Durham Planning Commission · Regular Meeting · November 12, 2024

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good evening and welcome to the Durham Planning Commission the members of the Durham Planning Commission are appointed by the city council and the County Board of Commissioners to make recommendations to the elected officials we emphasize that the elected officials have the final say on any issue before us tonight while this meeting is being conducted in person person it is also accessible using the zoom virtual meeting platform in the virtual meeting platform public participants do not have the ability to talk or be seen on video by default in order to maintain meeting decorum and a discernable record of the meeting the chat function has been disabled for those attending in person if you plan on speaking on an agenda item tonight please go to the table to my left and sign up to speak when speaking please state your name 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 meeting hearing you may also call in during the meeting tonight by dialing 1301 715 8592 if you call in during the meeting you will need to wait until the particular public hearing you are interested in starts after all of the pre-registered speakers have shared their comments I will ask if there is anyone else wishing to speak at that point you will need to digitally raise your hand by pressing star9 on your phone and when recognized state your name and address before making your comments tonight the applicant has a total of 10 minutes for a presentation each speaker after the applicant speaking from the community the public has two minutes to speak Commissioners we have five cases and are time limited this evening

therefore commissioner has 5 minutes for Q&A and will be only called upon to speak for a second time after all other Commissioners have chosen to speak for a first time please have your thoughts and questions organized Commissioners as a reminder after the public hearing is closed you obtain the floor by being recognized by the chair commission members please remember you share this time with your fellow Commissioners please don't repeat topics that have already been discussed or questioned the time to make all public statements is before motions are made once a motion is on the floor and further discussion regarding that motion uh must come after a second all motions are stated in the affirmative so if a motion fails or ties the recommendation is for denial Commissioners if you are not not ready to move a case forward please indicate as such when questioned finally I ask that everyone here and on the zoom the commission members the staff 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 room or to be muted on Zoom until such time they can regain personal control if deor fails to be restored short the chair will recess the meeting until a genuine commitment to act respectful and courteous is observed and for everyone here tonight in the room after your case ends please be courteous and leave this room quietly waiting until you have exited those doors behind you to have your postc case discussions as the commission continues its remaining business on the agenda thank you may we have the roll call please chair Cameron here Vice chair sharis here commissioner cutright here commissioner chowski here

commissioner Gregory here commissioner Johnson here commissioner copc here commissioner mver here commissioner Williams here commissioner woke here and commissioner ju has been uh has requested and received an excused absence report tonight we have established a quum we have EST yes we have established a quum there are no adjustments to the agenda uh we're moving on to item number four on the agenda to approve the minutes and the consistency statements from the last meeting on October 8th do we have a motion to approve so move there a second second CH could I make an amendment to the meeting notes or do I wait um Joan said she changed them right in the email or you had more yeah had more we're we're we're oh there's okay we're aware

of the one request okay for the adjustment to the minute do I have to bring it up here or not please do just for the public record okay uh one of the votes I believe it was for uh Miami I don't have the number in front of me my apologies I was listed as voting no I actually voted in the affirmative uh it's listed as motion Carri 10 to Z Johnson voting no that was the one you emailed about and she said she changed the minutes already yes yes yes so we already got that yeah but we we still need to vote okay got it that's what I was clarify yes all right any I thought it was another one it was just that one no it okay I thought it was a 9 Z something yeah it was the first one I believe okay all right there is a uh do we have an approval to approve the min with the adjustment on the vote so moved second all right it's been moved by commissioner copac and seconded by commissioner cutright to approve the minutes and the consistency statements

with the um adjusted vote all in favor please say I I any opposed she cares yes okay should I uh before we begin in the cases for tonight I just want to uh members of the Planning Commission just want to introduce you to our newest planner uh in the growth management team with the Durham City County Planning Department this is pton Burgess uh pton uh began her planning career with the city of Greenfield South Carolina while in school after graduating from a not to be mentioned orange School in South Carolina to protect the innocent uh with her master City and Regional planning she moved to Johnson City Tennessee where she has served as a planner for a little over three years uh she has worked with multiple boards and processes including rezonings annexations and text amendments organized and executed Community engagement events earned her aicp credentials and even created an interactive box city as a tool for to

teach kids about urban planning she is most passionate about prioritizing people and community Through the intentional design of the built environment in addition P pton recently got married a couple of months ago has just moved to Durham within the last few weeks and love to travel with the angor Goro crater in Tanzania being her favorite place to that she's visited so far so I just wanted to introduce pton to you and welcome her to the department you'll be seeing her on a monthly basis going forward thank you welcome hi everybody um I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you guys so much for the opportunity to serve the city um I'm really excited to be here um I did ask Aaron to say go Tigers when he introduced me um but he said that as my boss he would not do that um um but that's okay maybe one day but again thank you guys it's nice to meet you thank you and welcome I need to make a correction I said as a proud Tar Hill graduate I could not say good to go Tigers want to make that

2 n Acres the current zoning is residential Rural and the request is to reone to

58 7 to allow up to 98 tow houses to be built the current Place types are mixed residential neighborhood and Recreation and open space the request is consistent with these Place types as seen on the zoning context map immediately to the east across the railroad tracks or other PDR or plan development residential neighborhoods to the north and west or land Zone residential Rural and residential Suburban 20 and to the South is mostly land zoned light industrial the aerial map shows the existing Street Network as well as I85 to the Northwest of the site the area is predominantly single family and large lot development the Eastern portion of the site is Recreation and Open Space Place type reflecting the existing flood plane the rest of the site as well as uh areas to the north west and south are

designated mixed residential neighborhood the applicant has proferred several commitments as shown here including a maximum impervious surface of 60% five townhouse units to be available at 80% Ami for a period of 30 years as well as native tree plantings and transportation improvements two neighborhood meetings have been held the First on September 14th 2023 were eight community members attended and a second meeting held on October 28th 2024 were also eight community members attended the proposal is generally consistent with the place type designation of mixed residential neighborhood and the proposal is consistent with 22 of 36 policies of the Duram comprehensive plan staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing uh May the applicant please come

forward good evening I'm Tom Johnson with the law firm of Williams Mullen at 3 one faville street sweet sweet 1700 in Raleigh here on behalf of the applicant Aaron did a great job presenting everything but I did want to clarify there's no Railroad in that area uh that joining the single family that was long abandoned so that's just an old railroad rideway that's been long abandoned so there's um it's not there Aon did a good job going through this up to 98 town home units we're providing for some more variety and density to address local housing needs because in the area is again large lot single family and said this will add a little more density there's very low impact on traffic no Tia was required because it the traffic impact was so low as he mentioned we're offering five affordable units um open space and tree coverage are above minimum requirements uh there

is additional buffer along Carpenter Road simply because in that area there's some Wetlands along Carpenter Road and and some low areas and so we're going to leave those but for the one Crossing we need to make to get to Carpenter Road so there'll be additional buffering there plus the U multi-use path uh there's no increase in impact on local schools because the same amount of students would go under would would attend the schools under existing zoning and under the rezoning we're proposing it doesn't change um and again as Aaron said the request has been reviewed by staff and determined to be compliant we did realize we did a textual development plan for this so it became evident at the staff report that we need to clarify some of the conditions plus discussions at the neighborhood meeting so I want to go over those changes and the policies that we did not meet some of them we didn't meet simply because we needed to have some clarifying conditions as Aaron said on the Eastern property line there's streams and flood plane and repairi and

buffers and this map shows that on that that Eastern portion and it as a result it it results in gathering all together all of the open space as well as the Pres preservation of trees um I'll go through the policies where we're making changes to make sure we meet those the ones we didn't meet the ones we met obviously are are obvious in that regard policy 48 just in terms of variety of housing we're adding the town home type next to existing single family and there no age restrictions for this housing on proposed on this site we are going to add a condition that no structures will be constructed in the flood plane except for the sanitary sewer Greenway and or potential trail head for the greenway and as I'll indicate later we had intended to dedicate a Greenway easement in that area and that just got left off so we're going to end up doing that and the likely location will be along that abandoned railroad right away in all likelihood um

we're also going to add a condition that the open space will be clustered within the flood plane Rari and buffers and wetlands along the Eastern and Southern property lines of the site which would make it consistent with policy 81 um we're going to revise condition number eight so that the 25% tree coverage will be through preservation not ju not replacement so it'll be tree preservation which in that instance we will meet policy 85 in policy 95 we're going to add a condition again that there will be no development in the flood plane except for those necessary Utilities in the greenway um as to policy4 we're going to add a condition to Grant the right of way for Greenway as I mentioned along the stream and abandoned right railroad right of way easan on the Eastern property line and we've already committed to a multi-use path along Carpenter Road which would be the public accessible improvements on site as I mentioned earlier there's no change in the Imp act on schools if it

were left in the existing zoning or with the zoning change it stays the same and it's very minimal very very very small impact um and on the place type characteristics per the staff Report with the addition of the pre-re excuse me tree preservation condition uh this resoning would be consistent with the green space characteristic as well um I'm available to ask answer any questions you may have um we will work between now and council meeting to get those conditions crafted how staff is Con comfortable with um so I'm happy to answer any questions and we have the engineer on the project Dam paps with paps Design Group if there are any engineering questions that you may have thank you so don't see uh anyone uh in the audience like to speak on this besides

the applicant we have uh Donna standback on the zoom please let me yourself and go ahead good afternoon um this is Donna stainback I live at 4825 Jimmy Rogers Road in Durham North Carolina um thank you um Durham planning commission for hearing my input um the first item that I was did a a review of the zoning map Change Report and I saw two different values for impervious soil um one says 60% and one said 70% um I'm hoping that 60% for maximum is correct um and then on page three uh I saw that

the project boundary buffers are are are not required but we've had some very serious problems without project boundary buffers dealing with the uh elevation of one Land versus another and so I I just like to make sure that that is going to be taken care of by the developer on um um that uh some of them have gotten you know I guess Statewide notice um as far as how how uh the lands meet each other so that's very important to us um um I look at the transportation impact I travel this road at least uh four out of the seven days week and here we have another country road with minimum support and um and

more more traffic the other thing I was looking at is um I tried to keep track as uh he was reading I believe uh that 26 of the 36 um comprehensive plan policies were met and that would be a like it to 72 percentile I mean percent not percentile M I'm sorry your time is up thank you next we have Pam Williams good afternoon my name's uh do you hear me yes uh my name's Pam Williams my address is on uh [Music] I would just like to um ask a couple questions um will will the present uh

preservation of the trees and the open space be within the same area along the flood plane and the buffers and does the proposed Greenway which is in the flood plane along the old railroad track uh does that count as Recreation and thus what is proposed as is additional tree preservation and open space it's all counted in the same area which is the flood plane the other um question is at at one time when I was heing the presentation it sounded like he was going to construct The Greenway I'd like to know um if he is going the the site is going to construct the greenway and if not why not uh I think that would add to the proper on this project and also although a TA was not required I believe um that over 600 uh Vos per day addition will be added to

this roadway because of this project and as Donis D stated uh that there is a lot of congestion in this area already thank you thank you anyone else on the zoom wishing to speak all right with the applicant like to address those questions um provide some answers from the community I can I can clarify real quickly traffic you know we had durm Transportation looked at it and obviously made the determination no Tia was required but with the traffic volumes on that road it's it's so low I mean the capacity is 14,200 and we're at 3,100 it's very low um The Greenway our condition will be to

donate the greenway easement because I'm not sure that things have finally been decided about where Durham would like to locate that so we don't want to go in there and construct if we don't know where that will be um and I as I mentioned earlier there's additional buffer along Carpenter Road part of our commitment will be to make that a 50 foot buffer along Carpenter Road which is more than the required 30 um and the grouping of the open space and the trees I mean that's in the policies it the the desire is that be grouped anyway so that's consistent with the policies I know that was it raised but what we're doing is consistent to try to preserve those areas that are indeed in the flood plane and repairi and buffers and that's all that I have unless any of the Commissioners have any questions not yet okay thank you uh Aaron you had something sure I think I can just answer one of the questions that uh was raised during the public hearing about the 60%

versus 70% in perious surface um because this site is in the Falls Jordan protected Watershed Watershed protection overlay um the 70% is the maximum allowed by ordinance the applicant has committed to no more than 60% so I just want to make that clarification thank you the maximum is 70% and the applicant has committed to no more than 60% 60 yes all right at this time the chair is now closing the public hearing and we are now open for commissioner discussions and questions commissioner Johnson yes thank thank you chair um just to go back to the applicant for my clarification The Greenway is going to happen but it's a matter of where it's going to happen is that how I took it it's a matter of where it's going to happen and and when I mean this is an area that is far out from the city

center and it's just being a you know the greenway's just at the point of being put in place so we're going to donate the easement and if if needed some additional area for a trail head if the City decides that's what they would like to do okay that thanks for the the other couple questions I have is on the flood plane um not meeting Udo 995 and 79 standards as I read them uh I heard you talk about the flood plane can you just readdress that for me how that's going to be addressed in terms of protecting the flood plane or we're not going to construct in the flood plane except for any of the greenway improvements which do end up being in the flood plane often and the sewer line okay but our other improvements will be outside of the flood plane okay good and the last couple of questions I heard um blasting I read in the notes from the meeting there was no sort of understanding of what would or would not as that been clarified at all it has not I mean that

won't happen until we uh do some soil testing as the project were to develop further we don't know uh the existing conditions to be able to tell that okay so so there's no way for us to know that you'll be you'll be sensitive to it obviously blasting as a I can't commit that but I understand where you're come from I mean we will if indeed the blasting is required and I know their requirements I live a joining a lot of the development along leeville Road and there's been plenty of blasting going on and their notices that go out almost daily letting the public know so the process for that in Durham is very stringent as well as you know there's state law that deals with that as well just for awareness it was raised by the community my last comment is there's a lot of active projects in that area I was reading about let's see here The Village at Carpenter Woods the E green uh Gear street uh subdivisions which would add

more traffic um I know that you're not adding right but have you looked at it in the context of the overall development in that area and if not how should I look at that thank you well we weren't required and when a TIA is not required there's no scoping or anything like that for us to look at so if our traffic is so low that a that a transportation impact analysis not is not required then that analysis doesn't happen now if in some of those other subdivisions that may be different and if they contribute more traffic then they may have to do that analysis but this one does not all thank you anyone else Aon you add a clarification Tom Tom if I could just uh get you uh read these back to you make sure that I have these uh for the record sure on the additional five uh commitments that I have which is and the way I would word it is no structures or

parking in the flood plane correct okay uh that you would cluster the open space in the flood plane correct that the 25% tree coverage will be preservation and no replacement correct that you provide an easement for the greenway correct that you provide a 50ft project boundary buffer along Carpenter Road correct great thank you that's all thank you no other questions clarifications do are we ready to move this case forward all right may I have a motion to move case z 2411 2613 Carpenter Road chair as it relates to case Z24 0011 and annexation bdg 24004 2613 Carpenter Road I make a motion that we move this case forward with a favorable recommendation to city

council second it's been moved by commissioner cutright seconded by commissioner Williams to move case z to 2411 bdg 2404 2613 Co Road forward with a favorable recommendation and the profits that were read this evening may I have the roll call vote please chair Cameron yes Vice chair sheras yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner chowski yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner Johnson yes commissioner copac yes commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke no the motion passes 9 to one thank

75 acre parcel at 3112 South aluson Avenue the parcel is currently split Zone office and institutional and residential rural the request is to Zone the entire parcel office and institutional with the development plan since the development plan commits to only residential uses the request is consistent with the place type of EX of established residential as shown the request is to Zone the entire parel next one there

go as shown the request is to Zone the entire parcel office and institution with the development plan the site is surrounded by residential zoning except to the South which is office and institutional the aerial map shows that the site is in a predominantly single family residential area with some industrial uses in the area the place type map envisions predominantly residential uses in the area except for a few Parcels where neighborhood services are desired the development plan limits the site to seven townhouse or detach Ro house units Transportation improvements are also committed two neighborhood meetings were held for this case the First on May 31st 2023 were seven community members attended and a second meeting on September 17th to 2024 were four community members attended the proposed The Proposal is generally consistent with the place

typemap designation of established residential due to the limitation of residential uses on the development plan the proposal is generally consistent with 12 of 23 applicable policies on the comprehensive plan staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you at this time uh the chair is opening the public hearing is the applicant present are they on Zoom Mike kleene I see you're on go ahead hello hear me yes okay um good evening commission members um I'm my client of MRK planning Consulting 7204 stonecliff Drive Raleigh North Carolina I have what I think is a simple one for you tonight um a little this is going to be a little bit repetitive um

after um aon's presentation but uh we're here to request a zoning map change at 3112 South Austin Avenue this 75 Acre Site in the Suburban tier is currently split zoned office institutional and Rural residential we seek to convert the rural residential portion of the site to office institutional to contribute to a greater mix of housing opportunities within the context area um so specifically we seek the zoning map change to allow placement of a maximum of seven townhouse and or DET sorry detached rowhouse units on site uh we initially were proposing a general resoning which appeared to be fine at the time of our pre submittal conference uh but we were subsequently directed by staff to convert our requests to resoning with a text development plan

the primary purpose of the text development plan was limit allowed uses of the site to residential in order to be consistent with the residential Place type designation of the comprehensive plan um and we are amenable to conversion from a general resoning to uh resoning with TX development plan as it matches up with our Development Goal here U we have agreed the two other we have we have agreed to two other committed elements uh related to the street Frontage as directed by City staff and ncdot a 10- foot wide concrete shared path for bicycle and pedestrian use and a Northbound left turn L to the site um just to few quick initial additional notes about the context area uh are that um the site AB buts a rail Corridor to the to the West uh rear um

the surrounding uses are all single family residential including the Oakmont neighborhood to the West beyond the railroad um the only other townhouse development in proximity of this site is approximately 860 feet to the south at 3302 South Austin and those homes are slightly larger than the unit sizes we're proposing um or considering at this point and in addition to planning staff's note about proximity to nccu uh it is also important to know that the site is when within half a mile of the boundary of Research Triangle Park um again uh we believe the proposed zoning map change if granted will contribute appropriately to a variety of housing stock along this portion of South Austin with some required public improvements and little if any adverse

impact um at this point I'll defer to any public comment as well as the commission to guide the rest of the conversation as always the owner uh Mr Alum alurad and I are happy to respond to any questions or concerns you may have thank you thank you are there any um members of the commune that would like to speak on this there's no one signed up is there anyone on Zoom going once it's going twice all righty we're going to close the uh public hearing now and we are now open for commissioner discussion and questions commissioner Johnson thank you chair um Mr Klein are are you the owner

of 3116 South Austin as well as 3118 South Austin um I'm I'm representing the owner of those Parcels as well so to clarify the owner has ownership of those parcels and the one in front of us yes so I've got a follow-up question because some of the community members felt that this was just one piece of a hole which raised conc concern for me is am I correct to interpret what I know about the three Parcels in total that there could be 21 Town Homes not the seven we're looking at for uh 3112 that is correct and they will be um developed as currently Allowed by ordinance effective of January 1 of this year uh that allows for exempt uh uh townhouse development of up to 10 units

per property um and they are size restricted can you clarify for me what you mean by size restricted please uh in order to proceed in this fashion um the um the size restriction is that they they they do not have a footprint in excess of 1,000 square feet and in reading the neighborhood notes one uh Miss blue and Miss Boyd raised a question about uh traffic which you responded didn't rise to the level of warning and traffic impact analysis was that based on just the seven units or looking at the the total 20 um 21 well that's that's just based on staff review of 3112 South Austin um and uh NC doot did look at it as well and

that's what's driving the um the Northbound left turn lane requirement and my last question is on tree preservation uh can you clarify that was another question for the community has it been decided how tree preservation would work in this proposal or is it to be decided Well tree preservation is is not required um for proceeding under the exempt process that's now allowed um but that being said uh there is a tree stand to the rear uh we would like to keep U much of it uh for um a noise buffer from the rail line and uh you know like we're thinking 30 to 40 feet deep um out of a 230 foot deep site uh and beyond that on the within the railroad rideway there are additional uh

trees there's additional Forest beyond our property line um and we've left some trees up at the front um and to the side um they might actually be on 3116 uh and we'd like to keep some of those tree stands if we can and are you willing to your comment to commit to the 30 ft that you mentioned in the back lot to create a buffer tonight um yes okay thank you thank you chair thank you anyone else no are we ready to move this case forward yes may I have a motion chair as it relates to case z233 38 3112 South Austin Avenue I make a motion that we move this case forward uh with the additional profer of a 30

foot tree save uh to city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case z23 38 3112 South Austin Avenue forward uh with the favorable recommendation recognizing the additional profer of the 30 foot uh tree save may I have the roll call vote please yes um we just wanted to make sure that we were clarifying that is a 30 foot tree buffer and not a 30 foot tree save tree two two different things in the ordinance to look at just want to make sure that we tree buffer like the record both should be both in this case well yes in this case it will happen to be both but when we look at it when site plan review when major development review looks at from a site plan standpoint they're going to look for a buffer and so that that's that's how

it'll be addressed through the ordinance so just clarifying that thank you okay uh chair Cameron yes uh Vice chair sheras yes uh commissioner cutright yes commissioner chowski yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner Johnson yes commissioner copac yes commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes the motion passes 10 to zero thank you we are now moving to on to case z23 trip 046 Brick Works may we have the

staff report please thank you chair Cameron you said this is Cas z23 0046 Brick Works yes oh did I not did I say something different I thought I heard a yes and I wasn't sure z23 46 brick works yeah yeah yeah okay who's on going twice okay um uh the citing question here for this case is just over 95 Acres comprising several Parcels the current zoning is industrial industrial Light and residential Urban 5 The Proposal is to change the zoning District to plan development residential 19811 for up to 1,880 dwelling units and 49,5 sare ft of non-residential development the existing Place type is mixed use neighborhood and staff finds the The Proposal consistent with the place type the site is adjacent to Industrial

uses some of them Li industrial to the North West and East a single family residential neighborhood is to the south of the site the aerial map shows that the site is between I 885 and the Durham freeway with residential industrial and Civic uses surrounding it the development plan commits to use limitations including walking trails native species plantings 5% of Apartments being affordable to 60% of area median income and a $60,000 donation to Duram Public Schools among other commitments the proposed conditions are shown here access would be from aner Avenue Rowena Avenue and Miami Boulevard a stream bisects the site and is shown with 50 and 100t buffers as required an initial neighborhood meeting was held in accordance with Udo

requirements on October 25th 2023 16 community members were in attendance a second meeting was held on November 6th 2024 The Proposal is consistent with the m Place type designation of mixed use neighborhood The Proposal is consistent with 21 of 25 applicable comprehensive plan policies staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing and we'll have the applicant present good evening chairwoman Cameron Vice chair sheras members of the commission I'm Patrick biker I live at 2614 Stewart Drive I'm an attorney with Morning Star Law Group and I'm joined Jo here tonight by Dan juwel the regional director for thomass and Hutton here in Durham Earl lellan who's our traffic engineer with kimley horn also here in Durham and then we have Sarah baxendale who is the development manager for cohab Development LLC doing business as

spacecraft which is located in Charlotte I'm here this evening representing spacecraft which aspires to transform 95 and a half acres that primarily were the former brick pits of the bordon Brick Company into govern's most pedestrian and Transit oriented development yet with up to 1,880 dwelling units and 49,500 sare ft of non-residential space we are focused on developing a pedestrian oriented neighborhood that promotes walkability sustainability and a more healthy lifestyle here in Durham we are consciously targeting the demographic in Durham that does not want to be solely Reliant upon their vehicles by utilizing a variety of Mobility strategies such as bike and Shar sharing for residents shared parking garages and additional Neighborhood Services close by with on-site retail spaces spacecraft already has developed pedestrian and Transit oriented projects in Charlotte and now wants to achieve the same success here in Durham there's a substantial group of

people in North Carolina who cares about climate change and wishes to work in a shared economy so that car dependency is not a fact of life and rather than viewing sites like this as a liability it is time to view sites like this as golden opportunities for infill that perspective has been a Hallmark of spacecraft since their Inception and that is reflected in their corporate slogan Better Homes walkable neighborhoods for you and the planet next I wish to highlight that this site has Transit service on God Durham Route 2 that provides direct service to downtown employment opportunities along tww Alexander Drive and direct uh connection to shopping restaurants and a Harris Teeter at Brier Creek in addition to that that this site is only about one mile away from hundreds of jobs in the regional Commerce Center developed by scel properties over the past few years off of Ellis Road in addition the Parmer Edge Business Park recently approved by city council is only about a mile away from this site in other words our place type map is working we are creating that

15minute City that we have talked about by locating housing and jobs in very close proximity and to address other needs I hope all the planning Commissioners took note of the text commitment Mr Mr C reference to develop 49,500 ft of non-residential space and in addition to that there will be at least 5,000 linear feet of walking trails reducing Reliance on cars saves money for residents of Brick Works making the overall housing and transit cost of bricks Works residents more affordable and in addition spacecraft is going to dedicate 5% of the apartment units as affordable in order to provide housing for lower income families in Durham accordingly this development plan checks 21 out of 25 boxes in terms of comprehensive plan policy consistency and so for all these reasons we respectfully ask for your recommendation of approval our team will be happy to answer any questions and we appreciate your time tonight thank you is there anyone in the

audience that would like to speak there's no one that signed up but is there anyone here yes sir please come to the podium and stay your name and your address good evening my name is Caesar Belo uh 225 uh East End Avenue um one of the questions that we have from those meetings uh was water pressure how is that going to affect the area I didn't see or maybe I missed uh on the proposal anything related to water for the area um it would be great if uh if the town or the developers have a plan for that um the other thing I have is traffic um 118 units without will add flow to eend

right from uh 70 to to 147 uh in Ang uh is there's any plan to uh or proposal to mod 5 or expans sh fard maybe East End um that connects that side of town from 70 to 147 um not to mention that U East End Avenue um currently it's at 35 M hour road I wish it could be less than that uh but that's a different discussion I want to said that um one thing that uh I don't think we got answered during those two meetings was uh the mixed use and why it can be a single family um I know there is a conclusion in the end of

the report um I just want to understand what was the process for that not to be able to be single use or single families in in that um thank you sir thank you uh are there any other uh questions from the audience is there anyone on Zoom me see that is would like to ask questions of the applicant all right would the applicant like to or the city about the water and then some other uh questions to be answered good evening Commissioners Dan juwel uh Thomas nutton Engineers Landscape Architects uh yes we've looked closely at the water pressure uh we know that the water pressure out there at the site right now uh may be marginal but

during our site plan approval process and Engineering Process we fully expect that we'll be upgrading uh substantially upgrading some City water lines out in that part of the community to uh bring the pressure up to where it needs to be and also I won't speak for Mr lellan but uh you all saw the text commitments relative to traffic on the development plan as well so there very robust Tia that was done with quite a few recommendations and of course uh we are agreeing to uh incorporate all of those recommendations of the Tia as part of the approval as to why mixed juice and no single family uh I'd almost like Mr Kane to answer that sure the uh the place type map as shown uh for this area is mixed use neighborhood the idea being that we this is an area closer to the city it's within the urban tier we want it to be um a higher density area and a uh an

area that people can start to create a 15minute community right as as we envision where you don't have to go so far to be able to access Neighborhood Services retail uh employment and so forth we want those to be able to all be within a with a relatively close area and that's why this area was designated as Mi ju neighborhood on the place tyght map thank you or yes uh just to add some further uh color to the the traffic question this site has the been Sor spoke before but on this case sorry lell and kimley Horn um this site benefits from being very close to the us70 corridor also having good access to Andre Avenue both of which have uh excess capacity that nevertheless we are proposing a robust list of improvements that I think are included in your staff report uh

primarily along Andre Avenue with turn Lanes at Major intersections and potential signals if warranted um to address the site traffic impact happy to answer any questions you might have thank you all right at this time I don't see anyone else in the audience or on Zoom that would like to speak therefore I am closing the public hearing and moving this open uh case now open for a commissioner discussion and questions oh I'm sorry okay okay I'm sorry sir you have to come up to the podium and speak in the microphone I'm unclosing the public hearing effort will this units be for lease or sale rentals or thank you members of the commission the uh dwelling units will be a mixture of resident of rental and for sale all

right thank you all right now the public hearing is closed and we are moving this case forward for commission discussion and questions to Mr copac yeah thank you chair Cameron appreciate the presentation and also the resident comment um you know glad to see about uh some of the efforts around making it B compean friendly and accessible um the largely uh consistent nature of it with a comprehensive plan uh took note of uh as well as the commitment to the contribution to the dedicated housing fund so definitely want to make note of those uh a few questions for the applicants um the first is just curious about uh your assessment of the impact of the development on the wetlands and uh based on kind of the multiple stream Crossings what how was that taken into consideration uh to what extent was conservation sort of built into the development plan yes Dan juel again great question

uh so as you can tell from the the existing conditions map included in the report there are quite a few streams and wetlands on this property uh even though most of those met Wetlands were man-made if any of you know the history of this site bordon brick has been had been located here since the turn of the century and they dug a lot of holes to get clay to make bricks but be that as it may they are now uh Wetland areas so what what we have uh committed to do with the uh with the plan that you see is uh we are uh impacting very little of the wetlands and the stream buffers we're basically you know Crossing them in a few places uh but uh the goal is to leave them largely untouched obviously we'll be managing our runoff from the site as is required by the Durham ordinance to uh treat most of that storm water before it gets down into the Wetland areas and I think it's fair to say that one of the

2% uh dedicated to affordable housing um uh and I do recognize there's a contribution but what thinking uh went into that and what is the possibility of dedicating a higher percentage to Affordable hous on this site given the almost 2,000 units that are proposed commissioner copac it'll be 5% of the total number of of Apartments

built that apartment that total count has to be the site plan but Baseline the total denominator it comes out to a lot less right but it's still going to be 5% of the total number of Apartments we anticipate a fairly small percentage will be tow houses the vast majority of the dwelling units will be apartments and of that majority 5% will be affordable uh you know and so that's what the plan is what was the discussion about ways to get that um number and percentage up given the total number of units is that something that was discussed or would be considered we have to ride the profer on affordability as it is currently written commissioner copc 5% of the apartment units will be available made available at 60% Ami okay um also I know there's been a lot of talk about pedestrian infrastructure and there is a bus access not far from this site is that built into the plan as well to make easy and ready access to uh bus routes yes sir

MH um and then finally you know on that north end with the light industrial you know there's the uh the scrap metal uh uh recycling there's the uh looks like some sort of concrete or stone uh work happening there what sort of buffer or plan is in place between the residential and that light industrial the ordinance will require landscape buffers along there um we didn't want to get into the details on the development plan but certainly as we work through the detailed design of the site plan that that property has changed hand several times in the last couple years and as you said right now it's now wall recycling it's become a recycling center and it's frankly it's it's a mess I'll be on record saying that uh so we'll certainly want to incorporate lots of new vegetation in there uh otherwise we not be able to sell or lease units people don't want to be able to look at

that so that'll be a uh that'll be definitely something we'll need to do to be able to attract people to move to this community my time's up so I'll stop just if anybody else wants to check in about engagement with uh the Horton public housing community and whether there any Outreach there but I'll pause and not expect a response at this time thank you commissioner cutri chair I'll take the uh suggestion from commissioner copac and ask about community outreach um and what that's looked like um have you had any engagement um I know typically you're sending out notices to homeowners but clearly there's a nice rental uh Community around there have you had conversations with them uh do you understand if there are potential concerns from their perspective so the community outreach to date on this has been the U the two virtual meetings that were mentioned

there were 16 folks on the first one um and probably five of those were on part of the development team the one that we had last week there were only four people on that neighborhood meeting that weren't part of the development team so we've had had Outreach uh frankly for the the scale of this project and I've worked on a lot of projects over the years uh there were you know very very few people who uh showed any concerns to us uh now certainly if people reach out to us between now and the city council meeting we will do everything we can to meet with them and engage with them uh including uh uh the gentleman who spoke here this this evening but uh for a for a a project of this uh magnitude uh the community interest has been extremely low commissioner

Johnson thank you chair before I ask some questions could I clarify a couple things uh one is uh the question about light uh light industrial buffers which I appreciated my commissioner are you committing I heard you talk about it but I did not hear a commitment or a profer to actually provide a buffer in those areas between I know you're going to have a hard time sell it I got it but I'd like a little bit more firm commitment in that regard well certainly the the Udo requires buffers so we can't commit to something that the Udo requires already in terms of how much wider are those going to be I I don't know we'll have to get into final site design to figure out what that that means I think Aaron wants to add something yeah sure so um against industrial Light um development and I I had it here and it it went away on me um let's see here this would be against industrial Light they would have a minimum Point

0 opacity so there would you can look in the udio I'm not going to read read through all pleas look in the udio as to what the Landscaping requirements would be for and and Aaron I believe the the recycling center is indust heavy industrial industrial indust industrial so that would require the minimum 37 and half foot buffer with the um with the vegetation that is provided in you and that's required in the ordinance they we wouldn't even want them to commit to that because they already have to do it okay so industrial Light industrial different buffers okay correct uh my colleague uh commissioner mentioned a housing uh fund contribution

I saw School contribution is there a housing fund as well that I missed yes sir there is a uh there is a profer of a one-time payment to Durham public schools in the amount of $60,000 right but I was asking a housing okay thank you for clarifying that all right uh with my time and I'll as quick as I can maybe avoid a second round um I heard you talk about actions regarding the water pressure which is a major concern for me given both this project and other projects around the area there's a number of active projects that are adding uh would you repeat what you're committing to for sewer or water pressure as I heard you talk about before so so the the city and the the North Carolina building code stipulate um minimum my minimums I mean

at least this much flow and pressure for different types of uses uh and Commercial uses and multif family residential units are actually some of the most robust we will have to put improvements in place and demonstrate to the Durham public works department the Durham inspections department that those improvements will deliver that amount of flow and water pressure uh before we can get the first building permit so do you have a definition of what those improvements will be I know the project has been laid out as is and looking at the surrounding area I'm more interested in details I understand the objective yeah do you have details so we know that we're going to have to upgrade the existing water line in Andre Avenue because it's kind of the tail end of the system what Avenue I'm sorry Andre Andre Avenue yes all um sorry to be going through these

quickly the other issue I have is is traffic capacity both in terms of this project as well as the uh ly road tow houses adding 36 Town Homes Fox Crossing adding 320 apartments and Hoover Road adding 42 tow houses so if I look at that collectively that's a lot of impact on a road that's already at capacity um and I appreciate what you mentioned about turn Lanes but it doesn't address the root issue of a lot of cars in limited space um I don't know if you have an answer to that other than have you considered changing the mix of Apartments to town homes to reduce that impact and stay within the overall uh layout of the area to reduce traffic other than because I had a math issue this is me and I'm a math guy I was looking at 1,000 what is it 1,00 sorry papers are here uh 1,880 residential units and it says 100 tow

houses and 100 Apartments so I'm trying to reconcile math between how do you get to 1,880 units within 100 apartments and so maybe you can clarify that I've run out of time I'll take it later if I could share I'll give it back to you thank you so the the I think part of the question was um the the 100 apartments or the 100 those are minimums we had to commit to just just to demonstrate to the planning staff that we're meeting the intent of doing a mixed use a mixed residential development not just one or the other uh in no way shape or form are we only going to do uh 100 apartments and probably not 100 Town Homes uh I don't know what else I can say about that other than U the traffic impact analysis was was based on 1880 units um

and the improvements that we're committing to putting in place are maintaining the level of service that the city requires that we maintain commissioner cutright um I just wanted to say one thing as I go back and I as I I think about your comment regarding um Community engagement and 2,000 units going up and they're being limited Community engagement I think what that speaks to uh as we start thinking about responsibility here understanding that there's a heavy rental population and that there was lack of Engagement I think developers um especially in resoning cases should consider their level of responsibility in reaching out to the community as we think about Equitable uh development in communities it's clear that this will have a very big impact on the neighborhood yet there was no effort I

don't think outside of what was required or what is required with the Udo to reach out to the community and engage them on something that will have a significant impact on their livelihood and and how they will move going forward I think there should be a sense of responsibility there um so consider that going forward that's a comment um it it particularly on a project of this magnitude thanks thank you thank you Mr Gregory um just a real quick question so in um evaluating the existing conditions map there's clearly a lot of variable topography a lot of slopes thanks probably do in large part to the the history of the site um I'm just curious from an engineering and construction perspective how much grading do you anticipate needing to be executed on site but seems like a lot of Earth moving

there will be uh Jewel again there will be a good amount of grading on the site uh we suspect there'll be some retaining walls here and there that sort of thing but um we we intend to um have the various development areas happen in relatively small pods and by small I mean five acres eight Acres that sort of thing so that we can place things at various elevations across the site rather than just scraping everything and starting fresh and uh a new but the site has challenges as I said it was uh it was used to make bricks for 80 years before the plant shut down in the 1980s so there there will be grading but um you know again we'll put all of the storm water control measures in the set ofation control measures in and that sort of thing to make sure that we uh protect the um the uh you environmental features on the site and downstream properties as

well all the Commissioners had their first question commissioner I mean Vice chair Shar question for the applicant I saw on the package there was some federal potential Wetlands there probably some of the pits that had been dug for the brick making pup do you what kind of trouble do you anticipate or challenges from you know additional Federal Reg ation so we have had a environmental biologist on board since day one on this project they have identified which streams um are jurisdictional they also flagged all the wetlands uh they've had the US Army cor engineers and the state uh DEQ out there to confirm the delineation of those Wetlands um we are doing a little bit proposing a little bit of the impact to the wetlands but those will require permitting through the US Army Corps of Engineers uh our

biologist has a lot of experience with them and we have minimized that to the point that they feel that we will um likely get those permits for that small amount of impact but at the end of the day if the uh US Army Corps of Engineers does not issue those permits we will not be able to impact those Wetlands so we'll have to pull back uh the project from from working working on those Mr kobak back to you thank you chair um so clearly I was mistaken about my uh belief in the contribution to the dedicated Derm housing fund that was for uh the public schools um given the magnitude of the project and the small scale of the affordable housing is it something that has been discussed with the developer is that something that you could profer a contribution to that fund uh in lie of additional units

this is just a guesstimate this time commissioner copc but we're estimating that the site will have 1,440 Apartments so if you'll give me a New York minute I can tell you that the affordable housing profer then translates into turns into 72 uh affordable housing affordable housing dwelling units so that that 5% has been I think a fairly good Benchmark uh for the development Community considering that there's absolutely no uh public subsidy of this project in spite of the magnitude of the infrastructure and the uh um that Mr Joel referred to in regards to water lines Road improvements uh sewer improvements so that 5% I think do does translate into a uh a significant benefit for our community I'm s I'm not sure I understood um so you're saying that the 5% of the apartments that are expected you think will come out to 72 ballark ballpark it's just

that you included the minimum of 100 to be in compliance with a mixed residential that's correct but you think it will be we anticipate somewhere between 1400 and 1500 Apartments of it will be Apartments yes sir that's our anticipation at this time obviously site plan we have to figure all that out okay thank you for that clarification and then I have a question for staff uh relating to commissioner Cut's U questions about engagement and you know this is one of the the um areas that's been designated as disadvantaged for the climate and Equity screening tool and I know the staff takes efforts to include that information for us um but I'm often not sure what to do with it um you know it helps us to bring another lens to our evaluation but you know is there uh or you know maybe it's not fair to put this to you but could there be uh additional sort of standards that are required for engagement if we do give it that designation um that is something that we could certainly consider through our

engagement policy it's not something that's currently in the policy so it's not something that we can enforce or mandate at this time but I think it's a great idea and it's something we get thank you commissioner copc we we will state on the record that we'll hold another neighborhood meeting between now and uh the city council public hearing and we will undertake extra efforts besides mailing um certainly I've gone door Todo in places like bragtown so I know what that's like um uh so we'll state that on the record we'll have another neighborhood meeting and we'll do we'll investigate options besides u u first class mail uh to uh reach residents in this area of Durham commissioner I'm going to go to Johnson first and then to you thank you chair and uh I commend you for taking that action on the additional community meeting and my questions are not to take away from what you've already put on the

6 million in terms of capital impact against a 60,000 profer the question is that the balance doesn't meet the reasonableness test for me how would you like to address my question about is it reasonable and are you expecting to do more

we can't answer that on the Fly tonight but we'll certainly evaluate it as we go forward to the city council in addition to the neighborhood Outreach that we're doing but um um we certainly understand the challenges that dur Public Schools uh is facing at this time uh certainly Mr juel and I were proud to support the uh Bond referendum that Durham Public Schools uh had approved our our group endorsed it so that uh there would be another 400 plus million dollars in capital uh expenditure in Durham so we appreciate the appreciate the concern I will certainly review that but at this point in time we're we're um um going to maintain the profer that's been put forward I appreciate your consideration I'll comment that just for future reference is probably something to to have anticipated given that we've had similar conversations through these proceedings looking at what has been mentioned in terms of the different kind of drivers to make this add up at the end of the day consistent with the Udo

requirements so my uh expectation would be that it would have been kind of factored into this discussion a little earlier notwithstanding thank you for the 60,000 that was profited but that's just my two cents thank you chair thank you commissioner Greg yeah this is another question for the applicant so um just want to say I'm I'm genuinely impressed by the transit oriented approach and um efforts to integrate natural features into the site development with that all being said looking at the engineering renderings um I'm a little concerned that the 7% canopy preservation it's it's almost entirely all in the southern portion of the of the site and there's tons of wetlands um in the northern have to so I'm curious um if if you've considered increasing the um uh canopy preservation number which I believe is currently at the Udo minimum um to account for just how pervasive the wetlands are across

the across the site so a good question so the the 7% on our plan is uh it's just paring the minimum required by the Udo uh but if you know uh state law and Durham law and federal law for stream buffers and wetlands which are a substantial part of the site as you go look at that existing and proposed plans uh we cannot touch that vegetation so it will it will remain in place as is other than where we have a couple of stream Crossings and the small amount of uh Wetlands impact that we're going to request from the Corp of Engineers if they should um uh ask us to do that that being said um I think we'd be happy to recalculate what that tree coverage tree preservation actually is based on the substantial acreage that's in those

environmentally sensitive areas and take back when we get back to the city council have that that larger number in there as a tree coverage commitment yeah that's easy to do thank you any other questions all right are we ready to move this case forward may I have a motion to move this case forward chair as it relates to case z23 0046 Brick Works I make a motion that we move this case forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case z23 trip46 Brick Works forward with a favorable recommendation do we need to mention the propers all right I don't believe there were any additional propers at this time good to go all right uh with forward with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote please chair

Cameron yes chair sh Vice chair sheras yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner chowski yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner Johnson yes commissioner copac yes commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke no motion passes 9 to one thank you um thank you going have a quick two-minute recess while we change chairs here for a few minutes should be back in a few minutes oh

okay for e

yeah uhu we're going to uh recess for um 15 minutes have you noticed more electric cars on the road recently they are gaining popularity as more models become available and charging infrastructure continues to expand let's discuss some basics of electric driving there are two types of electric

vehicles battery electric vehicles are powered solely by an electric motor with rechargeable batteries plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are powered by a combination of a gasoline engine and an electric motor with rechargeable batteries electric vehicles offer drivers multiple benefits including fuel and maintenance savings enhanced vehicle performance a fun Driving Experience and environmental friendliness there are many types of electric vehicles to choose from and new models continue to enter the market for your typical passenger vehicles there are electric sedans SUVs and trucks for medium and heavyduty vehicles there are electric vans buses tractor trailers and Specialty work trucks trucks and we can't forget about the two wheel Vehicles electric motorcycles and bikes are quickly becoming Rider favorites all of these vehicles get their fuel from the electric grid by

plugging in to charge there are three levels of charging level one level two and DC fast charge Level One charging uses an adapter to plug into a standard 120 volt Outlet providing around 3 to 5 mil of range per hour level two charging uses a 240 volt outlet and provides 12 to 60 mes of range per hour level two charging stations can be installed at home and are commonly found in public locations including shopping centers downtown communities multif family housing and workplaces DC fast charge stations provide the quickest charge adding about 60 to 80 M of range in 20 minutes DC fast charging is usually located in High trffic public spots and along Highway corridors while drivers tend to do most of their charging at home there are multiple apps and websites to help locate Public charging stations with electric vehicle and charging options

growing daily drivers are zipping around their communities and traveling the country cleanly and quietly with plenty of places to plug in along the way there's no place like home home is where the heart is hey can I help you oh thank you thank you so much it is our place of safety and warm home is where love resides memories are created and laughter warms the heart that's why the Durham human relations division is committed to enforcing the Fair Housing Act which prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race color disability religion sex familial status or national origin owning a home provides a sense of financial stability family community and pride but housing prices are now higher than ever making it hard for many Durham residents to afford their first home that's why the city of Durham is

offering the down payment assistance program to support eligible individuals with up to $80,000 in 0% interest forgivable loans to purchase a house within the city limits visit this site or call to find out if you qualify for the program I was looking for an opportunity and U an old friend of mine suggested that I apply at God Durham the community really relies on us on God Durham public transportation well I like driving a bus because of the friendly culture I love it in the morning when people greet me good morning they give me a fry wave they appreciate you and that goes a long way being a bus driver in gr DOR anything can be achieved here um you can come in at the bottom and you will be able to excel in Fairly a short amount of time here I started as an operator and I'm here now as a operator training specialist so long as you stick to it you can Excel the perfect candidate that

would excel at godder is someone with tenacity someone with Drive someone who wants to make a difference for their Community you have to be people oriented you have to be experienced and you have to be on hands ready to go but with the proper training it's just like driving a car so as a new driver with Road training come in and you see me and I'm going to make sure you have all the tools to succeed they give you a lot of input and they work with you step by step so you won't be alone in this to anyone considering working for go Duram you won't regret it please come please apply we would love to have you join the goorm team

I count on Durham for awesome adventures and great bike shots I know I can count on Durham for great Sports in every season I always count on Durham for amazing cultural events I can on Durham for his innovative ideas and the determination to bring them to life I count on Durham for community and a place for everyone I count on Durham to do a good job and to celebrate our success did you know that the city of Durham counts on these individuals in a city of more than 260,000 people you're looking at residents who are making their voices count people who care about the past the present and the future of the city of D and you know what it doesn't matter how mature or young whether you're passionate about the economy the art te or the plight of the homeless in fact we have nearly 30 boards committees and commissions that you can participate on the requirements are to be a durm city resident and be

current on your Duram City and County taxes Durham is your home you can count on Durham to be there for you can we count on you to be there for our city can we count on you to be there for Durham can we count on you to be there for our city can we count on you to be there for dur so come on get involved apply today we can count on Durham but can Durham count on you e

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everybody ready we're ready everybody ready come in the meeting back to order we will now move forward with case Z24 quadruple 01 picket Apartments may we have the staff report please thank you chair

1 76 the place type map is apartment and townhouse neighborhood and and Recreation and open space the request is consistent with these Place types and staff would like to State um for the record right now that there is an error in the staff report and the current daily trips on pick road is 3700 not 7,000 that was a typo error the surrounding uh we go to the next thank you the surrounding zoning districts are residential Suburban 20 and residential Suburban multif family to this

site the aerial map shows Durham Academy to the north of the site across Picket Road and residential development to the west to the east is is the Sandy Creek which has the trail and a park as shown the place type map calls for tow houses or apartments on site to be consistent with the apartment and townhouse Neighborhood Place type designation the Eastern portion of the site is Recreation and open space to correspond to the existing flood plane the applicant profer has several propers including income restricted units a donation to Durham Public Schools native plantings and no building or parking in the flood plane amongst the others listed here here is a uh the proposed conditions according to the development plan the development plan limits building uh to outside the flood plane and outside of the repairi and

buffers two neighborhood meetings have been held in accordance with Udo requirements the first being on November 20 28th 2023 where 44 community members attended and a second meeting was held on October 29th 2024 The Proposal is generally consistent with Place type map designation of apartment and townhouse neighborhood and Recreation in open space and is consistent with 15 of 23 applicable policies of the comprehensive plan staff and the applicant are available to answer any questions thank you at this time time the chair is opening the public hearing and we will have the applicant present okay can you all see the can

youall see that PowerPoint cover cover cover page or cover yes that's the extent of my technical expertise okay good even evening chairwoman Cameron Vice chair cheris members of the Planning Commission I'm Patrick biker I live at 2614 Stewart Drive I'm an attorney with Morning Star Law Group I'm here tonight representing Ascension Durham fund LLC that helps to develop 140 apartments on the south side of Picket Road a little less than half a mile west of 15501 bypass joining me tonight is our site engineer with civil consultants and former Pittsboro Town commissioner Michael fako at the outset it is important to highlight that we are following the place type map which I think wisely designated this site for an apartment and townhouse neighborhood since the tow houses on Coachman's way are only about 500 ft to the east this 140 unit apartment neighborhood complements those existing Town Homes very well I want to commend the Planning Commission and the city council for the many hours of public hearings that were held to

receive input about the place type map I think the apartment and townhouse neighborhood designation for this site is 100% correct as you can see from this GIS aerial slide with the exception of the schools and the churches in this part of town and with the exception of some tow houses to the East and cista independent living next door to the West it appears that the vast majority of the area along Picket Road West of 15501 has been developed entirely as single family detached housing my belief is that our new comprehensive plan promotes A diversity of housing types to accommodate Durham's growing and increasingly diverse popul population and that is exactly what this zoning map change will do next I wish to emphasize the RO roadway characteristics that are highlighted on page five of your staff report as was mentioned a moment ago the current traffic volume on Picket Road is 3,700 cars per day with a capacity of 12,500 now I would be remiss if I did

not acknowledge that there is some congestion when Durham Academy St Durham Academy student drop off occurs during the morning uh morning rush hour period but that is no different than any other school in durl beyond that Picket Road is functioning based on those corrected numbers at 30% of its capacity my belief is that many persons who are here tonight in opposition to this development are opposed due to traffic concerns in response to that it seems to me that the overall thrust of our new comprehensive plan is to promote infill and higher density as opposed to expansion into to the outlying areas with lower density so if we cannot build apartments in close proximity to tow houses in an area of Durham that has been developed for several decades on a road that is operating at 30% of its capacity where can we build Apartments now even though Picket Road is operating at 30% of its capacity this project will be constructing a thre Lane

section for Picket Road along the frontage of this site and that will also include a 10-ft multi-use paved path I bring this up because that road Improvement will cost about half a million dollars and that needs to be advertised over a maximum of 140 Apartments accordingly that means that about $3,500 per apartment needs to be allocated to this road Improvement in order to create safe turning movements we recognize that is very important since this location is fairly close I'd say fewer than five miles away from our Region's largest employer Duke University Medical Center lastly I want to touch on what appears to be conception about the location of these 140 Apartments I appreciate I appreciate Mr Cain showing the uh excerpt from our development plan I want to highlight that our building envelope which is shown on sheet number three of the development plan is approximately 250 ft away from the closest walking trail in the area going down to Sandy Creek Park accordingly this development has no impact on the existing trails in the area some of

which are on private property like Crescent Baptist Church and Church of the Good Shepherd I also want to note the text commitment for income restrict units which I think is strong given the relatively low unit count of only 140 most of the apartment complexes I have worked on during my career have been the 250 to 300 unit range that is to my understanding a unit count that creates efficiencies of scale both for infrastructure and for on-site amenities due to the need to create a compact just over 6 acre building site in this location and be a good environmental Steward the unit count is capped at 140 I I think that cap of 140 Apartments balances the competing interests between being a good neighbor and complying with the place Type M designation for an apartment and townhouse neighborhood and so for all those reasons we respectfully ask for your recommendation of approval Mr fako and I will be happy to answer any questions thank you for your time tonight thank you

at this time we're going to call the uh folks who have signed up uh to speak uh I'll call you about three at a time so you're ready to come after the next person and um I do recognize that there's a discrepancy from the website and to what our new uh procedures are rules or procedures for the uh Planning Commission and in general it is about 2 minutes uh per a person in uh for the public and Community comments and if I butcher your name because I can't read it uh forgive me in advance I'll do the best I can so uh first we have Marty wack wack yes and you uh remember to come up uh state your name and your address uh after that we have Richard grusen and an Andrea Caruso

so if you um can get ready after he gets done that would be great good evening my name is Marty wo I'm the assistant security director for Durham Academy which is located at 3601 Ridge Road um I'm here tonight specifically to talk about two two um concerns which would be parking and traffic I understand that there's the um 140 units that are proposed but according to the information I received there would be only 154 parking spots available for those residents the roadway that this um that we're talking about um improving so right now doesn't have any type of curbside parking the road where the the apartments are are proposed to be

it's a it's a grade that goes up to a traffic light um about a block away Durham Academy currently has a driveway on that same roadway on that same slope that we only have one way which is entering because um to to leave that property using that driveway is very dangerous um the light like I said is a block away it's on a blind Hill and traffic coming um eastbound has hard hard time um stopping if somebody's using that driveway to pull out so my concern would be um making sure that there was a traffic study to ensure that um whatever the driveway situations for the apartments would be safe not only for the residents of the apartments but also the the community um the second thing I want to talk about is basically um the traffic itself it was mentioned that during Academy um we we do handle traffic we

hire off duty Durham police officers to assist with that to ensure that the community isn't stuck in traffic trying to leave their homes go to their jobs during school hours and events um so I I just want to let you know that I'm I'm happy to hear that you want to be a good Community member because I think that's important because this community is very valuable to the school and to each other all right thank you sir thank you that two minutes goes quick y'all so get up there hi my name thank you for hearing me my name is Richard Gruen I live at six marchmont Court in Colony Hill on most mornings I walk from my home to Sandy Creek Park the park is a jewel in the city of derms Park system I'm here today to speak for the park this proposed development fails to meet several planning guides guidelines involving Green Building policies building in flood planes green infrastructure or Innovative storm water

practices these omissions are alarming in a proposal to build a 140 unit apartment building on property that itself includes Sandy creeks floodways and flood plane as well as the often flooded paved path connecting Picket Road to the park a path which provides disabled access to the park if any site merited Green Building policies and infrastructure and Innovative storm water practices this is the site the runoff caused by the impervious surfaces in the plan development would encroach upon the flood plane in violation of city and state regulations although in fact the development might not physically build upon the flood plane The increased Downs slope runoff the highest part of the park or the site is 100 ft above the creek um would produced by the complex would count by law as encroaching upon the flood plane this

development will lead to more frequent and severe flooding events that would impact not only the park but also Durham Academy Athletic Fields directly across Picket Road because of the dramatically increased risk of flooding from this project as well as its impact on the water quality of Sandy Creek I request that this proposal be referred back to planning staff for further review with local state and federal agencies to determine more exactly the impact of this 140 apartment development on Sandy Creek Park thanks and I've given you a longer version of this to read and some slides to thank you sir good evening my name is Andrea Caruso um and I am here on behalf of d Academy which is located at 3601 Ridge Road and Durham the density of these development plans and the increase in impervious surfaces to close to so close to Sandy Creek flood plane and in an

ecologically diverse Wetland and forested area threaten our friends at Sandy Creek Park and the ecosystems this park is an ecological treasure that is utilized by many community members and our school for example for the past 7 years as a science faculty member I've taken my students to Sandy Creek for lab activities as recently as October 7th I took students to the park for a lab and had to drive the students Al although it is less than a mile walk um to the park because the pathway Sand Creek Trail was inundated after recent rains in SE late September and October tomorrow we're taking several dozen 10th graders to the park for community service um to help them maintain their Park trails our faculty are responsible for students safely Crossing Picket Road um for this activity um the existing flood plane Maps I'll note about my previous comment is uh are from 2018 and the current requirements for developers to um to anticipate the uh for 10year floods seems shortsighted uh considering how uh

prone this area already is to experiencing flooding and the increased storm intensity we experience in this area um related to Traffic I also wanted to note um pardon me uh that this development as others have noted will also increase traffic on uh Picket Road with little consideration and infrastructure for road crossing safety across Picket Road uh especially since sidewalk editions are limited to the span of the developed property the traffic safety issues also extend to local Wildlife Sandy Creek Park Trail the park itself and connected vegetated Pathways along sewer line easements serve as harab corridors for wildlife these corridors are becoming increasingly late Weare with deforestation and residential development I fear for the residents of this developed property will in fact be increased risk of vehicular accidents with deer and other Wildlife Crossing Picket Road um if rezoning and development of this parcel is to be undertaken I strongly urge this commission to require a traffic study and um more current evaluation of the

Sandy Creek flood plane thank you um next we have Andy Brawn that was the discussion we all concluded with the name and then we have Tina best Bessie and then Helen fiser go ahead sir thank you good evening and thank you for your service my name is Adam Browdy and I'm speaking on behalf of Durham Academy our address is 3130 Picket Road which is directly across the street from the plan development my goal on being here this evening is not just to re reiterate positions we've already shared with the developers Council but to encourage all of you on the on the Planning Commission to exercise The Leverage you possess to ensure this project is completed in such a way that it benefits our entire Community we believe that to to be

deemed a success this development must not only provide needed housing it must must also Safeguard the lives of pedestrians Runners cyclists and motorists moreover it must minimize flooding along Sandy Creek we strongly agreed with the need for a traffic study however in the interest of time I'll Focus my comments on two other topics first the 10-ft path which as presented will run alongside Picket Road but importantly only for the length of the property up for resoning heard Mr go who's not here this evening everyone thinks it's a good idea for the path to extend from Ridge Road to the existing Sandy Creek Trail this of course is true for all sorts of reasons the most important of which is safety left un said by Mr go was that it was someone else's problem to solve to ensure the path connects beyond the property lines of the development I would suggest this is only true if you allow it to be so if however you condition your recommendation to the city council on the creation of a completed path the developers would have an incentive purs to pursue constructive dialogue with all relevant parties again if everyone thinks it's a good idea let's make make it happen the alternative of leaving a path that ends on either side of the

property is absurd for the record Duram Academy would be happy to participate in such conversations as appropriate separately I would like to raise concerns about the Project's plan for water retention in our conversations with Mr go she acknowledged that the project has been designed to conform to the 10-year floods Z given our state's recent history with Helen it seems self-evident such a standard is irrelevant while I suspect a 100-year flood will occur more far more frequently than that at the very least the Planning Commission can do its part in Risk mitigation by requiring developers to adhere to a more stringent standard starting now as a final thought we ask you and the commission to not just push this project through the pipeline but to press the developers to implement measures that will res result in a better project for all of us thank you for your attention thank you my name is Tina bessus I am a lifelong Durham resident uh at 1604 Cliff Street and I am a teacher and sustainability coordinator at Durham academy uh I speak

as a commuting cyclist uh who rides the length of Picket Road every day um and I see that the uh indeed there is enough space for the cars and for a cyclist where there are three lanes which is most of the length of the road the Real Pain point is by Sandy Creek and by the property that is proposed for rezoning that's where it is extremely narrow the shoulders fall off um and we have this really attractive Park that so many people are trying to get to but on foot with dogs with strollers with bicycles um with binoculars to watch Birds there are so many people trying to get there and it is extremely difficult and dangerous the building of a meaningful 10- foot wide path from from Ridge Road to the beginning of the Sandy Creek Trail would really solve a significant

problem in this area um with a 10- foot path that just starts and stops in the middle we get nothing so we really urge the commission to explore the possibility of it improving that path um and I leave it to others to discuss the the flooding issue in the Park which is also very significant thank you thank you hi I'm Helen Fischer I live at 3817 West Crest Street in Durham 27707 um 140 apartments and parking lots on South side of Picket Road I was told by city council members Durham should develop along its major arteries like 15 faa1 that heads straight into the city center from Chapel Hill and 1 15501 bypass that encircles part of the western edge with a large number of apartments that have already been built and that remain

mainly empty do we need another set of Apartments built on a small Street Picket Road whose Nam sake knew he' inherited land that was primarily in the flood plane to accommodate the new traffic this road would have to be widened the bridge over Sandy Creek would need to uh all to accommodate residents who just as easily could move to one of the existing apartments on 15501 or corn Wallace Road if development paid for itself property taxes would not continue to rise this uncontrolled growth leads to gentrification and people leaving durm because they can't afford to live here on a separate issue the h5n1 bird flu has now moved from cattle to pigs and to Some Humans it's a matter of time before it mutates to allow human- to human transmission the 1918 h5n1 flu pandemic

killed between 50 and 100 million people populations could be decimated if Durham continues to build apartments that stay empty a beautiful Park will be marred and the massive infrastructure will require maintenance forever thank you thank you um the last four speakers that we have signed up in person are Daniel Ellison osel Osborne Jennifer bow Bose sorry and Evan register and Angus cook thank you Daniel Ellison I live at 31 ston rdge Place durm North Carolina I took a moment this afternoon to walk on Sandy Creek Trail within just two minutes flying overhead was a great blue heron flying majestically in the air we're so lucky to live in Durham where nature can be right around the corner it what makes

this one of the most desirable places to live in America once it's gone it's gone the Picket Road of par dep's proposal as is will have numerous negative impacts as follows increased unsafe additional traffic on a stretch of Picket Road that is already experiencing more traffic at peak times than it can handle once it's done it's done negative impact on the fauna in Flora that inhabit and frequent the Sandy Creek Park Wetlands there has been no formal study of the effects on the natural habitat once it's gone it's gone loss of opportunity to expand the Natural Area of s Andy Creek Park again once it's gone it's gone the negative impact on the already existing plan to expand the Sandy Creek Trail across Picket Road once it's gone it's gone uh there are still unknowns regarding the effects of this development uh or other developments that would be allowed under the requested Zone in change knowledge is

power to reiterate no study has been conducted assessing the exist Flora and Fauna of the Sandy Creek Trail and wetlands surrounding it we know that it contains an abundance of natural habitat life if we do something that destroys the delicate Palance that presently exists we'll never get it back once it's gone it's gone um we don't need to be in a hurry to develop this environmentally sensitive property in the words of Joanie Mitchell and I've got n seconds left wow um don't it always seem to go That You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone they pave paradise put up a parking lot thank you a little bit more lengthy um I did cut out a few things to meet the the two minutes um so there's a little bit more information in what I handed to you all thank you all thank you

3 miles from the site picket street is a busy narrow two-lane

road with no shoulders and no sidewalks um I provided a copy of this letter I apologize that the I couldn't figure out how to make the photo turn right side up so you'll have to turn it like that but it shows the it shows the the very narrow slope that pedestrians have to walk on so you're going to ask uh for 125 cars to find somewhere else the park uh somewhere somewhere down this road um possibly at night uh the nearest place to park is on Colony Road near my house several minutes walk down a busy street no sidewalks to get there just a sloping dirt shoulder the parking would be unfair to me and all the residents that live along there along Colony Road as I frequently walk down and you'll see people with walking and there's baby strollers and and dogs and it's a

m. before the sun comes up we all to cross Picket Road to get into Sandy Creek for this run every morning we notice that there's heavy traffic even before the typical rush hour begins as we return to the school we have to cross pick it again this time at rush hour when traffic is heavy and cars are speeding to get to school or work on time the lack of any form of safety precaution has been a hindrance to the 60 plus Runners trying to make it to Sandy Creek so we practice at durm Academy in the summer fall winter and spring so for teams that train this much it's easy to run out of engaging in new places to run but for us the main problem is to find some more safe to run we've historically

had two Trails linked to durm Academy which is Roger Brooks to the north and Sandy Creek the former was closed down to us this past summer which leaves Sandy Creek as the only option it's a beautiful isolated safe place where we can do our hourlong runs or even get in a good workout however the problem lies with getting to Sandy Creek we have to cross an already busy and dangerous road to get to a trail that offers so many possibilities we've implemented buddy systems and we've counted between cars to ensure that nobody's at risk but increasing the flow of traffic would make it virtually impossible to cross our only uh to our only running Sanctuary it's a matter of exercise of joy and of safety thank you thank you thank you my name is Jennifer Bing I live at 3225 Coachman's way I live right down the street from where this new development is being planned for and I only question up the street on Western that

crosses picket there are six big apartment buildings that are not even 50% occupied right across the street on picket from there is a new apartment complex that hasn't even open so what is the traffic going to be when all these buildings are occupied 100% we don't know how can you do a traffic study if the buildings are not open yet we're already having problems with traffic and there are more schools that have been mentioned on Picket Road at the very end of picket is Trinity a private school and Crescent is right there on Garrett which is not even a four for the mile off uh picket and then you got far view which is two

blocks away these schools haven't been mentioned we have problems and then you got Sandy Creek have you been to Sandy Creek it is a blessing it's beautiful what's going to happen to it with this new construction I really would like for you guys to think about that before you vote tonight I appreciate it thank you thank you we will is there anyone else in the audience that would like to speak before we move to the zoom participants okay uh Jennifer mayor good evening I my name is Jennifer Mah I live at 2514 Wrightwood Avenue in Durham

I'm a member of the New Hope bird Alliance conservation committee the alliance is concerned about the impact of adding up to 140 units along the boundary of one of the most valuable natural resource areas in the city of Durham Sandy Creek Park Sandy Creek Park is located in low-lying property it was formerly a wastewater treatment plant it contains Lake and extensive weap lands it is therefore attractive to an extraordinary number of birds I believe about 90 species have been identified there these are both nesting and migrating birds and among them are several species of concern as their populations are declining there is a there are several Heron rookeries these are Colonial sites where uh herons are nesting easily disturbed by light by noise and by what will be the effect of tall buildings being built right next to the to the park um migrating birds fly into windows that are lit at night and many migrating

birds are attracted to this area because of the wetlands and its protection for them noise and lights coming from this development will also adversely affect birds and water quality uh should we should be concerned about the water quality needs to remain high in order to support the bird population ations that eat fish citizens of Durham use this as for citizen science observations New Hope bird aliance brings bird walks there it counts uh the bird species that inhabit and pass through and it's installed the Purple Martin Nest Tower and this is a species protected by Durham's year of the aerial incore Proclamation this year uh the proposed 55% impervious Service uh will create runoff as has been noted and birds don't stop at the edge of a park so we will have lights and noise affecting the birds that are living there and the

birds that are flying through a project of this size in proximity to sandre Creek Park will substantially and adversely affect one of Durham's gems of biodiversity thank you for your time thank you all right next we have Charelle Figaroa hopefully I got close that time thank you for uh having me I appreciate it I just wanted to reiterate a few things um the senior facility Solis solista that is next door to this proposed project um will this will if this is built it will make it very difficult for some of those folks to um get around it'll make it uh less safe for their driving uh the danger with the traffic uh I really recommend and and hope that you will all really consider that this is not the right location for a project of this size of 140 Apartments especially when

as it's been stated previously there are other apartment complexes that are not even open just uh East down on East on picket on the other side of 15501 um other apartments that are being built and almost open there um there is it's just uh this is not a good neighborhood so thank you for listening and I hope you really that the you all will really consider this thank you thank you next we have Candice go ahead thank you Candace from Colony Hill I love this area it's quiet tucked away and people don't know it's there that is rapidly changing and it's Trea and wildlife habitat at disappear at alarming rates from every last corner of the triangle North Carolina and the us our quality of life as humans continues to took line as does those of our friends the wildlife Thoughtless and short-sighted threats to mature tree

canopy wildlife habitat Sandy Creek Park as well as increased traffic are among the many concerns I have about this proposal with every additional high density Development building particularly those close to Natural areas such as our beloved Sandy Creek we take one more step towards destroying our sense of place the beautiful and calming natural environment which used to attract people here in the first place think about how you feel about a place when you travel down a treelined roadway versus one surrounded by strip malls and highrises we are on the precipice of turning a gem of a city into another soulless generic any Town some think this is already happening I suspect the developer who is not part of our local triangle or even North Carolina Community has little concern for our dorm Community contrary to what they have asserted apartments are not missing from this area as continue to crop up in the 15501 Corridor and right around the corner from this development replacing the Acres of trees that used to greet us along our affectionately known Tobacco Road and Beyond this is one more unnecessary and

unsightly building that local residents do not want and it is not going to solve the housing and affordability issue I would like to ask everyone here what value do we place on green spaces as a society and why don't we do more to preserve them why do we have to gobble up every last existing space and cover it with yet more ugly and unimaginative concrete cubes not to mention the noise and light pollution they bring as previously mentioned we need to think about the big picture as a community why don't we start investing in and preserving our unique remarkable and natural areas instead consider converting empty existing office space or even using the apartments that are not at capacity there is a cost to Rapid development and it's not just what the developer pays we taxpaying residents who are directly impacted in a negative way and the reputation and aesthetic of our beloved Bull City or any place is a very real cost thank you next we have

Bradley hi good evening can you hear me yes thank you so much for the time thank you for uh listening to us all here tonight I live at 3125 Coachman's way uh just east of the proposed development uh I will do my best to not Echo any of the concerns that have already been raised I know you've heard many of them many times and so I I want to put some additional ones in front of you I have two dogs A small daughter I cross Picket Road at Colony Road at minimum four times a day and every time I am worried that one of us is going to be hit by a car if you look on your map as Picket Road curves by Colony it looks like a very gentle Bend that's a very blind corner and people are frequently speeding around that corner now Mr go and The Morning Star Law Group uh you know they they've said that existing issues are not their problem and while I agree it's also their responsibility not to exacerbate an existing problem many

have said that there are uh Apartments going up up that hill uh again those are not open we have no idea what the impact of that community will be as well as uh you know mostly vacant apartments at Lancaster uh that are on Western Boulevard I would urge you all to not be a rubber stamp to this this is going to destroy Sandy Creek Park this is going to create a massive issue a safety issue for Durham Academy for local residents and for the two senior centers that are nearby so I I hope that you consider this I hope that you do not recommend this for approval and thank you for the time thank you do we have anyone else on the uh Zoom we have Betsy Ross please go

ahead okay I want to make sure you can hear me yes um I'm at 33 Betsy Ross 3328 rowing Hill Road just a block away from this proposed um development the location is a terrible spot for this for many reasons from an environmental standpoint the parcel I'm sorry I'm gonna have to turn my this subject is getting terrible Echo if I switch over to my phone you want to leave and back in this meeting is being recorded I think you're you are logged on twice which is why you're hearing an echo okay I'm gonna try to cut off that okay now can you hear me but okay yes all right you can start her back at a a minute 30 please thank you I appreciate

it uh from an environmental standpoint this parcel is situated right between Cy Creek which is a Nature Park and a preserve and if you have not been there I would urge you to go and Emerald Pond both spots are favorite resting spots for migratory Birds I've seen hooded merganzer here as well as the herons and King Fishers malards the light pollution as mentioned would would create and disrupt the migratory Birds uh flooding is already a big problem here if you just walk behind where this proposal is there are trees uh stacked up like toothpicks the runoff created by a large complex Like This Will Destroy Wetland habitats of the threatened and endangered species of the Carolina Go Gopher frog and the gray tree frog which is listed as a species of special concern and is significantly rare the threatened species of the wood or of

Wood Thrush and the prator warbler are there as well this development would cause habitat loss pollution exposure to pesticides and insecticides for all these animals and plants traffic is already heavy and already an issue and then there's the new huge apartment complex of eight to 11 buildings under construction I agree with the those ahead of me what's that going to do that uh 12,000 uh is can't be Capac Road can't be right uh this needs to have a new study this is a dangerous area with the blind I'm sorry you're out of time Miss Ross thank you is there anyone else on the zoom that would like to speak Judson not I saw a hand raising

this did you want to speak Jetson not or your hand was raised and I think you're unmuted now nope anyone else on the zoom trying to see if U if he can all right we have David Schultz that has raised his hand uh yeah uh can you hear me yes well I I like the other speakers I don't want to repeat things that already have been said but I do think that um again I I just have to reiterate the traffic I live at 104 Academy Ridge Drive just around the corner and across the street from Durham Academy I have H three boys that have attended Durham Academy two are still students at Durham Academy so

I want to speak to not only do we have a lot of traffic but we have a lot of young drivers around here we've had several accidents which Young Drivers have but increasing the local congestion of traffic could only increase the possibility of adverse outcomes including Young Drivers if you throw the older drivers at the retirement committee Community into the equation you've got some potential problems there um and then again with that new apartment complex up the road at Western bypass you've got even more traffic and we've yet to see the impacts of that traffic it should be known that that corner that intersection of Ridge and picket has some obstacles to site so if you're trying to make a right on red there you often pull out uh with a car coming right over the curb there's often speeding on that road again you could have out um adverse outcomes particularly with young drivers which I have who do not judge the uh speed and distance as well as an older more experienced driver all other concerns

about the environmental impacts I agree with I think that this is being proposed because this is available land for sale it's a parcel it is certainly not ideal for this in fact it is really bad for this type of development for all the previously stated reasons that's all I have and thank you for your time thank you um we're going to try for jets and not again can you speak sir to see if we can hear you okay you are in if if you're on your phone click star n or connect to audio because we cannot hear you yep uh anyone else

on the zoom all right um before we close the public hearing I'm wondering if the applicant can um come back up and address some themes that were addressing this the storm water um concerns the flood plane encroachment concerns uh the driveway um and the narrow narrowness of the road um the road safety of pedestrians and then I don't know if this if Aaron or someone can address uh completing that 10- foot path on either side who owns the property um but those are the the items that I wrote down thank you go ahead members of the Planning Commission I'm Michael foko with civil Consultants we're at 3708 lyen Parkway suet 20 in Durham and um I can address I think some

2% of the flood plane we have committed to not encroach in the flood plane or any Wetlands um and to keep the property uh the the development portion of the property out of those areas um the 10-ft multi-use path will be construed constructed across the frontage of the property and it will actually connect to an existing 5T wide

sidewalk to Ridge Road and Beyond uh it will stop to our East um at our boundary and to continue noticed or or stated that the slopes are um a little bit severe on the roadway and um to take undertake a capital project such as that would really take ncdot the city in the county contributing funds to widen that road um if there were other issues that I missed please remind me driveway um road crossing cross the road crossing again that is one of those uh improvements that is well beyond the scope of this project it's so far from the project in itself um it would require ncdot approval it would require the city of Durham's approval um and we could look into that and report back to uh city council at

our uh public hearing with them and pedestrian Crossing as well uh that City or anyone want to we could look into that yeah okay we'll definitely investigate that and it it we should note that this project is making substantial improvements to the roadway in front of the property uh expanding it to a three Lane section and for the driveway that durm academ Academy is using that um was mentioned to be uh had some safety concerns we are dedicating a left turn lane only for that driveway so we've been working extensively with the city transportation folks and the ncdot to come up with these commitments for this project thank you um closing the uh public hearing at this time and now open for commissioner

discussion and questions commissioner copc all right so thank you to the applicant uh thank you to all the speakers especially to Evan and Angus it's not easy to get up here in front of the the the the commission here so thanks for having the bravery and the conviction to come up and do that and all the folks who reached out from the community uh uh with emails to our inbox um I appreciate some of the profit been put for the affordable housing the partial bike pet Improvement uh the DPS contribution you know clearly you've touched on some things that are important to this commission and and things that I look for for sure um I think we're hearing a lot of concerns uh in this meeting and before about the traffic and the safety concerns for pedestrians and and bikers which I definitely take seriously uh I want to raise specifically the issue of this being environmentally sensitive area and this is both a question to the applicant and staff uh I noted that this is a North Carolina conservation protected area and a city of Durham critical areas protection plan area for Sandy Creek I

didn't see that mentioned in the application I want to make sure that I have that right uh and whether that should lead to any uh additional consideration about this case given those designations I'll need to do a double check on those designations I don't know of those off the top of my head but I can I can make sure that uh we can double check on those designations and make sure they're in the city council staff report if they're if okay all righty applicant awareness you know of those designations and what you've taken into account uh you know given that given the sensitivity of of the site uh I will note that I went for a walk in Sandy Creek Trail uh this morning and so I have a personal experience from that walk about how special it is so I understand the passion and the connection that people people have for it so I'm um curious yeah just what what thinking and and work you put into to to the idea of this being environmentally sensitive area no I'm glad you asked that question because I I did the same thing I walked my dog uh down the Sandy Creek Trail today

um yeah that's why we constrained it you know the acreage that our client is purchasing is much larger than the six barely over six acres so we've really contracted the Disturbed area and then reduce the impervious surface below what uh udio would allow and Michael knows it far better than I do but my understanding is our post development conditions need to mirror what the predevelopment conditions are in terms of what we can do in terms of what um storm water runoff would be um allowed from that site uh we will definitely meet the city's requirements for storm water require uh storm water um control on this property the fact that we are so low in the um flood plane and the Watershed uh city regulations recognize that it's advantageous for us to detain it for only so long and to let it go before the large volume of water comes

through which often times creates um high water conditions in that area so we will definitely we very sensitive to the storm water requirements here very sensitive to the environmental issues as far as flood plane and wetlands and we are staying out of them all all together and will be treating storm water according to the city requirements I mean given where you're situated you're in some ways the last line of defense then and contributing to the water that's running downhill um you know there's a policy and a comprehensive plan calling for Creative storm water improvements um you know have you undertaken any of those I didn't see it specifically noted uh to try and be you know a catchment to help stem the flow of water to this area we will definitely be detaining uh some of the flow uh that is for certain the fact that we are developing up on the higher portion of the property it's going to require some creative storm water such as beneath the parking lot and subsurface kind of treatment so we we don't have all the

te's crossed and eyes dotted but that's what we anticipate we're going to do okay I think it'd be helpful to have something specific on that I know you can't tonight but definitely before city council I think it'd be helpful to know since that is such a a significant concern um you know the last I'll ask because I'm going to run out of time is about the you know the engaged Durham uh work that was done about uh that covered this site um that recommended uh a lower density uh you know eight units per uh per site I don't know if you've seen that and what other sort of um U I don't know what other sort of developments were considered uh for this uh this location before moving forward with with this uh decision it's it's been an apartment project from from the beginning and trying to capitalize on the density that plan development residential zoning would allow and that is the type of thing that enables us to profer the affordable housing component because

you've got to have some density to offset the the burden of providing for those um um affordable units and we've committed 10% 30% % of those are at 60% Ami 30 at 80% and 30 at 100% And they're all of course um going to be affordable for 30 years so you need that kind of density to create the ability to provide for affordable housing okay thank you commissioner Johnson thank you chair I Echo uh commissioner KC's comment to both the applicant for the details and the community at large cross community at large parking a couple questions there 140 units 154 parking spots not buses near

the area public transportation the math doesn't add up to me either can you address that question and concern well as everybody's aware uh the city recently got rid of any parking requirements and so has is leaving it up to the marketplace to decide that and this developer has done studies that tell him that or them that 155 I think parking spaces as opposed to four uh is adequate for up to 140 units of course with this resoning it's a maximum of 140 and the project could have less uh we have studied and looks like we can do 155 parking spaces so we're relying on the marketplace to make that decision yeah I appreciate that on the Udo and also I could get into other areas of safety Transportation traffic and I could bring that to a different

way uh with that said the other question I have is in your view based on the changes you made the half a million dollars and Transportation I've heard different people talk about different issues school crossing uh the impact that that would create in safety I also heard uh from the traffic perspective we have a lot of units already in the area that have been built not your issue but we have a flowdown effect in terms of the impact in the community at large and safety I don't know if they're occupied or not I'll defer to the actual I don't really know doesn't affect you I understand but it does raise the general Spectrum uh Spectre of traffic parking uh outside of the you know the the development and on the road we've heard so I'm still looking at that overall impact can you comment on that as far as any sort of evaluation beyond the 154 where they Park if they did come well

they most definitely will not park on the on the roadway uh that would not be a possibility at all uh they would immediately be to and it would be an unsafe condition granted um but we think that at one parking space per unit which is essentially what the 55 is to 140 is uh I was talking to about the overall improvements you're talking about how that would alleviate a lot of the concerns I heard well it it it will provide for greater mobility in along the frontage and there are tapers back to where it goes back to the narrow road but for the frontage it is most definitely providing for the width for bicycle use and pedestrian use and um safe automobile use uh as far as the crosswalk goes it it is it doesn't make sense to me for this project to provide a mid block walk because it's literally several hundred feet from the signal at Ridge Road where

there would be safer Crossing yeah although knowing students I'm not sure that always plays out in terms of advantages uh two last questions for me is um one with respect to the flood plane I I believe I heard that you're looking at ways to address the storm water and the flood plane I didn't hear specifity I'll point that out you can provide whatever you can today but I'm also a former FEMA so I understand the 100y year 10 year and the changes that are going on uh which we can't plan for right now but we have to anticipate so so that's why I would like a little bit more specificity as far as what you actually have in your plans if you have any well I I we don't have that level of specificity yet we do know what we're that we're going to have to do meet the city standards we're going to do that and again the fact that we're so low in the flood plane that it is advantageous for this project to detain it for only

so long okay uh a question for our staff on planning uh the environmental aspects of this the uh we've heard about conservation I read something in the application that it didn't apply but how does that get assessed in terms of I heard Wildlife I've heard about different sort of impacts in the park that would be negate impacted by this has that been evaluated or should it be evaluated by the Planning Group um if you're talking about how the development might affect you know impacts on wildlife in the park we don't have an objective way at this time to quantitatively measure what those impacts might be there are there uh there are requirements in the Udo for how much light can be coming from off the site and so they'll need to meet those requirements um and there are city ordinances regarding noise um and how how loud things can be

coming off the site but other than that uh we don't have a quantitative way to measure that okay uh chair thanks thank you any other yes uh thank you chair uh so there have been environmental traffic and parking concerns and and many others expressed by community members who have spoken tonight and thank you so much to the folks uh who have engaged are there any additional commitments that you all are willing to make to address the concerns mentioned yeah subject we'll work with ncdot but we can State on the record tonight subject to ncdot approval uh we will uh provide the The Crossing there but we'd have to check with uh Miss Thomas and her counterpart ncdot uh if that is in fact a feasible Improvement thank you I'm sorry Patrick

can you state exactly where that Crossing would be or give me a something you know I think is the Sandy Creek yeah it'd be at the Sandy Creek Trail uh Mr Kan that that's that's good enough that's that's good enough okay and we'll we'll reach out to ncdot uh since it's an N it's their jurisdiction we have to reach out to them understood and we can work on the language thank you sir anyone else Vice chair shear I'd like to address the applicant's comment about affordable housing being a burden um I mean affordable housing in this context isn't like you know a Section 8 it's affordable housing for First Responders teachers policemen well they are First Responders I personally don't consider the fact of having affordable housing for that type of people in that work class to be called a burden I mean other

than a financial burden to the developer if you could elaborate on that comment well my apologies I did not intend for it to sound as a burden I did refer to it as a financial burden and in fact in some other places They are promoting uh subsidies if you will and what I mean by that is the municipality or the county making an investment that enables affordable housing to be constructed by forgiving fees for the developer or that type of activity so I didn't I know I don't think that affordable housing is a a reference to the burden as any characterization of folks who are occupying affordable housing units it was recognizing that it's below market rate market rate is set at a place where the developer can afford to do the project if you're doing under

market rate it the there's a burden to be overcome and whether that is absorbing a loss or having some other form of subsidy some contribution to the development that's what I'm talking about and I apologize I did not want anyone to perceive that as what I was using the word burden for commissioner cut right um as I we often get projects that are like this that have um a lot of neighborhood concerns whether it's traffic environment um partic and and it depends on the area and what I often say is there are some things at odds here that

that are competing right when we start to develop and uh in this case we're looking for housing additional housing and what's what the what the challenge is is how do we impact the environment and also get housing and is there a way for these things to coexist and to sort of be symbiotic in nature um that that's a difficult thing to accomplish uh and so as I look at the proposal and there are a number of items where you've committed to going above and beyond the Udo the community's raised some concerns vast majority of those are environmental some traffic I think traffic concerns are are important um but for the environmental concerns uh and we can look at to to also piggyback on that when we

look at some of the the policies that the comprehensive plan policies some of the ones that are not met are the ones around um green infrastructure Innovative storm water um development in flood planes these are things these are the concerns that the neighborhoods bringing up that in my opinion probably look at going above and beyond you to your commitments on right u in order to try and create this symbiotic relationship get done what you'd like to get done and sort of meet the needs of the neighborhood it's not going to be a perfect match right um you know there's going to be some give and take there um and it sounds like you've been working with the neighborhood to try and address some of those things but I think the the policy specifically that are not met are very concerning to the neighbors and so my

question would be how do you address that how do you at least meet those policy those comprehensive plan policies I've heard you mention multiple times that you'll meet the udl requirement for storm water retention cool they've got bigger concerns here I would expect to go above and beyond on those that's how we create the symbiotic relationship and potentially alleviate some of those concerns and also get to accomplish what you want I recognize there's cost to all of these things right you got to balance that that's where you have to start to get creative um and I don't know the answer to that not right now um but I don't know what you'd say to that but to me that that seems to be the challenge and what I would suggest as you go into city council that you come forth with is here are the policies that are particularly concerning to the neighborhood and by the way I'm going above and beyond on these in order to try to meet some of the needs that they

have just a thought understand thank you just U I guess a combination comment question around um natural heritage inventories U we also have on our um applications that we read there's always a question about whether there's been a natural Heritage inventory done and almost invariably it's uh no it hasn't been done it's not required but it's a question hasn't been done um is my understanding correct that that is largely driven by the county that has a program to do biodiversity Assessments in partnership with the state uh natural heritage program and whether or not that's been done for a site like this is dependent on whether it's been done separately by the county and their state partnership yeah yeah so the North Carolina natural natural inventory is something managed by the state and so the information that we provide you is that that we're getting from the state and is initiated by them and or the

county okay so if we want to see more of that that's accommodation to State and I know the county has a program they fund some of that that's where that would come from yes yeah okay thank you thank you anyone else commissioner Jackson thank you chair and and on that point uh staff I read in the application that the NC natural heritage inventory did not identify any unique and dangered sensitive species or vegetation did I read that correctly in the application yes okay so that's the general question going back to the reason I piped up again I did hear the comment existing issues but don't exasperate um not your issue but the general issue of looking at the area at whole I also uh had issues with policies that aren't being met not only the environmental but the school one which is an ongoing concern for me when you have schools that are 121% at capacity for the high school not withstanding the commitment that you

6 million in construction but here here's my general question not for you but just in context do we need this development does it yeah May me the Udo but do we need it we've sat here and we've approved thousands and thousands of additional units we need affordable housing without a doubt I appreciate my commissioner raising that point because of the affordability of housing in Durham and that's without question in my view but my question is where does it fit in terms of not only the overarching assessment for Durham but the specific assessment for this area could you reduce the 140 you know it was originally I think 12 single family could you reduce the 140 to a lesser

number to build addressing some of the concerns that were raised leaving enough space for the walkway the impact I'm just to my commissioner's early point is there a middle ground here that we're missing before it goes to city council if I please if I may thank you commissioner Johnson I brought up the process and I apologized to members of the Planning Commission who were not involved with the lengthy process by which we adopt the new comprehensive plan and the place type map um that's why I referenced I mean it was hours and hours of public hearings on the on obviously for all 299 square miles of Durham but specifically the place type map and I I attended I think every hour that this board held public hearings and that the city council did and I was just attending as a regular citizen most of the time not on behalf of a

client based on the discussion I heard commissioner Johnson when I looked at the place type map that said apartment and townhouse neighborhood for this parcel we looked at it and we said well if we did more tow houses that's just picking up on what's already there on Coachman's way and picket s it's not really adding to the diversity of Housing and that's how why I refer to diversity in my comments we had Mr copc chair Cameron commissioner cutright I I lost track of how many hours we were in this room having public hearings the overriding theme was diversity of Housing and so if we just made this a townhouse development we're not increasing the diversity of housing on what I think is an important core of Duram and what by important I mean we've got places of worship we've got schools we've got you know shopping down on 15501 this is there's no doubt this

is an attractive area for people to live but if you're a person who's you know by choice or by the stage of life that you're in uh needing an apartment you're not going to find anything on this side of 15501 keep in mind everything on the other side of 15501 that's the compact neighborhood tier that's anent enely different set of guidelines for how development happens than the Suburban tier I know we got rid of tiers with the with the com new comprehensive plan with those Concepts still apply and so when we were looking at this site to to answer your question should we reduce the number I would hesitate to do that sir and that gets back to you brought up a a an interesting point about the number of apartment um developments that have been that have been approved in and again most of them are well over 200 units and that's because here's here's another example you want to do as many units as you can because a turn lane costs in this case half a million

dollars well if you Amor once you amortize it over um let me see for the Udo you have to once you go over 90 units you have to have two access points and so we we have that once you have the two access points you might as well go to 250 300 units because because it's the same fixed cost and you're advertising it over the number of units here's another example that's particular to Durham um we have two access points we need to have two water mains going into the into the development I don't think in Raleigh you would have to do that I don't think in Carrie you would have to do that you just need one I'm not saying it's a large number but it's still more infrastructure so once you put in the infrastructure you would actually want to increase the number of units to even more to amortize those fixed infrastructure costs over a higher variable number of units and so I actually think 140 is a fairly reasonable number for this in my 25 plus years of experience I would have to say this is the smallest apartment Development I've brought forward I honestly can't think of a smaller one sir they've all been in the 200s to my

recollection now I can't remember what I had for breakfast so do I remember every Apartment project I brought forward no but the vast majority of them are in the well over 200 units somewhere in the 300 range so I appreciate the you know we this gentleman was on the Pittsboro Town commission he he knows exactly what it is to make a decision as as an elected official you know we and when we started evaluating this site we were way over 140 units when we first started looking at it so we actually came down as a team before we brought this forward with 140 units on on slightly over six acres I won't question your logic but I appreciate the answer sir thank you you're welcome sir sorry to take up so much time I apologize

questions um back in March of 23 there's only four of us left um on this commission uh we had a joint meeting with city council um in the a presentation was given to us by the Community Development Department that um defined affordable housing showed how many housing units were needed in Durham and how many affordable housing units were needed in Durham and uh commissioner Williams and I just found that from uh March 1st 23 and we will forward that to the rest of the commission have some great information in there background information um unfortunately a less than half of the commission is around that received that uh report and perhaps Aon maybe you can check and see if that's been updated since then it's almost been 2 years um but it it would be good background information for everyone to have there any other um questions from the commission are we ready to move this

forward may I have a chair as it relates to case I'm sorry sorry sorry I I jumped the gun go ahead you ready to take the vote do we have no profit right you don't no additional profit okay oh yeah I'm sorry yes there is there is the one profer for the crossing crossing at Sandy Creek okay yeah you you've got that Mr Kane thank you that additional profer is on the record sir chair as it relates to case z2400 001 picket Apartments I make a motion that we move this case forward with the additional profit of a Crossing at Sandy Creek uh to city council with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case Z24 qu 01 picket Apartments forward with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote please

chair Cameron yes Vice chair sheras no um commissioner cutright yes commer chowski no commissioner gregory no commissioner Johnson no commissioner copac no commissioner mver no commissioner Williams no commissioner woke no the motion fails 18 to two thank you sorry no clapping decorum and if you're leaving after this please do so quietly we have one more case to go thank you all right moving on to case uh Z24 quadruple 0c Davis Park

West may we have the staff report please yes this is clearly the case that everybody is here for tonight Z24 uh 00006 Davis Park West this is a uh bit of a different case than you usually see this request is simply for a change to an approved development plan um it does not the request is not to change the underlying zoning of mixed use with a development plan than next slide please okay you can see the uh this is the current zoning of mixed use development there are is industrial Light to the East off institutional to the west and residential to the north the aerial shows that this area which is in Southeastern Durham County near RTP is um already heavily developed

that is the triangle Expressway to the west of the site okay the summary of changes that are requested these are to the design commitments within the existing development plan uh this is to changes so that structured parking and office uses would be permitted on the ground floor previously the well the current development plan um only allows for commercial and residential uses on the ground floor also to allow those uh uses to face internally to the site to have uh their entrances face the interior of the site rather than the exterior of the site and also to require for screening and Architectural materials on any exposed faces to the public RightWay of the parking decks an initial neighborhood meeting was held in accordance with udio requirements on January 28th 2024 30 community members were in

attendance a second meeting was held on October 28th 2024 and this case was not reviewed for comprehensive plan consistency again since the only request here are changes to the design commitments on an existing development plan but per the Udo that does need to go through a zoning map change process and staff and the applicant are here to answer any questions thank you um the chair now opens the public hearing and we have the applicant at the podium good evening chairwoman Cameron Vice chair sharis members of the plan Commission I'm Patrick biker I still live at 2614 Stewart Drive and I'm still an attorney with Morning Star Law Group I'm here tonight representing Craig Davis properties uh for this amendment to a previously approved development plan development plan we're talking about uh is amending is for Davis Park West it has been my privilege to be the attorney for Davis Park for almost probably more than 20 years I hope the Planning Commission has utilized this

6 of the Udo applies to public hearings for zoning map changes with development plans which was all the other cases that we heard tonight and that's typical the rezonings that you uh hear and consider at every meeting I very much appreciate the staff report on this item and all that we're discussing tonight are modifications to design commitments four and design commitments five of the most recent development plan for Davis Park West my recollection is that the city council appr Davis Park West unanimously back in 2019 um the main reason for this amendment is to address what turned out to just be a misunderstanding long story short our development plan approved in 2019 called for retail frontages to be along the streets of Davis Park West when we started the site plan process the folks in the planning department said that those streets included Davis Drive our team had viewed Davis Drive which is a multi-lane road posted for 50

miles an hour not as a street but as a major thoroughfare our plan for the Davis Park West retail uh was to have that front on the internal streets of Davis Park West uh just to give you an example of that if any of you have been to medmont uh Craig Davis properties uh was also the developer of the medmont commercial area and that's what we had in mind for Davis Park accordingly we need to amend these two designed commitments uh number four and number five in order to move forward and to avoid re building retail space that opens out on a Davis Drive and so I respectfully ask for your recommendation of approval I hope I didn't take up too much of your time and I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you thank you I think anyone signed up for this nope make sure no one's on the zoom anyone on the zoom would like to speak anyone here all right I am closing the public hearing and opening up for commissioner count

questions everybody's wore out from the last one huh anything no all right you all if we are ready to move this forward um let's have a motion fa as it relates to case z246 Davis Park West I make a motion that we move this case forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams move case Z24 quadruple 06 Davis Park West fort with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote please chair Cameron yes Vice chair sheras yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner chowski yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner Johnson yesac yes commissioner mver

yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes motion passes 10 to zero thank you do we have any committee updates nope do we have any new business do we have any staff announcements uh the only thing just give you a forecasting for next month we only have three cases planned to be on the agenda but one of them is a rather controversial case so that one's going to take a while I think can we put that first um let's talk about that how we want to arrange that it's called Mariah Ridge that one is is scheduled for next month right now y uh question for Aon staff so there was an email that came in uh about a

proposed resoning connected to the rescue mission yes um do we have any sense of when that might be on our agenda it's it's going to be a while um that case is still under review there were some additional Parcels added to that application so that required us to go through an additional review cycle I think I think it's it's not imminent at this time and it is not ready to be scheduled okay thank you know announcements yeah yes commissioner Johnson yeah uh I just wanted to call out the planning staff for answering questions that I raised in advance they've been very helpful and timely so they'll keep coming but thank Youk we we very much appreciate getting the questions ahead of time that's really helpful for us to be able to answer them and provide a researched response so um yeah if if there's like the week before if you know you've had some

questions because you've had a chance to get through the uh agenda packet ahead of time please don't feel don't feel bashful about sending those in we'll get you responses if we can't get your responses by email we'll do our best to have responses prepared for the meeting I do have a quick question about that micophone natural heritage study what what is the date on that is there a date like it says I mean do we do you when you say that the natural heritage didn't find any yeah didn't find any are they like did they do it yesterday did they do it a week ago what's the I I don't I I'm not exactly sure how that process works it is something that is I believe regularly updated as new sites are identified or or something then they're they're added to that I don't believe it's it's not a static report it's something that's maintained by the state okay um and we check it every time we do a staff report every time we do a review we check to see um if the site is within a natural heritage area as the uh as as

reported by the state okay thank you any other questions hearing none we adjourn