Durham Planning Commission · Regular Meeting · May 9, 2023

good evening and welcome to the Durham Planning Commission the members of the Durham Planning Commission are appointed by the city council in the County Board of Commissioners to make recommendations to elected officials we emphasize that the elected officials have the final say on any issue before us tonight while this meeting is becoming being conducted in person it is also except accessible using Zoom the virtual platform the virtual meeting platform in the virtual meeting virtual meeting I gotta start over public participants do not have any ability to talk or to be seen on video by default in order to maintain meeting decorum a discernible record of the meeting the chat function has been disabled for those attending in person if you plan to speak on the agenda item

tonight please go to the table to my left and sign up to speak when speaking please state your name and your address clearly when you come to the podium please speak directly into the microphone if you are attending the meeting virtually you will be given the ability to speak at the appropriate time if you have pre-registered your name will be called so you can make your comments just like an in-person public hearing you may also call into the meeting tonight by dialing one three zero one 715-8592 if you call in during the meeting time 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 wishing to speak at that point you will need to digitally raise your hand by pressing star 9 on your phone and when you and when recognized state your name and address before making your comments did you all want to make the the Quorum before I go any further yeah um do you want to take roll call vote and then we'll do decorum okay all right we have a lengthy agenda agenda tonight therefore time will be limited to two minutes per speaker during the public hearing Commissioners I also ask for your cooperation and limit your questions or comments that will offer new or unique thoughts to the case and limit your comments to

three minutes all motions are stated in the affirmative so if a motion fails or ties the recommendation is for denial finally I ask everyone here the commission members the staff and the public to conduct themselves in a courteous and respectful manner if someone fails to act in that manner the chair will ask the offending person or persons to leave the meeting until such time they regain personal control if the Quorum fails to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until a genuine commitment to act respectful and courteous to others is observed thank you everyone can we have the Roll Call chairman dolia as an excused absence tonight Vice chair Cameron here commissioner baker has an excused absence tonight commissioner cutwright

here commissioner shagaris here commissioner MacGyver here commissioner Morgan president commissioner C says an excused absence tonight commissioner Trapp here commissioner Valentine here commissioner Carmen Williams has an excused absence tonight commissioner Zuri Williams here the quorum all right thank you for seeing what's your statement thank you Vice chair Cameron staff would like to Daylight the rules of decorum that exist that are used to govern time place and manner of expression to ensure that responsiveness to your concerns are heard as the public in support of and respect for an open fair and informed decision-making process staff would like to remind

Planning Commission attendees that the same rules for decorum that apply to City Council meetings apply to Planning Commission we're going to cover these quickly today and ensure in the future that they are included in the agenda as a link so in support of and respect for an open and fair and informed decision-making process staff and the Planning Commission recognize that civil respectful and courteous discourse and behavior conducive to the Democratic and harmonious airing of concerns and decision making that uncivil discourse and or discourteous and inappropriate behavior have a negative impact on the character and productivity of the decision-making process in an effort to preserve the intent of open government and maintain a positive environment for citizen input and Planning Commission decision making the following rules of decorum have been established compliance with these rules is expected and appreciated the rules of decorum will be included in the agenda going forward and be referenced at the beginning of each Planning Commission meeting by the presiding officer a written list of these rules of decorum

is printed and also is available on the Planning Commission website the rules of decorum are as follows all community members May participate in the public process the chair serves as the presiding officer of the Planning Commission and the vice chair serves in the chair's absence citizens may speak only to the matter for which they signed up for and in the case of public hearings those matters which have been advertised and placed on the Planning Commission meeting agenda citizens are encouraged to prepare remarks in advance for submission for the public record prepared remarks should be submitted to the planning department either prior to the start of the meeting or after their comments have been delivered speakers will conduct themselves in a civil and respectful manner at all times speakers will address the presiding officer each speaker is allocated two minutes to speak this time allotment may be reduced by the presiding officer a speaker may not share or relinquish

any of the remaining time that they have to another speaker 's are only allowed to speak one time during the public comment period per item questions to planning Commissioners or to City staff will be facilitated by the presiding officer speakers should remember to State their name and address as they speak an effort to speak clearly into the microphone and speak succinctly speakers will refrain from the use of obscene language fighting words likely to incite violence from the individuals to whom the words are addressed or other language which is disrupted to the orderly and fair progress of discussion at this meeting speakers will refrain from making comments of a personal nature regarding others name calling and or obsidity is forbidden shouting yelling and screaming is forbidden public hearing attendees will refrain from commenting shouting booing clapping stomping their feet or other inappropriate or disruptive behavior public hearing attendees should refrain

from private conversations during the meetings and if need to come and go during the meeting leaving in as least disruptive manner as possible exhibits displays and visual aids used in connection with the presentations to the Planning Commission are permitted however videos are not permitted once a public hearing is closed the speaker may only speak if the chair presiding officer calls on that speaker a reminder that the same rules apply to community members and Community speakers as they do to applicants one additional rule of decorum for applicants is that the applicant may make a presentation of support of their project applicants may also Reserve time for rebuttal or to answer questions from the original time allotment as Allowed by the presiding officer again these rules of decorum are for the safe and effective governance of both the community and their participation and the Planning Commission decision making process and these rules of decorum are posted on the Planning Commission website thank you

thank you we'll move on to the first item of on the agenda approval of the minutes and the consistency statements from the April 11 2023 meeting do we have a motion for approval of the minutes motion for approval second it's been moved look I gotta have these names in front of me um moved and seconded all in favor please say aye aye opposed all right motion carries there are no adjustments to the agenda I don't believe so we can go right into the first case z2200057 2309 and 2315 spregger Road thank you

08 Acres the existing zoning is office institutional with a development plan the applicant is proposing a zoning to commercial General with a textual development plan excluding indoor firing ranges and Nightclub or bar the existing future land use map designation is commercial the proposed commercial General with a textual development plan is consistent with the commercial Flume designation the site does lie within the Eno River District B Watershed protection overlay the existing zoning is office the site is located at the commercial intersection of Sparta Road in

Hillsborough Road and surrounded by residential Suburban 20 commercial neighborhood and Commercial Center zoning districts the aerial map shows the general location of the project it is located on the Northwest Quadrant of Sparger Road and Hillsborough intersection to the north and west are single family dwellings to the east and south the intersection is composed of commercial and non-residential uses a neighborhood meeting was held in accordance with UDR requirements on October 27 2022 nine community members were in attendance a second meeting was also held on March 28 2023 and five members were in attendance to that two social pinpoint comments have been received in relation to this case with concerns regarding the wide range of uses allowed on the site and the current location of the driveway entrance along Sparger Road staff determines this request is consistent with The Flume the

comprehensive plan and other adopted ordinances and policies The Proposal is in the public interest due to the conformance of the general of the commercial General zoning District on a property that is surrounded by similar zoning districts and designated commercial on the future land use map staff the applicant are available to answer any questions you have thank you thank you the applicant ready to present good evening Madam Vice chair members of the commission Pam Porter with tmtla Associates 5011 South Park Drive in Durham um thank you Andy for the presentation um just want a quick overview on this the purpose of the rezone link is simply to expand the uses for the owner the owners are here um and can answer any questions you may have but they really want to

increase the leasing pool for their property that's it there's no plan to tear the building down and redevelop anything there's no plan to expand the building they have a current tenant and they just want to at some point when that tenant leaves have um a wider range of possible tenants we have conditioned out firing range as well as bar and Nightclub those seem like things that we're not going to be compatible with the surrounding residential neighborhood we had we had two neighborhood meetings the first one there were seven folks that attended the second one there were five there were two concerns that were noted one was regarding lighting there were some lights added for safety and the owner did note that he would evaluate the lights to see if they were shining too bright and would address that with the neighbor that had that concern and there was also concerns with traffic on Sparger Road when we initially submitted this it the new text changed

for adding conditions other than uses had not been passed but since then um we've added some conditions related to Traffic I'm happy to go over those if you have not seen them but basically we're waiting on timing from dot to figure out how to how to finalize those but we are going to address some concerns with traffic that the neighbors had it was reiterated at the neighborhood meeting that the neighbors were excited that we were not going to do any Nate nightclub or sports bar use here there's a bar that's adjacent to the site that I guess gets quite loud and the neighbors are not happy so they were pleased that we were conditioning that out and I do want to note that the owners of the property uh they're they're local to Durham they're not developers that are going to come here develop and leave they live here they work here they've got a vested interest in doing right by the community and they want to make sure that they have this property for a long time and

just have ability to to lease to a variety of tenants and with that I will answer any questions you may have thank you thank you open the public hearing now um first up you can have a seat thank you first up we have Blake King is there Blake King you can step up to the state your name and your address please my name is Blake King address is 3014 crowsdale Drive Durham North Carolina 27705 I'm one of the property owners I thought it was important to attend the night I can answer any questions you guys might have for me or I'll try my best but I think Pam said it best is what we're trying to do is just have a little more flexibility

we're not where I was born here raised here Donny King which is my father he was also born here so we're local and we're just trying to do the best we can all right thank you thanks Mr Donnie King my name is Donald B King uh I am the co-owner of the property at 2309 2315. we attended the meeting earlier meetings and would like just like to take a minute to tell the board here uh I am a duramite I've been in Durham all my life I was born on Club Boulevard over there at Watts hospital I have several properties in the area over here near this property know the properties are very very well we acquired this property a few years ago and the process

between two tenants moving out it was vacant for a little bit our possibilities of putting a tenant in it with oi was a little bit difficult so it sat there for just a while I know the intersection I know the traffic I know everything very very well and told the people in our meetings that uh we care about the area we care about the area and wouldn't want to put anything in the area that might discourage the neighbors we are the neighbors because we're there all the time I live on Cold Mill Road and have been for 33 years so we when the lady commented earlier about the light in The Shining in her window which was about I'ma say 250 feet away we're concerned if we know that that bothered her we

would be interested in in helping that out but just wanted to get up here and say that we are a part of the community we are aware of our uh neighboring businesses around the area and we want to keep it a nice neighborhood because we're concerned so that's one of the reasons that we want to get the zone and change so we we got that flexibility of putting a good good person a good company there thank you thank you thank you I don't think we have anyone on Zoom signed up to speak that I can see nope Commissioners any questions for the applicant then all right let's get a someone move uh Madam chair I make a motion that we take

case z22's triple zero 57 2309 and 2315 sparga road to be forwarded to the city council with a favorable recommendation second thank you it's been moved by commissioner Morgan and seconded by commissioner Valentine to move this forward with a favorable recommendation we have the roll call vote please Vice chair Cameron yes commissioner cut right yes commissioner shagaris yes commissioner McIver yes commissioner Morgan yes commissioner trap yes commissioner Valentine yes commissioner Zuri Williams yes motion carries eight zero thank you were we supposed to do a roll call vote on the minutes or was that fine

16 Acres existing zoning is residential Suburban 20. 203 and office and institutional to allow for up to 99 townhouses and 5 000 square feet of office building the existing future land use map designation designations are low density residential

and Recreation and open space should the zoning map change be approved staff recommends designating the residential portion of the site low medium density residential to be consistent with the proposed density and the office portion office to a flume the existing zoning is residential Suburban 20 the site is surrounded by land that is either developed or zoned for Resident for residential ranging from one to four units an acre farther to the West is the commercial node and Roxboro Road and infinity Road the area map shows the general location of the project which is located east of the intersection of Roxboro and infinity roads the site is primarily surrounded by residential development with commercial activity focused on Roxboro Road the development plan the development plans two points of access on Infinity Road in addition to stub outs to

neighboring properties minimum tree coverage and open space are proposed and previous surface limits it's capped at 70 percent um these are some of the notable commitments the applicant the applicant commits to making the following Financial contributions sixty five thousand dollars to the Durham dedicated housing fund and fifteen thousand dollars to Durham Public Schools another commitments are made that are in excess of the Udo requirements a neighborhood meeting was held in accordance with UDA requirements on December 16 2021 seven community members weren't attendance nine social pinpoint comments have been received primarily concerning traffic and Environmental Protection staff determines this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adopted ordinances and policies except for the future land use map designation of low density residential staff recommends changing the destinations to low dense low medium density residential and office should the zoning map change be approved

The Proposal is in the public interest due to due to increasing the supply of market rate housing and office Office Space thank you staff and the applicant are here to answer any questions for you thank you do we have the applicant present foreign good evening I'm Jamie schweiler with Parker Poe at 301 Fayetteville Street I'm here on behalf of the applicant as well as Jeremy Anderson who will be dividing our time in this presentation thank you to Andy for the summary and I will get started with the presentation so Andy did a great job and along with staff describing the nature of this request this is really an infill request

between a developing area in North Durham that has a site plan to its East and a another zoning that's coming before you in a couple of months to its West so it's truly a very unique parcel that's kind of sandwiched between future development and as you can see is kind of very long and rectilinear in that infill we are proposing a mixed use project that will not only add to the house Base by providing Townhomes but also have an appropriate scaled office use towards the bottom of the site towards the east there um this is consistent with the draft Place type map because it's a Transit opportunity area shown in the purple there the majority of the areas suggest that housing should be placed in the site because it's close proximity to existing infrastructure as well as Transit options a smaller portion of the site shown in brown is mixed residential neighborhood designed to add a diversity of housing types but it also allows for small-scale commercial and institutional uses consistent with our development

plan the zoning today provides for existing residential but only about 31 units as you see in your staff report so because we are taking that density up to about 99 Town Homes we're able to Triple the amount of housing Supply but still fitted in a very sight constrained Manner and provide the Oni use there to the east key text commitments were highlighted 99 town homes and up to 5 000 square feet of office our transportation commitments would be to construct the turn lines shown on your screen add additional pay right away for bicycle lane and additional right-of-way for a upcoming dot project on Infinity road that will provide some of the relief to the concerns that were raised on social pinpoint of the congestion that exists on the road today in addition we're committing 65 thousand dollars towards the affordable housing fund and a 15 000 contribution to Durham Public Schools to offset some of the impacts of this zoning the policy shown on your screen show how the rezoning is consistent with

the draft comprehensive plan many of these policies speak to that providing additional market rate housing and noting that we're not only providing the product of market rate housing but but also providing an affordable contribution with that the criteria are met this this resulting is consistent and conforming with the uses of the nearby property character that's both both in place today and as it will change with those approved and pending plans that are coming before you it's more suitable for this in additional increase of housing Supply than the current buy right uses that are on the site today are allowed on the site today and it meets the demand in Durham but the remaining time I'd like Jeremy to address the development plan and the specific constraints on this site thank you but thank you Jamie uh good evening Jeremy Anderson 111 West Main Street landscape architect with Thomas and Hutton Jamie covered most of the the aspects of

the the site but I'll highlight a few here I don't know if I can point but I'll just just kind of walk through the site for the development plan you see on the screen the parceled in purple the smaller Parcels approximately two acres that's the commercial parcel or office parcel we'd have an access point off Infinity Road and then a possible cross access internal to the site to that development that Jamie mentioned already has a site plan approved on it I think there was a street stubbed there you see by those arrows so we would we would propose across access to that adjacent parcel through the middle of the site there as you can see there is a flood plain and stream buffer that will be protected as required but that total is about three to three and a half acres of stream buffer through there so that divides the two Parcels inside and would be protected and then the southern parcel there where the town homes are proposed Jamie mentioned the access off of infinity Road there you see the orange kind of wedge at the bottom that is the right-of-way dedication for the ncdot

road Improvement plan that is planned so we are making that reservation and then you see also three other cross access connection points to the north uh Northwest and East again the one to the plan North but but east would be connecting to a a cross access that was proposed with that adjacent site plan and then the other two are our cardinal cardinal direction cross access points that hopefully we connect to adjacent to elements and with that I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you reminder the public hearing is open for this case do we have anyone I don't have the sign up sheet for this one thank you first up is Samantha Boyd as a reminder when you step up to the

podium please state your name and your address good evening this is my first public speaking so I'm very nervous um this effect my home where we live the traffic right now the trucks come around that corner they override that corner that light that I'm talking about so this would affect the traffic out of our neighborhood it basically close Us in we only have one way to go up to the light to turn left on Roxboro off on Affinity itself buses come there to pick up our school children it would affect everything we weren't given enough notice the sign

for the rezoning was not at the area that it's going to affect it was about a mile down so our neighborhood I know you say within 600 feet of where the development was supposed to take place but it affects our way in and out of so the whole development should have known about this I discovered by accident I didn't have enough time to warn everyone what was coming forth what was the plan I just wish they would go you know move it to somewhere else I'm concerned about the air quality you know the tearing down all our land they're just tearing up and over developing I am very concerned about you know the Environmental effect of this home I've been a dermite

I'm going on 62. I've been in that neighborhood for 30 something years I think we should have had another a more warning the sign might have been oversight that it wasn't right there where we come out so more people could have known about it that was my concern that it might have been an oversight but it was not fair that we weren't given enough notice I discovered it by accident by walking my dog down at the park it should have been near the light that is where it's going to come in at where the traffic and everything all right thank you thank you next up we have Jeff sturkey that's the way it looks the way it's spelled sorry yeah good evening Commissioners I'm Jeff sturkey I live at 3 wheatstone Court in

Durham 27712 my first meeting I don't have any fancy slides but to Echo your comments the fact that you notify landowners within 600 feet of a plan change you need to expand that out to a mile or two please because people don't hear about it uh I'm I'm hoping that the boat hasn't already sailed on this I've got a number of questions the commercial aspect of this the 5 000 square foot area I'm hoping that that if it comes to pass will be something that ends by 11 o'clock because not much good happens in Durham after 11 o'clock at night uh the traffic you talk about this will more than double the traffic and I'm curious as to how that was calculated uh people that live in River Forest their only way to get onto Infinity basically is a left turn if they're

heading toward Roxborough Road uh or Duke Street something like that it's going to make it almost impossible for them to make a left turn there with this doubling of traffic you talk about sidewalks in the proposal and it's a nice proposal but how far are the sidewalks going to be how wide are they going to be there are no sidewalks in that area that get you to Roxborough Road and can can get you to the uh get you to the bus stop out there it's a very challenging walk right now when will these traffic things be done will they be done before this is finished or we will be done afterwards and to agree that uh I'm curious as to what degree this can be changed you're talking about 99 Town Homes right now I'd hate to turn around and that be 200 Town Homes just like that I'm done all right thank you look at your questions answered shortly next up we have t Ross

K Ross just like a team hello my name is Katie Ross 8135 Lowell Valley Drive Bahama and kind of generally from the north to the north of the County so I sympathize with the concerns of these people I didn't know anything about this particular development like before yesterday but so I just come more with questions I will say one thing we learned through a development that we're concerned with Mason Farms that um the the estimated additional traffic for development like this is 10 car trips per household so in this case that would be 99 dwelling units so that would be 990 additional car trips on a already busy road and that would not include the commercial development which of course would likely

have more because I'm thinking in that building there would be quite a few offices of what kind I don't know but their commercials will have more traffic regarding the tree coverage we also have on the agenda tonight this tree preservation well to me I look up at the aerial view and I see it really nicely forested area of which the developers plan believe may be 20 of that covered with trees and there is an issue between even if that means they're leaving the old growth what's already there the fully grown trees or whether they're counting new Twigs that they're going to plant which is also a common practice there's a tree there's a a buff there's a vehicular crossing of the flood plain and stream buffer they're saying will be required for this development I don't get a sense of what that will be you made a presentation but I'd like to have a picture what will that be going

across that that buffer um or affordable housing none and these Financial contributions 65 000 that's a tiny percentage of the profit on one dwelling unit that they're going to sell so I think that's unit the only other like this is a good example not exactly in the Udo the developers are not going to do it these people are opening this for momentum just keep that in mind thank you all right now we return to zoom for the public hearing if anyone on Zoom like to speak please raise your hand now again if anyone on Zoom would like to speak towards this case please raise your hand now

I don't see anyone oh someone speaking really come on we have two online I say Debbie Schwartz is first yeah can you hear me yes please state your name and your address yes Debbie schwartz5324 Fair Oaks Road in North Durham I've lived here for 18 years uh first I want to reiterate what uh the previous speakers have said about the lack of notification I was not aware of this project and I live fairly close to it but um there have been others that I've not known about also to provide some context Infinity road is one lane in each Direction at Roxboro

Road it becomes ladder Road also one lane in each direction today most of Lata Infinity is wooded Lots with some single family homes in 2021 the city council approved the rezoning of 30 Acres of Woods at Latin gas to build 176 townhouses and 55 000 square feet of retail property constructions is expected to begin this summer there are actually two new projects at the infinity Roxboro intersection which would add almost 1 000 residential units and 32 000 square feet of commercial space to that corner I understand that only one of these projects is under consideration tonight however rather than making decisions ad hoc on rezoning requests we should consider how the immediate area as a whole will be affected between the three projects we are actually talking about the potential addition of about 1200 new residential units and 87 000 square feet of commercial property all along a street that is one lane in each

Direction and today is primarily wooded in 2015 I learned that the intersection of infinity in Roxborough was one of the worst in Durham eight years later the dot website now lists a project to fix it with construction not beginning until 2028 yet we're considering adding thousands of vehicles to the congestion today development is necessary but we must be responsible about it ensuring that the existing infrastructure can service current and incoming occupants while maintaining some semblance of quality of life for all thank you Ms Schwartz your time trees with concrete the shorts your time is up can I just I have three more sentences very quickly replacing trees with concrete and asphalt will increase temperatures exacerbate existing drainage problems affect air quality and put even more pressure on roads in the electric grid approving more con construction without addressing the basic infrastructure

issues is putting the car before the horse I urge you to recommend against this project thank you thank you next up we have Leo Cruz please yes we can hear you hi my name is Leo Cruz and I reside at 1624 Crystal Creek Drive and I have lived in Durham since 2012. I wanted to thank Debbie for her comments and pretty much reiterate what she had said and add just some additional points here I'm somewhat conflicted on this particular proposal on the one hand allowing any further development without first fixing the traffic problem is not something that I can support the current traffic experience by existing residents and those that must Traverse this space in order to move farther north is currently unacceptable I believe the plan to address and hopefully solve traffic issues at Roxboro Infiniti has been in the works since at least 2018. so who is to say that this will not be pushed back further

um additionally I know that the planning department primarily rules based on what is presented in front of them however as Debbie has pointed out there is an additional proposal on Infinity in Roxboro for an additional 850 townhouses slash Apartments as well as additional commercial in addition to the latter park proposal as well this will further degrade the traffic situation and quality of quality of life for existing residents I do concur that this proposal somewhat fits in with LA Durham long-term vision and place type map says and it will provide additional housing to relieve the housing crisis but until we we saw the traffic situation and um at that particular at that particular Corner um I I can't um be behind this project so I urge you to reconsider and decline this proposal thank you thank you is there anyone else wishing to speak

um if we could have the applicant address the questions that were um asked by the do you have those written down thank you good evening Jeremy Anderson Thomas and Hutton um yeah I will address a few of these questions Jamie May touch on a few of them and then I may call on the city to address some of the traffic questions that continue to come up as I'm not a traffic engineer um the the notification maybe the city wants to touch on too I mean obviously we had our we had our neighborhood meeting um about a couple years ago we we made the notification uh it was that 10th attended by seven or eight folks um I think I assume the sign was posted at the right location but probably

missed by a lot of folks who come out of the River Forest neighborhood and turn left towards uh Roxborough but the sign probably is in front of the site and maybe that's why it was missed um I'm not sure what the city could do about that but we did get a couple calls to our office so I know the mailings were received by Neighbors in the area there was a question about the tree save the minimum is 20 which we would be meeting I will clarify that there is about actually five over five acres of stream buffer on the site which is approximately 30 percent so I I'll say We'll commit to that but we will most likely have close to 30 tree save on the uh the project given uh the stream buffers that we're going to be protecting there was a comment about crossing the stream and what that would look like that is a potential cross access it's a stub the neighbor to the north of us um I'm looking at the screen here where I can see it but did have provide a stub we will provide one I think that would be worked out at site plan stage whether

that Crossing actually happens um I think it would be considered from an environmental standpoint um of whether it's it's a required access point but we have three other access points that we would like to connect to as well and just it depends on what that opportunity is and I think with that there was a question about what is the commercial thank you um it is committed to be a five maximum 5 000 square foot of an office building so it is it's not a commercial it's not retail um I would you know you're concerned about the timing it's an office building he seems maybe a medical office something like that so I assume it's an eight to five type use it is not something that's meant to be open late hours it would be a an office component not a not a commercial or retail component oh the the number of units yes someone mentioned about the the number of units

going to 200 or something uh the commitment is 99 maximum townhome units so if that is approved that will be the maximum and that cannot be exceed or changed so thank you Arlene could I ask you to touch on Infinity traffic if you don't mind and and City plans dot plans for that intersection earlene Thomas Transportation so the traffic that's shown in the staff report is generated using industry standards you know there is a certain number of trips that are generated by each type of land use and for town homes that is about seven to eight trips per unit and so that's why you see that smaller number I think someone spoke in reference 10 trips per unit and that is for a single family dwelling so those generally generate more trips the existing traffic

the traffic that's shown in the staff report I believe the number from the DOT traffic count is reported as about 8 000 trips per day that was from 2017. I did do a quick search in so the latest traffic count is from 2021 and is actually reduced to about 6600 vehicles per day so that's the current traffic count the so there is adequate capacity or there's a the road can handle more traffic than what it's currently serving dot does have a project for intersection improvements um that is you know currently funded you know obviously those uh projects get reprogrammed and Revisited every time they do a new traffic Improvement program so we'll see what what comes of that project for future any I think someone else mentioned you

know additional zonings to come those would be evaluated um based on the traffic they are generating as well if a traffic study is required they would be required to make improvements to mitigate the impacts of their development this development however did not trigger the city's threshold for requiring a TIA so they are required to build turn Lanes at their site access points but nothing off-site beyond that thank you thank you and my apologies should be saying chair Cameron tonight I'm learning as well um so thank you chair Cameron just to so notification wise the sign was posted and we have an Affidavit of where the sign was posted but we understand they are hard to see so um we always encourage people to look at the social pinpoint engagement site to see the project itself we can share that information with you as well it's an

additional notification that we don't have uh that not every Community has we also send letters within 600 feet that is the state requirement looking into expanding that that would require a change which we'd be I think we've talked about exploring sometime in the future when we do some Udo updates and then we also are required to put it in the newspaper which I know everybody reads but there is a legal ad in the newspaper as well so it has been notified however we realize that some of the mechanisms are a little outdated so we do encourage you to go on to the social pinpoint website and look there to stay notified thank you I apologize chair Cameron I need to make one correction for the record um the Durham unified development ordinance requires 600 feet notice but the state law does not require 600 feet I think it's maybe a 100 feet or something like that but it's definitely not 600 feet so just wanted to make sure that that was cleared up all right thank you Mr Cruz has his hand up on Zoom I

believe he had about 20 seconds left on his original time you can let him in and ask his question I appreciate that thank you um I was just wondering if to further my knowledge if I can get the information that Durham uses for the traffic analysis just so that I can understand better how those decisions are made yes earlene Thomas Transportation so those trips are generated using a National Standard it is the Institute of Transportation engineers and we always use the most current edition which is the 11th Edition currently thank you all right seeing no additional hands raised in the zoom or or here in the public hearing I'm going to close the public hearing and open the floor up to the commissioner's questions and comments

commissioner Morgan yeah I had a question for the applicant I appreciate what in putting together the layout of where the commercial portion of the property would be as well as residential I do notice that there is that sit property next door I know we do things evaluate parcel by parcel and application by application I noticed that you're the same kind of applicant for that other parcel is there going to be any improvements in traffic it seems like that's going to have a greater effect of the traffic in that area are you asking about the property to the West yes to the West yes that's a future zoning that's going to come before you and is still in staff review and working with the transportation department about what type of improvements it would be required to make but it is a larger scale so if I was looking at you know some of the concerns about traffic that might be alleviated with this other parcel or this other application that's

correct and she referenced the step that's correct and it would also go to the gentleman's point about only providing portions of sidewalk even though we'd be providing portions of sidewalk on this project as future projects come along I would have to follow the Udo there would be that future connectivity if those projects are approved appreciate your comments and on that I know it's outside of scope thank you thank you commissioner cutwright yeah just um two questions are there opportunities to restrict use given that it's office to alleviate concerns to say it won't be nightclubs firing range Etc um feels like an easy one there and then my second question is um one the the 65 000 profit for affordable housing is appreciated is there an opportunity to do additional affordable housing five percent um you know it's five Lots maybe at cost to some affordable developer or

something like that I figured I'd make sure I get that in yeah no I appreciate the question um both these questions I'll have to go back with to the the owner developer on I think yes on the uh the restricting uses they do not have a tenant or a game plan so I think there's some uses that could certainly be limited there that would be a little more compatible to the residential we realize this is completing encompassed by residential around it so that's where I said the the idea is kind of low intensity office so there's some uses I'm sure we can limit affordable housing we are absolutely willing to consider and look at some other options that is where we started and we wanted to make some profit but willing to uh to consider uh looking at some other options there Mr Valentine yeah so as I drive around North Durham I mean the numbers of trees that are disappearing from our community

E the the 30 that's covered by our stream buffer so the 20 would be required this site will most likely have 30 percent but it will be it'll be contained to the stream buffer um the rest of the site will be um more or less open for for development limited opportunities to save trees you know New Street trees we put back buffer plantings will be installed for for areas that they're required um

but given the the almost 30 percent that would be uh set aside within the stream buffer uh it's hard to proffer any additional tree save in other areas you know beyond that um you know we would look to to preserve trees you know along the street and stuff like in areas like that but um you know the topography on this site as as many other projects have incurred is difficult to develop and grade without you know removing majority of trees in the development area so another question go ahead so in your project you also talked about bike lanes and so if you ever driven down uh infinity I mean I just can't picture in my mind a bike lane on that road I I absolutely positively cannot even picture that even if they expanded the road which they're not going to do I

just I just can't imagine how that's how that's going to uh impact the community further I see earlene stepping up but that is a that is a requirement um by the city to to add the additional five foot um early I don't know are we changing to a standard of a wider sidewalk versus okay yes yes early and Thomas Transportation so this area um generally in in many places across um Durham instead of on-road bicycle facilities we've transitioned to the shared 10 foot shared paths for pedestrians and bicycles and that's also become a DOT requirement because they have not been allowing the on-road bicycle Lanes due to higher volumes of traffic I might be out of line on this point but I don't see how these bike lanes that have been created are adding to the quality of life when really what's happening is it's uh making traffic more difficult in many of

these communities I drive through them I hear from the people who live in these communities and so I think we need to relook this so I believe what earlene said is that the widen bike the widen asphalt on the road would be replaced with a multi-use trail so the bike lane is not on the road it's actually combined with the sidewalk and Jamie mentioned earlier the project to the West that would go to Infinity would continue That Sidewalk so you would have a off-road pedestrian and bicycle path at least through this project I'll assuming gets approved in the one next door but I I appreciate what you say riding a bike on a road like this adjacent to cars is not friendly but off-road on a wider sidewalk that's that's appealing thank you commissioner sugars yes I have a question for the applicant you mentioned the Topography of the site and I see in the staff report that there is steep slopes involved is this

parcel going to have to be dynamited to be developed be pardon dynamited I am not aware at this point no I think the steep slopes are mostly within the stream buffers not within the steep steep slope on the Western portion adjacent probably to the other property that's undergoing but we have not done Geotech analysis to know if there's Rock within the site okay yeah thank you Mr Missouri Williams hi um so I just wanted to Echo commissioner Valentine's uh concerns about the bike or increasing the sidewalk um mainly because I'm very familiar with this area and um there is also a very large Hill on Infinity as you go up so even though people will you know

potentially be on a trail or a sidewalk it is still a very dangerous road to travel also my comment I have a comment more so towards the just the reap the Outreach of reaching out to like the residents especially in this neighborhood I think in River Forest particularly because um their one entrance into or to get to Roxboro Road is off of infinity you have to make that left and then you have to make it another left on to Roxboro and I think I remember back in the maybe early 2000s that you used to be able to make a left off out of the neighborhood onto Roxboro but it became too dangerous so I think you know just for that neighborhood in particular um a little extra consideration to alerting the neighbors is vital because I think to hear that maybe nine people attended the um the comp the meeting um you know the the area is is much

larger so that's just my concern and my comment thank you um commissioner Williams we're happy to work with staff on the notice as it goes forward to council and make sure that we're appropriately noticing or even over noticing on that point and I think likewise we're happy to work with staff in converting the commitment from an in-lane bicycle lane to separated whether that happens during the zoning or or per staff Direction at site plan thank you any more questions from the commissioners close the public hearing and ready for a will call vote Madam chair I'd like to make a motion yeah what I'm sorry emotion yes motion okay we can do a vote after the motion anyway Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that we take z22 quadruple 0 6

301 Infinity road to be forwarded to the city council with a favorable War recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner Morgan and seconded by commissioner cutwright is that what that was Valentine to move this case forward favorably may we have a roll call vote please yeah can Steph clarify the proper um because staff have requirements on notification is the applicant willing to profit notifying at a thousand foot distance themselves or we just want to clarify in that proper we're happy to entertain that I mean if that's what the staff's desire is we were I was thinking of making sure that the notice was at the entrance of the neighborhood is because the lady mentioned that she didn't see it so either of those would be would be fine if you prefer a thousand I think we can agree to that okay we will work with the applicant to have them notice at a

thousand feet and we will make sure the sign that we place is at that spot thank you thank you all right chair Cameron yes sure uh commissioner cut right yes Commissioners no commissioner Macgyver yes commissioner Morgan yes commissioner Trapp yes commissioner Valentine no commissioner Zuri Williams no motion carries 6-2 thank you 5'3 my apologies what five three motion carries five three thank you all right next up we have case z22 triple zero one two 1102 and 1034 South

Miami Boulevard thank you Andy Legend planning department this case z220012 1102 and 1034 South Miami Boulevard it's a proposed zoning map change the property is located at 1102 and 1034 South Miami Boulevard and consists of two Parcels totaling 27 Acres the existing zoning is residential Suburban 20 and Commercial Center the applicant is proposing residential Suburban multi-family with a development plan to allow up to 350 multi-family apartments with at least 10 percent of the units designated as affordable the existing future land use as a nation is medium density residential and Commercial the proposed residential Suburban multi-family with the development plan is inconsistent with the commercial Flume

5 tree preservation a neighborhood meeting was held in

accordance with the UDA requirements on February 28 2022. two community members one attendance four social pinpoint comments have been received in relation to the case concerning traffic and the lack of a multi-use component of the development now the proposal is inconsistent with the existing future land use map designation if approved staff recommends a change to The Flume to medium density residential while South Miami Boulevard is already above Los D capacity the proposed zoning District would be at a lower intensity than what could be built on the site by right under current zoning the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adopted ordinances and policies and the proposal is in the public interest due to the increasing the supply of market rate and affordable housing options in the city of Durham thank you staff and the applicant are here to answer any questions for you

thank you all right may we have the applicant um come forward for a presentation thank you good evening I'm Tom Johnson with the law firms of Williams Mullen at 301 Fayetteville Street Suite 1700 in Raleigh North Carolina here on behalf of the applicant and we concur with the staff report and its findings on our behalf I did want to point out some of the highlights that staff talked about um number one this is being rezoned from existing rs20 single family residential and Commercial Center to multifamily to RSM for up to 350 units but 10 percent of those will be affordable as defined in the UDA which is a 60 Ami for

5 percent as opposed to the 20 requirement of trees will be preserved and we even though there's a stream on the site there will be a stream buffer 100 foot stream buffer and there are no utility or Road Crossings of that stream on the site so from an environmental point of view we're exceeding what would be required from a traffic point of view as staff mentioned the permitted juices that are on the site now would generate more traffic than what we are proposing with multi-family so there will actually be reduction in traffic in addition there will be turn lanes that will be constructed on Miami Boulevard to accommodate the Turning traffic for this development one of the entrances will be full movement that means right and left the other will be restricted to right in right out but in addition there's a 50-foot contribution of additional right-of-way in front of the project which is important because there are

already improvements that are scheduled for this section of road for Highway 70 South Miami Boulevard and those improvements are in process as mentioned in the staff report and on the existing plan with ncdot there's actually a service road that would be in front of this project again that's subject to change is there's some discussions with the mpo and Dot but the last plan that we saw would have a service road in front of the project um and the J the traffic that would be generated is actually approximately 763 fewer uh vehicles per day as opposed to what could be done on the project of right now and it is on a major thoroughfare and provides ready access to the community there are parks within the area that would provide access for the community I'm happy to answer any questions you may have we concur with

the staff's conclusion that this is in the public interest due to the market rate units the need for housing and the affordable units that are being provided I would like to reserve time for rebuttal and answering any questions that may come up from any other comments but I'm available to answer any questions that you may have at this point thank you all right continue with the public hearing we're going to go to the in-person comments we have Donna stanback good evening Commissioners I'm Donna Steinbeck I live at 4825 Jimmy Rogers Road Durham North Carolina I have like three issues with this project the first is is that it's adjacent to little Lick Creek which is an impaired Creek and that's very important with the large number of house units being brought in the other thing is

S 70 you need a special access road to get on and off I traveled the road often in fact I came past through to get here this evening my sister had her car totaled a year ago by another driver where the heel that's there blocked the traffic his visibility of the traffic and he just ran there and rammed her into several other vehicles it is is not a very safe area it was right at the corner of this property um that that's all I have thank you thank

you next up we have Miss Pamela Williams okay uh hold on a second let me see if I can there it is I'm sorry I'm trying to get up my uh presentation uh good afternoon my name is Pam Williams I live at 2130 Venture trail Durham uh lifelong resident of Durham I go down this road quite a bit what I'm showing you here is the area here in red this is traffic soil Basin which is like erosive and will drain into little Lick Creek which is on the three or three D list impaired list Falls Lake and the

encroachment on Little Lake Creek should be protected and Durham does have a plan to improve little Lick Creek But continuing to mass grade continues to erode and right now nobody's figured out how to keep the sediment out of the Creeks apparently I also want to bring to your attention that this project is about halfway between I-85 us-70 interchange and Miami Boulevard Sharon Road which is is about 4 200 feet either way also just less than three thousand feet north of this there's about 600 apartments that are going in right off us 70. and I also want to mention that this is a minority area over on the northwest side and I'm not sure if they really got the notice or about it especially if nobody or only two people attended the neighborhood meeting here I

want to show that this land is mature trees I want you to please note that and yes they are giving what's required is 20 percent five acres they're exceeding it by eight Acres not exceeding it by eight they are exceeding about two and a half acres but I want to bring to your attention and if everything comes up right here here is the creek and here's the creek and all the trees that are being saved are within the buffers so this is like being oh my gracious how can I get this traffic it's terrible your time thank you two minutes it was quick okay thank you but can I send this to y'all so y'all can take into account and thank you thank you boy I had a lot to share with y'all a lot of pictures if there is anyone on the zoom that wishes to speak at the current time please use the raise hand feature

again if there's anyone on Zoom that wishes to speak please use the raised hand feature is there anyone in the audience that has not previously signed up that wishes to speak and all right uh moving on to commissioners commissioner cut right thanks um close the public hearing first right yes we got it um I think I just note on this this project that um you know 10 affordable is is extremely commendable we don't see that often uh what I do recognize is the Environmental concerns but I think what I'd like to point out is that there's the Practical aspects of this are that

there are costs to everything so while the developer may be able to go above and beyond environmentally then I mean it's a fair thing to think about it's a one of the conundrums that you have in development which is where do you spend your money so in this case they are choosing to utilize some of that those funds to subsidize housing which is really needed um it is at the expense of some environmental concerns I think we recognize that I think that's just one of the choices that are being made it's a hard choice but that's the choice that's being made um so I just wanted to make that comment um and I appreciate the the 10 percent commissioner Morgan I had a question for the applicant um can you provide me some information on

why would this be residential I know this area there's a lot of commercial development in the area can you explain give us a little of your rationale for just residential well the rationale for just residential is there's as you mentioned existing commercial that's in the area and including adjoining the site at the intersection of pleasant and 70. as a commercially designed piece of property there to provide services what happens typically is as you get the residents in the area more commercial will come because they'll have more folks that have a demand for services but there are already a significant number of restaurants and other services up and down this section although there's areas right around here has acknowledged that are have not been developed but that's what I would anticipate happening so that's why because of the existing commercial sure another question that I had was as far as access points is there a thought of providing some kind of an access point in the in the rear or the behind away from the traffic is there a

S Sony would you consider something like that yes um we would consider it if there were one available as of now there's not I think at one time I think there was as I saw on the Durham maps program there was one that was kind of a Route 2 goes down Angier Avenue and there was a route 2A That was supposed to go up and down this section at some point and certainly if that were to occur

there would be consideration given to a Transit stop you know given that we're doing a lot of development in that area and I know there's still a lot of things up in the air about right but I think on that map that I saw for potential future service there was a stop at Pleasant in Miami and there was one near Laurel Drive which is both adjoining this this property okay thank you for your thoughts absolutely any other commissioners commissioner Valentine yes I'd like to also commend you on the 10 affordable housing provision in this project however I do have a concern about Little Big Creek seems like it comes up in a lot of these projects with respect to its impact and so um as you move I think it's Upstream from your project um little dick Creek is taking what I would refer to as a pounding if I can use that word so what are you prepare to do in your

project to sort of slow down the damage that's being done to this uh to this Creek well we've got requirements that we already have this is in the Falls Jordan overlay so we have limitations as was mentioned we have a limitation of 70 percent in terms of impervious when we develop the property we will put stormwater controls in place that will you know limit the flow of stormwater right now there's no control over the storm water on this site since it's not been developed but we were providing that and then the tree cover at 29 and a half percent additional tree covered that helps with that type of runoff as well and there is a buffer requirement the 100 you know 100 foot buffer around the stream that crosses the property so all of those are in place and they're intended to be in place to address exactly what you talk about and and that's what we'll be doing yes so would you agree that those same Provisions are are in place Upstream

uh you know I don't know in particular you know how that development is going and what restrictions they would be if it's in the Falls Jordan overlay it would have similar restrictions and certainly the 100 foot stream buffers are there the uh stormwater controls would be there for any development in in that area that would be occurring so they would have to meet stormwater regulatory requirements and there's soil and erosion control requirements that again we'll have to meet and and somebody as they develop that would have to meet those soil and erosion control requirements during development well I guess I'll just end by saying that whatever uh Provisions are now in place don't seem to be adequately addressing the problem well and again I'm not I can't really speak to the other property and what they have done or not done and what what's required and not required I can just commit that on this one we will do the environmentally responsible thing and have exceeded some of those requirements

thank you any other again I'll just reiterate uh what my two previous Commissioners have said we appreciate the proffer for the affordable housing and the length the 30-year length that it will stay affordable is important I just had one more question uh I was wondering would you uh I know we have a text Amendment coming up about clearing and and all that would you consider adhering to that particular test text Amendment if it gets passed or even voluntarily I have not read that it's coming up I know yeah I have not read that provision to see I mean if it's a requirement that will come into effect as we get through site plan review obviously it would if it's passed before we do that it will likely be a requirement okay all right like to move this case forward

okay Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that we take case z22 triple zero twelve 1102 and 1034 South Miami Boulevard to be forward to the city with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner Morgan and seconded by commissioner cut right to move this case forward may we have the roll call vote please chair camera yes commissioner cut right yes professor of cigars yes commissioner Macgyver yes commissioner Morgan yes commissioner trout yes commissioner Valentine yes commissioner Missouri Williams yes question carries 8-0 thank you all right we're moving right along here

99 Acres existing zoning is residential rural the applicant is proposing a plan development residential 12. 471 is an is inconsistent with The Flume if approved staff recommends to change The Flume to medium-high density residential and Recreation in open space

lastly the site is within the Watershed protection overlay the F the fjb existing zoning is residential rural the site is surrounded by Resident to Rural and plant development residential burial map shares the general location of the project undeveloped Parcels are directly adjacent to the North and South generally to the east our single-family subdivisions to the southwest of the site is Chancellor's Ridge townhome development and the mixed use project 751 South the development plan includes the two access points along Fayetteville Road minimum tree coverage and open space are proposed impervious surface limits is capped at the maximum 70 percent that the fjp Watershed allows a subnotable commitments include 50 units designated as affordable housing dwelling units as defined by the Udo 10 foot shared path along the full front end of Fayetteville Road exterior

balconies and patios for each unit and a clubhouse with amenities a neighborhood meeting was was held in accordance with UDA requirements on June 9th 2022 103 community members were in attendance 48 social pinpoint comments have been received in relation to the case concerning traffic storm water Environmental Protection and lack of Engagement staff determines the proposal is inconsistent with the existing future land use map designation if approved staff recommends a change to The Flume to medium density residential and Recreation in open space this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adoptive plans and ordinances this proposals in the public interest due to increasing the supply of market rate and affordable housing options in the city of Durham thank you Stephanie epkin are available to answer any questions thank you I'd like to open a public hearing now we'll hear first from the applicant

good evening chair Cameron members of the Planning Commission my name is Patrick biker I live at 2614 Stewart Drive I'm an attorney with Morning Star Law Group and I'm here tonight representing events and companies out of Raleigh for this agenda item tonight I'm joined by Ron Pereira one of the principals of event and companies Vinton is one of the leading multi-family developers in the triangle and across the southeast it's been my privilege to work with Ron for about 20 years now and during that stretch we worked on Atria's South Point walk at the corner of Fayetteville Road and Woodcroft Parkway and then we worked on Southern Oaks at Davis Park at the corner of Davis Drive and Hopson Road which are on the slide you're seeing right now also joining us tonight is Ted heilbrun the principal of Kelly development company whom you'll hear from right after me Ted is one of Durham's and North Carolina's leading affordable housing developers we also have Kelsey Westwood and Earl Llewellyn our site engineer and traffic engineer with Kimberly horn The Proposal before you today is to rezone almost 40 acres

471 this rezoning will facilitate a multi-family development that will contain 490 new apartments and 5 000 square feet of office space of the 490 Apartments 50 will be affordable housing units financed with a four percent low-income housing tax credit at the outset we think it is important to note that this development plan is consistent with the new place type map on the place type map this parcel's designated mixed-use neighborhood and consistent with that designation this project creates a mixed-use community since we're including 5000 square feet of office use in addition to 490 Apartments on a more General note I believe this project demonstrates how multi-family development in Durham can be done as a partnership between a market rate developer like Ron Pereira and a low-income housing tax credit developer like Ted heilbrin with this proposal our team is responding to one of our City's greatest concerns the growing cost of housing we are doing that by providing 50 new affordable housing units along with up

to 440 market rate units to try to be a good neighbor our team has undertaken solid efforts with Community engagement in connection with this rezoning to that end my recollection is we held three virtual neighborhood meetings over the last 10 months as Mr Lester mentioned we had over 100 people attend our first virtual neighborhood meeting and I have to say having done this type of work for over a quarter Century I was somewhat surprised that the number of attendees at our third virtual neighborhood meeting dropped to 17 people I do wish to emphasize we sent out notification letters to almost 450 folks for the most recent neighborhood meeting held on April 20 2023. accordingly we have tried to engage with the community and create a development that fits well within the surrounding area and takes account of the feedback that we've been given in part due to that extensive Community engagement we've committed to using a modern Farmhouse design for this project and consistent with that in architectural style of the three-story apartment buildings will have pitched roofs while the choice to use pitch roofs does increase the building height

from 35 feet to 42 feet which we will indicate on our development plan the result is an aesthetic appearance that we think fits well with the nearby neighborhoods as you can see in this slide and the next one many homes in the vicinity have pitched roofs and now I'd like to hand over the podium to Ted heilburn from Kelly development to discuss the affordable housing component of this project our team will be happy to answer any questions we respectfully ask for your approval thank you chair Cameron and members of the Planning Commission my name is Ted heilbron my address is 912 Village Crossing Drive Chapel Hill North Carolina thank you for your time tonight we're proud to be a part of this proposed development because of the opportunity to bring affordable housing to a part of the city which rarely sees new construction affordable development is Planning Commission is well aware affordable development and today's rate and construction cost climate almost always requires City Gap funding as the remaining affordable Bond and Arbor resources are exhausted we affordable developers are required to depend on market rate Partners to make

developments pencil it's exceptionally rare to find a market rate partner who is willing to Gap fund Live tech units on site as is the case here and even rarer to find them willing to do so outside of Durham's traditionally lower income neighborhoods where almost all the affordable development here in the city occurs the commitment here to guarantee the construction of new affordable units as opposed to Simply making a nominal donation to the affordable housing fund is significant our market rate Partners committed millions of dollars in gap funding and that number could very well increase in the years before construction commences with continued interest rate volatility and cost inflation I can't overstate how unique and comprehensive this affordable housing commitment is finally we are strong Believers that lower income residents in the city should have equal access to restaurants grocery stores retail public parks and Greenway Trails regrettably the majority of the affordable development of the city happens in neighborhoods where many of these residential amenities are lacking building affordable housing in such an amenity-rich neighborhood like this one will be life-changing for the

50 families that eventually become our residents thank you for your time and consideration thank you all right we're moving to um the sign up sheet the first person we have is Fran small yes my name is Fran small and I live at seven Beaufort Court which is in the Hills at South Point at the end of Fayetteville Road my backyard bumps up to Federal Road across the street from this proposed rezoning site this proposed rezoning site is zoned as a watershed it was zoned that way for a reason this Watershed flows into Jordan Lake this watershed does valuable things for us and it does it for free

some of its jobs are filter and pollutants better water quality carbon storage nutrient cycling erosion control reducing flooding and it also is a great indicator of the health of our environment this Watershed is rated sea which is not great getting rid of this land and more development will only make matters worse please vote no to this rezoning and let this Watershed continue to do its job the other issue is the trafficking increase putting a stop light a turn lane improvements to the 751 intersection will do nothing to address a traffic increase of thousands of vehicles a day in the last half mile of this two-lane road no one wants to buy a home or live in the community if they can't get in and out of it safely please vote no to this proposal thank you

thank you next we have John Paul schnick razor blade Madam chair Commissioners good evening my name is John Paul Schick I live at 308 alumni Avenue in Chancellor's Ridge which is adjoining this property uh I am here tonight in opposition to this rezoning but I am not here tonight asking uh for no rezoning I have friends that are Builders and developers so um I believe in housing building housing and affordable housing but I also believe in reasonable and responsible development um I brought a map that shows the site that

we're talking about mainly to point out everything that's around it single-family neighborhoods and subdivisions for the most part we've got two churches on Fayetteville Road Herndon Park is down here there are a couple of farm tracks there is some Town Homes as part of Chancellor's Ridge we have 80 units in Chancellor's Ridge there are Town Homes at 750 South 751 South and then the new South Point Trails is also Town Homes I mentioned these things because I believe that town homes is probably the best use for this property it is a happy medium it is the Goldilocks between 490 units again in a place where Fayetteville Road and 751 already have terrible traffic two two-lane roads that are not designed at least now to be widened to handle 490 additional cars and let's face it most folks most units will have more

than one car in them so I think town homes is probably the Sweet Spot I'm in favor of developing and adding Town Homes I think it fits in with the surrounding communities but a three to four story apartment complex does not so I'd ask you to vote against this thank you next up we have Adam Smith I want to thank the committee great respect for what you do thanks for having me here my name is Adam Smith I live at 108 graduate court it's in Chancellor's Ridge also budding this uh this proposed property I just like John Paul and not against kind of new development I just want to make sure that it's consistent and this zoning is very inconsistent with surrounding land uses which are primarily

32 trips per day and 10 which which would uh indicate about 3 500 to 5 000 extra trips per day there's also no bike paths along there on the way to South Point mall which is

5 or less which would also be an issue and then finally around public infrastructure you know the Lions Farm was just built uh just went live last year and is already nearing uh or is already pretty full between this and I know we're only considering this partial but there's another 39 acre project being proposed that would add another 300 homes and further tax both of those situations so I oppose and and uh would urge a less dense neighborhood thank you thank you next we have Christopher McLennan

Christopher McLennan 302 alumni Avenue Madam chair commission members thank you for the opportunity to address you today you've heard from several members that oppose this and I do as well in its current form I'd also urge you not to Discount those that are not here tonight it is difficult for your average individual to make it to these meetings you heard earlier how much Community engagement was in this from the beginning what I don't think you have heard is a single constituent that lives in these neighborhoods that is not financially connected to this project that will tell you I've looked at this I think this is a good thing I want it this is good for me this is good for the surrounding area this is good for our community and the reason I don't think you'll hear that because that position simply doesn't make sense this is an attempt to cram too many units and maximize profits in an area that the infrastructure is already maximized it simply can't handle this additional burden the traffic in this area is already a problem and this is an area in which you see a number of school buses coming and going at that morning and afternoon an attempt to get

even a right turn out of my neighborhood in the morning when I'm taking my kids to school is a serious problem and it's already backing up to the light on Stagecoach Road as people get impatient as people get late for work in school you have more people pulling out you have those school buses that are not particularly good at making those turns you have more accidents you have more liability and nobody's going to be there to widen that road once this development is built the other concern I have is the environmental impact this area has changed drastically in the last 20 30 years South Point Mall itself is a massive impervious surface and we've continued to build and build and build I grew up in this area and Stagecoach Road never used to flood even during hurricanes now it takes a few days worth of rain and Stagecoach is flooded and they may have put additional infrastructure into there but who's paying for that the taxpayers it's not these developers if we continue to add this impervious surface there's going to be increasing environmental concerns and for those reasons I would ask that you deny this petition in its current proposal as previously said I'm not here to stand in the way of progress I want them to make reasonable use of their

land Madam chair may have 15 seconds to finish but the key word there is reasonable let's get the units down to a reasonable size and make an appropriate use of this land thank you all for your time thank you next we will move to the public comment on the zoom again if you I'm sorry someone oh sorry it's on this back side Ted no you're not Ted okay you already spoke so ma'am your name is not on the list if you do wish to speak you can come up it's this case okay step up to the podium state your name and your address please thank you I thank you for letting me speak especially since I must have put my name on the wrong piece I'm Michelle Scanlon I live at 408 Swift Creek Crossing and

that's in Hills of South Point I want to First just mention that during each one of these meetings in all of the public interaction our neighborhood was not told we live directly across from this property but only the one that was adjacent to it on that side of the road and so we would only get notice if by neighbor we heard about it somebody sent us an email and said did you hear somebody set it on next door so I have a feeling you would have had a whole lot more people at those meetings if we had had an opportunity to know well in advance and be able to handle it that was the first thing I also want to say that I am not for this and I also want to mention that as briefly mentioned this is one of two projects one stacked on the other so when you think you're adding 490 apartments in an area that is not set up

the road systems not set up the school system cannot handle what would basically be doubling the amount of people on those roads there is also adjacent to it heading towards the corner of 751 and Fayetteville Road they're also coming again to you in the near future to add almost the same amount approximately 400 more Apartments so what we're actually talking about affecting this area in this two-lane road is 890 apartments in an area that is not set up to handle these apartments at all so if we could be more like they're saying if we could do something that is a more reasonable in-between kind of thing we're talking about an area that cannot handle doubling the number of cars doubling the number of people living on this little tiny Road thank you for letting me speak

thank you we'll now move to the zoom participants again if you would like to speak please use the raise your hand feature and the chair will call on you to speak first and a reminder still please state your name clearly and your address so first up we have Bailey dumaine hi my name is Bailey dumaine I live at 312 Marist Court Durham 27713 which is one of the um properties in the Chancellor's Ridge Development subdivision the property that is under consideration for rezoning tonight is actually right behind my backyard and thus has a big impact on me and my community I have been active in engaging in this project since the first meeting from the

lawyer and the developer and I would just like to um mention that I think that the drop in engagement that was brought up from the project applicant might have been due to lack of perceived sincere engagement with the community I will also mention that I am immersed right now in the process of helping my grandparents relocate to this area they are two retired folks who live on a fixed income and they're coming here to help me with my children as I enter graduate school and I'm currently unable to find a place for them to live in their budget range there are many options that already exist in the 1600 to 1700 range which is what is currently being quoted for the apartments that are um being planned if this rezoning is improved in addition to that I feel like the uh offers to allow for affordable housing

are not being given in consistency with best practice at some of the meetings I've heard that those units are going to be made separate from the market rate units and that they wouldn't be built to the same standard and I do believe that the concerns that folks have for creating a welcoming safe place to live are really important because I do think that it is a good idea to develop this area I do think that we need more legitimately affordable housing as I am finding through first-hand experience and helping them easily your time is up thank you thank you next we have Pete Castillo hi folks hello can you hear me yes uh Pete Castillo 210 South Bend Drive I appreciate the planning commission's work and understand the need for more housing in Durham however objective zoning change for Abington Harris farm

and ask the Commissioners to vote no the increase in contaminated runoff trash and debris to feeder Creeks of Georgia and Lake Jordan Lake which is already stressed will be enormous during and after construction current adjacent developments had massive tree clear cuts and caused extensive damage to local Woods wetlands and Creeks I'm happy to show evidence of that to any planning commissioner who cares to walk or could creep with me thousands of daily car and school bus trips will be added including increasing pollution runoff and traffic any sidewalks will only connect to Chancellor's Ridge walking to shopping would be arduous and isn't going to happen there's no mass transit no unplanned and bicycling is dangerous at least each resident will need a car this property will be another climate change concrete heat sink is the tree cabin canopy will be nearly gone it will be substantial increased load to local utilities fire and police services all these impacts will be minimized if the zoning change is denied in the board

tell me if there is any green energy or water conversation conservation initiatives for this Builder or is this just another standard apartment building with standard building behind it and with that I'll I would just say again I would ask that the commission vote no I am not opposed to a Housing Development here standard Housing Development but I am opposed to this apartment development thank you thank you next we have Gail Shafer Gail please okay great yes um thanks for the opportunity to speak um one of my concerns is uh well I I first off I just want to say I agree with the other speakers who have said we're not opposed to development in the area I understand it's Nest we need homes and I know that it's Prime Property and you know it will be developed but I would really like to see

it less dense I'm a little concerned that we're just kind of going overboard on the apartment buildings um I think there's a proposed complex that will be located less than two miles from here by the streets of South Point mall that has a proposed over 1300 apartments and then we have 751 South again which is probably within a mile of of this one um that I don't know how many housing units over there I think over 800 multi-family and then they've got town homes and other houses so there's an awful lot of Apartments going on it just seems like this one is not really suited to the area it's pretty much surrounded by single-family developments and I do have concerns like everybody else about the environment the infrastructure the schools in particular are they going to be able to handle this um the traffic situation the

intersection at 7 51 in Fayetteville which is horrible Etc so again like everybody else I think I feel like maybe a less dense development would be a lot better suited for that area Townhomes maybe yeah that would be great and I would urge you to vote no to this particular type of zoning thank you Miss Schaefer you did not state your address when you I'm so sorry okay yeah Gail Shafer I live at 903 South Bend Drive Durham 27713 thank you next we have Amy Bradfield this is Amy I mean um this is Amy Bradfield I live at 3 Wood Creek Court Durham North Carolina to 7713 I live in the Hills of South Point as

does several other people have spoken and I first of all I appreciate your time and consideration in this matter I do not support this rezoning request and I won't um waste the council's time since so many people before me have so eloquently expressed why but in it we understand the need for increased housing as our area grows and we would love to see some of it be satisfied as affordable but the density of this project is just not supported by the current road transportation system the the level of our schools water sewer environment and I like to see growth that is smart and sustainable and planned and as other people have mentioned this is I know you have to look at only the zoning request in front of you but they're going to be two more that are adjacent to this area so we are talking about 800 Apartments feeding into a road that is two lanes

one each direction that already backs up during any nine o'clock five o'clock time period so I thank you I hope you will consider uh making this a less dense and also uh if we they do go forward consider making a tree buffer that is a little more than required around this that protects both chancellors Ridge and what uh faces Fayetteville Road thank you for your time thank you next we have Jessica Friedland lender Lander hi hi can you hear me yes okay uh Jessica friedlander I live at 610 Panthers Run Drive which is in Huntington Ridge in Durham North Carolina so um I had not heard about this like other people I guess until um something on a social media site so I live in Huntington Ridge which is right nearby but we didn't get anything as far as I know nor did some of the other neighborhoods um and so I feel like there'll be more

people who are interested um I am a I was a public high school teacher for nine years here in the city and so one of my biggest concerns always is affordable housing having taught a number of students who have housing issues and families who face that my mom recently moved to the area like someone else was mentioning and it's really hard to find anything that is available on a fixed income that's affordable um and so while I commend them I guess for like 50 affordable housing um I agree with other people that I think apartments that are in the 1600 to 1700 range are not what our city needs we do need more housing and we truly need housing that um people who um like there's affordable housing and then there's also low-income housing and I feel like we need both of those and it doesn't seem like this is going to be fitting with that um and I have I just want to express concerns about like bus access and um someone at the beginning mentioned like this is an amenity Rich area that people would have access to and I agree that there are many amenities on this

side of town that would be beneficial that are free but there's also many amenities on this side of town that are incredibly expensive like daycare and the stores and the groceries all of those there are not a lot of resources that would be um affordable for someone who might be moving into an affordable or low income housing situation like the daycare prices around here are absolutely ridiculous um even compared to other parts of the city of Durham and so I just would urge you guys to consider um a no on this and maybe some other options for how to develop this area um other people have mentioned also like school districts so as many of you are probably where districting is being redistricted and so thinking about how this particular Community is your time is up yeah okay thank you next we have Britta Kruger yeah my name is I live on 202 diploma Drive in Chancellor Ridge

um I would like to basically reiterate what a lot of the speakers already said I'm not being against at no development at all um Townhomes I think a good compromise the problems with the current high density which has already was pointed out is really nine uh 800 to 900 units at the end is a traffic uh public transport is uh stopping at Renaissance there are no plans to put bus lanes down to either chance less rich or the new uh developments uh that are being proposed there was a comment that people with affordable housing also want to have access to grocery shopping and buys and restaurants and shopping and that kind of stuff well there's not going to be a walkway down to uh the the mall uh in there uh biking is already dangerous traffic

is really bad making uh left turns on to Fayetteville from Chancellor switch or right turns from uh Chancellor switch onto 751 is already uh dangerous and uh everyone who traveled 751 basically doing rushes between Renaissance and the intersection Fayetteville 71 uh it's a it's a parking lot so I would urge the commission to say no to the current uh Den uh to the density uh change but I'm but look at something more lower density like uh like um Townhomes thank you very much thank you next we have drew Gardner hey there my name is Drew Gardner I'm from 311 alumni Avenue in Chancellor's Ridge um one thing that I haven't heard about is the community health so I'm a pediatrician I work both inpatient and

outpatient setting um and I heard people talk about increased accidents increase people walking around school buses and things like that and one of the major concerns I have is that every day at UNC hospitals are ICU including our pediatric ICU and our neonatal icus are full so this is a real problem if we're thinking about adding more housing than what's districted to and if people need to go to the hospital not only are ICU full but our pediatric floor beds are cool as well and so for these children who are sick and need help care I don't think it is a good idea to have more um more children in us in a space that's not designed to handle this uh this amount of people thank you I oppose the building as it the building plan as it stands and thank you for this time thank you next we have Alyssa drafen

hi there my name is Alyssa draffen I live at 303 alumni Avenue in chancellors Ridge I just wanted to speak to the lack of community engagement comment by the applicant in the development of the aventon Farms as a member of the community myself I know firsthand that I did not receive a notice for the last meeting but moreover the meetings that did take place often felt like a formality with little interest from the law firm to understand our concerns and input about the sheer volume and density of the complex so it's been disheartening to see that our community's voices and interests are not being heard or prioritized and I just wanted to end with saying that I think many of us are feeling disempowered and discouraged from participating in the process because this feels very much like a David and Goliath situation thank you thank you there any more anybody else that wants to speak

all right I'm going to close the public hearing at this time it's also time for us to take our break for the closed captioners so we will be back at 7 45 thank you thank you

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so let's get to the fun stuff what do kids say 5 to 12 get to do at a DPR summer camp so we have all kinds of all kinds of great opportunities we have we try to do as many field trips as possible we have at least a weekly trip to a swimming pool so the kids have the opportunity opportunity to learn how to swim play and engage with kids some kids from their neighborhood kids that live nearby and a lot of times kids they've never met before so it really creates some social connectivity for kids it decreases the amount of screen time that they have and it and it shows them different activities that they can do with each other and and led by our staff everyone in Durham should be able to find a home they can afford that's why forever home Durham is creating affordable livable and inclusive communities for low to Middle income residents from renting to owning find out how the city is helping more people find homes

com see a pothole there's an app to that missed pickup there's an app for that need to set up water service there's an app for that too introducing the one call app report your service requests online on your schedule just download for free from the app store or Google Play Store then sign up and start using it to report problems check the status of your service request or just find out more information try the Durham one call app today [Music] foreign

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[Music] 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 everyone is treated equitably when searching for a place to call home thank you

thank you okay so Patrick sir what were you doing in Wilmington we had our Park

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what's going on that much thank you for being here thank you as well foreign let me know what he says

is I hit this you broke it good evening we are calling the uh uh meeting back to order oh this broke we are still in the case of z22 triple zero 54 and now we're opening up the floor for commissioner comments and questions commissioner Morgan uh I have a question for the applicant one of the things is you talk about affordability what Ami are you looking to propose that for uh long story short 60 Ami for 30 years

but Ted do you have any okay any color out of that yeah it's a it's a four percent lie Tech application so the units will be at 60 Ami and like Patrick said The Lure will be in place for 30 years okay we're open to conversations and we can communicate with Community Development and staff about using some income averaging and pulling in some lower Ami units we're happy to do that we do it everywhere that we work across the city okay yeah I was trying to look at appreciate it I didn't see it in the in the staff report so I was just trying to see what it was okay thank you also okay I also have a question for transportation and on did uh the report I was looking at the the report for transportation and I've noticed that really there's not a lot of difference between whether we build or no build uh can you give me some a little bit more insight into the report itself

sorry I'm not sure exactly the question okay when I look at the report for the the Tia or the transportation impact I'm looking at that when I see both a build option or no build option and I see most of the intersections don't really change what's behind that I know with 490 units it seems like there would be an impact so with most of them you know it depends on the traffic that's the protein from the side streets you know most of the traffic from the development will be on failable road as the main intersection through and the further you get away from the site you know that traffic disperses you know along the roadway Network so you don't see a big drop in level service and additionally the site is not adding trips into those neighborhoods okay so those trips do

stay on Fayetteville Road that makes sense are we taking into account also the 751 South development that's actually going to go into effect in June 3rd yes so the Tia did account for traffic from two background developments one in 751 South as well as the Courtyard at South Point development that's a little further north okay yeah I'm just kind of looking at that and I'm just thinking with that many units called oh there's a lot of traffic already in that area so I'm just trying to get a good idea okay right and another question for the applicant is there any kind of profit for improvements or any of the yeah the uh extra lane or oh yeah yeah there's there are definitely improvements but I do want to emphasize if you look at page four of your staff report okay it's important to recognize that uh the uh roadway capacity of

Fayetteville Road is 14 200 Cars uh the latest traffic volume is eight thousand four hundred so it's only operating at 59 of its capacity right now but in terms of the tunneling improvements along our Frontage I'll let Earl of well and give a little more detail on that okay yeah I'll Briefly summarize Earl Llewellyn with Kimberly horn traffic engineer we can conducted the study uh the the summaries actually on the very end of the transportation staff report but in in a nutshell we're providing both left and right turn Lanes at both site driveways and we're committed to installing a traffic signal at the intersection of Fayetteville Road and the Western leg of Massey Chapel there's two intersections but okay Western leg um they're also someone mentioned the 751 project which traffic is included when we include their traffic we include their improvements so when we get to site plan stage we will see if

75 Parks per unit so that's 88 parking spaces for the 50 affordable units there's no there's no way to vary that

6 if we have to that can be varied at the board of adjustment but we cannot anything that's governed by North Carolina Housing Finance Agency that's hutched in stone um I just I think pointing out that it's less than two per unit across the board even if you average it is helpful and I think that was one of the comments was you know they're not enough Parks but that's helpful in this traffic argument that you're reducing the number of cars um and so you know there are lots of issues with traffic studies and you know we shouldn't get into that right now but um traffic is one thing so the other comment that I'll make is around climate impact and environmental I think one thing that we often discount

is this this current site I think it was allowed for like 80 um single-family residences but we don't talk a lot about are the greenhouse gases that a single-family residence uses compared to a denser multi-family project and so as we start thinking about environmental impact and what happens one thing that should really be considered is how intense in terms of greenhouse gases single family usage is from energy consumption manicure lawns all of those things are bad for the environment those are things that you don't have and denser multi-family environments so the other thing that I really want to command is this partnership there should be a white paper on this joint partnership here between market rate and affordable housing developers this is how we get things done and also congratulations on

2 percent um as opposed to 10. so you know as we continue doing these things giving examples of how to partner and create affordable housing and density and around our community and our community is broader than the immediately surrounding neighborhood it's Durham as a whole as the community which is why you have lots of representation and you come before abroad or board not an HOA so the community Durham needs affordable housing this is a great partnership and a way to accomplish that it's a density is helpful from an impact an environmental standpoint it makes things affordable and it's something that we should we should be doing more of um and so from a fit standpoint I think they made some design recommendations to keep these at about three stories pitch rules all these things are helpful to

allow these communities to fit in to the surrounding neighborhood so Kudos hats off to you for this project a great job if it's not obvious I'm in favor of this all right I have a couple questions about the affordable housing so understand that it's going to be separate pretty much from the market rate because you're going for bonds and four percent right it has DHA already approved the bonds DHA has not we'll be putting in uh for us to process a application we needed to have the rezoning approved this year before May 15th and so we'll be applying to nchfa in the open window and we'll be in front of Durham Housing Authority's board before the end of the year to secure an inducement resolution okay and then as far as the design is concerned are they going to pretty much look the same on the exterior as the market rate because it concerns me that I don't want people to be like there's

the affordable over there that it Blends in nicely with all the market rate and you know it's a true mixed income project yeah the the truth of the matter is that we're going to be going in many aspects from a facade design farther than the market right deal will so nchfas design guidelines require us to build a significant percentage of our facade with brick you won't for the most part see that not that the market rate folks are going to use this but we're not allowed we won't be using any low-grade exterior facade materials through the Hardy Board and we are also committing to we don't typically do this but in this case we will be to be consistent with the market rate portion of the project we'll be including balconies in our design but no one driving down uh Fayetteville is going to be able to tell the difference and be able to say that's cheap and low income versus market rate I think the other thing to point out if I'm not mistaken

S green Council thing for building just the uh focusing on energy star appliances throughout the units but I did want to emphasize on page eight the uh all of the text commitments these apply to both the market rate and the um affordable units so all the building materials balconies on every unit pitched roofs on on every building it's uniform throughout the project thank you can anyone on staff answer the or talk to the concerns about bus access to this site

earlene Thomas Transportation there is no Tran existing Transit service in this area and there's none currently planned what does it take to get some a bus plan to a multi-family development so that would come you know with the service planning from the transit provider as they look at their five-year service plans and longer range plans to see you know where the needs are and plan their routes how long does that usually take do you know I do not I mean do they wait every five years or can they amend it they can't amend it amend the plan and update it I believe I might need to confirm that and Circle back with you on that okay um does anyone also too want to address because I know it's supposed to be a 600 foot radius right in a circle not just straight when neighbors are informed so

we've heard that time and time again from concerns about neighbors not being informed Andy with planning so the notice is based on the exterior property line it's a radius there's a polygon that's drawn and if you're in that radius we have an application online go Maps Durham go Maps has that tool that will basically tell you who's within that polygon radius from the property line so that's how it's measured and if they wanted to go above that they could input like a thousand feet and then it'll generate that list for any applicant looking to do that thank you any other questions from Commissioners sorry yeah commissioner Valentine thank you so first let me commend you on the

affordable housing provision in this project particularly being in a different part of the city so I was happy to hear that I did have a concern about the or what one of the people who spoke tonight described as a lack of Engagement with the community could you could you speak to that sure be happy to I mean well we again I draw your attention to page eight of the staff report what we heard as a concern was uh because this was a development proposed with mixed low-income housing and market rate housing that there might be an appearance or Aesthetics issue and that's why you see such strong aesthetic commitments on page eight that apply to every building within the within the project again as the traffic concerns we've as Earl Llewellyn described we're providing left and right turn Lanes so that the even though Fayetteville Road is only at 59 of its capacity that capacity the ability for cars to move

throughout this section of Fayetteville Road will be maintained because you've got left turn lines and right turn Lanes serving this project and again we've sent out as I recall over 450 letters just uh whatever it was a month or so ago to allow people to know about what was going on and Earl Llewellyn was on that call so we had our traffic engineer we dealt with the aesthetic issues and I I believe we've done the best we can do sir uh attorney biker I think the from the community standpoint at least from what I hear is that uh people want to be heard and so I think in large part the heavy lift is really just the engagement and giving people an opportunity to be heard because what I heard tonight was people are not opposed to this project or to develop it I was in the area of that development in the area I should say not necessarily this

project but development in the area you agree with that I really couldn't speak for the other folks commissioner what I would say is a recollection is we had the Line open well in excess of the time period uh when people were asking questions so people ask questions for say 40 45 minutes we left the Line open for another 15-20 minutes I always give out my direct phone number I say if you are on this call and you wake up three days from now and you've got another question my direct phone number is 919-590-0384 you can call that number anytime I'll return your call within one business day to my knowledge I have held that promise I don't know what else we can do sir I mean at the end of the day it's 12 units an acre and if you think townhouses are appropriate that's basically cutting the density in half thank you um one last question can you

remind me the 5 000 square feet of the office that's planned what is what do you have a plan of a tenant or what that use is going to be nothing at this uh nothing at this uh juncture Madam chair it could be some sort of collaborative office space could could be a neighborhood office for a small business that needs it but right now we're following the place type map incorporating the 5 000 square feet with an office use and how that turns out we we just don't have a answer for that at this point in time you like these uh projects with no office plans I'm sorry I'm about to joke with you I'm out of order I'm sorry okay bring it back in Kim okay um any other um comments from commissioners ready to move this forward

Madam chair I'll make a motion that we take case z22 triples number triple zero 54. I'm going to butcher this name aventon Harris Farm to be presented to the city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner Morgan and seconded by commissioner Valentine to move this forward with a favorable recommendation may we have the row call vote please chair Cameron yes commissioner cutwright yes commissioner cigars yes commissioner Macgyver yes commissioner Morgan yes commissioner Trapp yes commissioner Valentine yes commissioner Zuri Williams yes motion carries eight zero thank you moving on to number z22 triple zero 59 RP residential studio

apartments May the applicant please come forward to the podium and give a presentation I'm sorry City first sorry sorry City I'm rushing I'm getting excited thank you Andy Lester planning this case z2200059 RP residential studio apartments is a proposed zoning map change the property is located at 2504 East NC Highway 54. 94 Acres existing zoning is office and institutional with a development plan the applicant is proposing a residential Suburban 20. or excuse me multi-family with a development plan to allow up to 72 multi-family Apartments of which 36 will be affordable

the existing future land use map designation is commercial the proposed residential Suburban multi-family with a development plan is not consistent with the commercial Flume if approved staff recommends a change to The Flume to designate the property as high density residential the existing zoning is office and institutional with a development plan to the north of the site is office and institutional and Commercial neighborhood to the south and east of the site is science research Park the aerial maps shows the general location of the project the site is located centrally between South Austin Avenue and Triangle Drive on the south side of NC 54. to the east of the site is Research Triangle Park and to the West along nc54 commercial uses the development plan indicates that this is a reuse of an existing hotel for multi-family Apartments minimum tree coverage in open space are

proposed the access point will remain the same no it's they had the residential I don't know okay in Netflix okay the screen had the RP residential sorry okay there's a tentacle issue we're doing um okay so this is actually z220001 um 2610 South Miami Boulevard

284 to allow for up to 270 multi-family dwelling units on the site the existing future land use map designation is industrial I'm sure the zoning map change be approved staff recommends designating the site medium-high density residential on the flim uh the existing zoning is residential Suburban 20 commercial neighborhood industrial Light industrial Light with a development plan the surroundings zoning is mostly industrial Light or Industrial Park with a small portion of undeveloped residential 20 to the Northeast to the Northwest and Commercial neighborhood across Miami Boulevard and Jason to the South the aerial map shows the general

location of the project which is in the southwest quadrant of South Miami Boulevard and park Tryon court and across from Lindley Road to the north and west our light industrial sites with residential development to the east along Lonely Road the development plan shows two points of access one on South Miami Boulevard and the other on Park Tryon Court the building and parking envelope avoids the wetlands floodplain and stream buffer on the western portion of the site some notable commitments include five percent of units affordable a 60 Ami households in addition to 135 000 donation to the Durham dedicated housing fund a payment of 500 per additional student from the development and it also addresses storm water runoff from a parcel that is not on the site the neighborhood meeting was held in accordance with UDA requirements on December 7th 2021. eight community members were in attendance four social pinpoint comments have been received for the case

one as a proponent and three in an opposition comments focused on increased traffic congestion staff determines this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adopted ordinance and policies except for the future land use map designation of low density residential on two of the three parcels staff recommends changing the designation to medium-high density residential should the zoning map change be approved this request is in the public interest due to the provision of adding additional housing and particular affordable housing units thank you staff and the applicant are available for any questions thank you I'm sorry I did Skip ahead on the agenda so we are opening up the public hearing for Case Case z22 quadruple zero one 2610 South Miami Boulevard and the applicant can come forward please

good evening geraldine's with Eden's Investments I appreciate your time this evening though it's been a long evening for me on this project I think you know we have a fairly straightforward approach you know when I look at a zoning case or look at a piece of property what's the highest and best use for the property and my office used to be a couple Parcels up from from here we were there about 10 years you know it's a very commercial area with plenty of industrial and Retail and IBM's campus TW is right there it's convenient to Brier Creek it just seemed like a good location for some density property is set vacant for 20 years being marketed as a industrial office space and it's just never going to develop this ad there's a large Office Park where I used to be in two Parcels up that's rarely 100 percent full and and we just think the apartments were a really good use and we've got the five percent affordable component which we've always tried to do a couple of things I want to clarify we because it was a mistake on the plan we

were the presentation reference to 135 000 affordable payment but our five percent affordable was actually supposed to be in lieu of that I think we we had filed a revised development plan that remove that payment from the um from the cover because we typically don't do both you don't make a payment and do the affordable as well so I want to clarify that also on the schools payment staff had asked me to State an actual dollar amount not a per student amount so I think the school's payment is 49 500 that's 500 per student for the 99 students I just want to clarify those two things we've got the 100 Year storm here even though this area You could argue you know 100 detention doesn't make a ton of sense with the surrounding uses we didn't weren't required to the traffic study I mean South Miami is a five-lane Road bus stops very good spot for apartments I think so appreciate your time and be glad to answer any questions thank you

thank you do we have a sign up sheet for anyone okay thank you there's anyone in the audience that did not sign up that would like to speak is there anyone on Zoom if you would like to speak to this case please raise your hand click the raise your hand button and you will be recognized yes please come up yes my name is Pam Williams 2130 Adventure trail Durham North Carolina I would like to request that a proper be made that on the amendment that we're going to be talking about in a few minutes with mass grading setbacks which would require 10 foot undisturbed

grading setback with all exterior boundaries I would like for maybe a proper to be provided for that um because sometimes these things pass through before the Amendments pass through and so I would like you to consider that also like for him to consider a 30-foot buffer uh in lieu of a 20-foot buffer as you know a 20-foot buffer is only 20 feet from the property line to the building so I would like for them to consider at least a 30-foot buffer which would include the 10 foot setback thank you thank you any uh anybody else do you want to address that yeah I mean I think we can commit to what the code requires for buffering and and setbacks I mean the you know the the tree coverage code I mean I have some issues with it and I'm not eager to try to comply with some

things that I think is going to be changing between now when it's approved but we can commit to the code required buffers and setbacks I mean most your neighbors here are not single-family homes this is you know industrial office Parks things like that so I don't know who we're buffering against with those kind of uses so we can just do the standard thank you thank you there are no other comments from the public we're going to close the public hearing and move to commissioner comments and questions commissioner Morgan I have a question for the applicant um as far as the building envelope for that particular thing you know that there's that dog park or Camp Bow Wow near bios um is that going to be kind of away from that I could imagine there might be some issues there yeah and there's I think there's some kind of covenants that goes with that use with that Camp Bow where I use it as a certain possible radius off of it before you can have the apartment

building I seem to recall that but we've talked a lot with I actually did work for them and and we've talked a lot with them and we're glad to have that use everybody in North Carolina's got a dog right I can tell so uh this would be pretty convenient but and another question given that you're on a Transit line I kind of as I did with another applicant would you be considering a bus shelter or anything um yeah I mean we could if Transportation requests won we could definitely allow for it I know the right away is there I'm sort of looking at Erlene I know there's a stop really close where the office Park is just a couple hundred feet up the way so but I mean we're open to that that's what we we want is our people to be able to okay thank you commissioner cut right I like the idea of keeping that 135 in um you know I I think uh five percent affordable one thank you that's that's

been the standard I think it's moving but you know I think that's helpful yeah naturally I got to ask is there some more room go seven percent keep the 135 in so I mean we're learning a lot about affordable over the past couple years and I'm going to take some credit I think we helped start at the affordable conversation and I'm glad that it's been you know Durham got close to 2 000 units I think Crawford last year in zoning cases which is great but what I have learned is is that was one percent of the time they make a big difference when you're calculating it out so even you know you try to get to the 15 but I've had sites with less density where we tried to get to 10 or 15 and we're having to really sharpen pencils Gear street across from Walmart right now I'm working through that deal because we did a 15 affordable component on 200 units and it's lean and it's tough to finance so I've gotten a little bit more

5 or 49 000 and 500 and there is no dedication to the

dedicated housing fund that's the update did you make any other commitments here Transportation requests a allocation for a bus stop or something like that in front of the site we could accommodate that but that's the only other thing we talked about run yes so actually we have a tax commitment that covers that for the time of site plan that's already on this development already in there okay thank you uh Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that we take case number z22 quadruple 0 1 the 2610 South Miami Boulevard to be forwarded to the to the city council with a favorable recommendation second moved by commissioner Morgan and second by commissioner Valentine to move this forward may we have to roll call vote please chair Cameron yes commissioner cut right yes

commissioner cigars yes commissioner Macgyver yes commissioner Morgan yes commissioner Trapp yes commissioner Valentine yes commissioner Zuri Williams yes the motion carries eight zero thank you all right for real this time case z22 triple zero 59 RP residential studio apartments thank you this case is the 220059 RP residential studio apartments for proposes zoning map change the property is located at 2504 East NC Highway 54. 94 Acres existing zoning is office and institutional with the development plan the applicant is proposing residential multi-family with the development plan to allow up to 72 multi-family

Apartments of which 36 will be affordable the existing future land use designation is commercial the proposed residential Suburban multi-family with a development plan is not consistent with the commercial Flume if approved staff recommends a change to The Flume to designate the property as high density residential existing zoning is office an Institutional with a development plan to the north of the side's office and institutional and Commercial neighborhood to the south and east of the site is science research Park aeromap shows the general location of the project the site is located between South Austin Avenue and Triangle Drive on the south side of nc54 and to the east of the site is Research Triangle Park and to the West along nc54 are commercial uses uh the development plan includes indicates that this is a reuse of an existing Hotel for multi-family Apartments minimum tree

coverage and open space are proposed and the access point rule will remain the same notable commitments include commitment to 36 affordable units and construction of a bus pull out and concrete pad a robust shelter adjacent to the subject to go Durham and go triangle a neighborhood meeting was held in accordance with Udo requirements on September 1st 2022 community members were in attendance no social pinpoint comments have been received in relation to the case staffer determines that this request is inconsistent with the commercial future land use map staff recommends the flim to be changed to high density residential this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adopted ordinances and policies and the proposal is in the public interest due to increasing the supply of market rate and affordable housing options in the city of Durham Staffing applicant are available for any questions thank you applicant please come forward

let me get some hey Madam chair members of the commission I'm Howard partner I live at 2110 Woodrow Street in Durham so um the the building that we're looking at the old Extended Stay America Hotel was was built as an extended stay hotel so that the individual hotel rooms are actually quite a bit larger than a typical hotel room they average about 550 square feet so the primary change that we're requesting is rezoning to RSM so that the change amounts to the length of occupancy of the people living in the building formerly as a hotel people were staying there anywhere from one or two weeks to possibly as long as as a couple of months and with this zoning change we

will be able to provide permanent rental housing typically with a one-year lease and a half of the total units will be affordable housing designated as affordable housing so we'll have 36 affordable units and 36 market rate units um in terms of physical changes we're really doing very little uh we're not expanding the building we're not changing the parking lots and we're simply adding a couple of bicycle racks and um and some recreational open space activities um there'll be um um but we there'll be no other changes the the existing landscape is mature and we may be replacing a few trees and that's about it so if we have any questions

we'll be glad to answer them thank you we have some people signed up to speak first we have Joe nanny thank you Madam chair members of the commission my name is Joe Nanny my address is 205 Oak Park Drive in Chapel Hill I'm an attorney and I'm here on behalf of two Triangle Drive which is the parcel right around caddy corner and my client is opposing this rezoning request because it's not consistent with the character of the neighborhood as you heard staff say it is a commercial area it is not residential importantly if there was no affordable housing and let's understand everybody understands we need affordable housing if there was no affordable housing this would not meet the Udo because there aren't enough parking spaces but if you're going to have affordable housing and you're going to put it in this location you're going to have to have cars

there are no Services anywhere near this proposed area it's a mile to the nearest grocery store it's eight miles to the nearest ER or Urgent Care quite simply it doesn't fit the character of what's there it's not consistent with the future land use map importantly the only Transportation that's reliable are the buses and they come once an hour and if you look this afternoon which I did at the go Durham website and you try to see when the next bus is it says there was no service I don't know if that's a glitch in the software or or if there really wasn't any bus service but the proposal to put affordable housing out in the middle of nowhere where there are no Services there's very little Transportation there's insufficient parking under the Udo for any other use is not appropriate we ask that you've denied the request thank you thank you

all right next up we have Bob Mora good evening my name is Bob Mora uh I own the building and the business next door at 24 10 and 20 Highway 54 East I'm here to be The Keeper of the history and raise concerns about parking I've owned the building and the property for almost 30 years and it's been operated as several different iterations of the hotel since you know I've owned it since it's been there and my concern is for the parking and the safety issues that we've had over the years with the residents um regarding the par the the parking and

some of the issues uh to the previous speaker's point you have to walk to 54 and 55. to the closest grocery store and what that yield has yielded in the past is a littering of shopping carts that literally the people bring their groceries and shopping to and dump on my property I've had to add security cameras because I've had lots of theft lots of drug use in that area and it just there are a lot of concerns I will say since the motel closed as it most recently was almost a year and a half or so ago all of our issues

including employees being afraid to go at dark to the parking lot which we butts their property uh just because of security issues from from the residents there and thank you parking was an issue with just one or two residents per room and to think that you're going to have four to six people in the same number of rooms all right thank you sticking is an issue thank you your time what's up next up we have Larry booth thank you Commissioners for hearing me my name is Larry Booth 100 Ash Place

Chapel Hill North Carolina I'm here with my wife Vicki we own the property adjacent to the property which used to be the Extended Stay America um uh we're upon an opponent to this being rezoned [Music] each room of that hotel when it was designed back around 1998 was designed for a really a single person for the business person coming to RTP to make calls on businesses there inside the park that worked well for a number of years but it's not designed for a family they're asking for 72 motel rooms

my calculation is and what I see on the internet each room is about 350 square feet if you uh Google the address you'll come up with a Zillow listing this is the room we'll see there are 35 pitchers this is one of the pictures the tax records show that the building has 38 000 square feet if you divide that by 72 rooms and comes out to 527 feet per room let's not counting the lobby the hallways the stairs the stairwells um thank you sir your time is up I asked the commission not to rezone it

because it's a danger to the community theological systems designed for one person in Egypt thank you sir next up we have Charlotte I can't read your last name sorry good evening my name is Charlotte Weaver my business is at 2501 East NC Highway 4 directly across the street from the proposed property I'll keep it short I would like to Echo the sentiments of the other citizens that spoke on this um Mr Mora is correct about the crime being non-existent now that um it's vacant the police and or fire department were probably called two to three times per month because of some issue that they had and that's with full

staff 24 7 there there were issues so the other problem I have with this is the it's not adequate for families especially with children the front entrance is probably 100 feet from a four-lane highway they can't stand out there and wait for a school bus it's not safe um it this area is not meant to be residential it's commercial it's corporate and it's it's just not adequate for families so thank you thank you do we have anyone else in the audience that has not spoken that would like to speak

you'll get your chance hello Katie Ross 8135 Lowell Valley Drive Bahama and I don't know anybody involved in this but this is the exact kind of development I think should be happening you take an existing structure and improve it and re-purpose it for in this case for a very good purpose to how some people give them a home that maybe can't afford what we think of as you know conventional apartments or condos and I don't know what this presumption is that this is going to be high crime people at all to me this is a what we should be looking for I think they're doing you know hopefully going to do something similar to this with the old North High School you take that property you know build there you don't have to take out any Forest uh it's it's to me it's win-win so I just

want to voice that concern and I think what this gentleman is doing is is a very good thing and I'm sure he will make all the improvements necessary to make that a desirable place to live so thank you thank you we'll move to the uh Zoom participants now once again if you wish to speak please click the raise your hand button and we have Mimi Kessler good evening can you hear me yes thank you my name is Mimi Kessler my address is on record and I live in the city of Durham um I want to Echo what the last speaker said I think this is a very clever idea to recycle a building uh and it and it would be um likened to studio apartments I'm not

sure that anybody would have a family in a studio apartment but maybe if you just need a shelter it would be better than nothing I also think that having the affordable housing component in there provides for proximity for low wage earners to convenient jobs in Research Triangle Park they could probably even if there's not Transportation public transportation they could probably bike over to um to their job I would only ask that the applicant evaluate the building for Environmental um conservation I suspect that it could probably use better insulating and other things that would be better for energy consumption and and since he doesn't have to do

really anything about the about the exterior of it you know in terms of putting in landscaping perhaps he could focus on the internal infrastructure of the building to make it more energy efficient thank you thank you do we have any other we'll close the public hearing now and what should I will close the public hearing now and move to commissioner questions Adam's here I don't have a question but I have a comment I do want to thank you for what you're doing in this area I know just a little bit about RTP I spent my bad time there so RTP is changing our foundation has a two billion dollar bet that RTP is changing an investment in housing at the corner of 54 and Davis Drive to the tune of two billion dollars

for mixed use so what we know of RTP and our Granddaddy's RTP is not RTP moving forward the other thing in the day-to-day in my conversations with owners excuse me business owners and RTP corporations and RTP there's a real concern for how the people that work in facilities in RTP can afford to live near RTP so they don't have to live two hours away from RTP and come to RTP to work so I commend you for what you're doing I think it is absolutely a need and I think it will be a huge benefit to the Research Triangle Park into the area thank you yes commissioner cut right I want to Echo uh commissioner trapp's comments uh great work I love the ReUse of the building um other people have already made the comment on the assumptions that have been made about both crime and families these are studio apartments just like any other Studio no one's moving a family into a studio apartment it's atypical

and then as far as parking I'm sure he's worked that out and he's to code and staff is comfortable with the parking scenario so great work I support this project commissioner Morgan no sure thank you chair I I also kind of echo some of the same comments my colleagues have I think I would ask the applicant to consider just some improvements I know with longer term rentals I think there probably is a lot better in curbing crime or whatever given it was more transient before I could see that there are some concerns by the property owners around you but if there's ways to kind of work together in curbing that that would be a good thing but uh I I applaud that the it is 50 I wish every applicant would bring that nope I just want to say there was a

comment earlier that said there was not a grocery store within a mile um uh per the definition of USDA if a grocery store is not within two miles that's considered a food desert this is not in a food desert so that would not raise a concern and additionally as a studio apartment means uh no bedrooms right or even have one bedrooms I just want to clarify how many bedrooms are in a studio for those that don't know can you come up to the podium please it's a it's a it's a single bedroom kind of a bedroom kitchen living room combined everything together yeah so usually there's one person in there and I'm typically one or two but no children but not a not a whole family certainly and per code you there is a limit on the number of people that would be allowed to live in a studio apartment correct correct you have management that would

assure that leases would adhere to those well everyone would be signing a lease and it would be a long-term you know a regular one-year lease and so um um as part of the least commitment they would be restricted to a certain number of people right and I'm just saying that usually when you have a management company they assure that the person that signed the lease does not have unauthorized people living in their units that's correct they would not be overcrowding in those units right any any other questions you want to address that were raised I would I would just say that the concerns with crime and um and people being afraid to be in the area at that time it was largely a transient population and what we are

proposing is a a permanent permanent housing and so the um I think those situations should alleviate themselves and if they don't then our management will be responsible for um making sure that um we don't have hazardous or dangerous situations for anyone who is in the area all right thank you any other comments or questions from Commissioners ready to move this forward Adam chair I make a motion that we take case z22 triple zero 59 the RP residential studio apartments to be forward to the city council with a favorable recommendation second has been moved by commissioner Morgan and seconded by commissioner cut right to move this forward in favor of recommendation may we have the roll call vote please chair Cameron yes

commissioner cut right yes commissioner shagaris yes commissioner Macgyver yes commissioner Morgan yes commissioner Trapp yes commissioner Valentine yes commissioner Zuri Williams yes motion carries eight zero thank you next we're moving into the public hearing for the text Amendment to the unified development ordinance case tc22 I think that's five zeros and a four after that phase development and tree preservation all right uh good evening my name is Robin Schultz I'm a senior planner and arborist at the planning department uh this evening I'm presenting information about a proposed unified development ordinance Tech Amendment case 220004 phase grading entry preservation

excuse me one second if we're going to have conversations we need to move out in the hallway sir we need to move out in the hallway if we're going to have conversations thank you go ahead um yeah all right so the why of this text Amendment as Durham continues to see an increase in the amount of large residential residential developments there have been repeated concerns from residents board members and staff such as issues with erosion control especially for large tracks we've seen an emphasis on tree replacement rather than tree preservation and we've seen large residential neighborhoods with little to no topographical character and or poor soil health um so we're attempting to tackle this through a three-pronged approach with changes to three main articles within the Udo first is article eight Environmental Protection uh creation of

6 phase development which creates a maximum cap of 50 acres for any singular phase and denotes that Lots in previous phases must be established excuse me must be stabilized before any new phases begin this section establish establishes other phasing requirements which we covered later additionally as a result of public input we've also made changes to article 7 design standards which I'll cover in a

3 uh the things to think about with this seminar that it focuses on residential development uh the it has the ability to use that oh excuse me the ability to utilize true replacement still exists but preservation is incentivized it promotes smaller phases of grading and more distribution of canopy coverage it also includes incentives for affordable housing varied housing types and further Environmental Protection standards and so the way that it breaks down is that for projects with phases that do not exceed 35 Acres these shall be required to have 20 percent of tree preservation projects which include one of the incentives above can also utilize 20 percent for projects with phases 35 Acres or greater shall be required to have 30 percent of tree preservation in each phase which exceeds 35 Acres

and so each option includes the ability to utilize tree replacement if tree preservation is not possible though the amount of tree replacement are higher for larger phases uh the tables underneath both options depict the required tree replacement for each level of preservation so as far as visual examples in example one the parcel is 100 acres each phase will be 20 acres and will therefore be required to have 20 tree coverage 20 of 20 acres is four acres so four acres of tree preservation per phase in the second example the same parcel is 100 acres two of those phases will be 35 acres and one will be 30 Acres since phases one and two have thirty percent well our excuse me phases one and two will require 30 percent of tree preservation because they are 35 Acres

4

6 is a new Udo section to be established which will denote the additional requirements for phase grading and subdivisions the main takeaways are that no phase can be greater than 50 acres each phase shall be able to stand alone this is similar to existing language in the Udo regarding phasing and note that some plans will only have one phase there are additional Provisions within the section but I'm not going to read all of them but they relate to the specifics of phasing infrastructure tree preservation and erosion control ensuring that everything or each phase can stand alone so lastly in response to public input and ongoing concerns regarding the impacts of grading on neighboring properties we've added a new Udo section

9 um so when projects utilize Mass grading an additional 10-foot no grading setback shall be required from all exterior boundaries of the development site for projects which grade but do not qualify as mass grading which is to say grading of less than four acres they shall provide a five foot no grading setback the exceptions to this are grading for trail construction utilities access infrastructure or code required plantings and that is all I have for you thank you and staff is available if there are any questions thank you we don't have a sign up sheet for this just or do we you're hiding it all right we're going to open up the public hearing and proceed to take comments the first person on the list is

Cecilia Joseph this process works because I'm from South Durham and we state your name and your address state your name and your address please oh Cecilia Joseph addresses of record I live in Parkwood um yeah is that it anyway um we were never informed the I was we were told there was a little sign at the first one at Barbie Road in 54. and it's just like we've been inundated there I've got it there's six or seven communities all around Parkwood now they flooded Our Lake we finally got them to in just after we had drained it

um we got up to you know help with that but it's never been the same and the thing that I hate is the clear cutting and it's just all over the state and like in 2018 when they they built all of those communities in about a year and a half to two years the traffic is terrible I hate to see anything else coming up there and Parkwood some of the main streets like Sedwick where I live on we call it jokingly Sedwick racetrack there's just it just I don't know I just I hate to see a tree go any tree and they just everywhere I went there was just mountains of work and I would like to see more of this affordable housing like that man suggested I thought great that would be great for me if you get people 55-0 I don't know how much they're going to be

partying but maybe I could be wrong you know so that's about all I have to say it's just I want to be heard like when things one more thing when things are going up in neighborhoods put it on TV all you have to do is call up the stations and you can put it on TV you know or some obscure Internet site the pin or whatever but thank you Miss Joseph free preservation next we have Katie Ross some of my friends here will be speaking with far greater expertise than I am on this topic because a lot of this language is very technical um any any Improvement is welcome that's for sure so we like that the one thing I

would just like to say as a sort of a concept is I don't see why we're constantly having this uh admission that we have to sacrifice the environment for affordable housing that these two things are opposed to each other and what my thinking is necessity is the mother of invention if you have clear rules limiting the amount of takedown of the trees limiting the grading the housing Park would start becoming more creative like we have seen you utilizing existing structures and Footprints more and more that's what in my mind should be most encouraged to preserve the environment just real quick we had a there was a meeting a while ago public meeting Scott Whiteman was speaking at it I don't know whether it's here or the city but he said the future projected population growth of the Durham area can

be housed within the current Urban growth we don't need to keep taking down the forest all around the perimeter that's all I'll say just firm rules and we've also seen with the developers today they won't do in many cases anything that's not absolutely required so as our leadership anything you want done you have to make it a requirement and part of the udl thank you thank you next we have Donna Steinbeck thank you thank you thank you okay the arrows hello I'm Donna stain back at 4825 Jimmy Rogers Road in Durham

North Carolina okay first time working with this as you can tell so we are grateful for the draft Udo of setting up a Max for land distribution phases however we feel that the max is too large we have been in our our proposing a Max of 20 acres per phase since August of 22. the max phases of 20 acres is like the ordinances for Charlotte and Wake Forest and Kerry has 25 acres the masquerading and phasing of the large acreage causes severe land disturbance that removes more of the natural vegetation that absorb and slow the water and soil runoff it is a major issue with Triassic soil this major issue and um and that's the area that a lot of us have been representing a good bit of

Durham is Triassic soil the largest size phases without much vegetation result in increases of the speed and the total volume of the erotic soil runoff like the Tomato Soup for the project that damaged water sheds the creeks and lakes whales and SEPTA lines these phases needed proper sizing and also need a proper storm water plan in commitment and basins the basins are failing now larger faces are likely to increase the amount of concurrent blasting close to the same time and then the amount of soil that gets carried into the sediment license to be later pumped into the creeks and then to Falls Lake so we have a massive cycle going on here now reducing the phases would help significantly and that's the reason some of our neighbors have decided to do that and I think that's a strong argument for let's look at that thank you thank you

now how do I close this I think Alex all right next up we have Pam Williams so you still would need to state your name and the address and you still have two minutes each yes all right so if you just want to line up already get already lined up and just come one after the other that would be great I can't say all right what am I missing let's see it's not on screen I need help yes Alex give me a second yeah sure I don't want to touch anything I'm scared because that's something just

so it's ready ready to go I got it that far thanks that's the right one yes that is and are we good together up there regret it all right my teammates and I have studied this treat reservation for months months months months and I have progressed to the phases as they have progressed we appreciate the efforts made to protect the trees which are so important to the ecosystem Mass grading clear cutting has taken a toll on Lick Creek with Samantha croft's most recent article stating that 3 900 percent above State Standards was measured in the creek last week three thousand nine hundred percent greater the charts show a couple scenarios of how these two Parcels can be subdivided into phases as was just presented over there and Pam is going to explain those even more but what I want to show you in this is we did like you the presenter did we divided into phases or scenarios scenario one scenario two but the first

presenter tonight with the infinity Road said it perfectly he presented tonight instead of just putting a buffer around the creek would meet the minimum he has to meet of 30 percent he wouldn't have to do anything else so we're not sure how this is going to help the tree save when meeting the minimum that they're asking to be met 30 if you're more than 35 Acres 20 if you're less than 35 Acres just by putting a buffer around the creek you've met his minimum do you see what I'm saying we need more than a minimum to save trees because what we're doing is tearing up the environment after studying these scenarios for hours we don't see where there's really going to be any tree safe we've got Howard's place here we also did a scenario I sent you an email last night of another parcel and we go through these but as a teammate reminded me you have 50 acres is great if we do it in phases but it's still not going to save enough trees we can still not clear cut we can still clear cut but we're not saving the trees riparian buffers and

such these will be counted in the double counting and so therefore no extra trees are really being saved meet your minimum buffer and boom you've met the requirements that are being set up it's not helping when you can go to lick Creek and see the levels that we saw last week with Nate Baker you will see we are destroying this Creek thank you but I don't know if y'all can my name is Pam Williams 2130 Adventure trail Durham North Carolina and I don't know if you could see the uh pictures of how we had it divided but we did take into account and and said okay we have concerns about who's going to divide this because there's so many ways you can uh divide it and the developer comes out again without having to provide any additional tree creating heat Pockets like in Fenty Road and also 1102 South Miami Boulevard where they provided like

almost 30 percent of tree preservation the only tree preservation they had was it within the boundary of The Creeks okay now we've created a Hot Pocket right in the middle especially on 1102 where there's nothing but homes sidewalks streets for 20 some acres and uh so how is that benefiting the community that's going to be living there they need trees I don't care if they we have 10 affordable housing affordable housing in these trees and in my opinion we don't need to be playing off affordable housing to providing uh more trees and that's what if and this write-up if they provide affordable housing then they don't have to provide the higher percent of trees preserved everyone needs and and whether it's a affordable housing community or not everyone needs higher trees more canopy we need to reduce the heat Pockets we need to provide the uh the land uh and

again my question is who is going to determine how this land is phased because it can be phased so many ways that they could actually come up and not even have to provide what they'll provide now except for 20 and also if a developer comes in it's going to cost me more to clear-cut this you know I mean not that to clear-cut it's going to cost me less to clear cut it and therefore we want to clear cut everything in here because I need the dirt over here well everybody can use that excuse thank you thank you you have time Freeman now sorry good evening everyone my name is Thomas Freeman 1818 Southview Road Durham North Carolina before I get into this I'm taking up my time but I'm going to make a personal invitation to each and every one of you to visit Southeast Durham I invite you to see the mess that we're in down there see me or miss Andrews will

make sure you get a guided tour promise to treat you with respect and kindness what you're seeing here is an active site uh in Triassic Basin soils in Durham in that was in Durham city what you're seeing and what first of before I really get into this we like the masquerading setbacks that are proposed that will require a 10-foot unobstructed graded setback from all exterior boundaries so what we're seeing here is is is not that what you're seeing the construction fence is uh in essence the private property line that delineates the development from private property you can see it was graded up excuse me it was denuded the vegetation up to the line what you just can see on the right side is a complete stripping and the denuding of all living vegetation on that site site stay idle for sometimes years that Triassic Basin soil erodes into

those basins they're pumped out after three or four days into the very Creek they're designed to protect uh next slide please I want to point out that the rapid eradication of trees is polluting our creeks and lakes but four listen carefully but for the mass grading but for the mass grading we would not be having that the mass grading exposing these sites is allowing tons of soil to pour into our streams and creeks remind you that upcoming hurricane season only exacerbates this existing problem come visit us we'll take care of you I'm Rebecca okay I'm Rebecca Freeman at 1818 Southview Road thank you for listening to us tonight and um no this is the very

last thing on the agenda so we'll be through very soon I want to call your attention to a recent article in the chronicle the D Chronicle written by a student in the um field of environmental science and public policy who is questioning things that have to do with Urban heat zones and um the uh extreme heat was a causing of weather-related deaths in the United States in high summer temperatures can trigger excessive heat stress and exhaustion among other serious issues it's called Urban heat island effect occurs when land cover vegetation and Street canopy which cools the other areas are sparse to limited areas and in a EPA study done in 2018 found that there's not a number of neighborhoods in Durham that have these heat islands and there are right now cons considered to be down in the in the city area further into the city of um while Town Line Park and Only Store Forum however as as people move out and we have affordable housing out in the community we're going to be seeing these Urban heat zones too because in the past

the temperatures for the city and the county have been very different in the summertime the city is is hot in the summer and the county is in the rural areas are cooler because of the tree canopies now we're having this Mass tree grading and uh with with a small tree weed planting to even though they can replant it they get little Twigs that take forever ever ever to get up enough to cause me to provide any shade that does not work one of the issues we have too is that that I have is that the amendment puts tree preservation against Mass grading why not have two different ones that address Mass grading and and how about looking at and really consider really consider a masquerade ordinance and carry Charlotte and Wake Forest even that is two to 20 to 25 acres and have that as a standalone thing the developers are not here to save trees they're here to invest and maximize their investment and so this ordinance needs to have separate areas for masquerading for

ordinance instead of proffering things thank you very much I'm sorry next we have Michelle still here Scanlon no I think she is gone all right everyone in the gallery has spoke and do we have anyone on Zoom we have Mimi Kessler who's raised her hand hi this is Mimi can you hear me yes um I want to talk about some very specific things about this um I on on page four of the document

1 and then it says C but I don't really think it is a c there uh dot four

dot C dot one a DOT um I one eye and two I it says that affordable housing is exempt from free coverage requirements which I think is environmental discrimination and I think we should be ashamed that we're even suggesting that um and there is a complete a community input item the very last one in the document on page 14 and it talks about runoff um and it I don't see how anything in here is going to help the person who doesn't have mass grading going on but has grading on the adjacent property and they leave their um their downspouts I'm almost finished the downspouts open to just run run the

water over the surface and that that is just completely unacceptable I don't see that that's being addressed I want to know what stabilized me thank you can staff just make a clarifying comment sure so uh to Mimi's Point uh affordable housing developments are not exempt from tree coverage if you use uh if you utilize affordable housing within that development you can use the percentage for a smaller phase but there is no way in which affordable housing exempts you from having to do tree coverage no affordable housing will uh have any tree coverage less than anything that is required within the United unified development ordinance just wanted to clarify that thank you all right we are closing the public hearing and opening up for commissioner comment

I have a couple course couple questions commissioner Morgan yes I have a couple questions for staff um in looking at this I'm trying to understand a little bit better is with the phased approach for mass mass grading if a parcel is greater than 50 acres do they have to split it up into phases yeah yep that's that's one question the other one is it seems like there's kind of a loophole is if they break it into multiple phases you know kind of as the example that's been shown is there a way to kind of have less tree coverage if they're breaking it into multiple phases that way no quantitatively 20 of 16 small phases is still 20 of the whole does that make sense and if it's greater than 35 Acres they are required to do 30 within that phase correct so is there a

way that they could actually preserve more trees if they break it up in larger clumps or yep so it provides that sort of flexibility so they can decide uh to grade in larger phases but then they also have to preserve more trees but depending on if the site is more clustered or compact it might make more sense so they have those two options which is why it's sort of separated into that tier so their trade-off is have more phases maybe more expense possibly more expense versus less phases but more acreage and more tree safe correct it's kind of the economics behind it okay I'm just trying to get a just trying to wrap my head around it as far as that's concerned some of the folks have made some comments I'm I'm also kind of thinking this is a pretty important thing I do think that we should move in some ways do something versus nothing I'm trying to I'm kind of

I'm I'm kind of on the fence board but I'm also looking to try to provide more input uh from the the community as well because this is a lot of stuff yeah and so we've had public input meetings many of these folks were here and provided input um so yeah I at that point is well taken okay thank you yes I have a question um so the opacity has been up to 60 from 40 percent when when is that measured in summer or winter or are we just planting all Evergreens so opacity is measured essentially by we require so when you go into the the project boundary buffer standards it requires a certain amount of deciduous canopy I'm sorry deciduous evergreen shrubs Etc and so the idea is

that once it's uh fully leafed out within a certain period of time that they will meet that opacity of being 60 percent of summertime correct yeah we leaped out we can't really uh accommodate winter I wish we could sixty percent opacity at winter would be like 120 in the summer correct yeah mostly just trunks all right any other comments questions from commissioners for voting on this tonight right it's ready to move forward sure Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that we take tax commitment tax Amendment 22 quadruple 0-4 phase development and tree preservation to be forward to the city council and County commission for a favorable recommendation

there a second all right it's been moved by commissioner Morgan and seconded by commissioner Zuri Williams to move this forward to both the city and the county with the favorable recommendation I mean we have the roll call vote please chair Cameron yes commissioner cut right yes commissioner shagaris yes commissioner MacGyver yes commissioner Morgan yes commissioner Trapp yes commissioner Valentine uh no I don't think this issue is ripe commissioner Zuri Williams yes motion carries 7-1 thank you business to come before us just a reminder we do have a second meeting this month on the is it the 23rd 23rd so please be here

so we have a corn we don't have to have three in June [Laughter] all right and motion to adjourn we have been let's remove second second it's been moved by commissioner trap and seconded by commissioner Valentine to adjourn all in favor please say aye opposed adjourn thank you