Everyone welcome to City Hall and I'm going to call this meeting to order at 7 p.m. and I'll ask that you I'll ask that you join me in a moment of silence.
Thank you now passage to council member.
Freeman for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you it's our practice to stand to salute the plague and say the Pledge.
Indice Madam Clerk can you please call the RO mayor Williams I'm here may Pro Middleton I'm here council member Baker herec member cabayo here council member cook here council member Freeman pres council member Rist here now pass it over to recognized mayor Pro Tim Middleton to Proclaim the first make the first Proclamation tonight the grand family day my thanks to his honor for the opportunity to read this great Proclamation for Grand Family Day appreciation good evening honorable colleagues to our staff to our guests neighbors residents and chamber and on on whatever platform you may be watching mamm Mimi Grand family day of appreciation I'm going to ask Glend declair and the fragile families Network to come on up they in the building well hopefully they're watching Glenda anybody from anybody here from fragile families Network all right Proclamation whereas nearly eight y honor you want me to go ahead and they might be watching or you want to hold off Derek have we received word from the fragile families.
Network okay let me do do mine first AB time.
Okay is that Michaela here she's on the way okay we're gonna wait we're gonna wait for the next Proclamation as well because I really would like them to be here in person so I'm going to ask our planning department to come up.
Hello smart.
People if you're part of the planning department if you do come up here you get a raise tonight everybody's popping up I'd like to recognize our planning department they held their first they held their first fall session of planning Academy which I've actually heard quite a bit about and you planning is you know you guys we we associate with you guys the most with all these zoning presentations but it's usually not something you hear talked about in the community it's just something cool but I've heard a lot of talk about the planning Academy it's like a badge of honor like yeah I went through the planning Academy I'm I'm an urban planner now somewhat but it's just great that folks are going through this program to get a better understanding of how the City Works so the planning Academy provides an opportunity for residents to learn more about the history of planning in Durham and the way the department is organized and the processes the department manages and information on current topics and.
Development and once you go through that you'll understand why I call these folks the smartest folks in the building the goal of the program is to empower residents to to be able to access planning processes and advocate for their Community needs in those spaces the planning Academy participants will close out their academy today and with a City Hall tour a reception did did I miss the food okay Madam manager we need to work on that whenever there's food I need an invite okay yeah and also tonight which I get a chance to recognize them so I'm going to pass it over to the planning director as we talk more about the Marvin Collins award for comprehensive plan and she'll talk more about the Durham comprehensive plan which was adopted in October 2023 how was esteem awarded to the esteem Marvin Collins for the outstanding planning and I'll let you finish up here talking about the rest all right thank you mayor and members of council for a few moments to talk about.
The work that our team has done as you all know many of you were with us along this journey but the comprehensive plan was really an exciting project that we did inhouse in the middle of a pandemic and had to readjust but to me the most important part is we really adopted the e engagement blueprint and did a project in a way that we had never done before in terms of Engagement and I think the plan reflects that and for that I'm incredibly proud of this team and proud that we were able to receive the award so I just wanted to thank you all for giving us a few moments to kind of share that with you all right and now I'd like to ask our planning academy participants for this planning Academy we do planning Academy twice a year spring and fall and I'd like for them to kind of come up we can take the gratuitous picture in front of the council if that's all right with everyone they have been a fantastic.
Group spent all weekend with us Friday night and all day Saturday learning about all things planning and then back tonight for some more discussion so really appreciate these folks lots of great questions I tell everyone and they could probably tell you how many times I said this during the academy but planning Academy is my favorite thing that we do as a department so right.
All right all got all elected officials photo bom on. Three congratulations thank you'all so much.
Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me I thought I saw Michaela walk in did she oh come on up.
Here Emanuel sit right there how you doing it's good to see you good to see you again all right I get to Proclaim this to you. Tonight so standing with me here is Michaela Booker Johnson of Wall Street Juniors one of my favorite organizations in Durham and I love it when I say Durham is dope and someone says how dare you say that and then I get to tell them why I said say it and the organizations that I get to talk about and brag on Wall Street jors is one of those one of those those organizations so whenever someone push back I just say let us be great all right just let us be a't that right that's right all right so tonight I have the honor of proclaiming this amazing recognition and Proclamation whereas Wall Street Junior Incorporated founded in 2018 in Durham North Carolina and has has made it their mission to advance financial literacy education instill positive economic habits and cultivate social responsibility across diverse populations spaning spanning from 2 to.
85 whereas Wall Street Jr's a commitment Wall Street Jr's commitment to community wealth building has empowered historically marginalized bipo which stands for black indigenous and people of color and UND underresourced communities through intergenerational wealth literacy initiatives promoting economic empowerment social equity and long-term sustainability and whereas since its Inception Wall Street Juniors has provided inclusive programming to children adults children and adults children teens and adults in various schools community groups and faith-based organizations with the goal to bridge the gap in financial education and Foster generational wealth accumulation Wall Street Juniors has collaborated with the city of Durham neighborhood Improvement Services Department spearheading Equitable learning opportunities and fostering Community engagement as a part of initiatives such as as part of initiatives such as the community infrastructure investment for Equitable engagement program and whereas through Partnerships like financial planning assoc the financial planning Association of the triangle nccu in the city of Durham and with funding from arpa and local fiscal recovery funds Wall Street Juniors has been able to serve as a conduit to get financial.
Education and Workforce Development skills to the community thus building an environment for generational wealth accumulation Wall Street jors has proven to be a vital resource in our city so now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor the great city of Durham North Carolina do hereby Proclaim November 26th 2024 as Wall Street Junior Day endure them and urge all residents to observe this day by gaining financial literacy witness my hand in the corporate sale the city of Durham North Carolina this 18th day of November.
2024 congratulations to you and the work that you doing it is so vital and often times you know we we because we don't know about things we tend to try and recreate it there's great work already being done in our community and we should invest our time energy and resources in that work so that we can booler it financial literacy is one of the most important things we can do for our youth to sustain our community it's one of the most important things so you're doing all the right things keep it up I hope that this community hears what happened tonight and that will invest more resources into what you're doing and make sure you speak with Dereck afterward about our final literacy series that we're doing out of the mayor's office please share some remarks well thank you I would like to also say Durham is dope y'all okay but I think that it's important for us to understand that this is an intergenerational Journey for us to create Community wealth building it's.
More than just teaching financial literacy but it's also to also create positive economic behaviors for our communities future generations and for everyone who is here today so please continue to see and support Wall Street Juniors and we're eager to learn more about you all and how we can support the city of Durham thank you oh yes our Instagram is Wall Street junors all spelled out and you can also go to Wall Street all spelled out j.org thank you.
All right thank you all for those colleagues salel acknowledge each of us for short announcements great good evening everyone and thank you all so much for being here everyone watching online I'm going to be so brief I just want to recognize that today W drinking water was restored to the city of Asheville so there is a lift on the bull advisory which is incredible but I also want to just recognize that it's been almost two months of not having any potable water in our largest city in Western North Carolina and just to remember that outside of Asheville that many many other communities were really hard hit by Helen and so that work continues out there folks are still taking donations again I think we've harped on this quite a bit up here but your money goes a really long way they're looking at a drop of like something like 80% of their tourism in that region which is a huge part of I mean I think it's their.
Number one part of their economy so just keep that in mind as we're moving through we got so we were so fortunate not to have the severity of flooding that they had in the western part of the state and also in other states nearby but great for them that they now have potable water and also just I'm floored with the idea of thinking about having to have a bull advisory for two months the second thing I wanted to say is that I a week and a half ago had the opportunity to go to nccu's Student Chapter of their ICM which is the international City County management association and I mean I'm always so impressed with our Eagles and have had wonderful interactions oh yeah got some Eagle fans in the back okay let's go and I just was so impressed with all the students we met there because I feel like every single person I talked to was like oh yeah I'm getting a dual degree and like law and and something else and.
I was just like I could barely make it through law school and I'm so impressed with people that are getting multiple degrees but everyone was super engaged I Tau so many interesting conversations and I was really really grateful that we were able to get hosted at nccu and my colleague council member cabero and Deputy city manager Bo Ferguson were also present and and got to meet those students with me so really really fun thing to do and so I just wanted to say thanks and I'll hand it back thank you thank you council member cook if you don't mind repeating who you were impressed with what organization I want to make sure mayor approach him heard that yes the the university that would be nccu thank you I heard man council member.
Baker great Council mover thank you mayor Williams good evening everyone good to see everyone I just wanted to share a few announcements yesterday was the world day of remembrance for traffic Road victims and so bike Durham along with our city transportation staff from our city transportation department and folks from our Mo Metropolitan planning organization came together the hold a vigil and that is something that we do every year and this year the the one highlight I will say that was positive obviously the vigil was for folks who have died by traffic whether pedestrian vehicular or bicycle is that we were able to walk Miami Boulevard and check out the the part that has protected bike Lanes with ballards now and that was a that it was a positive moment to see the right the direction that we're going the correct direction we're going in the city of Durham and how we are delivering more and more bike pedestrian projects for residents secondly and so I want Tok all the transportation.
Staff who helped make that event happen secondly I want to thank the mayor and his staff and everyone involved in The Kuman sister city ceremony council member Baker myself and the mayor were there it was just an incredible opportunity a huge delegation from kunan China and I will say that Durham definitely put its best foot forward and it was an honor to be there and then finally I want to shout out our participatory budgeting staff and steering committee they had an all day Retreat on Saturday beautiful day and here were volunteers spending their Saturday working together to start thinking about participatory budgeting fourth round which is a a good Mark of progress and so I also want to thank PB staff and all those residents who spent their day together working for the betterment of our city thank you thank you council member Freeman thank you first I just like to make sure I take a point of personal privilege and wish our colleague council member Baker a very happy birthday and.
Hope that will spur on some short comments as we go through this meeting so that he can get out of here I did want to just take a moment to say I want to thank I want to encourage I want to encourage it anyway I I did want to say that I I did miss quite a bit this weekend but I did hear a lot and I and I'm trying to get back to a few folks and I did want to just State publicly there are still some issues over at JFK towers that need to be addressed and it's really concerning with the population of folks who live there not having access to elevators is really we got to figure out something and then I also wanted to say I know there were a few instances of gun violence and I want to say my heart goes out to folks in the community and I'll leave it at that I I did want to say that I I was able to participate in the National.
League of City's 100y Year celebration and I did want to make sure I read a little little bit so as they celebrated their 100 years in Tampa this past week knowing the history of our country you know The Good the Bad and the Ugly I I really feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to hear these great presentations here all of the different panels and the information sharing for instance on like how you turn 311 into a 24-hour service with AI and then even the chance to hear performance by the Temptations but I was really like struck because if I don't say it you won't know I received a a plaque for serving on the race equity and Leadership Council and this past year I think it was a great opportunity to share that more than I mean there were about 12 different cities for the last four to five years who have participated in programs that have essentially used the race Equity lens to apply for grant funding from the.
Federal government and they've been able to acquire more than half a billion dollars and I I did I did want to just say that I really appreciate the opportunity to serve on the council and I appreciate the plaque that I was presented just in appreciation of the time that I spent on the council this past. Year I did however want to say that it it really was striking you know in this post-election atmosphere how very collaborative folks were ready to be just acknowledging that As Cities towns and villages we work on the ground closest to the people and none of that should matter but in a real way I I want to be very clear it does matter and we want to be kind and careful as we move forward on either side of whatever you believe or don't believe or and I do I do think it's worth noting that we've we've got a lot of work to do but I do believe we can do it and so I I did.
Leave that conference feeling very optimistic and excited about what's next so thank you thank you Council M Bist thank you Mr Mayor good evening good evening mayor Pam city manager colleagues residents here and online it's a good day to be in Durham so a couple things so last week I accepted an invitation from the pedmont wildlife Council if folks know pedmont Wildlife Council one of our foremost environmental education citizen science groups they're based in Lea Farm Park which is also an amazing City Park Park not as well known it's 82 Acres there at the intersection of 40 and 54 so I just want to thank Nick and the staff for the invitation and encourage everyone to check them out I think Council recover here also went to visit pedmont Wildlife Center doing great work they've got camps and programs so check them out and again thanks for the good work that they're doing secondly I do W to I do want to Echo the comments from council member Freeman about the uptick and violence.
Gunshot violence in the last couple weeks it's been very scary very tragic on our city and I really appreciate the work that the chief and her Department are doing to address that with courage and with with great intelligence using all the means they have so we appreciate that I also want to underscore the comments from council member cabero there have also been in addition to that I think it's now 32 murders this year in Durham there've also been 25 fatal crashes on our roads and that includes a couple weeks ago our 10th pedestrian killed in Holloway Street we are a vision zero City we' pledged to have zero V zero deaths on our roads either from by car or cars or pedestrians or bikers we can't get there soon enough and so I pledge to work with my colleagues citizens and the staff so that we are so that we don't have this kind of violence in our streets whether by guns or by Vehicles it's a priority for me and I.
Know the rest of the council the last thing I'll say is I've been thinking as a lot of people have about the elections a couple weeks ago and processing that and I just want to lift up an article that was in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristoff very good writer that was shared with me by a colleague from our church Doug Butler Mr Kristoff has 15 sort of strategies for responding to the election things we all can do and one of them number 11 on that list is that I will push this is his his pledge I will push for blue places to govern themselves better and I think there's you know there's some things we will we'll have challenges here in the next four years with the new Administration but the truth is that there's things we can do better in our city and so I'll pledge to work again with my colleagues the manager the mayor mayor pm and others and the city staff to make sure that we are operating as.
Best we can in Durham and that means with intelligence with creativity with guts and also with speed to make Durham a place that city government works as best as it possibly can for our citizens so I pledge to work with you on that hold us accountable for that and we can do even better in this in the Bull City so thank you all thank you mayor pro thank you Mr Mayor and thanks to my colleagues for some really excellent announcements I want to thank council member cook for comments about Western North Carolina I to was in in Tampa this past week at the National League of cities 100th celebration in my role with the North Carolina League of municipalities i i convened a a reception for North Carolina leaders that were attending that convention and the line share of our discussion was about our friends and Neighbors in Western North Carolina and to council member Cook's point that if it hasn't hit your email inbox already colleagues and others around of the State one of.
The calls that we're sending out is to Surge dollars tourism dollars this time a year in particular Western the western part of our state is renowned for foliage it it we always rank in the top 10 places to see the leaves a changed color in our country so so I want to fully associate myself with council member Cook's remarks and and and thank her and ex congratulations to council member Freeman on her plaque for her service at the National League of cities convention Mr Mayor I I also want to thank you while you were here taking care of China for a while before you could join us something else happen one of the the most important responsibilities of this job is is to be a fiduciary for this city to to be the final Arbiter of City business one of the coolest aspects of this job however is to be a brand ambassador for Durham and the presumption is all of us up here have drunk the Kool-Aid we we are into Durham.
Big time and we will we will defend her at all cause Mr Mayor I want to thank you and others on this day as and others in our city for defending our city and coming to our City's defense and what I think was in the face of in my time in public service perhaps one of the most egregious and intellectually lazy journalistic framings of a news story egregious and intellectually lazy journalistic framings of a news story I was absolutely so many other Durham residents I was absolutely taken aback by the notion of spillover crime into other areas of course the language of spillover implies containment this is the United States of America you don't need papers to travel from City to city or state to state so I was very very deeply offended and taken aback by the notion that the address of a perpetrator somehow should be front and center in a news story the language to me was almost akin to the way we talk about immigrants in the connection to Crime.
Which should we do in Duram build a wall should we should we check papers I was deeply deeply offended and I thank you Mr Mayor for the way you defended the city and put the conversation into proper context any one individual who does something does not represent Durham I mean what's next are we going to do stories about the connection between I don't know white people in predatory lending or mass shootings I mean it did it it was a irresponsible framing I think an apology should be forthcoming even if it doesn't I think it should and I just want the resident of Durham to know and the resident of this region to know that what spills over from Durham is the economic Powerhouse of this region and we see you we we see you here when you want to see Hamilton or Lion King it's Durham you come to when you want to get as close to Major League Baseball as you can in our region it's Durham when you.
Just want some flavor and and some culture it's Durham that you come to so so we see you we understand the list that we make we've had a long and fruitful and substantive relationship with all of our media Outlets over the years sometimes we elected officials get it wrong and we make missteps and we own it in Durham we don't shun we don't shun away from our problems in Durham we're the first ones to talk about issues we have as a city it's Durham that Imports responses that exports our responses to root cause issues it's Durham that exports our responses to affordable housing through taxing ourselves through our heart team Durham is the city that folk look to both in this state and region for Solutions and answers so I I I just wanted to be clear that you know one bad story does not ruin a relationship between the city and the media outlet but let us learn from our mistakes and let us recognize that that the economic power of this region.
Is Durham the dopeness of this region is Durham and that in the country like like ours like the United States things don't spill over people are free to go where they want to go and travel as they want to travel and a handful of cases does not represent an entire city do better thank you Mr Mayor thank you I and thank you for that acknowledgement I have calmed down since then I do not lose my cool so if that happens you know it's bad but I I was able to to catch the tail end of the National League of cities in Tampa Florida with my colleagues here and just celebrating the advocacy that you know we all share for our cities again I I want to highlight something that I believe council member Freeman stated you know when we're at these conferences we are amongst peers and colleagues that are all focused on just getting things done for their Community you we we really don't get caught up in the National politics of it.
Although it is present you know but it's just important that we we remain focused in these times and really focus on what we can do here locally and that is as the appointments are being announced for the new Administration coming up you know I'm looking at and I'm not getting political Madam attorney I see her looking over here but as the new appointments are being announced and once they confirmed one thing I'll do as mayor is you know find the best way to work with the next Administration but most importantly I think that we are well positioned in North Carolina to really booler our state level relationships and also do as best we can here on the local level which means we have to focus on understanding the limitations of government the local government but also as we've always done really push the envelope and try our best to be as Innovative as possible while being as efficient as possible so I look forward to you know evolving into those next.
Steps thank you council member cook for bringing up Western North Carolina got a note from the mayor out there in Asheville that they were they were back online and I'm grateful for our staff who were ready to send all of those resources from piping to just security to rescue excuse me rescue teams thank you for your support to Western North Carolina thank you to the hurricanes for recognizing one of my good friends Zeb he's the mayor of Canton and and just you know just the resilience that they have going on out there is just it's amazing which makes me proud to be a north.
Colian there was there was as mayor Pro tem was speaking of there there was last week well actually before go to that all I too want to acknowledge that we did have an amazing amazing signing ceremony with the mayor of quen Shong chy mayor Leanne chin and it was I I'm just I'm just speechless with with my staff they they with our staff they really rode out the red carpet we were in deac we held the reception we walked down the red carpet in the red hallway we had the ceremony on stage it was a large delegation from Quang and we had our delegation thank you council members Baker and cabier for joining me on stage thank you director of communications director Thompson for M seeing the program and but Derek and and camela with our arts department folks it was just speechless it was an amazing experience and I told him my favorite part was after the ceremony was over the curtains raised and the chairs were white and it was like a.
Black light so all the chairs were beaming and everything else was dark and I was just really impressed with how we displayed the Bull City I mean it's the little things I the chairs are white I it was it was cool you have to see the curtains rise up but be having that dinner on stage at DPAC was just amazing and the delegation was really impressed and I look forward to some of us taking a trip over to Quin Shong as well I did have a meeting tonight with the arusa of Tanzania delegation and they happen to see what happened and now they they they want they want to have a ceremony too so I'm really excited I hope that you go to the city of Durham flicker page Josh our photographer is just absolutely amazing this guy is like so cool he his skill his skills are just Barone and I just take a look at the flicker page and check out those pictures from the event or you can.
Follow my Instagram mayor of Bull City and check them out there and I'm not going to promote my other social media account because I'm working on getting a new one but lastly as mayor Pro tem was speaking of there was a news story last week and the news story headlin was Durham creeping into W County neighborhoods and I was really intrigued by this teaser so I watched it I don't watch much TV but I watched it in the six o'clock hour it was amazing because 85% of the stories that hour was crime in another city that wasn't Durham and then the investigator special was about Durham and what they were basically saying was there were three incidents where the people who committed the crimes were they possessed a Duram a dress and I had two questions did you look at crime that happens in Durham from people elsewhere and he answer was no and the other was did you ask the question about why the crime is happening where it is and the answer was.
No and that to me I felt was implicit bias and I needed to address that and my exact words during that press conference would I say again will you talk about Durham when you talk about the Bull City you put some respect on it do not disrespect our community that way we would not be defined by our challenges and we would we would not be defined by Bad actors we may tussle a bit here over policy but that's what we do in the Bull City because we want to make sure that we get the best outcome but you would not disrespect this community and as your mayor I will always speak up and protect this community from those types of ill Wills so that's something you can rest assured on and with that being said we're going to get to the people business Mr Mayor before you I'm and I just want to just put a little pinpoint on it because I do think it gets lost.
Often that a an arrest does not mean a conviction and I want to be clear like to criminalize someone based on an arrest is also just offputting and so I just wanted to add that that. Was I now recognize the manager for any priority items good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor Pro tem and members of the DH city council the city manager's office has no priority items this evening thank you thank you madam attorney good evening mayor Williams mayor ptin Middleton and members of the City Council the city attorney's office has no priority items tonight either thank you Madam Clerk good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor proam and City Council Members the city clerk's office doesn't have any priority items tonight thank you so much I'll Now read.
The consent agenda item number one Durham open space Trails commission appointment number two Durham city county appearance commission appointments number three human relations commission appointments number four participatory budgeting steering committee appointment number five fiscal year 2025 2026 budget development schedule number six contract modification with language Services Solutions Service Solutions LLC for Spanish interpretation and translation services number seven Durham station Transit Center improvements project authorization to negotiate and execute a guaranteed maximum price GMP Amendment to the construction manager at risk contract for Construction Services number eight proposed acquisition of property for the godam access maintenance facility number nine design build Services contract with col colum planners Incorporated for the Beachwood Cemetery column baring project number 10 American Rescue plan act arpa bridging business opportunity and Equity project number 11 janitorial service contract for the Durham Armory number 12 2024 community policing development micr grant grant project ordinance number 13 Street and utility acceptances number 14 stream vegetation management contract with ripple Eco Solutions LLC number 15 Municipal separate storm sewer system inspections number 16 contract amendment.
Number three for s-221 d06 municipal separate storm sewer system inspections number 17 contract amendment number one for SD 20231 drainage structure access and stabilization number 18 contract with Park Mobile LLC for pay by phone mobile payment services number 19 Fellowship placement agreement between the city of Durham and fuse cores for treatment plant Energy Efficiency I won't pull it but I was able to run into the fuse Fellowship folks not only in Boston before but also in Tampa and just always great to see them and work with them really appreciate them work with the city number 20 Award of Construction contract to Carolina Civil Works Incorporated for brown Water Treatment Plant the watering polymer system modifications number 2021 Consolidated annexation Constitution dve right right away 22 zoning map change evil living durum number 23 Consolidated annexation doc Nichol towns number 24 Consolidated annexation Tri Creek number 25 zoning map change caring house expansion all right so sure.
I'll entertain a motion now to approve the consent agenda move second all right Madam Clerk will you please open to vote please close the. Vote motion passes unanimously thank you so much we will now move to our first presentation cons annexation Constitution Drive right away we now receive the staff report awesome thank you mayor Williams mayor PR Middleton and honorable council members good evening I'm Andy Lester it's good to be with you tonight before I begin staff would like to State for the record that all planning department hearing items have been advertised a notice in accordance with state and local law and affidavits of all notices are on file in the planning department a request for voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change has been received from Kenneth Haywood a Howard Stallings Law Firm for 0.9 tun Acres of Constitution Drive RightWay located between 3130 andc 751 Highway where Constitution Drive intersects at Coach K Highway this annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits the.
Annexation of the ride of way would allow the applicant to petition the city to take over the ride of way segment as part of this annexation petition the applicant is not seeking a change to in the underlining zoning District the applicant proposes to change the designation from residential Suburban 20 County jurisdiction to residential Suburban city Suburban 20 City jurisdiction a direct transational zoning is one in which the ex existing County zoning is translated to The Identical City Zoning District upon the annexation of the property into the city limits a translational zoning does not include a development plan and any future development May proceed according to what the zoning would allow thank you staff and the applicant are here for any questions thank you you've heard the staff report there any questions for staff thank you Mr leer I just have one question in the documents so clearly this is in this case as you said the annexation of the RightWay would allow the applicant to petition the city to take over the RightWay correct correct.
But then later it says in my notes here sorry that this this is not automatically trigger the city assuming maintenance so can you just explain that process sure yeah I think Robert Jer will discuss that for you Robert Joiner public works department so the annexation process and the City Maintenance process are actually two separate items that have to happen in order for a project to actually have City Maintenance of roads they have to be inside the city limits so the first part part of that process in this case is to Annex that right of way with the road systems and under the when it's accepted for City Maintenance if you'll actually look at your agenda today on number item 13 Street and utility accept those are the items that are actually being accepted into the record for maintenance by all parties in the city of durh right now I get that there's two different processes but I mean is the assumption that we will take over maintenance is that the.
That's that's that is the intent behind this yeah okay thank. You all right at this point I'll now declare the public hearing.
Open is there an applic oh how you doing this evening good good good good you'll present your case here how much time do you think you need less than three minutes all right let's put five minutes on the clock welcome so Mr Mayor U mayor Pro tem members of the City Council my name is Kenneth Haywood with the Howard stoling law firm and Raleigh we very much appreciate that this is on your agenda tonight I want to also thank Robert Joiner and the entire team with the planning staff and and also utilities department this is at its core exactly what you've heard there's approximately 700 ft of Constitution Drive that are not on the city limits at this time as it intersects with the coach k as named Highway and we're just simply petitioning the city to take over this 700 ft it is you're taking over a road that's been in existence since the late 70s early 80s and so there's no development associated with this and so that's.
The request we're here to certainly answer any questions but I'm here on behalf of Southland Associates who has M who has owned this road since it was originally constructed back in the 70s in connection with two developments that were north of the site that are in the city but for reasons that no one's been able to determine over all the decades these 700 ft just simply never came into the city even though it's it is contiguous to the city's jurisdiction in that area I'm certainly here to answer any questions plan commission heard this voted unanimously to be able to recommend this to the city coun to the city council thank you I don't have any speakers signed up so at this point I will bring it back I declare the public hearing closed back before the council colleagues are there any questions I'm sorry go ahead council member cook yes so big careful thank you did you want did you want okay just so I understand so the the the request is to.
Annex the the road the right of way currently is supposed to be maintained by ndot the maintenance of this road is actually under private maintenance it was a part of the development 50 years ago that were constructed during that time and as it was never annexed into the city it was never allowed to be taken over for City Maintenance and pretty much almost all the residents that use it are Associated with developments that are inside the city limits okay okay yeah I was just curious because so we would we would take over just the right of way and then City residents would be on the hook for paying using their property taxes to to maintain a road that property owners along that actual stretch of road would be in the county and aren't paying city property taxes seems like is that correct the majority of folks along that road are actually inside the city limits they are inside the city limits okay this is just a small section approximately 700 linear.
Feet that is the connection point between those two sections of City limits got it okay appreciate it thank you all right well there are no other questions it's pretty straightforward entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing Constitution Drive right away into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with Scott Southland Associates Incorporated so moved been mov proberbly second at matter CL you please open the vote you please close the. Vote motion passes 70 all right and I now entertain a motion the second motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the residential Suburban 20 County jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential suburb 20 City jurisdiction so moved second moov and property seconded Madam Clerk please open to vote please close motion passes unanimously thank you and lastly I'll entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by the north Carina General statute section 160d d605 move to adopt consistency second.
Move in properly second mam court please open the vote please close the vote V out motion passes 70 thank you so much all right we'll now receive the staff report for item number 22 zoning map change Vivo living Durham awesome thank you a request for a zoning map change has been received from tar share of urbanist Group Inc for one parcel of land totaling 2.36 acres and located at 4515 NC Highway 55 the current zoning is office institutional the applicant proposed to change this designation to plan development residential 53390 the applicant is proposing to reone the property to allow up to 126 multif family units the property is currently designated Transit opportunity area on the place type map the proposed PDR 53390 zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type thank you staff and the applicant are here for any questions thank you you've heard the staff report are there any questions for staff council member cook hi good evening I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit more.
About the transit opportunity area designation and specifically like how those areas were identified and then kind of what the comprehensive plan goals are for those areas yeah just a little background summary for us Dr Young went that for. You good evening so Transit opportunity areas are intended to be pedestrian friendly mixed juuse areas where folks are able to meet most of their daily needs in within the transit opportunity area ideally so they are areas that are scattered throughout the community in locations where there is either already good Transit access or we knew that the there was plans for improving expanding Transit access in some way just for my clarification I thought the definition that you gave at the beginning sounded like a mixed use residential neighborhood what is the distinction there Transit opportunity areas are mixed use areas so not just mixed resident mixed mixed residentials different types of residential together but this is mixed use of residential non-residential.
Everything and then the second part of this was about Transit already being located nearby and is there any specific type of Transit what are we looking at there so typically we were looking at the transit infrastructure we already have in place which is predominantly bus transit we did recognize that there were some areas that may eventually get some form of rail Commuter or other Transit but predominantly bus transit okay thank. You question for either Mr lesser or Miss Young so my question was there were some comments from BAC about requesting an easement to access the the Page Road to South Point multi-use path can you tell me where that would where that would go or is planned to go I assume it's nearby this parcel but I couldn't quite tell exactly where that is is.
Yeah Bill judge Transportation I am not certain what that page the South Point multi use path is referring to I think it's probably trying to refer to the triangle bike way maybe perhaps but it's it's a little unclear that terminology and where would that where would that a triangle bike way would run basically parallel to I40 so yeah triangle bike okay yeah okay thank you any other technical questions for staff all right at this time I will declare the public hearing open and welcome to clim the applicant.
Welcome guys how much time do you think you need probably less than 7 minutes but if you don't mind putting 7 minutes on to make sure that we we've got a short presentation we would like to share it with you Mr Mayor all right let's put 10 minutes on the clock please welcome thank you just is the presentation is that something you can put on meanwhile while who's doing this good evening mayor mayor PM council members and staff my name is Tark Shire I am with urbanest group and with me today is Alan all good he's with VI living the property owners thank you control level right y then you pause it for a second go ahead never mind we're we're excited here to tell you a little bit about our project with this short presentation this is really an opportunity for us to convert an underutilized extended stay hotel into multif family and we're seeking your support tonight for the approval of this textual Z zone change case we believe this project.
Will help the city meet its objectives in providing attainable housing as well as this is really one of the very first projects to to come in the city within the transit opportunity area that provides affordable housing we're allocating Prof offering 20% of the units which is 25 units for income restricted residents at 60% Ami and this project does meet 17 of the the comprehensive plan priorities meets or even exceeds so with that let me just go through this presentation quickly a little bit about Vivo living its mission is to help solve the housing crisis throughout adaptive reuse we are in 13 different states Vivo is an industry leader in the conversion of hotel to residential adaptive reuse 26 Vivo communities seven of them are in the state of North Carolina were committed to the city of Durham and we have three communities that I'll be talking about briefly after the slide we have about 437 units in this city so we are committed and hopefully we're here to stay for a.
Long time we've got over 3500 apartment units and our typical Target rent is less than 80% Ami the three properties in the city of darham and they're numbered one at the top two which is the subject property three in the middle because that's how they the sequential of them number one is Vivo living Duram this one is on guest room Road it's about 183 units we processed this about a year ago and we're really excited about doing the same there which is the conversion of of multi if of a hotel to multif family the second property which is number two at the bottom subject property this is the one we're here tonight to talk to you about it's 126 units on North Carolina Highway and number three is 1920 Ivy Creek it's 128 unit and we'll be coming before you in a couple of weeks to present it as well seeking your support some of images of some of the properties Vivo is involved with throughout the US and the vivo's approach which is.
Different and that is conversion of hotels to Apartments multif family but really creating a tainable housing and reducing carbon footprint because we don't build from ground up we take an existing U facility and we restore it without having to add to it or demolish or add to to any carbon footprint we are involved with the communities that we work in we are we we stay we get involved with the neighborhoods we we do cleaning days we do health events little highlights on the property itself so it's 126 units there'll be a Lobby Clubhouse a fitness center laundry facilities onside high-speed internet pets are welcome bike racks so it will be a high quality multif family U we also have in this is a just a an image of a typical unit we have from a different Community but we also have the fitness center and the unique thing about the Vivo model is because the kitchens are in place we don't need need to do any major construction so that helps us in in.
Maintaining the the carbon footprint again we do bring the units up to Vivo living standards they are professionally managed with an on-site manager at the same time we do background checks and credit checks on all residents making sure that everybody's qualified to to live there some of the key commitments that are important to mention is that we are allocating 20% of the housing units 25 of them about 100 of the 126 that will be allocated to 60% Ami they are deed restricted for 30 years and then we're making a one-time contribution of $10,000 to the daram dedicated fund housing fund as well as a $110,000 onetime contribution to the Public Schools this is in addition to to the affordable housing that we're providing on site typical resident of who lives at these Vivo communities it's pretty much everybody really occupation wise they're anywhere from Educators to construction folks public safety personnel teachers everybody really and as far as age groups while we really don't see children from in in in in school.
Elementary or High School everybody's welcome but we typically see mostly folks over the age of 18 and all the way up to 70 years old Plus in fact this is these are images of some of our current tenants a in Greenville a 52y old Budget Car Rental truck driver we've got a a young fellow and we have a 70-year-old retired person who lives there and they enjoy living in Vivo community because it offers them the opportunity to travel as well we do have travel nurses who like to have a location and be able to go travel to a different state because of their job so it allows them to do that we went to we we've had a couple of public Outreach opportunities one of them was the neighborhood community meeting which was on March 21st it was very positive we also went to the Planning Commission on September 10th and we had the Planning Commission support 110 as a matter of fact some of the comments I highlighted in yellow CU because it's.
Really very promising and that is it's a good repurposing of the existing building socially conscious environmentally sustainable love the Adaptive reuse well-designed project excellent project great project and fantastic use outstanding project fantastic solution for affordability really this is just to share with you the enthusiasm of of the Planning Commission they saw our vision they like the vision they like the opportunity that we can provide attainable housing so tonight we're here before you requesting your support hopefully we can get it for for to to adopt an ordinance amending the Duram unified development ordinance in zoning Atlas as well as adopt a consistency statement as required by the estate with that thank you very much for giving us the time to speak with you if you have any questions we're going to stick around here and and answer your questions to the best of our ability absolutely we have to stick around thank you for your presentation I don't have any other speakers signed up for this one so with that.
Being said I'll now declare the public hearing closed and back before the council colleagues any questions yes council member cook this might thank you for joining us this might actually be a staff question but I'll ask it and let everyone assess I saw on one of the things that oh sorry I lost my place one of the things that was committed to was a bus pull out and concrete pad or shelter to go Durham specifications is that what I I guess I'm curious like what those specifications are whether or not that bus shelter will have well will it actually be a shelter or will it potentially just be a concrete pad is there going to be coverage we're talking about upgrading our bus stops and so I'm just curious what that looks like Bill thanks yeah so our amenities team will review the site plan at time of site plan and look at and make that determination based on projected ridership existing projected ridership where we are so if it's a stop where.
They anticipate folks would likely just be getting off the bus ver on the bus we don't always install a shelter if most of the boardings are coming off there's actually I believe an existing shelter just to the south at the shopping center as well so so that that's why it the wording is a little open-ended okay thank you those are all my questions thank you any other questions yes sir T it was good to see you I just want to thank you for this project this isn't like I think this is the kind of thing we wanted Durham right you're reusing a vacant hotel right the commitment of 20% affordable is is awesome appreciate the contribution to the for housing fund as well as schools and then as my colleague council member cook said you're you said you've offered if it's if it if go triangle deems necessary that you would build this bus shelter with pad and all so I think this is I think this is great I support this thank you thank.
You thank you so do you guys do office space too do we have it do you do offices as well office space we look at we'll look at anything in the city of Durham we as you said let's let's go yeah I like this guy all right cool I like I like I like this week because you know there may be some offices office space coming up in the future you know this is a really good conversion and good use of space these hotels played a vital role during the housing of McDougal terce residents when they were had to be off site during the mitigation of the CO2 Lage and I remember going to all three of these locations actually every Extended Stay in the area actually but of course you know if the hotel usage is down this is a really good really good option because we the demand is definitely up for housing so this is this is really good a really good use of U of repurposing rather of existing.
Infrastructure it is otherwise we're chasing down rate and and and the the facility starts to deteriorate by itself otherwise there's a much better purpose for it and yeah this is this is what we'll focus on awesome thank you so much all right well. Yes I I really love that I I really want to love this project I just want to say that I live like a Stones throw away from the guest Road location so I see it every day I think that the ReUse is awesome I love the affordable housing commitment all of these things are really great I just need to say because I think it's really important that the application process is extremely burdensome and we're missing out on a lot of people that could live there youall have $150 application fee for one person and if there's an additional person it's another $50 and it's non-refundable and then you have a long list and and I know you stated this that it's you look at the credit history and.
The criminal history background checks but there's quite a lot of things that can potentially disqualify you and if you are a low-income person and you are struggling to find housing and you're putting in applications $200 non-refundable for an application that seems like it has really really high burdens any conviction or guilty plea by an applicant to a misdemeanor involving dishonesty violence or more than one DUI within the past 5 years might disqualify you any unsatisfactory rental history or an eviction May disqualify you I'm not saying they will disqualify you but if you are in a low income situation and you don't know if that's going to disqualify you it's really really hard to put down $200 that's non-refundable so this this does worry me because I work in this sphere I work with tenants who are low income and we can't send anybody to Vivo because we don't know if they'll get accepted and we can't I just I can't have them throwing away 200 $ and so I just want.
To put that out there that that gives me a little bit of pause I think this is a great project I love what yall are doing but that is having some like real world consequences that I don't I think are not intended but are but are very serious for the people that you're sort of catering to so thank you Mr mayor council member if I may just respond thank you very much for bringing that concerned to our attention and then Alan is the head of of operations and he heard you I can tell you we will absolutely look into it and find every possible way to mitigate the downside I can tell you we are working and will be working with the with the daram housing fund so it's it's the it's not a c blanch for us to accept or reject people on on these basis but what you mentioned we will take it to heart we will study it we will come up with with some attainable Solutions and I can tell.
You this something that we will consider very seriously thank you for bringing it to to our attention thank you council member cook for bringing that up I I'm going to support this project because I think it's what we need however I I the standards are worth looking at in this nation at this point you can be president and do stuff you could get into a housing project so that we're in those times now so I think we all have to look at how we approach the criteria of approval and different things but I I understand you know also you want to protect your ability to run the property as well but this is just you know this is where we are so I think that what the council member has stated is very valid that is worth looking into and this could probably be just traditional criteria that you guys have set on going but I I appreciate you willing to look into that because it is absolutely very very important absolutely.
Go ahead thank you I appreciate council member cook and the mayor's comments and I just wanted to offer some suggestions there are organizations I understand the operations directors here so I want to make sure I share housing for New Hope families moving forward and dclt are all Community rooted organizations that do affordable housing work and I think if if you were in need of some direction or support it be a good conversation to have I'd be more than happy to help set that up if you need it absolutely we would appreciate that and and typically what we do just to let you know I mean my involvement were in over a couple of hundred municipalities at any one time and again thank you very much I always say this to the staff of of the city of darham they're really world class they really are working with them has been a pleasure we always work with with housing departments and we take their queue and guidance for who.
To reach out to and how would they work how to work with with some of these organizations so any any names you have for us council member we we would love to reach out to them and and engage in a conversation and likewise council member cook if if you have any suggestions by all means we're here to stay we want to make this a successful one we're going to be coming in front of you again in a couple of weeks and we want to continue to be successful in the city thank you and lastly you mentioned the Durham you're going to work with the Durham housing fund did you mean the Durham Housing Authority or the actual fund it's Durham Housing Authority okay all right so you'll be working is the Durham housing fund okay so you'll accept vouchers or we don't know how how they're going to run it okay so you need to materialize that relationship but you will work with them we've started the relationship based on recommendation.
From staff and we're going through it and I I believe we had to go through this Milestone tonight to be able to have them engage in taking it to the next level okay and if if my office can help expedite that after tonight I'd love to be assistance we would appreciate it and again I want to underline staff has been absolutely professional and phenomenal to work with they've helped us speed up the process as a priority review because it's a it's an affordable housing attainable or has attainable housing so thank you very much Mr Mayor we will take you up on that offer as well thank you Council thank you good evening this is a great project I plan on supporting it but I did have a question on your affordable housing how are you all funding that all privately frankly we're not going out for any litech or any tax credits okay so then I guess that's another conversation that would be good to have with our affordable housing.
Providers what is your model now I don't need to know that now but whenever we have applicants who aren't asking for public dollars it helps those public dollars go to other projects that that may need them so that's another interesting point to this thank you thank you for bringing us an excellent project absolutely thank you all right you getting a of love tonight all right colleagues if there are no more questions I will open my iPad back up so that I can read the motion I'll entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of office an Institutional major transportation Corridor I40 and establishing the same as plann development residential 53. 390 major transportation Corridor I40 moved is red second it's been moved in second it m clerk please open the vote let's close the vote motion passes 70 thank you and secondly lastly I'll entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by nth of Statute 60 section 160 D- 605 move to.
Adopt consistency second it's been moved and properly seconded Madam Clerk please open to vote please close to vote motion passes 70 thank you so much thank you all right next up item number 23 Consolidated annexation doc Nichols towns and we're ready for the staff report awesome thank you a request for utility EXT agreement voluntary annexation an initial zoning map change has been received from still guli for one parcel of land totaling 4.5 acres and located at 1301 doc Nichols Road this annexation petition is for a continuous expansion of the primary corporate limits the current zoning is residential rural the applicant proposes to change this designation to plan development residential 5.55 five with a textual development plan to allow up to 25 residential townhouse units the properties are currently designated mixed use residential neighborhood on the place type map the proposed plan development residential 5555 zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type if the propos zoning is approved there will be no change to the place type map designation of mixed residential neighborhood thank.
You staff the applicant are available for any. Questions thank you come on back up here all right you've heard the staff report colleagues are there any technical questions for staff all right thank you at this time I would declare the public hearing open and how much time do you think you need I don't like seven minutes all right Madam Clerk can you please put 10 minutes on the clock and thank you Mr Lester for your presentation good evening mayor Williams mayor Pro tem Middleton and members of the City Council I'm nil go with the Morning Star Law Group at 700 West Main Street here in Durham and I'm here on behalf of the applicant Mr Steve GLI who's sitting right over there with Tim cyers of City who is the landscape architect for this project this is a small undeveloped 4 and a half acre site surrounded by development across the street you have Nicholls Farm to the north and east is the sweet Brier development to the South there's a.
Single family home on a 5.4 acre a lot and just south of that is a new development that is underway called Nicholls Village I believe so this is basically an infill site based on all the surrounding development the property is designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map but it's only four and a half acres guidance in the comp plan suggests that one housing type is consistent with this designation on a property of this size the existing housing stock in the area is all single family detached homes and more are being built to be fair tow houses also are being built nearby but the vast majority of the housing stock in the area both existing and coming you know combined is single family detached so the choice of town homes for this site adds to the overall housing variety and makes sense in the overall context as far as Community engagement goes this is an older project so only one neighborhood meeting was required about a dozen.
People showed up to that one we did did not have a second neighborhood meeting but we did have some follow-up conversations with certain neighbors specifically Miss night to our South we were able to reach an understanding with her and also the developers of the sweet prior Community to our north and east we were trying to get an easement from them to allow us to access this property from the entrance road that they are building just north of our site so that we wouldn't have to access this property from Doc Nichols unfortunately because of Udo limitations an easement alone would not NE necessarily help in this scenario because the development plan for the sweet prer project did not show an external point of access in this location but I bring this up just to show that the developer here has been thoughtful in in his approach and in fact he will note that we have prohibited Mass grading on the site and limited the total amount of impervious to no more than.
50% the staff report indicates that one additional student is expected to be generated by this development but the developer has proferred $10,000 to dur public schools to support school system and you know we looked at this thing in all manner of ways try to figure out what we could do on affordable housing the reality is that a 25 unit Community one that also requires a turn lane even though it's such a small community we just don't have the scale to offer affordable units on this project so consistent with guidance from I believe the last council meeting the selop has proferred 25,000 to the affordable housing fund which is on the highest side of monetary contributions on a per unit basis so also that's where they that's where they started out I mean they understood what they were up against and looked at what what's been going on in the community and decided let's not mess around with this let's go ahead and and put it right there at the top number in summary this proposal.
Is consistent with the comprehensive plan it's a small infill site on on which not much could be done it maximizes the potential of for sale Housing Opportunity on this site there's no Mass grading we using native plant species limiting impervious it includes the 10-ft shared path you know it's not necessarily a very exciting project but it is a very sensible one in my mind and one which aligns with our City's values we hope to have your support tonight and we're available to answer any questions that you may have thank you very much for your time all right thank you I do have speakers for this one and I will start with our online speakers the yeah that's number 23 the first Speaker I have signed up is Holly Bonin Jones Holly can you hear me Mr Mayor Miss bonx and Jones is not in the queue all right I have Miss Pam Miss Pam William somebody raised their hand I don't know if that means they're that person or not okay okay I.
See yeah Pam Williams is here okay all right and Donnie Nicholls can you hear me Donnie yes can you hear me hi there welcome you have three minutes hi thank you it's doni and Holly is trying to get on she had registered but was never sent the email so if someone could maybe send email we'll get that taken care of right now thank you all right we start now thank you good evening Mr Mayor mayor protm and honorable City Council Members thank you for the chance to make my voice as a resident heard here like I said my name is dony Nichols I've lived in Durham a little over three years I wanted to thank you for the Postcard sent from engaged Durham about the Udo rewrite or else I'd have had no idea about this resoning to high density development however by the time I got it the three meetings had already happened and apparently this whole process began in August so I really would have liked.
To been been able to engage earlier we moved to Sagewood three and a half years ago precisely because it was such a lovely area obviously we would not want to deprive others of the same experience if it were going to continue to be so I have two neighbors who moved here within the past three months who would not have if they had known about these plans not just this parcel but in general for for all of the high density development another neighbor's yard has serious drainage issues she's regraded it four times it still won't drain her next door neighbor has a permanent ditch in his yard because of the same and that will only increase with more development Upstream if if there will be even more blasting in the area than has already been done would you please consider other Alternatives because of the damage to foundations I have a few questions my first question is what is the cumulative impact of traffic on dock doc Nichols Road from existing and planned.
Developments on our street it is hard to believe that there are 11 subdivisions only three of which exist now that are planned on our 1.8 mile TW Lane Road what is the cumulative environmental impact in return for my increase taxes already and in the future with this proposed exponential growth around doc Nichols Road what additional infrastructure and services will Durham offer in return with an over 600% increase in traffic on this road what new lanes and shoulders will be added continuously to Doc Nichols Road that are not provided by the developer so we are opposed to more rezoning on Doc Nichols Road there is insufficient infrastructure to support this growth including police fire schools Hospital there are negative environmental impacts not being addressed and future developments should not come at such significant loss of quality of life for current residents thank you I look forward to Durham operating our city government even better as the mayor Pro tem just exhorted us.
Thank you so much next I have and Madam Clerk let me know when Holly Gets on next I have Wanda. Allen Wanda can you hear. Me yes I can good evening everyone yes this is Wanda Allen and I have spoken many times as we as taxpayers should not be responsible for the damage that has being created by these developments taxpayers have funded from fiscal year 20 to 23 46.7 million to clean up the streams such as Little liit Creek Lick Creek Elvy Creek and Panther Creek the idea of keep obtaining Grant dollars and raising HOA fees to restore the streams and Creeks has got to stop grow Park is an example $1.5 million to a retention Pond stagewood HOA fees are being increased to handle Retention Ponds not working correctly Retention Ponds for Oak growth development excuse me Olive growth development has been dung dug out four times since it was constr constructed last week they were digging it out again and it still is draining in into lit.
Creek a retention pond on Burton Road is flooding neighbors yards retention pond off in Sharon Road flooding a resident home which now she has filed a lawsuit so I have two questions question number one when is the City Council going to realize that there is the problem and require the design and minimum standards that are addressing the storm water erosion to be addressed question number two what does this developer plan tonight to exceed the minimum requirements to ensure the residents that are near this development are not flooded and we as taxpayers will not be responsible for cleaning up the streams and the lakes we're at a point you guys we can't continue this thank you thank you so much and now I'll move to my in-person speakers which I have two Miss Pam Williams followed by Pam Andrews or whatever order you all have I know you all coordinate so thank you okay I've got to take this.
Off okay sorry there was a couple of things up there that I had to close down first. Let me know you're ready okay I'm ready all right you have three minutes okay thank you very much my name is Pam Williams my my address is on file I've lived here in Durham in this area my entire life there's CR the critical concerns that I have are environmental and infrastructure and they're just not mine they're a lot of the community who has forced their concerns to me oops this roadway is still narrow and has no shoulders there are no continuous sidewalks of bicycl accommodations on this road and even though the developers are adding left turn Lanes right turn Lanes there's no consistency to the bike Lanes no consistency to the sidewalk some sidewalks are 5T some sidewalks are 10 ft some have 4T paved shoulders some have no shoulders the 11 developments that are shown here on La Branch Road will generate over 11,000 vehicles per day I I'm not saying they're all.
Going to be right on Doc Nichols that thing keep keep changing I know right on Doc Nicholls but those 11 developments will generate this thing is crazy will generate over 11,000 olive branch has eight developments that will generate 18,000 vehicles per day the capacity for this road do Nichols is only 12,700 and it's very narrow along with the narrow road on Olive Branch which is coming along now actual traffic across the board is significantly understated and given the number of units added and the current roadway design capacity almost every acre on hcan Creek which is right behind these developments in here has been clearcut and gr for the development and the amount of traffic will be staggering the propo this proposal offers only a minimum in terms of open space and tree coverage there is a need for this applicant and others to Comm commit to development practices that exceed basic Udo compliance such as enhanced storm water management mobility and transportation Improvement since I'm running out of time I would to go to.
This there is a over 10 traffic signals proposed in this area of the 10 six should be constructed within the next year this me signals going in within a year tells you there is traffic concerns for undue delays still no cumulative impact analysis has been done where are the proposed infrastructures for my elected officials based on all this capacity that's coming in in our area thank you. Yeah. Okay maybe I don't know why this thing is jumping. Around good evening everyone Pamela Andrews Wake Forest Highway in the past two years the Knight family has been has seen a ton of land clearing blasting and sent pollution in their backyard Creek that no DM Community member should be asked to endure the family living here is intergenerational and the grandmother who lives in the home has recounted stories of when her children and their children grew up playing in the creek Miss Knight is almost 90 years old should be 90 in February currently because of rampant insufficient regulated development in this relatively.
Small area the backyard Creek is too polluted to come into contact with long-term sediment pollution such as what sound Rivers has documented in the lit Creek Watershed can kill an entire aquatic ecosystem from the very building block of a quieted like all the way up concerningly and despite the sensitive nature of this area the developer has not committed to going above and beyond any of the Udo requirements for open space sediment and erosion control or tree tree retention this bare minimum approach to development is shortsighted and will inevitably perpetuate the stat stat quo of water quality pollution every single Housing Development that has been approved in this small subwater shed has been solely residential car dependent sprawl with minimal affordable housing profit and little in the way of contribut contributions to schools Greenways and other community Necessities there are many possibilities for this parcel that would better serve the environment and surrounding communities than this proposal Hurricane Creek a perennial tributary of lit Creek roughly 690 acres of land within the Hurricane Creek.
Subwatershed delineated in red did I not do maybe I went too far there we go delineated in red almost every single forested parcel has been cleared and converted into Housing Development do Nichols towns is 4.5 acre parcel is surrounded on all sides by large scale residential development two large swaps adjacent to the parcel that appear currently forested on this map when yellow triangles will approve or approved for Fowler track development and will be cleared and graded in the next in the near future as well please please please look at the cumulative impact on the schools on the traffic and on the environment there was a fatality today in our area it is terrible and I beg of you I plead with you to please do a cumulative impact study thank you for your time thank you for speaking and thanks for joining us here in person tonight those the those are all of the speaker wait did we hear from Donnie okay dony all right those are all.
The speakers that I have I'm going to now declare the public hearing closed to back before the councel the lady is online trying to speak she is online oh it's Holly that's right Holly I'm going to retract that closure of the public hearing colleagues and just see if we can hear the que Mr Mayor I can't tell where she is in the queue I don't see her at all is that what you mean by not being able to tell right somebody raised their hand I don't know if that's Miss Holly that is her she did not get the email got but sheister is she using Miss Nichols number yeah okay dony can you hear me yes okay are you with Holly or do you have access to her or something I have access to what she texted that she was going to say could I just say that please unfortunately no okay so how can she get on then right yeah okay if if you will just let Miss Holly know if she could.
Just send it via email to the council I mean I can do that but she had registered in time I I understand but I I don't have a way to recognize her on the call so can I just have some additional comments if she could check her spam but I don't have a way of recognizing her on yeah and and yeah and the link the link is on the website on the city website the planning website clerk I'm sorry the clerk's website which you will be able to in hollly you're watching you can go to the clerk's website on the city's website be able to click to speak It'll ask you to register and the link will be sent right to you immediately Mr Mayor to access the link the the speaker needs to go to the government tab under durhamnc.gov and go to the agenda Center the agenda Center houses and archives the agendas at the top of the agenda is the link.
Okay let me know if you see anybody pop po okay.
Okay I'm I'm going to ask if you can hear me holly I want to be respectful what. Is Miss Miss Bon bonx and Jones if you can hear me if you will just submit your comments to the council at council at durhamnc.gov so that we'll all receive it Mr Mayor at city council only I'm sorry city council only at durhamnc.gov okay so so we'll make sure we have it on public record all right at this time I am going to declare the public hearing closed and back before the council colleagues questions council member cook okay Baker cabier Freeman all right okay rist yeah I got a couple questions maybe for the for the applicant or the neighbors so we've so we've heard some concerns about first of all this maybe for staff about Transportation right so we've got in our packet the number of miles that Ro allows doc Nichols right we've got the current vehicle miles traveled is there some is there some some comprehensive number that includes not only what's.
There but also development's plan on that road that can give us a sense of What's the total expected impact on Doc Nichols so yes so we analyze cumulative impacts when a traffic impact analysis is required in this case the size of the project did not trigger the requirement for traffic impact analysis so you were in the packet you were basically seeing the existing traffic volumes which are relatively low less than a th000 vehicles per day out on Doc Nichols but that doesn't that doesn't account for the that future growth so we only have the we only typically do that through a traffic impact analysis where and that's where I think the opposition was indicating the number of traffic signals have been proferred and required by developers through those traffic impact analysis so it so we thank you for that so at either Transportation plane there's no there's no larger sort of spreadsheet or sort analysis of like what's the of the multiple developments that are now underway what that future.
Impact could be because each each has individually right some some expected impact correct I mean the only way to pick up those without a traffic impact analysis is through the the Triangle Regional model when we do those feed in the land use assumptions based on the the zoning and the comprehensive plan assume a density and then assign traffic based on those and and so with the the models run and run and project those future traffic volumes and and who runs that model is that our that's through the no and it's a regional model that's actually developed through itri and ncdot and Campo but it's so it's a shared between Campo dchc M and we could request that right so well I mean yeah so we have the existing model they're currently they're updating it now for the 20 is it 2055 yeah MTP yeah that they're creating now okay thank you okay next question is about is about so there's concerns about about water retention Pond storm water so certainly with the increased.
Storms we're seeing around the country and El in Durham you know concerned about storm water so I know that or I think I understand from this proposal that that you're proposing to to meet the Udo in terms of storm water capacity and I'm wondering if youve considered sort of doing additional capacity to meet sort of beyond the whatever the udio requires so yeah you're right that this proposal is meeting the Udo standard as as it relates to storm water control measures now this is a small site four and a half acres I just want to highlight one thing that we've committed to is limiting the total amount of impervious to 50% on this site so generally speaking you know when you do beyond what the Udo requires what you're generally talking about as a bigger Pond on for and a half acres that's proving pretty difficult to accommodate and still get the appropriate yield as far as unit count on the project so we have not committed to additional storm water.
Standards on that it's also important to note that this particular piece of property 4 and a half acres does not have any riparian features on it does not have any Wetlands on it right so this is not itself an environmentally sensitive piece of property s sensitive piece of 4 and a half acres I acknowledge fully what folks have said about runoff in this area I'm not sure that this project is going to be able to address that in any kind of global scale given its size and also I'm not you know just it its size itself makes it very difficult to do additional storm water retention but we have looked at it thank you and then the last question maybe for for Miss Young so appreciate that the offer the contribution to the affordable housing fund I just want to if Miss Young would remind us I know we talked about this I think at the last meeting what the what the range of contributions is we've been getting for per per.
Unit certainly we have seen everywhere from hundred to $1,000 per unit the higher end of the range tends to be on projects with a smaller unit count on the lower end tends to be on larger projects okay thank you all right there are no other questions may have time go thank you thank you Mr Mayor I want to thank the members of our community who whove raised some concerns and and I want to thank members of the Planning Commission for their comments as well this was split vote in the Planning Commission I always I always start with the nose first in Reading and like in in other cases one of the things I I I try and keep Fidelity with are the merits of the particular case before me a lot of the the objections I've heard tonight once again go to development RIT large as opposed to this particular case and and I although it's tempting to try and correct systemic you know large scale issues on a case-by Case basis I I.
Want to you know try and and and at least comport myself to looking at the the actual merits of this particular case there's development already around this this area this case strikes to me strikes me as being consistent with what is already out there I I do I do I I want to I want to I want to be be sensitive because some of our some of our folk in some of these cases again some of the the complaints or concerns turns about an area were were leveled at you before you went to your closing particularly in the last few years if you've moved here people said the same thing about you adding traffic and we're a growing city so let me say as as a as a and I might catch some Flack for this as a public service to folk who are thinking about moving to Durham if you're moving within our Urban footprint or in our into our city and are moving or purchasing a home with.
The expectation that they area is going to look the same way it looks now in perpetuity you probably should look for somewhere else to live we we are a growing city my neighborhood does not look the same as when I purchased my home as I said I you know I'm a fairly influential person in the city and I have not been able to exempt my neighborhood from CH I've welcom I welcome new neighbors actually so so the notion that it was a bucolic kind of prosaic wholesomeness when you purchased your home in that neighborhood you purchased it in a growing city in an urban environment where more people are moving and we're going to have to make decisions all of us in the city there's no zip code that's exempt or at least there's no zip code that should be exempt or area that should be exempt from bearing the the the benefits and cost of a growing city so I I I give great difference as I said to the the.
Comments of the our me members of our community and and comments of our Planning Commission but the case is is the case against this is being more made against development in general in the area as opposed to this particular case and I think this particular case fits what's already going on out there it it's and not it's at least de facto infill development when you look at what's already going on in that area so I'll be supporting this case thank you Mr Mayor go ahead yeah I have a question on one of the slides and I don't remember which one of your slides there was a because there was a long list it said something about buffering and a neighbor that there had been additional buffering offered and that that had not been followed through on I thought I saw on one of Y slides so I was just curious if that's true or not that one of the neighbors had requested additional app buffering from one of the from the applicant excuse me and.
That that had not been I think it was initially offered but not followed through on yes ma'am that was probably on my slide yes the night's property which is just as south of this property at they were offered or told that they would be given a 30 foot buffer okay between their property and the and this but it's my understanding that that buffer is not going to be provided because one this this is now less than the four acres that's required for Mass grading with mass grading no buffers required and that was also that 30 foot was also given by another developer that was starting this project and and now it got switched from Jared Edens to Tim cyers and everything so I don't know if that makes but she has asked repeatedly for that 30 foot thank you not property thank you so just curious about if the applicant has response to that oh.
Yeah yeah so let me first of all say that neither Mr cyers or myself was involved in the additional previous rezoning application on this I can't speak to it but we were hold that I think that that project was looking at putting a 30ft buffer on this on the southern side that project also was a lot more units so some of the decisions we had to make in trying to figure out how to do this project in a way that we thought was you know sensitive to the area one thing we did was specifically commit to not having any Mass grading and I cannot speak to whether that was a commitment on the previous application or not not but but as was just mentioned with mass grading a 30-ft buffer would be required so I don't know whether that was an additional commitment on the previous project or not we have spoken with that property owner I can get into details but I don't think it's necessary I think what's important to.
Know is that we have worked it out with them okay so they're comfortable now even though May that's my understanding yes okay. I can get into the details it's just there there was a property line there's an existing structure from their property that is over the property line we just gave them the property and moved on that's what we did perfect okay I appreciate that thank you so this is a you know a small project I I understand many of the folks who've come this evening have come for a while in general when we're dealing with this few of units it's hard to get some of the extra things we may want and so I appreciate the the trade-off I'm seeing is okay we're not doing you know 100e storm water which is quite frankly for that that many units is almost overkill for what you're doing but then the the counter is to just do 50% in perious so that is how that is being met or addressed to the best of its ability.
Right there's a commitment for not doing Mass grading again in the context of of pros and cons that is how the developer is trying to meet or respond to concerns and I think that it's hard because folks maybe don't feel like those are concern those are sufficient that they could do better I think in general that ends up being the macro which is what the Udo right is about and that is not the micro which is what's in front of us in in this case I will be supporting this again it is an infill site and and for the folks who you know are concerned about traffic I think that especially if you're a newer resident you know this is we are undoing and trying and I said this two weeks ago to the best of our ability create creting a different pattern of development which is counter to what's happened in the South period for the last you know I was I'm 46 certainly last 50 years probably 60 65 years and that is.
Hard earlier my colleague was talking about kind of what do you look at that macro traffic so we we boed on the mpo and two our previous meeting we did see that modeling around the 2055 MTP the areaa is getting 1.5 million residents between now and 2055 that's what's actually happening 1.5 million residents not all in Durham County but certainly regionally there's one County that's not going to actually see an increase in population and that county is Orange County and I would say that some of their land use practices are now going to come and and all of the fears that we have around displacement and things like that people are getting displaced too because they can't afford their property taxes so there are always pluses and minuses there are always hard Parts about this job and so some of us are looking at that 1.5 million folks added to the area and we're trying to deal with the traffic that we know is coming we understand we need more but you're.
Not going to get buses if you don't have density and you're not going to get commercial if you don't have density and I understand that there's a a a pull and a push there but those are kind of basic premises to some of this we will continue to do better I look forward to our udio rewrite we have made tremendous improvements since I've been on Council it used to be you didn't have to have sidewalk on both sides now you do we used to not have protected bike Lanes now you do we didn't used to have the mass grading regulations that some of the folks who Advocate furiously you know got it moved in a year and for government that's quick that is an improvement maybe it's not enough of an improvement but to say that we're not responding or that we don't take these things seriously or that staff doesn't work on that I'm sorry that's just false so I will be supporting that this project and I I will you know.
Continue to hear at is as is your right because it's a public hearing but those are the and not everyone up here agrees and that's fine too thank you thank you cook yeah I just want to thank my colleagues this a good discussion and thank you to the community that continues to come speak out I just have one thing that I want to add which is that we talk a lot about one project coming in front of us and what our power is up here to do something and obviously we don't have the ability to plan an entire Community but we do I think have the duty to make a decision that's based in context in real life context and so I understand not wanting to Prejudice one single project where other projects have been able to do similarly typed building but I also think that that might be a call to the development Community to look around and see what is going on in those areas and then see what is missing the.
Commissioner Gregory said this project seeks to convert approximately 5 Acres whatever a critical concern is that almost every acre of the Hurricane Creek Watershed where this proposal is located has already been cleared for that development given this context it is disappointing to see a proposal that only offers the minimum in terms of open space and Tre coverage requirements and and goes on to say some other things but I think that that's the piece that really catches me which is that I feel like the excuse is that oh it's just one project coming in front of us but it's not it's one project coming in front of us on the tale of a lot of other projects and we know what those projects have been and we see what's coming down the pipeline and when folks apply for a zoning change that's not a guarantee that's an application and just because you've spent the money and you've done the requisite work it doesn't mean that you then get the zoning change and so I.
Think it's important to remember that these things come in context they don't sit alone even though they come up to us one at a time but I appreciate what my colleague said about the the ways that things have been improving and of course I think that council member Cabo did a great job of talking about the Nuance that is here which is that we do have pros and cons of growth in my ideal world I would see growth coming from the center out towards the urban boundary where we can sort of keep up with the growth and we can have the infrastructure following but what we're instead seeing is I less expensive land let's just just say what it is in that Outer Rim being purchased by developers and being clear-cut because that's a profit maximization and we also see seeing a lot of tow houses and attorney go said this last time at our meeting what's not to love said the developer about town houses and so I understand.
That that's why that's coming in front of us it's not how I would like to see the city moving and I think that it would make our lives a lot easier if it was moving from the dense City Center out towards the resident area and then folks could actually have the amenities and the afford living that they deserve and need but instead we're seeing these projects that are like on the outskirts and then we're coming in and we just like cannot keep up for the infrastructure so I don't think that this is the right project for this space I really would like to see some diversity coming where we're buying up this land and the sort of outskirts and we don't have access to any food amenities all of these different things that I've talked about many many times and what makes living affordable it's not because I don't like this project and it's not because I don't like building and it's not because I don't want density because I want all of those.
Things to me this is not the right spot for this given the context of the area and the environmental concerns that are there thank you all right any other comments all right I I'm I look forward to supporting in this project tonight I think you know I think part of the and I colleagues I really appreciate the Nuance discussion around this because it's of course it's just an example of the overall issue you know I I'm not going to say the only reason that folks are building is because is maximizing The Profit you know but there will be profit cuz that's you know there are folks that are building and then folks that are living someone is going to buy what's available and what's available needs to be built you know and and I I I I also wish that there was a way that we could just bring every developer in the room and say this is how we're going to build I think we can plan for that as much as.
Possible but I think about it in the restaurant space that's almost like saying all restaurant tours get in the room and and we need you all to run your restaurants a certain type of way that would be the ideal world and that's honestly what I want as well I think but in reality every project is unique and and I think our hands are I don't want to say our hands are tied we can press as much as we can you know but also you know we have this this this standard called the Udo and you know if if I I am going to join my colleagues and pushing for and I do a lot of this before I get on this diet by pushing forward the best or the most we can get out of a project but I I won't penalize if someone didn't go above what is required and so I just I I appreciate the Nuance in this topic I appreciate the mo the diverse perspectives around development in.
General and always just reduce it down to just you know if we want more schools we want more traffic or or Transit you know resources then we have to have the people there for it to happen growth is painful and we're experiencing this historic transition right now I I remember when this how I don't know if this highway yeah this highway existed and then it was Highway 98 540 wasn't there yet when I was a kid and we were come to the big city of Durham in Raleigh and we were have to drive 98 and people started moving so 540 was built you know and 540 was built you know residents started moving around 540 and now 540 is being extended and as soon as it extends those roads are going to open up and people are going to start moving there but right now Nell and wendale and zebin is like getting a lot of influx so they have to get the resources there so I always reduce it.
Down to just bare logic and I and I I think that's where that's that's where we are with these projects so I'm going to go ahead and call the yeah I don't like taking the last word from you but I just thought of something I'm not going to speak directly to this project because because I I think you all have everyone has has done a good job speaking to it I would just I would just add that bringing all the the land owners together is a great idea and an important concept and I think there's a really good model 2016 Davidson North Carolina conducted what's called the rural area plan in in northeastern mecklinburg County and they brought all the land owners together one thing that the new Udo is going to do a lot of great things one thing that it doesn't do is is look holistically at a region at a at a at a large area or small area within our community and coordinate between the different properties it looks best.
Practices it applies best practices to individual partials and this is where conducting area planning is is so fruitful is that coordination that you get between different land owners bringing them in the same room and talking to them and what they did in the the Davidson rural area plan was identified proactively here are the areas that are very important to protect and preserve from an environmental standpoint how can we work and it crosses of course Parcels how can we work with the developers so that we can c cluster development and make sure that when we cluster that development that it is using the 3DS of walkability and transor development density not just density but density diversity diversity of uses and design and incorporating affordable housing and and they they adopted the rural area plan Incorporated the rural area plan elements into the comprehensive plan and actually adopted that straight into their Udo which they call the planning ordinance and Davidson so there are very very good models out there and I think there's.
Some some potential unique opportunities that we can pursue here in Durham because I feel like we just kind of bang our heads on the wall you know if you look at this site if you look at the development around it we're looking at some of the most unsustainable kinds of development on the planet which is American style Suburban planning which is completely 100% Auto oriented it's thousands upon thousands of Acres of climate cat ropic development it's one of Durham's most critical environmental crises and it self-inflicted it wasn't imposed upon us we have the power to do better but you know I don't want to I don't want to litigate the past I think that we have opportunities to do better for the future even after tonight no matter how the votes go tonight I think that we can think through and bring our heads together and convene the different stakeholders that are necessary to look at the rest of what's going on in South Southeast Durham and and plan a more.
Sustainable future thanks for that council member Council movier thank you and I'm I'm sorry I know we want to be done and it's and I I try and be succinct with my comments and I give a lot of people Grace on this diath even when they don't deserve it Davidson is one of the most affluent it is a pristine elitist college town and I would love to see the impact I GRE up in meinberg County Renaissance Fest is off popper Road it's in Cabarrus County I would love to see what the decision that that Community made to keep their Community pristine to the community next door and I can tell you that the rest of mein County and Charlotte Mech in general is rampantly overrun and we and Durham have actually made really conscientious decisions to limit our sprawl that's why we passed the urban growth boundary and we did Keep parts of Durham County and it it it's unfair for the folks in eastern Durham County because part of.
The reason you're feeling what you're feeling is because we did protect what was critically important we protected a huge amount of Northern Durham County for Watershed and for pres preservation of farming communities we made those decisions we made those decisions decades ago and that is impacting our land use I would also like to say that part of the reason we're feeling what we're feeling in Durham County is because Chapel Hill and carb another very pristine community that has lost a huge percentage of its black population is because they didn't honor their buffer and they didn't densify on the inside which is one of the reasons that Orange County is actually losing population has lost black population has lost renters has lost workingclass people so we have all of these conversations about displacement and fear and gentrification but we have ample opportunities and examples of how we actually have to be really careful and I do think that we have a lot of L Les to learn in Durham but I don't want.
To lift up elitist college towns as examples of how we should be moving forward thank you all right well we're going to give our close captioners a break after this vote so all right Council M Freeman thank you I I I was gonna I wasn't going to say anything but I I do appreciate the conversation and I understand the complexity of how folks come to the decision I think I just want to share that from my perspective I think I try to keep it in a very I try to keep it in a narrow scope and understanding all of what council member ciero just stated and just understanding that that it's hard to it's hard to just imagine that as a city especially with the seven of us up on this dasis that we know that we can do better and we haven't figured out exactly how and I I really can I mean I can appreciate the context of what you're saying about mecklinburg County and I can really appreciate what the.
Mayor is saying about you know 540 but the key thing to understand is like in this the city is responsible for creating this environmental and traffic impact on a few residents and it feels like and I'm just speaking for myself a real like parallel when we talk about you know civil rights or whether we talk about you know ending slavery there are things that have been on the books that weren't necessarily the things we that should have been on the books but you you consistently try and push to make them right you you consistently try to pour into it as a human being what it should look like for us to live in a community together and so I'm I struggle with that each time these cases come forward I want to be really like blatantly honest I am always disgusted whenever it's a Jared and Tim cyber situation because I don't feel like they respect the city and we just continuously like take it as as they.
Give it and every time that Neil goch comes up it's it's always a you know very tenuous conversation because he knows he has the votes and so it's it's it's just hard to really be honest and like sincere in these these discussions in a way that's actually beneficial to the residents of this community without acknowledging those situations that are on the side of this in a real way and I just want to say that this is this has been the bane of my existence on this Council each time we have these types of of cases come forward because that whole micro macro conversation comes up in a way that's so disrespectful to the residents in the community as if to say that they're not all saying the same thing we know that we're protecting Northern Durham it does not mean you do it at the at the expense of Southern or Southeast Durham we know that we need infrastructure in that area but we consistently push for more development in that area and whether or.
Not you know you set it up you can set up a whole lot of rules and a whole lot of ordinances with unintended consequences and a whole lot of forethought but you can't just you can't just wipe it away as if that's the only way and that's what I see every time every time these cases come forward which is so frustrating just acknowledge that you're you're you're pushing for more development at the expense of certain people and that's okay that's that's your right you can do do as you please you're a member of this Council but to try and make it as if there's no other way to do it is what's so disrespectful that's all thank you thank you I'm going to go ahead and call for this vote I I point of order yes this it is beneath this Council to to personally attack individuals who come before it I I resent the implication that any developer has the votes whatever that means my belief is that every council.
Member up here conducts himself with Integrity and cast votes based upon the facts that are presented if any member of this Council has any knowledge or evidence that members of this Council are already casting votes before the vote is actually taken they should present it and if not they should stop making implications and casting AB aspersions and having the unmitigated arrogance to think that doing it the right way means voting the way I vote thank you Mr Mayor thank you I'm going to go ahead and call for the question here and I'll now entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing Dr Nicholls towns into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with Milan realy LLC moved is red second been moved and properly seconded Madam clerk can you please open the vote please close the vote we're not going to do that I'll now entertain a motion to adopt the adopt ordinance amend Mr Mayor Mr Mayor sorry the motion passes 4 to.
Three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting no thank you I'll now entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential rule false Jordan Watershed overlay District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as plan development residential 5.55 five false Jordan Watershed overlay District B City jurisdiction move is red second and move to properly seconded Madam Clerk please open the vote please close the vote and again the vote is four to three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting now thank you and lastly I'll entertain a motion to adopt the consistency statement as required by North Carina General statute section 160d d605 move to adop consistency second and moved in proberbly second and Madam Clerk please open to vote please close the vote motion passes unanimously thank you I'm going to take a break here for our close captioners but colleagues I need us to take a break too take a break get some water cool down let's get back.
To the folks business thank you be back at.
9:23 recording. Stopped e.
So Tasha $60 million sounds like a lot to build 12 miles of sidewalks can you tell us what all is involved in actually constructing a sidewalk yes these are not simply sidewalk projects but some of them are actually road construction projects there is a lot involved in and what is represented here is the full cost of project delivery there will be design cost consultant cost associated with the acquisition of rideways the relocation of utilities as well as project management oversight and inspection that is in addition to the actual construction cost associated with each project additionally some of these projects require significant lane widening even some CID extensions so these are not simply sidewalk projects but some of them are actually road construction projects when we talk about East stand and long meal Parks we tyly think there are two parks right but it's one project so why is this project and these Parks so important for Durham yeah it was really interesting we've learned a lot in this journey exploring these two parks.
Historically and we've learned that both of these Parks when they first began these were segregated Parks So Long Meadow Park was typically the White Park and East End was typically the black Park obviously those Parks have evolved since then now we're looking at an opportunity as we we we see these Parks how close and proximity they really are and we also know we have a project on the horizon called the AR Kelly Bryant Bridge Trail and this Trail runs in between them so this is an opportunity to invest in these two parks and unite them.
Owning a home provides a sense of financial stability family community and pride but housing prices are now higher than ever making it hard for many Durham residents to afford their first home that's why the city of Durham is offering the down payment assistance program to support eligible individuals with up to $80,000 in 0% interest forgivable loans to purchase a house within the city limits visit this site or call call to find out if you qualify for the.
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All right are we missing oh council member R we're going to go ahead and get started back and we just had the motion passed for that item now we're on item number. 24 get all my cards here I'm glad the camera doesn't pick up my workspace here it's pretty bad Pam Williams Pam Andrew that's what I have online okay all right so as as we are getting into this colleagues I will I'd like to remind us that as we are having our commentary let's make sure we try our best I know we're all passionate about about this work but if we can just remain respectful to one another but also let's not call anyone out by name that does especially the public it it leaves us exposed in a way we don't want to be exposed legally so let's make sure we don't do that all right let's hear the staff report for item number 24 Consolidated annexation Tri Creek thank you a request for a utility extension agreement voluntary annexation an.
Initial zoning map change has been received from Tim cyers of community for three Parcels of land totaling 5.81 acres and located at 65 67 and 6023 leeville Road this annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits the current zoning is residential rural the applicant proposes to change this destination to plan development residential 3.76 eight with a textual development plan to allow up to 20 townhouse units with accessory uses the properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood and the place type map the proposed plan development residential 3768 zoning district is dingly consistent with the designated use shown in place type map if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the place type design designation thank you staff and the applicant are available for any questions thank you you've heard the staff report are there any questions technically for staff all right at this time I'll declare the public hearing open will the applicant please come up good evening how much time do you you think you.
Need five to seven minutes approximately all right let's put seven minutes on the clock thank.
You not the right.
One there we go thank you I won't do your presentation for you good evening mayor Williams members of the council Tim sers with City 16 consultant Place thank you to all the staff Andrew for your presentation and all the staff for their work on this project in front of you this evening is a project very much like the previous one that was just discussed this is a small infill project titled Tha Creek the image in front of you and in the upcoming slides will show this is truly an infill development that follows recent design of the area the development to the north shown here with the town home Parcels is currently under construction while this proposed project contains two single family homes on three Parcels owned by my client y properties this project contains a total of 5.81 Acres located in the Suburban tier and does require annexation this evening the proposal to rezone this parcel to 3768 with a maximum of 20 town home units is consistent with the place type.
Map the main main difference between this proposal and the one that was just heard is this development will have an access point through the development to the north there will not be a vehicular access point onto leeville Road directly from this development this slide illustrates that our proposed Place type map is consistent as staff stated earlier this slide shows the consistency provided within our proposed zone of PDR 3.76 eight with the surrounding dense density zones of PDR 3.75 to the north and Carolina Arbors to the south at 3.700 the text only development plan can be hard to imagine how projects will be developed so I created this slide to show a conceptual plan of what this development could potentially look like these are not graphic commitments but simply provided to help paint a picture for you this evening Town Homes could be located in this Western portion of the development to minimize the impact of the stream the access will be from the designed Street stub to the northwest corner and a 10-ft wide concrete.
Multi-use path will be constructed along the RightWay this path will be used to connect to the existing development that is under construction today my final slide this evening highlights the key text commitments of this development they include a maximum of 20 town home units RightWay dedication from the previously mentioned multi-use path a sidewalk connection from the town homes to that multi-use path environmental commitments like minimizing impervious areas of 50% and committing to native tree planting species Road and infrastructure improvements along leeville Road Carpenter Pond and Olive Branch Road as well as a 5000 $5,000 donation to Durham public schools and a $20,000 donation to the city of Durham dedicated housing fund thank you for your time this evening and I'm available for any questions thank you I have two speakers here in person just make sure this is item 24 Pam Williams I I'll give you all the great stuff speaking in whatever order you prefer Pam Williams Pam Andrews the pams just.
Go okay. And thank you Tim for closing that. Down Tri Creek Town Homes Leadville Road as you can see this is Tri Creek this is Everton 330 Town Homes leeville Sage 344 Town Homes T Teter ham 66 Courtyard 84 just up here north of Fel Farms is fer track 261 Town Homes right here is towns of leeville another 120 Town Homes this area has Town Homes as what I want and these are all I proposed you can see the grading that has taken place so far that is being built that's 824 shown on this page Town Homes not including the ferel Farms 13 1 or The F Track a comprehensive review and assessment of all additional traffic and infrastructure impacts include school police fire station given all the development in the area hasn't been done this is relative relatively small project but cumulative impacts of all the smaller projects such as this one cannot be overstated this project does not include policies outlin the comprehensive plan like Universal Design Green Building tree coverage more.
Than U Udo this also as you can see there's no Park well there's no Parks planned in this area there's no grocery stores there's no place to walk to here put the sidewalks out there but there's no place to go one of my big concerns on this is I'm concerned about only providing that 10ft RightWay dedication Fel farms Del we tenan and the towns of Le all provide that 25 foot dedicated rideway I'm not sure why it's stated only a 10- foot dedicated right away and I don't know if some of these other developments such as Everton or leisel assembly looking at what's on the road it almost looks like they provideed less than a 25 based on the construction out there now so I'm opposed to another Town Hall no other high density I don't have anywhere to walk to now and until the the state or the city decides to do some infrastructure improvements I will not have anything to any place to walk to in.
The next 30 40 years I don't think I'll be here then but anyway my kids but I live on this area right here so I am very familiar with this area thank you and now mind I was trying to get your side.
Pain. Okay good evening Pamela Andrew wake first Highway again still living there Tri Creek development will further impact surrounding waterways our Creeks our tributaries storm water flows into Falls Lake sediment pollution in our Creeks every day blasting and environmental impacts given ongoing large developments in this immediate area never changing this is a relatively small project but cumulative impacts of all the smaller projects such as the one is passed just a short distance away cannot be overstated the planning Commissioners made very important comments on this parcel commissioner Gregory States while the infield project is relatively modest compared to larger scale development in the area and epicenter of recent growth the applicants efforts to address environmental concerns are appreciated but limited the more pressing issue lies in the minimal commitment to affordability the proposed contributions of 5,000 to ding public schools 20,000 to the Durham housing fund are inadequate given the significant need for affordable housing and the already strained school capacity in this region commissioner Johnson States and while I.
Recognize the 20K and the 5K profits respectively for the Durham dedicated housing Fund in schools why not designate units at Ami levels for 30 years and more money to schools given long-term impacts finally I suggest a comprehensive review assessment of all additional tracks traffic and infrastructure impacts including schools and might I add police firemen EMS given all the development in this area recently completed or underway recognizing this as a relative small project but aggregate impacts that's from commissioner Johnson commissioner woke said clear cutting and excess impervious surfaces are contributing to excessive erosion and this is jeopardizing water quality and surrounding waterways she adds following policies in the comprehensive plan like Universal Design principles using green building techniques and offering tree coverage in excess of the Udo would make this project more appealing these are my photos I took them today we measured at my house which is about a mile from this site right here 1.75 Ines fell last Thursday with a small amount of rainfall This Is What flows into lit Creek and.
Falls Lake every time it rains folks the settlement control measures are not adequately working please take the suggestions of the planning commissions Southeast Durham needs help immediately there's not going to be anything left by the time the Udo is Rewritten we go to these meetings we participate in everything you tell us to participate in we are an A+ student for y'all we do everything but it's going to be too late by 202 when this is written it's all gone please please please look at this thank you so much thank you those are all of the speakers that I have so therefore at this time I'm going to declare the public hearing closed and back before the council yes Madam council member cook thank you I think my questions are staff actually I have two one is I see on here that there was a building but then it did not become or it did not meet the qualifications of it didn't didn't have architectural significance and so it didn't get it didn't get historic registration.
And I'm curious about that and then my next question is going to be about calculating school capacity if y'all just take your heads up.
So good evening sorry I had to rush back in here and catch up the when something is ineligible whether it be National register in this case or local designation because of lack of architectural Integrity usually means that the structure has either degraded or been altered so that it no longer looks like what it did originally and that is why it is. Ineligible yeah and my next question is just this these are single family homes they're attached but normally when we see this number we see a little bit higher on the estimation of impact for students and I'm wondering how we got to one yes it's really low sure Aaron Kan excuse me Aaron Kane with the planning department so we had some recent conversations with dur public schools and they have come up with a new model we received that model from them towards the end of September and have been integrating that into our reports it's a much better model it's a much more accurate model but you are going to.
Going forward lower estimates of student generation rates based on the improved model from D Public. Schools I was curious I just want oh sorry I just want say thanks to DPS I know there been an issue trying to get that model having them share I appreciate we need to extend our congrat our thanks to them for sharing that model thank you absolutely yeah yeah we're thrilled to have it as well it's it's going to be much more accurate is much more based on actual student generation numbers by region under their new under their new model by re it's done by region so there are five regions and so we have student generation rates by region and by housing type and we're able again they are reflective of actual Durham numbers rather than kind of more Regional models or models that incorporate other jurisdictions interesting I so there okay it's done by region I just think that's interesting because this region is changing drastically like it will it looks it already looks very.
Different than it did a couple years ago and in 5 10 years it's going to look totally different M and so I'm yeah I think that's interesting because it seems like if there's going to be a ton of town houses that probably families are going to move in there at some point it's it's quite possible and DPS will be updating its model Reg I don't know if that's going to be an annual update or not but I know they plan on updating the model regularly tow houses in the new model have a significantly lower student generation rate than we were previously modeling interesting okay thank you council member Baker aier Freeman R Pro all right thank you I have no comments at this time I I will entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing Char Creek into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to to enter into a utility extension agreement with Marsh and partners LLC moved is red second it's been moved and properly.
Seconded Madam Clerk please open the vote please close the vote and and now sorry the motion passes four to three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting no and I'll entertain a motion now to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential rule false Jordan Watershed overlay District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as plan development residential 3.76 false Jordan Watershed overlay District to be City jurisdiction move to Dre second move proper moved them properly seconded Madam Clerk please open to vote please close and again the motion passes 4 to three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting now thank you and lastly I'll entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carina General statute section 160d d605 so move we moving to property second Madam Clark please open to.
Vote please close motion passes unanimously thank you all right and we have one last item here item number 25 zoning map change caring house expansion we now hear the staff report thank you a request to amend an existing graphic development plan has been received from Sasha zarur of caring house for one 3.97 acre portion of a parcel located at 2625 Picket Road the current zoning is plann development residential 0.00 the applicant proposes to keep this zoning designation but amend the existing development plan for the 3.97 acre portion of the site The Proposal would not change the zoning or the allowed use of the site but would modify the existing development plan commitments to allow for the expansion of existing building to accommodate additional multif family units modifications to The Graphic development plan include removing the impervious surface limitation of 31,800 Ft the open space minimum requirement of 85700 ft and amending the rear setback requirement from 25 to 10 ft along with the front setback from 25 to 8 ft while these committed standards.
Would be removed or adjusted all UniFi development ordinance and City storm water code requirements would still apply at the site plan stage this would include environmental regulations such as any applicable impervious service limitations the properties are currently designated Department of townhouse neighborhood on the place type map the proposed plan development residential 0.00 zoning is generally consistent with that designated Place type thank you staff and the applicant are available for any questions thank you you've heard the staff report are there any technical questions for staff all right I'll now declare this public hearing.
Open how much time do you think you need seven minutes could you put seven could you put seven minutes on there and thank you Mr Lester for your presentation good evening mayor Williams mayor Pro Middleton members of the city council my name is Neil G I'm an attorney at the Morning Star Law Group at 7 West Main Street in Durham and I'm representing caring house on this project I believe Mr Craig Ward Miss Sasha Zar with caring house they might be online I want to start by telling you a little bit about caring house they've been in this community a long time caring house has been operating at this location since about 1992 they provide comfortable supportive and affordable housing to Duke Cancer Institute adult outpatients and their caregivers so their current facility has 18 private rooms and they now are looking to expand the existing facility they have plans to add 24 more rooms they actually submitted a site plan to the city for the expansion but the initial review determined that the.
Property need to be rezoned to accommodate the expansion so just to be clear the use is not changing but the property they operate on is subject to a development plan which has some very specific Square footages square footage limitations built into the zoning it also has other features that do not reflect what already has been built or what they're planning on building and some it also doesn't reflect some of the city's plans so this request is an amendment to the existing development plan that basically is meant to clean up aspects of the development plan the use as I said Remains the Same but this is an old development plan I think it's in your package it doesn't look like a development plan that we're used to seeing the graphic components of the plan were not and will not be considered committed elements but some of the textual components are considered committed elements so we're removing or amending those the other thing I want to touch on is the property itself the project is.
Proposed on about four acres of a parcel which is 22.35 Acres overall and which exists on three sides of an intersection it is perhaps the strangest single tax parcel that I've ever come across but this property is split Zone and our application impacts only the section of the parcel which currently is zoned PDR 0.0000 the zoning on the rest of the property is not changing in any way at all we are requesting to remove all the set Square footages the way they are written on the development plan currently they're not written as maximums they're not written as minimums they are written as absolutes it's my understanding that the total amount of impervious which exists today exceeds the amount Allowed by the D plan in all the listed categories additionally we're getting rid of the 15t rideway dedication shown along Picket Road That rideway Never Was dedicated to the city and in you know recent conversations about this application the city has Express that they don't have any plans to expand Picket Road so.
Basically the city does not want additional rideway on Picket Road here so we're removing that from the development plan the development plan also uses some ter uses the term setback and sets a dimension for it on the front and back of the property we've updated that term appropriate to Street yard and rear yard and adjusted to that the dimensions to reflect today's U Udo so those are the technical components of this project but you know this is an important project caring house has been a positive institution providing Community for people in need in Durham for decades I already mentioned that they face one setback when they learn after submitting their site plan that the property need to be rezoned I think you all are familiar with how long the resoning process is in Durham so that's a pretty big set back so my hope is that you know they can deliver this project as quickly as possible so that they can carry out their mission for more people thanks for your time happy to answer.
Any questions you might have thank you thank you Mr go no extra points because you dressed like me today you look great no extra points I TR I promise you all right colleagues 30 in comments couple questions so just to so on that so it sounds like what you're saying is that 100% of privious would be allowable but only on this portion that we're sort of talking about not the there's still a 15% minimum open space on the whole so emage right I think the staff report does mention that this property is not in a watershed overlay so actually all of the property is like the entire tax parcel is subject is does not have impervious limitations I believe that's correct now this portion of the property has specific square footage limitations for impervious for parking for the building Etc it's it's listed that way on the development plan if you were to do a development plan today you wouldn't write it that way and as I said these.
Are not listed as minimums or maximums it says the building is going to be X number of square feet the parking is going to be X number of square feet and I just put the way I would describe it is that's just not true that's not what's on the ground today that's not what was built so now that they're trying to expand it we have to adjust those numbers and so what basically all we're doing is saying we're getting rid of the those specified limits and then the Udo Udo default therefore for this property is 100% okay gotta and there are there is a sidewalk along the on picket on on the I think that's correct there is a sidewalk along picket if I remember correctly on on on the front yeah yeah thank you right any other yeah council member cook I was just wondering if staff could speak to the the right of way part of that sure it just never got dedicated and that like how did that happen and why.
Don't yeah I don't know the the history behind this parcel I suspect yeah as part of the previous site plan it was probably required to be dedicated and either did not get dedicated and yeah so it'll be required to be cleaned up as part of this application and the city does not have interest in a dedication at this point how how come the I'm sorry can you repeat that's what I understood attorney go to say was that yeah the city indicated that they don't want the additional RightWay because they don't have plans to expand so they asked us to remove that from the development plan okay so that it wouldn't be a condition of the zoning they don't want the right away okay yeah so I mean I my guess is that I wasn't familiar with the history of the previous zoning there was probably a the comprehensive Transportation plan or thare plan at the time probably had a additional widening of Picket Road beyond what is now currently planned so.
It was probably it would have been on there with that so but yeah so but yeah so that that's why the development plan had the widening or the dedication but it was not ever recorded so but it's no longer part of the current adopted plan okay thank you any other questions all right well I'll now call a question and entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of a planned development residential 0.00 and establishing the same as planed development residential 0.00 I just want to make very clearly that I've been a volunteer at this this location I just want to make sure that that doesn't hinder me from voting on this m I'm just I'm just joking okay I think I think you're all good it's been moved and properly second every was second already yeah it's been moved and properly second it Madam Clerk can you please open the.
Vote please close the vote motion passes unanimously thank you and I will also entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute section 160d d605 move to adop consistency second second it's been mve the properly seconded by everyone Madam Clerk please up the vote please close the vote motion passes 70 all right thank you all so much please join us on November 23rd I believe for the Christmas tree lighting yep I think at 2: p.m. it's 2 to six for days events but look at the calendars thank you all so much for a good meeting we are now.
Adjourned.
E for.