieces to it I'm like some of my colleagues have stated we are looking for residential
density inside the city this is a this is something that I've been looking to see and we want it with accessibility to Transit I'm aware that every not everyone takes public transit but if we can encourage folks to take public transit and actually allow them the walkability to those public transit options that is a huge part of uh meeting affordability in housing right because we also have to have good Transit and um and we have lots of goals as the city to lower our emissions and um this is one of the ways that we can do that right um the other piece of this that I that I like is the setting aside of non-residential we've talked a lot about these urban spraw communities that um are just housing blocks and blocks and blocks of housing with no accessibility to any amenities um however I am also really concerned about a few things with this project um
one of which is that one small part of non-residential is going to be the only walkable thing um there is nothing else walkable uh there was some comment about that Fox Crossing one um had advertised itself as a a walkable uh development I looked today and that um wording has been changed which I found interesting uh which might have happened after the Planning Commission but uh there is really nothing else walkable there and um and saying that folks can walk on these streets um I think is problematic so that's one concern that I have um another concern and a really really big concern is the roads um Spring Street yeah I mean the Spring Street is is a country road it is very small and I
know that only 20% per the per the um traffic analysis is going to be on that street but that's still a lot of extra traffic on that street and then we've got also a lot of extra traffic on Lynn which is slightly more developed than spring but not like huge and so I'm concerned about that that is something that's concerning to me um the byright build here would have a far less impact on those roads and so that I think is something to think about um I'm also concerned about Lick Creek uh I don't have to rehash this a million times but um that Creek looks terrible and it's going right into Falls Lake which is the drinking water for Wake County um and do you think as good neighbors that we do have a responsibility to be considering that impact and then the last thing is is the deforestation of this area and we heard from a couple community members tonight
about the crossing under Highway 70 and um and like my colleagues have said like part of our responsibility up here is to think about holistically what makes sense and um and we have a lot to weigh I think in this project um I want to thank the folks who came out to speak tonight and particularly the folks who went through their neighborhoods and talked to their neighbors um signed a petition and sent it to us I thought that that was um really great Community engagement I'm really impressed with y'all for organizing in that way um we've heard a lot tonight about not being on track with our housing but we are actually on track with developing enough housing for the to meet the population growth that's been projected um we're not on track with vision zero this is our pedestrian and biking safety um and and this project directly can contravenes that in my opinion this is it's not going to be a safe place I'm
not sure how you could look at that street and think that any additional cars on that street would be safe um it plan it failed at the Planning Commission it in fact failed at the Planning Commission 7 to four uh for the voting members there were two non- voting members and so they were counted as yeses um but I watched the whole Planning Commission meeting and um I think that there were tons of concerns by almost all of the Commissioners even the folks who ended up voting yes had a lot of concerns and noted those um in our um in our notes that we received back and the last thing is that it by percentage gets a d on our comprehensive plan policies it meets 13 it fails at 9 UM this has been something that we've used in the past as sort of a a Guiding Light so um yeah I it's I'm conflicted a lot of good things about this project but a lot of things that I think are really problematic um but I again I just want to thank the neighbors for coming out
and Echo what my colleague has stated that change is difficult and we are going to have to make changes within the city of Durham uh that is going to happen and I understand that not everyone will be okay with those changes um but we also need to sit here and think about what the best use of our land is and I'm not sure if this is it still conflicted about it thank you I share with a lot of the sentiment of councilman cook there is the commitment to the 5% of units for 80% area me income below housing um one housing type uh and then the two the two to 7,000 um square feet of commercial which is um not as much as we' like to see for a site of the size but it's also an awkward site and so I think that that is a reasonable amount it's good to see that there um we are growing we are changing we are
urbanizing and as we do that there is this inherent conflict that we see with uh residents particularly when we see development that's occurring um directly adjacent to Residents Upstream from residents um close to where people are living and have been living for a very long time and so I think that as we grow in those areas it's very important that we manage the process of growth that we manage the outcome of that development um in order to alleviate some of the concerns there's always going to be people that show up to these meetings especially if they live next to a rezoning case that speak out against the resoning case um people don't always like to see change um but I think that there are also things that we can put in place that ensure that there are better outcomes for those residents I think that there are ways that um that we can win over residents to to some of the changes that occur in their neighborhoods and that um is one of the
reasons why I I keep pushing for us to adopt uh requirements for uh Parkland um I've worked in this city as a as a city planner in the past um that would have required uh an acre and a half of of public park land in a development like this um imagine if we could go to to the residents that that live adjacent to where this proposal is and say hey look you're also going to get a park out of this you're going to get a public park with a whole lot uh more more amenities um you know when we urbanize we also need to bring good along with um some of the impacts that are um negative or at least even perceived as as negative so we need to manage the process of change we need to manage the outcome of change um it was it was interesting um one of the one of the residents earlier pointed to um showed showed a picture of of traffic and and talked about a cutr um and and I think that that speaks
um to the importance of Street connectivity because cut-throughs are really just Street connections where we don't have sufficient Street connectivity um and in the past we have not we have allowed development to occur without adequate connectivity and that results in a lot of traffic filtered onto fewer and fewer roads um and so that is why that's why I always ask about connectivity and and uh the the importance of additional connections um again you know we talk about walkability we talk about urbanizing it's that density diversity and design the 3DS of of walkability we're achieving density here um we're even moderately achieving diversity diversity of uses um and that brings us to to the third item of of design um you know will will we one day be able to will residance in in the future potentially if this uh resoning goes through and this development occurs be able to um walk places access Transit
um you know in a lot of in a lot of ways even even if we are building density even if we are adding a mix of uses um the design is may not be amenable to uh to promoting walkability um and and so I think that we can it is possible and I think that we frequently and and and consistently see developments that verticalized um and and I think that that that's what we would we would likely anticipate um from most of the rezoning cases that we see that involve uh multifam so we are in the process of rewriting the unified development ordinance or at the very beginning of that process um a lot of the things that we could simply be requiring um we don't currently require and we're going to have to wait until that that Udo process goes through um in order to require some of these things and so that means that we need to um at up at the Das this is where we have the opportunity to to receive um
out of the goodness of of uh applicants Hearts um uh contributions um that that potentially in the future will simply be standards will simply be requirements but that puts us in in an awkward position every single time it means that we have to ask a lot of questions that we won't always need to to ask because they'll just built in be built into the DNA into the unified devel development ordinance um stream buffers um that's another one uh that's another one of these um policies in the comprehensive plan that is determined to not be consistent with the comprehensive plan um in fact it's not even halfway consistent with the comprehensive plan um so uh council member cook pointed out that a number of policies in the UniFi development ordinance um are are not are not being addressed um by this resoning case and I don't think that we need to be purists and um require or you know uh
expect developers to follow every single policy at least not until we require the ones that we are allowed to require um but it does mean that we need to make a judgment call and so I have the same heartburn and the same concerns that that council member cook expressed on on this case thank you yeah sure go ahead council member Baker thank you so much I you you you extracted some pretty I think some pretty significant um concessions from the developer are reading the green is that an indication that you did they not cross the threshold for um to ease the heartburn I guess I I if that makes sense the question makes sense we're brilliant and there some of the things that you got from the developer I I guess the question is to what end was that reading the room um understanding that uh this might this might pass today and if it passes then I
want to make sure that it's as good as possible fair enough thank you thank you Mr Mayor thank you Mr Mayor um first of all I just want to appreciate the residents who've come out tonight you all waited a long time for this item to be heard you've been here till the end so I really appreciate that you gave us appreciation for the work we do and I want to appreciate you for the for being here and and representing your community um admittedly this is a complicated case and the infrastructure in this neighborhood is imperfect especially on Spring Street um at the same time I'm mindful as others have said on the council our Our Place type map calls for a mixed use neighborhood here right um and that's not a that means a more intensive uh intensive uses um you know and that that mixed neighborhood could be as others have said could be what 214 27 units by right right with no promised affordability um and no uh and no non-residential uses so I appreciate the
developers offer of a mix of uses we've looked at many cases recently where with where the place Ty map is said mixed use neighborhood or mixed residential neighborhood and then we we don't get the mix of uses and and developers say well it's it's nearby or what adjacent so I appreciate the fact that actually this is a mixed use concept um that we need to move towards um I appreciate the profit affordable housing which we need desperately and I I I will point out that I don't think I don't know if you all saw the article in the nno last week our rental rates in the triangle have actually gone down slightly in the last year it's exactly what we wanted we we need affordable housing in the campaign this is one of the top two issues we heard from folks day after day and so the fact that we've been building more housing has addressed this issue and so we're seeing rents come down which is what we want um but there's not a magic number there and we need to keep building to address the need for housing um I want to associate myself with mayor prm's comments this is a development that doesn't add to the urban growth boundary right we're where're this is this is Urban Development um and while it isn't perfect this is less than half a mile from Transit stops both on
pleasant as well as Andre it's not a great connection it's not easily walkable or bikable but this is near Transit and that's not the case with with many of our recent developments they've not been near Transit and so we're sort of left with like well it's it's it's maybe this that but it's just not close to Transit right so as my colleague councilwoman jaier Caballero said it's on us to like bring that infrastructure right if we approve this so um this is not easy it's complicated um but on balance I will be supporting this project thank you Mr Mayor um Just In fairness um transparency I can't see my way to supporting this project I'm very concerned um I will note that mainly my concerns wage heavily way heavily around um Miss waiter's comments around the treatment she's received in this process and I can't find a way around some of the comments that have been made by some of the res and I I just in general don't
make excuses for not supporting what I don't see as a community benefit so I'll just leave it at that thank you colleagues any other comments all right um so if you uh left this neighborhood and went up ly across 70 turn right on awood lane turn left on St John um go into that little parking lot the town home straight ahead 428 St John it's where I live for years uh so I was some of you all's neighbor um I don't know uh you know if it's because I in in staff I do uh I will get those commitments yep um I I I don't know I I Spring Street is is is one um but considering I used to live over here all the time I mean all of the streets need they just they need better they
need enhancements all of them um and I think for me what I keep what I keep battling with is you know Community is not built by a puzzle piece is built by puzzle pieces and I I feel sometimes we're we're saying no because the one puzzle piece doesn't have the entire puzzle picture in it and and and I think that in order for us to truly have that fully P that full picture we do have to build some of the parts and it's going to be a challenging painful process um it is it is uncomfortable I don't sit well with you know um as a matter of fact you know it was rainy one day right on Spring streak and I was learning how to ride a motorcycle and actually almost got hit because couldn't get it in gear and uh someone wasn't paying attention I I've had some adventures in this part of these the woods um so I am concerned about the streets but but I also I look at it
holistically and I feel I feel as though we're we're battling with competing interests and competing goals um I I you know when we talk about walkability when we talk about connectivity uh if it doesn't have all of these things it's not a 15minute city yet like I saying no because it doesn't have the things that we want only prevents us from getting the things that we're trying to build to and that goes that's that goes back to just the puzzle pieces working together um there I'm I'm glad to see that there's going to be some commercial over there other than the gas station um further down the street um 885 is there because for a long time 70 you know was just is a nightmare you know and then folks are going through downtown to get from 885 to 147 you know and after a
while once that traffic is putting so much pressure you know uh the government is forced to come up with the solution but I can't find anywhere in the world where they're just they they unless they have the resources and the wealth and an actual Department of Transportation that will just proactively do it I I don't know where it's common where they build a lot of things that would be nice and hopefully folks will come to it so unfortunately yes traffic gets a little backed up certain times of the day on Ander uh people if 70 is pretty rough I'm guilty of this if 70 is rough then I'll turn on L and cut through to get the edge ear uh to go straight down parallel to 70 to get further down sometimes a little quicker it's just it is a natural behavior you know um but there are a lot of things that I like about this there are some things I'm really concerned
about I I am really concerned about the higher use of traffic on those small streets um but I'm also concerned about that the same way I'm concerned about the school buses that are turning on LY Road from uh I don't think it's spring but it's further it's the next one up from Spring you know um and and they always almost turn into ditch there you know uh and I've driven school buses through there when I was the band director at Southern I can still have my bus license so I I've had a lot of experiences over here uh when I was when I was the neighbor um I I want to be careful when I say this I I don't if if a resident is coming and expressing their concern and they feel disrespected by a professional then that is a problem now I I but that's a problem I want to address for that person whoever that professional was I I want to be careful about making decisions around Behavior I
I I don't like it trust me we have some examples of our uh governatori candidates and presidential candidates but um I want to make sure that we do address that at least as as far as I'm mayor I will address that personally you know I I we're not having that type of behavior not from the professionals that are coming in here uh you know just being dismissive so I apologize about that happening um but I do try to be as objective as possible so I I am going to support it um with with with my reluctancy around around just the street capacity and I I as these units are coming I hope that we could eventually get the uh get some of those roads in that neighborhood to be expanded or just you know just really enhanced um there's it's very residential over there and I think that we could we we're now primed for truly building community over there we really are it may not happen tomorrow but I I I
think that we're we're building it may be a painful process but I think we're building where we ultimately want to get over there uh so I will um at this time uh I need to yeah I need to uh have staff come back up Aaron with the PA voice and Aaron it sounds really good that's why I'm I'm teasing it sounds really good thank you um yeah so Neil just to go through the five additional commitments that I have noted uh there's a commitment to uh doing storm storm water ponds to a 100-year event is that correct correct um increasing the affordability period from 20 years to 30 years that's also correct um that all planted trees will be of native species per the Durham landscape manual yeah we're allowed by dur yep that um all buildings will be to energy star certification all primary all primary buildings yep
okay and I I'm I Primary Residential buildings Primary Residential yeah okay and um high visibility crosswalks will be included subject to approval by Transportation staff at the site plan stage yes and then we also had some prohibited uses yes but I think those that is that already on there I think that's no that's not already in there okay so um so the prohibited uses clubs and lodges wireless communication facil I have I it's the ones that you listed in the yeah yeah I've got I've got your presentation so okay yeah we'll work off that okay thank you thank you all right so at this time I'll entertain a motion to authorize the city
manager to into into a util utility extension agreement with bur Burnham Fe acquisition LLC so move second now our clickers are not working so we will have to vote by hand all in favor please raise your right hand all oppose please raise your right hand you got that Madam clerk all right thank you could you report that for the record Mr Mayor the vote was um 4 to three with mayor Pro mayor Williams mayor protm Leonardo Williams council member cabayo and C council member rist voting in favor and council member Baker cook and Freeman voting against the
75 Falls Jordan Lake Watershed Protection District district second it's been moved and properly second All In favor please raise your right hand all oppose all right Mr Mayor the vote is um it passes 6 to one with council member Freeman voting no thank you and motion three to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General
statute 160d d605 move to adopt consistency it's been moved and properly seconded my brain is not working um have a moment all in favor please I'm so sorry all in favor uh please raise your a hand just the uh consistency statement unanimous that passes 7even to zero thank you so much I'm sorry to interrupt you Mr Mayor could we could we actually could we um could we go back through I I think that I misheard what we were voting on could you could you just tell me the first and second because we're not annexing the first and second motion could you distinguish those two for me you you're asking are you asking what the Motions were or yes okay you like you want me to read it or
you want mean to explain it if you could just hold that open for one second I can read it I just want to make sure that I think I might have moted why are you doing that uh Mr Kane eron I uh I wasn't calling your voice of zoning code by the way I was saying it sounds really good like your voice is really clear in the mic okay thank you I appreciate that before we move forward Mr Mayor I just wanted to just get um staff's respon I I wasn't sure because I heard council member cook mention that there was a 74 vote and in the report it said 76 because two uh individuals were not present okay and I just want to make sure that in the report for the background that that's clear clearly labeled um I do note that the one person who wasn't there that was counted as a yes for the four is so it's it's really tricky that it so it shows 76 when it's
really like 73 were were they uh were they present and then left they were that's correct they were two people who were present for the beginning of the meeting but had left by the time the vote was taken and by uh rules of procedure they are counted as yes votes but they would be counted as yes votes but it wouldn't be 76 it would be 76 that that's what made it 76 it would have been seven I mean we don't know what those two people would have voted um but there were four yes votes of people who were there and then the two people who weren't there are counted as yes to make it six right if you attend a meeting and you leave before the vote then you consider yes uh just for clarification and I this was my misread but um generally when there's not an Annex I I was assuming that the um that the uh amend sorry that the zoning change was going to be the first motion and um I didn't realize the
utility extension agreement was going to be the first motion um I would like to reopen that vote if possible um I know that it's late but I just want it to be accurate are you wishing to change your vote I am uh so Madam clerk can you just record that oh do we have to Mr Mayor is this motion for the um the utility extension agreement or for the ordinance amending the Udo I'm asking for the second motion to be re reopened okay so do I need a do I need to a motion to recall yeah would you like me to make the motion let me let me do this if you don't mind since you are the one that's initiated would you make a I'll entertain a motion Mo to recall the vote
75 Falls Jordan Lake Watershed Protection District B one of inquiry is this going to change the outcome of the vote I all right thank you is there a second second all right uh just a motion to recall this is a motion to recall motion two okay right thank you all in favor please show by raising your right hand all right so did you get that Mr Mayor was that 5 to2 it's uh six to six11 yeah okay thank
75 false Jordan Lake Watershed Protection District B so moved second been moved and properly seconded all in favor please show by raise your right hand right all opposed all right do you want me to read it yes okay Mr Mayor the the motion passed four to three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting no thank you so much thank you for that late night correction appreciate it yep and last
80 per month and $311 for tier three residential customers at a proposed rate of $236 per month the proposed monthly increase for other residential and
non-residential customers is $155 per 2400 Square ft of impervious surface area at a rate of $180 cents per month there are two motions that the administration recommends that the city council approve the first conduct a public hearing to receive public comment on the proposed fiscal year 2025 storm water rates and the second is to to adopt an ordinance to change the fee schedule revising storm water rates effective on July 1st 2024 all right all right thank you for that report I will now declare this hearing open there any comments with the exception of council member cook is there any I'm just teasing [Laughter] all right I will uh if there are no comments on now I declare this public
hearing closed all right this is back before the council uh colleagues there are any comments council member Freeman thank you I just wanted to um check in make sure the general public was aware the and it's probably directed for the city manager the fund that is available able for folks who cannot afford their water bill is named X and I can't think of it right now so this is the you know this the storm water rates and the fund is really uh for the water and SE utility service um and it is a it is a fund that is administered by Water Management Department to assist um residents uh that make applic a and have a need to have the water bill supplemented but this is the storm water fee so it would not apply for the storm water fee it it is currently not um you know
it's currently not part there's currently not a program um for the storm order that is similar to the one that you're recalling thank you and I just wanted to just note that for my colleagues um that there is no plan in place or Fund in place that covers that and so just noting we're in a recession and folks are experiencing High rental rates or home ownership cost and so maybe a point at some point in time we need to look at what it would look like to support folks who might not be able to cover that as well because the storm water fees are um assessed and on an annual basis and it can create some hardship around that affordable housing thank you are you saying the increased fees for hardship so whenever the the St whenever the water rates increase I'm assuming that the water fund increases as well but it would be great to figure out whether there's something in place for storm water or yard waste like all of the things that we have in place to
assess fees to our residents as we increase the rate and it becomes um prohibitive to folks we don't want them to be pushed out so I just want to make sure we create an on- ramp to cover that right and just to be clear this is we're talking like raising it like a dollar in 75 cents do. 75 cents okay 75 a month so rais it at 75 cents a month yes okay I thought so all right um yes I know it's a joke I just one quick thing that I want to say we talked about this in the workpl session and I just want to reiterate um a concern that I have about this which is that um the larger apartment complexes are going to be rated at a different tier than um our residential uh due to the definitions this is not a critique just a statement that I'm making um because that cost does get passed down to the tenants and so it's just something that I want folks
to be aware of that when we look at these tiers um that's not necessarily um it doesn't necessarily take into account the incomes of the folks that are affected right like it's not going to be proportional all the time because um large Department complexes and HOAs and other things are are grouped into the non-residential and they get um raised at a different rate that's all I just want to alert everyone that that is going down and that those costs do end up getting passed down to tenants and so that is just a concern that I want to raise and I will be done for the night sorry it's late late 11:50 I just want to I do want to make an economic argument here and that we can assume those costs be passed down but the the ability of whether it's landlords in a apartment complex or a house they're ability to pass on whether it's property taxes or water insur cost really does relate to the the Dynamics of that market if it's an inelastic market and demand like and people can't go
elsewhere probably get passed on if it's an elastic market and someone could move it may get passed on partially or so it's so it's not I think there's a empirically I think there's a there's a there's a it's knowable right um but we can't assume the 100% would always be passed on is what I'm saying but like in most cases it's probably is some some share that I passed on but just from an economics perspective I think we can't know that without actually modeling the Dynamics of supply and demand in that Marketplace just from a this was this was uh me being having a having seen that being passed on it is written into most residential leases and it does get passed on so but I understand your argument yes and I was just going to just add T tack on to that and that I think that this is an also an opportunity for conversations when we're talking to um affordable housing developers or housing developers in general um maybe the
tiering could have some caveat where if you are offering 10% affordable housing that that's an option that you're in a different tier so just for future conversations thank you all right all I and I staff I'm going to reach out afterward I just want to make sure we're talking about you know an additional $150 c a month or 75 cents a month or is that like a percentage or is it like our taxes a penny equals no tier one. 75 cents per month tier two $55 per month tier three $311 per month okay um all right I think down here just to note your comment with that would be helpful are we good yeah okay all right colleagues are we good all right all right I will uh now declare this public hearing closed and back before the council uh staff thank you I
m. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week go hug a teacher um that is it we are adjourned than tomorrow 7 minutes till tomorrow s minutes till
tomorrow only this Council can find de over water water for