 Well, good evening. We'd like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order Monday At 7 or 2 p.m. Certainly want to welcome all of you that are here with us this evening If we could just take a moment for a solid meditation, please Thank you Reckon us Madam clerk, would you call the roll please? Mayor Bell present mayor pro Tim Cole McFadden Councilmember Davis councilmember Johnson Councilmember Moffitt Councilmember Reese and councilmember sure we have several items this evening One in particular it's probably some of you may or may not know the city recently instituted the neighborhood spotlight award and it's given to persons who Go above and beyond and recognized by their community members Who have done a lot of things in terms of volunteering their time to serve their community? And I think this is a third fourth award we've given but tonight we have the honor of presenting the war to mr. Mervin Ely Mervin was nominated and selected because of the I Think he's got some community members back there that's right but Mervin lives in the Patriarch stirrup Creek neighborhood and As I understand his work has been included but not limited to volunteering consistently in Neighborhood events and providing the resources and equipment to ensure success By using his skills as an electrician to help with neighborhoods sign maintenance and assist other neighborhoods with Electrical issues you might need to come over my house and serving as the Homeowners Association board member and helping in the maintenance of homeowners Association common areas and more in Particularly welcoming all neighborhoods on behalf of the Durham City Council and certainly Neighborhood improvement services who sponsors this event want to congratulate you again And thank you for all the work that you've done and certainly Hope that you continue to success. I'm going to offer the microphone for any comments you might have I am not a public speaker, but I would like to say thank you thank everyone that the people that nominated me for this and Everyone in the neighborhood and I just play a small role there I just go around and try to help the people in the neighborhood Which I live in a wonderful neighborhood and I help them in a way I can volunteer my time and again, I would like to say thank you Last week. I had an opportunity along farm several my colleagues the mayor pro-term and councilman Don Moffitt to attend the annual conference for the National League of Cities I Don't get to that conference very often, but at times I've been there They're really impressed with some of the workshops that they have but the highlight for me at this time was the to be able to accept On behalf of the city an award and I'm going to ask Kerry good if he would join me carries our director of information technology and The award wasn't the surprise to me because Kerry had indicated early on that they would be receiving it and I got some notice that it would be presented But I had not attended this type of a program before at the National League of Cities and it's an award that's presented by the Digital Cities survey and it does it in certain categories our category was 125,000 to 249,999 of course we're a bit above that but They snuck us in there But it's the first place award and it's given to the city of Durham and is presented by the Center for Digital Government and let me say there are many cities. They were Part of this program That came in either second third fourth or whatever But to be able to accept this on behalf of the city of Durham, but more importantly Kerry is really a very hard woman and I would say that you know a lot of things would take for drainage sometime in terms of where we are in this city But one of the things that they recognized and I'm going to let Kerry speak to it Was the fact that they were very impressed with the website that we developed I don't many had an opportunity to use the city's website if not I would suggest you might but that was one of the Facets of this award that was given I think there were probably about four or five other cities that were involved in the category that we were in But again Durham came in first and I understand we've been in the top four or five over the last few years and Kerry said he's been shooting first place So he was successful and we certainly want to congratulate him and his team for what he's done I'm honored to take possession of this prestigious award on behalf of the city of Durham As we have been ranked as one of the top ten digital cities for the past three years I'm extremely happy to see the city of Durham as the number one ranked digital city in our classification this year On behalf of the technology solutions management and staff I'd like to thank one the page that the city manager and Tom down for the city manager for their support of two key Initiatives that was central to the city to receive the number one ranking this year And that is the new IT governance model and a new website projects I would like to thank Bertha Johnson the director of budget management services and the goal for a champion or for her support of the IT Governors Initiative as part of this goal for in the city's strategic plan Also, I'd like to thank the city departments for the innovative use of information technology such as using the city hall on the go Finally, let me thank the technology solution staff for the excellent support and work to make us a number one Digital city again. Thank you Recognize all right any council persons that have comments the mayor pro tem and Councilman Reese. Yeah, I was so glad that we were able to get first place this time because every time I've received it Fadville always won the prize. So they were really shocked and I said, hey, you know, that's what we're doing Durham. Thank you, Kerry and I'd like to say to that this In LC conference was one of the best I've ever attended and our new president Has as one of our major priorities an initiative called real and it is Racial equity and leadership and we all understand as city leaders that if Things are going to change in this country. It has to begin with us It has to begin with cities and so he's placing along with the board and the cities in the league emphasis on inclusion Equity and I hope that's the way we continue to do business right here In in Durham as a matter of fact Tom I talked with the new President of the North Carolina League of Minnesota municipalities He attended the sessions dealing with the racial equity initiative And so we're going to be spreading the word throughout North Carolina So that we can make sure that we are not Paralyzed by division in this state as well. So it was a blessed event for me. Thank you Thank you. I recognize council mature and then council release. Thank you, mr. Mayor I know that we have a lot of serious work to do tonight, but let me just say that This was the fifth year in which I had challenged the city employees to a Run or walk on the American tobacco trail and as promised I will read the names of the people who beat me in the five mile run They will be immortalized in the minutes of the Durham City Council We had about 45 participants this year runners and walkers Seven volunteers from the city staff and some family and friends I want to appreciate the the police officers the bike patrol who are out there some general and services employees that assisted with the setup and I will say that This was the first year that I was and this is just because I'm old mr. Mayor But this was the first year that three women beat me mr. Mayor Bat badly So here are the people whose names will be immortalized I Read them in order and then I'll start with second place and I'll come out to tell you something interesting about first place Second place JJ Scott then Sean doi and Jonathan Baker Eric Halstead Bethany Shoemaker Blair Williams Tyler peak Todd Hoffman Dana Horn Cole Christine day Patricia Fossum Dan Curia. Yes, chief Curia did also beat me and Let me just say that the Bethany Shoemaker was the first woman from Who finished first budget management services? ran the five miles in 38 minutes and First place winner was Brian pooled Brian is He's new to the city and all the guys that ran right behind him even you know contending for first these last few years But Brian ran it in 35 minutes pushing a stroller with a two-year-old He beat everybody Yes, madam mayor pro tem But I do I do want to say that I did defeat my arch rival Melinda Squires Nelson Melinda better luck next year I also want to give a shout out to normal Washington from the city manager's office who just came off her Hip operation was there and went a couple miles and especially want to thank D buyers For organizing and Megan Neal for assistance and for all the people that were out It was a great event and much appreciated for those folks that helped make it possible. Thank you, mr. Mayor Recognize Councilman Reese. Wow. I hate to hate to follow up that light bit of Weekend fitness and thank you Steve for doing that The members of the city council have worked Together over the last week or so to put together a letter a letter to the people in the city of Durham Like to read that now and that'll be entered into the record. I have copies At the clerk's desk for anyone who wants to have a hard copy. This is dated today November 21st 2016 The city of Durham will always stand strong to protect the safety of the people of the city and to defend our progressive values Whatever the character of the president of the United States and whatever policies he or she may choose to pursue We will never back down from our shared belief that the city of Durham is and must remain a place Where all people are valued where all people are respected and where all people are protected In the wake of the national election on November 8th Many Durham residents have reached out to us to express their concerns about how the results of the presidential election will affect the lives Of the people in the city and in light of the nationwide surge in hate crimes since the election Many of our neighbors have also contacted us out of concern for their own safety and the safety of their friends and family Even Durham has seen such hateful displays of the last two weeks Including racist graffiti near downtown Durham as well as an incident in which one of our own city council members was targeted We denounced these hate crimes completely and without reservation such actions have no place in our city We must all come together to repudiate the behavior of those who would seek to vent their bigotry onto the people of Durham Over the last years over the last year We have repeatedly reaffirmed the city of Durham's commitment to opposing discrimination and upholding the dignity of all people in February of this year We unanimously endorsed a resolution from our human relations commission urging federal immigration officials To release Durham youth being detained in immigration facilities and to suspend raids in Durham targeting immigrant youth in April of this year We passed a unanimous resolution opposing the discriminatory and anti LGBTQ house bill to and calling for its repeal and that resolution we said quote the Durham City Council reaffirms its support for protecting and advancing the constitutional rights an equitable treatment of all of its residents and its opposition to discrimination and employment and public accommodations because of race color Religion sex national origin age disability sexual orientation gender identity gender expression or genetic information And just two weeks ago. We passed a unanimous resolution condemning the violence and hate speech and expressing solidarity with Durham's Muslim community and all those targeted for their ethnicity race or religion in That resolution we noted that as elected representatives of the people We have a special responsibility to speak up in the face of hateful speech and violence or discrimination Against any of our constituents. We went on to declare the Durham City Council Number one condemns all hateful speech and violent action directed at Muslims those perceived to be Muslims immigrants and people of color Number two categorically rejects any politicians Anti-Muslim rhetoric used as a tactic to influence voters or inflame hostilities number three Commits to pursuing a policy agenda that affirms civil human rights and human rights and Ensures that those targeted on the basis of race religion or immigration status can turn to government without fear of recrimination Number four reaffirms the value of a pluralistic society The beauty of a culture composed of multiple cultures and the inalienable right of every person to live and practice their faith without fear and Number five pledges to work to make Durham a city that reflects those values in word and deed These are the values of the city of Durham They are as true today as they were before the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States And they will be just as true on the day he vacates that high office Regardless of the policy agenda that our new president-elect decides to pursue The city of Durham will remain as committed as ever to combating hatred and bigotry in all forms and to protecting and advancing The civil and human rights of all the people of this city There's a joint letter from our mayor a mayor protem and all the members of the city council. Thank you, mr. Mayor Again, thank you councilor Reese and my colleagues on the council and Certainly those in the audience that also appreciate what has been said Let me ask first are the prior downs by the city manager. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Good evening everyone. No priority items Likewise city clerk. Thank you city attorney. Thank you, mr. Mayor. No priority item And city clerk No, hi, this mr. Mayor. I know it's the light my lights are blinking. It's something wrong with the system here No Okay We'll see when we open the votes they're off now. Okay. Thank you Okay, we proceed with the agenda as some of you may know we have a consent agenda consent agenda consists of items that May be passed with a single vote if an item is pulled either by a member of the council member of the audience We'll pull out item and discuss it later in the Program and I'll just read the heading of each one items again item one is approval city council minutes Item twos is a human relations commission appointment Item three is the 2017 city council meeting schedule item for city of Durham 2017 legislative agenda Item five city of Durham acquisition of county owned property for affordable housing item six is 2017 physical year 2017 agreement between the city of Durham and North Carolina State University for support of the triangle regional model development enhancement and maintenance Item seven is grant agreement for sidewalk construction on Lacell Street my TIP number EB dash five seven zero three Item eight is the grant amendment for sidewalk construction on Rainier Street tip number EB dash five seven oh four item nine is the grant agreement for sidewalk construction on North Carolina 54 tip number EB 5708 Item 10 is grant agreement for sidewalk construction on North Duke Street tip number EB 5715 Item 11 is the grant agreement for sidewalk construction on Austin Avenue tip number C dash 51 83 B Item 12 is a piggyback contract purchase of two automated refuse trucks Item 13 is stake contract purchase vehicles for the police department during police department take home car program Item 14 is donation of surplus equipment to the Durham Public Schools Item 15 is a fair labor standards act exempt status change I'm 16 is the housing and urban development fair housing contract for physical year 2016 2017 Item 17 is the housing appeals board annual report for physical year 2016 Items 18 and 21 items that can be found on the general business agenda Items 23 to 26 and item 29 items that can be found on the general business agenda as public hearings Entertain a motion for approval of consent agenda It's been properly moving second by them click we open the vote close the vote It passes seven is your Under the general business agenda item 18 contract for the purchase of body worn cameras for the police department Mr.. Mayor, I don't know that anybody is prepared to present that this evening Certainly police staff is here and can can speak to the issue with any questions that you have And also members of finance departments any questions about the bid process or the open it up for any questions the council members have Recognize the mayor pro tem unfortunately, I had left these work sessions When this item was discussed So I would just like to get a feel from the police chief About her experience In Atlanta excuse me in Atlanta Good evening with body cameras period. I'm sorry. You can tell me about everything 30 years Good evening council members mayor mayor pro tem city manager and Attendees tonight The body camera initiative here in the city of Durham is much like Body camera programs around the country in an effort to get them up and going it involves much research much collaboration and Open forums conversation analysis of Best practices What's gone wrong what's gone right and There is no perfect program around the country many of the body camera rollouts in major cities have come with many issues with equipment many issues with policy and They are an evolving Tool for for officers With that said I know that we have had many discussions about the policy about our choice and vendors and I Believe that moving forward that body cameras for the city of Durham police department Will help us to better investigate not just Incidents involving police officers and citizens, but I hope and will certainly Be very very deliberate about making sure that These cameras provide a level of transparency that I have the power in The authority to help support in the city of Durham. I understand that there are legislative issues that I'm sure in the months to come will be addressed over and over again but the equipment will help to provide more accurate information on regular calls routine calls for service for officers to be able to Provide better narratives better testimony and also to reveal What has potentially occurred in incidents involving officers and even allegations and complaints, so I Thank you for your support the Durham Police Department officers are anxious about receiving this equipment as well, so I Look forward to continuing our work in our dialogue as it relates to the cameras and Certainly open to any questions that anyone has tonight Thank you, chief Again, let me recognize counsel Moffitt. Yes, sir. I was just gonna say that I'd like to hold my questions and comments until we've heard Anybody's can speak in the public discussion Okay Well, let me let me make sure that I don't have a card here. I don't did not recognize the car No one is signed up to speak on the site Say what? Well, let's let's do this sir. Are you don't want speaking? Why don't you come to the podium and give us your name and address and you can fill out the car later? He said he was the only one speaking You each have three you each have three minutes Just well, that's fine. Just you can follow the car later, but if you can give us your name and address My name is run bar on I live at 605 primitive Street 2771 I'm here to speak against the spending of 1.4 million dollars of taxpayer money on body cameras The most commonly cited study on body cameras via auto study by Barack Arielle Initially showed a great reduction in use of force incidents by police officers However, the further studies by him and his students at the University of Cambridge Have shown extremely mixed results as our police chief points out including some cities where the use of body cameras and Has has been correlated with an increased Incidents of police violence That is to say there is no consistent evidence that the use of body cameras decreases police violence and Thus police departments are participating in participating in a vast uncontrolled social experiments with unknown results at huge cost of a taxpayer I therefore urge the city to vote against this measure Defer at least until the data become clear The risk and cost to our taxpayer including myself and the citizens of Durham is simply too high. Thank you Thank you mayor Bell and city council members. I'm here on behalf. I'm as the legal redress chair Could you could just set your name and address, please? Yes My name is Diane standard and my address is 1 1 1 4 Lancaster Street Durham, North Carolina And I'm here as the legal redress chair of the Durham NAACP And I really want to appreciate and thank all of you and the Durham Police Department for the tremendous amount of work That's been going on for the many months on this issue and appreciate your thoughtfulness on it and So I just want to as you may know from the statements that the Durham NAACP has been providing to you Over the course of this process our position has always been that the city should only move forward With the purchase of the body cameras if the body camera policy complied with about a set of 10 principles that are drawn Are based on the recommendations of national civil rights and privacy rights? Organizations and so my quick remarks tonight are based on how the current policy Aligns with those principles that we've laid out from the beginning and looking at those alignments We still have three big picture concerns about the implementation of body cameras here in the city of Durham The first one and the biggest one is the lack of public accountability due to the restrictions placed by The law that was passed in Raleigh this spring and we know that that's a limitation out of your control at the moment But it's a big one for us. It's a very different situation than where we were prior to that law being passed the second concern has to do with the fact that Recording footage improperly obtained either out of compliance or even Accidental that improperly obtained footage can still be used towards someone's criminal conviction Which creates a huge Anyway, we are concerned about that then the third big picture concern is that the policy allows Officers to use the video in preparing their reports and their court testimony The recommendation of over 33 national civil rights Organizations expressly recommends that officers be Prohibited from reviewing the video prior to preparing the reports in order to preserve the evidence and the credibility of their testimony and so we would ask that the city council take our concerns into consideration and that the $1.4 million of taxpayer money and the concerns around civil assets or civil asset forfeiture funds that only move forward with the purchase If it complies with both civil rights principles as well as privacy rights Principles and so I really appreciate your time and thank you for all your work Just a minute Recognize the mayor program Second concern, please. Yes So there's we're concerned about the fact that the policy allows improperly obtained footage Either by accident or out of compliance with the policy that allows that improperly obtained footage to be used as part of someone's criminal Conviction criminal file it can be turned over to the DA and I understand from the recording of your discussion last Thursday at the work session That perhaps there's constraints and their rules of discovery that perhaps your inclusion of that is out of your control That said It raises a concern that it perhaps puts people's rights at risk that currently are not at risk In one example that was given a client Some defendant made a phone call to their attorney that they thought was protected by a turning client privilege And if the recording device was accidentally left recording They the police department would have to turn that recording over to the DA even though the defendant thought That that was a protected conversation and in the current environment that would be a protected Conversation and so we're worried about the perhaps abrogation of a broader set of rights due to that interaction for the question Other other questions comments Thank you. Thank you. I Recognize Councilman Moffitt Well now that we've heard this let me first ask a city attorney Mr. Baker about the issue of improperly obtained footage If you can you address that as I recall the conversation at the work session Related to this idea of a recording that's made accidentally We're not in the position to where if we get evidence we can't just destroy it on our own Under the idea that it was obtained improperly We would have to turn that over to the district attorney's office who would then make the determination about the presentation of evidence Obviously if that evidence went forward a judge would have to determine whether or not it was Could be admitted as evidence of wrongdoing so it wouldn't be a situation What would automatically come in in a criminal prosecution? But it's something that we can't just destroy on our own Thank you, and then I'll ask the chief the third the third issue that Ms. Standard raised was a Brown Using video Viewing video prior to writing reports. Yes. Do you have any thoughts that you can share with us on that? Yes, I do and In sharing my thoughts I prefaced it I think in our last meeting to Ensure that we had an understanding of reports and statements, but Reports routine reports out on patrol Officers use video footage basically to help them recollect what occurred at a traffic accident or whatever the case may be Not necessarily the same case for statements or in the aftermath of a complaint in Looking at both situations a complaint statement and a police report Narrative that the officer is writing I see absolutely no reason why officers cannot Complete a narrative as they do today and then be aided later after they do the initial narrative from memory To fill in the gaps based on the video footage that they may need to use in order to Complete a supplement to the report As it relates to statements Officers will Review video footage after making an initial statement Their statement then will be reconciled after they review the video footage in that way we have more of I guess what the officers perspective was What his memory recollection perspective was of whatever that incident is And then reconcile later. It's very difficult to accurately Remember in high stress kinds of situations However, we would prefer getting the officers perspective of what he saw what occurred initially in Writing and then later he can review those recordings I want to make sure I understand What I understood miss standard to say was that 33 human rights organizations national organizations recommend that Officers be prohibited from viewing footage prior to writing reports and did I understand you say That you're anticipating that that would be included in the general orders that they would first write the report or make a statement And then be allowed to view the footage Absolutely, and and I guess I would need clarification I just want to get clarification when you refer to reports Do you mean officer? Investigations as in complaints. Are you talking about routine every day? I'm responding to a cat in a tree kind of report So thank you I just wanted clarification of that and I see absolutely no reason why officers cannot continue to do police reports And then utilize video footage later in a supplemental way to to augment that report and We can chant and as I said before I believe our general order will go through various iterations as we continue to evaluate the whole body camera policy process trial and error and we will be making various edits, but that is one in our Earlier discussions, I see no reason why officers should not be able to continue to do narratives as they do today And if they need to utilize video footage, they will there will be times when the officer won't even need to use the video footage In order to just do a routine report Thank You mr. Ma'am Okay, I think I've made my position very clear on this I think the time is to Purchase the cameras and begin utilization of them Nothing is perfect. It never will be perfect But in my opinion and the type of environment we're in now To see the officers the community in my opinion would be better off with body cameras than without body cameras So if there's no further discussion Where are we councilman? Let me out of councilman. Sure. Who else councilman Reese? Councilman Davis and the mayor pro term Councilman Johnson everybody on the council wants to speak Thank You mr. Mayor Well, we've been this has been a long road getting to this place with body cameras and like all my colleagues I've been spending a lot of time reading and thinking about the body worn cameras over the last several months And I just wanted to offer some of my own thoughts first I wanted to thank the department Chief Marsh for going through that long process several months ago That was such a I thought terrific public process with so many different listening sessions and Also Chief Davis for your additional exemplary work In reviewing the camera purchase and for crafting what I think is an excellent though, not perfect draft general order given the limitations of state law and I I'm planning to vote tonight to support the purchase of the body cameras I do think that they're the general draft general order can be Improved in two significant ways the first of which we've already discussed and I appreciate your response to that chief That was the one of the two issues. I was going to raise In approaching the decision or whether or not to get the body cameras There's first the threshold issue whether or not the cameras on balance are going to be good for the people of Durham and I want to say that in approaching this question It's critically important to note that the cameras are nothing but a tool a Proposed technical solution to a very small part of the significant challenges of Crime and policing that we face in Durham The cameras do nothing to address the underlying Causes of crime they do not in any way Absolve us from our common civic responsibility To make sure that every child has a good education Plenty of nourishing food every day that every family is a safe warm and decent house to live in that every person has access to excellent Health care that our community offers good paying jobs and the training to get those jobs to everyone in the workforce and the Durham's New prosperity is shared by everyone within our borders Similarly the cameras will not address Durham's need for genuine community policing cameras won't address the need for expanding Durham's unique and Very constructive misdemeanor diversion program They won't address the need to make low-level drug offenses the lowest priority for police enforcement without which our chief has already Been been been working on They won't address the need to bring an end to racial inequities and traffic stops and searches And I would note here the two very strong and very progressive general orders by our new police chief chief Davis Which are addressing the department's support for the misdemeanor? Diversion program and the use of citations rather than arrest in the case of low-level drug offenses chief and thank you for that These are great step forward and I applaud you for your proactive work on these issues So while the cameras won't fix all those things I think they can help us meet three important goals reduce of incidents of police use of force Reduce complaints against our police officers and thereby increase police accountability increase trust in the police department Several months ago when we first took this up. I had pretty sure I'd read all the various studies about this and Ran has quoted one of them and I've The last couple days. I've tried to read all the rest the new ones that have come out There aren't very many but there are one or two But here's what I learned from my review, but there's very small sample of studies The one study which I found convincing In its methods and rigor is by the team that ran quoted from the University of Cambridge in the UK This team studied police in Rialto, California a city of a hundred thousand people for a period of 12 months The study encompassed about a thousand police shifts about 50,000 hours of policing each shift received a random Assignment is either a treatment shift during which officers wore cameras or a control shift during which officers did not wear cameras The results were significant officers without cameras were roughly twice as likely to be involved in use of force incidents as officers with cameras In addition according to the research summary of their results complaints filed against officers drop from 0.7 complaints per thousand Contacts to 0.07 per thousand contacts an enormous positive change These are dramatic positive results, which we cannot ignore The Cambridge researchers are currently repeating the Rialto study in 30 cities around the world some of their results have been released For example in September of 2015 there's six months study of 23,000 and 60 police interactions in Denver found that arrest rates and use of force incidents fell across the city Even outside areas where the cameras were used and the researchers attributed this to a city-wide publicity campaign about the introduction of body-worn cameras In addition police officers who wore the cameras were 18% less likely to make an arrest and 8% less likely to use force than officers who did not wear cameras Given the results of the Rialto study and its replications I believe we need to implement body-worn cameras in Durham And we need to do so within the confines of a general order which does its best to strike the difficult balance among privacy transparency and accountability With direction from Mayor Bell during our first round of consideration of this issue before Chief Davis arrived on the scene Council members Rhys Johnson and myself met extensively extensively with our police department leadership We work jointly to create a general order which I believe would have been the best in the country frankly to promote privacy transparency and accountability in the use of the cameras Then along came the General Assembly Let's face the fact that the North Carolina General Assembly has undercut our ability to craft the general order that we would all like to see in Durham Critically the General Assembly left in the hands of the police chief the right to review footage from the cameras regarding use of force And there is no mention in the new legislation of the right of the city attorney city manager or city council to view the footage This is a grave concern because without this ability to view such footage How can the city management and elected leadership hold the department accountable? And how can we know which footage we would like to release to the public? And if we had an incident where there was such as recent shooting in Charlotte We would want this footage made available to the public, but we would need to view it first Chief Davis general order has what I would call a Durham solution to this problem In the general order it states that a recording shall be disclosed or released to the city manager and or deputy city managers and Attorneys assigned to the city's attorney's office as requested by such individuals for administrative purposes This is critical and I much appreciate its inclusion chief in the general order Further at our last work session and previously our city attorney has made it clear that as the city council is his employer He would be able to turn such footage over to us for review and that he would do so So this is a strong workaround that involves that solves one of the problems created by the general assembly The other significant problem created by the general assembly is that no footage can be released to the public without an order from the Superior Court judge This is in my opinion an awful provision of the new law Police chiefs and city managers and city council should be able to determine if it is in the best interest of their own Communities to make such footage available to the public However, because the Superior Court judges we have of the Superior Court judges we have in Durham who we have elected I don't think this is an insurmountable obstacle to our acquisition of these body cameras We are fortunate in Durham to have Superior Court judges who are extremely like to to approve their release of body camera footage If requested to do so by members of the public with good reason or by our police chief city manager or the council I have every confidence that we could get the footage released if we needed to do so in the public interest I will note also that my colleague council member Charlie Reese has drafted excellent language To recommend to our local legislative delegation to take the general assembly this next session to try to get a change in these Deleterious provisions of the body camera law so that we won't have to do these workarounds I don't know whether or not they will pass in light of the current makeup of the general assembly But I know that's worth the effort in the meantime We do have these local workarounds and I think they are good enough I do have two further issues with the Jeff general orders that I want to mention here One of them I will skip because we've already discussed it But the second one chief that I hope you in the department leadership will consider I do want to talk about Our draft general order says that in a manner consistent with officer safety officers should make every reasonable effort To inform individuals that they are being recorded If a citizen inquires as to whether a body-worn camera is in use or whether recording is being made the officer Shall provide a prompt and truthful response This language is superior to the language in the general order from a few months ago but I think getting the right language here is important and That is the presumption that officers will tell people that they are being recorded is crucial I don't want to refer again to the realto study the authors of the realto study were adamant They significant factor in the improved encounters between police and community members was the fact that police announced at the beginning of each encounter in so far as possible and and Consonant with officer safety that the encounter was being recorded a Cambridge University account of the research finding says the researchers say the knowledge that events are being recorded creates self-awareness in all Participants during police interactions. This is the critical component that turns body-worn video into preventative treatment That's in the words of the researchers in addition Lead research researcher Barak Ariel writes an officer is obliged to issue a warning from the start that encounter is being filmed Impacting the psyche of all involved by conveying a straightforward pragmatic message. We are all being watched videotaped and expected to follow the rules Given these findings which are critical to the most advanced research in the fields imperative I believe that the general order require rather than encourage officers to tell residents at the beginning of each encounter That the encounters being filmed consistent with officer safety Of course there will be exceptions to this practice But the strong presumption needs to be that the officers required to announce the filming of encounters Also it undermines trust when people who are being filled are not told that fact up front I would suggest that when you to strengthen the clause that says officers should make every reasonable effort Instead, I think the clause should say something like this consistent with officer safety officers are required to inform individuals They're being recorded this will help everyone including the officers themselves. So chief I'm suggesting that you all take that into consideration and I will Provide you with a citation from the study but I did I don't expect you to answer that now or anything but I hope you'll take that in consideration when you're revising the draft general order. We absolutely will Thank you And then we've discussed the second one But again, I want to say that I plan to vote for the purchase of the cameras tonight. Yes, they're expensive But if we use them correctly, I think they can be a great benefit to our city Understand some people oppose their purchase on civil liberties grounds And I respect that very much and I understand that there are two sides to this to this issue But just suppose there's a police involved shooting in Durham and we have passed up the chance to purchase these cameras. I Believe that the same civil libertarians among whom I count myself Will be back before us wanting more information about that shooting information that these cameras could provide I wish we had body cameras when Jose Ocampo was killed Or when Levante Biggs was killed both shot by police officers It would have helped their families the police department and our whole community if we'd have been able to have that footage We have another incident like that and we have turned down the opportunity to have body cameras I think we'll be very sorry. So again, thanks to those of you all who've discussed this issue with me and sent me emails or resources thanks to my conscientious colleagues and For the excellent discussion we've had over the months and thanks to the police department leaders who've taken the initiative To bring the cameras to Durham and so thoughtfully And with such a wide-open process, thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Mayor I want to start by echoing my colleague Steve Schuels. Thanks to chief Davis For shepherding this process to the conclusion we see tonight I want to thank interim chief Larry Smith who was a great steward not only of our police department and the women Who served in the department but also of this particular process involving body cameras and was willing to work with those of us Who had concerns about the original general order in a way that I thought was truly exemplary I'd also want to single out as Steve did a deputy chief Marsh who engaged in herculean efforts A last year to gather a an incredibly broad A cross-section of Durham in his in his outreach on this particular issue His work should be the gold standard for any community seeking to have body cameras My colleague Steve Schuels laid out what I think is probably the best and most thoughtful case in favor of the contract tonight But I hold out the possibility that others who will speak in favor of it might do better But I doubt it. I will not have as thoughtful a response about my position But I do take the other view that at this time and with the law of North Carolina being the way that it is I don't believe that we should purchase body cameras for our police officers in Durham I'm not gonna go through all of the reasons that I hold that position, but two points I think are worth making tonight first and foremost and really foundational for me This the contract before us authorizes the police department to spend one point four million dollars of taxpayer money To buy cameras that will be deployed onto the persons of Durham police officers Who are paid with our taxpayer dollars who are hired by our police department who are governed by our laws And who enforce those laws with authority that we as the people of this city grant to them Not from on high not from a cloud but from our votes our voice our authority as citizens as people of this community It is incredible to me that we would buy these cameras Deploy them on our police officers Capture video of them not in their free time, but doing the job we hired them to do collecting information about how they do that job and Not a single Resident of this city who does not work for the city of Durham has the right to see any of that footage That just seems wrong to me. I understand the points that Steve's made. He's very eloquent the statistical analysis He's pulled the best of the bunch, and I think that's he's made a great case for that But ultimately what are we doing if we're buying these cameras collecting this video? And we have to go and supplicate ourselves before a superior court judge to have any of that released That's not right. That's not transparency. That's not enforcing accountability and for that reason alone I would vote against it But the other reason is this, you know, we don't make decisions in a vacuum in this body up on this dais You know, I rely and I know all of us rely on the voices of people whose lives are directly impacted by the issues that we face and in that vein I Know I don't often interact with police officers outside of city council meetings and other types of events where I'm a city council member And I go see them But we have grassroots organizations in the city that work with people who interact with the police far too often to in particular Have spoken out about this issue and oppose this contract and they're the fade coalition and then double ACP of Durham And I think it's incumbent on all of us to consider How their positions are shaped by their constituent members and the perspectives of the people whose views they lift up And I wanted to bring that into the room as well as a reason to caution have caution About what this represents because these cameras These cameras are a massive and in Durham unprecedented expansion of the surveillance state here I hate to use that kind of sweeping language But you're putting cameras on police officers and they're fanning out across the city. They're on their recording that's a big deal and We need to listen to the folks who are in communities that are disproportionately impacted by crime because they're the ones that are going to be in these cameras And so for those two reasons I intend to vote against the the polls or the the contract tonight I will say again how much I appreciate the hard work of the department And thank you Chief Davis for all your work getting this general order to the finish line I think it is probably very close to the best that a jurisdiction in North Carolina can do But there are so many other things that we could spend 1.4 million dollars on that would actually keep our community safer And I think we ought to do that instead of this. Thank you Thank you councilman Reese councilman Davis Thank you, mr. Mayor. I've listened to the comments that my colleagues and many citizens in this City have offered at the work session through email through personal contact I respect the comments that have been made But I think it's clear that The people who are not speaking I Interpret as people who want to make sure that there is some kind of record or electronic trail understand the civil liberties issues and I'm in support of the recommendation to buy the body cameras and If appropriate after we hear from other colleagues, I'd like to make a motion to do so You know when y'all y'all you'll want to speak on you have to keep track of yourself the mayor forgets some time No problem. Thank you, mr. Mayor So I'm also not going to be supporting this contract tonight and want to speak briefly about Why the community has asked us to take steps to increase police accountability and transparency and to reduce racial disparity In policing in Durham and body cameras were introduced as a part of that conversation as a way to meet that need And in spite of the efforts of our police department and several members of council including myself the North Carolina General Assembly has effectively prevented us from Meeting that goal with this technology Um, I believe that without meaningful public access to the footage body cameras are primarily a tool for government surveillance and not for police accountability Um, and that the new uh state law without changing these policies at the state level In spite of what I truly believe is a sincere commitment from our local police chief to provide as much transparency As they are able. I believe that body cameras will not be able to serve these goals Um, in addition, I am concerned that body cameras as a technology have some built-in flaws in addition to The civil liberties concerns that charlie has brought up and the biggest one is compliance that in order for These to be effective tools They can't actually be on all the time because they would be recording a lot of things that are not relevant to a police investigation But that requires officers to have the authority to turn the cameras on and off And this has resulted in a number of incidents nationally where cameras were off when when important incidents occurred that should have been recorded That's happened in several um cities in north carolina recently And so there's the issue of whether having the cameras actually gets us the footage that we need without a significant shift in the culture of complying with the general orders that the police departments are putting forward to their officers And then an even bigger question is that even when there is footage There are still rarely successful prosecutions of police officers for misconduct Based on that footage bystander video has emerged as a much more effective tool for actually Holding police officers accountable and has been used much more effectively to raise public awareness of these sorts of incidents So my concern is that by putting all this money into an increase in surveillance We will not actually be Achieving the goals that we believe body cameras can achieve There are of course deeper problems at the root of some of these issues and yes, I Would agree that body cameras are only one tool But they're also a very expensive tool And I think that this 1.4 million dollars could be Directed to other issues that would actually be much more effective in making our community safe And the data on body cameras I think Despite several good studies is not conclusive that body cameras actually Can create these changes that we need to see and there are a number of other solutions with much better evidence behind them That we can make locally including having stronger civilian oversight requiring police officers to have four-year degrees requiring the use of less lethal weapons And additionally other changes that we could fight for at the state and national level Level decriminalizing poverty dealing with addictions and other consent crime in non-punitive ways And so the critical point that I want to make and then I want to continue to make in all these conversations Is that I believe we can make our community safer without increasing policing at all And like most questions of resource allocation, this isn't just a budget question or a money question This is a values question Of how do we keep communities safe? um, and we're very quick Not just in Durham, but everywhere in the united states to jump to police and more policing is the answer Um, and we recently and more spending on police. We recently added 20 police officers to our force tomorrow We're going to be considering a grant to hire additional police officers And so I believe that we are neglecting our The real opportunity to make communities safer by investing in opportunity for all people And especially those people who are most likely to be perpetrators or victims of violent crime and by focusing our efforts away from non-violent crime like marijuana possession Which I want to commend our police department for recently Passing a general order that will make marijuana possession a lowest level priority So we are already doing this and in some cases it's just policy changes and it's free like that new general order Sometimes it's investing in a program like misdemeanor diversion, which we're going to hear about later Which is going really well or the cure violence program that the county is using Which has had some criticism in the community But I think it is an effective and non punitive community based method of crime prevention But ultimately I think that we need to be thinking more about looking at root causes of violence and dealing with those And that making real change In people's lives is much more effective than spending money on increasing policing and surveillance As a side note I want to say that as part of the part of the money from this request is coming from asset forfeiture funds And I consider asset forfeiture to be legalized theft and I do not believe that we should be using that money Asset forfeiture funds are taken from people who are simply accused of crimes and not convicted And we in this country believe that people are innocent until proven guilty So this is money being taken from innocent people and being used to support policing around the country Um So I won't be supporting this today. I'm I am hopeful that as more studies come in Um, and as this technology improves that it could be That it can be considered or be more useful for communities But right now I believe that this money would be better invested in other ways. Thank you Thank you councilman johnson recognize Councilman moffitt Earlier I had a couple questions, but I just wanted to just take a moment and say that um I understand the issue about surveillance But police body cameras and the incidents in charlotte, for example A lot of the video that was used to Determine like for example during protests who was who broke windows was from security cameras On the street as well as the video that was shot and posted by people in the protests the In that case the use of the body camera videos was Relatively small, but they are very very focused And they're focused particularly on incidents that involve the police when allegations of excessive force Are raised against officers They are an opportunity people want answers And they are an opportunity to understand what actually happened instead of having a situation where An officer says one thing The person and sometimes there are other people sometimes there are not sometimes there's bystander video But often there is not and so This is a way of providing answers And I think that all things considered that is an obligation that we have To provide our city and citizens with answers whenever we can and and i'm going to support the issue. Thank you I can recognize the mayor approach him. This this will be the final This is my comments are very brief about Two minutes miss smear. First of all, this is Durham We are not like other cities. I think this will be a wise investment We have key leadership in place to make sure that Uh body cameras are used appropriately We have a city manager whose role I respect And who we will hold accountable in the end for whatever happens. Mr. City manager, then we have a police chief who Has in fact been involved in the implementation of body cameras in one of the largest cities in this country And thirdly I I don't want us to cast a negative light on our Police officers or our police department. I trust that we're going to do the right thing I trust that we're going to continue in our Community police and efforts. We're not going to see our police personnel as warriors They will be seen as guardians and that's the that's what you want. That's what we want in Durham And so I trust the manager And the police chief To do what they have to do to make this program successful and I do plan to vote. Yes Thank you. I'm going to recognize councilman davis Thank you, mr. Ma'am. I moved the recommendation that is before this body Been properly moved in seconds further discussion Here and on madam clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote It passes five to two with councilmember johnson voting no and councilmember reese voting no Okay, thank you. Let me just say that I appreciate Great little conversations that we've had on this council and I hope the audience appreciates We have very independent thinking council persons who do their homework And while we don't always agree the fact of the matter is that they bring it before the public We we listen I listen And we make a decision and we move on and that's what we're going to do in this case So we're going to move to the next item which is Item 20 21 my camera keeps going keeps going off Uh third 2016 third quarter crime report presentation Good evening again I'm here tonight also To present the police department's 2016 quarter report which covers the first nine months Of the 2016 calendar year The quarterly report Cubs our department six performance measures violent crime property crime Part one index crime clearance rates response times and other activities community policing Graduations promotions and other activities of the Durham police department Some of which you will find in the summary that was presented to you So part one index crime Was down seven percent during the first nine months of 2016 compared to the same year Same period last year There have been decreases in four out of the seven part one crime categories rapes aggravated assaults burglaries and larcenies There was also a decrease in overall property crime, which was consistent with last quarter's report as well part one violent crime Part one violent crime was down slightly at the end of september 2016 End of the quarter compared to the first nine months of 2015 The number of reported rapes and aggravated assaults decreased Homicides and robberies were up during the first nine months of the year We recently formed a robbery task force to focus on the increase in the robberies in the Durham area The robbery task force while the core members are members of the Durham police department We have decided to coordinate our efforts with the assistant da's In the Durham county da's office a representative from the Durham county probation's office And a representative member from the atf task force to focus on gun crimes and violence We're also reallocating manpower as most of you know We have recently begun a reorg of the police department At a high level just to talk a little bit about that we plan to utilize units Previously assigned in other operational areas to focus on specific high crime areas specific hot spot areas and to also support calls for service In the last two weeks we've met On a number of occasions to talk about the upcoming holiday plan for the Durham police department Part of that holiday plan will be to ensure that our businesses are aware of Ways that they can shore up their businesses during the holiday season To also identify locations where we have had repeat problems at convenience store robberies and other robberies of that nature Perpetrated against businesses. We've identified 26 locations that we will concentrate on That have over the last two months have Demonstrated an uptick in in various types of robbery incidents During the next 60 days all sworn officers will be required to wear uniform including investigators. This is a way that the department can Increase our visibility Even with units that would typically be in plain clothes Those investigative units will be required to wear uniform for the next 60 days throughout the holiday We feel like this would be a force multiplier invisibility To ensure and try to deter some of the criminal activity that we've seen over the last couple of months Part one violent crime There were 30 homicides at the end of the third quarter Three have been ruled as self-defense and there are eight open cases Currently six of the cases involve domestic violence 24 involve firearms Two of the 30 cases are from prior years one from 2010 And one from 2014 To date There have been 34 homicides in the city of Durham Investigators have solved seven homicide cases from prior years one from 2013 and six from last year 2015 The number of robberies increased but investigators made several arrests as well During the third quarter. Many of them are mentioned in the in the third quarter summary report The number of aggravated assaults victims dropped Based on the ucr counts But the number of actual incidents was up slightly slightly to help combat Some of the violent crime that we've seen the task force even though it's specifically Focusing on robberies. We will also use those task force members to look at individuals those individuals who repeatedly have been in the system and who have Committed crimes where They're associated not just with a one robbery incident, but also with gang activities We plan to be more laser focused in looking at individuals as opposed to applying a crime fighting strategy or A plan that sort of paints a broad brush over the community We believe that utilizing the federal us attorney's office for for those incidents that Are violent and are perpetrated with the use of weapons that we will be able to Develop the type of cases that we can see an impact on the repeat offenders that we continue to see in the system Part one property crime Overall property crime was down by eight percent Burglaries were down significantly by 20 percent Larceny's also dropped during this period Property crime makes up 82 percent of all part one crimes Compared to 83 percent in 2015 Larceny's comprised more than half 55 percent of all part one crimes Shoplifting accounts for more than one quarter of our larceny's Larceny's for motor vehicles and thefts of auto parts Make up 41 percent of larceny's part one property crime reported burglaries and larceny's were both at Three-year lows for the first nine months of the year. This is a continual drop We continue to urge people to dial 911 to report suspicious activities These calls often help officers make arrests especially for property crimes Our community resource officers have been encouraging people to take practical steps To avoid being a victim of property crime. They go out and actually host Community policing through environmental design classes so that businesses and community members can be more Proactive in protecting their homes and protecting their businesses as well By looking at environmental conditions around the business whether it's lighting whether it's high foilage bushes and things that Make a particular property of a crime target Our upticks and crimes have been in district one and also district three and district four We are up 10 city-wide our clearance rates Homicide clearance rates were 73.3 percent As opposed to Last year 61.5 percent Our rate clearance rates 28.4 percent As opposed to 34.5 percent Robbery 28.9 percent as opposed to 2015 28.4 aggravated assault 42.9 percent as opposed to 2015 50.2 percent Violet crime 37.8 percent as opposed to 15 42.4 percent Burglary 15.6 as opposed to 11.1 Larceny's 23 percent as opposed to 20.2 percent Motor vehicle theft 17.7 as opposed to 12 percent Last year and property crime 20.7 percent as opposed to 17.6 Chief I could interrupt just those comparisons. I think we're according to the written report. We're to the fbi standard not to last year I'm sorry. Is that correct? You're you're absolutely right. I need to adjust my glasses That is compared to the fbi as opposed to 2015 which is on the chart there Priority one calls for service We answered 6869 priority one calls for service January through september into the quarter A four percent decrease over the same period in 2015 our average response time was 6.3 minutes Our target of course For the department is to respond in 5.8 minutes Less than five minutes response 50 point 14 percent and our target our our desired goal Is to answer calls Under five minutes at least 57 percent of the time staffing levels Currently there are 532 authorized positions for the Durham police department There are 502 of those positions currently filled Swarm positions non-swarm positions Authorize 124 and field 112 It should be noted that We have approximately 24 recruits that are either in the academy right now or in patrol training So those numbers are also included in that total amount of 502 We also have an additional 12 vacancies in the police department Also included in that number is the 20 police positions That was granted for the fiscal 17 calendar year As an incentive the City has been so gracious to support us in our recruitment campaign with pay incentives with relocation incentives and also our Take-home vehicle program has been rolled out and that will be an ongoing program so that we can Ensure more visibility in the city limits. We've already Began phase one of that implementation and Dispatched Vehicles and areas where we have seen an uptick in crime That is the manner in which we decided would be strategic for us to get visibility in those areas by Overlaying the locations where officers actually live compared to where our crime problems are And that will be the The process moving forward as those vehicles come in we will continue to Dispatch vehicles in those communities where we have our most need initially We are also offering a lateral program for officers who are already North Carolina state certified to Provide an abbreviated Recruitment program so that we can get more officers on the street in a shorter amount of time Some of the third quarter highlights Of course, most of you already know we've Assigned our first lgbtq liaison that did occur during the third quarter Our district one officers participated in A new initiative initiative at the salvation army boys and girls club officers stop by at least three times a week And provide mentoring to the youth there at the club They play games assist with homework and even help choreograph dance routines with the students I need to Need to see that And also the army initiative That's part of the salvation army the national night out We participated in that Of course the reorganization has taken up a lot of our time over the last several weeks Trying to identify locations where we can get more with less The citizens police academy graduated during this quarter And we also participated in what is known as community conversations Many conversations in various community environments where we have had open discussion about police interaction community engagement What is the pulse of our community? How do we build and establish better and sustainable relationships with our community members those conversations Have been beneficial not just for the community But also for the officers to be able to just have open conversation and just talk about who they are and why they Decided to become police officers and what their passion is about this particular profession And we plan to continue to have those sessions our next one is scheduled for december And at a high level this is just An image of the an illustration of the department's reorg and Just to give you an idea of what it was and what it is now If you can see where the investigative services bureau has Three different divisions beneath it Those divisions at one time was controlled completely by the field operations deputy chief along with the patrol services division It was very very heavy staff wise The span of control was not what it needed to be and in order to balance the department and balance the overall reporting structure We have a deputy chief that is now over the field operations division. That's chief rick mark pender grass who is here And chief deputy chief marsh is over investigative and administrative services So he will be focused on criminal investigations and the administrative services components Of the Durham police department another addition would be that If you can see even though the district five geographical footprints still exists We plan to operationalize that particular district so that we have An additional bicycle unit in the downtown area our motors unit our traffic unit that whole District will be more operational as opposed to just 12 bike officers responding to calls it'll create more visibility for the downtown space and the The district does not go away that has been the question, but no the district does not go away It'll just be more operationalized with an increased staff We've also added the cid robbery unit, which isn't seen here, but it will fall under the criminal investigations division And a new gang and gun unit Our citizens police academy. This is just an image of their six-week experience During the third quarter 19 people graduated from the citizens police academy Participants use the department's new decision-making simulator And this was featured on cnn for some of you who may have Watched that activity actually filmed Just an image of the community conversations that we participated in These events have been very good for our community The steve she'll Really just so you just sneaked in on the picture And i would like to i'd like to to thank um some of the council members who have been present at those conversations We appreciate the support Our officers also went out of their way to interact with children during this um quarter There are Several different examples of that our officers purchased ice pops for kids out on a playground one day and Began a bunch of tomfoolery. I believe with them and were challenged to to various feats But the kids had a great time and this was just another effort To improve community relations As we continue to support our youth programs and activities an image here of Stopped to play basketball with children on glenbrook drive And there's a picture also of captain robert gaddy Who met a new fan at the durham bulls athletic park There's more images of our officers working in the community Corporals goza fava. I think I have his name pronounced right stopped Eliminate stand near lakewood elementary school on a hot summer day and got to know several neighborhood children Officer munter with the motor unit met several children at an event at franklin village sponsored by project safe neighborhoods And that ends my presentation. I am certainly open to answer any questions that anyone may have Thank you chief for a very thorough presentation. Let me recognize those members that The mayor pro town Thank you chief for all that you're bringing to our city And are you out of school? Yes I was in belet class this morning, ma'am. No, I'm not Oh my goodness That's my question Let me ask and um, I was struck by Something that you said I didn't see it on your presentations, but uh, it really struck me as very promising And I'd like you to tell me a little bit more about it because I firm would believe that the more we have police presence in our community The more opportunities we have for helping to reduce crime and also letting people know What the police are and police get in the community the 60 day effort that you were speaking about I didn't see that written. Can you share if that I really like that Well and and what I can do also is to provide For you the holiday plan itself is still in the making so to speak but some of what I said Is really critical to it and that's visibility First of all to have all of our officers in uniform Just as you go to lunch every day that is another added Officer out there in a uniform where on a normal day People don't know who the police are sometimes also to Look at some of our units our Officers that Typically are in the school system during the holiday. They don't have as much work to do in the school system We are reallocating some of that manpower so that we can have them to help supplement the calls for service in various areas and also add to the visibility our What was once our heat unit is now more of a supplemental unit to the police department They're answering calls for service and also being dispatched at areas where we have High incidents we identified 26 locations the community services division even though they will continue To work in the community and participate in various activities with young people They are also participating in the visibility From times when they do not have some incident or some activity to participate in they will also Be on patrol in providing visibility at the 26 locations that they've identified Some of those locations or locations that were on our radar anyway and in in that particular perimeter of high business our malls Especially during the holiday season We're also working on a campaign A safe holiday campaign so that we can have our citizens to be more responsible for their own personal effects Something similar to what I've known before as a clean car campaign to not necessarily wash your car But keep your car clean on the inside No packages No electronic devices No cell phones None of that and we feel that if we can get that message out we can we can help people to prevent from being victims themselves by giving Our criminals an opportunity to break their windows breaking their cars and just be smart Be smart about where you are and being Aware of your surroundings during the holiday. So you'll see more messaging Mr. Mayor about what that holiday plan looks like and I can Make sure that you get a copy of that and the entire team can get a copy of it as well Well, let me put make one other request. Yes, sir. When does the 60 day period start? It starts monday monday monday this monday, you know, you know what I'd like you to do Mr. Manager is to come back and tell us after the 60 day period What a crime it should look like And maybe you can even go back further During the same period of time and see what it looked like three or four years from there But I I really think it's a great idea and uh, I just Great idea is one thing how to work as another but I really like to see absolutely what the results are of that Thank you, sir. I will do that Recognize the councilman shul Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you very much chief Thank you. Um There was a 20 drop in burglaries, which you mentioned and is on the chart How do you have any thoughts about that or explanation for it? Or do we have any idea of why that has occurred in this period because it's a big drop It's an exciting phenomenon for us right now. Um Just um property crimes in general, especially burglaries continue to Uh decrease We pay close attention to our data and they're driven by our data, especially when we see upticks in certain areas Where our upticks and robberies are we we put a lot of our police presence Which could still be having an impact on the actual burglaries as as well Most individuals committing one kind of crime they're not just relegated to to that crime So, um, we hope that the visibility that we're putting out there and and we're also paying very close attention to our Our automated vehicle locators So that we can see where our officers are At given times of day And when you run that data, you're able to see how much time they've spent in certain areas We plan to continue to use that data so that we can make sure officers are in those places that we need them to be During those peak hours where our statistics show that we have upticks and in the particular districts Thank you similarly I noticed in the part two offenses that drug violations were down 26 from two years ago another significant drop Any any ideas about why that might be true? Are we not charging people as much for those You know potential offenses as we used to or is there some other phenomenon that you all might be able to identify or do we just not know well There's discussion not just here in the city of Durham, but around the country about The nature of drug kinds of Encounters over the last Several years the drug trade has changed Folks are are making transactions via texts They're not open air drug sales as they were many years ago So it's a more complicated sort of endeavor to address drug issues Very much under the radar as opposed to out in the open as it has been in the past Not saying that it's gone. Yeah, but Different kinds of investigations now Yeah, thank you the um I know that um I appreciate your appointment of the lgbtq liaison officer and I've heard That's been very well received and much appreciated Um the I wanted to say that on saturday I went out to the police athletic league Had a very, you know hundreds of kids out At duke on duke soccer fields and a lot of the officers were out there and Soccer players from Triangle united I believe and uh and lots and lots of Durham public school kids out there And I think it was the culmination of the season and just wanted to say A lot of kids had a great time and appreciate the officers who put a lot of volunteer efforts into that Thanks for being out there the um one thing that I the on the misdemeanor diversion program The chart there There about look about 462 youth arrests and juvenile petitions for the nine months Well, and that's and then there's the older age group the 18 to 21 Uh and overall these the numbers of people in that program look pretty good But I noticed that we've only had about 22 people From the Durham police department. I had only about 22 people enter that program in the third quarter And I I'm hoping that those numbers will go up. I'm hoping that your new general order regarding that will encourage our officers to use the program more, but I did want to say that It's a great program. We put a lot of resources into it and as you know, Judge Moray is very devoted to it and So I hope that uh, we will in the in the next quarter. It will be more than 22 young people People under 21 in this case who were referred there. So do you have thoughts? Well, I I hope there wasn't more than 22 people that we even encountered We have sent out a directive at this point where our officers are required to put individuals that That meet the criteria in that program So, uh, I know their their focus has been in many other areas as it relates to violent crime too over the last We have sent some directives to try to address some of our violent crime issues And I think the shift of manpower may have had something to do with that as well. So, um But we are paying close attention to that data good so that we're not having Young people slip through the cracks that they are going to judge moray's program Thank you chief. I really appreciate you and Just want to say I I feel like you've really hit the ground running You're doing a great job. You're very Very visible in our community and I think you've made a lot of great changes already in the department and just want to tell you how I hope that you feel supported because you are supported and the community is so glad to have you here I do feel that support. Thank you, sir Okay, I Appreciate again your reports. Thank you I'll we move now until the general business agenda for public hearings First item being item 23 street closing for comforting road Good evening kyle taylor with the planning departments I could affirm that all public hearing items for the planning department have been advertised in accordance with udo and state law And affidavits of such are on file in the planning department street closing case sc 16 0005 Coventry road is a request to permanently close 392.85 linear feet of Coventry road The right-of-way is currently unimproved and the portion of the street requested for closure is boarded by properties owned by kreg morgan debora meyer michael goodman elizabeth goodman Gerald j hall and laura s hall If this request is approved the adjacent parcels and right-of-way will be redistributed First student to state law to each of the property owners associated with this request Staff has no issues with this proposal and recommends the closure of this right-of-way. Thank you You're welcome. This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open as first of the questions by members of council Uh here and none. Is there anyone in the audience that wants to speak on this item? This is being a public hearing Let the record reflect that no one in the public has to speak on this item I would declare public hearing be closed matters back before the council It's been properly moved. Second madam clerk. Will you open the vote? Open the vote Close the vote It passes seven is even Thank you moved item 24 venable center repeal of landmark designation Good evening council. My name is gray smith. I'm with the planning department This is a request to appeal a landmark designation for approximately 2.27 acres That is currently a parking lot at the venable center. The location is 302 west pettigrew street North Carolina general statute 105-278 provides a tax reduction for landmark properties of it 50 percent to assist with the extra cost of Keep up on properties that are landmarked if this landmark Status is removed from the parking lot The prior three years of taxes and interest must be paid repaid to the tax office The estimate at this time for repayment is 34 788 dollars The exact amount will be determined after After or upon time of de-designation by the tax office This item was reviewed by the historic preservation commission in august with a vote from a four to one the Staff recommends approval as stated on page seven and eight of the staff report And further recommends that the council approve the de-designation ordinance and thereby removing the parking area associated with the venable center landmark And staffs available if you have questions Thank you. This is a public hearing the public hearing is open and would ask again Are the questions remember the council on the staff report recognize councilwoman johnson Thank you. Mr. Mayor. I did have a quick question. There were there have been some concerns raised before about Landmark status being given and then withdrawn in order to Maximize tax benefits that like you get the landmark status to get 50 percent off and then when you want to develop it You just get it repealed. I don't think that's what what's happening in this case But I just wanted you to confirm so people would know that that is not the case That is correct. Now. We've had a couple of these come up recently Last year west village had the same situation with the parking lot a surface lot that was designated at the time of landmark designation and we have found that um practice back in the years historical practice was to Go ahead and landmark the property the land and the building and now we're looking a little closer at these as they come in And you'll notice that we'll actually make a recommendation of whether or not we think both Land and property I mean land and building or just building and this case is similar to west village in that I think just foresight and vision they didn't realize they were going to want to use this parking lot or something different later So you're welcome Other other questions. I remember the council If not, I have brian kane and bob zumwalt if you Care to speak on this item Each have three minutes Mr. Mayor and members of the council, we're just here to ask answer any questions if you have any, thank you Developer Let me ask is anyone else that wants to speak on this item This being a public hearing I recognize councilman shewell just to clarify further Uh grace the In terms of jillian's questions and the taxes are being recovered That is great that were that were the tax break that the developer received for the historic designation the portion of that that was on the Parking lot is being recovered by the city and counties. All right for the last three years It will be for the last three years. That is the way the general statute is right Thank you. You're welcome The record flick that no one in the public wanted to speak Uh, I declared the public meeting to be closed and I was back before the council It's been property movement second round clerk. We open the vote Open the vote and close the vote It passes seven is he right thank you move item 25 consolidated annexation first for fire station number 17 Good evening. I'm Jacob Wiggins with the playing department. This is a request for annexation and initial zoning submitted By the city of Durham general services department for a three and a half acre site Generally located at five five zero three leased old road The general services department has indicated or proposes to located during fire station at the subject site pending approval of a minor special use permit and subsequent site plan The the applicant has requested an initial zoning designation of residential rule Follows jordan b which is the least intense zoning district based on the development here and size of this lot Because the property is owned by the city. There was no utility extension agreement required and an impact analysis fiscal impact analysis was not done by the budget management services department Any future development will require Approvals by relevant city review departments and the staff recommends that the council approve this voluntary annexation petition and initial zoning And i'm happy to answer any questions you all may have Thank you. It's a public hearing public hearing is open. The questions are members of the council Members of the council have questions Uh, we have mr. Robert stoner ross jr. Who wants to speak is anyone else who wants to speak? Someone else If you don't mind you can come to the podium those who want to speak And let me make sure I noticed that you're speaking against this item. Yes Uh, the gentleman behind you speaking against or for Against is anyone who wants to speak in support of this besides what the staff report has been made In that case each of you have three minutes. Yes, sir. All right, mr. Stoner ross jr. I have your number, but when you come up you can state your name in that address No, mr. Stoner, you can go ahead. Okay I'm robert robert ross jr. Five four zero one leesville road On the property directly behind or excuse me three houses behind the Proposed speaking in the microphone a little bit more, please. Okay on the property three houses behind the proposed area I have a couple concerns about noise and light pollution, especially at late at night early in the morning I'd like to see that there's be some way of berms trees or something to where Uh, I had three small children at night Sirens lights that kind of stuff um, could possibly be put to protect my neighbors and The people across and maybe even beside the street, please Fine, you're you see you have three houses. You're on leesville road I'm at the very corner of panoramic drive and leesville. Okay. All right, and I own the three lots behind that also Okay, okay I'll let the staff respond your questions At that here. Well, you can go and respond if you like Certainly. Thank you. Jacob Wiggins with the plant department. I'm certainly understand where the property owner is coming from I would say that this is an initial zoning. There's no development plan So it can be any profits or anything. I think the the citizens concerns would be best addressed at the minor special use permit hearing Um, where the board of adjustment could consider those potential impacts the the action before the council tonight is only the Annexation of the property. It's not approving the fire station itself Recognize council marise. Thank you. Um, is that to suggest and this is for you, Jacob? Is this to suggest that That when the site plan for the fire station is developed That it's certainly possible that Folks who are preparing that site plan on the behalf of the city could take the The constructive suggestion by the resident It in mind when they're designing that Certainly, uh, Jacob Wiggins with the planning department They certainly have that option. Um, obviously our ordinance requires certain project boundary buffers as well Um, and the board of adjustment also has the power to make conditions on Projects as they deem reasonable. Thank you. Yes, sir Yes, sir. Oh, yes, mr. Uh mayor members of council Um, I'm thankful to be here and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to after one of the other times I wasn't allowed. Okay, if you could set your name and add Yes, my name is brian o'connor. I own three properties directly across the street and your address five four one two leesville road And uh You know this this property, uh, it was it was given to the county by by uh del webpulte So they have an invested interest in it Loretta whittle I guess has been going to several meetings with you guys All the way back to january 4th May 2nd and february First She had met with you regarding that she's been the one that's been pushing for this fire hall She's been pushing for the ems. There are currently four active fire stations within a four mile radius at least The fire service that we have in the county there is a five star Firehouse, you know, my wife and I have used their services at least twice in the past 20 years I'm invested in the Durham community. I you know I'm active with the Durham community. I love this place. But the thing is is Uh, this proposed firehouse is a five point four million dollar budget You know, I think that we are we are pushing it through Based on the interests of the del webp community. I don't think it's been uh addressed with the rest of the community And the fact that the area is developing quickly I think that we're going to have to probably in the future reposition firehouses I think with the developments that are coming into place that what would probably end up having having to happen is a joint Service between wake connie and Durham connie, which has been opening up with other activities that we've been doing with wake connie I know especially out there in the area of Durham. We're on that. There's been a little bit of a land swap between services I just think that when you're going too quick with this fire And I'm just in opposition of it Well, you're certainly comments are part of the record and I was trying to see you are you raising your hand time for something Okay, well your your comments will be noted. Okay. Thank you Recognize councilman moffitt Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm sorry Mr. Wiggins So let's and in chief courier. I'm going to have a couple questions for you too Um, the concerns were raised one has to do with lighting. Could you just address The requirements for some any development regarding lighting as it affects the adjoining properties? Certainly Jacob Wiggins with the playing departments the the unified development orders. There are lighting requirements Oh, I'm sorry. There there are lighting requirements with the new unified development ordinance There's a certain candle measure Which must be bent at the property line So this project just like any other project would be required to meet ordinance requirements And just to be clear This project will have limitations on how much light can can Leave the property and hit the adjoining properties. That's correct. Yes, sir. That is correct And will this property be required to have any buffers? Yes, sir planted buffers Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you chief courier The one of the people in opposition expressed concern about noise, especially late at night sirens Do will the trucks leaving here routinely have there be Using their sirens Dan curia fire chief for the department Depending on the type of call they will use their lights in siren if it's something that's deemed to be Life-threatening if it's a medical call right or if it's something like structure fire We certainly will if it's an automatic fire alarm to different areas of the city then Depending on the order of response. They wouldn't they would just go what we call routine traffic without lights in siren so if morning You know the streets are empty. Did they they run their siren fold? Yes, sir. Okay, and then second question then a second gentleman he had some Thoughts talked about that. We'd have to reposition fire houses that this was pushed for del web and that we should be collaborating Collaborating with wake county Could you talk a little bit about why? The department feels like Fire station or if the department feels the fire station was warranted out in this area Certainly we use a fire modeling software. So we've planned for growth throughout the city and the county And regardless of whether del web were in the picture The city has identified a need for a fire station In that area to do a couple of things It complements the response in what would generally be called the briar creek area It fills a response gap for the city between fire station number eight, which is up generally off highway 98 And fire station number 13 and rta It Is for the growth not just of del web, but for the entire surrounding community Do you do you um Does the department feel that the location here Is marginal or good or This location that we have is actually by our Estimation perfect for our needs and we worked very closely with the developer to make sure we had the location for the station Exactly where we needed it based on our responses. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Thank you, mr. Mayor Are there any other comments? Again, this is a public hearing is anyone else who wants to speak on this item Let the record reflect no one else asked to speak the credit put me to close matters back before the council It's been property moved in second madam clerk. We open the vote close the vote It has a seven zero Was who's moving on that? Madam clerk, will you open the vote? Open the vote Close vote Mr. Mayor recognize the council in the market I just wanted to say chief courier to the extent that your staff is involved in the site plan development We've heard concerns night. This is a rural site in that consideration of the adjacent neighbors the buffers and plantings would Um would be called for thank you Mr. Mayor That's councilman reese by moving that item. Do we adopt both ordinances? There are two ordinances on that item I'm sorry. Yes, if you if you adopted the motion that was in front of you you would have adopted both Thanks, newbie question. Thanks Okay, let's move to the next item My screen keeps going away. That's why I'm Uh 26 consolidated annexation for ellis road townhouses Thank you. Jacob wiggins again with the planning department Um, this is a request for utility extension agreement voluntary annexation plan amendment and zoning map change I'm submitted by ellis road residential two for four contiguous acres. I'm totaling the approximately 25.6 Acres um located on the north side of ellis road east of the railroad intersection The applicant has requested an initial zoning designation of plan development residential 7.550 For a maximum of 165 townhouse units at the subject site The site is currently zoned residential suburban 20 The site is designated as low density residential on the future land use map And the applicant has also requested to change this designation to low to medium density residential Which would permit four to eight dwelling units per acre There's a development plan associated with this rezoning request And commits to the following a maximum of 165 townhouse units dedication of public right of way improvements to ellis road including turn lanes and a bicycle lane side access points tree preservation and a bus shelter along ellis road The planning commission recommended approval via vote of 12 to 2 on their september 13 2016 hearing budget management services performed a fiscal analysis For the annexation which indicated that the request would likely be a revenue positive upon annexation And the public works and water management departments performed utility impact analysis which determined that the existing City of Durham water and sewer mains have capacity to serve the proposed use Staff recommends that the council approve the utility extension agreement voluntary annexation plan amendment and initial zoning requests, and i'm happy to answer any questions you all may have Thank you. The public hearing is open on the questions by members of the council If not, we have three persons that have signed up to speak on this item All of them speaking in support Before I call on them as anyone that's in opposition to this item that wants to speak that hasn't signed up Uh that case uh, I recognize laura hollamann thomas spaulding and william stevens in that order and if you could Limit two comments three minutes, please each Good evening. Thank you. Uh, mr. Mayor members of the city council My name is laura hollamann. I'm representing the applicant. Uh, ellis road residential two Spaulding and norris, uh, 972 trinity road rally north carolina I'll keep my comments brief Since staff did a wonderful job from start to finish really Really helping us facilitating this through tonight to get where we are tonight illustrators Is transitioning from a low density residential area into a high quality and medium density community growth area That will provide diverse supporting residential for nearby research triangle park for years to come This low to medium density development will provide an app transition between the existing higher multifamily density And industrial to the west and south and Bethesda park an existing single family to the north and east The comprehensive plan of that examines criteria revisions to the Whether the proposed change will be consistent with intent goals guiding principles and program of any adopted plans Whether the proposed change would be compatible with the existing land use pattern and or designated future land uses Whether the proposed change would create substantial adverse impacts in the adjacent area And whether the subject site is of adequate shape and size to meet the proposed change Staff did concur that this proposed development meet set criteria The development will develop an acceptable suburban densities and land use patterns The proposal avoids patterns of leapfrog non-contiguous scatter development It is adjacent or near to similar existing Development accompanying our comprehensive plan amendment is our rezoning request the proposed zoning Is to rezone To pdr 7.5 5 0 which allows for a maximum of 165 units. I won't go through the text amendments Or excuse me the text commitments that um, mr. Wiggins went through that speak to Specific architectural high quality commitments as well as transportation commitments But I will echo some some Direct quote that one of the planning commissioners had as a result of the positive recommendation that they gave And your report commissioner miller provided a comprehensive explanation of his thought process and recommending approval And said and I quote this development plan does more than play lip service to our policies concerning residential development It represents a first step in what I hope will become a new focus in our analysis and approval of future p-door developments In quote we have truly embraced your adopted policies and high expectations for managed growth in city of durham And since sincerely ask for your positive vote tonight. Thank you Thomas spaulding Mr. Mayor member of the council for the minutes. My name is thomas spaulding I'm with spaulding in norris and we're at 972 trinity road in raleigh representing the applicant Just real briefly, uh, your public utilities department identified Uh, an opportunity real early on that we could possibly reroute uh sewer Over to the bises de park and get over get a Older sanitary sewer pump station offline That would provide a benefit to the city We've worked with them. We've got um An alignment that works for everybody and I think it'll be a win for the city to get an older pump station offline that Requires daily maintenance and Really doesn't hurt us that bad and we're glad to do it If anybody has any questions about that. I'm glad to to try and answer Other questions. I assume we don't have a capacity issue with this that we can Jacob we can put time for it. No, sir Are there other questions? If not recognize William stevens Thank you, mr. Mayor and council My name is William Stevens 800 el mara avenue I represent the south side church of christ where I've served as pastor for the past 34 years We purchased this property in 2009 with the intent of moving our church facilities as well as our schools or properties Due to financial due to the economy. We were forced to actually to sell the property First approached by the heli company didn't know exactly who they were but after seeing someone to work They've done in other places as well as the plans that they have for the ellis row property And them being very diligent and very faithful in doing what they can to meet all the requirements of the city We believe very dearly that it will be a very great enhancement for that community as well as the surrounding areas And so I hope that the board passed tonight In agreement. Thank you. Welcome. Is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item? Let the record reflect that no one else asked to speak The public hearing is closed. As a matter of fact for the council Recognize councilman Reese Thank you, mr. Mayor I just wanted to mention very briefly how much I appreciate as commissioner miller did The architectural i'm sorry the the design Diversity that you've committed to in this project specifically around A mix of building materials and garage designs designed to Mix traditional forms but in a way that avoid monotony In what will be a new built environment for our city as commissioner miller mentioned And a part you didn't quote This is perhaps the first pdr development plan that he saw he's ever seen That actually mentions this policy idea that is proposed in our comprehensive plan It's something that we as a as a as a planning commission I know the members there take seriously something that we should take seriously When we consider not only this project the future projects as well. Thank you Welcome recognize councilman shul Thank you, mr. Mayor I have a question for the applicant either one of you all is happy to There's no no proffer regarding affordable housing or a payment and loo for affordable housing from this development And the Our last meeting for example developer of a similar development proffered 175 thousand dollars cities affordable housing fund to support the construction of affordable units in the city And I wondered had you all considered this at all or had you Taken up the idea of affordable housing Sure. Thank you for your question We are familiar with the affordable housing goal that the city has adopted and is making a conscious effort to meet Certainly very apparent in the but the compact neighborhood district as well as central Durham and that's Making a conscious effort currently to spread that out The goal states preserve and increase the stock of affordable housing within a half a mile of each of the proposed Durham Orange rail transit stations Of course, um, you all know that this is not located within a half mile However, we are proposing a less shelter that happened in the future Currently, this is not Something that we've identified as a direct affordable housing project that will feature any Um, excuse me Meeting the requirements of affordable housing. However You know these these are town home units meant to be conducive and supportive of the market that's in that immediate Um an adjacent area and certainly our goal was was to provide more diverse housing options For every employee that might work in rtp Mr. Mayor, um, I appreciate that I would I guess I In and while you're right that we have this specific target in terms of the potential The transit area transit areas We are hopeful that all of our developers will be Helping us with an affordable housing commitment So, uh, mr. Mayor at the appropriate time I'm going to move that we Or ask that we keep the public hearing out for another couple weeks and ask the developer to come back with some sort of proffer on affordable housing I think I closed the public hearing Then I will just ask that we uh hold action on this item for a couple of weeks and uh Because I'm I'm very interested in in the developer Making a proffer on affordable housing or a payment in a loop And would hope that they in a couple of weeks they might see that way clear to do that Let let me ask, um, I don't know if our planning director was coming forth to say anything or not. Okay. That's I just want to give everybody a chance to speak when they want to speak Okay But let let me Say this we we're talking about a couple of weeks and that's What is our next meeting the first meeting in december? December the fifth Generally what we try to do is to grant requests that council people make on particular issues Such as this Tell me what would be the delay Impact to you if we waited until december Of course, uh, we are anxious to move forward and have, um, contractual obligations with, um, our Purchased to buy the property that would be impacted by the delay Well, let me say this, uh, obviously we and he said proffer he hopes you're going to do that Uh, we can't insist that you do that And, uh, I don't want to leave you with the impression that if you don't do that That you're not going to get the zoning pass. I'm going to make that clear on this particular issue If somebody votes against it they vote against it for whatever reason they want to vote against it I'm going to Grant councilman schuels requests For delay if it's so moved by the council If not, we'll move on the side of the seams and then objection to that recognized the mayor pro tem Get a statement from the attorney about it You are free to defer the item, uh, if you if you'd like for for a cycle But as the mayor said, this isn't something that you can require of the developer Okay Recognize council moffitt. Was your hand going up? Okay. Recognize council. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask the applicant um, so Will two weeks enable you to think about Uh, possible. So let's be clear. We have actually two Uh, affordable housing goals. You you were correct about one related to, um transit But we have a larger affordable housing crisis in Durham We get consultants. We've been working on this. We know that we're short Many units and an affordable housing We want to have make sure we have it within half mile of each rail station But we also need to increase our stock up affordable housing across the city Given all of that will two weeks Give you the opportunity to review your project to see if there's Um Anything that you might want to come back to address our concerns with Yes, we feel like we can make some headway within that cycle Mr. Mayor, I'll move a two-week continuation Proper move the second that we continue this not the public hearing but continue this until the What's the first give me a date when it's our first December 5th December 5th 7 p.m. Okay Madam clerk, will you open the boat? Closer up It passes 7-0. Thank you. I don't know if people are waiting on this next item or not, but I'm gonna call it Okay Item 27 zoning map change marina drive assemblage Good evening again, kyle tale with the planning department case z 15 000 39 briny drive assemblage is a zoning map change request for 83.31 acres This project is comprised of four acres located on briny drive and i-85 The subject side is presently zoned residential suburban 20 with a future land use designation of low density residential Forwardwelling units per acre or less the applicant proposes a zoning designation of plan development potential 3.411 The development plan associated with this request graph would give us to the following a general location of the site access points tree coverage areas the building parking envelope Size and location of project boundary buffers tech commitments are full of existing Towers the maximum number of units for this project will not exceed 274 Maximum number of townhome units and the will not exceed 100 No lot will have frontage or have driveway access on briny drive provide of a main activity recreation area maximum pervious surface will not exceed 50 percent Limit post development runoff in the 1 to 10 in 100 year storms to pre development levels at points of discharge from the site and upstreet limits of the lake swannanoa Provide on-site treatment for nitrogen reduction to a level of 0.26 pounds acre year Provide on-site treatment for phosphorus production to a 0.04 pounds per acre per year All lots located immediately adjacent to property lines containing Propert buffers b and c on the development plan will be a minimum of 1 the 10,000 square feet in size temporary Temporary sediment control ponds will be provided with twice the storage volume required by section 12.10 0.4 e of the derm comprehensive of the derm unified development ordinance Install a traffic signal at coal mill and briny drive subject to ncdot approval and construct site access 1 and 2 with 1 egress and 1 egress way Planting commission recommended denial by a vote of 11 to 0 on june 14th 2016 Planting staff has determined that these this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan other adopted policies and ordinances. Thank you And what it was not concluded. This is a continuation of the public hearing that we had So We have persons that have signed up to speak again for this continuation of this public hearing I have some persons that have signed up to speak is that anyone that wants to speak Uh as an opponent of this project that has not signed one of these yellow cards Because I if you if you don't i'm going to stop it with the cards i have so is anyone out there that wants to speak against the Proposal that has not signed the yellow card That being the case we have 11 persons that have signed up to speak in opposition Uh, i'm going to limit the time to the two minutes on this one each And we have Five people that have signed up to speak as proponents So let me find out is anyone else that's a proponent that has not signed the wants to speak that hasn't signed these cards Uh, that being the case let's let's go with the two minutes each That's 22 minutes for opponents and it'll be 22 minutes for proponents uh I'm going to call the names linda huff Jezary gordon p jaren dealas bryan shirk shirk mike rossher elizabeth lambar ramon pierce emily schiefer son hamill chris drepps and kathy baritain they will be the op onus Uh, I just call your names to make sure you were there The proponents will go first as usual Uh, so it's patrick baker joshua allen bomb bob zomwalk randa king and lyle overcash Good evening, mayor bell. Mayor pro tem colmick fadden members of the city council. My name is patrick biker. I live at 2614 stewart drive I'm an attorney with morningstar law group adoram, and i'm here tonight representing pulty homes for this zoning map change With me tonight are our traffic engineer lyle overcash with vhb Our landscape architect bob zoomwall and stormwater engineer josh allen with mac Adams and bob anderson and randy king from pulty Two weeks ago the council granted us a deferral to give us time to meet with the neighbors and explain some of the changes We have made to our plan We did meet with the neighbors last week thursday evening for approximately two hours I believe there were 10 neighborhood representatives there at the meeting with our team We did discuss the issues in detail, but unfortunately we were not able to reach Consensus on the items that are of their of concern to them However, we were during that two-week time frame also able to meet with our sellers and negotiate a price concession Which enabled us to further decrease our density And enhance our stormwater control measures at this time Change is into the record that are Some of the commitments before you tonight the red language shows the changes that we presented to the council two weeks ago And the blue script shows the changes. We've been able to make since then For item two instead of 274 units the number is now 270 For item three instead of a maximum of 100 townhomes the number is now 85 On item six instead of a maximum of 50 percent impervious that percentage has been reduced to 48 And finally for number seven the level to which nitrogen must be treated to onsite has been reduced from 2.6 to 2.2 The cost risk has been From 0.40 to 0.33 these last two changes mean there'll be no Offsite buy-down for stormwater quality treatment These commitments are even better than the strong proposal we presented two weeks ago And we are very proud of the updated proposal that's before the council tonight Next I want to touch briefly on something that council member moffitt discussed at the last meeting Which is what is likely to occur if this rezoning does not pass This slide gives some details on that question Given the location of the property next to a freeway and near certain environmental features It is likely that the site will be developed as a cluster subdivision Development under the existing zoning would result in a larger minimum lot size for all lots and fewer dwelling units None of As compared to polt poltis proposal before you tonight development under the current rs20 zoning would not provide a traffic signal Moreover the rs20 zoning would only reduce morning peak hour trips by approximately one car per minute Evening peak hour trips by less than one and a half cars per minute An rs20 development would not be required to provide any buffers adjacent to any neighborhood Or a lombarini drive In fact development under the current rs20 zoning would even allow for multiple driveways into The limit on impervious surface would be 70 percent instead of 48 percent Stormwater measures would only address up to the 10-year storm not the 100-year storm The developer would choose to do an offsite buy-down for nitrogen and phosphorus mitigation And during construction only the minimum required level of erosion control would be provided And so for all these reasons when we respectfully ask for your approval We wish to reserve the rest of our time for rebuttal. Thank you very much I end up to speak joshua allen bob zonemalt With aloe becash and randa king do not want to speak at this time We prefer to have those speak in rebuttal mr. Mayor That's fine. Let's let's move with the opponents again linda huff And if you could just state them and add speak please linda huff I live at 1905 old red mountain road in rougemont I'm here to talk about what life would be like in this what I see is a cheesy soul-killing development There is no wall for sound abatement The The townhouses themselves will act as sound abatement but only for people some distance away They themselves will be a hundred feet from the noise I think if you reflect on this you wouldn't want to live in this place yourself And that fact should act as some measure of the desirability of this undertaking Also, there are consequences for human health of living next to a freeway sound aside For humans living within 1500 feet of a freeway there have been shown increased instances of heart disease and cancer For highway being as busy as i-85 conservative recommendations are for housing to be situated no closer Than 656 feet This information isn't a secret and it's not controversial So why would a developer put high density housing almost within the highway right of way? Because it's profitable and they do not care about the welfare of the future occupants of this project So I think it's incumbent upon you the elected officials to care about them because these are your future citizens This land can be developed in a more responsible way It can be developed more ethically But it takes an attitude of caring caring for the present neighborhoods The future occupants of the project the health and well-being of the larger community It takes caring for the beauty of the landscape and the possibilities present in an undeveloped parcel of land It takes recognizing what makes a vibrant community in short it takes vision None of which is evident in this proposal To borrow a phrase from a previous speech I made I don't know what pulty homes exact business model is But I sure know how it looks Namely, it looks to use the most aggressive development. Can I finish my paragraph? No, ma'am Thank you. Thank you Jezre Gordon Good evening, mr. Mayor and members of council. My name is D. Draw Gordon and I live at 26 Southampton Place My husband Brett Gordon and I have lived in Durham for over 20 years I don't oppose development But when I was here at the meeting two weeks ago I heard what the developer said about an rs 20 zone neighborhood not being affordable to people who work in Durham I just don't believe that So I did a survey of our rs 20 zone neighborhood to find out what people do who live there 139 neighbors responded They shared their jobs their employers in their fields These 139 neighbors are nurses research technicians and research analysts social workers physical therapists administrative assistants and it professionals the top job At 12 percent of the neighbors in our neighborhood the top employer Duke University At 15 percent and the second highest employer Duke University medical center at 7 percent Followed closely by Durham public schools at 6 percent The top three fields education health care and government My neighbors work in diverse fields from federal law and to nonprofits from construction to it From retail to human resources My neighbors are employed across the spectrum of people and six My neighbors own small businesses In other words under the current zoning people of all professional backgrounds have been able to achieve their dream of living in a neighborhood that appeals to them There are people working at Duke There are people who work across all the fields represented right here in Durham There are teachers and nurses who can live in neighborhoods with this zoning Also before I close one additional piece of information that I'd like to share about our neighborhood The home prices range from $178,000 to $385,000 with the median price being 223 The median Durham price is 220 that reflects Durham Just one slide Hi, i'm peter gerendellis of 811 kimball drive. I'm here to follow up on the issue of noise Previously raised by our community and more recently validated by the planning commission In june I could just speak a little bit to the microphone pardon. Yes So i'm here to talk about noise The concern is that a noise impact may be realized as you might need to get a little closer to the microphone. Sure The concern is that a noise impact may be realized as this property borders i-85 In addition to the post as shown on the slide Which I can't find the point on it. Okay Um In addition to the post at 65 mile an hour speed limit this stretch of the interstate interstate is bisected by ramp that Routes westbound traffic from the freeway to i-85 It is of note that this long curved and elevated ramp as highlighted on the slide Projects beyond the interstate towards the property up for rezoning tonight Because of this layout is it has been suggested that this is the widest portion of i-85 in Durham As such this is not just a barini drive infill proposal This is an infill adjacent to one of Durham's busiest highways and at a section that is reasonable to assume Generates a lot of noise to gain a better understanding Of the potential impact i've engaged with noise experts at the federal highway administration and nc dot In addition to city engineers in the planning commission the consensus opinion of the experts and others is that and this is informal Is that it is reasonable to assume that a noise impact may be realized and it needs to be studied I also share a few other learnings No noise study or modeling from historic data has been submitted by the developer A comprehensive noise study by the dot found the need to place A berm and wall to the west of this property highlighted by the black line in the slide To protect existing residents from noise from the i-85 widening project the property in question to noise abatement In place no berm or wall Okay That's it Good evening mayor city council members. My name is brian sharrick. I live at three west haven place I want to be clear that our neighborhood Understands that the land in question will be developed someday Presumably by somebody We are not opposed to the to development But we are opposed to polte's plan for development Since the notifications came out fall of 2015 our neighborhood has been engaged and organized We formed an executive committee that meets regularly We've held two community meetings both had over 125 people in attendance We created subcommittees. We kept in communication with our neighborhood via neighborhood list serves We met with polte five times as they acknowledged for a little over two hours last thursday night We have been accessible and willing to work with polte from day one At the november 7th council meeting you instructed us as a neighborhood to once again go back and meet with polte Understand their concessions See if we could reach an agreement on how to move forward We have done that we met with polte We listened Thoroughly and tried to understand their concessions. We attempted to work with them to address neighbor concerns and We considered the polte's proposal versus an rs 20 development We have concluded after much thought and a lot of work in the past couple weeks That polte's concessions inadequately address the concerns of the neighborhood We are still concerned with The potential impact on traffic The lack of compatibility with the existing neighborhood lack of architectural diversity The inner environmental and water quality Premifications as well as the potential noise issues from is the i-85 My name is mark rousher. I live at 38 19 barini drive Mr. Mayor Members of the council. I want to discuss two of these Issues that we are still concerned with and i've just lost the The presentation there we go one is traffic By polte's own estimates traffic will triple on barini that noise Triple the traffic backups at stoplights and more than triple The exhaust that's spewed in the environment Now polte says that barini drive is rated for up to 10 000 passage units But that ignores the impact that tripling the traffic tripling the number of trips per day actually has On the current residents okay, we have Approached polte several times to request that they consider adding an additional Ingress and egress to the community and have been rebuffed every single time We feel that that would be a much more Successful way of addressing the traffic issues than the stoplight that they have proposed the second issue I want to discuss has to do with compatibility with the existing neighborhoods Polte's plan as you can see from the slide has none of the vegetative cover that makes our neighborhoods so attractive In addition to that It does not Provide any sort of diversity in housing types if you drive through our neighborhood You will find virtually every house is architecturally different This slide shows polte's view of architectural diversity You can barely tell these houses from one another from the street in addition 100 percent of these houses have front facing street facing driveways the percentage in our neighborhood is only about 50 percent So if you ask us whether this development is compatible with the udo criteria that Infills be compatible with existing patterns of development. No it fades Good evening. My name is elizabeth lumbar and I live at 700 diluth street Despite the changes polte has made we remain concerned about the protection of lrb creek For the following three reasons first although polte claims strong watershed protection They have not made available the data they use to develop their claims as was repeatedly requested Second the lrb creek watershed association is still not satisfied that polte's proposal meets good storm water management as defined in north kawana low guidebook And third the fact that there are numerous successful lawsuits against polte for their storm water management failings makes it hard to trust polte's plan We considered councilman moffitt's question about whether rs 20 would be preferable to polte's proposal We think it would be as an rs 20 development would be more likely to be compatible with existing neighborhoods Provide an opportunity for architectural diversity and result in fewer homes, which means less traffic and fewer environmental impacts It's notable that the planning commission unanimously opposed the rezoning request Although there have been changes to polte's plan since the hearing on june 14th We assume that they were not significant enough or the plan would have had to be represented to the planning commission We utilize these two weeks to reassess polte's proposal Consult with experts and communicate with each other and we concluded that polte's proposal does not sufficiently respond to concerns That have been raised Audience can you please stand if you're in objection to polte's rezoning request? Thank you very much And we're impressed by that considering it's a week of thanksgiving and that we came back for continuance Thank you for considering our feedback Please vote no Good evening. I'm chris drepps the executive director of the ellery creek watershed association We urge the city council to reject the rezoning request Good water quality manage it management catches the rain where it falls to minimize runoff And protects the property streams and soils to let them do their job to process clean water and support aquatic life Unfortunately polte's proposal doesn't do either one of these One there are several small unregulated streams on the site and although the this plan technically Meets the noose buffer rules it actually goes to the extreme and grades over pipes and builds right on top of them rs 20 couldn't possibly do any worse than that On the site and it would likely do better Because they wouldn't have to use the density They wouldn't have to achieve the density And they would just move up the hill where they don't have to deal with those wet soils in those places 33 acres of the site are covered by one of the wettest soils in the piedmont that i want to make sure you understand the developer Misclassifies as a hydrologic soils group c and so did your staff and i i'd like to talk more with the staff Unfortunately, i just figured this out this weekend Misclassifies it. It's actually a hydrologic soils group d which is much wetter soil This makes their water quality model wrong And this has big implications for what they're telling you about the standards that they're meeting The plan doubles the amount of impervious cover over rs 20 or what would realistically be allowed in rs 20 This creates the need for more innovation But the poultice approach is very conventional. It's just more stormwater ponds This proposal fails two of the three two of the major tests of creek protection It builds in the wrong places and does old school stormwater management Which will eventually cost the Durham stormwater fee payers who are paying millions of dollars to to reduce Nutrients in ellaby creek We respectfully ask that you reject the proposal Good evening, mr. Mayor members to west haven 27705 Thank you for the opportunity to speak i'll make it short because my time is brief In 2015 the general assembly passed house bill 201 this modified general statute 160a That effectively eliminated the use to protest Protest petitions by concerned citizens that would trigger a mandatory supermajority Of the city city council votes and matters like we have in front of us tonight This was a huge win for developers like poulti and many others because this means they can now avoid the due process Of having to work with us citizens and community members to ensure our needs have been met I suspect we still had this legitimate power protest Pulti's tact would have been much different We might have been able to even come to some consensus I bring this loss of citizen power not to bemoan or complain but to raise a point We've lost a very important mechanism that would make this type of rezoning request challenging to achieve As a result all we are left with is this collective action Of our neighbors and community members to tell you we are not okay with this rezoning request The seven members of city council have sworn oath to office and legislative duties the equal importance To the values of your electorate We all recognize the need to meet our city's growth But at what expense what precedents would you set by sending a message to poulti and other developers That they have free reign to pull end around on the neighbors and community citizens That we may lose a formal mechanism for protest petition, but we have not lost our voice of protest We are here to tell this legislative body to keep Durham great Send the message that we will not be hoodwink Or by the guile of our slick developers and their legal team Make it clear that the city and its neighbors are willing to develop and accommodate the inevitable growth of Durham But we will do it on the terms of the collective Rather the conditions that are dictated by the bottom line and boardroom of poulti Good afternoon. Mr. Mayor of the city council. My name is Raymond Pierce My wife and I die and live at 9 12 Kimball Drive two points 2005 when I was asked to come here to be dean of the law school in north Carolina center university I asked the chancellor at that time dr. Ammons where can I buy a home where you can get some land With little development. He said right across the road from where the chancellor's home was located There's some eagles in this neighborhood also I bought that who we bought that home because it was developed. It was proposed as it was designated rs 20 rs 20 It's a rare and attractive neighborhood that attracts people to Durham It offers a place for people who want that type of land and that type of area to live and raise their children You destroy it. You destroy something attractive for this town This is like trying to scram a round peg into a square hole That's a square peg into a round hole. It is just not consistent You got the highway down one side a little piece of stripper road You call burrini and elo park up the road which kind of land locks the whole neighborhood. It does not work second point I heard that pastor the church of christ say a little while ago that in dealing with that developer He met with faithfulness and diligent. We have had nothing but the opposite here And so that's what I find disturbing. It's who you get in bed with We don't have to have a little have a gun to our head. We have to accept this I'm glad to hear that the developer said a couple weeks ago that he made the concession that we could have done better in terms of communicating I appreciate that But you know It's it's it's been it just just does not pass the smell test It does not pass the smell test. We can do better. We don't have to accept this You pushed us down our throat like this. It just leaves a bad tank throughout the city and throughout the neighborhood. Thank you Good evening As you know i'm kathy baritan. I live at 1708 woodburn road in durham and i'll make this very brief I want to Based on the discussion that last uh the last day council meeting It was clear that one of the issues that was going to be under consideration here was whether The plan currently offered by polty Is better For among other things stormwater management and water quality Then having the property developed under the current zoning using standard practices And the statement i just want to make tonight is that the science is very clear Only way that could happen the only way that polty's plant that The higher density development higher impervious could It could be as good as the current uh the the current zoning is if low impact development Approaches and practices were used. It is the only way the science is very clear Polty is not offering to use any of those practices. They're using standard practices So it's actually no question. It will be worse Their model is getting uh Is is unreliable in this case And the other point is just to remind you as you know the site has been identified was identified By the independent contractor as a keystone site for protection of water quality in lrb creek which The city is spending money to clean up That means that this is an unusually important piece of property Uh for water quality issues and i would just offer uh suggest to you that it does make sense in this case That given the importance and unusual nature of this particular property that particular care and consideration should be taken in the development and and and um It's a higher than average quality property more than average diligence should be required. Thank you very much Hello, my name is emily shiefer and I live at 46 10 barini drive um I recognize that the city council needs to balance many competing priorities I hope the fact that the planning commissions voted unanimous unanimously against this Project speaks loudly and clearly about its Quality and about its value to the community Planning documents and zoning help us envision and create the kind of community that we want We need more housing as more people are moving to this area But we want housing that adds value to the community and not reduces it We can do better and we should thank you That concludes the opponents uh how much time do we have proponents have Mayor bell members of city council again patrick biker and morning star law group I would like to address the noise issue that was brought up by Residents here tonight We did discuss this issue on november 17 and i want to highlight that the entity with the most to gain and lose In relationship to noise is poulti poulti's real-world experience allows us to be confident that with the appropriate design The appropriate landscape architecture and the appropriate building materials Pulti can build and sell townhouses and homes on this site as is shown on our development plan It does not support me because of my experience with the auburn neighborhood That is adjacent to a rezoning site I worked on along with mr. Zoom wall back in 2008 along meridian parkway and south Durham On october 6 2008 the city council unanimously Approved the rezoning to allow apartments and townhouses between i-40 and the single family neighborhood called auburn A representative from auburn came to the council public hearing and spoke in support of that rezoning A few years later this site along meridian parkway next to i-40 was developed with about 275 apartments and there's ongoing construction for about for 138 townhouses as you can see on this slide Please keep in mind that this section of interstate 40 has well over double The number of vehicles per day then does the section of i-85 adjacent to poulti's proposal What I find compelling is that after this land along i-40 was developed so that there were apartments and townhouses instead of woods The property values in auburn went up Including the three or four including the four or five homes closest to the new townhouses And drive down there today and see this for themselves. Is there noise from i-40? Yes, there is But people are certainly aware of that and they are buying these townhouses for over 180 thousand dollars Or they are paying between one thousand and two thousand dollars per month to live in these apartments Noise is an issue, but this real world example from south Durham demonstrates It is an issue that can be managed and the market will accept it I would now like to turn it over to our traffic engineer lyla overcash. Thank you Thank you patrick. Again, my name is lyla overcash Managing director at vhb in raleigh a couple points on the traffic Should be noted that the current capacity of Burrini drive is at ten thousand seven hundred based on the information from the city It's it's currently standing about 15 percent traffic. It's about 1500 cars per day on burrini drive with rs2 zoning It would go to 30 percent. It's it's a doubling not a tripling with the current zoning as is With the development as proposed it would just add another five percent So it would be 35 percent which is well under capacity and if you've ridden out there you can tell there's not a whole lot of traffic Um During the development of the project we evaluate three other accesses to the development one to the south via shockery We've looked at the access to the east Brookchase and sony brook and then also we looked at the right of way next to grace church of Durham To the east of the site The right of way to grace church of Durham is probably one of the worst driveways as far as sight distance along that stretch of Coldmill it's on the inside of a horizontal curve and it also has vertical sight distance problems So I definitely would not recommend that based on safety connecting to that one We looked at shockery drive. There's currently it's been talked about a lot of the bridge that goes over the lake there It's a one lane bridge with weight restrictions on it that roadway It's probably one step above of being a dirt road and we definitely wouldn't recommend loading that traffic onto that route And then we evaluated the connection to brook chase stony brook That neighborhood is designed for the neighborhood's traffic Folks park on the street in that neighborhood because some of the driveways are fairly short So again, and it has some unique traffic circles in that neighborhood They're not totally common So again, I would not recommend connecting to a end of a cul-de-sac and going into that neighborhood as well And any connection to these other neighborhoods would virtually eliminate the need for any type of future traffic signal at the end of brining cold mill Thank you Our next speaker is our stormwater engineer mr. Josh Allen from McAdams The evening mayor bill uh the council. My name is Josh Allen The stormwater engineer for this project. I work at McAdams and I'm a lifetime president of the state of Durham I'll be very brief. I just wanted to simply say that The stormwater analysis the preliminary stormwater analysis that was conducted for this project Was based off standard practices for stormwater design that are accepted in the city of Durham and they indicate that the text movements that Pulty has offered are readily achievable and they do exceed both the city of Durham standards and the L. R. B. Creek watershed improvement plan Good evening. Mr. Mayor members of the council vandy king with pulty. I appreciate you hearing us tonight I will be brief Just a couple points that we've heard tonight over the life of the project We have tried to work and hear the concerns of our neighbors and of you and staff to make this a better project When we were before the planning commission we were asked About the concerns At lake swan and ola could we control a hundred year storm because of those concerns? We're also Told to be preferable to not have an offsite nutrient payment buy down those were Request that the planning commission we're here tonight having achieved both of those Relative to stormwater now. I hear different concerns. Could we do lid? Could we do something else? We've worked very hard to get where we're at to have a commercially viable project That we think fits this site that addresses the challenges of this site and We'd like to say that We're proud of of the efforts that we've made To work with These neighbors the things we've heard from them. We provide those here tonight and we believe that That we've done what we were asked to do on traffic I think mr. Overcash spoke to that but we have looked at other access points for this project I'm convinced that a traffic signal at berini and cold mill is a better Solution than to try to divert some traffic to another drive that we think would be unsafe And to make both of them less safe without providing a solution To bring the traffic to berini which our traffic engineers the city Ncdot all agree have has adequate capacity. I think is the best thing to do to bring that to a signal That is something we offer with this project I'm going to let Mr. Biker close but I thank you for your time. I thank you for the Consideration you all have given us and hope that you will be able to support our project. So thank you Mayor bell mayor pro tem colman fatten members of council I wish to urge the council to And that all of the events that are before you tonight are commitments that run with the land And so in order to protect lakes wananoa in order to protect downstream property owners in order to ensure that there will never be off-site mitigation for this 80 plus acre parcel that we all agree is very sensitive and very special We ask you to vote for this rezoning tonight. Otherwise, it will only be The minimum ordinance requirements that will be implemented By a future developer of this site in general Speaking about there are the residents that we've met with the people here tonight in opposition to this proposal Live in houses that were built In the 1970s in the 1980s I reference that time period because as the time frame referred to in the housing development toolkit Recently released by president obama's administration in september I find it compelling that only a few months With only a few months left in office our president has chosen to shine the spotlight on the issue of how cities can support new inclusive housing implementation I will be Exclusively from excerpts From the housing development toolkit published by the white house since it more eloquently Describes the problem and the solutions that I ever could quote We can work together to break down rules That stand in the way of building new housing and that keep families from moving to growing dynamic cities President obama remarks to the u.s. Conference of mayors January 21 2016 Over the past three decades local barriers to housing development have intensified particularly in high growth metropolitan areas Increasingly fueling the national economy Researchers examining proxy measures barriers to housing Increased rapidly from 1970 to 1990 and continue to increase through the present day For decades sunbelt cities with more permeable permeable boundaries have enjoyed outsized growth by allowing sprawl To meet their need for adequate housing supplies Space constrained cities can achieve similar gains. However by building up within fill Modern approaches to zoning can also reduce economic and racial segregation as recent research shows that strict land use regulations Drive income segregation Smart housing regulation would close the gap between proximity and affordability Most development today goes through a discretionary review process prior to approval such as public hearings or local legislative actions These processes predispose development decisions to become centers of controversy And can add significant cost to the overall development budget due to the delay and uncertainty they engender The trade-offs that developers make to account for these additional costs can result in lost affordability quality or quantity of units developed When new housing development is limited region wide and particularly precluded in neighborhoods with political capital to implement even stricter local barriers Any new development tends to be disproportionately concentrated in low-income communities of color Causing displacement and concerns of gentrification in those neighborhoods Raising market rents within neighborhoods experiencing rapid changes while failing to reduce housing cost growth region wide New market rate construction shifts predominantly and sometimes exclusively to larger and higher end units As a manifestation of supply because when there are Cost to building as is the case when land use policies are onerous Even developers that are not profit maximizing find it difficult to make profits from smaller or more affordable units While the housing market recovery has meant growing home values for existing homeowners Barriers to development concentrate those gains among existing homeowners pushing the cost of home ownership out of reach for too Many first-time buyers Significant barriers to new housing development can cause working families to be pushed out of the job markets with the best opportunities for them Or prevent them from moving to regions with higher paying jobs and stronger career tracks The long commutes that result from workers seeking out affordable housing far from job centers Place a drain on their families their physical and mental well-being and negatively impact the environment through increased gas emissions And the available availability of quality affordable housing is foundational for every family It determines which jobs they can access which schools their children can attend And how much time they can spend together I wish all those words had been my own but all of that language came from the housing development toolkit credit tonight to president Administration for issuing this outstanding report and taking on this important issue It is clear that what we are discussing tonight is a national problem The question then becomes is this rezoning part of the problem or part of the solution This proposal before you tonight creates more inclusivity and diversity than 40 year old r20 zoning We also contend that the benefits to our city Which are on the slide before you right now The benefits to our city of 250 000 people far outweigh the burdens For all these reasons we respectfully ask for your approval and our team will be happy to answer any questions they have Thank you for your time All right, that concludes the Presentations by our proponents and opponents Mattis back before the council now we just remind Everyone that we extended this to give the developers and the Residents an opportunity to have a discussion about what they could and could not support It's pretty obvious to me that That the development community has not convinced the residents To change their minds about their opposition to this proposal Uh, I think there are some positive aspects as to what's being proposed by the developers But I also understand that persons who feel they're going to be harmed the most on the residents But having said that, uh, we're going to have a discussion at the council and Make some final decision on this item this evening. So i'm going to recognize any persons that want to speak first Recognize councilman moffatt So um first thing I want to do is give stormwater staff an opportunity to respond to the statement that they misclassified soils um could and So would you agree with that statement that the staff misclassified soils? This is jennifer buzzen public works stormwater development review. Yes. Mr. Drepps is correct. Why is that? um The the developer and their consultant have gone by our published reference guide for development And in that reference guide, um, unfortunately that particular chapter is 10 years old hasn't been updated The soils have been some of the soils in derm county have been reclassified during that time They're using accepted, uh, published guidance from us But if you go to the soil survey Soil conservation service website, you can see the updated information, which is what mr. Drepps is saying The um proffers that the developer made regarding stormwater. Wait, I'm sorry, miss buzzen Not done yet. Sorry The proffers that the That the the poultry is made regarding stormwater is reduction of nitrogen phosphorus And stormwater leaving site Um, would those be based on 10 year old maps? Or would they be based on soil tests that would be done? Or how would they be based on what what, uh, what poultry is probably to meet the Standards on site with no off-site treatment Um, I guess we would have our group would have to discuss internally Whether I mean if we move to If our group decides to use the new soil classification, then the model needs to be redone That's going to be more difficult for them to meet that on site But it's just it's a flat standard and they're they're offering to meet that standard Right Okay, and um, have have you In in the time that you've been doing stormwater had has anyone proffered No, okay Anyone gotten close to it? Um, we have some Uh, okay proffering has typically come to my understanding during a rezoning There are projects that obviously don't go through rezoning because they are built to whatever the current zoning is There are some um, what I would call low density developments that because the density is very low They come very close to meeting the standards Sometimes if they're really low density, they meet them, right? Okay. Thank you Are you are you done? I am now. Thank you So, um, so I don't want to be coy. Um I'm gonna vote, uh to deny I will tell you that Um, I think there are times when it's important that I lead and sometimes when I can represent I will tell you that I I believe that the neighbors what what you want and what you're asking for are two different things But I will represent you tonight The impacts of this are A Significant for pulty. They're significant for your neighborhood, but they're not significant for the Ed just I understand the issues But not Cross the entire community. So tonight I will represent I want to say a few things now that I've got that out of the way I've spent more time on this than most cases that I've worked on over the last 10 over the 10 years I've been hearing cases Site visits meetings with neighbors meetings with paulty and of course, uh, responding to lots of email Um, regarding the planning commission recommendation I serve six years on the planning commission and I never expected That the governing body would simply rubber stamp whatever the planning commission recommended I did know that what I expected and and this is true for this body And I believe the board accounting commissioners as well. We were in its recommend And Things change from the time it leaves the planning commission to the time that that governing body votes Um, I've heard tonight that more than average diligence should be required and I heard also we can do better But I will tell you it is wishful thinking and the reason why it is is that like it or not We are constrained by state law. We cannot require more than the ordinance minimums for an rs 20 development Only if someone asks for rezoning with the that has a development plan are we able to Have proffered commitments which go beyond the ordinance minimums So Yes, it would be great if someone would come in and do low impact development But it's not required and it's extremely unlikely that somebody's going to do it because it is expensive and in the end It is just like all the businesses that all of you work for It is a business and I've heard these Uh concerns over the last several months the number of rooftops cars on kimble cars on barini access on the coal mill I heard tonight a wall for sound abatement. I've heard concerns about clear cutting masquerading storm water Runoff during construction and I think what that a no vote will mean Is rs 20? I I don't think anybody can do better than pulty and I and then my biggest regret Is that we won't be able to say to future developers pulty did it We want you to do it too because We're not going to require them to do it on storm water What I think the no vote means is For your rooftops, I think you're going to get that if you if in fact fails fewer cars on barini But more on kimble because there'll be no stoplight on barini I believe that rs 20 means more difficult access on the coal mill and longer wait times there I also believe that in every other area rs 20 is either the same as what they're proffering for example masquerading clear cutting in the lack of sound walls or It's worse no buffers no construction runoff no double treatment of retention of construction storm water during construction And most especially the storm water treatment itself So, um, so there you have it, uh, I am planning to vote uh on denial tonight And but those are my thoughts and I wanted to leave those with you Thank you, mr. Mayor. You're welcome any other comments by Remember the council recognize councilman reese Thank you, mr. Mayor I have been a member of the derm city council for 349 days Rough numbers The day I was sworn in was december 7th Um, and on december 11th four days later, uh, I traveled uh to this neighborhood I met with a number of you including in pierce Um, and uh, walked the property talked to you about your concerns About this proposed rezoning I have to say I have to say this is by far the issue that has consumed the more of my time than any other Since I was sworn in As a member of this council, I intend to vote against the rezoning this evening And one thing I wanted to mention at the outset is that mr. Biker I really do appreciate your quoting our president In his uh in his statement one of the things you pointed to Was the length of the process and the controversial nature of some of the proposals Of the workers I took That one way to avoid that Is to enter into an honest dialogue and partnership with neighbors before you go to the planning commission One of the problems that I see in this process and I'm still new here I'm still new here, but it seems to me that the difference between the proposal that the planning commission rejected And the one that you've represented here today Is unbelievable And if this is where we were going to end up You know, why not take a better stab at that way at the beginning and some of these folks would be wearing a different color today Here to support your proposal. That's just a just a surmise But I think that's the better way to reduce the length of the process and reduce the controversial nature of these proposals One other thing I wanted to mention just briefly that traffic video was taken at 7 40 a.m On November 10th. I think one of the reasons there weren't a lot of cars that many residents of Durham were still in a fetal position In their beds after the election results from November 8th. So just point that out You might have picked a different day to try them We had other videos idle thoughts idle thoughts as I saw that video I think to the merits of this particular proposal I share everyone on the council's concern About the growth the city is experiencing and our need To make sure that we have places for them to live as my colleague jillian johnson Said quite eloquently two weeks ago. You know, we have limited options in the scenario We can not build as many houses as we need in which case people will still move here and the price of housing will go up We can expand And in areas Which can which are considered sprawl and that's also not good the the options we have are not great And so I think that is a wind that is always at the city council's back when we consider these rezoning requests And that is as it should be many of us Have committed ourselves As one of the main goals we have in this in this endeavor Serving in the council is to make is to keep Durham a city where working families can afford to live and work and raise their kids So with that as a backdrop We still have to look at every proposal individually Not only the the factors that cause it to be something of an outlier in our development community We have to look at the experience That particular national developers have had in other parts of the country and developing these properties in a certain way The difficulties they've had meeting their commitments And I think when this particular proposal is viewed in total with that wind at our backs with looking at the the problems That I that neighbors have identified with this proposal I think on balance I think one of the things that I talked about in the campaign comes back to me when I think about this Which is that you know, there was a time in this city's life when we Really when we were not as attractive a place to live as we are today And during that time, I think we might have been much more inclined to Allow certain developers to do certain things in the city We might have been inclined to provide a different type of structure for financial incentives For example for our downtown development or economic economic relocation of businesses here I think that time has passed Durham is an exciting and vibrant community where where many many people live and many more people want to live And I think that means that developers are going to want to meet the high standards That this community expects for this type of development. I want to say Before I'm done. I really I'm impressed by the by the progress that was made in this proposal from the planning commission to when it arrived today I'm somewhat dismayed that that's what it took was a unanimous decline or negative recommendation from the planning commission to make that kind of progress and I think In the future. I hope that developers will use this as a lesson But not in the way. I think the developers would have wanted this to be a lesson in this case I appreciate the time and thank you Recognize the mayor pro tem. I'm going to be very short Not long ago My own neighborhood was confronted with the same kind of concerns That you have about a proposed development My neighbors were just as passionate As you are about This proposed development And because I listened To my neighbors. Well, they would have tricked me out of neighborhood too I because I listened to them That development just went away And so I have no choice but to listen to you Not because of the planning commission But because of your passion And you're wanting to make sure That you live in a neighborhood Where you can continue to thrive I don't believe that you would intentionally want to Exclude certain people from your neighborhood. That's not daryl. We don't have that in our spirit That's why we're surviving today And so I Patrick you have done a great job trying to Turn this situation around But mr. King I think you started off on the wrong foot And you landed on shaking Shaking ground So I have to vote against this proposal too And I hope that you will maintain the passion that you have for this Uh project the passion that you have for jarum So that we can do something to help save our young people. Is that a promise? Will you make that profit? And that was a profit Are there other comments? If not any motion or an item let first let me close the public hearing And public hearing is closed Matt is now back before the council for a decision and let me let me say this again My personal sense is that I guess I'm along the lines where where dawn was in terms of what's being offered by the development versus what the Possibility would be if it's r20 and I think personally that you're going to be hurt more by r20 than you are about its developer That's my personal feeling but also recognize the fact that I feel that you're going to be hurt And you've come and spent a lot of time and trying to defend your position Which I think you've done well And it's for that reason that I will be voting to deny this But I really I really feel that In terms of not only are you going to be hurt by another developer coming in In a long one the city is going to be hurt because ultimately if The runoff is not contained to the level that you're trying to get it to we're the one that's going to be paying price for it We've been the city we've been all of you because you you paid a cost for what we have to do But having said that I don't entertain a motion on items so we can move on Can we get some guidance from the city attorney about what happens here? Yes, I'll move I'll move the item with the intention of voting against it Is there a second to that? It's been properly moved in second. Madam clerk, will you open the vote? Will you close the vote? You voted for it My apologies. I pushed the wrong button. It was just instinct Fortunately, I made it clear in the beginning for just a minute The motion was made to support the proposal And if you want to support the proposal you vote for it if you don't want to support it you vote against They all did and like Jillian did like Charlie Reese did like Steve Shull did Okay They need to clear can you do it in the back? She needs to clear it in the back She can't do it in the back. She can't clear. Well in this case, we're going to vote her voice for Oh The motion's been made to support the proposal and who's seconded We're going to vote all those in favor of the proposal to indicate saying I Those opposed Nay Did you get that If I'm correct the only person voting for the the motion is councilmember davis So it fails by one to six Please please love us finish the meeting. Although I used to come before the council If not the council is adjourned at 10 21 p.m