live good evening welcome to the Durham Planning Commission the members of the Durham Planning Commission are appointed by the city council and the county bard of Commissioners to make recommendations to the elected officials we emphasize that the elected officials have the final say on any issue before us tonight due to the potential for inclement weather well I guess it's probably going on right now wherever you are this evening the Durham Planning Commission will meet via Zoom only to conduct this regular business meeting and hold public hearings on the Noti cases 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 decorum and a discernable record of the meeting the chat function has been disabled 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 comments just like we were in a public public uh inperson 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 if there is anyone else that wishes to speak at that point you will need to digitally raise Your Hand by pressing star n on your phone when recognized state your name and address before making your comments each applicant has a total of 10 minutes for their presentation each speaker after the applicant has two minutes two minutes to speak Commissioners we have five cases
and one text Amendment before us tonight therefore we're going to limit the Comm commissioner Q&A to 5 minutes um I ask that you be courteous to your fellow Commissioners and wait to speak a second time until everyone of your Commissioners has had a chance to go first a reminder that in this digital platform in order to obtain the floor you raise your hand digitally and be and you're recognized by the chair commission members please remember you share this time with your fellow Commissioners keep your comments slash questions withy and please don't repeat topics that have already been discussed or questioned the time to make all public statements is before a motion is made once a motion is on the floor and further discussion regarding that motion must come after a
second when the votes start you do not make any add IAL comments you vote your position of yes or no all motions are stated in the affirmative so if a motion ties or fails the recommendation is for denial finally I ask that everyone here on the zoom commission members the staff the public to conduct themselves in a courteous manner if someone fails to act in that manner it's kind of easy we just hit the mute button I'll ask the host to hit the mute button until that person regains personal control if the decorum fails to be restored we'll re I will um recess the meeting until we can uh regain control and act in a respectful and courteous manner thank you may we have the roll call please chair Cameron here VI chair
sharis here C here commissioner Grace mans here commissioner Gham here commissioner Johnson here commissioner mcgyver here commissioner CE here commissioner trap president on this glorious founders day uh commissioner Valentine request an excused absence commissioner Z Williams commissioner Ziri Williams did text me her daughter is in the hospital um and so she's unable to join
us thanks for letting us know I'm really sorry to hear that I forgot to let you know uh commissioner woke here and commissioner young also request an excuse absence we have cor you um we do have one adjustment to the agenda we are going to move um item number five which is the text Amendment we're going to move that up before we have the public hearings for the zoning map changes at this time um now that we have that item that is going to uh be moved up um we have the approval of the minutes in the consistency statements do we have a motion to approve
so move Madam chair is there a second second it's been moved by commissioner trap and second it by commissioner CE to approve the minutes in the consistency statement all in favor please say I I I I any opposed all right the eyes haveit all right we're going to move on forward um to hear the text Amendment TC 23 r06 remainder lot with may we have the staff report please hi good evening uh chair commission I'm V brinsky assistant director with plan Department I just want to get on record that the notification requirements were met for this item and the others uh for today um TC 23006 is uh got a short presentation for
you all right uh this is a privately initiated text Amendment which proposes to change Udo paragraph 712b to allow minimum lot width of 80 ft in the rs20 zoning district for the remaining standard lot the intent of this proposal is to provide more flexibility so that more properties may use or may utilize the flag lot standards in the rs20 district this would just require a modification of a footnote in the housing type standard in 712b here's a an exhibit this is actually what's in the Udo currently today just showing um the minimum flag lot for standards currently rs20 as you'll see the standard lot once the flag is graded as 100 foot with the frontage um if this text Mount were adopted the standard lot could go down to 80 feet in width but all other
dimensional requirements would be required to be met so setbacks and lot area would still be met for both lots and staff is here for any questions and I believe applicant has signed up as well you do we have anyone um from the community that wishes to speak have a hand rais we have Kenan cond hello everyone can you hear me yes so good evening chair Cameron uh Vice chair Cameron sharis and members of the Planning Commission uh my name is Keenan condra with Morning Star Law Group here in Durham at 700 West Main Street uh first of all thank you so much Bo for your help uh with the staff
presentation today and of course all the help you provided in advance of this hearing um crafting the language here for this uh text Amendment with us and working with us on that so as I said earlier I'm here to speak in favor of the remainder lot with text Amendment um ultimately this is a proposal that allows for a subtle increase in housing density in some of Durham's Suburban neighborhoods uh by making it easier to create flag Lots in many of Durham's old suburban neighborhoods properties are zoned rs20 and the lots are exactly 100 feet wide yet they have more acreage um than what is required for a lot in the rs20 district uh they are skinny they have 100 feet in width but they have they are deep and they have enough square footage for two homes for example um and that is the purpose here is to create an opportunity to create a second home on lots that have enough space for two houses but do not have the width um this proposal will help make flag lots
easier um and I also want to note that this proposal will only apply for the rs20 district it will not apply to any other housing uh any other zoning District um the reduction only applies to width and it only applies to width when a flag lot specifically is created and of course this change does not affect any other dimensional rules such as dimensional rules for setbacks height or minimum lot size so again to reiterate I think this is a very reasonable proposal to help create subtle increases in housing density within the city's current um footprint and we respectfully ask for your recommendation of appr thank you you is there anyone else I'm sorry it's currently going crazy outside right here oh my God all right is there are there any other uh commit community members that would like to
speak once only twice all right hearing none I am going to close the public hearing and now open it up for commissioner discussion and questions anyone Gman Cameron this is that Johnson okay if you could use the I'm sorry y'all we need to use the raise the hand function but go ahead commissioner Johnson so to the speaker or whoever was there any out I assume there was some Outreach to the public for any feedback or comments as part of the process to bring this forward and not seen any I assume no public comments will received and just trying to clarify that staff has received no comments on this um I don't know if the applicant has uh
themselves are there any other questions from uh Commissioners Vice chairis yes hi my question would be for uh bo so it says it's going to affect the rs20 uh subtle increase in density and existing lot in the city is this going to also apply for like obviously future RS 20s to where if someone gets a resoning change for rs20 they can possibly get like twice as many houses as they currently can on it the uh the it wouldn't grant them any additional density um it would apply to
new areas that are owned rs20 uh in the city or county the uh they would they would be able to I guess theoretically provide additional units with less overall Frontage if this were adopted slightly very very slightly okay thank you any other comments or questions from commissioners if there are none are we ready to uh have a motion to move this case forward and if so please make a motion so chair as it relates chair as it relates to case TC um 23000000 six uh make a motion that we
send this uh this forward to city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner trap to move um PEX Amendment TC 23 quad 6 quad 06 remainder lot with forward with a favorable recommendation to the city may I have a roll call vote please CER yes ni CH sharis looks like she may have dropped oh I think she dropped she was having trouble keeping um keeping connection earlier she'll be back
yes commissioner Grace mans yes commissioner Gham yes commissioner Johnson noiss Macgyver yes commissioner CE yes commissioner TR yes commissioner W yes motion carries 91 next we will move to the public hearing for our zoning map changes and uh first case up we have C I mean z good Lord
03 acres and located at
8:30 cleton Road the current zoning is residential Suburban 20 and residential rural the applicant proposes to change this designation to residential Suburban multifam to allow up to five dwelling units on the site through a general rezoning the properties are currently designated established residential on the place type map the proposed RSM zoning is consistent with the designated Place type the applicant has also requested annexation into the city of Durham while the applicant's stated intention is to construct five single family homes the requested zoning District would allow up to 12 multifamily dwelling units since there's no development plan associated with the zoning map change request the existing zoning is residential Suburban 20 and residential rural the site is surrounded by residential rural residential Suburban 20 and residential Suburban 10 the aerial map shows the general
location of the project and the site is within three miles of several amenities and services here's a map of the property's notice for the neighborhood meeting the applicant held a neighborhood meeting on March 6 2023 where nine community members were in attendance The Proposal would allow the development of 5 housing units on a property that currently contains one single family dwelling unit the site is located very close to Southern High School however it is a greater distance from many other amenities and is an area lacking generally pedestrian bicycle infrastructure The Proposal is consistent with the place type map designation of established residential uh thank you staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions I'm muted thank you at this time the
chair is opening the public hearing um is the applicant ready to come forward with the presentation this is Al can you'all hear me yes okay uh my name is Albert fontel my address is five gooda Circle I was hoping that Mr Cliff kadle was on the call and that I would designate him to actually speak for me um if he's not on I am prepared to just uh give a general idea of what I would like to do your by CH uh uh Pam is unmuted for some reason Pam Williams needs to be muted um what is his name again sir Chris what is his last name Cliff cradle Cliff fro
yes I don't see this is he's not on the zoom yeah I don't see him on as a as a participant but basically there's uh there's nothing to add to what was presented uh I would like to do some um single family homes um because I think Derman is lacking in homes that's family homes for new families and also I I think that providing those homes for low income low income to moderate income people uh would be a benefit to U the city that's the only thing I need to I would like to add unless there's some questions for me we have questions for you after the public hearing um ends all right thank you you have more time if for on your to present as well if you need to contact the person that needed to help you present um all right we have Pam Williams with her hand
raised go ahead Miss Williams you just muted yourself hello I'm sorry the rain is drowning me out um however uh my question is about the buffers on this Pro property uh will it require buffers and what type of buffers will it require uh does it follow the tree preservation which I thought regard of lots SI they had um buffers for tree at all right I think we're gonna have this issue all night okay you went out a great deal P but we will think the
question was about uh buffers uh tree save areas I don't know if else we can mute uh Miss Miss Williams please thank you um Can City answer if there what the buffers are for this and what the the tree save the tree uh preservation requirements are hey yes Alexander kale planning department uh Brook's going to look up the tree coverage requirement for it uh while I talk about the buffers uh because it's residential on all adjacent Parcels uh there would be no buffering requirements as it's residential against Residential is a change that came out of the scat ad
option well we're waiting for Brooke to look up the tree preservation requirements uh Miss Mimi Kesler has her hand raised if we can recognize her we can bring Mimi Kesler in so she can speak go ahead Miss Kesler Miss Kesler if you can unmute yourself and you can go ahead I'm sorry okay thank you um good evening um I have a um more of a question kind of a concern in looking at this on the map um it will if it's connected to the city um
um it'll be an island in the middle of an area that is not currently in the city and I have some concerns about those little islands of City jurisdiction rather than looking at the whole area now I'm not saying that this developer should have to pay for um for all of the requirement for that street but um as I'm looking at it the um parts of Clayton Road are are in the city uh actually two different parts are in the city and this property is smack in the middle and um I I guess I just don't really understand um the planning theory about this um and having having these little pieces carved out as
City versus County thank you you I don't know who should address that Brooke are you ready to address the uh free question I yes I I wanted to to pop in and discuss the buffering requirement for this site so for um RSM uh to the to residential rural areas it would be a 6 opacity buffer and this would also apply to the rs20 as well so sorry sorry there's a little bit of confusion Brooke can you look up the
tree coverage requirement um and just to clarify so as of January 1 the new scad Provisions there actually won't be a buffer requirement so sorry for any confusion y'all no problem um you want you want me to address the other Mimi okay so Paul Mimi brought up a great Point there's policy 165 that was adopted in the comprehensive plan uh states that staff uh should recommend against any annexation that creates dnut holes or is not contiguous to the primary corporate limits um so when a case goes to city council um we would daylight that policy say it's not consistent with that policy uh recommend denial for non-contiguous or a donnut hole and then it would be up to the council uh to determine whether to uh approve or deny that case Alexander is just is this just for the annexation or or is this appli to zoning
are these two different we're just voting on the rezoning right not the annexation just so we're clear yeah that's that's a great question um so Planning Commission has a resolution on file that says annexations go to council they don't need to review them uh so the council votes on the annexation you are only voting on The zoning map change okay so want to be clear because I know that request was in and I might confuse everyone about exactly what we're voting Brooke are you are you back yeah apologies um so the tree uh coverage requirement for uh Suburban tier would be a minimum of 20% preserve tree coverage is there anyone else um that would like to speak from the uh
Community Mr fontanelli uh you have your mic open is do you have anything else to say before I close the public hearing uh the only thing I would say is that I I think the houses uh that I am planning to actually put up there will be a good addition to the city of Durham uh it will bring in tax revenue uh it will add uh additional homes that's actually needed and I think I will stop right there all right thank you all right seeing that there are no other hands raised uh I am going to close the public hearing at this time and as a reminder Commissioners please use the raise your hand function um to be recognized we are now open for commissioner discussion and questions and commissioner trap yes my question is for the applicant um couple questions first off why the RSM designation and why no
commitment to single family even though that is your intention um so you say or any development plan at all so so just those couple of questions yeah can you hear me now okay so the reason uh when when I spoke to a plan Department uh because I'm one person with limited funds I was sto this is the fastest way to actually get this through the process um the reason I didn't want to commit to that is because again it all goes back to uh my limited amount of funds if I decided to actually sell the property without developing it then someone could actually use it to maximize the amount of homes that could actually go in place and again I think it all falls back to that I think not just I but all the stuff that's coming out is saying that
we need more homes we need more homes we need more homes and so if someone could develop it with more homes as opposed to five say the 12 and I decided to go that route I just did not want to close my options out and so that's the reason I chose to go that route based on the information I received from the plan Department thank you CE thank you I uh have some concerns that are related to the question commissioner trap asked and I think uh I appreciate the applicant's answer and appreciate your interest in finding ways to um allow more housing to be created and and I guess in general this is not a
um proposal that I'm necessarily opposed to in terms of five single family homes are 12 multif family homes necessarily but I think if it's the latter there are additional considerations that the community members the neighbors um and perhaps staff in general just some technical questions that would arise if the town home scenario that that the applicant that you just described if that ultimately happened and so what's put before us is a is an ask for a rezoning with this description of it being for five single family homes but it's it's really an ask for a resoning to allow for 12 multif family units and there's not any information um that speaks to potential concerns that would arise out of that proposal and and I to to as as Mr trap referenced the commissioner trap referenced the you
know development plan route even if it's just a text only I'm not suggesting that the commitment would be the go the way to go I but I do think that more clarity would be needed to to Really um comfortably support this proposal uh relative to the immediate surroundings and so I'll just leave my comments there commissioner Johnson to the applicant there were public comment opportunities what public comments did you receive of specifically I didn't see it in the in the narrative so if you could answer that and then I have one other followup question yeah okay very few people like to said attended uh of the people that attended uh they were just concerned as to whether or not it would affect their
property values and I I explained to them what I was trying to do and and with the first commission well the second person who spoke um with the zoning that I'm request in you we would not be able to actually put in town homes um and if we do decide to go with the 12 homes uh that is done with that zoning then that's basically with the requirement that I see all about town right now and so I I think it all goes back to the fact that the more homes that we have to a for people in Durham I think the better off we're going to be my second question going back to buffer and also to the recommendation from the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee for a six- foot dedication along Clayton Road are you prepared to add a buffer even though it's not required and add that raail to the
requirements six buff from the going under the street going back to the property is that is that what you're talking about yeah if it's not a requirement then I would not be prepared to do it and one last question you mentioned earlier about lowincome moderate income housing could you clarify what you meant by that in your statement earlier well I would wanted Bill how that within the scope of what's going on with uh the city of Durham with within the price range of what's happening I I think anything below um 400 and below I think that's what's I'm discussing thank you Alexander do you have did you have anything so your hand raised yeah I just uh I know we have a lot of new Commissioners it's probably just a good
reminder so uh with a general resoning such as this applicant actually can't commit to anything um they would be building by right for the Udo requirements and standards at that time um but if they'd like to convert to a textual development plan uh we would absolutely encourage and support that if that's the route they choose to go are there any other questions for the applicant other questions all right um like to call someone to have a motion make a motion to move this case forward please chair as it relates to case z23
000000 8 Hurley Road I make a motion that we move this case forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second it's been moved by commissioner cutright to move case z23 triple 08 curlyy Road forward with a favorable recommendation and second it by commissioner CE may I have the roll call vote please Cameron yes Vice chair sharis no commissioner cutright yeser Graves mans yes Gham no commissioner Johnson yes commissioner mcgyver yes
commissioner CE no commissioner TR no [Music] commissioner no true fashion my calculator is not working tonight but it looks like it's four to five is that what you have I actually five to five motion fails five it's a TI five I have all right all the things tonight y'all so when it's a tie what happens if it's a tie the motion fails thank
70 to allow up to 280 townhouse and duplex units the properties are
700 zoning is consistent with the designated Place type the existing zoning is residential rural the site is surrounded by plan development residential and residential rural the aerial map shows the general location of the project and the site is within 2 and a half to 7 Miles uh distance of amenities and services the closest shopping center is 2 and 1 half miles away and the closest major shopping center uh with a variety of shops groceries uh healthc care is about three and a half miles away here's a map of all the properties noticed for the neighborhood meeting the applicant has included graphic and text commitments including a 300t wildlife Corridor buffer uh one-time contribution of $5,000 to
Durham public schools and for 3% of units to be uh considered income restricted to households earning 80% area median income for a period of at least 10 years the applicant held a neighborhood meeting on March 6 2023 where eight community members attended the proposal would allow the development of up to 280 townhouse and duplex units on property that currently has three existing single family dwelling units of those 280 units nine would be income restricted to those earning 80% area medium in median income or less for 10 years the site is in the Southeastern Duram County area which has limited access to services and amenities such as grocery stores parks and Health Care due to a lack of Transit and connections to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure the site will be autod dependent until additional infr structure for non-vehicular modes uh can
be brought to the area the site is in an area that has significantly higher median income uh than the remainder of the County uh displacement factors such as evictions and cost burdening are lower than the county average The Proposal is consistent with the place type map designations of mixed residential neighborhood and Recreation in open space thank you staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you um so I think um commissioner tala do you need to excuse yourself for a few minutes to deal with your emergency issue do you want to just you don't yeah that's fine need a few minutes F okay um I'm sorry I got thrown off there at this time we we're going to open up the uh public hearing and if we
could call or have the applicant come forward good evening Madam chair I'm Coler Marsh with Parker poet 301 fville street can you hear me okay yes great um and we do have a presentation if we could bring that up give me 30 seconds sorry we have definitely gotten out of the full Zone practice here almost two years of Co we'll have it by the end of the meeting I hope um so this is the Olive Branch Reserve North res zoning and accompanying annexation um appreciate the staff summary and just do want to hit a couple of high notes if we could go to the next slide please um so this is the site and surrounding
2 designation that instance that project made a payment for affordable housing rather than dedicated units um which was kind of the the practice at that point in time there's an e Greenway easement
provided then within the wildlife Corridor there were restricted uses if we could go to the next slide please so this project is intended to improve on that and also to be sure to comply with the place type map designations you see here there are two designations that apply mixed residential neighborhood that's shown in the they call it dark orange color um and as staff has pointed out our rezoning is consistent with that designation as we're pro providing a mix of residential types that I'll explain in a moment the green shows the recreation and open space uh designation we also comply with that and as I'll show in a moment there will be a wildlife Corridor along that Eastern parcel 300 feet from stream bank so major commitment for substantial preserved area on that Eastern cor um section then the southern strip that connects onto Olive Branch Road would be um typical prefer preserve flood um uh repairing buffers uh to meet that open space uh designation uh next slide
please so this slide shows the zoning of the site and surrounding area and this is as staff just presented it but as I talk here if we could just move on to the next slide uh we did want to update it because there was uh one resoning case that wasn't captured on imaps and so that's what this slide is meant to show that actually if imaps was updated with that project that was approved um back in 2020 it would show PDR and all the surrounding area and and that we're really kind of a gap of one of the last properties to uh fully conform with what's happened in the surrounding area so um filling in what's already the existing development pattern uh next slide please consistent with filling gaps the annexation is consistent with City policies we're contiguous with City Limits and we're filling in that that noticeable call it a a hole or an enclave there um to make the city limits more more continuous throughout this area um next slide please so getting to the critical
commitments of this resoning as I said uh staff has found that we're consistent with Comprehensive plan and the place type map designation in large part through the text commitments that accompany this resoning uh the project commits to a maximum of 280 townhouse and duplex residential units um so that's in an effort to make sure that providing a mix of types within uh one development there's a requirement that you have to have at least 20% of each use so that tells you you won't have more than more than 80% of one certain to have a true mix of of residential types within the development another commitment that minimum of 30% townhouse units have single car garage Bays again that is intended to provide a mix of town home types and specifically a more affordable town home option amongst all of them so providing different different price points accessible uh to different families we have material commitments to ensure there's variation that units next to each other look different than each other and then environmental conditions are always important especially in this part of the county and the expanding
City uh there's a Max of 70% impervious surface coverage uh we do have a Greenway Trail easement um where it's called for in the city's plans and then that 300 foot Wildlife Corridor that's 300 feet from stream Bank along our Eastern side is a major section of this property that will be preserved uh for a wildlife Corridor we're committing to ensure that this is not just housing but also a community Through uh required active open space commitments and so those are some of the amenities that would be required there the commitment says we have to have at least three of those um from dog parks to a disc golf course there's a lot of open space that would be included in this project uh to playfields um and then typical neighborhood amenities as well uh we have a contribution to Durham public schools and the affordability commitment here is 3% of units at 80% Ami for 10 years um and just to address the affordability component um I know that there are varying measures and varying varying percentages offered here I think what makes this commitment unique compared to other projects is the type
of units that we're offering at that 80% Ami level which is we often see that with a multistory apartment complex and you can provide units within a large development um at an 80% Ami level here you're talking about duplex and town home units that have yards have driveways have garages so on a per unit basis each of those commitments is much more material much more substantial and deviation from what what could otherwise be I think obtained uh for those units uh and then there's requirements to have at least some some of those units have to have two or more bedrooms um a number of Transportation improvements the Tia is pretty expensive with commitments that are required with this project or others if they come in line beforehand um but in pertinent part on the Project's Olive Branch Road Frontage we are widening the street to a three Lane section 10ft shared path along that full Frontage as well connecting into that Greenway easement uh and then there are traffic signals that are triggered by this project as well as others so it's
kind of a race to see which project will develop those um next slide please so keeping in mind this is a textual development plan these are illustrative images only we just wanted to give an A A idea of how that Wildlife Corridor operates here um so you see the pro property boundary in red and then the wildlife corridors 300 feet feet measured from that stream bank that's meant to be shown with those yellow lines to show the full Corridor um and so it's a it's a huge part of the rear of the site the Eastern side of the site that will remain undeveloped and then other areas where you see a stream um approaching to the uh page left western side you will have your required buffering there as well although it's not within the wildlife Corridor would be undeveloped in open space um next slide please so as I mentioned and as the Planning Commission looks at its its role tonight to evaluate the
comprehensive plan consistency staff has found that we're consistent with 20 of the 25 policies just highlighted here so we do think a high level of consistency if we can go to the next slide um just summarizing the the Project's consistency and the questions tonight we're consistent with Comprehensive plan Place type designation we're compatible with the the present zoning and the surrounding areas you you all saw um similar zoning has been applied throughout the immediate area and we're we're kind of a a bit of a donnut hole to continue that development pattern um we're improving the balance of uses this specific miss mix of residential types is missing in the area and so it provides greater housing variety as well as meaning a need for housing and affordable hous housing uh in Durham uh and and finally there is adequate infrastructure available so um with that we respectfully request that you uh vote to recommend approval of this uh resoning case uh and I'd like to reserve any remaining time to to rebut any comments to answer any questions you may have thank
you you this time the chair L pleas the chair is opening the public hearing um and we have ammy suaa is she on pre-register to speak hammy I see you are here are you ready I'm here yes can you hear me now yes great there's a presentation um Alex can you get that up for us please okay I'm not seeing the
3 which calculates to about we need about 19,000 units preserve world durm has been tracking the southeast durm which you have heard from 2020 into October 2023 and then I personally went
to every city council and tagged up and added up all the other uh approv of development that have been done so from 2020 to October we're over the exceeded units that triangle J Council says that we need um with this lovely afternoon I even looked further um to see from October to December how many more units were um added for Durham and it was about 1,600 so we're now up to 28% overage What triangle J Council says we need in the next 10 years so next slide please thank you um so with this population growth in southeast Durham which has been two fast too much we've got fire and EMS um issues if you vote Yes for Olive Branch Reserve you're going to put another 644 men and women Children at Risk um our October 22 audit says they were're not meeting the requirements and um every fire run needs two ladder
trucks station 17 is within six miles of this this uh um area at time sorry that went fast yeah and I'm GNA ask you to go back and and state your name and your address we forgot to do that in the beginning very quickly sure tamy Sawaya Baptist Road thank you uh next we have Pamela Andrews is Pamela going to continue with this presentation can we stop share she will continue she'll continue there'll be five of them I think Alex before I start my time can you please move it to the next
slide no next one please next one one more that's the one thank you so much good evening everybody my name is Pamela Andrews 6108 Wake Forest Highway Durham um as you can see this is a developmental chart that we have prepared and used many times by Southern environmental law Center this has shows tremendous amount of growth in this area um not just in regards to emergency services are we in having big issues but with environmental impact none of those uh none of them had followed the storm water or tree preservation Mas grade amendments because those amendments went in place in October will olive branch follow these tree preservation amendments and storm water amendments it's very critical that they do next slide please next slide please
in this picture you can see that policy 79 says we're supposed to protect whoa whoa whoa go back go back um protect ecologically sensitive natural areas please consider the cumulative impacts in weighing these proposals these two projects were are nearly adjacent to each other are surrounded on all sides by hundreds of Acres of exposed land currently being cleared for other ongoing development as you can see a lot of area being destroyed next slide please next slide please protective land while the Olive Branch proposal offers a 300 foot Corridor and future Greenway along Martin Branch commitments to stay out of the flood planes which is difficult to build on anyway should not be considered going above the Baseline policy 80 and policy 83 show existing habitat areas and Wildlife movement quarters should be left largely undisturbed is the proposed Wildlife buffer going to be UND Disturbed will the tributaries to
Martin's Branch also have 300 foot buffers undisturbed will bances be allowed next slide please next slide please I wanted to show you very quickly this data the impact is stram of Martin Branch you can see in red this is 20 30 times the state requirement where the unpa unimpacted stream of Rocky Branch is in the range that you're supposed to be 50 nus sorry this is really hard with a slideshot not me present to flip to flip I give you a couple more seconds because I know the slideshow was delayed go ahead couple more seconds so this impacted stream of Martin branch has been slammed there is a southern environmental lawsuit law uh suit across the street at Sweet Bar for this very reason of what you're seeing in this slide this area has been slammed with environmental disaster and we ask you to say no no more we can't take more thank you all right thank you next we have
Marie farmer am I going in the right area uh order or am I supposed to I think I'm supposed to do something at the Sprite I saw that email that's on the Jake Freeman is next Jacob Freeman go ahead take up up been here is going hello can you hear me hello yes okay thank you uh if you would advance to the next slide please okay next slide
please next slide please there's some type of weird pause with the slides I'm being told okay yeah this where I'm starting am I am I good to go yep start his timer please okay so this particular slide is an aerial photo from 6423 as you can see of Falls Lake where l Creek meets Falls Lake as you can see there's a tremendous amount of sedimentation that's flowing into Falls Lake um that's being deposited out in the lake um which is a particular concern to me as a resident of Wake County and a conserva minded Outdoorsman Who U who utilizes the lake for Recreation next slide please then again this is from all the existing development that's already happening on lit Creek and its tributaries so this slide's meant to show from an aerial view all the land that has been stripped bare for the high density development next to critically
sensitive Watershed areas it's also meant to highlight how durm is not meeting policy 86 regarding protecting water sources for adjacent counties the runoff in a lit Creek and it's ultimately in a Falls lake lake counties drinking water is unacceptable next slide please the purpose of this slide is to show how much more restrictive the development requirements are in Wake County versus Durham County also notice around Falls Lake how there are only two zones for Wake County building zones versus Durham which is numerous types of zoning which includes which includes pushing the urban growth boundary to the critical Watershed for Falls which Wake County does not do next next slide please and finally I'm going to talk about costs these highdensity Mass graded developments will have costs to durm taxpayers in cleaning up the damage to the Creeks on the right of this slide
you can see known costs for Creek cleanup these costs do not include estimates of the unknown cost of cleanup for developments such as the one proposed here from these additional Mass graded developments that's end of my presentation you next we have uh Pamela Pam Williams you're ready to go good afternoon everyone Alex can you bring up the presentation it should be transportation and schools thank you very much uh again my name is Pam Williams and my address is
on file I like to bring to your attention one thing is the schools uh the existing elementary and middle schools are overc capacity is considered over capacity and thus there is inadequate school capacity out here right now without all the developments going in um I also like to bring to your attention that they're looking at a one-time contribution of $55,000 for1 132 students that's only $38 per student I'm hoping this is a typo area because this is the lowest I have ever seen um you know since presenting to the planning department and I hope that the developer will reconsider that considering our D Dary for schools um the second thing I'd like to bring to your attention is transportation the vehicles per day have increased on Olive Branch Road 88% in the last two years uh Olive Branch in 2021 was 2,238 Olive Branch per incd in 2023 was
4,213 that's 88% increase this does not include the developments that I have listed here which would be 19,200 7 additional 12 uh vehicles per day these are numbers came from uh TI uh Olive Branch Reserve North would increase the capacity on Olive Branch by 2,000 for a total of 21,30 vehicles per day on this PO Little Road uh that is going to be uh left lane right lane and there is no Transportation plans uh are or infrastructure to improve this area in the 2050 comprehensive Transportation plan thus it will be just constantly weaving out from left turn lane uh a three Lane section down to virtually nothing um it the density out here going forward as the first slide that we presented today it needs less density into the
infrastr your time is up thank you uh next we have uh Rebecca Freeman Miss Freeman if you can unmute yourself thank you hello hello hear you we can hear you we can hear you can you hear me yes okay thank you very much Rebecca Freeman I live on South ED and Durham um the first Slide the next slide please extreme Topography of this land such as a 66 drop will require heavy blasting and and massive uh Mass grading
to build uh slab based foundations all this leads to heavy erosion it's shown that when you get to past 21% in impious area in traic Souls there's a SE severe environmental damage that occurs um and all number two is the tree all tree reservation would only be in the flood plane therefore it's leaving heat islands with housing and dwelling areas with no tree coverage for them um in the in these areas Mass graining will need to be implemented for this project as well slide please slide please blasting the first six items there uh relates to bullet points relate to the uh damages that neighbors uh are are suffering uh in the in these areas um the blasting permits are issued by the dur Fire Department in the city and U there have been numerous dages as you can see in the photograph with the whs
and the H and the settlement in the homes and the uh floors and the walls and none of these um damages have been recouped by the homeowners the The Blasters will not stand behind them and the last door areas are the focuses on the environmental damages it's going to occur from all the blasting and the changes in the proy and the um private Welles and those kinds of things next slide please next slide please I'm sorry back up one I must have missed this oh okay I'm sorry yes I'm sorry I've got my my my slides please Advance please uh this next slide relates to the advocacy study that needs to be done on the new amendments that have occurred to see if anything is really helping the uh erosion uh and the uh tree preservation um in the um in in these uh projects
next slide please next slide please yes say no to the auto Branch Reserve because it's not in line with six adopted comprehensive plan policies that are listed here given the location of this proposal and the broader picture of impacts to LIT Creek Watershed as you can see there's a massive amount of a of a a creek structure that in that runs along through the uh project developers should be required to offer more than the bare minimum of Environmental Protections in a high value Conservation Area all right thank you your time is up um next we have uh Marie farmer Marie farmer do you wish to
speak Marie is part of the applicant team so this is call your Mar I'll continue to speak for the applicant when the time's appropriate uh okay so that's Tim sers uh Mary S FIP fipo go ahead please unmute yourself we don't have any response excuse me we're not getting a response okay um next we have uh Jason Vickers also part of the applicant Team all right
um Mimi Kesler um good evening again um I think that the the um the speakers that have come before me have done a very good job of articulating the the various uh problems with continuing to develop in this area um and I really think that there should be a moratorium on developing in this area um I I don't give the applicant much credit for $5,000 to the uh to the schools it's just insultingly low and I also don't really give them credit for um 3% affordable for 80% Ami and and uh and also only for 10
years so I I'm asking you to vote against this because it is not in in the interest of the people who surround this property it is not in the interest of the environment it is not in the interest of helping with affordable housing uh the only way that this would end up being better for affordable housing is because there is not sufficient roadway for all of the cars that are anticipated in Project that have already been approved so I ask you to vote no because this is too much and too late thank you thank you is there anyone else in the uh uh community that would like to speak
other community members okay at this time I'm going to close the public hearing uh and we now are open up for commissioner discussion and question commissioner CE uh yeah thank you for the applicant and uh members of the public for the comments a question uh immediately arises out of all that we heard is uh the school donation that's proposed um I'm wondering if the applicant could explain or or elaborate I should say on how that amount was chosen and whether any consideration was given to um something more substantial than $5,000 sure this is call your Marsh again appreciate the opportunity to address that um that that donation was provided at the start of this case
before we had the school impact analysis so the intent was to make it clear that we are going to make a contribution to address school capacity issues now having reviewed the analysis and the staff report um our team agrees that we need to work with staff to update that condition and so I think what what we can say tonight is that we will make an improved commitment and we'll coordinate with staff on the appropriate amount based on uh this project thank you I think that would be a good consideration before you carry it forward to council it' be helpful to have it tonight too so that we could incorporate it into our considerations um but but I appreciate you acknowledging that it needs to be addressed uh a second question quick question for staff just to confirm the city's um requirements on affordability uh for affordable housing do do require 30-year commitment is that correct thank you yeah if they're taking advantage of the density bonus it's 60%
Ami for 30-year tenure but the affordable I'm sorry the the the commitment that is put forth tonight is for a 10-year commitment correct correct so I guess what I want to just be clear for for everyone is that what's being offered by the applicant it does doesn't really meet the the expectations of what's described by policy what's adopted policy for the city for affordable housing even though it is a um a a uh donation to some extent um it's a commitment to provide something small uh in in terms of tenure uh it really doesn't meet the expectations with regards to affordable housing um I guess there are a couple of other kind of concerns or just observations and we've obviously seen a lot of resoning cases in the time that I've been here on the commission uh in this area uh the narrative seems to be a consistent one of of environmental concerns compared
against uh the generally uh uniform or we'll say minimally diverse proposals for housing and what we have tonight is is a is a proposal for at least a couple of types of housing matching um as has been stated by the applicant the mixed residential Place type and and I would just say that what I kind of took from the applicant presentation which addressed a lot of the concerns really leaned heavily into um asserting that it was consistent with the comp plan and I I I I just want to highlight something that is in the mixed residential neighborhood description that is the place types guide the place types guide that a lot of people in the public a lot of members who are currently on this commission and and past members of this commission a lot of people worked really hard around the L language in these Place types and I and I I I don't want it to be so quickly dismissed that mixed residential neighborhood is more than just two
different types of housing across 80 acres the initial the paragraph that describes what a mixed residential neighborhood is um the second sentence third sentence these neighborhoods are designed to add a diversity of housing types at different surprise points and densities to serve residents with a diversity of needs ages incomes and lifestyle while the primary use is residential residents are served by supporting commercial Civic and institutional places in the immediate area like schools community centers libraries smallscale Grocery Stores um and then residents living in mixed residential neighborhoods can easily B safely bike walk roll within and around to get to those supporting places and Transit stops none of those elements are here we do have housing um we have a nice contribution in terms of the commitment to the conservation area but there is nothing else that is really um called out quite clearly in
the place type sky that is our comprehensive plan for mixed residential neighborhood and in that regard The Proposal is really like all the others that are accumulating along Olive Branch Road they're they're residential they're solely residential and so I I think what strikes me is not the policies that are um that the proposal is found to be consistent with but the policies that it's inconsistent with nothing on green infrastructure despite the well documented kind of environmental impacts of continued development in this area uh and you know nothing with regards to preserving acreage for future development of Civic uses or or other things that are highlighted in that place types guide so I I I just find this proposal really um too narrow to fulfill the intent that's expressed in that uh comprehensive plan document as as a mixed residential neighborhood thank you thank you commissioner CE you you
you must have had your timer on because you stopped right on your five minutes there um all right so um next we have uh commissioner appreciate it chair um thank you to the applicant for for submitting this um I think just to elaborate a bit or or expound upon uh what commissioner CE has mentioned we've had these discussions before specifically as relates to land use uh about um sort of sacrifices and especially in this area uh where we know environment has has been an issue for a long time um you know my sense is that um something that is that's that would be proposed uh that is Meaningful to Durham um in a way that that moves the
needle for example on affordable housing um you you could you could you could probably wrap your head around U some sacrifice there right and everyone has has you know issues that are important to them um and this is the Soap Box I typically stand on but um in this case um you know we we end up with a we end up worse off from an environmental standpoint and we end up with nominal um affordability and it's for a limited time um and so you know for that reason um I can't support this particular um case um you know again I'm I'm comfortable with sacrifice um but in this case you know we're we're not getting anything in return um so uh for that reason I can't I can't support that thank you next uh we have uh commissioner
Johnson thank you chair um hopefully people can hear me better I was told to speak up a little bit um I'm concerned in a couple areas and I need to understand this better we're about to address another issue at the next item that also relates to Olive Branch and to the point of the applicants who made their comments which I not the applicant the residents and I appreciate the applicant in terms of town home duplexes I don't think we're looking at the impact globally enough in terms of all those issues because as was presented by the applicant this is you started a a project by the way to the applicant is the project approved uh in 2020 completed or are there still work in the 2020 notwithstanding this new proposal to the applicant it's not completed at this time okay so we have an uncompleted 2020
we're adding a new aspect and all these other related things I have some specific questions that I would like answered I won't repurpose what we've already I think heard from people I understand that there is a transportation rep uh in the meeting from I understood from the Planning Commission I'd like to hear from the trans Transportation person because I'm looking at not only immediate roadways but auxiliary roadways and the impact given the fact that most of the retail healthc care schools are 3 to four to five miles away so what's the scope impact and transportation across the board including auxiliary roadways if we have the transportation person hey Erlene Thomas transportation and I hope okay I see that um so this development was required
to conduct a traffic study which does incorporate an account for all the adjacent development um within the vicinity of this one um the the traffic memo that's included in the packet on the second page you'll see that full list of the developments that were also accounted for that are not yet constructed so and the full the scope of the traffic study does include immediate adjacent intersections and some that are further away and mitigation is required when those um when the level of service drops below level service D and they provide the proper improvements um to mitigate traffic impacts of this development as well as the ajason developments that have already been approved Miss Thomas if I could just clarify one thing with you adjacent how far does adjacent go out one mile two miles three miles it it varies um and if you look at this the scope of this traffic study in particular it goes all
the way up to NC 98 um to the north and down to leeville road to the South thank you and on the first page of that memo you'll get a sense of the inter from the intersections that were included what the scope of the project was I understand thank you for that Thank You Cher I'm good welcome all right thank you next we have chair Vice chairish here Sor yes hello my question is going to be for erene Thomas in reference to your report or the part of the report on page 27 of 32 there was a table and it had no build I what is the definition of no build is that like no build of houses or no build of Roads because it's it's no build no construction or no Road improvements because then there was another column no build with Improvement
and no build no improvement as as references the losd threshold by city of daram requirements that's a great question early Thomas Transportation um so the no build includes um the existing traffic plus any background development that's already been approved and those um that that information can include um improvements that they're required to do but that would be stated in the memo and then would also make that Improvement required of the current development and then the build traffic is building the proposed development on top of in addition to the other ones that have already been approved so you have existing traffic plus some background growth which is typically 3% across the board plus the approved developments and then the build traffic
would add in the proposed development yeah that answers my question I was wishing there was an additional column of for like Road improvements with no future construction I noticed that was a missing category right right um there aren't a lot of the only Road improvements that would be assumed in the Bild condition are ones that are funded for construction either you know funded through the dot or by the city so if they're not funded we wouldn't assume that they would be build in the time frame of the proposed development okay so want to make sure that we're yeah that's fine thank you one of my main concerns would then be with all the additional traffic in this area and then going down to the the loss of service and I see on some of those uh tables it was like up to like 55 seconds per vehicle for every addition vehicle
m. m. m. oh okay all right thank you yes Alexander hey thank you I just wanted to attempt to answer the other part of sharis's question or vice chair sharis um we hear a lot about EMS response and
how does Public Safety get there uh and specifically in this area on December 14th they they responded to an incident the fire department did on Kemp Road it took them 3 minutes and 41 seconds total travel time and arrival um and that there were no incidents on Virgil Road in the same 30-day period um so they do actively monitor their response times as new development comes online um we just haven't found a really thoughtful way to be able to portray that in staff reports as of yet but that's something we're exploring thank you are there any other commissioner comments um all right uh the applicant would like to respond to some of the questions I guess before that I I would just like to say as well um this
commission did spend a lot of time discussing large acreages and what we would like to see when you have this much to play with I'm a developer I would love to have 80 acres to play with I'm trying to do something on Seven Acres a lot more than what's happening on the these these 80 acres and what truly mixed use development means and how that will create a healthy Community um for dorm and um to continually for us to have to get up here on these soap soap boxes and say that is just a little disappointing because Durham is full of smart people and I think we we should be attracting smart developers to match what we have in this city so with that um uh caller you can go ahead and uh address the
commission great thank you chair Cam Cameron uh just a few final remarks and I'll keep them brief um I appreciate all the commentary from the Planning Commission they're all all some very good points that um certainly things we have considered and and I I do think that there are some that have been addressed to this project and just want to make sure a few points are clear just hit hitting the um chair's comments about large areas and areas to play with I think how we view that with this project is that the way that we um acknowledge the size of the site is environmental preservation preservation of that Wildlife Corridor and open space it's a major part of the site and so there are areas that would be otherwise developable that are being left in their natural state uh and so that's what we prioritize so I heard Cher cutright comment about environmental sacrifices with this project um and and really not getting all all that the commission would like to see in return and and i' I'd respectfully disagree on the environmental sacrifice point and and note the significance of that Wildlife Corridor there is extensive open space that would be provided with this and and
cutting to the comments that we heard from some of the public uh about you know environmental areas concerns in the area um the storm water the erosion control and mass grading amendment was passed to address those concerns and this project will comply with it so um you know hopefully those amendments do make those concerns thing of the past and this project would be uh a um an example of how that could come to fruition uh the last item that that we can Overlook is that affordable housing I note that the policy uh at 30% income restriction um is to get a density bonus but not necessarily a policy that that's how all affordable housing commitments uh should be made and I think that each commitment is unique and I do want to highlight the uniqueness of this commitment which is the product type um these are rental products that are different than most they're not typical Apartments they're larger with amenities yards and features that you otherwise wouldn't get that all come at an enhanced cost that you're not having to pay that cost so on a per unit basis I
7 Acres I'm just trying to Define how much of that acre it would be in that 300 foot offer of the 87 Acres I don't have a specific amount I think that you know the general numbers we're looking at is that uh around half the site or more will end up having to be preserved in one form or another through our
commitments thank you yes Brook hi thank you uh staff just wanted to confirm with the applicant um they mentioned that you know a proper to coordinate uh with internal planning staff to create an updated profer for or contribution to DAR Public Schools uh we were wondering if the applicant would consider committing to an amount this evening um I'm just trying to repeat back the what was stated earlier yeah I think that we have to go and truly crunch the numbers at this point um so I think that it's safe to say we're going to make a meaningful Improvement but I can't give you a number at this point okay thank thank you any other Commissioners have um comments are we ready to move this
forward chair as it relates to case z235 U Olive Branch Reserve North make a motion that we move this case forward to city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and second it by commissioner CE to move case z23 0015 Olive Branch Reserve North forward with a favorable recommendation to city council uh may I have the roll call vote chair Cameron no Vice chair sharis no commissioner cutri no commissioner Grace Ms no commissioner gam no commissioner Johnson
no commissioner mcgyver no commissioner CE no commissioner trap no commissioner W no motion fails 10 Z thank you next on the agenda you have wait what time is it oh 7 we have about a few minute uh 7:30 we take our break so let's see if we can get through the some of the discussion on this one we have case z23 trip13 Village Road Assembly wait may we have the staff
3 acres and located at 702 and 1902 Virgil Road 3522 and 3616 kley Road 720 722 725 and 750 kernis Road and 751 Olive Branch Road the current zoning is residential rural the applicant proposes
88 6 zoning is consistent with the place type map designation of MRN and Recreation in open space however it is inconsistent with the mixed use neighborhood designation the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the place type map to designate the property as mixed residential neighborhood and Recreation and open space the existing zoning is residential rural uh the site is surrounded by residential Rural and PDR the aerial map shows the general location of the project the site is 3 to 5 miles away from most amenities and services in the area generally lacks
48 acre requirement tree coverage uh of 16% or 32. 38 acres and
2 buffers are required the applicant held a meeting on January 2023 where 29 community members attended so in summation The Proposal would allow the development of a maximum of 531 townhouse and single family units on a vacant lot uh again 3% of the units would be income restricted units the site for the proposed units is located in southeast Durham The Proposal would increase the supply of uh income restricted and market rate housing in Durham and provides additional commitments regarding the construction
of storm water control measures additional amenities for the site in the dur uh Durham Public Schools contribution to note The Proposal is inconsistent with the adopted Eastern Durham open space space plan the plan recommends a 300 foot Wildlife Corridor to be provided on the western portion of the site the applicant has not committed to providing this buffer at this time while the proposal is consistent with the place type map designation of MN and R as as is provided as it provides a mix of single family um and townhouse units and does protect the existing open space area The Proposal was not was not found to be consistent with the mixed use neighborhood designation as only a mix of residential uses are proposed and the site uh is also not within a 15-minute walk of non-residential uses thank you staff and the applicant are available for any
questions you all righty you may we have the applicant come forward for a presentation can you hear me yes good evening chair Cameron members of the commission my name is Marie farmer I'm with Parker Poe 301 fille Street Raleigh here on behalf of the applicant Taylor Morrison I am accompanied tonight by Laura Hollman certified planner with McAdams Tyler Pro civil engineer and project manager with McAdams and donon capers traffic engineering project manager with Ry Kemp who are all available to answer questions this evening I would like to briefly start if we could go to the next slide please by introducing the developer of this site Taylor Morrison is a national
home builder that entered the North Carolina market in 2015 and has built communities in Raleigh Cary Holly Springs Apex Fugue Verina and Durham life story research has awarded Taylor Morrison with the most trusted Builder award for eight consecutive years Taylor Morrison has partnered with ibacos a nationally recognized expert in construction quality and in 2019 Taylor Morrison partnered with the National Wildlife Federation to apply nwf standards to current and future Community parks and open space they have taken the Monarch pledge to support monarch butterfly recovery efforts by providing butterfly gardens collaborated with nwf to design and build Early Childhood Health Outdoors nature playscapes in certain communities and are committed to planting 100% native trees in their certified Open Spaces as well as incorporating more nature trails and other outdoor experiences to encourage sustainable landscape practices to date they have certified more than 7200 Acres of wildlife habitat 72 monarch butterfly gardens and over
100 nature playscapes are underway Taylor Morrison is also the only us home builder on Bloomberg's gender equality index since 2019 next slide please as I mentioned earlier Taylor Morrison has built several communities here in North Carolina and we wanted to illustrate a few of the examples of the type of projects they have built here to demonstrate the quality that you can expect from this developer the top left picture is from the creek side at Beth Page community in Durham the middle picture is from the bridgeberry community in Holly Springs and the top right is from the towns at Westford in Apex as you can see homes within Taylor morison communities vary in appearance with a variety of floor plans and exteriors offered for each product type next slide please the property is located less than 10 miles north of RDU and a few miles east of Carolina Arbors it's sits between Olive Branch Road and Coley Road along Virgil Road and extends down to
88 6 which will allow for the development of up to 531 single family homes and town homes next slide this application is also accompanied by an annexation petition and consistent with policy 165 of the comprehensive plan this annexation would
287637 based on the traffic impact analysis that was prepared by Remy Kemp uh
looking at the year 2031 which used a compounded growth rate of about 2% to determine the background traffic projections and using the traffic volume projections based on other developments approved in the area there are a number of traffic improvements required of other developments that are also required of this development as well as improvements specifically required of this development these improvements would be required prior to the issue of a certificate of occupancy but could be phased at the time of site plan with a traffic phasing analysis approved by city transportation and ncdot as you can see these improvements include turn Lanes on Carpenter Pond and Virgil Kemp and Virgil and installation of a traffic signal at 98 in South View Road if you have specific questions about any of these improvements drawn papers with Ry Kemp is available to answer questions next slide there are a number of tax commitments being offered with this proposal a maximum of 531 units as we
had said previously there's also a mixture of townhouse and single family the commitment uh provides for a maximum of 45% single family and a minimum of 50% townhouse to ensure that affordability is key in mind here that there are at least uh 50% of the the product that would be offered would be the townhouse there would also be at least two different types of townhouse units and single family units the townhouse units could uh vary in width of the unit number of stories driveway location or garage capacity again to make sure that there are a mix of price points that are provided and the single family uh could vary based on lot size or finished square footage the townhouse buildings will also not exceed 45 ft we also provided several commitments in terms of erosion control and storm water as we know uh some of these uh requirements in the Udo uh are already included the skimmers uh
for the sediment basins uh that is now I believe a requirement of the Udo uh this was included before that became an actual requirement but we have also included a commitment to treat for the 100-year storm and to provide at least two storm water control measures on site uh as I had said previously based on t Morrison's partnership with the National Wildlife Federation we are also committing to providing only native plants in the buffers and tree replacement areas we have also committed to providing at least two amenity uh components within our open space but again as I had said before Taylor Morrison does have a partnership with the National Wildlife Federation such that in their Open Spaces uh National Wildlife Federation certified features will be included in almost all of the open space that is uh mixed throughout the site we have also included an affordability commitment 3% income restricted units at 80% Ami for 20 years
as I'd said before there are numerous Transportation commitments uh one of which is also the 10ft shared path along the full Frontage of the site and then we do have the standard placeholder commitment of the 5,000 to the Durham public schools that was made when this application was submitted uh back early last year and we did not receive uh the information about the impact to the schools until we we received the staff report uh for tonight's hearing and so now that we have that information we will be looking at that commitment and uh re-evaluating based on the analysis that has been provided next slide please this proposal is consistent with 19 of the 25 applicable policies of the new new comprehensive plan and we are needing eight of those policies by exceeding the standards set by the Udo next slide and finally this resoning is consistent with Udo 3510 the property is
compatible with the zoning and conforming uses of nearby property the development of at least two different types of town homes and single family homes will improve the balance of uses in the area and meet demand in Durham and there is adequate infrastructure available to support the proposed development so we thank you for your time and we look forward to answering any questions you may have than clue rough timer alrighty uh let's see 722 48 I'm trying to think should we take a break now and then come back for Community comment commissioner let's y'all think we should yeah let's go ahead and do that let's take a break now uh come back at 7:32 all right and then we'll
resume our new dur planning our new dur planning dashboard is is now live and ready to be used by residents businesses and the development Community the dashboard is designed to share what our City County Planning Department is doing and the potential impact you're invited to take some time to explore development Trends the different department workg groups or use the interactive mapping tools to review a project yourself for each set of activities and information found on the dashboard the department describes what it is what it means and why it's
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[Music] hey [Music] heyyy we the [Music] people we the people hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal and shall be afforded the inalienable right to fair housing the city of Durham and HUD are committed to ensuring that every one is treated equitably when searching for a place to call
[Music] [Music] home [Music] [Music] [Music]
com [Music] my name is Dwayne McIntyre and I'm a dispatcher at the emergency Communication Center the best thing about being a dispatcher at the Derm emergency Communication Center is truly being able to make a difference sometimes you don't realize how much of a difference you're making um however being able to hear
feedback from when people call to say thank you that you may have saved their relative lives or was able to calm them down really makes it worthwhile being a dispatcher one day I received a call from a man he was trapped inside of his home there was a lot of smoke he was really struggling to be able to see and get out he was able to tell me where he was inside of his home I was able to relay that information to the firefighters and they were able to get them out safely my job is satisfying because at times I do go home tired but I don't go home ever feeling like I didn't help anyone that day there's always someone that's calling in that's in distress that just may need someone to talk to or just may need some type of e emergency assistance but every day I go home F filled with the knowledge that I've helped someone that [Music]
day there's no place like home home
all right um hopefully fellow Commissioners are back IID like to call the public hearing open the public hearing I should say get my participant list up uh pre-registered we have Tammy swaya are you ready call the meeting back to order officially and like to open the public hearing at this time we have
pre-registered uh community members registered to speak uh I see you are now ready please state your name and your address yes there's a PR presentation this is Tammy sway on Baptist Road Al before we start the time if Alex you could um get to slide four please and I appreciate you doing this Alex SL uh go back one slide please slide four great I'm going to start there um if we're ready I'll start all right tamy s I'm against this um annexation and I want to point out that this this property goes against policy 119 that ensures new developments within the urban growth boundary are established with the level of service for Emergency Services I want to point out that there is no police stations in Southeast dur with all these SX stations there's no police station so it doesn't get to the level of service and I also want to
point out that everything east of uh Virgil road is in the future growth area this annexation shouldn't be on discussion uh tonight policy 122 mentions that Southeast Durham needs a fire service but there are no new fire uh services or stations planned in the capital approvement plan if you'll go to the next slide you'll see that um there are durm fire totals uh for two uh 2023 and engine 8 which would service this area had uh one of the highest like almost close to the highest 1600 and I also want to point out that on Virgil Road uh goes into Kemp Road where you have Perry Farms you have Triple Crown Farms on 98 you has F villes at Baptist Road where Neil Middle School is they are being built built out and that's going to bring you 3,000 people and if we if you dare to approve virtual road is going to bring another 12200 people which um with the Emergency Services no policeman here is putting several U thousands of people um In Harm's Way I
also want to say that their home Healthy Start Academy is going to be coming in uh on the 23rd this month to bring the charter school out on Camp Road which is going to bring 12 buses and a maximum of 1,200 students so this area is too busy it's too fast we don't need this annexation pass thank you thank you next we have Pam Andrews thank you Alex would you move forward before I start my time thank you Pamela Andrews again Wake
Forest Highway again these are Parcels that were passed most of these almost none of these had to abide by the new storm water and tree preservation amendments that were written we're concerned will Virgil Road assemblage be required to follow these new amendments because the new charter school did not um come out here tomorrow after these rains and look at our Creeks please I beg you to come they will be filled with red sediment and look like tomato soup next slide please thank you and this one I want you to notice that the right hand side has x marks through it because as was said the right side is in the future growth area due to the fire Services as stated in the new comprehensive plan this should not be allowed to be even talked about tonight we are suffering through many needs for emergency services in this area all property east of virgal road is
in the future growth area please consider the cumulative impacts and weighing these proposals these two projects which are nearly adjacent each other Olive Branch and Virgil will be affecting hundreds of acres of land next slide please next slide okay protecting the sensed land wild is encouraging to see BU Road assemblage including conditions for green storm water infrastructure and planning for the hundred-year storm any proposal of this size in an area that's already significantly impacted should go far above the Baseline and environmental conditions I just want to say the wyfe quarter is in the flood plane so it could not be built upon it is 1,800 linear feet which is 12 acres next slide please lastly I want to refer back to this again Martin branch has been slammed because of development on Olive Branch Road Rocky Branch you notice has
not been slammed and there's a reason for that this is on the east side of Virgil road which no development has impacted yet you can clearly see the difference in the environmental damage notice under Martin Branch some of those values are 30 40% higher than they should be please don't do this to the environment thank you you Jake Freeman all right can you hear me now okay thank you all right so advance to the next slide
please okay next slide please next slide please okay all right so you start my time now so my comments regarding um this development are much similar to the ones that I've made regarding ol please please go back one back one slide please okay yeah I'd like my time restarted please so the comments that I'm going to make are largely similar for this development to the ones that I made for Olive the Olive Branch uh development we spoke about earlier uh because the
concerns are exactly the same we've got a development that has potential to have significant impact to uh Martin Branch uh which is already severely impacted and and also to start impacting Rocky Branch and I know from from being out in this area and driving over those Creeks as the pictures have shown there's a marked difference between what Rocky bretch flow looks like and what uh Martin Excuse me what Rocky Branch flow looks like and what Martin Branch flow looks like where it comes into lit Creek so again this is that aerial view of lit Creek and all the sediment that uh is being poured into Falls Lake next slide please okay so the purpose of this slide is to really show from the aerial view again all the destruction that's occurring with these Mass grad subdivisions you can see the in the red
is the proposed subdivision so it's going to only add to the additional stripping of the land exposing that land to further uh erosion into those tributaries to LIT Creek and ultimately to Falls Lake so I mean so I'm a Wake County resident um and this is a particular concern to me because of the health of Falls Lake as I spoke about earlier for the Olive Branch subdivision and it's also applicable for this one and I this is not meeting the requirements of policy a 86 so in my opinion it um it's not protecting the water for adjacent counties Wake County in particular next slide please so in this slide again what I want to show is how hard Wake County works to protect its critical water supply which is Falls Lake and the
way that Durham um doesn't have the same protections so you can see the impervious lot size in the protected Watershed is markedly higher for durm versus Wake and you I I I recall seeing in the presentation that that's the max impervious surface for this particular development addition Additionally the lot size in Wake County is significantly larger you sir uh next we have Pam Williams good afternoon my name's Pam Williams uh
Alex can you ex move to the next slide whoa okay one more sorry y'all I'm sorry it should be the transportation schools there you go thank you very much okay feel like we're doing the chaa slide here tonight sorry I know again um I want to bring to your attention that um the elementary school and middle schools are over capacity already this is without all these developments coming into play uh they
are proposing 5,000 one one time contribution again which is only $16 I mean uh we could have they could have shown $500 per student like we've gotten in the past and so I want to bring that to your attention that is unacceptable uh the transportation Now Lea road is less than a mile from uh Virgil Road and um as you have seen I told you olive branch has increased 88% uh that's without any development being uh any certification of occupany on those developments along Olive Branch so therefore all that traffic on ol branch is going to hit cpor of pond along with this Virgil Road Virgil road is expecting 4,551 Vehicles they're either going to go to 98 which is about 2 miles away or either to Le Road this is putting over 30,000 or could put over 30,500 vehicles
per day uh at the intersection of Olive Branch and carpent ofon Road carpent ofon Road is only a 9 foot length I would like to stress that there is not infrastructure uh in this area for schools uh roads um commercial we don't have a 15minute walking distance we don't have uh a 10-minute walking distance that's one of the policies quite state for a park they do not plan a a public park here um and uh again uh if uh that land east of um Virgil road is in the future growth area uh that means we don't have adequate infrastructure for that that is what the future growth area stands for so how can anyone say we have adequate infrastructure here and with our police EMS um fire department are all staff thank you your time is up uh last
for this group we have Becky Freeman um and then register just so you know we have Vicky Martin Amy Bass and Brian Strickland if you are here be ready to speak Becky Freeman I don't think we have Becky Freeman president if you are here Becky please raise your hand or is Donna stanback taking I see Rebecca Freeman up uh with her hand raised Rebecca Freeman has her hand ra well did have her yeah she has her hand raised thank you so very much for um unmuting unmuting me let unmute my name is Rebecca Freeman I live on South B Road um the topography in the Virgil Road Project is much more aggressive than the Olive Branch project west side of Virgil runs around 144 foot drops on
each side there's 70 foot drop this is going to require heavy blasting and major Mass grading to put down slab foundations resulting in massive erosion into nine streams at seven Crossings this this if you'll notice on the map that there's a Martin branch that flows into lit Creek Rocky Branch flows into lit Creek and then lit Creek flows into um ble as you've seen before uh unba reported that imperious surface and I just looked this up since the last um last um the the AO Branch um hearing the UNA RBA reported that infia surface and Urban Development can be up to 70% but levels greater than 10% impious surface can have significant impacts on water quality and Aquatic habitat that's documented in a una unba study and and the other thing I want to not notice on the map is that as you see that and this has been been mentioned before the Virgil Road bisects this property of
this development in half and of course on the east side of Virgil road that is established to be by the new comprehensive plan the future growth area which the new comprehensive plan says that significant infrastructure is needed before development can happen in this area because there's a lack of infrastructure there this development will result in heavy heavy erosion and heat Islands because all the trees that are saved are going to be in areas around creeks and flood Plains not around the dwelling slide please CL please vad please can we get the next slide for Rebecca thank you thank you uh the top says the blasting neighbors are heavily negative impacted on blasting to their Wells not only they're only water supply their foundations
floors walls and um their ceilings none have received reimbursement for their damag claims and these people are suffering they're suffering blasting causes erosion massive causes erosion and there must be a different type of development out here instead of having our Creeks Run Red after any kind of rain event that happens and the next okay thank you thank you uh Vicky Martin I see a Vicky Lee Martin at the end of the parti attendee list did she leave let see your name anymore uh next we have uh Amy [Applause] Bass I see Amy Richardson I don't know if that's Amy Bass or
not if you are one and the same person going once going twice moving on to Brian Strickland I don't see a Brian Strickland in the participant list either all right we're moving on to Mimi Kesler good evening again um my inclination is to say ditto to what I said earlier um but I I recognize that um for each public hearing item um need to be more articulate than that so um this is a ginormous project um it will affect a huge piece of land it will affect all of the street
streams and Creeks um it will dump out even more traffic on roads that are not planned to be widened um it uh does not uh give really any nod uh significant nod to affordable housing or contribution to the schools which is insultingly small I don't know where these people have come up with this $5,000 but it's not enough um and I I have a lot of concerns about the ability of First Responders to be able to get to the people um who will un you know undoubtedly have traffic accidents because there are too many people on the road and a and it's just it's we just need to stop developing in this area for a period of time thank you you next we have Donna
standbag hello I'm Donna stainback I live in Durham North Carolina um I oppose this development because of many issues that's been presented but the erosion and the pollution impacts and the accumulation of all of these impacts with all the development that is being done in that area uh like Mimi said we we need to pause here um there is also a significant lack of infrastructure uh some of that's been presented but there's even more and um so I oppose this particular project thank you thank you all right um G to close the public hearing um and whether the applicant has about 48 seconds on their time to choose to
address the community or you can uh yeah go ahead and address the community because then once I close the public hearing you're just talking to the the county the the um sorry the planning Commissioners if you have anything to say in your 48 seconds left uh yes quickly we will just say that we certainly understand and appreciate the concerns that have been raised tonight by preserve Ro drum the city is growing rapidly there is a demand for housing the area is changing we understand that there is adequate infrastructure in this area to serve the project we will defer to staff uh to address those concerns as needed uh we will comply with the text me on phasing grading and tree coverage we will comply with Durham's uh stringent erosion control and storm water regulations some of the most stringent in the state we will also comply with the city regulations regarding blasting and we hope that our presentation showed that Taylor Morrison is a unique developer in terms of their Consciousness uh towards these environmental concerns and so uh
we will uh address any further questions that the commission has thank you you all right at this time I'm closing the public hearing and we are now open for commissioner discussion please use the raise your hand feature uh to be recognized to speak commissioner Johnson thank you chair so to the applicant the community has raised a number of issues so I'm going to follow up on a couple of them one is you're saying you're compliant with blasting rules can you define that a little bit more in terms of what you're going to do and protecting all the issues that were raised by the community including groundwater including housing current
housing can you hear me sorry I was forc Meed um so in terms of of blasting uh the regulations in Duram uh the city of Durham requires uh blasting companies so if blasting is required a preliminary Geotech analysis was done uh it still needs to be determined whether blasting will actually occur on site but if it does occur Taylor Morrison will hire a blasting company a third party to do so in the city of Durham they will they are required to be licensed and insured so we will comply with those requirements there are also uh specific requirements in terms of offering pre-blast surveys for any structures within 750 ft of blasting there's also regulations regarding uh when the blasting can occur um and other types of considerations and so uh all of those are things that
Taylor Morrison is aware of and will be compliant uh again in terms of the uh storm water and erosion control uh issues uh the text Amendment on phasing grading and tree coverage that has been mentioned this evening that passed back in October that was in part a result of some of the concerns that have been raised by preserve Ro Durham tonight and the city heard those concerns and they were addressed with the changes that were made to the Udo back in October and so when if this project is approved when it goes to site plan uh Taylor Morrison will be compliant with all of those new standards that address Mass grading phasing and tree coverage and so uh I hope that answers uh your two questions my next question is concerning the statement as I read in the applicant package the proposal is not consistent with the adopted Eastern Durham open
space PL of 300 foot Wildlife Corridor on the western portion of the site would you address that why you're not compliant yes so our engineers at McAdams have actually been working for a months on possible redesigns of the site so that we could provide a wildlife Corridor and we are still working out the specifics which is why we do not have exact language for a commitment tonight but we are prepared to start working with staff on language so that we can commit uh to preserving the entire area north of the power line easement so if you recall um from our slide that showed the graphic uh development plan uh I had shown uh on that on that slide there was that thick green um outline that was where the entire power line easement is to the to the north uh west of the site um so we plan on working with staff on a commitment to preserve that entire area uh this will allow us to Cluster the
development south of the easement and protect a larger area consistent with the comprehensive plan the original site design included connection through the easement and about 25 to 30 homes were going to be built above the easement but we are forgoing all of those units in order to be able to preserve thank you so much Alexander so if you see the green uh bar running across the screen that's a power line easement so we are prepar to work with staff on a commitment to preserve everything to the north of that and that is in addition to everything that you see in blue the 100 foot uh stream buffers uh it is important to note this would not follow the exact recommendation of the 2007 Eastern durm open space plan that was referenced which calls for the 300 foot Corridor along Martin Branch Creek but this would actually provide approximately 20 to 22,000 Square ft more preserved area than if we were to just follow the 2007
6 million per the applicant documentation we have when will or have you determined what that amount will be or if not when do you expect to have that amount yes so I think as had been mentioned before in in past situations uh it was sort of standard to to provide a sort of $500 per student contribution
um that was something that was was sort of expected in the past uh the city has been providing uh a sort of new analysis and uh new numbers than what uh has been provided previously and so we are still in the process of evaluating those and we will certainly be working on that before this case is heard before the city council and my last question for the transportation rep is there any other new es or information regarding this project that would be different than the previous Olive Branch Reserve North since they're in the same geographical area are there other impacts or consideration both in immediate and auxiliary Transportation routes earing Thomas Transportation so this the traffic study conducted for this development actually had a larger scope um realizing that traffic was utilizing different routes you know depending on their destinations so it had a much larger scope and included more intersections um it does have some
um new improvements that other developments did not have um and some of that contributing factor was the addition of um additional background development so this study accounted for 28 developments whereas the previous one only had to account for 19 and it's just they build upon each other as the plans are um submitted so I think those are the main differences here just one fall did you look at them both in concert given that they're both on the table today yeah so this this traffic study does account for the previous one um the previous one may not probably did not account for this one because of the timing of the submittals so we don't make them go back retroactively and add keep adding new developments so they just as the new ones come in they build upon and add all
the other ones that came before them thank you and one last question for the planning uh Alex I put it on chat but is there a map that shows this project versus a previous project and any other projects that were recently developed over the last couple years kind of show the full scope of all these projects given the impact on structure I appreciate the question and it is a tough one so you're going to get a little bit of a politician answer tonight I'm sorry um the way development Works in North Carolina specifically Durham is that it is Project by project is how they have a right to submit um whether it's good or bad whether we agree with or not it's what they legally have a right to do um we do look at cative impacts from the things that we legally can however we legally can't look at the cumulative impacts of things like storm water we can only look at site specific uh qualifications and
impacts I think earlan did a good job explaining kind of how Transportation can look at cumulative impacts across projects and then I think the thing that is within our control is water sewer and uh school capacity and while the school capacity is still you know it's still our best guess using a a vetted algorithm uh is something that we can you know track the impacts at least from a baseline over time and in terms of water and sewer um those really aren't cumulative because they are sized for specific projects in certain ways and so you really there's not a cumulative impact except that lift stations tend to have a certain amount of capacity as new development comes online they are take up some of that capacity and once it's built up then they have to build the applicant has to build another lift station so um I think sometimes cumulative impacts are a little misleading uh because of the way that we have to handle development in North Carolina thank you thank you
chair all right any other Commissioners like to speak commissioner CE thank you and uh Alex thank you for that answer uh that you just provided regarding some of the limitations that are placed on how we um are able to consider projects given the North Carolina kind of state um legal structure and political structure um I also want to acknowledge and appreciate uh chair Cameron's comments after the first case regarding um kind of the arc if you will the Arc of conversations that we tend to have over and over regarding projects uh particularly in this part of the county that um on large Parcels that really offer um a lot more of the same now I say that with a qualification that there are some distinct differences I think this this
application um was at least the presentation conveys to us um but it is kind of draining to continue to have these conversations over and over about large Parcels that are just developed as residential purely residential and so uh you know a lot of the comments I made with the first case apply and they'll be repeated um the ones that are relevant in my written comments for Council uh I suspect the applicant team I hope the applicant team heard some of those comments um that one of the distinctions that is striking with regards to this application uh is the number one it's a larger site two two and a half times two you know 200 Acres compar compared to the earlier site but is also bifurcated as as I believe a member of the public spoke about by the streams um stream delineations and so it's a lot more hodgepodge it Al also rather than being surrounded by existing PDR zoning is surrounded by RR zoning that really
would be a finger into this existing RR zoning extending further east into the county um and so I I think we as a community a commission and and our elected officials as well I think we really need to be really careful about greenwashing um and and that's not to in any way diminish the laudable characteristics that the applicant described with regards to the Builder which of course isn't um unless there was a commitment that was indicated I don't think there's a you know direct tie yes they're the applicant there's not necessarily a direct tie that that they're the ones that required to build it maybe they have that commit they that but regardless when I say greenwashing what I'm referencing here is this is a large assemblage of land with one use residential use two different types tow houses single family um I go back to my comments about the
mixed residential our mixed residential Place type does not say exclusively residential it says primarily residential there's an expectation that in these areas that are Brad brush um uh coverages in the place types map that other things will be occurring there too and we're just not seeing that and the parcels that come in here with 20 acres those those are tougher to make things like that happen the other uses cic uses um reserved areas for future commercial uses uh but this is 200 acres and it's it's uh really frustrating to um kind of have this recurring conversation around large parcels that just add to the autod dependency that precipitates a lot of the problems that we hear members of the public um speaking about whether it's environmental Transportation or otherwise uh and so that's that's uh all I'll say but I'll I'll elaborate or at least try to articulate those more clearly in the comments for the elected
officials thank Youk you before I recognize uh commissioner trap just real quick too I just I don't get on a soap box much as you all know but it's 202 Acres 531 housing units 3% affordable which means it's 16 units and 80% Ami which does not make a dent in what we need enduring especially at that Ami there's an awesome opportunity missed here to partner with any experience affordable housing developer that Durham has to offer if you're going to just worry about or concentrate on housing does not even talk about the other uses that could go on this site and then to continually use the excuse of the $5,000 to during Public
Schools when you're an experiened developer you should know what the algorithm is and be able to calculate that yourself are get into some type of Ballpark and get you a better raer than what's written currently and then not to be able to uh give anything uh a more intelligent answer while we're here on this Zoom anyway I'm off my so Bo so with that commissioner trap yes Madam chair thank you if there are no other comments i' definitely make a motion to move us forward in the case z2300 z13 virtual Road assemblage I recommend that we move the case forward to city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner trap and seconded by commissioner cut right to move case z2300 013 virtual Road assembl Road
forward with a favorable recommendation to city council may I have the roll call vote please chair no Vice chair Shar no commissioner cut no commissioner Graves mans no commissioner Gham no commissioner johnnson no commissioner MacGyver no commissioner CE no commissioner trap no commissioner woke no motion fails 10 Z all righty thank you we are now moving down this agenda and movement F to West
Farms please Z 23022 Old West Farms durm excuse me may we have the staff he hello again Brook rooper City County Planning Department uh this is z23 022 Old West Farms Durham the following information summarizes the application Brian and Melissa O'Hara of Carolina Grove propos to change the zoning designation of three Parcels totaling 61 acres and located at 903 Alabama Avenue and 809 and 805 Trent Drive the current zoning is residential Urban 52 and Commercial General the applicant proposes to change this designation to commercial General with the textual development plan to prohibit the following uses drive-through facilities
convenience stores gasoline sales payday lenders commercial dorms pawn shops Rail and bus terminals cemeteries maoams colaria Memorial Gardens shelters food banks or kitchens electronic gaming indoor firing ranges adult stores self-served storage vehicle sales um or service the properties are currently designated Transit opportunity area and established residential on the place type map the proposed cgd zoning is consistent with the TOA Place type but inconsistent with the designated Place type of established residential if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the place type map to designate the property as Neighborhood Services the existing zoning again is residential Urban 5 2 and Commercial General the site is surrounded by r52 commercial General and compact
design the aerial map shows the general location of the project the site is within a one mile walking distance of several amenities and services here's a map of all the properties's notice for the neighborhood meeting the applicant has included uh currently seven textual commitments including the prohibition of uses as mentioned previously no signage Beyond directional on Alabama Avenue's front AG a service entrance only designation for the existing entrance on Alabama Avenue for 60% of the total number of required plantings to be native species um the allowance of paid parking on site and finally screen trash containers the applicant held a neighborhood meeting on May 22nd 2023 where 29 members were present the proposed site is in the oldwest uh neighborhood protection overlay and contains a historic building the West Duram Pentecostal Holiness
Church as identified by the state historic preservation office while the proposal would allow the conversion of the existing place of worship into into an event space the proposed textual development plan does not commit to that use uh conversion or preservation of the historic structure the site is located northwest of downtown Durham and is also located within one mile of a of a a variety of of uses and resources for residents the properties are currently designated TOA and ER on the place type map uh the proposed zoning is consistent with the TOA Place type but inconsistent with the designated Place type of ER and staff recommend a change to the place type map uh designation to Neighborhood Services as this designation is more in line with the proposal uh staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you
thank you we're now uh at this time the chair is opening the public hearing may we have the applicant come forward is it Keenan that's going to present yes this is Keenan cond again from Morning Star Law Group uh 700 West Main Street and thank you all for sticking around to hear our discussion um thank you so much Brooke and thank you Alexander for your work uh throughout this process is really appreciated uh your patience as always um again really appreciated uh I'm representing the applicants for this resoning who are Brian and Melissa oara of Carolina Groves Carolina Groves is an existing wedding V view uh in Orange County and uh they're now seeking to expand to Durham and open up a second location here at 903 Alabama Avenue at the location of the former West Durham
Pentecostal Holiness Church uh this site is although quaint it is quite Antiquated the site is um has been on the market uh for over a year and I think that's very suggestive of the state of the building currently uh it was on the market for over a year before the O'Hara stepped in and uh decided to move forward with a Redevelopment of of the facility um their plan is to repurpose this existing structure into a new wedding venue by rehabilitating the building but attempting to preserve its inherent charm uh they are also exploring the possibility of including a wine bar or some other accessory use that will allow uh the o'haras to activate the site throughout the week throughout the times that uh people don't typically have weddings uh we expect that this Rehabilitation will increase the amount of natural natural vegetation and reduce the amount of impervious surface on the property as the property is brought into greater compliance with the Udo additionally
this is something that's very important to o'haras as they believe this will increase the curve appeal of the property and make it a more attractive wedding venue for their business um as you've seen in the staff report uh from the aerial uh currently the property fronting Hillsboro road is almost a sea of asphalt and so there's a hope that some of that asphalt will be torn up and replaced with natural vegetation now throughout this process um the o'haras have gone above and beyond the requirement to engage with residents neighbors and uh local business operators uh in addition to Neighborhood meeting they have met several times with their these folks uh including hosting them at their uh addition their current location in Orange County uh generally we've seen that the neighbors have been overall supportive of this Project's aims as they like the idea of keeping the building um and reactivating the space um but we've been in conversations to try to uh address some of their reasonable concerns and uh add conditions that uh are mutually
beneficial to both the o'haras and the adjacent residents um in line with that uh we would be offering a new condition today as a result of conversations with the residents um and if you don't mind I'm going to read that new condition word for word uh into the record so the the existing West durm Pentecostal Holiness Church structure identified as DH 3981 by the historic preservation office located at 901 and 903 Alabama Avenue uh reads 10415 and 014 016 shall not be demolished for a period of five years beginning on the date this zoning map change is approved and what that means is that it gives the o'haras um a good faith amount of time to make their business work at this dilapidated site um which is very important as the neighbors really would like to see the the external structure preserve as much as possible but that doesn't prohibit
the o'haras from renovating the interior so um the o'haras are here and I think they would love to talk to you in a moment about their their discussions with the neighbors but we respectfully ask for your recommendation of approval and we would really appreciate a a vote today thank you very much thank you um continuing of the applicant time we do have Brian O'Hare that has his hand raised hi can you hear me okay yes hi this is Brian O'Hara speaking I'm sitting next to my wife Melissa here um thank you for the opportunity to to speak with you tonight um as Keenan mentioned we're the the owners and operators of the Carolina Grove wedding venue in Hillsboro we're very proud of what we've done there and we're looking forward to expanding that business to Durham um and also revitalizing this this beautiful old building uh we really would hope uh that you are able to take a vote on this proposal tonight um as
Keenan mentioned we we have really tried to work uh closely with our neighbors to find some win-win Solutions here um just as a a couple of details on that we went under contract on the property at the beginning of April and by April 12th we we had had our first sort of introductory meeting with representatives from the old west Durham neighborhood association um that kicked off some some internal conversations with those folks we had the the official neighborhood meeting in May by August we were um really kind of digging in deep with a a relatively smaller group of folks that were particularly interested posted them at our property and I think you'll hear from some of them uh later today and um as recently as last week we we had another in-person meeting to sort of go through the rest of our uh concerns that we had from the neighbors and sort of talk through how we could how we could reach um some win-wins over the course of that time I I went back and looked I think we've exchanged over
50 emails and had probably a couple of dozen phone calls so we've really um we've actually really enjoyed building the relationship with our neighbors that we're going to be working around um and are going to continue to be our neighbors um I'll let them speak for themselves but it's it's really been been an enjoyable experience for us to find some win-win Solutions almost all of the conditions that um Brooke read in the beginning are a result of our direct conversations with neighbors um and addressing concerns I want to go on record also as saying there are four additional concerns uh uh four additional conditions that um we intend to include we have agreed upon those with our neighbors they relate to um future Building height on a couple Lots um outdoor Amplified Music hours for public food and alcohol sales and um outdoor lighting and um I just want to make it clear we do intend to honor the agreement that we have with our neighbors and include those conditions
prior to the city council meeting even though we weren't able to get them on the official agenda here today um so I'll just wrap up by saying again um we really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight and um really would appreciate if you're able to take a vote on this proposal tonight thank you thank you all right um I'm gonna let everyone know who is uh an attendee here uh so you can get ready to speak that would be great um first we have David Brad way then we have Pastor Greg long then we have Dan Welch then we have Lauren pagee Kathy ship and Tom Clark so um if we could bring David Bradway in um and unmute yourself and begin talking sir
please hello can you hear me yet yes hi my name is David Bradway and I live on Rose Hill Avenue about two blocks from the site chair Vice chair and members of the Planning Commission thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak in support of Old West Farms and ask that to do whatever you can to help minimize any negative impacts of traffic safety and other concerns in the surrounding neighborhood I want to acknowledge all the work that you do on this commission even just this meeting tonight has been a marathon and you are all endurance athletes serving the city second I'm not affiliated with the applicant or invested in the project or in any way I'm just the neighbor who lives and walks and bikes and drives through the neighborhood I do want to acknowledge the robust Community engagement the applicant completed I participated in one of those early Zoom meetings and uh meetings with some of the old west Durham neighbors I wasn't involved in the site visit or other things more recently um so as it's presented I
support this rezoning but I'm uh a bit concerned that the wedding venue will increase car traffic to the neighborhood through the neighborhood and we'll increase the number of people behind the wheel driving in our neighborhood late at night after celebratory drinks the wine bar situation there's a lot of neighbors that walk through the neighborhood they have kids going to local pops Coco cinnamon opal Park unaccompanied um there is a lack of good infrastructure on Oakland and uh nc7 is running there along Hillsboro so there's opportunities for you to work work with the city I know this isn't your job but I I'd like the comments that you provide to city council to urge them to do uh Traffic Safety calming and improved pedestrian infrastructure so I know that's not your charge but I'm hoping that that that you can relay that to uh city transportation staff thank you so
much thank you next we have um Pastor Greg and bring Pastor Greg Long in and unmute him his hand is raised you can see him on the attendee list go ahead sir unmute yourself yes good evening hey this is Pastor Greg long I am the current senior pastor of the West Durham Pentecostal Hess church and just wanted to come on and first of all uh thank the um staff of the commission committee um planning committee and also you as the Commissioners for your uh valued service to Durham don't get very many opportunities to share that with you but I wanted to express that we are
as a congregation so excited about the possibilities of our Church becoming a continued service to the community uh West Aram has served West Duram church has served the West Duram Community since 1911 it was very very useful during the war time uh our church served as a resource to families mothers and children whose uh husbands were away at the various Wars over the period of time and as uh many things Chang change communities change and uh situations change and uh to know that the church will continue to be served in the community for families uh of something such as wonderful as uh wedding United in wedding so we're excited about the continuation of that building being used as a service to Durham and so we encourage you to uh support this and we
thank you again for all your consideration God bless thank you next we have Dan Welch his hand is raised we could bring him in and un and let him unmute go ahead Mr Welch yes can you hear me tonight yes okay good evening uh my name is Dan Welch and I live at 9:23 Alabama Avenue I'm just a few houses up the street from the property under discussion my wife and I have owned our home here since 1999 um and I'm here tonight uh tonight to indicate our our conditional support for this resonan proposal um not only for myself and for my wife but also from a working group of neighbors that Brian just spoke about um and we have been negotiating as he said with the prospective owners the o'haras since last summer um so I want to start out by talking about the working group a little bit um this is our neighborhood working
group specifically for this issue uh we formed the group last June when we first learned about the plan to transform the church into a wedding venue uh we announced the formation of this group on the neighbor neighborhood list serve and we invited the entire neighborhood to participate and we we took all comers um and so we feel this a pretty representative cross-section of the most interested neighbors um here in our neighborhood uh notably this core working group includes uh Tom Clark and Kathy ship I think one or both of them are going to speak here shortly um they're the neighbor immediately adjacent to the subject property um and this Core Group also includes Michael Parker who lives directly across the street um from the church so these are the people uh who will be uh most directly affected by this rezoning and they've been fully on board with this uh this effort this negotiation um and so we're we're pretty excited to have a a group that we feel is cross-sectionally representative and also you know the most affected uh the working group started with a number of Zoom meetings to listen and take input
from Neighbors and after several meetings it was time to take our concerns questions and requests and go meet with the o'haras and as you heard we did that back in August at their place uh in Hillsboro in Orange County and so a core group of five of us have taken responsibility for meeting with the these perspective Property Owners several times and negotiating what we would like to see in an enforcable textual development plan um due to time constraints that's about all I can say right now and so you're going to hear more from members of our working group when when our next speaker is up thank you sir next we have Lauren pagee can bring Lauren into the zoom and unmute her go ahead Miss Paige uh I'm Lauren Paige and I live on 2308 buern place just a couple of blocks from the venue uh I am parting the part of the working group discussed earlier and so I'm continuing on with our presentation the property under consideration has extra
importance to our neighborhood since it is located at a key entrance it is a transition from the commercial businesses on Hillsboro road to the residential areas more interior to our neighborhood being the entrance point it sets the tone for our neighborhood and the historic church building Landmark it's an architectural anchor that has been here for 80 years we would like to see it remain there for many more years the wedding venue that o' Hero's proposed seems to be one of the best ways to ensure the church structure remains and we think it would be more neighborhood friendly when compared to many other businesses that could potentially land here so we like that but we also understand that allowing this property to be rezoned to CG has risk it will open it up to all kinds of future businesses that we might be concerned with if this wedding venue business were to fail and the property is resold our working group set out to
work cooperatively with the o'haras on a plan that would allow them to pursue their business objectives but also provide a number of permanent protections for our neighborhood Brian O'Hara spoke earlier about some of those conditions a number of them were agreed to by the o'haras and our working group but as you heard objections have Arisen from the planning staff on how these could be implemented the next speaker from our working group will address these issues thank you thank you next we have Karen sh Kathy ship I'm sorry Kathy ship if she is here bring her in I don't see her oh I see her yes I see her thank you go ahead Miss ship you in the zoom please unmute
yourself uh there's no response all right let's move on to the next person and that is Tom Clark you are in the zoom Mr Clark go ahead and unmute yourself hello can you hear me yes okay great uh yeah I'm Tom Clark uh And my partner's Cathy ship and we live at um 9005 Alabama which is immediately adjacent to the um our church as you've heard there've been objections to a number of the provisions in the textual development plan that was submitted given that we have a track record and a good working relationship with the o'haras we expect to be able to work through these prior to the city council meeting so we are concerned by these last minute hiccups but we expect them to be resolved and we have made a group decision to conditionally support passage of the resoning pending that
resolution our negotiations with the o'haras took many months there was a lot of given take but we have reached agreement on a number of key issues that provide protections for our neighborhood the agreement is not perfect we didn't get everything we wanted but the oar's committed to some signif some significant protection for our neighborhood a key part of our decision is that we don't think we would get those same protections from many other businesses that may land here hopefully we can find a happy ending and get these commitments in a form that works for all parties we are taking the oaro at their word that they will work with us and the city staff to get these protections included in this resoning agreement so we are here tonight to say that we think this resoning is a positive step forward for for our neighborhood we support it pending approval of some form of the four conditions that are currently problematic however we expect this to happen and we look forward to welcoming
the o'haras and their business to our neighborhood thank you thank you next we have John Wood we can bring him into the zoom go ahead Mr wood am I in yes you are thank you uh my name is John Wood I live on in 2406 Green Street about a little over a block from the site uh I'm also a landscape architect practicing in the area for a number of years um as has been mentioned the project is located at a very important focal point for the old west Durham neighborhood and very visible along Hillsboro road the main Corridor into Durham like Coco cinnamon Loco pops and others this this venue could could also help to activate this important node for our neighborhood especially if some of these activities and facilities are open to the public at certain times and as the development team has offered for this reason and for the
others previously mentioned I'm generally in favor of the project but because of the site's visibility I also feel it's important that certain aspects of the site be addressed as part of this process before the re resoning is finally approved most importantly is as Keenan mentioned the solid mass of unscreened And unlcorn this parking lot would not meet current standards of the Udo as as as has been mentioned um even though this is an up zoning it would not be required to come in compliance unless conditions are are built into the process unfortunately we have a lot of these parking lots up and down Hillsboro road that are non-conforming uses that are quite frankly kind of eyes soures to the to the neighborhood and to the city and so I think there's a there's a few mechanisms and a few conditions that could be added to ensure that the
parking lot specifically be screened from Hillsboro Road and from the Trent Drive access and also provide some minimal at least minimal lot of landscaping canopy trees and that sort of thing within the parking lot so we look forward to uh continuing to work with the development team to work out some of those specific issues thank you sir is there anyone else uh from the community that would like to speak would the um applicant like to address any of the concerns that the uh Community brought forth you have about three minutes left on your time thank you and I'll be very brief um again we've had a very good relationship with the uh the neighbors of this project um the conditions we would like to add relate to uh lighting at the site uh limiting the building height to below
what CG would require and finding ways to uh limit the time in which alcohol could be S sold and um uh so and SS of condition so we're going to continue to work with the planning department uh see if there's ways that we include those conditions um from the period after Planning Commission until city council um and I think we feel confident that we can work something out uh that accommodates all parties um if not we can create business practices that would U reflect these conditions these conditions that um the hars wish to agree to right any any other comments none all right I'm going to close the public hearing and we're going to move on to commissioner uh comment and discussion any Commissioners have any comments or questions of applicants uh
commissioner Johnson yes thank you chair and I commend the community involvement I commend the applicants for their engagement and um addressing a lot of concerns just a few questions for the applicant if I'm understanding well do you have uh already an idea of the hours of operation of your business in terms of how late in the evening I'm just curious um I think I'll let Brian answer that I think he's best able to discuss that uh yes sir we do um actually think my wife Melissa's probably better suited to answer that question yeah I mean there's current noise ordinance obviously in place which we intend to follow for all events so a 10 pm decel cut off on Sundays through Thursdays 11 pm Fridays and Saturdays um and then in terms of Amplified music we we've agreed to those same cut offs for any outdoor Amplified music so 10 pm. and 11: PM on
weekends thank you my my other question is I understand the commitment oh sorry did somebody want to add something keep going thank you I understand the commitment on lighting and and living alcohol and the other things what about the comment about unscrewed uh pavement and canopy have you agreed to that or is that something you could profer later what's the status of that I think that's a conversation we're continue to have with that um that nearby resident who we know and we've been conversing with already um so I don't think we can make a commitment on that specifically today but as you can tell we're still working and are going to continue to work with the neighbors to um make sure we can accommodate as much as we can fair enough and did I read this correctly that the estimated traffic increase would be about 1500 traffic trips did I understand that
correctly Berling Thomas Transportation um that is what it is included in the staff report and I have to base my traffic generation based on the most intensive use that would be allowed under the zoning since they have not specifically committed to a use for the site okay thank you for that clarification and my last comment maybe the applicant knows this is or the the um residents are there any in the immediate area existing restaurants or existing bars that operate within that area say a half mile or so applicant or residents yeah there are coffee shops locco pops which sells ice cream and popsicles um and then like the gas station that also operates as a restaurant that serves food out of there um I don't know about any bars but
within a couple miles down the street you get to the Ninth Street area with all those restaurants um so I'm not looking for or what specific area you're looking for but there is some General Food Service walking vicinity to the current venue thank you thank you chair thank you there any other uh commissioner comment or questions commissioner CE just real quickly I appreciate all the work that the applicant has been doing with the neighbors and the neighbors uh expressions of of uh how extensive those conversations have been and the the faith that's been expressed and in the expectations that that most of those issues if not all will be able to be worked out before Council um just as as an aside I don't think this is too far a field we do often um we deal with land uses and mix of land uses and as a parent and as someone who uh had a very
successful Wine Bar in a neighborhood in a residential context like this and another project out of state I can tell you that one big attractant to uh to making that potentially successful was to add a small top lot next to it a playground structure is a great place to bring parents all right thank you any other uh any additional are you still here okay any additional uh comment questions from Commissioners if I'm hearing none like to have a motion to move this case forward Madam chair I'd like to make a motion in the case of Z 230022 West Farms Durham I recommend that we move this case forward to city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner trapped and seconded by commissioner CE to move case z23 trip
022 Old West Farms Durham Ford with a favorable recommendation to city council may I have the roll call vote please Cameron yes chair Saras yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner Grace mans yes commissioner Gham yes commissioner m yes commissioner CE yes commissioner woke yes motion carries 10 Z I did commissioner Johnson votes yes oh I'm sorry commissioner Johnson I do too yes I'm just losing it I'm sorry
y'all well I was going to say um I think we need uh we're going to change chairs here we probably just need a two-minute recess um I have to depart for a 9900 PM meeting believe it or not and um I think um think commissioner Graves mans have already left he is really dealing with the flood at his house right here so um we still have Corum um Alexander still you're right at Corum yeah okay y can hang out for one more case and make it happen all right well I'm going to depart and turn the chair over to Vice chair Shar for your last case and for German thank you
92 3 to
92 3 the site is surrounded by compact neighborhood industrial Light RS10 and PDR zoning the aerial map shows the general
location of the project the site is located within two miles of numerous services and amenities here's a map of the property's notice for the neighborhood meeting the applicant has included textual commitments including um the inclusion of elevators in building design Public Access easements along North Lal Street income restricted and affordable housing units have been proferred use of only native species for tree replanting a bronze silver or gold National Green Building standard certification for all primary buildings and a post-development impervious surface to not exceed pre-development perious surface limits the applicant held a neighborhood meeting on June 26 2023 where seven community members were in attendance again the proposal would allow the development of up to 440
townhouse and multif family units with 39 of those units being income restricted um on a site that uh currently houses a vacant light industrial building and two hotels the site for the proposed development is located located near a major transportation infrastructure as well as being adjacent to Transit service is also near several several shopping areas grocery stores and other amenities the proposed development is of sufficient density to take advantage of the existing Transit service and is consistent with policy 170 of the comp plan regarding density and scale the propos The Proposal uh consists of townhouse and apartment units two housing types that are not predominant in this uh area of the city economic indicators such as median household income and percentage of renters that are cost burdened indicate this area of the city is economically advantaged uh providing A diversity of housing stock
particularly in an increase um particularly an increase in the availability of rental and income restricted housing could potentially help achieve diversity goals of the comp plan as well there are no significant Environmental features uh on the site uh the proposal is consistent with all applicable policies of the place type map designation of Transit opportunity area um besides policy 46 the number of units proferred for um affordable and income restricted housing do not meet the parameters set forth in policy 46 uh staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you okay this time the chair or vice chair is opening the public hearing can I have the
applicant uh good evening Vice chair uh members of the Planning Commission again call your Marsh with Parker Poe here on behalf of the applicant I do have a presentation as well if we could bring that up um and as it's coming up I appreciate youall sticking out to this point of the night I hope that this is an easier case for yall for for a number of reasons one because there's a component of it that um Planning Commission has seen in the past because part of the project was recently reson and two because I I think this is a case that checks any number of boxes and and should be pretty exciting to consider tonight um so if we could go to slide number two um so we're looking at the site and surrounding area for context um as I mentioned there was a previous rezoning case it was approved uh January of 2023 just about a year ago that was unanimously approved by Council and uh unanimously recommended for approval by by this commission that rezoning related to the eastern most of these three
Parcels um shortly after that property was rezoned uh the opportunity to add the days in and the Motel 6 to the overall de development arose uh and it it was clearly a win-win for any number of reasons that I'll explain to youall in a moment but essentially it allows us to create a better mix of residential uses and better transitions to the single family neighborhood to the east while achieving all the great commitments that existed in the first resoning case got three Parcels about 12 and a half acres uh we are in the Urban Development tier you could go to the next uh slide please so staff um mentioned we are looking at a Transit opportunity area here where density is is supported um the policies that we want to highlight here that are are most integral to this um updated request are are the need Within These Transit opportunity areas to provide transitions to nearby neighborhoods uh and to essentially be
compatible in scale and design um if we could go to the next slide please and so this slide begins to illustrate the story we have as to how this new resoning takes a great project and makes it better through adding transitions the PDR designation is that darker purple color that was the case that was approved back in in January um of of last year uh and it had a number of strong commitment strong affordable housing commitment and it was uh the product of a long Outreach and and numerous meetings with neighbors to the east to come up with conditions very specific to um their goals for the neighborhood to make everything compatible uh the existing zoning to the West is industrial Light that's the days in and the Motel 6 um at frankly areas that are in need of of Redevelopment the the purple site there is a uh we call it vacant but it's been long abandoned industrial site as well so it's an area in need of Redevelopment um and so what we're proposing is to bring that area to
9 so this isn't a a situation where we're trying to take a large apartment community and make it twice as big it's a situation where we're trying to take the existing multif family proposal shift it to the West closer to the highway and add a different product type in the East a town home style apartment US units um that provide much better Transitions and really help to address some of the comments we've heard from uh neighbors throughout the process next slide please so this H slide is the previously approved graphic development plan um so we're we're rotating 90 degrees here from how we were just looking northw South Street which is the street between our site and the single family Residential Properties is in the bottom of our screen you'll see that the graphic development plan had commitments to have an open space with Landscaping
on the development side of North wal street again based on discussions with neighbors and then had a four-story multif family community shortly beyond that so it took a lot of work to have architectural commitments and and details to ensure that that project was compatible with the surrounding area if we could go to the next slide please uh and so in this updated resoning we transitioned to a textual development plan that was about the time when that option became available in hindsight with some of the detail we've added in this textual development plan that really describes the the uh site and hopefully some good detail for the Planning Commission you know perhaps Graphics would have helped but we've got really lengthy detailed commitments that were worked through with the neighborhood and in-person meetings beyond that neighborhood meeting you heard about a number of rounds of input to make sure we got these just right so I just want to summarize these commitments to tell you how this Project's improved over time we're
maintaining uh what I believe is a very substantial affordable housing commitment so there are 34 affordable housing units proposed with this project uh the affordable period is for 30 years uh and essentially they're broken into third so 13 of those units must be affordable uh at or below 60% Ami then the the next third at or below 80 and then the remainder at or below 100% Ami so a wide range of affordable housing options uh and price points uh collectively resulting in in roughly around a 9% unit commitment 39 overall units again a fully develop or funded no extra financing or city support to provide those so this is not a litec deal or anything like that this is all um done by the developer uh that open space that you saw in the graphic development plan it remains in this project it has a little more detail and and a little more description to ensure that we have um a a great feature that's accessible to the community to the east so that is uh a minimum of 50 feet wide
it will have land Landscaping benches and walking paths that runs the full North L sou Frontage so essentially you have and it'll have a public access eement so you'll have a publicly accessible open space uh immediately adjacent to North South Street across from those single family homes um we also have some light shielding commitments that were specific requests to ensure compatibility now this is where the transition part within the um um U the transit oriented development District comes into play we have a number of commitments to Define how we Transit uses within this development so although it's all an apartment community we have very specific defined uses and product types so you we now require that within 250 feet of North wasal Street so again we're providing a a transition area the only permitted uses uh and buildings are these apart or sorry town house style apartments and we've put a number of written conditions there to Define what these things look like essentially because they're not separately ploted we had to describe a townhouse through conditions to say that
these are oriented perpendicular um they all have their separate entrances vertical separations only so Envision Town Homes although not separately ploted and these provide a height and use transition between the apartment uh typical apartment community I say typical but um you know your your more traditional apartment community transitioning down to tow houses those are only permitted within 250 fet then you have your Park then you have your street improvements and the right of way dedication and then you have the single family neighborhood so I think really effective transitions that really address neighborhood feedback here um just checking a couple more boxes based on things that we discussed with neighbors we have sign commitments that were requested by our adjacent neighbors um native trees only will be planted uh we do have a Green Building certification with this as well as staff mentioned the the ngbs standards would be met here um and then uh we have a requirement that for the post-development um impervious surface it won't exceed those existing conditions that you see today uh and and
last on there is a vinyl siding restriction um again based on discussions with those neighbors through numerous Rous meetings um not only in this project but in the prior iteration um if we can go to the next slide please this next slide as it's coming up just summarizes the comprehensive plan consistency um believe based on my account it was 18 of 22 policies that apply to the site are consistent and then to the last slide summarizes our overall consistency with the comprehensive plan um with uh the transit oriented development designation uh I think that that second check is what's most important here again we took a great project made it even better by adding use transitions and really creating a better overall mix providing product types that aren't available in this area um so good mixed residential types also in close proximity to uh Commercial Services uh that balance of uses as I just covered is improved so um
with that uh I'd like to reserve I guess it looks like I've got a minute for any necessary rebuttal don't know that it's needed but certainly to answer questions as they come up thank you all right thank you um in uh community members if you want to raise your hand I have Justin Brown and Dot Doyle were registered to talk we have dots raised her hand we have her on the meeting yes ma'am um so I'm doc Doyle I serve on the board of the watt H Hospital hillindale neighborhood association um I live at 2311 woodro Street um as is our our policies or our the way we the way we work um is we usually when we have a development near our neighborhood we go ahead and form a committee um and um this committee
consisted of three board members and seven or eight nearby neighbors um we have worked as has been indicated very closely with um with trinsic and and the team there um starting back in the end of 22 when they they submitted their first plan um we think that this resoning request is definitely an improvement over what currently exists on this property uh and as has been indicated is also an improvement over the the plan that was approved in January 23 um features that we appreciate again I can't can't believe I'm going to absolutely just agree with everything Kyer just said um The increased um Green Space uh that's nearest the neighborhood the use of town home Apartments along with S as a buffer and a property that's more in keeping than with um the single family homes that are across the the street um the inclusion of affordable housing and that's been in there ever since um we've
been working with with trinsic um they have indicated they'll continue to work with us through site plan um so that's uh we really appreciate that and in general they have been very responsive to our concerns and um and we appreciate that uh we can see word for word where some of the things that we have requested just show right up on those those text commitments um I I will say that we have an ongoing concern about traffic on Sprint um this project in addition to the project that was recently approved by City Council on the coke property brings about 900 new units into this area um and there's only two places to go and that's either spr or L um and so there will be more traffic and that is a concern to the neighbors who live nearby but um both trenic and ardant have have committed to to um if the neighbors can work with the city on doing some traffic mitigation along front they will help us out financially
and so that's we don't have that in writing but it's I believe that that's going to happen um and we really appreciate uh that commitment to and to appreciate the the difficulty and the importance of people being able to walk take a walk after work um or walk their dog um and and the new neighbors will want to do that as well um so um would like to end by saying that we would ask the Planning Commission to uh forward this this project with a favor favorable recommendation to city council okay thank you dot uh I see Justin Brown but he does not have his hand raised but Mimi kastler does so Mimi hello again hello I wanted to say that often I am fairly negative about proposals and I'm very positive about
this one uh I'm very pleased with the uh affordable housing piece uh though uh the gentleman that spoke um said that there were going to be 34 um affordable housing units but the um what's in the document says 39 um and I also um wanted to know I guess I I can't really see on the aerial map I can't really see where the exits are um that that would be there um but anyway I think this is a really good proposal thank you okay thank you um I do not see Justin Brown anybody else have their hand raised Zoom there's Justin Justin's a member of the team I can answer those two
questions quickly if it helps okay yeah if you can address um if if I said concern about the the entrances the trff what if I said 34 it's certainly 39 units and and want to make sure we're not under counting those and then there are the commitments say that there are two access points both on North Bal um which was shown on the prior graphic development plan and Illustrated in the text commitments here we unfortunately don't have direct access um out onto Hillsboro so that was the best option okay I believe anybody else nope all right we shall close the public hearing and open it for commissioner comments and
discussion commissioner cees thank you um thanks to the applicant I think it's a great proposition it's definitely an improvement uh and I'm I'm commenting only because you know so much of what we tend to express in these meetings are uh frustrations or uh you know not liking something and I think it's important that when we see something we like that and what like is is really an inadequate word something that really meets many of the things that are articulated in the comprehensive plan we should acknowledge it and this one does um uh most notably not just the the form and the mix the attention to the neighborhood concerns the affordable housing commitment um but the Green Building standards as well so I applaud the the developer and and um and the applicant for the presentation tonight I would encourage
just very careful consideration and and this is probably already happened um but the 250 foot offset from North Lal before stepping up in form to the 85 foot height that's a that's a pretty deep setback especially given um the prior approvals of what was over there so uh if that was 150 ft maybe there could be more units this is really an ideal location for more units but that said that's that's uh you know really impressing the envelope um and and uh I just want to kind of confirm though that that uh this is the type of project that I think the planning commission's work has has really been seeking and we're appreciative of you bringing it forward thank you okay commissioner Johnson thanks Vice chair to the applicant um if my math is correct I
mean the current Zone supported 146 students there's 23 more but since there's not really students there now given the current structure of the so we're adding about 169 potential students and even though uh the capacity is there with the exception of the high school are you planning or would you offer any contribution to deal with the impact on schools and the additional students yeah so a client texted me was it's a shame we can't talk in person like we typically do was listening to the prior hearings and said that you know we're hearing what's been said on these prior projects and we're prepared to make a commitment to uh the school fund so we want to make sure we check every possible box on this one okay do you have an amount specifically or is that to be the the I believe there's a recommendation in the staff report which is consistent with what we'd be willing to do on this case okay the only other question is uh I would Echo what was said before about the mixed use
space are is the 25 minimum Town Homes the the the ceiling and the floor the reason that I asked that is as we build capacity for people uh affordable housing um I want promote housing as well as uh Apartments so they build equity they build whatever and I appreciate the mix use it's more of a question about supporting overall home uh home ownership so I want to know about the 25 minimum is that going to potentially grow or is that set based to the current plan uh so so that is a minimum to show the housing diversity it's it's likely more if you recall we had a 390 um commit rezoning in the last case the only difference is the addition is Shifting that building over and adding in town home units so that additional 50 units is entitled to capture these now to be clear these are intended to be town home style Apartments they're not separately platted they are part of the overall community so it's a little
different um than what you're envisioning but I think still a needed product type here oh so for my ignorance just clarify these are not going to be owned by the resident they're still going to be apartment typee Town Hobs yeah a part of the overall Community here correct interesting thank you Vice chair any other commissioner questions all good may I have a motion to move this case forward Madam Vice chair if there are no other I'm sorry I think Brook's gonna say something no apologies yeah I just wanted to confirm the offer um about Durham public schools with the applicant um and ensure that uh we're on the same page with the contribution amount yeah so I'm looking at the correspondence here I think the number was 123,124
okay thank you all right Madam Vice chair if there are no further questions I'm going to attempt to make this motion so Brooke and Alexander keep me straight I'm going to try to get this all in in one motion and the case z2300 z26 Aurora Green Hill I recommend that we move this case forward to city council with the favorable recommendation with the up updated project and textual development plan and also a profer of $13,693 made to Durham Public Schools second 622 or 602 02 02 02 20 in there the O2 okay may I have the roll call vote
please clarifi motion was made by commissioner tra and seconded by seconded by commissioner second thank you okay to move Ora z23 triple z23 Ora Green Hill forward with a favorable recommendation may have the roll call vote Mr chair sharis yes commissioner cutri yes commissioner Gham yes commissioner Johnson yes yes yes commissioner CE yes commissioner trat yes commissioner woke
yes all right the motion carries 8 zero all right next item on the agenda old business any old business no any new business I know it's late but does the subcommittee you just want to give a brief update yes the rules of procedure subcommittee consisting of myself commissioner trap and commissioner cutright met in December and had a good discussion and made a numerous recommendations and forwarded them back through to City staff and City staff has sent it through to the city and county attorneys for their feedback to make sure it's compliant with the interlocal agreement and we're waiting to hear back from them and then
we'll hopefully be done any idea on that time frame Alexander not that I hate to rush the this my fault for bringing it up uh yes we we'll keep pushing on it we do have a new City attorney so we just want to make sure that we're spending time with her because Don retired uh but probably over the next month month and a half we'll get this done our goal would be by the next Planning Commission we could have a y'all could have a report and we could bring it back to youall so okay good beautiful all right that's it we're adjourned I hope everybody didn't get weather damage chair I had my hand raised sorry I will not be at the next meeting I conveyed that earlier to the chair so I just wanted to mention it again here I'll be try okay all right thank you