Durham Planning Commission · Regular Meeting · January 14, 2025

good evening welcome to the Duram Planning Commission the members of the Duram Planning Commission are appointed by the city council and the County Board Governors to make recommendations to elected officials we emphasize that the elected officials have the final say on any issue before us tonight while this meeting is being conducted in person it is also accessible uh using the zoom virtual meeting uh platform in the virtual meeting platform public participants do not have the ability to talk or be seen on video by default in order to maintain meeting to Quorum in a discernable record of the meeting the chat function has been disabled for those attending in person if you plan to speak on an agenda item tonight please go to the table to my left and sign up to speak when speaking please state your name and your address clearly when you come to the podium please speak directly into the microphone if you are attending the

meeting virtually 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 hearing 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 I will ask is there anyone else wishing to speak at that point you will digitally raise your hand Hand by pressing star n on your phone or if you're here raise your hand when recognized state your name and address before making your comments the applicant has a total of 10 minutes for a presentation each speaker after the applicant has two minutes to speak Commissioners we have four cases one has

a lot of community participation so we are time limited this evening um therefore we're asking asking a commissioner to have 5 minutes for Q&A and only be called upon to speak a second time after all of the other Commissioners have chosen to speak for the first time if you um choose to speak please have your thoughts and questions organized Commissioners as a reminder after the public hearing is closed you obtain the floor by being recognized by the chair commission members please remember to that you share this time with your fellow Commissioners keep your comments and questions p and please don't repeat topics that have already been discussed or questioned the time to make all public statements is before motions are made once a motion is on the floor any further discussion regarding a motion must come after a second all motions are stated in the affirmative so if a motion fails or ties the recommendation is for denial Commissioners if you not ready to

move a case forward please indicate as such when questioned fin finally I ask that everyone here and on the zoom the commission members the staff and the public 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 leave the room or to be muted on the zoom until such time they regain personal control if theorum fails to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until a genuine commitment to act respectful and courteous is is oberved after the case ends that you're here for please be courteous if it comes out in your favor please Don't Clap if it doesn't come out in your favor please don't Mo but leave the room quietly and uh wait until you've exited the room to have your post case

discussions and if the door is open just please close the door for us so we can continue on with with the uh business that remains on our agenda thank you are we ready for the roll call chair Cameron here Vice chair sheras here commissioner cutright here commissioner chowski commissioner Gregory here commissioner hen here commissioner copc commissioner mver here commissioner Williams here commissioner woke here a quorum has been established thank you there are no adjustments to the agenda this evening so we'll move on to the approval of the minutes and the consistency statement do we have a

motion to approve so move you have a second second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner W to approve the minutes and the consistency statements all in favor please say I any opposed the eyes have it all right we're moving into our public hearings the initial zoning map changes we have before us case Z24 25 A- bdg 241 1012 valet Drive may we have the staff report please good afternoon chair Cameron Vice chair chagaris and planning Commissioners I am pton Burgess with the planning department here to present 1012 vet Drive kz2 2425a bdg 2411 before I begin staff would like to

49 the aerial map shows the general location of the project the property is currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map the zoning was determined consistent with the designated Place type the applicant held two neighborhood

meetings on May 28th 2024 and August 13th 2024 there were seven in attendance to the first meeting and three at the second there were no comments on the Durham resoning explor the annexation and direct translational zoning request is consistent with the existing Place type map and applicable comprehensive plan policies staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you uh the applicant is in the room do we have any presentations thank you and I'm sorry I need to make one statement at at this time the chair is opening the public hearing okay go ahead good evening Madame chair members of the commission Pam Porter with tmla Associates and thank you to pton for the overview of our request so just to recap our request is pretty simple we're requesting annexation only for one12 velmet drive into the city limits the

2 Acre Site and the place type map designates it as mixed residential neighborhood any future residential development will fit within the surrounding character of this area of Durham and as a staff report noted work we are consistent with the Udo the comprehensive plan and the place type map and um that's all I've got thank you for your consideration and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have thank you we don't have anyone signed up is there anyone in the um Galley that would like to speak on this that's not pre-registered if there anyone on the zoom that would like to speak on this

case pleas please raise your hand using the raise your hand feature or Star N9 if you called in hearing or seeing that uh no one wants to speak on this um the chair is now closing the public hearing and we are now open for commissioner discussion and questions do we have any questions from the commission hearing none um are we ready to move this case forward if so may I have a motion to move case z240 25A dbdg 241 102 alet drive forward chair as it relates to Case z2400 025a and annexation BD g2400 011 1012 vment Drive I make a motion

that we move this case forward uh to the city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case Z24 00258 dbdg 24 0011 1012 valet drive forward with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote please here Cameron here yes Vice chair sheras yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner hen yes commissioner mver yes why didn't that work okay therea uh

commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes the motion passes 8 to zero we will now move to the public hearing uh for zoning map changes and the first case that we have before us is case z22 0000 60- BD G 22030 Chef Field Farms may we have the staff report please thank you CH Cameron Vice chair sharis and honorable commission members I'm Andy ler with planning department here presents shefield Farms case z22 0060 it's good to be with youall uh the following information summarizes the application uh the property is located at 840 8422 farington Mill Road it lies in the Suburban tier and currently within the

24 uh the properties are currently designated mixed use neighborhood and Recreation in open space on the place type map the proposed plan development residential 3241 zoning is generally consistent with

a designated mixed use neighborhood and a recreation in open space um Place type located at the northern portion of the site however the proposed zoning is generally inconsistent with the recreation and open space located at the southern portion of the site if the proposed Zing is approved staff recommends a change to the recreation and open space located on the southern portion of the site for mixed use neighborhood uh this is the aerial of the site uh to the west of the site is the Army Corp of engineer property uh east of the site is Fairington Mill Road north of the site is Chapelwood um Chapelwood neighborhood uh the applicant has included graphic and text commitments um some notable commitments include uh 5% income restricted units at 80% Ami for a 30-year period um uh 65 ,000 donation to Durham Public Schools Green Building standards

5 acre portion to be conveyed to preservation Durham three access points are located along Fairington road Fairington Mill Road and two locations are identified within the site to receive the proposed retail uses uh the wildlife Corridor as stated earlier is depicted north of the site a neighborhood meeting was held in accordance with UDA requirements on November 14th 2022 uh 53 community members were in attendance a meeting was also held January 8th 2025 and 51 community members were in

37 mitigation measures shall be conditions of development approval and any modifications or deletions shall require the same approval process that was required for the original project the applicant has excluded the required improvements from the nc751 and Stage Coach Road intersection uh from the development plan the site is also in one of the future growth areas should the proposed zoning be approved the future growth area shall be removed and the properties are currently designated mixed use neighborhood and Recreation and open space um the place type map the proposed PDR zoning is

generally consistent with a designated mixed use Neighborhood Place type and the r located at the northern portion of the site and as stated previously um the proposed zoning is generally inconsistent with the Ros Place type located at the southern portion of the site if approved staff recommends a change of that Ros Place type to mix neighborhood thank you staff the applicant are available for any questions thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing May the applicant please come forward good evening chair Cameron Vice chair sheras members of the Planning Commission my name is Patrick biker I live at 2614 Stuart Drive I'm attorney

with Morning Star Law Group in Durham and I'm here tonight representing Mi holes with us tonight are our traffic engineer Earl lellan of kimley horn our land planner Laura Hollman and our site engineer Jeremy Finch from McAdams and Erica leam a vice president with Mi holes at the outset I want to stress that the more than 200 Acres we are looking at tonight have always been eligible for water and sewer services from the city of Durham back in the mid 1990s I personally worked on and advocated for the boundaries of the on Mile critical area for Falls Lake and Jordan Lake that Jordan Lake critical area was shown on the future land use map adopted in 2005 which put these 218 acres in the Suburban tier then in 2023 the city council and the County Commissioners approved this area being in the Urban growth boundary when they adopted the current comprehensive plan in accordance with the staff's recommendation this property was designated in the new comp plan is mixed use neighborhood which is one of the

8% which means that only 78 Acres out of 218 Acres will be developed the remaining 140 Acres will be green space tree cover open space and undisturbed that is a strong commitment we have also committed to providing our tree coverage through preservation only meaning existing old growth trees will be preserved another great commitment along with there being zero stream Crossings as well as the

provision of the wildlife Corridor reflected in text commitment 13 the staff report mentions the natural heritage program I'd be curious to know how many folks know what the natural heritage program is it is a nonregulatory information gathering program aimed at three things the first first is to inventory North Carolina's natural areas the second is to gather and use information from those inventories to guide their recommendations to create a network of nature preserves and the third is to encourage the protection of natural heritage this project has done two of those three things the property owners had the natural heritage program staff inventory the site and gather information based on a review of their report you will see that they found no Ray plants Flora or fauna during their ventory they did find some natural areas that do not have evidence of past disturbance this led them to conclude that the restoration potential for this project is high they believe that with active management and restoration this

tract could Harbor rare or uncommon species we do not dispute any of those scientific uh statements but to suggest that this project destroys an existing natural heritage area is false the report basically says that if you do not touch this land it could become a natural heritage area this assertion ignores the fact that the property is subject to an active timbering and Forest management plan and those trees will be removed at some point whether by this project or pursuant to the approved forestry management plan the bottom line is that this area will not remain untouched and this resoning provides abundant environmental safeguards in compliance with numerous comprehensive plan policies next in regard to affordability I want stress that the vision of this project is 100% owner occupied it seems to me that most of the affordability commitments I have worked on over the past 5 years have been apartment rental developments while that certainly is of great Community benefit

I'm very proud to advocate for the 5% of the four sale homes in this resoning that we that will be designated as affordable of course we all would like to see more than 5% but right now our initial estimate to extend the sewer Force main necessary to serve this area is $10 million which is well in excess of a typical project to explain that $10 million price tag we have to build a sewer Force main that is 3 miles long to connect to the South Durham Water Reclamation facility on ferrington road just South of Highway 54 thanks to that $10 million infrastructure investment 36 Durham families would be able to purchase a home affordable at the 80% Ami level and with the Green Building commitments shown on our development plan not only is the purchase price afford advantageous the monthly cost of home ownership will stay reasonable because the monthly utility bills will be lowered through the committed Green Building practices Mi homes will employ

here the next issue I want to address is traffic and specifically the Udo compliance section on page two of your staff report of the 14 traffic improvements recommended by our Tia the development plan commits to 13 of them the only one omitted is the intersection of 751 and Stage Coach Road and I will explain why some of you may know that I was the attorney for 751 South when the board of County Commissioners approved it on August 9 of 2010 at that time 751 South committed to improving the 751 Stage Coach Road intersection on May 15 2023 the Durham city council approved a rezoning for 751 South for up to 1 , 753 residential units 150,000 ft of commercial 150,000 ft of office and the city council unanimously removed the requirement for 751 South to improve the 751 Stage Coach Road intersection a major challenge with

that intersection is that all the land around it is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers since the city council saw fit to remove the requirement to improve this intersection from 751 South a much larger project that is only a half mile away from this intersection it is fundamentally unfair to require this project Sheffield Farms to fix that intersection when Sheffield Farms is three miles away the justification for this is a well-established constitutional doctrine that any required infrastructure Improvement has to have a rational Nexus and a rough proportionality to the proposed development the Sheffield development we are discussing tonight will contribute only 2% of the traffic at the 751 Stage Coach intersection the overwhelming majority of traffic at this intersection is due to commuters from the carry area commuting all the way to UNC Chapel Hill one of our Region's largest employers I find it interesting that over the next decade ncdot has allocated exactly zero dollars to fix this problem keeping in

mind that both 751 and Stage Coach Road are NC do roads since the required rideway and improvements would cost millions of dollars since this project contributes only 2% of the intersection traffic and since the city Council released the much closer and much larger 751 South development from any requirement to improve 751 in Stage Coach Road intersection it hardly seems Equitable to impose that Tia requirement on this development next as it relates to Equitable outcomes this is one area where I believe this project excels the history of one of Durham County's Legacy African-American families the nun family reflects Durham's history since they have lived in this area for decades their family story is truly amazing the non family has for decades been trying to gain access to City Water and Sewer so that they continue can continue to live here and grow their family along Fairington Mill Road they have septic systems which are beginning to fail I think it is fair to say based on the

comp planned public hearings back in 2023 that the city council acknowledged that serving this area with water and sewer is an expensive challenging and worthy Endeavor with that $1 million price tag I mentioned a moment ago it is no wonder that the city does not have plans to bring sewer to this area at this time fortunately we do and this helps drive an equitable outcome that has been long overdue in closing the de the development plan before you tonight has a profound commitment for the preservation of the area and the structures on this site that tell the painful history of enslaved people and white privilege that existed in this part of North Carolina Planning by its very nature looks forward this development I'm sorry I do not represent many projects that can look to the past this development planned before you preserves our past so that future Generations can see where we came from and the sacrifices that enslaved people made over the past centuries I hope you all noted the Tex commitment to donate 2

and a half acres along with what remains of the slave quarters and the Greek Revival house to preservation Durham described on page 46 of the historic resources of Durham County included in your staff report accordingly this resoning reflects large scale changes from what the Planning Commission considered on February 13 of 2024 this development plan preserves our past demonstrates strong compliance with current comp plan policies promotes environmental stewardship and an equitable future for one of Durham County's long established African-American families for all these reasons we respectfully ask for your recommendation of approval and our team will be happy to answer any questions thank you very much for your time tonight thank you thank you at this time the chair is opening

the public hearing and we're going to ask that anyone that has a PowerPoint presentation go first so we can um do all those and um I'll call three people um at a time if you could be ready and we have Elizabeth BB Moore uh Annette rice and Bobby Saunders uh who have power PowerPoint presentations and we can go in that order please and you have two minutes and Aaron you're going to man the time and okay okay great all right we're all covered we're ready to is is your presentation up all right good evening Madam chair and Commissioners my name is Elizabeth Moore 109 Lariat Lane in Southwest Durham County 500 ft from the site the resoning application for the area 8422 Fairington millroad should

not go forward as it is not compliant with the Udo the initial pressure to develop in environmentally sensitive lands around Jordan Lake came from a historically bad decision to build miles of Light Rail over Wetlands the Federal Transportation declined funding to prefer higher cost benefit national projects thus extending sewer and urban infrastructure to this area May no longer make sense and Durham is already facing emerging difficulties in planning for future water supply extensions the benefits of the current site Zoom are this site is environmentally unique Rural and mostly farm with existing tree coverage in part of the North Carolina game lands which you can see there and the federal sorry Army Corps of Engineers thus permanently under state and federal protection it is a sensitive area with a high North Carolina biod diversity score

and I have a landscape plan for wildlife connectiv ity this was started uh 30 years ago and on page seven you can find information about the open space and Wildlife corridors and I have copies of this if anyone wants them um it was written by 30 expert educational and government organizations and representatives from uh three neighboring counties of durm County while scientists estimate that there are over 11 million species we are only one species um some of these oak trees can support life for 350 species in One Tree in addition they could live 200 years this is not a light thing this is heavily forested with dogwood trees and the underst story and it should not be developed thank you Annette rice sorry

good evening chair Commissioners my name is Annette rice and my address is on file I'm here to talk to you about the sewer situation down around the 8422 Fairington Mill Road area obviously this area was ultimately decided to be included within the ugb as a future growth area dependent upon sewer development during the march 2023 ugb deliberations include the planning Department's recommendation was to actually remove this area from within the ugb due to the difficulty of supplying sewer services to this area the actual sewer Basin that this location Falls in is the Celeste Circle Basin and it is currently overwhelmed the Celeste Circle um pump station has recently been replaced and it was moved further out of the floodland within the you you not the US Army Core of engineer property of flood zone

overlay if you look at the map here you'll see the red star is the location of the um wastewater treatment facility the red outline to the bottom left is the actual location of the um Sheffield Farms proposal um Mr biker did mention that they're going to be spending $10 million or offering to spend $10 million to put in a 3M long sewer line sewer M to avoid going through that regular sewer Basin what you need to understand is the sewer that they're going to be laying in or want to propose laying in is actually within a water set Supply Watershed which is nutrient sensitive Watershed for the Jordan Lake drinking water source which we will be relying on in the near future one mile of that sewer M crosses a combination of federally protected lands that belong to the Army Corps of Engineers uh CR critical water watered areas the ncdeq protected wetlands and federal flood zones the city of Durham says that

private sanitary sewer system discharges and sewer pipe leaks are the number one um pollution within this area time thank you you next we have Barry sand Saunders it's not me sorry Madam chair Commissioners I'm Barry Saunders I live at 8110 kbec Drive durm County I want to speak to the threat a Sheffield development would pose to waterways through storm water runoff this shows the Morgan Creek flood zone along the parcel's western edge this Basin has been a wash in Jordan Lake flood waters multiple times in the last few decades the state classifies Morgan Creek Waters here as drinking

water nutrient sensitive and already impaired these Waters do not need more nitrogen or phosphorus or toxins 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 last February where Morgan Creek enters overgrowth of algae like this chokes out native plants and when algae dies it produces anoxic conditions that kill aquatic animals this is Lick Creek not Morgan Creek but it's a stark reminder of The Perils of silt from construction within Durham County overcoming our robust storm water Provisions the sloped western edge of the Sheffield parcel includes a lot of coing from erosion this is common in the

pedmont from timbering in agriculture that didn't conserve soils tree roots are stabilizing all those slopes the developer site plan doesn't show a tree buffer along all these upper slopes Western slopes this shows an edge of the Sheffield parcel that meets steep slope criteria 25% there's much more steep slope throughout and just below on corand tree roots are key to protecting those slopes here are deep erosion gullies at two different intermittent streams exiting the Sheffield parcel this is just after just a quarter an inch of rain thank you thank you next for presentations we have Larry and I'm sorry y can't read hand right t e a t okay got it uh Lyn or Linda is it Linda

cast thank you and then the next person is I think it's Tom Galloway that's okay go thank you my name is Larry tum te a t m I live at 217 Bell Rose Drive Chapel Hill Durham uh I want to talk briefly about the Little Creek Bridge Little Creek Bridge was built in 1979 and was uh under a forc re Furbish with uh rip wrap because of the deteriorating condition of the supports of it um it it's marked here in the middle there as you can see any construction that they do in terms of Road mitigation will impact this bridge because they'd have to expand the road somebody else is going to talk more about that but the bridge is in the middle of that you can't expand it

because first off uh the county has uh the state has determine that the bridge is structurally deficient currently uh as you can see by the two pictures here the bridge is leaning now I'm below line looking at this bridge and if you look at the bridge pictures the bridge is caned slightly and as more traffic comes across it construction uh Vehicles that's going to put more stress on the bridge this is what the sides of the roads look like on the bridge um do has not done anything about this in at least two years uh as you can see it's eroding away uh at the base of where the highway and the bridge meet uh the bridge is 150 ft long when North Carolina decides to fix this bridge as it was scheduled to do this year but with what happened to the west side of the state we've been pushed down the list quite a bit um they're going to

have to close this road completely and that's going to reroute traffic in all directions adding immense traffic problems uh as you can see the bridge and the roadway itself there's no place to ex expand sideways to make this bridge wider and uh as you can see by the other picture sorry thank you thank you okay what do I I got you go Madam Commission uh Madam chair and Commissioners my name is Linda castagliola and I reside at 217 Bell Rose Drive Chapel Hill dorm my focus tonight will be on the proposed Road improvements for the areas affected by the Sheffield Farms project I would like

to question how the building proposes to construct a second eastbound Lane through Lane on farington road from farington Mill Road Eastward with a minimum of 1,200 ft of full width storage plus appropriate taper as you can see by my photos there is at least a 10 to 16t steep drop off along the roads in questions which limits the buildup for turning Lanes as well as limiting bringing up the steep slope up to grade with the current road from what I was able to observe by walking then when we took these photos the current roads are not wide enough to make additions proposed by the Builder how does the Builder proposed to construct an exclusive Northbound right turn lane on farington at stage coat road with a minimum of 100 ft of storage plus appropriate tapers when the roadsides Sleep steep slope steeply visually it

didn't seem possible I also was curious as whether the Builder will borrow or use excess dirt for the infill to create these lands will the Little Creek Bridge be able to handle the weight of the construction vehicles just for the road improve improvements this bridge is up for reinspection in June 2025 to determine the wellness of the structure will it have a posted weight limit signed to maintain its Integrity if the project proceeds how will traffic maintenance be enforced while the bridge is being uh repaired with the chef Field construction and the supposed Road improvements going on how much time does the Builder give to any proposed improvements how many trees will be removed uh for any of the road construction several of which are North Carolina wildli game lands thank you thank you Mr Callaway

y any of these up here I already gave them to them too but know I also don't know G presentation my name is Tom Galloway I live off at Fairington Mill Road uh this application is not compliant with the Udo the 2022 Tia assigned Los ratings of dnf to the three on-site entrances to this development these are extremely weak traffic ratings I want to emphasize these ratings are contingent on the applicant making required Road improvements at three offside intersections that are traffic choke points near the development site the applicant is refusing to commit to Road improvements at one of the intersections therefore they are not in compliance with the Udo all three off-site Road improvements as well as the proposed sewer line on Fairington road will require Army Corp of engineer approval having spoken with the Army Corps it's

my understanding the road improvements in sewer line Construction will be evaluated as one project there are statutory limits on the square footage of project encroachments on Army Corps lands I suspect the applicant is refusing to commit to improvements at the third intersection because that encroachment would put them over the limit which will make Army Corps approval very difficult traffic in this area is expected to increase exponentially even without this development since the Tia was conducted in 2022 nine developments with three 3,940 units have been approved and are advancing within a 4 and a half mile radius of Sheffield Farms we will already need significantly more Road improvements to alleviate traffic not less what's the point of having a Udo if Durham doesn't enforce it do you want to set a precedent whereby developers can pick and choose which ordinances they will or will not comply with I hope not this developer must comply with the Udo

if you approve this application you render the Udo meaningless please don't no thank you um the next three community members are Ken Pew Kate a and Tammy can't can't read that last name sorry be that's me let me just go how do I go backwards how do I go backwards oh thank you all right good evening Madam chair and Commissioners I'm Ken Pew address on file I'm a former registered professional engineer which is describes my engineering experience for clarification All Professional

Engineers passed the same engineering exam a presenter at the last Planning Commission meeting insinuated I was legally representing myself as a licensed traffic engineer that's erroneous first of all I didn't say that or suggest that nor is there such a title in the North Carolina statutes but evaluation of this proposal does not requ require professional engineer just basic arithmetic the current traffic on Sheffield or on Fairington Mill is 10,500 the generated traffic is about 6,000 the total traffic then is 16,500 the limit for D level of service is 14,200 which means that we have excess traffic of 2,300 that gives Fairington Mill an F which is an

official designation in the manual which the transportation department uses so what is an F level of service suppose you parked on the top level of the deepack parking lot for the performance of The Lion King when you exit you will experience an F for 5 to 10 minutes the residents on fingon M Road will experience that F every day the developer wants to give fingon mil Road an F please reject that F thank you thank you thank you Madame chair Commissioners for allowing us to speak today um I'd like

to um first in the first picture if you look in the very background you can see Jordan Lake from the property and that property you can see already under the current sediment management exactly what that look Lake looks like at the moment sorry next slide now we look at where the just as a sorry just as a reminder we're talking about all of these things at the purpose of Jordan Lake and I just want to point out that I'm going to talk about the Wildlife and Fish management which is also uh preservation as part of that process and part of that goal so if we look at the Durham County map here we can see that sorry it's not showing down in the corner but you can see how there is very little of the high highest and priority high priority areas within Durham County which we would like to keep on the bottom part corner you can see that in the South we have very little that is actually that high and highest priority and that that Corridor we want to keep

intact if we then zoom in and see the Sheffield Farms area you can see that within the Sheffield Farms the lowest designation is high priority with a large portion being or sorry not not a large portion a uh a significant portion I would say being highest priority right down the middle there if we then look at what the newest proposal says and provides the wildlife Corridor you can see that I don't know where my DOT my lines went so the corridor is here and here that they proposed on this map it is here and it is here and it does not cont protect at all here and the corridor actually connects to a non priority Corridor so it's not even connecting to somewhere where those animals might get away and feel better but feel better Thrive if you then look at the flood zone where would those animals go they would want to go across this Corridor to

the other high priority area that I showed in this previous map here thank you for your attention thank you uh I'm tamy SOA on Baptist Road and I to talk a little bit about a data point just so that you can keep this in mind as you make your decision and for future um annexations that come up um again 218 Acres the comprehensive plan said that by 2050 we needed 60 dwellings for Durham if you break that down into 10year increments it's 20 DW dwellings between 2020 and 2030 do you know how many dwellings Durham has added since 2020 we're here is I've done the calculation preserver of Durham has been tracking development in southeast Durham and then in other areas of Durham if you

go by the comprehensive plan only need 20 thou uh 20,000 dwellings we've already exceeded that by 8,000 the central pine website has a population uh increase that's less than the comprehensive plan so that shows that we've already gone over the units by 11,000 the data doesn't doesn't lie the environmental justice screening map tool that EPA has developed I went to this area I did that this weekend if you look at extreme heat the Fairington Mill Road is at almost at the very top is between the 80 and 100% heat index you know we have eat Highland uh issues here in dur why would you cut down more trees when you're in an area that has extreme heat why would you add 7 702 more dwellings when we've hit the dwellings that we need for the next 10

years thank you thank you Al righty we're going to move back in order of sign up and next we have John Cowen ladies and gentlemen I'm John Cowan owner of blue Sun Farm the 112 Acre Farm and joining the proposed Sheffield estate's project my addresses include 851 0511 8801 Fairington Mill across from the proposed three outlets for thousands of cars per day I've committed myself to develop and run my farm and Ure that our Vital and growing rural community continues forward the area must be restricted to rural farming and single family homes this proposal is going from 0 to 1,000 not simply an

uptech in density it's destroying our natural resources forever alternatives to fast Buck destruction include Durham County open space to purchase it in permanent conservation or deing 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 10 years joining at least two other vad properties nearby like Cedarwood Stables on stage coach I have s seven people who live and work on the farm and more jobs are being developed every day we raise honeybees and hay and we produce sheep a source of meat to underserve ethnic communities in North Carolina we have renovated a large equestrian resource center and have opened it for fully for business this year I'm getting Public Funding from Durham County Soil and Water and State funding for conservation improved Community water right across the road the development impact to Jordan Lake will be devastating they say holding ponds will suffice but we see the Army Corps flood control

empowerments overflow three times a month these flood empowerments save lives and property down east and it would be demanding a grave harm to attempt to reduce their area in order to improve traffic flow developers have stated that the forest will be clear-cut regardless but they signed a state forestry program which is a sustainable forestry management plan I have one myself they they would not allow clear cutting and the nun and Quinn families with all respect have offered these properties for sale they've been listed on realtor uh sites and they've offered the entire family Holdings to me for sale thank you next we have Julian Patterson hello Commissioners I'm Julian Patterson

I'm the executive director of preservation Durham um our office is at 701 West Main Street sweet 310 um preservation durm is a nonprofit founded in 1974 with a mission to protect derms culturally diverse history Heritage and historic assets through education advocacy and action um and I'm just here tonight to confirm our organization's willingness to accept a parcel with the historic Farmhouse and the slave dwelling for preservation um this is a big project and there's a lot of considerations um and I understand that the historic preservation is just one component uh so pertaining to the historic structures we're willing to work with the development team to ensure a positive outcome with the historic resources um incorporated into a future development and protect it in perpetuity um I do also see this as a commitment towards um response to the comprehensive policy plan uh 32d which in includes incorporating historic structures into new developments and preservation DM would love to see that happen in more more projects going forward as they're

proposed so um thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them thank you next we have Julian mlto good evening Madam chair board members I'm Julie mcclint talk I live at 225 Apple Tree Lane just across the line from Durham County I am a retired EPA air quality specialist who served as chair of Chapel Hills utility aasa this experience informed me about the cost and importance of infrastructure the key to sustainable new development is providing the expensive new turning Lanes the lift stations and water and sewer housing becomes increasingly expensive when a development like Sheffield Farms is pushed far from Urban centers and services if such a permit were granted costly housing will result the rural

residential nature of this area contributed to the Federal Transportation Department's decision not to fund the Light Rail Project Jordan Lake provides drinking water for approximately 700,000 customers every year it's good news for us at the core of engineer owns the land surrounding the lake and won't issue permits if they see potential harm however this hurdle presents a stiff challenge for this developer seeking Urban densities around a drinking water reservoir North Carolina has rules and classifications to protect Water Supplies Mr Shelton Sullivan a staff member from DEQ verified this the subject address is located within a protected area of a water supply for watershed the receiving water is classified as nutrient sensitive and the area is subject to the Jordan Watershed riparian buffer rules end quote I request that the Planning Commission ask the staff whether this proposed project will comply with these

North Carolina State rules and whether the new development aligns with the city of Durham's commitment to create affordable housing thank you thank you Judy Jones hello Madam chair and um members of the Planning Commission I am Judy Jones I'm a retired biology and chemistry teacher and um with a interest in environmental science the Sheffield Farm's proposed project of 700 homes does not meet Durham's ordinance the planning staff tells us it's uncertain whether recommended Road improvements in urban service Services can be provided because of the challenges of getting permits and the unknown costs the Corps of Engineers whose mission is to protect water users of Jordan Lake could very likely reject permit requests for Road improvements or sewer extensions from a

common sense perspective building across the street from a regional water supply Reservoir makes no sense after Heavy Rain the small 10-ft wide Morgan Morgan Creek tributary swells to a wide area of standing water right next to the proposed project so I call on you to reject the requested zoning change from rural residential to plan development this unjustified leap to Urban densities is at odds with the surrounding rural residential and active Farm use the Durham planning staff has stated the Practical challenges of providing water and sewer to this property and that unless addressed it should not be part of the growth area I conclude with a lesson from the California fires since I'm a transplant 42 years ago from California um a news commentator stated that when you have such overpopulated areas in the sensitive area you have to support this with essential infrastructure which did not happen in

particularly the Pacific palates the lesson is that Durham must ensure that new neighborhoods possess the critical infrastructure elements to Prov provide a safe environment and peace of mind for all who live there please reject this request that lacks the essential infrastructure elements thank you thank you Chuck Darcy I'm Chuck Darcy I live at 111 larat Lane which is in the Downs Community uh almost across the street Fe from this proposed Development I've lived there for 46 years I'm intimately familiar with the roads and traffic patterns that have developed particularly in the last 10 years Fairington Mill Road is a commuting Road for chadam County Traffic which has become heavy over the last 10 years a few days ago I was attempting to pull out of kepley road on the

Fairington Mill 33 cars passed before I was able to make a right turn this is not unusual recently when returning from Pine Hurst during rush hour I met cars coming the other direction on Fairington Mill Road backed up bumper to bumper for almost one mile in addition Barbie Chapel Fairington road and Stage Coach Road is now a main conduit for traffic to and from Chapel Hill for cars accessing I40 because the I40 54 intersection is so congested the road improvements outlined in the Sheffield Farms proposal are when the dressing which will have no practical effect on the traffic volume this is assuming the US Corp of Engineers will even allow encroachment on government property quite simply this area is rural surrounded by Jordan Lake Wildlife areas with a 112 Farm directly across the road and a bridge too far for development of

this size particularly considering the developments which are already built or approved moved for areas between here and I40 it should be noted that development along Fairington and Barbie Chapel is for the most part single family with the exception of some apartments near the intersection of Barbie Chapel in 54 and I should say also uh there are some apartments near 54 and Fairington subsequent speakers will outline or have already outlined more substantive evidence thank you thank you H fary Farley I'm sorryy good evening Madam chair my name is Holt Farley and I live off Fairington Mill Road I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you tonight I will briefly address the traffic impact analysis for the Sheffield Farms proposal this Tia is fundamentally flawed and unreliable

making it unsuitable for planning decisions key issues include number one bad data Tia is a computer simulation that relies on accurate input data to produce valid results the tiia used underestimated traffic volumes low ambient growth projections and omitted significant traffic sources number two the flawed methodology without validation the Tia conclusions are meaningless in a stand it is standard professional practice to validate computer simulations yet no effort was made in this case misleading results unrealistic inputs lead to overly optimistic intersection ratings most intersections in the Tia analysis barely pass with a grade D even with the proposed mitigations with realistic traffic volumes these will degrade to gridlocked parking lot levels E and F is ignore the Tia ignored challenges

the Tia has sided the obvious need for US Army Corp of Engineers approvals for right away through widen Lanes issue number five the community impact if this proposal is passed the city of dorham will ultimately be boned with negotiating right of way approvals a costly and timec consuming process in the meantime traffic delays will be severe with no viable alternative routes available the only beneficiary in this scenario is MI homes who which profits while leaving the community to suffer the consequences in conclusion that Sheffield Farms proposal relies on a deeply flawed Tia I urge you to vote no thank you thank you Addie a good evening um Madam chair and Comm

my name is Addie Heim and I am a resident of the DS neighborhood currently studying conservation biology at NC State University I don't see a benefit of building this massive neighborhood to anyone except the developers it will be detrimental to the surrounding environment from a significant increase in already bad traffic congesting creating prolonged carbon output to the deforestation of valuable wildlife habitat Durham is such a valuable place to live due to the trees and wildlife in and around the city but a decrease in Forest cover is not what we need in this area might I also point out that the developer talked about building Greenways and green spaces but that is still development to undisturbed land many of us neighbors move to this area because we value the nature surrounding us from on our properties to the surrounding miles of woods I thought we had escaped the constant deforestation in this area but maybe we haven't thank you for your time Arina Hine finally got the last

name right sorry good evening Madam chair and Commissioners my name is marinaa Heim and I live at 7624 KC Drive I a senior at Charles E Jordan High School where this neighborhood or project would be districted to go um Jordan High School is already highly overpopulated at roughly 121% capacity already just this year just in the first quarter and a half of my senior year paper has already been in short supply and so students have been banned from printing necessary documents needed for school and to complete necessary schoolwork as well as first studies um as well as teachers being ordered to cut down on paper usage allowing them to not allowing them to to print necessary documents for students to give out for

work another issue regarding dur Public Schools is the parking recently as of this year since the increase in students has become such an issue parking has become an issue where students have not been allowed or not been able to have parking spots so they have to find other ways of transportation Transportation has also been an issue for buses when parents cannot take their kids to school and um with the bus driver shortages then Sheffield Farms would only increase this issue as well as the lack of education and the increase in capacity at Jordan high school thank you for your time thank you Mur McCall thank you Mur Mcall my address is on file I'm not in the vicinity of the

Fairington Mill Road Project but I understand that decisions today will impact future development decisions where I do live the applicant seems unwilling to risk both credibility and Trust to manage derms limited resources in their agricultural lands by failing to meet these Udo codes the comprehensive plan policies act in accordance with recommendations from the reviewing groups or thoughtfully incorporate the community feedback the city of Durham should not be so willing to compromise their credibility or standards by choosing to allow procedure the Udo ordinances or finally newly finalized policies of the comprehensive plan to fall aside in consideration of the development plan for Sheffield Farms placing conditional commitment to meet requirements or recommendations um for the rezoning approval is problematic and it's a slippery slope for Durham to engage in they've had nearly another year to address these shortcomings but they're unwilling or unable to address the

fundamental issues that exist with their proposal high quality development Pro proposals will come to Durham 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 the foundational issues of non-compliance and for undermining derms greater policies and procedures that are striving to generate development that's in alignment with our community goals thank you thank you Pam Porter no oh got it all right is there anyone else in the galley that would like to speak on this case yes ma'am Adam commissioner chairman and Commissioners my name is Cathy rexroad I had signed up to speak I don't know if you didn't get my name um but I would like to just speak briefly about affordable housing um The Proposal

states that 5% of affordable housing should be allowable because of the high 10 million cost of infrastructure that is not in compliance with the Durham County um commission comprehensive plan which states that affordable housing should include 15% of units right now the medium home prices per Zillow on our ZIP codes and the two surrounding zip codes range from over 400,000 to $730,000 per home that's the median price and our medium area median median income for Durham County is listed is $80,000 there is a huge disconnect there between what people who are our teachers at Durham Public Schools what our nursing assistants make working in our hospitals working in our um nursing homes to what they can what is needed for them to become homeowners so affordable housing is not optional it should not be something that's punted

around as um maybe a concession later we don't comply with this well maybe we'll give you a little more affordable housing um second there is no public transportation to this area the nearest public transportation is one and a half miles away on roads with no shoulders and no sidewalks so it is not feasible to add public transportation to this area well it might be in the future but it's not there now um and thirdly the comprehensive plan states that residents should be able to age in place and stay rooted in their communities even as their physical or mental abilities change there are no units committed to accessible housing in this development the plan does not state that there should be a certain percent but there is nothing there and affordable and accessible go together so I urge you for these reasons to vote against the development proposal thank you thank you anyone else in the galley all right moving to the zoom if

there's anyone in Zoom that would like to speak please use the raise your hand function or Star nine on your phone anyone on the zoom that would like to speak please use the raise your hand function not seeing any all right um at this time we're going to close the public hearing and we're now open for commissioner discussion and questions commissioner Williams um good evening one of the um community members um mentioned that they um they did a presentation on the wildlife Corridor and mentioned that um there's no access from one of the

highest areas of of wildlife to the existing across the street um just wanted to ask the developer if they had considered um creating some sort of wildlife Corridor for that um I have a couple other questions should I ask one all the on um Patrick wants to come up to the podium and then can ask hey good evening uh Laura hman I'm with McAdams uh 2905 M and Parkway here in Durham a project planner for the case and you asked a question about uh Wildlife corridors you know obviously this this hasn't been an easy site for us to uh think about laying out there's a lot of different variables that we have to consider uh in terms of where we

placed the wildlife Corridor um that there was a lot of things that we took into consideration uh one of them being uh the wildlife Corridor as specifically written by the udio states that you know we're encouraged to be directly adjacent to other existing uh tree protection uh I know that you know there this is adjacent I believe to you have to cross a very significant Road Fairington Mill so that's why we wanted to establish the wildlife Corridor we did so it would line up with the existing tree protection on the other side we also wanted to help uh take into consideration a lot of the neighborhood feedback we received uh from the adjacent uh Community specifically uh we wanted to commit to establishing uh not to connect to that existing hinwood road so we wanted to be able to create a large swath of tree protection areas there so um by establishing the wildlife

Corridor on the other side of the stream buffer as well as furthering that tree protection to ensure that uh they all uh were protected by not extending that road and being able to definitively show that that one into consideration in terms of a high priority item yeah commissioner Williams if you if you're familiar with the development plan that's in your package you would see that it's on the Northern uh segment of the um Sheffield Farms but what it does is it connects the Army Core land and uh ties in the u u preserved land that that's with the Montclair neighborhood and that connects it all together so you're actually talking about um preserving a wildlife Corridor that connects dozens if not hundreds of Acres thank you thank you yes she has more questions sorry yes ma'am um another commune member uh had

mentioned um 15% of units for affordable housing was kind of the expectation and wanted to I shouldn't say expectation but bear with me um would you be considering would you be willing to consider increasing um your commitment to 15% no ma'am no that's not the only projects I've worked on that attained 15% affordable were projects that had a subsidy from either the city of Durham or some other governmental agency that's not attainable by a strictly private sector initiative um that's I'm I certainly not I I'm not saying that my experience is universal by any means but I've certainly worked on I think it's fair to say I've worked on more affordable housing projects in Durham well the exception of this guy named Neil go um but there's I just don't think it's realistic for any private development to get anywhere close to 15% uh without a uh subsidy so

5% is uh I think a strong commitment to affordability when you look at the $10 million of sewer infrastructure if you have 702 homes and town homes and you have spent $10 million on sewer that's over $14,000 per lot just for the sewer infrastructure so when you look at that and you combine it with 5% being 80% Ami affordable I think that's a very strong affordable housing commitment from a private project that's receiving absolutely zero uh subsidy from um uh either Durham city Durham County or the federal government thank you ma'am Mr Gregory yeah um so I'm going to follow up to some of uh commissioner Williams uh questions and inquiries um so looking at the development plan the graphic development plan that's included in the application materials um the attachment

attachment H um which was a a document provided by the N natural heritage program um outlined uh Natural Area in the southern half of the site it seems like you'd get a lot more bang for your buck doing a wildlife Corridor through there um I'm not entirely sure um why so much of the Environmental Conservation work is concentrated in the northern half of the site um and why it's not kind of spread more evenly across um because obviously there's a lot of concern with um public input tonight regarding some of these um environmental issues yeah I I think the main concern uh commissioner Gregory is once you go south of the uh 10 acre Pond you you're you're getting in close proximity of fingon Mill Road so it's really to try to keep the wildlife away from the road um and also to avoid uh the stream Crossing there that goes into that goes into that 10 acre pond that's

why got I appreciate it yes sir um and then I just one kind of additional question so the um in the application materials it's it's noted that the proposed parking and building envelope encroaches on some of the slopes that lie adjacent to protected Army Corp land on the western side of the um project area and so with those topographic features in mind um I'm just curious if you can can um kind of inform me at this point whether the applicant is planning on employing mass grading um to level out some of that considering that the the building and parking is projected to be right there I don't know if we've gotten that far to get prescriptive about what where we're going to specifically go with steep slopes I don't know if Jeremy you want to talk about how we're what the Udo allows us to do in terms of steep slope

mitigation yeah exactly uh Jeremy fch with McAdams company the civil engineer on the project 295 Meridian Parkway um we have not done full site design yet in terms of grading to know all the impacts everything but the Udo if I'm not mistaken allows you to impact a certain percentage of the of the steep slope so we would be looking to stay within that that threshold that the Udo would allow for impacts commission VI no no other qu commissioner W thank you let me see if I can rapid fire this so before I ask you about this just wanted to confirm we have 35 units for the affordable housing profer in the packet and you said 36 yeah it's a you actually have to round up because it's 702 you actually have to round up so it'll be 36 gotcha and then can you walk me through the rational if they're

for ownership why only 30 years for the affordability period uh well that's that's to uh that would deed restrict um those 36 homes so that the appreciation would not be subject to Market forces but it would be predetermined by the deed restriction similar to um a land trust model not exactly like it but similar to it uh therefore uh families that would buy these affordable homes um they would see some appreciation but it would not be not be the level of appreciation that our region has experienced especially since the pandemic uh so that's how it would function after 30 years um that that restrict friction would would go away so if the original owner stayed there for 30 years they would be able to receive the full Market benefit but it is to encourage the homes to turn over say two three maybe four times within that 30-year time frame but maintain a level of affordability relative to the

80% area Medan income I I hope that answered your question I don't know if it did yeah um next question is I think there were some Community concerns around some of the Tia mitigation things that y'all committed to and being able to get the right of way and approvals and blah blah blah all that stuff uh so I guess question for staff if they commit to those within the zoning um and then after the fact can't do it because they can't get right away or something like what happens then you're earling Thomas Transportation so if any of the committed elements from the zoning cannot be achieved my understanding is that a new zoning would be required gotcha yeah and then um I think you touched on this briefly in your presentation but there were a number of

mitigation thing that Tia required so could you give me that full number and you're not committing to one of them yes sir um there are 14 recommendations from the Tia our development plan commits to 13 out of the 14 uh they are listed on let me see oh sorry on the development plan they're listed on page uh on the cover page in the uh what's essentially the U bottom right corner you can see there are uh 13 uh specific traffic improvements that are uh committ elements or tax commitments of this development plan uh just briefly uh the improvements would be at Barbie Chapel Fairington road uh fingon Road um fingon Mill Road and the north side driveway fingon Mill Road the central side driveway fingon Mill Road with the Southside driveway Earl if you've got anything Earl our traffic engineer knows knows that much better

than I do yeah I think as far as the number of improvements that we're not doing it depends on how you lump them together it's either two Improv ments of I wrote this down two improvements of 16 or one Improvement of a list of 15 and the ones that we're not doing are as has been said we at the intersection of stage coach and nc751 gotcha thank you for clarifying that and then I think the other big concern raised by folks was due to the proximity to drinking water and stuff the storm water concerns uh my understand understanding as yall are complying with the 10year storm water event for runoff mitigation is that true yeah I believe it would be it would be basically what Durham requires for their code for their for their storm water standers what we be complying with So based on the concerns around the

drinking water would you all consider a 100-year storm event I mean a 100e with this being the Army coreel land next door I mean 100e detention up against the Army coreland is don't know that's going to provide us a flood control system that basically ponds up so providing 100e detention that to discharge basically into flood control wouldn't be the same benefit that you would get if you were trying to you know detain as it drains through neighborhoods and houses but would detain the runoff okay sounds good yeah but the the issue is the detaining the 100e storm makes more sense when you're further further up the Basin um and but when you're close to the if you think of it like a funnel if you're at the top of the funnel where it's wide then detaining the 100-year storm yes I understand gravity you want the water to go on through I think my time is up thank you thank you

good commissioner Vice chair oaris Yeah question for the applicant um one of the community members expressed a concern over the riparian buffer requirements because it's a watershed to Jordan Lake and ncwq does McAdams have any more information on exactly what those numbers are and is there a commitment to you know take care of all of the riparian buffers on all of these small streams that we saw on this property yes good question yeah we're in conformance and we'll be in conformance with um all of the applicable city and state laws requesting so yes we'll meet all the our perion buffers um that's why we also did the significant I know in one presentation U it talked about how the maximum impervious impervious surface um could be 70% but we have uh cons Al reduce that down to just over 35% that was done also to to address the

specific concerns about proximity uh to Jordan Lake as well yeah um could could staff come back up and answer this question for me again and just explain it to all of us like we're kindergarten so this says that um it is not compliant is it not compliant with just a paragraph of the Udo or overall does not comply with the Udo period chair eron Kane with the planning department I think the quick answer to that is that it is not compliant the Udo states that they need to be compliant with all improvements that are shown as required in the Tia as the applicant has stated there is one of those improvements that comes from

the Tia that they will not be doing and that is what they are not compliant with okay so even though there's this long list of commitments beyond the Udo on page three because of that one thing they're still not compliant that that is correct they are not compliant with that one aspect okay any other questions n other questions all right um are we ready to move this case forward the recommendation somebody has to cut rights not here somebody got to make somebody has to say it

um I make a motion to move case z22 60 bdg 220030 Sheffield Farms forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second it's been moved by Vice chair sheras and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case z220 60 dbdg 22030 Sheffield Farms forward with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote please yes and uh Madam chair before I begin the roll call vote I just want make sure that they all that and then you say but go ahead it's not going to make you say it again um I just want to make sure that the Commissioners are aware as well as the members of the audience here and uh watching online that um commissioner

cutright is not available at this time uh to vote but he does still count for Quorum and per rules of procedure if he's not here to vote he is an automatic yes vote so I won't I won't read him but um just want to make sure everybody was aware of that chair Cameron um pass me up right now okay Vice chair sharis no commissioner gregory no commissioner hen no commissioner mcgyver no commissioner Williams no commissioner woke no I got to go it's back to you yeah no that's right I'm sorry no no okay the motion fails 7 to one all

right moving on to case z 2416 dbdg 2409 5502 Wake Forest Highway may we have the staff report please give it thank you madam chair Aaron Kane with the planning department this is casez 2416 5502 Wake Forest Highway the request for this case is for

a resoning from rural residential to residential Suburban 20 to commercial gen General with a textual development plan the current Place type is mixed use neighborhood and staff finds that the request is consistent with the place type this is this site is also within the fjb Watershed protection overlay The Proposal is to uh change the uh zoning to Siege commercial General the development plan which lists a number of prohibited uses from what is usually allowed within commercial General as I stated the existing zoning is rural residential and rural suburban residential Suburban 20 the site is surrounded by similar RR and rs20 Zoning the proposed commercial General zoning would create a new commercial node at this intersection as part of a future mixed use neighborhood the aerial map shows the general location of the project a charter school has been approved

southeast of the site the property is currently designated mixed use neighborhood on the place type map the proposed zoning was determined consistent with the designated Place type due to the creation of a commercial uh use at this intersection and being adjacent to Future Civic and residential uses the applicant has included text commitments including prohibitions of certain primary uses that are generally permitted in commercial General as well as planting of native species and right of-way dedication neighborhood meetings were held on August 21st 2023 and January 9th 2025 no comments on Durham resoning Explorer have been provided to date The Proposal is generally consistent with the place type map designation a mixed use neighborhood due to the proximity of adjacent Civic and residential uses and introducing a commercial use to the area The Proposal is consistent with 13 of 18 applicable

comprehensive plan policies thank you and staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing may we have the applicant please good evening chair members of the commission my name is Laticia Shapiro Morning Star Law Group 700 West Main Street here on behalf of the owner applicant I want to first thank staff for his presentation and rather than going over what you just heard I would like to provide you with context related to the intent of this request Mr brard and his wife have owned this property for approximately 25 years they understood one day that development would come to this area and they invested in this hard Corner because of its location it is now their desire to rezone the property to make it marketable as a commercial opportunity as part of their retirement and estate planning strategy the request is to rezone to commercial General to allow some services at a key intersection in a location that has seen mainly

3 Acres so it will likely be a small oneoff operation I do want to say that Mr board is a real estate broker but he is not himself a developer this process has taken perhaps longer than we would have hoped because we because we really got started at a time when there were significant changes to the comp plan and resoning process being considered and as a result we have actually had about three neighborhood meetings for this project based on the various changing

requirements we really had not heard a whole lot from the community until this last meeting and actually there wasn't a there didn't seem to be a lot of concern over the proposed zoning itself aside from traffic more so there was some frustration with the notice requirements which we did meet for this meeting we sent out over 80 notices via VIA mail to the properties and Property Owners within a th000 feet and we also posted the property with signage and again that was our third neighborhood meeting for this project so that is the summ of this request and we thank you for your time and respectfully request your support for this project and I'm happy to do my very best to answer any questions you may have thank you thank you is there um do I have to sign up sheet for this thank you

um Pam Andrews who wants to go first Tammy okay and then Leticia Shapiro was that the that's you okay same thank these sign so um Pam Wanda and Al you all are together yes okay and then is Katherine still here Katherine's not in I think she probably signed up on this one thought that was the last person maybe all right so I think you three are the only um speakers let me know where you ready uh tamy so my uh address is on file I want to uh give you an viiew here of um the property uh my concern is it's across from a small business we have traffic

issues there why do it now delay it we don't have any input into what commercial is going there right now I want to point out that um also on Kemp road is Perry Farms which will have 665 dwellings that will come out on Kemp road so um and then you have the durm charter school with 1,00 students it's going to go all the way to 12th grade with 12 with 12 buses there are no new fire stations out there to accommodate the population growth we've seen in southeast durm which is about 34,000 uh Station 8 and 17 cannot handle it right now the property is on the top of the hill and there will be a stoplight this is from Google Maps um and the property will be Rd as part of the ud revision and our Rd uh uh Rd notes limited commercial we need commercial out there but we need citizen input into the commercial why do it now wait until a

business is identified um and then I want to point out two comprehensive policies that was not listed and this does not meet uh policy 116 and policy 117 we need to have safe and easy access to our daily needs and you got to uh identify the cost and the benefits of new development are in this in this sit situation we need to know what's going there and how does it benefit the community and then also I looked at the environmental justice screening mat tool for extreme heat and this property is between the 60 and the 80 percentile because we have seen as you know extreme growth in southeast AR thank you do I need to let the clock reset no I'm here I'm good I just want to make sure the clock reset I didn't want two seconds to speak all right Pamela Andrews my address is on file many times all right I want to to first of all just say good

evening chair Cameron and and the team while PRD recognizes the need for commercial in the area I want to first show you a few of the images of wrecks that have happened in recently in close proximity to this property look how close these are these are serious serious wrecks preserve Ro Duram has been continually bringing up the dangers of Highway 98 along with with the increased traffic volume due to 49 new developments approved are pending in this area a new fire at EMS station is needed and has been promised for several years now at first we had hoped this land might be the new fire station but no it is not fire response times are shown in quarter one graph keep going Tammy keep right there uh quarter one graph of 2024 please know every fire station response time was going up up up the standard is 6 minutes while I don't have the final report for 2024 on the response times I did just get the final call volumes for the stations Station 8 answered 1,730 calls which is assigned to this

parcel 17 which is a neighbor station had 910 calls Station 8 still does not have a ladder truck that is needed to answer a lot of these emergency calls for Town Homes tall buildings schools Etc next firefighters are definitely not at full staff each shift hires back 10 to 12 firefighters of overtime pay each shift just to have three firefighters on a truck when four are needed all times of ladder um at lots of times the ladder truck can't even be staffed environmental I got to touch on that quickly this is at the top of a hill when you clearcut masquerade blast it's going to run down the hill to this Pond which is adjacent to it that pond then drains down into this little Tri this tributary that you see that tributary has suffered from major violations from the two around it I don't want to name who they are but there are two to the point they got stop work orders and were made to cease and assist it is serious deal in this environment out here thank

you hi I'm Wanda Allen and my address is on file I'd like for you to take a minute and look at this chart and I'm going to try to explain to you uh some backgrounds and concerns if you look at the chart it is a chart that is in the part of the Udo rewrite and it clearly states that there will not be any retail or commercial in this area and we have been heavily involved in this new do rewrite and I want to come back and address how the citizens learned about this last Community neighborhood meeting one of the citizens one of the ne uh uh one of the individuals found the sign laying on the ground and it was not marked with the RQ code it did not have any information about the date they spent hours contacting the residents around that uh area trying to find out information about it they also called

the County Planning department and that's how we learned about the meeting okay we were very interested in this area because we really thought that we were going to get a fire station or we really really thought that we were going to get a a park or open space that has been promised to us numerous times and we have not gotten it so here's the problem here's the real problem a number of the properties in this area that you've heard us speak on number of times have been bought and sold and none of the commitments have been up upheld okay they are supposed to adhere to the commitments but they're not so the DM uh soil and erosion are having to go out yes there are violations but once you cut out the wetlands and once you cut out the trees you can't put them back so and as the others have addressed there's no infrastructure out there and then we learned at this community meeting once

this is flipped and it goes commercial that we in the public have no more involvement thank you thank you there anyone else that would like to vote that's in the galley there are no attendees on Zoom so we're closing the public hearing and we are uh now open for commissioner discussion and question any questions for the applicant go on once Commission so why is it being brought now when we don't know what is going to go there like would it not make sense to wait until they have a buyer and know what going to be going there before it comes to be rezoned so the the purpose again for um

for the rezoning is to make it marketable for for commercial purpose so we'd have to rezone it for commercial General now so we do not know exactly you know we have to make it marketable to be able to find those those retailers to be able to see what we can put there so that's the reason why we're driving it now commissioner sharis yeah following up on that um commercial General according to the comments from the citizens is it won't be allowed to be commercial General after the Udo rewrite will they be grandfathered in if they get it now is that true so the you know we have a we're in the initial stages of putting together the new Udo the zoning District that is shown on

the a at this time proposed new Udo is reflective of the current zoning on the site which is rs20 and RR uh should the site be rezoned commercial we would need to take that back and and have you know conduct uh have some conversations and think about what might be the appropriate new zoning District under the new Udo based on the new zoning that would be applied I'm more confused than ever more confused than ever I don't so yeah so if so let's say for example U because there's an annexation involved um the city council were to agree to rezone to commercial General under this development plan we would then as staff look at what would be the most appropriate new translational

zoning District to the new Udo based on that new rezoning would not necessarily be Rd the Rd proposal is based on what it is currently zoned if the city council chooses to change that we will look at what the most appropriate zoning District would be in the new Udo commissioner Williams um you mentioned that it that you're zone rezoning for marketability um the uses or the rather the um the um things that won't be allowed are they going to be written into the deed how is that going to they actually be a part just the zoning a zoning condition okay

yeah Vice chair shares yeah uh for the app would if you didn't do commercial and you did some other type of resoning like mixed use where you could have like a first floor retail or something would that not have the the Udo problem or requirement or that would be actually a question for staff to answer City staff staff question question so under the proposed development plan under CG um an upper story residential would be allowed and um we would look for a new zoning District under the Udo that would

permit that what the the applicant has said in the um in the development plan is that they would prohibit household living as a primary use but it could still be a secondary or accessory use additional questions are we ready to move this case forward may I have a motion to move this case forward uh Madame chair Cameron I make a motion to move case Z24 016 dbd G24 quadruple

0955 02 Wake Forest Highway forward with a favorable recommendation to city council may I have the roll call vote please second second oh I'm sorry second I'm R I'm looking at 7:22 did I get to this break uh it's been it's been moved by Vice chair shagas and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case z246 dbdg 24 quad 09 55 02 Wake Forest Highway forward with a favorable recommendation to city council may I have the roll call vote please yes and the um uh commissioner cutright affirmative vote still applies to this case so uh chair Cameron yes Vice chair sheras no commissioner Gregory yes commissioner one yes commissioner

mver yes commissioner Williams no commissioner woke no the motion passes 5 to three all right thank you we are going to go ahead and take a break um you take a break sorry Patrick you almost got back up here uh we have to take our break for our closed captioners and um when yall want to get back let's get back here at 7:45 yes 7545 or you want 35 it's it's let's do 740 split split it down in the middle 4 is that 20 minutes oh I want it 15 7:35 7:35 we'll be back at 7:35

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we're calling the meeting back to order at this time we'll hear case z240 one9 chin Page Road apartments are we ready to have the staff report hello again chair Cameron Vice chair chagaris and planning Commissioners I am here to present Chen Page Road Apartments kz2 2419 the request located along Chen Page Road is for a resoning from industrial park and residential rural to plan development residential 24115 for the development of up to 360 multif Family Apartments the existing zoning is mainly residential rural with a small amount of land being Industrial Park the site is

surrounded by Industrial Park industrial Light residential Suburban 20 and Rural residential the aerial map shows the general location of the project the site is located near Research Triangle Park and the amenities that surround it although it is autod dependent with limited Transit options the property is currently designated General industrial and Recreation and open space on the place type map the proposed zoning is inconsistent with the designated Place type of General industrial so staff recommends that if the if the zoning change is approved the place map be amended so that the general industrial area is changed to apartment and townhouse neighborhood the applicant has included the listed commitments of up to 360 Apartments not to exceed 60 ft in height recreational open space amenities 3% of units at 60% Ami for 30 years uh

landscape easement rideway dedication along chin Page Road a $68,500 donation to Durham Public Schools a 10-ft wide concrete shared path and a potential Greenway connection the development plan shows the tree preservation area along the edge of the project as shown in the grade out area with the Stars the plan also shows two access points one towards the North and the second having two options subject to NC do approval you can also see the 10ft shared use path along the s's Frontage as well as the building and parking envelope outside of the 100-year flood plane the applicant held two neighborhood meetings one on February 22nd 2024 and one on November 6th 2024 no community members attended those meetings and there were no comments received on the Durham resoning Explorer for this case staff determines that this request is consistent with 19 of 27

comprehensive plan policies if the request is approved the place type map designation should be amended from General industrial to apartment and townhouse neighborhood to maintain consistency staff and the applicant are available to answer questions thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing U the applicant is at the podium and ready to present yes uh good evening chair Cameron Vice chair sharis members of the Planning Commission I'm Patrick biker 2614 Stewart Drive I'm an attorney with Morningstar Law Group and I'm here tonight representing Griffith Capital LLC for this agenda item with me tonight are my client Warren Mitchell with Griffith along with Pam Porter of tmla our land planner for this infill multif family development at the outset I wish to discuss the place type map designation for this site while the place type map is a fine resource one has to recognize that durm county has approximately 112,000 separate Parcels of real estate for the adopted Place type map to be 100% correct is I think unrealistic of

course facts on the ground change over time one of those facts is that the large industrial buildings across the street from this site that are occupied by wolf owned and occupied by wolf speed are about to be vacated completely wolf speed has outgrown this facility on the north side of chimp Page Road and it is building a massive factory in Western chadam County President Biden rightfully made it a national priority to have semiconductor manufacturing manufacturing happen in our country and one result one result of that priority is at the 3 40,000 square fet of industrial space across chin Page Road will be vacated as part of wolf speed's move uh over to chadam County accordingly I think it is not wise to build new industrial space on the south side of chin Page Road at this location when it will be important to focus on redeveloping these large wolf speed buildings besides that the city council has approved at least four very large industrial parks for Durham with a total of more than 4 million square feet of

new light industrial space I confident that Durham has plenty of light industrial inventory for the foreseeable future therefore if this site is not a great fit for industrial I think it's fair to say it also is not a great fit for office or commercial either demand for office space is pretty low and a midblock location is tough for any commercial Enterprise by process of elimination I would submit that multif family is the highest and best use for this property and there's a wellestablished successful apartment community called 200 East formerly known as Edinburgh at the park at the corner of chin page in Miami Boulevard that demonstrates multif family works at this location and you can see the 200 East um apartment complex on the left side of that aerial map uh that's attachment be in your staff report in addition the area along the north and south sides of chimp Page Road towards uh the Page Road intersection has experienced significant multif family and single family development over the past few years and that's only a half a mile to one mile away from this location I hope all the

the Planning Commission members noted that the building and parking envelope is outside of the environmentally sensitive areas in the site and we are following the place type designation for the acreage designated as Recreation and open space now I'd like to briefly address our community engagement we held two neighborhood meetings and both times zero neighbors attended but I do wish to emphasize that our team did post signs at the entrances of nearby residential neighborhoods in order to boost our community engagement efforts next in regards to affordability we realize that designating 3% of the apartments as affordable needs to be increased to further address that issue I hope everyone noticed that the owner of this site uh that we're discussing this evening is Goodwill Community Foundation our development team want to provide a strong purchase price for this site in order to benefit Goodwill as greatly as possible in order to maximize support of its mission to help our least fortunate families in eastern North Carolina lastly it is unfortunate that interest rates are remaining rather high as we start 2025 and that of course

makes financing multif family development difficult however our team believes this is a strong location for apartments and we respectfully ask for your recommendation of approval uh Pam and I will be happy to answer any questions and we appreciate your time tonight thank you thank you don't have uh anyone signed up to speak I already have it and um we don't have any participants on Zoom uh just asking I go and find some I can go all right uh I am now closing the public hearing um open for commissioner discussion and questions next sh Garis uh for the applicant um yeah Goodwill I this was a Goodwill Community Garden site I did volunteer work there more than more than once uh the back I bought this jacket at a Goodwill store for $8 cool yeah sweet um

the back of the property is wet though yeah so and that's where the recreation and open space that's correct and I also saw I believe somewhere in the staff report something about a a dog park or open space or some that's a requirement of the PDR zoning District so we have to meet that um do you have any I mean there was a couple things that might be picked from do you know which ones at this time I don't think we have that no I'm sorry madam Vice chair we haven't gotten far enough down the road to figure out what the amenities would be but obviously the PDR zoning District requires a high level of open space and a high level of amenities we just have to figure out what what would be appropriate for this location so okay that'll work out thank you yes ma'am so I have a question yes um so I see in your site plan that you have the open space

designated that you know fairly matches the r designation on the place type map however it says that you're not compliant with a comprehensive plan to locate open space to protect environmentally sensitive areas and I wanted to clarify that I don't understand do you understand that in this in the report we got not aware of what the discrepancy would be do you have any idea you do you know what page that's on yes I remember I remember reading that I'm just not sure what page it was on let me find it page s yeah five to six

is it one of the comp plan policies which one 81 okay so because um we don't have a a working site plan yet we've not identified where the open space areas are going to be um but we we do have to meet the minimum and they will likely be spread out but we don't they're not identified on the plan because we don't have buildings and parking identified once we have that detail worked out in a little a little better we'll have a better idea of where the open space areas are but we are cognizant of this and we will spread them out and and make sure they're located appropriately at the site plan stage yeah I was going to say that that we looked at at what we have so they do commit to the tree cover all being together but there's not a commitment to the open space all being together so um we couldn't say that they were meeting

that policy based on that uh but they could certainly there's nothing that prohibits them from meeting that policy at the site plan stage right and usually for apartment complexes it's not all in one spot it's spread around so if we do for example if there's a dog park and a playground and something else they're not all going to be together they'll be spread out in amongst you know the the site when it's designed commissioner Gregory yeah I just want to um commend the applicant for kind of not touching the R Place type and um making sure that the proposals building and parking envelope isn't going to um impede the the flood plane that's good to see so thank you appreciate it there any other commissioner questions

discussion are you ready to move this case forward if so may I have a motion to move this case forward um okay I make a motion to move case z240 one9 chin Page Road apartments for with a favorable recommendation you have a second I I second it's been moved by commissioner Williams and seconded by commissioner Gregory to move case Z24 one9 chin Page Road departments forward with a favorable recommendation to city council may I have the roll call vote please yes and before I start the roll call vote just again stating for the record that commissioner cutri right's vote will be a yes vote because he is not currently available chair Cameron

yes Vice chair sheras yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner hen yes commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes the motion passes 8 to Zer thank you there are no committee updates at this current time do we have any new business um no new business and no announcements from staff other than um I would like to commend the chair and vice chair for their color coordination tonight and we would like to see more of that in the [Laughter] future thank you hearing none um we are adjourning the meeting the meeting is adjourned Happy New Year