 Good evening like to call the Durham City Council meeting in order. Certainly want to welcome all of you are here for us this evening on Monday, 17th and 7 o'clock PM. If we just take a moment for silent meditation please. Thank you. As Councilman Davis that you would introduce. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We're going to be led in the pledge. We're honored to be led in the pledge tonight by three young men from Troop 461 at the Epworth United Methodist Church. May be rise by the states of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Madam Clerk could you call the roll please. Mayor Bell. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden. Councilmember Davis. Councilmember Johnson. Councilmember Moffitt. Councilmember Reese. And Councilmember Schultz. Before I go to the podium I was told that the voting machine is not working so we'd be voting by show of hands this evening. We have several proclamations that we'd like to present this evening. The first is the neighborhood spotlight recipient and as probably most of you know this is an award that is given by neighborhood improvement services to a resident chosen by our member there community to receive the award. Now tonight is Ms. Cheek here. Will you join me please. Ms. Cheek is from the Edmont Elms community. The last time we saw her was at a packed meeting I think. And then unfortunately we're not even here the last time so we're doing well this time. Okay. The neighborhood read the proclamation reads the certificate is this certificate is awarded to Alice Cheek in recognition of valuable contributions to the Edmont Elms community serving as co-facilitator of pack five organizing events for neighbors such as National Night Out, a campfire with Santa and neighborhood cleanups and canvassing and sharing information in her community among some of the things that she does. And assigned by Thomas J. Bonfield city manager and myself William V. Bill Bell and it was dated March the 10th and March the 11th. Tonight we're presented to Ms. Cheek and certainly want to congratulate her and I don't know if you have any other community residents here tonight. Okay. Well that's important. Will the husband stand up. I just want to thank y'all for giving me this award. Let me know that my work was not in bank. And I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Steve McNulty president Steve is from the Milan Woods community and again he's a recipient of the neighborhood spotlight award. This certificate is awarded to Steve McNulty in recognition of valuable contributions to Milan Woods such as organizing annual neighborhood events to bring the community together, developing a relationship with the Durham police department and strengthening the neighborhood watch and introducing new neighbors to the area via welcome packet and sharing relevant information from the packs and other groups with neighbors. Again it's signed by Thomas J. Bonfield city manager and myself as mayor of the city of Durham and we want to present this to Steve for any comments. I don't know if you've got any in your neighbors here. Well let the neighbors stand up if you don't mind. He said none of them will stand up. Okay I'm going to present this and you can make a comment. I guess he wants to do the pitch first. I do want to thank everyone for this recognition. Rob who will be coming up next actually has got a bit more of a more formal response to this but again thank you very much and we appreciate it. And we have another one of his neighbors Rob Corns who joins. Again this is the neighborhood spotlight award and this certificate is awarded to Rob Corns in recognition of valuable contributions to Milan Woods organizing annual neighborhood events to bring the community together. Again developing a relationship with the Durham police department and strengthening the neighborhood watch and introducing new neighbors to the area via welcome packet and sharing relevant information from the packs and other groups with neighbors. Again it's signed by the city manager and myself and I'm going to present this to Rob and for any comments you might have we got to do the pitch first. Since Steve sort of said I was going to say something I guess I will. I want to thank everybody for this recognition. It really and truly is not so much about myself and Steve but it's about the community where we live which is Milan Woods. We just happen to be the two people that have the bigger mouths I guess you could say out there. But we couldn't do what we do without assistance from others and like I said this is about our neighborhood and those who have assisted us over the years. So I would like to give three very quick shout outs if I may to our management company representative Cheryl who is back there in the back. We've worked with her for well over double digit years. We have developed an extremely great rapport and that has enabled us to make a lot of progress out in our neighborhood with our residents. I also want to give a shout out to the various city departments over the years we've been fortunate to work with representatives from transportation stormwater management neighborhood improvement services zoning Durham one call water management. Whenever we've had an issue and needed to reach out to them we've been very fortunate to get good information back and been able to address our issues. I do want to also single out to City Council members who have always responded when we do have to send something to you when sort of all else fails and that is Councilman Shull and Don Moffitt. We thank you very much and we have been a part of the neighborhood watch program in our neighborhood for over 20 years and for the majority of that we've coordinated the efforts out there. And we have developed an extremely close working relationship with the Durham Police Department. We know there's been a lot of changes over the years. But the one thing that has remained a constant is the good relationship and rapport that we have with them. So I want to thank them for that and for anybody who is looking to make a difference in your neighborhood. A good place to start is to first get out there meet your neighbors know your neighbors look out for your neighbors and attend the partners against crime meetings for your district. There's a lot of information available at these meetings that you can get take back to your neighborhoods and I promise you your neighborhood will benefit from it. Thank you. Rob we appreciate those comments and I first of all I also want to thank Neighborhood Improvement Services for implementing this award. But I think what's important is that we constantly say strong neighborhoods make for a strong city and people such as here tonight. The city is made up of neighborhoods and the stronger we can have as neighborhoods strong we have more people involved or stronger will be our city. So we appreciate what you do and you certainly honor us by allowing us to present you with awards such as this. We have the week of the young child proclamation. It's Laura Benson. Oh I'm sorry. Well let me just acknowledge it. Proper time we will present it to Laura. But it speaks to among other things that whereas early childhood from birth to age five represents the most critical time in children's development. As a foundation for success in school and life according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Whereas early childhood programs support children and families as they prepare to enter school. Whereas comprehensive bilingual evidence based programs and parent education and literacy and increased family stability. Whereas the Durham City Council do hereby proudly recognizes that the ages of birth to five of the most critical time in children's development. Which builds a foundation for the success in school and life. Now therefore William V. Bill Bell Mayor of the City of Durham North Carolina. Do you have our claim April 24th to April 28th 2017. As a week of the young child in Durham and hereby recognized Durham's partnership for children and other early childhood organizations for the exemplary models of collaboration. Which continues to improve the landscape of early education for Durham residents. And benefits present and future generations. With my hand the Court of Associate of Durham. This is the first day of April 2017 and the proper time we will present that to Laura. Thank you. Next we have women and math mentoring day proclamation. This has been presented to the Paula Sloan the co-founder of Women and Math Mentoring Program. She's available if you mind joining us. The proclamation speaks to the fact that over 20 years ago data showed there was a gender gap in math. Girls with an interest in math tended to lose that interest in middle school. But girls who had mentors with math related jobs would tend to stay on the math path. Whereas currently there is still a gender gap. A study shows that girls who are interested in STEM subjects tend to lose that interest in mid high school. And it never comes back as girls report they can't see themselves in STEM careers. And whereas for 20 years the Women and Math Mentoring Program known as WAM. Has connected over 1260 eighth grade girls in Durham Public Schools with women in STEM careers. Whereas Durham Public Schools recruits eighth grade girls for WAM and provides support in North Carolina Central University as a home for WAM. Whereas WAM is a well organized program consistent of orientation for mentors, students and their parents. Field trips to universities and businesses involved in STEM. A career awareness day, math competitions, scholarships for some enrichment opportunities. Whereas the Women and Math Mentoring Program will continue to encourage eighth grade girls to learn about careers in STEM fields. And to study hard and prepare for them. And now therefore WAM will develop the University of Durham, North Carolina. We have our proclaim Saturday, April 29th, 2017 as Women and Math Mentoring Day in Durham. Hereby urge all young women to raise their awareness of STEM careers. And with my hand, Corporate Associate of Durham, North Carolina, this is the 17th day of April 2017. I'm going to present this to you and certainly for any comments that you might have. Thank you. We're very excited that we've reached 20 years and we plan on at least 20 more. So if you know eighth grade girls who might be interested in having a personal relationship with women who have STEM careers. Please let us know and let them be a part of this. It's a great program. It's a lot of fun for both students and mentors. So you got Laura Smith involved in it. You really got a great mentor. I appreciate that, Laura. I know you're involved in the program. You are involved, right? The next presentation is for Chief Chef Lucas. Chef Lucas. Doing good with food day proclamations and Lelaine LeJane Carson, Director of Campus Relations, Art Institute for Raleigh Durham, if you join me please. Chef, whereas Chef Lucas Food is a non-profit organization founded in Minnesota during the fall of 2015. By Lucas Hobbs as a selfish wish to use food trucks to communicate his appreciation to the community. They're supporting him during his battle with cancer. Whereas Chef Lucas understands that good food can help strengthen families and communities during difficult times. This is achieved by forming charitable partnerships with the food industry and promoting pediatric cancer awareness. Whereas Lucas' goal is to support pediatric cancer families and organizations that serve them through the power of good food by visiting one children's hospital in each state throughout the United States. Whereas Lucas Food and its partners organization, a massive amount of good specializes in supporting food inspired events of non-profit organizations that serve cancer medical related causes. This is all made possible by the generous donations of local individuals and sponsors. Whereas in North Carolina, specifically, Durham, Chef Lucas is collaborating with Duke Children's Hospital to continue this mission of doing good with food in each state by providing a meal at no cost. Whereas the Art Institute of Raleigh, Durham, American Tobacco Campus, Durham, Marriott City, Center of Law Offices of James Scott Farron, North Carolina, Sweet Potato Commission, John Barlow Juice, Eds, Cube, Gussies, Port Cheekton, Fully Loaded Fritters, and American Party Reynolds have all joined forces to support Chef Lucas in the Durham effort. And now, therefore, I, Wayne W. Bilbell, Mayor of the City of Durham, to hear by proclaiming April the 28th, 2017 as Chef Lucas Day doing good with food day. In Durham and hereby, I encourage all residents to support and uplift the children, families, and caregivers of those battling pediatric cancer. And with my hand, Court of the City of Durham, North Carolina, this is the 17th day of April, and again, I want to present this to you for any comments that you may have. I'm honored to accept this on behalf of Chef Lucas, and I'm looking forward to working with the hospital to support patients, caregivers, and their families. Thank you very much to the City for this wonderful honor and proclamation. The next proclamation speaks to National Community Development Week. And as Regional Johnson, Director of Community Development, if you would join me. And I'm sure Regional is going to tell you a lot about why this is important, but Community Development Week annually recognizes the importance of community development block grant and home investment partnership home programs. And both programs are proposed for elimination under the new administration and physical year 2018 congressional budget. And I can tell you, this is something that mayors across the country are very, very supportive trying to keep CDBG alive. And it serves so many communities in so many positive ways and is one of the things that has made Durham as successful as it has been in trying to revitalize some of our neighborhoods. So the loss of that program would, in a sense, be devastating to a lot of the things that we're trying to do, not only in the City of Durham but throughout cities across the community. I'm not going to get into a lot of details. I'm going to let Reginald speak to that. But basically this proclamation proposes April 17th through April 22nd, 2017 as National Community Development Week in Durham in support of these two valuable programs, the home program and CDBG program that have made tremendous contributions to the vitality of the city's housing stock and economic vitality of our community. And it's my hand for the City of Durham, this is April 17th, 2017 and I present this to Reginald for comments. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, thank you as well. Our first thing I would like to recognize is the members of the Citizens Advisory Committee, which is appointed by the County Commission and the City Council that advises the City Department of Community Development on community development matters. I would like the members to please stand. We appreciate their service and would you say your names, please. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Mr. Mayor, it is not a loss upon us that this will be the final proclamation that we will receive from you for the Community Development Week. And we want to thank you for your support of community development in Durham. We actually have a wall with all of the proclamations on it and this will be the final one that we will add. And we just want to thank you for your service. As the Mayor indicated, home and CDBG are important, important to the City of Durham. Many of you will remember the East Wing, a village revitalization project where we created 46 unions of home ownership opportunities and transformed the entire block. This would have not been possible without home dollars. We revitalized targeted neighborhoods through the support of Habitat for Humanity. We were able to meet the former President Obama's challenge to end veterans homelessness through the creation of dents and apartments for veterans homelessness and that was also part of home funds, using home funds. The City of Durham has used home funds responsibly as well as CDBG funds and we have been recognized nationally for the work that we've done. East Wing Village, Dents and Apartments, the Southside Revitalization Project including the bungalows at Southside and the lofts at Southside have been the recipients of awards from the National Community Development Association and the National Housing Finance Agency. The CDBG and home programs are just important today and in the future as they have been historically over the years. We need these programs to continue to develop affordable housing and to meet the needs of Durham residents. Just to be a little bit more specific, more than 300 housing units have been created to date with these projects. We've had millions of dollars in leverage, millions of dollars in private equity. We've created hundreds of jobs and there's continuing private sector investments surrounding the city's investment in Southside. And as I mentioned, we've been recognized nationally as well as in the state of North Carolina for the great things that are happening in Durham. So again, I want to say thank you for everyone for their support. And our last proclamation, but not least is certainly important, Earth Day Proclamation. Now I will ask Ms. Womack and Rhonda Parker both from the Durham Parks and Recreation Department. Ms. Womack is here. Ms. Rhonda here. Okay. Proclamation speaks to the fact that humankind is currently facing tremendous global challenges. The fact that every community including large scale, migration, extreme inequality and poverty, degradation of ecosystems, mass extension of species and global climate change, whereas all people deserve no matter the race, gender, income, sexual orientation, national origin, have a right to a healthy environment. Whereas it's necessary for the citizens of our global community to develop green jobs and to build an innovative and equitable green economy to combat the aforementioned global challenges. Whereas expanding environmental education and climate literacy is vital to enhance the awareness about the environment and form decision making and protect future generations. Whereas it's more important than ever to act locally and to cooperate internationally and defend the environmental progress that has been here for a gain. Whereas Earth Day is an annual reminder of the constant need for environmental activism, stewardship, commitments and sustainability efforts. Therefore, we need to develop our own city of Durham, North Carolina, to have our proclaiming Saturday, April 22nd, 2017 as Earth Day in Durham. And hereby I encourage all residents, businesses and institutions to use Earth Day to celebrate the Earth and promote environmental and climate literacy. Again, with my hand in the corporate city of Durham, this is the 17th day of April. I'm going to present this to Ms. Womack for any comments you might have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We are surely excited at Parks and Recreation to celebrate Earth Day. Earth Day is actually on Saturday, but we will be celebrating on Sunday at the beautiful Durham Central Park from 12 to 5. If you will look in the back, we'll have some cars that you all can pick up and get more information on the website. We're really excited about all the events. We have something for everyone. If you know a little bit about recycling and conservation, we have stuff for you. If you know a lot, we have things for you as well. Everybody can come and learn something that day, whether it's new products or just how to recycle. What does it mean? What is composting? Whatever it is, you can come and enjoy. The children will have things to do. We have tons of activities for the kids. There will be an Earth Day parade that will happen. And all the instruments that the kids make out of recycled products will be what they use to participate and make plenty of noise in the parade. We have a partnership with a shredding company. So if you have documents that you would, confidential documents you would like to shred for free, we will be there with that company in a special spot for you to bring those items, because usually that does cost, but we are offering it absolutely free. So we're really excited about all the things we're going to have and hope that you all will join us. Thank you. Let me ask if there are any comments by members of the council. Mayor Pro Tem. Good evening, everyone. I would just like to announce that we're going to start a letter writing campaign to the members of Congress from our, the letters will be coming from our youth regarding the CDBG funds and how they impact the lives of children in this country. All right. There are any other comments? The thought of recognizing city manager for any prior items. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. No priority items. Likewise, City Attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. Likewise, City Clerk. No items, Mr. Mayor. Okay. We'll proceed with the agenda. The consent agenda consists of items that may be approved with a single vote by the council. If a member of the council, a member of the audience chooses to pool a consent agenda item. We will speak to that later in the program. And again, I'll just read the heading of each one of the consent agenda items. Under the Durham Planning Commission Appointments. Consent agenda item one. Item two is boards, committees, and commissions attendance reports for the period of January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016. Item three is a request to extend the construction phase maturity date of the Durham Community Land Trustees Inc. Home Forgivable Construction Permanent Loan Agreement. Item four is establishing a service area and service area fee for the Farrington Road Warden Line Extension. Item five is Wilson Street Delivery Street Outfall Sanitary Sewer Repair and Replacement Project Contract Award to Hydro Structures PA. Item six is interlocal agreement for phase eight of the Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project. Item seven is agreement for watershed protection with the Conservation Trust with North Carolina. Item eight is the budget recommendation for a 10.01 transformation in 10 initiative. Item nine is utility extension agreement with EPCON, Farrington, and LLC to serve all sub-divisions. Item 10 is encoders upgraded managed services with Ranicus Inc. Items 13 to 18 items that can be found on the Durham Business Agenda as public hearings. Entertaining motion for approval. Consent agenda with exception item nine. Second. It's been approved for moving. Second. All in favor of the motion. If I say aye. Aye. Those opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Items 13 is unified development ordinance, text amendment, mass grading buffers. Thank you very much, Michael Stock with the Planning Department. Before I begin, the Planning Department certifies that all required notification related to the Planning Department public hearing items has been performed and are on file for review. Specifically TC-16-0006 is a text amendment to section 9.5 of the Unified Development Act in accordance with state-enabled legislation. In consultation with the city attorney's office, the amendment does the following things. It increases the width of mass grading buffers to the amount allowed by the statute, and that is goes from 32 feet to 65 feet when adjacent to developed properties, increases it from zero to 32 feet when adjacent to undeveloped property, and increases it from 50 to 65 feet and along a public right of way. It also revises the buffer standards to focus on protection of existing vegetation, removing the requirements for supplemental vegetation, and it also indicates that it applies only to the city jurisdiction. The amendment also adds a definition of grading to section 16.3 of the UDO. The Planning Commission recommended approval, 13-0, at its February meeting. And as a reminder, council will require to take two actions. First will be an action on the ordinance amendment itself, which is attachment A. And the second would be an action on the appropriate statement of consistency found as attachment C. Thank you. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Okay. This is a public hearing. You've heard the staff report. The public hearing is open. We'll ask first are the questions by members of the council on the staff report. Hearing none. Again, this is a public hearing. Does anyone in the audience would like to speak on this item as presented? A lot of the record reflect. No one in the audience has to speak. I'm sorry. It threw me off. No one in the public has to speak. The record reflects that. I'm closing the public hearing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Michael, could you talk a bit about the additional work that I believe the planning staff is doing around tree preservation and some of the tree removal issues that are kind of tandem out or tandem to this discussion around mass grading and buffers? Sure. This text amendment was actually born out of discussions with JCCPC back at the end of last year, I believe it was a November or December meeting. And there were two actions that JCCPC asked the planning department to undertake. One was to do what we're acting on tonight is to increase the width of mass grading buffers and then second was to look into ways of the issues of mass grading in general or the costs and benefits towards it and then to initiate future discussions on what policy directions we would like to go forward with in regards to that such site preparation and how it would impact tree preservation and such. So could you speak to the timing of the request that had also been made earlier in the year about looking at the tree ordinance and tree removal issues? We're going to be bringing up the broader issue of mass grading in general to JCCPC at its June meeting, its next meeting. I recognize Councilman Schuhl. Appreciate that. And thank the manager for that clarification and you, Mike. Thank you. This does lead me to remind, it reminds me that there's a forum, Trees Over Durham Forum, which is being held and co-sponsored by the City General Services on April the 25th from 2.30 to 8 o'clock at the Durham Arts Council. It's free. Dinner is free. And we have a great program about preserving trees in Durham, but replenishing our tree canopy and making sure that our tree canopy is equitably distributed across all of our neighborhoods. And so I urge anyone interested in Durham Trees not only to pay attention to this mass grading ordinance, but to come out on April 25th for all or part of our program. And you can go to TreesOverDurham.com to find out more and to sign up. So thanks for the time to give that free advertisement, Mr. Mayor. I do want to just note that without the requirements for planning specific vegetation and for opacity levels, and since this removes the county from mass buffering requirements, as I understand it, I want to note, given that, I really want to note favorably the comments of Planning Commissioner Brian Busby and his written comments on this, that this is a change that we need to make, but it is also a mixed back. As we bring our regulations into compliance with state law here, we are getting wider buffers for our developments, and that's good. But they're no longer required on projects that are outside the city limits within the County of Durham, and we're losing our ability to require specific vegetation at opacity levels. And this is a problem. Those are our regulations that I think have served us well. I appreciate the manager's comments earlier about the next step in this process, and I hope we can strengthen our mascot grading requirements with the next step in the review of these policies as mandated by the JCCPC. So I'm voting for this, but I recognize it brings us into compliance with state law, and I recognize it does some good things. But it is a mixed bag, and I just wanted to point that out. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. And I would just like to add just so it's not all bad news. So mass grading buffers are generally temporary buffers around the site preparation, or if it's just kind of a standalone site preparation. It doesn't impact project boundary buffers, which allow the use of existing plus additional vegetation. So ultimately any projects that require permanent project boundary buffers, we still have the ability to require specific capacities, such as vegetation and such. Well, in fact, I started to say something when we had the work session, and it's too late. It would be interesting to see how this would have impacted two areas that have been mass rated along North Carolina, 54, and Barbie Road, which was, I mean, it's just horrific what was done there, and of course I've gotten the plans, and I was here when I approved it, so I can't go back and fall in about it by myself. But when I saw what was done to that area, I just think it was atrocious, and I just hope that the planning that comes along after it's been done will hopefully make that place look a lot better. But it was just terrible. And what's happening is all the animals are leaving. In fact, my neighbor told me he saw some coyotes in the back of my yard near Pond, but the deer don't have a place to go, all the wild animals are going places, and that's happening on that area. And it's also happening along Granddale, which is another area that was mass rated. So I just hope that in the future we have better concerns as to how we allow the develops to go in and move property, move dirt, move land, tear down trees when they start their development. I appreciate your comments and we move on. There are no further comments. I entertain a motion tonight. I'm sorry. Were you pointed? Did you have a comment? I did. You did? Yeah, I did. Oh, okay. Second. It's been a proper move in the second. All in favor of the motion. Then can we say aye? Aye. Those opposed? The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We have to do the second piece. Yes, I'm sorry. It's been a proper move in the second. All in favor of the motion. Then can I say aye? Aye. Those opposed? The motion passes unanimously. I recognize Councilor Moffitt. Mr. Mayor, I wanted to just take a moment and do something that's not really my place to do, but this is the first council meeting where we've had a new planning director. And it's easy to overlook since he's been here for so long, but I just wanted to recognize Patrick Young for stepping up to the role. Thank you, Councilmember Moffitt. It's my great pleasure. I saw you fixed your email signature. Good job. Appreciate that. Because sometimes we take things for granted. Pat has been here almost like an institution, but thanks for the acknowledgement. Mr. Mayor, he says it's been a great pleasure. It may not be a great pleasure for long, Pat. Okay. Next item is item 14, Consolidated Annexation for Islamic Association of Raleigh. Good evening, Jacob Wiggins with the Planning Department. Request for utility extension agreements. Voluntary annexation initial zoning has been received from the Islamic Association of Raleigh for one contiguous parcel located at 3104 Page Road. If this request is approved, the applicant intends to construct a place of worship at the subject site. There's a site plan currently under review for the place of worship and the Board of Adjustment Approved Minor Special Use Permit for this use in September of 2016. Staff is recommending an initial zoning designation of residential role, which is an exact translation of the existing county zoning designation. If these requests are approved, the annexation will become effective on June 30th, 2017. Public Works and Water Management Departments perform the utility impact analysis for the utility extension agreement and determine that the existing city water, excuse me, city of Durham water main has capacity to serve the proposed development. The budget and management services departments perform the fiscal analysis, which did indicate that the request will likely become revenue negative, which is not necessarily uncommon for places of worship given their tax exempt status. Staff recommends that the council approve the utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation and initial zoning, as well as a consistency statement. I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have. Again, this is the public hearing. The public hearing is open. You've heard the staff report. I have questions, comments. I remember the council. I'm going to ask the council to show them. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was wondering if there was a member of the Islamic Association of Raleigh who was present to answer a question. Do you know if there is jagged? I believe so, sir. Could one of you all come to the podium, please? How are you? Welcome. My question is, is this an additional facility to the Raleigh facility or are you moving everything to this new campus? This is additional to Raleigh facility. Okay. I just want to tell you all that my students have done community service projects at the IAR, tutoring, helping to maintain the cemetery, preparing burial shrouds, and I myself have participated in this on several occasions. My students have also participated in dialogues and panels with members of the IAR and at your Raleigh Masjid in school. And I just want to say for those people in the room that don't know the IAR that you are a very wonderful and welcoming community. Thank you. And I want to say to my colleagues on the council and to everyone else in the room that if you ever have a chance to be at the IAR on a Friday evening, when the community comes together and is serving food, I recommend it highly. It is a wonderful, wonderful welcoming community and I just want to thank you for making my students so welcome over the years. And I hope you'll give my regards to my friend Dr. Rufai Abdullah who facilitated our work there and just want to say how glad I am that you'll be here. It's really nice to have the Islamic Association of Raleigh coming to Durham. Thank you. So just thank you very much. That's all I had for you. Thank you. Thank you. It's our honor to be here and you'll find us at good neighbors. The other comments from members of the council. If not, again, this is a public hearing. I would ask is it anyone in the audience who would like to speak on this item? This being a public hearing matter. Let the record reflect that no one asks to speak. I would encourage you to put me in to be closed as a matter of fact for the council. We have been properly moved in second. All in favor of the motion, and kept by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion passes unanimously. Moves it consistently. Second. It's been properly moved in second. All in favor of the motion, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion passes unanimously. And we moved item 15, consolidated item for church Hill Commons. Thank you, Jacob Wiggins again. again with the planning department. This is a request for a comprehensive plan amendment and two zoning map change requests, which have been received from tri-properties LLC for two properties located at the southeastern corner of South Miami Boulevard at Page Road. The subject side is designated as industrial on the future land use map and is currently zoned industrial park. The applicant is proposing to change the future land use map designation to commercial and rezone the site to commercial general of a development plan for the majority of the subject site. There is a small parcel along South Miami Boulevard, which is proposed to be rezone to commercial general with no development plan. A cemetery is currently located on this parcel and no modifications or development is proposed for the cemetery piece. Some key commitments on the development plan associated with this request include side access points, a building and parking envelope, project boundary buffers, a range of 150,000 to 275,000 square feet of commercial use area, and roadway improvements along Page Road and South Miami Boulevard. The Planning Commission recommended approval of both of these cases by a vote of 13 to zero at their February 14th, 2017 meeting. And staff recommends and notes that while the site is currently located in a compact neighborhood, it is not along the proposed Durham orange light rail line. And at this time, staff is not pursuing implementation of the compact design district in the area. With that in mind, staff determines that their requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adopted policies and ordinances. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have. Again, this is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. We would ask our questions to my members of the council. Here and on, we have one person to sign up to speak on this item. That's Patrick Beiker before Patrick comes. I'm going to ask all the other persons that want to speak on this item. If not, you have five minutes. Yes, sir. Good evening, Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Kolmick-Fadden, members of the city council. My name is Patrick Beiker. I live at 2614 Stewart Drive. I'm an attorney in Durham with Morningstar Law Group. I'm here tonight representing tri-properties for the Churchill Development Near Research Triangle Park in southeastern Durham. With us tonight are our landscape architect, Bob Zumwalt from McAdams and also Rob Griffin, the associate director for development with tri-properties. We are here tonight to request your approval of a plan amendment and a zoning map change to support new office space and new restaurants near RTP in Imperial Center. I trust that members of the city council are familiar with the Quintiles Building and the outstanding track record tri-properties has as one of the leading office developers here in Durham. Now they need more inventory so Durham can recruit more businesses to our city. But a key ingredient to recruiting new businesses is new quality restaurants. I can tell you having worked in this section of Durham from 2006 to 2016, there is a strong demand for quality restaurants. You can see from tri-properties solid track record with Mez and Page Road Grill and the unrelenting demand from customers of those fine establishments that more sit-down restaurants are needed in this section of Durham. That is why we are here tonight to respectfully request your approval of this plan amendment and zoning map change. In closing, we do appreciate the unanimous recommendation from our planning commission and our team will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much for your time tonight. Thank you. Are there questions of the developer? Now let me ask the staff. Are the mass rating rules going to apply to this site? Jacob Wiggins of the Applying Department. The mass rating rules would not apply to the site. Well, what we have now currently would apply in the ordinance today, but the item you heard earlier this evening would not apply to the site. So Patrick, tell me how are you guys going to develop this stuff? It's got a bunch of trees on it. What kind of? It'll be one, I believe, one large office building. One large office building, four stories or five. Five-story office building. And then we'll have out parcels with several sit-down restaurants so that the people in the office building can walk to get their lunch with easy, convenient walk. The trees are, the trees are going to be left on this part. I notice area pretty well. There's nothing out there now, but you do have some trees on this site. So what's happening with that? Well, we're certainly leaving the trees around the cemetery, and then we're putting, and I guess we're committing to the other project. Is there a project going to go up above? You can come to the microphone for the mic. The Mr. Mayor, members of the Council of Bobs, I'm all with McAdams. The site is, since it's in the Compact Neighborhood tier, the tree-save requirements are applicable in the Compact Neighborhood tier. And in fact, the site is already, the building is already up for the office building. It was allowed under the current zoning. So the office building's already under construction. Site's already been graded. So the zoning is just to allow the restaurants. Maybe I'm not sure about that. You said the site's already been graded? Yeah, the building's already been erected. Mostly erected. What is this picture you're showing here with all these trees? Jacob Wiggins with the Plain Department. The existing conditions sheet in front of you. So this was submitted concurrently with the site plan that the applicant had submitted. But they were able to have both of you concerned with it. So this isn't the current picture, the aerial that you're showing. Are you referring to the development plan sheet or the aerial photo? I'm talking about the aerial that we have in our attachment three that we have. Yeah, it's probably not current. One is the aerial photo in your packet is from 2013. All right, Pat. We don't need to have these kind of drawings coming up in the public way. Mr. Mayor, members of council, Pat Young with the Plain Department. Yeah, as the applicant indicated, they had approval under the previous zoning, meaning the zoning that's in place prior to the action you all may take tonight to construct the office building. So the aerial photography and the existing conditions map were what was in place when the application was submitted. But as Jacob just indicated, they submitted a site plan at the same time they submitted this application, which they were allowed to do under the existing zoning on the site. So they begun construction and clearance of that portion of the property. I don't know if there's been any clearing done on those out parcels or not. So the work on the site began in December. So at the time, I'm not sure there's even probably an aerial available that's new. OK. I was just going to ask, is the office building that's now under construction, is that what's shown as CS, I think it's CSRA Newcastle North? I'm just trying to fit it in the context of this rezoning. If you pull up what you have so we can reference. Newcastle North's an existing one-story building adjacent to the site. Is the building under construction on the property that's currently being considered for rezoning for CGD? It is, correct. OK. I'm fine. Mr. Mayor, may I say one more thing? As Mr. Stock indicated when he was presenting the mass grading item, the mass grading buffers only apply to properties that are being speculatively graded and prepared for sale prior to development approval. Once development approval is in place, applicants can grain the site and then replace the existing vegetation with constructed buffers, basically planted buffers. As Mr. Stock indicated to the manager's inquiry, that is part of what we're looking at very closely about whether we're going to require preservation of existing vegetation, either in all cases or in some cases. Right now, we incent that. We provide significant incentives, meaning you have to do, you can have smaller buffers if you retain vegetation, but we don't require it. So part of the white paper that will be coming to Joint City Planning Committee will look at this issue in detail. Thank you. Any other questions? It's not to pop up here in his clothes. Entertain a motion on the night of. Second. Second. Proper move and second. All in favor of the motion, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion passes. unanimous? Second. Second. It's been proper to move this. Second. All in favor of the motion, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion passes. unanimously. Item 16, zoning map change for fendall, farms, Fowler assemblage. Good evening, Jacob Wiggins again with the planning department. A zoning map change request has been received from Bob Zinwalt with McAdams for approximately 420 acres located north of Leesville Road and east of Docking Nichols Road. The subject site is currently zone plan development residential 3.000 and was owned such in 2006 while in Durham County's jurisdiction. The applicant is requesting to change this zoning designation to PDR 2.993. Some key commitments shown on the associated development plan include side access points, a building and parking envelope, project boundary buffers, a maximum of 1,200 residential units. The applicant is also committing to age restrictions and roadway improvements along Leesville Road, Docking Nichols Road. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this case by a vote of 12 to 0 at their February 14, 2017 meeting. And staff determines that the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and the other adopted policies and ordinances. And I'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have regarding this item. You've heard the staff report. It's a public hearing. I would ask first of their comments by members of the council question. If not, we have two persons that are signed to speak. One is Neil Gosh and others Rob Emerson. Are the other persons that would like to speak on this item that have not signed up to speak? In that case, we hear from Mr. Emerson first. I mean Mr. Gosh first. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden. My name is Neil Gosh. And I live at Fort Silverwood Court here in Durham. I'm an attorney with the Morningstar Law Group. And I'm here tonight representing the applicant or the property owners for this rezoning. Bill to indicate we'll start with five minutes on this. Thank you, Mayor Bell. We have with us tonight our landscape architect, Mr. Bob Zoomal, and representative from the ownership group, Amé Carlson. I'll try to be brief as staff has already done a great job explaining the project. Thank you for that, Jacob. The primary purpose of this rezoning is to add an age restriction to the community. We're not seeking additional density or more units on the property. I would like to, on the record, modify Commitment or Committed Element 8 to clarify its intent. I'll read it to you, but you can find it on the cover page of the development plan. It's commitment number 8, or text commitment 8. Currently, it reads, prior to issuance of a building permit, dedicate an additional 10 feet of right of way for the frontage of the Fowler track existing PID 08600333314 along Doc Nichols Road. A copy of the recorded plat must be submitted with the first building permit application. As drafted, the commitment could be interpreted to require the 10 foot dedication prior to receiving a building permit for any portion of the property. We would modify this Committed Element to make clear that the 10 foot dedication is required prior only to new development on the Fowler portion of the property. So we would propose the following modification. Prior to the issuance of a building permit for existing PID 08600333314, dedicate an additional 10 feet of right of way for the frontage of the Fowler track existing PID 08600333314 along Doc Nichols Road. A copy of the recorded plat must be submitted with the first building permit application for existing PID 08600333314. This modification has already been reviewed by staff. So I just wanted to read it into the record. My understanding was that it would be an appropriate modification to make to clarify the intent of this Committed Element. I'm sure staff will be able to speak to that. I think I've stated already we have with us our landscape architect and a member from the ownership group. So we can answer any questions you have. We would respectfully ask for your approval of the request and rezoning. And we thank you for your time. Welcome to questions by members of the council at this time. If not, let's move to Mr. Emerson. Mr. Emerson, you have five minutes also. Yes sir. Good evening, my name is Rob Emerson. I'm also a landscape architect. I live at 1202 North Gregson Street in Durham. And I'm here tonight representing Preservation Durham. I'm currently the president of the board of directors of that organization. Along the Leesville Road frontage of this development is a farm and the development has been named after the farm which belonged to Mr. Fendle Bevers who was the Wake County surveyor who drew the original map for Durham County when it was carved out of parts of Wake and Orange. This is one of a handful of pre-Civil War buildings left in Durham County. And it is remarkably intact, or at least it was a few years ago, which was the last time we had staff in there. We named the Fendle Bevers Farmstead to our places in Peril in 2012 and have worked. We spent a lot of time trying to find someone willing to move the house. We had a memorandum of understanding with the prior developer. We think, of course, as we get to the 11th hour, we do actually have someone interested, again, in potentially moving the house to another historic neighborhood in East Durham. So I'm here tonight to ask, first of all, I would be remiss not to ask for this house to be preserved where it is. That would be the best outcome to preserve this remarkably intact and unique historic asset and the outbuildings that support it where it sits. It affects two parcels of this 1,100 parcel development. And as on the edge, and its preservation would not require changes in access points or other substantial changes. But failing that, we would ask for a little bit more time to work with the folks we've got who are very interested in moving this house despite the extremely high costs. We've estimated it would cost around $50,000 to move this house from where it sits to East Durham neighborhood, it's actually East Main Street. That's all I have. Thank you. Could I get a better understanding? You said it's along Leesville Road. So I'm trying to look at this aerial map. I guess this aerial map is OK. The Fendle-Bevers Farm, yes, is on the Leesville Road front edge along one edge of the development. Can you point it out, Patrick? I'm looking at attachment to it. I can point it out if there's a map. I assume you've had this conversation with the developers before. Is this the first time you're hearing this? I've not had any conversations with the developers. Our staff, our executive director is out of town. Ben has been in contact with the prior developer and with a gentleman who I believe still works for the new property owner. I'm just trying to get a sense as to what prior conversations have been had. Is this a last minute request? If I could speak to that. So I can only speak to what the current owner or client has done. And they have worked with Preservation Durham for years to try to find a suitable site and buyer for this house. And it hasn't panned out over the years. I can also refer back to the original zoning condition has been in place for more than 10 years. And there just has not been any interest in the marketplace for that to hear at this point that there is some interest. This is the first time we're hearing about it. Was earlier today from an email. But to hear that now is honestly remarkable. We haven't heard of anyone interested in this site for since it's been rezoned. But unfortunately, we just don't think that we'd be able to commit to preserve this home at this time given the ongoing development at the property. Currently, blasting is underway on the site and could damage the property. So we would not be comfortable committing to preserve the house at this time because the blasting that's underway could ultimately damage the home. It's an old wood home that hasn't been lived in for more than 10 years. So we really cannot speak to the structural integrity of it and would not be comfortable committing to preserving it at this time, although we have tried in concert with Preservation to preserve this house. So where's the house on it? I'm not sure quite how to point it out. You've got a mouse right here. That's it right there. And I should clarify, I'm not here in opposition to the rezoning. We don't oppose the rezoning. We are asking, I think, for some more time because, as I said, we do have some folks who have moved historic properties. They have land to move it to. They have money, and they're very interested. And I understand that this is late apparently coming to you. It's my understanding that staff has talked to representatives of the developer's organization. Thank you. Recognize. Is that who's the Councilor Schultz? Councilor Schultz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Wrote Neil earlier today, as he mentioned. So just one thing I want to say about this house, just as the reason that I think it's important is there's probably only it's probably one of the 10 oldest houses in Durham. This is not an insignificant historic property. And so I think that's the reason it matters. I mean, there are historic properties, and then there are really historic properties, and you've got one there. And I totally understand. I appreciate it. One of the things that you didn't say is that you all have offered to give the home for free to anyone who will take it. And you have offered to, as I understand it, have a driveway made, a construction driveway that people could drive up and take the house and leave with it. Is I am I right? Yeah. So I want to appreciate that. And I recognize that you all have been working with Preservation Durham over a period of time. And I know that that's been in good faith. And I appreciate it. And I know there have been discussions about it. I think there are two issues that I have heard from the Preservation Durham folks recently. One is that they now feel that they have someone who might be able to take it. I understand you might be skeptical of that. But again, I think that the question is, is this property important enough to take a little extra time? And then the second is the possibility that the developer would help, since the developer is not interested in preserving this extremely valuable historic asset just in terms of its age, that the developer contribute to the moving of the house that would make it more possible for this potential buyer to relocate it. So we have lots of precedent for that. I mean, recently the Durham Rescue Mission offered $5,000 per house to move some small houses a very short distance in Easter. And we have other precedents for that. This is a 1,000 unit development and a very, very large development. And it would be my hope that you all would consider both giving some more time to Preservation Durham as well as perhaps offering, as I've suggested you today, Neil, perhaps you all could fund half of the moving cost up to your half if the moving cost was what, that you all would pay for half the moving cost up to say a total of $25,000. I don't, you know, I'm voting for this rezoning. I want to make that clear. I think that what we're doing here is changing this to an age-restricted over 55 neighborhood is what we're mostly doing. I am planning to vote for it. I heard Preservation Durham folks say they're not against it. But I do wish, and I understand what you're saying about the blasting, maybe it'll knock the house down, I get it. But I think that giving some more time and thinking about offering some support would be valuable as a civic contribution. This is a very, we don't have, this house, I believe, was built in 1849. This is a significant historic asset. So those are my thoughts. As I say, I'm not, I'm planning to vote for this. I think that this rezoning deserves my support and our support. But I'd also hope that you will think about how you could help make this possible. Let me follow up, because I was trying to, one, found a little bit about the house. But the other question is, you say you have a place to relocate the house. I guess the concern I would have is I will have another problem. I heard just someone out of East Durham or somewhere. Yes, sir. I don't think I'm speaking out of turn. The folks, the developers are Renevision, Nick and Victoria Broccolo, who we recently brought to the table. The block of East Main Street near, I believe, it's Guthrie, had started to be cleared. There were four or five houses. And three or four of them were demolished. We brought them to the table. And they have acquired those properties. They have restored the one house that hadn't been torn down yet or in the process of restoring it. And they have several parcels there in their ownership. And that is where I believe they would move this farmhouse to. Let's see, what I would not want to happen, assuming that the developers were in support of allowing your time to move it. I hate to see you get to a place where suddenly you got people saying, we don't want this house in our neighborhood. And that's why I'm trying to be more specific. I said, where are you talking about moving the house? Is this something that the planning staff has looked at that the site would be OK to have this type of home come into it? No, sir. We haven't reviewed that. This is a, unfortunately, this is a fairly recent development. Well, let me say, I heard what Steve had to say. I had planned to vote for it also. This is new additional information. That's why I was trying to find out how long to spend on the discussion. I would leave it up between you and the developers to try to figure out if you could work this out. I'm not so sure as to anything we could do as a council to stop it anyway if we're going to do the rezoning. But I would hope that you would take some time to see if you can try to work this out. But more importantly, I think you need to know is the place that you're talking about moving to, is it going to be acceptable? Because I don't want to come back before this council, somebody beating us up, saying, why did you let the same come in our neighborhood? So I'm going to ask Councilman Moffitt. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Question I have is, we've been talking about something that's somewhat, I can't get my hands around it. We're talking about a little bit of extra time. How much extra time, if the applicant was willing, how much extra time would Preservation Durham be hoping to get? I would say we could know the answer to Mayor Bell's questions about the suitability of the other lots. I assume that since there were recently other structures on them that there's enough land there for this structure to be relocated to, I think we could have an answer on that within a week or two. As far as scheduling the actual moving of the house, that's something that I'm not an expert in, I would say. Certainly I don't think an open-ended timeframe would be reasonable 90 days, 120 days. Well, it seems like the first question is, is it suitable? The second question is, is it feasible? That's a second set of issues, which is, how much is it going to cost to move it, restore it? And does the person that you have in mind, when it gets down to it, are they actually going to do it? Because the applicant doesn't want to, if I were the applicant, I would not want to say, yeah, we'll wait as long as you want. I would not want to say, we'll leave it sit here for 120 days, if we get to 120 days, it's not. So there'd be a, how soon can you determine suitability? How soon can you determine feasibility? That's what you have, what you need to be asking the applicant to consider, right? Yes, sir. I think we would know that fairly quickly once we had a house mover look at it and plan the route. I think they would be able to determine, certainly within a month, if it were feasible. Sorry, I'm just thinking about this. I'm just wondering, as sort of a moderator here, whether or not, whether or not the applicant would consider saying, look, if you tell us, commit within 30 days that you're gonna take it and you have it off the property within 90 days, but I don't know what your schedule is, what's going on there. So, and how long, and how long has this been going on? My name is Aimee Carlson. I'm with one of the property owners, our REF-2 FC NC Sierra. This is an unfortunate situation. I mean, the home is very historic. The owner of the home had an important role here in Durham. However, it is at the 11th hour, and unfortunately, the home is in our way right now. So, we are out of time. 30 days, 90 days, any amount of time is gonna delay us. And as you all know, this project has had some ups and downs and has started and stopped and I think suggesting that we would hold off again is just really not what we need. What we have worked through with the state is documenting the home, photographing it, and there will be a nice display within the sales center and then eventually in the clubhouse, really kind of speaking to the history of Mr. Bevers along with the home and having some backup information on a website where someone can continue to research it in the future. And we would ask that you understand that we've taken the time to try to find a likely buyer, someone who could take the home. We had it advertised for over two years and there were no takers. And mind you, the two years that I'm referring to is a year and a half ago. So for almost three years, there's been no interest and then today we're finding this out. It's unfortunate. I hear that. So one more question. When you say you had it advertised for two years, just so that I know, how did you advertise it? There are two ways. There was Big Sign on Leesville Road, house available. Ironically, I actually saw some stuff on social media like Country Living Magazine picked it up and we worked with Preservation Durham on their website. It was advertised. Okay, thank you very much. Mr. Council Member Moffitt, if I could just add one other point. The original zoning condition did require a $15,000 subsidy from the development team to move the house. So even with a $15,000 subsidy that was put in place in 2006, no one was willing to undertake the task of relocating this house. May I approach him? Good evening. Sir, have you made contact with the leadership in East Durham about your plans to move this car, this house anywhere there? Ma'am, I have not. Our Executive Director, Ben Filippo, lives on East Main Street in East Durham and I know he's had those conversations. Unfortunately, he couldn't be here tonight so I feel I have one arm sort of tied behind my back but I know that Ben has had those conversations and I'm confident that he has also had conversations with people who at least he believed were representatives of this developer. This is not new information although they have worked in good faith, they have made commitments, we have advertised it for a long time. We had folks lined up that fell through. We've got some real people and some real property and we just need a little bit more time to see if this one falls through as well. We hope not. Yeah, I'm concerned about the move of that house to East Durham without knowing what the leadership actually feels about it. Okay, thank you. Okay, I have one more question. Given the historic nature of the home, I don't know anything about it, I haven't seen it but I'm assuming that there are materials in it that are historic in nature, there are people who use those materials. So if it does come to, I know that you're planning on using a few pieces of the house, am I right? You're planning on using a few pieces of the house like in the commons facility. Other materials there, are you just gonna planning bulldoze it, take it down on pieces, make the materials available, what's the plan for the? I plan on preserving a number of elements from the home in the clubhouse. We have been approached by some folks who are interested in basically harvesting some of the other material like the wood flooring and stuff. Potentially, yeah, I mean it's a timing issue, really. Had you finished? Oh, yeah. Other comments, questions? I reckon I, I'm sorry, Councilwoman Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Could y'all go over your reasons for not wanting to preserve the house where it is on the site? Yes, it's been a project that's been, as I mentioned, it was originally approved in 2006. And so all the lots have been platted now for the initial phase, that's about 160 acres. And so where the house is located is in the first phase that's under development right now. And so again, it goes back to the fact that 10 years ago we thought somebody would probably, probably would take the house with a $15,000 subsidy to relocate it. Unfortunately, events didn't work out the way the way that I think everybody wanted them to. So it's not possible to preserve it in place. It's unfortunately something where time has moved on and while everybody tried their hardest and there's certainly documentation of that effect, it just doesn't work out at this location and consequently to have the neighborhood turn into the asset that we want it to be for this section of Durham County, we need to move forward in accordance with the development plan and the plots that have already been approved. So thank you. I'm still unclear though on why it's not possible. Like is this preservation term accurate that it only affects two lots out of 1200? Well, it would be, we don't, we never really analyze that particular aspect of it. We just know it's at a location where in terms of, you know, we've got to put in water, sewer, roads, all this as Ms. Carlson referred to, blasting and heavy grading has to go on in order to make this, in order to make this development move forward. And so we've undertaken that and I wouldn't want a hazard to guess on how much you would have to per, how much, how many lots would be affected by leaving the house in place but it would be something that's simply not feasible at this time given how much time has passed since it was originally approved. It appears to me we only have two choices. As a council, we can choose not to approve the development until a certain time later, allowing you to negotiate whether you can get it done or not or we can approve the development. And it doesn't appear to me that 30 days, 60 days is gonna be sufficient time, 30 days I think is at the most that I would support it. I don't know what that does for your development plans but beyond that, I don't know what other choice we have. I don't have an assurances that Preservation Durham is gonna be able to get it moved in that amount of time. Doesn't appear, are you there? You think you can move the house in 30 days? I mean realistically, you really think you can move it in 30 days? Okay. And I just think going much beyond that is not gonna serve its purpose. Seems to me the best deal is to approve the zoning as it is, you guys sit down and see what you can work out if it's anything you can work out and just move on. But you don't go get it done in 30 days. I think it's not reasonable to hold this project up much beyond that unless you guys feel you can do that. Are the other recognized council members? So I just wanted to point out, although this is very unfortunate, this zoning has already been, everything about this case has been approved in 2006 except for the age restriction. And the only change, as I understand it, I'm gonna look to staff for confirmation. But the only change really that's happened, well two changes because we heard the one tonight about clarifying the clarification on the committed element but the significant changes on the age restriction. Everything else about this has been already approved by the Board of County Commissioners in 2006. And then it was accepted into the city in 2008 when it was annexed. Am I right? Jacob Williams of Plain Apartment. For the most part, yeah. The age restrictions are the key change. There are some other matter modifications. Minimum law sizes have gone away for the single family houses. The commitment to parks, the previous plan committed to community parks. This plan commits to pocket parks. And there was a commitment regarding potential trails through the development, which is not on this plan either. So that commitment went away? The trail commitment? Right. Yes, sir, it is not on this plan. Well, thank you very quickly. This is the Council for a reason. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I certainly appreciate the whole concept of historical preservation. But I think a part of historical preservation is planning and being prepared to deal with issues. So I would hope that maybe something could happen between the developer and preservation Durham beyond the vote that we need to take tonight. And I plan to support it. Awesome. Reese, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm a little bit confused. Maybe staff can help me. Maybe the developer can step in and answer the question. I don't know. I'm open to anyone who can answer it. If we voted to defer this matter for, let's say, 30 days, is there anything stopping the developer from demolishing the house tomorrow morning? Jacob Wiggins of the planning department. No, sir, there's not. That's what I thought. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that's, I mean, I think all of us on the Council have an urge to be sympathetic to the historical preservation concerns here. I certainly am. But we can take no action tonight to give effect to those concerns. There is no tool in our toolbox on our agenda tonight that lets us preserve this house for 30 days or 60 days or one day. The developer has that authority right now. Tomorrow morning, they go knock it down. And while I hope they don't do that, I hope they'll work with historic preservation to find some time to let this last ditch effort pan out. That is frankly, neither here nor there with the vote we have to take tonight. That was my understanding going in. And I think that's ultimately where we are. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Recognize Councilman. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. The trail commitment, Jacob. Can you talk to us about that? Sure. I was not aware of that. I don't see that here. And I'm wondering what the, what, what was the previous commitment? Jacob Wiggins with the planning department. Let me get the exact language for you. So the commitment on the previous plan was to construct a series of mulched nature trails throughout the development. And these would be done in phases throughout the site. And they were tied to certificate of occupancies. It was broken down by three different phases of trails within the site, the intent was to basically allow a variety of pedestrian movement patterns throughout the development and potentially connect to adjacent trail systems where opportunities existed. Y'all want to comment on that? Mr. Seymour? Sure. Sure, Bob Seymour with McAdams. Number of reasons why it changed. One, they were mulch trails, which good hard rain, they're pretty much gone. This is an age-restricted community now. Everything needs to be accessible. Trails through stream buffers that are made of mulch aren't accessible. So we removed the mulch trails. We did commit to trails in and around our pocket parks. We added a series of other amenities like zebos, cabanas, a fitness room, a social room, bocce court, tennis courts, community gardens, pickle ball. So we changed the rec commitment. To this. Yeah. Let's just be clear. You did not do it in all those. Sure, sure. Those are things we would select from, but the type of amenity we're talking about is a major amenity that goes with one of these communities. So it's a change in the rec program. The mulch trails, I mean, they're no longer accepted by the city anymore as credit for an active open space anyway. If you want to be paid. Thanks, that was helpful. I appreciate it. I saw over 55 people that we were actually like mulch trails, but I'm good with it. Okay, we have any other questions, comments? If not, the public hearing is closed. Matters of fact, before the council, it's been a proper move to second. All in favor of the motion and kept by saying aye. Those opposed. The motion passes unanimously. It's been a proper move to second. All in favor of the motion and kept by saying aye. Those opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay, our next item is item 17, which is the public hearing on the draft 2017-2018 annual action plan. Councilman. Mr. Mayor, members of council, this is a public hearing on the draft 2017-2018 annual action plan. I will turn it over to Ms. Will McConyers, the federal programs coordinator for the particulars to be read into the public record. Good evening, Mayor Beall, members of council. Will McConyers. The purpose of this public hearing is to receive citizen comments on the draft 2017-2018 annual action plan. The annual action plan specifies how the city of Durham will address housing and community development needs through the use of community development block grant known as CDBG, home investment partnership known as home, consortium funds, emergency solutions grant known as ESG and housing opportunities for persons with AIDS known as HOPLA funds. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has not yet notified the city of final entitlement amounts for 2017-2018. For planning purposes, the city expects to receive 1.8 million in CDBG, 800,000 in home, 160,000 in ESG, and 290,000 in HOPLA funds from HUD. The annual action plan was made available to the public for review from March 17th, 2017 through April 17th, 2017. Notice of this public hearing was advertised in the Herald Sun, the Carolina Times, Caposta and Caposta newspapers and also via a general listserv. As a recipient of CDBG, home, ESG and HOPLA funds, the city is required to hold at least two public hearings prior to the submission of the annual action plan. The first public hearing on community development needs was held on January 17th, 2017. An application workshop and release of the application for the subject entitlement funds took place on December 6th, 2016. The applications to mission deadline was January 24th, 2017. Because the final entitlement amounts have not yet been announced, grantees will have 60 days after the entitlement amounts or August 16th, 2017, whichever comes first to submit its annual action plan or consolidated plan. In accordance with HUD guidance, the city will need to submit its annual action plan by January 20th, excuse me, June 26th, 2017. In closing, summary of these comments from this public hearing and written comments received during the development of the annual action plan will be incorporated into the final plan. Thank you. Thank you as a public hearing. Let me ask first of the questions by members of the council. Recognize them, Mayor Pro Tem. Are we in compliance, is the UDO, are we in compliance in terms of the UDO with HUD regulations? I thought I noticed an area where we would not be considered in compliance. And you can answer that at a later time. You don't have to go through that tonight, but look and see, make sure that the checkoffs are correct. We will do that, Mayor Pro Tem, thank you. Your hopper funds, they've been, who's, is the Department of Social Services doing that? And are Dukas not doing that? Is that correct? That is correct, Mr. Mayor. And how has that worked out? Well, the contract has been executed and we just had a startup meeting and it's just starting with the Department of Social Services. Let me recognize persons who was assigned to speak. Jess Brandes, is that correct? Again, this is a public hearing and I would ask is that anyone else that wants to speak on this item that's not signed up? Yeah, you have three minutes. Good evening, didn't realize I was gonna get called so quickly. I'm Jess Brandes, I am the housing developer with CASA on behalf of our staff, our board and our 400 plus units throughout the triangle, 56 of which are here in Durham. I wanna thank the staff for recommending us for funding for home chotto dollars. The dollars we are seeking in the form of $240,000 of home chotto money would support CASA's purchase of a 36 unit apartment building currently located in Durham's West End. CASA's purchase of this along with an adjacent property would comprise a total of 79 units that will provide mixed income housing, will preserve the existing mixed income housing for Durham households up to 60% of AMI with a focus on households under 50% of AMI. This is in a fantastic location near transit near lots of walkable amenities and we really see this as an excellent opportunity to preserve existing affordability in Durham. Over half of the tenants in these two apartment complexes currently have rental subsidies. So our fear is that if these developments were lost to the market that many of these, we see this time and again that rents go up and people with housing vouchers are forced to find another place to live. The city's support of our proposal to purchase specifically these 36 units and the other development for a total of 79 supports the city of Durham's five year target of preserving 350 affordable units specifically for rental. And I was happy to hear CASA's Dentsen Apartments for Veterans mentioned at the top of the program. Really glad to hear about the letter writing campaign for CDBG funding. We've benefited many times from Durham's allocation of those funds for our developments and we look forward to partnering again on this project. Thank you. I recognize. Excuse me, can I ask a question? So could you, I'm sorry, could you clarify? You said, are you under contract to purchase these properties? Yes. And who currently owns them? Jim Pugh. Okay. And are you anticipating that there'll be other city funding needed for this acquisition or is this the only city funding that you'll be looking for for this acquisition? We are, we'll make that determined nation based on some funding that we have that we've sought from another source. We'll find out about that funding next month. And we understand there's the potential for some penny for housing dollars that an application may become available potentially at the end of May. So depending on the funding source that we're waiting on, we may seek some gap financing through those dollars from the city. Funding or financing? We'd be seeking, as we are here, a 0% loan that's either forgiven or deferred until the end of the period. And do you know how much that would be? Pardon me? Do you know how much that would be? We're seeking from that fund about $460,000. So if we don't get that, this is from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. We've applied to them. If we don't get those dollars, then we would be, we'd consider going to the city to seek that, that gap. Thank you. Recognize Larissa Seibel? Good evening. I wanted to just speak on these funds as well as your city funds together that are so important to help homeowners, home buyers, renters, and people who are homeless. And I did wanna make a couple of specific comments about homeowners who need help with home repairs as well as taxes to be able to stay in their homes, although that's not being sought through these funds. But these funds are so important to the city of Durham and to the county as well, to be able to help homeowners maintain their homes as well as to preserve rental housing as you've heard before, which is a really efficient use of those funds as well as a pipeline for funds for people who are homeless and people with special needs. So I just wanted to use this opportunity thinking I'd also be here in support of the Citizens Advisory Committee, which is your advisory board, which has recommended some additional groups to fund, including Durham Community Land Trustees, Community Empowerment Fund and Step Up. And so I just wanted to encourage you to look at your advisory committees, recommendations on these funds. And also maybe consider these funds along with your Penny for Housing, which were just mentioned, and asking for advice from citizens such as Citizens Advisory Committee on how we can pull these funds together to leverage other funds to make the best use of all of our housing dollars. And again, one specific ask is we have come before you at your previous hearing on these funds to ask for additional dollars for home repairs. They're not in this budget for these federal funds. I hope that you will put them in your budget for the Penny for Housing and add an additional penny for all of the needs that we have in our community. And I just wanted to hand something out to you, which is one of the homeowners who was not able to come today, but she has a leaking roof. It's created a hole in the wall in the ceiling. There is no ability to do the weatherization. They came out today. They said, first you've got to get that roof fixed. We hope somebody can do it, habitat, rebuilding together, the city, somebody can do it. But I'm not sure that any of the other groups have the ability like the city has to address lead-based paint. So I would hope that you would look at your repair funds. This is a person who doesn't qualify for a city whom repair funds right now. She's not yet 65, she's not yet 100% disabled and her house is too old because right now you've limited your home repair funds to newer homes that don't have lead-based paint and she's got young children in this home. So we really need the city to look at your home repair program to be able to serve homeowners like her. Thanks, Larissa. Is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item? This has been a public hearing. This is a second public hearing that's required. Found public hearing and I have a question after we close it. Considered public hearing to be closed. Now I should know the answer to this, Mr. Manager, but I'm asking questions. We've heard some other uses proposed for these funds. Where does that get cranked in? When do we make the final decisions on how to install this item? Is the public hearing closed? Yeah. Yeah, I was actually gonna ask Mr. Johnson or other staff members to clarify there are some specific, in some cases, general and other cases, proposed uses in this matrix, the matrix the council has received and what is the process by which other alternatives or other options can be considered or this proposal can be amended before it's filed with HUD? This, we receive comments through the public hearing. So that's one of the, this is not being asked to be adopted tonight, but this is the opportunity to provide those comments now for us to go back and review before we bring it back to the council for adoption and submission to HUD. And that will be as a part of the budget process or will that be before the end of the fiscal year? No, it has to be, as Ms. Kanya said, before June the 26th. And so we have to have that on approved by the council before the trial. Right, but I mean, will council consider any changes to this as a part of the vetting of the budget process? So that would be the opportunity that other projects would be considered and anything potentially changed out of the recommendations that are here? Yes, thank you. And do remember that we did have an application process for some of the funds as well. Thank you. Well, I guess the comment about citizens' virus commission have made some recommendations and I'm trying to figure out when do we see those recommendations? We got them? Ms. Kanya's will respond. I'm for Wiesn. Oh, okay. Will McHonyers. The CAC recommendations were attached to the agenda item? I don't have. Recommendation letter. I just have a memo here. I don't have anything else on mine. This, we're on 17, right? So I don't think I have this. Okay. All right, I just don't have it on mine. Recognize council member. There's a couple things. The CAC comments were not just in the memo, they're incorporated into the recommendations and that correct? In other words, the draft funding chart that I saw matched up, seemed to match up with the citizens' advisory commission's recommendations. The draft funding chart represents the internal review by staff and then the recommendations from the CAC are incorporated in their letter, which differs slightly. Specifically, the CAC recommended funding for the community empowerment fund and also step up Durham. Those two applicants did not meet the average of 70% as it relates to the guidelines scored by the internal staff. However, the CAC scored them accordingly as identified in the recommendation letter. I see those now. Thank you. I missed that. I missed the little line in that box, sir. All right, so no action tonight, except to take comments, correct? That's correct. And I wanted to thank the citizens' advisory committee for the work that they've done, for the recommendations that they've made and I'm looking forward to continuing to work on this. Now the, the, the cyber was making recommendations. Those have probably come from the dedicated housing funds. Those don't actually have to be decided by June 26th, right? Since that's not federal funding. That is correct. That is part of your budget process. Right, okay. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, thank you all for being here tonight. Recognize Councilman Johnson and Councilman Schuhl. Is there anyone down here? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I wanted to specifically ask you about the request from the Durham Community Land Trustees. They're the only group that were not funded that met the threshold by the staff. And so I was wondering why they're not being recommended for funding. The Durham Community Land Trustees is not being recommended with funding. One, I should share it's a competitive process and also in their application, there was not leverage. They did lose points on leveraging because there were no other funds that were part of this project. So based on the scores that are listed here, their score is pretty much equivalent to several of the other projects that were fully funded. So it seems like the competition is not the only, like they're losing points on leveraging and having competition doesn't seem to be the only qualification. So in the application for a CHOTO funds, there were two applicants. I would not, I'd be a little bit hesitant to compare the scores from that category to the scores from another category, another competition. So I'm sorry, they're, okay, so under the home funds, all five of those organizations aren't, I'm sorry. So there's two organizations plus the department. Hold on. CHOTO and home, the same thing. CHOTO is a part of the home funds. We are required to have CHOTO funds and that is a separate application process for a separate part of money we're required to have. Okay, got it. So CASA and DCLT both requested $240,000 and CASA was funded with $240,000. Correct, that's a recommendation. Okay, so I love CASA, I think they do amazing work. I'm also concerned about us not supporting the Lantrust for a couple of reasons. They're one of the few organizations in Durham that does permanently affordable housing. A lot of our projects have affordability periods, but after that the projects are, the units are available on the market and I'm concerned about those affordability periods being very short and expiring in the 15, 20 years, like that's really not very much. And also because the Lantrust preserves land in a way that can really hold down appreciation and some of the gentrification that we're seeing in Durham right now, because the Lantrust, the nonprofit continues to own the land, they are able to prevent gentrification that we are seeing in areas, especially in areas where the city has been developing affordable housing like Southside. So I want to strongly advocate for city support for the Lantrust going forward. I think it's a really important organization for moving us towards more permanent affordability in Durham. Thank you. That's Councilman Schull. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. So just a question about how are we, we've estimated, I think you said $1.8 million in CDBG funds. That is correct. And is that estimate lower than this year's estimate? I guess what I'm trying to find out is what are we anticipating in terms of the actions of the federal government? Not that we can predict that. Or maybe another way to ask this, Wilmer, would be, how do you make that prediction? Okay, Wilmer, Conyers, with regard to fiscal year 1617, the actual entitlement amount for CDBG was 1,829,750 dollars. Because HUD has not, and they are late, we all aware of what's happening at a national level. For planning purposes, we take an estimate around figure to, for planning purposes, for competitive process. Okay, thanks. And yeah, I just want to second what the mayor said earlier and what Reginald has mentioned already, that these funds are incredibly important to us. And the fact that they're being threatened in the federal budget is very huge concern. And I appreciate the mayor and you, Reginald, highlighting that. And we can just see this list of things that we're doing now with the CDBG funds. And so thank you a lot for raising that. Let me just ask you, at least, I believe a couple of these organizations may have been their first time, or certainly one of their first times in applying for these funds, Step Up and CEF. And neither one of them hit the threshold score. Is there, are we offering to work with them in some way for the future in terms of them, telling them what about their application didn't meet the threshold, how they might improve their application for future funding? Yes, as part of the application process, we do offer the, before the process begins, the opportunity for nonprofits to talk with the department. Once the, about the application about projects, just to have conversations about how we evaluate projects before the competition opens. Once the competition opens, of course we have to follow competition rules. After the competition has closed, we do offer the opportunity to review applications with the nonprofits in terms of their scores. Thank you very much, I appreciate it. Other questions, comments by the council? If not, a motion will be in order to accept the comments. It's been properly moved to second. All in favor of the motion, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Move to item 18, which is a public hearing on the proposed economic development incentive for Seminary Avenue Redux LLC. Mayor Bell, members of council, Chris Stickey from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, before you is a Seminary Avenue Redux LLC has applied to the Office of Economic and Workforce Development for a neighborhood revitalization grant incentive. They propose to renovate an underutilized bided building at 1105 West Chapel Hill Street, which is located along an OEWD commercial corridor in the West End of Durham. The plan is to redevelop a former automotive center into an adaptive reused commercial property and complete it, the 9,000 square foot building will be transformed into two floors. The first floor will be transformed into an event space and the second floor will be converted into 11 office suites used for professional space, six for non-profit slash artist space and community space. The rents for the space, the rents for spaces will be for non-profit will be affordable and the community suite will not be associated with a rental fee. The building is projected to create approximately 15 jobs over a five year period. The proposed project will produce approximately 1.1 million dollars in private investment with 100,000 in city funding producing an 11.8 to one ratio of private to public funding. The total project cost would be 1.2 million dollars. Staff, the proposed project of funded will address an underutilized commercial building located along the West Chapel Hill Street commercial corridor. Staff endorses this project which will be a major step in continuing of the transformation of the West Chapel Hill Street commercial corridor. But I also like to say during the past three years this council has supported several projects along that West Chapel Hill Street corridor. One was a $220,000 commitment with self-help ventures fund for a streetscape project along there and there we currently have a 10,000 square foot retail space building and a 33,000 office space. In addition to that recently last year about this time we made a commitment to Habitual Space LLC to convert a underutilized gas station from a 1200 square foot space to approximately 2,100 square feet and that project is approximately 75% complete. I expect that project completed approximately and by the end of June 30th, 2017 in addition to that the city also contributed $49,000 to Seminary Avenue LLC to redevelop another gas station along that site right across the street where the city made the $225,000 investment and that project will be finished by June 30th and it's approximately 65% complete. I'm here to address any questions from the council. You've heard the staff report. This is a public hearing matter but ask other questions. My members of the staff, we do have persons that have signed up to speak on this item. If not, then I'll recognize the persons who have signed up to speak. Naomi Walker is your president. Sherlett Ains, Alms, I don't know, Ammon is okay. Sorry about that. And Cynthia Hill and Nick Johnson. Is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item whose name I've not called? If not, you can follow in this sequence. Each of you have three minutes. This is state your name and address again please. Thank you Mayor Bill and council members. I'm Cynthia Hill and I reside at 303 Watts Street and I am the managing member for Seminary Avenue Redux and I am a filmmaker and part time real estate developer that's been in Durham for 18 years. And I own a company called Marquet Media and we are responsible for a series called A Chef's Life that's on PBS and other documentaries that you may see on HBO. One most recently called Private Violence. And A Chef's Life is one that is pretty successful, I would say for as documentaries go and series go, we have a viewership of about four million per episode and we are entering our fifth season and we're excited to announce that Durham is going to host our premiere party in September for the series this year. So we are a very ambitious group of filmmakers and artists who have been working really hard to make a life here in Durham when the resources may not have been here for filmmakers and to support the community. So we've been really thoughtful in that process of trying to bring up the community at the same time. So I have with me different members of that team that can talk about different things that we're working on and I'm excited to introduce them as we go along. Charlotte Ammons who is right here, she is one of the producers of A Chef's Life. She's also producing a new series that we got funding from the National Black Program Consortium to do a pilot on Chef Ricky and Saltbox. So we're trying to bring what we know and what we've been making successful in Eastern North Carolina here to Durham. So she can talk about that project which is really exciting. So I also have here Naomi Walker who is the new executive director of the Southern Documentary Fund and that's a nonprofit organization that we formed how long ago, you know, 15 years ago here in Durham to serve the community of filmmakers and documentary artists here. And we have been without a home for a little while. We've been working out of my kitchen and I think everybody's been tired of that. It's, you know, we're needing a place to go and so we saw the building at 1105 West Chapel Hill Street and saw the potential there in that space. And it was, you know, we thought about downtown but downtown was just too expensive. We couldn't afford to do something in the downtown loop area. So we started looking out in those corridor spaces like this area on West Chapel Hill Street and exciting to see all the stuff that's going on there. And am I already out of time? God, go on, that was quick. All right, so I'll let them finish the story. So Charlotte, you wanna come up? Good evening, council, mayor, citizens. My name is Charlotte Ammons. As Cynthia mentioned, I'm a member of the Market Media production team and I'm a working artist also on my own right here in Durham. I reside at 108 Forestwood Drive here. As Cynthia mentioned, I'm excited to be spearheading our season five premiere party for Chef's Life, which, as Cynthia said, airs on PBS and she did not mention that she's an Emmy award-winning director of a Chef's Life. But we're excited to bring a portion of our 4.2 million viewers here to Durham and show them what Durham is all about and what we have to offer through our food and arts and culture here. Some of our supporters for the premiere party who have already committed our 21C Museum Hotel Durham's Visitors Bureau, who I had a meeting with today who signed on to help us out, as well as 21C Visitors Bureau and some of the restaurants here, like Piedmont and Carolina Theater will actually be the home for the actual screening and we hope to get all 1,000 of those seats filled and hopefully have some overflow, but we'll save you all some seats. Market Media represents the present and future of documentary filmmaking. One of the reasons I'm part of this team is because I'm excited about creating a hub for documentary filmmaking here in Durham alongside Full Frame Film Festival, alongside Southern Documentary Fund and Center for Documentary Studies. And the larger goal, I think I'm speaking on behalf of Cynthia and her larger dream right now is to create a home for documentary filmmaking, not only in the South, it tells true stories of the South that often go untold, but also tells stories that really affect and progress the fabric of our country. So I'm really, really proud to be a part of it and by supporting this project, that is what you're supporting. So thank you for your time. Council, thanks so much. I'm Naomi Walker, residing at 208 West Lavender Avenue. I'm the Executive Director of the Southern Documentary Fund. We help documentaries get funded, made, and seen. We're a nonprofit that is an artist service organization that supports doc filmmaking, supports Southern storytelling. And it's no question that Durham is being seen more and more in the documentary, the national documentary community as a hub for Southern storytelling. We recently hosted Firelight Media, led by Stanley Nelson. They hosted Southern Documentary Fund and UNC TV, co-hosted their annual retreat here in Durham two weeks ago. At Southern Documentary Fund, we have our annual artist convening coming up June 9th through 11th, where doc filmmakers from across the South come. This will be our fourth year doing the artist convening and learn from industry professionals, best practices and ideas and ways to get their films funded, made, and seen. We have the support of Durham Arts Council, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Smith Reynolds Foundation, and Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. And we have a grant that we give to doc filmmakers and we physically sponsor films. We're proud to be part of the hub that Cynthia Hill is building here at 11.05. Thanks so much. Council, Mayor, thank you for taking the time to listen to us talk about this. My name is Nick Johnson. I live at 508 South Buchanan Boulevard, about a block from the property that we're discussing. My wife, Rochelle, and I own and operate the Cookery, which is a culinary incubator. We help culinary entrepreneurs start businesses here in Durham. Also, that business has an event space in the front of it, which helps to subsidize the not so profitable endeavor of attempting to help food entrepreneurs start food businesses, which is more of a passion project. We will hopefully occupy the first floor of this building we're discussing, and Cynthia has very generously offered to help us with the up-fit cost with half of the money that you hopefully will grant her from the city. This is an exciting moment for us to be able to expand the Cookery into this space, which will make it far more sustainable, allow us to increase our staff, and allow us to continue to support the growth of Durham's culinary scene. So I urge you to vote in support of this, and then thank you for your time. Let me ask, are there other persons that want to speak on this item? Is this being a public hearing? If not, let the record reflect no one else has to speak, the public hearing is closed back before the council for comments, action. Recognize Councilman Schuhl, Councilman Davis, the mayor approach them in that order. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is a great project. It's very exciting, and I've had the chance to be in the building recently, and the first floor is very different than what it used to look like the last time I was in there, when it was an automotive shop, and it just, y'all have really, I think you're gonna do something great there, and it's great to have these nonprofits up on the second floor in your production company, and I also want to just say, Chris, I know you have been instrumental, and you and the department have been instrumental in the changes in this quarter that I think are really positive, and I just want to thank you for your work and the work of the department in making this happen. Thank you. This is another real positive step, so I'm looking forward to voting for it, Mr. Mayor. Recognize Councilman Davis. Thank you very much. Can you give me some sense of the kind of buy-in or outreach? I know there's a comment made about having representation that would reflect what Durham and this country are all about. Have you all reached out to, some people might refer to as the traditional West End community, and for instance, has there been an outreach to some of the congregants at Mohit Baptist or First Calvary, folks who may have spent their lives living in that community, and whether or not they see this as a positive activity also? We have met with the Birch Avenue Association and also the PAC-3, and also the, let me get the name correct, it's the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Group, and presented the project with them and talked about how to work together to bring the community together and offer what we do as a resource, and there's an opportunity for us to have more community dialogue, and there's a really interesting project that I think that, if I'm not going to wood, that we may be getting some funding from a very major national funder to do, okay, yeah, let's name it, yeah, come on. Yeah, we're starting a program in 2018, Southern Documentary Fund called Civic Cinema, where we're inviting the public to pitch documentary stories to groups of filmmaking film students with a mentoring filmmaker to make short film content about people in the triangle and stories in the triangle as well. If I may follow up, I'd like to hear more about, and I don't want to prolong this, but whether or not those traditional African-Americans who may have been in that community for long periods of time are seen as a part of the revitalization that will be going on and the activities that will go on through filmmaking as well as through food involvement, will this become a wonderful story about a foodie town that would not include some of the people who've been traditional cooks? Glad you asked that. Well, Councilman Davis, we've been, I've spent six weeks in New York as a part of the National Black Program Consortium's incubator program, developing a new docu-series or whatever form it'll take, docu-series or full-length documentary about, that features Saltbox, but really explores what Saltbox represents sitting on a one-way street and that divide that it represents between new culinary culture in Durham and the old foodways that are always endangered here. I'm from Mount Olive, North Carolina, but so through Chef's Life, I learned a lot about the effort to preserve those foodways. So a really important part of this particular project is not only to explore endangered foodways that include a lot of black culinary traditions that are just important to me personally, but also expand that to look at endangered black culture that is quite often co-opted or just endangered just in the moment that we live, I guess is the best way to say it. I appreciate that. I will be able to tell my mother-in-law who grew up in Wayne County that someone from Mount Olive is involved with this. I'm dupling County, Mount Olive, just, but we're cousins, I get your point there. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am, Pickle Country. You don't mind if I can follow up. It's really important for us as through the Southern Documentary Fund and also through me creating Marquay Media to tell stories of the South or to bring voices like Charlotte onto the team because I can't tell that story. She's gonna have to tell that story. People of color are gonna have to tell their own stories and that's what we talk about all the time is that we have to tell our own stories and that's how we preserve our culture as being able to own and tell our own stories and so it's really important for us as a team and also as a community to make sure that we give those artists the opportunities to do that and to be successful at doing that. I wanted to speak directly to, specifically in that neighborhood, we have had the opportunity to host the Arrozak Islamic Center in our space for some of the gatherings that they do in feeding folks in the neighborhood and members of that community as well as the Polymery Project and all the folks that have been working to restore Polymery's house which is just down the street. So we use our events space for things like that when we have an opportunity to include the immediate surrounding community because we feel like that's an important part of being a good neighbor. You cleared up some information for me but what is the exact September date? Is just, is there any specificity on this September? Aren't you having? Trying to make that deadline? Okay. Is that, you mean for construction? Or September? Were you having some other event? Oh, the Premier Party? Yeah. Oh, our season premieres on PBS. The season starts the end of September so we're having our Premier Party here in Durham because most of our team that makes the show is here. That's the date I want. When is the premiere? Oh, it's... The party date. Sunday, September 10th. Sunday, September 10th. That's it, September 10th. At 3 p.m. at the Carolina Theater. Oh, we'll bring some cake. 3 p.m. We can get Vivian to make us a cake. I don't party on Sunday. Any more down on that, then? I recognize Councilman Johnson and Councilman Schul. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks, y'all, for being here. I want to... So I live in the West End, also. So I have been watching the neighborhood change a lot over the last 15 or so years that I have been in West End and Burjav. And so while I'm excited about the development, I'm also concerned, right? Because we see a lot of neighborhoods in Durham where this sort of development is leading to price appreciation and rent appreciation in surrounding neighborhoods. I think in West End, we're in a better position than some other communities because there have been a lot of investments by affordable housing developers like the Land Trust and Self-Help and Habitat in the community. But I think the other thing I want to make sure that we're thinking about with development is that the projects, both the projects, the construction of the projects and the projects themselves long term are benefiting residents of the community. And so I'm excited about the commitments y'all have already made about affordable space, free community space, the collaborations with groups in the neighborhood. And I want to ask you to give us a little bit more specificity around those jobs, wages and benefits for those jobs, both the construction jobs and jobs that you plan to be created by the project and also any kind of commitments to hiring folks from the neighborhood, training folks from the neighborhood that you might be able to make in conjunction with the project. First I just want to say, thank you, that we all live in that community or close to that community. And so seeing the development that's going around us is exciting and scary. And so for us, it is important to have property and to be able to preserve things and keep it as part of the community. And we're using it. I'm the developer, but I'm also the user of the property. And I think that makes a huge difference in how you treat it and what you're doing with it. And everyone that is going to be involved with it, the space is going to be full. We all are part of that community and we all believe in that community. And we're working with all the neighborhood associations and the quality of life group folks. And we talked to them about things that we can do to bring in the community, let them use the space for meetings, things like that, fundraising events. Those things are easy for us to do. Bringing in the community, bringing in local talent, that's something that we're working on too. And that's something that we're talking about, trying to do with, as part of the Southern Documentary Fund. And that's how we are growing in the civic, what did you, civic cinema and different projects like that are purposefully, what drives us is our sense of community and wanting to be here and stay here and tell those stories and have the people who live here also be able to work with us. And so we are trying to find talent. It's hard, but we're also trying to train that talent. And the jobs that we have, we're trying to do an internship program. And that's something that Naomi can talk about, bringing folks from the community into this internship program. And an intern that is currently working there at SCF, she's now going to be doing some editing jobs for us on the side. And we're gonna try her out and see if we can develop that talent pool. Because I'm a big believer that the talent and the resources are here and we can make those talent, that talent, we can grow that talent and we can bring resources from outside to help us grow that talent and keep that talent here. So that's important for us. And yeah, we're working on that. We haven't got it figured out yet, but we're working on it. We're still young. I mean, I've been doing this for a long time, but for a long time I was kind of by myself. And so we're now finally at a place where we can hire people and we can really be thoughtful in that process of the projects that we're taking on board and the people that we're bringing on board to work in those positions to make those projects. We'll just add that. I know I'm fairly new to Southern Documentary Fund, but I do know that two of our makers live within two blocks of the building. Two of the makers that we physically sponsor. And also we have two staff at SDF that are longstanding residents of Durham, Jasmine Bowles of Monogarland. And we share Jasmine Bowles with Village of Wisdom. She's our operations manager. And so it's definitely about forging that sense of community. Thank you. That's really helpful. Could you talk about wages and benefits briefly also? Well, I can, I appreciate your raising those concerns. They are very poignant concerns to myself as well. I moved into the West End 13 years ago. And before my wife and I started the cookery, we bought as many of the empty houses as we could in that neighborhood and restored them. We now have 12 rental homes, half of which we keep at as low income housing because we didn't wanna see houses flipped in that neighborhood and we didn't wanna see the people who lived in that neighborhood pushed out. We moved into that neighborhood because we loved it. And we love the people there. We also currently employ folks that do live on Chapel Hill Road just to our, I guess, West. But we, at the cookery, we pay above a living wage for the standard here in Durham. We do that at all of our businesses and believe in that. So, for our part, that's what we'll be doing. Great, thank you. Councilman Schuhl. Gonna ask one of the questions that Jillian asked earlier, but I don't think you spoke to this, which is, you mentioned the community space and could you speak to its potential uses? Sure, what we have found just through our needs, we need a meeting space quite frequently, a conference room that allows us to meet our board meet or just have people come in and look professional. So that's a space that we want to be able to offer not just the filmmakers, but also to the community. We've offered that space to PAC three. We've also offered that space to the Birch Avenue Association for monthly meetings or whenever they might need it if they're not wanting to meet at the co-op. So, which is kind of a fun space to meet in anyway. But it's something that we see a lot of value in having that kind of space that people can sign up for, associations can sign up for, because you just need to be able to have space to be able to conduct business in. And that for us as professionals trying to go to that next level, we need that also in the building, we're trying to plan for a screening space so that filmmakers can bring in potential funders or potential partners and screen their work in a professional setting. So that's something that filmmakers would be able to sign up for if they're working out of the kitchen like I was doing for a really long time. So we see a lot of value in being able to offer that to the rest of the community. That's Councilor Maurice. Mr. Mayor, I didn't have any questions for the folks who spoke, but I just didn't know if we were gonna move on to talking about the ultimate issue. The public hearing closed. Did we do that? Great, okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First of all, I wanna say I'm a huge fan of a lot of what you guys do. I feel like I've watched those kids grow up on a chef's life. I went to an event at the cookery in support of our local Planned Parenthood affiliate a couple of years ago that was extraordinary. And so I wanna say how much I appreciate the work that all of y'all are doing here in Durham. When we talk about economic incentives in some of these targeted community development areas, I think all of us are mindful of the fact that over the last 10 years or so, the City of Durham specifically invested considerable public funds in the renaissance of our downtown core. And I think all of us can walk around inside the downtown loop and see the benefits that that has brought to the city. And if we cross the downtown loop and go into some of the residential neighborhoods that ring the downtown core, we can see some of the problems that the success in downtown term have caused for the folks that live in those neighborhoods. Gentrification is a real problem in many places, including Council Member Johnson's own neighborhood, and a number of the other neighborhoods that ring the downtown core. And so when we talk about economic development incentives inside these development areas, I think all of us are especially mindful of the consequences that that can have for the people and businesses that are already there. And so it's with that in mind that I say that I do intend to support the proposal that's before us tonight, primarily because I think, number one, you've made a solid case of the community benefits that flow from this investment of public funds in this particular property. It's the plan that you've put forward is sound from that perspective. I also wanna say how much I appreciate the fact that of the $1.28 million of capital for the project, nearly 300,000 of that comes from the applicant yourself. You've committed that funding. That's important to me because it shows you're not just playing with other people's money. You actually have skin in this game and that's really important. It's also important to me that the particular, the slice of funding that comes from the proposal that come from the city is modest in comparison to the entire project itself. I think it was about 11. something to one was the ratio I heard, which is also good to hear. You're not leaning on the city for an unduly outsized portion of the project. And so I just wanna say how much I appreciate the work that you're doing, the fact that you've been mindful about community engagement. I know that you'll continue to do that. And especially about paying living wage and above to the folks that do work for you. That's something that all of us are very, very concerned about in Durham. And while we don't have the ability to mandate that within the city limits, we do appreciate when folks come to us asking for our support that they do that for their own employees. And so I do intend to support the measure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate my colleagues' very probing questions. I appreciate the responses that you gave back. I just have one question about the financing. How close are you with fidelity? That seems to be your main finances. Hitches with that? Is that pretty much a given? Yeah, yeah, they're committed to the funding. You said you were committed. You said you would steal requests and that's why I didn't know if they... Oh, yeah, yeah, we have, it's a construction loan that will turn into a permanent mortgage once construction is done. All right, great. If there are no further questions, I'll entertain a motion on the item. That would be awesome. It's been properly moved and seconded. All in favor of the motion, then kept it saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you all. Who's doing the consistent statement? That's a good one. That's a good one. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. We put on item number nine. That's what I was going to... Councilman Moffitt pulled item nine. I was trying to pull it up. Yes, sir. At 4.30 this afternoon, I received a memo. We received a memo that said that the item had been altered in the packet, but when I downloaded the new attachments, there was no indication of what those changes were. I asked for a copy of the red lines and didn't receive them. So I need to find out why or what's been modified. I'm sure it's fairly innocuous, but I don't want to vote on something until I know what it is. Robert Joyner, Public Works Department. We apologize for the last minute change. There were red lines that were uploaded to iLegislate and there were some technical issues earlier. That document was cleaned up. Those changes were accepted. There was one change that was specifically made to the document on the first page in the where as section. And it refers to... We've met the memo with the agreement. In the agreement, sir. And in the agreement under that where as section, it refers to the parent development company, EPCON, actually changed the LLC for this new agreement. And so the parent developer is the same, but they have simply modified their limited liability company for this new agreement. And they have done that for a variety of reasons and they've transferred those liabilities and assets from the original corp over to the other, or to the new limited liability company. And my understanding is that was done for financing purposes. So you're saying that the sole impact of the changes was to change the name of the LLC with which we're contracting. It's changed to EPCON Farrington LLC. That's correct. All right. Thank you. That was my question. And if there are any other questions, I'll move the item. It's been proper to move in the second. All in favor of the motion, they're capable of saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, the motion passes unanimously. Any other items to come before the council? Recognize the mayor pro tem. On Wednesday at five o'clock the North Carolina legal municipalities is sponsoring a tour. Well, there are tours all over the state. But this one is at Parazart and I can invite about five more people to come if you're interested. That's a tour. At five. On Wednesday. Thank you. That's what I plan to be in. Okay. Thank you. Nothing else, the meeting's adjourned at nine, 26th p.m. Thank you.