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January Delegate Meeting
First Presbyterian Church
January 25, 2011
Attending the meeting were:
Delegates and Alternates
Chadsford - Darius Little
Cross Counties - Pat Carstensen
Duke Park - Ian Kipp, Bill Anderson
Fairfield - Melissa Rooney
Golden Belt Neighborhood Association - DeDreana Freeman, John Martin
Long Meadow - Pakis Bessias
Morehead - Christina Fish
Northgate Park - Mike Shiflett
Old East Durham - Chloe' Palenchar, Camryn Smith
Old Farm - David Harris
Old North Durham - Peter Katz
Old West Durham - Eric Heidt, Brett Walters
Parkwood - Mike Brooks
Watts Hospital Hillandale - Tom Miller
Woodcroft - Scott Carter
Visitors
Jim Wise - News and Observer
Lynwood D. Best - City of Durham, NIS
Rukea Womack - City of Durham, Parks and Recreation
Minutes
Tom Miller opened the meeting, and delegates and visitors introduced themselves. David Harris moved and Brett Walters seconded to approve the minutes, which we did by voice vote.
David Harris reported on the work on the Nominating Committee. Mike Shiflett moved and David Harris seconded that we close the nominations, and the following officers were elected:
Chair Tom Miller, from Watts Hospital Hillandale
Vice-Chair Scott Carter, from Woodcroft
Secretary Pat Cartensen, from Cross Counties
Treasurer Peter Katz, from Old North Durham
Board member Brett Walters (Old West Durham), Mike Brooks (Parkwood)
Editor/ Communications Ian Kipp (Duke Park)
Membership: It being the beginning of the year, dues are due ($25, but some neighborhoods give more). Neighborhoods are also asked to fill out the neighborhood profile form, and include by-laws; for one thing, it is helpful to new neighborhoods to see a variety of possible structures and looking at the information in these profiles will help. We formed a committee to organize a dues-letter and generally work on membership; Scott, Mike and Bill will be on the committee.
The Transportation Committee reported that their full report went out on the list-serve. There are lots of transportation projects going on, in the works, or under discussion:
- Alston Avenue widening to start in 2014; the committee is working on a resolution on this.
- East End Connector (or Triangle Connector to I-85) is progressing
- Hope Valley Road widening near Woodcroft
- 751 paving needing some good weather
- More grade-separation of rail traffic
- Putting Main Street "on a diet" when it is repaved to make room for bikes, and the possibilities of diets on other roads
- The neck-downs on Club Boulevard in Watts Hospital Hillandale which calm traffic but impede bikes
- Preserving Norfolk-Southern right of way for trails
- Magnum /Markham barriers being discussed at Old North Durham neighborhood meeting
- Bids being let soon for the American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40
- NIS and TTA are looking for input on bus service
We also discussed mechanisms for sharing transportation expertise, and will have transportation panel at March delegate meeting.
Neighborhood (and other) reports:
- Neighborhoods in Chapel Hill are looking at setting up an umbrella organization, especially looking a development and planning issues
- On the Durham Rescue Mission re-zoning, neighborhoods in the area are concerned about tearing down 9 houses and generally going away from the Hope VI hopes. Endangered Durham blog is giving good coverage.
- Old West Durham reported on developments with Grey Stone Baptist.City Council denied a request by OWD to defer a vote and instead voted to close Warner Street so that the Grey Stone Baptist Church could move along with their construction project (2 historic mill houses have since been torn down that were located on Warner Street). With the decision to close the street, the City Council significantly weakened the visionary zoning plan for the Ninth Street area that the same body recently adopted; a plan whose aim is to maintain and promote pedestrian-friendly, community-oriented development projects in the Ninth Street area.
- The city is having a workshop on January 29th at the Holton Center for neighborhood watch organizations. If your neighborhood doesn't have a neighborhood watch, now is a good time to start one.
- Mike Shiflett reported on a re-zoning on East Club for a storage facility. There are lots of issues with the plans. The developers were having trouble finding folks in the neighborhood to meet with (this is a good time to make sure the contact info the Planning Department has is accurate for your neighborhood).
- Ninth Street is a Big Experiment in "form-based zoning" (60 pages of regulations on design instead of uses). John Schelp and others are working on comments. As the code becomes more abstract, there are questions on how accessible it is to regular citizens (and even to developers without planners showing them where to push the rules?)
- There will be law seminar for homeowners associations at the end of February.
- NCSSM is making another try at breaking the world record in food collected. The target is 545,000 pounds. More info: http://www.ncssm.edu/fooddrive/?page_id=2
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