 30 seconds. Yes. Meeting of the Durham City Council to order at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, January the 19th, and I certainly want to welcome everyone here today, my colleagues, our wonderful city staff and everyone who is here with us in the in the meeting are also watching or streaming it. And we're so so glad to have you with us tomorrow as everyone knows is inauguration day. And I'm very excited about that. And it'll be a very, very special day for our country. Please join me now in a moment of silence. Thank you. Council member Reese, would you please lead us in the pledge to the flag? Well, Mr. Mary, thank you, Mr. Mayor colleagues, city staff and all the folks watching at home. I'll now say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much, Council Member. Madam clerk, will you please call the roll? Mayor Schuylen here. Mayor Pro 10 Johnson here. And some member Caballero here. And some member Freelon here. And some member Freeman present and some member Middleton. I am here. Council Member Reese here. Thank you. Thank you, Madam clerk. We're now going to move to a very special item. Secretary Cohen, we are so glad to have you with us. We have many proclamations and resolutions and presentations at the Durham City Council. I'm very proud that we recognize people in lots of different ways, but only very rarely do we present the key to the city. And I am thrilled to be able to do that tonight to present you the key to the city of Durham. We present the key to those people who have represented Durham in some exceptional way on the national or world stage or to those people from outside our city who have rendered exceptional service to our city and its people. And you are one of those people. Dr Cohen, you have been such a remarkable champion of public health. You have kept us safe. You have followed the science and explained the science so articulately to all of us. You have been a calm voice in the storm, a voice of reason and good sense. You have warned us, sometimes scolded us and pushed us, informed us, educated us, led us and all in the service of keeping our state safe from the ravages of COVID-19. I can't tell you how many times I've heard these words from our Durham residents. Thank God for Mandy Cohen. I feel like we all need to be wearing rubber bracelets around saying what would Mandy do. I'm so glad to be able to make this presentation to you tonight. Unfortunately, because of the coronavirus, we are only able to present the key to you virtually tonight. We do have a real key to give you, but we are following your COVID safe instructions. That key is at City Hall and our staff only goes to City Hall for critically important needs. But I promise you that after we are back at City Hall, you will receive the key and the proclamation in beautiful physical form and I look forward to that. Tonight, we are welcoming another special guest to our City Council meeting, Governor Roy Cooper. We have all observed the superb partnership that you two have working to keep North Carolina safe and we are so grateful, Governor, that you are with us. You have been a terrific governor. You are a terrific governor and how fortunate we are that you were reelected to this post in November. Secretary Cohen, I'm now going to read the proclamation and then I'll ask Governor Cooper for his message and then we'd like you turn the floor over to you for a few words as well. So I'll first read the proclamation. Whereas Dr. Mandy Cohen was appointed to the role of Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in January 2017 by Governor Roy Cooper. Excuse me. And whereas since the sudden and virulent onset of COVID-19, Secretary Cohen has brilliantly led the response to the virus for the state of North Carolina, overseeing operations, including hospital search capacity, testing capacity, tracing capacity, PPE availability, in addition to construction, constructing the advanced data infrastructure necessary to drive decision making, as well as developing the policy guidance to inform state and local actions needed to slow the spread of the virus. And whereas throughout the pandemic in the absence of strong unified national leadership, North Carolina and the city of Durham have had to chart our own course to keep our residents safe. And whereas the daunting task of leading this pandemic response in North Carolina has fallen on the shoulders of Secretary Cohen, who has taken up this challenge with wisdom, courage, patience and perseverance. And whereas Secretary Cohen has made her decisions without regard to politics, but rather based on science and the dictates of her own conscience. And whereas Secretary Cohen has communicated these decisions and all public health guidance to the public with admirable clarity and calm that has educated our people and kept them safe. And whereas the actions of Secretary Cohen have saved the lives of thousands and thousands of North Carolinians, including many people in our beloved city of Durham. And whereas on rare occasions it happily falls to the mayor of the city of Durham to recognize someone who was a true friend of Durham, but who lives beyond our borders, someone who has rendered the most exceptional service to our city and his people with the presentation of the key to our city. Now, therefore, I, Stephen M. Schull, mayor of the city of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim January 19th, 2021, the Secretary Mandy Cohen Day in Durham and do hereby present the key to the city of Durham to Secretary Cohen in honor of her extraordinary service to our community. Witness my hand this 19th day of January 2021. So, Secretary Cohen, this is the way we clap. We are so proud to be able to do this. And now before turning the floor over to you, I'm going to ask Governor Cooper if he would say a few words. Governor, we're so glad to have you. Thanks for being here. Thank you, Mayor Schull and members of the Durham City Council. You also deserve credit for your strong local leadership during this COVID pandemic and we have enjoyed having the strong working relationship that we have with you. I've said many times that we have by far the most diverse cabinet in the history of North Carolina. But what it is said a lot, which I believe from the bottom of my heart, we have the most qualified and competent cabinet as a whole in the history of our state. And one of the reasons for that is Dr. Mandy Cohen. Not many good things happened in November of 2016. But one of those things, good things was that I got elected as governor with help from good people in the full city. And because of a president we have had to endure, there were a lot of amazingly qualified and talented people who were ready to leave Washington and to find something else to do in public service. And we got the good fortune of having Dr. Mandy Cohen with her wonderful husband and her two brilliant daughters to come to North Carolina. They are in public school now and dealing with remote learning. What a wonderful family they are that they have come to North Carolina and you have seen firsthand the amazing leadership that Mandy has shown. You see it on display every time she steps in front of the mic. But what you don't see are the 12 and 13 hour work days, the amazing capacity for hard work that she has and having hard conversations. It's been a privilege to work with her on a daily basis during this COVID crisis. But it's kind of overshadows incredible work that she has been doing in substance use disorder arena, mental health, making sure that we are paying attention to social determinants of health and making sure that we are covering as many people in North Carolina as we can with health insurance. She's leading probably the most difficult complex departments that we have in state government. And I'm grateful for her every day. And this is a this is a wonderful gesture for you to make Mayor Schuyl. And I'm sure that Mandy will be able to use this key. Maybe you need a combination lock with during COVID. I'm not sure. But in any event, I just wanted to come on tonight to congratulate Dr Cohen on this well deserved honor to thank you, Mayor and the Durham City Council, and realize that at the North Carolina State Capitol, every day is Secretary Mandy Cohen Day. Thanks very much for letting me join you tonight. Thank you so much, Governor. We're so glad that you came. Thank you so much for honoring us with your presence. We really appreciate your being here. Dr Cohen, we'd love for you to give us whatever message you would like. Well, good evening, everyone. First, thank you, Mayor Schuyl. What an honor this is. And you reading the proclamation. I immediately need to thank the governor, though, for those kind words, and also being the kind of leader that that is just so incredible to work for every day, who is just so consistent in his desire to follow the science and the data, and to protect the health and well being of North Carolinians at every turn. This has been a tough year piled on her multiple hurricanes, and we couldn't have asked for a better leader than Governor Cooper. And I am so grateful to be able to be on his team and work for him during this time for the people of North Carolina. So thank you, Governor. And it's very kind of you to share. I know what isn't a lot of time in the evening for this. So I'm very grateful. And then to the rest of the Durham City Council, thank you so much for this kind honor. It has I have to share it with my team. I you get to see me on on TV. But it is it is a huge, huge, huge team effort at the Department of Health and Human Services, Emergency Management, the governor and his whole team that is working constantly and have been for a year now, trying to keep North Carolina safe. And so I accept the key to the city on behalf of that whole team. You know, our family has a very special connection to Durham. Yes, we reside in Raleigh, but we often are playing in Durham. Oh, and here's my youngest daughter Evelyn to tell you about that. One of the first places we went as a family was the Durham Museum of Life and Science. And it's a place we go often, not as much during COVID, obviously, but it was a wonderful place. And I want to introduce my husband, Sam, who's sitting here with me because I couldn't have done any of this without his incredible, incredible love and support. This has been a hard year for every family across North Carolina. And our family is no different. As the governor mentioned, both of my my girls are in public school. And, and, you know, you see me at the Emergency Operations Center, which means I'm not at home and means my husband is and I'm so grateful for his love and support, but also just that the thought partner that he is an incredibly brilliant in his own right on these areas. So I'm so, so lucky. So besides the Durham Museum of Life and Science, I did have to mention that we love the Durham Bulls and I've been doing multiple games there, but also Deepak holds a place in our heart because my my daughter who is about to turn nine is when she saw Hamilton there and it has changed her life as many people's lives to see Hamilton there, but bringing the arts and music and culture and science and sports and a great deal of fun to our family. So thank you to the city of Durham. You know, I've been impressed with the work that the team has done in response to COVID and Mayor Schull particularly want to thank you for the back on the bull campaign. You were very much leading the way and how do we partner with the business community to make sure that we are not spreading COVID in our communities. I thought that was incredible leadership and incredibly insightful on how to build those partnerships to to all to protect us all. So that work, the testing work, the contact tracing and now into vaccine. So we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know it's going to take us a number of months to get there because there's just not enough vaccine for everyone. But I'm already proud of nearly half a million vaccines in arms here in North Carolina. We're going to keep trucking forward as fast as we can. So thank you again for this wonderful honor. I share it with a fantastic team that is both at the state but is also right in Durham itself. So thank you so much for this honor. And I look forward to using that key I think to unlock a few good parking spots at the Durham Bulls game. That's what I heard is is part of this. I'm pretty excited about it. So thank you for that and have a lovely lovely evening and thank you for all of your support. Thank you Secretary Cohen. We are so glad you are with us. We appreciate you being here tonight. We're so glad to be able to honor you. Governor, thank you for being here. Sam and family, thank you all for being with us. And we'll let you go and enjoy your families. And I see the governor's got his mask on. So he's setting a good example for all of us. Take care. All right, colleagues. That was fun. That's something you don't get to do a lot. I'm not sure when the last time a governor was at the Durham City Council, but it doesn't happen often and it was great to see him. All right. We have some other great ceremonial items and a couple of my colleagues are going to help me with those items. And the first one is celebrating and honoring the life and service of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Proclamation. And Council Member Caballero is going to do the honors. And we're joined today by DeWoran Langley and see DeWoran is with us. Great. All right, Council Member Caballero. Good evening, everyone. Thank you. Whereas a champion of non-violence and justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. devoted his life to strengthening the content of American character, fought unrelentingly for the civil rights of all Americans, and taught us that courage displaces fear, love transforms hate, acceptance dissipates prejudice, and mutual regard cancels animity. And whereas in the face of hatred and violence, Dr. King preached a doctrine of non-violence and civil disobedience to combat segregation, discrimination, and racial injustice, and believed people have the moral capacity to care for other people. And whereas Dr. King was one of the leaders of the successful 381-day Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 to protest the arrest of Rosa Parks and the segregation of the bus system, and whereas Dr. King helped found and served as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 to coordinate and support non-violent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems, desegregating bus systems across the south. And whereas between 1960 to 1964, Dr. King made addresses in Durham at White Rock Baptist Church, the Durham business and professional chain, Hillside High School, the Southern Political Science Association at the Jack Tar Hotel, North Carolina College, now North Carolina Central University, and Duke University, urging to civil disobedience and non-violent protests to end racial segregation and discrimination. And whereas on August 28, 1963, Dr. King led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the largest rally of the Civil Rights Movement, during which from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and before a crowd of more than 200,000 people, he delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech in which he called for an end to racism and advocated for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. And whereas the March on Washington was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religious, sex or national origin, and prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations. And whereas Dr. King helped to organize the monumentally inspiring Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 to advocate for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to guarantee African American citizens the right to vote. And whereas Dr. King was supporting the garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee and planning the poor people's campaign to promote economic justice when he was assassinated in Memphis on April 4th, 1968. Now therefore, I, Stephen M. Shull, mayor of the city of Durham, North Carolina, do here by honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to improve the human condition of all people through access to quality education, affordable housing, equal opportunity, shared prosperity, quality healthcare, living wage employment, and safe labor conditions for all employees. I hereby all urge all residents to join in reflecting on Dr. King's life and fulfilling his dream. Witness my hand this day, the 19th day of January 2021, Stephen M. Shull. And I think that Dr., excuse me, Mr. Langley maybe you want to say some words? I don't know if we were doing that this evening. Yeah, okay. Okay, good evening members of the City Council. I bring you greetings on behalf of the Durham community, Martin Luther King Jr. steering committee and our chair, Dorothy Fillmore. We had our virtual annual religious service, thanks to the virtual justice project at North Carolina Central University School of Law, where we celebrated and honored the life and service of Dr. Martin Luther King. We also awarded our Keeper of the Dream Award, which is a recognition that we give each year to one individual and one organization. This year, those recipients were Marcella Thompson of the Muster Seed Project out of East Durham and the Durham Proud Program. Dr. King's last book, Where Do We Go From Here? Community of Chaos, analyze the state of American race relations and the movement after a decade of U.S. civil rights struggles. With the Selma and the Voting Rights Act, one phase of the development and the civil rights revolution came to an end, King believed the next phase in that movement would be bringing about better jobs, higher wages, decent housing and education equality for African Americans. We continue those fights now and as a community and as we continue to grapple with COVID and other racial and oppressive systems, we must be mindful of the work that we all must do and ensure that our efforts are measured by tangible outcomes to bring about the results to Dr. King, so urgently preached about, lived and did in his living. So thank you all so very much for this resolution honoring the life and service of Dr. Martin Luther King. Thank you very much, Mr. Langley. We appreciate you bringing us the resolution each year. We appreciate you being here today and thank you very much, Councilmember Caballero, for sharing the resolution with us, the proclamation with us. All right, thank you so much and now we'll move to our next ceremonial item. This is the National Day of Racial Healing Proclamation. This is part of a national movement and Councilmember Reese is going to do the honors and Deborah Giles, Ms. Giles, I know is with us, will be receiving the proclamation. Let's see if we can get Ms. Giles or oh yeah, there she is. Okay, great. Councilmember. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll read the proclamation and then we'll hear a few words from Ms. Giles, the director of the City of Durham's Own Equity Inclusion Department. Whereas we have all witnessed racial divisiveness rising in America's urban, rural, suburban and tribal communities today that threatens the very core of this great country's united front. And whereas just like those who came before us, it is our duty to protect the children of this country and maintain communities in which they may all be given the opportunity to succeed. And whereas we understand and recognize that there is a racial divide in our country and we must all work earnestly to heal the wounds created by racial, ethnic and religious bias and build an equitable and just society so that all children can thrive. And whereas children have the right to be provided to every opportunity to learn, grow and thrive in nurturing environments that don't violate their safety, dignity and humanity. And whereas every single person has the capability to make a simple change within themselves that can have a profound effect on an entire society. And whereas if we all dedicate ourselves to the principles of truth, racial healing and transformation, we can all bring about the necessary changes in thinking and behavior that will propel this great country forward as a unified force where racial biases will become a thing of the past. And whereas racial healing is a vital and crucial commitment to the education, social, mental and overall well-being of all of our children. Now therefore I, Stephen M. Schuhl, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim January 19th, 2021 as National Day of Racial Healing in Durham and do hereby urge all residents to promote racial healing and transformation and the ways that are best suited to them individually as a means to working together to ensure the best quality of life for every child. Witness my hand this the 19th day of January 2021. Thank you very much Council Member. Ms. Giles, we would love to hear a few words from you. So thank you so much to the Mayor and the members of City Council and all who might be present on this meeting. The equity and inclusion department is very pleased to accept this proclamation which is the first of Durham's observation of a National Day of Racial Healing. These commemorations have been going on a long time and were started in 2017 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to facilitate bringing people together to find ways in which to make this a more equitable world. It's also significant that the celebration is always held on the day after the celebration of Martin Luther King Junior's Day. I just attended a conversation being conducted by the Neighborhood Improvement Services Community Engagement Team and I can assure you there were about 50 people on that call and the conversation was difficult but the beauty was that it was a very diverse group who were willing to keep pressing forward to share what is going on in the City of Durham and how they would like to see things changed so that for that we can be uplifted. I would also reminded that the goal of healing is not just to cover up and paper over the issues of trauma created by racism in the community and present things as normal. It is a time to acknowledge that the problem continues to have a painful existence but with wisdom, understanding, desire, and courage there can be change and so my closing I want to thank the members of this City Council for having the courage to raise and elevate racial equity as a priority in the City of Durham. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Ms. Giles for those very eloquent words and thank you Councilmember Reese and Ms. Giles thank you for the work of your department every day. We know that a lot of the work that we need to need to do is headquartered right there and we're very very grateful for you. Thank you. All right colleagues we had some great ceremonial items tonight and now we're going to move on to our announcements by members of the Council and so are there announcements by Councilmembers Councilmember Reese? Thank you Mr. Mayor and good evening again colleagues it's great to be with you again for another one of our Monday night meetings virtual still because of the coronavirus and that's really what my first announcement is about I wanted to make sure that folks are aware that the Durham County Department of Public Health began vaccinations for groups both groups one and two at Southern High School today here in Durham group one of course is health care workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities group two is anyone 65 years of age and older and so the the vaccinations at Southern High are by appointment only so you have to call ahead to make an appointment you can't just show up and the number you want to call is 919-560-4357 that's 919-560-4357 as the health department has told us call volume has been extraordinarily high since they opened up this line last week you may get a busy signal you may get an error message please keep trying it's really important that as many people get vaccinated as quickly as possible that's why they opened up the vaccination site down at Southern High School there may be some other large sites like that opening up in the weeks ahead but it's really important that as many people who can get vaccinated do that and so call that number 919-560-4357 make an appointment to get vaccinated if you're in those two groups that's my first announcement my second announcement Mr. Mayor is that later tonight we're going to be having a good conversation about the violence interrupter program and the extent to which the city is going to make a financial decision a commitment to that county program I just want to say how glad I am that I don't think there's any disagreement on this council about whether or not we should support it just the extent which we do and I just wanted to take a moment now because I don't think the conversation will it'll mostly focus on money and priorities to just say that when I think of this program I think a lot about that quote from Fred Rogers who talked about when he was a boy he would and saw scary things his mother would tell him look for the helpers you will always find people who are helping and and I think to me that's what the violence interrupter program does it increases the number of helpers that are in parts of our city that desperately need them and so I'm looking forward to supporting that looking forward to a good conversation that we're going to have about that as a as a council and lastly Mr. Mayor under the assumption that no one polls item number five and madam clerk before I go any further has anyone said from the public indicated that we're going to pull item number five on our agenda tonight not to my knowledge council member great well I think since it's on the consent agenda this is my first last and only time to just say a word or two about the new revised non-discrimination ordinance that will be passing tonight Mr. Mayor I know you and I and council member mayor pro tem then council member johnson were members of the Durham city council in March of 2016 when the previous governor of North Carolina signed house bill two two weeks later we passed in our next work session resolution condemning the passage of house bill two and asking the general assembly to repeal it as quickly as possible they didn't do that they passed a successor law house bill 142 that maintained the prohibition against local governments from expanding our ordinances that prevent a discrimination in employment and public accommodations and at that time the city council reaffirmed its support for protecting and advancing the constitutional rights and equitable treatment of all of its residents and it's opposition to discrimination in employment and public accommodations tonight Mr. Mayor we take the step that was prohibited under law until just last month we will be expanding North Durham's non-discrimination ordinance and it will prevent it will prohibit discrimination in ways that we were forbidden to before and that's really exciting I wanted to say first of all thank you to our staff a senior assistant city attorney for the first time regardless of one's religious affiliation or non-religious affiliation whether you're you're observing of any particular faith tradition it's so critically important for us sometimes to pause as a nation and to to to telegraph to people that they matter and that they're not just kind of living aimlessly not on anybody's radar and this evening the incoming president and vice president probably if America had a national parade ground that's it the national mall is our national parade ground right in the heart of all of that symbol of power that cold granite in those buildings they lit lights right in the heart of our democracy almost to say that that those who may never have the opportunity to occupy those seats of power or have offices in those buildings you matter this is what why all of this stuff is assembled each one of those lights represents why we're here why we do what we do so tonight I just want to just just just just register my solidarity alas finally with folk that have suffered so much during this pandemic and just rejoice that that our nation so graphically and so powerfully just pause to say that you matter and we see you and that we may be different races and and love differently and and have different amount amounts of money but but but but we all the same where we're all in the same page and we all are part of the national heartbeat and that's what I felt tonight um you know we are on the eve of an incredible day tomorrow I just want to say as a as a resident as a citizen of the country you know tomorrow for the first time the marine band will strike up ruffles and flourishes and then they will play hail columbia and for the first time in america's history they will be playing hail columbia and it won't be for a white male and and I just want to just trumpet how incredibly um um proud and how incredibly moved I am by that uh not anesthetized because I know we still have a lot of work to do but I just want to hold space uh for so many uh black women our daughters our sisters um who have uh so much of our power and some of our progress have been built um on their sacrifice and on their brilliance and struggle I would not be here tonight I mean I had a wonderful father and mother but my mother I would not be here tonight we're not for that black woman advocating for me so tomorrow I just want to just shout out for what's going to happen tomorrow to graduate of historically black colleges and universities who are just beside ourselves tonight um members of divine nine organizations we honored one tonight and dr king and uh uh to kamala harris's uh sorority sisters and and uh all around the country um to the black marching bands that will be in the streets tomorrow high stepping escorting her to the white house um for so many folk that have had their faces pressed against the window uh for so long uh wondering wondering if we belong um we will definitively say tomorrow uh and before tomorrow that you do belong but we know that there's work to be done so I just want to just hold that space tonight and just just share how filled uh I am tonight on so many fronts and then to to be able to cast a vote for this non-discrimination ordinance on this night of all nights uh before what happens tomorrow to say unequivocally and without ambiguity uh that in this city it truly is a city uh for all people I could not be more honored um for history and circumstance to converge at this moment to be in this position to be able to cast the vote uh for this ordinance tonight I also want to say that um we owe it to all of the groups to all of the groups that have been historically marginalized that are rejoicing at this ordinance I think councillor re-spoke eloquently to this to our last meeting this test can't be an ordinance without teeth we've got to be prepared to to enforce and we've got to be prepared to do the work when folk feel that they've been agreed in the light of this ordinance so I I want to um just rejoice and just celebrate uh tonight and I look forward to casting the vote on that ordinance uh and finally I do also want to say uh Mr. Mayor and and Pierce will will coast on in this week we've been having meetings about our guaranteed income initiative um having some wonderful meetings I want to shout out uh uh my brother Pierce who's just been doing a great uh a job and and uh corralling disparate folk and voices in our community and bringing them to the table um and getting this work done and and I guess a week or so in a couple of weeks we're going to be bringing forth a resolution uh in support of uh guaranteed income initiative here in Durham which is one of the check marks uh that we need to to do in order to get that money uh and put somebody else's money where our mouths are here in Durham so um thank you colleagues uh thank you for for just uh being who you are and for allowing uh me to be on this journey gets bumpy sometimes but we're all in the same bus on the same boat same ship whatever you want to call it and and I look forward to sunrise tomorrow um and for all the days that come after sunrise tomorrow so God bless our country God bless Durham thank you Mr. Mayor thank you very much council member council member Caballero thank you uh thank you mayor and good evening everyone I want to thank and associate my colleagues for all of their amazing words this evening uh it has been uh a lovely evening so far and um you know tonight our meeting is sandwiched between the holiday honoring and celebrating Dr King and tomorrow's historic presidential inauguration and as a nation we're still working on and often seems moving backwards on our quest for justice and equality something we all know Dr King and so many others fought from year four and we will continue that work because although we're battling the twin tragedies of COVID that's taken 400 thousand lives in this country and refusal of many including our sitting president to fully commit to the peaceful transfer transfer of power we are making history in the bull city of the city when we pass a revised non-discrimination ordinance and I want to thank our staff especially our city attorney's office equality and see the metro mayors coalition for all their work to get us to this point I also want to acknowledge the towns of car borough hills borough and chapel hill for all passing their revised non-discrimination ordinance this last week and while this ordinance ensures protections from protection from discrimination for many groups I want to lift up our lgbt community lgbtq community because this is a day many many folks were hoping and working towards and we have a long way to go to really honor and respect everyone's full humanity but this non-discrimination ordinance is one really small important step and I know I dream of a different future and I know my kids definitely believe in and want a world that accepts and cherishes everyone regardless of who they love or their gender identity and I also just want to finally tell to all the queer kids out there that I hope you know that we love you and we are fighting for you thank you so much council member council member freelon yes i'll be very brief um i've been so moved by everything that everyone's been saying and uh when brother middleton when you're speaking it made me think about the king quote about bending the moral arc of the universe towards justice and all the things you mentioned um you know from non-discord everyone you know mentioned the non-discrimination ordinance you know mayors for guaranteed income you know what we're walking into tomorrow with the inauguration with vice president harris it's um we're bending it y'all we're bending we're participating in Durham and as a country in the bending of the moral arc of the universe towards justice and you know particularly I want to say about the guaranteed income uh you know king has been was talking about that in the 60s so uh you know so close to his birthday to be working on this with council member middleton to be working with community on this uh and then today to hear what what everyone has been saying about the ordinances and uh it's just really uh making me feel like king spirit is with us here today uh this evening and i'm really grateful for that so thank you colleagues for speaking so passionately and from my heart it's just uh it has been a wonderful meeting i agree council member caviero and um yeah so thanks that's all just wanted to share that thank you council member council member freeman i know you have a few words because you need to have a few words tonight i i so appreciate my colleagues and it is always in these moments uh i mean there's just so much that wells up and i want to be as very as brief as possible in noting that i i think that everyone hit all the major notes that i would have hit in acknowledging just how important this night is and just what we face and moving forward tomorrow um i think i want to i just want to add a few things and just noting that when we celebrate dr king often we don't we don't mention those unsaid names of women who supported him through that movement and i just want to make sure that hold space for those women and then i also want to just note that it's it's important that that in this night where we're honoring our dr mandy come in and our governor roi cooper is visiting with us that we acknowledge that our general legislator is taking a stance of they're not going to they're not going to respond to our anti-discrimination ordinance and acknowledgement that all and i want to make sure that i read it correctly because it was a quote from the general legislative leadership stating that above all we are committed to a system of government that represents justice for all north carolinians and just noting how far we've come in this last year and for our general legislative leadership to be in a position to say that and said to to just i mean just in all of this i think pierce said it i'm sorry councilmember freeland freeland said it when he said you know the spirit of martin luther king and so many countless ancestors who have who have poured into the civil rights work um not just black white jewish you know all across across the faith spectrum all across the race spectrum i think it's important to note that we are in a very curious moment and i look forward to what's next and i am ready for what's next and i appreciate everyone putting putting the work in to move us beyond just justice to liberation actually because we're getting to that role i mean i mean we're rolling down this street and and i'm just honored to be on the council with you all and to continue to move us forward thank you thank you so much councilmember wow okay um you guys crushed it tonight those are some fantastic fantastic words thank you so much colleagues uh yeah as councilmember freeman said it's a privilege to be here with you all to be a member of this group tonight thank you all right um i think now we're going to move to start moving into our business now that we've had our fun uh and uh we'll start with our priority items by our city manager madam manager welcome thank you uh good evening mr mayor madam mayor pro tem and members of the Durham city council i do have some priority items for you this evening agenda item number five non-discrimination ordinance attachments number one through three have been updated agenda item number ten purchase contract for six forty foot electric buses with gilling llc attachment number eight was added agenda item number 21 911 first responded calls for service evaluation update and initial report pursuant to council's request agenda additional information has been provided in attachments two through four and they are located under the priority items by the city manager city attorney and city clerk section of the agenda agenda item number 22 consolidated annexation 3016 page road townhomes the title and attachments number 1 18 and number 20 were updated agenda item number 23 unified development ordinance text amendment chapter 160d amendments title and attachment number three were updated agenda item number 24 zoning map change the forest at duke title and attachments number two through number four were updated and finally agenda item number 25 zoning map change corners at briar creek townhomes south that title was updated thank you that is all i have this evening thank you very much madam manager madam attorney any priority items tonight good evening mr mayor madam mayor pro tim members of city council good to see you all the city attorney's office has no priority items this evening thank you madam attorney madam clerk any priority items tonight good evening mr mayor madam mayor pro tem and council members the city clerk's office has no items i just wanted to say i'm really proud of you and i think the derms in excellent hands and i look forward to this year thank you very much madam clerk we appreciate that thank you we need people to be proud of us sometimes don't we guys all right thank you all right we'll now move to the consent agenda the consent agenda can be approved by a single vote of the council items may be pulled from the consent agenda by members of the public or members of the council and if pulled i will be voted on at the end of the meeting considered and voted on at the end of the meeting and the the consent agenda consists of items previously worked on by the council uh under consent agenda item one derm housing authority board of commissioners appointment item three human relations commission appointments item four in a local agreement with derm county regarding derm county christ response center in item five non-discrimination ordinance we can get some solid applause for that great item seven amendment to contract numbers one seven one one six with derm county for the provision of the housing opportunities for persons with aids hop-up housing assistance and related supportive services item eight amendment to contract number one seven three five one with the housing authority the city of derm for the provision of the housing opportunities for person with aids hop-up tenant-based rental assistance services sorry item nine interlocal agreement with derm county provide funding for minor repair and substantial rehabilitation programs i had heard earlier from miss stella adams that she wanted to discuss item nine but i don't see miss adams and i don't actually think this was the item that she meant i think that this was uh something different so i think we're okay item 10 purchase contract for six 40 foot electric buses with gilligan lc item 11 amendment number two to the Fayetteville road lift station enforcement upgrade professional injured surface contract item 12 eno river outfall phase two west award of construction contracted jf wilkerson contracting incorporated item 13 triangle land conservancy day watershed project protection project authorization to fund item 14 radio software upgrade agreement with motor all solutions ink item 15 amendment to interlocal agreement with the derm housing authority procures security cameras and lighting item 16 land lease with crown castle south llc 301 archdale drive item 17 not the amendment to assignment agreement for the derm athletic park operating agreement item 18 second amendment to training to work reentry grant for contract with ecord youth alternatives and doing businesses that could kids item 19 contract with recovery innovations for a licensed clinician colleagues you have heard the consent agenda and now i will accept the motion for its approval moved by councilmember reese second about councilmember caballero madame clerk will you please call the roll mayor shul aye mayor pro tem johnson aye councilmember caballero aye councilmember freelon aye councilmember freeman aye councilmember middleton i vote aye councilmember reese aye thank you thank you very much madame clerk the eyes have it and the motion passes unanimously colleagues we're now moving to our general business agenda we have one item on the general business agenda before we get to our public hearings and that is the expansion of bull city united we heard a presentation on this and had a very good discussion of it at the at the work session and so i will either accept a motion or we can just be happy also to just hear people's opinions if we could go either way so you want to want to start us off councilmember freelon um okay thank you mr mayor um i had a chat what we had a chat earlier today uh about this um you know mayor shul colleagues you'll recall voiced some concerns at the work session about um you know the dire budgetary situation that we're in and came up with a really interesting suggestion is now an appropriate time to bring that up mayor shul okay cool yes absolutely thank you okay cool yes so um you know when we left uh and for members of the public uh who may not have caught the work session everyone's really enthusiastic about supporting the um expansion of bull city united a little context this is a county program that the city is jumping in to support because we want it to grow we want it to expand and reach more neighborhoods and census tracks so there's pretty you know there's united solidarity and agreement about that what was really at issue was to what extent do we expand do we expand to one sense additional census track or two uh and uh that that's where kind of the friction was in my conversation with uh mayor shul uh prior to today's call he suggested something that was not previously in the ethers or in my mind um on during our work session which is what if we ask the county to go uh halfsies with us on this as it is a county program and it made me think back to uh a conversation um that before i joined council about the hope centers where you know education is under the purview of county and you know there seem to be a sense in my observing that conversation that we really want the county to step up for their programs and pay their share and this would be a scenario where you know if we did the larger of the two expansions the city would be coming at a million against about 500 000 from the county what would it look like to approach them and ask us to go in for 750 for example to match their 750 uh and kind of split that last census track which i thought was an interesting uh proposal a creative solution which uh address some of mayor shul's concern uh about the belt tightening that is necessary because of the dire covid situation we're in uh in conjunction with uh my desire to reach as many people as possible um my concerns are that that could potentially slow the process and you know waiting on the county to decide whether they'd be up for dropping another 250 k of their own money that that just i'm not sure what that process would look like but uh when the mayor suggested it i was certainly intrigued um you know at the prospect of of achieving both goals of reaching as many uh of the census tracks as uh the city deemed you know feasible within our current budget reality but then but then bringing down some of the overhead by um asking the county to meet us halfway um so that was intriguing to me and it was just before our call i hadn't thought about that before and and that's something that i'd be open to and wanted just to hear from my colleagues what you thought about it um you know if anyone else had spoken to the mayor shul about that i just wanted to check folks temperature on that because you know as of our last work session that was in the suggestion that was on the table so thank you very much council member and great summary all right colleagues other comments or thoughts mayor pro tem thank you mr mayor and thank you council member fieland for that um idea i i in theory i really like it i think it would be great for the county um to jump in and and help support the expansion of this program with us um based on recent experiences with getting the county on board with things i worry i share your concern about the timeline um i think that it will take a while to um to negotiate that kind of agreement and it's already taken us i think a pretty long time to get here to this point where we can where we're ready to move significant resources um into the program so that's just my what that's my one concern is that i like i i i worry about taking even more time um to to move this forward one thing that i had um been thinking about and talked a little bit about with our city attorney was a phased rollout so that if we were to if we were to vote to expand both city united to the four census tracks that um were laid out by the city and county representatives um but that they felt that it was it was too much to you know spin all of those up at once which i expect it would be really hard to you know hire all those folks and train them and get them working in all those census tracks at once that they would that they would face the rollout and so it's quite likely that the funding um that we wouldn't need to put all the funding on the table right now that we and some of it would come in this fiscal year and some of it would come in the next fiscal year um so that would mitigate against some of the concerns about um about the funding i really feel like i really feel ready to go like i i want to support this program i feel like it's um it's an important step forward for our community we don't often get the opportunity to really support strong um like evidence-based alternative community safety programs like this and i just really want to go big with it um i think that we we have a real opportunity to try something new and i don't want us to waste that um and and this is like number one priority for me like i understand we have a budget crisis and co-vid is you know causing some real um some real turmoil in the budget process but if we're going to do anything new this year like this would be where my vote is is to do this thing if we didn't do anything else i would vote for this um so i i still feel supportive of moving forward with all four census tracks um and hope that we could have conversations with the county to expand the program even more i mean i'm sure that there are other communities in the city that could benefit from this intervention these are just the top four that they you know brought to us for consideration but i would love to have to see the united teams you know working in every neighborhood all over the city there's a there's a lot of opportunity for this kind of mediation and and conflict resolution um so that's where i'm at thanks thank you very much mayor pro town colleagues other other colleagues councilmember freeman thank you mr mayor i um i appreciate um council member freelon and maya putton's comments beforehand and noting i just wanted to just take a step back and just note that this is a program and i do agree that it would be nice to be working at all four census tracks because i do not feel comfortable picking just one or two but i do want to note that the cure violence model is something that i that i find hard to kind of parse away from all the things that need to happen and so i feel a lot more uncomfortable spending a million on this one model and not wrapping it with other i guess parts and pieces around um similar to the we are the ones or other um items that folks in the community have suggested and so i'm concerned that the cure violence model is going to take over the whole gun violence conversation and in a single like a single bullet kind of format as opposed to just a multi-layered multi-tier kind of complexed or kind of focusing on how we got to the problem of needing to cure this violence with or gun violence acknowledging first and forehand that white violence is at play in this and so i i have a lot of uh parsed views in this conversation that though that i know most most folks on the call aren't um and the same and the same thing with but i do think that it's important to note that this cure violence model still leaves the the county as the kind of manager over this program and that is uncomfortable acknowledging that this should be something more on the community side and based in the community in a way that's kind of equitable so to speak and that they have access to to the transparent you know ability to make changes or what's happening or how it's happening and they're actually making decisions as a part of it and so i i've got a lot of concerns but like i i spoke with the mayor earlier and i explained i don't think we're having that conversation and so i'm open to wherever it falls thank you councilmember anyone else councilmember middleton thank you mr mayor and i want to thank my colleagues for uh their weighing in on this um this may or may not come as this may come as a surprise to some people watching but there there is not one um colleague to a person on this council where at some point that during my tenure on this council i came in thinking i was one place on something but after listening to them i was another place um to a person uh um you know issues where i thought i was going to vote one way vote on another so i want to acknowledge um how seriously i take um debate and how seriously i take the ruminations of of of my colleagues they're not just idle chatter to me i listen very intently um because you know you need to be humble sometimes he does not write um so so with that said i mayor mayor shul you you're um and yeah he's he spoke with me as well uh council for you probably he when he says he's going to call us he calls us um uh all you up you i'll call all you poor guys yeah he does he does um so the the the arguments about the the the sticker price and and the phased in um all i'm the fiduciary for the city that i always take that very seriously but the other the other the issue for me in this is just you know for the people that i feel accountable to in the city and the people that i talk to is just a consistency with you know with with um i'm talking about me for what i say and what i do um and some of the things i've already entered into public record during this debate um nine hundred thousand dollars you know is it the the the the least i the less i support something the bigger the price is to to me but if you support it then the price is you know is is uh palatable um for me i i don't know how i would moving forward if whatever we spend on this expansion which will to date be the only uh the first substantive step will will take to combat gun violence aside from traditional policing responses with all of us this is about everybody agrees we need to start looking at the responses and traditional policing responses for our first foray into something i think uh i think the mayor pertin said i want to go big uh with it i think it's important that we convey uh to the people of the city that we we get it and we take this issue seriously um it's going to be hard for me to to not choose to force census tracts and then engage honestly with you as my colleagues when we get into the rest of the budget issues if there are things that we're spending more money than this one because for me this is the most important thing we're facing right now this and kovat gun violence and kovat are the two most that they are they are clear and present dangers they are an imminent threat to the well-being and life of our citizenry and our residents and there's no more sacred responsibility of a government than to protect the lives of its people everything else is contended upon you can't participate in anything on it if you're not alive so i for me you know whatever we we set the bar at for this particular initiative that for me is going to represent a a a tension point as i engage with with with you know in debate about whatever else we spend money on in next year's budget um you know i i i favor asking the county for partnership but if we vote for four centers tracks that doesn't preclude still having those conversations um and because the money you know we and we can we can uh adjust money going out the door accordingly i know when we um set money aside for the hope centers with with the uh folks that were doing uh partnering with dps you know we knew that if all of the seats didn't get filled all the money wasn't going to get spent so i'm i'm confident that we can send um a powerful message to people in the city tonight by choosing the force in this tracks tell them that we take it seriously and still have enough time and wherewithal to to to soften the financial blow of the money going out the door i think we can do both the other thing is you know and and i don't mean it's tongue-in-cheek but you know we we we're doing the wellness and safety task force with in conjunction with the county and we offered a million is the county going to do 500 000 of that did we ask the county to split that cost for them to do 500 000 or did we ask them to add a million to that and that's in partnership with the county uh is dps going to give a million or 300 000 um so we were more than prepared to kind of you know come up off that cool million where it hasn't met yet and we're still facing gun violence somebody may get shot tonight as the numbers are this gunfire is going to go off somewhere in the city tonight whether anybody's hit or not um that task force hasn't met yet but we've got a million dollars identified for it just on us in in conjunction with the county so you know you know i i although i may not seem it uh seem it at time one of the questions i always ask myself is can i explain this to people that does it make sense and when constituents stop me or call me or email me you know when i vote on something first question i ask can i explain it and do i believe it when i'm saying it when it's coming out my mouth um and and i cannot really you know given all that's going on in the city and where we are not ask for four census tracks you know uh or take the option of 300 000 and then spend anything north of that on other initiatives which are important and which are vital and which trumpet our values but i just do not think are as important at this moment uh than this than saving the lives of our babies and and and and you know sending a clear signal that we get it and we take it seriously you know we said we said no to a number of things alas this is something we can say yes to and i think we should say yes in a big way uh to to borrow the mayor pro tem's word so i'll be supporting the uh force and distracts you know and if you know we see some red flags you know slow the money going out the door down uh we can revisit the issue but i think the people of the city tonight need to hear that we get it we take it seriously and we're going for um the uh highest level of recommendation uh that the staff has brought us in the menu of options so that's where i am thank you mr. mayor thank you colleagues thank you council member other colleagues council member caballero thank you i was also one of the folks who had some concerns and reservations around doing the full four centric census tracks i also said that i was more than willing to go with the majority of council um i am intrigued by the idea of um you know asking the county to step up but i think the timeline is something i also have some reticence around um i think you know there are full disclosure on my part none of our council priorities were funded in last year's budget there were staff priorities that were funded but not council priorities and while this is definitely in my top three or four i am concerned that other council priorities will not get funded if we do pass the full four census tracks and there are things that i know i put forward as a council member that i find just as important that are in my mind um also deal with community violence also deal with violence that we see played out in dirham even though it's not gun violence it's still violence in the sense of an immigration system that rips rips families apart uh it creates trauma um and so i know that i am torn as a council member because i really am concerned about the budget restraints we will be facing we don't have a full picture um i'm also concerned because we are funding things while i'm i think of a huge advocate of this we had made a decision around a community safety wellness test force to help us think through solutions and between this and the we are the one fund i do have some reservations on are we going to have the resources for some of the things that that task force is also going to put forward so i just want to share all of my reservations i'm undecided i will continue to listen to my colleagues i think we're the conversation is going to continue here for a little bit um and that's where i'm at this evening thank you council member so colleagues um one thing we could do is make a motion and then keep talking and i'll accept a motion uh if that's your pleasure mr mayor i think that we fund the four uh census tracts all right can't move by council member middleton seconded by uh council member freeman that we fund all four of the census tracts okay uh other comments council member middleton council member freeman thank you mr mayor i want to thank um my counselor my my colleague counselor uh cabillero uh for a conversation and i think she really puts things in in context for us and really provides us an on ramp uh for a conversation you know we need to have an important conversation i really appreciate her for it um and i hear her i mean she and she's right you know none of the council um her is that funded uh last year um and we know that covet is still uh with us um and that's a reality and we've got a prioritized um i i want to say that with respect to this issue i um the for me the to to forego any action in anticipation of what the the wellness and safety task force might do to me tax with the same concern as waiting for the county to see what the county might do while you know the same urgency we bring to wanting to do something tonight on waiting for the counting which actually does exist and actually does have meetings you know relative to a task force that has not met yet has not we haven't it haven't even been fully staffed yet um you know as far as i'm concerned there is a wellness and safety task force at work right now in derm it's called a derm city council and and and you know there's there's some governance for uh prerogatives i think we need to be engaged in right now um i you know waiting on the and also you know friends i for me i just want let me just be forthright the wellness and safety task force was never conceived to address gun violence or violence in our city the its original iteration was part of a larger package uh that was presented to us when we were voting on adding additional police officers in service to a larger ideological movement to defund to do away with police so and that's what the task force in its original iteration was about um and then conversation about it dropped off and then zion person that that uh zion a young zion was shot and there was renewed conversation about violence in our city and the task force reemerged again talking about it but the the task force was never part of the violence that we're dealing with now it was it was about state sanctioned violence it was about the violence visited upon black and brown people by police and how we come up with new solution i just want to i just want to keep fidelity with with what actually happened historically not now if if it's more if its mission has evolved and we're going to add other things to it that's fine but i i want us to be i want to be full-throated and honest that that was never aimed at addressing what's going on in our streets right now and both tracks are necessary both conversations are necessary but i think we need to you know take uh some precautions against conflating all of those things as if the wellness task force was about violence it was not not this kind of violence anyway so um you know i i i just don't think that foregoing any action and counts coverer didn't say this i'm not significant either her word but but the any implication that you know wait and see what they're going to come up with to me is just unacceptable folks are getting shot right now uh uh um you know people are are getting um um uh rated and families are being torn apart right now i don't think that we should forego work on an immigration defense fund waiting for us to have a comprehensive immigration policy from the federal government you know well let's wait for them to come up with something before we move forward doing what we need to do at the municipal level no we do what we need to do at the municipal level we're Durham now what we can do and what if other people want to join a party whether it's the county the federal government or the task force so be it down the road i think there are some some imperatives right now and respectfully with all of our you know with all of the things that we work on as council members and all of our you know individual interest and passions for me and i will say this again that there is no more clear and present danger to any citizen or resident of the city of any stripe of any color of any race than gunfire going off in our city the way it is it is a clear and present danger it is imminent it affects all of populations all demographics of our city black brown white straight gay rich poor everybody is subject to this scourge that is upon our city um we have you know talked about it for a long time and i'll just lay this gauntlet down if this price out the gate is too much for this issue then everything's on it's on everything we do from now on you from a to z soup the nuts has to be brought under that same um um um telescope a same uh microscope and we can start tonight with maybe we should claw back some of that million for the wellness tax force that isn't even operating right now and maybe there's our million for that or maybe we should cut it in half make it 500 grand they have zero operating costs right now there are no ideas even in the pipeline but tonight somebody will probably get shot or at least gunfire will go off tonight somewhere in the city so you know i i i i um i associate myself with uh counts caviaros comes we're gonna have to make some hard decision but it's easy for me tonight to make this decision because gunfire is going off right now and and i think we're gonna have to to you know we can do multiple things at one time but you know i can't you know be a gas at the sticker price on this particular initiative for bulls to the united and then just spend a million like it's nothing on the wellness task force or two million on participatory budgeting or whatever or any and anything else like it's nothing and then i'm a gas that this no no our kids getting shot now and there's nothing more important i think that faces our city um respectfully so that's that's where i am on it uh thank you thank you councilmember councilmember freeman thank you i appreciate my colleague councilmember middleton uh covering that for us and i won't rehash that aspect of it but i will say that it's important to note that as as you pause on a million for you know violence intervention just note that this is just a piece just a small part of what needs to happen because as much as we talk about shared prosperity and as much as we talk about all the other root causes around this violence uh we've got a lot more work to do and it may not come in the form of council recommendations or council um you know council pushes forward and i think it's going to be important to acknowledge that in the same vein uh it's going to be just as important to make sure that the street the city and all of the operations are functioning fully this year and next year and going forward and so you know we have to have clean water the trash has to be picked up all of those things are going to be a huge factor this budget cycle but i think that it's worth i mean i think it's just what councilmember middleton said in that it's it's just that high a priority for me i can't speak for anyone else but it is just that high a priority for me and i would say that i would want to make sure that the county not only matched what we're doing and it doesn't necessarily have to be with this cure violence model there are other aspects of this that have to be covered but we should be holding each other accountable to make sure that there's there's support for the work that needs to happen in our community and i'll just leave it at that but thank you thank you councilmember other colleagues okay well i'll offer my comments at this point um the motion on the floor is that we support the all four funding for all four of the census tracks and let me just say that i'm going to vote against that and i'll tell you my reasons i have a lot of experience with both city united i have spent a lot of time with them and i believe that the uh cure violence model is a great model and i support the expansion into two census tracks i think that there are lots of several good reasons for that one is and and why why two is better than four in this case one is that this is the difference is between essentially three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and nine hundred fifty thousand dollars i don't have those figures exact but it's pretty close i'm often in situations we're all often situations where we vote for out of budget expenses things come to us and we do that this is a big one this is a giant jump and i'm uncomfortable with that given our budgetary situation i'll just say that straight out the other thing i think is this the if we do that you know thinking about the timing of this um as madam mayor protem says it's going to take a while to do this to set this up to make this happen and i feel it would be a very sensible action to fund to to see how they go with our staff involved in looking at how they go not just the county staff to make sure that there's fidelity to the model and that it works and that will give us plenty of time to decide at budget time whether or not we want to fund two more so that's my position my secondary position and i thought that council member freeline did a good job of describing it and i've described it all to all of you all on the phone um is that we say if if we're if we don't want to just go with two that we go with two and then we say to the county okay we'll we'll we'll fund a third if you all will fund a third as well so those are both i think superior alternatives to this and that's the way i'll be both all right other colleagues let me just say one other thing and that doesn't mean that i'm any any any uh you know and i recognize as we all did the scourge of gun gun violence syndrome the question is what is the best and most responsible way to spend our money to fight it okay uh other other comments if not we'll go ahead and we'll vote any more comments all right madam clerk there's a motion on the floor that we fund for um the four census tracts for the bull city united will you call the roll please mayor shul no mayor pro tem johnson aye councilmember caballero um councilmember freelon aye councilmember freeman aye councilmember middleton i vote aye councilmember reese aye thank you thank you madam clerk the eyes have it six to one all right uh we'll now move to our public hearing items um those items will begin with item 22 consolidated annexation 3016 page road townhomes and i see mr k hills with us tonight hey good evening mayor shul madam mayor pro tem johnson honorable council members i'm alexander cahill with the planning department and to echo the tone set at the beginning of this evening i am both humbled and proud to be here under your leadership tonight i do want to state for the record that all planning department hearing items have been advertised and noticed in accordance with state and local law and that affidavits of these notices are on file in the planning department request for an annexation utility extension agreement and zoning map change have been received from steven dorne of linor linor corporation for around 27 acres of land located around 3016 page road this site is presently zoned residential rural and is being proposed to be rezoned to plan development residential 7.200 the applicant is proposing developing up to 193 townhouse residential units on this site this proposal does expand upon the residential development pattern to the east and southwest of the of the site being proposed the zoning map change request has been reviewed by staff and it is determined to be consistent with unified development ordinance requirements summaries of these commitments in access of the udo requirements may be found on the development plan in attachment 8b in the agenda packet some of these commitments that include the construction of an exclusive north bound left turn lane with adequate storage and the dedication of an additional 25 feet of right away along the page road frontage the location of tree coverage areas side access points building and parking envelopes stream crossings and project boundary buffers are on the development plan and then the design commitments that include a variety of exterior building materials and architectural features that include projected bays vertically proportioned windows gabled end walls with accent siding and then at least 40 percent of the townhomes will offer a maximum one car garage stall and at least 40 percent of the townhouse units will offer a rear loaded garage option at the november 10th 2028 planning commission hearing the planning commission recommend approval of this request by a vote of 1320 staff does recommend that the city council approve the utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and consistency statement for this proposed zoning map change we recommend this approval based on several key findings which include the contiguous nature of this annexation the minimal impacts to city services the revenue positive result of the cost benefit analysis the construction of an exclusive north bound left turn lane to mitigate the traffic impacts the text and design commitments found in the development plan and the abundance of land that's already zoned industrial in Durham there are indeed three motions required for this application i believe the agenda packet might say two but we do need three motions the first is to adopt an ordinance axing 3016 page road townhomes into the city of Durham and to enter into a utility extension agreement with lennard carolinas the second is to adopt a consistency statement and the third is to adopt an ordinance taking property out of the residential rural district and establishing the same as plan development residential thank you very much staff and the applicant team are available for any questions thank you very much mr cahill did you mention the notifications for these items yes sir thank you all right colleagues you have heard the report from staff and i'm now to clear this public hearing open and i'm going to first ask if there are any questions for staff by members of the council council member freeman thank you mr mayor i was just trying triple check on he mentioned there were three motions and i noted in the memo there were two and i just wanted to make sure i had the most up to date one because i did just refresh and i didn't want to that's correct my apologies uh there'll be some changes coming you'll hear in the next public hearing item but for now we need three motions the first is for the utility extension agreement and annexation the second is for the consistency statement and the third is for the zoning ordinance thank you for that council member freeman i think the problem is that they left the consistency statement out of the motions on our on our uh that's that's what i figured thank you yeah that was all yeah thank you for that question i i appreciate you bringing that up i hadn't spotted that thank you and whenever you're ready i make the motion um why don't we we've got to hear from some people first and then we'll do that yeah uh some people have signed up to speak on it okay uh first of any other questions for staff by members of the council okay we have some people signed up to speak on this item uh they are charlie yokely nil gosh jeremy anderson and elizabeth doran uh mr gosh all these people are listed proponents are they members of your team yes they are are you believing the presentation tonight i am all right uh let me just ask is there anyone here present who would like else who would like to speak on item 22 who did not mention if so please raise your virtual hand all right seeing none then mr gosh uh our uh how is your presentation organized it's just me talking for probably about five minutes okay great we'll go ahead and do that uh and uh then we'll see if there's any uh anyone else that wants to be heard on this item go ahead mr gosh all right and uh first of all thank you mr cahill for your presentation and good evening mayor shul mayor pro tem johnson the members of the city council my name is nil gosh i'm going to turn it the morning star law group here in Durham at 112 west main street i am representing lanar which is the applicant for this project tonight charlie yokely and steven doran from lanar are with me tonight as well as Jeremy anderson from culter jewel town you already have heard the basics of the project it is about 193 homes on 27 acres while the community will consist solely of town homes three different product lines actually are contemplated the community will include a one car garage option a two car garage option and a rear alley loaded option and while it's hard to uh pinpoint because there's so much movement of material prices and other market factors i did want to mention that we believe will be able to bring this community online within the 255 to 300 000 range the design commitments included with this project help ensure that each home will have some outdoor space which is becoming increasingly important in the market we also have committed to having some spanner masonry on the front of thought of each home the development plan includes several road improvements associated with the project for example the community will require an exclusive north down left turn lane along page road so that traffic turning into the community can get out of the way of through traffic especially during peak out the project will also dedicate 25 feet of right of way along the page road frontage and we also committed to installing a five uh five foot cycling asphalt bike lane along the entire page road frontage of the property you may have noticed that the development plan shows multiple points of access however many of those will not link up to existing roads at this time instead those steps will provide connectivity for future development until the properties around the site develop the project will include only two points of access both of which will be along page road the northern most access will be right in right out all the other access point will provide that leftover movement at our neighborhood meeting traffic was a cheap concern and while our project concludes several improvements it actually was not large enough to warrant a full-blown traffic impact analysis the good news though is that there is a nearby project best best page which was large enough and is required to implement several road improvements in the area in fact since the neighborhood meeting the best-paid developers have installed a stoplight at the intersection of globe and page and those developers of best page also are responsible for and they already have installed i'm not actually sure uh but they're responsible for traffic signals at page and page road and at logistics and page road intersection as well as installing turn lanes on long logistics way so those road improvements will greatly improve the flow of traffic within this corridor uh finally i wanted to touch on the suitability of the site for townhome currently the property has an industrial future land use map designation while allowing residential development here would create an isolated industrial pocket on the future land use map the existing industrial designation is somewhat of a hole itself residential development exists northeast and west of the industrial designation so i would argue that the current industrial designation is not necessarily appropriate here in the first place and that residential development is more sensible i think the unanimous recommendation of approval from the planning commission to this case also suggests that they think the future land use map change is appropriate as well as the project itself and hopefully you all will agree we do have our team available to answer questions thank you very much for your time tonight and we look forward to your vote tonight i would like to reserve any remaining time to the extent there might be a need to rebut any uh additional speakers but thank you very much for your time thank you mr gush is there anyone else who would like to be heard on this item all right uh colleagues um i i do have a couple of questions uh mr cahill it's interesting that that the observation from staff was that there is an abundance of industrial land in Durham i'll just say this is a surprise to me uh for years we've heard at council that there is a shortage of developable industrial land in Durham do you have any thoughts to offer on that or maybe miss young sure i can uh jump in and then if miss young has anything to add she's more than welcome um so what we are referencing is a tool that's been adopted and developed that's the industrial land use study um that study has identified different areas in Durham throughout the city and county that are uh have a future land use designation of industrial um that study has different suitability scores from zero to 14 14 being the most suitable zero being the least suitable and the study well it's just a tool that we use as a reference um has identified that there's ample industrial land in each of those high suitability scores so 11 12 13 and 14 all have a lot of acreage that are slated for uh industrial um and could be changed and suited to something more appropriate for the context um i don't know if miss young wants to add anything to that miss young good evening mayor uh mayor pro 10 members of the council um mr cahill did a really good job of summarizing that um what we found um through the industrial land use study update that we just recently completed is that we um previously had uh grossly overestimated the amount of industrial that we would need and so there is a very very large amount on the future land use map presently um this site uh i think if i remember correctly from the staff report um it rated as an 11 um which is high but not super high uh but it is actually a relatively small size at only about 26 acres um so it really will not affect in terms of something we would recommend for instance against removing from the industrial land use um we definitely are comfortable with removing this thank you i appreciate that i'll just say that this is news to me i have been to many city council members meetings in the past where there was concerned on the part of the planning department uh and others on removing land from industrial use so um maybe you could make that study or a summary you know the executive summary of it or something available to us absolutely thank you um and then uh for the applicant mr gosh yes mr gosh you all are adding i believe 21 students to Durham public schools with this development have you all considered a proffer to Durham public schools as you know uh the majority of developers that uh uh who are adding students are are contributing $500 per student to Durham public schools have you all considered such a donation in fact we have and i'm glad you asked we would be pleased to make such a problem and have you considered a donation to the affordable the the Durham uh the city of Durham's affordable housing fund uh we have and and before i answer on that front let me confer with my client if it would be appropriate that other council members weigh in i'll just uh confer with them on the side thanks a lot mr gosh thank you colleagues are there any other uh questions or concerns that you all would like to raise uh either with staff or the applicant all right then we'll just wait until mr gosh comes back with after his consultation with this client yeah and and i appreciate that sorry for that uh brief pause there uh i think um my clients are pleased to all to make a commitment of $40,000 to the city of the affordable housing fund thank you mr gosh i appreciate that uh i'll ask the staff what form that they need to hear about those two proffers from uh from mr gosh can i hear from that about that mr k hill uh yes uh mr gosh we'll just we'll need a consent form signed as you are aware um and just to confirm uh $40,000 for the dedicated housing thank you madam clerk and the motion passes seven to zero thank you mr gosh and thank you to the applicant good luck to you i believe that we also will hear from you later tonight as well uh all right now we will go to item 23 the unified development ordinance text amendment ncgs chapter six 160d amendment thank you very much michael stock with the playing department and as before i will normally keep my um video off because of my lack of broadband power on my side of things and to be able to actually talk to you guys um so thank you for putting up with that um text amendment tc 20004 proposal provisions to various uh standards of the unified development ordinance or udo in order to comply with statutory revisions associated with new state enabling legislation ncgs chapter 160d this includes necessary corrections clarifications reorganization or other minor changes it also does include some other technical changes for clarity or to remove redundancies in short 160d combined city enabling statutes uh currently found in chapter 160a and county enabling statutes currently found in chapter 153a into one set of statutes most changes are technical in nature some others that are more policy related include uh requiring constructive notice when an official interpretation is provided by the director uh recordation of special use permits and requiring appeals of the sport preservation commission actions to go to superior court instead of the board of adjustment the playing commission recommended approval on november 10th 2020 as a reminder to actions uh are requested tonight first on the consistency statement found in attachment uh a and then action on the ordinance itself found in attachment b um i would also like to update you on one process change that isn't reflected in ordinance and this is a change to consistency statements itself um state statute now allows under 160d uh for the minutes of a hearing to be uh to be met um to meet the requirements of consistency and reasonable with statements for zoning and text amendments and after excuse me and after discussion and advice from the city and county attorney's offices uh planning staff will implement this method once this ordinance is effective most likely starting in february uh the city clerk has also been made aware of this procedure change which will actually also require staff reading statements specifying information provided in agenda items into the minutes so there will no no separate consistency statement documents therefore will be required and i think that um might bring a slight smile to council members um for one less action they have to worry about when deciding um a case um and thank you and i'll be happy to answer any questions thank you very much mr stock colleagues you've now heard the report from staff and i will declare this public hearing open um and let me just say that i for one will miss the consistency statements and in fact i like after meetings just read myself some consistency statements mr stock all right i don't see anyone signed up to speak on this item but let me ask is there anyone here that would like to speak on item 23 colleagues are there any questions for mr stock or any uh any comments for mr stock thank you mr stock thank you council member thank you all right uh and i see a thumb up or two although i know there's a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth of the disappearance of the consistency statements come february all right uh colleagues i i'm going to now declare this public hearing closed and the matters before the council and our first actual need to be to adopt the consistency statement see what i mean uh can i have a motion on that i moved that's not yet moved by council member re seconded by mayor pro tem johnson madam clerk please call the roll mere school i mere pro tem johnson i this member caballero i it's a member freelon i it's a member freeman i it's a member middleton i would i member reese i thank you thank you madam clerk the motion passes unanimously the second motion will be to adopt an ordinance amending the udo incorporating revisions to article one general article two review authority article three applications of permits article four zoning districts article five use regulations article eight environmental protection article 12 infrastructure of public improvements article 13 additional requirements for subdivisions article 15 enforcement article 17 definitions so moved back in moved by council member re seconded by council member freeman madam clerk please call the roll mere school i mere pro tem johnson i member caballero i it's a member freelon i it's a member freeman i member middleton i would i it's a member reese i thank you thank you madam clerk the motion passes unanimously thank you mr stock thank you all right colleagues excuse me we'll now move to our next public hearing item which is zoning map changes forest to do thank you and good evening again michael stock with the planning apart with the planning department case z two zero zero zero one two is a request to amend the development plan approved under p 88 dash 31 to allow for additional height the zoning approved for p 88 dash 31 will remain effective zoning for the site thus the request does not create a new zoning map change the forest at duke application involves 42.12 acre site located at 2701 picket road the dorm city council approved the zoning map change with a development plan for the site on july 25th 1988 the zoning is pdr district zero point zero zero zero yes i know it's kind of weird um the amendment modifies the allowed height based upon pdr district requirements specified in your report which allows for buildings up to 90 feet but must identify the buildings on the development plan if it if any are over 35 feet the applicant has specified that buildings used for congregate care facilities and associated uses within the forest at duke loop which is a specific driveway named driveway on the site to be a maximum of 78 feet as specified on attachment five of your agenda item and staff has determined that this satisfies the udia requirement planning commission recommended approval on november 10th 2020 again council requested to take two actions first on the statement of consistency and then on the ordinance for the zoning amendment thank you and the applicant is also available for questions thank you mr stock colleagues you've now heard your report from staff and i'm going to declare this public hearing open i'm going to first ask if there any questions for staff by members of the council council member reese thank you mr mayor i wanted to ask staff about commissioner miller's objection to this particular project uh it didn't seem substantive it seemed more um i guess with respect to how the project is described um commissioner miller seems to be of the opinion that the rules um contained um in our in our udo required that um any building over 35 feet shall be identified in the development plan submitted for approval and it's my understanding based on the narrative i just heard that we're allowing the applicant to say um that uh buildings on this particular road or portion of a road um might exceed um might exceed the 35 feet which doesn't seem to me to match up with the requirements in the udo so wondered if uh staff can help me understand that yes i'll i'll i'll address it and then uh miss young can jump in if she feels she needs to be we we did uh review uh that's that statue um that requirement and what was proposed by the applicant and um we felt that because they were specifying what the buildings were being used for um location on the site um of the those buildings which is within site a very specific identified loop um on the site and that they specified the actual height the maximum height that it did satisfy that ordinance requirement we actually the original application was much broader it was merely to go up to 90 feet basically uh almost anywhere on the site thank you mr stock anything else mr reese thank you councilmember all right councilmember freelon and then councilmember freeman yeah just wanted to just wanted to build on um councilmember reese's comment i read um commissioner miller miller's comment as well and the description that i just heard from staff uh kind of confirmed something that i felt when reading the comment which is that we're not approving anything outside of that very specific loop is that correct that is correct and that is identified very specifically on the attachment that that uh cover sheet that's identified as zero at z two zero zero one two um it's it's specified in wording and then also um on the map on that plan yeah it took a look at that and and i guess i was unclear if um if commissioner miller met okay well we know it's in the loop but we want to know what part of the loop you're going to go exactly like how specific did did he want y'all to go i mean i i felt comfortable um and it occurred to me perhaps that that he may not have even seen as updated a version of this is as he had um because it seemed pretty targeted and specific uh to me uh so you know for uh my colleague council member reese i took note of that and um you know especially hearing it affirmed by staff that they're talking about a very specific area um i was comfortable personally uh given that that they're talking about a very specific site uh in duke force so thank you uh staff folks for confirming that thank you council member council member freeman and similarly i was going to say the same thing but i just wanted to make it clear for like the lay person in this uh that at the street level i guess on the street frontage will you be able to see will the building envelope be at the street or will it be closer to the center because i'm not sure which loop i know there's a few but i can see the way the buildings are laid out um the loop is a specific um driveway loop with that's already been built out in the forest to duke and i believe the applicants are going to have a brief presentation that will help show it even more clearly than what would be great development plan yeah thank you thank you council member and thank you mr stock colleagues any questions for mr stock any more before we go to hear from the the people here here today to speak on this item all right uh then we'll we'll now hear from members of the public we we have three people who are signed up to speak as proponents katie hamilton drew lanksum and anita holt uh who will be leading that presentation for the proponents anita uh good miss holt thank you welcome uh are you speaking or the others speaking as well um i am speaking and i believe that katie uh may speak as well only because she will walk you through the design if you so desire okay thank you we will do this quickly in the interest of time um i miss miss holt hang on just one second uh this is a public hearing is there anyone else who would like to be heard on this item if so uh could you raise your virtual hand or put your name in the chat okay okay go ahead miss holt okay well thank you um i i'm sure that many of you know the forest of duke uh we've certainly been in the neighborhood uh for quite some time and uh but for those who don't we are continuing care retirement community and represented community of people over the age of 65 who've chosen to live in an active thriving community uh with the certainty of the care and services that they need currently and as they age one of the things that we've been most proud of over the years is that we have been able to provide outstanding service to a variety of older adults individualized care and responsive to the individual needs of people as they age we are also recognized as an innovator uh with our health center renovation in 2005 which matched architecture with a service concept that was much more residential even in our most clinical areas we have been an organization that has been uniquely positioned to meet the ongoing and emerging needs of older adults but in that 28 years we've also been active and engaged as members of the Durham community and an involved neighbor who has indeed invested in particular and i think that it's important for you to know that we have developed a social accountability presence that includes not only in-kind services but direct grants resident and staff volunteers and board leadership to other not-for-profits uh agencies and those that are serving people who are most at risk or in need in Durham as such the annual value of that for our organization has been that we have provided a value of up to a 1.5 million per year uh to the city of Durham and have done so for pretty much uh most of the past uh for all the years of our existence in some form or another in the past five years has been over the 1.5 million mark next slide please think one of the things that you should know as we are enclosed and landlocked on our property we currently have 249 independent living apartments cottages and single family homes we have 92 licensed beds that provide health center services for skilled nursing and assisted living and assisted care we serve a total of 401 residents what we are doing is building a new 90 bed health center and the community when we will demolish our existing um is if you are in health care doing an occupied renovation is an interesting challenge so we will build new and within the footprint of our campus add a community center expansion and then add additional independent living apartments um as again it's important and I know that Katie and Drew will walk you through it but it is within the footprint of our existing campus our campus slopes down so that as we indeed build we have um a certain recognition of maintaining the residential feel and not being obstructed force in our neighborhood um Drew and or Katie I don't know which of you would like to speak next um thanks Anita this is Katie Hamilton with Stuart I can speak next um you could actually just move on to slide seven of the eight that would be great just to keep us all clear um as has been mentioned by staff we will be allowing the building height to expand to 78 feet in height only internal to the existing forest and duke drive hopefully this graphic gives a little bit more um clarity on what that uh area entails and the rest of the forest and duke outside of the drive will be limited to that 35 feet in height that is allowed under current pdr restrictions um we will be maintaining the 50 foot buffers that are within the 1988 pdr zoning and the entry locations that are shown there and as Anita mentioned this site does have a topography that is particular to it in that um within that drive there is 24 feet of grade change and from the portion of the drive closest to picket road to the portion of the drive that is closest to 15501 so that's about two stories at the building um that would be sunken in another note is that the lar the building that is currently within this drive that does not that is not the cottages that are shown and is actually in excess of the 35 feet allowed under current ordinances obviously things have changed since the 1988 zoning was approved but this would allow us to bring these buildings into compliance um while also expanding the offerings that I need Anita previously mentioned and other than that we're here for any questions that you might have and we appreciate y'all taking the time to hear our proposal today thank you very much miss hamilton um let me just ask if you could take down the uh yeah thank you colleagues uh let me just ask again is there anyone else here tonight who would like to be heard on this item this is a public hearing item all right uh hearing none uh i'm going to ask if there are any questions for any more questions for staff or the applicant all right hearing none then i'm going to declare this public hearing closed and the bat the matter is back before the council uh there will be uh two motions necessary to adopt this item the first we do to be to adopt a consistency statement so move second moved by councilmember reese seconded by mayor pro tem johnson madame clerk please call the roll mayor schul aye mayor pro tem johnson aye councilmember caballero aye councilmember freelon aye councilmember freeman aye councilmember middleton aye councilmember reese aye thank you thank you madam clerk the eyes have it in the motion passes unanimously uh we'll now move to motion two to adopt in order to amend the udo by amending the development plan for the plan density residential 0.000 zoning district approved per case 988-p90 988-31 assembly is there a second second moved by councilmember reese seconded by mayor pro tem johnson madame clerk please call the roll mayor schul aye mayor pro tem johnson aye councilmember caballero aye councilmember freelon aye councilmember freeman aye councilmember middleton I vote aye councilmember reese aye thank you thank you very much madam clerk the motion passes unanimously miss holt miss hamilton thank you all for being with us tonight and good luck on your project and uh we hope it is a big success all right we'll now move to item 25 this is the last item on our agenda zoning map change corners of rock creek town themselves and we'll first hear our report from staff good evening mayor schul mayor pro tem johnson and honorable council members uh i'm dany culture of the planning department requests for utility extension agreement and zoning map change have been received from steven doran a lonar corporation LLC and jesse hardecy of macadam's company for an 18.94 acre portion of a 60.54 acre tract area located at 4228 corners parkway the site is presently zoned commercial general with the development plan cgd as part of a legacy development plan z12 00019 which currently allows for a total gross floor area of 390 000 square feet within the 60.54 acre tract the uh applicant is seeks to replace the portion of the 18.91 acre site area with a new development plan which would allow for 130 town homes and would be zoned with the same cgd's designation the utility extension agreement or UEA as a revision to the previous UEA is also included with this case and is being presented before city council for approval this revised UEA was required based on the change in use for the proposed development the area is designated commercial on the future land use plan map or flume which is consistent with a rezoning request staff determines this request is consistent with all comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances key tax commitments on the development plan include a maximum of 130 townhouse units constructing the site driveway as a full movement driveway constructing an exclusive eastbound left turn lane on corners parkway at the site driveway and restricting the northbound approach of the existing Harris teeter driveway as an exclusive left turn lane and shared through right turn lane the planning commission recommended approval by a vote of nine to one at their October 13th 2020 meeting there are three motions required for this application the first is to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with when our Carolina's LLC the second is to adopt a consistency statement and third is to adopt the zoning ordinance thank you very much and staff and applicants would be available for any questions thank you very much Mr. culture colleagues who have now heard the report from staff on declare this public hearing open and first I'm going to ask if there are any questions for staff by members of the council our council member Freeman thank you I just wanted to ask if anyone was going to speak to the open space area that is the recreational area around there just noting that that one vote of no I think was around that issue I just wanted to make sure that someone's going to clarify that is not contiguous to this property or something or another like council member Freeman we do have some people who are going to present on this item and maybe after we hear that presentation you can ask your question again if they don't answer it how does that sound that sounds great good thank you council member Freelon yeah just very briefly I wanted to acknowledge that it's 908 and that we usually give our closed captioners a break at after two hours now we're very close to the end so I think that they might prefer that we just plow through but I did want to just stop and acknowledge that yeah thank you for that reminder I had forgotten that I think we're going to plow through I don't think we have a long time but I really appreciate your please keep reminding me of that thank you that was very helpful and I hope our closed captioners will agree that we should just plow through but I think we will try to because I don't think this item will take a long time thank you though all right colleagues the we have the people who have signed up to speak on this item are Jesse Hardesty Nicholas Williamson and Ryan Akers all who are proponents is there anyone else here who would like to speak on this item I see Neil Gauch as well Mr Gauch are you speaking on this item also aren't you yes in fact I think I will be the primary speaker okay Mr Gauch how long do you think you'll need five minutes should probably be fine all right thank you Mr Gauch go ahead and good evening again Mayor Schultz you heard you heard Council Member Freeman's question I did indeed maybe you could address that as part of your presentation sure and and good evening everyone again I feel Neil Gauch should turn at the morning start law group and I still am representing Lenar who happens to be applicant for this project Steven and Charlie still are with us from Lenar but this time to find folks at McAdams are assisting us I believe we have Ryan Akers Jesse Hardesty and Nick Williams online Mr Coltrane thank you for your presentation and I know we're late in the evening here and also laugh on the agenda so I'll try to be brief but one thing I wanted to make sure to explain is that the current zoning on the property technically already allows for town home development but it does not speak to it directly the current zoning envisioned a non-residential development here but it does not prohibit residential development we are seeking rezoning primarily to place more sensible parameters around new residential development and otherwise to limit development on this specific site to residential to address councilwoman Freeman's question and I don't want to mischaracterize Planning Commissioner William's comment but I think she was had the understanding that we were rezoning a portion of the property that otherwise was was slated for open space that is not the case the current zoning on the property would allow for development residential or non-residential on this on this specific piece of property throughout the entire development plan there are other open space areas that are designated and those areas will remain the same we are not changing anything about the previously dedicated or sought after open space elements of the overall development plan so this is this rezoning addresses only a portion of the develop of the overall development plan and it is a portion which already was slated for development and not open space now one thing that I another thing I want to point out is you know because we're switching from non-residential to residential for this piece of property you know the good news is that the traffic improvements associated with the previous version of this development plan so for the non-residential development they largely have been implemented so the off-site traffic and infrastructure for this residential community already is in place and if you've read the planning commission comments you probably already are aware of the many locational benefits of this site including its proximity to an existing transit stop we did get an overwhelming recommendation of approval from the planning commission which we're very proud of and you know I think I'll cut it off there we have our team available to answer any questions you may have and look forward to your vote tonight thank you thank you very much mr. gosh is there anyone else that would like to be heard on this item tonight if so can you raise your virtual hand this is a public hearing all right mr. gosh I'll ask the questions that I asked earlier about the previous development in this development it looks to me like you're the there will be 14 students add to Durham public schools have you all considered a proffer to the Durham public schools so I am glad you asked that and I wanted to clarify on this project the developable area where we will be adding residential units actually is in weight county and not in Durham county it is in Durham the city of Durham extra territorial jurisdiction so obviously the city does have zoning authority over that section of property the 14 additional students which are contemplated to be generated by this project none of them will go to Durham public schools so I wanted to make you aware of that and you know I guess I would kind of throw the question back to you we had thought about it I don't really know what to do about that mr. gosh that's a very reasonable point that's a very reasonable point have you considered a donation to the city of Durham's affordable housing fund indeed we have and on this project and just so you know this project is in both the Searles Basin and the Dell Web Basin which is means it's getting a double whammy on that sewer basinsy about $11,000 I believe right now for a lot but we are looking to make a contribution to Durham's affordable housing fund in the amount of $20,000 to $11,000 thank you mr. gosh colleagues any other questions councilmember freeman thank you mr. mayor and just to follow up mr. gosh can you speak specifically to how the development will allow for walkability and kind of a I guess building on that open space that is a little bit further over will there be connections or passways that can that makes sure that in children and more than just automobiles, but the connectivity in this property will be useful to youth in this area, considering that there is such a large open space that will be like, I think, three or four lots over. And so there is no planned connectivity to that. I believe you're looking at a portion of the overall acreage, which was part of the original development plan, which may earlier have been slated for open space. And my understanding is that open space is not a programmed open space. It's more like an undevelopable area of the property which counts towards open space. And we are not intending on having any specific connection to that area. But the first part of your question was aimed at the walkability of this site. In this site, I mean, I think everyone is familiar with the site. It's in Briar Creek. It's essentially behind where the Harris Teeter was built. And so this site has direct walkability to that section of Briar Creek, including to an existing transit stop. And so we do think this site will have a great walk score once it is built, although I would, I'm not prepared to put a number on that, but all of this stuff is within less than a quarter mile of grocery, retail, other shopping, and other services. Thank you very much, Mr. Ghosh. Thank you, Council Member. Any other questions for Mr. Ghosh? All right. If not, then I'm gonna declare this public hearing closed and the matter is now back before the council. We would need, the first motion will be to authorize the city manager to a utility extension agreement with Winnar, Carolina's LLC. Mr. Mayor, if I could make a comment prior to the motion. I just wanted to note that I think that this speaks or this specific property and the zoning map change around it speaks to the conversations we've been having in the past about neighborhood level planning. And so just acknowledging that there's not, it's not an existing community yet in place that could be planned around. But I think that this is one of the cases where it would be helpful to have planning staff kind of focus a little bit more in the, I guess in the drum up to this change on how they see this moving forward. So I know that the future land use designation has the open space, it's not program planned, but the context in how this comes forward could give someone the kind of apprehension in that acknowledging that as we continue to develop without thinking about our youth and what areas and spaces they're gonna have other than as adults traveling to and from work and the commercial spaces are specific to kind of adult uses. I just wanna make sure that we're planning to make sure that we have things and plans in mind. It's almost like as if we had a youth, if there was a youth planning core who could say to us specifically what it would look like to support something like this so that youth were included in the process, something like that. But I just felt like I needed to just note that and that this is a good opportunity to look at and just see how we could plan better. Thank you. And I'd like to move your motion. Thank you council member. And council member Freeman has made the motion. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Madam clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Schuyl. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Aye. Council member Caballero. Aye. Council member Freelon. Aye. Council member Freeman. Aye. Council member Middleton. Aye. Council member Reese. Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Madam clerk. The ayes have it. The motion passes unanimously. We would next need a motion to adopt a consistency statement. So moved. Second. Moved by council member Freelon. Seconded by council member Freeman. Madam clerk, please call the vote. Mayor Schuyl. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Aye. Council member Caballero. Aye. Council member Freelon. Aye. Council member Freeman. Aye. Council member Middleton. Aye. Council member Reese. Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Madam clerk. The final motion will be to adopt an ordinance amending the UDO by taking property out of the commercial general district with a development plan, establishing the same as the commercial general district with a development plan. So moved. Second. Moved by council member Freeman. Seconded by mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Madam clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Schuyl. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Aye. Council member Caballero. Aye. Council member Freelon. Aye. Council member Freeman. Aye. Council member Middleton. Aye. Council member Reese. Aye. Thank you, Madam clerk. The ayes have it. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Goshen. Thank you to the development team, and we wish you good luck. All right, colleagues. I believe that we have done it. Another excellent meeting of the Durham City Council. The time is 9.21, and I'm going to declare this meeting adjourned, and I will see you all at the work session on Thursday. One more sleep, friends. One more sleep, and our long national nightmare is over. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Have a good night, everyone. Good night, everybody. Take care. Keeping us all in prayer.