Good evening welcome to the dorham Planning Commission the members of the Durham Planning Commission are appointed by the City Council and the County Board of Commissioners to make recommendations to the elected officials we emphasize that the elected officials have the final say on any issue before us.
Tonight you will be given the ability to speak at the appropriate time if you have pre-registered your name will be called so you can make your comments just like an in-person public public hearing that's with the zoom access you may also call in during the meeting tonight by dialing 1301 715 8592 if you call in during the meeting you will need to wait until the particular public hearing you are interested in starts after all of the pre-registered speakers have shared their comments the chair will ask if there was anyone else wishing to speak at that point you will need to digitally raise your hand by pressing star n on your phone and when recognized state your name and address before making your comments the applicants have a total of 10 minutes for presentation each speaker after the applicant has two minutes to speak we have five cases public hearing is closed.
Finally I ask everyone here on the zoom and the commissioner commission members the staff and the public to conduct themselves in a courteous and respectful manner if someone fails to act in that manner the chair will ask the offending person or persons to be muted on the zoom until such time as they can regain personal control if the Quorum fails to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until a genuine commitment to act respectful and courteous is observed thank you may we have the roll call please good evening chair Cameron is on her way Vice chair sharis here commissioner cutright here commissioner Graves mans here commissioner Gham yes commissioner Johnson has an excused absence commissioner copac here commissioner mcgyver here CE here commissioner trap commissioner Valentine here commissioner Williams here commissioner wo here commissioner young here we have Corum excellent are there any adjustments to the agenda staff do not have any adjustments to the agenda this.
Evening all right so can we.
Have approval of the minutes and consistency statements from the last meeting and what's next have a motion motion to approve Madam chair second it has been moved by commissioner trap and seconded by commissioner CE to approve the minutes and consistency statements all in favor please say I I I eyes have. It okay let. Me the first case is z220 60 Sheffield Farms may we have the staff report Vice chair sharis I need to recuse myself not through any affiliation with the current applicant but through prior work and affiliation with the current property owner okay good evening planning Commissioners brick rooper with the city County Planning Department this is Sheffield Farms the following information summarizes the application Erica leam of Mi homes proposes to change the zoning designation of a portion of one parcel of land totaling approximately 220 acres and located at 8422 Fairington Mill Road the current zoning is residential rural the applicant proposes to change this designation to plan development residential 3.24 to allow up to 702 units consisting.
Of single family townhouse and apartment units the properties are currently designated mixed use in Recreation and open space on the place type map the proposed plan development residential 3.24 one zoning is inconsistent with the designated Place type of mixed use neighborhood and Recreation and open space if the proposed zoning is is approved staff recommends a change to the place type map to designate the entire property as mixed residential. Neighborhood here's a map of all properties notice for the neighborhood meeting moving on to the next Slide the existing zoning is residential rural the site is surrounded by residential Rural and plan development residential the aerial map shows the General location of the project in Southwestern Durham the applicant has included graphic and tex commitments including the construction of a 10-ft shared multi-use path along the west side of Fairington Mill Road and a $300,000 contribution to the dur the Durham dedicated housing fund the applicant has propos tree preservation areas in six different locations throughout the site nine access points and stream buffers along various.
Locations on site the applicant also held a neighborhood meeting on November 14th 2022 where 53 community members were in attendance a total of three meetings were held the proposal in its current form is not Udo compliant with Udo paragraph 3.3.7 based on a review of the Tia conducted for this development the city and NC NC doot have identified the improvements to the surrounding roadway Network that are needed to accommodate the proposed development per the Udo mitigation measures shall be conditions of development approval and any modification or deletion shall require the same approval process that was re required for their original project the applicant proposes to condition all improvements which could could ultimately lead to improvements not being made or required the surrounding transportation system cannot support development of The Proposal of the proposed intensity without construction of the mitigation measures identified the the applicant indicated they are unwilling to include the required improvements without condition on the next Slide the proposed planned development residential 3.24 one zoning is inconsistent with the.
Designated place type of mixed use neighborhood and Recreation in open space staff have determined that the proposal is inconsistent as a proposal does not include a mix of residential and non-residential uses is not within a 15-minute walk of nearby amenities and does not preserve land designated as recreation in open space as noted in the comprehensive plan the site is also in one of the future growth areas identified in the comp plan in order to remove the fga designation a lift station that serves the entire fga designated area will need to be constructed the applicant has not committed to the construction of the lift station or the Force main on the development plan and a utility extension agreement has not yet been finalized at at this point the proposal is an environmentally unique and sensitive area as well and no recommendations from the nhp report have been committed to or addressed and no sustain ility commitments have been offered thank you the staff and applicant are available for.
Questions permission to speak chair Alex IND kill at the planning department we just wanted to note for those watching at home there are some technical difficulties and so there is no CL closed captioning at this time tonight we apologize for that we can make records available of this meeting in any format that you need but we just wanted to point that technical difficulty out.
Tonight all righty at this time we will call the community members we have the sign up. Sheet you opened just okay at this time we'll open up the public hearing and the first person on the list is Larry tum you gave to okay so I want to be clear that all Community participants have two minutes to. Speak oh we haven't done the applicant yet oh I'm sorry I am so sorry I'm trying to get the applicant trying to figure out where she was not the not the community yet the applicant I am I apologize yes one more clarification the applicant was concerned that we didn't make the statement so we want to make sure it's clear all planning items have been noticed in accordance with state and local law and affidavits of those notices are available upon request from the planning department and did we make clear that the applicant has 10 minutes today and the all Commissioners have five minutes to speak and Community has two minutes to speak.
So that's thank you thank you and good evening chair Cameron Vice chair sharis and members of the Planning Commission I am Neil go at the morning our Law Group here in Durham I'm representing the applicant for this proposed resoning which is M homes we also have with us Mr Earl lellan with kimley horn Laura Hollman and I believe Jeremy fch from McAdams and Erica leam with m i homes I want to thank Miss roer for the presentation of this matter and I'll try not to be repetitive as you've already heard the basics but I do think there's a bit more to this project than is presented in the staff report when we filed resoning the new comprehensive plan and place type map were being considered in draft form this particular piece of property was and still is within the Suburban tier but in the original draft of the comp plan the property was proposed to be taken out of the urban growth boundary ultimately it was kept in the urban growth boundary by.
The City Council and the board of County Commissioners when they adopted the comp plan what is interesting is that while in the initial draft the property was slated to not be within the urban growth boundry at all the recommendation and ultimately what was adopted for the place type map designation when this property was included in the urban growth boundary was mixed use neighborhood which is one of the more intense designations there is so somehow it went from do not extend services to this property to this needs to be mixed use I personally question the logic behind that but luckily the comp plan has guidance on how to deal with changes to the place type map in fact I believe it was commissioner ce's language in this regard that ultimately was supported by the Planning Commission at that time and eventually adopted as part of the comp plan policy 167 states that amendments to the play sight map should only be permitted under certain circumstances including whether the proposal demonstrates benefits to affordable housing environmental goals.
Or approaches to Equitable engagement and outcomes I think that this is where this project Falls though I think the staff report would likely lead you to a different conclusion on the environmental front this project actually is pretty sound yes we are talking about rezoning something like 218 Acres but we also have a commitment that the impervious will be limited to no more than 36% which means only about 78 Acres will be developed the rest of the 140 acres is Green Space tree cover open space or untouched that's pretty significant we also have committed to providing our tree cover Through preservation only meaning existing old grow trees will be preserved that's another great commitment the staff report implies that the project is inconsistent with the recommendations from the natural heritage program I would be curious to know how many folks know what the natural heritage program is it is a non-regulatory information gathering program aimed at three things the first is to inventory North Carolina's natural heritage I'm sorry natural areas I.
Should say the second is to gather and use information from those inventories to guide their recommendations in creating a network of nature preserves and the third is to encourage the protection of natural heritage the project already did two of those things we had them inventory the site and they gathered gathered information to better inform their recommendations if you actually read the report you will see that they found no rare plants Flora or fauna during the inventory they did find some natural areas and in their estimation some of those natural areas do not have evidence of past disturbances this led them to conclude that the restoration potential of this project area is very high they believe that with active management and restoration the track could har could Harbor rare and uncommon species we don't dispute the accuracy of those scientific statements but to suggest that this project destroys the existing natural heritage area as false it's not not supported by the report the report basically says that if you do not touch.
This land it could become a natural heritage area this of course ignores the fact that the property is subject to an active timbering and Forestry management plan and those trees will be removed at some point whether by this project pursuing or pursuing to the forestry plant bottom line is that area will not remain untouched as it relates to Equitable outcomes this is one area where I believe the project excels I think you will hear from members of the nun and Quin families who have lived in this area for decades their family story is truly amazing but the point is that the main reason that this area was kept within the urban growth boundary in the current comp plan it's it's them their family has for decades been trying to gain access to City Water and Sewer so they can continue to live there and grow their family there they have septic systems which are failing the city acknowledges that serving this area with water especially sewer is an expensive in challenging Endeavor but the elected.
Officials have determined that it is a worthy Endeavor here again I think the staff report misses The Mark with respect of the sewer challenges it correctly points out that we have not on the development plan committed to constructing the necessary sewer infrastructure to service that area it also correctly points out that the utility extension agreement has not been finalized unfortunately those statements lead one to believe that having a finalized utility extension agreement at this stage or committing to sewer infrastructure on a development plan are normal courses of action you need look no further than the rest of your agenda to see that simply is not the case I used to serve on the Planning Commission and during my 10e we did not once have a utility exension agreement included in the agenda packet and and while it's correct that a UEA has not been finalized that of course cannot happen until the elected officials vote on it for what it's worth we actually already have signed the UEA it's it's not I.
Mean we're simply waiting for it to be finalized by the elected body I have a signed copy of it here it won't be signed until the elected officials vote on it the UA outlines the project this Project's requirements for utility infrastructure including installing a lift station to serve the entire area if I didn't mention it already we already signed it we already agreed to it we have looked into this aspect of the project significantly right now our initial estimate simply to extend the sewer Force main three miles to serve this area is around the $10 million Mark which is well in excess of typical project and with that price tag it's no wonder the city does not have any plans to bring sewer to this area at this time fortunately we do have plans to do that and this helps drive an equitable outcome that has been long overdue I've said a lot and I have more I could say but I'm sure there will be many.
Questions from you all and I want to be sure to get to the traffic concern I'll invite our traffic engineer Mr Earl Wellen to say a few words about. That good evening everyone Earl lell and with kimley horn traffic engineer on this project first of all the study area for this project was quite extensive a total of 10 intersections extending 2 and 1 half miles in several directions away from the site the project is committing to make improvements at numerous off-site intersections but the need for these improvements is primarily driven by existing traffic and traffic from other approved developments in the area for example at the nc751 stage coat intersection site traffic will only account for 2% of the future build growth or the future build traff volumes at that location so the project is clearly paying their fair share toward improvements regarding the existing deficiencies we we did some additional analysis and found that 70% of the traffic on Barbie Chapel Road today is cutting through from kry to Chapel Hill.
And vice versa so the improvements that are proposed are really to address traffic that's not related to the site and to a large degree from other jurisdictions nevertheless the improvements proposed will provide acceptable operations per City and Dot standards thank you and thank you and to that I'll just want add a couple finer points to that we do have a caveat note on this development plan related to the traffic improvements and we don't normally I don't normally have that on a development plan that' be representing it this is a special case for a very specific reason some of the improvements I think most most of the improvements require us to acquire right of way from the Army Corps of Engineers otherwise known as the US federal government we've looked into this and I think you guys have seen development plans we don't normally have this caveat note but it is the case that ncdot for example and and the City of Durham also do not have the authority to.
Condemn or take that right of way if they wanted to so we don't actually have a way to to kind of back stop our ability to get that ride of way so we're we're committed to going through the process we've already started with the Army Corps but if we can't get their approval we need this caveat note on the development plan and I will just note you've heard that 70% of the traffic on this Corridor doesn't even start or end in Durham if nothing ever gets built on this property the traffic at those intersections will get worse than it is today and no one will be on the hook for the improvements than thank you for your time thank you before I call up the community members I just want to make sure from this signup sheet we have some people that have said yes you have a slide presentation so I want to be sure that you have the slide presentation and it's ready to go because we have about 30 people signed.
Up and that's already 30 * 2 is 60 that's an hour so we want to be efficient if any of you all are presenting together you need to let me know so you will line up and go one right after the other so just want to make sure if I call your name it's a yes here if you if you do have a slide presentation Larry tum you do Chuck you have a slide presentation no P Farley you slide presentation would you go second then Elizabeth Moore and Rick no Ken Pew okay third Annette rice fourth Kate Peggy yes no Barry.
Saunders okay Mr tium and then Holt if you could be ready to go right when is he's done can we start the two minutes please on the clock you giving them 10 minutes and two seconds wow I'll take it all right go ahead sir thank you once once your presentation gets up good evening Madam chair thank you for your time this evening my name is Larry tum I'm from 217 Bell Rose Drive Chapel Hill I am the VP also of I'm the VP at Montclair HOA I would like to use my time to address two specific areas traffic and roadways based on the current level as well as conditions it is our concern that the plans the developer alludes to to be contingent on approvals not yet obtained their idea that turn lanes and cutouts on a single lane roadway will solve the volume issue I believe is in is naive and myopic these in these could not be addressed the increased flow potential based on their current number of units at.
702 on top of the already 5,720 units in the immediate area that have been approved Little Creek Bridge as you can see and the surrounding roadways are in a state of decline shoulder erosions and potholes their repairs are cosmetic at best the bridge was built in 1979 over a flood zone and has increased usage rate of 24% over the last 12 years as evidenced by the photos in the presentation it is scheduled for repair or replacement in 2025 however with the increased flow of traffic as well as the weight of heavy construction equipment that date might need to be re-evaluated deconstruction and reconstruction of that bridge will cut off access to Stage Coach Road as well as increase oil fire ambulance and police responses to that area thank you thank you next up we have HT Harley.
Yes someone could help me.
Move okay I'm presenting a slide of the area just to make I'm sorry can you state your name and your address I'm sorry good evening Commissioners my name is Hol Farley and I'm along time resident at 7313 kepley Road which is near the development proposed development at Sheffield Farms I would like to comment today on the traffic impact analysis prop in The Proposal well I'm not a traffic engineer I do have strong computer simulation background with engineering degrees from M and considerable relevant professional experience the tiia analysis utter is utterly dependent upon a single day of traffic flow data collected on in October of 2022 this is a period when covid work from home restrictions was common and so likely we've underestimated the traffic volumes the Tia calculates very short intersection delay times for these Baseline 2022 traffic data these delays are really seem untethered to daily experience driving in the area remarkably the Tia makes no effort to confirm the calculated delay times match actual measured delayed times.
There is no verification in the Tia that the model and the calculations are correct this is a fatal omit Omission from any such analysis for the year 2030 projections the Tia assumes unrealistically low ambient traffic growth rates for the roads in the study Additionally the Tia included estimated traffic projections for only two of eight approved housing developments in the study area when Sheffield Farms traffic is included the Tia projects lengthy intersection delays with delays of over 5 minutes thank you sir your time is up oh okay thank you thank you next we have Elizabeth BB.
Moore oh okay can we have assistance at the I think I need someone to show me where my slides are which one biy. Mo I might use my glasses good evening Madam chair and Commissioners you have a difficult job and I thank you for being here my name is Elizabeth Moore I live at 109 larat Lane in Southwest Durham County for 34 years and I'm only 500 feet from the proposed development I have a background in Environmental Management I work from the botanical garden and the natural heritage program so let me advance this slide now I'm going to blow it here okay how do I do that sles show let's try this is it F5 oh well I should just quit now huh it's on the next I know but how do I Advance it okay I know the planning board has made Community feedback of priority and we have done everything we can to communicate with the planning department and now you Commissioners and see our lovely audience we have posted more than a.
Hundred social pinpoint comments and now that's been disabled as a way to give feedback this is the reference that has already been given out it's a called a landscape analysis for wildlife habitat connectivity the bottom line is this involves Durham orange chadam and Wake County the natural heritage program has been a leader Statewide and identifying plants and animals that are endangered and getting the owner ERS of properties to protect them in 33 seconds I'm going to just say we have seven water sheds in Durham County in the bottom left right the bottom left corner that's the property we're talking about the bottom left corner again is Conservation Area and you can see here the dark green so here's my ask I'm asking that the area be remain rural residential and that the I have to say my last ask and that the Durham open program purpos this property in this site to be used only for open space it's too valuable ecologically thank you next we have Ken Pew could you hand out.
We could start please stay name and your address I'm Chuck Darcy live at 111 Lariat Lane Chapel Hill which is part of the Down's neighborhood I've lived there for 45 years watched the roads go from Country Roads stage coach was a gravel road at one time Bridge a bridge was taken out and made wider it's now a major thoroughfare and I think the applicants for I think making our case about the traffic and there is traffic that comes up and that that's why I've got this map here to show you that comes up from Fairington on Fairington Mill from all the chatam developments which include Governor's Club Governor Village Carolina Meadows and many other developments down there coming from Chapel Hill and and you can refer to Professor Adrien Bean's constructal theory that everything has a natural flow and the natural flow is when people are coming out of Chapel Hill on 54 they find that the traffic is so bad that they look for another way and what they do is come.
Through Barbie Chapel Fairington Stage Coach over to 751 at the time of a rush hour there is a backup already and the idea of 700 units with all the cars adding to that is is is Unthinkable already we have too much traffic on that road the idea that we would have any more is U I don't think we can handle it and the court of Engineers I've talked to the people on Duke Street the district engine engers they say the Corp of Engineers will not let them have even a left turn lane from onto stage CES road going south on thank you sir your your time is up so I ask that everyone pay attention to the name that I call to come next and I think I believe I called K get my slides up okay.
N Pew and I think the commission is okay and this works okay thank you good evening Commissioners I'm Ken Pew resident of Durham address on file I'm a former professional engineer registered in we start the please I'm sorry I'm a former professional reg engineer registered in Maryland I speak tonight on two points in the traffic impact analysis report the first is that the report shows that farington Mill Road with the additional traffic generated by the development will cause it become level of service F or maybe a low E it's a simple matter of addition 10,000 current plus 7,000 additional makes a for it's exceeds 14,000 the NC do traffic engineer says exceeding capacity is another Department's issue the second point is on the assumptions regarding the traffic distribution as shown in this slide these assumptions are not based on any methodology according to the ncdot traffic engineer but are purely subjective they do not include any information about traffic from the existing residents traffic assignments methodologies are Fates straightforward.
Here's an example of one you determine where traffic zones are for business shopping and so forth where they're located based on current usage you assign an amount of traffic to each Zone and then determine the traffic on each path based on the travel time none of this has been done traffic distributions are primary input to any traffic model and invalid inputs in produce invalid results and fact the ncdot engineer says.
There is no process for public comment on the Tia except for the simple public hearing so you're going to be over this development regardless of anything else is going to you're going to have a grade F thank you thank you sir can we next have everyone to get ready that's Annette rice Kate Heim I believe Barry.
Saunders so Kate himim I mean Anette rice sorry r Rice okay how do I get his slice off Alexander can we have somebody stay there this why I'm trying to do all the Powerpoints first so and then someone can work the timer if we could split some type of situation going on here that would be.
Great good evening my name is Anette rice and I live in Durham County at 121 Sterling Chapel Way which is right by this development one of the issues that has not actually even been mentioned is including this area as a future growth area actually is dependent upon the sewer improvements being put into. Place sorry technical difficulties they can't tie into the actual existing they can't tie into the existing sewer circuit because it's already completely at capacity what they are going to be trying to do is trying to go ahead and go up almost three miles Fairington road the applicant has not committed to construction constructing a lift station or the Force main which is required they've that's the existing circuit the 8422 property is all the way down here the horse head Lake one of the points that was raised by Mr go is that they be providing water and sewer to the surrounding homes the historical nun properties however that just gives them the capacity and I hope staff will.
Clarify on this to connect in at their own expense we're talking tens of thousands of dollars if you look at the map here that I have the red zone of the St of Fairington Mill Road for the development and that red star there is actually the sewer treatment plant in this part of town the green areas there is the overlapping of protect of flood zones and Army Corps of Engineers land it would be almost two miles as the crow flies but I know you've all heard a phrase sort of like that sewage doesn't fly all right thank you your time is up next we have Kate hi hi.
And remember please state your name and your address before you start speaking thank you thank you madam chair thank you Commissioners Kate Heim 7624 kabic Drive in the Downs neighborhood I just wanted to start out giving a a big picture of view looking at the proposed area which I've circled and you can see the greenery there and then on the right you can see the area of right down the middle is is where the proposed area is and to the right you have Morgan Creek and that area draining into Jordan Lake and to look at Jordan Lake just the the background of what it is it's water supply it's flood control it's it's Wildlife Management it's water supply there's a lot going on there that's of interest and this part this water area drainage area is going right into Jordan Lake and so this was the document that be referred to this landscape analysis for Durham County that was written by the Durham County open space program and published last year so very recently and.
If you see the whole County you can see that there are relatively sparse areas that have without within the county that have this prioritization for the habitats and you can't see it on here because of the Sheffield Farms part on the bottom but there's an arrow pointing to where the the subdivision on here is on the map so far left or far southwest corner we have the subdivision and this shows that the habitat priority is highest higher and high and then there is some non-habitat there but the entire area is covered with that designation and this is habitat for water and land animals Corridor for Habitat range so not just getting from one place to another and the habitat is dwindling in Durham County and this is worthwhile to to preserve for sure Bellic of flood zone map you can see the animals coming up would need to shift into that zone with during a flood or even high waters thank you for your attention thank.
You Barry Saunders Sanders I'm sorry my. Context.
Madam chair Commissioners I'm Barry sers I live at 8110 kenbeck Drive Chapel Hill Durham County I want to speak to the threat that a Sheffield development would pose through storm water runoff to an already impaired watershed this shows the Morgan Creek flood zone along the parcel's western edge this Basin has been a wash in Jordan Lake floodwaters more than once in the last several decades the state classifies Morgan Creek Waters here as drinking water and nutrient sensitive these Waters do not need more nitrogen or phosphorus Beyond what's already coming Downstream from the oasa treatment plant Sheffield runoff would be higher volume than it is now due to new impervious surfaces runoff would contain nutrients from Landscaping detergents from maintenance toxins from Auto leakage it would carry silt from erosion especially during construction this is what the nutrient impaired Jordan Lake looked like on Saturday where Morgan Creek enters this is overgrowth of algae when all this algae dies it produces anoxic conditions that kill aquatic fauna the sloped western edge of the.
Sheffer parcel along the top of the parcel here includes a lot of coving from erosion this is common in the pedmont from past timbering and agriculture that didn't conserve soils tree roots are stabilizing those slopes the developer site plan doesn't show a tree buffer all along those upper slopes this shows an edge of the Sheffield parcel that meets steep slope criteria 25% there's much more steep slope just below on corand tree roots are key to protecting those slopes here are deep erosion gullies at two different inter streams exiting the Sheffield parcel this is last Sunday after just a quarter inch of rain imagine 10 times that I wonder about the comprehensiveness of the surveyor's marking of steep slopes thank you.
Sir I think we're done with PowerPoints with presentations I think we're is there anyone else that has a presentation one more person no I'm saying a slide presentation yeah everyone else has signed up to speak I'm gonna yeah that's it all right thank you all okay we have Rick. Con. Madam chairman and Commissioners my name is Richard Quin I live at 109 Lariat Lane a few hundred feet to the east across Fairington Mill Road from The Sheffield Farms tract proposed for rezoning my neighborhood known as the Downs is the same size and also zoned residential rural I think the Downs provides a better model for developing the Sheffield Farm space than the Mii homes proposal for our location in a critical Watershed at the northern tip of Jordan Lake the Down's 210 acres is divided into 48 forested Lots varying in size from 2 to six acres our protective Covenant State quote Landscaping of areas not used for structures shall be done in a manner to preserve the natural forest or improve on the existing.
Natural beauty and prevent soil erosion for 23 years I have picked up trash on Fairington Mill Road in the adopta highway program walking the stretch within the boundaries of the Sheffield Farms parcel and adjoining Army Core land surrounded by a quiet Serene Forest I felt as if I was tending a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway I'm grateful to the few family owners for preserving this lovely gateway to Durham County for the last 70 or more years but I respect their decision that now is the right time to develop most of the tract if they were to apply the Downs model they could subdivide Sheffield Farms into 100 to 200 gorgeous wooded lots to be served by septic tanks and Wells these highly desirable Lots could be sold at top dollar while this would provide fewer housing units it would preserve much of the existing natural environment reduce the traffic impact and avoid all the intractable sewer problems I urge you to encourage this alternative by keeping the existing RR zoning in place thank.
You thank you next we have malora M mall after that we will have Melanie Curry and John Curry if you want to get.
Ready. Good evening I'm malora McCall I live at 4406 curly road which is not in the vicinity of Fairington Mill Road but I understand that the decisions made today will impact future development applications including the ones where I do live I've asked this developer in a separate and recent neighborhood meeting about their experience with development in environmentally sensitive areas one thing I've learned from The Proposal considered today is that they're willing to risk both credibility and Trust to manage Durham's sensitive Resources by failing to meet Udo codes comprehensive plan policies act in accordance with recommendations from our reviewing groups or thoughtfully incorporate Community feedback the city of Durham should not be so willing to compromise credibility or standards by choosing to allow procedure udio code or the newly finalized policies of the comprehensive plan fall aside in consideration of the development plan of Sheffield Farms placing conditional commitment to meet requirements or recommendations on first receiving rezoning approval is problematic and a slippery slope for Durham to engage in high quality development proposals will.
Come when our governing bodies hold the line on standards and accountability I urge you to reject this resoning proposal as presented for consideration today on foundational issues of non-compliance and for under mining Durham's overall policies and procedures striving to generate development in alignment with our community goals thank you thank you Melanie Curry okay great Linda MC M Manson I'm sorry my contact is not acting right today good evening my name is Linda mansman and my husband and I reside at 8809 inton Mill Road in Southwestern Durham County our property is 2/10 of a mile from the proposed SE Sedgefield Farms development we feel that the construction construction of a development of this size poses safety risks to us and our animals as well as potential structural damage to our home Barns and out buildings we are also concerned about damage to our well Andor the effects of well water quality and quantity we are concerned about the shortterm and long-term effects of deforestation blasting Mass grading and consequences of heavy equipment and logging trucks I.
Spoke to an owner of a horse farm in South Eastern dorham County whose well collapsed after blasting in a nearby con construction site she had to haul drinking water for 30 horses daily for two months while a new well was dug we have lived in our on our 5 and A2 acre horse par horse property that we call Fox Club farm for 26 years we use the property for our horses and conduct monthly education clinics for Riders and seminars for horse owners veterinarians and faers these are unique services and central location that is accessible to many horse people our driveway is shared by two other owners who also have buildings and Wells and where where they conduct agriculture act activities our driveway in Eastman is located located between proposed shefield access one and two horse trailers faers Farm Supply Vehicles routinely travel this route a de development of this size will impair our agricultural activities and please vote against this project thank you thank you Bill Canon Philip the Canon no Peggy.
For. You could start speaking she can hand them out yeah well go ahead and start speaking please. Thank good evening my name is Margaret Force I go by Peggy and I live at 7212 kepley Road right near where the mansman live and we are also very close to this development and I support the comments of my neighbors who've been speaking earlier and what I've handed out are some references to the report that you have it's a I think a 256 page PDF so I went to a few of the pages one of the things that's a big concern that you've heard of again and again is about traffic and there are some promises that are made and I heard them when we heard the presentation from the developer that they're going to make significant improvements and these improvements to roadways in the network are required apparently the surrounding transportation system cannot support development of the proposed intensity without construction of the mitigation measures identified below that's what it says on PDF page seven.
And then it identifies six three of them are offsite but if you notice in the general notes that appear right on the the map for the development plan three of those are substant they're important intersections that are affected and they are offsite and for each of those offsite improvements if you scan down to the bottom of the page on P page 35 it it notes that implementation of these improvements may be impeded due to RightWay constraints and adjacent US Army Corps land but when you look at the notes after these promises are made to make these improvements that are necessary then it says the condition for in the event thirdparty approvals of RightWay are not obtained for off-site improvements said improvements shall not be required and and the developer will have to show that they went through the formality of getting rejected by the core of engineers so in other words this is something that's apparently supposed to make us feel comfortable that they'll be made but it doesn't appear to me.
Likely that they will be thank you thank you next we have Steve Simon alheim and John Cohen if you all can get ready than go ahead sir good evening Commissioners I'm Steve Simon and my address is one24 hammock Bend Chapel Hill I'd like to speak about the traffic as as others have the existing traffic on farington Mill Road is already very heavy and and quite accident prone quite a number of head-on accid and I'll explain why as noted on the zoning map Change Report the current traffic is 10,000 vehicles on average that's seven seconds between every vehicle it takes 10 seconds to make a right turn turn onto the road so that includes the 7 Seconds to accelerate to 55 miles an hour and two or three seconds actually execute the turn it means that generally speaking when you make a turn you're going to cut somebody off then as you're thinking about that we have bicycles without bike Lanes we have people passing without adequate passing lanes and so this road has become quite.
Accident prone so the things that are recommended in The Proposal address these issues within the development CLE itself but not the entire traffic that it adds so what to adequately address these issues the cost the true cost to the county is the other improvements that it will have to make sooner or later to alleviate the traffic problems and accidents which might include adding additional turn Lanes acceleration Lanes bike lanes and adequate passing lanes that don't exist there today now whether this is something that's part of this project or something that comes later on it's still a cost going to come to the county in addition you could ride on that road and anybody that's ridden on that road knows just how many potholes are are appearing on a daily basis and we're filling them in on a daily basis as well but this road was a country road it was really combin combination of three different roads and it has much more traffic on it than it can be sustained by the ra roadway thank.
You very. Much okay good evening Madam chair and Commissioners my name is Adelaide H and I live at 7624 acemic drive I'm a senior at Jordan High School I'm part part of the high school environmental club and I'm a participant in envir Environ a competition that focuses on participants knowledge of Forestry evaluation Wildlife identification climate issues Aquatics and more all specific to North Carolina if we continue cutting down forests and rerouting watersheds for our personal benefit ignoring the signs that our planet is suffering Heating and our creatures are dying faster than ever then we are directly contributing to the problem although trees alone aren't able to save the planet and sequester all of the CO2 the last thing we need is less of them now looking at it from a perspective other than environmental if you were to approve this development this would be putting likely more than 700 additional cars on the road and that's already surrounded by wildlife habitat increasing Rogue Hill numbers adding all these cars will increase.
Congestion at nearby intersections which has already been said but this will take Vehicles longer to go through the area this will waste gas and increase pollution in the area due to Vehicles getting congested at stoplights using gas while going nowhere and losing drivers money over time I just want to take a moment to zoom out and look at Durham Chapel Hill as a whole one of many things that makes Durham such an optimal place to live and work is and something that sets our area apart from other cities is the amount of nature trees and Wildlife around Durham County and the associated wildlife habitats that connect it to other areas like Jordan Lake and Falls Lake many species of land and water animals live in and rely on natural parts of Durham County such as otter tiger salamanders and bald eagles just to name a few I'm not saying that building this neighborhood will ruin the world but is certainly a step in the wrong direction for Durham County thank you thank.
You hello Commissioners I'm John Cowen I reside at 3514 Shady Creek Drive soon moving to 7213 kepley Road I'm the owner of blue Sun Farms the 112 Acre Farm ad joining the Repose Sheffield parel my addresses include 8851 051 8801 Fairington Mill across from the proposed three outlets for thousands of cars per day I've committed myself to renovate and run my farm and ensure our Vital and growing rural community continues forward the area must be restricted to rural farming and single family homes this proposal is going from0 to 1,000 not an uptick density destroying our natural resources forever alternatives to fast Buck destruction include Durham County open space to purchase it in permanent conservation or deeding the land into conservation status for tax breaks or low density development like the Downs I've committed my land to the voluntary agricultural district for the next 10 years joining at least two other vad properties nearby like Cedarwood Stables I have seven people who work for the farm living on the property and more.
Jobs are coming we raise honey bees and hay and we produce sheep a source of meat to underserved ethnic communities in North Carolina we are renovating a large equestrian resource center and plan to reopen this year I'm getting Public Funding from Durham County Soil and Water State funding hoping for federal funding for conservation and to improve Community water but right across the road the development impact to Jordan Lake could be devastating they say holding ponds will suffice but we see the Army Corps flood control impoundments nearby overflow three times a month impoundments save lives and property down east and it would be demanding a grave harm to ask the Army Corp to reduce flood control for traffic relief developers have stated that force will be clearcut regardless but they signed a mandatory Forest State forestry plan to gain their puv tax relief as I have and no State forestry plan would allow them to clear cut two acre 200 Acres at once and let soil wash away and pollute Downstream raising huge tracks.
Of wildlife habitat will result in widespread disease and massive mortality of Wildlife and all of those coyotes that are on that property are going to come over over and try to eat my sheep thank you next we have Mary Dickerson Scott Dickerson and Julie mcclint talk if you can no you're not speaking was that the Dickerson's okay thank.
You good evening Commissioners I'm Julie mclintoch at 225 Apple Lane in chadam County I'm former chair of aasa and an air quality specialist for the EPA so I want to say kudos to Durham city and county for completing a comprehensive plan with Progressive development policies this area you're looking at tonight is not suited for urban densities it is located in a unique area of the state surrounded by 4 9,000 Acres that is Jordan Lake property it's owned and maintained by the core of engineers Durham and other municipalities enjoy a reliable water supply in Jordan Lake it is your job to uphold the water quality for the streams flowing into the lake that inevitably declines when Urban densities are added a careful analysis of the applicants resoning request by the planning staff points out that the Sheffield farms's request is inconsistent with 14 out of 24 applicable policies I will note quickly three of them and you've been hearing about them before policy number 128 mixed use development shall be supported by existing public infrastructure like.
Water and sewer it's expensive because the land is in an outlying area the key Point here here is that someone must pay the costs another policy mixed use developments shall be supported by existing Transit service and Road networks the applicant is unwilling to make the road improvements it's not clear these are mandated by do and if the decor can't allow the improvements then clearly Urban densities shouldn't be allowed finally policy 79 protect Durham's most sensitive natural areas and the natural heritage program puts on the list only the most significant ecological areas in the state thank you so I concur with the staff's conclusion and request that you deny this request thank you next we have Whitney.
Harris good evening Commissioners my name is Whitney Harris and I live in South Durham at 10008 Chancellor's Ridge Drive I would like to say that I strongly oppose this development and for many reasons I won't continue to go over the environmental impact I think that has been covered extensively this evening by lots of really knowledgeable people that know more about this than I do but I'd like to focus on not only the traffic impact but the impact for First Responders the impact to our school systems those are also resources that have to be in place to support a development of this magnitude I think it's interesting that morning star cited councilman CE and quoted him and he's the one person who recused himself from this meeting tonight as a resounding reason why their proposal should be approved when they say 70% of the traffic is not even from this area and then their proposal is to add more traffic to it that just doesn't make sense if traffic is an issue adding more.
Homes is not going to solve that problem and we all know sitting here tonight that the Army Corps of engineer is not going to approve any easements on their property or to expand roads in those spaces so to say here tonight that they are going to seek those exceptions and ask for those requests when we know that's not going to happen is not serving anyone well I think that when we look at First Responders I am the sister of two firefighters I grew up with First Responders and my family and I know in our own development in South Durham we have a speeding issue but we couldn't put in speeding tables because the distance from our homes in South Durham and Chancellor's Ridge to the nearest EMS fire substations was too great for them to even respond in the current amount of time that they're supposed to respond to so now we already have a problem where we don't have first responder access and we can't get to.
Those homes this is not going to be solved without lots of infrastructure I'll leave it with we all know Durham Public Schools are a hot mess right now we need more schools we need better paying teachers and this is not addressing that thank you no NOP no no no clapping no clapping you'll have to leave the galley we have some other people that signed up online if you are in here you want to speak we have Rebecca Denon or are they on Zoom which one are they on Alexander Rebecca.
Denson okay I see Keith wolf on. Zoom can you hear me yes okay I think the the impervious coverage thing and the Watershed is an important you know the the water shed is supposed to protect the important water resources and this is so close to Jordan Lake and there's two Creeks on both sides and the impact of such a development would U would not be good and I I have to drive that fton Mill Road frequently I live in cadam county and it is in very dangerous shape right now they are repairing potholes daily at this point so I don't know how that ncdot if they're going to address that anytime soon so that those are my concerns thank you thank.
You next we have Mimi. Kesler good evening can you hear me yes my name is Mimi Kesler I live in Durham my address is on record I I want to concur with everything that's been said that the the I used to commute on this road for six years and I it it it carries an awful lot of traffic and so does Barbie chapel and Stage Coach and it is a major cut through for people who want to avoid I40 I'm concerned about the the numbers for the transportation study because covid was still happening back then I'm concerned about the environmental issue which people have been very articulate about I'm concerned about the lack of commitment for the lift station for the sewer I'm very concerned about the Army Corp and which might put all of this you know to bed the the the addition of students for the schools that are already over over capacity and there are large developments which someone else spoke of about Carolina Meadows and Governor's club and.
Governor's there's some other things and they just take that that road is is dangerous now because people who live further out than this treat it like it's a highway I'm also concerned to about the terrain and the the steep slopes and historically in southeast Durham there is a habit of of making the instead of building to the Contour of the land we make the land do what we wanted to do which probably will involve blasting and as other people have brought up that does often have impact on wealth so I ask that you that you vote this proposal down thank you you thank.
You do we have anyone else on. Zoom if if you like to speak use the raise your hand method we have Patricia van. Hoy yes yes can you hear me yes well many of I'm sorry I live in Chapelwood which is on Barbie Chapel Road and many of my points have already been covered but I do want to discuss the issue about this project not is is not being resed in accordance with the plan development or the unified ordinance the main problem that I see is the traffic I don't think that the traffic study was accurate because it is difficult for us now as a 55 plus Community to get out on to Barbie Chapel Road this is our only exit out of our community there have already been approved 500 apartments behind the Valero station and in addition to that they've approved another 400 heaven forbid that a emergency vehicle would have to enter our subdivision with this additional traffic it would be catastrophic thank you thank you there anyone else on.
Zoom think there's anyone else I forgot to ask if there's anyone else in the in the U gley like to speak no. Yes. My name is Andrea Quinn I live at 849 fingon Mill Road I approve the cheffield development you know why I've been living there I'm 70 years old that property been out there for over centuries of years I have four and a half acres I would like for my children to have I can't do anything with my my my land the sewer the thing that I have it cost me 10,000 of dollars just to be there and I've been there since 1984 and I believe we deserve sewer we shouldn't have to see our water stuff bubbling up and you talking about traffic I'm talking about health life and strength you you when you SE have you seen a failing sewer system have you seen it bubbling up have you seen it I have and where we stand is a bunch of bubbling sew systems and you talking about.
Traffic I'm talking about Life Health no I'm sorry I like I would like the development I like the development to come through so I can have seore so my family can have seore so my children my grandchildren can have sore if you lived on that land for 100 years tell me raise your hand you not live there 100 years I have and my children deserve more and deserve better and no I don't a no more Farms we had Farms do you know what happened to that farm you know some people with a little Hood came out and burned it down but - This Is Our Land our land and it's going to stay for.
Building there anyone else that like to speak yes sir my name is John Heim I live at 7624 KCK drive so you've heard a lot of well-reasoned arguments for why this is a bad idea but there's something about that that bothers me and that's it suggests that this is an idea that has any level of Merit to begin with and actually needs to be refuted okay like if you think about it we're all here for one reason and one reason only and that's because a corporation from out of state no less has determined that it's financially advantageous for them to mow down this rural area and build it out okay so if I were in your seat what I'd be asking myself is not why should we not do this but what compelling rationale has been given to me to make me even consider approving it in the first place right certainly nothing that guy said was compelling so absent any comp compelling rationale for why this is a good idea.
Why we should develop this particular rural spot in this particular way why would I even consider voting yes for this why would I even need the well reasoned arguments that have been presented right so that's all I got appreciate the time someone else that had their hand raised and then you and then we're going to close the public. Hearing sure thank you I'll be quick my name is atio Barbo I live at 456 Eagle Drive in Chapel Hill I wasn't planning on speaking but I just want to say the funny name is from buenos Iris Argentina I I was born there I lived there for 24 years and every time I go home I grew up in a a rural suburban neighborhood like like this one we're talking about and there is no commissioner there are no amazing people like you all making these decisions and everyone approves anything they want in any way they want and when I go home I don't recognize my town because the Creeks are contaminated.
Everyone builds anything they want and the land value is down as supposed to up after 20 years so I so much admire what we're doing here what you guys do in this process and this why we liveed we've moved to the United States and we've been here 24 years this is an amazing amazing process that we're doing so all I wanted to say is progress will come I'd love to keep everything as is forever and ever I know that won't happen there will be other applications there will be projects they will they'll take down trees and that's fine I just don't think this is the right project for this area the the I won't go through all the reasons again they will well explain here but clearly this is not the the development or the way we want to see chadam and and and and Durham grow there are many other ways of doing it and I'm sure you guys will make the right decision so I again I'll urge you to.
Reject this proposal thank. You hey I'm Mary Dickerson at 7123 kepley Road and I had not planned on speaking either we have a well we have a septic tank when our septic tank messes up we pay to get it fixed when our well has issues we pay to get it fixed we have a horse farm and and I can't even pull out now on Fairington Mill Road with a horse trailer and we show horses and everything and the traffic is going to be terrible the it's going to mess up our wells and septic tanks has already been mentioned thank.
You thank you i' like to give the applicant two minutes to respond to any of the comments that they've heard here.
Today thanks for that I was not anticipating that one point I wanted to make is related to Traffic which is I think is probably the number one concern that people have raised tonight I want to be clear about something we agree that the existing traffic is an issue I think the part that might not but we might not be landing is that the traffic currently is a problem developments in carry and in Chapel Hill are the ones that are contributing primarily to the traffic issues that exist on the Durham Road Network none of those projects have ever been asked to make Road improvements in Durham and those and those jurisdictions are going to continue to approve development regardless of the impact that those developments have on on at that intersection or these intersections in Durham so the point is that traffic at those intersections is going to get worse regardless of whether anything is built here or not period that's a fact what this development with any development here.
That that is predicated on resoning we have the ability to require the developer to and we have committed to pursuing these improvements and generally we would pursue Road improvements without any caveat but these properties that where you need rideway from are owned by the federal government not even ncdot could condemn them for us if if they were willing to do it do doesn't have the money to do these improvements they don't have any plans to do these improvements the these aren't City roads but the same goes for the city the city doesn't have any plans to improve them primarily because they're not City roads we we have we have worked this into the budget we are planning on making these Road improvements we just can't tell you that we're going to be able to do it at the end of the day because there is the federal government holding the back so at any way you slice it traffic is bad it's going to get worse and without this development it doesn't make it.
Doesn't make it better than with this development thank you thank you the public I I tread lightly and I hope my vice chair read the statement about dorum if you fail to maintain theorum you will be removed from The Galley we have been treading lightly here just want to make that reminder the public hearing is now closed Commissioners as a reminder you must obtain the floor to be you to be when you obtain the floor you must be recognized by the chair you have five minutes do not repeat topics that we've already discussed or been questioned thank you who would like to start us off with any questions commissioner Valentine no commissioner cut right not not not yet okay.
Right got dots all right I was gonna say do we need a five minute recess to gather our thoughts yes no no okay Mr track nothing scor thank you i' would like to ask the applicant how they're planning to provide water and SE I I may not have read it properly but I just want to understand what is the plan for this development sure so I think I mentioned earlier that while it's correct there is not a finalized UEA there is a fully drafted UEA which we've already signed it outlines the requirements for this for how this site will be served by Water and Sewer I believe yeah we've got Jeremy fch here who I think can probably recite it from memory but if I mean I could pass this up so water will require a loot water line with a valve between the two water line fees off of 16inch waterline in Fairington Mill Road sewer the proposed project site hold on a pump station will need to be constructed and must.
Comply with the city lift station design standards the lift station will be able to serve adjacent parcel that are within the drainage basin the development shall install Forest main on Fairington Mill Road up to Fairington road and continue to South Durham Water Reclamation facility there's an exhibit gravity seers shall be extended to the lift station from Fairington Mill Road for future expansions from adjacent Parcels yeah so that's. How yeah had a quick question just about affordable housing you didn't I'm sorry man I'm so sorry madam chair let me be quiet all right were you done commissioner yes okay commissioner CH thank you I'm not following theorum tonight I'm sorry just a quick question about affordable housing I see the $300,000 dedication to the Durham housing fund but zero zero units dedicated to affordable housing just wanted to address that did that come up at all during the planning yeah absolutely and so I'll just tell you in my home I've worked with them on several projects part some in other.
Jurisdictions Mi homes had is a national home builder they do not build affordable housing in the sense of you know capital a subsidized affordable housing however they are on board with that mission and on other projects I've worked on they have partnered with you know for example Habitat for Humanity of Wake County to provide lots and houses at at affordable rates on this project we actually had several discussions with Habitat for Humanity for of Durham we were not able to reach an agreement with themi there are several reasons why but one of the main reasons was a timing element and it's totally understandable in the city of Durham when someone makes a a commitment to Affordable units being delivered in a project they want them delivered within a certain time frame before the end of the project and habitat the way they operate I mean I don't know how many homes am I build in a year I would imagine they could probably build 30 in a year on this one.
Project or maybe more than that 60 maybe something like that and I think habitat build something like six in a year and it just isn't isn't going to necessarily work out from a timing perspective so we switch gears we looked at we talked to three a multif family affordable housing developers one of them was a age restricted or age targeted developer for affordable housing and we look at partnering with them on this site to do multif family and have an affordable component to that I'm going to get booed here but actually they all three of them said essentially the same thing that the site does not work for affordable housing for one primary reason which is there's actually not enough traffic in this area for for for apartments because there essentially there's not enough pass by traffic and activity that's not that is not a commentary on the state of traffic but that is essentially what what each of those affordable housing developers had had cited as a primary reason for why they could not.
Make the site work for their programs so that's how we ended up with zero units and instead a a monetary contribution to the affordable housing fund I'm sorry dedicated housing pund perfect thank you Mr cutright I appreciate it chair couple thoughts here one I mean this this particular area is in the future growth boundaries so as we think about the future the thought has been and I'm not a land use expert by any stretch but the thought around the comp plan is that at some point in the future it doesn't mean that's today or tomorrow but at some point in the future that this area does grow and it expands and and presumably it does that with the infrastructure in place part of that is sewer so as you think about getting swer to the area having someone foot the bill for bringing swer three miles is is a challenge so one thing that you do have here is you have a developer willing to fill the bill for bringing.
Sewer three miles into the area granted we're sort of at the end of the road as it starts to look at the county and so you know whether you need need to go beyond that and how much value that brings is another question so that's one thing that presumably at some point this area gets expanded I think the challenge is traffic and particularly the contingencies around whether or not the Army Corps of Engineers will allow for the expansion and and improvements of the infrastructure so as you think about things being contingent my view on this although we don't hold the power to do this is that something like that becomes contingent to say if you don't get this approval then this development doesn't move forward because in my opinion this doesn't work very well without the infrastructure improvements.
And and the other thing I'll mention is I think this is Place type mixed use this is not a mixed use development there's a lot of acreage here I think we should consider putting something mixed use on the site this contributes to the traffic but it makes for better development and so as you think about land use and adhering to comp plan I think we're we're sort of getting away from strict adherance and saying we have a single use which is residential and and that's not what we want so as you start to follow the comp plan if you're going to follow the comp plan to the T and say we want this is a future growth area you need to bring sewer and infrastructure you also need to bring mixed use which would entail something whether that's office something with low parking requirements U I think that'll help this development with 700 homes anyway it just makes for better development I'll stop there thank you Mr Valentine yes so my colleague just a.
Moment ago talked about the future and actually we had an opportunity tonight to hear from the future it's not very often that young people come into this chamber and speak and the young person who spoke spoke boldly about the environmental impact of this project and I personally am concerned about the development in this particular area in your community there's a lot of development going on in your area and so maybe if the if the applicant could sort of delay our concerns around the environmental concerns that we have particularly around our waterways which if we have an honest discussion amongst those who are charged making decision in this city in the county our waterways are under attack and so I'm thinking about the future that this young lady here who was bold in her statements here tonight expressed thank you first of all go Falcons class of 05 along with commissioner mckyer so with respect to the waterways I this project has zero stream Crossings I think that's important and we have limited the impervious on.
The site to 36% so even development by right would allow by right without annexation would allow for more than than 36% impervious on the site so that is one limitation there that well there are two limitations there to help address the the water concerns and and the drinking water quality also and I'm not the best person on the team to speak to this I don't know if maybe Laura or Jeremy might be better able my understanding is is that this site in particular it does have some subs it's kind of a bll shape and that actually allows us to control the runoff on this W on this particular piece of property better than maybe on some other piece of property so you know generally seep slopes are hard to manage but when but when they work in your favor and kind of direct water towards you already you can actually better engineer and manage that that runoff so you know we we will this project will adhere to all of the Udo requirements related to.
Phase phase development mask rating and the storm water and erosion control requirements all of which have been beefed up recently by recent Udo changes this project will adhere to all of that can I ask a follow-up question y so in some of my background reading the community rais some concerns about the number of units so have you given any consideration to the community's concerns in that regard sure specifically when we started when we had the first neighborhood meeting we were at 950 units we have dropped the number of units significantly to 702 it is interesting to me because the dichotomy here is a lot of folks are saying a lot of people we heard from tonight are saying this is too intense you shouldn't develop that way meanwhile the comprehensive plan suggests that maybe this isn't intense enough and there should be a mix of uses here non-residential uses which would drive more traffic to this area and which would generally be more intense development so we are I would say caught.
In the middle of that we have taken in into consideration the feedback that we've gotten from Neighbors and from other various stakeholders and the comp plan I do not make any claim that this is a perfect fit with the existing comp plan in fact I argued earlier I actually think the mixu designation on this piece of property mixu Neighborhood Place type Place type map typology is probably not well suited given the kind of feedback from the community that's a pretty intense level of development and even at the intensity that we're discussing which is not intense enough there is concern about the level of intensity of this development so I think it's it's a challenge either way thank you any other.
Questions are we ready to move this case forward did your. Thing chair as it relates to case z2200 60 Sheffield Farms I move that we send this case forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Valentine was that I wasn't looking sorry to move case z220 60 Sheffield Farms forward with a favorable recommendation may I have the.
Roll call vote can you skip me let me go last yes please you Vice chair sharis no commissioner cutright no commissioner Graves mans no commissioner Gham no commissioner copac no commissioner mver no commissioner CE not here oh yeah sorry commissioner trap no commissioner Valentine no commissioner Williams no commissioner woke no commissioner Young no chair Cameron no the motion fails 012 thank you no. Sorry all right going to have to take a break in about 20 minutes minutes I need to move you want break now conservative no the trees neighborhood not gonna read.
That I remember this yeah I saw it too I saw it there it's but it need.
Here okay if we could if you could leave the galley excuse me can I have your attention please we are still in session if you can leave walk out please quietly so we can continue with our meeting we have four more cases get on to and a couple other business items thank you you ready to give you a report.
Commissioners we're going to take a five minute recess thank.
You.
How you I'm sorry what elect do you want.
They've got you know they have it.
There's another program here which is good how you. Doing all.
Right.
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Ready to call the meeting back to order so I'm G to change the agenda I apologize for being late earlier we.
Need to move up new business right now before we proceed with the rest of cases and can I get a a motion to approve moving new business up to now and then we'll proceed back with the public hearings so move moved second it's been moved by commissioner cutright seconded by commissioner Copic and all in favor just raise your hand any opposed all right I think we're good so we're going to have the report on the rules of procedure update. So the rules of procedure committee subcommittee met in person in December that consisted of myself commissioner trap commissioner cutright and we submitted Our rough draft to City staff and they submitted it or forwarded it to the city and county attorney's office to make sure it was compliant with the interlocal agreement and we got back a report or a cleaned up version of it it's on the it was sent out to everybody in the package with the actual blue lines of what was changed so what some of the big changes.
Were updated to the appropriate the North Carolina General statutes numbered had been updated they were outdated there was a removal of commission members serving on some of the Committees like the bicycle pedestrian committee and Parks or committees like that but we're still on the chair still serves on the jcpc committee there is updates on the order of the meeting for public hearings. And there was some suggestion or talk of perhaps a junior member or a minor a minor a you a youth member I guess we're going to maybe open that for any kind of discussion no no discussion.
I guess that's about it there's any did anybody have any.
Comments all right thank you I don't think we're gonna we're not proving it this meeting right we're. Okay with any edits and then vote on it at your next meeting so it's been it's being presented tonight and then 30 days have get back to the chair with any questions or recommendations and then plan on voting on this for approval at the next meeting the March meeting thank you Vice chair shares next we are going to appoint a Udo rewrite subcommittee the purpose of this subcommittee the code is is the this code Studio is doing the majority of the work but the charge of the subcommittee is to one review reviewing code stud code studi analysis around the current code and providing recommendations and two coming up with a system for reviewing the Udo as it comes forward to the Duran Planning Commission in the future how do we you how do we review this more efficiently so those are the two primary charges of this subcommittee and the appointments are commissioner CE.
As chair Comm commissioner Williams and commissioner Gham are the subcommittee members think youall have to do they have their approve do we have to approve this I can't remember approve one did we approve all the other subcommittees we did so thank you madam chair in your purview in the rules of procedure both in the present version and the version coming before you you have the full authority to assign subcommittees and appoint them staff just wants to remind yall that we need to notice them appropriately so if you're going to have a meeting please let us know so we can make sure it's noticed all right thank you go forth and Conquer All right we are back to the public hearings.
At this time we are going to hear case z22 67 leag Valley may we have the staff report please rck rooper City County planning this is z220 67 Lee Valley the following information summarizes the application Laura Hollman of McAdams proposes to change the zoning designation of six Parcels of land totaling 2 28.57 acres and located at 5412 5416 Road and 5529 5533 George King Road the current zoning is residential Suburban 20 the applicant proposes to change this designation to residential compact with the development plan to allow between 310 and 340 units consisting of townhouse Multiplex and or apartment units the properties are currently designated Transit opportunity area on the place type map while the rcd zoning district is generally consistent with the TOA Place type the rcd is only fully consistent with TOA when the development plan commits to Transit oriented design and an additional commitment to Civic commercial or office use so if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the placite map to designate the entire.
Property as apartment and townhouse neighborhood here's a map of all the properties noticed for the neighborhood meeting here's an annexation map of the site which shows city limits in light yellow the existing zoning is residential Suburban 20 the site is surrounded by residential Suburban 20 and residential compact the aerial map shows the general location of the project within Southwestern Durham the applicant has included graphic and text commitments including additional design commitments 3 % income restricted housing storm water control measures to ensure post-development runoff does not exceed pre-development rate for the 100e storm event additional site amenities and a contribution of $5,000 to Durham Public Schools the applicant has proposed tree preservation within the fjb stream buffer area on the southwestern portion of the site and two site access points along Wendell Road the app has held a neighborhood meeting on November 17th 2022 where five community members were in attendance and finally while the proposed residential compact with the development plan zoning is generally consistent with the designated TOA Place.
Type it is only fully consistent when the development plan commits to Transit oriented design staff encourage and advise the applicant to commit to additional Transit oriented design commitments within the development plan resoning as well as including an additional office Civic or commercial use while the proposal does provide two additional types of Housing and increases density and multimodal connectivity it does not satisfy policy 169 170 46 or 44 under the TOA Place type therefore staff recommends a change to apartment and townhouse neighborhood thank you staff and the applicant are available to answer questions thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing May the applicant please come.
Forward good evening Sher Cameron Vice Sher sharis members of the Planning Commission I am Neil go at the Morning Star laws group and I'm representing the applicant and property owner for this resoning which is Greenhawk with us tonight some familiar faces Laura Hollman with McAdams also Tyler propes with McAdams Earl lellan with kimley horn and also jenry Medlin and Ben glass with green hawk and I want to thank Miss rer again for the presentation as has been stated this is a development on about 29 acres of land in a compact neighborhood here this is an important point because a number of things changed over the course of this project specifically in the Udo which had some pretty dramatic impacts on this project when we submitted no tree coverage was required in the compact neighborhood tier a change in the Udo which was adopted around October of last year now requires Tre cover within the compact neighborhood tier except in design districts the requested RC zoning district is not a.
Design District so we had to revamp the plans to accommodate the required tree safe additionally when we filed no project boundary buffer would have been required but the mass grading and phase development text amendments place a requirement for a project boundary buffer on any project grading more than four acres at a time so we had to scramble to fit that in as well the good news is that we were able to accomplish those things and still maintain the minimum density of 12 dwelling units per acre this a very tight site especially given the changes we had to accommodate well after we filed even still we were able to commit to providing more than double the amount of required open space this is a really interesting project primarily because of the product type I'm not sure that we have an example of this anywhere in Durham closest thing I can think of are the Villas at Culp Arbor which actually is not too far from the site but basically these are town home style.
Units that are set up in a quad formation rather than in a line like tradition so unlike traditional Town Homes it's set up in a quad and just like any other town home though each unit has its own separate entrance but because of the Quad formation every unit kind of ends up being a corner unit so you've got a sidey yard in addition to a front or back yard as has been stated there will be a minimum density here of 12 dwelling units per acre which means at least 310 units we've also put a maximum of 340 units we have committed to providing 3% of the final unit count as income restricted at 80% Ami I think this project will add meaningful meaningfully to the housing stock in our city the project also commits to handling the 100-year storm we have another commitment related to having more than one type of storm management or storm water system I should say and we have a commitment related to the to programming.
For the amenity area as well as some architectural items in my opinion it's a pretty robust set of commitments our team is available to answer any questions you may have and we look forward to getting your feedback tonight thank Youk. You do we have anyone I don't see anyone that signed up on the sheet is there anybody here that would like to speak that did not sign up none is there anyone on the zoom please press what is it raise your hand feature Mimi Kesley on the phone good evening can you hear me again yes thank you my name is Mimi Kesler and my address and Durham is on record I am concerned about the School situation in terms of capacity and I think that $5,000 is is an insultingly small amount of money and I would like the the applicant to think about being more generous thank you thank you next we have Yuri har havy you're.
Unmuted go ahead you not able to hear me unmute. Yourself can you hear me we can hear you now okay perfect all right my name is jurri havy I live at 107 medal Court in Durham adjacent to this property I just want to raised some concerns kind of what's been discussed one about the schools the school seems already be overcrowded and with the Durham issues going on adding 300 more units into this neighborhood seems to be c will greatly increase the amount in conjunction with the existing developments that are currently being built there's two apartment complexes currently going up right next to Le development and then there's also proposed rezoning for the lot of land that's directly south of this land that they're looking at trying to do about thousand units so when you add all these in together it seems like we're going really overtax the infrastructure not only the school systems but again the trans traffic and transportation systems this is not really a it was originally designated for part of the.
Rail system that was supposed to go through here but that of course was canceled and so there's really no Transit Orient property that can be facilitated in this neighborhood with the way this location is set up Fairington road is already over taxed on the traffic and like I said we've got those two developments already going in that haven't been fully encountered and the traffic is already pretty backed up at the intersections out there and so my I just want to raise my concern for the chule run neighborhood which is a vent here as I sit on the board of that committee and you know we do have a a a recommendation for not moving forward with this plan at this point and to keep it as a residential Community where we can have lower density implementation of housing that's all I got I appreciate thank you thank you there anyone else on the zoom or in the galy I like to.
Speak the applicant like to address any of the questions concerns Yes actually thank I wanted to thank I think it was Miss Kesler about the school system so the 5,000 number that's on the development plan is a plug number we intended to base this number on the student generation number in staff report and based on that we would increase that commitment to dur public schools to $53,500 yeah I think that is all I will say for now looking forward to hearing your questions and and feedback thank you all right at this time if there no one else is speaking I'm going to close the public hearing and we are now open for commissioner discussion and.
Questions commissioner Valentine yes could the applicant talked to us about the 3% affordable housing provision in this project and I've talked about this in the past we say that we value affordable housing and particularly around the narrative around needing more units in our city do you think 3% is is a good fi for sort of profer I mean yes absolutely these are unsub and so the developer is taking on the both the obviously the cost of the unit and the cost of implementing the affordable housing program there is no support here 3% is I think pretty tough to hit on a site that's as tight as this one to begin with but they are committed to it and are are you know I I would hope that more projects will be committing to providing affordable units where possible and I'm happy to that this one.
Is thank you commissioner copac thank you chair just to follow up on that that question so as the developer modeled out what it would be at 5% in 30 years we've seen a number of cases coming forward I understand you say the side is tight but just curious what the modeling has shown and then in addition you know the requirement is for up to 80% Ami but I'm just curious if the developers thought about any more specificity there about to what level it would be affordable at are we talking potentially down to 60% Ami or is it just a commitment to be affordable up to 80% Ami yeah the commitment is at 80% Ami I don't know if the developer has looked specifically at 5% how that would impact and that's C certainly something that we can look at going forward as it stands the commitment would be at 3% I'm sorry 3% of the final unit count at 80% Ami I believe for a period of 20.
Years yes let's go on with the next one thank you chair so there was discussion about this being changed from a TOA to a new designation I didn't see discussion around what additional Transit commitments may be made you know given the placement of of of this site and you know the opportunity for more units and for mixed use as well so curious about that thank you yeah no appreciate the question so I just want to be clear that the applicant hadn't submitted any requests to change the play site map that is a recommendation that I believe the plan Department produces based on their their evaluation of any project on a particular EV based on the place typologies right so I think it's actually kind of an important point because I think that if you look at the property configuration on the development plan it's pretty obvious why we don't have any non-residential use or mix of uses here the property does not really have any Frontage to give the developable area visibility non-residential.
Is not really viable on this piece of property in the way it's configured on the development plan the place type designation I think it it might make sense if you zoom out you know so if you're looking at the place type map and the TOA designation I think it actually might make sense in this location but on this particular piece of property as applied it's just not functional because you don't have front I mean you wouldn't be able to see any of the non-residential uses that that you know could be developed here and part of the the reason for that and you mentioned how does this impact Transit and and that type like we've had discussions with God Durham go Durham has no plans for transit in this area so it's really difficult for us to provide any kind of meaningful Transit commitment here because go Durham just doesn't have any plans here so it's not that we're not supportive or or I think that would be a good thing there's.
Nothing for us to actually you you know put that metric too so when we've made commitments in the past related to transit in areas where there is no Transit plan go Durham has routinely said we don't want that on the development plan right so this doesn't prevent them from from creating a Transit plan in this area in the future and trying to implement it then but they don't have one right now so it's kind of difficult for us to hit that that metric but I think Transit would be a good thing on the development plan we are dedicating RightWay consistent with the adopted collector Street plan and you could see that on the development plan I don't know it's on your screen or if you have it in your packet or whatever we have we are committing to dedicating RightWay for collector streets it's a north south one that kind of cuts off the edge of the property and then there's a an an East West one that's.
Really at the at the bottom of the property which actually you know kind of all the way at the edge so what we're showing on our development plan is consistent with the adopted collector Street program however we understand that another developer is exploring amending the collector Street plan to adjust the alignment of the north south collector as shown on our D plan and you know further down south and we have had discussions we would be okay with that but what what is shown here is consistent with the the current collector Street plan so that's kind of what we're we're basing off of so I just think all of those factors kind of that I think that helps explain why we're not going for mixed use development here we just don't this isn't the site for it because it's kind of back behind the main road until we know where that road is going I think it's kind of difficult to say where where you can achieve both the transit and the mixed use I appreciate.
It thank you any other commissioner commissioner CES hi thank you a couple of questions and some of these May relate to the point you're just making regarding the alignment of the future roadways both along the I guess the Eastern side and the southern side of the site I guess the first question is why is the existing parcel kind of in the southwestern quadrant why is that kind of a a portion of that se separated out of the development plan and indicated as a potential private Street access I'm I don't know if it's possible pull maybe pull up the site plan existing conditions I think would be the I think I know the answer I make sure I understand what we're talk Y and then while they're well all right so that's the southwest corner yeah and then where is a note you were talking about related to private Street access oh Side Access three private Street access okay so if you can pull up the existing conditions which should be the page.
Before that there you go so that parcel the the project application is separating that parcel out into two pieces why is that all right so this project has with it an annexation which of course annexations do not come in front of the Planning Commission for consideration the annexation for this project is not co-terminus with the zoning outline so that split is is showing in the annexation and the reason the that section is being annexed but not zon that's purely for infrastructure so that's going to be end up being a lift station so you're going to indicate a site of 28 Acres with three access points and one of them is going to be on the lift station maybe I'm not following that correctly but so what's happen lift station is actually going to be on this map right it'll be on the parcel to the South that is not in the in the kind of dash line area so there will be an access road that runs next to that.
Dash line area down to a lift station and will that ultimately be I guess that won't be for access to the site when and if the collector is ever constructed is that the idea oh right right so the collector runs north south there I'm sorry East West The Collector runs right there along the southern property line so that it would still maintain access to the lift station but that's not like a development access okay right you're not going to be going to a subdivision over there I guess there's there's rationale there it's just odd for us to be presented with projects that have rezoning requests that separate out a parcel without there being kind of a clear expression of why that's the case but I guess that I guess it makes some sense hearing you describe it but there was no other way for us to really to know that so I appreciate you explaining it with regards to the place type map designation in the transit opportunity.
Area and the need to kind of change that to apartment townhouse neighborhood if this goes forward I mean in my sense I would I would push back a little bit on the description of this is a tight site it's it's relatively unimpeded by stream buffers or utility easements or anything I mean obviously you have the the demarcation of the two future rights of way and it's only the north one that is I mean I'm sorry the north south one that is contemplated for realignment that's my understanding yeah and is there a mechanism in place if it is changed for the applicant here to ultimately reclaim that I with the way in which this is represented on the development plan the way it's been explained to us we'd have to rezone okay y okay so that's that's one question so the the other aspect of the the transit opportunity area is this this issue of the of the uses so it's not only office or commercial that would allow fulfilling multiple uses as I.
Understand it Civic would also be a component was there any contemplation of other types of either uses in the present or a commitment to preserving a space given that this is again 20 I guess it's 28 Acres overall 25 net developable I me that's I I like the think in terms of city blocks because I think that's something people can kind of grasp so you know five to six city blocks is a pretty large site for just residential especially in a Transit opportunity area so I guess any contemplation or consideration of preserving a portion of land for something else a good question that that I don't think the answer would be obvious but the so yes but not on the parcel that we are rezoning so the reason I was talking about and I maybe should have been more clear about this because I was talking about the collector Street plan that north south collector Street cuts off the property and so some of the proper some property kind of ends up between.
That north south collector and Wendell right a lot of that property is already owned by the same developer so the question that we have going forward is where's that road going to end up and and that will inform how we can put any kind of mix of uses here in the future if if that is to be the case so but at present the the zoning request would not allow you to correct but we already would have to rezone the section that is I guess I say east of the the current alignment of the north south collector which is called Falconbridge extension I could point to it on the map I know what you're talking about let me let me ask a separate question so the text commitments regarding unit types and I think this will be it for now the the text commitment number where is it I had it up is it number three or number four there's a discussion of unit types and you.
Described it I think in a way that that was understandable I just want to make sure it's clear the proposed uses actually I'm looking at the side data chart is the intention to build one unit type is the intention to build two unit types I would say the intention is to build one unit type that could be so it'll look like Town Homes but they might be legally multifamily so text commitment four says this development shall consist of at least two different types of units and then it goes on to describe variation of those units and I guess what I'm trying to understand is what you describe sound sounded what you just described and answering my question sounded consistent with your presentation it's really one unit type and there's variations but is that text commitment and effort to kind of redefine how the Udo defines housing types which is really explicit that they tow houses there's apartments Etc I'm a little confused is there no I think word smithing going on there that's all.
Consistent with the Udo I mean it it just when you drive by the site if it's built in the way they Envision it will look like one new type they may technically be two different unit types though because town homes are one lot one parcel multif family you can have multiple par multiple units on one lot let me ask the question differently could you explain the second sentence of the text commitment four and I'm not trying to I'm just trying to understand why text commitment to four is written the way that it is I don't have it in front of me so well actually I do have it in front me hold on let me look at the commitment commitment four you said correct.
Yeah yeah I think this is this commit I mean I think in the commitment it's talking about how you would differentiate in this condition what the unit types are right so the second sentence is the unit types may vary by width of the unit or number of stories or vary by driveway location meaning alley loaded or front loaded or garage capacity yeah I appreciate I'm out of my time but I think the you know the point about mixing units has been addressed fairly extensively in terms of the comprehensive plan and I'm just just a little unclear as to what's what's kind of intended here but I'll leave with.
That thank you any other questions yes commissioner I mean your Vice chair yes for the applicant you stated that there will be some tree preservation since the Udo or the comprehensive plan was put in during this application process can you explain where it will be so tree cover I don't I don't know that we are specifically going to be doing tree preservation but the tree cover there is a some of it will be in the small stream section at the southwest and then we will have tree cover I mean in other oh Laura you coming to save me yes I am good evening Laura Hall with McAdams just to answer the question thank you for the question so nil's right there's a portion of it that'll be that'll be within that protected stream buffer that you see in the corner of the site but there's also a fair amount that will be within the buffers as well so not necessarily preserving any of the large specimen trees that are in.
The other area of the development that will be Mass graded and these large trees so the the the large specimen trees will be sacrificed UD requires us to preserve the major specimen trees in any required project boundary buffer so so I think there will be I major specimen trees preserved in those areas yeah so this is this is where Neil is talking that the project gets tight because we're required to do a minimum density of 12 units per acre so when you do that coupled with tree preservation and all the other things it does get tight really quick to meet that required 12 units per acre which is why originally when the residential compact zoning District was adopted in the Udo it didn't have any tree coverage requirements because it's counterintuitive okay thank.
You any other questions from Commissioners no are we ready to move this case forward Madam chair I make a motion I move we send case z2200 67 Lee Valley with the associated profit made this evening onto city council with the favor. Recommendation second got their first one it's been moved by commissioner trap and seconded by commissioner gorm to move case z220 67 Lee Valley forward with a favorable recommendation to city council with its updated propers may I have the roll call vote please chair CER yes chair sharis no commissioner cutright yes commissioner Graves mans yes commissioner Gham yes commissioner copen yes commissioner mver yes commissioner CE commissioner TR yes commissioner Valentine no commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke no commissioner Young no motion carries 85 thank.
You this time we are moving forward with case z23 tri14 may we have the staff report please good evening brck roer City County Planning again this is for Sharon Road Apartments the following information summarizes the application and I'm just gonna give Alexander a second to pull it up thank you Tim cyers of community proposes to change the zoning designation of nine Parcels of land totaling 24.87 acres and located at 4862 Wake Forest Highway the current zoning is commercial neighborhood with a development plan residential Suburban 20 and residential rural the applicant proposes to change this designation to plan development residential 10.62 to allow up to 260 apartment units the properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type app and the proposed plan development residential 10.62 zoning is consistent with the designated Place type staff would like to note this is an update from the current staff report as staff and the applicant have had internal conversations and the applicant is now willing to provide additional commitments here is a map of all.
Properties noticed for the neighborhood needing the existing zoning is commercial neighborhood with the development plan residential Suburban 20 and residential rural the site is surrounded by residential Suburban 20 and residential rural the aerial map shows the general location of the project within Southeast durum moving on the applicant has included the text commitments numerous text commitments including 5% or 13 income restricted units $10,000 contribution to Durham Public Schools two additional amenities and a 10-ft shared path along NC 98 the applicant has held a neighborhood meeting on March 29th 2023 where 15 residents were present and as noted previously based on recent conversations with the applicant and the Willing willingness to provide additional commitments The Proposal is now consistent with the place type map designation staff and applicant are available to answer any questions thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing with the applicant please come.
Forward good evening can staff pull up the PowerPoint presentation please is it.
Here is it. Sharing thank. You good evening members of the Planning Commission my name is Tim cyers president and CEO of city I'm here tonight representing our owner and the applicant Cody ready and Rama Krishna I'd like to thank staff for their work on this project especially over the last few days and over this past weekend creating some additional commitments that I'd like to review tonight as well this project excuse me there we go this project is located at the intersection of Sharon Road and NC 98 and includes nine Parcels with multiple zoning designations while the site gross acreage is 24.87 Acres the bisecting stream minimizes the development developable land into approximately 17.7 Acres along with our proposal of 260 apartments for this site equated to a PDR of 10.6 the site is consistent with the place type of mixed residential neighborhood in addition the owner has committed to provide 5% affordable 80% Mii for 30 years our team understands that this intersection is heavily traveled and can create backups even.
Though it was not required we completed a traffic study and our traffic engineer is here with us this evening if there's any questions and yes this project will be required to follow all recently approved Udo text commitments and for the mass grading tree coverage double silt fence use of flocculence and the larger sediment basins this map identifies that our site is consistent with the current residential excuse me mixed residential neighborhood Place type map this map identifies their proposal for the PDR density of 10.6 and shows that these proposed Apartments will be in walking distance to the nearby commercial shopping center to the east in addition to our proposed resoning this development will be extended the current city limits include all the project area sensor development plan is a text only smle I wanted to Prov provide this opportunity for each of you to visually see this proposal the project is clearly divided into two development areas with the stream bisecting these areas we have committed to one vehicular stream Crossing to minimize their environmental.
Impact the access point connecting to NC 98 to the north will only allow right turns minimizing the impact of the heavily traveled n c98 Corridor this will place the full access on Sharon Road aligned with the existing Street onto in across from the Ravenstone neighborhood if you were to zoom out from this map you would see the mostly single family homes as well as the Ravenstone shopping center this proposal brings a different housing type to the area and these residents will be able to walk to the gym grocery store restaurants as well as a choice of pharmacies in highlighting a few of their project text commitments this development will provide a minimum of 5% affordable housing at 80% Ami for 30 years we'll minimize our environmental impacts by reducing our stream Crossings and ensuring buildings are set away from the site boundary and naturally vegetated areas the existing infrastructure is in place or will be constructed to meet the needs for this 260 unit apartment development along with providing maximum building Heights.
And recreational open space areas our commitment to improving both pedestrian and vehicular Transportation elements include the 10-ft shared path along NC 98 and Sharon Road turn Lanes in both directions on Sharon Road and limiting access to allow right turns only at NC. 98 tonight as mentioned earlier our team would like to make a few additional commitments to our proposal first we want to increase our school donation to $35,500 to provide the commitment of $500 per every student increase addition Al we'd like to provide the following commitments including native tree plantings increase our tree coverage to 24% minimum providing four electric vehicle charging stations and ensuring our storm waterer control measures and recreational open space will remain outside of the stream.
Buffers this proposal is consistent with 13 of the comprehensive plan policies while exceeding the Udo with five of those policies those include include new housing type in the area preserving and creating play areas providing affordable housing encouraging pedestrian Transit through its location next to the commercial center as well as preparing for student growth as we committed to increasing our school donation this evening and in summary I encourage you to vote in favor of this recommending approval for this project that is in front of you this evening it is compatible with the immediate vicinity while also providing new housing types to the area it's consistent with a place type designation and exceeds some Udo regulations while commits to minimizing our environmental impact and providing our affordable housing thank you and I'm available for any questions thank.
You next I'm going to call the community can you go back up to that one slide where you increased your profit everybody get that sure make sure everybody got that real quick move forward right.
There thank you Donna.
Stck. I'm clicking and then it's.
Not I think they need help that's full screen trying and figure out full screen.
You good evening planning Commissioners I'm Donna stainback a Lifeline resident of Durham in this community the plan for Sharon Road Apartments has numerous issues I'd like to broo just stated that there would be Town Homes and Apartments but Tim's presentation just or the applicant just stated on Apartments if it's just Apartments is not abiding by the policy 174 and 175 for mixed housing units so that's confusing I'd like to request that this be single family homes and town homes with mixed due to existing traffic congestion complexity and crashes in the area Town H home or apartments will need a new ladder fir Tru we also agree with the planning department that the plan should also offer tree preservation and dedication of publicly accessible Green Space and I Southeast Durham has over 16,000 new dwelling units approved and not built this will provide for an additional 37,000 people plus potential addition of 1250 students for a charter school lick Le Lick Creek Basin and Little lck Creek has over 39 subdivisions under construction say no.
To further destruction in this one area until infrastructure is provided this has been presented before but just for reminder 150,000 new units was identified within the ug B and 60,000 per the triangle J Council of government is needed for 2050 that's 90,000 excess units proposed by this Place type thank you this is a dangerous dangerous intersection I've seen two Recs Pam.
Andrews good evening everybody Happy Valentine's Day I want to talk tonight about First Responders I'm going to shift what I normally do Durham's response times for fire department and EMS are not meeting the standards per the Durham audit from October 2022 recommendation one was the Durham fire department staff should continue monitoring response times to ensure Service delivery is within acceptable levels recommendation two the Duram fire department should incorporate the impact of future growth on the service delivery and their methodologies this is not happening folks the target times were not met over the four years cited in this study for fire or EMS the data chart in the bottom right corner is for 2324 only for lit Creek and Little liit Creek only watersheds we have 12858 dwellings built out or in the process over a 100,000 vehicle trips per day for a TIA and 29,600 people moving to that area with no increased fire service 39 subdivisions no fire service no increased ladder service we visited fire stations yesterday some of the.
Policies not being met are to ensure that new developments within the urban growth foundary are given us Emergency Services like EMS fire medical police Community safety there is no police station in anywhere in Southeast Durham policy 122 tells us that Southeast DMS needs fire service but no new fire station for this area is in the budget or the capital Improvement plan on slide three I want to point out really quickly we went to station n yesterday there is one fire engine there is one truck that pulls the boat that's the only fire engine it went on two calls why we were there three firemen when there're supposed to be four we are in a crisis with First Responders folks and lastly this is in the comp plan noce in southeast Durham how many places need fire service fire service fire service fire service our citizens are in Jeopardy we need to say no thank you thank you next we have Wanda.
Allen hi everyone I'm Wanda Allen and my address is on record thank you for allowing me to speak tonight I'd like for you to look at the chart on your screen you see that little Li C is already rated as a d I'm saying it again is the D this is not Wanda's data this is data from Durham city of Durham tonight you're going to hear three of the five public hearings are going to be related to Little liit Creek there's going to be Sharon Road Foxfire and Clayton this site is basically in the protected Watershed because of erosion and settlement discharg from the water stream runoff in addition little Lick Creek has been stated as a 3od list this means that the city should do something to protect this area oh the city knows that there is Devastation in February of this month there was at the work session there was a great detailed discussion of $18 million $18 million to clean up the the South El Creek project okay so let's think about.
Where we are right now one mile down the road from this development Sharon Road Sharon Road one mile is Grove Park neighborhood let's look at what grow Park had it cost to clean that up 6,000 fet $1.3 million and that includes 100k from the HOA so you can see what that amount is Now list listen to more dollars that we as taxpayers are paying the North Carolina land and water stats say $4 46.7 million has been allocated the city of Duram and the county has paid $58 million to clean up this this watered thank you thank you next we have Pam Williams.
Good evening all my name is Pam Williams I'm a lifelong resident of Duram County and my address is on file talking with Community me members that live on Hut Road adjacent this site those of us who must travel past this site and business owners in the area of Sharon Road nc9 Patterson is Talent one of the overall concern is traffic accidents and safety 98 is over capacity now adding almost 2,000 additional vehicles per day from this apartment site and and as many as 14,000 vehicles per day due to developments are under construction within two miles that are listed on the right side business owners also say their customers cannot get in into and out of their driveways now these apartments will have an impact on the public create more congestion encourage higher traffic volumes thus reduce safety in the area regardless of right in right out left turns right turns safety is an issue because higher density apartment increases traffic fing and creates more conflict points where two vehicles could Collide in 2017 NC.
998 cor of study said that NC 98 was over capacity and a level of service de I know the Tia now on this one doesn't state that but that's what was stated there there is no major roadway infrastructure structure improvements proposed in the 2050 Transportation plan for this area and even if it was they couldn't be built out prior to the 3,000 dwellings under construction now and over 28,000 vehicles per day I am going to go ahead and say that we have 65 accidents at this intersection or crashes at this intersection long just on NC 98 here's a list of them and increasing the volume out here would cause even more three accidents were involved and one was a b thank you but pedestrian sorry next we have Cecil wood Woods sorry he had to leave okay Ronnie.
Turner. Thank y'all for letting us come and talk my name is Ronnie Turner I live at 203 Hut Road I've lived there for over 25 years this community has been a wonderful life for us my family and the friends that we have on this road has been a positive impact in our lives just as a note we've had I've been at both of the community meetings we've had one was online lately and the other one was done in person at the library the people at the library voted and I think the community should have some say about what they do and don't have we voted unanimously for these people to leave and never come back now they find somebody else this gentleman and they started all over again we don't want it there we live there we've lived there a long time this is you tell them they're going to the grocery store the one with nothing on the shelves because they can't stock it fast enough well the drugstore that Bob Hicks that lives.
Beside me takes three or four days to get his heart medicine because they can't keep it in one of these days he's going to die because they don't have what he needs we can't get police we can't get Fire EMS comes when they can there's a shortage of each of these we were promised schools when they built bright leaf they found a loophole they only Built one out of the three they promised and that's the same thing that's going to continue to happen to our government our community because we don't ever get fulfillment on the promises that are made to us we want our kids to be educated if we don't educate them and take care of them and nurture them who's going to sit in these seats in 20 years bunch of people that didn't live here don't know anything about this community we need to do these things just to protect everything that was brought up and taught in this community I do appreciate y'all listening but you've got to come out and.
Look for yourself words just don't meet it you can take pictures that go a mile to a mile and a half long of the traffic that are just sitting there waiting to get through these intersections it's a disgrace to what we've built thank you is there anyone else in the galley that would like to speak.
Yes my name is Whitney Harris I reside at 10008 Chancellor's Ridge Drive Durham North Carolina 27713 Madam chairwoman and also Commissioners again we appreciate you being here and listening to us as citizens of Durham and people who truly want this community to be better and we do want this community to grow but as many others have stated there's a right way to do that and then there's a wrong way to do that and the promises as they have said being made by a lot of these developers I see this where I live are not being met we have major issues with our school systems not being able to have access to school my daughter missed four days in the past three weeks because schools were closed we don't have the funding to pay the teachers we also have an affordable housing issue 5% is not enough we have the power to tell these developers who are making millions on these projects to do better when our teachers have to drive to Snow Camp and.
Roxboro and Land hours away from where they work because they can't live here that increases the need for them to have higher salaries and better compensation we are doing ourselves a disservice by not putting more pressure on these developers to meet the needs of this community that we're allowing them to build in they have the funds they have the resources they could choose to spend that money and make sure that homes are affordable when I moved here our homes in our neighborhood were selling for around 250,000 to $50,000 those same homes are now selling for $500 to $700,000 my daughter is not going to be able to afford to live in Bull City which we love we come downtown we spend time at the Bulls games we go to deac shows we support local entrepreneurs and their businesses those people will not be here if we continue to not make space for them and when you have projects that are not committing enough to schools and to affordable housing we are not helping.
The citizens of Durham and that is a major issue thank you so much for your time thank you for the record I would like to say I'm pretty proud of this Commission in the past couple years we have pressured developers and they have done a lot more with the profing for the school system and the affordable housing a lot more than what was in the past I do we have anybody on Zoom that would like to speak Mimi Kesler good evening me again Mimi Kesler U my address is on record I'll make this short I'm worried about the school issue as well the water contamination the First Responders and the traffic and the and the number of crashes at that intersection I did hear about how they were going to put in a right turn only and all that stuff I really don't think that that's going to make any difference because it's the intersection that is the problem and I know that it's probably hard to you know listen to a.
Bunch of us ladies get up and talk about things that we're worried about but we're also kind of tired of being told don't you worry your pretty little head about something and and you know we've expressed concern about First Responders which includes police and fire and EMS and and you know so I just I just you know and then there water they told us for a long time oh we got plenty of water for all all of these places and then you know couple we couple weeks ago in the City Council meeting all of a sudden now we need to hook up to a quarry because we don't have enough water so I'm sorry if I don't believe those telling us not to worry because things are already bad and now you're going to add to it for a while back it was discussed by the Planning Commission that we should just have no more development in this area until the community can catch up and so and for the infrastructure to catch up and.
Somehow that's gone away and I think that we should not approve this because the community and the infrastructure cannot manage it thank you thank you is there anyone else on Zoom that would like to speak we have Tina matley Pearson hey there's actually two slides I don't know if if Pam Andrews or someone can put them on real fast I sent them to Alex kahill earlier.
Okay there you go great thank you good evening my name is Tina mle Pearson I live at 2205 Olive Branch Road and I'd like to draw your attention to the recent aerial photograph and please notice all the sediment flowing to Falls Lake from new development in the lit Creek Watershed can you imagine how much sediment has actually accumulated in the last couple of years you can see rolling View Marina in this photo and they have reported two feet of sediment in two years and that was like a year ago so policy 86 says protect DM's drinking water sources ensure that all residents have access to clean drinking water following Equitable investment in water infrastructure protect water sources that provide drinking water water for adjacent counties in this case Wake County is this being met no next slide please it has been noted that Durham has the strictest Watershed Protections in the state for example critical Watershed from pool from full pool elevation for Wake County is 1 half mile and for.
Durham it is one mile the protected Watershed is the remaining area up to 5 miles from the lake it may seem that Durham is being more protective but when you compare the amount of impervious surface allowed in Durham versus Wake County you get a different story the minimum lot size for Durham is 2,000 square feet and the minimum lot size for Wake County is 40,000 square fet in other words Sturm allows up to 70% impervious surface in the protected area and Wake County allows up to 30% in perious surface that's a big difference please vote know on the Sharon row departments it's too much impervious surface and developers clearly are not able to keep the sediment on site our small community is bursting at the seams and cannot handle the influx of development without appropriate infrastructure the developers have literally taken over Southeast durum and they make their money in thank you there anyone else on Zoom that would like to speak please choose to raise your hand Fe.
CH all right seeing no one I'm going to the chair is going to close the public hearing at this time and we are now open for commissioner discussion and. Questions commiss CE thank you to everyone who spoke and to the applicant whereas the my comments in the preceding case focused on what I think are some important but nevertheless very technical issues what really came out of the commentary that we heard from the members of the public and from the applicants presentation a really more General and overarching and have informed a lot of the conversations this commission has had over the past couple of years in conjunction with the comprehensive plan work and so I just want to express appreci for those of you who have spoken particularly the folks who have been living in the community for a long long time but I also think those comments really captured a lot of the conflicts that come into every conversation and consideration that us as that our body and that the counil or County.
Commissioners the council has to address when they consider an application and I appreciate the applicant committing to 5% Ami for 30 years that's been something that is you know that that our Council has asked for that we've sought after earnestly there's one kind of aspect to the site relative to the transportation issue in the intersection which obviously has has issues but people talk about the intersection being an issue well the intersection is issue because there's so little network but the site has access and it has to write in and write out and I guess one question is was any consideration given or is there the intention to allow access through the site to be public because the streets are indicated to be private versus public could you just speak to that point and I'm not speaking about the streets throughout I'm just you know lit literally a network connection point A to point B across the site Tim cyers with Community so the access points again will be connecting onto Sharon Road as well as.
Nc9 because is an apartment development they will be private however it does not plan to be gated so technically it's not going to be stopping anyone from coming through but it will it will be a a parking lot Style just like a standard apartment complex yeah well I appreciate that and I kind of guess that that might be the case I think that's just an important consideration in circumstances like a site such as this where an extra network connection could really be beneficial as the area builds out nevertheless your you know the connection is is going to be there even though it's private streets which which isn't isn't necessarily my preference but it accomplishes the objections the the objective of connectivity and to the kind of reference to teachers having to drive so far to live in this community or versus housing costs in this community I mean that is the challenge right if we stop allowing housing to be built if we fight every housing project especially you know housing project that does.
Include affordable housing then then we're just we're just contributing to that problem and that is a real overarching problem that is impacting lots of the conversations and lots of the considerations that folks make so you know I just wanted to highlight that kind of collective quandry we're all in what is acknowledged is that adding Supply does help on affordability and it may not be adding a little bit of Supply but adding a lot of Supply does help how that Supply gets added is really the the purview of of this commission's Focus so anyway I appreciate the the application that's before us I appreciate that it's consistent with the place type map and that the the propers are what they are so thank you Mr cut right thanks chair appreciate this project I think it's a a solid project one question is and maybe this I don't know who this is appropriate for I don't even know if this is appropriate for staff but I'm sensitive to developer sort of fees I'm.
Also sensitive to the environmental aspects that we've heard about time and time again today I don't think that there's a a fund if you will an environmental fund that can be contributed to so we think affordable housing fund we think the school public school fund the numbers that I just saw related to cleaning up of some of the The Creeks to me says while you know it's sort of becomes a problem of sort of the culmination of lots of developments contributing to that cleanup could be helpful I don't know how one of those funds gets created U but to me that strikes me as an idea to to maybe you know it doesn't solve the problem but maybe it helps a little bit and as it relates to that what what was it $58 million or something you know every little bit helps but just just a thought and I don't know if you have any thoughts on that Mr kahill but.
Thank you commissioner clut I can add maybe just a little bit of response but not probably as thorough as it needs to be so we are exploring that what we're finding is there are a few snags in a Nexus between what funds we can collect fees on who manages it how they're maintained how they're distributed but we are going through that sort of legal process we're actually looking at it through the keep during beautiful process as Brooke reminded me and even with that it's taking us some time to figure out how to do that so we're going to keep thinking about that what that looks like but as of now we don't have a solution to what that fund would look like thank you m chair shares yes I have a question for the applicant and you stated that there was walkability to the the grocery store and the gym or drugstores and this is a very bad intersection and it's a lot of accidents and pedestrian accidents what is the what is the.
Walkability is there a sidewalk is it completely connected are there good crosswalks there is there going to be a crosswalk at the entrance over to this Ravenstone and then up or are people just going to be walking in the road so our connections will have pedestrian connections out to the road at both NC 98 and Sharon Road we will have a 10- foot multi-use path which will be a con essentially a concrete sidewalk that's 10 foot wide along our Frontage that will connect to the existing sidewalk that will allow anyone to walk up to the intersection it is much safer to cross at the intersection because that is a lighted intersection a signalized intersection than at the driveway entrance of either location so essentially between the Walgreens and I think it's a Shell station on the opposite side but essentially at the NC 98 and Sharon Road intersection I'm not sure if there's crosswalks there off the top of my head but I I do know that it's a signalized intersection that is a.
Cleaner cross area there but there is there are sidewalks and ramps at that intersection yeah I'm not on the Google Maps overhead which might not be the latest picture I'm not seeing any crosswalks I don't earlene Transportation how do we get crosswalks or a little the button the walk. Button early Thomas Transportation I'm looking at the aerial photography as well there are no currently no striped crosswalks at the intersection but they certainly can be put on our operational list for installment.
As as all legs of the intersections you know have appropriate accommodations for them and with the striped crosswalk that comes with the The Pedestrian button Crossing and appropriate handicap those those are typically part of our intersection Improvement projects when we do pedestrian improvements that signalized Crossings yes I'm not certain if if that's currently funded in our program but I can certainly follow up with you to get you that information okay thank you and how long does that normally take I mean to put in the crosswalks with the I can't give you an estimation on the construction time frame it's not a lengthy one obviously the signal design has to be modified in the project bid and ultimately constructed thank you public hearing is closed are there any other sir you're out of order are there any other commissioner questions yes here I'd just like to to make a comment it's not really a question directed anyone but the decisions that we make that go forward to the City Council have.
Consequences and I've had an opportunity to to visit this community and observe you know the real world consequences of our decisions and I'm telling you if you hadn't been out to this particular community and other community other other parts of the community where there's large developments in in underway or in process you really should go it would be worth the time and investment to go to these communities it is impactful in a way on the people who live in these communities that can't be measured and so I think we as a an Advisory Board need to do a better job of looking at all of these projects impact on a particular Community not necessarily on the caseby casee basis that they come before us and its impact on our County down down the road and so I think we really need to take take a closer look at what it is that that that we're doing thank you chair are there any other questions concerning this case comments.
Yes thank you chair I I do want to add a little bit of context because I think there's maybe times that staff don't step up when we probably should and so this is going to be one of those times so y'all are going to learn more about annexations and you'll learn more about why sounds like at the end of the night but one of the things is the fire department police department Solid Waste Public Works I'm missing a few departments Transportation they go through and they do an analysis of these projects when they come in and so I'm looking at the corresponding cost benefit and annexation impact analysis that the council will see but up until this point y'all haven't had the the opportunity to see things like that and it says that you know fire does not identify any concerns about serving the area their response times you know we don't have that live data right now that is something hopefully we're working on but they identified they don't have.
Any issues serving the area of the site they also identified what capital expenses equipment and operational expenses and Personnel expenses they will need through the year fiscal year 2033 and so I just want to color this a little bit with the fact that this analysis is done it's done concurrently and y'all haven't always seen that because it goes to council and I just want to say that because I think it's important because the police department fire department or other partner departments work really hard to do an analysis on each of these not just in isolation but also in a comprehensive kind of way so I just want to make sure that we maybe a little more transparent about that thank you any yes M commissioner CC sorry yes thank you so just to follow up on that Alex I appreciate that additional context and knowing more about the cost benefit of these cases in the bigger picture is really helpful is that to say that while we're hearing you.
Know sincere real concerns and I I really appreciate hearing from from residents I think it's really impactful to to to to those of us serving on this body that that there are Provisions being made for Investments to address what they see as the needs in these areas I guess is question one and then the question two is what kind of input are they getting from the community to inform that decision making because it sounds like there's a disconnect between what in this case fire is saying is needed and what we're hearing from the lived experiences of people who are in this community that was a really good question for your first night and I won't attempt to answer it with any sort of you know subjective opinion but what I can say is you know Fire Department police department Solid Waste they have specific criteria they use to review projects to identify what capital and Personnel expenditures they need I understand that if a response time is you know four minutes that four minutes.
Through lived experience is a long time and it has a lot of impacts so I can't I can't negate that experience but what I can say is the criteria use are other departments use is not based necessarily on lived experience but it's based on specific calculations and criteria that go into that we are actually going through a process where we're learning more about which each of those calculations are over the next five six months right now as we meet with each of those departments and so we might actually be able to provide some more information once that kind of process is wrapped up thank you all right I'm going to R ring it back in to this case any questions regarding this case specifically and not Global questions are we ready to move this case forward s Madam CH I have one other question yes go ahead thank you so much I have a a question for transportation just about connectivity for this case and this part of the.
County and I'm just trying to weigh both I I think the the intention that the developers brought the applicants brought in terms of some of the profer that are responding to some of the the the requests of this body and the needs of the community but also thinking about contributing to autoscent sprawl and I'm just wondering like how a case like this and the others were hearing Factor in when we're thinking about the the long-term planning for for transportation and and and the Investments that we plan on making earing Thomas Transportation so I think really the question you're asking is getting towards how how we handle long range transportation planning for an area and the Durham Chapel Hill no is the regional planning agency that addresses those issues through land use modeling and travel demand modeling and developing a transportation plan for future implementation those projects obviously move through a prioritization and funding process and occur over time they are more long range in in nature so they they take all of the development.
That's occurring as well as look at the future land use plans and and anticipate anticip at development and buildout and those things are considered as they develop their long range models and plans so globally that's how it's accounted for and then at this local development individual case level if a traffic study is warranted we attempt to get at mitigation efforts at a more localized site specific level so this is a case in many cases that are driving more growth to this area then that will be evaluated as part of the long range planning for the M for for their future Investments correct thank you are we ready to move this case.
Forward chair as it relates to case z23 000014 Sharon Ro Department make a motion that we move this case forward to city council with a favorable recommendation with second oh with additional. Profit second it's been moved by commissioner cutri and seconded by commissioner Valentine to move case z23 tri14 Sharon Road departments and it's associated new propers forward f with a favorable recommendation to city council may I have to roll call vote please chair Cameron yes ice chair sharis yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner grey mans yes commissioner Gham yes commissioner copac yes commissioner mcber no commissioner CE yes commissioner trap yes commissioner Valentine no commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke no commissioner Young no motion carries 94 thank you before I'm going to call a break in a second here I'm going to appoint commissioner Gary cutright also to the Udo committee so I just wanted that on the record and to ask maybe Alexander if we could maybe get a session to talk about all this Global stuff for the commissioner find a date on the.
Calendar for the commission the Planning Commission to take a you know couple hours for something to educate everyone what you just talked about absolutely I'm hearing a request for a global Retreat sometime in the next a global Retreat awesome all right thank you take a break for 10 minutes come back at 9:00 and the chair will be Vice chair sharis I have a n o'clock meeting I gota go to thank.
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Okay we're going to be resuming the meeting. The next item is z 23018 Clayton Road tow houses may we have the staff report please good evening again Brook rooper with the city County Planning Department this is Clayton Road Town tow houses the following information summarizes the application and I'm going to give Alexander a moment to pull up the slides.
Thank you for being with us I'll just go ahead and get started so Jered Edens of Eden Investments proposes to change this zoning designation of five Parcels of land totaling 5.75 acres and located at 1019 1023 1025 102 7 and 1029 Clayton Road the current zoning is residential Suburban 20 the applicant proposes to change this designation to plan development residential 6.89 s to allow up to 35 townhouse units the properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood and Suburban commercial on the place type map the proposed PDR 6.89 7 zoning is generally consistent with the designated Place type of mixed residential neighborhood but is inconsistent with Suburban commercial if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the place type map to designate the entire area as apartment and townhouse neighborhood as the characteristics and policy associated with this place type is more aligned with the proposal here's a map of all the properties notice for the neighborhood meeting the existing zoning is residential Suburban 20 with the textual.
Development plan in the site is surrounded by residential Suburban 20 and Commercial neighborhood the aerial map shows the general location of the project in eastern Durham the applicant has included textual commitments including the construction of a 10-ft path along the frontage of the site along the west side of Clayton Road the preservation of the existing cemetery and the increase of the erosion control sediment basin the applicant held a neighborhood meeting on May 2nd 2023 where three community members were present finally the proposed PDR 6.89 7 zoning is as I mentioned generally consistent with the place type map designation of mixed residential neighborhood but again inconsistent with Suburban commercial staff recommends a change to designate designate the entire site as apartment and townhouse neighborhood as the characteristics are more inlined policies not met through the development plan have been noted by staff to be due to the proposal's lack of commitments to affordable housing dispersion of open space on site and the absence of mitigation measures for projected students that may be generated by the.
Development thank you staff and the applicant are available for questions at this time the chair is opening the public hearing may we have the applicant please. Good evening Jared Edens with Eden Investments appreciate Brook's summary of our project and pl's help on this project I just like to provide some additional info and some clarifications as BR mentioned we're seeking to rezone five Parcels on Clayton Road near the Clayton Chek Road intersection they total roughly five acres or roughly one acre a piece the first thing I like to talk about is the place types map that that Brooke had refer to and and it's accurate for sure that that one of the five Parcels is not consistent with the with the place types I'm trying to find my exhibit.
Here Alex do you know where this where that survey is.
Pull it up okay goe keep yeah so Alex is is getting a survey of the property you'll see on the survey when he pulls it up that the so there's five tracks the northernmost tract Which is closest to the intersection of Chek and Clayton is designated for Suburban commercial and that's the one that we're not consistent with the other four are designated for residential and our town home project is consistent with that U the reason we're that we don't believe that northernmost pece should be commercial is because as we'll see in a minute the cemetery on the side that was referred to in the staff report is actually located on that northermost parcel near the the roadway at Clayton it's actually right in the middle of where any driveway way would be for commercial or any building near the street or any parking the cemetery is sort of right in the middle of that front parcel so it's a lot easier to work around that Cemetery by extending the residential and fitting some town.
Home pockets of town homes around it as opposed to trying to create and and maybe force a commercial use on that one acre of the property the cemetery we actually did some extra work to to verify the extent of it we we did an initial field survey where we you know located tombstones and and headstones and located that way but we also had a company come in behind that and do some ground penetrating radar work basically they I don't understand the technology but they take equipment and and radar and you know send radar under underground that gives you a survey of where voids are in the ground and it helped us determine that the cemetery is actually about 10 to 15 15% larger than what was shown on the survey so it's actually a little bit larger and even more impactful to what a commercial use might be on that parcel but I think the intent when the you know when the plan was drawn up was to have a mixture of uses near the.
Intersection with commercial at the intersection of chic and Clayton with residential adjacent and you still have that even if this town home project is approved and modifying that one one acre piece there's still five to 10 acres of commercial property adjacent to us up to cheek Road and West of our property and so that the intent can still be met it's just a slight modification to the to the boundary between the two uses I do want to offer we have a couple of additional proffers and we honestly we just missed these in the orizal application and and never caught it along the way we always make these two proffers but we will have a $5,000 schools payment the staff report says that there are 10 additional students from this development so 10 students at the $500 per student rate would be a $5,000 payment and we would be making a payment to the affordable housing fund of $335,000 that's $1,000 per unit for the 35 units and I I guess I'll go back if.
You can see on the on the survey you see on that Northern piece the cemetery located right you know right in the middle of that parcel up at Clayton Road that's what I just talking about also need to clarify staff had asked me to clarify TX commitment number 14 regarding front Gables that text commitment should read that there will be at least one front-facing Gable on each individual townhouse dwelling unit there was some confusion as to whether we were talking about a each structure which may have between three and six town homes together if we were talking about each individual unit we're talking about each unit so I want to clarify by that we have a couple of environmental items you know we're doing the oversized sediment control Pond a couple of other things we're doing internally we can't really make them a text commitment because the planning staff doesn't really have a way of of checking things internal to the units and checking that on the site plan and.
Construction drawings I mean we can add a note to the site plan but we will have lowf flow toilets this was in an effort to to meet some of the Green Building requirements the comprehensive plan we'll have lowf flow dual flush toilets and we're also going to be committing to low VOC paint it's internal paint that has roughly 15 to 20% of the pollutants that you find in normal paint that that paint smell the the strong smell from paint when it's prly painted is is high VOC paint this is sort of the opposite of that I know that rock is sometimes an issue in Durham we did do a geotechnical report for the property we did not find any bedrock within 15 ft of the surface of the site and I I do not see us moving that much dirt and changing the grade that much to to construct these units so I don't think Rock will be an issue but in summary I just think it's a sensible project if if you.
Look at the area zoom out just a bit you have a mixture of uses now you've got some manufacturing to the West you've got some industrial Flex space you've got the school to the South within walking distance and you've also got plenty of single family residential but the one thing you don't have there are no Town Homes there's only one housing type in this part of town and I think town homes that are going to be fairly affordable compared to the the normal Market I talked to the Builder today and I said you know if if the units were being sold today which is how I preface anytime I I quote a price it's if they were being sold today and things obviously can change but the number I was told was 299,000 as a starting price point and I think having you know 35 up to 35 town homes that are in that $300,000 price range as compared to what is allowed by wri which is 11 larger single family homes that.
Are going to be a higher price point I just think the town homes are a better option and then that's what we have before you this evening so I appreciate your time and be glad to answer any questions thank you yes okay thank you community members in person we have signed up to speak Donna stainback NOP they look like they have left Pam. Williams Jared Edens he just spoke so is there anybody on the zoom meeting that would like to speak please use the raise your.
Hand yes Mimi Kesler hi Mimi Kesler again I have a question when when you talk about constructing what sounds like a sidewalk does that have a curb associated with it that would keep the cars in the road as opposed to being able to jump over into the sidewalk thank. You yes I guess that's for the applicant can you address the question yeah there's a couple of different different ways to do it because you've got a bike lane required which is typically four or I think the new standard may be five feet and then you got sidewalk that would be behind the curb with the bike lane but the the other option is provide and you're seeing that on other projects is just a 10 foot shared multi-purpose path that's on our property so you would have the roadway and then the ditch on the side of the road and then a 10-ft path on the outside of the ditch so the you don't have Curb as a protection but.
You have the ditch as a protection and that that meets dot standards okay thank than. You anyone else on Zoom Steve. Harrington yes can you all hear me yes go ahead yes good evening Stephen Harrington president 1 Clayton Road and looking at the the maps we have available it looks like the the I guess the primary access is from the Clayton road side there appear to be some construction over on the cheap road side that would potentially end up being adjacent or clear out of an adjacent driveway or right away coming into the community from CH Road and so I didn't know if that was part of the project or if the entrance exit for the community approve would be strictly coming in on Clayton.
Road yeah we our main driveway will be to Clayton Road obviously I'm not aware of any construction in the area going on on this side I mean we've had equipment there to do the geotechnical borings to check for rock but there's no construction activity on the side we're not doing anything.
Now I don't see any other hands raised so we'll close the public hearing and open for commissioner discussion and questions any comment commissioner Williams hey so I wanted to ask it looks like you've offered a 10 foot shared path along the front of the development will that path tie into any other development along that road or are there any sidewalks along that road because it is very close to the high. School yeah there's there sidewalk to the South there's a fairly recent single family subdivision just south of us that has installed sidewalk but our property doesn't reach to that point so there's two or three Parcels between our site and the single family home site that would not have sidewalk and I mean you know over time you would think that those sides would be redeveloped at some point and then that's sort of how the system gets built but it doesn't connect to it.
Yeah any other questions or comments commissioner CE hi thank you two questions for staff the first question pertains to the proposed Place type map that's indicated simply shows changing that Northern parcel from the commercial back to the mixed residential neighborhood but in I think your presentation and in the first kind of the prefacing comments there's a staff recommendation to change it all to apartment townhouse neighborhood can you that correct apologies we'll need to update the place type map it it should be all apartment and townhouse neighborhood for the place type map recommendation and and what's the thinking because this is a relatively small site what's the thinking behind going to the effort to make that change I guess yeah so essentially looking between the mixed residential neighborhood and the apartment and townhouse neighborhood staff we we simply believe that this proposal is more in line with the apartment and townhouse neighborhood I believe one of the reasons is that the apartment and townhouse Neighborhood Place type list that or excuse me the mixed.
Residential neighborhood Place type list that development should occur on primarily undeveloped land that's forested this site does have some buildings on it which was one of our reasonings okay I guess thank you I the I just add to that real quick sure and some of this is we we don't it's not a choice that we want to legally when there's an inconsistent zoning we do have to change the place type as a future land use map essentially so if the zoning is inconsistent with the place type we have to change it we don't have a say legally in whether we can or not okay I guess I'll have to go back and look at the way in which the mixed residential neighborhood is characterized in the place types map I thought there was some flexibility in terms of sizes of parcels but maybe that's more with the other types and I guess I should clarify the reason I'm kind of asking that question and this is a theme across my comments for all three.
Of the cases tonight that I've been a part of is that I do think the place types map is a really useful tool for for kind of informing both public conversations and also our our considerations and and so that's that's why I'm asking about the specifics here because I I see it without delving into the details Alex that you described you know I see it as kind of a flip of the coin for a site that's small and that's not to do diminish the distinctions that are made in the place types anyway so that was the source of that question the other question I have is also for staff the and I I think I mentioned this to you earlier the comprehensive plan consistently consistency checklist where policy 37 is referenced which speaks to Dei designing new developments that prioritize pedestrians anyway speaks about building placement pedestrian accommodations parking in the back things of that sort and the checklist indicates that it will meet Udo requirements and that it's therefore.
Consistent I'm just wondering if you could elaborate on that yeah of course so with our new consistency attachment we have four different categories that a policy could fall under or the proposal could fall under based on that policy so we have the policy is not applicable the policy is not met the policy is consistent by meeting Udo requirements and then we have the consistent by exceeding Udo requirements so our staff internally the growth management team reviewed all of the development related policies and that's where that list is coming from and we work through each one to see whether or not it could be consistent by meeting or exceeding or whether or not it would just be you know not met or exceed so kind of a roundabout way of saying we as staff believe that it would meet UD udio requirements so it would be consistent however of course you can use your best judgment to see it's not necessarily exceeding yeah I guess I I'm looking.
Forward to the ways in which the new Udo would better align with the comprehensive plan policies I'm not convinced that it does so yet in ways that correspond with the way that's represented that's that's a kind of detailed consideration and obviously something that we'll tackle with the Udo subcommittee so thank you for the answer and then just lastly just comments for the applicant I I appreciate the items that you address the additional profit that you mentioned you know you've you've been before us a lot and and you've listened to us in terms of the things that this commission has has indicated as as desirable and and and I think you've assembled the application here in a manner that's consistent with with a lot of those comments in the past so I appreciate that any other comments Madam chair thank you question for the applicants so I see that there's not necessarily a high bar for Community engagement for these resoning applications in this process and I see in this case that.
There was one community meeting with three attendees I also see that this census tract has a median household income of 44,000 well below the city and county I see that has a higher level of evictions 63% cost burden and 93.9% U people of color in the community and so I was curious what did you hear from those three attendees at the community meeting and do you feel that you've appropriately gotten a sense of the needs and wants of this community in developing this.
Project yeah and appreciate the question and you know I've done a lot of these zonings and you know often the number of meetings we have is is really based on the size of the project and what is the initial engagement from the from the first meeting so if I have a a meeting and I have 50 attendees and a lot of controversy and whatnot then obviously we'll have second third and and fourth meetings as I recall at this meeting the it was the three there were three attendees two were our immediate neighbors to the South who I'd had have had some sub subsequent conversations with since then but there wasn't a lot of hot button issues or or sticking points you know from that initial meeting so we didn't have a followup and and especially since I had been communicating directly with with the neighbor after that point so I don't know if that answers your question I I think it say that there was a small project and there didn't seem to be hot.
Button issues raised and so there wasn't a lot of followup after that just and not a lot of community interest you know we invited a lot of people but there was just not a lot people interested and I know it's a small project and so this puts us in a bit of a different situation than when we're talking about 700 units or 300 units but you know what was your consideration for having some of the units be affordable versus just the contribution to the affordable housing fund I mean I I have learned the hard way that when when you're below 50 units it's very hard to pencil out even one affordable unit you know one or two of units I mean I've I've personally I think the first project in the C Basin that had affordable units was one of my projects four or five years ago and I've felt like I've sort of LED that charge and and sacrificed a good amount of money on my own part to provide.
Affordable units whenever we can but the couple times that I tried to do it on the smaller projects that the projects almost didn't happen and so just for financial reasons and in an effort to to try to keep that price point at that 299 ballpark which is is sort of unheard of in most of the local market I just felt it better in this case to just make a payment of the fund and and let that money be used.
Elsewhere any further questions or comments no all right may I have a motion to carry this to move this case forward Madame Vice chair make a motion that we move case number z23 0018 Clayton Road town homes with the associated profit made this evening on to the City Council with a favorable recommendation second may I have the roll call vote it has been moved by commissioner trap and seconded by commissioner cutright to move z238 Clayton Road Hound homes forward with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote chair sharis yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner Grace.
Mans oh commissioner gam yes commissioner copc yes commissioner mver yes commissioner CE yes commissioner trat yes commissioner Valentine yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes commissioner young yes motion carries.
110 next item on the agenda z23 Tri 021 Fox Crossing 2 may we have the staff report please evening again Brook rooper City County planning as Alexander pulls up the presentation I'll begin so Tim cyers of City proposes to change the zoning designation of three Parcels of land totaling 25.5 6 acres and located at at 734 South Miami Boulevard 1220 ly Road and 101 Spring Street the current zoning is residential Urban 5 the applicant proposes to change this designation to plan development residential 12.75 to allow up to 320 apartment units with at least 3% of the units being designated income restricted and between 2,000 to 7,000 square ft of commercial and or public and Civic use the properties are currently designated mixed use neighborhood on the place type map the proposed plan development residential 12.75 zoning is generally consistent with this designated Place type here is a map of all properties notice for the neighborhood meeting the existing zoning is residential Urban 5 and the site is surrounded by residential Urban 5 office.
And inst institutional plan development residential the aerial map shows the general location of the project just southeast of downtown Durham the applicant has included Tex commitments including one internal elevator per apartment 3% or 10 units designated as income restricted 10% less impervious surface than the maximum allowed one electric vehicle station per apartment building 25% of the tree canopy to be native species two additional site amenities and a contribution to Duram public schools in the amount of $34,000 the applicant held a neighborhood meeting on March 9th 2023 where eight residents attended while the proposal is generally consistent with the place type map designation of mixed use neighborhood The Proposal does fail to meet some of the comprehensive plan policies due to the following not prohibiting Mass grading and failing to utilize screen infrastructure or Innovative storm water management practices thank you and staff in the applicant are available to answer any.
Questions yes thank you may have the applicant please yes thank you Brook and Alexander for an excellent staff report good evening Vice chair sharis members of the Planning Commission I'm Patrick biker I live at 2614 Stewart Drive I'm an attorney with Morning Star Lo group and I'm here tonight representing KDM development out of Raleigh with us tonight are Peter Crossett of KDM along with Nate buin of McAdams our traffic engineer and Tim cyers the president of City our set engineer for Fox Crossing phase two I hope everyone on the Planning Commission has had a chance to drive by this location and see Fox Crossing phase one I am happy to report that phase one of Fox Crossing will be open to new residents in March providing 168 much needed new apartment homes for Duram mites on the south side of ly Road our KDM team is proud of the curb appeal and the build quality you can see here with Fox Crossing phase one and we hope to continue that with Fox Crossing Phase.
2 the 25 a half acre site we are considering tonight it is important to see how Fox Crossing fits into this section of durl I have been working on development projects in our region for almost 30 years during that time is amazed to me how the triangle region kept expanding to the Hinterlands of Wake County like Holly Springs or zebulun while the four or five miles that separated downtown Durham from Research Triangle Park remained essentially undeveloped or underdeveloped fortunately that is no longer the case Durham has over the last few years developed or redeveloped that two to three mile stretch from Durham Tech South to RTP and I hope you've seen the scel properties Regional Commerce Center on the west side of the Durham freeway of course Durham Tech has been a fantastic community resource for our residents for many years and Durham Tech is only about 2 miles away from Fox Crossing in addition I'm working on the annexation of the Palmer Edge life sciences and light manufacturing business park which is already zoned.
Industrial Light and we hope that development will bring good paying jobs to this section of Durham as well for almost a year Morning Star has been working on the team for a very dense 1,800 unit development called Brick Works that is less than a half mile away to the north accordingly Fox Crossing Phase 2 is a great infill develop and I think it sustainably and successfully is filling in that gap between downtown and RTP given the job training and the job opportunities that are nearby it makes sense to increase the potential number of apartments on this 25 a half acre site from the 217 Allowed by right to the 320 that would be allowed with this resoning it is important to highlight that we are we are following the relatively new place type map which I think wisely designated this site that's surrounded by vacant land to the West behind a church to the South and the East End connector Freeway to the North and the east as mixed use neighborhood.
To that end we are committed to building at least 2,000 squ F feet of commercial or Civic space on site as well for all these reasons we respectfully ask for your recommendation of approval we appreciate your time tonight I'd like to reserve the balance of my time for rebuttal and our team will be happy to answer any questions thank you thank you I failed to say I was opening the public hearing prior to your speaking no we're good just thought I'd say it now just in case so we'll call the community members in person who have signed up we have a Melanie.
Curri hi my name is Melanie Curry I live at 1315 ly Road I've lived on LY Road my whole life we're a very small community there unfortunately a lot of my neighbors didn't feel comfortable coming and speaking tonight because they don't believe you care about our opinion about how we live we're a very small community a very small section between Highway 70 east and Pleasant Drive 15 mph speed limit we used to have a sign that said no big trucks but unfortunately when they built Fox Crossing one one of their big trucks happened to hit the sign that said no big trucks knocked it down and no one's bothered to pick it back up I happen to have Fox Crossing one live in my backyard at the very end of my property now we're here to talk about building a new one right across the street it's hard to talk about this I'm so sensitive I don't believe these developers have done their due diligence in researching the the very serious.
Animal weal welfare impacts that this development is going to cause specifically there are endangered species and threatened species living in the little Lake Creek that these these developers aren't even aware of either you care about that or you don't there's been no plans no thoughts or any concerns whatsoever to the residents that already live in what this gentleman determined to be a vacant area it's not it's the last intact piece of forest that lines Highway 70 you tear that up where are the residents that already live there are going to live they have nowhere to go either you care about that or you don't the current residents there hope that you'll take into consideration the our concerns and we hope that you will please keep the zoning as it currently is thank you thank you and we have John cury.
Good evening Commissioners my name is John Curry I have a special interest in this planning since I live at 1222 ly road which is slapped next to where the southeast portion of the this project my family has lived here for 80 paid taxes for 80 85 years across the road they've already approved box Crossing one and their exit is directly in line across the road from my driveway my house is actually just 25 ft from the property line of 1220 ly wrad that's a small community the old Maps show the name of the community is Aries Spring Park and I'll refer to the name of that a little later on but this is is not compatible for a small community of three four story apartment buildings just Lo over the small houses that are there I still live at the old home place and these Woods that will be developed were my playground when I was a kid and they've been speaking about Lake Creek the widest portion of that Creek.
Runs right through the center of this development the spring that I mentioned in the name Aries Spring Park is at Spring Road that's the name in Corner Carl Avenue and it feeds fresh water into Lick Creek which runs into Jordan Falls Lake of course those woods in the creek are the last refuge for the wildlife in that area thank you there's a passage under Miami Boulevard I'm sorry but you've already approved 60 Acres of Wesley Downs directly across the highway from from this so if the animals they already started cutting trees and the big equipment moving in so the animals come under the highway and they go through this this area when the construction starts there thank you the time is up I don't know where they'll go I'm sorry may we have Pat Titus please I'm sorry I didn't hear it next speaker in person listed is Pat.
Titus well I have been my name is Pat Titus and I live at 1310 ly Road and I have been living in this neighborhood for over 30 years it's a a small community and it was a major sacrifice to adjust to what happened in Fox Crossing one they were not very nice to their neighbors I went to some of the initial planning meetings and then there there were changes made that were not part of what we were told including buffers and they added buildings one next door to my neighbor Wanda on Pleasant and you know nobody's really or i' haven't heard anybody address the decrease in property value values when an apartment buildings come in it certainly decreases the the pleasure of living in a small community because we don't have it's built for a small community and now it's not going to be I I urge you to reconsider and keep the zoning as it is I and I would U really appreciate your doing so so there's let me just I I worry.
About the seniors too I mean the people talking about EMS being able to get to where they need to be and police coming but senior centers it's you know hard on us thank you we have Donna stain back listed but she is no longer here Patrick biker but he'll come back later Pam Williams she is no longer here Paul Joon Joon.
Jon. To advance the slide or go back you can just do Arrow or enter so Arrow either way yeah or enter okay good evening Madam chair members of the commission thank you for this time my name is Paul jofen I have lived at 705 Pleasant drive with my wife Patricia SES for the last 23 years within 400 yards of the proposed site of the this project I would like first to take a look at Fox Crossing one I I don't know that I'm throwing out a an accusation of Truth and advertising Mal feasant but if you pull up the website for Fox Crossing one you get a description that it's located in Research Triangle Park epicenter for techies and innovators a stroll away from vibrant local bars and restaurants I can honestly tell you in 23 years the closest bar to to this location is whether you want to call it a private gentleman's club or a strip joint it's a mile and a half away on andur Avenue and.
It closed during covid the closest restaurants are a mile and a quarter away fast food a treasurer's walk down south on Highway 70 so you know this is just a small matter but the the big picture is that we have not seen the traffic output from Fox Crossing one on a street that is overburdened already this is a traffic picture taken on January 17th Wednesday afternoon the diagonal red line on the right is Highway 70 diagonal red line on the left is 885 the red circle is circling Andre Avenue pictured here the red line there is traffic congestion before we see traffic from Fox Crossing one and Fox Crossing 2 Fox Crossing is landlocked there is no whether you have sub outs to Spring Street or other areas it's it's a little bit irrelevant because the only way out of this area is by Highway 70 and by Ander Avenue those Outlets are overburdened South Eastern Durham has been overburdened with projects such as this and infrastructure has not kept up.
With what the developments are doing thank you very much thank you Tim cyers a question Whitney.
Harts good evening my name is Whitney Harris I live at 10008 Chancellor's Ridge Drive in Durham I stayed because my neighbor asked me to speak on behalf of their project as well and even though I don't live near her I've never met her I do consider her my neighbor because everything that you decide here has an impact whether it's environmental whether it's water we heard from Brooke about the water management issues that affects everybody that lives in Durham and again I'm going to bring up fair housing I know commissioner CE you said well we have a supply and demand issue we have to build more if we're going to meet this I understand that we understand that but then ask these developers instead of 10 rent controlled properties how much is that really going to help people and you've just approved multiple projects with 5% 3% it's not enough you have the ability to say even one more percent that makes a difference it's Black History Month we're talking about diversity equity and inclusion.
Where I live and where I work and my community where I work brought tons of people here today with wealth with education and presentations that could wow people and you voted against their project this neighbor shared with me that the majority of people that live in her neighborhood do not have wealth and power and Voice or trust the system or have internet access she shared or they are Hispanic and don't speak English so just like commissioner Valentine encouraged you to go to these communities spend two hours three hours on the corner on these intersections and see for yourself what's happening I appreciate that commissioner copac asked the question about only three people attending these meetings and seeing what the ratios are in these areas these are the questions that you have to ask yourselves and to commissioner cutright Point earlier about the first proposal development is inevitable we all understand that so if we're accepting that that is inevitable how do we make it more Equitable that is what we are.
Charged to do to help the people who live in Durham thank you thank you any community members on Zoom wishing to speak please use the raise your hand feature Andrew. Hefner hi this is Andrew Hefner can you hear me yes I'm a resident at 709 Pleasant Drive have been for over 20 years and I have a couple things I want to say first I was looking through the presentation from the developer and they had 10 separate policies that they were not complying with 48 50 70 79 82 83 84 85 108 109 and 171 which is listed as complying but when I look at it there's no way this thing is complying with that one it says 15minute walking distance to commercial establishments restaurants things like that and the only thing that's a safe 15minute walking distance from this development is about a half a dozen car repair places on Andre Avenue anybody tries to cross 70 as a pedestrian is taking their life in their hands the other thing that I noticed was.
The traffic report that was included with this proposal I have a lot of experience in traffic research risk M excuse me risk mitigation and I have serious questions about the methodology that was used used to put this together and I'll give you a quick example so this development that has access only through Spring Street and ly road is estimated to have 1,800 daily trips now both of those roads according to their own audit had a total of 450 trips in a day and and they say that the addition of those 1,800 daily trips thank you thank you Andrew your time is up is only 4 to.
10% doesn't add up thank you next on the zoom please state your name and. Address hi this is Tia spikes I live at 705 Pleasant Drive my husband Paul spoke earlier and I wanted to describe the home that we live in which is very similar to the homes around Pleasant Drive except for the newer development as well as the residences of people on LY Road we have a single story ranch home one reason we purchased it is because it would be much more accessible for my disabled mother if she wanted to come over and also it would be a place that we could could age in place you know because it was much more accessible than than many homes we have significant concerns about the amount of traffic that this is going to put on some short sections of small two-lane roads as has already been stated we do not even know what it's going to look like when Fox Crossing you know starts to have residence when the first U location has that I.
Literally don't know how we're going to get out of our driveway safely I I'm very concerned about that the intersection where Lyn Road meets Pleasant Drive there's a stop sign there and for many years before Fox Crossing was even discussed people have been just kening through that stop sign they have crashed into our next door our neighbor's yard on multiple occasions previously there was wooden fencing there and people were knocked down so many times they finally just took the rest of the fencing down we've had people crash into their yard and into their carport and so and again this is without these developments this is a very small area just two lane roads the old houses are close to the street so you know if you're going to look at expans thank you thank you Patricia two minutes is up any other Zoom.
Participants oh oh I'd like to recall the applicant would you like to address any of these concerns specifically the environmental and the traffic and the impact to the neighbors property. Values. I think I would like to address the site issues in particular again Patrick biker attorney for the applicant again we're talking about a 25 and a half acre site designated for mixed use neighborhood I think it's important to take a long-term view Commissioners for over 50 years our city and our region Research Triangle Park waited for the East End connector to be built it was designated as an important freeway connection back in 1960 I believe it didn't get completed until whatever it was 60 years later and now that that has occurred I think this site we're considering tonight mirrors what were the priorities that we heard loud and clear for all the years that we worked on our new comprehensive plan I think I I think I attended every public hearing that yall held for that and what did we hear.
Infill and densification infill and densification folks we're next to a freeway the site is basically next to a freeway and behind a church we certainly appreciate the concerns most of us live in many of us live in older neighborhoods in Durham my neighborhood was built before World War II we have narrow two-lane streets and I'm sorry my neighbor commissioner Graves mans lived we actually share a property line Stewart Drive Augusta Drive monachello Steve zero sidewalks built in 1940 and so those are the realities of these infill developments they're going into the older neighborhoods we appreciate the concerns and that's why we did a traffic study McAdams provided a TIA that analyzed all these issues thoroughly and so the traffic issues have been addressed in terms of housing again we're providing EV stations finding elevators in the buildings so that we are you know doing everything we can to make this an appropriate infill densification again that was a message loud and clear from our comprehensive plan was infill intensification providing housing.
Equidistant from our two main employment centers Duke and downtown to the north RTP to the South is exactly what our comp plan wants to do we appreciate the concerns I gave every person who's here in attendance tonight my direct phone number happy to talk to any neighbor anytime about our developments in Durham because again I've lived in an older neighborhood for almost 30 years and I know exactly what they're saying so we respectfully ask for your your approval please don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good this is a good project that follows the theme and the theory of our new comprehensive plan our team's happy to answer any questions our traffic engineer our site engineer and again if we can't put if we can't put 320 Apartments here along the east tank connector where where can we put them thank.
You thank you the public hearing is now closed may we have commission or discussion and questions and.
Comments commissioner cut right appreciate the presentation appreciate the the project I think it's I think it's a decent project I think we make it a lot better is 5% affordable so go from 10 to 16 units oh yeah yeah 10 10 to 16 to 16 units and then any chance you can tighten up on the commercial you got 2,000 to 7,000 it's pretty wide range you know I don't know if if you can go like five to 7,000 just tighten up that range a little bit it's pretty wide range I'm just looking for what the thought is around what you're trying to do.
There m cutright to answer your questions in reverse order we'll look at the you know it's a challenge to do a non-residential use in a location like this it's a challenge so with all due respect I think we'll go with the flexibility we have between 27,000 because we're really not sure I mean the first if we're fortunate enough to gain approval U the first folks will talk to are the church next door we want to make sure we're a good neighbor with whatever non-residential use we have in terms of affordability we can increase our profer to 5% of the overall I think that's a really strong profer commissioner cutright for this reason if you look at the the Delta between the 2117 that are allowed by wght to the 320 request in this resoning 5% overall is actually over 15% of that Delta because we're adding about 100 units and over and 16 of them would be affordable so I think that's a a worthy Endeavor to you like that fun math that pretty slick.
Attorneys and math are always a scary combination but that's U but we can increase that to 5% sir thank you any other commissioner CES thank you I'm curious if there was any consideration given and I don't know if the top of my head maybe staff does or maybe the applicant has it readily available well and let me preface this by saying I'm probably the person in this room who's least interested in buffers but was any consideration given to an offering an additional buffer to the existing Parcels along the South versus whatever may be offered by my ordinance yeah commissioner CE one one point that I think may allay your concern is that since we after we submitted the project the October 2023 Udo amendments took place so the the mass grading buffer put puts in a 30 foot 30 perimeter buffer perimeter buffer automatically and so is that to be undisturbed yes sir okay thank you for that yeah I you know clearly the application is consistent with the comprehensive plan clearly.
There are some compatibility issues with the two streets that provide access to the site I think that the way in which kind of the summary response that that that was provided which attempted to characterize this as utterly consistent with kind of all these conversations about comprehensive plan I think there's a lot of nuance and detail there that should be addressed more specifically relative to the limited and historic nature of the two existing roadways of Lenn and spring which provide the limited access but that by default is the access to this parcel given the highway infrastructure so it's a really you know difficult call from that perspective and I would say that in general more should be done and needs to be done within the public rights of way for those two existing streets but General is that that commentary is is speaking to the existing conditions what the land use decision that we're tasked with addressing is the existing zoning not the existing conditions and the proposed rezoning so.
That Delta that you mentioned in terms of units that are allowed by right relative to the units that are being requested that's a really critical consideration and to be able to get some affordable housing units out of that Delta is is significant for the city M that's there's one more thought that I wanted to make it's late I've forgotten it so I'll come back to it all right well commissioner CE gathers his thoughts I have a question for the applicant same as what commissioner cutright two to 7,000 square feet of commercial and or public and or Civic use any idea I mean a Starbucks a coffee shop it could be any of those it could be a daycare we'd have to check on the state obviously the state has its own body of regulations for daycare I I don't know if that church next door has an active dayare some do some don't I believe they do but a lot of them are cutting back it's a that's a diff that's the most.
Difficult nut to crack in these types of mixed use projects is what non-residential use would actually be viable given what commissioner CE just said about ly Road Spring Street being our access points what would actually be able to function there is hard to say so it could be a Wei work space that way people wouldn't have to commute every day if we built something that along those lines I think that was a profer in one of our other mixed use neighborhoods recently I think that's we we welcome suggestions but really it's it could be small retail could be daycare could be co-working space I think those are the three top options yeah perhaps some input from the community members sure especially within the 15minute community which is one of Durham's goals so we could address this traffic issue and perhaps they could get a a need met and within a a walkable perhaps type that's a great idea my direct line is 919593 384 call any time appreciate the suggestion thank you.
Any commissioner C I just wanted to State one thing there there was a comment that that and and I think this came up in the earlier case too about items that this commission decides I want to clarify this commission doesn't decide anything this is an Advisory Board we provide comments we solicit staff's support they prepare information we are purely an Advisory Board the elected officials make all land use decisions regarding reasonings and and I do think that is a very important distinction to make not just because of kind of the the comments but because of projects can't evolve between what happens in these public hearings and what happens at Council and many projects do and I would encourage you to as members of the public and and the applicant as well to continue to attempt to approve the improve the projects as as it moves through the process thank you thank you any other comments questions you know I want to take this a few ways first of all to piggyback on.
Commissioner ca's comment you know there are votes that happen this evening and there are also comments written comments that are provided to city council and I know they look closely at those when weighing their own decisions and so sometimes the Nuance can get lost in a vote but there's more Nuance that does get passed along next I want to direct a question to staff just to help me tease out and understand some of this like demographic data that says that there's a median household income of 44,000 so much lower than city and county labels it as a disadvantaged community for the climate and Equity screening tool but with a potential displacement risk due to cost burden Renters of 0% I'm trying to reconcile those they may be consistent but I'm trying to understand those and then think about what the impact is of a development like this in the addition on questions of affordability for long-standing.
Residents that's my answer thank you for that question so I'm going to give you a very politician answer and I'm sorry we include that sort of information demographics to provide a snapshot of what data we have data comes from multiple sources including the US Census Bureau Durham neighborhood compass and a third Source I'm forgetting we cannot and will not make you know prescriptive recommendations based on that data we simply lay it out and you use it as a criteria to inform your decision making I don't think staff is equipped to kind of make the interrelated connectedness of each of those in such a limited way on one project rather rather than hopefully that helps you provide Insight on a larger scale I think what I would ask then is if we could just double check the figure for cost burden renters being 0% when there's such a low areed income for the census track it's just surprising to me to see those paired together as a followup absolutely we can definitely.
Look into that okay thank you next I have a question about connectivity bike ped friendliness you know pitched this as you know including some of your public marketing right about the walkability what is actually in this proposal that would make Fox Crossing connected walkable bikable safe for for residents you know what are what are you committing to provide well it's upgrading those those access points on Lyn and spring to to provide safe Ingress and egress but again it'd be no different than Rockwood Park where I've lived for 29 years we walk and we bike in the street too qack and Tha Cafe and Google Hof and it's no different than any other neighborhood in Durham commissioner copc it's just an old neighborhood in Durham and this is an infield development that is going to I I think to to a certain extent it's funny when I back out of my driveway I look for pedestrians I don't look for cars I'm worried about pedestrians because there there's actually more people.
Walking up and down our street it seems than than than there are cars and I think that it would be helpful to have a 320 Apartments here because then all of a sudden you'd have people walking to various destinations for whatever they may need or or or just for exercise and to walk their walk their dogs so it's it's it's it's a reflection of the fabric of dur and and this is the bringing together our new comprehensive plan to a neighborhood that's been there for many many years I I apologize I don't know the exact date when these homes on Lan and pleasant were built I've had friends from church who've worked there same same as our neighborhood before World War II yep so that's what you're doing is you're trying to bring a a 2023 comp plan to a 1940 neighborhood and that's so it's the way Durham is developing in some regards challenge I'd be curious if any of my colleagues in the commission have other thoughts about having reviewed the.
Plans if we should be expecting more in terms of you know sidewalks and bike friendliness from this development also just another question that relates to some of the community comments you know the the the erosion of some of the remaining Forest natural space where did did the foxes cross well I can I see in my connectivity and Wildlife and Wildlife Crossing based on what this is being how it's being developed again once the East connector was opened up that sort of changed the whole dynamic of this area and I was surprised on my neighborhood I went out and wasn't a dog wasn't a cat oh it's a fox so you know where animals go deer Fox they're thr Durham it seems to me I see in our backyard and again our neighborhood was built before World War II so it's a challenge but again you've got a site that's essentially bounded on two sides by a freeway what's the highest and best use of that property I'd say it's 320 Apartments yes sir commissioner.
Williams thank you I Traverse this road quite often to say that it is similar to a to other neighborhoods is I think is not correct it it's the the roads that we're talking about are very small they have a lot of traffic between in and 70 and walking when we're talking about walking to potential amenities we are talking about walking on the sides of major highways I mean let's be honest and I think it's important to point out that fact what people make of it is you know up to them and you know their thought process but do think it's important to point out the fact that this site is you know surrounded by Major like a major highway and a very very busy road so it's interesting and I wonder just for staff and maybe arene you could answer this I don't know if you have the answer to this but is there any planed to you know fix up those roads mainly Lyn or are there any plans for.
Any road widening anything of that nature not along these smaller Road types there are you know major improvements on us 70 is they're still being evaluated but I think you know as you're talking about the lane with there are many narrow two-lane roads throughout the county but they aren't necessarily or won't be programmed for widening for until there is a significant traffic demand for a three-lane section or four-lane section but the streets that we're talking about would not fall into that. Category thank you any from F commissioner comments or questions commissioner CES maybe responding briefly to commissioner cpac's comments you know this site to the issue of connectivity the site and and to commissioner Williams comments Spring Street is a narrow narrow Country Road essentially Lyn is not much more than that although it is is striped if you pull up the Google street views and I I I do think it's that's a significantly different condition than other neighborhoods the one mentioned specifically Rockwood Park which was designed you know as an autod dependent.
Neighborhood this probably was preceded that in in some ways this is just a you know a settlement that at least in its current condition gave no contemplation of navigating around on foot and the flip side of that is the environmental conditions the the stream Corridor I think this would be a project that would really benefit from from having a a map of existing conditions to really understand questions of buffers questions of relationship to the church questions of of the significance of the impact of the stream Christ slicing across across the parcel which of course is the headquar is essentially of the Lick Creek Basin that we've heard all about you know sometimes the level of consideration that we were able to do through the act of the comprehensive plan when I say we I I shouldn't say we staff did an incredible amount of work with a lot of public input but that was mapping every parcel in the county you know an immense lift and so the.
Level of detail that was able to go into that may not have been able to pick up a lot of the the nuances of these conditions and I'm not sure if the community members who were here speaking from the neighborhood you know we're ever really aware of or in involved in the conference plan comprehensive plan conversations but you know I think this is a it's it's a real challenging site and I'm not sure that the highest and best use is is 300 residential units I I I doubt the highest and best use is the 200 or whatever is allowed by right but you know I'm not sure that I'm not sure that the the community benefits are really there from the standpoint of the difficulty of the surrounding conditions thanks thank you any other comments no we're good okay may I have a motion to move this case.
Forward chair as a relat to case z23 0021 fox fox cross to make a motion that we move this case forward with the additional profit of 5% affordable housing to city council with a favorable recommendation second clarifying question is the additional profer does it extend the tenure from 20 to 30 so it's not a profer for affordable housing by ordinance as a profer for income restricted a 20-year commitment just 5% that's correct the only thing that changed was 3% to 5% pursuant to commissioner Cut's question thank you thanks for clarify have a second second and has been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner CE to move z23 trip 021 Fox Crossing 2 forward with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote chair shagar no commissioner cutright yes commissioner Gham yes commissioner copac no commissioner mver yes commissioner CE no commissioner trap yes commissioner Valentine no commissioner Williams no commissioner woke no commissioner Young no motion fail.
74 thank you now on to item number nine adjournment we have one item real quick oh okay turn over to assistant director Smith good evening I'm sorry my eyes are running I started I don't know the air kicked on so I have not been crying I promise that's not what's going on here so I'll try to keep this brief but Grace Smith one of the assistant directors with the planning department just have an information item for you tonight so we we've been looking closely at a lot of our policies our our ordinances our processes and I think you all know that we have the new Udo that's coming that that we're working on now be coming to you and you'll be seeing through subcommittee and also through all kinds of Engagement and Outreach efforts so we're looking at some shortterm and long-term process and potentially ordinance changes and while we were doing these these Dives of these shortterm changes long-term changes one of the things that we've identified as a short-term process change is we're.
Going to start bringing the we will begin bringing some the direct translation zonings to you all for a recommendation right now you're not seeing those and what they are they are the zonings that accompany an annexation petition where the applicant is not requesting to change the zoning on the property they're only requesting the annexation however through state law the city does have to put zoning on the property when they Annex it so that's been happening happening at the city council level and it has been bypassing this commission for many years based on a resolution that the commission a commission adopted many years ago not this commission or or the people sitting here tonight so we've looked at the a lot of things closely we've been working with our legal team our Consultants whatnot we're identifying find some things where we need to do some things differently so we're going to start bringing those to you for a recommendation I can't tell you what it will look like exactly or.
How it to be packaged we're going to work through that Alexander and I know that we need to and the team the growth management team we know that there's going to be some some details we have to sort out and figure out so just bear with us but basically just an example of what one of those may look like is and we see a lot of these actually sing maybe a single family dwelling or even just a lot that can't can't really support anything other than a single family house and they need access to order and Sewer they have to go through their annexation process that's how our utility extension agreements work and so let's just say I'm going to use this for an example the base zoning is rs20 that applicant requests for annexation those have been going straight to council and Council has been acting on the annexation and the Zoning for the city at the City Council level because the base doning wasn't really changing but so so it's going to.
Be like rs20 County to rs20 city is what it's going to look like so just an example there there'll be some other examples they won't all be like that some are not residential some are but just wanted to give you a heads up of that it's coming to you soon sooner than probably we had expected we're trying to get some get some things in order and go ahead and Implement some of these short-term changes because we have a lot of long-term changes coming down road so if you have any questions Alexander I'm here Alexander's here Brooke and the growth management team we also have great legal representation in the city attorney's office we are really honored to have you here tonight Aaron did you want to just say hello to them real quick I'm gonna put Aaron miles Aaron miles on the spot here I don't know how many of you might have met Aaron already but this is Aaron miles Aaron is our I guess our Dono tool I'm G say it Dono.
Tool replacement you know Dono tool retired and so Aon has come and joined us tonight and watching and here she is so hello everyone thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak my name is Aon miles I'm a senior assistant City attorney with the city attorney's office and I have assumed Don uls or portfolio I've been with the city for a little over a year and a half and previously worked with the city of Asheville doing similar work so I'm excited to be with you all and provide legal advice to the planning planning department anyway so that's all I had good night.
Okay meeting is adjourned at 10:25 pm thank you and thank you all for the dinner and the gifts is very thoughtful of you thank.
You.