City Council · Regular Meeting · November 4, 2024

Out with a moment of silence please.

Thank you I'll now pass it over to council member Freeman to do our Pledge of Allegiance thank you it's our practice to stand to salute the flag and say the Pledge if you'd like to join. Us flag United States of America stand.

All right Madam click please call to rooll thank you Mr Mayor mayor Williams I'm here may protm Middleton I'm here council member Baker here counc member cabayo here council member cook here counc member Freeman present council member rist here thank you.

Have a few just a couple ceremonial.

Items good evening and my thanks to his honor for this opportunity to read this proclamation to my honorable colleagues to everyone in chamber tonight and watching on whatever platform you may be watching good evening and thank you for being with us I have the high honor of presenting Proclamation for family homelessness Awareness Week this is particularly special to me because receiving it will be at Shanetta Burris of families moving forward from years ago I served on the board of directors of an organization called Interfaith Hospitality Network which merged with Genesis House to become families moving forward it is a source of great pride for the not for-profit that I serve if you go to their facility one of their rooms is furnished by the organization I lead here in the city this is a organization very near and dear to my heart and I am honored Mr Mayor to be able to read this Proclamation I'm going to ask Atasha to come up why all y'all come up you wor.

The shirts why don't all y'all come on you ain't wear them shirts to just sit there come on up.

Somebody reminded me of my Auctioneer days FR in you folks come on up so see Proclamation for more than 8 years families moving forward has provided families with children a stable safe and loving environment while they are in the temporary crisis of homelessness the purpose of this Proclamation is to educate the public about the many reasons people are homeless including access to affordable housing and stable employment and wages and to encourage support for service providers and Community organizations and whereas there are many organizations committed to Sheltering and providing services to our homeless including Open Table Ministry urban ministries of Durham housing for New Hope families moving forward FMF is the only organization that solely focuses on family homelessness and is the largest housing and services provider for homeless families in Durham serving up to 65 to 75 families annually through their emergency shelter program while ALS Al working with families to reach increased self self-sufficiency and stability and whereas homelessness is a devastating and disruptive experience for families affecting their health and.

Well-being interfering with children's education and development and frequently resulting in a separation of family members and whereas we as a community private and public entities are responsible for policies and systems that can end homelessness which include jobs that pay livable wages access to Affordable and quality Child Care adequate transportation and affordable decent housing only concerted efforts to meet all these needs will end the tragedy of homelessness for families and children now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby Proclaim October 7th through 11th 2024 as family homelessness awareness week end Durham and encourage all to support to ensure we break the cycle of poverty in our community witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this the seventh day of October 2024 Leonardo Williams mayor and by Fiat we're going to extend that week so congratulations to you have any words for us thank you mayor Williams thank you mayor proin Middleton the entire you can.

Adjust that mic down to you just just say I'm short thank you I had higher shoes on today thank you mayor Williams mayor unknown context the entire city council the city staff thank you for joining families moving forward in our fight to find safe and affordable housing for children and families in our community our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness imagine my surprise getting to work today receiving an email stating that we currently have 50 unsheltered families with children this is the highest number in a while we have 30 more in the next 14 days at risk of losing housing so when we took a moment of silence that's what I was silent about we are in a fight but thank you for this Proclamation as it stands to remind families moving forward myself and most importantly the families we're not in this fight alone there are unique approaches that we're now taking thanks to your leadership to address this problem this is not just a problem for the families that are in our shelter right.

Now we have 19 tomorrow we'll be back at 20 we have consistently stayed at our capacity since the start of the year and last year this is not where parents want to raise their children but I must say we are uniquely positioned to serve these families and serve them and will we are doing amazing work and I thank the city of Durham for helping us continue the work that we're doing so we have a proclamation that stands to serve as a response to this entire Community to helping our children move into safe and stable homes so that they too can Thrive and our community that they call home thank you again to the city of Durham and I thank the families for trusting all of us with their lives and the lives of their children thank you so much.

Yeah all right I'm getting along Madam Madam Clerk she's looking at me like why is it so much silence we had a proclamation read on October 21st and sometimes we have so many of the Proclamation requests and I try to honor all of them but do sometimes my in my office we do sort of edit it if it's a really long Proclamation or if we're trying to move the agenda along however on October 21st we did edit one of those where we we took out a lot of names and one thing I don't want to do is damper or reduce or discount the work that people are doing and in that Proclamation it was the mayor's Hispanic and Latino committee Proclamation and what I wanted to do was since we only had one Proclamation tonight I wanted to I may not read the entire Proclamation but I wanted to name those individuals who are just putting their hard ear just their their their hard on time they are taking their.

Time and putting it in to making their Community a better place so if you are listening out there I want to put on the public record your name in honor of national Hispanic Heritage Month I'd like to thank and appreciate and honor the following Mor Morales Mal malalis okay let me get my you know what just to make sure I have the appropriate Annunciation the good thing about being mayor is you get to proxy yourself so I'm going to have council member C ciero to do the appropriate Annunciation thank you mise M Emerson Community leader and former chair of derms Mayor Hispanic Latino committee Mario gome equal employment opportunity public accommodations investigator city of Durham neighborhood Improvement services department and former chair of Durham's Durham's mayor Hispanic Latino committee sta Gomez joins executive director Center for Global owner at Durham Technical College Shayla Aras Community leader from M Maria Pia Community engagement specialist city of Durham neighborhood Improvement Services thank you thank you so much can we give those folks a.

Hand so now all of the individuals that I read as well as the mayor's Hispanic Latino committee you all now have to go and do the editing of the October 21st meeting with the November 1st Mee fourth meeting and then you have to add it in there some type of way but use AI to to make it seamless in our apologize about that I will now yeah to read it now we're going to pass it over to my Council colleagues for announcements council member.

Cook I can't turn it I don't know oh okay there we go right great and just real quick colleagues I know you see I know you're looking at your agenda like we're missing something I prefer not to if they're not here to receive it got it okay okay hi everyone thank you for coming tonight and those of you at home thank you for watching I'm going to be really quick tonight so I had the the real pleasure of doing a tour with our water management whole system on Wednesday last Wednesday and I learned so much it was I think council member rist has already been on it and and maybe a couple of my colleagues had already been on this tour it was incredible I got walked through this the dam systems where our water comes from I get to go see how our water is treated to make it pable I get to see all of the lift stations so how we transport our water across miles and miles and miles.

Underground in the city of a not obviously constantly declining area so how we lift water up over Hills and send it along and how we process our sewage and other Wastewater the system is incredible we already know that but it's really something to see the pure amount of water that is just moving through all of these systems and and something that I talked with a couple of the folks about and and that really stuck with me is that there are quite a bit of open positions and a lot of them are available for folks right out of high school and also out of folks out of Community College or other types of or any type of real like science-based or math-based training so they're looking for folks who have enjoyed the hard Sciences in even in high school and then they're able to train Folks up to be working in these facilities with lots of vertical growth opportunities and really good solid City pay so I just thought that was such an.

Incredible option I know that they do a lot of recruiting at high schools and and I think that they work with some of the colleges in the area as well but if you have folks in your life that you're thinking about who are looking for I know the job market is tough right now who are looking for places where they can get trained up and learn a really really cool have a really really cool path career path I think that that's a great option so I was blown away by that it was really really great and so big thank you to everybody who who made that possible for me and then the other thing I'm going to say is that I think we're all going to say it it's sitting heavy tonight because it is election Eve and I've been up here droning on about early voting so I hope everyone listened to me and voted early and if you haven't you do have to go to your appropriate polling place tomorrow on.

Election Day so please double check your registration make sure you know where you're going mine actually has changed and I know that that has happened throughout the city so please if you have planned to vote on Election Day pick a time to go make sure you check your polling place and we would you know know again remind you that we have two wonderful Bonds on your ballot and hopefully those pass and we get to see some really really cool stuff happening in the city in the Parks and R department and also with some sidewalks and streets that's all thank you thank you Mr ceremony Baker did everything my colleague said I something tells me that if if you're here in this room tonight or if you're watching on YouTube or or whatever platform you choose this this meeting you probably don't need to be told to vote you're one of the top tier most civically engaged people in our city thank you for that and you've probably already voted but.

You might you might like to do it the old school way and and vote at at your PRN tomorrow so appreciate that remember to bring your family members and colleagues and members of your church and your friends and everyone else that that you possibly can to the to the polls I also just want to say thank you so much to the folks from family moving forward for being here I have and I have the fortune of sitting next to an attorney who who fights on behalf of of tenants and and I think many of my colleagues up here we I have the privilege of sitting sitting among people who who really value tenants and tenants rights and and those who who have the misfortune of finding themselves on the streets bouncing from couch to couch or or wherever they may be I also have had close family and friends who've who've faced that reality and I really appreciated the your words and and the proclamation you said it's a fight.

It's a fight and and it is it's a fight it's a fight at the polls but it's a fight far beyond far beyond the polls and on top of that it's it's a tragedy as as was stated in the proclamation it's also a policy failure it's a policy failure and it's an injustice because we know that the federal government the state government with the resources that they have could end homelessness and so we we need to always push for that we need to chip away and do everything that we can at the local level working together with the schools and the county and and but the best we will always be able to do is is to improve the lives of people who are who are Misfortune what what we really need is is policy change dramatic policy change at at the state and federal level and and so we we will all continue to to fight for that so let's do it let's let's go to the polls.

Tomorrow and going to be a big day and hope hope for some some success there and a step in the right direction thank you thank you councilman mavo thank you good evening everyone yes tomorrow is election day I will be working the poll here in Durham and then later on in Wake County my actually my whole family will be working the polls tomorrow so if you are at Club Boulevard you might see my boys and they cannot vote yet so this is their their their moment to do their part we have two Bonds on the ballot people have heard me say vote Yes for those since about July I just really want to say thank you to staff who have shown up to so many Community presentations providing really really important information about oh I think mine just went out too okay I'm back I we have some election interference going on because we're talking about it but never nevertheless we will persist so I just want to thank all of the.

Staff who have been really great presentation partners and then I also want to shout out the Lions Club they hosted some of us earlier tonight for their annual pancake dinner and we I council member W and I attempted to flip some pancakes I don't know how successful we were but we did our we did our due diligence on that thank you hi council member Freeman good evening everyone and I want to thank the council for my excuse absence and share that I though I was not on Council business out of town I do think there's a lot of things to share from where I was was and things that were going on so I'll be sure to share updates with you all I also just want to give a huge shout out to the H hly was the Pony people for indigenous heritage month and all the other tribes and folks who were in the Indigenous community and then I I wanted to also say election day is tomorrow but the.

Work will be the same regardless and so I just do want to just be very intentional about saying that we the people people still have to be the people of this country and so just remember who you are and where we are and continue to be us as a us I did want to just lift up also housing I'm sorry families moving forward and just acknowledge that over the years over so many years of watching Miss Melvin develop her craft over there I am excited to see that she is the executive director and I'm excited to hear what's next I know that many of our homeless Services folks have a passion for what they do and can get bogged down in the day-to- day but I'm glad you're here today to share and to be very intentional about explaining just how limited the resources are around children and families who are experiencing that Homeless situation which is horrible I I I would be remiss if I didn't say like uplifting urban ministries and housing.

For New Hope and many of those Partners who really are doing an equitable approach to supporting people in in some of the most dire situations rather than what I'm seeing from a neighboring organization which has been troubling because I'm seeing a lot of new faces in our community that have no ties to Durham and it's disturbing and I do want to just put that on the radar for folks out there in the community that this has to stop I'll wrap up by saying that I want to thank staff I think for our unknown context and Ferguson I cannot say that that I really wish more of the council were present for the town hall meetings because so much information was shared I feel like I feel privileged that I have all this information and so I do want to make sure that I do type up as much as I can and share back some of the feedback that was received there were very small group conversations a lot of questions.

Answered and each of those sessions I think we had a range from four people to 21 people and it would be nice to do a much larger push around making sure that people have the type of information that was shared for each of those departments and I'm going to try my best to make sure that I do share that out bear with me I will say because I there's always a lot going on but outside of that I am excited that the election will be over tomorrow and I look forward to to not receiving all the text messages and reminders I've already voted and the family's already voted and my neighbors have already voted so let's let's get back to work thank you.

Thank you Mr Mayor mayor unknown context city manager colleagues folks here assembled in public in the public and those in line good evening yeah I want to Echo some of the colleagues comments my colleagues already shared please get out and vote if you saw my pumpkin this Halloween it was the vote bothe bonds pumpkin you'll know that I've been supporting the bonds all along and and again as as my colleague unknown context Javiera Caballero said really appreciate all the staff who've been so involved and so present for so many presentations about the bonds I think we have a great shot and I'm really excited about all that means in terms of the investment we'll be making in Durham secondly thanks our family's moving forward for being here tonight I really appreciate you all being here and and congratulations on the Proclamation Miss Melvin it's great to see your leadership of family moving forward my wife and I are longtime donors I'm very proud of that I see Joe daily there who will never.

Forget us good to see you Joe thanks for all your reminders about about being generous so thank you all for being here and congrats again for the the U Proclamation just a couple things so yeah so I did flip some from some p akes with my colleagues over at the lions at the Armory for the Lions pancake breakfast they're doing it tomorrow all day long tomorrow what 8:00 to 5 right so if you're not at 6 6:38 if you haven't had a chance to go today please join the lies at their pancake dinner at the Armory it's always a great occasion a couple other things so last week had the good pleasure of joining the recreation advisory committee on a part annual Parks tour sponsored by DPR Wade and his staff along with the Durham Parks Foundation visitor a bunch of parks in Durham including many of the ones that will benefit from the coming Bond so it was great to see where our parks are where they've come and where they're.

Potentially going with these great Investments and bonds so thanks again to DPR and the Durham Parks foundation for that great Parks tour I guess my final not is while yeah while we were the same day of the parks tour you all probably know there was a school bus that crashed in the backyard of a house right off of Gregson Street which is right in my neighborhood I can say sadly my wife heard the crash so as you all know we have these two one-way pairs in Durham Gregson and Duke and rockboro Mangum that have been in our plan since 2020 the move Durham Transportation plan that called for converting those two-way pairs or those oneway pairs into more traffic calming two-way streets so we are all so lucky that there were no children in that school bus as it crashed as it got Sid swept and crashed into a backyard those oneway pairs are incredibly dangerous roads in fact as we've talked about here in the council greggson Street has.

Has been identified by our local no as the most dangerous Corridor in all of Durham Chapel Hill and carbur so these are dangerous roads we know that there's enforcement of speed limits when the when the police can be there but they can't always be there and when enforcement's not there speeds kick up again so by Design those roads are designed for Speed they're used for Speed and they're dangerous roads and I look forward to working with my colleagues on the council I know we have money this year in the budget to design the conversion of Roxboro and Mangum that's the first shot at converting these oneway streets later on we also have in the budget this year money for the initial planning around the the design I'm sorry planning for Duke and grigson as well so we've made Investments here in the council those are State on roads owned by Dot and so we need to work with our colleagues at the state and so I encourage my colleagues to continue working together.

To encourage dot to allow us to continue the process to move forward so that we eventually as we plan once the design happens this year hopefully with Roxboro and Mangum that we can move then to the construction process with signalization and intersections and so forth It's critical to the safety of Durham we've got our vision unknown context zero goal in Durham and a big part of that is making sure we reduce dramatically all the crashes and incidents that happen on those those dangerous oneway pairs so again I encourage my colleagues to work with me to move as fast as we can working with our partners at dot to convert those roads to much more traffic calming two-way patterns so thank you very much thank yes just before I don't want to lose that point council member rist I have some meetings scheduled with North Carina dot civil engineers just their Engineers about that very thing we are at the point where our staff in the city has done everything.

That they that we possibly can and now it's a matter of just decisions at at dot we ready to move forward it's in the political space now so thank you Mr Mayor and if I might I just want to make sure that we don't forget one of the most dangerous streets in Durham is Maine Miami and Holloway and also not forgetting fville Street those have also been in the queue and on the list for a long time as well thanks unknown context Thank you Mr May and thank you colleagues colleagues thank you so much for further shouting out families moving forward so good to have them here these people are so awesome they'll literally give you a shirt off their back so literally off his back I'm glad he had a shirt on under it I'm going to have to stop you right there where's mine a oh so nobody's my size okay I'm too big c can we work on that can I get a shirt all right thank you please.

Get him a shirt God I also want to add my congratulations to the Durham Lions Durham Lions our chapter here in Durham was founded I think it was 1922 they're celebrating 103 years of service in our city they do incredible work from they're doing hurricane relief now housing and I'm really impressed with the work they do with visually challenged folk just an incredible organization incredible group of people all due respect council member Ren cabier your Flip Game on pancakes ain't got nothing on mine I had height to M I was touching we got the we got the video on this I think so yeah there's video out there so check it so thank you so much to the unknown context tomorrow morning 6:30 to 8 but if you haven't voted you can't go there until you vote but for the rest of you reward yourself if you're going to spend some money to eat please go see the Durham lines at 212 Foster Street at the Durham Armory from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 P.M.

My colleagues have already said vote if you haven't voted yet I just they they've said it perfectly I will say there's a there's a sacred and awesome responsibility that's falling to us you look around the world there are people that still wear crowns they're called Kings and Emperors and you've got Prime Ministers and presidents all around the world but there is only one leader on the planet that gets the moniker leader of the Free World only one person on the planet that gets that monitor and that's the leader of this country so we have a serious responsibility as as American voters and I hope we'll take it seriously and also don't forget don't don't stop at the top one of my colleagues had said it's a good idea may have been you council member Baker or may have been council member cook turn it over and start at the bottom and work your way up so just don't stop with the presidency we've got elections all up and down of.

The ballot that we need to make sure that our voices are Hur in so please and we know Durham is going to lead the state in terms of turnout we always do just like the turn them over and I want to send a special shout out to the students of North Carolina Central University who their turnout at the polling place at the law school we believe is going to be record setting for this year so it already is I so shout out to the Eagles and shout out to those students we are so so proud of you leading the way for all of us and setting the example tonight I want to send congratulations out to our new County Manager I want to join with folk of Goodwill from around the state and congratulating Claudia Hager who's been named as our new County manager and our best wishes and our willingness and Readiness to partner with her as we move our County and City forward so if she's watching tonight she's.

Probably already at work knowing her we we congratulate her on this incredible accomplishment this Ascension in her public life friend tonight colleagues I also do want to say something we we we heard this week that the Bull City United initiative was ended by the county I first off I want to thank this colleague this C past and present who answered the call to spend money to expand that program a program that was a non-p policing alternative response to violence what folk have asked for in our city tonight I want us to be mindful that there are some individuals who were working really hard who don't have jobs tonight there are individuals who did what they were supposed to do and actually posted victories there are some headlines that did not occur in our city precisely because the program worked you're not supposed to hear about the headlines because they did intercept and downplay violence I also want to shout out practitioners around the country who practice The Cure violence.

Model people in our city and our County should know this was not an indictment of the concept of cure violence this is us as Leaders taking a look at an initiative County leaders and not I'm not second guessing them at all because it's a hard job taking a look and and sometimes you need to retool and my hope is that sometime in the future we will take another look at this concept which is does not involve arresting people it does not involve incarceration it involves folk who have been through the fire that have come out changed and who want to give back and that's who we are in Durham right so we're going to have to colleagues and community members watching have a serious conversation about what do we do next in terms of shortterm tactical interventions we all agree that we need root cause initiatives but we know that those take time sometime to take root tonight there will be gunfire in our city tonight some of our children will be.

Jumping in bathtubs when it's not bath time and it's a sacred responsibility on us if not this program if not other programs then what will we do now in the interim in the short term in the immediate sense to deal with the scourge that is on our city and our on our County gun violence so thank you for the service of those who worked on this program to our colleagues at the county you we stand ready to support you and engage in conversation on what comes next these decisions are never easy but but they should not be confused with Concept viability as opposed to us needing to look at our particular iteration of that concept here in Durham so I want to thank them for their service finally tonight Mr Mayor I need to ask my colleagues for an excused absence for this Thursday work session on this Thursday my counterpart at the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners president T T and I will will be convening a meeting in Morganton North Carolina to.

Further discuss our state's efforts on Hurricane Relief Governor Cooper will be there and and Senator Tillis is already confirmed that he'll be there so we're going to talk about and I want to shout out Durham for the personnel and resources we've already sent to the western part of our state to help our fellow citizens so I I need to be in morgington on Thursday to have a meeting about what comes next and what our state's coordinated response further looks like under the umbrella of the of the North Carolina league and Minister palities and I'll ask my colleagues respectfully to excuse me from this Thursday's work session thank you colleagues so much thank you Mr Mar yield all right I'll entertain a motion to accept the U excuse absence for moved all right so moov and probably second Clark please open a vote please close the vote the motion passes unanimously thank you colleagues thank you all right and I'll just goad and close out the announcements you've heard it all you.

Know I'm I'm a happy Dad because my son voted for the first time really excited about that I was you it was just a proud moment for me I'm just sitting there taking all these pictures I haven't posted a single one yet but I'm just taking all the pictures and all of a sudden the judge in the in the voting site came and yelled at me and instead of her saying sir put your phone away she said I don't care if you are the mayor no pictures I mean I didn't say I was the mayor but okay but it was it's been fun it's been fun and I too want to shout out to students at North Carolina Central that voting site Has Broken work records I want to thank the community for going over there and the chancellor and I met up with Dr William Barber and we did a a vote rally with the students and we got up we hyped everybody up and then I got back.

In my drum major days and got upfront with the drum agents and we marched to the polls something told me to step out of line and record it and I'm glad I did because that video has been viewed over 7 million times and nccu students have led now are leading the nation and and encouraging college students to vote and that's just the Bull City way another reason why Derma is so dope also we've had a lot of celebrities come here to the city and I just want to I want to thank the Bull City for embracing them I want to thank all of the celebrities who came at the very last minute you know from Mary J BL to Michael Vic jcole beanie seagull Killer Mike the entire cast of Ghost which is a sequel to the series Power I have not seen an episode but I'm going to go and see it because they're all really short people like everyone was like up to my elbows like what is this I.

Could never be a movie star because I'm Too Tall I guess but I mean it was just amazing I literally thought that nipy hustle was alive but it wasn't it was his brother they are spitting images of one another and he was here as well and they came to Durham and they went and knocked on doors and they went in places that a lot of folks don't choose to go they went to our lowest precincts 12 and 15 they went to all of our many of our DHA properties and they knocked on doors in they canvas to get people out and I think the most powerful thing was when Michael Vic knocked on one of the doors and the young man answer the door what's up and he's like hey you registered he's like oh he said the yes word you Michael Vic he's like yeah bro you reg you registered to vote and they were so excited they got glassy eyes just water in their eyes and they left their.

Apartment and went and voted and that was just a powerful moment to see these two young black men just get engaged because they saw someone that they can relate to that was a that was a powerful moment and then we all left and went to nccu and had a town hall just you know with Angie Mar Angie Martinez and some others I mean they were celebrities but I just have not been watching TV since becom a mayor just don't have the time and I didn't know who have of these people were but it was fun to have them here and I want to thank nccu for opening up and hosting them at the last minute thank our neighborhoods for embracing them I also want to thank the the Durham Lions Club those were some really good pancakes I had two against my better judgment but I'll probably stop by tomorrow just to show my support and Sample the pancakes again I want to thank North Carolina I got a.

Call from the White House today and the it was Tom Perez he's the senior of advisor to President Biden and it was a random call we were we were in a private session with Duke Energy's president and he called he said hey mayor we just want to the president and I were just talking and we want to thank you and your city because you guys are really showed up and showed out with amazing energy to get people out and about and I appreciated that call and they said they've been watching us so that's really really cool and I told him on our behalf please tell the president we said hello and we're just excited to get folks out to vote now I wouldn't dare insult your intelligence to tell you who to vote for but I would question your intelligence if you're not voting so I encourage everyone to make sure that they go out and do your part North Carolina has broken a record over half of the registered.

Voters in this state we have 10 million people in this state over 7 million people registered to vote over half of the registered voters in the state have voted that has never happened before and so I really I'm really excited many of you know I have been front and center trying to get folks out I can't talk about what my capacity has been but I wore a lot of blue when I was out there and I'm just trying to get folks to do their part so I'm really excited about that and I'm also excited for the text messages to stop that everyone is getting I also want to thank my colleagues I know we had a closed session today I'll try not to ever do that again because it's hard getting.

From closed session to open session at a meeting but I want to thank you all for that and we'll talk about that a little later but I do have wait one.

Second all right and I I had a few other things I may talk about a little later but I did want to report out from our Clos session we did our annual performance evaluations of our city employees that are directly hired by the council that is the city clerk the City attorney and the city manager after taking care of those Personnel matters and the evaluations we came out with their adjustments to their salaries and the city clerk salary will be. $16,244.73.

5648 and I know that to the Layman person like yourself you know you may hear those numbers and think what in the world you're getting a lot when you're responsible for the the brevity of the job that they have it makes total sense that you realize really quick actually according to Market they are quite underpaid so thank you all for your service Madam Clerk Madam attorney and Madam manager thank you for keeping us out of orange jumpsuits thank you for keeping us from you know just keeping us in line and and and also keeping us to be a model City in which this nation looks to going from number 14 to now number six best run city in America out of 30,000 that is that's an accl that's an acclamation that a lot of people can't say so thank you all all right so yeah tomorrow's election day I want to thank Wade walcut he sent out an email and I think it was a very timely message to the.

Staff and to us where on Wednesday you know no matter the outcome let's remember that we all have to coexist in this community you know and everybody there are folks that are going to have a desired outcome all of us going to have a desired outcome some of us are going to get or you know majority of the people are going to get what they want and the minority is not that is the messy of democracy but it is also a democracy because we have space and capacity to have respect for one another and we we win some and we lose some and you know tomorrow after tomorrow let us have Grace with one another and continue to just you know build community all politics are local so at the end of the day the seven people myself and the other six up here have a heck of a lot more impact on your life than anyone in Washington Trust Me so let's just make sure we continue to build community and continue to.

Strengthen our fabric here in Durham and there's so much more work to be done so let us continue that all.

Right all right at this time I will pass it over to city manager man page for any priority items good evening thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protim the members of the Durham City Council the city manager's office has no priority items this evening I love it are you going to follow suit I am Mr Mayor good evening it's good to see you good to see you mayor PM members of the council the city attorney's office has no priority items tonight all right Madam Clerk good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor proem and City Council Members it's the trifecta the clerk's office has no items all right all right good deal so now at this time.

I will read the consent agenda and see these are these presentations are they up public he I mean yeah okay so the only one is not it's item number three right okay all right I'll Now read the consent agenda item number one Durham bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission appointment number three sister cities agreement with Quin Shang China which has been pulled number four US Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD Grant project ordinances fiscal year 2024 2025 cdbg fiscal year 2024 2025 home fiscal year 2024 2025 ESG fiscal year 2024 2025 hwa 23 Continuum of care unknown context number five resolution authorizing the Virtual City auction number six Cooperative group purchase contract bucket truck number seven Cooperative group purchase contract automated refuse truck trucks number eight the Department of Justice Office of Justice programs Bureau of Justice assistance 2024 Justice and mental health collaboration program Grant project ordinance number 11 zoning map change Lindley town houses number 12 consolid annexation Sharon Grove number 13 oh this is a short agenda Consolidated.

Annexation winsford at the park actually forgot all right so I entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda with item number three being pulled moved second all right M cler please open to. Vote please close the vote. The consent agenda passes unanimously all right and item number three was.

Pulled hey there Tom hi all right could you just just could you just give us the background yes yeah so just briefly I am Tom Harris president of dur the sister cities of Durham Incorporated for those of you who have are new to the council and may not be as as aware of who we are we are group we're are private nonprofit We help our our mission is to help Foster world peace through personto person diplomacy an idea that was first put out by President Eisenhower in the 1950s and called on and has become the sister cities program here in the United States and all over the world our job is to seek cities around the world who would be good fits with Durham to vet them make sure there's adequate interest both in that City and in Durham among the citizenry to support a sister cities program and then we bring that to you as a city council to adopt the sister city as they do with in their city and then we.

Get the two Mayors together to sign an agreement and so with unknown context that's what's happened and we we vetted them in fact we've they've been a friendship city of durhams for 10 years but that's a lower level and lower activity and they only now want to step it up and become a sister city and and we think that's a great idea and we brought it to your attention and we brought with that a recommended agreement for the mayor to sign once you approve it and that agreement when it was sent to us from China you know was what they wanted but our in our committee we have a new cities committee and we added one sentence which then was sent to yall for your consent agenda and and you apparently that's why you put it on the consent agenda to to adopt but we now have heard back from China that they really don't like that one sentence that we added and it's giving them great PA.

About whether to go forward and so we want we're asking you to remove that sentence and it is the last sentence in section five of the agreement that you looked at at your work session prior to this meeting and U it reads that either of the Cities May at any moment terminate the present agreement by written notification to the other party 60 days in advance we now think that's that's superflous language is not needed because some of you who were on the council then two years ago you actually suspended even considered terminating but suspended our agreement with cost by Russia because of the war that happened you know there Russia is engaged in in Ukraine and that that agreement contains no such language and yet that that was did not stop you from exercising I think your right to say we're not going to go forward with this so long as there's such tension between our Nations and the form of War that we're supporting the course the.

Ukrainian side so that is why we want we think it's okay and we're asking you to remove this sentence it will you will still have We Believe the full right to terminate or suspend if you wish as you did with Costa and we and there many of our other agreements that do not have this phrase in it and you know rest in the same lap so that's that's our case we we don't want to mess this one up there their mayor is already scheduled to fly here in November the middle of the month and sign this agreement in a big ceremony here in this Council room with u mayor Williams so U we would like to keep that on schedule if possible are there any questions yeah go ahead sorry the joke is that I always ask a questions but this is particularly my area of expertise because I do contracts quite often and so I just I just would love Clarity and I don't know possibly if the attorney might.

Want to answer that question but this this does say otherwise that it's going to be valid for 5 years I would assume that you can breach a contract at any time but that often that there will be penalties associated with a contract breach if needed and so I'm just curious about what that looks like in this context right great eye council member so there aren't any penalties identified in this agreement I mean really these are agreements of Goodwill and friendship between municipalities and they don't create a lot of detailed obligations for either of the cities that are participating so having evaluated having evaluated it we don't see really any consequence from a breach if if there should be a need for Durham to say we're out you know something happens as we did previously with the Russian city we don't see that the agreement creates any sort of penalties or remedies for breach.

Yeah thank you Mr Mar thank you colleague for the inquiry you had one job and you started a war with China back your you had one job and you started a war with China it's a joke man okay oh well he looks sorry we I've got to lighten up sorry thank you very much for your I appreciate councelor member Cook's inquiry but and I thank the the U I'm the the board representative for sister cities yeah it's an agreement it's it's not a contract there's nothing we really do this so the Mayors will have something to sign so we can get good pictures and and kind of codify the relationship but but I I'm I'm glad that we have colleagues up here that are you know who's who's antenna or for those kind of things so I have a just the I have no problem with removing the language I think the language is FL Fist and you're you're 100% right we are this this the what the language is trying to.

Capture de facto exist and we've demonst strated that with cman with the I remember the the Russian situation a couple years ago so I I guess my my question Madam attorney can we can we just move to strike this and and still adopt this tonight you can May PRM sure and and I wouldn't say strike it I would just say amending the language to remove the last sentence of section five okay that's what Derrik would just text me about so Madam attorney could you or would you like to I'll offer the motion attorney second all right Madame clerk if there's no other discussion Madam Clerk please open the vote this is this is amending the language to remove that please close to vote motion passes 70 all right thank I'm sorry do we need another motion to actually adopt but I'll offer the motion to adopt the item yes I believe so correct Madam Clerk yep I'll entertain all right second let me wait let me just for the record read the motion for the.

Public I entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to execute the agreement on establishing a sister city relationship with the city of quong China so so mov second it's been moved and properly seconded Madame clerk can you please open the vote for my first official sister city son please close up the motion passes 70 all right thank you committee Tom I look forward to welcoming the mayor of Kang November 14 14th correct November 14th all of the public will be invited we will have a reception a dinner and a just look out for the the f ities that are happening we're going to roll out the red carpet for them they are flying here from Quang and I look forward to returning the favor and I Derek and carisha are looking at me like he's talking too much because we are still confirming things so I'm just going to stop talking but I know that we're going to have a really good time because the North Carolina Asian americ Pacific Islanders chamber has.

Also agreed to work with us on this as well so there's been a lot of work being put together on this and colleagues thank you all for the support look forward to it may maybe I just make one amendment of something I left out this is Mark goodwillie he also signed up to speak but he's not going to U but he is co-chair of our quinine committee and he's putting lots of work together to make this celebration work so I want to thank him and and hope to see you all on the 14th thank you thank you and colleagues I look forward to us taking our trip to a sister city somewhere so save your TR dollars okay all right well let's let's let's make a bet that we're going to get out of here by 8:45 right no all right all right all right I want jinx us all right well Aon our first presentation as we're getting ready to it I did forget to say something very.

Special I wanted to thank the mayor of Chicago Brandon Johnson for spending the weekend here with me we went to several churches we went to I believe four churches just encouraging folks to get out to vote and also hadn't seen four churches in a long time they were folks were excited about voting so mayor Brandon Johnson it was great to have him in town and just it was cool so thank you all right I think we're ready. Now are you okay great thank you mayor Williams mayor Pro Middleton and honorable council members good evening I'm Erin Kane with the planning department I'm happy to be here with you tonight before I begin staff would like to State for the record that all planning department hearing items have been advertised and noticed in accordance with state and local law and affidavits of all notices are on file in the planning department a request for a zoning map change has been received from farasat SED for two Parcels of land totaling 20 12.25 acres and located at.

1343 Ellis Road in 1326 Clinton Road the current zoning is residential rural the applicant proposes to change this designation to plan development residential 8.32 6 the applicant is proposing to rezone the properties to allow up to town 102 tow houses the properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map the proposed PDR 8.32 six zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type the Planning Commission recommended denile by a vote of 10 to3 at its August 13th 2024 meeting thank you staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions all right so you've heard the staff report colleagues counc member cook hi good evening this actually just one very quick question so just I scroll down I'm looking at the zoning map Change Report under the infrastructure impacts and water connection and capacity it says that it will require two water lines to feed and feeds to serve the proposed development of 147 units but the proposal is only 102 so I'm just wondering what the difference is.

There there may have been discussions at one time about doing the 147 and that may have been what they submitted originally at an earlier time but if it can if it can handle 147 then it can handle 102 sure I mean I guess I was just wondering if if then the second one was needed or how we would know right if I mean that's a pretty significant cut it's it's it's almost what oh I can't do it but 50 out of 150 is a pretty significant number and so I'm wondering if that means that the the capacity and water connection and and also the sewer connection and capacity and potentially the other numbers that we have here on emergency facilities and pupils and that sort of thing if all those have were changed with those numbers or so I can definitely speak to the pupils the pupils are based off the 102 147 I can't speak to the to the numbers regarding emergency services or anything like that but I can.

Definitely yeah definitely the pupils are based off the 102 and again an applicant might ask for say when they're doing their submission for their water sewer capacity analysis they may suggest they may submit the highest level highest amount that they might be considering at some point just to make sure that that capacity is shown and then if they're going to do less there's not going to be an issue okay are there other things that would be based off of that number that I'm not not thinking of not that I can not that I'm aware of no thank you those are all my questions thank you colleagues any other questions question Mr K if you can help explain this I know in the in the in the Planning Commission comments there was some reference to like a surface water thing that was visible by satellite but was not referenced in the Planning Commission documents can you shed any light on that I can try so according to state law we have two.

Documents that we can use to determine whether or not there is surface water on the site that would need to be protected would need to be buffered and that is the North Carolina Sol survey map and the most recent United States Geological Services topographical map and if streams are shown on either of those Maps then they need to be shown as buffered either in a development plan if they're doing a graphical development plan or when they get to the site plan stage which is an administrative review there was discussion during the planning commission meeting about streams being on the site and those Maps especially the USGS map does show a stream on the Northern end of the site and then one on the very Southeastern portion of the site and so when we get to excuse me when we get to the site plan stage they would need to show those 50 foot buffers on either direct either side of those streams as well as the 10-ft no build buffer that would need to.

Be shown on there I think there was some discussion about whe whether or not all those streams would be accounted for by the applicant because this is not a graphic development plan it is a textual development plan so that's where some of the discussion was there there's also I believe concern about storm water runoff that is currently happening from the site the applicant would need to address that as part of their site plan to make sure that there's not more water coming off the site than already currently does again this would be be addressed at site plan that would be addressed at site plan correct and and those streams do appear on the USGS there are streams again on the Northern end of the site and I believe there were some members of the public who talked about additional streams we cannot unless there's a stream determination done by a stream determination professional that shows that that street is stream is on the site we cannot regulate it unless it's.

On the soil survey map or on the USGS map okay thank you go ahead so just following up when would that determination be made or when would the determination need to be made that this soil SE stream determination needs to be done so that would be at the at the at the applicant's request and so that to see if something is a stream if it isn't that doesn't happen very often to be honest it's usually these stream determinations are to determine whether whether a stream that is shown on the map is not actually a stream so where's I guess what's this the planning department stance on following up on citizens or residents concern around that we are kind of stuck with state law state law says these are the two sources that you can use unless your local jurisdiction has created its own mapping source and and Durham has not done that and what would it take to create our own mapping source that would be basically doing if I mean I'll def I.

Would need to defer to others that are more aware and more knowledgeable in this field but I believe it would be a sight survey of the entire County thank you that's not a an easy or cheap thing to do would it be helpful if there were some type of environmental Affairs tool or resource that actually identified any something like that like that would that be so there are people who are certified in doing stream determinations and so those can be employed and believe we have some here at the city who who are who are trying to do that as well so why would that not I'm missing something why would that not happen here well that is you we and I I may need to defer on this I don't believe we have the ability to force a property owner to do a stream determination to determine that something is a stream if it's not shown on one of those two sites and here's where I'm I'm concerned is if it's.

Creating runoff to someone else's property then there should be a mechanism to force a property owner to identify where those runoff areas are so there Street storm water runoff Could Happen whether it's in a stream or not that but there's a greater there's a greater speed and velocity that happens when it is becoming a stream that is correct and we already have regulations within the unified development ordinance that require applicants to not have more storm water the the the rate and speed of the storm water already has to be addressed through the site development process to not be more than pre-development levels we already have those requirements in the Udo so where is that documented today like how do you document I couldn't give you the citation in the Udo I I could more like in the case how do you document that in the case that would happen during the site plan process there's no way to determine it prior to approving a.

Case good evening Sarah Young so there's no way to determine it because it is required to happen it is not an optional thing it's not a may or may not that we need to document that it will happen the folks in the storm Water Division will make sure that it happens because that is required as part of the city storm water code that's in city.

Code all right well if there are no other comments I will now declare the public hearing open and we will hear from the.

Applicant thank you Aaron for your presentation and good evening mayor Williams mayor protim Middleton members of the city council I'm Neil go with the Morning Star Law Group how much time do you need yeah 10 minutes should be fine okay I'm representing the applicant for this rezoning tonight some of you might be aware that this is round two for this site a few years ago a rezoning on the same property to RSM was denied our firm was not involved in that project but I thought it would be worth mentioning that in case you were wondering this is the definition of an Nill site it is surrounded by development it is already annexed into the city not only that there already is a city sewer m going through the property but it is 12 and A4 acres in the city that is currently grossly underutilized with just one single family home on it and the guy historically has stored a bunch of stuff there so we are requesting to rezone.

It to PDR to allow for up to 102 Town Homes to be built now I want to say these infill developments are always difficult because they there's existing development around them by definition in this case there are mostly established residential neighborhoods surrounding this property and the growing pains are always hard causing even more friction is the fact that the property has two existing roads which stub to it roads which have existed without being connected to anything for years and this project is going to change that but I want you to know that we did do neighborhood engagement I did have the required neighborhood meeting there was one individual in particular Gabe CIO that reached out to me as an organizer of the community I've kept in contact with Gabe throughout this process we have emailed several times we've had several phone calls and even you know with his requests on behalf of the neighbors I did host a second neighborhood meeting which sadly no one attended but I did still have more conversations with Mr.

Korea so we did neighborhood engagement and I want you to hear that I want you to hear that because I know that still some folks are upset about the number and type of homes being introduced with this project the project is act is actually 30% fewer homes than the project which was denied so this actually is less dense than before we heard concerns about potential for drainage because of the Topography of the site and the water feature that has been mentioned but you know in in hearing that we did go ahead and commit to handling the hundred-year storm we have limited the impervious coverage as well this property actually is not within one of der's watersheds so under the Udo theoretically it could be 100% impervious so we've limited it to no more than 80% impervious but look we recognize that even with those commitments folks are still unhappy they're unhappy about the connections to Carwood and Lynley which you know Lyle is basically a gravel road today and this project would bring it up.

To a city standard I just think these are things that we're not going to be able to resolve but it's not the case that we didn't hear them or we didn't listen to them we just could not meet every demand I think that's fair to say I also need to mention that this project includes a commitment for 5% of the units to meet the city's affordable housing definition that is you know 30 years at 80% Ami we also have a commitment to DPS so this is kind of the story the project this is an infil site it's surrounded by single family homes I understand why folks that have lived there for years would prefer to have 65 single family homes instead of 102 Town Homes I get it but the reality is that town homes are a more attainable option for ownership the project follows guidance in the comprehensive plan which calls for housing variety when we looked at the site based on what surrounds it we felt it should either be town homes or.

Apartments to add to the housing variety its odd shape and limited visibility from Ellis Road kind of ruled Apartments out from from that and so town and also Town Homes fit nicely in the built environment I know that there is some history here and that some of that maybe clouding the conversations that could have been had but this is a good infill project and we hope to have your support tonight and I thank you for your time thank you right thank you and and I am going to progress to our virtual speakers first Madame clerk can we recognize Jessica Dewey and after her that after her I'm going to call Linda shabo and then Steven de but Jessica Dy can you hear can you hear me do we hear own line I can can you hear me yeah could you speak up just a little bit yes absolutely is that better yep welcome you have three minutes okay I don't think I'll take that whole time but hi Durham city.

Council my name is Jess Dewey I live at 1310 Theodore Lane in Durham thank you very much for for hearing us today I am speaking in opposition to this project one context is I have lived in my house for for nearly a year we bought it at the end of November last year so I was outside the time when the community engagement was happening I know that they said they reached out but a lot of my neighbors that I've talked to again have said they they did not get that Community engagement but I want to talk about my big concern which is the Environmental piece of this so we know that this project would require disruptive clear cutting of nearly 12 acres of mature forest and mass grading of an area that is a substantial Hill even though we know these activities are discouraged in the comprehensive plan in policy 84 so the clear cutting and mass grading is going to lead to a major loss of biodiversity but as you kind of.

We're asking questions about in Heering we're really concerned about the runoff the big drainage stream goes right through my backyard and it's already pretty overwhelmed with heavy rains so when we had hurricane Helen come through which is pretty much a hundred-year storm that came through here in Durham and obviously the western parts of the state much worse my yard specifically had water 10 feet up Beyond where that drainage stream is and again we did not get the worst of that story so I'm really concerned about the potential impact of this and the current infrastructure obviously is not prepared to deal with more of those storms that are going to become more common as the climate changes and the plan to just maintain the current rates is really not going to help so ultimately really concerned about the removal of the trees the changes to grading that would be required for this specific size of project I do also want to say the developers don't meet multiple environmental related comprehensive plan policies including.

Number 49 85 and 108 so to me the environmental piece of this project and subsequent impacts on all the residents here is really not being prioritized I want to recognize that Durham is growing and I I I know that I moved here not too long ago I know we have continued need for housing clearly we heard from the families moving forward group but this project project doesn't super prioritize the affordable housing options thank you so much that's your time thanks for joining us this evening Linda.

Shabo yes this is Linda shabo and I live right next door to Jessica at 1308 Theodore Lane with my husband we have been resident for 26 years at this location we appreciate you taking the time to listen to those of us that are opposed to this development I just want to save time I everything that Jessica said I agree with all that so I won't repeat everything she said just know that I am in harmony with her comments and Lis Road has grown so much over the last few years I don't feel the area can withstand any more developments if you look in the area there's a lot of empty housing so the need for more housing in this particular area is not necessary nor viable for the land we need to keep the green space for the Wildlife In order to keep the flow with the the deer and just the the wildlife in general they need to have a place to go go and if we keep tearing.

Down the wooded areas we're not going to have that so I'll conclude with that again opposition to any further development thank you thank you so much next I have Steven devise or Steven. Dev Mr Mayor there's no Steven de in the queue he's he's here in person I. See good evening Town Council my name is Steve re and I'm the property owner of 1346 Ellis Road Jan and I have lived there since 1986 and the property is surrounded by residential rural properties with many residents that have been been here for a long period of time the two exits for that this would be carrywood Drive which are single family rental homes and the other would be Lenley road which runs into Southern Drive and then into Ellis Road it's right in the middle of a curve it's a very dangerous curve the U the other exit what also run into Ellis Road this this road is just especially dangerous during rush hour mostly every person I've talked to in the.

Community do not want this development built it seems to be an all or nothing proposal since it has been up for consideration for many years there has to be a way to satisfy by both the Builder and the surrounding residents to come to an agreement instead of just trying to pass something while they are off guard I think this is the fifth meeting within the last couple of years road signs have not been properly posted to alert the neighborhood of these meetings and I'm concerned about the environmental issues that have come up also the Pond behind gab's house was drained a while back and with the natural stream running into it it has filled up about half of the way back up and I think most of the deer have left because they used to use it for water not to mention all the geese that have that once enjoyed it and I think I think developing can be done in a way that preserves a few trees and and natural ponds and.

Streams I also think it should be a shared burden on all communities usually growth for a city is a good problem to have in this case I think more densely po populated is going to create traffic problems that are already bad that's all I got to say Thank you Mr de I'll now move to our in person. Speakers and I'll just call up I have three additional speakers so I have Gabriel Coro. CIO just two additional speakers and right after I'll have Reginal Williams we we had some people as well too that are still on Zoom that had said they wanted to talk but I don't know I just wanted to make sure that they had an opportunity unknown context in particular was another one but we'll get to it there sorry hope this do have too much.

Feedback so hello good evening thank you so much to the members of the council my name is Gabe Carillo I live at 1345 Ellis Road directly adjacent to the property so I have been mentioned here tonight and that is because I'm passionate about what's going on and have seen this process unfold and unfortunately I've seen three things that I want to bring to your attention tonight that are the key focus of what we think has been an insufficient process throughout the first is is that the process of community engagement has been abysmal what we heard previously was that there was a time period of when things got sent out but when they actually showed up they followed it only for the 10 days of the ordinance by the time most of people found out that there was actually an opportunity in time to sit down with Morning Star Law Firm which now represented the applicant we had four days to come up with that determination within that window of time.

We put together a petition had 40 signaries on that petition I know because I helped draft it and then when we submitted that we asked for the extension and they said okay but we're going to hold the current meeting knowing that not many people were going to be able to make it to that meeting and then when they put the onus on us to figure out how to work that process in in particular I had to go to them and I and I'm just going to be honest with you I'm a physician that's no excuse but my time is crazy limited too but I love my community a lot and I've been there for them and I went around got the petition together in the first place and then for me the owners to be on the community to come up and figure out the process for Community engagement when we knew exactly what needed to be said was not meant now I I don't say anything bad I.

Do believe that Mr go did his due diligence and trying to meet us in the moment but I would say it was the minimum at best and I would say once they checked the box and met that minimum they moved on and it was pretty obvious and the Commissioners that were here when this came before them all heard the same thing from the community at that time and did we hear any response after that no we didn't second point then the policy which was noted during that same meeting which was was about the comprehensive plan which I agree with a lot that comprehensive plan here in Durham is focused on density the right type of smoke the right type of growth and smart growth in particular for the community but what happened within that was that they forgot the first 100 pages are dedicated to communities how do you involve yourself through transparency communication in the things that really matter which didn't happen so that brought us to the.

Next and we've carried our way 4,000 New Town Homes have come up right around us in one mile put it into context what that means it means we're carrying weight we weren't saying don't build we're just saying stop building on us and start building with us and the applicant didn't really care about that last time and when he came here yeah they're going to tell you 144 I'm sorry can I please have one more minute I'll finish I promise I'll wrap it up I'm speaking on behalf of a lot of folks I understand but I I can I take a it does not work that way I am very all right all right my point is please vote no on this we don't think it was a fair process we thank this coun for your time you put into it and we hope that the process is followed please stop building on us next I have Reginal.

Williams hi my name is Reginal Williams I reside at 2210 Southern Drive which is at the intersection of Southern and lley my biggest concern is U far as as as traffic since they did all this new building now it's like you know Southern Drive now has become if you go around Clinton it's got a lot of speed bump but once you get around the southern it's like a racetrack so everybody now since the train Falls everybody go through Clinton Southern and becomes a train track also with the with the the landscape I mean the far as the environmental I mean it's it's just it's just getting overwhelming I'm not against building but I think the houses will probably be more appropriate than all these Town Homes because there really isn't that many room much room for on that street I mean it is very dangerous like you said there is a curb right there and it's and with the growth already that we already have for us with.

These Town Homes I mean it's it's like you said R we don't have a problem with the houses it's just just so many town homes and it's just overwhelming right now then I mean I basically that's all I got to say with. It all right thank you so much those are all of the speakers that I have.

Madam Clerk the hands we have raised were the they did not register before the deadline okay yeah so I try my best to be as consistent as possible due to it's it's been wild in the past we have a little time tonight so I will honor.

It I'm not sure of who the names are Mr Mayor do you want me to announce the names you will okay the first name is Kevin Smith Kevin Smith all right Kevin Smith can you hear me yes sir Mr Mayor Kevin welcome you have three minutes thank you sir thank you for having me and members of the council I'm just going to reiterate with Mr Lindley we're 2303 Southern Drive diagonally across from Mr Lindley I'm GNA basically reiterate what he said man it's the traffic coming down Southern is just horrendous and we don't we don't need any more tow houses half of the one tow houses that are along Ellis Road are vacant as we speak and no sign in the immediate future of them being occupied so I would vote a hard hard no on any development other than residential housing but yeah traffic is horrendous on Southern Drive and people are coming on the semis and dump trucks you name it everybody coming through there trying to get to work it's.

A shortcut they're trying to get to work it seems like and everybody's diverting traffic through there so it's just it's just out of control thank you Mr Mayor members of the city council thank you speaker is Lawrence Kelly what's the name again Lawrence unknown context Lawrence can you hear me Lawrence can you hear me yes K all right there you go I speak up a little bit and great to have you you have three you have three.

Minutes Lawrence yes can everybody hear me yeah you have three minutes go ahead okay my name is Lawrence Kelly I live at 220 4 Southern Drive I live directly across from Mr de two houses over from Mr Mr Reginal and just across the street from Dr gab my biggest concern is going to be the traffic just as everyone has mentioned and the traffic is horrendous I live in that dangerous curve that Mr de is talking about as far as being notified as to what has been taking taking place as far as notifications with the signs and signs being kicked down and signs being intentionally knocked over I think there's a really big problem with that as well the wildlife as Mr the mentioned there's a pond that was directly in front of my residence I've lived here for 15 years now the deer have been displaced you see no more geese you see just less and less of it and as far as the runoff you know I think that runoff is going to have.

Something to do with people just you know as Council woman Freeman mentioned you know they need to look into that because I think there is something else that they can do about that and as everybody else mentioned Town Homes 100s too many maybe maybe residential homes I think would work a little bit better but the traffic is just it's it's it's horrible it's it's it's a nightmare it's it's a it's it's so bad that they did construction just across from Mr Mr Reggie's house and once they have locked the road off I had people to actually drive across my lawn so that along with the the trash that's building up on the corner no street sweepers come through to even you know try to get that trash so I'm having to pick trash up off the off my lawn and it's it's it's just terrible so I'm I'm against that and that's pretty much what I have to say thank you for your time thank you are there any other.

Next speaker is William Burell William William Burell William can you hear. Me hello can you hear me yes hello hello yes yes we can hear you you have three three minutes thank you this this is William Burell this is his wife unfortunately I was not able to get home I just got home a few minutes ago so I'm going to speak in his place okay what's your name Heaven say again Kevin h e a v n. Henen headen okay did you get that man quot okay Burell all right you have three minutes okay thank you so basically I agree with everything of course everyone has said before so I try to keep my points for being redundant but the first thing I want to mention is July of this year we were told that our storm water utility fees were increased so these fees are supposed to help the drainage systems and to go to programs that clean up the waterways so I feel like if we're prioritizing this we need.

To fully prioritize this and not take this money that we're spending and just turn around and have to pay for this construction site waste that's going to get into the waterways as well in addition to that storm water fee increase our property taxes have also been increased to help pay for roads and things like that so Ellis Road we've talked a lot about the traffic that's been going up and down this road that road is already falling apart right after being paved pretty recently so that tells me that the infrastructure really already can support what's going on so adding a 100 more Apartments is not going to be helpful to that problem either so and then my last Point really is just when this property was originally zoned as residential rural I feel like that was probably for a reason so the unified development ordinance it specifically describes the rural tier as that area of Durham that lies outside the Suburban tier and largely within Watershed critical areas within which development should maintain a rural.

Focus to encourage preservation of Agriculture and protect important Water Resources development within this area should feature large lots to minimize demands on infrastructure with limited commercial areas so I'm not really sure why we would even have zoning to begin with if we can change it so drastically because this is not just a small change to build houses this is a large change this is a large change to build pretty dense houses and on top of that the density that is being proposed is twice the density of the town homes that are already connected to our neighborhood so not only are more Town Homes trying to be built but they're also more dense than the ones that are already around us so I'm just really confused at what what is the benefit to Durham residents that already live here I just I don't see any and that's the end of my time so I thank you thank.

You the next speaker is unknown context how many Harney Johnson there are two more two more two more all right that'll be it what's the name Arie Johnson all right Kelly can you hear me I can hear you can you hear me okay sir okay yes you have three minutes unknown context all right thank you for your time I really do appreciate the opportunity to do this first of all I want to say that I'm very confident if the Builder came back and said they would build you know no more than 65 single family homes which are similar to the ne the homes that are in the neighborhood the community would support it they would back it and they would be fine with it and we wouldn't be having these issues but i' would like to note that this is the exact same proposal that was rejected by this Comm this Council several years ago the only difference is is that you know they st2 but the zoning allows up to 147 so.

It's simply it's the same proposal just on different paper so even though they say 102 they can still build up to 147 off that zoning that they they're requesting with that the community is not against development of this property we want the property to support and and reflect the Comm that's around it the issues that we're looking at is the type of housing you know first of all we're looking at the fact that this the housing they're proposing is in the middle of single family homes I mean it it'd be convenient for me to put a toilet in my living room but just that just would not be a good idea it's convenient but it's just not a good idea and putting a bunch of tow houses right there in the backyard of people have been there for decades it's going to negatively impact the community what we want is we want to encourage A diversity of of housing a type of housing we have we have apartments condos tow houses.

Single family homes that's focus on doing some of more the single family homes to reflect the community reflect the neighborhood and keep the Durham as beautiful as it is secondly that property is a has a very steep de decline down towards Clinton Road and a lot of runoff goes down that road goes down that that property you know we're looking at trying to do 80% of non-permeable surface that's that's eight almost that's 10 acres of of concrete that could be a massive impact for those homes down there on Clinton Road dealing with excessive flooding if we have a major storm and the biggest thing is just we want something that focuses on on supporting our community and makes our community continue to be as beautiful and provide opportuni for people to buy homes in our community that want to be part of Durham and make Durham a great city as it is that's all I have sir thank you for your time thank you so much.

Was that the last one there are two more Mr.

Mayor these are the final two yes all right do not admit any others I'll take these two let's go Adam Castile hello ladies and gentlemen can you hear me yes welcome you have three minutes great thank you I I don't have anything other to say everything that I was going to say has already been said this is just one more voice of opposition the gentleman from Morning Star group has said that he tried to reach out to us an additional time I was at the meeting that he LED I wasn't impressed by his interest in our concerns every answer he had was they hadn't planned for it there were no plans for looking into any of the concerns very unimpressive like I said one more voice in opposition please please don't approve this thank you thank you and who was the last speaker the final group is Lynnwood and Jane Smith welcome lywood and Jane or Lenwood or Jane can you hear.

Me hello can you hear.

Me Can can you hear me lywood and J.

Smith Mr Mayor they are unmuted but they're not responding okay try again liin a Jane. Smith make sure your microphone is doesn't have a red line going through it.

Hello all right we will well the public hearing is still open so I'm going to go ahead and would you like to respond to any of the comments and to Ln and James Smith if you could maybe sign off and sign back on I will honor your your as long as the public hearing is still open if you can hear me I'll honor it yeah thanks for the opportunity I just wanted to touch on a couple things a couple people mentioned a rural field in this area and I mean we're talking about Ellis Road this is less than a mile from the park I think I mean this is not at all a rural rural area this is very much Suburban the person I think was Heaven Burell read the definition for the rural tier which I know that was the wrong definition that this is in the Suburban tier anyway but the I mean kind of some of the things that that she was talking about that's exactly what makes this a a good.

Location for development this is an envil site I want to remind you this site is already in the city limits there is already a public sewer line running through this property to suggest that it's rural or that it should be rural I think is I mean just defies what's actually on the ground out there today I know that traffic has been mentioned a couple times and I think we all experience traffic as bad wherever we experience it this project was not big enough to require a traffic study to be done but in the analysis that was performed by staff it indicated that these roads are underc capacity I don't doubt that there's traffic on these roads but I do think that there is capacity for the for the development I did want to clarify one thing I I think there's been a little bit of confusion and I know one of the neighbors mentioned it too this zoning would allow a Max maximum of 102 units 147 units was the total number of.

Units that the previous owning which was denied was requesting to my knowledge I don't believe we've ever submitted anything that said there would be 147 units on there we may have reused the utility statement analysis from from the previous one if it was if it was still valid but you know we have never said it would be 147 units if this zoning were approved the maximum number of units that could be on this property would be 102 and as far as the community engagement goes I mean I think there that what what we've heard is that there are a lot of concerns that people felt weren't addressed and and I would agree with that statement but I did listen to the community and we were respons to the things where we could be responsive so we did reduce the number of units from the original proposal having gone back and listened to the feedback from that proposal we knew that 147 was too much based on what the neighbors felt and.

So we did reduce it this is a 30% reduction additionally we also heard the concerns about storm water we had committed we have committed to to handling the 100e storm I think that that I'll I'll keep it right there I mean I think that this is again this project is indicative of a infill project I mean there is friction here I I think we can acknowledge that but this project is you know is it is consistent with the comprehensive plan and it is a wellth thought out project thank you.

Colleagues are there any.

Questions any comments all right I do have a question yeah yeah so I did drive the site today with my colleague council member cabero and I I know we we had met earlier about this project can you remind me again I know there was extensive comments from bpac about the sort of like the remind me about the the the roads and the sort of and the yeah I forgot to touch on sidewalk that piece thank you for bringing that up I forgot to touch on that there are some comments from bpac generally speaking the comments from bpac were mostly about the design of the road interior to the development and what they wanted that to look like this site so it has three frontages carywood stubs into it Lindley stubs into it and it has a little bit of Frontage on the Ellis Road we did have conversations with ncdot ncdot Is Not So currently the property is access from Ellis Road ncdot is not going to allow that access to continue.

If this property is developed there will be no access from Ellis Road to this property so the access points would be from the current Terminus of carrywood and the current terminus of Lindley those would be the access points to this property so some of the bpack comments were about the design of the road interior to the site ultimate my understanding is we're essentially going going to have to build a city standard road that is going to meet the cross-section that has been provided in Carwood and or Lindley as the case may be wherever that Road's coming in that are currently they currently exist there on those two roads so Lindley to be fair is not right it's more yeah but it's a 60ft rway so there's a 60ft rway standard that's what we would be building to at Lindley and then carywood has it it is carry Wood's build it's got sidewalk it doesn't have for example U bike lanes and that was one of the request so we didn't make the commitment.

But suffice it to say the interior road is going to meet whatever the design standard is I'm going to get my. Whatever the design standard is the interior road is going to meet that so we didn't think it was necessary for us to make an additional commitment because we don't we don't I mean we're gonna have to do what the city tells us we need to do then BAC also had a comment about 10 foot I just told on that so so on the on the Carwood side so that I think as I recall from being there today so there's the road and there's like a sidewalk on one side right so what you're saying you would match that that cross-section yeah although I think the road sander has changed I think there' be sidewalk on both sides these days right so so I think we're we would meet that standard but we'd also have a sidewalk on the other side based on the current design standards that's correct.

The the streets interior to the site would need to have sidewalks on both sides yeah but not bike Lanes under the current design standard that so that's that's why we didn't make the commitment then bpac also had a comment about a 10 foot side path on Ellis Road which we didn't commit to but we're happy to commit to a subject to I don't I I don't know if that's if NCD is going to allow that or not they are not going to allow access that was clear so I think we could just make that caveat as long as it's allowed by ncdot.

Yeah let me I just want to make sure I under so you would be making a profer to provide a 10-ft shared use path along Ellis Road is along our front of John Ellis Road front of John Road yeah so yeah that would be acceptable I mean typically a minimum 5ot sidewalk would be required and right and or you know additional asphalt widening for a future bike lane but we do allow a 10-ft path shared use path in Li of the asphalt widening and sidewalk we'll make that commitment I was trying to give a little more time for that last speaker but I if not I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing.

I've unmuted Lynwood and James Smith all Lynwood and James Smith James Smith can you hear. Me I see you. Muted okay I'm gonna go ahead and can you hear us mayor oh all right go ahead oh wow finally thank you thank you thank you for hearing us thank you for waiting on us I live at 1324 Clinton Road and I've been here since 1973 and that scream that they're talking about I let my my yard go over to that screen and when it rains it floods trees everything stops to drain up water come all up in my yard I've never seen the lights before and and it floods and his heels all in the back I don't see how they going to build a property back there and that's you know and the traffic the last time we had it rain water was had flooded all the way cuz I live at the bottom of the hill so I advise anybody never buy a house at the.

Bottom of a hill and we have pictures of how our yard look we got pictures of the flood and the street was flooded so I don't see how we're going to build anything else back there that I just don't see it we are definitely against it yes so we're asking you to please vote. No all right thank thank you my main concern okay thank you so much right at this time I'm going to declare the public hearing closed and back before the council any other questions colleagues mayor proon thank you Mr Mayor and I thank our our residents and neighbors that have come out to speak tonight and a lot of of what our neighbors and residents have said resonate with me I own the single family home in in Durham in a pretty treesy Street and I have had to cast votes on projects in this growing Urban environment that is changing the character of where I live so I I feel what what folk are saying and the comprehensive plan has been.

Invoked a number of times here one of the tenants of our comprehensive plan is an urban growth boundary and by definition anything within that Urban growth boundary is urban or or or should be looked at as becoming Urban I'm on Ellis Road every day I used it to get to 147 there's a pretty significant shopping center out there on Ellis Road as well anticip ating customers coming to that area because of my attempts to keep Fidelity with our Urban growth boundary the there's a higher premium for me on infill development projects that's not to say that they will all pass mustard automatically or they will automatically get a a yes vote but the bar has got to be pretty high for us to say no to an infield development while still keeping Fidelity with an urban growth boundary so Durham is urban Durham is a City and if you travel to cities around this country that are growing and that are dense you may see neighborhoods with houses and literally across the.

Street a housing apartment complex and cities all around this country the other the the next question for me is what is the best use of this land as I look at what's going on in Ellis Road are are 102 Town Homes better than whatever the number of single family homes in a growing city and the case for me to be made that it's better to put single family homes in the middle of an urban throughway on Ellis Road is superior to 102 Town Homes I don't know that I've heard that case yet the the sentiment that we want to preserve the character of our neighborhood is one that I've said there used to be a golf course in my neighborhood there are houses there now as a a resident a neighbor and a leader of the city I've had to literally watch the character of my neighborhood change in order to welcome people that are moving to Durham and I I heard one speaker earlier said that I think she.

Moved here within a year ago or or two years and I smiled because for a lot of our new arrivals before you closed you were the problem and so now that you're here other people coming behind you are now the problem when they were saying the same things about you before you got your closing date we're a growing City it's an urban environment I did see was was was it 5% at 80% Ami for for affordable housing I read however I do have some concerns about the community engagement counselor Goan if if you would it and I and I don't want to mischaracterize you but but it sounds to me that the failure in community engagement from your point of view is based upon the community not getting what they want as opposed to not actually having the meetings or doing due diligence and and and inviting folk or getting notices out would you speak to that because if there's an issue with folk having gotten notified and having.

Meetings I'd like to hear in response to that so I so we did have a neighborhood meeting and Gabe had reached out I I've been in contact with Gabe for a while you know since the neighborhood meeting and he indicated he had reached out before the neighborhood meeting which he actually mentioned that there was a petition he well actually he emailed me and said you know I'm getting signatures we want you to postpone the meeting and I said well I'm not going to do that we've already sent notices out but I'm happy to have another meeting we can I can have a second meeting no problem you don't need to get signatures but he did he got like 40 signatures I think he said and I'd been in contact with him and I said Gabe let me know you know the neighbors you've been speaking with let me know what dates work for you you know H I'm happy to host another meeting and we did settle on a date eventually actually.

There's a lot of back and forth we we talked about doing it in person but ultimately we settled on having a a a second Zoom meeting and we had that date I communicate this you know I was this was directly in communication with one person gab right my understanding was that Gabe was in you know contact with everyone in the neighborhood so we had the neighborhood meeting no one came to the meeting Gabe was actually the only person who registered for the meeting but he mentioned he's a physician and I I recall that he had some ICU something happened so he couldn't make it to the meeting and no one no one came to the meeting the zoom meeting so I did I did host it and I reached back out to Gabe I said Gabe I'm I'm starting to wonder about the neighbors that you've been talking to no one else registered I'm happy to have a conversation with you and we did we continue to have I've had multiple.

Emails and conversation with with him but I guess I would say I never had a third neighborhood meeting and it no one else had ever reached out to me about having another neighborhood meeting but I did have two neighborhood meetings no one came to the second one so we've crossed our break threshold so let me hasten so there were two meetings one was attended and the second meeting you convene and no one attended correct is that correct y all right and and did you hear anything different tonight that you did not hear at those meetings any of the objections from members of the community I I I mean not not substantially no I I don't know that I heard anyone previously characterize the area as rural you know which was something that a couple people said today but generally speaking less density the housing typ type was an issue traffic those were the oh I did hear about this water feature thing which I have never really been able to.

Understand what that what that is about there are streams on the property we are aware of that those will be producted well I I look forward to hearing from my colleagues this is an infill development thank you in light of a comprehensive plan that's got an urban growth boundary with with an affordable housing component in a neighborhood in area that is most decid l urban on on Ellis Road with a with a choice before us as to something's going to go there there's not going to be a big Urban spot on Ellis Suburban spot on Ellis Road something's going to go there and the question is what what is the best use of that land I will finally say with respect to traffic I get it you know when I have to make that turn off of off of Miami either on to sa onto Ellis during rush hour it's a tough turn and wait but one of the things I I realize is that sometimes as a lay person I.

Confuse my comfort with capacity because I'm in traffic at a high volume time on the road does not mean the road has reached its capacity does mean that's a lot of people's using it at that time and the the experts tell us that you know we have roads that can use thousands of cars but when I need to get to work when I need to get to Publix or when I need to get to 147 if I'm experiencing Comfort discomfort at that moment that's my measure of capacity for the road and I've learned in this job that's not really the at least the scientific so they tell me determination but I get it though I'm right there in traffic with you I that's my neighborhood in general but I I looking at this development looking at what's going on in the neighborhood looking at what's going on with the comprehensive plan looking at what what what other neighborhoods in our city are dealing with in terms of a growing.

Population I've seen a reason not to vote for this development but I am listening to my colleagues thank you Mr Mayor thank you col before I continue any other comments I'm going to have us take a 10-minute break and come back at 9:15 to give our close captioners a arrest we're in we're in we're in break re recess.

Recording stopped.

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All.

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All right let's get back to. It I.

Okay all right we will continue with our comments question comments coun freem I just wanted to there was a resident Jessica Dewey if she's still on the line I just some wanted some clarification she mentioned water coming up 10 ft but I didn't catch where like if it was coming into her house. I am here can you hear me yes yeah so it was not up into my house the way that my property is we're on an acre and that big drainage stream is pretty far back from our actual house down the hill but the the water essentially where that stream is usually is within the stream but that day it was 10 feet farther into our yard because of how much water there was there was some backup in our crawl space like drainage but the water from the storm drain did not itself get into our into our house okay thank you and I know that you mention I'm not sure if it was if it was you.

Or not who mentioned being new to the neighborhood is this home a brand new home no this was built in 1997 so we we are first- time home buyer but it was an established house I got you thank you and then there was someone whose home was at the bottom of the hill and I think it was Lynnwood or Jane. Smith council member they were having trouble getting on we're here okay there we go all right good go ahead and so again I just wanted to check was this this water coming into your home yes it comes into the yard it our all of our front yard be be covered with water yeah and I have a lot of pictures I've called the city each time this happens your front yard is filled with water yes within the city and the side yes and the side and the side CLE from the street or something and I had to clean myself so say that one more time I'm sorry it wasn't.

Clear I've called the city a couple times to clean the water the drainage out where it go under the street it's a big pipe and logs and everything be coming out and stopping it up and they said they can't unstop it I have to do it myself C it's what 10 or 15 feet from the street or something like that okay but it's continuous every time it rains thank you and thank you thank you and then also there was a. William Heaven headen hen Barrow.

Yes I'm here and I just wanted to touch back on you mentioned that you had increased storm water fees and property taxes and I just wanted to kind of get a feel for what you're seeing around your property specifically with the storm water runoff and I I think you I think I'm not sure if it was you who mentioned or someone else that mentioned the roads were deteriorating even though they were just paved yes so directly outside of our neighborhood is Ellis Road speaking to the roads there's a lot of potholes all up and down that road especially in that curve that everybody keeps talking about that deep curve it it's the road's getting very cracked because the land underneath it just can't support the road and all the traffic that's on it and then for the storm water yeah we see all the construction sites that have recently been building around us we see all the runoff from those it's it's kind of I mean it's kind of obvious to.

See construction dirty up the water all around us and in the July newsletter of just this year is when we heard all about all the storm water utility fees and there was even a paragraph telling us that we need to keep our grass clippings out of the road because that was messing up the streams so I just can't imagine what a whole construction site would do if this was from you know the public works department so thank you and and I just want to check with staff again around making sure to figure out how all of this ties into that post sight plan process so as part of the site plan review process storm water services of the public works department will review the site plan they will review all the grading plans and everything else that goes in as part of that and we'll make sure that the proposed development meets all city codes regarding storm waterer which includes that a runoff cannot happen at a greater has cannot be greater than the.

Current pre-development runoff currently is the applicant as part of their development plan has agreed to design their storm water control measures to handle the 100-year storm storm event rather than the current one to five and 10 year storm events that we currently require and is there anyone from public works here this evening no because what I'm I hear that In Contention with or hear that in ttention with the way that we're having increased storms and increased storm water and our regulations the way that they are currently may have been written to address the way storm water would have come in the 80s and 90s and here we are in 24 and it's a little different and so just trying to understand if there is a plan or if there should be a plan or if there's some possible way to make sure that these the the storm water standards are actually meeting current needs I live in a neighborhood in downtown Durham right across the street from downtown Durham and my neighborhood was flooding.

And that flooding was only addressed because of the development that was next door doing the work to to address it but if there's no way to know that beforehand I'm I'm struggling with who who covers the cost is it the city or the developer well in this case the developer would have to cover the costs of of of dealing with the storm water control measures on the site that they want to develop in terms of upgrading or modernizing our current storm water ordinances u i I can't speak to whether or not that is something on the radar of Public Works at this time thank you and I I I appreciate that where we are today is based on our current ordinances but it doesn't mean that they're perfect and it doesn't mean that they can't improve and it doesn't mean that folks should expect to be living next to a development that is flooding them even if it is infill in a city whether it's rural suburban or.

Urban that's not an excuse for why you should be flooding yeah thank you thank you I have a couple questions with the birite development which is essentially single family homes what would be the storm water infrastructure put in place it would depend if they're doing it by right on Rural residential zone property that you're doing minimum one acre lots it it would it would depend I I'm not enough of a storm water expert to to say exactly what that might the 100 year not no they would not have to do a 100 year they would have to do what our ordinances currently require and potentially clear cutting and and Grading would still occur potentially clear cutting and Grading could still occur yes if they were to do Mass grading on the site we would require the mass grading buffer all the way around the site those those could certainly Still Still occur under the current zoning and they potentially still moving all the dirt which I hear you're buffering but.

Then they're not treating they're not treating the after effect with 100 storm infrastructure they would not be required to under the current zoning thank you I have a question for the for the attorney from Mr. Go yes and I know that this is not that sometimes things shift but at this time what are what are Town Homes going for in that part of the city oh the newer town homes that there's a lot of town homes that are being built I think you heard that I I believe some of them are in the 380s to 400 what would be a the cost of a single family home on a 1 acre lot in the city because that's right there like if you're if if the if the applicant this doesn't go through the applicant decides to continue they decide to just go they've done this twice 700,000 you know something like that 700,000 yeah maybe 600,000 something like that thank you I'm going to keep going I have more okay.

So I hear neighbors so my Council colleague and I drove this site I sometimes Drive what I call kind of like the wonky sites the ones that maybe aren't a straightforward maybe I have questions I want to see it first of all some major dumping is happening on Linley it's not like it's a pristine wooded site there's a lot of trash already there and that part of the city is interesting I call it kind of like the hodgepodge you go up and down you see muffler shops you see a lot of concrete you see a lot of light industrial I would not characterize it as rule I see the community right around there maybe has a more rule feel or really Suburban feel because it's mostly single family homes and you drive a little bit further and you get to that Publix and you can kind of see the transition happening so I would consider a part of the city that is transitioning if we're being really accurate with our l.

And I would say that I I would understand if I'd lived somewhere for 20s something years and my neighbor hadn't changed very much maybe the car shop down the street changed owners maybe this other thing shifted a little bit that is what residents of that part of the city are used to when RTP went in the the vision of what people did was that you drove a long distance to get to work and RTP was kind of put out in the middle of nowhere quite frankly and people were supposed supposed to drive there and we built cities with that in mind post World War II until now and we are having to slowly and very painfully undo a lot of that pattern of development and the council previous to this Council passed a comprehensive plan along with our County Commissioners also passed in urban growth boundry which I think you've heard a little bit about and made kind of macro decisions so just the residents who were talking about we.

Need more protected land we need more rural communities that that's there it's just going to be mostly in Northern Durham County because that's where the water that's where we have to do a lot of our water protection We've also passed ordinances we have some of the most stringent storm water ordinances in the State our buffer to our Watershed and many other communities including Orange County and Chapel Hill which are often lifted up for their environmental ordinances is half mile ours is a I'm naming all of these things because these are decisions that were made prior to the case that you all have to deal with which is very micro this is your neighborhood this is where you live this is where you are every day when we've made those kinds of decisions and many of the folks who made those decisions aren't the ones who are up here I was one of the council members who voted for the comprehensive plan I was one of the council members who voted for the.

Urban growth boundary when we made that decision quite frankly what we decided is everything on the inside of the line is going to have to to get upzoned if we're going to protect the things that we say we want to protect that doesn't feel good for the folks who have to live that and experience that and I know that but we've made a commitment towards how painfully and maybe not perfectly what it means to be in a in a 15minute the goal is a 15minute city cities that what around you you can eventually not tomorrow not even five years from now we are setting ourselves up to undo 50 70 years of bad planning and so we want the things to be denser because denser means that eventually it will become more walkable we want the folks who you you and your new neighbors to walk to that public and anything else any Community amenities as that neighborhood continues to transition which I think we're going to.

See I think we're going to see some of that light Industrial and Commercial flip in the next 5 to 10 years we've seen it in other parts of the city all of that's going to change and the question before whoever sits in these seats is is this getting us closer or not to that goal that we laid out in our comprehensive plan and I will say as an individual council member single family homes on acre lots that cost $700,000 a it is absolutely going to change the nature of your n the nature of your neighborhood because your neighbors are going to be real different than the ones right now and it doesn't hit the mark for me and it's it is painful for individual residents as we make these decisions and this movement forward the influx of folks who are moving here even just the population growth from natural occurring population growth where are we going to put our kids it's not even just about the people moving here it's about providing housing.

For the people who are already here who grow up and also deserve to have housing and so I will be voting yes for this I understand it's imperfect I understand why residents don't like it it's not single family homes but that was a decision we made when we said that we needed mixed neighborhoods we need a different product type and everything around here is single family so we are trying to create that differentiation it is the infil site it already is annexed it already has sewer water there's a lot that still needs to happen in this Corridor but single family homes don't get us anywhere near that thank you thank you Council M cook you I just I actually want to follow up on council member Freeman's and this might be a bill question I see you getting up ER in it might be a bill question I I'm curious who and forgive me I haven't looked it up but who does the maintenance on Ellis Road in that.

Section do we do you know off the top of your head yes so Bill judge transportation that portion of Ellis Road is State maintained okay and so we don't have any I'm I'm I'm concerned by the fact that there was like repaving and then immediate break potholes and breaking down but that is outside of City control yes correct okay thank you I also wanted to follow up with Dr CIO is that do you mind I I wanted to and you were talking specifically about interactions that you had had and and I know we've brought up this issue of community engagement but your name was brought up a lot and I wanted you to have an opportunity to speak to your side of those events if it was accurate please let me know and and if it wasn't I'd also like to know that thank you so much for that that really I think is important I want to just say I'm not imputing his character at all I think he.

Was trying to represent a difficult to represent applicant and he's been my neighbor I like him a lot or a little bit but some of the some of the times when I've tried and the community has tried on multiple levels to level with him it's just been build more on top and and basically we we submitted at the last meeting and I tell you this took a long time to get all these signatures from the people that were there we had more than 40 actually but 40 that were committed land owners and it had five elements on there that were pretty substantial not one of those were answered not one of those rebuttal happened and the onus was put on me to go and orchestrate a zoom meeting and I mean I can set up a zoom meeting in a minute but to get 50 people there to show up that's his job and I'm sorry that's not my job my job was to go around and find out I did their job for.

Them and I heard from the community and the community said please stop building on us and that's how it went down and two meetings no we did talk but that was just me and him I can't be the only person like there was many more voices in the room and I think that that was an important part of the situation as it unfolded and I think for clarify like clarifying the record that was key I also just want to say one quick thing in terms of the rebuttal on that we are have never been against an only single family we've never always said just only single family we just look at the land we know the land I know behind my house my house actually does flood down in the bottom so I do have that problem and it's going to get worse but what we said was is we know 100 town homes in there is just not going to be feasible and they're hanging their hat on that and we.

Looked at it and said the town H home's right down the street 95 this is what we've been told and I think it's accurate because they got a big sign says leasing those town homes are owned by private Equity firms these are not inti ities that are there caring about whether or not people have an opportunity to come in and buy those homes and what we've seen and the data Wars this out pretty clearly is that single family homes actually have a higher propensity of ownership by families if they buy them as because the private Equity firms can know they can buy the condos and things like that and I just think that's important so we weren't after it to say the character of the of the community was only single family homes we just said this is a very specific carved out area that's been this way for a long time and we just ask you all to think through one exception here go a mile you see 4,000 of them.

We're saying keep this one for us a little place with a little opportunity to offload water and to keep it where it doesn't change hands so much I'm so sorry that's okay thank you thank you I appreciate that and I submitted this for the record with all of the points for everybody great thank you.

So this is not an attack on anyone because it does sound like rules were followed but the whole purpose of community engagement is to make the residents feel heard and it seems like we had an issue here because we have a lot of community members coming out and saying that they did not feel heard and that they didn't feel like they had an opportunity to to interact or they had concerns that weren't addressed so to me and I I know the Planning Commission brought this up quite a bit that is a concern and and it's not the first time that I've heard that from community members and so that that as as po as potentially a pattern is a concern to me and I want housing and growth that is smart and that grows with the community I and with the environment and Mr Dev and I might be mispronouncing your name stated this there is an opportunity to build and also consider the surrounding areas and I'm hearing a lot of dismissiveness.

Around people as though neighbors just don't like change and that's the only opposition that we ever hear is just because people don't like change and I think that's a real discredit to the people of Durham and really is just like pretty offensive actually to think that folks are not welcoming first of all and second of all like do not understand the nuance and don't understand that these things don't have to be a complete dichotomy it doesn't have to be growth or Environmental Protection it doesn't have to be growth or Wildlife it doesn't have to be like yeah just these things are not black and white they can all happen together and I think that's just it's really offensive I think to lump everybody into that category as though that's the only concern it's just hey I don't want change of course people don't want change we're all we're all a little leery of change but I think people in Durham are also aware that the community is growing and they are smart and.

Accepting and are able to understand that they can grow and we can grow in smart ways as a city this is another example of car Centric urban sprawl we're getting tow houses that aren't accessible to needed amenities they're not bringing us closer to our 15-minute walking neighborhoods goal they're overloading existing infrastructure we're giving up our Green Space for a false Narrative of supply and demand when we could be demanding high quality projects that actually prioritize affordability that prioritize protecting our natural resources and set us up for sustainable and pleasant and affordable living so I'm going to be voting no tonight I don't think that this project is the smart thing that we want to see and I'm looking for more Innovation and more growth with all of these concerns from the community in mind thank you all right council member Baker I think sometimes sometimes there's confusion in when there's conversation around development I see this a lot when I'm reading in the local media about de decisions and discussion that have taken place.

Around zoning cases and development cases and permits sometimes there's confusion around the concept of voting yes or no and equating that with a philosophy of being for or against development when what we know is that many kinds of development can take place on on a site there are dozens and dozens of options and potential avenues for the way that we can shape the built environment council member cab pointed out over the past several decades half a century over past over half a century we have allowed a philosophy that has perpetuated a Reliance and dependence upon the car upon an automobile so now when we have sites like this and cases like this it's undeniable it's in fi development but what's around it is is autoc Centric and so moving toward away away from that Old philosophy gets harder and harder as we look at as we look at in infill sites we also live in the US where the United States Constitution and a couple hundred several hundred years of case law.

Have created a bundle of Rights on real property on on properties in the United States so if if you own land you have a right under the United States Constitution to to develop and to pursue economic your own economic good and that's a that's a reality that that we face in our current system we're a growing city and this site in particular one that we're talking about it's it's going it's going to get developed unless someone buys it or unless someone purchases the development rights PDR purchase development rights unless that happens it's going to get developed it also has colleagues have pointed out it has water in sewer it is located in in the city and I believe that the current zoning is is not the right Zone the RR zoning is not the best zoning for this site and that the one of the reasons is because of the amount of density that it has in a site that is within within Municipal limits because of that surrounding velopment because of the disconnectivity.

Of the of the street Network the way that it is enclosed by development around it it's difficult to imagine without transformation of this site maybe that happens in a 100 years but without transformation of this site it becoming in the next 10 years a walkable bikable Transit oriented development in in the forceable future it's surrounded by single family developments neighborhoods s town homes the things that that we've been talking about this evening so with that in mind I am Guided by the comprehensive plan and I govern by a philosophy that things will need to be torn down and replaced as we grow and as we change to buildings that we cherish will need to be torn down and replaced wildlife habitat will need to to be torn down and replaced forest and farmland will at some point need to be torn down and replaced but we need to make sure that whenever we do that we are replacing it with something that makes Durham better something that makes our community better and we should always.

Be guided by that philosophy and the question is what is better and and that is where the comprehensive plan comes in that's where the community comes in and that's where the people that you elect the people that set up here come in is deciding when are we replacing something that we care about and that we cherish with something that is even better that makes the community better when we are losing something that we already value so much to me the the argument of of adding housing stock that that is a that is a a a an argument that I care about it is also a low bar and it is not an an a bar that is high enough for me we need more we need something that that is worthy of the Durham community that makes our city better that allows our people to to thrive and to feel like they are have the ability to to shape the world around them we live in a society in capitalist.

Society where land owners and developers and banks are the people who get to decide the the world that we live in and the world that that we shape there is one thing though that gives people some amount of power and some seat at the table and that thing is called zoning and that and this is a zoning case and this is where we have the opportunity to actually have some amount of Leverage to make sure that it is consistent with the vision the values of our community and in the form of of the comprehensive plan we recently had a joint City County planning committee meeting where one of the staff members actually actually mentioned that that under the RR zoning that the threat of development under the RR zoning which many of us do worry about because we don't want development under the RR zoning it's it's not adequate for the needs of our our community that that is an empty threat because developers actually want higher densities they want.

To be able to build more and we on this di all of us want developers to be a to to build more than than that to me this proposal does not propose something that makes Durham better with what it is replacing with what it is tearing down it is not adequate it is not in line with the vision and the values of the community not the community that's here tonight and not the community that spoke over five years to put together the comprehensive plan so I will be voting no on this proposal not because I I opposed development in on this site and I might say something unpopular here but I would support another kind of resoning on this site not even one that necessarily proposes lower density but we need to see something as as council member cook said we need to see a proposal that in that is informed and incorporates the community and the community's voice and the people who showed up tonight but also the community that spoke through.

The comprehensive plan that makes our city better that doesn't just tear down things that we value and replace them something that is inadequate but tears something down and replac it with something that makes our city even better and so I will be voting no on this CA on this case with that in mind that that in the future I would I would be open to a different rezoning with a different process that incorporates the Community Voices and that and that incorporates the comprehensive plan all right thank you Mr Mayor I'll be brief I I feel like we've had these conversations multiple times on this Council it feels like the same conversation so I'll be brief I want to I want to thank the residents who came and those who came who spoke on the phone I completely hear your concerns as I said council member cabier and I drove the site today this is largely where you live largely single family homes this is a more dense development that's going in.

There and I totally understand those concerns at the same time as my colleagues Javiera Caballero and mayor PM said better than I could this is an infill project this this is we've got an urban growth boundary and we've got to get more dense within our Urban core and I would also argue and again I want to be brief here but I'd argue that we are we are we want to create the 50-minute city right so much of what we've been approving and the council I've been on has been unknown context dependent sprawl let's be honest about that but yet we need to like just simply saying we're not going to build more housing is not going to address our critical affordability need which we talk about all the time in this Council as well and so our challenge here is to get from here to there it's not going to be tomorrow but I will say as we drove as you drive down Ellis Road many of those many of those sites many.

Of the frontage on those on those those Parcels along Ellis R do have sidewalks so I can Envision within five plus years as those fill in someone could easily bike down Ellis Road to Ellis Crossing this this could happen within maybe five 10 years so it's it's not going to happen tomorrow but there's a vision where this could be a bikable community a walkable Community with the paths and the and the sidewalks that we're building over time it's not it's has it can't happen fast enough and it's too slow but this is where this is how we build that city right it's not going to be we're trying to retrofit what's been done as as cabier said for the last 50 years of building roads to get us to employment somewhere else we need to retrofit that and it's not happening fast enough but that's how we're going to get there so I will be supporting this project I must say that as we've been supporting many of these projects.

In the past these infill projects we've been seeing typically like eight or more per affordable units this project has 5% affable and I'm just wondering if he considered any more affordable as you were doing the plan with your colleagues on the on the development. Team I mean we've we've looked at it I'll just say the 5% I'm very happy to have on this project and I don't and I don't think we would be able to go to 8% thank than you I would you consider any more than 5%.

No yeah I talked to this applicant at length and I guess based on their the way they the way they proor of this project they thought 5% was too much but I insisted that that's where we needed to be at a minimum thank you thank you thank you thank.

Oh thank you I I just wanted to appreciate my colleagues cook and Baker and their ability to to navigate this terrain just knowing where we've been and what's been going on I do want to just make sure that I share that it is been it has been a hard seven years of watching these types of cases move forward as a minority on the votes on Council and I do want to say that I'm very proud to be serving on this Council with members in the minority often on these votes in a way that I can't even explain in so many ways and it's really just been a frustra of you know of do as little as possible to actually meet the need of the people in our community that is just so off-putting because you can't say that you care you can't say that you're for when you can't even stand up with and it's just it's if you tell every neighborhood that comes forward that they're the micro.

Problem and they're all talking the same talking about the same issues the same concerns then eventually they become the macro and I want to be very clear to the doctor back there that your organizing needs to happen in an off-year election because 10,000 people make the decision for who sits here and the folks who have been sitting here have been making the decision against the people in the neighborhoods over and over again so the comprehensive plan could be much better the the growth plan could be much better but there are limitations in who sits in these seats and those limitations I've been fighting for seven years I am sick and tired of I am so sick get tired of it I know that.

The the sentiment and the tone and the kind of dismissiveness that comes from this Council and speaking to the residents who are speaking about their lives you're you can't say that you're going to build a bikable like street over top of people in 5 years you're not worried about biking you're worried about whether you can actually navigate down the street today next week next month next year I know that that that area is is been overloaded in the same way that the folks who came in talking about the tomato soup and because you don't have a stream that's showing that tomato soup nearby to show just how densely overdeveloped your community is you can't demonstrate it in the same way and I know that I know that if there were different folks in the seats we'd have much better planning happening we'd have much better zoning happening but there is a limitation I'm going say it again and it's based on who votes in offe elections that's all thank you thank you.

Mayor proen thank you Mr Mayor and I thank my colleagues for a robust conversation fortunately these meetings are archived and you can go back and and watch these meetings and I would invite every resident and citizen to watch this meeting and find anyone in this day that's dismissed anyone or said that you're not getting it because of something we said what I heard I heard council member cabier give a very eloquent and I thought passionate explanation of policy decision making in the face of a comprehensive plan which was not unanimously adopted an urban growth boundary and balancing that with what's going on around the city you deserve folk leaders who talk to you who do not Pander to you who do not lie to you and who do not mischaracterize things in plain sight under glaring light so I I invite you to go back and and watch the meeting this is not an example of car centered urban sprawl this is the exact opposite of urban sprawl this is within the city limits.

Within an urban growth boundary so factually that that statement is is well this is not true I do also want to take care that the way we frame things from the deas keep's a Fidelity with with with with facts I heard a number of residents say that their land was already flooding and then I thought I heard an attempt to causally link a development that has not been built yet to flooding we have heard accounts of flooding that already exist so I want to ask the staff is there any indication from an engineering point of view from a construction point of view that this development would exacerbate the flooding that is already going on prior to its development the intention of the codes that are written for storm water is that storm water runoff would not be any worse than it is currently predevelopment it's best way I can answer that thank you and I I think that's important because I do not want to conflate or or be represented from this.

Day is that conflate represented from this day is that what is already occurring can be caused by something that has not occurred yet that is logically in non-feasible finally I also say that you know we're neighbors I I live in this neighborhood and we're not we we you know everybody up here are taxpayers and living dur we are governing a city that is growing the decisions that we make on this de are not we're not Exempted from them my single family house with trees around it is now being surrounded by development that is changing the character of my neighborhood I'm the mayor of ptim the city I can't even protect myself from change so so so I I'm not I want you to understand that when we make these decisions we make these decisions as neighbors every council member on this day as has the right to vote as they want we do not have the right to make up things to mischaracterize facts and to create spin out of whole.

Cloth we don't have that right and I respect every person's vote on this day as and I respect the process that goes into it I believe that we all bring our full selves to this process I will never attack the council member personally for a decision they make but I won't abide them either on this Council institutionally or personally thank you Mr Mayor I'll be supporting this project thank you I will try and bring us in here respectfully I if I lived over here I would probably be feeling the same way but I I just want to be very clear what I know you all you the residents that are here tonight the residents that are online you all have heard a lot and this is a case that is affecting you directly but I just I sometimes I'll say things unpopular you know in the moment it doesn't mean I care less or it doesn't mean that I I don't value your quality of life first thing I do always is I put myself.

In your shoes and if I was not sitting on this counil if I was just living my daily life not involved in politics and I lived out here out pretty I'm sure I would be in here with you but since being up here or since being more involved I've learned a lot more and one thing I do when I'm out and about is I try because I every single day everywhere I go whether it's the grocery store at the gym or just walk in my dog I'm talking about City issues when people just stop by and I I take advantage of those opportunities I I you know it's never it's never a dull moment and it's never an off moment as mayor of the city because a lot of it is just misperception people think I I can solve a lot of issues that I have no control over and I only wish I had that sometimes but one thing I've learned is what the reality is of how we grow as.

A city and I did too also hear that we started linking the flooding to this development but the development has not been built yet and I think what's happening is there are already some issues over there and my hope would be as this development is happening that would be taken into consideration to not make the issue worse that would that would be the idea this vote tonight which you heard some of this earlier this vote tonight is not going to determine whether it's going to remain Green Space you know trees or not it's not going to determine whether you know you're going to have cars or no cars it's going to determine whether it's going to be single family homes that are going to start really high in cost or it's going to be and it won't be as many but it'll be single family homes that have a high cost that will still have you dealing with the runoff issue you already have if there is one which I believe because you're already having.

Floody issues or whether it's going to be Town Homes that is going to give you you know whatever the current situation is so sometimes when we're talking about these cases I do I do hear my colleagues incorporate other issues into this particular case or a particular case and I want to make sure that we have Fidelity with what we're talking about here tonight and I may not say what's liked because again if I'm in your shoes I would feel a different way but also if I was in your if I if I was not up here and I actually you know got more involved and understood how development works how Housing Works how the cost of housing works how our aspirations align with our reality then I would also have a different perspective and that is where I am you know I used to teach at Southern High School and I where I lived I would have to go down Ellis Road I hated going down Ellis Road especially.

When there was a freaking school bus that needed to stopped multiple times it took forever and I stopped going down Ellis Road because it was just too long but it was only at that moment I go down ellex road now and I just don't go doing those those you know peak hours and that's the luxury I have because I don't live over there anymore and I when I go there's nothing over there you know it's just so it does depend on when you go and that kind of goes back to the capacity issue and based on the capacity of the road the way it's measured it's different than you know the the your schedule individual schedule when you're driving on that road if this area was not developing if it wasn't close to RTP if it wasn't close to a freeway you wouldn't have a Publix you wouldn't have a grocery store over there you wouldn't have a gas station you wouldn't have those shops that Beam lights Ona and the the.

The new Animal Hospital the vet there you wouldn't have the Chipotle all of those things came because there was a gravitation of people and that is on on one side of 140 147 on the other side where you all are you know you have those apartments that have been there for a while you have glaco the old southern high school and then you on the other side of you all you have all of those town homes and and single family homes that built up my point is it has been growing and the only way to stop this is if that land is purchased by the people who don't want anything to go there you want to keep it the way it is that is not realistic nobody's going to tell you to dig in your pocket and buy all of these hous houses all of all of this land to PR prevent it but that really is the only way unless you talk to your neighbor or whoever owns that land and say hey don't.

Sell it we need to keep it where it is otherwise you're going to hear a lot of people say a lot of things from this from this diet or any other governing body that we really can't control now we have leverage as council member Baker was alluding to earlier and that's what you hear us we within our legal confines we're going to actually try and explore as much leverage as POS possible you know just like council member riss was just pushing the the the counselor who is representing the applicant hey you said 5% can we get more you know and and the reality is we have a general assembly that is going to prevent us from being able to do that you know we can't say well we're not going to let you build this unless you give us more because if we did that then it would be considered what is it called inclusionary zoning or something like you have to have a certain amount if we want a certain.

Amount of affordable housing in order to get it to make it approved we don't have that power is what I'm saying we don't have that power so we try to build those relationships to try and leverage as much as possible and that's why we try to build these relationships but I I refuse to sit here and say what people want to hear versus what the reality is there was be something on that site and I think council member Baker also alluded to that there will be something you know as around the community engagement piece I'm going to say tonight and I'm I'm getting out of my Lane here because I'll try to always make sure we're we're talking about the case before us I will say to our development Community have compassion and make sure that we are truly engaging with people now I you can follow the rules but we understand that people have all types of schedules and they're going to be really it's it's really hard to get an entire Community.

To come out to a meeting with whatever notice I you can notice forever and you're still gonna have issues getting people there but have compassion in that process because that is one of the biggest issues here and the Planning Commission comments as well as what we're hearing tonight on the flip side of that we have the water erosion and tree preservation policy that came from Community engagement and and and and concerned with the environment and and all of the things related to it we passed it now how we do Mass grading it's regulated yes it makes it more expensive expensive but you know there are environmental concerns that we truly needed to address and we did that you know and what what we have to understand here is there is a clear balance between you know protecting the environment you know you know really acknowledging affordability you know and and trying to ultimately yes build this 15minute city which I think this is one of the neighborhoods where we're headed to it.

But in order to get that you have to densify it will not stay the same endurance is growing too much too fast for us not to have that and we created this comprehensive plan the comprehensive plan is a guide it is not the law we try to follow it as best as possible but it does not dictate every single thing because it doesn't make sense in every every case is different you know and at the end of the day I remember this we because I feel like we keep moving to goalpost we have this Urban growth boundary we put that in place we have the water erosion and the the tree preservation we put that in place so therefore it's forcing us and I remember this conversation vividly I was all right if we're going to do this then we have to actually have infill and we need to be consistent with that but now I feel like we are continuously moving to goal poost because we've denied a.

Couple of those as well so I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear I'm going to tell you what's true and what's factual and I think that there is we have to create space for nuance because every every everything is different every case is different but I will not I would not criticize my colleagues for the choices that they make that is the mess of democracy and we win some and we lose some and that is where we are so I'll be supporting this and at this.

Time I'm going to bring us all right let's I'll I'll acknowledge it but I do want to get us because it's it's getting pretty late go ahead yeah and I don't I don't want to I don't want to cause more more more discussion up here I did I did just want to address a few things the the 15-minute City because I do think that is so important that we move toward a 15-minute City that we become a walkable City that we achieve these 5 to 10 minute what we call walk sheds in in the planning field and and create that that kind of city and and move toward that move away from from the current status quo and and that what to achieve that it takes what we call in in the planning field the 3DS and we talk a lot about the first one which is density we we talk a lot about density but it but it requires the 3DS which is density diversity diversity.

Of uses and design and so those are two key pieces that we often leave out of of this as a really critical part of completing the project of creating a walkable city so we can create density but sometimes we're just we're just.

Verticalized density diversity diversity of use diversity of people diversity of kinds of people and design making sure that we get the design right and and in my view as a professional Planet we're not we're not doing that here we've also heard under the r zoning the current zoning we've heard professional opinions that that threats of development under our zoning our empty threats that that would very unlikely happen because we are so likely up here to and we often do approve up zonings and and zonings that that allow higher higher densities and more more intense development even when communities come out and and oppose it sometimes we've had unan we've had the the seats are full here we had a case close to South Point mall so many people came out against it and we had either unanimous or 61 vote up here on the diet so it's definitely something that we're that we're often willing to do and then the last thing I just keep thinking about several years ago when.

When a proposal came when I was on the Planning Commission and it was proposed in bragtown for a bunch of residential much residential housing the neighborhood organized organized organized said no and the developer got very frustrated and actually ended up selling the property and now when the next developer comes to to counsel those community members show up not to oppose the project but to support it and the densities are even higher than what was originally proposed but they are more consistent with the vision and values of of that community and I just keep thinking about that and hoping for it and hoping that we can we can do that here in Durham so that's all I want to say thank you and I hope that well we're going to go ahead and I'm going to call the motion Mr Mayor I just wanted to address the comment about being a liar and pandering I want to be very clear that having compassion for my neighbors and making sure that I value.

Residents over development or developers is not pandering that's where I am thank you at this time I'm going to call the mo I would not acknowledge any more comments we're going to get on through it so colleagues I'll entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the UniFi development ordinance by taking property out of residential Rule and establishing the same as plan development residential 8.32 six second move to property second Madam clerk please open the. Vote please close the.

Vote the motion passes 4 to three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting no thank you and I'll also entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carina General statute section 160d d605 move to adopt consistency second it's been mov and properly second Adam Clark please let me vote. Please close the. Vote the motion passes unanimously thank you madam is there a way when we are when I'm reading the motion you can go and start opening the vote at that point in time there's a delay between the ending of the vote and then the the registration of the vote on the wall okay that's the problem all right thank you all right motion passes we are now on number 12 thank you everyone for coming out on that.

Item Consolidated annexation Sharon Road Sharon Grove will now hear the staff report thank you Mr Mayor mayor proem honorable members of the council a request for a utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and initial map zoning change zoning map change has been received from Sha gtis of Drees company for three Parcels of land totaling 24.2 acres and located at 803 901 and 903 Sharon Road this annexation petition is for a continuous expansion of the primary corporate limits to allow up to 120 single family and townhouse dwelling units the properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map the proposed residential Suburban 8 with a textual development plan zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type two of three Parcels involved in this zoning map change request were approved for annexation and a zoning change to residential Suburban 10 with a development plan on May 15th 2023 this request seeks to add one more parcel to the proposed development Annex that parcel into the City and change the.

Zoning for all three Parcels to residential Suburban 8 with a textual development plan the Planning Commission recommends Ed Denial on a 12 to1 vote at its August 13th 2024 meeting thank you staff and the applicant are a available to answer questions thank you you've heard the staff report are there any questions to staff from Council all right at this time I'll declare the public hearing open I have one sign up in person.

I have four. Online thank you Aon for the presentation how much time do you think you need five minutes seven please this is Neil go Morning Star Law Group 700 West Main Street I'm representing Dre's homes on this request this is Mr Sean gtis from Drees he's here with me tonight as well like the last one you might be wondering whether you've seen this one before and the answer is kind of sometime last year two of the three properties that are the subject of this request were annexed and rezoned by Drees so why are we back it's because of the third property 803 Sharon Road Drees was able to put 803 Sharon Road under contract about the time the last resoning was approved Sean asked me in my professional opinion what's the best way to veloped the property and I told him I've got an answer for you but you're not going to like it you should go 100% town homes on that parcel and he said yeah what's not to like I said you.

Didn't let me finish I I think you should rezone the properties that we just rezone to add this one in and he said you're right I don't I don't like that answer why in the world would we do that well let me tell you why the way our code Works a development plan obviously sets a zoning boundary but that boundary has greater impacts than you might expect in certain cases the primary reason I told them we need to reone all three Parcels together is so that we can utilize the storm water infrastructure on the already Zone properties to treat the new development on this property if we do not Zone them together the code would not allow that level of shared infrastructure which means the storm water infrastructure for 803 Sharon Road would have to end up on 803 Sharon Road and not only would you end up with a lower lot count over the two projects but you also would end up with unnecessary you know redundant storm water infr infrastructure between.

Them so this request really is about 803 Sharon Road the other ones already are Zone Dre Dre has closed on them they are in the site plan stage on those those properties will be built with up to 63 units of the approximately 24 Acres that are the subject of this request those already Zone properties represent about 17 Acres so 803 Sharon Road is just 6.43 Acres basically we're talking about 57 unit Town own project on 6.43 acres and 803 Sharon Road if you go to it today basically it doesn't have any trees on it today is a small infill project even smaller than the last project one thing that we did on purpose was maintain the already approved monetary propers from the previous rezoning for the other Parcels we did that so that I could change them tonight because I wanted you all to understand the explanation the existing $4,000 commitment to the affordable housing fund is what was approved with the other rezoning and that was for roughly a.

60 unit project so we're going to add to it now and increase it from 40,000 to 880,000 that would be 40,000 additional for these for the 803 Sharon Road property the 185 number going to DPS is what was approved with the last rezoning I know the staff report suggests that the new rezoning would only add five additional students but that's five additional students from 803 because it already is incorporating the students from 901 and 9903 so we would add to the 185 which you know that represents about 37 students from the previous resoning we would add to that amount to make it 21,000 I can I'll just stop right there I mean it's been a long night but that's basically what the project is it's a it is adding six acres and it's going to be all Town Homes it'll be 120 units total over it but we're talking about 57 additional units over what's already zoned thank you happy answer any questions you may.

Have thank. You may jump in speak yeah I have Miss Pam Andrews Donna stanag Pam Williams W Allen miss Andrew can you hear me hi can can you hear me I can welcome you have three minutes thank you good evening mayor Williams and council members and staff Sharon Road has been slammed by development these last few years this small narrow two-lane road was once tobacco Farms today it is saturated with development especially Town Homes there's the aler Track Town H home Sharon Road Apartment Sharon Road towns Sharon Road Place Wesley Downs Etc another 24 Acres will be masquerad to allow for 120 single family family and town homes with a minimum of 80 of these be Town Homes at least 67% would be Town Homes this Mass grading will be will disturb large quantities of traic basin soil which will flow into a stream on the west side right into lit Creek the lit Creek flood zone is only 400 fet away our Creeks are rich red tomato soup.

After every rain that overflow the banks as well as Retention Ponds into homeowners property Neighbors on the east side report flooding already with a minimum of 20% tree preservation the amount of mass grading and very likely blasting will be great with the will the proposed 25% of open space be in the Stream buffer the schools are overc capacity additional students are projected to field Spring Valley which is already 117% over capacity and Neil which is 110% over capacity note the cumulative effect from all these developments in the area is not included in these percentages with 49 new Den development under construction and 34 more approved and pending construction The Creeks continue to suffer sampling continues by our news River Keeper and continues to show a lack of improvement levels in the main stem of lit Creek are not good the southern environmental lawsuit continues to move forward against these Devastation dark Creeks another neighbor has now legal represent representation due to Retention Ponds flooding her prop in close proximity to this site our Fire.

EMS police and Sheriff are strained on October 25th there were 12 calls holding on October 26th the night 26th the night of Central's homecoming there were 10 calls holding no medic trucks available no First Responders available emergency Services were not in effect and infrastructure was desperately needed the environmental impact to LIT Creek needs to be considered we can work with the natural environment and find a fitting solution that won't destroy our Creeks I just want to add single family homes on Fletcher's meal not too far away single family homes 425 447 439 and 450 I just looked them up they're still available thank you thank you the next speaker I have is Donna.

Stanback I'm here welcome you have three minutes hello I'm Donna stainback at Life Time Duram res pres at 4825 Jimmy Rogers Road good evening mayor Williams and Durham City Council members I've listened to the Planning Commission I participated on the August 13th and read in detail the zone map Change Report and I have several questions and issues identified that I'd like to cover the presence of the Triassic so basins had the residence and Planning Commission concerned about erodability runoff blasting and general degradation of the local environment I could not find how these were addressed from the August 13th meeting and I didn't see anything presented here earlier regarding the flooding issues on the east side identifi identified by the neighbors and then planning to regra the soil to get the water to flow to the west side has that been resolved and are we now sending the water to the sediment and to the creek on the west side that is an a th000 foot Creek near the Lick Creek.

And this property is only 400 feet from the impaired lit Creek we need innovative solutions to keep the settlement and water on this property and not overflow and violate the settlement Pollution Control Act for neighboring properties the developer also discussed adding the 100-year storm water Plan before the city council and at the Planning Commission this is needed with all the runoff considerations I could not find that in the document either either was that written in as discussed will blasting be required we request no blasting citizens and the environment continue to have serious issues with blasting technical blasting process issues are still evolving within the last two weeks and have had much attention we need to know the good recipe for blast in this soil there has been damage to Citizens property and water for months a and two years that have not been resolved and impact of citizens these projects last developed with so many environment environmental issues that they are like the last stand for the Wildlife Refuge we are consuming some.

Of the last homes of the wildlife in that area and I was raised in this area and my sister lived less than a mile from this area for over 35 years are any affordable housing units being profited I did not find any commitments this is a serious concern the only Improvement on the road race will thank you Miss tach thank you next I have pam pam. Williams hello Miss Williams you have three minutes okay good afternoon or evening my name is Pam Williams and my address is on file I am an opponent of another high density development along Sharon Road without major infrastructure Improvement especially to the traffic there are no funded projects or preliminary designs in this area to lessen congest congestion do you realize it would take 10 years on average from planning to construction Jaren Road Eastbound in the evening backs up about 3/4 of a mile from MC 98 in the morning I've seen it back up over 3/4 of a mile westbound to mentle Springs there are 13.

New developments in this area six developments are under construction will be built out within the next 2 to three years these six developments are anticipated to increase the daily traffic in this area 9,500 when all 13 developments are completed it will increase the traffic over 15,500 you cannot get out of the side roads or your driveway on Sharon Road now without taking a risk trying to take a left turn between the two directions I'm not sure whether 11,000 vehicles per day were used when 1 and a half miles west of this site on Sharon Road NC doot traffic count was 15,682 prior to midle Springs over 112% capacity Sharon Road eastbound about a mile away was 11,248 80% of the capacity the intersection there at NC 98 is a disaster these backups are merely are not merely inconvenient but dangerous this is another property which a traffic impact analysis wasn't required PA out the nearby 13 developments didn't require a traffic impact analysis toing almost 5,000 additional Vehicles ctive.

This is significant when you add all these up the infrastructure simply cannot support the level of Housing Development being proposed proposing more traffic on such rural level in infrastructure is an accident waiting to happen the required 10t wide sidewalks will be separate from the roadway and will not be utilized by cyclists until it connects to a network type a cyclist will not use the sidewalk and we have plenty of cyclists in this area there are no continuous sidewalks along Sharon Road to any amenities between the proposed left and right turn Lanes the existing roadway will still have narrow lanes and many stretches of no shoulders and are dangerous cumulative impact of the effect of the current development projects in this area is needed for schools EMS police sheriff Redway improv and hospital this project which just worsen traffic and EMS issues already on Sharon Road thank you so much Miss.

Williams next I have Wanda Allen hi yes this is W Allen good evening everyone the Sharon Grove project will have a negative impact on the residence which was voiced very loudly during the neighborhood meetings many expressed large concerns that their F homes now are being flooded due to the many developments in the area I'm projecting tonight there will be a small turnout at the meeting because the meeting was not listed on the Durham resoning Explorer which is the tool where the public is directed to stay AB breast of the events on the Duram resoning site States Duram planning and city council meeting for this location is to be listed to be determined at a lat to be determined I'm learning of me of I learned of the meeting tonight from an individual Facebook account immediately reached out to the planning office to learn about the meeting this should not be the process the public needs to know what is in the queue as I stated earlier there are major concerns.

With this project flooding of the resident homes and a number of environmental issues during the neighborhood meeting it was noted that the extensive Forest cover across the site and the developer offered no canopy assurance and would not buffer would not profer another greater than 500 would not profer around greater than 500 set of the wetlands that exist on the site the developer affirmed that the effort to eliminate the storm water concerns of the neighbors they would reroute the runoff directly into l Creek as you are aware lit Creek is documented at this time with more than 16 incidents of Clean Water violations so rerouting lit Creek should not be at so rerouting into lit Creek should not be an option so I have two questions city council how do you plan to address the concerns that the current storm water erosion mement is not working because the residents are suffering from flooding that is going on from the existing development now and we as taxpayers should not be expected to.

Continue paying the flood and storm metal restoration project 46.7 million has been allocated from 20 to 23 and you are familiar with these projects because they're in your budget Lick Creek little Lick Creek Panther Creek sou Elby Creek there are there are line items in your B budget question number two how does the thank you so much thank you so. Much all right Mr. No there were a few things I want to touch on just to address the question of blasting which came up we don't know if we're not at that stage we haven't done subsurface evaluation they are in sight plan on 901 903 but still not at a point where they would know if they need to blast I think Wildlife was mentioned and I just want to say on 803 803 I don't know if it was a farm before there it it's like clear of trees there's a house on there there's there's no Wildlife on 803 and I did want to address Miss sbach correctly mentioned and I.

Failed to mention earlier that the Planning Commission we talked about looking into the 100-year storm and so I want to let you know that we are we're going to commit to handling the hundred-year storm and in their site plan stage they're actually able to make adjustments and so their site plan is has now been designed and is incorporated to look at the to handle the 100-year storm so that's a commitment we will add to our zoning request and yeah thank. You colleagues I'm going to go ahead and declare the public hearing closed at this time and back before the council thanks for that thanks I actually attorney g i I had some more questions and this was brought up by the Planning Commission and and it was one of our residents just talked about it that the canopy assurances is there a reason that we're not able to we haven't made any commitment related to the tree canopy that's what you're referring to right so on I mean 803 currently doesn't.

Have trees and I think we could tell you what the tree save is or the well actually I don't know that we could on the overall site but the point is the the we we have committed to having 25% open space which I recognize it's different than than the tree canopy but you know we we have I guess I would say prioritized open space instead of tree canopy in this. Scenario and then obviously something that's come up in almost every single commissioner comment and and a couple times from Community is that there's no affordable housing and I heard you talk about the the payment that y'all are planning to make but is there a reason that we don't have any units yeah so I the reason is that the project is too small now I know on paper so the earlier resoning was also 120 no was 102 units this is 120 units but the project actually is a 60 unit project for Drees I mentioned earlier they've already.

Closed on 901 903 their inight plan the financing for that project's already in place so you know that project with the way their financing worked they were it was also too small for units this project on 803 on this resoning it looks like one project but on on their books it is a second project that is of a similar size it's just not big enough for them to incorporate the the cost of an affordable housing unit in there and so they they were making a monetary contribution in this case again I'm sorry when you say not big enough what do you mean there aren't enough units to underwrite the.

Cost so we have the same developer building multiple units and I understand that they're in different stages but you're telling me that there's no way to underwrite the cost because we did it at different times right if it was one large project that would be yes that the finance structure would be different 901 903 was a SE was its own project by itself and I mean 60 unit project not having affordable units that that I mean this Council has voted yes on that on more than one occasion recognizing that the size of the project does limit the ability to provide affordable units that's the same case here okay I don't have any more questions thank.

You council member Freeman I just wanted to hear from Miss Allen she had a second. Question I'm sorry to say again Miss Allan she had a second question I didn't catch it hold on minut. Yes my second excuse me my second question was how does the developer plan to exceed the minimum requirements to ensure the resident homes are not flooded and the reroute option does not go into the liit creek thank you can you answer that question so I think I did just add the commitment to handling the 100 year so that's that is where we're handling the storm water so you won't be rerouting the streams to the not rerouting a stream no just making sure.

Y question well actually U Council thank you go this is obviously I guess they're all complicated but this is complicated with with these two phases right so again when you were referring to the propers that that was that was based on 120 units which is across all three Parcels right 120 is a total all three okay okay and so you're you're you're increasing your profit from 40,000 from the previous two Parcels that 80,000 with this parcel correct okay I wonder I I had correspondence with the planning director but I wonder Miss Young if youd just come up and I know there's been a range of sort of when folks profer dollars instead of units we get a range could you just say what that range is just so folks know what that is good evening Sarah Young we have seen anywhere from $100 per unit up to $1,000 per unit those typically have not been stated is commitments per unit but it's a lumpsum contribution and then staff goes back and kind of you know.

Calculates backwards what it equates to they are typically tied to the size of the project so the smaller projects might proportionally be offering a greater kind of pro-rated proportion if that makes any sense I appreciate that okay my second question is about and I know I always ask about the bpack comments but there were a couple comments I appreciate the offer to let's see the oh the the sort of the the the 10- foot path long sharing yeah right so there's also comments about one was about connectivity via popper and Foxboro to some stub outs is that correct right so that's required so that's already required and that's why the no commitment was because it's already required yes okay the second one was about leaving room for a connection to at the southwest corner to the adjacent homeowners association right there's a potential connection to lick Creek Greenway yeah so yes and no our property is not the one that's adjacent to the HOA property that is adjacent to the Lory.

Greenway we're close to it but the the other reason we didn't make this proper is it's very big leave space I don't know what that would even entail but we're I I didn't want to give the impression that this project is going to be able to provide a direct connection to the Lick Creek Greenway it cannot we're not adjacent to it so there's there's a parcel between you and the homeowner association that that does have some easement or something in that south east corner I believe that's correct if I'm thinking of the right.

Spot I believe so there's at least one parcel if not two in between where the okay we would go and this particular parcel so that means we're we're so we would be hoping those other Parcels then Mr Kane that they also are we would hope they'd have some connection to the greenway but we have no they they would they in theory they could profer a connection to a future connection that could connect to a future Greenway see that's that's why thank you thank you Mr Mayor I I want to actually revisit something my colleague council member cook raised because I I don't understand if if I see 100 I see the number 120 so explain to me again why of that number 120 why is it too small to get affordable units I I didn't quite understand 120 is not too small okay the the issue is that this is not a 120 unit project this is actually two 60 unit projects the six the first 60 unit project 90193 was already reson by Dre.

Last year they closed on it their inight plan after that they got 803 under contract so if anyone else had gotten 803 under contract they would have to rezone 803 by itself because Drees had the adjacent development they had the ability to rezone all of that property together which gives them the ability to utilize shared infrastructure and in this case it's that storm water infrastructure that well I mean some of the neighbors were talking about how it already 803 drains to the east East that's what we're correcting with this we can correct that drainage and have it go south down to 901 9003 because we're able to Zone these together and that so this is two 60 unit projects the rezoning looks like one one 100 20 unit project but the 60 unit project's already underway was was was title not held for this third parcel when these other two were res own I'm sorry was the title for this this parcel we're considering tonight was that not in possession of the the applicants.

At no no no they got it under contract after they rezone 901 and 903 basically what happened was the guy saw that zoning got approved and said okay I think I'm ready so have they started breaking ground on that first 6 no they're still on S plan so why is the why is the No No No dirt's been moved yet and bear with me why why are we so far along in the financial need to the project that it precludes affordable units because their their financing has already been secured for the for 90193 which I guess I would call phase one at this point it was a separate project so then why not present this it seems like we're trying to get credit for 120 units when this is really a 60 unit project before us I me it it it makes it look more attractive to say 120 but in reality I mean we're counting it's really to to because if I see 120 units I'm going to have certain expectations.

But in reality it's 260 unit projects but in this presentation tonight it's asking to allow up to 120 so I I I guess just for consistency of presentation because when it's presented to me like this I'm thinking 120 but it's really 260 unit projects so why not just say 60 as opposed to 120 in the presentation so because we're technically we're resoning all three Parcels with this request and the reason we're doing that is so that we can have shared storm water infrastructure got you if we didn't do that then the storm water for 803 would have to be I I understand the the rationale in terms of the storm I'm talking about Unit C I'm talking about the presentation of numbers in this in this presentation but that's the way I that I am talking to you about a it's a 50 seven unit project because the other one was a 63 unit I that's how I I thought I heard you talking about storm water that.

My question was about units num units of the presentation of 120 as opposed to the reality that this is really because that 60 is already spoken for I mean you're we're asking to rezone it as a whole but the financing is already done on the first one so for me to look at this as resoning as a as a complete package but yet I don't have the the onramp to treat it as such in terms of some of the normal inquiries we'd be making when it comes to affordable housing units and other things just seems to me it's a bit challenging to me to to see the number 120 but to hear in the explanation it's two projects broking up into 60 units each if that that and you can address it I mean if you can address it and if you you know if you put a period on it that that's fine but I I just want to I'm just not sure how I could have been more.

Transparent about it we are resoning it this is not 120 unit project I want be real clear about that that's why that hints my question it says on my report to allow up to 120 right single family and townhouse dwelling units that's because that's what the zoning we're requesting for all three Parcels would technically allow on all three Parcels 120 units right but 90193 is already zoned right so that that's what it is but that's that's exactly why I explained the project the way I did was to be transparent about the fact that this isn't really a 120 unit project it's just styled that way in the in the rezoning so that we can have shared storm water infrastructure MH that's why I don't I don't know how to how to be more transparent about that I feel like you're you're asking me to to be more transparent about no no no I'm I'm not questioning I I'm we we see a lot of these things and there are certain thresholds and triggers that for.

Triggers and deposit that we have as a council we just approved a case where and and maybe it's a present perhaps it's a framing or packaging issue but this is appearing to me as a proposal that that wants to be viewed and not and I and I don't mean that pejoratively it is as you say in fact 120 single family townhouse dwelling units but we don't get to treat it as such as we would other projects when it comes to things like affordable housing and and the fact that you are are upping the the the profer suggest to me that there's state of mind that that that the fact that the number of the of the of the amount for the affordable housing dedicated fund the fact that that number is being upped I mean I appreciate it but you're not couching you're not saying we're not going to offer it because it's it's it's too small and we normally do that it it just seems to me that it's being done.

In Li of units and when I see this 100 20 number it it creates some expectations and I fully understand your your explanation but I I do want to at least give voice to to what I'm dealing with intellectually internally but I'll y for now y to the rest of my colleagues and perhaps revisit a little later covery ER yeah thank you thank you for the information to date we drove this one too so I I'm very aware that there are no trees on that parcel out of curiosity how much money are you saving being able to join up on the 100-year infrastructure like the you're you're saving money on one side because you're able to use infrastructure on the other side kind of we're not saving that much money I don't even know if we're saving money technically we because of the way 803 is current the Topography of 803 we have we have to regrade that site so that it instead of draining East it drains.

South so the cost of the storm water infrastructure has shifted whereas if we weren't doing has shifted to grading I should say on 803 if we weren't doing shared storm water infrastructure the low spot at 803 which is on the east side it would be where we the would be where the the storm water Pond would end up so then we would save on the grading cost I I I couldn't put a number on it for you okay I I would just say thatc I mean not you know I hear I'm really clear that these are two separate projects that I'm not confused on that I would also say that we have a wide range on what we accept as propers and so I would encourage you to speak to your applicant and see what is that difference and how much how much more is the applicant potentially willing to profer either for the affordable housing fund or for DPS I don't I'm noticing our numbers on.

DPS is is more a question for staff than for you the numbers for DPS are a lot higher I guess that's the historically what it's been $500 per student per pupil but then within our packet we're seeing something substantively larger than that I I think no I think it's it's about 500 per student I believe and that's that's generally what applicants have been profer it's about 500 a student yeah I'm just looking at the Durham County per people contribution it's 5,374 annual operating costs and 100,000 Capital cost per student that that's newer information we hadn't been getting that before we've been getting that for the last few month we got those numbers earlier this year from DPS we had that update from Matthew Palmer I guess my question is how much how many conversations have we been having with our development community on that generated number from DPS I mean off offand comment you know we we make sure it's available that we make sure that the applicants know.

The number that we get from DPS yeah I have not personally had a specific conversation with members of the development Community about what their profer is going to be I'm I'm concerned I don't want to cross a line yeah that makes sense staff M I appreciate that so I'm sharing that with the development Community here very carefully it's something that's new we have more information than previously from from DPS on what the county contribution again the city does not contribute to our schools and so I'm just sharing that because it's different than what it's been historically thank you that's all I have for right.

Now any other. Comments all right yeah council member cook were you going to take time to talk with council member Cabo's comments or yeah if that was the next step I also was thinking it was time for almost time for a caption break so I didn't know if that is what was happening I'll I'll handle that part do you need to what you need to do okay he's asking for time to maybe the break would be good time I think is what he was asking oh gotta sorry okay cool 101 yes so we'll we'll we'll take a break.

Yeah Oh no you're fine you're. Fine let's let's try and take like.

Five.

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To that.

All right if we can let's call it back in please volume control.

Yeah that turn that on.

Sure. Right are we ready all right let's go we're back on you okay yeah so during the break had some time to consult with my client so on the affordable housing monetary contribution we would up that based on the Range that yeah I think Sarah Sarah presented earlier you know we we would up that to 120,000 which was which was at the high end of that range and I'll just say on the student numbers it was unclear to us what the new information meant so I we I wanted to be clear about what our profer was is based off the number of additional students from both rezonings so I think it's deceptive if you look at the staff report it suggests that there's only five additional students but that's in addition to the ones that are already accounted for from 901 9003 which is like 37 so that's why we up that to 21,000.

Correct okay Pro did you get that yes sir all right thank you all right are there any other. Questions all right.

Go ahead Mr K oh I just wanted to make I just wanted before we move to motions I just wanted to make sure that we confirmed what the new proffers are which is a $120,000 profer to the D dedicated Durham housing fund correct a $21,000 profer to during public schools and a commitment to treat storm for the 100-year storm event yes okay thank you all right colleagues you've heard the presentation get to the motion I'll now entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance and I'm sorry yeah I'll adopt an ordinance is late annexing Sharon Grove into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to ENT into utility extension agreement with the Drees home comp the Drees Homes company so moved is there a second second it's been moved and properly seconded Madam cour please open the vote please close the vote.

The motion passes four to four I'm sorry 5-2 with council members Baker and cook voting no I voted no I don't know why it didn't catch it it said voted okay then four to three with council members cook Baker and Freeman voting no thank you and I'll also entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential role residental Suburban 20 and false Jordan Watershed protection overlay District B County jurisdiction and residential Suburban 10 with the textual development plan and Falls Jordan Watershed protection overlay District B City jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential with Suburban 8 with the textual development plan and Falls jording Watershed protection over a district B City jurisdiction moved as red second move and proberbly second it Madam Clerk please up a vote.

Please close the vote the motion passes 4 to three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting now thank you and finally motion three to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute section 160d d605 so moved second move the properly second it Madam Clerk please sub to vote please close the. Vote the motion passes unanimously thank you and to our final presentation Consolidated annexation wford at the park thank you Mr Mayor a request for a voluntary and public hearing I'm sorry yeah go ahead request for a voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change has been received from Tim cyers of City for portions of three Parcels of land totaling 1.79 acres and located at 103 zanti current road this annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate Li corporate limits to allow for City Maintenance of roads and utilities the properties are currently designated Recreation open space on the place typ map the proposed residential Suburban multifan family with a development plan zoning is generally consistent with the.

Designated use on the plates type map because the parcels in question are utilized as open space and tree coverage for the adjacent development if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the place type designation as part of the annexation petition the applicant is not SE seeking a change in the underlying zoning District the site is currently open space in tree coverage owned by the homeowners association of the adjacent property and will continue to function as such should it be annexed by the city the Planning Commission recommended approval on a 13 to0 vote at its August 13th 2024 meeting staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions all right this will probably be a very long one I'm gonna stop jinxing because we're still here and I said that earlier at 8 o'clock all right I have one speaker Tim savers I'm sorry I staff You' now heard the report from staff are there any questions for staff all right I'll now declare the public hearing.

Open five minutes is plenty of time good evening mayor Williams mayor proon Middleton members of the council my name is Tim cyers with city I appreciate the the time this evening and I will already cross through a lot of my presentation this evening so I'll keep it short we are here for a cleanup item this project was approved and the last construction Co the last Co was issued in 2018 and at that time this was noticed that this portion had not been annexed into the city it was mistakenly about 10 years ago during that presentation during the annexation it was annexed into the county from the RTP and never finished aning into the city therefore the city cannot actually take ownership and maintenance responsibilities of the roads themselves so we're here tonight just cleaning up this item so again this 10year old development the city can actually take ownership and maintenance of these of these of these roads that's it thank you for your time if you have any questions I'm.

Available all right you've heard from the applicant and that is the only speaker I have are there any questions or I don't have any other speakers so I'll declare the public hearing closed back before the council colleagues any questions all right well at this time I will entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing windsford at the park into the city of Durham just read second it's been moved and properly seconded Madam Clerk please sub a vote pleasee close the vote motion passes 70 all right motion two to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the residential Suburban multif family County jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential Suburban multif family city city jurisdiction who is read second and move to property second M Madam CL please open the vote please close to vote motion passes 70 and finally to adopt the consist motion three to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carina General stat statute section 160 D- 605 move to adopt consistency.

Second been mov and property seconded Madam Clerk please open to vote please close the vote motion passes 70 thank you so much colleagues that is the end of our agenda and I apologize for you all letting letting you see what happens when 12:00 hits this time change got me a little messed up my body is like it's 12 o' I'm ready to go to sleep but I thank you all so much and that's end up the agenda we are Jour 1114.

I'm okay.

With.

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