Good evening welcome to the Durham Planning Commission the members of the Durham Planning Commission are appointed by 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 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 M maintain meeting decorum and a discernible record of the meeting the chat function has been disabled for those attending in person if you plan to speak on an agenda item tonight please go to the table to my left left and sign up to speak when speaking please state your name and your address clearly when you come to the podium please speak directly into the microphone if you are attending the meeting virtually you will be given the ability to speak at the appropriate time.
If you have pre-registered your name will be called so you can make your comments just like in an in-person public hearing you may also call in during the meeting tonight by dialing 1301 715 8592 if you call in during the meeting you will need to wait until the particular public hearing you are interested in starts after all of the pre-registered speakers have shared their comments I will ask 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 the applicant has a total of 10 minutes for a presentation each speaker after the applicant has two minutes to speak Commissioners we have to go into our Retreat this evening therefore I ask that each commissioner has 5 minutes for Q&A and be called upon to speak for a second time when other Commissioners have chosen to speak for a first time 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 your time this time with your fellow Commissioners keeping your comments questions py and please don't repeat topics that have already been discussed or question the time to make all public statements is before a motion is made once a motion is on the floor any further discussion regarding that motion must come after a second all motions are stated in the affirmative so if a motion fails or ties the recommendation is for denial Commissioners if you H if you are not ready to move a case forward please indicate as such when questioned finally I ask that everyone here and on the zoom meeting the commission members the staff and the public to conduct themselves in a courteous and respectful manner if someone fails to act in that manner the chair will ask the offending person or persons to be muted on the zoom until such time they regain personal control or to leave the galley.
If theorum fails to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until a genuine commitment to act respectful and courteous is observed thank you may we have the roll call please chair gameron here Vice chair sheras here commissioner cutright here commissioner chowski here commissioner Gregory here commissioner hyn here commissioner Johnson here commissioner copac commissioner mcgyver here commissioner Valentine commissioner Williams here commissioner woke here thank you and just to inform the commission we did get two resignations earlier today commissioner Valentine and commissioner young submitted their resignations so we are sorry to to see them go but I wanted to make sure that the commission was aware and we have established a quum to conduct business yes we have established quum we have nine voting members in attendance right there are no adjustments to the agenda at this time next on the agenda we have the approval of the minutes and the consistency statement from the September 10th 2024 meeting May I have a motion to approve so move second it's been moved by commissioner.
Cutright and seconded by commissioner.
Williams to approve the minutes and the consistency statements from the September 10th 2024 meeting all in favor please say I any opposed eyes have it the motion carries we'll now move into we don't have any initial zoning map changes this evening any there's no public hearings to go over that so we will move directly into the public hearings for zoning map change es the first case that we have is z248 Page Miami Design District Place type map Amendment and UniFi development ordinance text Amendment tc24 quadruple 02 may we have the staff report please good evening good evening everybody my name is Kayla cyel I'm a senior planner with the planning department and I'm here to give a presentation on the page Miami Design District res Zoning for your recommendation to city council the page Miami Design District is a staff initiated rezoning meaning that the city is the applicant and in this case the resoning is for a much larger area than than one site staff was asked by members of The Joint City.
County planning committee to take on this effort as part of our work plan for this year we follow the same procedures as the typical rezonings you review with additional public engagement methods so this application is bundled with three formal applications for the district the page Miami Design District zoning a place type map Amendment and for some parcels and a small udio text Amendment we'll go all we'll go over all these components in the presentation for the mo purposes of the motion the zoning and place type map could be one motion and the Udo Tex Amendment a separate motion to orient you this is an aerial map of the case area there are about 433 acres in the rezoning located southeast of RTP Highway 54 Davis Drive Hopson page in Miami and we'll zoom in a bit more into this area to give you more context in general this area is characterized by tall multi-story Office Buildings with large parking lots hotels and drive-thru fast food restaurants in the last 10 years.
The Western Edge along Hopson Road and Davis Drive have been developed with town homes and multif Family Apartments so if you are familiar with the top golf site along I40 that is out a little bit outside the study area but can be seen along I40 the ivia building is one of the tallest along that stretch located here if you've ever been to a meeting of the Council of governments or the Durham Chapel Hill carboro no they have offices along Slater the go Triangle Building in the current which is the current Regional Transit Center is here a little bit outside the study area and towards the middle along Miami is a strip mall Creekstone Crossing and then to the west side is the Davis Park area where we've seen more residential developments built in recent years this site is the site of the future Transit Mobility Hub it's also right outside the study area this is where go triangle plans to relocate the Regional Transit Center in coordination with Research Triangle.
Foundation so finally the the site is bisected the case area is bisected by the railroad which as many of you know has been discussed for future passenger or commuter rail projects in short the purpose of this project is to change the area zoning to compact Suburban Design District which is one of our zoning districts that encourages denser walkable and more mixed use development additionally the rezoning is one way to implement the comprehensive plan also as the city and county pursue funding for transportation projects having the zoning in place help support those efforts as well in Durham's comprehensive plan the area is designated as a Transit opportunity area as I mentioned part of implementing this Future Vision is through zoning changes that work towards the kinds of development Durham wants to see here with these zoning changes and future Transit infrastructure in this area this this area will serve Regional commuters and nearby residents with the ability to walk bike or ride the bus in a dense compact walkable environment this area has been thought.
Of for a long time as an important place for regional connectivity these are snapshots of three initiatives that impact the area the Regional Transit Center relocation I mentioned earlier the triangle bike way and an I40 study that looks at infrastructure to improve bus connectivity and other other projects along I40 the area includes many different zoning districts industrial Light Industrial Park commercial center office and institutional commercial General mixed use residential compact residential Urban multif Family residential rural it's it's a lot of different zoning districts it's a large area we'll point this out again but the property zoned rcd Ru MD and this mixed use with the development plan parcel are not recommended for the zoning change but are in their place type map recommendations so as you can can see the existing zoning does not allow for dense development or it requires special approval to build the kind of development that supports walkable neighborhoods and a mix of uses and housing types however development has trended towards being denser and more compact as.
Shown in these examples these were primarily achieved through development plans in the last 10 years specifically the triangle Metro development plan from 2006 in Davis Park that has been implemented slowly over time and in case this is helpful this map is a map of very broad existing land uses the gray Parcels are un undeveloped but there are some entitlements in the Davis Park area so my point with this slide is that the kinds of development we may see over time is going to be infill on existing parking areas or underutilized parts of properties or Redevelopment of older commercial areas we see this happening mostly on the east Eastern portion of the project.
Area this slide is just extra information to show you where new development or infield development has been in the last 10 years you can see mostly at the southern end along Page Road and of course Davis. Park the area has few environmentally sensitive features much of the existing development either was built a long time ago before regulations existed or have already protected streams and wetlands by buffering those areas so if you can see on the East the western side Davis Park that big Stream area there's Parcels that buffer this the stream from.
Development finally here is the last bit of background info before we get into the proposal attachment G has more explanation of existing conditions including demographics but we wanted to point out in terms of affordability this area does not have any legally binding units but does have nine units that are indicated to be naturally occurring affordable units there's a a link in your attachment for a really interesting map from the Council of governments that shows an inventory of affordable units throughout Durham it is a few years old so I unsure if those those nine units would still be considered affordable but just wanted to flag that so now we're going to switch to the details of the compact Suburban Design District as I shared before staff believes this is the most appropriate zoning District to implement that Transit opportunity area Place type in the comprehensive plan there are three subdistricts ranging in intensity of development po support one and support two with different sets of standards for each the land uses allowed are fairly.
Broad but the district does not allow for vehicle storage sales heavy industrial or drive-throughs except for banks and pharmacies in the support one the support one one. Subdistrict when we look at height here are the standards based on the subdistrict as some of you know we have an affordable housing density bonus which allows for an increase in height in density when affordable housing is provided and there are certain criteria that must be met in the Udo for for what counts is affordable housing I think the big takeaway is that there are many buildings in the area that exist today that reach these Heights that are recommended in or required in the compact Suburban Design District but obviously in that core area the allowable height is taller than what is there now especially with affordable housing and this is just another chart showing you the density minimums and maximums and you can see with with affordable housing density bonus the density is.
Unlimited between May and August we held or neighborhood meetings to share information about the project and inform our proposal we've attached an engagement summary to your memo and provided an overview of the primary concerns about where development intensity is desired and not desired as well as the rezoning impact on existing development plans the concerns that we heard directly influen the revised proposal and text amendments that we're showing you today we initially proposed changing the entire page Miami case area to compact span Design District based on the neighborhood meetings survey responses and discussions with a few Property Owners we've revised our proposal so here's our proposal for the rezoning component and I will zoom in and walk through each of these we recommend keeping the majority of the case area as compact Suburban Design District some of the concerns we heard were mostly on the western side homeowners shared some uneasiness about residential areas being rezoned to come back Suburban design so we have adjusted our recommendation to to RC and RSM.
Which I I will zoom in as well next slide and then the Neighbors near Finsbury Street which is that northwest corner of the case area we're concerned that this resoning would eliminate the development development plan for this mixed use these two mixed use Parcels here especially the ground floor retail that that they're really looking forward to so that that's why those three areas are not included in changing the zoning the developer of one vacant site along Corbett Street has a retail project in progress that meets the standards of the existing zoning district with the development plan but does not would not meet the standards of the compact Suburban design so we have a proposal for that property as well zooming in a bit because I know this is more complicated than we initially envisioned for this project the compact Suburban Design District core is Set alongside I40 in the northern part of this area primarily because of its proximity to RTP and seem to be more desired by residents that more development intensity occur over.
Here to the South this is our compact Suburban Design District support one to with more flexibility for drive-throughs for pharmacies and Banks so that that's where we drew the line between the core and the support one on the west side we're leaving the mud rcd and RD Zoning for Finsbury and Davis Park West we're not including that in the zoning change however they are included in our place type map Amendment and then this RC and RSM areas these are these reflect the current land uses in Davis Park that are that will be unlikely to change over time they're very really recently built Town Homes if not brand new so we in order to clean up that zoning right now it's office and institutional we are recommending a more appropriate zoning District that reflects what's there now what will probably continue to be there for a very long time and then this is the text only development plan that we have in the proposal for this parcel along corbette Street and we'll discuss the details.
Of the of the textual development plan. So we recommend a textual development plan for this parcel the property owner wants to pursue a retail project at this corner and like I said the project is consistent with the current Davis Park development plan but would not be consistent with our recommended compacts for Design District so we believe that the project is consistent with the intent behind the comprehensive plan and allowing Neighborhood Services modest scale retail close to to neighborhoods so people can access the things they need by foot or bike and so that's why we're recommending C in the commercial neighborhood with a development plan for this parcel we do have we are prohibiting some uses with the development PL plan agricultural single family residential and convenience store with gasoline sales which we believe are not consistent with the with the.
Vision so the revised proposal required some adjustments to our place type map shown here the dark purple Parcels have changed from transit opportunity area to mixed use neighborhood and that one parcel with the textual development plan as Neighborhood Services we believe that the adjustments still generally match the intent behind designating this area a Transit opportunity area we've just had the opportunity to look at this in more detail and heard feedback very specific feedback from residents that informed this place type change.
We also found two small text amend changes to the Udo since the Patterson Place Design District was designated in 2019 this page Miami Design District would only be the second one in Durham where we're applying this CSD so while looking at the page Miami area and context context we recommend two technical text amendments one for sign standards so folks know which calculation for sign area to use in the compact Suburban Design District and one for the Tua major special use permit we're clarifying that it applies in the Patterson Place Design District and not the pH.
Miami so as we've gone through this process hearing from residents we've met individually with management companies and developers we've had many conversations about specific parcels and some of these requests came in at different parts of the process but we wanted to call attention to three Parcels that based on your feedback could change the proposal I'll walk through them one by one and we're interested in hearing a recommendation for changing any of these the first one on the far left this is Davis Park pod G this is an already entitled site they have an approved site plan they are concerned that they would not develop before the site plan expires and when it expires then they would be subject to our new zoning District which would be r RC for that property so we staff advised the team to seek a vest rights determination to extend their site plan expiration date and I believe they are scheduled have already started that process and are scheduled to go to council around December so just flagging that not.
Yet resolved but there is a path forward for pod G the middle property is the along Miami Boulevard is a family Fair convenient store and gas station the property owner asked to be removed from this as the compact for Design District would mean that their gas station would be a non-conforming use and there are two other gas stations in the area so would apply to them as well and there's a number of of uses that would be well not uses but a number of non-conforming issues that would need to be worked with worked through we talked to jcpc about this very briefly last month and we heard interest in keeping all the existing gas stations within our proposal and going ahead with the rezoning and then finally 902 Slater Road this is a little bit outside the study area management company asked to be to include that in our rezoning we talked through the specifics and I think we we could consider bringing it in it would just mean that we need to.
Adjust the project boundary and do another neighborhood meeting and neighborhood notice because thing things would have changed so that's that's just a a detail there so if if y'all are interested in keeping any of those and it would also mean just ch starting the process not completely over but starting with a lot of administrative things we'd already done and then one other alternative here so we've heard that the density limits of the compact Suburban Design District are too limiting for what folks want to do in the district the other option we could consider is the compact Design District I know they all sound the same it's the CD District which is only found in 9th Street right now so here's the density comparison so here's the red this is our compact Suburban Design District showed this earlier and then compared to the CD District the minimum density requirements are the same but the maximum is at least in the core and the support one is almost doubled so that would be again if.
If folks are interested if Planning Commission is interested in us pursuing this let us know this this is an option for the area so with that after we hear your recommendation tonight we're scheduled to appear at the January city council meeting for a decision and that concludes the presentation I available to answer any questions you have thank you thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing to hear from any community members is there anyone wishing to speak we have a signup sheet.
Yeah thank you we have Mr Frank Quinn please approach the podium and state your name and address you have two. Minutes should I go my name is Frank Quinn I'm a commercial real estate advisor with APG companies located in Raleigh North Carolina for the last 10 years I've been the lead marketing have led the marketing team on a property called Davis Park East it's at the corner of Hopson and Davis Drive the parcel I'm to speak with today is what we call nomenclature pod a it's at the intersection of Maran drive and Davis it's a 7.4 7.5 acre parcel under the current o Andi zoning we have taken the property to all your product groups Hospitality retail office and certainly multifam there are some severe development challenges to the property of the 7.4 Acres 7.5 Acres barely half of it is devel developable it is surrounded by Creeks no visibility off of Davis Road and anybody to develop that it's a tri it turns into be a.
Triangle now would have to put 15 to 25 foot retaining walls surrounding the property except for the small window on Maran Drive we've gone after the density would be someone has to do structured parking complete walled reinforcing the soils and so forth like that we've taken it to all of the product groups Hospitality severe economic cost of structured parking and dealing with all the environments we've been turned away Additionally the hospitality group as you know wants to be by Page Road my recommendation would be to for multifam medium residential that's compatible consistent with a very Vibrant Community of Davis Park East thank you thank you thank you very much next we have Mr Harvey.
Patel good evening chairwoman Cameron Vice chair tares pardon me if I pronounced that wrong and members of the Planning Commission my name is Harvey Patel and I'm the proud franchise owner of the Family Fair convenience store located at 5202 South Miami Boulevard and the corner of nc54 give me give him a brief about me I grew up in India and immigrated to in United States in 2010 arriv with just you know a few dollars in my pocket backpack and a snap Mac from belongings I began working as a Casher for a corporately owned convenience store and through my hard work and perseverance I worked my way up became a district manager and then about few years ago about 7 eight years ago I heard an opportunity of you know having a business with family Fair convenience store so I started working as a manager in one of the franchise store saved everything I could and in 2021 I bought this property which I'm you know working on it business doing business at 522 my.
Boulevard and it cost me to it cost me 110,000 to buy the franchise store you know and my wife she works as a client service representative in a Duke hospital so most of her check goes towards the insurance medical insurance I have my 78 70y old mom and dad which I have to take care of them because they live with me and you know this parcel basically is only 65 acres which you know is surrounded by a family cemetery and a two maintain State maintained major highways I don't think that use of suggested rezoning are realistic based upon the size and the topography using adjacent to my store I'm terrified about this rezoning since I'm losing this commercial neighborhood zoning that makes my business legal we have all seen the devastation in Rocky Mount and Asheville couple of weeks ago if something like this happens to my property you know my my whole life saving is gone and I have nowhere to go please reconsider this and.
You know take it out of this resoning I really appreciate that thank you next we have Mr Craig.
Carter hello thank you so much for your time I have some pictures that I would like to share are they gonna pop up on the screen here we go here we go so yes my name is Craig Carter I am a resident at 300 Finsbury in the Davis Park I wanted to talk about the parcel of land I've circled it in pen up there so yeah I this parcel of land has just been you know flat land overgrown grass for the entire time I've lived there many many years so I would love to see this be developed and and take any take any rezoning whether it's getting rid of parking minimums whatever it would take to have some some nice retail there and potentially residential another thing as you're developing I would love to get away from this kind of cookie cutter design that has spread all over this country it was looking at some more modern construction that is still brick and still beautiful I would love to see.
More of this style not only in our area but Durham as a whole one also the where the pin is that's where I live I would say I would love to see short-term rentals eliminated we have a lot of owners of apartments that are doing Airbnb and short-term rental so we have a lot of turnover and that's created a lot of safety issues and some criminal issues so that's all I have to say thank you so much thank. You next we have Mr Jeff.
Glenn hello Jeff Glenn with North Mark I'm a Raleigh native but I I grew up in Durham in fact my family has very long roots in what we call the Nelson Community which is right there on Miami Boulevard have family members that are buried in that Cemetery you referenced but I'm here today rep representing owners within Central Park which is that one of the gray areas that is closest to I40 in attendance we have a couple of owners that that are here that are supporting the the efforts of the Planning Commission and staff to push forward this compact zoning and to allow for a mix of uses so Mr tier Rob tier who's an original developer of Central Parks and attendance Dan juel Thomas and Hutton couple of other Morley and others that are stakeholders within Central Park that are all in approval of this and and to your point I think the and also I forgot to mention Phil saw Tech architect so the entire development team is here in support of this resoning.
Mr tier has owned this for 40 years and as you've seen the development of this portion of Durham is mostly Suburban offices some high-rise offices and just now the Advent of more residential and so this resoning is going to allow for a mix of uses and a more pedestrian oriented development we're in agreement with you the form based zoning does allow for a more compact design and hopefully that aids to to Greater walkability so just wanted to say thank you and appreciate the opportunity to speak thank you next we have Miss Laura.
Hman good even Madam chair and members of the commission my name is Laura Hollman and I'm a land planner with McAdams located at 2905 merian Parkway here in Durham today I'm speaking on behalf of my client Research Triangle LTD who owns approximately 7 and a half acres at 353 Davis Drive and is greatly affect affected by this City's zoning proposal Frank Quinn also spoke on behalf of this parcel earlier the property owner is not opposed to the city's Vision initiative in fact it's been heavily involved with Davis Park East which they have already contributed to this section of Durham transforming and continuing to transform it into a live work andplay atmosphere they simply want to be set up for development success the subject site has significant developmental challenges is triangular in shape with its South Boundary Froning on Maran drive and its East and West sides being bounded by Creeks which are of course regulated by the Army Corp of Engineers this equates less than 50 50% of the site being not developable 3 and2.
Acres to be exact what does this mean well it means that if is is if it is zoned by the city to CSD S1 that carries a minimum required density of 16 units per acre that is simply not achievable on this property I can tell you that because the property owner proactively reached out to McAdams and we studied it from a landing plane perspective we can fit closer to eight dwelling units an acre it makes sense because only half of the site is developable with that said we would like to formally request the property to be rezoned to Rum this would be in harmony with the finsbry across Davis drive from us and allow us to develop this site realistically and more importantly working with the environment rather than against it I greatly appreciate your time and attention to this matter thank you thank you next we have Mr Michael Burch.
Great good evening Madam chair members of the commission Michael Burch with Longleaf law Partners 4509 creedmore Road here on behalf of the owners developers of Imperial Center they also manage a number of the properties within Imperial Center as you all may be familiar this area is largely built out with existing buildings so we were primarily concerned about understanding how this new zoning District new standards would affect the existing buildings in terms of creating non-conformities our ability to make changes to the buildings to adapt Etc so do want to thank Kayla Scott and Bo for working with us to kind of help us better understand what the limitations will be the Avenues for addressing those issues that would be caused by the new standards and as we continue to work with them we get more and more comfortable about the rezoning I do want to reiterate think one of the things that Kayla mentioned towards the end of her presentation about a comment related to seeking that increased density that was is.
Allowed in the CD District today and having that apply to this area you know the goal of this city initiated rezoning is to kind of facilitate Redevelopment in a more mixed use pattern but at the densities that are currently proposed for a place like Imperial Center it doesn't make sense at those densities to redevelop those existing buildings someone would still have to go through and initiate their own rezoning case that's time money uncertainty that is really just kind of promotes the status quo and so if the desire is to see kind of real change more of a mixed use pattern out here we would very much encourage the commission to recommend those densities in the CD District for this area thank you thank.
You next we have Mr Rob.
Griffin good evening members of the Planning Commission Rob Griffin with TR properties Durham North Carolina represent members of the Imperial Center ownership and properties Owners Association i' like to mirror what Michael said about the cooperation and overall helpfulness of of your planning staff Kayla Scott B their availability U incessant questions we threw at them to help us get comfortable so thank you great job overall we're in support of the resoning I would further the the the comment about the density that was brought up the densities really are more of suburban densities if the the goal here is to have a more urban feel a denser environment 21 units an acre is a Suburban density from a development standpoint and which is what I do you're going to see a minimum of 220 to 240 from a unit count for most developers to want to pursue an apartment complex this currently is a Surface Park Market the economics don't support structured parking yet it may change in the future as this develops out so if.
You just kind of take that out you're going to need over a 10 acre parcel to get to that 220 to 240 minimum that a developer needs unless you move to a more dense you know category or or allow more density Within These CSD zoning districts because most of these Parcels between Central Park and perial Center there may be four to six acres you know of our our 150,000 foot Office Buildings on 8 Acres it won't support the kind of density that a developer would want to pursue Redevelopment for thank you very much thank you Mr.
And good evening Commissioners I'm Dan juwel I appreciate Mr Glenn shout out a few minutes ago I'd like to speak also though as a as a citizen of Durham is a landscape architect land planner who has been working on land use issues in Durham since 1985 now and I would like to say I wholeheartedly support this proposal I know there's details to be worked out but I think it's an extraordinary thing that the city and the planing Department have taken the initiative to look at resoning this this entire area into a compact Suburban design form bit District which we've done many projects in before this is a a part of Durham that for the last 40 years has developed out in very Suburban pattern it it it met the needs of the time and there's nobody's going to be forced to redevelop anything right now but to be characterized by buildings set far back from the street surrounded by large parking lots large landscape buffers in between uses and.
Large Parcels is just sort of the antithesis of what's called for in the recently adopted comprehensive plan and that is that we have buildings closer to the street we have connectivity between parcels and we we design and build buildings in such a way with ground floor transparency and uses that makes the walking experience and the biking experience much more lively than it is today it's it's how we need this area to grow particularly since we're adjacent to RTP in the airport and most importantly that triangle the proposed triangle Metro Center Transit station is within in this District so with what's being proposed we we think we hope I will work hard to make sure that folks who live and work in this area and shop in this area start thinking that there are alternatives to just automatically thinking they need to jump in their car to get around and go places and that's why this district is so important so I would wholeheartedly ask you to recommend approval to the City Council of this.
Thank you for your time thank you is there anyone else in the galley wishing to speak is there anyone on Zoom wishing to speak on this case if so please use the raise your hand function or if you've called in please hit star.
N none all righty I am the chair now closes the public hearing and we are now open for commissioner discussion and. Questions I guess the anyone before I start no do you want to I wanted the the the staff to address the first two concerns from the first two speakers sure let me so that pod a parcel is constrained I on the map you can see the the stream was kind of outlining so that is a constrained parcel I think staff would be in support of the rum zoning District if all agree okay and the the second speaker regarding commercial neighborhood zoning can you say that sorry one more excuse me can you say that one more time second speaker that was concerned with his commercial neighborhood zoning oh the Family Fair Gas Station that's one of the the Alternatives we mentioned gas station that would be a non-conforming use there's some information in our Udo about non-conforming structures if more than 51% is destroyed they cannot rebuild the.
Use but in general they would be restricted to from expanding the non-conformity or doing anything to increase the non-conformity on that site they could still continue but until they reach that 51% that's where that that issue would would present itself and then when we mentioned this at jcpc they Point guided staff to keep that property in yes commissioner Johnson first of all thank you for your comprehensive layout of this project because it's felt like a lot of pieces that we're trying to come together so a couple general questions because I'm not I I can't figure out who I'd ask one is the density question more density we have existing housing that has been built over the last say five years and the density didn't seem to be an issue in terms of continuing to build to the mixed use commercial so can you give me a perspective of why the density would be an issue today with the proposal yeah so the density is that a lot of the developments have developed under where.
The triangle Metro development plan that allowed certain amount of density so it is I think in general more dense than what we have in the compax Suburban Design District and the reason for that is to get the bonus or folks have to provide the affordable housing so they can build more more densely so do you all want to add any more Scott's going to add some more context good evening I'm Scott Whitman with the planing Department you when the the CSD District was developed when we were working in the Patterson Place area we do we acknowledge the densities are fairly low but they were they were developed fairly low to create a strong encouragement to use the affordable housing density bonus so the CSD has one of our more it's probably our most aggressive affordable housing density bonus of any zoning District so I guess that is that's kind of the the tension here that the base densities are fairly low but they're very high if you provide the minimum amount of affordable housing where.
The CD District which was developed quite a quite a while before that does allow higher densities by right so it's really a it's kind of a policy choice of do you want the higher densities by right or the higher densities with the provision of affordable housing and to clarify these would be with the provision of affordable housing that's right the the densities that Kayla showed on her chart were the ones that are without affordable housing in all the CSD districts if you provide 15% affordable units then there is no density limit and then to follow up on the chair's qu As I understood it there were options that were laid out by the planning group and an option for example for the gas station to be excluded and retained its current right would that address the gentleman's issue that he raised today yes the request was to remove the property owner requested to remove that parcel from the district and the remembering the questions I saw from the community there was concerns about the transit.
Center affecting not only noise but property values which I think it's good to have a Transit Center but property values noise light can you address have those been adjudicated or are they still out there and what should that relevance be yeah during our community meetings folks in the Davis Park area who would are closest to that Transit Center Express concerns about proximity to the station and what impacts that would be so we've been talking with our Research Triangle Foundation planners about about that what what would impacts be what kind of design level are they at and they're they're not at any design level yet but they just have an agreement right now with go triangle that that is the site they want to look at they've also set a desire for a mixed mixed use component to the transit center so they wanted to make clear to us the planners that that their interest is not just for it to be a transit station but that it would also have some presential retail component.
To it but as far as addressing concerns that folks may have we staff doesn't have any the the planning process for that property hasn't gotten far enough to for us to have any so Solutions so would it be fair to say though in the development stage of the transit center those factors would be looked at yes and possibly have some Avenues to mitigate yes absolutely okay thank you.
Any other Commissioners questions are we ready move this case forward may I have a motion please chair as a relates to case Z24 0018 page Miami Design District and place type map Amendment I make a recommendation that we move this case forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case z 2418 page Miami Design District Place type map Amendment and unify development ordinance text Amendment TC 2402 forward to the City Council with a favorable recommendation may I have the.
Roll call vote please thank you madam chair we're going to ask you to take this as two separate votes okay after all that why don't you stop one one for the zoning and one for the text Amendment so if we can all right can we first and then we'll do the SE text Amendment second all right so may I have a motion to move the zoning case forward chair relates to zoning case z248 page Miami Design District make a recommendation we move that case forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams to move zoning case z248 page Miami Design District forward to the City Council with a favorable recommendation may I have the roll call vote please thank you chair Cameron yes Vice chair sheras yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner chowski yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner Wen yes commissioner Johnson yes commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes the Motions passes 9 to Z thank you.
Chair make a motion that we move Place type map Amendment and Udo text Amendment tc24 00002 forward to city council with a favorable. Recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by Vice chair sharis to move Place type map Amendment and Udo or Udo text Amendment tc2 24 quadruple 02 forward to the city council 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 Comm commissioner Gregory yes commissioner hen yes commissioner Johnson yes commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes and commissioner woke yes the motion passes 9 to zero thank you just briefly I just want to make sure that everyone knows that commissioner copac has an excused absence for today all right moving forward with zoning map change Z24 Tri 014 Hillsboro Road commercial may we have the staff report.
Please I'm going to wait one second while they move out. All right good evening Sarah long senior planner of the city county planning I'm here to present on Z24 14 Hillsboro Road commercial Patrick biker of Morning Star Law Group proposes to change the zoning designation of one portion of a portion of one parcel of land totaling 0.5 acres and located at 2504 Hillsboro Road the current zoning is compact design support 2 CDs 2 the applicant proposes to to change the designation to commercial infill with a textual development plan to allow all uses in the CI District except nightclub bar or payday lender The Proposal area is currently designated Transit opportunity area on the playsite map and does not have any zoning overlays so again the existing zoning is compact design support 2 and the proposal is to change to commercial infill so the back portion of this site is residential Urban 5 as you can see in the light brown however that portion of the parcel is not part of the zoning.
Map change application and will remain the same the site is surrounded by residential Urban 5 commercial General and compact design support 2 the aerial map shows the general location of the project with which is Northwest of downtown Durham and again the property proper is currently design designated Transit opportunity area on Place type map The Proposal was determined to be consistent with the designated Place type the proposal makes a textual commitment to not allow nightclub bar or payday lending uses and there were two neighborhood meetings which were held in accordance with the Udo requirements the First on November 10th 2023 where one Community member attended and the final on September 19th 2024 where one Community member attended so the proposal would change the zoning designation of one of 0.5 acres to commercial inflow for development plan the site's current use is vehicle service minor and it's centrally located close to downtown Durham on the 9th Street compact neighborhood area again the applicant commits to not having a nightclub bar or payday.
Cylinder payday lender uses and the proposed zoning District commercial infill is generally consistent with the place type designation of Transit opportunity area so just as a note a correction to the staff report in the second paragraph of the executive summary It should read that the commercial infield of infel district is consistent with the TOA Place type as it states in the conclusion so thank you and staff and the applicant are available for any questions you may have thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing and I see the applicant is already at the podium go.
Ahead good evening chairwoman Cameron Vice chair sharis members of the Planning Commission I'm Patrick biker I live at 261 for Stewart Drive I'm an attorney with Morning Star Law Group I'm here tonight representing Chapel Hill TI along with its president Mr Mark pwns and their director of marketing Kim Floric Chapel Hill tire is the relatively new owner of this tire and vehicle repair shop located at 254 Hillsboro road that you see on this slide Chapel Hill Tire bought this building on May 11 2023 and the building was built in 1985 so it's 39 years old and it's in need of significant improvements however I do need to emphasize at the outset the Chapel Hill Tire will not be expanding the building footprint nor the building height what you see in this picture regarding its size and height will remain unchanged unfortunately the need to convert the storage area in the back into a couple of new service Bays ran a foul of the permited uses in the compact design support 2 zoning District to give.
A little background on that and you've certainly had plenty of background on it with the previous agenda item I think about 15 years ago it was that the city initiated the process that you were working on just a minute ago initiated a similar process for the compact design zoning map change for this area around Duke East Campus it went from duke East Campus on the East all the way to Trent Drive on the west and then along Hillsboro Road South to the Durham freeway now Trent Drive is only one block west of Chapel Hill tire and everything along Hillsboro Road from Trent drive to hillindale is own commercial general or industrial Light in other words if we were just one block further west we would be Zone commercial and we would not be here tonight 15 years ago I recall that I was fully in support of the compact Design District since we thought it would be helpful in supporting the light rail line planned from Durham to Chapel Hill well that.
Didn't work out and now due to the preclusion of vehicle service minor in the compact Design District we need to ask for the commercial infill zoning district with a text only development plan to allow Chapel Hill Tire to move forward with the necessary improvements to this 39-year-old building these improvements are necessary because Chapel Hill tire has been very successful since opening here just over a year ago in fact CH Chapel Hill tire store on Hillsboro road was voted one of the best five Auto Repair establishments in Durham by Durham magazine to better serve its customers Chapel Hill tire needs to increase the service base from the existing six to a total of eight and to try to be a good in order to try to to be a good neighbor we did have two neighborhood meetings we sent out over 200 letters my my longtime friend John Wood was the only person who attended the meeting on September 19 and we certainly want to apologize up front if there is any.
Misunderstanding about the scope of the improvements needed for this building with the garage doors I'm sorry with the service Bays on Ros Hill Avenue so in regard to the building modifications that we want to implement through this resoning here's the view of the side of the building along Ros Hill Avenue where the two service Bays would be located and so if you're standing here where those two new service Bays would be and you look across Ros Hill Avenue this is what you would see now while these appear to be residential structures this parcel is actually zoned commercial General with no development plan so that property could be a a tobacco shop like the one around the corner or it could be a Payday lender just to give the Planning Commission examples of what's permitted by right in the commercial General Zone next I want to emphasize that the 39-year-old parking area that's at the existing store that Landscaping needs to be improved here's the Chapel Hill tire store at 49 sorry 4805 Hope.
Valley Road part of the improvements for the Hillsboro Road Site will include significant Landscaping improvements as noted in your staff report pursuant to comprehensive plan policies 39 and 94 there also will be a new Udo compliance sign as like the one that you see here in addition I'd be remiss if I did not point out that Durham County storm water and erosion control division has been very pleased with the steps Chapel Hill tire has taken to clean up pollution that was caused by the prior owner lastly this building has a pretty Antiquated customer waiting area on the right hand of this slide you can see the customer path to the restrooms in the existing building in addition to the two additional service Bay that I mentioned a minute ago that will speed up the services customers receive the new waiting area will be a major Improvement as well with new customers the new customer waiting area looking something like this in closing in my experience I I understand there's a a petition from.
Folks who live in the area opposed to this typically that's what the Planning Commission receives I'm happy to report tonight that we have a petition with around 280 signatures on it in support of this resoning if my assistant Brandon Foster may share those with the Planning Commission I hope you will consider that BR if you could pass those out this my I'm sorry let me just introduce my colleague Brandon Foster from Morning Star Law Group I hope the Planning Commission will consider that the Chapel Tire enjoys broad community support and it has Su it is you know certainly achieved commercial success as evidenced by the best of Durham award I I realize this is a difficult situation where you've got older establishments next to established neighborhoods and again I want to emphasize that chap Tire wants to be a good neighbor and they've been that ever since they started their business shortly after World War II members of the Planning Commission our team will be happy to answer any questions and we respectfully ask for.
Your approval appreciate your time tonight thank you at this time if there do we have a sign in sheet for this.
Billsboro right thank. You all right at this time I'm going to call the community members John Wood any additional.
Good evening me members of the commission my name is John Wood I live at 2406 Green Street it's about a block from the site I'm also a member of the old west Durham neighborhood association I'm on the board there I'm also a landscape architect having practiced in the community for since. 1986 on the screen this is a overall aerial showing the context of the of the existing conditions relative to the neighborhood the building currently functions in a in a in a good way in that it kind of buffers the noise the views in the negative aspects of the facility from the neighborhood it focuses it more out onto Hillsboro Road when you zoom in on most of the images of the site you see it it's usually pretty crowded during business operational hours with a fair amount of circulation traffic with the six Bays that currently exist in both the the GIS mapping and the Google.
Mapping the addition of another Bay two bays would be a concern in terms of overall traffic and the amount of traffic that would have to circulate back and forth between the parking lot and out onto the street into the remote Baye which will be located on that tall portion of the building currently the area is U has several curb cuts that occupy space in the RightWay where you normally if this was a new project you'd have sidewalks for pedestrian connectivity Street trees andant plantings and this would be the view opened up from the service Bays to the community allowing for noise and traffic to extend to that.
Area all right thank you.
Sir next we have Lauren pagee.
I'm Lauren page I live at 2308 discern place about a block from the property I'm primarily here to relay the position of the old west sturum neighborhood association the board recently voted to oppose the resoning application in its current form until this weekend the board had been non-committal but when they learned less than a week go of a new auto repair Baye that would be added and face out on Ros Hill opposition quickly galvanized they voted unanimously Monday with one absence and no one in favor to oppose the zoning plan in its current form the old west Durham neighborhood has a long history of working cooperatively with neighborhood merchants and supporting local businesses back in the day we worked cooperatively with the city and 9th Street Merchants to develop standards that have been quite successful for 9th Street and the surrounding areas we have always welcomed a thriving business community and have participated in the development of standards that are good for both our merchants and for the surrounding neighbors this is an interesting case.
Since the existing use and auto repair facility is in non-conformance with its current zoning and with the comprehensive plan the business is grandfathered in and no one is ex suggesting that they' be encouraged to leave but that does not mean they should be allowed to significantly expand their non-conforming use such an expansion would have all kinds of negative effects on the neighborhood Liz wierman who lives on Rose Hill just a few doors down from the business will talk next about expected impacts of this proposal thank.
You next we have Liz Wilder wilderman.
Thank you I'm Liz wilderman 811 Rose Hill Avenue which is right where the shop is I'm going to read the petition that everyone on the Block signed minus a couple of people all the neighbors primarily let me put my glasses on WE the underside residing on the 800 block of Rose Hill Avenue are very concerned about the effect that the rezoning and renovation of Chapel Hill Tire will have on our neighborhood we recently discovered that although the company indicated there would be no impact on the neighborhood there is a plan to have two bays that will be facing our street at this point the noise that is produced by the present bays are facing the traffic to Hillsboro road we all agree that having those Bays facing Rose Hill however will have a very negative impact on our homes for those of us who live behind Chapel Hill Tire the noise will be significant for those of us who lives ac across Rose Hill from the shop not only will the.
Noise pollution be an issue but it will be an eyesore as well we also have concerns about the probable increase in street parking we don't object to renovation but we do vehemently object to having the noise and visual effects of the open Bays on Rose Hill Avenue we urge the planning committee committee to reject the request for zoning as it stands at this point and I just want to that's the petition I just want to say as a person who has lived on that street for over 30 years and I'm hoping to age there I really am very very concerned about the value of my property because of what of the noise pollution and the effects that that all will have thank you thank you Dan Welch.
Good evening my name is Dan Welch I live at 923 Alabama Avenue I'm just a short distance from the Chapel Hill tire shop since I'm directly behind the NTB Tire Shop which is right behind my house you know I I hear the air wrenches and air compressors and clinging tools clinging tools all day long six days a week it's it's really loud and that's with the shops facing out of away from my backyard I can only imagine what it would be like to have open Bays coming out onto the street where I lived as the people from Rose Hill Drive Rosell Avenue are going to have to face with or would have to face with but I'm up here to recap the position of the neighbors that we've spoken with the applicant is asking the city and its residents to accept a rezoning to upgrade and refurnish their facilities it appears there would be no significant push back if upgrading and refurbishing their offices and storefront is all that is proposed but.
The applicants also asking for the ability to expand their non-conforming auto repair facilities by 33% from six Bays to eight Bays every neighbor we have spoken with finds this unacceptable such an expansion is in direct conflict with the current compact design zoning which is why we're here today it's also in conflict with Comprehensive plan and to make matters worse this rezoning request would permanently cautify the ability to bring in a myriad of other uses that are not considered appropriate for this location and why do I say they're inappropriate well our zoning plans and the comprehensive plan clearly indicate as much wouldn't it be crazy to throw these plans out the window simply to allow for the expansion of a non-conforming use I mean we're kind of moving Heaven and Earth to allow for the expansion of something that is non-conforming so while we support the ability of this business to upgrade their office and their storefronts and so forth we strongly oppose their plan to expand the auto repair capacity.
There to there are tools available such as a rezoning with a carefully designed development plan and so those tools are available and we ask that you say no to this in its current forms that we can go back and and negotiate something that will work for the neighborhood and the community next we have Liz Moes. Good evening my name is Liz Morris I live at 608 Dow Street I've lived in Durham since 2016 I grew up in Chapel Hill and I own a business in Hillsboro as a small business owner I strongly believe in supporting other local businesses which is why I'm here to support the rezoning request for Chapel Hill Tire I've been a loyal customer of theirs for years and my parents took their cars to the Chapel Hill Tire near Unity Mall when I was growing up the resoning will allow Chapel Hill Tire to add two bays without expanding the current footprint this will reduce weight times and increase the number of appointments they can take each day.
Through optimizing their current site they will better meet the demand in our neighborhood and lastly supporting business growth will help retain and add new local jobs while contributing more to the city's tax base which benefits the community as a whole so as a small small business owner and a neighbor I see this as a valuable opportunity for our community and I fully support it thanks for your time thank you Alicia.
Perr hello I'm Alicia par and I live at Two drgs Way Court in Durham and I've lived in Durham since 2000 and it is just really th drived and and grown and I love that and with that in mind I see Chapel Hill Tire where I've gone and taken my car for as long as I found them they are good neighbors you know I've gotten to know a lot of the team the auto repair when I think of an auto repair shop very often the first thing in my mind and maybe a lot of people's minds is the noise you think dirty you think a lot of things but when I look at any Chapel Hill Tire location the way it's run the way the people act the way that they're neighborly it's just a completely different story so I just wanted to share that my experience with that and that I see businesses and I'm a small business owner myself when I see small businesses that are really trying.
To be neighborly and do the right things and really bring kind of the the really yeah the the warmth that that we all want to have with each other and really feel feel a neighborly feeling you're going to get that with Chapel Hill fire and and and so just because they're from the next town over you know they're great neighbors you know they're great people and and they will take care of you know you everyone that not just customers but the actual location as well so I think that you would find that and thank you thank you do we have anyone left in the galley wishing to speak did you already speak ma'am okay you can come and submit it or submit it to.
Staff do we have we have Michael bacon on the zoom that would like to. Speak dinner I'm a little distracted I my name is Michael bacon I live at 912 Ros Hill Avenue I was actually dor just next to ro to Northwest I can you all are you all here you can hear you okay thank you just got some messages on my screen I wasn't messing up all right I I live at 912 Ros Hill Avenue just up the street from the location I've already submitted a comment so this should be an amendment to that because at that time I submitted a comment I had not seen the detail about the Bays going out on the street I'll repeat my primary concern is the abutment of lby Creek a branch of lby Creek a major contributor to sort of where South El Creek forms in our neighborhood runs directly past the site those parking lots are already with the existing six bays are already heavily used for car.
Storage and for sort of you know cars that are waiting to be repaired or that have been repaired with the additional increase the only thing that's going to happen is they're either going to continue to use those proper those parking lots more heavily leading to the pollution of the stream or they're going to spill out and be on Ros Hill Avenue additionally Ros Hill Avenue is our walk route to get to our bus stop having additional Bays coming out there that's there are no side walks on Rose Hill as you probably noticed there are a lot of pedestrians on there there is a Best Stop which is fairly heavily used right there in front of the tire store and that's a major pedestrian Passage through there and cars do come off fairly quickly adding traffic there seems like a really bad idea in terms of traffic impacts and the impacts on The Pedestrian Corridor you know perhaps we could deal with something like that with a commitment to build a.
Sidewalk but since there's no sidewalk the rest of Ros Hill that would be just a patch longterm my the other concern is as you know we get one shot at changing zoning if Chapel Hill Tire decides to sell all we've eliminated here are you know we're permanently changing this to commercial the the existing zoning is far more appropriate it allows for more residences which is what we really desperately need so we keep filling up what we have and we're glad to have more Neighbors this would actually reduce the number of residences that could be developed on that property which I think would be an appropriate use it is a non-conforming use we do have tire storage it's great to have a tire store in the neighborhood we also have about 12 others so it's not like we're hurting for tire services in the neighborhood there are does literally about a dozen Tire tire car repair business thank you sir thank you next we have someone that's on a phone please go ahead 9192 18.
5751 are they unmuted press star n to unmute yourself please go ahead I think you're unmuted yes okay my name is Clay Waters I live in 1893 Terry Road I am the senior pastor at Greystone Church in Durham just directly across from Apple Hill Tire I was calling to put my support in for tap Tire we have lots of members who patronize business and I'm sure as I would and I've been a customer for many years would appreciate being able to have a better place to wait for automobiles as well as I've seen this growing Community around the church and to be able to serve more customers so I am calling in much support of Chapel Hill retire and their Renovations thank you is there anyone else on the zoom that would wish to speak we have Joanie Brown please unmute yourself go ahead hi I'm Joanie Brown and I live at 3822 Alam Street not the area where tral tire is but I am speaking in support of.
Them my husband Branson and I have lived in lived in and served the Durham Community for 44 years I'm asking that you support this community supportive business that not only offers paid internship opportunities to area high schoolers supports local organizations such as Special Olympics through fundraisers pays for all employee trainings and certifications to ass high quality car service but also annually blesses 12 community members with $1,000 worth of Car Care Service through their 12 days of kindness initiative we're actually not customers of Chapel Hill tire but we would be if we didn't already have a mechanic that we love but we came to know this caring company because we were secretly nominated by a church friend and were one of those 12 people blessed last December by Chapel Hill Tire's annual 12 days of kindness the Chapel Hill tire went beyond the original1 Thousand gift when they found out our check engine light was on and it involved the catalytic converter which we couldn't afford to replace at the moment Chris.
And Colby knew from our nomination story that life was a bit financially challenging for us due to Branson's 33-year battle with Parkinson's Colby decided to not only replace our front brakes but also took care of the new catalytic converter which cost at least 3,000 more than the allotted thousand and he refused to let me work out a payment plan to pay for the amount over the Thousand he said no we want to do this for you and I cried this is the caliber of people that we are talking about here in this community please do whatever you must to help the company magnify their customer service thank you is there anyone else on the zoom that would like to speak or in the.
Galley all right hearing then the public hearing is now closed and we are now open for commissioner discussion and question commissioner cutright thanks chair it sounds like Chapo TI is doing really good work in the community and generally there's support primarily from customers as I look at this list of signatures I mean I'm curious as to how many or what percentage are actually in the neighborhood U I don't know if you have that Mr biker yeah ballpark commissioner Cut Rate I'd say out of the 280 40 or 50 live in pretty close proximity Jing by the street addresses so maybe what is that math is tricky for lawyers 20% 20% 25% appreciate that you know what strikes me is that it sounds like that you're you're a community staple and you're you know your beloved but there are some challenges and I'd be curious if you've thought about ways to mitigate the noise have you thought about doing additional insulation in the new Bays you know committing to some things that will help.
The neighborhood but also allow you to get your project done you know something that you would normally do in your Bays but adding some additional noise insulation things like that to me that's to me that's how you sort of push this forward and be a good good Community member get what you want and also just help alleviate some of the concerns of the neighbors I Heard a concern about traffic I don't I don't really see that as an issue here but I think the noise is real you know unscrewing tires with with air guns is it's a loud Venture so I think if you consider something like that going above and beyond normal standards you know to me I I would support.
This we'll certainly look at that commissioner cutright it's a great suggestion and again I've I've been able to work with these folks maybe you in the Planning Commission perhaps remember the church conversion that we had a couple blocks over that was maybe last year so it's nice to see those folks again we'll certainly look at that and I do want to emphasize Chapel Hill tires business hours they're from 8 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon only Monday through Friday they're completely closed on the weekends but I will add Mr biker that in this new world of work from home that that doesn't necessarily help yeah I understand but I I'm like I said I'm always the last to get the memo so I I haven't mastered the work from home yet but the point is we we're happy to look at that and emphasize that we'll certainly evaluate everything we can do to minimize the noise impacts going forward thank you any other commissioner Johnson I appreciated my fellow.
Commissioner's question but it still raises concern for me without something more substantive than look at it because I I I first of all I applaud the community support and I heard that loud and clear but what I also take away is a couple things based on the report I saw the traffic impact is going to be 1,485 more vehicles in a 24-hour period that was one thing that caught my eye if you want to comment that's fine but that was in the report erene Thomas transportation that is based on the highest traffic generate generator for the zoning that would be approved not necessarily for what they're talking about doing but there's no commitment to a specific use so we always generate traffic based on what could go there thank you for that so my question then to the applicant is how many more cars will this generate for your business on a weekly basis.
Ballpark we estimate approximately 10% more cars than are there today while you're up there just a follow-up question if I could I've heard about parking in addition to on the lot on the adjacent Street did I hear that correctly and is that one of the issues that I heard the community raise about sort of overflow parking going on the street people waiting can you address that please sure we we'll reach out to I mean we could reach out to Greystone church maybe it's possible for us to buy because their parking lot's empty during the week we don't have it okay okay that was the former one actually yeah yeah okay yeah so we think we're in good sh no parking on the street today and it won't be in the future okay on site yep if I read the petition correctly from the Transportation going back to that had made a recommendation profer that wasn't AC accepted could the staff advise us as to what that was the request and then the.
Applicant maybe can provide some context to that. Profer Rene Thomas Transportation so anytime a development plan comes to us that's along a transit route we do ask for that standard note for evaluation at the time of site plan to see if there are any Transit Improvement that could be made such as a bus shelter to be proferred by the development yeah I'm glad you asked that question yeah we just started looking at that commissioner Johnson it looks like it would cost $25 $330,000 to put in a bus shelter we're going to look at that and consider it before we get to City Council I'm afraid we can't commit to it tonight but we're evaluating it I think there's a possibility that we could agree to it before it goes to city council but we're looking at it we just started collecting contacting Engineers to find out what it would cost and that's what we're doing but we'll have an answer for that before we go to city council it's.
Good thank you and my last question really for the owners and continue the good work that the community but this was a known issue at the time of purchase it was non-conforming purchased the property in May of 2023 now we're at this point where there's an opportunity to expand I'm trying to connect the knowledge then to now and why we're here now with the non-compliance go ahead yeah unfortunately commissioner Johnson this this happens every day my phone rings once at least once a month usually more than that with people who have purchased property bought a it could be any type of structure then they find out what their expansion plans are or conversion plans are are not allowed I there was some of the longer term do you remember the substance abuse practitioner on Miami Boulevard he bought a house on Miami Boulevard ginormous five Lane Road well it was zoned R20 so he couldn't do a substance abuse counseling in that building even though it's on a five Lane Road so.
Yeah it's unfortunate it it happened but it it happens probably every day commissioner Johnson that folks buy folks buy property unfortunately these these these design districts are fairly hard to understand so it's it's not it's a fairly abstract concept and unfortunately it was not understood because the property had been used as a tire store since 1985 thank. You anyone else commissioner oh I'm sorry commissioner I mean Vice chair for the applicant is there is there any possibility of changing the location of the additional Bays you want to put on so they would be facing forward and then you could still go and park there and then that would allow alleviate the the local community's concerns and allow for an expansion I I looked at it looks like probably you couldn't put two in there but I bet you could put one and then still drive around and use your parking in the back triangle area yeah unfortunately that gets to the problem with the U stream buffer that's on that side so we don't want.
To drive activity towards that stream buffer so yeah we looked at the same thing Vice Madam Vice chair thought about the same thing but again I'd be remiss if I did not point out Durham County storm waterer division has already expressed their approval for the cleanup efforts that Chapel Hill tire has undertaken in the past year and unfortunately you can't put more building towards the stream buffer you have to do your best to minimize the impervious surface next to the stream buffer commissioner jakowski yes is I guess my question kind of boils down to would the renovation move forward without the additional Bays or is that a requirement I don't think.
So can you I'm sorry sorry the cost of construction doesn't make it really feasible unless you upgrade the entire entire building and and increase the number of customers that can be served based on the outstanding track record Chap Hill tire has thank you appreciate that question thank you any other questions discussion are we ready to move this forward chair as a relat to case z2400 014 Hillsboro Road commercial I make a recommendation that we move this case forward with a favorable recommendation second it's been moved by commissioner cutright and seconded by commissioner Williams to move case Z24 tri14 Hillsboro Road commercial forward with a favorable recommendation to city council may I have the roll call vote please can you make me go last you want to go okay Vice chair sharis.
No commissioner cutright yes commissioner chowski no commissioner Gregory yes commissioner W yes commissioner Johnson no commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes chair Cameron yes the motion passes 6 to3 all right see if we can get through this last one before 7:30 all right we now have the zoning map change case z 24023 Vivo living Ivy Creek if you need to talk please go outside why we still conduct conduct business attorney biker please y'all go outside my head so just to clarify that is 73 not 63 what did I say vote oh on the other thing on the other yes so 73 all right may we have the staff report.
Please thank you chair Cameron close the door members of the commission Aaron Kane with the planning department tar Sher of the urbanist Group Incorporated proposes to change the zoning designation of one parcel of land totaling 3.59 acres and located at 1920 Ivy Creek Boulevard the current zoning is commercial General with a development plan and office and institutional with a development plan the applicant proposes to change this designation through a textual development plan to plan development residential 35654 to allow up to 128 multif family units the properties are currently designated Transit opportunity area on the and res and Recreation and open space on the place type map the proposed plan development residential.
Back to the no wor basically at the southeast corner of University Drive and MLK Boulevard near Blue Cross Blue Shield headquarters and the Harris Teeter on MLK the properties are currently designated Transit oportunity area on the place type map the proposed zoning was deemed determined to be generally consistent with the place type the proposal makes several textual commitments in excess of UD fori development order ordinance requirements The Proposal includes commitments to 20% affordable housing the construction of a bus pullout in pad or shelter subject to go Durham determination and a monetary contribution of $10,000 each to Durham public schools and the Durham dedicated housing fund two neighborhood meetings were held in accordance with Udo requirements one on May 14th 2024 and a final meeting on August 22nd 2024 The Proposal seeks to convert a vacant property into 128 multif family residential units The Proposal would involve the renovation and repurposing of an existing development that predates current project boundary buffers op open space and tree coverage requirements the textual development.
Plan includes a commitment to allocate 20% of the units to be designated as affordable housing for households earning 60% or less of the area median income for a period of at least 30 years additionally as mentioned previously $10,000 contributions would be made to the Durham desicated housing fund and Durham Public Schools again the proposal is generally consistent with the place type designation of transit or opportunity area on the place type map staff and the applicant are here to answer questions thank you at this time the chair is opening the public hearing I believe the applicant is on Zoom if we would unmute please good evening this is tar Shire can you all hear me well we can hear you 10 minutes excellent good evening Madam chair Commissioners and staff my name is Tark sh with urbanes group I'm a consultant to the ownership Vivo living and I'm here tonight to present to you case number 2423 and request your support for our proposed project located at 1920 Ivy Creek you may recall that I came.
Before you about a month ago and I presented to you in September a a similar case for textual zone change for a property located at 4515 North Carolina Highway 55 my apology for not being there with my team in person we will be back in the city next month as well for City Council meetings so and and and we look forward to staying close to the city I want to thank staff for their hard work and guidance and and just reiterate how beneficial it's been working with them let me share with you this short presentation and in the interest of not repeating what was presented last time we we change the slides a bit to make sure that we address any questions you may have next slide please a little bit about Vivo again it's in 13 states 26 Vivo communities it's really a leader in attainable housing that's been converted from an Extended Stay to multifam and our commitment to the state is seven communities and three communities within.
The city of Durham limit one is currently in operation second one is in review that came before you last month and this is our third project for within the city next just a quick look at some of the communities that we are involved with throughout the us next sheet and down at the bottom you'll see the three Vivo locations in Durham the first one is gestro that's that's the one that was approved a while back and then the the one in the middle is the one we came before you and then tonight we're here for Ivy Creek next and just a quick reminder about vivo's approach it really converts hotels to Apartments reduces the footprint because we're really not building from Grand up we're we're taking an existing asset an existing building that is either underutilized or has has not been U operated to its full potential and we renovate it to provide attainable housing and this housing is very often at 80% Ami and it serves the community including public safety personnel teachers nurses.
Civic employees so on so forth next page Vivo is is commits to the cities where they they they provide housing where they have projects we are committed to the city of Durham we're here to stay and this is a picture of of the entire team getting involved with with the cleanup of the of the neighborhood on a clean up day with the city and we have all folks including the chairman of the company and staff doing good and doing right by the city next this map shows specifically the three Durham properties and I boxed in the subject property that we're here to talk about today which is 1920 Ivy Creek and you could see from this map the Durham guest road is all the way up North and then subject is in the middle and then the property we came and spoke to you about last month is all the way in the South so we are we're we're in in in in different places within darham we like the entire city and we're.
Committed to it fully next some of the key commitments that were mentioned by staff I don't want to go through them in detail but I just want to mention that we are providing 20% of the housing units about 25 units would be committed to households earning no more than 60% Ami restricted for 30 years and a one-time contribution to the to a dedicated housing fund that's on top of the 20% affordable housing in addition to that the $10,000 onetime contribution to Duram public school next this is a an image of the property itself that's the the office and some of the amenity space on the right hand side you'll see just a a brief description of what this property would include which is a Lobby Clubhouse a fitness center laundry facilities on site highspeed Wi-Fi that'ss are welcome on the property as well and then we would have bu cracks throughout as far as amenities and what Vivo does we really bring up the the property to Vivo living standards.
So we would go inside and clean up the the the building the units and new new carpet flooring paint and the good thing about this is again these units do have kitchenet so we really are minimizing the amount of carbon footprint demo and hauling and and and new construction construction materials we do bring this up to a class a property this is a quick slide you can go next this is a quick slide of of who lives in in our properties in age group from as far as occupation it's really across the board and as far as age group it is also across the board with the exception of under 18 years old which was a topic of discussion last month when we present presented the prior project we do not see although we welcome all ages but we really do not see minor in moving into these units by virtue of of just the size of the unit next this is my contact along with my colleague payman yazan dear is with Vivo living.
And that concludes my presentation again I want to thank you for your time I want to thank you for your support and we look forward to helping the city of Durham with its attainable housing and bring in much needed affordable housing thank you thank you is there anyone in the galley that would like to do we have a sign up for. This none all right all right there's no one pre-registered or signed up is there anyone in the galley that would like to speak to this case anyone on Zoom.
Going once going twice all right at this time I'm closing the public hearing we are now open for commissioner discussions and questions commissioner wi yes question for the applicant I didn't think of this last time but since you are I think you called it converting old structures that may have environmental contaminants or stuff could you walk me through your process for searching for things like Asbestos and things like that and if it is found what is your protocol for addressing that in these buildings commissioner thanks for the question I didn't mention that there's any asbest or contamination on the contrary these these buildings are they are built way past that date they were built in the 90s what I'm suggesting is they as an extended stay hotel they've outlived their use and they're not running to their full potential so we have an opportunity to go in and repurpose the building without having to demolish and add to the carbon footprint and that's really what I meant so if if that was.
Misunderstood that's not the intent all right appreciate the clarification no worries anyone else commissioner Johnson if I could just follow up on that question because maybe I heard it differently I thought it was a good question you're going to use the same footprint I got it and and remod but whenever you get into older buildings there are always that potential for environmental realities how the question I heard was how will you identify those and what's your mitigation plan if it comes up commissioner thank you for the question we Let me clarify that this these buildings and this one specifically I believe was built I want to say n 1993 which is way past that LE based paint and and ESP this use in in such buildings so the the the the the the question itself the structure of the question is truly not applicable to to this building had it been building that was built in the 60s or' 70s I think that that question would be extremely relevant in this case I don't believe.
It's applicable okay well molda Milda there are other factors that will come in with older buildings not just obessive my my one question and again I remember you sitting in front of us and it's a great project with a lot of good positives to it it's first of all a question for staff in terms of again the school imp act if I read this the document correctly and then I'm reconciling to less than 3% under 18 the estimate was a 49 student impact which would translate into a lot of extra cost on schools that are at basically all three are at 100% capacity so something we're actually this is a good lead into something we're actually going to talk about in our Retreat after this case is that we do have some updated numbers from Durham public schools that we received in the last few weeks and you your staff report starting next month we didn't get them in time for this month's reports but your staff for next month will.
Start seeing those new numbers and so we'll talk about that during the retreat when we do our when we do our estimates they are based on a formula just based on the type of unit and the general generation from that type of unit it can't be specific to one particular developer or one particular project so the number of students that you would have seen in the staff report would have been our estimation of generally what8 multif family units would be not necessarily this development of 128 units perfect thank you for the applicant can you clarify are any and we I think I asked this question at the last project you present are there any family units or multiple bedroom units that are going to be in this plan commissioner and the this building consists mostly of the same size unit throughout there is I believe there's one or or two or maybe a couple of units that are larger I don't know exactly the number Mr commissioner I.
Don't want to mislead you with it but I I do know for instance the manager unit is it's typically a a two bedroom one bedroom is is converted to an office the other bedroom is actually the the sleeping quarter so I hope that answers your question no no it did it's more of clarification my last question is concerning traffic impact either on the immediate access or Martin Luther King with this coming into play are are you planning to make any modifications to the transportation flow with the Durham or has that come out on the plate yet commissioner we did have a pre-application meeting meeting and then a pre-development meeting with staff and we had Transportation there we have spoken with with arene as well who's who's there tonight traffic issues or mitigation thereof did not really come up to to an extent that that that I I could remember off the top of my head and I think the staff is agreeing with you so thanks thank you that's it thank you Comm chair thank.
You any other questions are we ready to move this case forward chair as it relates to case z223 Vivo living Ivy Creek make a motion that we move this case forward with a favorable recommendation to city council second it's been moved by commissioner cutri seconded by commissioner Williams to move case Z24 trip 023 Vivo living Ivy Creek forward to city council with a favorable recommendation may we have the roll call vote please Cher Cameron yes Vice chair sheras yes commissioner cutright yes commissioner chowski yes commissioner Gregory yes commissioner when yes commissioner Johnson yes commissioner mver yes commissioner Williams yes commissioner woke yes motion passes 10 to zero thank you thank you sta thank you Commissioners thank you Madam chair thank you we're now moving to committee updates don't think we have any nope all right moving to new business we have all Commissioners were sent the 2025 meeting schedule I believe there's one item that we need to vote on on that meeting schedule yes and we're going to we're.
Going to need to beg the commission's pardon on this there was one thing that we missed later after the agenda had gone out November 11th 2025 is the 2 Tuesday of November next year however that is Veterans Day and we want to honor our veterans and we would not be meeting that day so my recommendation to the commission but it is up to you we can either meet the day after Wednesday November 12th or we can meet the week before which would be Tuesday November 4th staff does not have a preference that's that's really what works best for you or if there's another day but but those are two suggestions that staff has to move that yeah that's an election day the week before there should be some midterm elections oh that's right yeah okay so I would suggest then that's correct next next we'll have some we'll have local elections that day so my suggestion then would be to move it to Wednesday November 12th and we'll make.
Sure the chambers as available that day all right do we have a motion to accept that recommendation so move second second been moved and second it to move the November 2025 meeting to Wednesday November 12 all can I actually we need you to approve the vote and approve the meeting schedule so I would ask that you make the motion to approve the meeting schedule with the one change for November chair I'd like to make a motion to approve the 2025 Planning Commission meeting schedule noting the change from November 11th 2025 to Wednesday November 12th 2025 second it's been moved and seconded to accept the meeting schedule for 2025 with the noted meeting change and November to meet the second Wednesday of the month instead of the second Tuesday of the month all in favor please say I I opposed motion carries we are now we are not adjourned but we are going into our annual Retreat The Retreat is open for the public to attend if they would like but is not open for public.
Comment we will now move over into the room for our.
Retreat no.