 we are one minute away from air the live stream has started I would like to remind all council members to please remember to turn on your microphones before you speak one minute to air 30 seconds good evening it's 7 o'clock and I want to call this meeting of the Durham City Council to order and certainly want to welcome everyone here tonight I'm having a little connectivity problem here but in a second I will get it and we will move on it's not quite coming in but it will in a minute so please bear with me for one second there we go I while we're waiting for my computer to come up my friends here on the podium have been helping me really glad to see everyone tonight and we are gathered together to do very important work on behalf of the residents of Durham and so as we get ready to do that work together please join me in a moment of silent meditation thank you council member Reese would you please lead us in the pledge to the flag thank you Mr. Mayor good evening colleagues city staff and all the residents here in the chamber again and at home if I can remember the words I will now say the pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much council member madam madam clerk will you please call the roll mere shul here mere pro tem Johnson here council member Caballero here council member Freelon here council member Freeman president council member Middleton I'm here council member Reese here thank you thank you very much madam clerk colleagues we usually do announcements at this time but I think that we may have representative price with us virtually do we know if representative price is already with us great I'm seeing some thumbs up from Ms. Wallace and Ms. Wade thank you tonight madam clerk can we or whoever is running this operation on this part of it please make mr. representative price available to be seen and heard and we have a proclamation in his honor tonight recording in progress there's representative price representative price can you hear us and see us all right I certainly clan glad to be with you great I am so honored to be reading this proclamation and once I do so we are anxious to hear some words from you but let me just start by saying personally what a fabulous representative you have been for us in Washington all these many years and we're just so grateful to have you as our representative all of this time all right if we lost our representative price or see still with us there he is okay great I'm gonna read this proclamation whereas representative David Price was first elected to represent the fourth district of North Carolina in the US House of Representatives in 1987 and whereas before he began serving in Congress he was a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University and whereas his constituents know him as a strong supporter of education accessible health care affordable housing clean air and water and improve transportation alternatives and whereas he has served on the House appropriation committee and as the chairman of the transportation housing and urban development appropriation subcommittee he has also served on the House budget committee is a member of the appropriation subcommittees on Homeland Security State Department and foreign operations and whereas he secured federal appropriations for the build out of the US Environmental Protection Agency complex and Research Triangle Park and construction of the new North Carolina National Guard and emergency management headquarters and whereas in Durham his appropriations leadership funded community projects such as the Durham Farmers Market Trosa residential facilities and renovation of historic Paris Street and whereas David Price has been one of the nation's leading champions of both affordable housing and public transit and has won billions of dollars in spending for these crucial needs and whereas Representative Price has been a wise true and constant advocate for Durham for more than three decades always just a phone call away and whereas North Carolina's fourth district has benefited greatly for Representative David Price's contributions in Congress his leadership and visit vision will be sorely missed yet his legacy will continue through the many accomplishments achieved through his years of service now therefore I Stephen M. Shull Mayor of the City of Durham North Carolina do hereby proclaim November 15th 2021 as David Price Day in Durham and do hereby commend its observance to all residents of our city witness my hand this the 15th day of November 2021 Stephen M. Shull Mayor Representative Price thank you for your amazing service to Durham and to our whole state and our nation and we look forward to your remarks. Mayor Shull and and council members I I've never had anything like this done to me or for me that this is a wonderful resolution and it touches me I am very very appreciative of the of the con gesture and the kind words and of course I think back as as you were reading Steve of the many things we've done together it has been it has been a lot of years of work with just a wonderful community. The districting and redistricting being what it is we've had various configurations of the fourth district and of course when when Durham wasn't in the in the fourth district totally I've had a cordial relationship with G.K. Butterfield most most recently and in Valentine many years ago I've shared the representation of Durham at various points but also of course had responsibility for the entire county at various points as well and I've I've come to appreciate the community as one that's just unique it is a uniquely I think active community carrying community. Durham has always had a kind of rough and tumble politics you know it's not like we agree easily on everything but that isn't the point the point is that people care about the community and and care enough to advocate strongly and in the end to the work together to pull together I'm gonna say just a word Steve I'm not going to speak very long but I certainly want to say a word about your service and what a unique pleasure it's been to work with you that's no secret of course that our retirements are coinciding here although yours yours it's effective earlier than mine I have another 14 months on the glide path here of the congressional term but there have been many many tributes richly deserved of Steve Shull in these recent weeks as we contemplate his retirement I when I think of Steve's advocacy and his work for the city and and and my work with him I think particularly of of our efforts not always successful but persistent efforts and efforts that continue to bring diverse transportation alternatives to Durham and to the Triangle region light rail we we had a struggle with you have presided over increased and enhanced bus service and that's going to continue and I hope that within not too long a period of time we're going to have a new start a new new start which will be a commuter rail across the Triangle from from West Durham all the way to Garner and possibly Clayton and then that can interconnect with the with the bus service and and give us give us what we need in the way of a of a start here a serious start on diverse transportation so I identify you with that struggle Steve and I identify you also with outspoken advocacy and action in the area of gun violence a scourge for Durham a scourge for this country and I give you a lot of credit for highlighting that issue and being very persistent in seeking for remedies and then my strongest memory and this is this this has to do partly with my role here as well as your role but I just have a very strong memory of your advocacy for that housing bond and how important you you just stressed and you drove it home you said we have to pass this thing we have to pass it convincingly and then we have to act on it we need to use those funds and sure enough Durham did that and Durham led the way in doing that led the way in the Triangle and in and in North Carolina and of course still we're working out all about that can mean for us and I'm hopeful that we will be adding another piece here in Washington in the regular appropriations bill and also in the so-called build back better bill where we can have more federal resources to draw on and communities like like Durham can can deal with this it is I think our our greatest municipal challenge certainly at the very top of the list to bring housing to the fore as a front burner issue and to get our public housing and better repair at we've had MacDougal terrace as a kind of tip of the iceberg in terms of of that disrepair and how dangerous and disgraceful that is and we have long waiting lists for for rental assistance for vouchers we have a shortage of housing supply both rental housing and and startup homes we need to incentivize the production of housing we need to give a boost to homeowners and of course the ongoing challenge of avoiding evictions and and providing rental assistance for people have run into difficulty particularly in the in the context of the pandemic I mean it is a huge challenge and it isn't just one approach it's it's an approach across the whole spectrum of housing needs so Steve you've been passionate about that your council has been as well there are many many members sitting there there with you who have understood the challenge of affordable housing and have risen to the challenge and I I in the months remaining in office I want to be a good partner in terms of putting of course federal resources together but also strategizing with the with the community community leaders about how we can apply for some of this elderly housing that's now we're funding is newly available how we can get the section eight rolls reduced and get more landlords participating and get more housing choices for those people it it's just something we can all dedicate ourselves to and that does remind me that on this call is is my longtime a staff member and aid and friend Tracy love it who is a daughter of Durham and has served when Mel what was the congressman Tracy got her got her start in congressional work with with Mel and and has has worked with with me all all these years since then and has been a very very powerful housing advocate in her own right and has helped many many applicants apply for funds and also steered people in the right way when they wanted to do something about housing and many other things but housing in in particular so I really am grateful for this recognition I feel like the not too many members of Congress are as fortunate I am to represent a community that does as much to help itself as as as Durham does you know federal programs federal often said federal support doesn't just come down like manna from heaven first of all there isn't enough of it but secondly federal support comes from those who pursue it and who conform the partnerships and take advantage of it years ago when I was first starting I was on the on the what we let him call the banking and housing committee and and at that point I didn't represent Durham but I sure knew a lot about Durham I taught at Duke I had and of course Durham who has has always been a community that's been a heavy unit user of housing programs and housing funds so I early on learned about the self help organization and we put together some demonstration programs that showed that with the right kind of support with the right kind of counseling with the right kind of encouragement that people that you know sometimes didn't get considered for home ownership could be homeowners they certainly could be and and we needed to make those opportunities available and then one thing led to another we we have over the years done work with the the residential facilities over at Trosa the work in renovating Paris Street dealing with the food desert on Fayetteville Street and clearing the way for for a supermarket coming in there a lot of work with Bill Bell and the late Ed Stewart through the UDI organization good good solid community projects. I won't go through the whole list of the tobacco trail and and a varied set of projects and and every one of them every one of them indicative of community initiative and community partnership and community support so it's just immensely gratifying to work with a community that has that kind of that kind of energy and that kind of compassion and that kind of will wish to be an inclusive community and to make things better. So so Steve you exemplify that that's one thing I mean to say but I also want to say to the council and up and the people you represent that it is a wonderful community and community that has been my privilege and my honor to represent and that I'll do my best to represent effectively in the 14 months left before I I finally pass off the baton. So thank you so much for for this generous declaration and resolution and I guess all I'll say is I will try to live up to it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Congressman Price and enjoy the last four and a half hours of David Price Day. Thank you. All right colleagues that was great and we do have another ceremony ceremonial item tonight we're going to move to next and I'm going to ask councilmember Reese if he will do the honors for our veterans day proclamation. And councilmember at that podium according to our mask mandate you are 10 feet away from others you are vaccinated and you may take your mask off. As you wish. Well good evening everyone I'll be reading this proclamation honoring veterans day due to the vagaries of our schedule of course veterans day was four days ago but luckily I believe we have online someone from the Durham County veteran services department is that right? Great and I shall share a few words with us when I'm done. Whereas each year our nation pauses to pay tribute to the many men and women who have pledged their allegiance to the armed forces and whereas their loyalty to the military is evident in their commitment and willingness to make sacrifices to protect our country and whereas their faithfulness and courage commands respect as many have stood in the face of our country's adversaries protect our freedom and whereas the United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution on June 4th 1926 calling for the observance of November 11th with appropriate ceremonies and later provided in an act approved on May 13th 1938 that the 11th of November in each year should be a legal holiday celebrated and known as armistice day and whereas on June 1st 1954 Congress made an amendment replacing armistice with veterans and whereas November 11th is veterans day and is set aside as a legal state and federal public holiday to honor our nation's veterans and whereas it is hoped that we are inspired and our bond as a nation is strengthened as we gather on Veterans Day to recognize the Patriots in the City of Durham and across our great nation who have defended our rights values and freedoms now therefore I Stephen M. Shul may or the City of Durham North Carolina do hereby proclaim November 11th 2021 as Veterans Day in Durham and hereby urge all residents in Durham to observe Veterans Day by displaying respect and gratitude for our veterans both living and deceased through appropriate services and ceremonies recognizing their great sacrifice witness my hand this 29th day of October 2021 we now have Lois Harvan Raven who's the director of the Durham County Department of Veteran Services is she with us now I am I am can you guys hear me yes we can hear all right thank you Mayor Shure Mayor Pearl Tim Johnson council members city attorney enlisting audience I want to take just a brief moment to say thank you before I yield the remainder of my three minutes to my staff who did the groundwork to get this proclamation before you and the council to make this moment happen Jonathan Coons who's in the house if he would stand please Jonathan is the Durham County Outreach VO at veteran service officer and Hannah Watts of the City of Durham helped make this moment happen as a director of Durham County Department of Veteran Services a native born of Durham and a 10 year army veteran this is a personal and professional honor to accept this proclamation on behalf of all the veterans and active duty service members of Durham and Durham County recognition their valor and their sacrifice the proclamation is not just intended for Veterans Day but an opportunity to recognize our veterans 365 days a year and that is what you all have done tonight in honor of all our veterans so I am profoundly appreciative for you all for the proclamation you have rendered tonight Jonathan Crooms will accept the proclamation on behalf of Durham County Veteran Services thank you all again for taking this time tonight as part of the civic agenda to recognize the importance of veterans in our community whereas with Memorial Day we take a moment to recognize those veterans who've paid the ultimate price with Veterans Day we celebrate all veterans whether they were on active duty whether they're reservists National Guard whether they serve in the Commission Public Health Corps our veterans are at the core of what keeps our communities safe and protects our freedoms abroad and when their military service is over they come back home and they serve as leaders in their communities and so that's why it is so important to recognize their contribution not only to our national defense but also to the leadership of our communities many of our veterans serve as leaders in county and local government in fact as part of of the celebration that we have had this month we've done a virtual ceremony but what we're also doing is making a special outreach to veterans who serve in county and city government to contact us and let us help you with accessing your VA benefits you have served and given so much so let us help you with with getting the benefits that you've earned it are entitled to our phone number is 919-560-8387 and we invite all veterans surviving spouses dependent children of veterans to contact us for help with benefits thank you so much thank you very much mr. Krooms miss Harbin Raven and councilmember Reese we appreciate you all right we'll now moved we're going to move now to announcements by the council and I'm going to invite councilmember Freelon to come to the podium and you can use that one if you'd like and and give us a few words maybe more than a few let me also recognize we have at least four former city councilmembers here with us this wax staff mr. Moffitt mr. Davis and Ms. Alston we are so glad to have you I hope I haven't missed anyone any former councilmembers but we're so glad to have you here in the chambers with us tonight thank you councilmember Freelon thank you mr. Mayor so Steve asked me to say some words about my service I will be retiring like you at the end of this month and just want to offer some remarks about this really tremendous privilege of serving on Durham City Council and it's beautiful to see so many former members of this very privileged group here so I wanted to acknowledge the council member colleagues that are here and our future colleagues will not colleagues I guess I won't be on the council I will be a constituent but Leonardo Williams and Mayor O'Neill thank you for being here today as well so colleagues community members and staff my heart is so full of gratitude as I reflect on the wonderful opportunity that it's been to serve on this council it has been a really enriching experience one that I can only relate to nurturing children and I saw Steve had his grandchild here the enriching and what I mean by that is the enriching aspects of kind of pouring yourself unconditionally and wholeheartedly into something so generative for the giver and that's how I feel about my service and of course there is an exchange when you serve you tend to think of the giver and the receiver but for me what has defined my service on the city council has been the lessons the connections the relationship the blessings and the community that service has offered me and I'm so very deeply humbled and empowered by that connection to my home and to be a part of this wonderful legacy on my first week of service I was really nervous I wasn't sure if I could hang quite frankly we had some intense conversations that first week some you may recall and in disagreements over policy and I think it was my first or second meeting we went into closed session we were briefed on something really intense that brought me to tears some of my colleagues may remember that day and I remember all of my colleagues in the city attorney we were on a zoom call and deputy manager page at the time your deputy manager were present and I had to ask if we could stop because I was overwhelmed with emotion I and I was told one of my colleagues was like hey you know this is the job we have to to look at these things unflinchingly and but I couldn't unflinch I couldn't do it I was flinching uncontrollably and I remember talking to my wife afterwards like you know am I cut out for this and she reassured me that my vulnerability in that moment was a strength and that my connection to community my ancestors my background as an artist were all very important and will influence my service in ways that were needed and important and I've I've seen that to be true and and that was not the last time that I flinched a lot of people don't know as city council members you know we are charged we're responsible with safeguarding our city whenever gunshots ring out in the city of Durham we get a message from the city manager which I didn't know that kind of going in and just imagine you know you're with your children or you're out on a date night with your partner and your phone lights up and it's another notice about a gunshot victim a child a daughter sometimes it might be a name that you recognize a member of our beloved community and in this unprecedented year of 2020 you know of shootings of COVID-19 there are these highly unusual desperate times to be in this job and to and to do this service violent months not just in Durham but across our country and we are responsible for making the strategic empathetic visionary investments in public safety and safety and wellness and affordable housing and transportation and it is a really heavy responsibility and a big job and my first week I'll tell you was not the only time that that I broke down I remember getting calls from people like Omar Beasley who was the chair of the Durham committee on the affairs of black people at the time you know and and weeping over some of what we were observing and experiencing in the community talking to residents and feeling the frustration and the fear in my body you know talk to people you feel it and in my empathy like Lauren Olumina who's a character in this science fiction book called parable of the sewer written by Octavia Butler there's this character who who has the superpower of being able to feel the people around her and feeling kind of crippled by grief was sometime was really hard but there's one special thing about Durham and Congressman Price said it really eloquently there's something special about this community and here's the thing about about Durham and really about the black freedom struggle because a lot of that violence that I'm talking about it's happening in the black community we embody trauma and have have endured our share of harm and despair but we are also the architects of resiliency and transformation and you see that on the ground in Durham those same communities where violence feels endemic we have community organizers some of them right here in this room Ms. Wagstaff some of them right here in this room who are doing the work community organizers coaches mamas elders artists youth who know what they need to keep their community safe and I was so proud to work with those folks and to gather people and present we are the ones which is a really important piece of municipal legislation that I'm proud of to bring to council and with the support of my colleagues we passed with the support and help of our staff we passed measures like guaranteed income which is going to start next year something I'm so proud of and excited excited about I'm proud to have hired the best city manager in the country Wanda Page can we give her a round of applause like we did that y'all Charlie's talked about that we did that we're implementing our safety and wellness department we've hired an outstanding new police chief we've expanded violence interruptions we've opened affordable housing on Willard Street we purchased wheels fun park for crying out loud that's just so exciting to me we've launched the safety and wellness task force and designed a framework for the American rescue funds we did that in fact another new experience I think that is a first for the city of Durham mayor pro tem Johnson and I participated in a restorative justice healing circle where we you know kind of heard testimony about as an alternative to punitive criminal justice as representatives of the city so we did that we put in the hours we did the research we listen to our constituents we hosted forums and budget healings right city manager page and we marched in the street we did our press conferences and strategy sessions we raised money we cried we prayed we argued Lord knows we argued you know but we did it because we care about Durham congressman price I wrote it down when he said it he said you know we didn't always agree there's the rough and tumble politics of Durham that he talked about but we come together to advocate it's important that people care enough to advocate strongly that's something that I've learned in my service and that I really appreciate you know we we fight and we argue because we care and we served and I'm so grateful and so blessed to have served alongside you colleagues and alongside this wonderful staff and I just want to thank you again so much for the opportunity and wanted to congratulate also my colleague mayor shul for your retirement you've done a wonderful job you've been an amazing mentor and I look forward to hanging out with you in retirement so thank you so much everyone have a good evening hey mr. mayor mr. mayor I'm sorry I've been vaccinated and boosted do I have your permission to move my mask yes you do Ms. Wallace all right thank you so much good evening mr. mayor mayor pro tem Johnson members of the city council city attorney Ray Burke city manager want a page members of the viewing audience those who were in person as well as those who are joining virtually I would like to welcome you back to the people's house tonight is our first night again coming back to in person meeting and mayor shul I will tell you that several people contacted our office and wanted to know what we were gonna do for you what were we going to do for you and so we know the impact that you've had on the organization we know the impact that you've had on this community and we did not want to let the opportunity pass us by to do just a little bit of something for you I've made some commitments to people that we will be brief and so in light of that you've identified a couple of people in the audience who are here specifically for you so at this time I'd like to call up former council member Eddie Davis if you could step to the podium and share a few words regarding mayor shul please may I take off my mask also I've been shot and boosted thank you very much I'll stay within the two minute period of time that the chief of staff has given me let me just say that if I go back 50 years ago as a student leader at one of the campuses that wouldn't HBCU campuses here in North Carolina there was an organization that we founded called subu which was which stood for a student organization for black unity and it was founded to try to make sure that there would be some kind of equity in terms of the funding for those five state supported schools as well as the other schools across the state we did not get very much support from many campuses other than those that are our HBCUs but we did get one from Duke University and at that time one of the student leaders at Duke University it was Steve Shul so I want to go back 50 years and thank you for the advocacy that you and your colleagues that do put forth for those HBCUs back 50 years ago I also want to thank you so much for the time that we shared here on this Durham City Council thank you for your service on the school board thank you for your service in many other institutions here in Durham and across the state thank you for your support for the Morrill Monday movement and so many other movements that we've had here in Durham and across the state of North Carolina and around this nation so I want to thank you for that and let you know how much I appreciate it and I know I'm not alone with that when I left my house today my wife who is a member of Delta Sigma theta talking about how she and you and several other people comb the city for the homeless count in the middle of the night I guess a couple of years ago when she served on a committee with that and she talked about how Steve was running real fast to try to get to places and that she knew that he knew where people were going where people were hiding where people were living so she wanted me to thank you for that and finally thank you so much for allowing me to have the opportunity to work with so many other wonderful people here in Durham as we celebrated the sesquicentennial the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Durham and all that went along with that so with all of you around the country and around this nation around the city around the state I want to thank you for the work that you've done Steve shul thank you at this time I'm going to call up council member Don Moffitt I wish that I had the polish and a plumb that my colleague Eddie Davis does but I have to look at my notes so good evening Mr. Mayor members of council madam manager I came tonight to say thank you for your public service for sure your four years as mayor your six years on the council before that your four years on the school board those years are just an indication of your commitment to Durham of the lifetime of service to making Durham a better place for everyone I got to sit by by you on council for five years and I learned a lot the first thing I happened when I joined the council in fact it happened right before I did was that Lincoln apartments closed they put everybody out on the street and I saw you take phone call after phone call you'd hurry back from a work session to go back to all your voicemails because people knew they were looking for a place to reach out to you and I watched you work tirelessly to find all of those people new homes so with an apologies to George Bernard Shaw you see things that should be and you ask why not why the hell not the protests that Eddie mentioned Sharon Harris moral Mondays you focus on immigration and housing you have boundless energy and I really admire that you were a publisher with the independent you were a music producer with hopscotch a runner you all may not know you may he just won his age class in the recent five mile race and I can remember when I sat by you on the day as I was reminded of your work as a college professor when you pull out full page sheets of notes to get ready for your remarks you might even have two sheets I was always really proud that I read everything that was provided to us went to prepare for a council meeting but I knew that the work that you did to prepare went far beyond that that you you did further research talk to more people and so I know you're looking at retirement I know you're looking forward to spending more time with your family but I don't doubt you already have two plans and more ideas maybe a podcast maybe a book but that's the future tonight thank you thank you for everything that you've done to make Durham a more caring community thank you for caring deeply yourself and for always always walking your talk thank you thank you so much representative Austin representative Austin good evening I also I'm going to look at my notes so good evening everyone Mayor Shul members of the Durham City Council city staff that's great to be with you before I start I do want to thank and acknowledge the work of council member Freelon thank you for your contributions to the council and congratulations on a great tenure here Mayor Shul when you announced this past summer that you would not be seeking re-election there was an immediate outpouring of gratitude for your public service my response at least online was more kind of okay everyone chill out he's still got six months left he's he needs to get back to work there's more to do all right well since then you have most certainly done just that collectively you all passed a very important budget that among other things will advance critical affordable housing goals and you continue to lead us through this pandemic so the moral of the story here really is that you must have read my tweet and while I do appreciate your public service on this council and as mayor because I have personally marveled at your effectiveness as a policymaker and a leader you are seemingly bottomless well of compassion and the real impact of your vision on the people of this city my message tonight to you is that even after December you'll still be on the clock our kids are working poor folks who feel disenfranchised can and will continue to need and benefit from the qualities and ideas that you've brought to your role as mayor and I know that you will keep Durham at the center of your work and of your future vision Steve you've already heard me say this but I think it bears repeating for everyone here and everyone listening serving with you and alongside you has been a masterclass in preparation in active listening in perspective and the simple act of follow-through you embody good governance the consistent and precise deployment of leadership humility and hard truths and you do it all with a reassuring smile so thank you so much for your service to the city please enjoy tonight and we will look forward to what comes next thanks thank you so mayor it would not it just wouldn't be fitting and appropriate if we did not have some participants join us via zoom so at this time I want to recognize senator mike woodard who is joining us um in the zoom senator woodard take it away uh thank you car misha and good evening ladies and gentlemen uh those of you assembled at city hall i'm sorry i could not be with you tonight but here is your state budget i have an all nighter to pull before we vote tomorrow so you'll know why i'm here uh in my office in raleigh you know uh people used to always say that bill bell was a cool mayor um and you we know why you know that certain swagger mayor bell had and the way he carried himself the way he danced occasionally when we could get him to dance uh but i'm here tonight to suggest that steve shill is also a cool mayor politicians you know we often run for certain things you want to be a peacetime president or a wartime president you want to be an education governor you want to be an infrastructure mayor or council member but nobody runs to be a pandemic mayor or an explosion mayor those are things that are handed to you and how you respond to them often defines um so much of your work steve shill had both of those things occurred during his tenure as mayor and he handled those in an unflappable manner and he showed so much incredible calm and we were just so lucky to have his hand on the rudder during a couple of incredible challenges during his tenure as mayor and that's why to me steve shill will always be a cool mayor it would have been easy in those times to lose your cool to sort of get hot about things but not steve shill he was always cool but steve's tenure as mayor will also be remember for so many other things and i think first among those is the incredible work this city has done on housing and public and affordable housing and steve i have to share with you i was at mayor mary and baublin's kickoff for her reelection last week she was surrounded by many of the former mayors of raleigh standing there on the podium well actually it was just a chair at a restaurant but she was standing there with other mayors of raleigh she acknowledged them but in her remarks about her tenure as mayor thus far one mayor she mentioned was steve shill of Durham because we set the pace for public housing in Durham and it's something raleigh looks to you know whenever we hear our friends and raleigh say good things about Durham i think we should remember that we were the leader there and again once again showing your cool in taking our biggest in the state housing bond through its passage and setting the stage for a very important policy in our city in the years to come steve i could go on and on about your incredible work others have have shared all of the amazing things that you've done so i just wanted to focus on those couple of things in the short time that permission has given us tonight i'll close though with this quote from Ralph Waldoe emerson an institution is the length and shadow of a man could be should be a person and steve the institution of the city of Durham has your shadow all over it as well as so many other things that you've done in serving our community whether it's the school board the independent newspaper and so many other things where your shadow is but those institutions and especially our city have benefited greatly from your work over the years steve thank you for your service enjoy your retirement though you're not the retiring kind of guy and i look forward to seeing you and leo as you walk through the um neighborhood and as you come over to visit your grandchild as many of you know my house is right between steve's and his new grandbaby so uh steve thanks again thank you senator thank you so much senator thank you senator we're now being joined by uh council member diane catati good evening everyone um it's a pleasure to be with you thank you for the opportunity to wish steve well in his retirement from the city council it was always a joy to work with steve on council he's one of the most kind compassionate thoughtful and respectful people i know he was a wonderful council member and mayor and he became a good friend i love sharing our ideas on policy the world our families and good books to read it was great fun to work with steve and i know he fondly remembers my elbow jabs at work sessions when he sat on my right when steve first joined council he gave us the fourth vote needed to pass the first dedicated funding source of a penny for affordable housing and steve always has thoughtful albeit sometimes lengthy remarks words to motivate and guide us and i truly respect his coverage sorry excuse me his courage and putting in place strong public health measures during the pandemic i know his and others efforts have helped save lives in Durham and lastly i greatly appreciate steve naming me to the affordable housing bond advisory committee and later as co-chair of the implementation committee he knows i care deeply about affordable housing as he does steve i wish you great comfort enjoy in retirement and more time to read good books enjoy your family and play with your granddaughter thank you for your dedication and commitment and long years of service to Durham all the best thank you thank you diane and now we were here from web gully good evening mayor shul members of the council it's good to be with you all i appreciate city manager page and chief of staff wallace for their kind invitation to say a few words um and at this point much of it's been said but uh i'll be brief i'm happy and honored to join you tonight uh and say a couple remarks really focus on our community's concerns about affordable housing and transit speaking uh much on behalf of a volunteer group the coalition here in Durham the coalition for affordable housing and transit these two issues uh safe affordable shelter and transportation are key ones because as all of you know they're the two largest expense items in most americans household budget the two biggest challenges they face uh and we know that we must have both of those in Durham if we're to be a community that welcomes everyone and embraces diversity um in a couple of minutes i cannot begin to speak to all that steve and this council have done and worked for in the last four years uh can't even begin but in short i would say that it's clear that he and the council have taken what was a meaningful commitment to provide affordable housing in Durham and transformed it into one of the most comprehensive substantial programs for affordable housing in the united states today uh in his role as mayor and on the board of our regional transportation agency go triangle steve has worked tirelessly to expand Durham's bus system while at the same time supporting the creation of a regional rail and bus system that we know the triangle needs for today's and tomorrow's mobility challenges he understands very well that durham cannot meet those challenges if we only think locally and only think about bus so i know that the group our group and many others in the community uh groups that are too numerous to name but and the advocates for safe and affordable housing and public transportation across Durham join me tonight in thanking mayor schull for all that he's done and all of your work and all of your efforts and all your successes that we have achieved today we know that his impact and legacy will be felt for many many years to come and steve i hope you know by now that even former mayors can stay engaged in the life and future of this wonderful community thank you thank you mr mayor and now we will have remarks from commissioner chair uh brenda howerton technology good evening everyone good evening good evening good evening to mayor schull city council and community is my my honor on behalf of the board of county commissioners to say to steve um it's been a pleasure to work with you it's been a pleasure to to fight with you it's been my honor to get things done sometimes you have to fight a little bit but it's been a pleasure in all of those things that we do together to make life better for the citizens of Durham and and you know my what i do is that i don't prolong things so i think everything has been said i think you are going out in such a great way to spend time with your little one your grand baby that you can't get that back that time passes so fast when they're little they grow up and then they don't have time for you when they get grown they uh they're too busy doing it with uh with their friends so i just wish you luck and lots of fun and lots of spoiling grand babies um your granddaughter and uh then you can give it back to your mom once you spoil her so thank you for all your service thank you for your work thank you very much Brenda and now we were here from Commissioner Wendy Jacobs thank you for giving me the honor and pleasure of joining in the celebration of our great mayor steve shul steve two of the hardest things i have ever done in my life have been the light rail project and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and i guess it says a lot when i can say that going through those things with you you in your role as mayor and me in my role as chair of the board of county commissioners that going through those experiences with you was the silver lining of those very tough experiences in those challenging times i witnessed your incredible ability to lead your ability to make hard decisions and tough calls your brilliant and innovative approach to policymaking your ability to be a great listener and ask incisive questions your warmth and compassion and ability to be a friend to so many your humbleness and lack of ego and most of all your absolute fierceness and boldness as a leader your willingness to fight hard take fearless action and always do what you think is right and in the best interests of the people of Durham one of the greatest challenges of all of our lives has been the COVID-19 pandemic no one is prepared for this type of a crisis in the lives of the people of our community and i will never forget that day on march 16th friday afternoon when you told me that you didn't really care what anybody said you were going to shut down d-pack because you could not bear the idea of hundreds of people being packed into that theater and not knowing what could happen and if hundreds of people could be exposed to this virus and that we could even lose one life that is the embodiment of the type of leader that you are and i could not be prouder that together we were the among the first city and county governments just about a month later on april 17th 2021 one of the first governments in in the state and in our country to implement a ordinance requiring place coverings which i have also no doubt has saved lives the creation of the recovery and renewal task force which helped collectively guide us through the pandemic and brought together community leaders involved hundreds of residents and pulled in incredible local talent and expertise was again the embodiment of your approach to leadership steve you have served our community for more than 40 years four decades in so many roles and you have literally helped make Durham the progressive beacon of the south that it is today i'm so glad that you will now be able to relish what might may be what will be your most important title yet grandpa congratulations thank you so much for everything that you've done for our community thank you wendy the possible oh oh tom brawnfield was that dope? yeah but go on my leader i know your hands from the beach plans before go ahead tom okay so it sounds like uh tom bondfield is up next take it away tom oh thank you miss wallis and i assure you that i will uh comply with your strict guidance of uh no more than two minutes certainly my pleasure and glad to to be with everyone this evening albeit virtual and be a part of the congratulations for steve a mayor shul and just an incredible public service career steve i was so glad to spend some time with you last week here on the coast of north carolina and and share some really some great great conversations and great moments but did want to take this opportunity this evening to be a part of this celebration of your tremendous public service to say that the time that i was the manager with you were some very challenging times as we as we know and has also been spoken this evening but really what i want to say in my brief remarks are how much i appreciate the non-city times that we spent together and the friendships sometimes it was sorrowful with the the loss of our parents many times it was joyful and we celebrated accomplishments of our children and certainly the great gift of of granddaughters that that we've come to know and love and just want to say that i've appreciated every moment of of of that friendship as well as the the times that we spend on some very challenging issues during my time as manager but to say steve thank you we want to stay in touch we promise to stay in touch and i look forward to uh to many more visits of me back in Durham and you on the coast congratulations and thank you thank you so much tom so at this time uh we're going to recognize former mayor bill bell well thank you commissioner steve uh i'm in cognito this evening be honest with you i had so many things to do i couldn't get dressed properly to come downtown and this cheap iPhone that i got from the city doesn't allow me to turn my camera on so you just have to remember you feel what it was but yeah i've heard what so many people said about you all true uh the platitudes can't come enough for many of you you might not know steve and i go a long way back uh when i was a young county commissioner and steve was a young publisher of the independent uh it started from that point and some of you may or may not know that uh when we set out to start the emergency county of the county city school system steve was on the task force that made all of that come to fruition in fact they rename themselves the merger issues task force so i i appreciate very much of what you've done what you continue to do but more importantly i appreciate the fact that we've been friends and hoping to carry it on a long way what what you guys don't know that steve and i are going to set up a uh as soon as he gets straight and make sure his granddaughter is doing well i don't know how long it will be the problem for forever but whenever that happens we're going to set up a deli shop because both of us lost pastrami and corned beef and we're trying to find the right place in the right time to make that happen but uh we we'll make that announcement at the appropriate time but seriously you you've got a great leader a great person i know you're going to be a great great grandfather and i want to say to you and all your family i wish you the very best and i do appreciate having an opportunity to work with you and want to continue to do that as life goes on so good luck best wishes keep on doing the things you're doing to make the city a better place thank you thank you mr man and now we'll have some remarks from tiffany elder good evening uh mayor shul i remember being on an elevator with you on the way to the university club uh for a meeting not long after you were elected as mayor four years ago and i greeted you and you responded that you remembered me from years earlier uh at a visit to a construction project that i finished on deer street a few years earlier and i was shocked at your memory of that but it left a huge impression on me as a business owner in the city and it illustrated to me how important people are to you so i appreciate the opportunity to congratulate you i'm moving forward into the next phase of your life and i would like to share a few thank yous for your time in office uh first thank you for all of your hard work on council and as mayor uh also for your support of Durham's first participatory budgeting process and for putting much needed dollars and decision-making directly into the hands of Durham's residents um for your hard work on Durham's affordable housing bond because i know that one was not easy uh and also for entrusting Diane Katari and i to lead the charge with the housing bond implementation committee uh we've gotten off to a really good start we've gathered a lot of feedback and we're excited about the bond's impact in Durham in the years to come uh thank you for beginning to put the pieces and persons in place toward your vision of a more equitable Durham uh we have a long way to go but starting is the most important first step and as you move on to new endeavors i trust that life will allow you to enjoy much more time with family friends loved ones and self in the years to come thank you tiffany thank you so much so mr mayor we are just about wrapping up um i do want to recognize katie galbraith hello good evening good evening mayor shul city council members um steve on behalf of duke health i just want to offer my sincere thanks for your really outstanding service to this community um i particularly want to thank you for your extraordinary leadership over the past 20 months you know you have been steadfast in your commitment to equity in your commitment to safety and your commitment to public health uh you know senator woodard talked about Durham setting the pace around affordable housing well i think Durham set the pace uh around public health uh particularly so early as commissioner jacob's pointed out so early in the pandemic Durham was three months ahead of north carolina in implementing that mask mandate and i absolutely believe that that helped save lives um and that's the kind of steadfast leadership that you have had you also had the wisdom to bring together a team of leaders really committed to helping Durham navigate the immediacy of the pandemic and with a focus on coming out stronger on coming out more resilient on coming out more just uh these last 20 months have been the most challenging i think for for many of us professionally personally for our community for our state for our nation for our globe this is a global pandemic uh and um i have to say that serving alongside you and this group of truly amazingly talented and committed leaders is has been a highlight for me of of my entire career um you know you also um you talked about your someone mentioned your your boundless energy um what they didn't mention was that uh you don't take no for an answer and that's a great thing when it comes to Durham and uh and so under your leadership that hundred day recovery and renewal task force completed 365 days of service to this community and through it all i personally learned so much i think we also learned so much and i was so impressed by your really humble leadership your compassion your caring the way you leaned in and continue to lean in and listen uh and learn uh and and again your uncanny ability to to really get things done to get people to say yes we can uh Durham is a better place because of you and so i thank you for your service and i congratulate you on your retirement congratulations thank you katie thank you so much and now we're here from tabias rose hello hello everyone and uh thank you for inviting me and uh thank you for for letting me do this um i guess two minutes is not a whole lot of time i'm gonna try to keep this very very very quick i know city council you all have a lot of business to handle but uh mayor shul there's just so many you know little examples of of your leadership that i don't think anyone will ever have any perspective on that just amaze me and i want to say thank you for that um you know he had he came to us came over to the studio we're right across the street and asked me to to serve on the affordable housing advisory group and with that we gave city council a lot of things that we felt like should be done before the bond went out to the public and steve made sure that stuff was was taken seriously and so the interesting thing about that was when we started we had this motley crew of just incredible community leaders some of them i didn't even know and at the end i remember looking around the room and i said oh man i get it i see what he was doing now i see why he put this particular group together um and that kind of insight is something that takes wisdom it takes experience it takes something inside of you that's not something that you can just manufacture so i want to say you know number one thank you for that because with that we passed the largest housing bond in north carolina's history and additionally just uh hopefully this retirement doesn't mean that i personally won't have access to you i'm going to be selfish uh being able to pick up the phone and call you and just get what i like to call an og's perspective on things is important you know a lot of us in the business community we sometimes get pulled into things that that you guys do on a regular basis in city council and just in saving Durham and making Durham a better place and these things are incredibly fulfilling but sometimes we need advice from people like you so thank you so much for your leadership thank you for everything you've done for Durham thank you for teaching me how to say sesquicentiel because that took some doing um and thank you for having our team you know work on that that logo for the 150th so thank you so so much for everything you've done and again i could keep going but i know i only have two minutes um and karmisha thank you so much for having me you get on this i think i'm gonna go ahead and pass the mic all right so we're passing the mic to pilar rocha goldberg thank you karmisha for this opportunity buenas noches a todos good evening everybody um mayor shul thank you uh first of all i want to thank you because since you became a city council member you came to a centrospanel to talk to me uh to learn about the community and to see what was needed and how you could help you have been always open to listen and to talk about concerns that the community has and always to try to find solutions and that was really clear when the pandemic started your leadership skills and your ability to bring people together really was a gift and essential to the community need especially minorities in these difficult times i still remember that day that we went um to give masks uh to the street vendors on club bolivar that's you that's you steve we will miss you but i'm sure we will continue connected and your your retirement and un abrazo y gracias por todo muchas gracias gracias pilar and now we have jeff durham joining us good evening everyone man it is it's been a pleasure to sit in for the last uh hour plus seeing so many familiar faces uh that i haven't had a chance to chat to in a while and uh it's great certainly to be able to join you all this evening uh to celebrate uh the great work of our our mayor steve shul i'm so pleased to join you all this evening and get a chance to just pay some respects and appreciation for everything that mayor shul has done on behalf of our community uh steve you've been a leading voice in so many different areas uh through derms revitalization and through so many tough conversations that we've heard about this evening already around transit and housing affordability public safety uh equity and community health sir you have indeed ushered us through uh in our community through some unprecedented times and i am so grateful for that leadership uh on a personal level um i really have always appreciated your guiding hand in many of our off hours uh kind of personal conversation based conversations dating back to to my arrival uh nearly eight years ago was crazy as that sounds but i've always been appreciative of your of your willingness to to talk and open up ideas uh and really inform and educate and i certainly continue to be thankful for that so with that thank you for your compassionate leadership we've heard the word compassion over and over again but thank you for your compassionate leadership and congratulations on a well-earned retirement and go get after being a grand paul thank you jeff all right and from uh jeff we'll turn it over to Nicole Thompson who's muted yeah okay sorry about that i'm just learning how to use zoom apparently um good evening everyone uh mayor shul i've written my comments down so i make sure to stay under the two minutes i've heard that you don't want to make miss wallis angry so i'm going to do my best um mayor shul thank you for your long and steadfast commitment and service to durham and most especially downtown durham i don't think anyone would disagree when i say there is no doubt of your love and dedication to making durham a wonderful place to live work and play for all that dedication spreads wide and far and has been so obvious throughout your public service career in your tireless push to ensure there are economic opportunities through housing transportation and jobs for anyone who calls durham home but your absolute love for the people of durham is what will be remembered by most and certainly by me it was this love that was front and center as you led durham through the last 20 months of covid your commitment to do all in your power to keep durham safe and ensure mask and gloves and hand sanitizers were available testing sites were available and once the vaccines were available pushing to ensure there were opportunities for anyone to have access to these vaccines i saw you struggle with shutdowns and face masks and all other covid precautions i even pushed you on some of these issues however never did i think you didn't care and always i knew how much you struggled to do what was right for durham so i am so happy that i have had the opportunity to work with you over the last four and a half years to make downtown a place that is open and welcoming to all and durham such a great place to call home i hope that while you'll be retiring your presence and input in downtown durham's growth will continue when you're running through downtown and you see me give a wave i won't stop you um i'll let you continue to run and maybe one of these days i'll run with you and we can run through durham together and i can tell you what's going on but again thank you for all you have done for your service and your strong love for the bull city durham is certainly a better place because of you thank you nicole thank you so much and now we hear from cecilia barha perfect pronunciation so good night to everybody i'm here to speak not about the grandkid of steve but actually about the great grandparents of steve whose name was elaya some blooma who flew from lituania because of the totalitarian system of russia back in 1889 and you might wonder how come i know about the great grandparents of steve and that is because back in 2017 it was december it was a cold night we hosted an event with durham cam and the latino congress in el buen pastor in east durham on liberty street and the room was completely packed we had the media we had our leaders we had our neighbors and the steve shul was there and there was one empty chair and that was the chair of the latino person who was going to speak that was selene from el salvador one of our several neighbors who work on construction in dorham he was just too afraid to come and to speak on behalf of the latino community but the person who stood up and spoke in spanish was steve himself in a perfect spanish and let me repeat what he said back in 2017 he said en durham no construimos muros we don't build walls queremos que vivas libre de miedo we don't want you to live here in our city with being afraid te damos la bienvenida you are welcome and then he said con nuestros brazos abiertos y nuestro corazón abierto those were the words of our mayor in his first year and i was lucky enough and an honor to serve also in the housing bond committee and when we had our discussions with tobayas and we and all of you we spoke not only about the money the resources the physical the hardware the investment to be done but also about the soul and the relations of trust and the kind of community that we want to build so steve you did a lot for the latino community as well not only on resources and the hardware but in the soul en el corazón y estamos agradecidos gracias amigo gracias alcalde gracias cecilia and i will have a few brief remarks from harry mccoy uh good evening everybody uh hello mayor sure it's uh such a pleasure to get a chance to to speak at this moment and uh you know you and i've what a lot of people don't know is that we you and i connect um be a phone or meeting the you know the first thing we talk about is not usually you know kind of the business of hand we usually compare our running injuries and what's going on with us at that time uh maybe we can keep on some of those as uh you know in the future you know i i've had the opportunity to work very closely with you have some great conversations with you and i certainly appreciate those and uh you know i had the honor of you know being a part of the affordable housing um you know about the board that you put together and that was certainly a great experience but what i i just want to talk about in knowledge very quickly is um something else and so uh in october of 2018 double jowls have asked me to give a keynote speech at the minority enterprise development week um luncheon at the maleo hotel and uh and you know it was a one of those situations where i had to decide whether i you know it was a celebratory situation so do i talk about kind of the great things going on or do i kind of hold a mirror up to Durham or around what's what was going on with equity in business as i was charged with this question of you know what is the state of of um you know minority entrepreneurship in Durham and you know what can we do about it and so uh as you know i kind of took the ladder i held up a mirror and talked about Durham and where we have been and where we are and where we might go and uh and from that um you know a lot of the i i think the discussions that we've had uh over the last several years have been you know very substantial in terms of this idea of making Durham this kind of um you know leader of equity and i want to give you a lot of credit for uh i remember after that you came up to me and and you express your gratitude for the content and uh and also told me that you wanted me to share the speech with you uh you sent me the email follow-up you said hey can you send that speech to me uh what you didn't know at the time the speech didn't have a title i had to go back and cross my t's and dot my eyes and I nodded when we come up and that became um the speech that is now known as the death of Durham and you took that shared it with the city council you shared it with the city staff with the county and those folks and I and I remember not long after that you actually um we were about to go to Bloomberg um to do some work with the Bloomberg Foundation and you changed the or you helped to push this idea of changing the focus of that work around into what you can arm development and I think that made a tremendous amount of difference and so I just want to acknowledge you here publicly on your role in making you know equitable economic development a centerpiece of what Durham is and um I think you that will be one of your lasting contributions to this work so thank you Steve uh I wish you the best retirement and uh you know uh I look forward to you know catch you on the trail thank you so much Henry I'll see you out there thank you and now we're gonna hear from venice sanders good evening mayor I'm sorry I was tended to my granddaughter um I would like to thank you for your services I have been on the housing application board for a few months and I've listened to all of the great things that you have done here in Durham sorry to have worked with you um for such a short time I wish you would uh still have been the mayor of Durham but unfortunately you have other adventures that you would like to venture out to so once again I would thank you for the short time that I've known you and thank you for your services thank you so much thank you very much you're welcome thank you and now we'll hear from John Parker well it's been quite a parade uh that we've had of folks uh speaking here I feel very honored to be a part of a part of this celebration um I'm a realtor in Durham third generation resident my kids are fourth my grandkids are fifth generation residents and uh I'm proud to say that of everybody here I'm the first person that ever voted for Stevie Shul I voted for him in 1972 to be the ASDU president at Duke Wib remembers it Eddie Davis remembers it um but uh it's been quite a ride knowing knowing you Stevie both personally and professionally um I really got to know Stevie in 1975 we were uh both taking skydiving lessons at the Franklin County airport and we spent the day together learning how to jump learning how to steer a parachute and learning how to land and uh I think that as I was thinking about this is that Stevie that kind of embodies you you know you uh and I hope everyone in the council can take that ability and the risk to jump and uh you did that with the affordable housing bond I'm proud to serve on the affordable housing implementation committee now and uh you know it's been a wild great ride and the best I can say is that um in Durham I kind of hope as a realtor that if anybody's thinking about moving to Durham I'm going to ask them to watch this program to see all the incredible people that uh and the resources that we have here in Durham uh and I feel honored to have worked with many of you over the years on different nonprofit organizations but let's uh let's just uh say congratulations to Stevie uh our diversity is our strength here in Durham and uh Stevie I think this is a landing for you not the landing thank you John thank you so much so Mr. Mayor um we have one more person in the virtual uh zoom room um who you've been engaging with quite a bit the last couple of months and so at this time I'll turn it over to the next speaker who needs no introduction from me thank you so much protocol being established I said good evening it is truly an honor to be here to speak to you this evening about this great leader I'm truly honored to be amongst the panelists I want to extend a huge thank you to Manager Page and Chief Staff Wallace for giving me giving me this opportunity to express gratitude Mayor Shoe, I want to thank you so much for all that you've done for Durham but personally I like to just really tell you about my deep appreciation and for the wise council and unwavering support that you provided to me and most importantly your great sacrifice of time and energy I remember our very first conversation that we had because it related to D-PAC as mentioned earlier it was quite clear that you cared about Durham as the conversation turned away from D-PAC to how I was doing was there anything I needed and were we prepared for what was to come with the pandemic so on behalf of the men and women of the Durham County Department of Public Health we thank you for supporting us we truly thank you we've kept our community safe through hard work and even harder decisions we work together as one team as mentioned about the the Blue Ribbon Task Force that you created and while many of my health director colleagues throughout the state really struggle with their elected officials it gives me great pleasure to let them know that here in Durham I have a great working relationship with my elected officials because you guys are awesome and as I often say Durham leads the way I thank you so much for challenging me to be a better version of myself I'm really appreciative of how you always ask about my family but more importantly how you always encourage me to dig a day off which I really do because COVID-19 never takes a day off your legacy is set and I've learned a whole lot about you and leadership by just watching you do what you do because you're truly a smooth operator so I wish you all the best as you settle into being a private citizen that is a thing for you and I wish you well you have a beautiful family beautiful granddaughter and you deserve all the time in the world to be with so again thank you so much for all you do Mr. Mayor and I appreciate you thank you Rod thank you so much so Mr. Mayor um I would be remissed if I did not allow the love of your life to take some time to share with us publicly the G version leo may I take my mask off so Steve your whole family including Abe and Josephine who was looking in from the outside and her mama Lauren Lee and Josephine won't be on the outside looking in for very long I don't think and Ben and Kerry who I don't know if you saw behind their masks and Solly sends his good wishes from Miami he couldn't be here we all want to join the city of Durham in thanking you and congratulating you on the great work you've done as our mayor because we're the ones who know just how hard you've worked through your tenure and believe me it's been hard we're the ones who've seen you answer emails morning noon at midnight and after midnight and sometimes way too long after midnight we've seen you go to your first meeting at 6 30 in the morning and come home at nine at night before the pandemic dead tired and then when the pandemic started we've watched you for a full year and a half chair city council meetings from a little teeny tiny chair in your office a very uncomfortable chair um for a year and a half and then we've watched you through that year and a half day after day zoom meeting after zoom meeting after zoom meeting into the weekend and then working late at night so we know that you never expected to be a mayor in a time of emergency we know that that's not what you wanted we know you never dreamed of being a mayor during a global pandemic and we know that you always wanted to be talk to your council members your colleagues the city staff the community in person that's always been your favorite part of the job and the pandemic took that away but you rose to the challenge and we've seen you do the job 24 7 literally on many days with enthusiasm and even good humor so we know more than anyone just how hard you work to make this city that you love a city where everyone can truly thrive and we know there's still more work to do we know that although you're stepping down as mayor your love for Durham is as strong as ever and we are lucky to have you so tonight we your family want to thank you along with everyone else for all you've done for Durham and for all of us we're proud of you we're grateful for your work and we love you thank you mayor the floor is all yours thank you karmisha this is our version of a COVID friendly party buddy wow miss Wallace thank you manager page thank you so much that that was not what i expected tonight uh we do have three public hearings uh i'm blown away by what i heard um and i just i can't even express my gratitude thank you all so much all of you all who were here and everyone on zoom and it was amazing um doing this work is just it's the honor of a lifetime those of those of us who have been able to do this know that it's really the honor of a lifetime and uh you know that's a cliche but it but it's true and i really uh i have some remarks i'm mainly for my colleagues and my and the and the future members of the council and future mayor but for this community too and our next meeting December 6th Elaine O'Neill will be sworn sworn in as the 38th mayor of Durham and she's going to do a wonderful job as our mayor and as i have let her know and we'll say again i will help her in any way that i can you know i got to sit for six years uh next to bill Patrick Baker sat between us and it is true that we often ask Patrick how he brought us a pastrami sandwich but i got to sit and and learn from bill Elaine has not been able to do that she's been doing other amazing work but we're gonna have to help her in every way we can and i know our amazing staff was going to do everything that they can to make her successful and she will be successful so mayor elect O'Neill one more time you have my complete and total support and confidence please call on me whenever whenever you need i want to appreciate my family for being here Carrie and Ben thank you Abe Lauren Lee and little Josephine and of course Leo thank you so much for being i can't i'm so happy that you're here tonight i want to say to my my beloved colleagues what an amazing group of public servants that you are we we certainly have our differences over policy for sure but together i really feel like we have united to move this city forward on so many fronts and we didn't let our debates over policy devolve into perfect personal attacks or enmity or acrimony and i believe in that way really have set a good example for our community for how our politics ought to be conducted as friends and close colleagues with generosity and kindness and i have always felt that from you all and i'm so so grateful for it i still believe the what i said on the day that i was sworn in as mayor that we the people of Durham envision a prosperous innovative green and welcoming city that thrives on diversity and difference a city that puts racial and economic justice at the top of our civic agenda that defends the vulnerable among us the cherishes robust respectful debate on difficult questions that embraces non-violence that embodies the belief that all residents must have an opportunity to share in our newfound prosperity a city that serves as a progressive beacon for the south of the nation it's our job not the council not even mostly the council all of us in this city to work to make that vision real and we know we're far from the realization of that vision the terrible gun violence that we have experienced just this week tells us that the rising cost of housing is an existential threat to our dream of being a city for all the pandemic and the righteous uprising and the wake of the murder of george floyd have taught us yet again that we are a nation and a city beset by racial injustice yet we do the work and together we rise you've heard many people tonight talk about the affordable housing bond i want to remind everyone that 76 percent of the voters in our city supported that bond and the work that we will be doing and the work that we are doing now will provide stable affordable housing over the next five years for 15 000 residents of durham 15 000 residents of durham i won't go into the details of that tonight but you all know that this work is so critically important that we are fighting back against the forces of gentrification we can't stop them but we can fight back and we can do a lot to change change the lives of so many people i was going to talk a lot about the housing but so many other people did i don't think i need to so what i do want to say about what i do want to mention in terms of housing that really wasn't highlighted tonight we talked a lot about the affordable housing and our work with durham housing authority and our creation of new and affordable units and the preservation of existing affordable units and making them permanently affordable for long periods of time i do want to talk about the new urgency that i think that we have around homelessness that our the pandemic has created for us i feel this new urgency and i know that our community does too and i just want to say that i've i have felt something very different in our work around homelessness as well in these last months a new urgency in that work the city in the county of jointly funding our expanded street teams to reach out to our unsheltered residents and get them into permanent housing entry point durham is providing coordinated entry into our system of homeless services in a much more effective way than i've ever seen before the city's funding outreach to landlords to engage them and accepting section eight vouchers and housing formally homeless individuals significantly expanded our rapid rehousing work through our nonprofit partners and in short for the first time i really feel like as a close observer of this system that we seem to have a system that is working to serve our homeless residents we've got a long way to go but i'm really proud of that and i'm so proud of our staff for making that happen we have so much more to be proud of colleagues and i've thought that councilmember freeline did a wonderful job of talking about that and he bragged on something i'm going to brag on we have made three hires we have three people higher and this group of people made three hires dudes we crushed it we crushed it we have hired a new city manager a new city attorney and a new city clerk and i will say that all of them wander madam manager kim madam attorney diana madame clerk are amazing leaders we are so lucky to have you i am so confident and i i can tell you that i when i was talking to mayor elect o'neill this morning i mean this afternoon we had a great meeting today how much i told her you're you're you're cool you're good because we have the people that will support you and give you everything you need and i just want to thank you all for your for your wonderful leadership you know i in a way that's the most important decision we make colleagues and so hey we get an a for those decisions i do want to talk about a couple of our initiatives that are really important and speaking of our city manager wander page let me say a word about one of her initiatives our new community safety department under her guidance and leadership and with the anonymous support of the council we've created this community safety department which gives us an opportunity i believe to lead the nation in creating the right response for residents when they call 911 of the 300 000 calls we get to 911 every year the vast majority are unrelated to gun violence and when i have ridden with our police officers on saturday nights i see that as well i've been on calls with officers to help a man who's fallen down drunk in the street i've been on calls with an officer to assist a person having a mental health crisis in a group home to assist with a three-year-old boy who was wandered out into the street unattended when gunshots are fired police officers must respond but right now we're putting too much on the shoulders of our police officers we need them freed up to do what they are trained to do what they need what we need them to do and that is to effectively fight gun violence for many other calls for members of our communities who are in crisis a different response is the best response sometimes a mental health clinician sometimes peer support sometimes a multidisciplinary team and sometimes a co-response with police in consultation with other cities doing this work we're now embarking on pilots to figure out the best kind of triage at the 911 call center and the most effective mobile response colleagues it's going to be critical that this department is well resourced if we're going to do the work that we know we need to do and i know we will be you all will be well guided by the advice of manager page and her staff in that regard i do believe that if we can resource this department well that we will be leading the nation in the in finding the right responses to 911 calls and we will keep our city safer i do want to thank you all colleagues for your amazing work during this pandemic i think what i think when i think about all the things we've done together there's one that really stands out to me and that is that we are providing 45 community health workers and non-community based organizations over a five month period to try to achieve vaccine equity in Durham when we started this we were our vaccine rate was less than we had less than fewer than 70 percent of our residents had at least one shot in their arms our residents 12 and above we're now at 91 of our residents who have at least one shot in the arm and almost all of this gain has been achieved by vaccinating members of our black and brown communities our vaccine equity work is working and i'm so grateful for your support of that there's so much more we funded the bill city united violence interrupters to expand to four new neighborhoods we've expanded expanded bus service significantly electrified our fleet and made bus service fair free for all residents what a great achievement we funded legal aid attorneys to represent tenants in eviction court we funded youth internships this summer for 400 young people by far the most ever and thank you manager page for your leadership on that we have solarized city buildings on the verge of entering the green source advantage program which allows to run city government most of city government operations with the renewable energy and to meet our very ambitious carbon renewal energy targets we greatly strengthen the rules to protect our tree canopy we've created the mayor's commission on women the workers rights commission the racial equity task force conceived of by mayor pro tem johnson and chaired so ably by mayor elect anil our participatory budgeting process is a model for the nation we're pushing forward with our guaranteed income pilot for residents returning from incarceration through the deer program we have led the restoration of drivers licenses for thousands of our residents in offered free expansion services to hundreds and hundreds of our Durham neighbors we've diversified the membership of our boards and commissions making them representative of our city we've established a six million dollar per year fund for green and equitable infrastructure in neighborhoods which have experienced historic disinvestment this year our budget says loud and clear to the world that everyone is welcome in Durham whatever your race or language or country of origin we want you here in Durham if you are a refugee fleeing foreign despotism we want you here whatever your documentation status we want you here and we are embrace you cecilia barha spoke of the words that i said a few years ago and let me say something similar tonight queremos que este es a salvo aquí queremos que vivas libre del miedo te damos la bienvenida a Durham con los brazos abiertos y corazones abiertos we welcome you to Durham with open arms and an open heart we're the first for the first time we're funding critical services for the members of our latinx community we build a strong language access program for city government we funded an immigration and refugee coordinator with the county we funded a position at el centro de hispano and we've established an immigrant legal defense fund for Durham residents facing deportation there's a lot of other things if you haven't been a rock car park or lately go there this renovation is almost complete giving us a wonderful event space in our park for the first time hoover road park will be ready in the spring thank you bow and company long haul a fabulous soccer complex we've needed for so long and when the ribbon cutting occurs i hope i will get an invitation to watch a Durham kid kick the first ball into one of those nets this year we're spending 16 million dollars on sidewalks six million on bicycle infrastructure five point seven million dollars to bring high-speed broadband into the apartments and every Durham housing authority community where children are living and we're spending councilmember middleton 2.4 million dollars to work down our list of unpaved roads in Durham and we will not stop i know you will not stop colleagues until that list is down to zero so much of the work i've described above is racial equity work of the highest order and it makes me very proud and i know it it makes you proud too and yet there are a lot of challenges ahead first i want to challenge the council to make three of our upcoming capital projects not just good but fabulous please colleagues don't skimp on the belt line trail it can be an incredible recreation resource for Durham with public art affordable housing along its borders and so much more likewise the constructed wetland on trinity avenue is vital for treatment of the water that pours into ellaby creek from 400 acres downtown but please make it more make it a wonderful community amenity for walking and learning and enjoying nature and finally i can't wait to see and councilmember freeline mentioned this already what a spectacular park we can develop at wheels what an amazing opportunity that is so we've done a lot well we've done some exciting new we've got some exciting new opportunities ahead of us and there's a lot we haven't done so well and i want to talk about that for a minute last week was a terrible week for gun violence in Durham again and while we know this is a national phenomenon driven by the pandemic that is cold comfort every bullet rips a hole in a family in a neighborhood and in our entire community and we cannot rest until this gun violence has ended i'm not going to give prescriptions tonight for how to fight gun violence although i have spoken about this prescription many many times i know that our incoming mayor has her own great ideas about this and will be a wonderful leader in this way and i know that all of my council colleagues are ready to pitch in with their ideas we have to do better i know that i know that we can and i know that we will we also have to do better by our small businesses owned by women and people of color during the pandemic we showed that we know how to help these businesses and we supported 250 of them with crucial funding and now we have to extend that work we have to make our bill to last program work to raise the equity capital necessary for these businesses to succeed the pandemic work the pandemic showed us the way to do this but it also interrupted our momentum and we have to get it back we've got to do better by our individual artists and our art and our arts institutions before the pandemic we were poised to include significant funds in our budget to support the artists who make Durham the wonderful place to live that we know and they're now being priced out of our city we need to support the new cultural master plan and once more put artists and arts institutions back in our budget and finally i want to talk about one area where i think that we as a city in a region are truly failing to meet the challenge of our times we're doing a great job expanding our local bus system and making it free to riders and we have plans for much more but since the light rail went down we do not have the absolutely critical regional transit plan that we need two-thirds of the good jobs in our region the next 20 years will be in white county and it's crucial that our Durham residents can get to these jobs there are plenty of naysayers and there are plenty of people who want all of our funds devoted to the local bus system what i can tell you with absolute certainty is that we need both a great local bus system and a great regional and great regional transit anybody who tells you we need to pick between the two of these is just dead wrong if we don't have the financial resources to do both within the current transit sales tax funding then by gosh we need to figure out another source of funding that's the kind of bold visionary planning we do for our water system it's the kind of planning that bold visionary planning that you all and we have done together for our affordable housing work we've got to demand the same level of visionary planning including raising the revenue that's necessary if we're serious about fighting climate change traffic gridlock and getting our residents to good jobs colleagues please don't let anybody tell you that we can't do this we can do this friends it is not lost on any of us that next week two weeks three three weeks from now when mayor o'neill is sworn in it will mark a special moment in the history of our community she will sit on the diocese our first african-american woman mayor after 152 years of Durham history way too long what's more she will be sitting where i am sitting now between two incredible incredible african-american women hired by this council our city attorney and our city manager hired to leave this city she will join the black women who chair the county commission and the school board she will join the black women who are our district attorney our new police chief our interim county manager our chief district court judge councilmember freeman and mayor pro tem johnson i am so glad that i will be there to experience this historic swearing in in a moment way too long and coming but a moment when justice will be done there is no one who can carry that mantle of justice madam mayor elect o'neill better than you can you know racial justice really is at the top of durham civic agenda we're a city that demands justice and works every day to make it real but what i don't see enough of in our civic dialogue is the impulse towards mercy while we have a broad political consensus in Durham we have developed an unforgiving often merciless political culture policy disagreements are turned into personal attacks social media is filled with hateful criticism of local elect officials or opposing activists this is so destructive of the community we want to be it drives people away from public service and away from democratic participation we desperately need a kinder more generous political culture in Durham a culture which tempers justice with mercy it's up to those of us in elected office to model that behavior to generously offer the tender mercies that we ourselves hope to receive from others i know our community can do better in this way and we have to and i thank so many of you colleagues all of you colleagues for modeling that it's so important there are way too many people for me to thank so i'm only going to thank two of them first uh is my strong right arm my rock and my rock star the amazing amber wade amber thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wisdom for your creativity your persistence and all of your hard work maro neal is going to be so lucky to have you at her side and i am so grateful for you and to my beloved as karmish is so rightly said leo who has always encouraged whatever crazy path i wanted to walk down babe we have been talking a lot lately at the council about dirham's new poet laureate and i want to say that you are the poet laureate of my heart i love you so much and we're going to have a lot of fun yet together uh with abe and lauren lee's daughter josephine our granddaughter and i'm looking forward to every minute of it so speaking of poems i want to end with one i know you all really want me to sing like i used to do at my state of the city speeches but i'm not going to do that tonight i'm i'm sorry i can't accommodate you i'm instead i'm going to read the final lines of a wonderful poem alford lord tenison's ulysses written in 1833 you all know the story it's the story of the odyssey odysseus or ulysses has come home from the trojan ward who was wife and son in greece after wandering all over the mediterranean encountering all kinds of adventures and danger and now though in tenison's retelling of the story ulysses has grown old and he has decided to set out again with his comrade in arms on another great adventure so here then are the final lines of the poem as ulysses speaks to his close companions there lies the port the vessel puffs her sail there gloom the dark broad seas my mariners souls that have toiled and wrought and thought with me that ever with a frolic welcome took the thunder and the sunshine and opposed free hearts free heart free foreheads you and i are old old age hath yet his honor and his toil death closes all but something near the end some work of noble note may yet be done not unbecoming men that strove with gods the lights begin to twinkle from the rocks the long day wanes the slow moon climbs the deep moans round with many voices come my friends it is not too late to seek a newer world push off and sitting well in order smite the sounding furrows for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset and the bass of all the western stars until i die it may be that the gulfs will wash us down and maybe we shall touch the happy isles and see the great achilles whom we knew though much is taken much abides and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven that which we are we are one equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate but strong in will to strive to seek to find and not to yield dear friends let's make the city we love a city for all colleagues and friends uh it is as is our custom we're going to take a break now it's nine o'clock for our closed captioners to be able to rest and we will be back in five minutes it's now 857 i believe we will be back at 902 thank you so now residents that were in a 40 or 50 year building now are in brand new renovated ministry departments and we're very excited about that and it's also important to make that we have 447 units in that downtown area and the one thing that has been a commitment about a housing authority is that none of those units will move outside of the downtown area they will remain in the downtown area some of them will move to other sites like village street the county is building a parking deck now that soon we'll have housing surrounding it just directly across the street from the dha office but we're going to put some dha units in that building as well so it's something that is important because that becomes part of the solution to help diversify where our residents are so that they're not just in these these pockets of poverty that they get to be in healthier communities well socially and economically my name is DeWayne McIntyre and i'm a dispatcher at the Jeremy emergency communication center the best manual about being a dispatcher at the Jeremy emergency communication center it's truly being able to make a difference sometimes you don't realize how much of a difference you're making however being able to give feedback from when people call to say thank you that you may have saved their relative lives or was able to calm them down really makes it worthwhile being a dispatcher when they always see the call come a man he was trapped inside of his home there was a lot of smoke he was really struggling to be able to see and get out he was able to tell me where he was inside of his home i was able to relay that information to the firefighters and they were able to get him out safely my job is satisfying because at times i do go home tired but i don't go home ever feeling like i didn't help anyone back then there's always someone that's calling in that's in distress that just may mean someone they talk to or just maybe some type of emergency emergency assistance but every day i go home to feel with the knowledge that i've helped someone like that good evening we are back in session wow that was unexpected fun for me thank you so much goodness gracious okay we'll now move to priority items by the city manager good afternoon miss evening mr mayor madam mayor pro tem members of the Durham city council i do have one priority item for you this evening agenda item number 19 uh zoning map change rose walk to attachment number one was updated page two item three a paragraph was added page three item d point one revisions were made to the paragraph page five item six a paragraph was added page five item two removed proffer h and finally page eight item j applicant contact was changed that is all i have this evening thank you very much madam manager madam attorney any priority items tonight good evening mayor shul madam mayor pro tem johnson and the members of the city council the city attorney's office has no priority items this evening thank you very much madam attorney madam parkney priority items tonight good evening mr mayor madam mayor pro tem and city council members the city clerk's office has one item we would like to request that agenda item number two the Durham cultural advisory board appointment be returned to the administration due to the applicant Connor nielson moving outside of Durham making him no longer eligible to serve thank you very much madam clerk i don't believe we need to vote on that i think we can just refer it back thank you so much all right colleagues we'll now move to the consent agenda the consent agenda is consists of items previously worked on by the council at a work session these items can be approved by a single vote of the council an item can be removed from the consent agenda by a member of the public or by member of the council if an item is removed it is held until the end of the meeting for consideration so the consent agenda item one approval of city council minutes item two Durham cultural advisory board appointment which has been referred back to the administration item three Durham historic preservation commission mayoral appointment item four Durham workers rights commission appointments items five mayors hispanic latino committee appointments item seven Durham open space and trails commission mayoral appointment item eight fyi 2022-23 budget development schedule item non-discussion of the tennis bill of rights that item has been pulled by miss wagg staff and will be uh held until uh for discussion to the end of the meeting mr mayor yes i do believe that miss wagg staff has withdrawn that hold i explained to her that the discussion was from thursday okay session so right i'll just check in and verify it she was is that correct miss wagg staff yes ma'am thank you it will be back uh in front of the uh in front of the council in the not too distant future thank you item 10 conveyance of 2312 crane street 706 north elizabeth street 704 eva street 1012 girly street and 701 mallard drive for the purposes of affordable housing development item 11 installment purchase contract series 2021 fleet item 12 contract with hr and a advisers ink for consulting services regarding the disposition to redevelopment of 505 west chapel hill street item 13 lease and license agreement with the new singular wires pcsllc at 1701 coal mill road item 14 municipal separate stormwater system ms4 inspections st 2021-06 item 15 stormwater infrastructure repairs st 2020 2021-05 uh and you have now heard the consent agenda and i will accept a motion for its approval move to approve second i believe that was councilmember middleton that moved to approve or it was yes sir yes sir it was was there a second councilmember freeman seconds madam clerk please open the vote and colleagues remember that you now have the clickers back first time in a long long time that was ready hello madam clerk please close the vote the motion passes seven zero thank you very much madam clerk uh colleagues will now move to the general business agenda public hearings and let me just say for those people who hear you the virtually are in person for the public hearings um thank you for your patience i i wasn't expecting that uh amazing bit of uh yeah enjoyment for me but i really appreciate it if you're all patients thank you all right um we will now move to the first public hearing item which is the united unified development ordinance text amendment updates for applications and permits and we will first hear the report from staff thank you very much mayor schul michael stock with the planning department before i began uh staff would like to note that the required notifications for the planning department public hearing items before you tonight have been performed and are on file for review and of course uh mr mayor we would be remiss to not present to you a uh text amendment um it is not an omni bus bill omni bus amendment that you so enjoy but it is pretty close to one so um for your final public hearing um for text amendments i hope you you enjoy this as much as you enjoy the other omni bus uh text amendments that you've thank you mr stock mr stock i do enjoy text amendments and even though this is not the full monty i still consider this another day of mic stock i appreciate it very much thank you um so text amendment tc 2104 uh proposes a set of amendments to establish within the unified development ordinance the official application procedures for street re uh street namings uh street renaming street closings and annexation requests that are processed by the planning department relocate and update the statutory development agreements application procedures and update certain zoning map change procedures the complete discussion of the changes of changes is found in your agenda report the planning commission uh did recommend approval with a vote of 13 to 0 on september 14th 2021 um i will highlight some notable change notable items within the amendments and they include um adding notification requirements to renters or occupants of a site uh and not just um to notification of property owners uh clarifying the requirements for posting notifications lines along improved rights of way um removing the prohibition to seek an expedited hearing if the zoning request requires a traffic impact analysis or a plan amendment uh relocating the allowance of statutory development agreements from article one to article three with other applications and permits again establishing the application procedures for street renaming street closings and annexation requests and codifying the guidelines for use for street naming and then finally to revise uh uh zoning map change requirements to explicitly require subject properties within proposed development plans to be contiguous and to restructure the deviations to development plan section to make explicit when entails a new zoning request versus an amendment to an approved plan and to establish procedures to modify roadway improvements determine no longer warranted at the time of full buildout as a reminder two actions are requested tonight first on the ordinance itself and then second on the appropriate statement of consistency again i thank you and i'll be happy to answer any questions mr stock thank you very much we appreciate the report colleagues you have now heard the report from staff i will declare this public hearing open and i'm going to first ask if there are any questions for the staff by members of the council any questions for staff all right uh is there anyone this is a public hearing item is there anyone that would like to be heard on this item is there anyone here tonight who would like to be heard on this item item 18 all right i see none all right i am now going to declare this public hearing closed and if there is any other discussion that the council would like to have or any questions for staff at this point council member freeman thank you mr may i just wanted to thank staff for bringing this forward and acknowledging that the conversations have been occurring around the tenants notifications and i just want to appreciate them moving that along as quickly as possible thank you thank you very much council member freeman any other comments colleagues or questions council member caballero yes i just wanted to thank you to staff and also just curious as to any thoughts on what commissioner amandolia said in his comments around 600 the standard being 600 feet and how that applies differently based on density thank you very much mr stock could you address that sure um we have talked about in the past about extending well let me back up for a second we used to have various notification ranges based upon different applications and it ranged from 300 feet to 600 feet to a thousand feet and over the past years it was settled upon 600 feet for consistency for all applications and notifications i believe we're we're willing and have no issue with looking to increase notification ranges as especially as policy discussions go around come about for with the comprehensive plan i think it might be more difficult to base notification on the density of area around a site because it could vary dramatically from one side of a site to another the variation and it'd be kind of hard to judge so we know that um other most jurisdictions that i'm aware of anyway do have a flat notification range and i think it probably warrants to look at maybe increasing that notification range rather than trying to come up with a variable methodology thank you thank you for your question council member and thank you mr stock colleagues any more questions or comments on this item okay then we need two motions one will be to adopt the ordinance of many do not unify development ordinance move to adopt back yeah moved by council member middleton second about council member freeman that we adopt the ordinance of many unified development ordinance madam clerk we please open the vote please close the vote the motion passes seven zero that's great it means that council member freelon knows the system all right uh we'll now move to motion two to adopt the appropriate consistency statement is required per ncgs 160d-605 so moved second moved by council member freeman second about council member carriotto madam clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote the motion passes seven zero thank you very much madam clerk mr stock thank you um we joke a lot about uh these uh very uh intricate uh items that you bring us but uh from time to time to update the update the unified development ordinance but uh it is as we know absolutely crucial work and we appreciate you doing it mr stock thank you colleagues will now move to zoning map change rose walk to also public hearing item and first we'll hear the report from staff thank you again uh michael stock again with the planning department daniel gill of culture drills tems uh proposes to change the zoning designation of 10 parcels totaling approximately 7.865 acres located at the northeast corner of the intersection of west club boulevard and north duke street current zoning is residential urban 5 2 or r u 5 2 and plan development residential 10.8 or pdr 10.8 the applicant proposes to change the designation to residential urban multifamily with a development plan and that would be r u m with a d the prop the property is our currently designated medium density residential in the future land use map or flum if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends change up to the flum that to designate the property as medium high density res residential the development plan if approved would allow for up to 310 apartments utilizing major roadway density bonus and a place of worship that's currently existing on the site with a maximum size of 20 000 square feet however since no tia was performed for this proposal on your proposed development could not exceed 149 peak hour trips additional commitments detailed uh are detailed on the cover sheet of the plan and summarizing your report the planning planning commission recommended approval 12 to 1 on september 14th 2021 and again councilor's requested to take two actions first on the ordinance and then on the appropriate statement of consistency thank you and i believe the applicant is available for questions thank you mr stock colleagues you have now heard the report from staff and will declare this public hearing open and first i want to ask if there are questions for staff by members of the council mr mayor councilor middleton thank you mr mayor and good evening everyone and thank you uh i know i'm talking to the screen i distinctively looked to my left um the i noted that there was a a legacy uh development plan uh for this site um and no action had been taken on it i'm curious as to any potential impacts on this one is it is it from the same people or like i couldn't ascertain that from looking at the attachment so could you tell me a little bit about that legacy that pending plan sure that that um that uh that uh that pdr uh zoning is the development plan that's currently on a predominant portion of the site um and it would allow for i believe 60 to 70 uh single family type uh dwelling units um that it has not been it's the current zoning for that portion of this site um the proposal in front of you takes in more properties uh predominantly along north duke street um but um if this zoning would be approved that that current development plan would be overridden by the development plan that would be possibly approved tonight um the applicant it is and it is generally the same people involved from that last um pdr approval generally give or take a couple of folks give or take a couple of folks yes thank you so much i got exactly thank you mr mayor you're welcome thank you council member other questions for for uh staff at this time colleagues council member reese thank you mr mayor mr stock looking at the list of text commitments how how is the developer supposed to commit to item number eight let me pull that up for a second i don't really know how they're supposed to commit to keeping um trips uh below 149 oh i'm sorry yes so when um that's uh an analysis that's done through uh through the transportation department um they do that um and maybe um transportation go into more detail about what what they do to establish that but in our ordinance we have the traffic impact analysis requirement and that's required for any development that would go above uh 149 peak hour trips as determined uh through analysis by transportation um what that commitment is saying is that even though um there's a maximum of 310 units allowed plus the place of worship um if the combination of those units plus the place of worship would be estimated to trip more than 149 peak hour trips they would have to come back to a rezoning or come in with a proposal that doesn't trip that amount of units and that determination is made by the transportation department when is that determination made at site plan submittal okay okay thank you council member other questions or comments colleagues for our staff any questions for staff this time of course you'll get more opportunities all right um let me just uh who's be the first presenter for the proponents mr joel mr joel will you come to the microphone so i can ask you a question good to see you um mr joel there are you and mr chappan the only two people here as representatives of the applicant team yes sir mr mayor and so uh there are a couple of other people this is proponents of this project dave also also brooks and david burger they're not members of your team is that correct that's correct okay i'm trying to figure out here a little bit about the timing that we're gonna make sure that everybody gets the time that they equal time can you talk to me a little bit mr joel about the time that you think it will take roughly for you and your team to present uh mayor i believe mr chappan and i can probably present in five or six minutes okay i'm not trying to limit you i just want to try to make sure we get equal time okay great well welcome mr joel we're glad to have you here uh and uh please go ahead uh first and foremost uh it's wonderful to be back in person and uh no apologies needed at all for the great uh ceremony and accolades that were given at the beginning of the meeting i'm just i think we're very fortunate that to be part of that so congratulations all around getting a little feedback here again i'm dan joel um thank you for having us mr mayor members of the council madame manager madame attorney be very brief the uh the proposal before you right now is for a larger assemblage of parcels uh many of you were on the council five years ago when the original project was approved we think what we're bringing before you today is actually more of what Durham needs today uh again i want to thank the staff this was a long process it took about 18 months from when we submitted to get here today uh but your staff has done yeoman's work and working with us and bringing forward a proposal that uh they are stating uh that we are our consistent with all the goals of the comprehensive plan and the ordinance and recommending consistency of that uh i'd like to wrap that up by saying that uh we uh we're fortunate to get a a rare 12 to 1 vote for recommendation for approval by the planning commission uh and we hope we'll you will take that into consideration with that i'd like to introduce mr bob Chapman friend colleague client to tell you a little bit about why uh this is a good project for Durham so we'll be here to answer questions thank you thank you mr joel welcome mr chapman hello um first of all i want to congratulate um pierce uh councilmember freelon i first met you when you were a volunteer at seesaw the after-school program uh down the street and uh was very impressed and then i saw you again at moke that fest where you were doing the darth vader youth hackathon and it was so intriguing i spent the whole afternoon i uh and it was it was astonishing and now watching what you're doing with the north star uh church of the arts is amazing so and i i hope you're going to go back into politics at some point you've been a great plus and um mayor shul this is the second time uh in 49 years actually many many times in the last 40 the first time was when i appeared before the student government of a local university here in town and you were the president and i described the fm station that we were starting um and it's been a real pleasure and particular pleasure every week to pick up the independent that an amazing accomplishment thank you very much um we rezoned the property my partner erin lubeck and i um four years ago looking at a pocket neighborhood type concept with a walkable uh green and very nice beautiful plan um and two things happened one is the market for single-family houses went through the roof in durham and we suddenly realized that those houses that we've drawn would be selling for north of eight hundred thousand dollars if not more and the second thing that happened was that my partner erin talked to the neighbors who lived on duke street and they all agreed to sell their property to us and we had to go for another rezoning we said well what does durham really need and we thought that we would have some advantages uh for providing what i call more appealing rent we don't have any subsidies or gap financing but we do think that because our land cost is going to be 80 less than land downtown at its appraised value uh of our land and that we can do a good bit of surface parking and that we don't necessarily need to big build big storage tanks under every building uh that we'll be able to offer uh and economically be able to provide uh superior place to live at a better price uh and we we commissioned a market study when we first got started from a real property research group and they came up with a number for the most rent we could possibly get in that area and it's actually 35 percent lower than what's being charged six eight blocks south in downtown so what what our goal is uh is to do something at the entryway to durham that will be seen from the interstate that looks great and that people who work in the park or work at duke can hop on i-85 and get too easily um and uh i'm here to answer any questions that you might have thank you thank you very much mr chap and we appreciate you being with us colleagues we have um a number of people signed up to speak we have two other people who are signed up as proponents and then six people who are signed up as opponents uh just so you'll know kind of where we are i'm going to move next to mr dav also brooks uh madam clerk can you make mr dav also brooks available to be heard thank you mr also brooks are you with us i hope so good evening good evening mr also brooks thank you for being with us you have three minutes thank you so much um i've spoken as a proponent of this before and as referenced um it did pass through the planning commission with a with a 12 to 1 vote um and i just wanted to take the opportunity to come back um as a proponent and and hopefully see it through um i think we need um and i support dense housing options and i feel like this is a great option to add high-demand area and and i support all the reasons that have been mentioned so far thank you mr also brooks thank you so much for being with us we appreciate you appreciate it we will now hear from david burger madam clerk can you make mr burger available to be heard mr burger are you available yes can you hear me yes we're glad to have you mr burger welcome you have three minutes um well thank you so much and again congratulations the two of you um yeah i also spoke as a proponent before i live in trinity park and i just wanted to speak in favor of this project this is exactly what Durham needs a lot more of which is relatively affordable um housing in the downtown corridor or very near downtown the summer walkable and then for all the reasons for i hope we see more projects like this and i hope this to see this approved thanks so much mr burger thank you very much for being with us we appreciate you all right uh we now have several people sign up as opponents uh and before i call on the madam clerk and madam deputy clerk thank you for your work tonight you are we're back in the saddle with a hybrid meeting you've got even more difficult duties and i just want to offer my gratitude thank you so much all right we'll we'll move now to uh the opponents um and we'll begin with janet levy uh miss levy are you available to be heard madam clerk can we make miss levy available can you hear me yes miss levy welcome you have three minutes we're glad to have you okay thank you very much um i oppose this project uh mainly due to safety concerns i think a rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles moving in and out of the intersection of duke and west club will likely make a dangerous intersection deadly i have lived close to this intersection for 15 years and personally i have seen the frequency of very serious accidents steadily rise i've witnessed two near fatalities just with my own eyes and a neighbor's relative was riding a bike through the intersection and was hit by a car she survived but believe me she's not the same person also there are two bus stops near this intersection and increased traffic would put those passengers in further danger they cannot cross club boulevard this is a very serious problem presently and will be made much worse by this project an alternative might be to proceed with the project only after safety precautions are implemented at that intersection um at duke and west club and the surrounding area along west club okay thank you thank you so much for being with us miss levy we appreciate you all right madam clerk could we make me me kessler avails will be heard please hello hi miss kessler can you hang on one second madam clerk i believe miss kessler has some photographs or is it is do we have a powerpoint all right miss kessler we're glad to have you approximately how much time would you think you'll need for your power point um well first i want to ask what the changes were that were made i didn't understand what was reported about that there were changes made before we show my slides um okay uh why don't you do this miss kessler if you don't mind going ahead and then once we've heard from everyone we will make sure that your question gets answered by staff is that okay okay yes that'd be fine okay um can you just give me an estimate of how long you think it'll take i'm hoping it's less than three minutes okay that's great thank you miss kessler we're glad to have you thank you um my name is Mimi kessler i live could could you slow the slides down a little bit go back please my name's Mimi kessler i live at a 1418 woodland drive i sincerely appreciate that we're having this hybrid meeting tonight because some of us are not ready to go into public places again and i appreciate all the work that it took to do that um i first want to acknowledge that there is a tremendous need for housing and this is a great location for additional housing and i'm really glad that it's a good developer that's doing it a local developer um and i hope that he keeps his word to keep the rents at a lower than market rate um i want to reiterate what i said in my email to you which is that my request should not have to hold up the developer it is not my intention to do that but i am concerned about the children and people who walk in our neighborhood being in harm's way because of the increased volume of cars the going through our neighborhood to points south um as i said in my email woodland ruffin and nox already suffer from a great deal of cut through traffic to avoid the congestion and traffic lights on duke street club boulevard and washington and that's so that they can go downtown and come home the entrance one of the entrances and exits of this development is opposite woodland drive will create that much more traffic and they and people will want to zip across club boulevard and down the hill on woodland and vice versa on the way home the cut through traffic that comes by now is very fast people who live on the street do not speed but the people cutting through do the speed is made worse between um on woodland between angle wood and nox by the fact that there is a significant dip in the block in both directions and these illustrate uh on the left is taken from angle wood and you can see it goes steeply downhill and then uphill and the one on the right is from nox going north um so there is momentum created by this dip in both directions um and there's a blind spot in both directions next slide please as the driver approaches angle wood from either side so on the left you are approaching angle wood going south on woodland and you see that you can't see a lot of woodland from here and then on the right you can't see woodland over the peak of the hill so woodland being straight across club for the proposed apartments this this street is very domed next slide please um what i mean by that is that there is a greater than average curvature of the road such that the center of the road is significantly higher than next to the gutter there are no sidewalks it is almost impossible to walk without hurting yourself by the the side of the road um curvature is very difficult to show in a two-dimensional sense so this is the best that i could do the the picture on the left is on um is going south approaching nox and the picture on the right was taken in front of the white car that you can see on the picture in the left and i hope that you can see how much my um my very dirty windshield um reflects the fact that it is very much at an angle as contrasted with the FedEx truck truck many people walk near the middle if not down the middle because it is so uneven near the curb this includes families young children on bikes and tricycles next slide please um and oh this is the flattest part of the curvature this is up um near club boulevard after the intersection of englewood um and where the white truck is that you can see that's where the entrance is going to be to the development okay next slide please this was not a staged picture these are people walking down the street they're walking in the middle of the road because it's not possible to walk safely at the edge of the road um and this is also true on ruffin ruffin goes uh from club boulevard through to green street which is very popular they have lots of cut through um traffic um but i don't think that they're going to get that much more traffic because the people coming out of the development will not want to turn left on club boulevard in order to turn right on ruffin so they're all going to go down that was in drive these are typical residential streets there are cars parked on both sides it's not really all that comfortable for for traffic for cars to pass one another um on these roads which you all probably already know um and so people trying to to walk have to walk in the middle of the road and it's already dangerous so that's also true on knots um i think that what's going to happen is they're going to come down woodland and then turn left on knots and go down to washington um so i think that there should be a traffic study but it is not my objective to slow down the the developer and i'm confident that this is going to change the the traffic on our streets what i'm asking for is uh two traffic circles one at the intersection of woodland and englewood the other at the intersection of ruffin and knots um if you all can provide the bones of those the neighborhood will do all the planting in the middle according to the traffic calming document they cost between five and fifteen thousand dollars and in this case one of the listed disadvantages is actually an advantage um in in this situation because the circle would cause the cars to slow down enough that they will be able to see the pedestrians while they're walking um down the road i also think that there's going to be a need for a speed bump about mid block between um englewood and knots on ruffin that would slow them down and that would be good because it's also a very steep angle on ruffin um as it approaches knots thank you miss kessler miss kessler thank you very much we appreciate you mr mayor i want to say thank you very much for your leadership particularly related to the uh pandemic i was very proud of our city thank you thank you miss kessler you're kind to say that and i agree with you our city has done very well thank you thanks for being with us tonight uh mr chairman don't worry you will get plenty of time to respond uh our next uh speaker madam clerk we make virginia bowman uh available to be heard please good evening good evening miss bowman welcome we're glad to have you and welcome you have three minutes thank you mayor shul and members of the derm city council and city staff i'm jenny bowman manager of north gate realty that owns the private access road between north gregson street and north duke street adjacent to the secondary access proposed for rose walk two we also manage the bbnt office building at 1530 north gregson street and are responsible for the maintenance repairs and property taxes of this private access road and all the property owners facing internal to the road we sold a rental property that we owned on north duke street to pocket partners several years ago when the first rose walk project was proposed for single family homes in 2020 we were contacted about an informal meeting coordinated by pocket properties with the property owners from surrounding neighborhoods about the change to a multifamily apartment development of many more units we did not receive notice though however of the planning and zoning commission meeting about this case we have continually voiced our concerns about traffic flow the potential of our private access road becoming a raceway for traffic to cut through to gregson street to get to other parts of town and the placement of an additional intersection at north duke street which we believe would be a major traffic hazard there is an existing vehicular and pedestrian signal at west club and north duke street when that light is green at the intersection people come flying over the hill to get on to interstate 85 or go into north Durham as you've already heard there have been many horrible traffic accidents here it is our understanding that the secondary access onto north duke street is not absolute absolutely necessary to this development and that the traffic impact analysis was not required for the rezoning the traffic information that we have been provided is all based on estimates and assumptions last week we met with john sandore of ncdot and pocket partners and we all agreed that proposing another signalized intersection at north duke street was not an ideal situation and needed further study the developer's text comment in the application for rezoning stating that it has to satisfy the mutcd warrants and the ncdot approval prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy does not provide sufficient comfort that this intersection is going to be studied in a thorough manner and it does not provide a time frame for when this warrant would be completed while like others we think the quality of this development and the type is very good we will appreciate your thoughtful consideration of our major concerns about traffic safety in this area thank you miss bowman thank you so much for being with us we appreciate you very much thank you all right colleagues will now hear uh madam clerk from mary copack madam clerk could you please make miss copack available to be heard hello good evening good evening miss copack welcome we're glad to have you are you um thank you for being with us and you have three minutes yes thank you and first of all mr mayor thank you so much for your service thank you miss copack yes truly appreciated when i came to sign up to uh to join the meeting i was faced with an unfortunate choice i had to choose whether to be for or bless you or against the issue before we had our hearing and i i wish that we did not have to do that because in principle i do support this this development i honestly do i live at 1502 woodland and i've been thinking about this i try to put an issue into perspective uh accounting for the needs and responsibilities all parties concerned i i find it easier to do this as the years go by because i have a lot of history now uh in my age and a lot of parallels that i can find i'd like to share my thoughts on this issue too um like you know my late husband is copack yes ma'am excuse me i apologize could you speak up a little bit i'm having a little bit of a hard time hearing if you could maybe get closer to your mic or speak up a little okay is this better um i'll go on is this a little bit better then not much better no really i want to make sure we're able to hear you okay i'm going to take my earbuds out and try and try this perhaps this will that's a lot better yes ma'am thank you okay well it's good to know i'll continue my late husband roger and i raised our children in a neighborhood uh that bears some resemblance to this one on woodland our street was a dead end to a very busy commercial street we lived close enough to it that on a summer night we could smell the bakery at work at the end of our alley we understood the berkeley boulevard was a pass through to silver spring but our street had stop signs it had sidewalks it had measures that allowed all of us to feel safe and to carry on a civic life on the streets not just only in our homes but as the commercial district grew on silver spring and apartments were built along there the traffic increased dramatically and in recent years the village has installed traffic common measures on silver spring including a quote inconvenient for some island that prevents left turns on a berkeley but you see my point is the village saw an issue and worked together to address it and now i live on woodland and i have the joy of watching my two grandsons as well as their other small neighbors growing up here but um i'm afraid that our neighbors do not feel as safe as they used to and soon traffic will increase far beyond the growth we have seen in the six years i've lived here and we all are facing a choice we can wait and count the vehicles that will come from a complex of over 300 dwellings not not 80 or 90 with with the 149 trips included um there are 32 homes on woodland by the way or we can advocate now for measures that will help secure the safety of little ones adults with their pets the infirm with walkers and parents and grandparents with strollers uh from my part i tried to take some responsibility when i did some landscaping a few years ago i tried to provide a safe space by including a walkway near the curb with a low stone wall sometimes i see i see a grandparent and a child sitting on it and that warms my heart um i feel that my responsibility is also to advocate for my neighbors and i'd like to ask you to work together and guarantee that something is done measures will be put in place before a shovel is put into the ground at rose walk i would like the city the state dot and the developer um to take this very seriously and i'm sure that you will hear from others tonight what our neighbors need and again thank you very much i appreciate your time thank you miss copack we very much appreciate you being with us madam clerk uh next up is joe deem uh could you please make mr deem available to be heard i'm here mr mayor thank you madam clerk mr deem welcome we're glad to have you and you also have three minutes uh good evening thank you council members my name is joe deem i live at 1501 woodland drive i want to be clear that i don't oppose this rose walk project in principle and in fact i think there's a lot here to support we need more housing in Durham and increased density is a good thing in the right areas having said that i would just like to quickly express some objections to the specific plan especially around traffic safe safety uh if you all are inclined to support the plan then i'd like to ask that you make your approval your approval contingent on the developer taking some additional steps to ensure the project doesn't unfairly impact the surrounding areas and add to traffic safety problems i live one block south of the development on woodland drive the plan for the rose walk project has an entrance on club boulevard directly across from woodland i'm concerned that this will funnel hundreds more cars onto smaller side streets especially woodland and knocks which are cut-throughs to downtown but are not made to handle this traffic uh as you saw from Mimi's photos these are small streets with on-street parking they're not striped they don't have sidewalks the intersections generally in this area are two way rather than four way stops people ride bikes push strollers walk dogs again there are no sidewalks the residents walk in the street and they have to walk around the cars that are parked on the street putting hundreds more cars onto these streets is a recipe for disaster especially if they come speeding in order to cross club boulevard if this plan goes forward as proposed that will happen and once these streets become unsafe it won't be the developer's problem at that point it'll be the city's problem so the time to avoid the problem in the first place is now by making sure the developer avoids it again this is a fine site for increased density but vehicle traffic that comes with that density should be routed onto the streets that can handle it like club duke and gregson wide streets with traffic signals and sidewalks so if the council wants to approve the plan i just ask that you please make that approval contingent on the developer's keeping traffic off of the side streets like woodland drive and ruffin street uh the developers can move the entrances or configure them to do this i hope they will but i don't think they will unless they're required to so i simply ask that you make that one of your conditions in order to approve the request thank you mr deem thank you for being with us we very very much appreciate it um madam clerk will now go to john pace why paces wiles yeah hi this is john mr paces wiles welcome we're glad to have you with us and you also have three minutes great thank you so much so my name is john paces wiles and i live at 7 13 west club boulevard i'm at the corner of club in woodland so yeah and like others that have spoken already my my primary concern is the traffic i guess i'm pleased to see that this iteration of the of the project has the main or what's supposed to be the main entrance into the development on duke street rather than club um but there is still i guess a um another access point at a woodland and club that i am concerned about you know club boulevard is a busy street but there but it's a neighborhood you know i live on club i have neighbors that live on club some of my neighbors are unfortunately have you know a short driveway that they have to back onto club you know to get out of their driveway and i'm just a little afraid that this is gonna just exacerbate that that issue and pull more and more cars on a club boulevard um but um but as others have spoken i'm mostly concerned about woodland and you know it's as you've seen in the photos it's it's a small residential street and there's uh you know there's there's kids and there's people and there's dogs and and it's um it just seems like it's it's potentially uh you know a disaster can happen but if you know if this is a major access point to the development and um and that would be a bad thing um but i guess there was one idea that um that i read that um that would be good if it came to pass and that is that is if the um that access point at club and woodland could be a right in right out of the development so no one would be able to go through the development out of the development and across club into woodland if it would only you know permitted to take a right turn onto club or a right turn into the development i think you know that would probably be a good idea um that's that's all i have to say thank you thank you very much for being with us we appreciate you very much mr posse swah wiles thank you madam clerk um i did receive your text so it seems like the three more people in the queue and they are proponents is that correct okay great um thank you for this so colleagues um now that we are in a different mode and i should just point this out to mayor elect o'neill as well the clerk is texting me about uh people who are in the queue and need to be heard so this is just a and she's also texting mayor pro tem johnson so in case mayor pro tem is presiding both of us will have the information so just want to let you know where that's coming from okay madam clerk thank you uh would you like to make tiffani elder available to be heard madam clerk thank you good evening mayor shul and council members elder welcome we're glad to have you and you have three minutes okay thank you uh i live at 802 birch and i'm speaking in support of the rose walk project i'm sure that uh everyone here is aware that durham's rental rates and housing prices are skyrocketing in part due to continued lack of available housing uh rental rates specifically have gone up over 20% over the last year alone uh and we just we continue to just need denser housing development in durham especially in the urban tier and specifically more housing options in the high demand trinity park area and the rose walk location is a very good location for higher density housing out of what we have available in the city uh i was glad to see that planning commission passed it uh with so much support and i hope the council moves forward in support with the same zeal this evening miss elder thank you so much for being with us we appreciate you thank you all right we'll now move to dan bach madam clerk good evening mr bach thank you for being with us welcome you also have three minutes thank you uh dan bach i live at 205 album moral street i'm a proponent of this proposal i'm a resident of trinity park i think trinity park and the areas around it are a great place to live and more people should be able to live here this kind of development accomplishes that i do agree with many of the concerns that my neighbors have about traffic safety i i hope the city addresses those concerns via traffic calming measures and pedestrian infrastructure i don't think it should hold up this development um so i hope you vote to approve thank you for your time mr bach thank you we so appreciate you being with us tonight uh we will now move to sharyl shiflet madam clerk can you make miss shiflet available to be heard miss shiflet are you with us miss shiflet are you available to be heard all right if miss shiflet does come in madam clerk we'll try to get her in at a later time thank you madam clerk i believe that's everyone thank you uh all right uh so uh i'll i'll ask now for either mr chapman or mr jewel if you wanted to respond to uh some of these uh traffic concerns that you've heard thank you very much mr mayor um i'd like to uh endorse the suggestion made by miss kessler for the roundabouts uh erin lubeck uh my partner and i were involved in publishing a booklet called a bicycle uh boulevards for durham and we we recommended 19 roundabouts in the heart of the city and i think about half of them have been built and i'm a big believer it doesn't have to be a major production it really can be a very small impediment in the middle the ones we produce proposed actually had artworks in the middle but that we'll probably get there secondly both of the connections which are referred to as access points on the plan require approval the one on west club requires approval of the durham transportation department and the one that we would like to have on north duke street requires approval by the north carolina department of transportation we agree that that's a north duke street is a speedway but people who want to use i-85 or go north on duke street it's i think it actually doesn't reduce traffic on duke street to make them go on to club boulevard first and then take a right and then go but that's something that would be determined when the warrants study is done which we are required to do and pay for if the warrants study determines that for safety and safety alone that it makes sense for signalization we have to we've we have said we would pay for that but we're not requiring it we're not required to do it it's unless the study and dot agree that it should be done thank you very much mr Chapman colleagues we've heard uh everyone who signed up let me just ask is there anyone else here who has not been heard who would like to speak on this item anyone else and madam clerk maybe we could try miss shiflett again miss shiflett are you available to be heard okay uh colleagues we now have uh any any questions or comments for either staff or the applicant council member reese thank you mr mayor i have a question for staff um as mr Chapman just pointed out the site access point um to this proposed project off of west club boulevard is noted subject to city of Durham approval what does that look like what what is necessary to gain city of Durham approval uh for the construction of that entry who is that a question for mr that's our staff as to which staff they can all right so that might be mr stock it might be mr judge we'll find out mr stock did you hear the question from council member reese yes and i see mr judge popping on nice mr judge great are you with us sure yes bill judge assistant transportation director um so yeah during the site plan process the the location requirements for that site access point will be reviewed and approved as part of the the site um site plan and then construction drawing process if it's going to be a public street i think this is more likely going to be a private driveway than than a public street so might not require construction drawings but um things that we'll be looking at would just be like uh driveway radii pedestrian crossings along club boulevard make sure that pedestrians can cross the driveway adequately uh public works will be looking at storm drainage um any turn lane improvements we would not be requiring a right turn lane on club there is a future project to do a road diet on club to produce those four lanes the three so we'd want to coordinate with that but um but it would essentially be an administrative process as part of the site plan uh thank you mr judge i appreciate that the um does your hmm i'll come back to that in a minute the we've heard some of the residents specifically um a number of folks who live on woodland talking about um some things that would help them have more comfort about this project moving forward specifically uh speed bumps along woodland drive uh between club and knocks and uh traffic or roundabout at the intersection of woodland and englewood um can you talk a little bit about what the prospects are for doing something like that along woodland in order to make those residents feel safer about the prospect of cars as some of the neighbors have said cutting through uh on woodland yes so um at this point there there are no proffers or requirements by the developer to provide any uh traffic calming measures so whether this development's approved or not the city trip through transportation we do have a traffic calming program which is primarily speed humps but we have um has been mentioned we have done a few uh traffic circles of various types um more the ones that we're doing more recently or little less permanent they're more bollards and artwork and other types of things first a raised concrete median primarily due to the cost but um so they could initiate a request any of the neighbors through our department where we would do uh speed and volume studies and look at the geometry of the road try to determine which improvements would be most appropriate for for this neighborhood um or it would also be coordination with the fire department to make sure that any improvements that we're doing don't uh drastically impact their response times and that they're in agreement with them so um then once we come up with a plan then we would work with the neighborhood on petitions to make sure that there was neighborhood sport mr judge do you do you not see a chicken and egg problem here um the the creation the if we vote to approve this project tonight um then between now and the time that the certificate of occupancy is issued the traffic level on woodland will be what it currently is after the certificates of occupancy are issued and folks start to move in the neighbors fear traffic will increase at which point that's when they need the traffic calling measures not and so how would either we as council members you as staff or neighbors kind of square that circle and try to get something going now in anticipation of future traffic increases we could um as part of you know if it if it's a neighborhood initiated request we could certainly consider potential increases in volume that would be great about a development uh it's very difficult to estimate speeds that the development might generate and how that might impact we would most likely just assume that the speeds of the current folks using the road would be similar to folks that maybe you're cutting through from the development but as part of that study we if this zoning is approved and there is an active site plan we wouldn't necessarily do it just for the zoning but we would for an active site plan we would go ahead and make we could make some assumptions as to additional traffic volumes that's great to hear i appreciate that um and what it what's the general time frame uh that are that the city follows from the request by residents for these kinds of traffic calming measures and the installation of those measures specifically uh speed humps and um a roundabout so to complete the studies usually just a matter of weeks it's just a matter of getting some data collection getting our data collectors out there to collect that information and to develop a plan um the amount of time it takes to then implement it can really vary depending on the type of improvement um speed humps we have an annual contract or whether or not our forces can do it and funding availability as well as um then potentially if if um gain neighborhood support typically we would send out a petition to somebody that's in the neighborhood and sometimes those petitions come back in a week sometimes they come back in six months so it's difficult for me to answer exactly how long it would take but assuming it comes back in the week time frame it would be essentially a matter of most likely months um about six we say usually six to twelve months depending on the construction season so if it were to come back right now um this is not a real good time but for doing speed humps we probably would not do those till the spring so that's exactly what I wanted to hear Mr. Judge thank you yeah Mr. Mayor can I ask that two quick questions and then I'll step away gentlemen um first of all how long do you envision it taking um to have folks moving into this project if we were to grant approval to the rezoning tonight? I believe it's going to take one year to go through the site plan process uh and then uh simultaneously with that we would begin the architectural design and the um detailed planning so that we would want to be able to break ground more or less uh right after the site plan is approved typically a project like this takes um 14 months to build so we're probably talking about a little over two years before anybody could actually move in. That's great thank you one last question um I heard exactly one person from the public hearing talk about a potential solution to the concerns that neighbors have about uh residents of the proposed new neighborhood or development uh shooting across west club at high rates of speed and traveling south on woodland and that is that would be a commitment on your part to make sure that the what is likely to be according to our transportation department a private drive um is slightly offset from woodland to make those cut across as much less likely can you talk about that? That definitely could be done in the the geometry um might even favor that um one of the applicants for the rezoning owns a duplex next to the church and we do not own it but it has just gone on the market because of the owners passed away and the heirs put it on the market and we've made an offer to purchase that if we own that we could probably more easily move it we were sort of taking advantage of the existing curb cut that the city built but that um certainly could be moved and and and that's the site planning thing several of the people that we've shown the plans that the site to have wondered if it wouldn't be better to do that so that's that's something we certainly would look at very very carefully and I don't see any real advantage I don't think people typically are going to want to cross four lanes of traffic to to go down woodland I've gone to the site hundreds of times and I've probably driven down woodland twice I like the streets a beautiful street I will say that it does seem we all said a little bit it would be much less likely you're right yeah and I think I think from from knowing that neighborhood a little bit it does seem I don't really a hundred percent understand the mentality of someone who would shoot across club go two blocks down woodland to hit knocks and that's the end of woodland you know it seems like there's lots of better ways to speed through I just don't understand that we actually did a google maps problem to solve which was going from rose walk to mow nuts or to whole foods and in both cases there was much more congestion on west club there were five congestion points but even with those congestion points it was 25 it took 25 percent longer to go on woodland to whole foods and excuse me that was to mow nuts and whole foods was 16 percent longer so and that was at five in the afternoon that we read and you can go on google maps and do that yourself the last thing I wanted to say and then I'll let my colleagues get in is that I understand the the issue about needing to wait until site plan approval to know exactly where that interest is going to be but at site plan approval I have no influence over that process and rightly so that's staff process I need to stay over on this side of the lane this is the point in the process where I do have some influence so by expressing my concern about that and my my my interest in having that offset I hope you'll take that in mind it makes it makes total sense and I believe we're going to be successful in acquiring that property which is in the rezoning already so it won't affect the zoning and that makes it much easier to do that thank you very much mr. chairman thank you council member council member freeman thank you mr. mayor I just wanted to share just publicly that I did want to note that they're I mean with the signing of the new infrastructure bill I think it's kind of timely and acknowledging just how much our traffic and infrastructure needs happen to be in the city and so just noting that this is just one but there are many and I think it'll be really important for us to really understand just what is included in this infrastructure bill for us as a city thank you thank you very much council member I also want to thank council member reef for covering my question thank you other questions council member freelon and then followed by council member middleton council member freelon thank you mr. mayor I just really appreciated the presentation that the folks kind of showing us the curvature of the street and some of the issues that local residents are facing that forced them to kind of walk down the middle and it seems like even if even if we the developer is able to shift where the access point is it would behoove the residents to advocate for speed hump and to and to get that going anyway so I just wanted to kind of put that out there sometimes sometimes we react to new development but the ideas that kind of come from galvanizing community are good ideas that should be done anyway so just appreciative of the community members who reached out and advocated for that I had a question about the traffic circle for mr. judge I was just curious what the price difference was between the kind of concrete raised more expensive version of the traffic circle versus the one where you just kind of put up some art you know I'm curious about the price differential between the two traffic circle calming options for mr. judge yes so bill judge transportation once again the the last sort of concrete traffic circle we did was actually a a couple years ago over off trinity avenue and I believe it was a little over 20 000 dollars to to construct costs have gone up quite a bit so since then I would say that that's probably going to be more in the 30 000 range where the just using some paint and violards and signage we can we can easily do for probably yeah like three thousand dollars or so so it's significantly cheaper about 10 percent of the cost first having to get into the concrete and the drainage and the landscaping yeah I mean thank you mr. judge that's a big difference three k to 30 but um if that's something that a lot of the residents kind of were asking for and I wonder if the developer would be willing to kind of proffer the traffic circle which seems like it would regardless address some of the concerns that we heard from almost everyone um if we can make this as a amendment without starting everything all over again we'd like to make a proffer of 30 000 dollars toward the traffic traffic circle toward one at least one of them great well I'm just going to ask our staff about that if that's doable um mr. stock uh you heard council member Freelon's question and the proffer from mr. Chapman is that a is that a profferable proffer I believe it is we would need a timing mechanism for that proffer similar to the timing mechanism that is already proffered for the um donation to the affordable housing fund um so and I believe looking at the plan excuse me while I pull it up and see what the wording is um oops um this is prior to the issuance of the first multifamily building permit a voluntary contribution of 50 000 dollars will be made to the Durham Affordable Housing Loan Fund by the developer if council is is comfortable with that timing that could be the the same timing mechanism it could also be done at the time of prior to site plan approval which would be done which would be an earlier timing mechanism thank you very much mr. stock mr. Chapman or mr. jewel do you all want to comment on that timing mechanism which one do you want did you hear mr. stock offered you two options prior prior to issue of the first building permit yeah that sounds great thank you mr. Chapman thank you council member freeline and go ahead council member yeah i just i just wanted to uh yeah thank you for for thank you it's a great idea yes and uh and i i think um again just i was telling some residents who emailed expressing gratitude for them reaching out because when when community members speak up good things happen and i think that's being a really good neighbor of y'all and i'm glad to hear that that that's going to happen thank you mr. mayor thank you council member let me just ask a question just thinking about this a little bit more uh mr. judge could we get you back a second yes i'm here i think my video may have been decided but thanks mr. judge mr. judge uh you heard uh the proffer from the applicant um i assume that even with this proffer you would still have to test the uh you know talk to the fire department uh and that kind of think about the potential approval for a traffic circle is that true yes um the fire department is uh generally less opposed to the circle option it doesn't have as great an impact to the response times as some of the speed humps and damage to their equipment that speed humps cause but we would want it so still subject to making sure that we have neighborhood support we know that there's definitely a number of residents that have expressed interest but sometimes the folks that live right at the intersection are opposed to them so we'd we'd want to make sure that that we had that support all right thank you mr. judge all right um councilmember freeland anything else okay thanks all right thank you councilmember milson thank you mr. mayor one of the benefits of having brilliant colleagues they kind of anticipate and talk to what you were going to say i was going to say mr. chairman i was i was intrigued at your your full throated um endorsement of of traffic circles and even a willingness to pay for signalization where it indicated and i did i did note that it seemed like you had a pretty well attended community meeting um and and i'm wondering is this your first time uh tonight kind of indicating your willingness to pay for signalization or do the traffic circles is this your first opportunity to go on record particularly given the interest meeting the community meeting that was held uh the payment for a signal on north duke street is something that we've had as our idea from the very beginning my biggest concern has been that if north gate shopping center is redeveloped and becomes a real vibrant hub that people would want to walk there and they would have to cross duke and so i was thinking that we were really protecting the um walkers more than the pedestrians uh quite frankly we did not know that that was a private street until um miss bowman attended the meeting and said we own that street you can't make this decision without us being involved and we will not do anything without their being involved they would involve a connection to that street but if dot decides once we present the evidence that our professionals would gather that a signal was warranted we would pay for it we're not required to put it in unless they decide that it's warranted and as far as woodland is concerned we really quite frankly didn't think about woodland until about three days ago uh miss um kessler and a young lady who works for the city actually called me and she uh she was very concerned this is miss miss dillard uh and i had about an hour an hour conversation and we've had emails since and um we want people in woodland uh to be safe and we want to do whatever and i what i said to her is you've got my phone number and it's my cell phone number give it to everybody if there's a problem please call we want to solve it and i think the suggestions about the traffic circles are great suggestions and i'm happy that um to be able to make this offer to participate in the cost of them thank you thank you so much for that i know the people of that community are are appreciative i i didn't mr judge if you're if you're around want to ask a question because about the and and this is i guess for people that are watching who don't live in this community i mean i get emails still from from areas like park wood who have issues with folks speeding through there and um it uh merrick moore other neighborhoods and i i heard tonight that we we gave voice to the process of getting um speed humps and and citizens and residents can indeed apply and um you know it everybody seems pretty pretty you know excited and supportive for this particular community but for those that may be watching uh mr judge could you just demystify a little bit that just applying for it doesn't mean you're gonna get it because i i instantly thought about the fire department when they started mentioning uh speed humps and is this particular area more amenable to speed humps than say a park wood or other areas that i've actually forwarded emails to you about other areas that are concerned about speeding and traffic calming measures so it is is could you just kind of speak to just simply applying for doesn't mean it's going to happen um you know for communities watching uh that is guaranteed could you just speak to a little bit to that about that process for residents yes yes so our department has maintained the traffic calming program for a number of years now um the primary tool that we've had has been speed humps uh for really about the last 15 plus years um many of the locations that qualify for speed humps have we've already received petitions or that that meet the criteria for it but we're still finding um there are streets that for various reasons either don't qualify for fire department emergency response or because of grades i know particularly that was one thing i was concerned about when i was looking at woodland drive when there's severe downhill grades we tend not to do speed humps um because that they can be dangerous for for cyclists going downhill um and other cause drainage problems during freezing times as well um so so we do have criteria related to that so an attempt to do that our department has utilized these um sort of many traffic circles um paint and post um type options and trying to sort of increase our our toolbox of options available to to relieve traffic to provide neighborhoods additional options but so any neighborhood really within Durham can contact our office we'll start an investigation determine the most appropriate treatment necessary thank you thank you so much mr. judge i appreciate you thank you mr. mayor yield that thank you very much councilmember councilmember caballero thank you um i first want to say this is my neighborhood the streets that people walk where there are uh no sidewalks and uh i know knocks well i will say that there is some traffic calming measures on knocks close to washington that alleviate a lot of the problems that some of the neighbors are discussing on woodland and roughen uh it is absolutely true that you have to walk in the middle of the road to walk your dog um and uh i really appreciate the neighbors coming out i will say that there are folks who will be impacted that are friends of ours and um but i also want to uh you know walk the talk which is we desperately need housing in the city so even if this is my neighborhood and i am on that corner every single day club and duke often getting on to i-85 uh or staying you know further down club these are streets that my children ride bikes on they are streets that my children walk this is something that will impact me personally every day and i will still be voting yes for it because ultimately it is a benefit for the city of Durham we desperately need housing i very much appreciate the developers um proffer of traffic circle uh mining towards traffic circles i think that will alleviate hopefully it works out once our staff determines if it's uh uh feasible um i will say that one of the things that our planning commissioners did note was that there will be increases to Durham public schools and was just curious if the developer had thought about any commitments to those i know that there's already been a proffer made about affordable housing that was a question for the applicant thank you thank you councilmember so uh the did you hear councilmember car cubby cubietto's question mr chavin um we had not considered a uh voluntary contribution to dps um i'm very involved with um a school that's in competition central park school for i'm founding board member we strongly support the public schools of Durham and want them to be great uh and want to do anything we possibly can to be helpful but that had not come up in any of the research that we've been done this is really the one person did mention it in the um planning commission but no there've been no specifics uh given to us about what the staff report did determine that there was uh an additional amount of students that would be added to Durham public schools i can't remember the number though i think was it 50 dan can you look i think it was 59 i'm not sure uh we'll find that and get right back to you in just a second thank you councilmember um so um mr chavin just to follow up on councilmember carby arrows question um it's uh many of our developers proffer $500 per additional student to for uh to Durham public schools uh so you might want to think about that when you and mr jeweler discussing it um can i wait for dad to tell me how many absolutely you can i'm not trying to get an answer out of you right now actually have another question that i wanted to ask if my math is correct according to staff we have 28 8 and 5 so 3641 students maybe mr stock can confirm that but that's my read one additional student we'd like to make that as proper for $500 plus at times 41 all right thank you very much mr chatlin all right uh councilmember reese did you have your hand up again okay um councilmember freeman i just wanted to ask staff if they thought that the the proffer for the 30 000 could be included in kind of an equity and infrastructure fund um just acknowledging that i feel like this is going to be a trend that uh councilmember freeman has started mr stock did you hear the question uh yes i did um i i it really depends upon the wish of um council but i see director young uh popping in there all right director young good evening everyone i would say that anytime that folks are proffering monetary donations they either need to be for the direct improvements that that will be constructed on the site or immediately adjacent remain to the impacts generated by the site or they need to go to an established fund so unless mr judge can confirm that there is already such a fund that's operating it in place i would suggest that um we keep it uh linked to this particular site for the improvements for this site yeah thank you sarah i can confirm that there is not a set aside fund similar to the affordable housing fund that for these traffic calming measures those are just line items in in the city's budget in transportation department's budget so i would suggest for now to keep the proffer just to the city of Durham and we can work internally to figure out how to make that happen thank you very much council member and thank you mr judge um colleagues i can i is miss bowman still with us uh miss jenny bowman madam clerk miss bowman are you are you available to be heard yes miss bowman um i was um unsure of the i was listening but i couldn't really understand very well um your key concerns could you summarize them you we've been talking a lot about the club olivar entrance um and now your your concern is on the duke street side uh and the fact that you own the private road that is uh directly across from where that entrance would occur if i understand correctly could you summarize your concerns about that yes um we had understood that the note the text that was added to the application for rezoning um for the warrant of the um signal um there is no data for that and again we had a conversation with ncdot and they did not think that that was the best solution for that situation in terms of traffic calming to have people coming from one intersection very quickly downhill to the net to another inter signalized intersection um at the access point on duke street so the fact that that is in the text um one that that warrant would be studied and two there was no time frame on it is a concern for us we we don't think that that intersections should be signalized um it should not be a marked signal i mean crosswalk for pedestrians we think you're asking for trouble there um like on west club we think are right in only in a right out only would be the optimal situation for the drive um or access point on duke street thank you thank you miss bowman that was very helpful okay so um mr judge are you with us yes let me just say first mr judge if i had my last night of public hearings and you weren't here i would just feel really bad so i'm i'm i'm glad you're with us uh mr judge uh you heard miss bowman's comments it it i'm very familiar with this area uh and went over to look at it um again um i live on club boulevard um the is it likely that the do that that that the do t would approve a traffic signal between the two traffic signals are already existing there on duke uh what what are your thoughts on that so yeah i think it's relatively unlikely that a signal will be approved at that location the the spacing from club boulevard to the intersection and at duke and as well as from the intersection to the signal at duke and gregson is really not ideal for a signal that being said we have similar spacing between signals at gregson and club and north gate mall entrance in the driveway at gregson so um so there is precedent at that spacing but um but unless there's just severe volumes that can't otherwise be addressed and potential safety problems i i don't think that um that ncdot is likely to approve the signal just because of the the impacts the flow along north duke street that it would probably cause additional delay and potentially backing up vehicles on duke street club boulevard do you is this study required mr judge it is so the the site did not require traffic impact analysis but i believe the applicant is proffering to do a signal warrant analysis at that intersection um for potentially signalizing and subject to getting ncdot to to agree with that analysis mr judge what do you think about uh the advisability of a of a signalized intersection there um yeah that's why i said i i think it's unlikely that ncdot is likely to approve it um from the city standpoint a signal would provide an opportunity for pedestrians crossing from the development that maybe want to get to the commercial uses there that um yeah that miss bowman and her company own um or manage um so so we do see some advantages for allowing pedestrian crossings on north duke street at the signalized intersection but um so that we're not opposed to a defensive do to we're willing to allow it thank you mr judge all right colleagues any additional questions or comments for the applicant or staff at this time any additional questions for the applicant or staff at this time okay um i'm going to declare this public hearing closed and uh the matter is back before the council for any discussion or a motion uh if we were to have a motion we'd adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance so moved second mr mr mayor yes i'm sorry michael stock with the planning department i was wondering if you'd like i was wondering if you'd like to go over a summary of the additional commitments before um any further discussions and get any clarity that might be necessary yeah sure that would be great but let me just go ahead mr stock and just say it was a motion by council member freeman and at the belief second about customer freeline uh to adopt an ordinance amending the udo go ahead mr stock that would be great thank you and i do apologize for interrupting um so i um so i have i believe to maybe three commitments and i'll need clarity on it the first one is um that prior to the issuance of a multifamily first multifamily building permit a donation of 30 000 dollars shall be made to the city of Durham uh for a traffic circle we did not know and specified a particular location i know that there were two uh the during the public hearing itself uh two potential locations were identified one at woodland and angle angle wood and another i believe at roughen and nox um and i'd be happy to be corrected if i got those wrong and um we would be fine if if unless the applicant um wanted otherwise to be more to specify if approved at uh either the intersection of woodland and angle wood or roughen and nox to add that additional uh specificity to the committed element thank you mr stock is the developer add amenable to that yes mr stock they're amenable thank you okay and the the second one that i heard is the five hundred dollars times 41 students um we can get that language uh in there uh that that that'll be clear enough language the the third one that i was not quite sure of was the offset uh uh discussion of the west club boulevard entrance from woodland and um i don't know if if mr judge if bill wants to comment on that whether that's something that um or or if the applicant wants to commit to seeking offset as approved by the transportation department or or leaving that more yeah mr sock thank you so let me first ask the applicant was that a proffer or was it something that you hope to be able to do we believe that we will be able to acquire the additional property we've made an offer and we believe that it will it will close uh as early as early uh december uh if that does then we have the ability to to adjust the entryway um we're not doing site planning now but we've done enough previous um iterations of ideas that i think i i don't know how far we're talking about and all that but i'd like to say we will absolutely consider it in in conjunction with the city and we'll let the city help advise us to accept their advice all right that would be the proffer thank you thank you mr chetman i don't actually think that's a proffer in in the sense of which we usually mean it is that correct mr stock were you able to hear mr chetman yes that's correct mr mayor and do you agree with what i said yes okay so um we we are um and you know mr reese council member you should ask some questions about it do you want to make any further comments or uh just to say that um in conjunction with the other uh new proffers made by the applicant this evening and um in recognition that that the applicant doesn't own the property that would be needed to offset it in that direction i'm i'm i'm mostly comfortable with where they've ended up and i could be more comfortable but i i get it i get it all right that's all i had to say thanks thank you council member mr stock we are you are we good yes i have two those so i we have those two additional commitments the one for the uh school donation and the um traffic circle okay great thank you thank you mr stock um college i'll just make a quick comment before we vote um i'm definitely voting for this i think that um you know relative to other rents we don't this is not proffered but we've seen the i've seen the pro forma and i think that this will be relatively uh affordable not not uh as affordable as something subset subsidized but relatively affordable and that we this is a really good place for density it's an excellent place for density and i think there's a lot to like about this development i think that uh i do and appreciate uh appreciate the proffers uh especially the traffic circle uh funding the traffic circle and i think that's very helpful and i want to appreciate the folks from woodland and other surrounding streets for being here i do have some remaining concerns about the situation with the traffic signal on duke uh but i don't think that's something we can solve tonight i understand the concerns of miss bowman i think they're important concerns but i think that we just that we're going to have to hear more from both our transportation department and d and especially dot with their study before we're able to really comment and i think that what's good about this development in my mind outweighs that concern that i don't think we can actually solve tonight so those are my thoughts colleagues any other comments before we vote okay all right colleagues we have a motion on the floor madam clerk would you open the vote please please close the vote the motion passes seven zero thank you madam clerk colleagues can i have a motion to adopt these consistency statement so move second moved by council member freeman seconded by council member caballero that we adopt the appropriate consistency statement madam clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote the motion passes seven zero thank you very much madam clerk uh mr jule mr Chapman thank you we're looking forward to you all doing a great job there and working closely with the neighbors and we appreciate you thank you so much all right colleagues will now move to our last item of the night a ribbon paving water main and water and sewer laterals on a portion of ardmore drive this is a public hearing item uh i'm now going to ask if we can hear the report from staff i believe it's mr joiner good evening mayor shul members of council i'm robert joiner of the public works department item 20 is an item to consider the ordering of petition improvements on a portion of ardmore drive the proposed project is inside the city limits and staff recommends that council hold two votes the first is one to accept a certificate of sufficiency for the petition and adopt a preliminary uh resolution the second will be then to conduct a public hearing and then adopt a final resolution ordering the improvements to be made staff is available to answer any questions as necessary thank you very much mr joiner colleagues you have heard the report from staff and i'm now declare this public hearing open and i first want to ask if there are any questions for staff from members of the council all right uh we do have one person sign up to speak on this item and that is tamera rogers madam clerk uh is miss rogers with us and but i don't have questions all right thank you very much miss rogers we appreciate you being with us do you have any comments that you want to make miss rogers miss rogers do you have any comments that you'd like to make okay all right thank you um this is a public hearing item i don't believe there's anyone else that wants to be heard is that correct we do we have two other people thank you did you text me isaac woods mr mayor isaac woods all right is there anyone else senior and a junior oh good okay so first we will hear from uh isaac woods senior madam clerk could you please make mr mr woods available to be heard good afternoon mr mayor and council members um can everybody hear me okay yes we can mr woods we're glad to have you and you have three minutes yes i'll try to be less than that because it's been a long night already and we appreciate all your service and all the accolades that were given to you that a they much more appreciate it we're just uh asking that we've been provided we were before the council last year in regards to this matter and it was denied and as you can see on the reports that email the council members in the mayor we have contaminated well with bacteria and the water is not safe for drinking and it's been conducted by the Durham county health department on several of the properties there so we're asking the council to consider making drinking water fire service and the ribbon paving available to everybody else just like the rest of the city has um as the state's in there we're paying for we're not asking for a free gift we're asking for to be done properly we've been working on this safe drinking water i've been involved since 2017 and i think it's the right thing to do uh mr may i heard you talk about your granddaughter my granddaughter doesn't know how to go to school and drink from a water fountain because at home she can't drink from from the kitchen sink she only drinks from bottled water so i'm trying to raise a grandchild to understand that it's safe to drink from a water fountain a cup of water at her school so this is something that you know we all need to just take a real deep look at and vote and wear the shoes that we've been wearing for the last few years of unsafe drinking water no fire protection so therefore i ask the council to properly uh approve this and and have the city order this city water installed so that we can stop having to treat contaminated well drink toxic water thank you very much for your time consideration mr woods thank you for being with us tonight we appreciate you uh madam clerk can you have mr woods junior available to be heard mr woods are you available to be heard mr woods hello hello how are you welcome you have three minutes thank you um my family has been living on oddmore drive for three generations with no street paving fire protection services or access to city water my grandfather father claud evers bailey who is a naval veteran and one of the first black supervisors for derm sewer and water management moved to oddmore in 1961 this has historically been a neighborhood of black working class families and today still a diverse community of blue collar residents who have been denied basic services despite being tax paying residents the denial of this basic services for almost 30 years when we were annexed into the city and the city has allowed these discriminatory conditions to continue please don't make the mistake that this city council made last year i implore you to consider your humanity in this decision and ask yourself am i going to be the human who denies this community water the human who denies this community fire protection services the human this that denies this community a safe road to drive on i demand water i demand the ability to protect my community from a fire i demand the right to a safe road for my community thank you mr woods we appreciate you being with us thank you mr maron i want to thank members of the woods family for staying with us i remember very well our discussion about this matter um when it occurred and and i'll i'll reiterate reiterate tonight what i said then i think this is a moral issue it it is the epitome of equity and dealing with things that have been historically baked into our infrastructure in our city not just this city of american cities around the country have repeated this type of patterns i think i'm gonna vote for it of course but but i do want to ask the staff that we're going to assess the folk for this work so we're going to recoup the money as a city how if you can answer this how far up the queue or the list or the line will this petition and their willingness to be assessed move them as opposed to letting the processes run as regular course under our unpaved road initiative if you if you can speak to that robert joiner from the public works department i believe that would move them up approximately four to five years four to five years yes that's correct if it's funded every year yeah um okay i mean i'm happy for them and that that you know money talks um but but i i still that and i think this was alluded to earlier um this should just be something we do as a city um and i understand that even with that in in establishing an order of doing it there'll be those that are further down on the list but the ability to to get four or five years shaved off of it because of the ability to pay for it or the ability to to to to organize your your personal finances to pay for it i don't know if these are wealthy people or not but therein lies the the whole point of of our historical struggle with equity and those that have the means um you know to to get things that that others wait for so i'm i'm pleased to vote for this tonight i'm i'm i remember the conversation i said very well but i i hope this will also be um a reminder to us of the important work that we need to do and in a modern american city raised world should be paid water should be available uh fire department should be able to get to you as a matter of course uh just as a matter of basic um fundamental um existence for a city but i'm pleased to uh vote for tonight congratulations to the residents there and uh i didn't realize it was four to five years but very happy for them i look forward to voting for it thank you mr mayor thank you very much council member council member freelon thank you mr mayor um i also recall this it was one of my first city council meetings when we discussed this last year and this was one of those really hard decisions uh that i struggled with afterwards and i look forward to supporting it tonight as well thank you thank you so much council member council member freeman thank you mr mayor i just want to echo council member middleton's comments and acknowledging the inequitable aspect of this and that we have to find a better way to fund our unpaved roads and to make sure that this community does have water access um so that their homes don't burn down and that their children and grandchildren can drink from the faucet thank you thank you very much council member all right i have a question for mr joiner mr joiner are you with us yes sir mr joiner so the cost of the ribbon paving and what's the total cost of the of the of the paving and all the work that we're doing here that we would be doing um i don't have that number directly in front of me it's an estimate at this time yeah i'm just wanted to look at the memo is it a million 222 266 one is that yeah i think that's that's just for the paving right yeah yeah there's another 600 000 for for the water line and laterals so we're talking about 1.8 million dollars or they're about mr joiner is that right that's right and it will be a hundred percent uh paid for and so the people that signed the petition to pay for this to move themselves up the schedule they're uh i counted about 13 different but you'd assess every property is that correct that is correct and and how many properties are there uh leave there roughly around 13 to 14 properties total okay so these folks are going to be paying a significant amount of money we moved up this list correct that is correct yes he said i would have judged i would judge it okay okay all right thank you mr joiner colleagues any more questions or concerns or comments for mr joiner or the or the applicant or the petitioner all right thank you all right colleagues um i don't believe i've closed the public hearing i want to declare this public hearing closed the matters now back before the council we looks like we have several mr joiner there do we have to do each of these motions except yes so if you would have the first motion you actually can do it in two motions if you would have the first one to um accept the uh sufficiency of the petition all right mr mayor i'd like to make a motion to accept the sufficiency of the subject thank you council member is there a second i'd like to second that motion thank you council member reese made the motion by council member freeman second by council member reese that we accept a subsequent of sufficiency madam clerk can you please open the vote can you please close it thank you the motion passes seven zero thanks can we do all the and next you would adopt a preliminary resolution by vote all right colleagues can have a motion to adopt a preliminary resolution we'll move second moved by council member freeman seconded by council member freelon to adopt a preliminary resolution on proposed local improvements madam clerk please open the vote please close the vote and the motion passes seven zero right and then a final motion to adopt a final resolution ordering the improvements if council so wishes thank you colleagues the motion will be to adopt a final resolution ordering the making of local improvements we'll move second moved by council member freeman seconded by council member caballero madam clerk will you please open the vote please call close the vote and the motion passes seven zero thank you very much thank you to mr woods and the neighborhood for presenting the petition and thank you mr joiner colleagues before we adjourn this was our last item i did want to just put just ask our staff to consider one thing and and you two colleagues i won't be here for it but i don't know if we have we have public hearings on the 6th of december we do yeah we have to i think that the 6th is going to be i don't know how crowded we'll be after the organizational meeting i wonder if people are going to go home i think it would be a lot easier for the council if we had the primary staff people who are it would move things along a lot quicker if we had the primary staff people who were doing the reporting like if mike stock and bill judge have been here tonight i think we could have moved through this more quickly i know we're balancing that against the our desire to keep not many people in the room so i'm not i'm just one i'm just going to ask staff if y'all could think about that and just and colleagues and staff if y'all could think about that i think it it might help us so just just a thought all right colleagues thank you all so much i'm going to declare this meeting adjourned at 11 o one p m last time i hit the gavel y'all yep see y'all on thursday see you're thursday right here in this room mr mayor mr mayor the dinner was delicious like yeah but i ate too much i know it was so good it was great i was so glad to see it