 I like my new spot actually. Do you? Your sandwich in between two, at least one. I mean, let's be honest, push to shove. Say again. So we have a copy? It'll be a copy there, yeah. Yeah, that's us. Come on, computer. Yeah, that's sweet baby. That's my favorite baby. Sweet baby over there. That's my favorite. They need some help with that baby. I can help with the baby. I'm going to get the baby kind of nose. Hey, Patrick. It's better if you do it. You say good morning. It's a good bonding of her white noise, apparently. Right? Australia, maybe? I hear what you're saying, Patrick. You went out for the first time. It was really neat. The baby came in, stayed with me in the hall. There's a guy from AT&T that wants to pull item 13. There was? Yeah, Robert. Yeah. I'm moderate amount of it. I don't know what his issues are, so awesome. I guess you think I should pull it and then just have me discuss the issues of the podium. Mommy and daddy said the bottle was for 8.30, and maybe he said his bottle is for 7.45. That's what the baby said. That's what the baby said. We had an early bottle. Thanks, Patrick. You said so. Hi, Patrick. All right. We're going, everybody ready? Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of Durham City Council to order. I don't think you have a mic. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Durham City Council to order for Monday, February 5th at 7 p.m. and we want to certainly want to welcome all of you all in attendance. Could we all please pause for a moment of silent meditation? Thank you. I want to now recognize Councilmember Reese to lead us in the place of the flag. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As you know, I inherited this happy task from a former Councilmember Eddie Davis, who's sitting in the front row. Councilmember Davis, would you care to assist me in this effort tonight? Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. I would like to now recognize the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll please? Mayor Schuyl. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Here. Councilmember Alston. Here. Councilmember Caballero. Here. Councilmember Freeman. Present. Councilmember Middleton. Here. And Councilmember Reese. Here. Thank you very much. Before I give my state of the city address, I'm just going to say quickly how we will proceed tonight. After the state of the city address, we will have a five minute recess during which time any of you all who would like to escape are certainly welcome to do so. And then we will resume our normal course of business. Good evening. Again, I want to welcome all of you here tonight. And those watching on the Durham television network. To this meeting of the Durham city council. And to this state of the city address. I want to begin. Where I began just two months ago when I was sworn in as mayor of this great city. During the long political campaign this past year, this community came together to forge a vision of our common future. And here is that vision. We the people of Durham and vision of prosperous innovative green and welcoming city that thrives on diversity and difference. The city that puts racial and economic justice at the top of our civic agenda that defends the vulnerable among us. The cherishes robust respectful debate on difficult questions that embraces non violence that embodies the belief that all residents must have an opportunity to share in our new found prosperity. The city that serves as a progressive beacon for the south and the nation. It is our job. Not just the city council. Not even mostly the city council, but all of us in this room to make that vision real. I want to dwell for just a moment on the fact that we are getting precious little help from our state legislature or our federal government in realizing this vision. There is a hard truth we must face. Despite our best efforts Durham will not reach its true greatness. While our state government weakens environmental protections, drops teacher pay to the bottom of the heap, refuses to expand Medicaid, attacks the right to vote, and snatches away the powers of cities to determine our own future. We will not reach our true greatness while our federal government cuts housing funding to the bone, undercuts our public schools and strikes fear in the hearts of immigrant and refugee families. We have to know that. We have to stare that reality in the face. But okay. That's enough of that. Once we have stared that reality in the face, we have to put it aside and get to work here at home. I'm out in the community every day. I have talked with hundreds of people since becoming mayor and I know what they want. Okay, true. The first thing most people want is a selfie with me. Which I will say is the most fun thing I've done as mayor so far, so I'll keep those selfies coming. But what the people of Durham want is for us to go it alone if necessary to realize our common vision, to become that progressive beacon for the South and the nation. They want an agenda for action and tonight it is my privilege to lay out that agenda. First of the people of Durham want local government that works, that is effective, that performs the very basic services very, very well and pushes every day to improve them. What I can report from my six years on the city council is that Durham's 2,500 employees are doing this work at an exceptionally high level. As I said in my swearing in, we must not take this for granted. In an age where government is constantly under attack, it is our job as a city council to defend the institutions of local government. Government in Durham is good government. Our employees are working hard every day to pave our streets, improve the quality of our lakes and streams, respond to fires, keep us safe from gun violence, build new sidewalks and trails, provide safe clean water and whatever quantity you want it whenever you turn on the tap. They do this with a constant eye to your tax dollars and by and large our employees do a tremendous job. The mayor and the city council directly hire only three people. We hire our city clerk and I want to especially thank tonight our acting city clerk Diana Schreiber who has done an excellent job filling in over this past month. Thank you Diana. We hire our city attorney Patrick Baker whose office does a superb job protecting our city and advancing our interests. Thank you Patrick. And we hire our city manager Tom Bonfield. I want to thank you publicly here tonight for the exceptionally high quality of our workforce and the job that they do every day. Both you and Patrick have my full confidence and support. We are so lucky to have you both. And while great management is critical, it is the people working on the front line who really make our city go and I want to introduce a few of them tonight. From the Public Works Department Maintenance Division I want to ask administrative coordinator Yvonne Skaggins to stand Yvonne. During the recent ice and snow, Ms. Skaggins worked literally day and night to assist our maintenance staff with any support that they needed. She booked hotels for staff. She made arrangements for food for each shift and she handled phone calls. All of this while her daughter was in and out of the hospital sick with the flu. Ms. Skaggins, your dedication to your colleagues and to this city is impressive and on behalf of the people of this city I offer you our gratitude. Thank you. From the Solid Waste Department I would ask Michael Cox and Bobby Henry to stand. Both of these men, too, performed exemplary service during the recent snowstorm which put enormous pressure on the department and its employees. Mr. Cox normally works picking up bulky items. Mr. Henry usually works in the yard waste division but during the snowstorm, these two men volunteered to come in to assist with a collection of trash and recycling. Both of these men worked all weekend to get the job done for the rest of us. Fortunately, one of our alert residents, Mr. Todd Pagdon, is Mr. Pagdon here? Great, Mr. Pagdon, we welcome you. Mr. Todd Pagdon spotted Mr. Cox performing an exceptional service and tweeted about it. Thank you, Mr. Pagdon. Addressing city government, he tweeted, a member of your waste management team beyond the call of duty, can't get the truck downhill, so he went by hand. This tweet was accompanied by a photo of Mr. Cox pulling a roll-up cart up an icy street to the truck parked at the top of the hill. Mr. Pagdon, I'm glad that you are here tonight and I hope that you and Mr. Cox will be able to shake hands later this evening. Thank you, gentlemen, for your fabulous service to our community. Finally, from our General Services Department I would ask Michael Reynolds and James Herring to stand. Both of these men work with people who are experiencing devastating loss. Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Herring, on a daily basis, witness the emotions of people who have lost a spouse, a parent, or a child. And they are present when distraught families leave the cemetery as their loved ones are being buried. What very few people know about these men is that they are frequently called upon to assist grieving families in a way that is far beyond their normal duties. That is, they are often called upon to be pallbearers to perform a remarkable act of kindness by giving a grieving family, helping a grieving family carry their loved one to a final resting place. Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Herring, we thank you and we salute you. These employees are exemplary, exemplify all the men and women who are on the front lines of city government every day. And we are so lucky to have you. In addition to effective and timely government, our residents want innovative government. And I observe Durham City Government constantly pushing to improve. Let me give you just one example, excuse me, one that isn't glamorous, that's very close to my heart. Our solid waste department, under the leadership of Director Donald Long, is constantly taking steps to increase our recycling, decrease what goes into the waste stream and cut down on taxpayers' expense for shipping our waste. This year, new solid waste customers were re-receiving a 65-gallon trash cart and a 95-gallon recycling cart to encourage more recycling. At the department's first reuse rodeo this past spring, Durham residents recycled 12,000 pounds of clothing, furniture, toys and books, which went to TROSA, the Habitat Restore, Trap Exchange and Welcome Baby. And the most exciting innovation of all to me is the upcoming unveiling of our Pilot Organics Recycling Program. Durham is required to ship our waste and we pay by the pound to do it. Food makes up more than a quarter of our waste stream. Our pilot permit allows us to compost 3,000 tons of food and 5,000 tons of yard waste. I am confident we can make this pilot work and when we do, we can expand food waste collection citywide and begin a serious municipal composting operation. Now that's innovation. Along with effective and innovative government, our residents want us to take care of our civic assets. Unfortunately, we can anticipate precious little help on this from Washington despite the political rhetoric. So in Durham, we're taking care of it ourselves. Our water management department is in the midst of an enormous infrastructure program financed by your water bills. Over the next five years, we have programmed more than $376 million on water and sewer infrastructure projects to ensure that we have a sustainable water supply for this community for the next 100 years. We're also paving 38 lane miles of streets this year. We've got nearly $40 million worth of sidewalk and bike lane projects in the works, including projects on 751 old Durham Chapel Hill Road, Hillendale Road, Fayetteville Street, Austin Avenue, Avondale Drive, South Street, North Roxborough Road, and many, many more. The abandoned downtown rail line, which will soon become the two-mile Beltline Trail, is in our possession now. And the planning for this crown jewel of our trail system is well underway. We need to be adding two miles per year to our trail system for the next 10 years. We must establish a pipeline of funding stream to make that happen. Also in the infrastructure front, on the infrastructure front, I want to talk about our tree canopy. Durham is fortunate that we are a city in the shade, and that's not to be confused with a shady city. That is, 52% of our land area is shaded, which is a very high number. There are two problems with this, however. First, our tree canopy is rapidly diminishing through development. And as some 6,000 large pinnokes, planted 80 and 90 years ago, are reaching the end of their natural lives. In addition, our tree canopy is inequitably distributed. If you look at the maps of the 1930s that redlined African-American neighborhoods out of qualifying for mortgages, those same neighborhoods are largely bereft of tree canopy. I believe deeply that trees, like streets and water mains, are critical public asset. Trees are the foundation of a beautiful, healthy neighborhood. Durham needs to plant 60,000 trees in the next 20 years, and I'm calling on our residents tonight to help us do that. An impressive nonprofit organization in Charlotte has led the tree, that tree, that city's tree planting in concert with city government there. And Charlotte's businesses, churches, and civic clubs have pitched in to a vital civic effort to replenish their tree canopy. We are going to do the same thing here in Durham. Local tree advocates have formed a new nonprofit organization, Trees Durham, which will work with the city and keep Durham beautiful to mobilize the same kind of civic commitment to replenishing our tree canopy that Charlotte has enjoyed. In the coming weeks and months, I will be seeking the support of business partners to anchor the work of Trees Durham so that we can activate the people of Durham who are ready to plant trees. And then there is the biggest infrastructure project, not just in Durham, but in the history of North Carolina, that we can finally begin to feel just within our grasp. The Durham Orange Light Rail is an 18-mile, 18-station rail line running from NCCU to downtown Durham to Duke Hospital and eventually all the way to UNC Hospital, connecting the largest employers in our region along the busiest roads in our region. This is a $2.5 billion project. Half of it to be paid for by the federal government if we can just jump the last couple of hurdles. The President's infrastructure plan could kill this project, it's true. But given what we know about Congress so far, I think it's much more likely that our Herculean local efforts over the last decade will finally result in the approval of this light rail line and not long after of the commuter rail line to Raleigh. If not, there are 140,000 when there are 140,000 more people living just in Durham alone 20 years from now. We will be stuck in gridlock forever on 15501 and I-40. We need this light rail to assure a reasonable quality of life for our grandchildren and children, and that's why I work on it a lot. In addition to government that is effective and innovative and provides superb infrastructure, we need government that is transparent and accessible. I'm constantly impressed by the level of transparency of Durham's government, especially during times of controversy. But despite our best efforts, there are still many people who feel left out of any direct participation in Durham's local government. To remedy that, we will be asking our city staff to spend the next fiscal year planning for a process of participatory budgeting, which will aim to bring thousands of people into direct participation in our budget, especially those who have been historically disenfranchised. I want to thank particularly Mayor Pro Tem Gillian Johnson for her proactive work on this issue as well as our remarkable Budget Director Bertha Johnson and her staff for taking up the challenge. I know we can do participatory budgeting in Durham and I know we can do it well. So far tonight I've been talking about aspects of local government that usually fly below the radar. Now I want to turn to elements of our agenda for action which are top of mind in our civic culture and I want to start with affordable housing. Let me begin by explaining the magnitude of the problem. 15,000 households in Durham are what is called severely housing burden. That is they are paying more than 50% of their income in housing and half of those families are living on an income of less than $20,000 for a family of four. Now think a minute about these 7,500 families and think a minute about your family and imagine trying to live on that and then you will understand Durham's affordable housing challenge. What's more, 20 people are moving to Durham every day. That's enough to fill up one of those new four-story apartment buildings every single month. The Washington Post just published an article about the fastest growing cities in the nation during the past five years looking at per capita in migration there are only three cities in the country which had more immigrants than Durham during that time. Now there's a lot to like about that. People want to move here because we have a wonderful quality of life, something we should all be very proud of. What's more in these rankings, Durham is very unusual because we're among the top, not only among the top 10 cities overall, but we're among the top 10 cities in the nation in attracting whites, African-Americans and Asians alike. That's an incredible tribute to our embrace of all people. But all that in migration is driving gentrification with tremendous speed and power. I want to say clearly that we cannot stop those forces but we can make a difference with a strong program of affordable housing and I want to tell you how. First I want to tell you what we're doing now because the city council has been working hard on this issue for several years. We've subsidized 140 rental units in the mixed income loss at Southside on South Rocksboro Road. We supported the Durham Housing Authority in its coming redevelopment of 336 units to Daymark Court and Maureen Road communities to keep them permanently affordable. The Housing Authority has built a 20-unit goalie point affordable housing community including 12 units for formerly homeless people with disabilities. CASA has built a 22-unit Denson apartments on Guest Road to house homeless veterans and recently purchased 70 units on Maplewood to keep them permanently affordable as well. All of this with the financial support of the city. With the city support, the Durham Community Land Trustees has renovated 9 affordable units on Piedmont Street. The Whitted School has been redeveloped with 79 affordable units for seniors and Housing for New Hope's rapid rehousing program found homes for 184 homeless families last year. Also the year before last the federal government certified Durham is having effectively ended veterans homelessness. That is, if a veteran becomes homeless in Durham and reports him or herself to the VA that veteran will be rehoused within 30 days. Last year as well, the city funded the Housing Authority's $4 million purchase of the 19-acre Fayette Place site at the top of Fayetteville Street. The eventual home of affordable housing along with jobs for the people who live there. And two months ago, the council voted to provide two free acres of land next to Durham Station in up to $3.8 million to support the construction of 80 affordable units on this key downtown site. Adding up the Durham Housing Authority budget, the redevelopment budgets for Daymark Court and Maureen Road communities and the city's expenditure on other affordable housing projects. More than $80 million will be spent in Durham in 2018 to support the construction and maintenance of affordable housing. All of this is leveraged by you, the taxpayer by a two cent levy on our tax rate. That is, if you own a $200,000 house in Durham, you are paying $40 a year in taxes to help build a home for someone else. And you are leveraging all this investment. So we're doing a lot but we need to do more. With limited resources and limitless need, we must focus on the most critical goals and the most critical goal is to support the Durham Housing Authority in its redevelopment efforts. Let me explain why. I will tell you that every other affordable housing strategy pales in importance when compared to this one. Why? Durham's 14 public housing communities and their housing choice vouchers together offer subsidized housing to some 12,000 people or one out of almost 20 people in Durham. And the average income of Housing Authority families is just $13,000 per year. So if the Housing Authority doesn't succeed nothing else we do to increase affordable housing in Durham will matter. This is where the big numbers of people are and these are our neediest people. The Housing Authority under the direction of new director Anthony Scott who is here with us tonight has taken on the challenge of aggressively redeveloping its aging properties beginning this year with the 336 units at Denmark Court and Maureen Road. But there are several other large DHA housing communities and it will take millions to redevelop them. Most of this money will be private capital or tax credit equity. But to leverage these funds the Housing Authority will need the financial support of the city and it is critically important that we provide that funding. Further as we develop the largest housing authority properties of the next few years we must strive to make them mixed income communities. Right now the nearly million people are bearing the double burden of poverty. Not only are they poor as individuals but nearly everyone in that community is poor as well. So there are a few community resources available to help everybody rise. I believe we can develop these communities as mixed income communities and it is morally imperative and it is the law that anyone who lives in these communities now will be able to continue to live there after redevelopment. We can do this. It will be hard but we can do it. We can also do something else very hard on the housing front. We can end children's homelessness in Durham in the next few years and we can provide significantly more permanent supportive housing for our chronically homeless population. I will be meeting soon with our homeless service providers to map out a strategy for ending children's homelessness. Unlike our homeless veterans the federal government provides no vouchers for families with children. So we've got to do it ourselves the Durham way. Let's take on this challenge as only Durham can. The recent difficult situation with the homeless encampment and downtown Durham just off highway 147 points out the need for more permanent supportive housing for those homeless people living outside most of them with mental health and addiction challenges. We have affordable housing developers who are prepared to build houses. But what we don't have now is the ability to provide the supportive services that will really make these homes permanent. To that end I'll be convening discussion soon with county government and Commissioner Wendy Jacobson who is here tonight and I have already started these discussions and with alliance our local mental health manager. We'll get the housing. We will get the housing built if the county and alliance can provide the services. Again we can do this in Durham. We have other critical affordable housing goals as well. We must use publicly owned land downtown to leverage affordable housing. We must develop an effective strategy for inducing developers to contribute to our affordable housing since state law prevents us from acquiring that participation. We must help low income homeowners affected by venture gentrification stay in their homes. We must fund the work of our outstanding non-profits including CASA Habitat for Humanity and the Durham Community Land Trustees which recently purchased 54 units in East Durham which it needs to renovate. We must support this work so that these units can be kept permanently affordable. I want to mention one more affordable housing project as well and that is the teacher housing proposal that is now before our county commissioners. This effort is a partnership among Durham public schools which is done at the land CASA the non-profit which will manage and own the housing and the state employees credit union foundation which will provide zero interest loan to support the project. The result will be 24 units of rental housing for new public school teachers right across from Lowes Grove Middle School. This housing will be rented at well below market rents and it will be a terrific teacher recruiting tool for our public schools. Right now the remaining obstacle is county approval of transfer to the land of the land to CASA and I urge our county commissioners to act on this soon. We will provide affordable housing for teachers that requires no city funding no county funding no tax credit and will provide below market rate for new teachers and can be a model for other housing that we build in this community. Let's make this happen. As this massive affordable housing agenda moves forward it will require more taxpayer funding. I believe we are close to the time and we will need to bond issue to fund redevelopment one of more communities and I will look to our city administration for their advice on this timing. In addition, I am thrilled to announce publicly tonight some important quiet work that has been going on during the past few months. Dr. Phel Nguyen former long time president of Durham Technical Community College and now and for the past 10 years perhaps vice president for Durham and regional affairs at Duke University has brought together financial institutions non-profit housing developers and city staff to work towards the creation of a public-private partnership to support an affordable housing trust fund in Durham. It is my hope and belief that we can create such a fund capitalized with at least $15 million with the city to provide perhaps 10% of the funds in risk capital and the rest of the funds to come through very low or zero interest loan funds from the university and the private sector. Dr. Nguyen is here tonight Sir, I would ask you to please rise. Dr. Nguyen, you're retiring this year from Duke and I want to thank you publicly for your extraordinary service to our community in so many roles. You already leave an outsized legacy but it is my fervent hope that this Housing Trust Fund will be the crowning achievement of that legacy. Thank you for your leadership. Taking on the affordable housing issue in Durham is a moral imperative. Our embrace of our most vulnerable communities carries that same moral force. To that end, I want to repeat the words I spoke on the night I was sworn in as your mayor because frankly I don't think I can approve on them. First, if you are a refugee who has come to this country in flight from Somalia or Iraq or Syria, we welcome you here in Durham with open arms. If you are a gender non-conforming kid who is trying to figure it out, we embrace you here in Durham. We want you and we love you. If you are a member of the Islamic faith under attack by our president, know that you have a welcoming home here in Durham. If you are a transgender person come to Durham, we just don't care what bathroom you choose. And I want to speak especially today to the members of our Latinx community. I'm going to start with a song that I learned in Sunday school when I was a kid. A poem by the Jewish poet Emma Lazarus sent to music and it goes like this. Excuse me in advance for my singing. Give me your tired, your poor Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free The wretched refuse of your teeming shores Send these the homeless tempest toss to me I lift my lamp beside the golden door These words, as you know, are inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty. She who lifts her lamp beside the golden door. The door which my great grandparents and probably yours came through as they entered this country. Today in Durham, two church congregations are keeping the golden door open. For the past seven months, St. John's Missionary Baptist Church and the School for Conversion have been hosting Pastor Jose Chicas in Sanctuary. And for the past two months, Sunwell Oliver Bruno has been in Sanctuary at Citywell United Methodist Church. Both of these men have been threatened with deportation back to dangerous situations in their country of origin. Both have loving families here. Both are constructive members of our community. While ICE agents have the legal authority to enter a church, to apprehend someone, to date ICE has not invaded the sanctity of a church to make an arrest. And so these two church congregations in an act of commitment and courage have chosen to offer sanctuary to these two good men. This is hard work. Members of the congregation of the broader community are helping to provide meals, laundry service, and a constant hosting presence at the church. There are 40 immigrants in church sanctuary across the United States. Two of them are here in Durham. The families of Senor Oliver Bruno and Pastor Chicas are here with us tonight. Julia, Danielle, Sandra, Ezekiel, Oscar, Darwin. Por favor, levantarse. Mis amigos, mis amigos, son bienvenidos en Durham. Damos la bienvenida a sus esposos y padres mientras buscan santuario en nuestra ciudad. Honramos a las iglesias que les ofrecen refugio, los alimentan y los apoyan. Te honramos por tu valor. Te damos la bienvenida a Durham con los brazos abiertos y corazones abiertos. In Durham, we welcome you with open arms and open hearts. Thank you. We also honor those inside City Hall and out who are doing the day-to-day work of welcoming our immigrant neighbors and bringing them out of the shadows. I thank El Centro Hispano under the extraordinary leadership of Pilar Rocha Goldberg for implementing the faith ID of three thousand of our undocumented neighbors. And I thank our police department, public schools and other agencies for recognizing that ID. Chief Davis, I thank you for your humane and sensible policy on traffic checkpoints and for your recent reform of our U-Visa certification policies, which I believe will help keep our city safer and help those undocumented immigrants who assist in the solution of violent crime find a permanent home in this community. I thank our newest council member, Javier Caballero, for taking initiative in her first few weeks in office to begin to educate all of us in local government about how we can improve Spanish-language access for all. And I thank my council colleagues for appointing Javier who I believe to be the first Latina office holder in our city's history. As we review the state of our city tonight, this is a moment in which we can all take pride. At the same time as we search for immigrant justice, we keep the need for racial justice ever at the forefront of our work. As we know so well, the enslavement of African-Americans is our great national sin. It's legacy still with us. An opened wound we all must strive to heal. Black lives matter, and we must work every day to make sure they matter here in Durham. I will say on behalf of my city council colleagues that we try hard to review every issue through a racial equity lens. I have been through several racial equity trainings during the past two years myself, and I want to compliment city manager Tom Bonfield for initiating racial equity training for the city's entire senior management team, and I'm proud of the fact that 150 more city employees are getting racial equity training this year. Tonight, I want to talk about two new initiatives that will be undertaking in the coming months that I believe will help affirm by our actions that black lives matter in Durham. First, we will be establishing, along with the county, a joint city county committee on Confederate monuments and memorials. I grew up during segregation in Lynchburg, Virginia. I attended Robert E. Lee Junior High School. I often had my birthday parties on the battlefield at Appomattox, and over my brother's bed in the bedroom we shared was a picture of Stonewall Jackson falling at Chancellorsville. While my parents were civil rights liberals, I was also steeped in the traditions of the Confederacy, and yet you know, as I know, that the Confederate monuments across the South must come down. There are public glorification of the defenders of slavery and we cannot let that stand. To that end, beginning in May, our committee on Confederate monuments will be charged with engaging the Durham community in an expansive and transparent public process regarding public monuments and other remnants to Confederacy present in Durham. The committee will propose to the county commission a plan of disposition for the Confederate monument torn down outside the old courthouse, as well as the base of that monument that remains. We'll also propose to the city council and county commission the plan for the disposition of any other Confederate monuments and remnants that we have on public lands in our communities. However, as my city council colleague Mark Anthony Middleton has so eloquently expressed, the most damaging legacy of enslavement isn't the symbolism of statues. It is the ongoing effects of racial discrimination in the daily lives of our African American residents. Many of the inequalities that plague us here in Durham are the direct result of long history of institutional and structural racism. It is important for us to learn to see the ways in which racism has shaped our institutions and to begin the work that needs to be done to change and repair these lasting impacts. Racial equity work in cities like Baltimore, Seattle, and Charlottesville has led to the implementation of scholarship programs for low-income residents, public art, honoring African American history, and increased investment in housing, education, and youth initiatives. Some of the work that needs to be done is internal to the city government. I am proud that through our human resources department, the city of Durham has already began working with the Government Alliance on Racial Equity to begin critical conversations within city government about structural racism and how to combat it. Even more important, though, than what happens in city government is the need for our entire community to continue to face the daily realities of racial inequality and how we're going to change that, to lift up and expand the work of community groups in this arena. Our most important task is to engage with the community. To that end, I will be asking our city council in the next month to create the city's first Racial Equity Task Force to be chaired by our Mayor Pro Tem Gillian Johnson. Over the following 12 months, the task force will engage with the broader Durham community to learn more about the racially inequitable circumstances that exist in our cities, to research interventions and remedies and make recommendations to the city council for how to move forward. I know this work will serve us well. Now I want to talk about, for a moment, about one of the most important areas of our racial justice work, the kind of policing that we do in Durham and about the city's significant efforts to apply our racial equity framework to our policing. I want you to know that we are assertively recruiting African-American and Latinx officers to serve on the Durham Police Force. That we are training every new recruit in racial equity, de-escalation and procedural justice, and training every veteran officer in racial equity as well. That we are requiring written consent to any consent search of a home or car. Durham's policy in this regard puts us in the national forefront of progressive policies on searches. In the past year, as a result, total searches of cars have followed by 44%, which means hundreds of people, mostly African-American and Latinx youth, are being spared jail in criminal records. In addition to these actions, I want to offer tonight for the second time my sincere thanks to Chief Davis for the reform she has instituted in the police department. Reforms that are aimed to build trust in the community and especially in communities of color. These include the expectation that drug possession and other small offenses for people under 21 121 will be referred to Durham's misdemeanor court rather than criminalized. The Chief's worked with Song to make sure that transgender youth are treated with respect by officers in the patient, non-confrontational way in which the department has been dealing with public demonstrations. Chief Davis, I thank you. The work of the police department is very difficult. Last year in Durham, 244 people were shot with a gun, not shot at, actually shot. And 24 of these 244 shootings resulted in a homicide. Some of the most important work, police work, is fighting violent crime. And some is providing the daily service to our community that I see every time I ride along with one of our officers on a Saturday night. So tonight, I want to recognize the outstanding work of two officers. And first, I'm going to ask Corporal J.J. Barrazande to stand. Thank you for being here. How am I doing on your name? Pretty good. During our recent snowstorm, Corporal Barrazande was dispatched to a call on Dearborn Drive. The first person on the scene, he spotted two women, one in her 60s, clinging to the door jamb of a fully submerged car. The woman, women were waist deep in the freezing water, waving their arms and calling for help. Corporal Barrazande jumped into the icy creek. He reached the car and guided both women to safety, saving their lives. And my favorite part of the story, Corporal Barrazande then went back home, took a hot shower and returned to duty. Thank you, sir, for your swift and showing. Officer Aaron Ellerman, would you please stand? Officer Ellerman encountered a very different situation. On March 20th of last year, an unknown man entered a home on Burnett Street and shot a 51-year-old man and his 79-year-old mother, who later died of her wounds. The suspect stole the man's car and the next day, officers spotted the stolen vehicle and attempted to stop it. The driver refused to stop and Officer Ellerman took over as the lead on the chase, which went through District 1 and District 2. Before the escaping driver crashed into a tree and officers took the three occupants into custody as the car burst into flames. Officer Ellerman maintained a professional composer as she directed the chase and helped make the arrests at the chaotic scene that ensued. Officer Ellerman, thank you for your courage, for your composure, and for keeping our city safe. This is the state of the city address. So what tonight is the state of our city? Here's what it is. We are a welcoming city. We are a diverse city. And a prosperous city determined that our prosperity will be shared. We are a welcoming city, a diverse city, and a prosperous city determined that our prosperity will be shared. We know that 20% of our residents, mostly people of color, do not share in our prosperity and we are committed to change that. I want to thank Andre Pettigrew, the city's new director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development to be the term shared prosperity to describe the economy we want to build in Durham. Mr. Pettigrew and his staff are now in the process of developing a new economic development plan for Durham. One that will emphasize homegrown businesses and especially inclusion and development of minority and women-owned businesses in our economic activity. This will require a strategic refocusing of city resources and it will require that city government take the lead. We are committed to sharing our prosperity. One other way we can begin to share prosperity in Durham is to attack the issue of food insecurity. 50,000 people in Durham are food insecure. Of Durham Public Schools, 33,000 students, two-thirds of them are on free or reduced lunch. Recently, I've been meeting with representatives of some of the many wonderful organizations working on this issue and there are many of them in this city. In the coming months, I'll be issuing a call summit to flesh out an action plan and make it real. Durham needs a food security coordinator and I will be working with the city manager, the nonprofits and the representatives of county government to get this position funded. Let's become known as the city where we eat in the best restaurants and we do the best job of feeding all of our residents. Let's create an economy in Durham around food security and food justice. To tell you about another way we can share prosperity in Durham, let me tell you about the work of our innovation team. Last year, the city of Durham became one of just 25 cities in the world to have received a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to create an innovation team. This is quite an honor as most other cities in this program such as Los Angeles and Paris have much larger populations. The innovation team has prioritized the voices, stories and experiences of residents in thinking creatively about its current focus area which is how to increase economic opportunity for residents with criminal records. In its first six months the team has conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with nearly 100 residents with criminal records in addition to meeting with dozens of other service providers and individuals from the criminal justice system. If you are listening today and you are a resident with a criminal record struggling to find work or housing I invite you to stop by City Hall and visit with the innovation team in the city's new iLab so they can hear your story. They want to hear from you. The expectation for the iTeam is that their work culminates not in a series of recommendations but rather in a list of promising and actionable initiatives that the city will prototype and test. Ideas that show positive results will be scaled and implemented through no public-private partnerships and city matching funds. The recent Durham Driver Amnesty Program is one example of the kind of ideas we can expect to see more from the iTeam. This initiative arose in quick response to stories from residents about the difficulty they heard finding work due to a suspended or evoked license. The team submitted a public data request to the DMV and learned that, listen to this, over 46,000 Durham County residents have a revoked or suspended license. To address this alarming problem, the team partnered with the district attorney and community organizations to create an amnesty program to address some of the legal and financial barriers to getting their license back for people whose license had been revoked more than 18 months before for reasons not involving DUIs. With increased participation, the team designed a novel application process that made it easier for residents to apply. They didn't need to take time off from work, they didn't need to stand in long lines at the courthouse. They could simply apply by text or email and over 2,000 people did so during just the two-week pilot period. I'm happy to report the outcomes from this new approach. The district attorney recently dismissed more than 2,000 old charges to the residents. The team also identified over $250,000 in fines and fees owed by more than 500 residents that they are working with community partners to address. There's a promising first step in this project in our city's larger ambitions to advance shared prosperity. I know that the action agenda I have spread before you tonight is an ambitious one and I didn't even talk about our bus system in the parks and rack or a lot more. A lot more really important things. But if we are serious about sharing prosperity and Durham, we must take up this agenda. We are a city known for our grit, our determination in the face of adversity, our comeback from economic decline and from the flight of our manufacturing base. Our own history has much to teach us about the work we have to do now. On April 10th, 2019 Durham will celebrate its sesquicentennial. Nice word. 150 years after our incorporation on land donated by Dr. Bartlett Durham for a railroad depot. Soon, with the advice of our city staff we will be initiating a sesquicentennial task force to guide us as we plan that celebration. This is our chance to face our history head on. This is our chance to be good and the bad and to uplift and celebrate through storytelling and the arts those heroes in our past whom we need to honor and memorialize. I think it's going to be awesome. In anticipation of that year of celebrating our common history tonight it is my honor to appoint Durham's first public historian. When this person left the city council city manager Bonfield he said he would offer us his valuable history lessons that he would offer us occasionally on city council minds. And so we are officially bringing him back in a new role. Councilmember Eddie Davis will you please stand. Eddie has agreed to take on this one year term as Durham's first public historian and no one is better suited than he for this honor. In this role Eddie has agreed to present many history lessons at our city council meetings and he will make himself available to civic organizations scout troops, churches and others who might want some valuable lesson in Durham history. Thank you councilmember Davis for taking on this next chapter in your civic life. Here again is the state of our city tonight. We are a welcoming diverse and prosperous city determined that our prosperity be shared. In order to make that shared prosperity a reality everyone within the sound of my voice must pitch in. So I appeal to you to find your own way to advocate and serve. Serve on the board of your favorite non-profit, organize your neighborhood take on a job in the PTA write a blog on the issue you care about most march in a protest mentor a young person fundraise for the cause closest to your heart get your church involved in social action register voters if you are a young person raising a family in Durham I once again challenge you as I did the night that I was sworn in to do the thing that's going to make the most difference of all in the long run our kids need to go to school together if we're going to have the kind of society that we want send your kids to Durham public schools get involved in our schools and fight for them in the two months that I have been mayor people have come up to me over and over with the same question it's a fabulous question how can I help that's how advocate and serve find your own way to do that we can make shared prosperity a reality in the bull city together let's make the city we love a city for all thank you thank you and we are now in a five minute recess thank you Brenda thank you Brenda thank you absolutely my pleasure thank you for your patience how are you you doing man hey Richard find me a find find me a find he's a good fella 2017 a year of momentous endings and new beginnings see you how you doing tonight I am too excellent alright oh we don't good to see you well thanks for joining us tonight I can't remember did you tell her George did you tell her I could jump a text howdy how are you it's my winter beard you know it's a lot warmer this winter I just noticed oh yeah I know there's a lot of gray you know what I'm gonna own the gray I'm gonna own it so let's just do it yeah I know exactly oh did you wanna how you doing good to see you okay thanks thanks thank you you're not a friend she hasn't been shot much action we're gonna pull we're gonna pull agenda and then we'll talk about it go ahead and sign up I'm gonna pull it from cooking okay let's see I'm going to work on a task force that's gonna be working on homeless transgender youth because I told George him and I would like to go for a little while then come back and I told him to open up the office where I know I could put mailboxes for an address for homeless youth and so where they can have their documents and then they'll come awesome job awesome job I just wanted to make sure that you great idea you are and you got a wedding coming up show us good congratulations sweetie you know we had one last year I'll say five minutes or so but there's another bill submit about a democrat for the state to ban okay okay my dad on machines on the plane working it's not getting the downloads you can borrow my I don't I think I'm okay it's getting this up hard but once I go to the item let's try it let's try it now I turned it off maybe yeah and we need to I pitched you pretty hard to not Anthony and there was a tiny note if North Carolina does the same thing well we need a couple more council members here Councilmember Middleton is close South Carolina I have the errors right down there there is I'll just bang it and tell everybody I see a lot of time this is what I'm getting that's our out deal I don't need it tonight I'm okay I may I want to call this meeting back to order please I want to call this meeting back to order please yeah let's chat more Michael Reynolds oh yeah yeah Reynolds I'll call this meeting to order please for those who are still in the room we would love to have you if you are at the back and you're thinking about enjoying yourself talking or leaving please do so so we can get started thank you before we go through these ceremonial items one of the city employees who I introduced earlier was not present in the room who is one of our employers at our city cemetery and I wanted to introduce Michael Reynolds Michael would you stand to be recognized thank you like all good parents he was picking up one of his children at band practice we appreciate it and thank you so much for the very special work that you do we really very much appreciate it and now we are at the ceremonial items and I am going to ask councilmember vernetta austin if she will read the proclamation for human relations month proclamation I'm not sure who's coming up to receive this James is here okay great okay and Diane great wonderful thank you everyone first time proclamation whereas the city of Durham established the Durham human relations commission in October 1968 in response to racial inequities and has henceforth been committed to furthering equal opportunities improving equitable access to services and promoting diversity and whereas the Durham human relations commission strives to resolve inequities by listening to complaints and by instituting programs that promote fairness dealing with people of all racial religious ethnic and economic backgrounds and whereas the Durham human relations commission enforces the fair housing ordinance of the city of Durham which prohibits discriminatory housing practices committed against a person because of his or her race, color, religion national origin, gender, disability or familial status and whereas the Durham human relations commission's goals include developing an atmosphere conducive to the best possible human relations to conduct studies, suggest areas of concern and recommend any action to the city council that the commission feels is necessary and maybe lawfully taken to minimize areas of conflict and to promote harmonious relations and whereas incidences of bias bias crimes housing discrimination and other inequitable treatment against a person because of that person's membership in a protected class continue to persist and whereas the Durham human relations commission encourages all residents to value diversity take a stand against social injustice and work together to foster communities and systems that are inclusive and equitable and now therefore I, Steven M. Schuyl, mayor of the city of Durham, North Carolina do hereby proclaim February 2018 as Human Relations Month in Durham and hereby challenge all citizens to promote equality equity, diversity and multiculturalism witness my hand and the corporate seal of the city of Durham, North Carolina this fifth day of February 2018 On behalf of the Human Relations Commission, thank you very much for the proclamation just a little bit of history about in 1968 Durham created the Human Relations Committee following a seven month long boycott of white businesses led by Durham's Black Solidarity Committee this boycott led sought 88 demands for the city to address racial inequality so today with members of 17 volunteers matching Durham's demographics we are charged to eradicate discrimination in any form and to make Durham into a model community and it's clear that today 50 years later we both need the Fair Housing Act which is also celebrating this 50 year anniversary and we need the Human Relations Commission now more than ever so I just want to thank you very much for the proclamation and I just want to read the final conclusion of a resolution that the Human Relations Commission passed unanimously in August of last year when which we stated the commission also unequivocally affirmed that Black Lives Matter and we affirmed our desire to welcome all people into our community who have been the targets of oppression and discrimination in our community such as immigrants and refugees the people of Jewish and Muslim faiths and people regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity we look forward to continuing our work with the city and with the community to ensure we live out these promises together thank you again for this proclamation council member Reese thank you Mr. Mayor I appreciate this opportunity to proclaim January 30th Fred Koromatsu Day of Civil Liberties in the Constitution here in Durham somewhat belatedly due to our meeting schedule but better late than never I also want to thank Dr. Chioca Lord a director on the board of the Japan America Society of North Carolina for being here tonight to accept this proclamation and say a few words afterwards before I read the proclamation I'd like to take this opportunity to speak for a bit about why this proclamation is so necessary right now because as it was last year when we did the last proclamation for Fred Koromatsu Day this is still an especially appropriate time in our nation's history and our political life to honor the life of Fred Koromatsu 76 years ago this month during a time of geopolitical uncertainty abroad and nationalist paranoia out here at home the president of the United States signed an executive order that required the forcible separation of people based on their nationality and the nationality of their families even American citizens like Fred Koromatsu were caught up in the sweep of this illegal and unconstitutional executive order an order that was sold to the American people by our government as necessary to protect our national security eventually a federal judge found that executive order to have been unlawful for decades in our nation's modern history perhaps you're like me and you see disturbing historical parallel between that executive order 76 years ago and our current history today this proclamation is also important in the life of our city in recent years Durham has opened our hearts and our neighborhoods to thousands of refugees and immigrants and nothing exemplifies our city's values more than our eagerness and happiness to welcome these new Durham residents into our gracious and loving city and finally this proclamation is important to me on a very personal level over the last couple of years some of you may have heard me say from time to time that I'm a 10th generation North Carolinian and that is true on my father's side but on my mother's side I have a different story my mother was just three months old when she and my grandmother immigrated to the United States from the nation of their birth the nation of Japan and as the son and grandson of Japanese immigrants today's proclamation is deeply personal to me and this is the courage exemplified by its honoree Fred Korematsu so again Mr. Mayor thank you for giving me this opportunity at this pivotal moment in our history to proclaim January 30th Fred Korematsu Day I'll now read the proclamation and afterwards Dr. Lord will come up and say a few words whereas Fred Korematsu the son of Japanese immigrants was born on January 30th 1919 in Oakland California whereas on January 7th 1941 Japan attacked the American military base in Pearl Harbor Hawaii propelling the United States into World War II and whereas during World War II Mr. Korematsu refused to comply with federal executive order 9066 signed by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19th 1942 which authorized on the basis of supposed wartime military necessity the relocation and internment of 117,000 people of Japanese descent two-thirds of whom were native born American citizens whereas after being jailed in California and subsequently sent to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah Mr. Korematsu unsuccessfully challenged the relocation order in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the US Supreme Court and whereas President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 issuing an apology and payment of compensation to individuals of Japanese descent who were interned during World War II on January 15, 1998 President Bill Clinton awarded Mr. Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom America's highest civilian honor and whereas until his death in 2005 Fred Korematsu remained a tireless advocate of the constitutional rights of Americans to liberty due process and equality without regard to race, religion, ethnicity or national origin. Now therefore I, Stephen M. Schulmayer of the City of Durham, North Carolina do hereby proclaim January 30th as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution in Durham and hereby urge all residents of the City of Durham to contemplate the life of Fred Korematsu and the critical importance of preserving Civil Liberties even in times of real or perceived crisis and to take special note of this observance with this my hand the Corporate seal of the City of Durham North Carolina this 30th of January, 2018. And now I have Dr. Lord here. Thank you Mr. Reese. Thank you for your introduction. My name is Chioko Lord. We are honored to be invited to Durham to celebrate the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. I would like to give you my personal views about Fred Korematsu Day. I was born and raised in Japan and immigrated to this country three decades ago. I have been a US citizen for many years now but I will always be an immigrant too. As an immigrant I fear the current state of civil rights in our country. Do we have to ask if another community is going to be treated like the Japanese American community in 1942? I would like to believe that this country is much more than what is going on now because we have a long history of eventually correcting the errors and injustices of the past. Fred Korematsu for the right of Japanese Americans he eventually succeeded even though it took 40 years. His achievements were recognized by being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton just now is mentioned by Mr. Reese. In addition, he was also the first Asian American to have a day recognized in his name by the state of California and now many other states and cities including the states of Virginia and South Carolina. We hope North Carolina will become one of those states in the future. Let us hope the progress achieved in the civil rights in our country will continue in the efforts and sacrifices made by people like Fred Korematsu. Mr. Reese, Mr. Mayor members of the Durham City Council thank you for inviting me to celebrate Fred Korematsu on behalf of the Japan American Society of North Carolina. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here and now we will proceed to announcements by the council. I recognize any city council members for any comments you may have. Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you esteemed colleagues. I want to keep faith with the young scholars of Club Boulevard Elementary School Go-Manatees, some of whom I be watching tonight and shout them out. On last week council members Alston and Freeman and myself had the opportunity to kick off Black History Month by reading to elementary school group of fourth graders and I read Mr. Mayor about the role children played in the 1963 campaign Birmingham campaign of the civil rights movement children who had no partisan affiliation at that time but who changed the world and we challenged those kids at Club Boulevard to change the world so I want to shout them out and thank the faculty and staff at Club Boulevard for allowing us to come in and I know I speak for my fellow council members to read to them and also to wish the people who are celebrating Black History Month the happiest of Black History Month and challenge them that history is still being made so Go-Manatees, thank you council members for joining us last week for read to read to those kids and let's make some more history. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much council member Middleton. Any other announcements? You have inspired me to make an announcement. I just want to announce that here in the audience is George Dixby George and I were the fellow presidents of the EK HO PTA in about 1992 and so George I want to welcome you inspired by council member Middleton's reference to Club Boulevard Elementary nice to see you and Michelle. Any other announcements? Thank you very much. Any priority items by the city manager? Thank you Mr. Mayor. Good evening everyone no priority items. Thank you Mr. Mayor. No priority items. And the city clerk. No items Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. And now we will read the consent agenda the consent agenda all the items on the consent agenda can be approved with a single vote of the council unless an item is removed by council member or a member of the public for separate consideration at the end of tonight's meeting. I'm I'm now going to read each of the consent items. Item one approval of city council minutes. Item two Durham city council county environmental affairs board appointment. Item three Durham planning commission appointment. Item four municipal primary election item five contract with WSP Inc. for the development of the US 15501 quarter study between University Drive and Durham and Ephesus Church Road and Chapel Hill. Item six contract SW 27 Fayetteville street sidewalk TIP number SR 5001C Item seven contract SW 27C Fayetteville street sidewalk and roadway repairs construction administration inspections. TIP number SR 5001C Item eight contract SW 34 Avondale sidewalk project TIP number U47 4726HM Item nine contract SW 34C Avondale sidewalk construction administration inspections TIP number U4726HM Item 10 contract SW 35 campus walk and LaSalle sidewalk project TIP number C 5178 Item 11 contract SW 35C campus walk and LaSalle sidewalk construction administration inspections TIP number C 5178 Item 12 supplemental agreement for North Carolina Department of Transportation campus walk and LaSalle sidewalk project TIP number C 5178 Item 13 which is city code and fee ordinance revisions for small wireless facilities. I'm going to pull that for discussion. We have someone who would like to speak on the item. Item 15 and 16 can be found on the general business agenda public hearings. Can I have a motion that we approve the consent agenda with the exception of item 13. So moved. Second. It's been moved and second that we approve the consent agenda with the exception of item 13. Madam clerk will you please open the vote. Close the vote. Mr. Mayor, the motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much. And now we will move the general business agenda public hearings. Our first item is item 15 zoning change Copley farm 2. We'll receive the staff report. Good evening. Jacob Wiggins with the planning department. So before I begin I would like to note for the record that both planning items in front of you this evening have been notified and published according to both local and state laws. The item presently in front of the council is a zoning map change request for an approximate 30 acre site generally located at 3635 Freeman Road just to the east of southern high school. The applicant is requesting to change the zoning designation of residential rule to plan development residential units. We will now move to item 3.997 or PDR 3.997. Some key commitments on the associated development plan include a commitment of a maximum of 123 residential units at this site. Those could either be single family townhouse or semi attached units. 24% maximum of previous services. Site access points, building and parking envelope as well as project boundary and the approval by vote of 13 to 0. Staff has determined that this item is consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances. Action will require two separate items, one for the consistency statement, the second for the zoning ordinance. I am happy to answer any questions that the council may have at this time. Thank you very much, Jacob. You have heard the report from the council. I will declare the public hearing to be open and will first entertain any questions and comments from the council. Any questions or comments for staff? Councilmember Freeman. I just want to share as I served on the planning commission, this case became before us, I want to just acknowledge that this is a developer that actually volunteered to hold a public hearing with their neighbors recognizing that they had over 30 acres of development . What I would say is a very low density area. I just want to acknowledge that this developer is being very proactive and being engaged with the community. Thank you very much. Any other comments? Any questions for staff at this point? If not, we will hear comments from the public. I see that we have one person signed up to speak. Robert, you are speaking in favor of this and I will give you five minutes and I don't see anybody in opposition so I want you to go with that. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and fellow council members. I'm here also with George Danzielle of Stort and Erica Latham representing Lenard Homes. I've met a few of you over the years in the recent weeks and I look forward to seeing more of you and working with you over the next few years. This is an overview of the development that we are undertaking with Lenard. The red boundary shows the overall development area. In yellow is the area of the zoning that we are requesting. The larger area was originally conceived as a conservation subdivision starting since then the developer had wished to include townhomes in that project. Townhomes are not allowed in conservation subdivisions so we modified the layout a little bit to allow for townhomes. This shows a zoomed in area of the development plan application that we submitted. You can see many of the single family homes there are already platted and then the yellow area which is about 30 acres were mostly going to be including townhomes with a few single family homes. The development requests zoning of 3.9 units an acre aggregated over the entire development with a conservation subdivision the overall density will be about 2.5 units an acre. The max density in the conservation subdivision is 2 units an acre. As indicated we are including single family and townhomes as well as semi attached and the majority of the zoning request will include townhomes to provide mixed income housing within this community. On that prior slide you saw where the yellow area was what allowing us to do is to concentrate the townhomes more internally to the project. Road improvements are being actually underway already. We've met with NCDOT the city staff and they have recommended improvements in front of the site. As planning staff indicated planning commission recommended approval for 13-0 with many supportive comments that they distributed to you. One of the additional proffers we made at the planning commission was to address Mr. Miller's comments about some additional treatment for the front facades. We're also providing the city Durham a valuable sanitary sourcement through the property. And then we are also providing DPS schools $22,000. Also and this is the most interesting about it is Lenar and southern high school will be working together to allow students from the trades programs to come to the site witness how the homes are being built. They won't be building any of the homes but there might be a small structure like a male kiosk or some other type of gazio structure that they might be able to build. Erica Latham will be meeting with the principal the program counselors and a few teachers to work out the specifics of it and see how best a relationship like this could foster and then basically this will help develop the skills and the talents and the students to help further build this community. That is all I have to share. I'm open to any questions. Council members any questions or comments from Mr. Schock? I just have one. I just wanted to just check back in and see if there was any thought of an increase in the amount that was provided for a student. Yes ma'am. We did discuss it at length considering what's already been proffered and the efforts of what we're going to be doing with Southern High School and the target market of the pricing of the homes we feel that what we've done is appropriate for this project. Your price points are in the $200,000 range is that about right? Somewhere below that starting for the townhouses on the single families will be upward of that? I have a question for staff. Why are townhubs not allowed in conservation subdivisions? The way that conservation section is structured generally these are going to be large areas low density land and it's just one of the standards in the ordinance that it restricts those two single family. I see reinforcements. Good evening. Sarah Young from the planning department. My colleague Mike Stock and I were just talking in the background that it would be great to add this as a viable housing option in the conservation subdivisions. So great minds think alike. That will be something we'll add to. I'm so glad that someone thinks I have a great minds there. It does strike me as yeah, I mean it does seem to me that it makes sense providing that level of that sort of density and good thank you appreciate you're thinking about that. Any other questions or comments for the applicant? So let me just I want to make a comment. I just want to make it for Mr. Schunk and Mr. Stanzie. I'll just just so you can help us think about this in the future. We are as you know, especially if someone develops downtown and wants something rezoning and easement. We have been working with those developers to offer funds to our dedicated housing fund to our affordable housing fund. Here we have a situation where and most of those projects are shall we say you know at a higher price point they might be rental but they're at a higher price point than what you all are talking about here. We need all of our developers to be helping us by contributing to our affordable housing fund in some way and so I'm going to challenge you all to help us think about that because you all are very conscientious you know representatives and developers have often come before us and I would just appreciate it if you all would give that some thought. There are going to be other developers that come here especially those downtown and we will be having some other kinds of discussions with but I want to make sure that what we're doing is equitable and that and fair and that we're treating everybody alike. We can't require these proffers for affordable housing nor for public schools for that matter but you all generously have made that profit but I just would like you all to give some thought and I would appreciate it if you would and if you have any ideas that you'd be willing to offer them to us. Thank you for that. Any other questions, comments for the applicant? If not then I'm going to you all have anything else? If not I'm going to declare this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council. So I'm just a quick question. Sure. Is it possible to delay this process a little bit? I just want to do a little bit of looking like I just a little I just declared the public hearing closed. Sorry to say. Okay. I think that we'd have to have that discussion earlier. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I believe the motion that we need is moved to adopt consistency. Second. Been moved and seconded we adopt this consistency statement. Any discussion? Madam clerk will you open the vote? Will you close the vote please? The motion passes 7-0. Thank you. We have a second motion required to adopt an appropriate zoning map change case. Z-17-0 is out of the residential rural zoning district placing the same establishment the same as planned development residential 3.997 B-3.997. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. It's already discussion. If not Madam clerk will you please open the vote? Close the vote. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much. Thank you. at annexation item for Andrew and your Avenue residential to conduct a public hearing and receive comments. We have a report from staff. Yes, hi, good evening, Jamie Soniak with the planning department requests for utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation and zoning map change have been received from Angier Development LLC for four contiguous parcels totaling 19.960 acres the subject site is located at 3838-3844-3846 and 3848 and your Avenue. This annexation petition seeks to bring three of the parcels into the city limits. One of the properties is already within the city's jurisdiction approval of the annexation petition will become effective on March 31st, 2018. The subject site is presently zoned residential suburban 20 and plan development residential 4.0. The applicant is requesting a zoning designation of plan development residential 3.958 which is consistent with the low density residential for dwelling units or acre 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 78 single family units and various roadway and transportation improvements to Angier Avenue. The public works and water management departments have determined that the existing city of Durham utility mains have the capacity for the proposed development. The budget and management service department determined that the proposed annexation will become revenue positive immediately following annexation additional information can be found in the staff report relative to that. The Durham Planning Commission at their September 12th, 2017 meeting recommended approval of the proposed plan development residential zoning by a district by a vote of 13 to one. Staff determines that these requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan and the applicable policies and ordinances. Three motions are required for this application. The first is required by law to approve the utility extension agreement and the voluntary annexation petition. The second is required to adopt a consistency statement and then the third would be to adopt the zoning ordinance. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you very much. You all have heard the staff report. I'm going to declare this public hearing open. Are there any comments or questions by members of the council? Once again, Mr. May. Council Member Fried. So I really want to elaborate. I actually had the opportunity to attend this public hearing or public meeting that they held and it was not, well, it was just recommended and they took the recommendation to host it. And it actually went into the late evening. They actually stayed and answered all of the residents questions relative or not. And I really appreciated their stepping forward to engage with the community. Thank you. And thank you for your active participation in that Council Member Freeman as well. Any other comments or questions for staff at this point? If not, we have one speaker. Mr. David Lazo. Mr. Lazo, have I pronounced your name correctly? Good evening. Yes, sir, Lazo. Mr. Lazo, you have five minutes. Thank you very much. My name is David Lazo. I'm the developer of the project. I would like to thank Ms. Freeman for your participation in that meeting too. You were, I was honestly shocked that you showed up. I'm very happy that you did. So I think that the residents that were equally happy that their representation was there. So thank you very much. There may be some technical questions about the project. I'd like to just yield the remaining time I have to my engineer who's sitting here in case you do have some technical questions. He'd probably be better suited to answer those. Thank you. Thank you. So would you like to make a statement as well? Are you just here as a resource? I wasn't clear. I can introduce myself, but I won't take any time making a statement. My name is Jeff Westmoreland. I'm a registered landscape architect with CEPI Engineering. Our firm has worked with Mr. Lazo on the project for the submittal that you have before you. Thank you, Mr. Westmoreland. Before you leave, I would appreciate it if you would fill out one of the yellow cards over by the clerk's desk so we can get your name in the minutes. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments by members of the council for the development? Any questions or comments? If not, I'm going to declare this public hearing closed in the matters back for the council. And I will entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing the property and authorizing city manager and utility extension agreement. So moved. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any discussion? If not, Madam clerk, we open the vote. Close the vote. I'll move the consistency statement. I'm sorry. Hang on one second. The motion passes seven zero. Jumping the gun. Now I'll move the consistency. Thank you very much. It's been moved and seconded that we adopt the consistency statement. Madam clerk, will you please open the vote? Close the vote. Motion passes seven zero. Thank you very much. And then. Move the zoning change. Thank you very much. Okay. The zoning change has been moved and seconded. Madam clerk, will you please open the vote? Close the vote. Motion passes seven zero. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you, Ms. Sonjak. And now we'll move on to item 13, which we pulled from the consent agenda. This is the item about the city code and fee ordinance revisions for small wireless facilities. And we have one person who will sign up to speak on this, Mr. Robert DeRogue. Mr. DeRogue, you have three minutes. Thank you. I am Robert DeRogue with AT&T mayor council. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. First, I want to commend the city staff for their proactively working on this ordinance. Small sales are a much needed. I think when we're moving towards 5G technology in the telecommunication industry, I would like to respectfully request that you delay the vote on this item to allow us time to give feedback and recommendations to the staff. Thank you. Okay. Can you say a little bit more about your concerns? Well, I talked to both some today and to Daniel Villarro who was on the presentation and I saw some items that we might have had some discrepancies on. I would rather talk about those in private to these guys, but some that might have some discrepancies with HB310. That was recently passed. I just want to make sure that we help to strengthen this ordinance and make it bulletproof. HB310 is? It was the small sale that went through legislation last year. It's small sale bill. Okay. Yes, sir. Daniel, Robert, are you going to? Do we have some comments? Well, I want to ask a question if I could. Yeah, sure, please. I'm not sure who's going to answer. Marvin, I see all three of you walking toward the microphone here to answer Daniel Villarro with Public Works Department. I believe that the presentation at the work session a couple of weeks ago, you indicated that we were kind of moving to have this ordinance and these regulations put in place consistent with state law because we had a number of service providers. I don't know if it was AT&T or AT&T's competitors who were anxious to move forward to get started with this work and just wanted to clarify, is that still the case and what happens to those situations in absent of regulations from the city? That's correct. We are receiving the applications currently. We have a process that does commute with state law, but it is not expressly designed as the state law. The staff is not authorized in the way that we should be with a local code to commute with the state law. So are you aware or is the city attorney's office aware of any inconsistencies with state law that have come up or been brought to your attention? The ones that were brought to my attention earlier today, we feel that there is a procedure that for example, the locating the four, I'm sorry, a new installation should accommodate four wireless facilities, we say, or demonstrate document why you cannot accommodate four, things like that. So we feel we've provided an outlet where the code may be more restrictive on first glance than state laws. And then would you anticipate that since this is somewhat new technology and new process for us that there would be some ongoing evaluation process that we would be learning from that might potentially result in coming back with amendments to the ordinance or? Absolutely, that certainly is a possibility and we would welcome any feedback, but if it's the preference of the administration and the council, we would prefer to implement the ordinance and then revise it as necessary. Thank you. Mr. Attorney, do you have any comments? No. Do you feel that this ordinance has written is compliant with the new state law? I do. Don O'Toole was the person who was involved both with the statewide initiative of coming together with this House Bill 310. And my understanding was that he was working with the utilities to do this. So I'm surprised to hear that there is some discrepancy given the fact that there are other municipalities that have moved forward with this. We're not the first one in the state to do this. My understanding, and I assume there's a reason why we're not talking about the fees associated with this, but my understanding is this is about the fees and whether or not AT&T is exempt from paying the fees that are included in House Bill 310, but I've not spoken with folks at AT&T. This is not about fees. Okay. It is not. Just unusual. We are working with other municipalities, but they're bringing us into it before the ordinance is brought before council, and we have not had the opportunity to give our, I guess. Okay. Mr. Valero, so do you feel that the utilities, including AT&T, have had the opportunity to make comment? On our particular ordinance, they have had an opportunity. We didn't actively seek them out or provide drafts, but we didn't make many of them, where of course there are a lot of companies that offer these services, so we can't possibly know all of them, but we did coordinate to some extent without providing our documents that we were working on, so. What would be the problem or what would be a negative outcome if we were to delay this for two weeks until our next meeting? Off the top of my head, the main negative outcome of that would be that through our Development Services Center, we've designed a permit process and an application, and we're prepared to receive these applications pursuant to our local code and conformance with state law. So delaying a cycle or two would just mean we're still requesting applicants to fill out site plans and go through our more traditional process than this we considered to be a more expedient method of getting a permit for these devices. Okay. Council members, any other questions or comments? Mr. Mayor, I have a question. Help me, are there any other entities other than AT&T that have expressed issues or is this just germane to AT&T? AT&T is the only one so far that has commented on it. I, given that and given all that's been said, I just want to, at least as it stands now, I don't know why, particularly given the work we did at the work session, why we would delay action on this item tonight and all due respect, nobody said anything. I haven't heard anything that we need to go into. Mr. Attorney, you can help me into closed session about it. I heard the speaker say when he discussed things in private. I don't think it was like an attorney-client private. I think he wants to have an offline conversation with the staff. Yeah, but it's on record now, so that's not how we do it in term. So I just, I don't see any compelling reason to delay action tonight based upon what I've heard. Mr. Mayor, I'll yield. I just want to step back a moment because I think where I'm concerned is mainly that House Bill 130 is pretty much removing our ability to or to, I guess, to create a fee for this service that's being provided or even just the fact that we're using public right-of-way to put these antennas in place and the short range distance. Like there's so many areas that are state legislatedly put in place that I'm having concerns, but I mean it felt like from work session we were being pushed by the state law to this. So I'm a little concerned that AT&T is here and asking for a delay. And then I'm also concerned that staff is saying that they've already set up a process. So I'm not feeling inclined to delay. But at the same time, I want to step back and say like if this were not state legislated, we would not be doing this. That's all. Thank you. Any other comments? Well, I hear you both Council Member Middleton and Freeman. It sounds like the administration's in the same place. I am going to, I would support a two-week delay. I don't think there's any important damage that would be done. I, Mr. Roke, I don't think there's any important damage I would support this with the admonition that this is a, you know, we have a process. This thing has been at work session. Other utilities apparently have been notified and had no comments. So I'm not sure if the council will go for that or not. But if so, I just want to say that in the future, you know, it's really important for you all to be on the same timeline that we are for these things. I apologize. We just saw it when the agenda was posted. Okay. All right. So I think the best way to resolve this may be to, well, let me, let me just say, I'm gonna recommend that we pull it for two weeks, but I know that this may not prevail. And I'm interested in it in a motion either way from Council Member. Did you say either way, Mr. Mayor? Sure. Yeah. I moved that we proceed. Okay. You move to adopt the ordinance. Yes. Second. I've been moved and seconded that we adopt the ordinance. I'm going to be voting, I guess, just because I think that in the interest of mercy, we ought to give another two weeks, but respectful, I totally respect the other point of view. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, I see Mr. Williams at the, Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams, public works. Just want to clarify, if it is delayed two weeks, are we just keeping the public hearing open? Yes. Oh no, it's not a public hearing. It's not a public hearing. It's continuing to matter. It's continuing to matter. Yes. Not a public hearing. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. All right. You've heard the motion to approve this item. Any other discussion? Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. Motion passes for three. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, if I just would say to AT&T, certainly staff has prepared to meet with them at the earliest convenience. I hear the concerns. We'll be glad to report back any of those concerns to you and with any recommendations for potential modifications to the ordinance. Thank you very much. And Mr. DuRocque, you heard the manager and you heard staff say that we will be following the experience of this ordinance and making any modifications that might be called for. And I appreciate your participation in that. Thank you. I'll contact Marvin or Boo and set that up. Thank you so much. Okay. I believe that is the last item on our agenda. Is that true? Correct. All right. Thank you very much. I'm going to declare this meeting adjourned at 8.52. Thank you very much, council members. It's good to have my script.