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June Delegate Meeting
First Presbyterian Church
June 15, 2010
Attending the meeting were:
Delegates and Alternates
Cleveland Holloway – Jennifer Deer
Colonial Village – Connie Hurt
Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen
Duke Park – Bill Anderson
Falconbridge – Rosemarie Kitchin
Fairfield – Melissa Rooney
Morehead Hills – Christina Fish and Kacie Martin
Old Farm – Fred Foster
Old West Durham – John Schelp
Olive Branch Road – Scott Pearson and Tina Motley-Pearson
Parkwood – Mike Brooks
Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom Miller
Woodcroft – Dan Ryan
Tom Miller opened the meeting. Delegates introduced themselves.
Bill moved that we approve the minutes. Rosemarie seconded the motion, and it passed by voice vote.
Tom reported that he spoke at the budget hearing on our resolutions on liens and on a penny for housing, as well as our objections to fees for planning matters (appealing a decision by the planning director, for example) that are higher than those for filing a case in federal court.
On the 751 Assemblage, the developers have asked for more time (having previously done everything they could to hustle things along) now that they are facing a protest petition. They basically threatened to sue if the opponents got more than a month of delay, but managed to get more than a month of delay, until July 26, when they want one. The whole process (for example, do we need to sign up to speak when the commissioners open the hearing on July 14 and then continue it until later?) is ambiguous.
Bill accepted Pat’s amendment:
WHEREAS a key role of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham is to work for fair and open processes; and
The resolution (see below) was passed by voice vote. John suggests sending it, in the body of the e-mail, to neighborhood list-serves.
Neighborhood reports:
· We need to keep pushing on billboards.
· Burch Avenue park renovation was fantastic.
· Old West Durham had a very fun Hop, Sip, and Ride – free bus passes to go downtown, music on the bus, a fantastic bus driver, and opportunities to visit downtown businesses.
· The Beaver Pageant was as much fun as usual. In the process, they got back the parking lot from use as a storage area.
· Parkwood is having Independence Day celebration on July 3, 9-11AM. It’s free, with lots of kids’ activities and a big parade.
· Watts Hospital Hillandale will have its Independence Day celebration on July 4 at 2PM, with 61st year of a parade, the pledge, flags, and cupcakes.
The meeting was adjourned.
A RESOLUTION of the
INTERNEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL OF DURHAM
WHEREAS developers have petitioned the County of Durham to rezone approximately 167 acres in southern Durham County on the shores of Jordan Lake from low density residential to mixed use allowing for approximately 1300 dwelling units and nearly 600,000 sq. ft. of non-residential uses; and
WHEREAS certain Durham residents and neighborhood organizations oppose the proposed rezoning; and
WHEREAS the Durham City-County Planning Commission, in fair and open proceedings at its meeting in April 2010, voted overwhelmingly to recommend denial of the rezoning following a public hearing and an exhaustive inquiry into the merits of the matter; and
WHEREAS the matter was then scheduled for public hearing before the Durham County Board of County Commissioners on May 24, 2010; and
WHEREAS the neighborhood opponents of the rezoning made a timely request for a postponement of the hearing under the provisions of the Unified Development Ordinance reasonably expecting thereby to delay the matter by at least two weeks; and
WHEREAS the Board of County Commissioners, interfering in the customary procedures for rezonings, and to render meaningless the grant of extra time sought by the neighborhood opponents of the rezoning, rescheduled the hearing on the matter to June 1, 2010, only eight days later and not even one cycle of the board's regular scheduled meetings; and
WHEREAS a resident of Durham County appealed the decision of the Board of County Commissioners to the Durham Board of Adjustment on the grounds that the Board's decision was contrary to the letter and spirit of the ordinance and unfair; and
WHEREAS the Board of County Commissioners then further interfered in the customary procedures for rezoning by proposing to hold a closed session on the proposed rezoning on May 24, 2010; and
WHEREAS no closed session was held because property owners neighboring the subject property made a timely filing of a protest petition in anticipation of the June 1 hearing and the appeal to the Board of Adjustment was withdrawn; and
WHEREAS one of the owners signing the petition is the government of a neighborhood association organized pursuant to a declaration of restrictive covenants and that even though the signatures of such organizations on protest petitions in past case have been found acceptable, Durham County government has cast doubt on the ability of such organizations to execute protest petitions in matters relating to these developers; and
WHEREAS the Board of County Commissioners, following communication with the developers' attorneys, again rescheduled the hearing on the rezoning to June 23, 2010, in order to give the developers time to overcome the protest petition; and
WHEREAS a key role of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham is to work for fair and open processes; and
WHEREAS, rather than allowing this rezoning case to follow the customary procedure for such matters, and without due regard for the recommendation of the Planning Commission, and without concern for the due process rights and welfare of the citizens of Durham, the Board of County Commissioners has at every step, intervened in this matter to twist the process to assist the developers and to confound the neighborhood opponents, and has thereby considerably undermined the trust of Durham citizens and neighborhood organizations in the fairness of the government of Durham County generally and the ordinances governing development particularly;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham, through its government and its members, protests the unwarranted and unfair interference of the Board of County Commissioners in the procedures regulating this rezoning, and further that the InterNeighborhood Council, its government and its members, call upon the Board of County Commissioners to deny this rezoning petition in conformity with the recommendation of the Durham City-County Planning Commission because to do otherwise would reward the inappropriate and unfair conduct of this matter at the expense of the trust and welfare of the citizens of Durham; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham calls upon the Durham County Government to treat the protest petition signed by a neighborhood organization in this matter as valid in the same manner as such petitions have been treated in past cases.
Adopted this _____ day of June, 2010
THE INTERNEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL OF DURHAM
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