 to do the budget thing earlier so that staff can leave or not. OK, let me look at the table. Let me look at the table. Good evening. We'd like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order at 7 o'clock 1 PM Monday, June 15, and certainly want to welcome all of you here this evening. Congratulations to those people who came out on a hot night. But you had a cool place to be. We have a very long agenda this evening. We might be making some adjustments as we go through. But if we could take a moment of silent meditation, please. Thank you. All right, that's Councilman Brown if he would lead us in the pledge. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll please? Mayor Bell. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden. Council Member Brown. Council Member Cattati. Council Member Davis. Council Member Moffitt. And Council Member Schul. We have three ceremonial items that we're going to do this evening. The first is for National Parks and Recreation and Monk Proclamation. Would ask the Director of Parks and Recreation, Rhonda Parker, if she would join me podium. Thank you. Speaks to the fact that whereas parks and recreation programs are an integral part of communities throughout this country, including the city of Durham, whereas our parks, trails, and recreation areas and programs are vital and important to establishing and maintaining the quality of life in our communities, ensuring the health of all residents and contributing to the economic and environmental well-being of a community and region, whereas parks, trails, and recreation programs build healthy, active communities that aid in prevention of chronic disease, provide therapeutic recreation services for those who have disabilities, and also improve the mental and emotional health of all residents, whereas parks, trails, and recreation programs increase the community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, attraction, and retention of businesses, and crime, reduction, whereas park trails and recreation areas are fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, whereas parks, trails, and natural recreation areas improve water quality, protect groundwater, prevent flooding, improve the quality of the air we breathe, provide vegetative buffers to development and produce habitat for wildlife, whereas our parks, trails, and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with natural and recreate outdoors, whereas U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month, whereas the City of Durham recognizes the benefits derived from the work of our Durham Parks and Recreation Department, but therefore, we can rebuild the old mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina. Do you have ever claimed the month of July, 2015 as National Park and Recreation Month in Durham? Do you have ever urged our residents to take special note of this observance by visiting our parks and trails, participating in programs and special events throughout this month? With my hand, Corporate City of Durham, North Carolina, this is the 15th day of June, 2015, and I present this to Ms. Parker for any comments that she might have. Thank you, Mayor, City Council, City Manager, and Residents of Durham for recognizing the importance of Parks and Recreation for the health of our community. Two programs I want to share with you very quickly that are on the table by the door is our Rock to Park movie series and our concert series, which are free throughout the City of Durham, and these cards are at the front. Also, something new, because we've heard from communities that you want events in the parks, we have a fun caravan that's coming to a park near you. We're going to Lion Park, Oakwood Park, Burton Park, Whip Royal Park, and see our wood park that started off all in the month of July. So we'll have mobile recreation for children and we'll be doing crafts, obstacle courses, relay races, and more. So please join us in recognizing July as Park and Recreation Month. Thank you. This next proclamation speaks to disabilities and I'm going to ask Marge Clements. Is Marge here? Great Marge. Marge is Chair of the Mayor's Committee on Persons with Disabilities. Whereas on July the 26th, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the American with Disabilities Act to ensure the civil rights of people with disabilities. The legislation established a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities, whereas ADA has expanded opportunities for Americans with disabilities by reducing barriers and changing perception, increasing full participation in community life. However, the full promise of the ADA will only be reached if public entities remain committed in the efforts to fully implement the ADA, whereas for the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Durham celebrates and recognizes the progress that has been made by reaffirming the principles of equality and inclusion and recommitting us efforts to reach full ADA compliance. Now therefore, William V. Bilbell and Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, to hereby encourage all citizens, businesses, and government agencies to affirm their commitment to work toward full ADA compliance and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the City of Durham. With my hand, Corporate City of Durham, this is the 15th day of June, 2015. I'm gonna present this to Ms. Clemens and again for any comments that she might have. Good evening, Mayor Bilbell and the members of City Council. Thank you so much for everything and good evening, my citizens. I am Margaret Walter Clemens. I am the chair for the Mayor's Community for Persons with Disabilities Act. My vice chair is Barbara Arendt and my other vice chair is Glory Whitehand. I am honored accepting this publication and ask all citizens to continue to support equality and inclusion for Persons with Disabilities. Thank you so much for all your support and God bless you. It's always good to see how things are happening in the city pertaining to ADA when I was coming in, I was coming in yesterday, over the weekend, I was coming down Roxburgh Street and I noticed that they were breaking up a lot of pavement along the curves and when I passed by that other day, they had installed the ADA curb brakes for Persons that will have to make use of that. So that's just another example of how serious we take the ADA and how much we're trying to work as hard as we can to make ADA accessible in all areas as much as it pertains to city utilities. This next proclamation speaks to the internal audit week proclamation and I'm gonna present to Ms. Patel who's Assistant Director of Audit Services and this is a proud of all our departments in the city of Durham but this is one that I'm particularly proud of because we sought a re-institute and reconfigured this department when I first became a Mayor in 2001. It's done an excellent job, it's well thought of and it really serves its purpose well not only for the city departments but for the city itself. Keeps us out of trouble and keeps us on the street course. Whereas internal auditing is a vital part of strengthening organizations and protecting stakeholders of both the public and private sectors. Whereas internal auditing helps identify and manage the organization's risks and ensure policies, procedures and controls are in place and work it appropriately. Whereas internal auditing is an increasingly sophisticated and complex activity requiring specialized knowledge, training and education. Whereas internal auditing is an established profession led by the Institute of Internal Auditors with a globally recognized code of ethics and international standards for the professional practice of internal auditing. Whereas the contribution of internal auditors to the success of organizations and a global economy at large deserves our recognition and commendations. Now therefore I, William V. Bilbell, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hip hop claim the week of June 22nd, 2015 as internal audit week in Durham and commend its observance to all citizens with a hand and the corporate city of Durham this is the 15th day of June, 2015. I'm going to present this to Mr. Tell for in the comments that I have. Thank you. Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem and Council members on behalf of the Director of Audit Services I would like to thank you for recognizing the week of June 22nd as internal audit week. Our staff and our department is committed to providing training opportunities that will enable the staff to reinforce the cities ethical culture and values. As part of this week we will be hosting the fifth annual fraud prevention awareness symposium. We will also hold other activities Wednesday through Friday of the week. Thank you again. Let me ask our learning comments by members of the council, recognize Councilman Shul. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, we've had a reporter, Jim Wise, who has been covering this council for a long time in this city for decades. And Jim, this is his last meeting covering the council and he will be retiring from the News and Observer but not retiring from writing. And Jim is a tremendous asset to our city. If you all have not read his histories of Durham and his wonderful, many wonderful columns over the years you ought to do so. So Jim I just wanted to give you a shout out and thank you for your fabulous journalism for many, many years and hope you have a fabulous retirement too. Well Steve, thank you. That is a surprise. I don't know Jim, we don't know who used to do this but if you care to make any comments feel free to do that. You know you way around the room. Okay. Any other comments? If not, we'll listen for prior items by the city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening everyone. No priority items. Likewise city attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. And likewise city clerk. No items, Mr. Mayor. Okay, we proceed with the agenda. As I said, we may move some things around as we move forward but right now we proceed with the consent agenda and consent agenda items that can be approved with a single vote. If a council person or someone from the audience chooses to remove an item that's on the consent agenda or we discuss that later in the program. So I'll just read the heading of each consent agenda item. Item one is order services, oversight committee, reappointment. Item two is the DERM Open Spells, Space and Trails Commission reappointment. Item three is the DERM Board of Adjustments reappointment. Item four is the Citizens Advisory Committee Appointments. Item five is the DERM City County Environmental Affairs Board Appointment. Item six is the DERM Cultural Advisory Board Appointments. Item seven is the DERM Homeless Services Advisory Committee reappointments. Item eight is the Human Relations Commission reappointments. Item nine is the Citizens Advisory Committee reappointment. Item 10 is the Housing Appeals Board reappointment. Item 11 is the Housing Appeals Board reappointment. Item 12 is the Street Infrastructure Acceptances. Item 13 is physical year 2016 to 2018 City of Durham Strategic Plan. Item 14 is FY 2014-2015, the amendments to the budget ordinance and grant project ordinances. Item 15 is physical year 2015-2016, budget in 2016-2021, capital improvement plan known as SIP. Mr. Mayor. Do you recognize Councilor Schwell? Thank you. I have an item that my colleagues are aware of that I'd like to have discussed and I think this is probably the best item to do it along with. It's a concerning feasibility of a study of the cost of our priority trails and if it's your judgment, then I think this is probably the best item to do it with. We'll pull that item. Item 16 is to adopt the City of Durham and US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Task Force. Item, hey, let me jump back here. Item 16 is proposed FY16, Planning Department Work Program. Item 17 is the parking fee changes. Item 18 is parking management services contract. Item 19 is control parking, residential area, ordinance revisions and designations. Item 20 is the granted agreement between the City of Durham and the US Department of Transportation, Tiger Grant for the Duke Beltline Trail Master Plan. Item 21 is the Southeast Pressure Zone, Water Main Contract, Construction Contract Award to Park Construction of North Carolina, Inc. Item 22 is Lockhaven Lift Station Replacement. Item 23 is the amendment number two agreement to provide FY14 engineering services with North and South Durham Water Reclamation facility improvements between the City of Durham and Hazen and Sawyer PC. Item 24 is a contract for online payment solutions. Item 25 is proposed condemnation of property located at 339 University Drive, partial ID 123182 for the University Drive sidewalk project. Item 26 is the proposed condemnation of property located at 3033 University Drive, partial ID 123184 for the University Drive sidewalk project. Item 27, we will pull this amendment to contract with Terracon Consultants, Inc. for additional investigation and testing services for the police headquarters complex project. Item 27 is the amendment two contract with Terracon Consultants, Inc. for additional investigation and testing services for the police headquarters complex project, and we'll pull that item also. Not in Port 26, it's in Port 27. Item 28 is the third amendment to the contract for special inspections and constructions materials testing services for the fire station number nine project with A1 Consultant Group. Item 29 is an item that can be found on the general business agenda. Item 30 is elevated maintenance services contract. Item 31 is the pest control service contract. Item 32 is additional funding and construction contracting authority for city hall annex and building envelope project. Item three is the on-call professional services consultants. Item 34, we're gonna pull this contract with Maiden Durham to support business engagement of youth and assist with development of education to work pipeline system for youth. Item 35, we're gonna pull this contract amendment with community partnerships, Inc. to provide workforce innovation opportunity act youth framework services from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. Item 36, we will pull this contract amendment with achievement academy of Durham to provide workforce innovation and opportunity act youth program element services from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. Item 37, we will pull this FY 2016 contract for city services and programs for the downtown Durham municipal services district with downtown Durham, Inc. Item 38 is FY 2016 agreement to fund economic development programs and services operated by downtown Durham, Inc. Item 39 is the fourth amendment to workforce innovations and opportunity act contract between the city of Durham and educational data systems, Inc. Item 42 is a contract for pre-employment polygraph examinations. Item 3 is project management services for the installation of fiber optic cable city-wide ST277. Item 44 is a license agreement of Google Fiber, North Carolina LLC. Item 45 is a transfer station scale replacement piggyback purchase and 46 is amendment of contract for roll cart services. Item 47 is extension of contract for roll cart purchase. Item 48 is extension of interlocal agreement with Durham County for recycling services. Item 53, we will pull this completion of street and storm water infrastructure and Stone Hill estates and Ravenstone subdivision. Items 40 through 41 are items that can be found on the general business agenda. Item 54 through 56 items that can be found on the general business agenda is public hearings. Item 63 through 64 items that can be found on the general business agenda. Item 29 is a general business, I'll stop there. Let me entertain a motion for the approval of consent agenda with the exception of item 15 of the budget piece. Item 27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 53, I think that's the proper move in second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Will you close the vote? It passes seven, it's zero. Okay, we'll go to the general business agenda. Item 29 is proposed sale of various property interests to BH-AG Durham Foster LLC. Is there a staff report on that? Is there any? What assistance? Okay, we have persons who want to speak on this item. Mr. Mendes, can I ask someone to give a staff report and just update this, if you don't mind? Gina Probst, Assistant Director of General Services Department. The item before you is the sale of various easements for the Central Park property and the development for BH, let's see, what are there? Let's see, what are there? To the developer that's building 100 condominium units and we're here to answer any questions. Yeah, I don't know if the city attorney wants to update the council on some of the changes that were made in the development agreement or if you want to, Gina, based on the conversation that we had in the work session. There have been incorporated into the development agreement. Many of the items that were addressed at work session, including additional oversight for approval of amenities and clarification of the easement locations and other park amenities. And the affordable housing contribution, I think, was added. That has been added too to address the habitat for humanity contribution. Okay, this is a general business agenda and it isn't a public hearing. It's not required that we have public commerce but we have two people that have signed to speak for this item and I'm going to recognize each and limit your commerce to three minutes. I have Patrick Beiker and Arnold Rossi, Jeff Zadaki. Patrick, introduce yourself, please. Good evening, Mayor Bell, members of the city council. My name is Patrick Beiker. I live at 2614 Stewart Drive. I'm an attorney with Morningstar Law Group in Durham. Here tonight representing BHAG Durham Foster, LLC. With us tonight are John Felton, our project architect, Dan Jewel, our landscape architect and Matt Hobbs with the development company. Want to recognize all the hard work of the city staff and express our appreciation to them. This has been a complex process but we think it's reached a conclusion point and we very much request support of the agenda item as before the council. I was communicating with council member Shul earlier and I believe it's fair to assess the valuation of the improvements to Durham Central Park as well as the payment for the easements and the contribution to Habitat for Humanity at approximately $200,000 as a community benefit in regards to this agenda item. I do need to clarify one other point to follow up on the development agreement. Based on the input from council member Moffitt we provided a rendering that is in your package that clearly demarcates the property line between the condominium project and Durham Central Park. Based on that demarcation, we believe it's appropriate for the liability issues to be assigned so that liability and maintenance for the area of the stairs that's on the condominium project be carried by the Condominium Homeowners Association and then the area that's within the park that would be maintained and ensured by the park as a typical city property. With that, our team is happy to answer any questions you all may have and again, we appreciate everybody's hard work on this item. Before I call to the next speaker, are there any questions or comments by members of the council? I'm sorry, is there one? City attorney. Mr. Mayor and members of council to Mr. Biker's last point on the liability piece, I would refer to the, it's in your packet, agreement revised 615, 2015 under section 2, VIII, the last sentence reads, the developer shall maintain the terrace at its sole cost, shall maintain liability insurance covering the terrace, et cetera, et cetera. That language is proposed by the developer to be stricken. I just wanna make sure, Mr. Biker, that's your request. Yes, and that was based on before we moved forward with council member Moffat's suggestion to put in a railing and to demarcate the concrete there. It was based on it being a more open area. And so now that we're clearly showing where the property line is, it makes it much easier to assign maintenance and liability coverage. I recognize. Thank you. Proceed. Is he here? Good evening, Mayor, city council members. In light of the demarcation statement and the liability that I was concerned about, we're satisfied with this time. Thank you. Entertain a motion on the side of, I'm sorry, nobody has any questions. I'm sorry, I do have a question. I noticed that there's a 40 foot by 40 foot easement that's called out now in the development agreement for stairs. Can you explain what's being placed in, I just want to make sure I understand what that is. It's part of the park amenity as far as the terrace and the stair area, which is all together for on the park side. So it is a temporary construction easement in order to allow that construction. So it's a temporary construction easement. Yes. Okay. Thank you. So I just want to comment very briefly. I have, I still have concerns with this. I understand that when Mr. Biker was talking about values, he was referring back to what happened with East West on the other side of the street. I was looking at the valuation of the property adjacent that as of June 1st, which the developers have valued at $1.8 million an acre. So I still think that the valuation is low. I understand that the city is getting benefits. I understand that the developers also getting benefits. So while it's not going to give me heartburn, I'm still going to vote against this tonight. For the questions, recognize Councilman Cotadi. Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick comment to staff. We've had some conversation. I think we are, several council members are requesting that for items where the city will be granting easements to property that we get a look at them as informational items sooner in the process. We've only had this item for two weeks. Thank you. Other further comments? Recognize Councilman Schuch. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, Patrick. Yes, sir. Thank you for your response to me, my email late in the day. Yes, sir. And maybe we could just discuss that a little bit. How would you calculate the value of the city as receiving a return for the value it's giving up in these easements? You talked about that a little bit, but maybe you could say a little more about that. As I, when I think about the, when I think about what the developers getting, the following benefits occurred to me, I may miss some, the easement for the overhang over the park, construction easements, easements for the foundation, moving the electric lines across Rony Street to the park property there, moving the sewer lines to the park property, getting a private drive on Rony Street, which is partially park property and getting an entrance into the building from the park. Although it seems like that has now been sort of dealt with in a different way, which, and I thanked Don for that. I think that's good. So I'm not sure if I missed any or not, but how are these various, how would you calculate? What's your sense of the worth of these easements versus the $200,000 figure, for example? And do you, you know, it's, as Diane said, we've only had this for a couple of weeks. We've talked about it a couple of times now. So do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah, I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize Morgan Haynes and the hardworking people at their own Central Park Board. I think what the value to the city comes from the collaboration that's happened between this project and Durham Central Park. And so what I'd be remiss in not pointing out is that I think the fire separation easement, what it represents is because of the state building code, the only right the city is giving up is the right to build a building within that 15 foot area. And that covers essentially everything with the overhang and the foundation. My understanding of the Durham Central Park Master Plan is that there were no plans for building structures within that area anyway. So I do think it's a great benefit for the city in terms of the improvements to Durham Central Park, where this section of the park, needs the dumpster relocated, has some puddling that occurs from time to time to really make that a strong amenity for the park and to make it something like Mount Merrill, for example, on the other side. So I think you put that together with the contribution to Habdeck for Humanity with the valuation that the staff came up with. And my impression is that it's $200,000 that meets a community need and also allows a project to go forward that's in compliance with the, fully in compliance with the UDO. So thank you for that. I, let me just a couple of observations. I think it's our responsibility as a council to figure out, to lay down some standards and to figure out exactly what we want to be exacting from developers who want public assets in the future around Durham Central Park or elsewhere downtown, because I think we're gonna have more of it, not less. And I expect we'll have some in Durham Central Park as well. And I think that we have asked, this is the first time that I know of that we have asked for and gotten in a development deal any commitment for affordable housing. And I'm appreciative that you all accepted that deal point when we proposed it. And I think that that is something that we are not, we can't compel developers to include affordable units if they're developing by right, but when we have some sort of contractual arrangement where we do have the ability to make deals with developers, I think that our developers ought to be expecting that, that we ought to be expecting contributions for affordable housing or inclusion of affordable housing units in those projects. And I think that we've got to figure out as a council with the help of our staff what a standard for that ought to be, because I think that you all, developers and their representatives ought to be able to expect it. And I think our community really wants it. And then the other thing I wanna say is just briefly to say that I think that the work of the Durham Central Park Board was also excellent. Yes, sir. And I do think though that in a way that they're in a funny position, they're negotiating for the city in a way. And then as Diane says, we get something two weeks later, they are a private board. They've been criticized for a process that wasn't transparent. I think that they probably operated the way any private board does, but it does raise the question for me when a city asset like this is involved, the extent to which our staff ought to be involved earlier and more fully. And so our staff was definitely involved earlier and more fully and got us involved earlier well, I don't know about earlier, but our staff was involved more fully than with the Liberty Warehouse deal where we had to work really hard to salvage Liberty Arts and maintain and retain that community asset. But I think we need to continue to think about when we have a private organization which we respect and love like the Durham Central Park Board who does a wonderful job down there. But we still have our needs, the city's needs are not totally consonant with theirs. And so I think we need to try to figure out what the role of the city's staff should play in those things. So I wanted to make those two observations. I'm planning to vote for this. I think that there are a lot of good things about it. It isn't perfect, but I appreciate it. So thank you, Mr. Mayor. Any other comments? Recognize the Mayor Pro Tem? Well, we've had a... Mr. Mayor. You got a comment? I just want a quick comment. I think this is a terrific development. For those of us who have followed renovation and downtown Durham for many decades, the one key element that always comes out on top is that we really do this and do it right. We need more people to live downtown. The apartments are terrific, but this goes one step further. And the fact that these will be, for the most part, permanent dwellers. And they will be buying these condominiums. And I definitely want to praise the Central Park Board. This was a difficult challenge. I think you assumed it very, very well and we appreciate your insight on this. Also, I want to thank the city manager for suggesting that the Central Park Board get involved with the developer on this, because we didn't really have to. This is in terms of zoning. This is a forum-based zoning where no public input is required. But the manager and others understood the sensitivity of this area, the size of the development. And so I want to thank the manager. Also, I want to thank Don for his suggesting that there'd be a demarcation between the private and the public Central Park area. Definitely want to thank Steve as well for the contribution to Habitat for Humanity and thank your developer for that. So I'm excited about this project, this development and I definitely intend to vote for it. And being no objection, I would move the item, Mr. Mayor. I would second the item. I will second the item. I'm gonna call the question. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes six to one. Would council member Moffitt voting no? Thank you very much. I'm not going to, because we've got a long night. I want to participate on a lot of the issues, but the best way that we need to get ahead of this is that Mr. Manager, I would suggest that when developers come to a planning process or to a planning staff for a project, they may be requiring incentives from the city such as this or dollar incentives. I think we ought to tell them upfront, they need to be creative because questions come up as to how we deal with affordable housing. That's what, and I know the planning staff and I'm not an joint city planner. I know there's some plans for bringing forth some tools for how we get more affordable housing. But I think we straight up with developers when they come into our departments and they're looking for something from the city. We just need to raise a question. You need to be aware that the council wants to know what are you going to do in terms of affordable housing? I understand, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Let's move to the next item, which is item 42. We just finished 29. My iPad is slow. Okay, contract for provision of police psychological services. Is there, recognize Council Member Cattado? I just wanted to compliment staff for changing this from a three-year to a one-year contract and putting in all the detailed provisions that I asked for last time. So I move the item. It's been proper to move a second. Any questions? Call the question. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. And close the vote. It passes, seven is zero. Item 41 is contract for the provision of pre-employment psychological testing. It's been proper to move the second. Call the question. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. And close the vote. It passes, seven is zero. We're gonna move to items. I'm sorry. Mr. Mayor, would it be possible to go back to the budget issue that Councilman Schultz pulled on? And we've got, I think that could be handled fairly quickly. And there are a number of staff people that are 15. Thank you. Councilman Schultz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is an item that I've communicated with all of my colleagues over the last few days. But just to give you a very brief overview. During the budget session, we talked about the capital improvement plan. And after year one, there are no trails included in the capital improvement plan, other than the belt line, which is slated for funding kind of outside of the capital improvement plan grid. And I don't think that this lack of trails reflects our community priorities. And after the meeting of budget staffer, which I very much appreciate it, said that the trails were not included, excuse me, because there weren't enough cost specifics associated with them. And excuse me, and that that's why they're not included in the CIP. So now we're planning to embark on a CIP process over the next six to 12 months that's gonna prioritize all of our capital improvements. And I don't want it to be in a situation where the trails are left out of that. So I wanna thank John Goble, the chair of Dost, talked to him and he proceeded to talk to Alta, a great Durham company does national work on trails, but is located here in Durham. And just to get an estimate from this company, they said they could do a study for $20,000 to $25,000 that would cost out the top 10 trails so that we could get them into our capital improvement plan. Discussion with the manager also said it would be important to get the feasibility of those trails as well as the cost, and they can also do that. So the reason I think we ought to do this now is that if we're gonna have trails at the table when we talk about capital improvements this year, we need some cost figures. So I also would say that the manager recommended that we not name a specific number and put it in the budget, since the budget's all neatly toted up at this point and ready to go, but we rather ask the administration to have such a study conducted in the range of $20,000 to $25,000 and leave it to the administration is the best way to do this. So I would move that we ask the administration to have a trail study that would cost out and rate the feasibility of the city's priority trails and that would be conducted in the next few months so that we can include trails in our CIP delegations. The property moved in second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Okay, just a minute, Councilor Moffitt. We already did it with the consent agenda. That item was pulled. That item was pulled from the consent agenda. I assumed everything else was, the only thing that pulled from the consent agenda was Steve's point. The rest of the things weren't contacts. Mayor Bill, I think the whole item was pulled. I didn't mean for it to be pulled. I'd simply meant, well, we'll go ahead and pass it. I'd simply meant for Steve's item to be pulled, other items were to be. Mr. Mayor, can I go ahead and move the fiscal year budget? Sure. It's been properly moved in second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Thank you. Okay, here's where I'm gonna make a little bit of adjustment and agenda. We're still on general business agenda items. Doesn't require public comments, but item 63 is really an item that obviously a lot of people have an interest in. Item 64 is employee health care carry recommendation. I'm gonna move to 64 and then come back to 63, which is 2015, 2016 employee health care carry recommendation. Yes, Mr. Mayor, staff is coming up. But let me start by indicating that at the council's direction at the work session last Monday in your vote, directing the city manager and the staff to begin a clarification and development of business deal points with Blue Cross and Blue Shield to provide health insurance as a followup to a lot of the discussion that kind of went on at the dais and at the microphone staff has over the last week all the way through about 5.30 this evening continued that discussion with the representatives from Blue Cross and Blue Shield to prepare what is described in your packet is the business deal points term sheets. And we are recommending approval. Certainly want to give Regina and David any opportunity for comments. I would just say that the issues around the discount rates and the guarantees and all those things can get to be very, very complicated. We've tried to capture the essence of the Blue Cross, Blue Shield proposal. It is there for you to approve basically what would happen assuming you agree with that this evening is that the staff and the attorney's office would then engage Blue Cross, Blue Shield to finalize the agreement that we would then execute by the end of the month. Regina and David, if you have any other comments, please feel free and I may come back to say. No other comments, just here to answer questions. Thank you. Let me recognize the council if there are questions. I recognize the council member for the council and the authority in that order. But I was just gonna say that I just wanted to give some acknowledgement to our staff. This comes up and it seems pretty like up here it is. But I know that in order to get here since last week, you all have worked very, very hard. You've worked through the weekend and I know that it was not easy and I appreciate all of the work that you've done to get us to this point. So thank you very much. I recognize council member Katani. Mr. Mayor, are you gonna have public comment or are we just gonna discuss this move on? Oh, this is the council. Okay, great. All right, I also wanna thank the staff for your considerable, well really for going above and beyond, you made a recommendation to us and then you have dealt with many, many changes. So I just wanted to make some comments that I've already made at the work session. But as I've said previously, I continue to be troubled by the process. We received 10 or more revised proposals from Blue Cross Blue Shield. I'm very disappointed that Blue Cross Blue Shield did not include these provisions in their initial proposal. As I suggested, we hope that people will put their best foot forward when they come to the city the first time. I'm also very concerned about the impact on employees who will not benefit from an ACO network in year one. If we opt for Blue Cross Blue Shield, this is a sizable dollar loss, especially for our families, totaling hundreds of dollars per month. I'm also concerned about the future unknown ACO network. There's a lot of uncertainty around that. So I supported the prior staff recommendation and I'll be voting no on this item. I recognize Councilor Schuhl. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do have a question. Why is this contract for a 33 month period rather than the five years? We were just negotiating a 34 month period in the guarantee with Blue Cross Blue Shield. That was what was proposed. So we previously, the previous contract had a five year rate guarantee from Aetna, is that right? We had a proposal initially for a three year contract, but they did give us a five year rate guarantee. Blue Cross Blue Shield also did present to us a five year rate guarantee for the administrative services, but the 34 month contract or proposal around the dollar for dollar guarantee was a 34 month one. Councilor Schuhl, I would suggest we need to keep it there in light of all of the transition to the ACO. I think five years would, it's too far out. We're gonna need more time to monitor the progress. All right, thank you. And then just one other point of clarification, David Boyd Finance Director, is we wanted to get this in alignment with the budget year as opposed to a September one start date, the 34 month odd period gets us lined up with a seven one start date after this coming year. Thank you. And then I have a question for Patrick. Patrick, what is your confidence level that we will be able to tie these guarantees down in language that we feel comfortable with and have you all started working on that? So at this stage, what we've been looking at is to make sure that there's a clear understanding between the city and Blue Cross about the term sheet. I know that there's been some challenges to getting there, but it's my understanding that we're there today. So once I have this document, then I will, and I've already spoken with the lawyer for Blue Cross, she and I will get to work on incorporating this document in these terms into the master agreement. So I don't anticipate that there's an issue that where the rubber meets the road is gonna be on this term sheet. And it sounds like we're where we need to be on that. And there's a clear understanding of what that is. Thank you. So we've essentially already voted on this and we all know how the vote's gonna go. But I also, I'm gonna, I wanna say, first I wanna say, assuming the vote does go to Blue Cross, I wanna say that I know that our staff will do the best that we can, you all can, to work very closely with Blue Cross. And I think all of us will be supportive of that and make sure that our staff has the absolute best, that our city employees have the absolute best insurance policy that we can. And so, and I will certainly plan to positively support that. And I know that our entire staff will be working to that end. I have just, I will also be voting against this because I was and remain in favor of the Aetna plan. For the reason that Diane already articulated the first year employee discount, the lower out-of-pocket, one that I don't think she did mention, which is the fact that the Blue Cross plan has, with the ACO has only two tiers, the ACO and the out-of-network. Whereas Aetna has three tiers, the ACO, the in-network and the out-of-network, which I think would be considerable savings for our staff, for employees. But also I think it is worth voting again and because we'll be doing this again in 34 months, that our RFP process needs to be respected and that we need not put our staff, Regina and David and their staffs, through what we had to go through with the continued proposals after the RFP process was normally what had been finished in our terms. And again, I think needlessly politicized which should be a non-political process. And I think it does, making this choice, I think does undercut our future ability to get competitive bids. Who wants to come in and bid if you know that it's gonna be undercut by repeated bids that go under the RFP and then we give it to Blue Cross again. So that's happened twice in the last three years and I think that it's really important that it not happen again. So I'm urging our friends from Blue Cross, we'll be back in 34 months to please respect our RFP process, come in with your best bid and I know we'll be looking for that. So thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I had not planned to say anything since I've had this side to speak about why they're voting against it. You need to understand why I'm voting for it. First of all, it's nothing in our process that says a person can't come back with a different bid. I mean, they didn't say, if our staff had said this is it, that's one issue, but it's nothing in our process that says if someone submits something, they can't come back with a different plan. Now it's up to us to analyze it. So that didn't deter me. The other piece is we were trying to play, compare apples to apples in terms of contracts and I don't think we can do that. I think we have a plan that people have a history with and I haven't heard employees specifically complain about Blue Cross Blue Shield. The other piece had to do with this was put out that the city was gonna cost us $6 plus million more if we went with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Well, I would just remind people, they were projections. They were projections. They were projecting what the cost would be if Edna's plan and what the cost would be if we went with the initial Blue Cross plan. Blue Cross came back with a different plan, which is one we're looking at and there was about $300,000 different I think. Best case, worst case, Blue Cross was ahead of Edna in terms of dollars. But really what sold me aside from the fact that Blue Cross Blue Shield has a history in Durham. It's a corporate headquarters in Durham. It has employees working here in Durham. It has jobs here in Durham. It has a proven record of providing community efforts to different events in the city of Durham. What convinced me was the fact that they were willing to guarantee, they were willing to guarantee that if it looked like we were gonna lose up to $6.7 million, they would cover it. So it's not gonna be a loss to the taxpayers who are supporting this plan. They now have an ACO. I mean, that was the latest thing. That was another issue of whether you're gonna get an ACO. They now have an ACO. True, it doesn't kick in during the first part of this program. It doesn't kick in to 2016, but they have one. But if they had not been willing to guarantee that we would not lose the $6.7 million, I would not have supported them. My sense was, if you're so sure, guarantee it. And if you're sure, but you won't have to pay it anyway because you'll meet your plan. So I just want the public to know that the whole concept about the taxpayers losing on this plan is not true. Again, their projections. Best case, it was a $300,000 difference between Etna and Blue Cross Plan. Worst case, Blue Cross was better than Etna. And we hope none of that happens. But the staff has gone through and other pieces, I said it jokingly, but I was serious about it. I wanted to make sure that our attorneys could provide us a legal document which was secure that commitment. And you've heard the city attorney say, he understands what the points are. And now it's up to them to deliver that. If he comes back and says he can't deliver it, that's a definition. So the vote is going forth with Blue Cross Blue Shield under the assumptions that they can document and secure a legal entity that will guarantee that we'll be able to make sure that gap is covered if the gap occurs. So having said that, and let's tell the comments I'm gonna call the question. Recognize Councilman Davis, Councilman Brown and the Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I too want to applaud the staff and the great work that they've done. But I'd also like to add one more piece if we can for them and the manager's office. And that is that they monitor very closely and allow us to have a real assessment of the tenants of this contract and to be able to report to the council at the appropriate time when we get close to that 34 month period to really see where we are so that we can assure the citizens that there is not going to be a loss to the taxpayers in Durham. All right guys, Councilman Brown. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and thank you for your leadership on this issue. I think the one key point has not been articulated and that is for our employees and for our taxpayers we had two very fine firms competing against each other. And secondly, we will save money regardless of which way we went. And at a time of rising health costs, that's a real compliment to our staff and to our manager. So I'm ready to move forward with the support of Blue Cross. I recognize the mayor, Pro Tem, if you could. Excuse me, as chair of the insurance staff committee it is really an honor to be able to do business with a local company. It took us a while to get here, but still Blue Cross is Durham. And I appreciate that and on that I'd like to move that we pass this item as outlined. Second. I'll move in second. I'm gonna call the question. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes four to three with Councilmember Cattati voting no, Councilmember Shul voting no and Councilmember Moffitt voting no. That motion was to support Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Now let's move to item 63, Durham Chapel Hill Boulevard Business 15501 Road Reconfiguration Project. And what I'd like to do, Mr. Managers, to have the staff come forth and present what this road that is. We have persons that have signed up to speak in appropriate time. I recognize them. So mayor, you'd like me to review kind of the scope of the project and some of the concerns. I think that's important, yes. And some of the concerns that have been raised in response to that. I'd be glad to do that. Again, my name is Mark Aronson, director of the Transportation Department. And what I will do then is take a few minutes to describe the scope and the purpose of the project and address some of the questions and concerns that have been raised regarding the project. And also, hopefully quickly get to a visualization that I think will help kind of illustrate what's being proposed on the Boulevard. I think as we discussed previously, we look at review NCDOT's resurfacing on an annual basis and look for opportunities to restripe some of these pavement markings on the resurfacing to address safety, roadway capacity concerns and improve bicycle accommodations. And this is one that's scheduled for resurfacing that this summer that we thought provided an opportunity to address some of those very issues. First, there's an existing speeding problem on the Boulevard in this area from Chapel Hill Boulevard to University Drive where it's five lanes that we propose to convert that to three lanes with bike lanes and parking. The existing speed limit is 35. The observed 85th percentile speed in this area is 45 to 50 miles an hour. I think also the material that you've received before, we looked at the accident rates along this section of the Boulevard. They're generally two and a half to three times the crash rate for similar streets in North Carolina. And then thirdly, the Durham Bicycle Plans recommends the provision of bike lanes along this segment of the Boulevard. These bike lanes would provide connectivity between existing bicycle accommodations on University Drive and those that exist on Chapel Hill Road and that are also planned on Cornwallis Road. So basically the proposed roadway reconfiguration is expected to reduce speeds, reduce crashes, and provide improved bicycle accommodations. It will also provide bus pullouts, 21 parking spaces, and a shorter distance for pedestrians to cross the street than exists today by crossing three lanes versus crossing the five lanes that they do today. The existing volumes along this section of the Boulevard are approximately 14,000 vehicles per day and have generally been at this level for the past 20 years, ranging between 12 and 16,000 vehicles a day. So in our analysis, we've run the traffic analysis on this and it's our opinion that the three lane cross section is expected to provide an acceptable level of service through this area. We've got several other streets that I think we've described before that have similar three lane characteristics and bicycle accommodations. University Drive vehicles per day range from 10,000 to 17,000 vehicles. A section of Main Street between Buchanan and Ninth Street with traffic volumes that range between 11,000 and 16,000. West Chapel Hill Street where we've converted to three lanes, it's at 12,000. And we're also proposing this on Fayetteville Road where the traffic volumes are 14 to 15,000. In summary, a public meeting was held on April 7th that Rogers heard middle school to review the roadway reconfiguration and receive comments and answer questions. A summary of the comments that we'd received at that time and the response was included in the material that was provided to you previously. There have been questions that were raised about the ability to safely pull into and out of driveways along the Boulevard. The restriping will not affect any of the existing driveway or access points and will ensure that adequate site distance will be provided at all the driveways near where any of the locations for on-street parking is to be provided. We've also received and you've heard of requests for a traffic signal at Hope Valley Road and Crosswalks and that's simply beyond the scope of this project. This is just a resurfacing and restriping opportunity. We'll continue to work with NCDOT for any opportunities to provide a signal and crosswalk at that location. There are also questions raised about the provision of sidewalks. That too is really beyond the scope of this project but certainly is something that could be considered as part of the Durham Walks pedestrian plan update that we'll be undertaking in the coming year and while sidewalks are not proposed it's fully expected that they'll be a safer walking environment for those that choose to continue to walk along the Boulevard where they won't be walking next to a travel lane. They'd either be walking next to a parking lane or a bicycle lane. There was also a concern that bike lanes might be too close to the travel lanes or the parking spaces and I'll highlight this as part of the visualization but there's actually a buffer that's provided between the travel lane and the bike lanes and between the bike lanes and the parking lanes that should mitigate that concern. And I think a question had also been asked about how will we monitor this and our expectation is that we will collect traffic after if this project is implemented we'd certainly collect traffic data and would continue to monitor speeds, accidents and volumes along the Boulevard and would be happy to report on that as well. I think there are also concerns that were raised about the impact that the roadway configuration will have on businesses along the Boulevard and what we did is tried to do a literature search of other examples of similar roadway reconfigurations that were done across the country on streets that were similar to the Boulevard. And these studies also have addressed the impact of the road diets on speeds and accidents. Just very quickly in summary without reviewing all those studies they've basically been shown to be a successful strategy for reducing speeds and improving the safety and the research that we had found on the economic impact found that either there was no impact at all or if there was it was a positive impact on the businesses along the streets for which there'd been a roadway reconfiguration. If you'd like what I'd like to be able to do is just pull up and quickly go through just a visualization so that you can see what we're kind of proposing. And I think this was provided to you. I'm going to quickly go in this sake of time. Mark, go slow because I wasn't able to get it. Okay, so it was a bit of fun for the first time. Okay, this first slide just shows you the limits of the project from Chapel Hill Boulevard to the west left of the map to University Drive on the right hand side of the map. Next slide just explains for the section from Chapel Hill Boulevard to Legion Road what will be done. And I'll get to some actual visuals a little bit later on that we'll clearly illustrate. This is where we're actually transitioning from the four lane divided to the three lane section and vice versa as you're going west. Can you go back to that? Yes. So tell me where. This is for this section between Chapel Hill Boulevard and Legion Road. This is where we're going as you come from the west the roadway is a four lane divided and then it currently goes into the five lanes in this area. This is where we would transition from the five lane from the four lane divided to three lanes. And a little bit later I'll actually do a visualization that will show clearly illustrate that. And then the next section is kind of from Legion to Hope Valley Road. This is where we'll add parking. And again, I'll show a clear description that illustrates the cross section there where the travel lanes will be where the bike lanes and buffer and the center turning lane will be. Then the next section continues and this is where we will actually, there'll be part of the Boulevard and I'll illustrate this in a minute where there will not be parking. It'll just be three lanes, bike lanes on both sides with buffers between the bike lane and the travel lane. And then the very last section is kind of from James Street to University Drive which is where we kind of transition back to the existing lanes. So what I'd like to do is start with this where it says section A. This is where again the section from 15501 where we transition from the four lane divided to the three lanes. And from that cross section you can see that during that transition it goes from the four lane divided to three lanes, one lane in each direction, a center turn lane and a striped shoulder. And this is also where we'll provide a left turn lane onto nation that doesn't exist today that would help alleviate some of the rear end accidents that we've experienced at that location. And there'll also be a right turn lane at Legion that will connect from the Boulevard to Cornwallis Road, Rogers Hur and up to Chapel Hill Road. The next section, section B kind of illustrates where there's a section where we have three lanes, one in each direction, a center turn lane, a five foot bike lane on each side that's separated from the travel lanes by a two foot buffer. And then on the north side of the road there's a street, there's 10 foot space for a bus stop that's out of the travel lane and out of the bike lanes as well. Then the next section illustrates a cross section where we continue with the three lanes, one in each direction, a center turn lane, five foot bike lanes on both sides that are separated from the travel lane by a two foot buffer and then that 10 foot bike lane that you'd seen on the previous illustration is replaced by what will be the space for 21 parking spaces on the north side of the road, an eight foot parking space with a two foot buffer next to the parking space to kind of address that the door issue so that that would not interfere with the five foot bike lane. In other words, there'll be a five foot bike lane that has a two foot buffer between it and the travel lane and the parking lane. And then the last section illustrates kind of the cross section pretty much from Midvale back to University Drive where there will be no parking and it will simply be three travel lanes, one in each direction, a center turn lane, bike lanes on both sides, separated from the travel lanes by a four foot buffer. And then just quickly to show you what exists kind of today, this is from the eastern end of the project, looking west, the five lanes that exist as you look up the hill today that would be re-striped to provide as it just indicated three travel lanes, one in each direction, a center turn lane, a four foot buffer, and then a six foot bike lane on either side. And then the next visualization shows a little further up the hill where we transition to providing the parking. It still has three travel lanes, this will be shown as three travel lanes, one in each direction, a center turn lane, and then a five foot bike lane on each side with a two foot buffer between the travel lane and the bike lane, and then a two foot buffer and then between the bike lane and the parking that will exist in this section where there are 21 parking spaces provided. So that's a quick overview and I'd be glad to answer any questions that you might have regarding the visualization or any other information. Thank you, I wanna thank Mark also. I called a manager over the weekend. Was it weekend before the weekend? Friday, yeah. And as the staff could develop a more pictorial view of what was being proposed and this is what we've got, so I appreciate you. Well, I wanna thank the planning department that helped us with their graphics expertise as well. Thomas Dawson was great help in pulling this together. All right, thank you. Let me ask first are there questions and comments from the council on what we have? Recognize Councilman Davis. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to thank Mark and his staff and the planning and everybody else to give this visualization. But also, I guess my biggest concern down the road is the safety of those students at Rogers Hur. I've gotten several comments from people who are associated with the school and they indicated that we've had some really near misses of some tragedy that could have happened along the way with kids darting across that road, stopping and starting and pulling up and those kind of things. So I was originally in favor of this, then I pulled back a little bit but I think the safety of those students is paramount and I will be supporting it. Other comments? Recognize Councilman Brown. Yes. Mark, thanks again. This is a much clearer presentation than we had seen previously. You mentioned that there's been a variety of studies throughout the country and I know that we heard from Bob Chapman at our work session. Could you cite a couple of those studies and tell us their conclusions, please? Yeah, I think one was done. I'll speak more to the mic. Excuse me, one was done from the University of Washington study, looked at two road diet quarters in Seattle to see what impact it had on both the volume speeds and economic activity. There was one that was done, again, of a similar type of street in California in Los Angeles. There was one that was done in Vancouver, Washington and then there were a couple that were done in Kentucky and then we also looked closer to in state here the one that was done in Charlotte that a fairly analogous street that was converted and where they'd also observed reductions in speeds and improved safety and very little impact on actually the traffic that was traffic volume on the street. And the effect on businesses? The, I don't think the Charlotte study addressed the economic impact. Those other studies actually did address the economic impact. Charlotte just looked at effect on speeds, traffic volumes and safety accidents. Thank you. And then my final question may be for you or the manager. We heard unfortunately this weekend that once again the General Assembly may be ready to get involved in local issues concerning striping of state streets. Have you heard anything? I'll tell you, I emailed our state senator, one of them, Mike Woodard who used to serve with us here on this council because he was quoted in like a Earl Sun article on Friday stating that this may come up and he was in opposition to it. Is there late news about what happened in Raleigh today? I have not heard of any action on that matter today. Councilman Brown, my understanding of the proposed legislation is not that these actions would be prohibited. They would just require the approval of the straight state transportation board. That's true and I think there's been some follow-up that discussion as a result of some issues that Mike has, Senator Woodard has raised even with NCDOT staff to where they're, actually I think they're considering it tonight. They may be debating it and looking at perhaps making some modifications to that to perhaps establish a threshold above which they would go to the board or maybe even some guidelines that NCDOT staff would use to kind of, to provide a little clear direction on where these would be appropriate. But what I was gonna say too is I don't think that regardless of the timing or the substance of that that it should impact your direction to staff and we'll just deal with whatever we have to deal with at the time that we need to do that. Thank you. Rick and that's gonna be a pro term. Mark, could you share the cons of the restructuring? The, well it was, it was, the really, I'm just gonna consider it. I know that as you've heard that some of the concerns have been raised about the economic impact it will have. Like I said, from what we've gathered in the studies we don't think that it will adversely affect the activity along there. Will it slow traffic down? It probably will. But again, that's one of the objectives of this is to slow the traffic down. Might there be congestion at some times? Possibly more so with three lanes than there would be with five lanes. But again, it's nothing that we would expect to be unusual or beyond what a three lane section should be able to accommodate. And we think that it will actually improve, reduce the number of accidents. There are plans to put more traffic signals in the area of where our mechanics and farmers, bank, corporate building is. The one place where there was, has been a request and we've done some studies and would like to, we'll continue to work with NCDOT is at Hope Valley Road, that intersection. If we were to pursue one, that would be the location at that intersection. Okay, thank you. One of the concerns that I had raised is that by restricting the corridor to three lanes or one lane from two lanes to one lane, that as you move towards University Drive where the stoplight is, I felt that you were gonna be creating more of a queue in terms of people stacking up further along 15501 at the stoplight and then going on University Drive where there's always congestion depending on the time of day. You have any thoughts about that here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think at that location we have one lane now where you can make the left turn basically from 15501 business on to university going toward downtown. There's one lane today because there's a long one. I know that, but my question is because there's one lane and now you've suddenly had two lanes going into the one lane, now you've got one lane going into it, what are you gonna be doing on the corridor 15501? I think what we need to make sure is that we have coordination between the James Street traffic signal and the signal at University Drive so that they are coordinated. Since there will be one lane going through on at James Street. Let me tell you where I think we've already got a road died and I guess that's what I'm trying to get an appreciation for what's being proposed here. And I see this every morning. If you're coming from South Point Mall on Fayetteville Street where you've got two lanes each way, as soon as you pass Woodrow, you suddenly go into one lane each way. And the traffic stacks horribly at that point until it gets back to Fayetteville where you've got two lanes and that's what I'm trying to understand, get an appreciation for this corridor in terms of what will happen because I know what I do sometimes. Sometimes I cut off of Fayetteville Street and go into one of the other lanes to get where I am. So have you done that type of analysis on this site? We ran the traffic model at this intersection and found that it would operate at a level service D, an acceptable level that it would handle the traffic volumes through. Writing it now. What is it now? It's at a C, will it continue to C or D? It will continue to C. Actually it will continue at a level service C at this intersection. Well, I'll just say it's going to a D now. Maybe I missed something. I misspoke. That's why I just asked Pete. It will be at maintain. Our model shows that it would run at a level service C. Our acceptable levels are D. We would accept it up to D. I have some other questions, but I'm going to go to the audience now for persons who have sounded to speak on this item. And as I call your name, if you come to the podium to the right, state your name and address. And you have three minutes. Wayne Lee, Kristen Leposkey, Johan Andrews. And I'm just calling the names the way the cards are presented, not whether you're for or against. David Stevenson, Susan Sewell, Deanna Hall, Kendra Bridges, Chris Russo, Martin Steinmeier, Havona Piper, Sam Hudson, Claudia Lopez. Now is there anyone whose name I did not call that would like to speak on this item? Again, this is not a public hearing. But because of the issue, we're allowing people to speak. So is there anyone whose name I didn't call that would like to speak on this item? In that case, Claudia Cooper, is she here? You're the last speaker. So if we could start it off with Wayne Lee. Wayne, president. My name is Wayne Lee. I represent here by design on the Boulevard. And as I said a couple of weeks ago, we're not the enemy. We believe in the same thing that most of you all believe in. We want a safer boulevard. We helped build the boulevard to what it is today. You know, I feel like we should have been granted the opportunity to see this plan and help be a part of the plan. We want to stop light. We want a crosswalk. We want sidewalks. But we feel like that this is going to be more hazardous to people's health. I'm afraid someone will back out of my parking lot into a cyclist. And I'm for cyclists. I'm for bike paths all over town in safe places. That's really all I have to say. Just please don't. The businesses that you say you want to visit and represent or that you want to take care of these businesses, just please think about what we want because the majority of the businesses don't want it. We just want to be a part of this discussion. Thank you. Good evening, City Council. Thank you for letting us speak. My name is Kristin Lampkowski. I reside at 605 Yancy Street. And I am the current chair of Bike Durham. You all received an email from me on Friday regarding a public petition that we put out online and asked people in support to sign onto. Our current numbers for that petition are 1,053 people in support with over 375 comments in support of this reconfiguration. We have a number of those supporters here this evening to speak as well as just to participate by being present. And I would like to ask everyone in support to stand at this time. Thank you all for coming out and for those of you who have worked to move this project forward. We would also like to thank the city staff that have worked on this. I'd like to make just one additional point. A number of Durham cyclists do not have access to a vehicle and use a bicycle as their main transportation mode. The most recent crash that resulted in a cyclist's death on our roads was Isidro Razo. Mr. Razo used a bike as his main form of transportation. And that is what we are thinking of this evening when we are asking you to move forward on this. This is the opportunity to make this section of road safer for different transit users, specifically for bicyclists. While this project, unfortunately, does not include pedestrian improvements at this time, we of course support pedestrian improvements in the future. They're just outside the purview of this project at this time. And we don't want to see the city pass up an opportunity to improve safety on this section of road because this plan is not perfect. This is a good plan that will improve safety on this section of road, and we encourage you to vote in favor of it. Thank you. Good evening, City Council. My name is Deanna Hall. Pardon me. I think we know where people are. If we can hold applause so the speakers can get through this process, we appreciate it. Thank you. Good evening, City Council. My name is Deanna Hall, and I reside at 205 Carey Wood Drive, and I'm here representing the Durham Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, our commission. And in light of the safety concerns surrounding traffic collisions along with Durham's commitment to creating a more livable community for everyone via the mayor's challenge for safer people and safer streets, the Durham Bicycle and Advisory Commission is excited and thankful for the opportunity to show support for the reconfiguration of the 15501 business corridor. Not only is it an opportunity to create a crucial link in Durham's Bicycle Network, but it's an opportunity to move Durham closer to being a safe place for all residents regardless of their mode of transportation. And since the changes can be made at no cost of the city, and if it's proven that these changes are not effective for all of the members of the community, it's a minimal cost to reverse them or to change them into another configuration. We would like to thank you for your leadership and for your support of the safety and the prosperity of our community. And we hope that you'll consider joining us in supporting this project. Thank you. Mayor, members of council, my name's Kendra Bridges. I reside at 2752 Campus Walk Avenue. I'm also a member of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission with Deanna, and I wanted to share a few thoughts about the economic considerations that have been raised. We understand and value the concerns of the business owners on the corridor. We definitely don't take lightly that people are concerned about their livelihoods. You'll hear, I believe, from some business owners as well who are in support of this project. We're very thankful that City Staff was able to put together that excellent memo that Mr. Aronson spoke to on the economic impacts shown in other cities, which have done similar projects. Specifically, the Seattle study showed that taxable retail sales along two different segments that received similar road configurations did not decrease and in some instances did increase and they also used comparable corridors that had not been given a road reconfiguration as a control. So it was a very great study to show that benefit and had similar studies were done as well in Vancouver and in Los Angeles, as Mr. Aronson mentioned. There were other studies listed in that memo that also talked about property values not being negatively impacted as well as other economic benefits as well. We appreciate your thorough consideration of this matter and the opportunity for all of us to come up and speak to you tonight about our considerations to make Durham an even better city and respectfully request that you approve this project. Thank you so much. Good evening, my name is David Stevenson. I live at 28 or nine Legion Avenue and I'm President of Tuscaloosa Lakewood Neighborhood Association. The TLNA Board approved a statement in strong support of this proposal. From conversations with neighbors and listserv traffic, I'm convinced that the majority of residents also support this, not only in Tuscaloosa Lakewood but also in Long Meadow and Rockwood neighborhoods. The reason is simple, restriping will make, will lead to a significant improvement in safety for those of us who travel the boulevard daily, whether by foot, by bike, or by car. We believe that there will not be a significant problem with additional cut through traffic in our neighborhood as some have suggested. The simple reason for that is that there are very few viable alternatives for through traffic to move to the downtown area without taking a boulevard and university drive route. Like everyone else, residents in the adjacent neighborhoods wish that the restriping were accompanied by sidewalks and a traffic signal. That's not on the agenda tonight but I do urge the council to increase your support for non-downtown districts like the boulevard Rockwood district. There, this needs to be the first step in a deliberate plan to add more improvements to the boulevard such as sidewalks and traffic signal, not 10 years from now, not five years from now but much sooner. I've lived a block and a half from the boulevard for over 23 years, I've seen good and bad. We have an opportunity tonight to do something that is really good for the boulevard and its businesses, for the neighborhoods and for Durham. So I urge you to support this, to approve this proposal for the sake of safety and for improving the vitality of the boulevard Rockwood commercial district and the surrounding neighborhoods. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Bell and city council members. My name's Joanne Andrews. I'm the art teacher at Rogers Hearn Middle School. Thank you for responding, Mr. Davis. If you're familiar with Rogers Hearn, my classroom is the glass walled room at the end of the building that faces the boulevard and faces Cornwallis Road. I see a lot from my classroom all day. I've worked at Rogers Hearn for seven years. In my email to the council earlier today I described a lot of different points but I'm gonna focus on our kids who cross the boulevard either to come to school or to go to the store because if you ask of why a middle school student would cross the boulevard it's because the takis and the mountain dew are on the other side. So to be clear, our students are not allowed to cross the boulevard but that doesn't mean they don't cross the boulevard. What happens when they return and I'm in my classroom watching them, they get a severe scolding, a call home and we breathe a sigh of relief that one of them hasn't been hit. This has been going on for years. The other morning I saw a student of ours walking along the side of the road to come to school when I asked him why he was walking. He said he missed his bus, he had to walk. So it would just be a step in the right direction for the safety of our students. If we could just slow the traffic down a little bit, a crosswalk would be great, a traffic light would be great. I try to model to my kids as a cyclist that there are alternatives to getting in a car and going less than a quarter of a mile. But I can't even encourage my kids to walk to their house that's right across the street, either on in the nation ab area or in the apartments behind fosters. So I encourage you to do the restriping as a step in the right direction. On behalf of my students, I encourage you to vote for it. Thank you. Hello again. My name is Susan Sewell. I live at 2904 Legion Avenue, less than a block from 15501 Boulevard. I support the road diet proposed on 15501. It is a great step forward for a safer, walkable neighborhood. I've shared with the council members and many others in the last two weeks an AARP fact sheet on road diets. Concerns mentioned here two weeks ago and in the opposition petition you received were all answered in that fact sheet with studies showing that we can be reassured about the increased safety and that all of them are on, we don't have to worry about them. The fact sheets description of an ideal first project for a city, I thought was interesting. It is a road that carries no more than 15,000 vehicles a day and we're at 14,000. It serves a downtown neighborhood and we serve several in this area with the potential for reinvestment and that clearly describes this area to a T. We are the ideal location for a road diet. Thank you. Hello council, thank you. My name is Chris Russo. I reside at 807 Parker Street. I'll try to keep this short but every time I say that the opposite happens so I'll try to keep this long. I'm here representing Bike Durham as well. Kristin spoke eloquently on our behalf. I also run two businesses in Durham so I'm a Durham employer, one of which is called Tilty Rich Compost. Council member Steve Schuyl has been a longtime subscriber so we appreciate that. That is a, that's a business based around the bicycle and this improvement reconfiguration would greatly benefit our reach. Also run a web development shop called Savas out of the American underground and one of the core reasons we chose that space in downtown Durham was because there was safe cycling access to that space. So I threw those two businesses higher that should say employee nine Durham residents and do all of that without owning a car. So what I think I'm trying to say is that I'm representative of a generation that prioritizes these things, safe cycling access, safe pedestrian access and that is what draws us to where we work and play in Durham. Thanks for your consideration and I hope you'll support this reconfiguration. Good evening, my name is Yvonne Piper and I am downtown resident. I reside on Main Street in Crest Building. I would like to urge City Council to support the road diet of Chapel Hill, Durham Boulevard for three reasons and being a six or seven speaker I probably am going to repeat things that were already said just to make it a point. Number one is the safety of the solution. I have heard, I have read statistics that in the last five years on that section of the road there were about close to 160 collisions and some of them creating injuries and I also read that road diet diminishes accidents anywhere from 20 to 50%. So this is a proven solution to increase the safety of that part of the road. I am also the resident of this area and as such I would like to increase accessibility and livability of that part of the city because with the road diet it will be much easier for us to conduct business there to access, to patronize the restaurant and access the retail because the traffic will be slower. It will be much easier to cross the street you can park and go to several businesses. And the third reason is truly the benefit for the business. The study that Mark quoted I also read and basically by looking at the revenue there was increase in Seattle area for the around the streets where that implemented the road diet and the key concern of the businesses was that they were going to cut down the number of parking spaces versus that solution that was presented actually increases number of street parking. But what's the most beautiful about this whole solution is that it's just restriping. So if it truly does not work the cost of reverting to the old way it was reconfigured is not that costly. So thank you for considering that solution. Good evening, my name's Sam Hudson. I've resided at 5301 Blue Sage Drive in Wake County. I'm a frequent visitor to downtown Durham by sickle and walkings and my primary means of getting about. I'd like to point out with a support this reconfiguration would like point out this lad to the inventory of complete streets and Durham of giving more access to cyclists and pedestrians. Thank you for your support. Mr. Mayor, dear members of the city council. My name is Martin Steinmeier and I reside at 1017 Demiri Street in Durham. I'm a member of a still fledgling group the Durham Coalition for Complete Streets. We created this group because we realized that it would be beneficial to look at complete streets from the perspective of not just cyclists, not just cars, not just pedestrians but really from all perspectives and from different perspectives such as economic benefits, health benefits, security benefits and so forth. What we also realized was how big we have been working on this for several months what we realized how big the support is from really different walks, people of different walks of life, different areas of Durham for a concept like this, complete streets and again for different reasons people who are concerned for their own personal safety when walking or biking to work, taking public transport and then walking the rest to work, people who just want to be out and about and be healthy and safe. So it seems to be a really good concept for Durham. This project in my personal estimation after having done this work and having talked to people fits the bill really well. I think when I look at what we have heard in terms of evidence supports that this is, that this has every chance to be a good project. It is not the answer to all the problems. In that sense, I want to really also sympathize and I think it's important to recognize the concerns of the business owners as well who say what happens to the people who get out of their cars and then walk the rest of the way along the street without a sidewalk. That is a concern that has to be addressed in my opinion as well. But that doesn't mean that this is not a good first step. So I think recognizing these concerns is an important part, but not resorting to the response to not take this really important and I think by all the evidence that we've heard really good and beneficial first step. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor Bell, members of the city council. My name is Claudia Cooper. I'm the owner of what we hope for Bakery and Cafe and Restaurant on the Boulevard. I think we have all navigated the Boulevard and know what it is like. Nothing short of a death trap on a good day. I do support the road diet. I think it is a very significant first step in the right direction of doing something about the Boulevard because something has to give, something has to be done. Some of the concerns we have had as business owners and a lot of them have been voiced. When we look at the studies and the pictures that are presented in the studies, they look really different. They have a green area in the middle of them. They have pedestrian walkways. They have lights. So what we were worried about is that this is a phase one. What we're hoping for is a phase two. I think the restriping is definitely a great solution to do something immediately about the speed that is of great concern. I think of phase two of sidewalks, traffic lights on Hope Valley Road. A clearly defined turning lane because it also is an issue when people use the turning lane as a driving lane. So I would hope that there would be a lot of definition where the left turns are and where they should stop so people don't get in the left turn lane and drive down it and speed signs, more than two that I think we currently have, and also enforcement of such. It's rare to see an officer on the Boulevard helping with the speed and I think it would be important to when this is implemented, if it gets implemented that it is enforced. I think there's a lot of interest clearly about this project. So I also would like to point out that the Boulevard is significant to the city of Durham. It potentially connects six neighborhoods. It's always been amazing to me where it has come, where it started. I've been there for 17 years. It has really become a road that now a lot of independent businesses are on, very interesting businesses, locally owned and operated. And I hope that that continues. I would like to ask city council to support that there is a phase two to this project that we just not just get a restriping, but that there is further consideration and money spent and attention of the city of Durham spend on that area, which I think is also very significant commercial corridor, residential area, and significant connector for many neighborhoods in the city. And we're part of the city. Thank you very much. Yeah. Scuba was the last person that sounded to speak. Is there anyone else who wants to speak on this item that has not spoken? Yes ma'am, if you can come in and state your name and address please. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Leslie Richardson. I own the music clarity studios in the lower level of the hair by design building. I feel that the road diet, although it does initiate a bike lane that I am for that, but I also have concerns about my patrons coming down towards the driveway in order to park so that me and along with five other businesses are able to be patronized. I did have some questions. I'm not sure if this is the moment to speak on it or if there's anyone I can ask in regard to it, but some of the questions were in terms of Charlotte where the studies were done. How comparable was that to 15501? I know Charlotte's a much bigger city than Durham. Whether those five lane to three lane slimming was similar to that that was being done in Charlotte. Also, some of the questions I have is if this does go through what sort of signage or detours would affect the businesses, would we be able to continue to operate as usual? Because there is only one entrance. I'm not sure exactly where those lines are defined, but I feel as if during snow days or during days that my students are coming down after work areas usually nine to five and I operate from usually three to nine, will people still be able to get here on time or if they'll be rushing? And although there will be some speed that I feel that should be monitored, whether we can consider some alternatives such as having a flashing speed monitor or maybe increase the police officers that are there to monitor those who are speeding or if there is a way to keep the five lanes but still add a bike lane to some of the areas where the grass is, or I'm not sure if repaving over that would be an option, but maybe just select a solution that works for both businesses and the bicyclists and like many people have said, whether it would be possible to implement another phase that where the businesses would be part of the discussion and that's usually pretty much the questions that I have. Thank you for considering that. Just the one response to the, it was East Boulevard in Charlotte and it had mixture of uses. Some were commercial and part of it was a little more residential, so part of it was analogous to some of the business characteristics along the Boulevard. And I just wanted to clarify two things in response to the questions that you'd raised earlier about the level of service. Basically what we determined is that the existing level of service at university in the Boulevard is level service C in the morning, D in the afternoon, and that would be unchanged with the road diet. Level service C is a 20 to 35 second delay. Level service D is a 35 to 55 second delay and that's the standard that we use throughout the city as a level service D. That's what we shoot for. And also your question about the Fayetteville Road. Fayetteville Road traffic south of where it's four lanes, south of Woodcroft is 26,000 vehicles per day and that transitions to 17,000 on the two lane section north of Woodcroft. On the Boulevard, the volume on the four lane section as you're moving eastbound and transitioning to three, it goes from 15,000 to 14,000. So basically it's a continuous volume on the Boulevard and at Fayetteville it goes from 26,000 to 17,000 which contributes to the queuing. Thank you. Council Member Gauta, did you have a comment? Thank you, Mayor. I actually had a couple of questions and then some comments. Mark, could you possibly, do you remember the vehicle volume on the east Boulevard in Charlotte? He did say it was analogous in terms of. 20,000. Okay. So it was actually higher. Thank you. Can you also comment? I know other people have asked this as something. If this moves forward, well in either way, can you explain to everyone what the schedule is for resurfacing and then what the impact of restriping would have? Like whether we do five lanes or three lanes, does that have any impact on the amount of time the project takes? No, that wouldn't have any impact on the resurfacing schedule. It'll be this summer. I don't know that we have. Yeah, the contract has until April of 2016 to be completed, but I think the expectation is that work will be completed this paving season. And do you remember about how long it'll take to repave the Boulevard? I had heard. I don't know a matter of days, but I don't know. I could find that out and get back with you. That'd be helpful. I wanted to thank everyone for the tremendous outpouring of support and concern surrounding this project. It's been quite impressive. And I really wanna thank staff for all their efforts in gathering information and examples of other successful projects and responding to questions. So as many of you have already said, as illustrated by the numerous studies on the impact of road diets, all the evidence does seem to point to increased safety, aesthetics and positive impacts on the surrounding community, residents, guests and businesses alike. So while I hear and appreciate the concerns by some business owners, particularly those expressed in the petition, those options regarding lights, crosswalks and sidewalks, all of which I support, those are next steps and are not the option before us. Let's not lose the tremendous opportunity before us to make this corridor safer and more attractive. I wholeheartedly support this plan restriping and at the appropriate time, I'll move the item. Thank you. Although I'll recognize Councilman Schuch. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, you and I must be among the, I guess 9,000 people that turn off of Fayetteville Road onto Juliet, then go to head down to get onto MLK and then go down Archdale on our way downtown. So I understand where you're coming from. I'm cutting through a lot of neighborhoods when I do that too. I do wanna say to Mr. Lee and Ms. Richardson, I appreciate your comments and you said you're not the enemy. There's no truer words have been spoken. I grew up in a retail business and I've been in business all my life and I know it's hard to be in a business and be in a small business and I certainly don't take your concerns lightly. I do believe that this will help you. I think that traffic will be going more slowly and I think that more people will be interested in stopping by and we'll find out if that's true but I do believe that. Also about the sidewalks, I think that we should be realistic about that. I mean, so we did a capital improvement plan where the manager asked us to rank the projects that we thought were most important and the council has a whole rated sidewalks number one. So the manager then and the staff came forward to us with a capital improvement plan that we're gonna be discussing later this year and but both versions of that have somewhere from $15 to $20 million with the sidewalks over the next five to 10 years sort of depending upon how we arrange it. That's a lot of money it seems like but sidewalks are very expensive and this would be a particularly expensive sidewalk because there's one thing to lay, so the sidewalks behind Motorco in that small neighborhood down there which is city, totally with city money, no state approvals, city roads, cost about a quarter of a million dollars a mile. The sidewalk on Hillendale Road which has curb and gutter and is really kind of more of a street project is I believe the number is $3 million a mile. So when you've got to put in curb and gutter and when you have a state road you have a tremendous number of approvals and so what I'm trying to say is I think it will be, I think we ought to be prioritizing this sidewalk but if we do it will still take a long time because it will be expensive and we'll need a lot of state approvals. It's a state road, it just makes it harder. So I'm looking forward to our sidewalk and bike study that we're doing this year which is gonna reprioritize all our sidewalk and bike projects. The council will have a look at that and I think it's gonna help us make tremendous progress on the walkability and cycling around this city but I don't think that's mostly what this is about. To me this is about traffic safety. That's the number one thing this is about. I cycle but that's not what to me this is mostly about. It's about the fact that on a wet day the traffic wrecks on this stretch are about five times the North Carolina average for a similar street. We're talking about traffic fatality. We have 54 injuries, traffic injuries there in the last five years and I also wanna reinforce what Eddie said. I thought that the most moving email we got was from you Ms. Andrews and I appreciated you coming here to say that again but I thought the stories of those students crossing and what you wrote was great. I also wanna compliment you for spelling biscuitville with a Q. It certainly raised my impression of biscuitville and I'm more likely to go there and get a croissant. But I really appreciated everybody's participation and for those of you all who are in business there we don't, none of us take your concerns lightly. It's critically important to us. We all go there and love to patronize your businesses. We don't want to hurt them. And so I'll definitely be supporting this. I think it's a great plan and I'm also, one more thing the North Carolina Department of Transportation supported this, not just our local. That's significant. They're not gonna support something where they don't think the flat traffic can flow as it ought to there. That's what they care a lot about. So anyway, I really appreciate our stay of bringing to us. Councilman Moffitt. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanna, there's been a lot of thoughtful discussion on this issue. There's been a lot of considerations and I wanna first thank everyone who came out tonight. Everyone who's here, both for and against because I know that you're here because you want Durham to be a great city. The streets belong to all of us, the businesses along them, but also those who use them or would use them if they were safe enough. Economic studies have shown that road reconfigurations like this at their worst have a neutral impact on sales and property values and tend towards positive impact for the businesses along there. On the boulevard in the section there's been noted there's been high accident rates for motorized vehicles and it's clear that we need to do something. And this is something it's also clear that more is needed. I think all of us hear the call for crosswalks, sidewalks, a stop line. But this is a big bang for the buck. We can make this safer for the people who drive on it as well as the people who cycle and walk and ride the bus. So I will be supporting this tonight. Any other comments? You recognize the Mayor Pro Tem? I do business at M and F bank and traffic is normally a nightmare on the boulevard. Just trying to come out of that spaces is difficult. Plus my daughter works at the corporate office. And I think if this will slow the traffic down, I'm certainly going to support it for me and for my child and for those of you present. Thank you for coming. I appreciate your comments and I plan to vote for you. Did I ask the staff? Oh, I had, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you coming. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Two weeks ago when we had this discussion, I was somewhat dubious about this change. Um, but in the last several weeks, the more I have read, the more analysis that I have done, the more studies I have seen, the more comparable with other cities that I have compared this boulevard with and the more citizens, and yes, business owners along the boulevard that I have spoken with leads me to conclude this is the right way to go. So I will be supporting this this evening. And I would suggest that for all of you who represent businesses along the boulevard, we need a boulevard that is as great as those businesses. And in order to that, I think we need this change. And so I tend to support it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Let me ask the staff a question. You may or may not be able to answer. It's been said repeatedly that if it doesn't work, we can always go back to restriping it the way it was. Do you have an idea of what type of course is involved in that because? I don't, I don't want to mislead you in thinking that it's, that would be a simple task. It certainly is not a construction project. So it wouldn't be reconstructing anything to take it back to a five lane, but it would be an effort to remove the thermoplastic that's applied. And it would have some impact on the condition of the pavement asphalt. So while it certainly wouldn't be anything like undoing reconstruction work, I don't want to overemphasize that it would just be, go out and restripe it back to five lanes. So I'll just leave it at that. My concerns have been, and first of all, I'll say this because you should know it. I'm a supporter of complete streets. I told someone else that I was the first mayor in North Carolina to support Secretary S. Fox, safe streets, pedestrians and all that stuff. So that has been an issue for me. The issue for me was what we're dealing with. I was not very much impressed by the photos that came up last week because quite frankly, none of those depicted what we were talking about. We weren't talking about sidewalks. We weren't talking about a planet median. We weren't talking about street lights. We weren't talking about any streetscaping. And all those photos pretty much had that type of appearance. That was another reason I had asked the manager to ask Mark to present a more visual representation of what was actually being proposed. My concern was more about safety. My concern was about the businesses. My concern was whether or not they and actually I were gonna be hurt but the fact that they felt they were gonna be hurt was to me significant enough to try to understand some of the concerns that they were raising. Safety is an issue. I still personally have my doubts as to whether or not this function is gonna work the way we want it to work. But given where we are, and my vote does make a difference. My vote does make a difference. But given where we are, I intend to go ahead and vote for it. And what I think is, I don't want anybody to think this is phase one going on phase two. You're probably gonna see phase two in my lifetime. And I'm serious. You're talking about a massive amount of money to make the type of changes that those photo shops that we saw, to put sidewalks, to put curb and gutter, to put street lights, to put all that stuff. I just think it's gonna happen anytime soon. But I do feel that the safety is an issue. I feel a lot more persuaded that businesses might not be hurt as much as they think they're gonna be hurt. But you always have that opportunity to go back and make the change. And the change isn't as easy. That's why I asked Mark to tell us what we're talking about in terms of the change. But having said that, I think we've all had an opportunity to speak. Gonna cut off the discussion, call for motion. It's been properly moved. Second, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven is zero. Thank you. Let's move to item 54, the general business agenda public hearings. Item 54 is Unified Development Ordinance, Texas Amendment Independent Living Facility, T.C. 140005. Good evening, Steve Maddlin with the Durham City County Planning Department. I'd like to first acknowledge that all public notice has been carried out in accordance with law. And affidavits have been completed in our part of the case files for both this item and the following item. Item pending for council at this point is a Unified Development Ordinance, Texas Amendment, T.C. 1405, which is a privately initiated application by the Morning Stall Law Group to develop standards for a type of residential use called an independent living facility, which is the type of residential use for senior populations that the UDO currently does not accommodate. The draft text amendment ordinance provides for the following. It establishes the independent living facility use within article five of the UDO. It clarifies references to similar uses within article five. It establishes parking requirements in article 10 and provides a definition in the use provisions, excuse me, for the use in article 16. Staff has concluded the request is consistent with the conference of plan and is reasonable and in public interest and is therefore recommending approval. Likewise, the Planning Commission at their April 14th meeting recommended approved by a vote of 11 to zero. As a reminder, council will be required to take two actions. The first action will be a vote on the amendment itself and the second action will be a vote on the consistency statement as required by state statute. I'll be happy to answer any questions the council may have. Thank you. This is a public hearing matter. The public hearing is open. I would ask first are the questions by members of the council, of the staff report. If not, we have one person to sign up to speak on this item. Let me ask, is anyone else that wants to speak on this item? I'm deciding on being a public hearing. I recognize Patrick Beichel for three minutes on this item. Good evening, Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden, members of the city council. My name is Patrick Beichel. I'm going to start with morning. Attorney with Morningstar Law Group and I live at 2614 Stewart Drive. I'm here tonight representing Bartlett Reserve, an independent living facility in Durham on NC 55, just south of NC 54. Sean Yule, the general manager for Bartlett Reserve is here with us this evening. We are requesting this text amendment because the UDO lacks a use category which serves the active older adult community between the care intensive congregate living facility on one hand and the generic apartment complex with no services at all on the other hand. The old Durham zoning ordinance that was in effect through 2005 did provide for a retirement center life care facility which is a style of development that accommodates independent seniors. Unfortunately, and perhaps inadvertently, the UDO failed to carry over a defined use category such as independent living facility when the UDO was adopted in 2006. Our research has found that five of our peer cities across North Carolina, Raleigh, Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Charlotte and Carey have similar use categories in their respective unified development ordinances. While these current definitions from our peers are helpful, we believe that incorporating essentially what Durham had in the old zoning ordinance back into the UDO represents the best option for this text amendment. This text amendment will stimulate affordable, good quality, market-based housing opportunities for independent seniors. Specifically, this independent living facility component of the UDO can attract new investment to Durham through the adaptive reuse of underperforming or underutilized office or hotel buildings. Our clients' redevelopment, Bartlett Reserve, is a fine example of new investment in the adaptive reuse of an existing but underperforming extended stay hotel. The Durham UDO should facilitate the development of good quality affordable housing for independent seniors. As we have shown in our application, most of the categories from age 55 to age 85 and over are the highest percentage increases among all age categories in the 2020 census data for Durham County. We believe this text amendment will encourage private investment to meet this strong demand for independent senior housing that is derived from Durham's superb healthcare, community amenities and recreational opportunities. In closing, I wanted to thank all of the council members who took the time to go see Bartlett Reserve and to meet with Morgan Burkett, the developer who had the vision for this outstanding redevelopment. I am very sad to report that Morgan passed away last month from a very aggressive form of cancer. I deeply wish Morgan could have been here tonight after all the work he has done on this issue and that he could have seen Bartlett Reserve fully completed. Morgan was a very kind, caring gentleman and it is abundantly clear that the Durham seniors who live in his development loved him very much. With that noted, we respectfully ask for your approval and we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Other questions by members of the council? Developer? Again, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item that is not spoken? Let the record reflect that no one else has to speak. Second. I'm going to close the public hearing. Okay. Public hearing is closed. Anything to motion? Second. It's been properly moved and second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. And the next item on next. Excuse me, Mr. Mayor. No, that's what I'm asking. No, that's what I'm asking for. It's been properly moved and second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Can you close the vote? It passes seven to zero. Moved item 56, street closing, Rooney Street, street closing 14-0-0-1-7. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council, Pat Young with the Planning Department. Before you tonight is SC 14-0-0-0-1-7. This is an application by Coulter Jewel-Tims to close 235.53 linear feet of a portion of Rooney Street. And if this request is approved, this portion of the right-of-way would be closed and equally distributed to the adjoining property owners, including the City of Durham. This request was reviewed by over 20 city, county, and state departments and agencies and public utility providers, and no issues or concerns were identified, except for concerns regarding access and liability raised by the City General Services and Parks and Recreation Department. These were addressed through the agreement and associated easement adopted and authorized earlier this evening as item 29 on your agenda. Staff recommends approval, and I'll be happy to take any questions. This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. Questions, right, members of the staff? We have one person that has sounded to speak for this, Patrick Becker. Good evening, Mayor Bell, members of the council. Patrick Becker again, representing the developer of the 539 Foster Street project. I'm afraid Dan Jewel and all our friends from Durham Central Park have hit the road, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Are there questions by members of the council? If not, is there anyone else who wants to speak on this item? It's been a public hearing. Let the record reflect that no one else has to speak. I'll clerk public hearing to be closed. The matter's back before the council. It's been a proper move in the second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Thank you very much. Moved item 56, amendment to the economic redevelopment and historic property preservation incentive development agreement with the corn core hospitality enterprise company. Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council, Reginald Jones, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. This item before you recommends the approval of a contract to amend the agreement between the Concord hospitality enterprises company and the city of Durham related to the economic redevelopment and historic property preservation incentive awarded to Concord October 14, 2013. The staff recommends that you city council would give the city manager authorization to execute an amendment to the original agreement between Concord hospitality enterprises company and the city of Durham, extending the time required to secure a final certificate of compliance to no later than August 27, 2015. Reggie, what was the total number of days of extension or months of that extension? It's 42 days. Thank you. Again, this is a public hearing item. The public hearing is open. I would ask other questions. I'm a member of the council of staff report. If not, we have two people that signed up to speak. Robert Gutman. Well, Dr. Gutman, I recognize you. Thank you. Well, Mayor Bell, you look wonderful. I'm glad to see you. Thank you. And Mayor Bell and councilman. I'm a neighbor of the project and my family's been heavily involved in all the planning that came before it and working with Concord. And we certainly support this extension. They've worked diligently and carefully to preserve our neighborhood and they ran into some foul weather that we certainly have recommended. Thank you. I'm Hoslesky, C. Bell, you have comments. And is there anyone else who wants to speak after? Tim. Good evening, Mayor Bell, members of the council. My name is Timothy Oseke with Concord Hospitality. We are the owners and developers of the project that we have been diligently pursuing and trying to get completed here by our deadline. Mother Nature has just not been very favorable for us over this past spring and this past winter. The interior is all but complete. We're just in final operations of setting up and cleaning but the exterior is lagging and we would ask your help to support this. I do thank the economic workforce development for all your preparation and your support in doing this. Thank you. Other questions about the council? Anyone else want to speak on this item? Let the record reflect. No one else has to speak. I would like to close the matter before the council. I've been profiting. Move to second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Okay, let's move back to the items that have been pooled and I'm going to call them in the way that they pool. Item 27, which was amendment to contract with Terracotta Consultants Inc. for additional investigation and testing services for the police head quotas complex. Minister Razee, is he here? Good evening, Mayor Bell. City Council members, I'm not going to be long, I'm just going to rehash some statements that I previously made to the committee that was sent around down to get input on this facility, the new police station. If possible, I would like to serve these copies. I'm not going to be long. I received a response to my request, let her pursuant to the public records. North Carolina General Statute, section 132-1B. Where I was requesting from the General Services Department to sit up there on whether or not there had been an EPA environmental impact study. I understand if you notice at the last paragraph in my response letter, page one. If your request for records, in your request for records, you have asked for EPA environment impact study statement, a remedial cleanup, EIS. It is not, I am not aware that this type of study has been done on the police department head quotas complex project, and I have contacted the city's environmental consultant, Terracon consultants. I have several letters from Terracon. And based upon my in-depth study, just being what you were called in an insignificant black man and girl, I am able to really perceive that the city don't know whether or not that the EPA should become involved or not. But I'm going to tell you why in my closing. A feasibility study is required in an environmental impact study and statement of remedial cleanup is required at deciding question. I know what is being said. Terracon has done the job. What you have is a peon cleanup company that has no credibility with EPA. I am saying tonight that there is a toxic lead deposit on that site. And I want you to bear witness to me in a few more days or a few more months that you begin building on that site. Something that's going to happen in Durham, that's going to make a way for what I'm saying tonight come to your mind. In my closing, you better check that petroleum leakage for lead. You can laugh all you want to. The last time I left here, I told you something was coming to Durham and crime increased. I'm telling you tonight, watch the welcome. Thank you. No one's laughing, appreciate your comments and we have the manager to look at this. Thank you. Item, next item pool was item 34. Were you saying something about that? Yeah, but I didn't know if you wanted to say anything. We'll be, anybody has any questions or would like the staff to follow up on what work Terracon is doing? We'll be glad to do that to clear the record. Well, I think since the comments have been made, the record ought to be clear. Thank you. Gina Price, assistant director of general services department. Terracon is our consultant. We're working closely with them and with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Natural Resources. And that is who we consult with and are following all procedures and requirements with Deener. Proper move in the second, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Item 34, Stephen Hawkins. That is item contract with made in Durham to support business and games for youth and justice with development of an education work pipeline system for youth. Mr. Mayor, city council members, my comments on this item can also be used for item 35. And all I'm asking is that before you give folks money to do program for our youth, at least give us, show us some benchmarks that has been made and make sure that there are some accountability for the money that we get. Cause we got so many people running around here, parking the fence, pipping our youth and our problems ain't going away. They're getting even worse in some cases. That's my comment. Thank you. You're welcome. So you don't need to speak on 35, Steve. Is that right? All right. Entertain a motion on item 34. Move the item. Proper move in the second, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Entertain a motion on item 35. Sorry. It's been properly moved in the second, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Item 37, FY 2016, contract for city services and programs for the downtown Durham Municipal Service District with downtown Durham, I recognize Steve Hopkins. I would just like some clarification because I cannot find out anything that the city has to do with the city. I don't know what the city has to do with the city. I don't know what the city has to do with the city. I don't know what the city has to do with the city. Office of Economic Workforce Development is doing to help entice black-owned businesses into downtown. Downtown looks beautiful, but it also looks white. That's not Durham. Downtown should reflect Durham as a whole. And we know that one of the shortfalls for black-owned businesses is the cost to come down here. So I would ask council to look at, support this program for black-owned businesses to bring us downtown because we are growing and the black community should benefit from all the prosperity coming downtown, not everybody else and not us. Thank you. You're welcome. Entertaining a motion on item two. It's been properly moved in the second, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. Passes seven to zero. Item 53, completion of streets and stone water, infrastructure and Stone Hill Estates and Reagan Stone Subdivision. Ms. Silver. Yes, good evening, Mayor Beall, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the city council. I'm Gwen Silver, a resident of Stone Hill Estates. Our homeless association president left. She doesn't drive at night, so she's already gone. But we want to thank you for moving forward with the completion of the streets and infrastructure. We're excited about that. It's been a decade since the developers put the incomplete streets in and seven years since they left it that way. So we're looking forward to you completing the streets. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. We recognize, council, we recognize city manager. Can I take this a second? Since we're so much ahead of schedule than we already thought we were going to be, maybe ask Bo and put him on the spot real quick and just give an update on where we are with those improvements at Stone Hill. Oh, I didn't see Marvin there. I'm sorry, I apologize, Marvin. Yeah, please do, because I think it's important to share that information. Thank you. Sure, Marvin Williams, Public Works Department. So right now we've actually started assessments of both Ravenstone and Stone Hill Estates to see how much repair work will need to be done. We anticipate starting basic repairs with our maintenance division after the 4th of July. And we're already starting to put the contract together so that we can let it for bids for completion of the streets within the developments in hopes of that we could begin work sometime in the fall. It really depends on how extensive the repairs are going to be within those developments, but we're anticipating some paving activity happening this fall, barring any significant weather delays. Thank you, Marvin. All right, the motion was made in the second, right? And can you open the vote, Madam Clerk? Close the vote. Yes, the seven is equal. Okay, any other items that come before the council before we adjourn? Let me say that I know that TTA is trying to pull together all the council people who can go to visit Charlotte for the maintenance facility. We just need, once we get a date, we need to let the clerk know so she can publicize it that the council will be possibly taking a trip to Charlotte for that purpose. So you should expect the call. I know he's contacted Dan. Your head constrict next to it. And I mean, I don't need to go. So I told David he can get schedules that fits you all this fine with me. Oh, I saw this, someone is selling city. Yeah, well, it's just an opportunity to see what's there. If there's no further business, the meeting is adjourned at 9, 26 PM. Thank you.