 anything you need anything you need me to do tonight Steve? Hey Steve, anything you need me to do tonight? You got everything? Thank you, Charlie. And I'd love to be leaving tomorrow morning, I'd love to be leaving tomorrow morning. Oh there he is. He's trying to be like me. He is. He's just like a taller version of you. No, you are so good looking. I don't think we've given Javier an excused absence. We need to do that tonight, don't we? Yeah I can't. I don't think she has. Look at you up there working for us. Every time I got that ding I was like Look at me. Look at the mint green, gray, blue. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Durham city council to order for Monday June the 18th, 2018 at 7 p.m. and I want to certainly want to welcome all of you all in attendance. And now could you please join me for a moment of silent meditation thank you thank you I'm going to now recognize councilmember Charlie Reese to lead us in the pledge thank you mr. mayor good evening everyone if it's your practice to do so and please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance thank you very much and now I'm going to ask madam clerk will you please call the roll mayor shul here mayor pro tem Johnson here councilmember Alston here member Caballero councilmember Freeman president member Middleton here councilmember Reese here thank you very much colleagues I'm going to ask for a motion to give an excused absence to councilmember Caballero who was traveling today a moment second it's been moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes six zero thank you very much and now we're going to proceed to our ceremonial items you're going to begin with the neighbor spotlight tonight and I'm going to ask Estella ball if she would come up here to the microphone and bring any family members or friends that you would like to bring this ball it's bell it sure is I'm sorry miss bell I apologize thanks for getting me wife come on up here and look that way okay miss bell I'm about to present this to you but first I'm going to read a little something about you and then I'm going to ask you to come to the microphone and say whatever you want how does that sound Estella Bell is the recipient of the neighbor spotlight for the month of June 2018 the neighbor spotlight award recognizes community members that have gone above and beyond and volunteering their time to serve the community this month Estella Bell a resident of the Eastern community was nominated and selected because of the wonderful work she has done in her neighborhood including but not limited to building a team applying for and receiving a neighborhood matching grant to provide free sewing classes in Eastern consistently sharing resources and information with neighbors and inviting them to participate in community meetings and events being a pillar and supporting neighbors whether providing an extra bite to eat helping with cleanups or connecting to opportunities well it sounds like you're doing it well miss Bell congratulations miss Bell on being the June neighbor spotlight for the city of Durham thank you for all of the work that you do to support the Durham community and if there any other residents that are here to support you are there other neighbors and friends who were here as well miss Bell actually everybody is here to support you and I'm gonna present you with this neighbor spotlight award and ask if you would say a few words to us about your work in your neighborhood I did want a few but just a few good evening everybody my name is Estella Bell and I found out that it takes a village to empower the neighborhood and let everybody know that there are so many accolades out there that can empower people whether it's just something like a food co-op thing or if it's something like trying to help people with housing or whatever people need so much and so if you are a neighborhood supporter the way you come to the neighborhood things and you empower people to take the information back to them then you empower people to be productive people to know you're not alone so don't get confused there is help out there for you if you want it but you got to reach out to because it takes a village to empower a neighborhood or whatever needs to be done and with that I'm through so that could talk more thank you stand up here with us come on how do we look Jacob thank you very much and now we have a another wonderful presentation as you all know Durham is a baseball town I also want to say councilmember Reese that the Durham is a Duke town and I am very pleased today that we have with us coaches from the Duke baseball team which has just had a fabulous season and I would like to ask you all to please come up and we're gonna make a little presentation for you all come on up everybody well as you all know the baseball players are students and as such when the season ended I hope they're gone on to enjoy themselves a little bit for the summer and and then come back ready for a new school year and a new season but we're lucky very lucky to have as you can see the coaches here with us so thank you all so much for being here and I'm gonna read this proclamation and then I'm gonna I'm gonna ask coach Chris Pollard to say a few words to us coach want you come up here next to me when I do this all right whereas the 2018 Duke Blue Devil baseball team under the leadership of coach Chris Pollard just concluded one of the finest seasons in the program's history and whereas the Blue Devil's 45 wins set a school record and whereas the team advanced the first super regional in school history and finished just one win shy of the college world series and whereas five Blue Devils were named as all ACC selections and seven members of the team were selected in the major league baseball draft and whereas this Blue Devil team represented Duke University in the city of Durham with class style and grit and whereas Durham is famous to world over as a baseball town and boast the current national minor league champions the beloved Durham Bulls and whereas the 2018 Blue Devils have added to the story and history of baseball in Durham now therefore I Stephen M Shulmair the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby claim the week of June 18th 2018 as Duke Blue Devil Baseball week in Durham and hereby urge the residents of Durham to observe this great occasion witness my hand in the corporate seal the city of Durham North Carolina this 18th day of June 2018 Stephen M Shulmair and coach Pollard I'm gonna present this to you and ask you to say a few words to thank you first and foremost I want to thank Mayor Shul and the city council for having us and taking the time out to recognize this team and what they've accomplished it was a really special year as you heard a school record 45 wins a record number of ACC wins at 18 we won the NCAA regional championship in Athens Georgia and advanced to the super regional for the first time we came up maybe one or two clutch hits shy of being in the college world series and not being able to be here with you today but this team was special on a lot of levels as you heard not only because of the wins not only because of the seven players drafted but in addition they were a group of players that this city can be proud of they represented Duke with a lot of character and a lot of class they represented this community with a lot of character and a lot of class and in addition to what they accomplished on the field all 10 of our Duke seniors that were eligible to graduate graduated this spring one of them with a master's degree and this team culminated this historic season we just found out a little while ago with a 3.3 grade point average for the year so not only were they winners on the field but they were winners in the classroom so as Mayor Shul said they're out this summer they're playing summer baseball they're taking classes they're preparing to to come back and take that next step next year so they couldn't be here with us but the folks behind us could we have an unbelievable staff our assistant coaching staff our strength coach our athletic trainer our administrator our videographer and our sports information director very fortunate that we've got a staff that's worked incredibly hard to assemble this team here at Duke and has done an unbelievable job of developing them into not only great players but great men and great representative for Dukes I want to say thank you to this tremendous staff behind me if you'll join me in recognizing all that they've done Mayor thank you very much we appreciate you very much coach thank you all so much for being here we really appreciate you thank you so much thanks a lot thank you thank you for being here I should also add on behalf of my friends who are Carolina fans that we wish our Tarheel rather than the best in the next round so good luck and now we're going to finish with one other special very special moment today here he comes here is our here is our public historian Eddie Davis who is going to bring us a history moment Eddie thank you for being here very very much Mass Shewell Mayor Pro Tem Johnson City Council members staff members it feels good to be back here again with you all and to be to see all the folks here Mass Shewell asked me earlier in the year if I would take some time over the course of this year leading into April of 2019 to sort of do some highlighting of some of the events people places events institutions that have that have been here in Durham during the time from 1869 until 2019 and that will be 150 years since the actual General Assembly incorporated the city of Durham so we've been meeting with some people around Durham and trying to talk about some actual events but mayor wanted me to come to just talk a little bit about some of the events along the way it's at some of the city council meetings not to take up too much of the time but to have some of the moments many of you are old enough to remember the Bison tenio moments that we had back in 1976 and I say that I think back how long ago that's been so a lot of people and I have been born I guess some people in here mean I have been born but there are certainly our moments that we remember and we want to do some of the same kinds of things here for the sesquicentennial of the city of Durham this afternoon I want to just talk a little bit about the building that's just about a block away from here on East Chapel Hill Street it is the Durham post office many of us may go into that to conduct that building to buy stamps to have other transactions to apply for a passport to do all kinds of things but there are obviously things about that building that many of us may not know the building has been there since 1933 so if we see the construction that we recognize that may cause a little bit of a problem here in 2018 downtown imagine the construction problems the problems with traffic and other things that were going on in 1933 so there were problems that people may have had but there were good problems in the sense that the building did get built many of us also may not be aware that the building not only serves as a post office but on the second floor the middle district of the United States federal court exists on that second floor and there are some outstanding things that have gone on there that have had a great deal of import for the city and the county and the nation I want to introduce to you if he will stand the federal magistrate judge Joe Webster who is the person who maintains that federal court building federal court area on the second floor he has done a good job there and he is in and out of this whole middle district the middle district for those of you who are attorneys know that there are court rooms in Durham in Winston Salem and in Greensboro but there have been some exciting things that have happened that have been greatly important to Durham many of us know or may know that the important case called Epps versus Carmichael took place in the late 40s and early 50s that was the case where some African-American law students from North Carolina Central were applying to be admitted to the law school at the University of North Carolina that was contentious and it was not done without challenge the Epps versus Carmichael case was heard right at the second floor of this post office right here they did not prevail the plaintiffs did not prevail the plaintiffs had such people as Floyd McKissick in that class and many other people who went on to great fame they lost the case here in Durham but that case was appealed to the fourth circuit out of Richmond Virginia and it was the case that they lost was overturned and the University of North Carolina did appeal and asked the Supreme Court to overturn the fourth circuit decision the Supreme Court in 1951 said no they were not going to overturn that case and of course that led to the integration racial integration of the University of North Carolina law school and Floyd McKissick even though he had already graduated from the University from North Carolina what was then North Carolina College law school did go and take a class during the summer of 1951 just to make sure that this school was integrated and there were several other people who did it but in that fall a gentleman who many of you may know William Marsh was a member of that first integrated class full time full full term for the University of North Carolina it's interesting that the case that was that led to the integration was put forth by was the plaintiffs were defended by not defended they were advocated for legal term here Charlie but but their lawyers the plaintiffs lawyers were Thurgood Marshall and Conrad O. Pearson many of you locally may know that Conrad O. Pearson was a famous civil rights attorney and all of us know about Thurgood Marshall there is a photograph of Thurgood Marshall climbing the stairs of the post office building here in Durham for that trial I want to let you know that during that period of time there were lots of other WPA works progress administration buildings that came along with that the be in Duke auditorium was built in 1937 with WPA funds also Duke Park that we all know and enjoy was built around that same period of time using WPA funds and also the civilian conservation core funding the Durham Armory which is under the auspices of the city of Durham right now was built completed was built during the 1935 through 1937 period of time and it was converted into and it was how built for to be an armory and in 1954 it was converted for the civic center use that we now know the long metal pool was built in 1937 and several buildings at Narkin on the Central including the be in Duke auditorium the Robinson Science Building Turner Hall McLean Hall Rush Hall and Riddick Stadium all were built using WPA funds during that period of time the other thing I want to mention before I take my seat is that the Trinity Park tree planting process went on during that period of time during the 1930s WPA funds and CCC funds were used to help with that planting many of us now have known that we've talked about that over the period of time now about the discrepancy in terms of the tree canopy that we have here in Durham North Carolina and how perhaps we should have been a much much more inclusive and I think that's probably put in Mali to make sure that that canopy would extend it beyond just that aspect of the area so there are lots of things that we'd like to be able to continue to talk to you about in terms of that the post office building and the courtroom there and there will be an opportunity for us to discuss the particularly the courtroom aspect in September during Constitution week because not only is this the 150th anniversary of the city of Durham's incorporation it also is the 150th anniversary of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and many of the cases that were heard here in Durham and in other parts of the Middle District and in many other cases courtrooms around the country was based on the whole idea of equal access based on the 14th Amendment so we want to make sure that we keep you posted on those kinds of things and to come back from time to time Mr. Mayor to let you know about the upcoming programs and activities that we'll be doing. Thank you so much for allowing me to have just a moment to talk about some things. I'll continue to send to you through email issues and information about upcoming events and hopefully the public those of you who are here as well as those of you who are in the listening and viewing audience will be able to attend many of the activities that we'll go on. We had one point thought about trying to do one program per month but many of the other people who are involved in the planning for this sesquicentennial thought that we could do some since we had the baseball team here do the exhibition season and then get into the regular season when we get into the full year of 2019 so thank you for allowing us to have an opportunity to speak to you tonight. Thank you so much Eddie. That was a fabulous history lesson. Thank you so much Eddie and Judge Webster thank you for being here. We're really appreciative of you being here. Thank you so much and that was a great history lesson and we are very much looking forward to future history lessons from our public historian and and I should also say give credit to the city manager. He said to me one day you know we really miss Eddie's history lessons we should get him back and it has been a smashing success so thank you so much. Yeah. All right that was great and now we're going to move to any announcements by the council any announcements by any of my colleagues any announcements by the council all right thank you and now we'll move on to the first order of business which is our priority items. Mr. Manager any priority items. Thank you Mr. Mayor good evening everyone no priority items from the city manager's office this evening. Mr. Attorney. Thank you Mr. Mayor no priority items. Madam clerk. Thank you mayor and council my items. Thank you very much. Our second order of business is the consent agenda the oh thank you. All items on the consent agenda may be approved in a single vote unless an item is removed by a council member or the member of the public for separate consideration at the end of the meeting tonight and now I'm going to read the the consent agenda item one approval of city council minutes item two citizens advisory committee reappointments and appointments item four cultural advisory board appoint Durham cultural advisory board appointments item five mayors nominee for appointment Durham board of adjustment item seven Durham city county environmental affairs reappointment item eight Durham homeless services advisory committee appointment item nine Durham open space and trails commission reappointment item 10 Durham sports commission reappointment item 11 housing appeals board reappointment appointment the at-large alternate member of vacancy was referred back to the city clerk's office item 12 human relations commission appointments item 13 fiscal year 2018 19 budget 2019 to 24 capital improvement plan CIP and fiscal year 2019 to 21 strategic plan item 14 to request to amend the 2017 FY 2017 18 budget are the grant project ordinances amendments item 15 Durham city council code of ethics amendment item 16 city of Durham racial equity test force this item has been proved has been pulled by a resident and we will consider that item during our general business agenda at the end of the meeting item 17 triangle j council of government's charter resolution update item 18 mortgage learn servicing contract with the mayor national community service LLC DBA Marinette item 19 supplemental agreement for you four seven two six HJ NC 751 NC 54 sidewalk project item 20 grant agreement for sidewalk construction NC 157 guest road EB 5834 item 21 eno river outfall lift station upgrade phase one project item 22 contract amendment for Northwater North Durham water reclamation facility in Acadia Street water line replacement amendment number one item 23 reconditioning of biosolids dewatering equipment of the South Durham water reclamation facility item 24 contract with hydro structures PA for the 2018 closed circuit television CCTV inspection cleaning item 25 approval the 2017 local water supply plan for the city of Durham item 26 Durham city county fire consolidation item 28 future of the current police headquarters site at 505 West Chapel Hill Street item 29 contract with educational data system the corporate to operate Durham's NC works career center and to provide workforce innovation and opportunity act wio a adult and dislocated water worker services item 30 contract amendment with Eckerd youth alternatives to ink DBA Eckerd kids to provide workforce innovation opportunity act wio youth services item 31 can be found in the general business agenda item 32 North Carolina Department of Transportation NC DOT utility agreement for university drive culvert replacement item 33 contract for SW 30 NC 751 NC 54 sidewalk project item 34 contract for SW dash 30 C NC 751 NC 54 sidewalk construction administration inspections item 35 contract for ST 288 a bridge engineering services for city maintain structures item 36 contract for ST 287 pavement condition survey item 37 contract for ST 2018 19 drudge drainage structure access and stabilization item 38 amendment number one for processing and marketing recyclable materials contract item 39 Microsoft enterprise software licensing agreement item 42 to 46 and 51 to 2 these items can be found in the general business agenda public hearings item 53 software solution to automate the city of Durham employee performance evaluation program you have heard the consent agenda and with the exception of item 16 can I hear a motion on that agenda moved second been moved to second that we approve the consent agenda madam clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote motion passes 6 0 thank you very much and now before we move to the general business agenda I'm going to recognize councilmember Reese for some comments on the budget and ask if any other council members would also like to make comments on that as well councilmember Reese thank you mr. mayor appreciate this opportunity first I want to thank the city manager Tom Bonfield and his staff for developing a budget for the upcoming fiscal year of which the people of this city should be rightly proud the directors of every city department and their staffs also contributed to making this budget totally awesome but I really need to single out our budget director bertha johnson and her entire staff not only for the budget document itself which runs into the hundreds of pages and the hundreds of hours that went into preparing it but also the deep and really unprecedented community engagement effort that bertha and her staff managed this year in order to hear from Durham residents of all types about their priorities for this budget so thank you to everyone for that work this is the third budget I will have had I've had the privilege to vote for during my 923 days as a member of this body and it no by by no means this is the best one yet is what I'm trying to say and while I don't I don't I can't take the time to describe everything I like about this budget I do want to talk in some detail about this year's budget commitment this year's budgets commitment to our effort to address the affordable housing crisis in Durham through the community development department in the upcoming fiscal year we will spend by my math just about 16.9 million dollars in dedicated housing funds as well as federal funding earmarked for affordable housing and needs in our community that 16.9 million dollars includes roughly 650 000 dollars in new spending to support the city's goals around homeless diversion and eviction diversion including paying for two lawyers and a paralegal to help stem the tide of Durham's eviction crisis 350 000 dollars for rapid rehousing for the newly homeless 2.6 million dollars to support the Durham Housing Authority and their redevelopment efforts 3.6 million dollars in subsidy for the affordable housing project at Jackson and Pettigrew streets which along with the much hoped for federal low income housing tax credit would make that project a reality right in the heart of downtown Durham over 3 million dollars for the production and preservation of multifamily affordable housing and other 800 000 dollars for the second phase of home ownership development at south side nearly 3 million dollars for small scale production and or preservation of affordable housing 600 000 dollars for minor home repairs for low-income homeowners and over 500 000 dollars for major home rehab work for low-income homeowners if that seems like a lot of waterfront for one department to cover you're exactly right this is an incredibly ambitious plan for the upcoming fiscal year and it's been proposed by the city of Durham's community development director of the incomparable Reginald Johnson i'm so impressed with these proposed investments in our in our city's affordable housing strategy and i'm eager to provide whatever additional support that mr johnson needs during the coming year to meet those aggressive goals so Reginald all of us stand with you and we know that you can get this done as i said mr mayor there's a lot to liken this budget in addition to these investments in affordable housing we're spending on essential and really massive upgrades to our water and sewer system we're continuing to expand job training and inter internship opportunities for young folks and adults in our city while also working on small business development especially minority small businesses and all the while we will continue to invest in parks trails bike lanes and street maintenance and new sidewalks and all of this mr mayor and many more besides all of this will be accomplished here in this city without raising property taxes this year on the people of Durham so in closing i just want to say that this budget doesn't solve all of our problems here in the city no budget possibly could but this budget we just passed unanimously represents a significant down payment on the work we must continue to do in the years to come to improve the lives of the people of this city and i don't know about you mr mayor but i'm not done yet so but i am done speaking on the budget thank you well that was an absolutely awesome statement on the budget councilmember reis thank you uh other colleagues any other comments on the budget or anything else that you would like to address madame pro tem thank you mr mayor um i just had a few comments as well and i'll start as well by uh first thanking our city manager tom bonfield for his tireless efforts and once again bringing everyone together to create this fantastic budget document and i also wanted to shout out tom for giving us all the opportunity to drink cider up here at his budget presentation a few weeks ago which was really exciting for us all um so this i believe that this is along with charlie this is the best budget that we've seen in three years and it's a strong statement and an investment in our city and i wanted to highlight a few a few things and i'm excited that we are investing in um and of course i think affordable housing our investment in affordable housing is one of the critical ways that we're going to build um strong inclusive neighborhoods in our city and with our two pennies for housing we're making progress towards all of our affordable housing goals and i also want to highlight the expanding housing choices work that's happening in the planning department which is looking internally at ways that city zoning and regulation make it difficult to build affordable housing and how we can change those regulations to make that more more easy for for developers so i want to again shout out reginal johnson and also pat young with the planning department for all of their work on unmoving those initiatives forward i'm excited about our investment in civic engagement and participatory democracy through launching participatory budgeting which will put 2.4 million dollars of public money directly into the hands of all of our residents so residents who don't ordinarily have access to making these political decisions that affect their lives because they're immigrants because they're youth because they may have a past criminal conviction or for any other reason will be able to participate directly in this participatory budgeting process and i want to shout out the budget department under budget director bertha johnson for all of their hard work on participatory budgeting and also on of course the budget in general um and we're investing in innovation with our idea starter program which puts the ideas of city employees into action and our i team which we just got a really exciting report from about the strategies that they'll be implementing to help folks who are re-entering the city of Durham after spending time in jail or prison and that's supported by a Bloomberg innovation grant and amazingly we got another Bloomberg grant to use behavioral economics to try to reduce traffic in downtown and anyone who drives in downtown knows that that's something that we need to manage and is one of those critical quality of life issues that inevitably result from the growth that we're experiencing as a city which has resulted in things like being able to create this fantastic budget without a tax increase but has also resulted in things like increased traffic that we need to that we need to work out how to deal with and finally we're investing in our future with a fantastic strategic plan refresh that focuses on things like shared prosperity community safety and sustainability and i think it does a fantastic job of communicating our city's values to our residents and to the broader public and the work that staff have put into the strategic plan in addition to all the work that they do just to you know manage and do their regular jobs is laying a strong foundation for this community to grow into the future and so i want to recognize all of our gold champions and all the staff that worked on bringing us the strategic plan um i believe our decisions about how we allocate and spend public money are some of the most critical and important decisions that we will make in public office and i'm so glad that we have a fantastic staff who make it easy for us to make fantastic decisions about about how we spend about how we spend our community's collective resources and that this budget is a strong statement of what we value as a city and a community and i'm really excited that we're that we're headed in a fabulous direction as a city thank you thank you so much for that fantastic statement anyone else colleagues anything else councilmember millton thank you mr mayor and i am one of the newest people on the council and let me tell you the learning curve is real but what is also real is the excellence of this staff i was a fan of Durham before i ran for office now i'm a fan with a cape i'm a super fan and you should be extremely proud all of the residents watching tonight and all of you listening in the chamber tonight of the people we have working for this city they are nothing short of remarkable so i want to shout out and in keeping with tradition of the city manager and all the staff for helping us do this learning curve and for producing really a remarkable document a remarkable budget this is my first budget i can tell you uh with about six months in office this is the most one of the most important things i've ever done in my life making a decision on how to spend other people's money a lot of it a half billion dollars with no tax increase i'll say this i'm very excited that within that budget there is about 200 000 dollars to help keep people in their homes it's a friction diversion because i can tell you if you're worried about losing your house you're not really caring about how nice our parks are or how great our restaurants are so i'm very proud of my colleagues in this council for taking some concrete steps to addressing the most basic needs of our most vulnerable citizens i will say this in conclusion it's been said that a budget is a moral document i want to tweak that a little bit a budget is reflective of the morals of those that show up that show up to the conversation that are at the table we've unanimously passed this budget tonight but i want to say to my fellow residents and citizens both here and watching at home the discussion for the next budget starts now it starts tonight it starts tomorrow and if there are things that you need for your community if there are things that you think are not reflective of your desires and your wants then let's talk let's let's engage in the conversation now because the jockeying begins now for the next budget i'm glad for the learning curve this one but i'm looking forward to participate in the next process as a veteran congratulations to the staff and congratulations to my colleagues i'm very proud of this budget and i think it shows now that we're a grown-up city we've crossed a half billion dollar budget we're grown up now we're big time and i look forward to beginning the discussions for what our next one will look like thank you very much mr mary thank you for that wonderful statement council member anyone else all right thank you for those statements and i hope our staff um took in the praise that was just heaped upon you it is well deserved and we appreciate it very much mr mary thank you you can see how much you're appreciated and the appreciation is genuine and all of us share it so thank you very much all right uh that was that was fun uh and now we are going to move on to some more fun things uh we're going to start the general business agenda uh item 31 the tire mulch report we have two speakers on this um and i'm going to ask the speakers to please come to the podium to my right and you'll least have three minutes the first will be lanora smith and the second will be christin henry is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item all right miss smith welcome you have three minutes please give us your name address thank you mr mayor my name is lanora smith 1001 north warks borough street here in the city of durham so first of all um i'd like to just acknowledge the next speaker and welcome and thank her for her commitment christin um to this cause i also would like to just thank the north east central durham leadership council for their leadership on this issue and also just like to recognize um council woman uh council member freeman and council member johnson and their um outspoken um support of the issues around entire mulch i'm going to read my comments so i can get them all in oh and before we move on i would also like to recognize parks and recreation because um i really do appreciate the work that they do there will be a little um criticism um about one aspect of the tire mulch issue that we um are addressing this evening but overall i do think that they are worthy of the praise that they recently received from council this evening dear mayor shul and city council members thank you for your attention and responsiveness to the east durham park tire mulch issue an environmental concern that resonates throughout the east durham community because continued exposure to the toxins and in the tire mulch potentially threatens the health of children who play in the park while i appreciate your attention and responsiveness i am personally disappointed that durham parks and recreation did not float the proposed recommendations to community leaders for feedback before they made their recommendations to council community leaders have invested many hours of research translation public speaking and otherwise educated staff on this topic and in the end dpr acted unilaterally unilaterally in their recommendation to the manager and to the council thus negating the value of the community in resolving the tire mulch issue initially i and the broader community were pleased with the directive from council to the city manager at the april fifth work session to explore options to remove the tire mulch from the park in the may 29th memo from dpr to the city manager two options were recommended to address the tire mulch option a was to do nothing in anticipation of a total playground replacement in 22 in 2022 option b was to implement a workaround option that removed the loose tire mulch from the park and to replace it wow mr your time is up would you like to finish my time is up um what i do have this in writing and i will submit it to the clerk of court and i do have copies for the council but overall um i would like to ask that the council i wonder if the council can allow the community time to interact with parks and recreation to resolve this issue and to have discussion on it and if so how would that impact the approval of the funds to address the mulch that's in the loose mulch in the park thank you mr miss henry welcome you have three minutes thanks hi my name is christin henry and i live at 213 north briggs avenue in old east darum i'm not going to back up because i only have three minutes so as you heard our neighborhood was excited to hear the news that things are moving forward to replace the tire mulch at our park even better news was hearing that you all are looking to allocate the money from a general fund rather than putting us against another neighborhood i really appreciate that and i think the other residents do as well um but then we were surprised to find out the dpr is only planning on removing the loose tire mulch not the bonded rubber that's essentially glued together tire mulch did you know that that's only half of the mulch that's due to be removed um this is an important detail for a few reasons um the loose mulch is in the southern half of the playground the where the swings and the younger kids slides are the bonded tire mulch is in the northern half it's it all looks like the same playground so i don't know if that detail was understood also the bonded tire mulch since it's in that northern half will still be exposed it's not a layer underneath that's going to be covered up this is not similar to the dilute solution that was mentioned back in the april work session because they didn't use rubber that was sourced from tires um around the footers where they needed it for safety so the compromise that was offered by dpr actually almost slipped through without our full understanding or consultation uh the detail was not discussed at the june 7th work session and it was not pointed out it was not pointed out to any of the residents when we were updated on the details i'm wondering where this got lost because i i probably don't have to tell you i know i don't have to tell any of you that community awareness and feedback is crucial in making sure that neighbors who are affected and have fought for this issue are also part of the decision making process i'm not totally sure what the options are at this point i do want to urge you to consider removing all of the tire mulch at eastern park both the loose and the bonded i know that this is not a cheap option it's though what neighbors have asked for if there is to be a compromise then i ask what is our assurance that rubber sourced from tires is not used in our park again i urge you to put a moratorium on the use of recycled tire products in all parks moving forward and if you feel strongly in favor of dpr's option b i'm wondering is there still a chance for the neighborhood to be informed of what this means and to weigh in i appreciate how you've been responsive with this issue um throughout throughout this process and i look forward to hearing your thoughts thank you thank you miss henry appreciate your being here council members um first of all uh i will i'll open this for discussion and then maybe we'll have a motion after that comments or questions or a motion i'll also accept a motion mr mayor have a question for staff on this issue that's in director parks and recreation good to see you tom good to see you too would you walk us through the anatomy of the decision-making process that led to you guys recommending um pineywood as opposed to any other project being being delayed um absolutely uh the uh the recommendation for pineywood so dpr um examines all of the many many assets within the park system and comes up with our professional opinion to prioritize them we prioritize safety um especially um in regards to liability safety to the public we prioritize um playability uh issues that come up on the half penny list uh include wall slump for safety and and uh along the american tobacco trail pineywood uh is a um is an issue that we want to to address uh pineywood is a more of a playability issue and a rentability issue it's a field that's fallen because of grading and drainage below our standards for acceptable play so we can now can no longer rent that field at this point and we need a more of a field replacement uh this is an issue we felt it to be an important issue but it didn't weigh as heavily on our mind as many of our other issues does does the field pose any danger to the public in your assessment or um fields can hold danger to the public that this uh because of um in a lot of different ways this has more of um not so much a danger to the public but more of a playability issue it um we do not want to rent a field that has um more lap sided grading it holds water for a longer but it's not considered a health and safety issue okay thank you all right mr. mayor and i do have comments after i'll yield for now okay any other comments or questions else member freeman uh yes thank you i um want to thank um both Lenora Smith and Kristen Henry for being here tonight and sharing their concerns about the way that communication is worked in this process i understand and want to let you know like i'm i hear you and i want to make sure that we're being as clear and transparent with this process as possible but i want to make sure that i acknowledge that we move forward with the loose tire crumb recognizing that there would need to be a larger look at the issues for the entire park system if we were to talk about the tire mulch as a whole and so just recognizing that there's a balance that has to be made um i i just ask that you continue to stay involved and engaged in the process thank you councilmember any other questions or comments councilmember milton thank you mr. mayor i um this issue for me has really been been a a primer in in government um and the government's responsiveness to the people the reason why i ask staff about the the the rationale the the methodology with coming up with the pinewood decision uh is because i i i've been struck by this language that suggests that we're putting we could be putting one neighborhood against another um and the reality is governments make decisions all the time uh in terms of weighing one decision against another uh that that's what we do in this particular sentence has been brought to the light of day but um that's what we do we look at the options that we have in front of us and then we make a decision where am i going with this i um the staff recommended not denying the pinewood project but delaying it i think that the language of putting one neighborhood against another might be more useful uh the next time one of these decisions comes before us and we actually say no to someone we haven't said no to anyone in this situation we have uh recommended the staff has recommended um foregoing or stall of delaying a decision on pinewood for about a year i'm inclined uh to go with the staff recommendation and i say this for this reason saying that it's just $20,000 um and i've seen some of the emails that we've gotten around this issue saying that it's just $20,000 to me is really really not useful uh as a decision maker um my dad always used to say it's never a lot of money went to somebody else's it's easy to spend other people's money i i think this is a good time for us to send a signal uh to residents and to citizens and to taxpayers that we take making tough decisions as a government seriously uh that we've been elected to make decisions and to weigh uh consequences one against the other for me you know i i as a if i do share of the city of Durham i kind of look at our checking account and our savings account the way i look at my own household finances i don't raid my savings account unless i absolutely have to there are just things that i'll go without and put it off um until i can afford it and if i have to go into savings um then i will based upon what the staff has said and based upon their methodology i don't think this is one of those times where we need to go uh into the the family savings account as it were of this issue i support um replacing the tire mulch but i don't think that we need to go into the general fund and i also reject the minimization argument by that i mean it's just twenty thousand dollars we could say in the same voice it's just a year it's only 12 months and we get to save twenty thousand dollars um no one's going to be hurt and we're going to be able to rent the soccer field when it's prepared and we'll get that money back uh in due time i think this is a good opportunity to to send a signal to the folk that put us here that we take making decisions and exercising a judicial financial judiciousness seriously that we're very sober and that we have a very high bar the reason why we have a general fund is precisely because we make decisions and we don't do everything we can do our capacity may allow us to do at that particular moment that's why we have a savings account um and i think that again i'll say this and i'll put a point on it let's talk about what putting one neighborhood against another looks like the next time a neighborhood comes and asks us to do something and we say no not we're going to delay it we say no and then they ask us what's the difference between that neighborhood and this one i think that will be a more informative conversation in terms of putting one neighborhood against another uh i'm inclined to go with the staff recommendation to delay pineywood for a year and i want to fix the tire mulch tire mulch issue uh in the eastern part thank you mr mayor thank you council member any other comments or a motion can i hear a motion on this item i'd like to make a motion and we move forward with the tire mulch report and improve okay the motion is to move forward with the tire mulch report and to remove the tire mulch and remove the loose tire mulch okay and but the question is also we need to to decide this question of the recommendation is that this be funded by delaying the the planned half penny for parks and trails fund to repair the pineywood soccer field for one fiscal year with the with the language to include the funds from the fund balance okay so you're moving that we adopt the staff report and that we pay for through funds from the fund balance yes okay is there a second second all righty any more discussion um mr. mayor council member austin thank you i'd previously had reservations about paying for this project from our fund balance but um recognizing the will of the majority of this council i plan to vote in favor um for pulling the $20,000 for this project from our fund balance that's what i'm gonna do all righty thank you very much any more comments any more comments okay we have a motion on the floor that would remove the tire mulch the loose tire mulch um and that uh that it would be paid for through uh taking an appropriate appropriation from fund balance thank you for that language mr. manager uh and i'm going to ask the city clerk to please open the vote close the vote motion passes four to two with council member middleton and council and mayor schul voting no thank you very much all righty we'll now move on to item 42 uh the this is a public hearing item the consolidated annexation annexation for 3112 blue hill lane and we will hear the report from staff have been received um for one contiguous parcel located at 3112 blue hill lane um this uh annexation petition represents an exist an extension of the existing city lennon and if approved the request would become effective on june 30th 2018 um if these notions are approved and a public street is approved to city standards the site will ultimately become a city street upon completion of the road and the annexation into the city in order for the city to accept maintenance of the street the street must be within the city's jurisdiction and this petition represents one step in that process this street is intended to connect two residential developments um you can see that on attachment for the utility map in your packet residential development located along ender's travel road to the east and what is effectively known as the yancy parcel to the west this proposal also had a utility extension agreement um that is in your packet the public works and water management departments reviewed that item and determined that there is adequate water and sewer service for these properties staff determines overall that this request is consistent with applicable plans and policies action will require three votes one on the annexation petition and extension agreement the second one on the consistency statement and then finally action on the initial zoning designation i'm happy to answer any questions the council may have at this time thank you very much jacob you have heard the report from staff and i'm now going to declare this public hearing open and i'm going to first ask if there are any questions or staff by members of the council i have one question jacob uh is this a description is this an accurate description of this item it is connecting an island of land within the city limits by a new road to the larger city area is that correct um someone i would say it's connecting a satellite annexation to the east uh that what is known as the yancy parcel so it is making that parcel continuous to the city limits at large by the uh by by uh by uh annexing annexing land that will essentially be a road correct yeah at all the intent on the developer's intent is to create a public street that connects these two residential communities yeah okay thank you very much yes sir um all righty any other questions for staff if not we have one speaker on this item although it looks like maybe two speakers sign this card charlie yokely and james tucker um our sign-ups proponents um is there anyone else who would like to speak on this item before i get started here yes sir why don't you introduce yourself yes sir charlie yokely with the macadam's company 2905 meridian parkway in durham um i don't have anything else to add jacob covered pretty well this is annexation is to cover a street connection that's required for the development of the ancy track and then the utilities that will be installed in that right away as well um so i won't take up much time but if you have any questions for me i'll i'll be glad to answer them thank you mr james tucker also signed up mr tucker are you here would you like to speak all right thank you very much all righty uh colleagues do you have uh any questions or comments at this point if not i'm gonna declare this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council do i hear a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing annexing 3112 blue hill lane so moved second it's been moved and seconded that we adopt the annexation ordinance madame clerk will you please open the vote close the vote madame clerk i don't think your microphone's working but i believe you said that the motion passes six to zero yes thank you very much now well do i hear a motion on uh to adopt the consistency statement so moved second and moved and seconded that we adopt the consistency statement madame clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes six zero thank you do we have an emotion to adopt the ordinance amended the udo by taking property out of residential rural staffing the same as residential rural zoning for the subject site so moved second madame clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes six zero thank you very much all righty uh we will now move on to item 43 uh the consolidated annexation for jc electric initial and we will hear the report from staff thank you jake of wiggins again with the planning department and i would like to note that the previous case as well as any planning cases you'll hear this evening have been uh published and advertised in accordance with local instate law and affidavits are on file on the planning department noting such this item is a request for utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and initial zoning designation for a 9.9 acre parcel generally located at 4915 hillsboro road this request represents an expansion of the existing city limit and would be effective on june 30th 2018 in the event that the item is approved on this subject site is currently divided between orange and durham counties and is presently connected to the city of durham water main um there is new development proposed for the site which is triggering the annexation requirement for the additional utility connections um staff is recommending an initial zoning designation of industrial light for the site it's presently zoned you know you know uh economic development you know higher intensity too sorry in orange county the industrial light zoning designation is the most analogous zoning designation to that the proposed development has submitted a utility extension agreement reviewed to the public mortgage department the public works and water management departments found that there is adequate service for this site um and the budget management services department formed a physical impact analysis which noted that this request is likely to be revenue positive immediately upon annexation staff determines that these requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan applicable policies and ordinances action will require three motions to approve one for the annexation petition and the extension agreement one for the consistency statement and then finally one for the initial zoning designation and i'll be happy to answer any questions the council may have at this time thank you very much jacob you've heard the report from staff and i'm gonna declare this public hearing open uh and first ask if there any any questions by staff by council members for the staff i have some questions jacob yes sir um this is rezoning to industrial light next to a residential neighborhood is that correct yes sir that is correct what are the anticipated uses the recreational facility my understanding is that will be an outdoor recreation facility that use in of itself will require minor special use permit from the Durham Board of Adjustment if this property is annexed they will then have to proceed to the Durham Board of Adjustment for that i thank you yes sir there has already been a site plan submitted for this is that correct yes sir that is correct and how does the site plan buffer the next door neighborhood so the site plan will have a required buffer the il2rs20 buffer is typically um going to be a 0.6 or 0.8 opacity buffer that that will have to provide along that property line okay thank you very much yes sir all right any other questions for staff at this point just a quick question why well first is how does this play out for us and um i mean this property being entirely an orange county and we coming in and applying a city annexation what does that mean for orange county specifically i'm not sure so the this area is part i get basically the city has an annexation agreement with orange county to annex properties in this area um so the site if they are annexed they will still pay orange county property taxes but they would also pay city a Durham taxes for the services they receive this is i think we should describe further and i'll try to describe it and the manager or others can help me but this was done as a an agreement with that we've struck with orange county previously because we they our utilities are near there and theirs aren't and so that's why this arrangement was made is that correct that's correct and it includes a much larger area that you know economic development district area this is just the portion a portion that is immediately adjacent to the the city limits great and then specifically why would this go into annexation as opposed to just rezoning so since the city does not have any jurisdiction in the area this is why there's an initial zoning designation process so it's just so what you're saying is there is no agreement in place for a rezoning in this case it's only annexation uh no ma'am so the three items before you this evening there's a utility extension agreement there's an annexation petition there's also an initial zoning designation specifically the orange county oh for orange county there's no agreements in place to do any rezonings in the case like this it specifically has to be an annexation um i can advise on the orange county regulations but in order for the site to receive utility approvals they have to petition for annexation which then would subject them to the city's requirements okay thank you thank you very much all right uh we have one speaker on this item uh chad huffine uh mr huffine could you make your way to the uh to the to the podium is there anyone else that would like to speak on item 43 anyone else all righty uh sir welcome uh you have three minutes thank you mr mayor my name is charles huffine 505 east davis street in burlington the civil consultant for the owner and the five questions that the uh council members have expressed to jacob and i understand and concur with jacob's response to you and we are here to answer any questions once you begin to debate if you need that thank you sir thank you mr huffine we appreciate your being here any more questions or comments by members of the council any more questions or comments on item 43 uh if not i'm going to uh declare this public hearing closed matters back before the council do i hear a motion you're out of motion on uh to adopt the ordinance annexing jc electric into the cell mr mayor i'd ask some i'm sorry i don't want to close the public hearing i don't have any questions for the applicant this isn't their fault that's okay um i'm gonna indulge my occasionally dispeptic nature and complain about this for a bit um the idea that that the the way that this particular parcel is situated compels us to do this really sticks in my craw um the and it's not your fault sir not at all your fault you're doing what you gotta do i totally get it i understand um first of all i hate i hate when we annex a part of another county into this city it creates yet another jurisdictional oddity that we then have to explain to people somewhere down the road the saving grace for this is no one's building houses here so these folks don't have that level of uh problem um but it's uh it's still a jurisdictional oddity that i don't care for um the other thing though mr mayor is what you pointed out which is that this is a adjacent to a residential neighborhood and um because of the way that our agreement is drafted with the with orange county and the way that initial zonings happen is we try to roughly approximate the existing zoning in the in the exist in the jurisdiction where the property current is and then translate that into city zoning of sub kind i'm assuming that's how that works is not right jacob is that roughly correct um and so we've done that here um and the the the reason that's a problem is that as currently situated in orange county they can't provide utilities to this place this particular piece of property so the fact that it's roughly um industrial now is really meaningless because it's you they can't put it to that use given the current status of the of the utilities so it's only by us annexing them and providing them with utilities that they can finally make use of this industrial zoning which which i'm sure the use will be totally awesome for that particular part of town not not again it's not your fault um but that that rankles mr mayor and i'm just gonna just expressing that now but as uh as one of our planning commissioners noted in his written remarks we there is um an aspect uh to the state of vote uh to this that makes it marginally okay and that is the state imposed buffer due to the stream that's on the property that creates at least some level of separation between this use and the residential use adjacent um i don't have to like it but i think it's probably okay under those circumstances and i do plan to vote for it but i will continue to complain thank you mr mayor thank you very much for expressing your dyspepsia so nice to hear the word dyspepsia used here at the Durham city council council is that there's a Pepsi i'm sorry i'm sorry city manager said he had to look it up all right thank you very much any more comments before uh i uh open the vote i'm sorry before i ask for a motion maybe all righty can i hear a motion to adopt the ordinance annexing jc electric into the city so i'll move mr mayor second been moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote the motion passes six zero thank you very much do we have a motion to adopt the consistency statement i'll move second madam clerk please open the vote i'm sorry close the vote motion passes six zero and do we have a motion to adopt an ordinance of many of the udo i'm moved again madam clerk please open the vote close the vote motion passes six zero thank you very much all right we will now move on to item 44 our next public hearing item the sycamore street closing and we will hear the report from staff thank you jacob wiggins again with the playing department uh kevin burton on behalf of trusa requests to permanently close 465.6 zero linear feet of sycamore street this portion of sycamore street is an unbuilt plated right of way that is not maintained by the city of durham trusa owns all the parcels surrounding this right away and have closed trusa will subdivide the property or subdivide the underlying right of way into their existing properties as shown on the attached street closing plate seen as attachment 4 on their quest meets applicable ordinance requirements and no issues were raised by review agencies during the review of this item and staff recommends the permanent closure of this portion of sycamore street and i'll be happy to answer any questions that you all may have thank you mr. wiggins you all have heard the report from staff i'm going to declare this public hearing open and i'm going to ask council members if there are any questions for staff at this point if not there are two speakers on this item uh i'm going to call their names and ask you to please come uh well okay so let's say we have one proponent and one opponent uh the proponent is ed hullbach i hope i have got your name right uh and um this and then the opponent is freeman led better uh is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item mr jule would you please go to the table and fill out the card as is our custom anyone else all right i'm going to give the proponents and the opponents uh on this uh on this item uh five minutes each okay so are you a proponent mr jule or an opponent proponent so mr jule and mr hullbach uh if you all could proceed to the podium to my right and you all will together uh have five minutes uh to speak on this item and then mr led better you will be next mr hullbach please give us your name and address good evening council thank you for your time my name is ed hallberg i'm sorry sorry i apologize for my handwriting no problem on my knee uh i represent the anthony property group the owner of property on both sides of the uh paper street that we're asking to be uh abandoned and uh so that we can further develop the property from its current uh from its current use of understanding is this is the first step uh and is a necessary step before any planning can be done uh i'm really here to answer any questions that i can uh i'm on very limited scope thank you very much mr jule mr mayor members of council dan jule culture jule terms uh we have filed this application on the request to trosa uh simply to answer any questions that you might have about it thank you thank you very much mr led better is freeman led better here mr mayor if i might mr led better had a few questions uh i was able to speak with him before the agenda item he was satisfied and he and his family went home okay well that's good to know he is an amazing musician and i was sort of hoping he would be here so i could tell him that yes all right thank you is there anyone else that would like to be heard on this item is there anyone else that would like to be heard on this item all right so uh if there are any any questions by members of the council or comments before i close this public hearing if not i'm going to declare that this public hearing is closed and the matter is back before the council uh the motion required is to adopt in order to permanently close a 465.6 linear foot portion of sycamore street do i hear a motion on that so moved second it's been moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes five one with council member freeman voting no thank you very much let me just say one thing to planning staff which i've been meaning to say all evening this is the first time i believe that we've had these fabulous photographs to go along with the uh the zoning cases and i just want to say what a great addition they are um i love the the photographs that you've included uh the the aerial maps are great but actually having these these photographs in addition uh just really uh bring the cases to light so pat i want to thank you and your staff uh and and just say what another you know excellent addition to our planning process pat young with the planning department thank you mr may our members council i just really wanted to appreciate you for saying that that's um one of the items that we've improved based on you all's feedback so that there's a better sense of the site for you all as you deliberate these cases and want to appreciate my staff who are out there taking these pictures in most cases you did a great job i really appreciate it thank you all so much okay we're now at item 45 zoning map change for rolling dale and i'm going to first ask for the report from staff good evening i'm jamie sunyak with the planning department request for zoning map change has been received from land in lovelace under foot engineering for two parcels totaling approximately 6.65 acres located at 602 and 606 west nc highway 54 the subject site is presently zoned residential suburban 20 the applicant is requesting a zoning designation of plan development residential 3.940 which is consistent with the low density residential for dwelling units or less designation on the future land use map of the city's comprehensive plan key commitments on the development plan associated with this request include a maximum of 25 townhouse units no building shall be located um shall be placed closer than 60 feet from the southern property line no townhouse building shall be located closer than 30 feet to another townhouse building the onsite retaining walls will be town tan brown earth toned design commitments also include for the garages the use of staggered facades and varied garage door styles and exposed foundations of more than 48 inches inches will be covered with siding or brick stone veneer the Durham planning commission at their April 10th 2018 meeting recommended approval of this of this request by vote of nine to five staff determines that these request that this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and the applicable policies and ordinances two motions are required for this application the first is to adopt the consistency statement and this and the second is for the zoning ordinance and I will be happy to answer any questions that you have thank you Ms. Sunyak you have heard the report from staff and I'm now going to declare this public hearing open I'm going to first ask if there are any questions for staff from members of the council I have one question Mr. Mayor good evening forgive me if I missed it in reading other materials were there any proffers on behalf of the developer yes there were a number of proffers on page going into page two of the staff report at the top there were a series of text commitments and design commitments that were all proffers after they were actually provided at the March 13th 2018 planning commission and staff had the opportunity to review them after the fact and were part of the development plan that was recommended in April and those were in addition to other text commitments and design commitments transportation related commitments that were already on the plan I must not have refreshed thank you thank you any other questions for staff at this point if not we have a number of speakers on this item and we have three proponents and five opponents I'm going to I'm going to start out by giving each side 10 minutes so that would mean for each of the five opponents you will have two minutes each for the proponents so you'll have a total of 10 minutes for the proponents you will also have a total of 10 minutes for your three speakers is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item at this point who has not signed up already all right we will start with the proponents and I'm going to read your names and if you all could I'll line up over here to my right Landon Loveless Milgoche and Josh Swindell I'm speaking on behalf of the applicant and those are members of the applicant group they're members of the applicant group Landon Loveless is the engineer and are they present here they are right here all right so you all are not planning to speak unless there are questions for you is that my understanding all righty all righty mr. gosher the proponents have 10 minutes thank you good evening mayor shul mayor pro tem johnson and members of the city council my name is nil gosher and I'm with the morning start law group here on main street I'm representing the applicant for this rezoning tonight and let me first start by thanking staff for their presentation as you can see this proposal is for a fairly modest 25 unit townhome community along highway 54 and you're also probably aware that traffic along highway 54 can be challenging at times which I bring up for two reasons first the amount of traffic going past this site on a daily basis does not lend itself to single family detached living on the parcel the market for residential living on on parcels fronting thoroughfares like highway 54 is typically for multifamily or townhomes and in this case we've selected townhomes and we think that is a sensible use in this area the second reason I brought up the traffic was to talk about road improvements at 25 units this project simply will not create a lot of traffic nevertheless as I've already mentioned 54 can be challenging and the need for road improvements is certainly there on congested roads like highway 54 traffic can move slowly during rush hour the most challenging movement in that type of scenario they left hand turn across traffic coming the other direction by contrast right turns typically are very easy and safe to make when traffic is crawling of course safety always is paramount but resource allocation is also important especially on small projects like the one proposed here as you can see we have committed to doing or installing left turn lanes in both directions in this corridor these turn lanes will be a real benefit by allowing left turning cars to get out of the way of through traffic while they wait for an opening so they can make the turn at planning commission it was suggested that a right turn lane is necessary and would make traffic move better in this area while I cannot contest that additional infrastructure would make traffic move better the question of necessity in this case has already been answered by your transportation staff and ncdot a right turn lane is not needed in order to safely make a right turn into this community and that should not come as a surprise they're far more residents and people living off of rollingwood drive and park ridge which are on either side of this project and and yet neither of those have a right turn lane there's also the church just down the street and though I don't know this for sure I suspect that its peak hour generates more more trips than then this project will it also does not have a right turn lane given that a right turn lane is not necessary the question really becomes one of resource allocation we are of the opinion that these resources could be put to a better use than adding unnecessary impervious surfaces less than 200 yards away from the floodplain area of Jordan lake and the army core lands just west of the site also think there was some confusion at planning commission with respect to the bus pullout the condition we have offered related to bus transit is the standard condition that and I'm sure you all have seen many times there are bus pullouts that have been built all over the city pursuant to the language in this condition so my understanding is that the language allows the transit authority to request a bus pullout at time of site plan if they determine one is needed and if that happens we will build it now I spoke in depth about those topics because those were the biggest issues that we heard at planning commission but I think it's important that you know that the app can offer other conditions based on feedback from the neighbors for example we've committed to a minimum 30-foot building spacing between the town home buildings to address massing we also have committed to installing sod on the slopes of any BMP and and we're also giving an aesthetic treatment to retaining walls ultimately this is a small responsible town home community and it makes sense in this area and is a good use of land it will also not add a lot of traffic to an area that's already congested but it will provide a benefit to the corridor by installing left turn lanes we hope you agree with us and the planning commission which recommended approval by vote of nine to five and we have members of the development team here to answer any questions that you might have I do request that we get we reserve the remaining time for any rebuttal if that should be necessary thank you very much mr. gosh we will now hear from the opponents and I have there could I ask mr. gosh just a question is this a good time for that or shall we think let's wait and let's hear from the opponents and then we'll have the question is that okay mr. mack yeah okay so we're now going to hear from the opponents and I have five speakers here and if you would just line up to this podium to my right uh as I call your name Jeff Brandenburg Ashley Adkins Hersey Murray Erica Legum and Jack Carter all right you um you all have a total of 10 minutes and you can divide that up any way you like my suggestion is you might want to take two minutes each but it's up to you welcome please give us your name and your address thank you for hearing my comments I'm Jeff Brandenburg I live at two Abingdon Way we have expressed concerns as was previously mentioned about runoff handling and about traffic I wanted to speak specifically to a couple of the comments on traffic that we just heard 54 does bog down during peak periods there my concern is not just with the times when 54 bogs down though my concern is when traffic is flowing freely there except when someone is trying to make a turn in order to turn into an entrance like this you need to slow down when you pull out you need to speed up and this entrance is located near a couple of turns that have poor visibility on highway 54 if you look at the map we're very concerned that with more traffic coming to a stop or coming on to the route here at a place where we already have problems with accidents we're going to see a lot more collisions potentially at high speed because traffic does move along there when it's not a peak period there was mention made of other developments of rollingwood churches along the way there that do not have right turn lanes that's true a couple of those are situated at places where the road is quite straight invisibility is very good the church is not far away well the church is the church that I think they were talking about the catholic church is set up at an area where 54 is perfectly straight invisibility is great there's the Presbyterian church around on the bend that's very close to my house we hear screeching tires there quite frequently and occasionally the loud bang or the crash into the woods adding more traffic coming in and leaving at this particular spot is creating a risk that's disproportionate to the small increase in total traffic volume that the traffic analysis gave that was the main point that I wanted to bring up thank you for your attention thank you very much mr. Brandenburg ashley atkins welcome thank you my name is ashley atkins and I live at 15 st james court in woodcroft and I think I caught some of that subsea from charlie reese it's a good option later I live right behind where this development is planned and I am living right on a creek bed and this creek bed uh overflows during even a normal-sized rain so I am concerned about development happening right above the creek bed there's a steep slope right above the creek bed and when that slope is cut into that could create a runoff problem even if measures are taken to prevent that runoff is inevitable I certainly don't want the creek to overflow onto my property I'm about three steps away from the creek right now the developer has a buffer of about 110 feet from the creek and some and then with some homes it's only a 60 a foot buffer at the planning hearing some committee members recommended that that the developer leave at least 200 feet between the creek line and the development the developer did not follow these recommendations I request that the city council either denies this rezoning or delays it so that we can negotiate a more protective plan thank you thank you very much miss adkins my name is percy murray I live at 33 churchwell court and my house I would like for you to imagine for a moment getting up one morning and looking out of your kitchen when the going on your back porch you seen a wall where there was nothing but pristine forest for a deer coming to my backyard squirrels big hoes in my house coming up and then there is the creek this we've heard about the traffic this is there's a lot of traffic on highway 54 lots of traffic left right coming out there's also the issue of the curve on highway 54 which makes it a really dangerous place to add 25 additional units notwithstanding what these developers have said but my concern is is that I have been in that house for 31 years I look at my back window and I see trees now I'm going to look out and see the back of somebody's condominium I'm not opposed to development but I am opposed to the destruction of a neighborhood and this is exactly what they would do in my opinion thank you thank you very much now we'll hear from Erica legum hello council my name is Erica legum I am a resident of 19 st james court who is directly impacted by this rezoning I'm going to use my minutes to read a statement by Andrew still well who is president of the board of woodcraft the neighborhood association where we live to whom it may concern the woodcraft board of directors would like to express our concern with the proposal rolling dale development plan while the board understands that property owners have the right to develop in compliance with city ordinances we are also aware that the planning department uses discretion and carefully considers whether a proposed development integrates well with adjacent properties and contributes positively to the overall community fabric the board is concerned that the rolling dale development will not integrate well with woodcraft as it should and that the viability of the development relies on design features that are extreme and do not contribute to a reasonable blending with their woodcraft neighbors it is our understanding that the maximum number of trees will be removed from the rolling dale site creating an entirely different experience for an adjacent woodcraft resident one of the main appeals of a woodcraft property is the extensive mature tree coverage it is also understood that a large retention pond will be placed to the back of the site due to the slope of the site this retention pond will require a massive retaining wall with the extensive tree removal during late fall and winter months there will be no virtually no screening of this potential massive monolithic feature we are also concerned about potential flooding of woodcraft properties due to the increased impervious surface and runoff into the creek shared by both properties another development adjacent to woodcraft chamberland was recently completed in the last several years and despite compliance with ordinances there was still extensive flooding and damage to woodcraft properties especially during construction when mitigating features had not been implemented on behalf of our residents the woodcraft border directors request the planning department take every measure within their powers to insist that the development of this property be done in a way that is reasonably considerate of the surrounding properties thank you for your time thank you miss likel um we'll now hear from joc carter thank you mayor and council hello my name joc carter i live at 19 st james court and i will be directly affected by the proposed rezoning and development uh no one is against growth we know that derm area is seeing the sharpest growth in the state my family moved here from california and uh we wanted to escape from such a busy place an expensive area and we feel fortunate to live here and we want to see derm grow into the most successful city could possibly could be we invested in woodcraft because it is a unique development that cultivates small town values while capitalizing on distinctive assets scenic beauty architectural character and a sense of community all development is not created equal some development projects can we make a community better a place to live work and visit and other developments projects will not the more community does to protect us and enhance this uniqueness the more the people will want to seek it out we do not want a project we do not think this project will enhance our community a few reasons we feel this way are third fort creek is polluted and is on the state's list of impaired waterways the runoff from the grading and the additional pervious surface puts the watershed in danger and makes our homes at risk of flooding highway 54 is already congested in the morning in the evening developers would like to rezone and to pave a new way for further development not just a single project they want to make more of this but we can barely manage the situation we have now this area is served by two bus routes five and fourteen but how will people that move into this area make it to these bus stops by crossing the 54 when it's already too dangerous at the same moment we have right now and would cross mission mission statement is a development designed to coexist harmoniously with nature this is a large part of what makes this unique and why we love this area here is it necessary and the best interest to remove 80 percent of the forest in the area and leave the mandatory minimum trees this does not sound like growth at all for our area thank you very much mr carter is there anyone else who would like to be heard on this item i'm sorry you you're you're you're more than welcome to go and sign up here and to speak sir would you also like to be heard please come in and sign up that's okay hang on just a second okay thank you all righty can i ask if you were each of you all are you proponents or opponents of this rezoning opponent opponent okay there are two more minutes left do you think that between the two of you all that will be enough time okay please tell us your name and your address and go ahead thank you okay my name is maria yirlando i live in 14 st james court my front yard will be facing the property i was not going to speak today because i'm too emotional about this issue and i didn't want to be negative but i've gone to the meetings with the developer and they've been a bit deceitful as to the way they presented what they're doing none of the proffers that they've offered have come from any comments with community meetings me erica ashley we've all been at the meetings some of the proffers come from a meeting with a city planning commission member who tried to help and he thought those proffers would help but that's where they're coming from we don't care about the college of the color of garage doors or the color of the back of their buildings those are minor issues compared to what's really at stake i do have one suggestion i've read that in some of the city planning commissions you can request the builder to have a tree protection plan we know we have a tree canopy issue with durham my concern is not just with the neighborhood it's also the damage they're doing to durham because they want to make a profit and the way to make a profit is to clear the land fully and they've not at any time offered a care as to what the neighborhood or the city needs it's all about the profit with them so i want to make sure you get some time thank you thank you sir could you give us your name and address yes sir my name is steve grant excuse me i live at nine abingdon way and i'd like to speak to the traffic where my house is the cars you might have heard of a bang and then squealing of tires or the other way around when people crash on highway 54 they run off into my backyard and thankfully there are trees that stop them from literally getting into my backyard my point is is that we already have a lot of traffic issues on 54 it's adjacent to where they want to build their structure thank you for your time yes sir thank you very much before i asked the proponents to take more time more of their time is there anyone else who has not been heard that would like to speak on this item is there anyone else that has not been heard that would like to speak on this item okay mr gosh you have the remainder of your time thank you mayor shul so i wanted to respond to some of the things we we just heard it was mentioned that the mission statement in woodcroft is is that the neighborhood is to exist harmoniously with nature however it was also mentioned that the third fork creek is already polluted and i think that actually highlights what the issue is here when woodcroft was built there weren't the same stormwater controls required that are required now and in fact one of the neighbors i know for for sure who who spoke in opposition to this her house actually is in the required stream buffer if it were built today it would probably be about 50 feet further from where it is today and it wouldn't be that close to the creek my point is not that those points are not valid or not valid concerns for the neighborhood my point is that new development like the one being proposed on the subject property is subject to the new stormwater regulations and it will be treated to a higher standard than anything that was built in that woodcroft neighborhood uh i don't i don't doubt that that they are having some issues in that regard but that should be expected because the stormwater controls were never put in place now one thing that i didn't mention previously but is a portion is a commitment on our development plan is that the site is limited to 34 per cent impervious i think that's significant this is in the fjb watershed so the by right the developer could do 70 per cent impervious so this is a reduction of a significant reduction in what they could build and they've done that uh part you know in part to control their stormwater the way they are required to but also in response to the concerns that they heard from the neighbors i do take issue with the idea that the developers have been deceitful uh they it is true that some of the proffers that that were committed were um were discussed with a planning commission member they were also discussed with the neighbors and in particular the condition related to putting sod on the slopes of the bmp i came directly from a neighbor it was never mentioned by any planning commissioner so i do take issue with that and i think we also heard again about uh traffic on on 54 and the reality is that the proposed project is not going to add a lot of additional traffic will it add traffic it certainly will it was one thing that was mentioned that i didn't quite understand i believe somebody said that you know the developer is looking to do more developments they want to connect everything up there's one point of access to this site and it's off 54 there are no connections to any residential roads in in woodcroft or any other neighborhood it's not even possible to stop to connect to this parcel except from adjacent parcels on 54 if that happens but it it is not the case that there are other development proposals on the table um ultimately i will reiterate that again this is a small 25 unit townhome development on a very busy thoroughfare highway 54 uh and it it makes sense in this location we do need housing in Durham uh there are approximately 20 people moving here every day and they need somewhere to live and this is a this is a sensible use for the location thank you thank you mr gosch all right um is there anyone else that would like to be heard on this item anyone else yes sir please come to the table to the podium first state your name and address and then i'll ask you after that to please go over and fill out all the yellow cards thank you and let us know if you're a proponent or opponent of this please uh i'm a post uh my name's leahy perish and i live at uh sixth abidin way it's my understanding with this development that you will come very very close to my home uh i have a special request in that my son is will chair bound uh for the past five and a half years with the tbi accident and we converted our screen porch into a sun room so that he can spend a great deal of time out looking in our backyard where there's a lot of trees my request to you guys that you have mercy and consideration and the number of trees that you can cut down my house loops down quite a bit the area they're going to build on goes up a great deal so i'm going to be looking at a great deal of escalation and a great deal of trees cut down and what my concern is is that my son who cannot talk cannot walk is going to be looking at a lot of bare land and the backside of townhouses so i would ask that you give great consideration it's my understanding that the way you have things arranged now that my home will be the closest to what you're building and i just don't want my son to have to look out at the back of condos and so if you would give great consideration to put in trees of some means that he can look at other than back of a condo thank you thank you mr perish mr perish i also want to say oh you an apology you called me and i meant to call you back and i forgot well thank you but i want to thank mr wreath and miss allshen for returning great a call i should have as well and i appreciate that thank you i'm sorry council members we have now added some we gave a little additional time there to the um to the opponents and we will need we'll add that time as necessary to the proponents mr ghost you have some comments at this point yes i sure do actually uh and we have met with mr perish was it mr perish and his family i'm sorry yes and that is something we have given a lot of consideration to and i recognize that uh our our consideration is not is not something that is reflected in the commitments however we do have a commitment to you not have any building placed at least 60 feet from the open space parcel that is woodcrop that your house backs up to and so that area is is in our minds designated to be a undisturbed tree buffer and though it is not part of our development plan are we have looked at you know preliminary layouts and we are very very aware of of your requests and are trying to develop the side in that manner so as to disturb the least amount of of property towards your house on that backside however i do recognize that's not part of our commitments but i did want you to know that we based off the meetings we've had with you in the past we are looking into that and taking it very seriously mr ghost i don't understand why that would not be a proffer on your part uh well the proffer that is related to that is the 60 feet from the from the southern probably the problem is i don't know how to uh we don't know how to uh calculate the amount of trees that can be saved in that area now there's a there's a stream on the side on that side of the property so there's a stream buffer and that is going to uh obviously automatically undisturbed buffer now beyond that uh it remains to be seen it is a matter of how much grading needs to be done uh but we're looking to have our smallest building closer to that side as far as number of units to building and the overall footprint of the townhouse building we're looking for that to be on our on our southern or towards our southern property line all right i think you have someone here to speak on that oh yeah and landon might be able to speak to that as well if i may mr mayor i'm landon lovelace with underfoot engineering um in i think the the proffer of moving buildings a minimum of 60 feet off that southern property line came directly out of meetings with the adjacent owners um we heard mr perishers story we did not get to meet him or his son but there was uh miss maria was there and a few other folks were there um and we we were brought up to speed on the story of his son and we made that proffer to move uh a 60 foot minimum from the property line directly out of that meeting in addition there's there's a 30 foot um tree conservation area along that southern buffer and then there's another it varies from 20 foot to 120 foot of open space that's on the woodcroft side between those we are very aware of what that view is going to be and we will make every effort during construction drawings to minimize that grading as as neil mentioned um the proffer we made was a direct result of that conversation and we're unsure without making that portion the site undevelopable how to push that buffer even further okay thank you mr lovelace all right is there anyone else that would like to be heard on this matter is there anyone else that would like to be heard on this matter anyone else all right thank you i'm now going to ask if there any comments or questions for members of the council mr mayor just have a quick question for mr gosh and then we'll there'll be some other substantive issues how's it going neil all right how are you i have been 923 days i since i think i said earlier i don't recall ever seeing you come before us to argue on behalf of a matter that you consider as a member of the planning commission is that what happened here uh that is what happened and i don't know if during your tenure that has happened before but uh we had not been retained by this applicant until after planning commission and that has happened before um i also wanted to ask about this right turn lane uh accept your representation that all of the traffic related agencies don't believe that it's necessary because they didn't tell you it was necessary right that's the position uh more or less awesome um but it it is true that at least two and by my count closer to two and a half or three or maybe even four planning commission members strongly encouraged you to add that to your development plan isn't that right that is correct in fact two of them explicitly said that they would only support this rezoning if you added that right turn lane correct i don't know what the exact number is but yes that was expressed it's two it's two um so had the planning commission been aware of your flat refusal to consider it today um the outcome at the planning commission might have been very different would you think that's a fair characterization i really can't say that the it was very clear that we were not committed about the planning commissioners i'm sorry did you review the plan the written comments submitted by the planning commissioners i did okay and those don't necessarily reflect the spoken comments and in fact they voted in to approve uh this and there was no um wreck there was no uh statement by the applicant at planning commission that they would add a right turn light i'd had never been conveyed to planning commission okay um it's really all i have right now mr mayor thank you very much council member race council member freeman and then mayor protan i had the question for our city attorney actually regarding this situation is there any policy in place around our commissioners accepting representation on behalf of a developer what is what is that um there the when you serve on a commission there are a code of ethics and that would include a conflicts of of interest that's similar to our standard conflicts of interest i was not aware that mr gauche was on it that the gauche here i probably should have guessed that is is the same um as as as neil standing before us but but there are there are definitely codes of conduct and ethics that apply uh similar to as they apply to council members yeah thank you all right i just just in a general sense are you in the habit of accepting cases you've already presided on is that as i said it has happened before and for you specifically yes for our firm yes it has happened before i do sit on the Durham planning commission and have opportunity to meet many applicants that come before the planning commission and sometimes we get contacted after they've come this particular applicant we have never represented on any project until now so it's not the case that they were an existing client and this was a project we weren't working on this is a client that we never had until after planning commission therefore there was no opportunity to recuse myself a planning commission and subsequently there wasn't a a reason to you uh not accept representation on this case you didn't you didn't see it as a conflict of interest uh advising the city council on the case and then also representing the developer right so per per the the rules of profession that govern attorneys there was no conflict of interest there was no overlap thank you okay any other questions uh council member frame at this point i just had one for the developer regarding the price point on these townhouses my name is josh swindell 4201 yak and drive rally did you have a price point in mind is this a diverse price point is this single like where your numbers lie where you're seeing the price point for these properties 25 townhouses still a lot to be determined in budgeting but as of now starting in the upper 200s and going into the mid upper 300s the upper three thank you mayor proche thank you mr mayor i was wondering if someone from our transportation staff could weigh in on the right turn lane issue yes bill judge transportation the so we discuss this with ncdot based on the number of units proposed the right turn lane is not required if the site were much larger typically right turn lanes are required for much larger developments and upwards of 200 or more units so given the the size of the development they did not require it for this this project thank you um and i had another question for the developer around the tree and areas could you um give us some context around how much of the current woods that y'all plan to preserve yes i think landon can speak to that he's taken a minute to look that up for you so i have a i have a tendency to be to be wordy because i think these are complex situations it should be an easy question i think the short answer is the minimum required is 20 we've identified a number of areas on the site along the eastern property line there's an existing stream that has different buffers on it based off the state classification of the stream the very southern portion is kind of the start of the stream so it requires a 50 foot buffer from the top of bank on either side and then as it as it moves further to the north or downstream it goes out to a hundred foot buffer on either side all the area within that is identified as tree conservation we have identified a small strip that will require a sanitary sewer easement through it to connect to the existing sanitary sewer which is also down in that stream corridor in addition to that we've identified based off of conversations and not just conversations with the woodcraft folks but the adjacent owners to the north kind of where the important tree conservation areas are so we did do an additional 30 foot buffer along the southern strip where we spoke before about mr perishes property and not just mr perish but a few other neighbors there the concern about looking up the hill so the the short answer is the minimum requirement is 20 percent we provide that at the pdr during the next stage when we go through design preliminary subdivision plan and construction plans the intent is to to minimize clearing of trees as much as possible obviously there's some grading that needs to be done to develop the site but at that price point and the product that they're trying to put out it behooves everyone to to save as much of the trees as we can i hope that answers your question yes it does thank you um and a final question for the developer have you all considered um proffering a contribution to the city's affordable housing fund i've been talking with the with the the applicant on the about that on this project and um the last proffer we've been looking at different proffers that have been uh offered before on previous cases and there was a i believe it was Watkins and Witherspoons there was like 25 000 dollars or it's like 250 a unit and at that at that kind of a rate at 25 units the it would equate to about 6 250 and we recognize that this is a very important issue in the city of Durham and so the applicant would be willing to proffer a one-time payment to the city's affordable housing fund of 7 000 dollars to to support that very important issue thank you i just want to um it costs us between 40 and 50 000 dollars to subsidize one unit of affordable housing and while we are grateful for any um you know voluntary commitment on the part of the developer i just want folks to have that number in mind 40 000 dollars minimum to build one affordable unit is you know and that's and the need is really significant in the community so we of course value any contribution but i just want folks to understand that that is the those are the numbers that we're dealing with thank you me as staff was that that that was a proffer was that that was not an acceptable proffer as the way it was expressed is do you need a do you need a time certain when the proffer will be actualized yeah jamey sannyak with the planning department that proffer is acceptable thank you else member allston you um i just wanted to clarify that um mr city manager that the code of ethics you're referring to specific to the planning commission with regard to i'm sorry that's okay i'm sensitive to that um the code of ethics you're referred to your applies to the planning commission specifically or is that general that's our general code of ethics for all of our boards and commissions and do we have a clear answer as to whether or not this is consistent with the code of ethics for our boards and commissions i would need to know more about when mr gauche was contacted by the developer i will tell you that just off the cuff i've got concerns about this um and may want to talk to council if the code doesn't specifically speak to this particular issue we may want to take a look at it it never dawned on me that a that a commission that a planning commissioner would be representing an applicant in front of the the council regardless of when the the representation occurred i'll just i'll just say finally um without clarity on that i just share that concern about moving forward at this point mr mayor if it's appropriate i would like to ask if it was possible to request more time on this case and to let our city attorney review the code of ethics specifically and then also some of the proper language and making sure that it's all lined up before we move forward okay uh anyone else like to speak on this mr mayor i i i guess my my comments have been been somewhat impacted i want to thank council allston who um uh anticipated uh my question and i was going to put to the city attorney very directly um because things have been said and i just came to an election so perhaps i'm a bit hypersensitive about innuendo and nuance i wanted to put to the city attorney very directly is there anything improper about mr ghost standing before us this evening and if not i i think fairness dictates that we make that clear uh to folks sitting in this chamber and watching at home that that it is not the case that it's improper and if there are some questions if there's some gray areas that we need to look at then it sounds like it's tending more towards that but i was going to ask the city attorney for a definitive statement so we don't adjourn tonight and people are wondering based upon innuendo and nuance that this this gentleman is engaging in anything improper i think that's the minimal standard of fairness we ought to be engaged in tonight but i do i don't know if that was a a motion on the on behalf of council for even but i did have some substantive questions to the actual merits of the uh so is it appropriate for me to continue i'm gonna make a suggestion and and i'm gonna ask how this suggestion comports with the will of the council okay i'm going to suggest that we keep this public hearing open if we close the public hearing then we'd have to be re-advertised to be a long series of events uh i'm going to suggest uh that we adopt uh councilmember freeman's suggestion that we continue this so we'll continue this public hearing uh and i think that we should decide when we're going to continue it too so that the applicants and the uh and the uh the the the opponents people in the neighborhood will have some certainty about about that now we are in a situation where we are about to take a a recess in the council's meetings our next council meeting is could someone help me august sixth august sixth i don't think that would be an adequate time so i'm going to ask uh that we i want to ask my colleagues that we uh keep the public hearing open with a plan to come back to it on august the sixth uh and uh i'm happy to hear any thoughts that you all have on that i would concur with you mr comes on thank you mr mayor um i don't have a problem with that but i do feel like it's the person who raised this issue i need to be clear about my perspective on this i'm i'm not the city's attorney but i am a lawyer uh as mr gauche is um i i i don't believe that mr gauche has any uh improper intent or motive in representing his client today i don't believe that that's the core of the problem here in my view the problem is more on the other side from the public perception mr gauche i want the people of durham to know that when you're sitting in the planning commission you're making decisions that are in the best interest of the city and i don't want anyone to think to ever think that you're making a decision because you think maybe someone will hire you to do a job about that case later on i don't want people to think that i don't think you would do that my perspective of you is having worked with you the last two and a half years i don't think you would do that but not not everyone in the city has that same experience working with you and so to the extent that this happens um we need to really have some very clear kind of rules about when it can happen the kind of disclosure that needs to happen around it um i don't i don't think it's appropriate for members of the council to see see you come up to the podium and having read your written comments from have when you have when you decided on the planning commission um and so i'm supportive of the delay so that at least we can get some clarity on on that particular issue and my hope would be that in the interim um the developer will take a look at this tree coverage issue along the the boundaries where people are living now um i think i for one am very sensitive to the issue that um that any event that's that's what i hope will happen thank you mr. mayor thank you very much are there other comments by members of the council i do have a question mr. mayor as to what is the actual question we will be seeking in answer to in the interim what what are we what are we going to be researching what will that process look like what is the issue to which we're seeking in answer i think we should i'll i'll say what i i would hope that we would get some clarity from the city attorney but which because i don't have it on what are the question council member allison raised you know what what are the what are the what is the rule uh and how does it apply in this situation and i'm not there listen all right we got brilliant people up here is is that is the inability to kind of clearly or succinctly go to the rule now or state it just by virtue of you know your general working knowledge of it suggestive that this may be an uncharted area no can we not west lost i'm gonna ask that i'm gonna ask our attorney to respond with without having the actual cut of ethics in front of me nor having i have committed to memory i don't believe it or not um but but the the main issue is that that if mr. gauche would be amenable i'd like to have a conversation with him about what his role was when he first talked to the developers and then applied the facts of the case to the code of ethics that will not take 60 days but unfortunately you don't have another meeting um uh until until july and in august august 7 of us all right council members without objection i'm going to uh declare that we are continuing this public hearing is that the appropriate language we're going to be continuing this public hearing and we will be hearing this again on august the seventh is that correct six six and i also want a second uh council member rhesus statement that i hope that during that period of time the developers might be continuing to work with the neighborhood on the uh tree buffer issue and uh and the tree save uh and would appreciate uh would appreciate that those discussions continuing on behalf of the developer in the neighborhood folks i know that a lot of you all came down here tonight and uh we're expecting and hoping for some sort of resolution and i'm sorry we can't give it to you but i feel like we're making the best decision and i'm appreciative of you all being here thank you so much all righty we're now going to move on to item 46 the ordinance revising capital facility fees for 2018 and 19 this is a public hearing and uh i will uh ask if we could please hear from staff um good evening mayor mayor bro ten members of council good evening don don grilly department of water management um the item before you tonight is a is a recommendation to revise the ordinance for the capital facility fees for the upcoming fiscal year um capital facility fees are considered system development fees system development fees are one time charges assessed to new water and sewer customers for their use of system capacity and serve as equitable method by which to recover upfront system capacity costs from those using the capacity in years past capital facilities fees were usually approved when the water and sewer rates were approved by council however there have been some changes to the general statutes one of which now requires that a public hearing be held prior to the council approving the capital facility fees under north carolina general statutes chapters 162 a article eight provides for uniform authority to implement system development fees for public and water sewer systems in north carolina and this was passed into law in july of 2017 according to the statute system development fees must be adopted in accordance with the conditions and limitations of article eight and system development must conform to the requirements set forth in article eight no later than july 1st 2018 the city engaged of a financial consultant rep tell us who prepared a report that's attached to the agenda item concerning the calculation for the upcoming for the ordinance for the capital facility fees which is in front of you we've met all the requirements under the general statutes for public notification and with that i i'm here for answer any of your questions thank you very much you've heard from staff and i'm now going to declare this public hearing open and ask if there's any question for staff members at this point if not are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item any members of the public any other questions or comments from council if not i'm going to declare this public hearing closed the matter is back before the council may i'd like to make a motion to adopt the ordinance that is correct mr mayor thank you very much that madame clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes six zero thank you very much thank you mr grilly thank you we'll see in august all right we're now up to item 51 mayor oh yeah do you entertain a more public hearing of the question that i whispered across the table at you a few minutes the question is do we need to vote on the keeping the public hearing open and we do not need to vote on keeping the public hearing aren't we continue it to it aren't we continuing this hearing to a date certain on august 6th um it is it was beyond that i would say you needed to state it but it's the next i will just say that is there any harm in making that motion practice on the council in the past that the mayor keeps public hearings open until the next meeting um if you so my only hesitation in voting on that is to start the president that you have that that that's not uh appropriate uh so i'll defer to your judgment mr mayor thank you my judgment is often wrong but uh perhaps it's right in this case mr attorney do you want to add anything you're good with that i'm good with okay um all right uh we are now at item 51 item 51 is drake avenue and sovereign street closings we have we have four people that would like to speak on this item but first we will hear from staff good evening good evening jamie sonyak with the planning department hillandale partners llc proposes to close 157 linear feet of drake avenue and 143 linear feet of sovereign street public right of ways these rights of ways are currently dedicated but have not been improved to city standards the request is intended to help facilitate the future development of land off of hillandale road owned by the applicant if requested if the request is approved the closed right of way acreage will be added to the adjacent parcels as shown on the plat staff recommends that council approve the permanent closing of both the 157 and 153 linear feet of these streets i'll be happy to enter any questions you have thank you jamie you've heard the report from staff and i'm going to declare the public hearing open and i want to ask this point are there any questions from members of council for staff mayor pro tem thank you mr mayor um i'm sure this is in the report and i just forgot but could you remind us who owns the property on either side of the of the proposed closing area yes on attachment five of the street closing flat you'll see at the top parcel a and parcel b and same thing with attachment six so if you want me to read the property owners names i can but they are listed on the plat thank you any other questions for staff at this point if not we have four speakers on this item all of them proponents i'm going to read their names and if you all could please come to the podium to my right uh the first is ed hallberg mr hallberg congratulations your handwriting has improved since you last spoke to us uh jamie greener roose herrod and tom miller mr hallberg i'm gonna ask you to go first uh if first of all let me ask are there any opponents who would like to be heard on this question or anyone else that would like to be heard on this matter okay thank you um mr hall mr hallberg uh i'm gonna give the uh i'm gonna i'm gonna give how about this i'm gonna give you each two minutes and hope you don't need to take it all thank you mr mayor and members of the council in keeping with this evening's baseball uh theme can you please excuse a last-minute substitution as a pinch here who uh batted out of order in the previous uh previous meeting yes we can i am here with the uh hillan dale partners to uh we own the property either outright or through contract on the uh along hillan dale road uh to the west of these closings but answer any questions that anyone has okay thank you now i get out of order is normally now i get it i got it now i got it okay okay good uh all righty and then i believed a second i called jamie greener hi my name is jamie greener i live at 2410 west club boulevard i am here today on behalf of the wats hospital hillan dale neighborhood association of which i am the vice president and i'm urging the council to vote in favor the street closing of these paper streets drake avenue and sovereign street west of tampa avenue item 51 and tonight's agenda the streets have never been built in our artifacts of a street network designed without thought or consideration to the local topography a perennial stream runs i'm sorry a perennial and jurisdictional stream runs north south parallel to tampa just west of the backyards of the applicants on tampa avenue where the unimproved lots along this paper street of chesterfield to be developed the currently non-existent streets of drake and sovereign would be crossing this stream and disrupting its delicate ecosystem i would like to call your attention to comprehensive plan policy 4.2.1a which promotes low impact development to promote streams and mitigate harm from storm water construction along over or through this perennial stream would be in direct conflict with that policy and would likely have a significant negative impact downstream neighbors on the south end of the stream already faced non-trivial concerns flooding um and further development or restriction of the stream would only make that situation more dire a small group of concerned neighbors have been meeting regularly to discuss the possible issues of land development in this area and have met several times with jim anthony the developer who is assembling this land between tampa avenue and hillondale road mr anthony is well aware and in full support as you heard of this street closure as a member of the board and a concerned neighbor i urge you to vote in favor of this street closure thank you thank you mr greener mr harrod thank you mr mayone council members uh i'm one of the property owners and one of the applicants at 2217 tampa avenue and pretty much uh very uh jamie covered all the issues that i wanted to cover that you know we we have worked in conjunction with the developer all the way through the process uh right now we have six streets within my immediate neighborhood of which six there's six of those that are closed off on one end of the other so there's really no access through the neighborhood at tampa uh alabama uh drake and sovereign uh so that that complicates things and their older designed streets you know 20 foot wide 60 foot right of ways no curving gutters no sidewalks and uh not designed for a lot of traffic so uh i think that pretty much covers everything uh that i'd like to say of course being one of the applicants we would appreciate very much if y'all would vote in favor of this thank you mr harrod mr miller good evening mr mayor and members of the city council my name is tom miller and i'm speaking to you tonight as a member of the board of the wats hospital hillandale neighborhood association and a member of the committee that has been working on this project i did want to make sure you understood that the actual applicants on this are the adjoining residential property owners and not the hillandale uh commons folks who have assembled the property behind it um the real issue here is one of the system of dedicated but not completed public streets and the fact that they're sitting on top of a jurisdictional stream so they can't be built like they are that as they are however they are an impediment to the future development of the property over there they're an impediment to the future good development of the property they're an impediment to the future bad development of the property whether that development of that property in the future is good or bad is something we will uh deal with later but right now there won't be any development of the property unless we begin to close these street rights of way. You can't develop it like it's laid out. It's got to be a new system. We in the neighborhood are looking forward to what we believe is the potential good development of this piece of property. And because we look forward to that and we have faith in our development neighbors and in this city council and our planning staff, we want to begin the street closing process now as step one of removing the impediments and going on and making a good project here at some point in the future. Do we know today what that will be? No, but we have begun discussion with a property owner. They know what we want and they're pondering it and we hope for a good outcome. But let's close the streets now so we can get started. Thank you very much. If you have questions, I'm available. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else that would like to be heard on this matter? If not, are the questions or comments by members of the council? I apologize that I hadn't picked up on this when I looked at the item when I first reviewed the agenda. The portions of sovereign and drake that are immediately west of these segments that are proposed to be closed. Are those currently closed? No, they are not currently closed. So why aren't we going to close the entire short box and only half the box? I'm not sure if the is one of the applicants. Does the applicant want to respond or does one of the proponents of this want to respond? I think it would be more appropriate for the applicant to respond. Okay. Mr. Herrod, would you like to respond? Did you understand the question, Mr. Herrod? I hope I do. We only want to close the western section. Well, yeah, I assume the applicant can't because they're only closed in the section that's adjacent to their property. That's correct. But the properties that are immediately west of there, it seems like it doesn't make sense to only close half of that segment of the right-of-way. Did you all look at any evaluation of why not to close the entire segment or contest? It sounds to me like the developers that we're talking about are trying to facilitate are going to be those property owners. Mr. Manager Pat Yan with the Planning Department, I think the short answer is because that wasn't petitioned by this applicant. It's something that the city could initiate subsequently kind of to clean this up, if you will. We will need to make sure that there wasn't sole or primary access for remaining remainder pieces off of this property. It doesn't like that would be the case. But isn't that the side of the property that is proposed to be considered for some future development? Yes. Part of the issue is that the bike ped group had asked for retained or provided access for pedestrian and bicycle movement and I think there was some possibility that the developer may want to use those remainder segments of Sovereign and Drake to provide that pedestrian or bicycle access. So I think we kind of took a wait-and-see attitude about what the final development proposal from the development group looked like before proceeding with that closure. Okay. Thank you. I understand that they intend to address that when they submit site plan for approval in rezoning. Thank you very much, Mr. Herrod. Thank you, Mr. Majes. Good question. Council members, any more questions or comments? If not... I have a question. The waterway that's on the... Is that the western portion of the streets that aren't being closed? Is that... What's the name of that waterway? It's just probably an unidentified stream buffer. It's unnamed. It's unnamed. I'm sorry. I don't know the name of that. I think it's unidentified. What does it lead to? L.R.B. Creek problem. Go ahead, Mr. Miller. That's a tributary. It's a perennial stream tributary of L.R.B. Creek, which it joins in the Hillardale Golf Course immediately to the south. Thank you. All right. If there are no more questions or comments, I'm going to declare this public hearing closed. The matter's back before the council. Do I hear a motion to adopt the order of permanent closing the... Second. Any more discussion? If not, Madam Clerk, could you please open the vote? Close the vote. Motion passes 6-0. Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here very much. All right. Now we'll move on to item 52. Thank you for your pain. Item 52 is also a public hearing item. Bush Street, Bush Drive Street closing. Jamie. Good evening. Jamie Sanyak with the Planning Department. Eden's land proposes to close 874 linear feet of public right-of-way. The right-of-way is currently dedicated but has never been built. The street closing request is a requirement of a text commitment associated with zoning case Z1700014 and of a site plan condition of approval for the DLLT, RR, LLC property. If requested, if the request is approved, the closed right-of-way acreage will be added to the adjacent parcels as shown on the the plat. The street closing plat must be closed and the plat must be recorded prior to the site plan approval and prior to the site development commencing. Staff recommends that the council approve the permanent closing of 874 linear feet of the street. Thank you very much. You've heard the report from staff and now I'm going to declare that this public hearing is open and I want to ask first if there are any questions for staff. If not, we have one speaker on this item. Did you have a question? Just a question regarding these street closing. There's a number of them this evening. I just would like to know what the numbers look like in the past. Seems like quite a bit. This is a larger number than we usually have in a meeting. For sure in any one meeting but they do happen over the last year. Okay, Mr. Edens, you are we're glad to have you. Sir, you have two minutes. Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item? Anyone else? Mr. Edens? Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Appreciate your time this evening. I'd like to say that you say the best for last but you got me so I can't say that but I'll do my best to finish things up here. This project was rezoned by council about a year ago. One of the conditions to that zoning was to close the adjacent right away. There's a 30-foot right away of Bus Street. We need to close that in order to continue with development and I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Edens. All right. Are there any questions for the applicant or for staff? Any comments? Any questions or comments? If not, I'm going to declare this public hearing closed. The matter's back before the council. There are a motion to adopt in order to permanently close the 873 linear feet of bush drive. I'm moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Madam Clerk, will you please open the vote? Close the vote. Motion passes 6-0. Thank you very much, Mr. Edens. Now we have one more item. I'm sorry, motion passes 5-1 with council member Freeman voting now. Okay, thank you. We now have one more item, I believe, only one, which is item 16, racial equity task force. We have one speaker on that item and that's Mr. Chris Tiffany. Mr. Tiffany, please come forward and you have three minutes. Thank you. Read what I've already written, but listen to a teenager with tears in his eyes. Can you run the clock please? Thank you. Three. Three minutes. Thank you. Read what I've already written to you, but listen to a teenager with tears in his eyes. Mr. Chris, you know how they do us out here in target areas. You have a responsibility to go down and tell them they won't listen to us. And kids signed up to speak about racial profiling when it was on the city council agenda here and upstairs were not allowed to speak. And discussions were limited to racial profiling at traffic stops, drivers, not pedestrians. Public transportation helps people get to work. But when they tripled the fairs for teenagers, they were not allowed to speak again. And they had to stop the meeting and clear people out. There was so much anger. We don't want all those poor people downtown. So it was made harder to get in and out of downtown on this bus. Excuse me, Chris, could you pull away from the microphone a little bit? Yeah, thanks. And for similar reasons, Blackpork getting jobs in RTP called monkeys, quote unquote, the Durham city bus station for the shuttle system in RTP was closed. And when I went to evening meetings at the Holton Career Resource Center, the bus does not go there in the evenings. And when I was asked to mention it to a city council member at that, at one of those poverty reduction initiative meetings, she said, I don't care. I don't ride the bus. The CPRB, you know they're clueless and they don't take complaints. Gave me one minute to speak when there were two speakers. And bus writer ambassadors were told by data management and the board not to bring them complaints. And when there were five speakers signed up, they said there were so many speakers signed up five that they would only allow two minutes each heavens that they should have to listen for more than 10 minutes total to speakers representing tens of thousands of so called riffraff ignorant bus riders. And when I tried to talk to the chief about stopping public strip searching, right out here, she said, I don't want to hear about it and turned her back and walked away again. Members of the public should be allowed to speak for at least three minutes each. Racial equity tax force members should be appointed by city council. Listen and learn from others various different experiences. Listen and learn and make sure accurate notes are kept of problems and suggestions. I hereby nominate Ashley M. Kennedy of McDougal Terrace of PAC four between Durham Tech and NCCU to be one member, hopefully to serve as chair. And she should be asked to nominate a young black male from that same unposted target area. And some of the other members should be true grassroots representatives of other unposted targeted majority minority neighborhoods where cops have said, you deserve whatever happens to you living here. And we stop and search young black males because that's who commits the crime. And when and we're PAC four conservatives, former teenagers have said such things as teenagers are all criminals. Listen and learn from teenagers. Thank you, Mr. Tiffany. All right, council members, we have before us item 16. You have heard Mr. Tiffany on this. And now is there any discussion or do I hear a motion to adopt the resolution amending the Durham, I'm sorry, to support the establishment of racial equity task force. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? New discussion. Just real quick. I want to thank the city attorney for his quick work on the on the bylaws here. That was awesome. Thank you very much. All right. We have a motion and a second to support the establishment of a racial equity task force. And I'm going to ask the city clerk to please open the vote. Close the vote. Motion passes six zero. Thank you very much. Is there any more business to come before this body? If not, I am going to declare this meeting adjourned 937 and I will see you all next week. See you Thursday afternoon, Mr. Mayor.