City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Durham City Council. I am going to ask for a little patience tonight as we are continuously trying to improve our process for sign ups and WAYS THAT WE CAN JUST MAKE IT EASIER AND FASTER FOR YOU WHEN YOU COME INTO CITY HALL TO SIGN UP. SO WE'RE ADJUSTING THE PROCESS JUST A LITTLE BIT. WHEN YOU ALL SIGN UP THERE, I HAVE ANOTHER SCREEN THAT I HAVE TO LOOK AT UP HERE, WHICH I THINK IS GOING TO HELP OUT A LOT. BUT AS YOU'RE SIGNING UP, I WILL HAVE THIS DEVICE HERE THAT WILL POPULATE ALL OF THE all of you all who are signing up. And I will be able to see who's virtual, who's in person, proponent versus opponent, versus resource individuals. So as I navigate my agenda screen over here, as well as the SharePoint over here, I may shuffle just a bit. So I'll beg your patience. that I welcome to Durham City Hall. At this time, we'll have a moment of silence. Thank you so much. All right, I'll pass over to Council Member Ritz for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If it is your practice, I invite you to rise with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you so much. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Good evening, Mayor Williams.

I'm here.

Mayor Pro Tem Caballero. Here. Council Member Baker.

Here.

Council Member Burris. Here. Council Member Cook. Here. Council Member Kopach. Here. Council Member Rist. Here.

Thank you so much. All right. This time, I will pass over to Councilmember Burris to lead us in our first ceremonial item, National Clothing and Security Awareness Day Proclamation. Oh, there you go. You all can join her at the microphone.

All right. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So, whereas clothing is a basic human necessity essential not only for protection and comfort, but also for dignity, self-confidence, participation in daily life, and whereas clothing insecurity, defined as a lack of access to adequate, weather-appropriate, and culturally acceptable clothing, affects children, adults, and families across the United States, including in Durham, where no in-the-pocket has clothed 3,692 individuals since 2023, and whereas children who experience clothing insecurity often face barriers in school attendance, social engagement, and extracurricular activities, while adults may encounter challenges in securing and maintaining employment leading to broader cycles of hardship. And whereas National Clothing and Security Awareness Day serves the opportunity to highlight the importance of clothing access to raise public awareness of its impacts and to encourage collective action to support individuals and families in need. And whereas local nonprofit Note in the Pocket and its community volunteers, including 12,730 from Durham, are actively working to address this critical issue through clothing drives donation centers and outreach programs that provide residents with the resources they need and whereas the city of Durham is committed to building a compassionate inclusive community where every resident has the tools and resources to thrive including access to basic necessities such as clothing Now, therefore, I, Leonardo Williams, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim September 15th, 2026 as National Clothing and Security Awareness Day in Durham and encourage all residents to recognize this observance by supporting local organizations that work to provide human essentials like clothing and by donating clothing to clothing drives in our area. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, this eighth day of September 2026. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and council members and members of the public. My name is Megan Steinke Chase, and I am the new executive director at Note in the Pocket. And we are really grateful that the community is acknowledging this issue. It's one that is sometimes invisible. You don't see it all the time, but it feels like clothing that doesn't fit, that might be too tight, shoes that pinch, having really warm clothing when it's really hot out, or having flip flops when you need boots and a jacket. And in this era, I think in this day and age, affordability is a major issue and we're working to make sure that families don't have to think about the trade-offs across things like food and shelter and clothing. It's a lot of times third or fourth on the list, but it's oftentimes what will keep children from attending school or attending recess or participating in community as they should be able to. So we're grateful today for acknowledging this day. We're also really grateful to the community because our organization runs by the community, by the hands of the community, literally. The clothing that we process and pack up with love and dignity comes from the community. you are also many of you are there helping to pack it up and so it's a family affair i would say and we're really grateful and we hope that in the coming week you will take action with us in support of this issue and we'll be getting the word out on socials to help you figure out ways to take action I just look forward to the growth in this effort together in the coming months and years in Durham. Our roots are here. We started here a number of years ago, and we're really excited to grow together in partnership with you all. Appreciate you.

Thanks, Mayor.

So my friend Dallas, which is one of the folks that helped start this thing, we've spent a lot of time together and love the work that she's doing. So it's great to know that you're there now. If you don't mind, just tell everyone where you're located and yeah, just so they can be able to drop some supplies off.

That would be great. We have a height differential here. So we're at 1010 MLK Boulevard in Durham, and we're right there in between Planet Fitness and the Boys and Girls Club, right near Triangle Rock. We have open doors 9 to 4 every day, and on Saturdays from 9 to 12. We welcome your volunteership and clothing. I'm grateful, I'm pinching myself every day that I get to work for an organization like this and work with communities like yours.

Thanks.

All right, that was Megan Chase. Now if we can have Megan Malone come up. Mr. Megans. All right, thank you, Megan. I have the honor of reading the proclamation for 919A. Really exciting. All right. I actually stole this one from Council Member Burrs. But whereas the city of Durham is nationally recognized for its rich history, vibrant arts and culture, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation into diverse communities that continue to shape its identity, and whereas Durham's greatest strength is its people, its residents, educators, artists, entrepreneurs, small businesses, nonprofit organizations, students, public servants, and community leaders whose contributions enrich the city every day. And whereas fostering civic pride and creating opportunities for residents to celebrate Durham's history, neighborhoods, culture, and future strengthens community connection and encourages greater engagement across the city. And whereas September 19th, 919 provides a meaningful opportunity to recognize and celebrate unique character of Durham while encouraging residents to support local businesses, explore the city's cultural institutions, learn about its history, and participate in activities that strengthen community. And whereas establishing an annual observance dedicated to celebrating Durham affirms the city's commitment to honoring its past, celebrating its present, and inspiring its future for generations to come. Now, therefore, I, Leonardo Williams, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim September 15, 2026, 919 Day in Durham, and encourage all residents to recognize this observance by celebrating the people, history, neighborhoods, culture, businesses, and community spirit that makes Durham an exceptional place to live, work, learn, and thrive. So witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham, North Carolina, this eighth day of September, 2026. Congratulations.

Thank you so much, Mayor Williams. I did prepare a few words. So good evening, Mayor Williams, members of city council, city staff, city members, family, friends, and everyone joining us tonight. My name is Megan McKinley Malone, founder from the city, a Durham native, and a community builder, and it is truly an honor to stand before you and accept this proclamation, recognizing September 19th as 919 Day in the city of Durham. 919 Day isn't necessarily a new concept, but over the years we've seen it loosely used as a way to show pride in the place we call home. But I believe this proclamation gives us an opportunity to give that pride a greater intention. And to ask that 919 Day could mean specifically for the city of Durham. Because Durham is more than a city that shares this area code. It's a city with a story. It's rich legacy, it's innovation born here, the artists, the entrepreneurs creating here, the small businesses and institutions that anchor our community and our food, music, neighborhoods, and traditions. It's the people who have called Durham home for generations and the people choosing to build their futures here now. And as Durham continues to grow and change, I believe it becomes even more important that we are intentional about celebrating what makes this city this city. That is what I hope 919 Day can become, not simply another date on the calendar or another reason to say I love my city, but an annual invitation to experience Durham, support Durham, learn Durham, and celebrate the people who continue to shape it. Through From the City, I've spent the last several years creating experiences rooted in culture, connection, and community. And this proclamation gives organizations like From the City an opportunity to dream even bigger. Beginning in 2027, I feel like the vision upon 919 Day with intentional programming and experiences that bring together residents, locals, businesses, creatives, cultural institutions, and community partners to celebrate Durham across the city. My hope is that for years to come, When September 19th comes around, people don't simply recognize the number 919 as an area code, but they recognize it and what it represents, a city worth celebrating, a culture worth preserving, a community worth investing in, and future worth building together. Thank you, Mayor Williams, Durham City Council, and everyone who helped make this recognition possible. Thank you to the people who have supported From the City and other organizations like From the City and have believed in the work that I've been building the last three years. And most importantly, thank you, Durham. The city continues to give us so much to celebrate. Happy early 919 day.

So does that mean we can start working on a festival? Okay, cool.

Parks and Rec, did y'all hear that?

All right, we'll work on it. All right. All right, so let's get down to business. Colleagues, announcements. I'll start to my left.

thank you mr mayor great to be with everyone this evening thank you for being here uh first of all a happy labor day to our city workers and all workers i was proud to celebrate with the installation of the first constitutional government of amazon cause alongside my colleagues council members baker burris and caballero and then i was glad to actually take a break and go kayaking with my family on falls lake so it was a beautiful labor day i'd like to thank officer butler for taking me on a ride along two weeks ago. It was a relatively quiet night, which I wish for all of our first responders and residents, though residents were grateful as the officers helped locate a lost child and also helped mediate a dispute between a mother and her teenage daughter. So thank you, Officer Butler, and thank you to Durham Police Department. uh i want to thank the youth of together for resilient youth for really inspiring me on international overdose awareness day sharing their talents of music art and mindfulness was really beautiful and and powerful i recently hosted a climate resilience leadership roundtable meeting so i want to thanks give thanks to the participants of that to discuss ways to keep our vulnerable residents safe in a changing climate which is part of our new strategic plan and And finally, I was excited to sit down with Director Vinyas and some consultants to start having conversations around a new affordable housing plan, which is in the process of being developed, and there will be engagement around that. And so I want to make sure residents are aware that that is ongoing and excited about what that will produce. So great to be with everyone. Look forward to a good meeting. Thank you. Council Member Baker.

Good evening, everyone. It's so good to see you all in the room, and good evening to all who are watching at home as well. Happy Tri Transit Week. Definitely encourage everyone to take the bus. We have a free bus. This is one of the largest cities in the country that still has fare-free transit. It's award-winning transit. It's pretty darn good. So when you get the chance, take the bus. and support our transit system. And say thank you to your driver, please. As Councilmember Kopach pointed out, I was happy to attend along with other colleagues, the swearing in ceremony for the first constitutional government of Amazon Cause, which is working to unionize Amazon warehouses. led a valiant and barely unsuccessful effort in Garner recently. They are now seeking to unionize the Amazon warehouse here in Durham. You may have seen some headlines recently that North Carolina is the 50th or 52nd if you count DC and Puerto Rico in worker, quality of life for workers and worker conditions in the country. That correlates with some of the lowest union membership in the country as well. We only have about two, two and a half percent of workers in unions. So we get lower wages, we get less benefits, we get less time off. compared to places that have unions. So it is vital that we use our voices and our pocketbooks and our organizing power to lift up unions. If we care about democracy, unions are about democratizing the workplace. And as we see on the front row, they are also about democratizing the places that we live and giving voice to ordinary people in their everyday lives. And so I look forward to continuing to support our small but mighty labor organizing in Durham and our almost non-existent but small and growing tenant organizing efforts. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Burris.

Good evening and great to be with you all who are joining us in council chambers and also those who are joining us virtually at home. Just wanted, just not gonna, they stole all my stuff, honestly, so there's not much for me to say. I did have a couple of opportunity to travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend the National Convergence for Democracy. And that was an opportunity to learn from organizers on the ground in Minnesota who fought back against Operation Surge. And if you're not familiar with Operation Surge, that's when we had a massive ICE increase in presence in the area. So it was a really good chance to learn from community members and organizers about what they did to protect their neighbors and how they were really creative in organizing in that moment. And that was a really enlightening opportunity, but also hurt the risk that are associated with organizing. And it's not very easy work, but I think it's something we can all learn in our community how to stick together. Also shouts out to the third graders at Pearson Town Elementary, particularly Ms. Hawkins' class. She reached out and had me join them for an afternoon talking about local government, which is a really great experience to go and empower our youth to learn more about what government does and who's in charge and who messes up a lot. So we want really good to empower them. My favorite question a third grader asked me, she says, I don't want to be too much in your business, but how old are you?

And I'm like, girl, what?

So that was a really fun to be around curious women. I mean, young learners. Also, Mayor Pro Tem and I had the opportunity to attend the inaugural Women's Executive Circle. Well, their first anniversary, and that's a peer-powered community built by women for women. It's designed for senior executive leaders and trusted relationships to build those out. She had the opportunity, I'm telling your business now, had the opportunity to present to Dr. Grady from NCCU of award for all the work she's done around AI technology. And finally, happy Black August. I know we had a major celebration in the park, but I just want to remind is I've been reminded that Black August really honors black political prisoners and freedom fighters. And so especially in the world we're in today, I think it's really important to hold true the origins of what we're celebrating and commemorating this thus far. And it's the best month of the year is my birthday month. And so I'm always excited about September, but I look forward to a really productive meeting tonight and get into the business of the people. So thank you all.

Thank you, Council Member Rest.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening. Good evening, City Manager. Attorney Hernandez, good to see you in the seat today. Colleagues, staff, those in attendance and those online, good to see you all. It's been a busy couple weeks. I hope you all had a great Labor Day. As folks have mentioned, the importance of Labor Day is celebrating all the workers in this country and around the world. Good to see the weather getting a little bit cooler this Labor Day. That was also, this weekend was really nice. Last week was really busy. A couple things last week I want to mention. So first of all, along with I think the mayor and maybe a couple other members of the council, got to do a VIP tour of Sankofa Landing, a great new affordable housing development on Old Oxford Road. It's a model collaboration between the VFW, the city and the county, the Bragtown community and other partners. It's 150 units of affordable housing, all affordable at 60% AMI or below and includes 18 units reserved for vets using VASH vouchers and 16 units for public housing families who are through using the project-based rental vouchers. So a great new development. We always talk about the need for affordable housing. It's not one people see all the time, but it's a great new development, great partnership. I don't see anybody here from transportation or environmental and street services, but along the way there, there's a sidewalk gap along old Oxford Road that I saw city crews helping to fill that sidewalk gap, brought to you by the bond funds we passed a couple years ago to fill the sidewalk gap. So now you can walk from the new, Sankova Landing all the way to old to Roxborough Road and go shopping there. So great things happening along that stretch. Also, speaking of the cause union, a couple of folks mentioned, I was at a Wednesday service last Wednesday, Immaculate Conception Church, where Italo Medelius, who I think now is the president of cause, right, was ending a 40 day hunger strike to protest working conditions at Amazon factories across the country. And so that was an amazing moment to be there. Councilor Kopec was there, Councilmember to be there at this moment when Italo was breaking his fast, a community, very moving service. And so I just want to lift up Italo for his witness for justice, both the intellectual and emotional commitment, but also big physical commitment. And I hope he had some good home cooked meals this weekend to get his weight back. um the last thing i just want to say is we've had a couple number of couple or famous people that have passed away i want to mention dolly parton we all miss dolly parton tim curry great actor also gloria steinem who i saw at a conference a couple years ago an amazing feminist icon you all know about what a powerful and amazing woman who just was a force of nature so glad to have met her before she passed away i also want to mention wendell berry the farmer environmentalist and environment environmental icon writer I wanna, if I can do it real quick, just sort of read a quick excerpt from one of his writings, which I think really speaks to our time here in Durham in the present. It's called The Real Work by Wendell Berry. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work. And that when we no longer know which way to go, we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. And so to me, that speaks to the fact that sometimes we get distracted by all kinds of things going on in the city, but the truth is that's the real work. And I know we've got like a affordable housing plan we're working on, economic development plan, violence reduction, and the homeless framework. These are things that baffle us, but that's the real work we need to do in the city. And I look forward to working with all of you on that. Thank you, colleagues. Council Member Cook.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for being here. Thanks for exercising democratic values, coming to speak, coming to support, coming to bear witness. A lot of the things that I wanted to talk about have also been said. I will say that happy upcoming birthday to Council Member Burris. September is also the time, or at least the time right now, for reflection. We're moving into the High Holy Days. And so I want to wish everyone a Shana Tova, Happy New Year. For those of you celebrating, I hope it is sweet. I hope you get to imbibe some honeys and apples and challah and whatever it is that you typically celebrate with this coming week. I wanted to also say congratulations to the successful Black August in the park. I saw lots of people going in and coming out from there. Folks were reporting that it was a good time. I think that Council Member Burris hit the nail on the head, which is that We really need to think about why we do that celebration and the folks who have been political prisoners, the folks who have been freedom fighters and recognize what a sacrifice it takes to be truly aligned with your values in a system that is often against everyday people. I think that also sort of hearkens to the To the values and feelings of Labor Day, which I think you know is a nice time for a break everyone gets it off, but it also is an important marker for for the values that we might strive for in a community that is instead sort of moving in a late stage capitalist. sort of march to the feels like not very pleasant. and not very supportive of individuals and community. I also wanted to thank Wilma Oliver, who is one of our city code inspectors. I went on a ride along with her a couple of weeks ago. I've been involved with the city code enforcement for a really long time. It's a huge part of the work that I do in eviction defense. And I also sit on the housing appeals board. So I see the result of those inspections and what happens when they come in front of our quasi judicial members. So it was really cool to actually go out and do the inspections with an officer. And so I really greatly appreciate all of the folks in the housing and neighborhood services who took the time with me that morning to sort of walk me through the process. then um the folks who opened our houses up for us to go in and do an inspection and that was a really great educational experience for me so lots of appreciation always for our city workers and particularly that department last week so those are my announcements look forward to a good meeting thank you thank you so much councilman mayor frozen javier

Thank you, good evening everyone. I'll be very brief because literally everything has been shared. I just want to say thank you to colleagues for being out and about in the community. I know we're often busy, so it's always, I'm always grateful when so many of you go out and I think between the seven of us, we cover a lot of ground. So just thank you for your time, especially a lot of times when folks are taking their day off, we are often very busy at community events. That's often when folks invite us to things. So looking forward to this evening's meeting and that is all.

Thank you so much. And yes, you all have said it, but some things I'm gonna say again, because the experience was just amazing. Black August in the Park, I snuck up on stage behind, behind the DJ and everyone, and I just snapped a quick picture, and it was just so beautiful to see, I don't know, it had to be, I don't know, three or four, maybe 5,000 people out there, and just live music, people having a great time, and no violence, none, just having a great time. And I know it's weird to have to say that, but... You know, when sometimes certain groups get together, you expect the craziest to happen, but it was beautiful. And I just really appreciate the coordinators putting it on, another successful year. And next year, no matter who you are, please go out to Black August in the Park and just go to the exhibit and read the history. It is so enriching. Today, I actually, my team and I went out to the Diaper Bank of North Carolina and got a chance to tour their site and You know, we get invited to a lot of things. Oftentimes we get invited and people ask us for money. They didn't ask for money. They just said, we just want you to know that we're here and what we're doing for our state. And it was founded in Durham. And I'm just so amazed and so appreciative of the work that they're doing. I told them my new slogan for them is more than just diapers. It is so much. So if you get a chance, please check them out. Look at the work they're doing and give them some kudos. We did celebrate Labor Day and just really appreciate the people who make this city operate day and night. Just really so grateful for you all. There is one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence at the Durham County Library, and it is there on display. It launched today. And it was a bit of an emotional moment to see the ink on that paper and also the animal skin. Because I care less about who wrote it and more so the why. And while they had their why back then, it was a document of defiance, we have our why now and why we must preserve democracy. And there's so much that goes into that. So I hope that as we're getting closer to November, that we are engaging as much as possible in the civic process. Please make sure you find your why and what this democracy means to you. Also, I want to shout out the youth of Cornwallis invited me to a youth town hall on how, I mean, the kids are tired of violent crime. And I'm going to give an update on homelessness in just a second, but just want to say a shout out to the young people of Cornwallis, Grace Inc, and for inviting me out and asking hard questions and expressing what's most important to them. And I want their voices to be front and center. And there's no organized defiance or pushing back on their voices. I want their voices to be front and center, and I'm going to continue to elevate their voices. as we work also to reduce violent crime in the city. So there will be a youth violent crime reduction summit coming up in due time. And once we get that organized, we'll be putting the data out there just so we can make sure that their voices are the ones that are heard. I know it's a hot topic in the news. The students at NCCU who were injured recently are recovering, non-life threatening. INJURIES, BUT NO CHILD IN THE CITY, WHETHER FROM HERE OR COMING TO THE CITY, SHOULD HAVE TO EXPERIENCE THAT. SO I JUST WANTED TO GIVE THAT QUICK UPDATE. AND, YES, COUNCILMEMBER, THANKS FOR HIGHLIGHTING THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING. WE ARE BUILDING IN THIS CITY. WE'RE BUILDING, AND WE'RE BUILDING AFFORDABLY. SO MORE TO COME. THOSE ARE THE END OF MY ANNOUNCEMENTS, BUT I DO WANT TO GIVE AN UPDATE, WHICH IS NOT A PART OF MY ANNOUNCEMENTS, BEFORE WE GET TO THE ACTUAL AGENDA. I just want to give a quick update on the work that we're, the progress we're making in regards to making homelessness rare and brief in Durham. The last meeting I shared an update on the Durham's family shelter, families moving forward and who shared their housing placements and the speeds of housing were the best that they've seen in years. Now tonight, I want to basically provide an update on the latest housing sprint. a core new aspect of our strategy. And for those who are less familiar, Housing Sprint is basically a short, intensive push where our teams take the tools we already must cover We already must cover the move-in costs, direct outreach to landlords, the ongoing case support. And this basically focuses tightly on groups of people with one deadline until they're about to be unhoused. It's a new program. It's making our existing system move at the speed that our neighbors need. And this is our largest sprint yet. So over five weeks, our goal is to move 65 families, 16 single adults and 14 families. I'm sorry, 65 people, 16 single adults and 14 families, 30 households in total into housing. I'm pleased to report that we're already making real progress. As of today, eight of those 30 households have been moved into housing. 12 more households are set to move in next week. And some of these new neighbors have lived unsheltered in Durham for years. Every one of them is a Durham neighbor who now has a safe, stable place to live. None of this happens with city staff alone. This sprint is a true partnership. Our team is working side by side with Family Promise of the Triangle, Families Moving Forward, Urban Ministries of Durham, and that kind of collaboration is exactly what it takes to move this fast and still get it right. These numbers are more than statistics. One individual we housed last week told staff that his birthday is coming up and that for the first time in a long time, he'll get to spend it in a home of his own. And that's what this work is all about, helping our neighbors start a new chapter in their lives. So I want to thank everyone in the community safety department and our partner organizations for the work behind these numbers, the extra phone calls to landlords, tracking down birth certificates and paperwork showing up and also showing up to help people move in. It adds up to real change. We have four more sprints for single adults planned for this year and four more for adults in general. The goal across all four of these spreads is to get 400 people experiencing homelessness into housing over the next several months. We have a lot more work ahead of us, but this approach is working and our commitment under this framework is clear. Leave no one behind and reach every encampment in Durham within the next three years. And I will say that Raleigh is also taking a similar approach. Raleigh is about three times the size of Durham, but our progress is about three times the size of what they are actually doing. So we are challenging each other as our triangle leaders to try and just house as many people as possible. And this is how I think our resources should be used to make sure that there's dignity within every single person who lives in the city. So thank you to our team and let's keep up the good work. All right. And I'll continue to give those updates each meeting outside of my announcements. And once we get the recommendations back for the violent crime reduction work, I'll give those updates as well. Let's see here. All right, Mr. Manager, pass it over to you for priority items.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council. The city manager's office does have two priority items this evening. First, regarding agenda item number 15, this was in relation to the 2026 short session legislative update. There was additional information requested at the work session, and that has been added to the agenda. This is in the informational section only of tonight's agenda is not on up for discussion this evening, but that information is there. And then regarding agenda item number 21, this is a supplemental item that's been added this evening. This is the transportation improvement agreement with NCDOT for the Durham to Roxborough rail trail corridor. Council received a prior update that when you approve this item, November 3rd, 2025, there were some mistakes in some of the material that supported that item from one of our partners. All of that has been corrected. This item now comes back to the council this evening for readoption now that the new language has been included. And because it was time sensitive, we did add it to your agenda this evening.

that's agenda item number 21 and those are my priority items for the evening all right thank you so much madam attorney good evening mayor good evening mayor uh mayor pro tem and members of the city council city attorney's office does not have any priority items this evening thank you good evening mr mayor madam mayor pretend members of council clerk's office has no priority items this evening

Thank you. This time, I'll read the consent agenda. Item number one, Racial Equity Commission Appointment. Item number two, Human Relations Commission Appointment. Number three, Mayor's Council for Women.

Item two is pulled.

I'm sorry. Let me, yeah, let's do this. Item two does have a speaker. NUMBER THREE, MAYOR'S COUNCIL FOR WOMEN. NUMBER FIVE, EASEMENT AND ENCROACHMENT AGREEMENT FOR MAIZON-DURHAM OWNER LOC. NUMBER SIX, THIRD LOAN MODIFICATION AGREEMENT FOR ROCKWOOD COTTAGES WITH ROCKWOOD AH-1 LIMITED PARTNERSHIP. NUMBER SEVEN, STREET AND INFRASTRUCTURE ACCEPTANCE, RUSKIN'S AVENUE. Number eight, utility extension agreement with Bingham Project, North Carolina LLC and Atlantis Homebuyers LLC to serve 505 and 507 Bingham Street. Number nine, fiscal year 2026, 2027, transit capital improvement plan, budget ordinance amendment. Number 10, reimagined Durham freeway study final report, which has been, there's a speaker for that. NUMBER 11, FISCAL YEAR 2027 DURHAM COUNTY TRANSIT WORK PROGRAM FUNDING AGREEMENT. NUMBER 12, AWARD OF CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT TO TA LOVING COMPANY DBA PIPELINE UTILITIES INCORPORATED FOR BROWNWATER TREATMENT PLANT FILTER INFLUENT BYPASS PIPE IMPROVEMENTS. NUMBER 13, 2026 SEWER LINING PROGRAM. Number 14, amendment number one, amendment one to the professional services contract with Timmons Group Incorporated for the improvements for access to utility easements and the facilities project. Number 20, balance reduction working group recommendations.

I don't have that.

Item 20. Oh, I see it. That item has speakers. Okay. Item number four, resolution recognizing Ashton Seniors in action in Willard Street United and affirming the role of tenant unions and advancing safe quality and democratic housing, which has speakers.

That's GBA.

That's GBA, yeah. Number 16, consolidated annexation, 822 Dr. Nichols Road. Number 17, consolidated Annexation Avalon Place Phase 9. Number 18, Consolidated Annexation Page Road Townhouses. Number 19, Consolidated Annexation Oak Grove Landing.

I don't need to read those. Oh, well, yeah.

Number 21, supplemental item referenced by the manager, transportation improvement agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the Durham to Roxborough Rail Trail Corridor. It's information only, right? Number 15, 2026, short session legislative update.

All right. So the consent agenda is just item two pulled.

Everything else was... GBA and presentation, okay.

I'm sorry, in 10, that's correct.

Yeah, two in 10, okay. All right, got it. So, Madam Clerk, this is good. I think the only issue is you have it in order, which I appreciate on here. It's not in order when it comes in on base, so I'll have to just get used to going back and forth.

I can also pair up the consent and GBA a little bit better.

Do you want to try and correlate it with the on base?

I can. Okay.

All right. Thank you.

So it should be items 210 and 20.

Yeah, 210 and 20. That's what I have. All right. I would entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda with the exception of items 210 and 20. So moved. Second. Moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously.

All right. Up to item number two, I have Alex Gwynn proponent. It's virtual. Alex Gwynn, can you hear me?

Mr. Mayor, just one second. I'm not made a host for some reason.

OK.

Madam Clerk, I'm probably going to say just give me a different color for virtual.

Instead of all yellow. Instead of all yellow.

I'm sorry, say again.

Instead of all yellow.

Instead of all yellow.

Oh, I mean, virtual and in person are both light blue. The speakers are highlighted, but I, yeah, the category, I could, it'll help me better see a different color between virtual and in-person. Thank you. All right, are we ready? All right, Alex, Gwen, can you hear me?

Hi, can everyone hear me?

Yeah, there you go, welcome. You have three minutes.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Williams and members of council and city leadership. My name is Alex Gwynn and I serve as chair of the Durham Human Relations Commission, but I'm speaking tonight solely in my individual capacity as a Durham resident. So these comments represent my views and not an official position of the commission. I ask that the appointment item be pulled from the consent agenda because I feel that composition of our public boards deserves public visibility, particularly when we already have information identifying gaps in representation. So in May, the Human Relations Commission provided the city clerk's office and our council liaison with a membership composition and vacancy forecast, identifying perspectives to consider as vacancies were being filled, including gaps in representation for young adults Durham natives and long-term residents, and residents from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. So people with lived experiences navigating different systems such as housing and public services, and people with lived experiences navigating economic barriers. So previously, the Human Relations Commission has conducted research and identified socioeconomic disparities and representation on Durham's boards and commissions. But I want to be clear as far as me speaking tonight, I'm not asking council to reject the individuals being considered tonight. nor am I requesting their qualifications, nor am I questioning their qualifications or commitment to Durham. So I just want to make that very clear. This is about asking whose perspectives are still missing from the table. And so for example, following our recent turnover, the Human Relations Commission currently has no commissioners who are born or raised in Durham. That doesn't diminish other perspectives from those of us that aren't from Durham like myself, but it is an important thing to raise to council as far as the gap in community rooted perspectives that's currently absent. Durham is also having a broader conversation about how representative structures should evolve as our community grows and changes. I know there's been some discussion on expanding city council seats. So as darn evolves and as you're having discussions about expansion, the city council. I'd also ask that you strongly consider the advisory bodies that represent residents in all terms perspectives and how we can can also To research how to expand those perspectives.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, colleagues, I will entertain a motion to appoint Jamin Kim and Joy S. McHale to the Human Relations Commission with the terms to expire June 30, 2028. So moved.

Second.

So moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you very much. Miss Gwen, if you can hear me, I'd ask that you also email your comments to me. I'd like to speak with you further about it. Thank you. All right. Next up, I have item number 10. Wait, I have four.

Number four. All right.

I have Cynthia Williams. Welcome, you have three minutes.

Good evening, Mayor Williams, council members, and residents of Durham, along with staff. I'm here tonight along with Sharon Fosbury. We are the two of the new co-chairs for the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit. CAT supports the local Durham community's overall preference for the Boulevard option proposed in the Reimagining Durham Freeway project. The option offers an opportunity to reclaim land along and around the freeway for more affordable housing, parks, and pedestrian activities such as safe walking and biking. CAT understands that the Boulevard option was also assessed as having lower emissions, pollution, and noise impacts on nearby communities, possibly impacted by the other two options. For generations, transportation infrastructure has shaped Durham's growth and development. Transportation infrastructure has also directly affected affordable housing in Durham's marginalized areas. In the case of Hayti, the construction of the freeway came at an enormous cost to a thriving black community whose cultural, economic, and social fabric was disrupted. While no project can fully undo the damage that was done to Hayti and to other marginalized neighborhoods along the freeway, CAP believes the Boulevard Option of the Reimagine Durham Freeway Project represents an opportunity to heal the harm done by thoughtfully reconnecting people, places, and their neighborhoods in Durham, and by offering a positive vision of infrastructure that serves residents as well as vehicles. CAT appreciates the collaborative work of community organizations, residents, city staff, and public officials who have worked and continue to work to advance this important project. Our organization is excited to see the future implementation of a new vision for Durham's I-147 freeway. Thank you for your time and consideration of our input.

Thank you so much. Colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to receive the final community vision plan report for the reimagined Durham freeway study. So moved. Second. It's been moved and probably seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much. All right, and next I have item number 20. Item number 20 has speakers. I have Tiffany Swoop, Ariel Madison, Jamaica Smith, Cynthia Williams.

Good evening everyone.

Mayor, Council, City Manager. Thank you all for having a meeting after the holiday. I'm here to speak about the Non-Violence Reduction Summit plan, particularly item number five. I have a lot to share about that and we're going to have some information on our social media as soon as tonight. I am tired. i'm tired first of all mayor before i even go there i want to say thank you for coming out to the community friday and having a tough conversation with a child who has been hardened by trauma i'm sorry a child and a young adult that's been hardened by gun violence and trauma I know that wasn't an easy conversation. I'm sorry that you had to take that brunt alone, but next time we're going to invite everyone out and I hope that it will accommodate everyone's schedule because this is a conversation that everyone should be a part of. I'm going to tell you now, I'm tired, but I'm not tired of standing up here and coming and speaking on behalf of these children who are afraid to speak or feel that they don't have a voice because they've been historically marginalized, forgotten about, and become invisible. I'm tired because I didn't rest well last night after Jamaica reached out to me. This child has already lived through one gun violence incident. She's a survivor that was hit on campus at NCCU, only to come home from work and have the police outside her dorm because once again, there's another shooting within feet away from her domain. Okay? I'm tired because we have done the work. We've done the work. I personally was a part of a one and a half year research project that was led, excuse me, funded by City Council, brought forth by Dr. Monique Mosley-Hyman. Nothing else close. It's been two years, but we worked on that project for a year and a half and that report was never discussed. i'm tired how much more will it take before you guys act because since i spoke with you all the last in the past 12 days there have been three confirmed or documented shootings in durham the two students hit on campus last night at central and i say documented because this occurs almost every night in communities like cornwallis now if i'm tired imagine the people who live through this day after day without any relief i've been going to this community for five years but i've watched you all uh city leadership invest over 10 million dollars in the same demographic that you're looking to fund again and i won't stand for it as long as these children are crying out i won't bend a knee Every time you show up, I'm going to show up as long as I got gas money and tires and I just bought some new tires. So if I'm tired, y'all better get ready to get tired because I am going to whittle you down to a pencil. Thank you.

I have Ariel Madison, Jamaica Smith.

Good evening, council members. I'm Mayor Williams. My name is Ariel Madison. I'm a senior at North Carolina Central University. In regards to item 20, I do feel that college students are left out of the document simply because each and every year that I've been at North Carolina Central, there has been a problem with gun violence. Starting from my freshman year, we had a shooting within a dorm room. causing us to go into lockdown, having all of these items in place to hinder our time there at North Carolina Central. And I feel as though even though there's these efforts of saying that there is going to be safer measures going forward, there isn't usually any. anything happening. And then we have repeated incidences of violence on campus such as the major shooting during homecoming in 2024 and the recent drive-by shooting that we just had two days ago. I just feel that students on campus, they don't feel safe. Parents aren't usually alerted of this information unless students tell their parents. My parents weren't alerted in any way. I had to tell them myself, and they were very surprised by this information. And I just feel that if we're going to highlight these high-risk communities within this violence reduction, college campuses and specifically North Carolina and Central should be a part of that high-risk community. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome. It's good to see you again.

hi everyone my name is jamaica smith and i am a victim of gun violence i'm a student at north carolina central university i started my freshman year in 2024 as a student who was very excited to come to college and as a first-gen student i was struck by a stray bullet on campus um it has left me like with nerve damage and i have since had to relearn to walk And then, you know, I was working the other day, so I wasn't on campus at the time of the shooting, but we recently had a drive-by shooting and I had to have someone come to my car and walk me to my dorm because I didn't feel comfortable as someone who was already violated by gun violence. I feel like we just need to do more as a community. We need to be having this conversation more. And I'm tired of hearing about my peers, my peers and people my age getting shot and being killed. And I'm having to go to funerals as a 20 year old for someone younger than me. And it's very sad to see that that's something that keeps happening. and we have an app called fizz and i was reading on fizz and they were just like well you know this is just what it is you know that's a part of the community the school's in the hood but why are we just okay with that just being the thing why is it oh well the school's in the hood so that's what it's going to be no that shouldn't be the conversation we should be having we should be okay well let's try to fix what's going on because that's unacceptable and you know I survived but the next person might not you know those two students that were shot at the drive-by shooting I don't know if it was at random or not but you know not everyone's going to live and then you know they have to deal with that thing that happened to them for the rest of their lives, I have two big scars on my body that I have to look at and be okay with looking at every morning just because a youth or someone has harmed me, youth or an adult, and we need to just be having the conversation, pouring into the youth as well. Why does it have to be people over the age of 30 all the time? I get that, but it starts as a youth, I feel like, and the more we pour into them, the more we can see change and we won't have to have this conversation as often thank you

Mayor, council members, thank you for an opportunity to speak on this topic. You folks know me as primarily an affordable housing advocate and you know my work. You also, most of you that know me and those in the audience, Know that I'm also a very open minded person, very welcoming of individuals of all types across our city. I just wanted to share with you an experience I had last October after attending a rather long meeting about the Haytide Development Heritage Center issue. It was about 9.30, 10 o'clock at night. I left the Holloway Church where we had our meeting, was sitting at the intersection of Holloway and Austin Avenue when a man approached my vehicle, completely dressed in black, walked up to my driver's side window. I assumed he was begging for money. but out the corner of my eye, I saw that he had a water bottle and as he lifted it up, there was a handgun strapped to it. At that point in time, he started yelling at my vehicle for me to roll my window down. Now, I usually am very quick to react to those types of situations. But ironically, I just had a neighbor who took me through gun training. His comment was, never react, always be ready to respond. As a result, I drove away from that incident unharmed. But I wanted to say tonight, I wasn't aware of the NCCU incident. I'm only aware of what happened to me. I was in a part of the town that people said you need to stay away from, but I felt my duty as a citizen working on behalf of affordable housing that I needed to put those fears aside. As a result, I could have been shot, I could have been killed. so whatever work you're doing on this violence issue please do not stop until you have solutions in place it's not just the communities that are being impacted it's all of us all of us that live throughout this city are being impacted in some serious ways Some people say I may have PTSD now because of that experience. I don't think so. But I will tell you this. We cannot allow this to continue to happen in our city of Durham. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you all so much. Colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to adopt a resolution. Sorry. I'll entertain a motion to adopt a resolution endorsing and supporting the recommendations of the Durham Balance Reduction Working Group. So moved.

Second.

So moved and probably seconded. All in favor? I mean, I'm sorry. Madam Clerk.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

item number four under general general business agenda resolution reorganize recognizing ashton seniors in action and willard street united and affirming the role of tenant unions and advancing safe quality and democratic housing we have i think several speakers um just oh thank you i was gonna do it on my phone thank you i just have Okay, there it is. Okay. Sorry, apologies. Okay, I have I think everyone is in person for this item. I do not think I have any. Okay, thank you, Madam Clerk. I'm just going to call folks up. Renee Valentine, Yolanda Mitchell, Pablo Friedman, Yolanda Winstead, Mary Rogers, Sharon Fosbury, and Valeria Ramos. Those are the folks I have signed up to speak. The first maybe three folks want to come on up, Renee Valentine, Yolanda Mitchell, and Pablo Friedman. And I do not see Pablo Friedman, so I'm going to call up the person after him, which is Yolanda Winstead.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Renee Valentine. I appreciate you all being here, giving us the opportunity to speak.

Thank you. I'm so sorry. Can you pull the mic just a little bit closer to you? And everyone has three minutes to speak this evening.

Is that better?

Okay.

Well, really quick, I want to talk about the high turnover in staff. It puts a strain on our senior community at Ashton Place. The continuity of care of the building, work orders proper and accurate documentation gets lost in translation and transition from flats of staff floating between the properties. The second being how quickly the property is depreciating. Malfunctioning doors, i.e. my arm got slammed in the door July 19th. The elevator's constantly breaking down. Again, I was stuck on the elevator with my dog, and it's even affecting our animals. He'll get on the elevator, but he won't go anywhere near that door. And thirdly, verbally given an option of a 30 to 12 month lease upon signing the lease and recertification. They're not making it clear as to whether they can stay there for however long they want, with it being in writing and then not conveying it to them. So we need to discuss and possibly take care of all this during the meeting that we have with DHIC. And I mean, I believe it's everybody's problem, DHIC, self-help, CMC, and us as residents. Because not only do we want them to maintain our property, but we have to maintain it as well. And we do. There are times we're cleaning the building, taking out the trash, and things of that nature that we shouldn't have to do. And the rat problem is getting really ridiculous. The trash out there today, I wish I had taken a picture of how the trash is out there today. So the rats have a smorgasbord out there tonight. They are about big as my dog. I don't know what else I could say about other than just the conditions just need to change. The building has depreciated quickly. I feel like I jumped from the frying pan into the fire, because I used to live at Willard Street. So I have a long-standing relationship with DHIC. And I like living here, but I just don't like living here under the conditions. And when I ask for something, I feel like I'm being retaliated against all the longer it takes for them to get it done, which is not fair. Because when they want the rent, I got a notice in my door on day six. But I've handed in, for 90 days, three work orders attached to my money order, June, July, and August. I've not gotten anything done. And I asked them why, emailed them why. Nobody's gotten back to me. They ordered materials that they can't order again, so I have no light in front of my apartment door since last July, the first inspection. So where's all of this? We're going to do this, and we're going to do that for the seniors? They're reneging. They're not doing it. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, Yolanda Mitchell. Good evening. You have three minutes.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you, Mayor Williams and other members of the City Council and staff. Good evening. My name is Yolanda Mitchell. I'm a resident of Willard Street Apartments. I am a member of the Triangle Tenant Union Association and was encouraged to help from the tenant union at Willard Street through the leadership of Ms. Cynthia Hoskins and others that were numerous leaders in the tenant union to help us to move forward to become a voice in Durham. Our association currently works together as a team within the triangle. We understand that all tenants have the right to have a safe, sanitary, and peaceful environment. Many have experienced the ramifications of gang activity, of sale of use of drugs, prostitution, vagrants sleeping in the building, malfunctioning of doors and elevators, broken appliances, no heat or air condition, rodents and pestilence for an unprecedented length of time. Also to mention those landlords who retaliate against tenants unjustly. I applaud landlords who choose to have the tenant's best interests at heart, and I unapologetically say to the landlords who show little or no concern and retaliate against tenants, shame on you. Please consider the resolution that has been presented. And as the OJs would sing, we're all in this thing together. We gotta work it out. Now, I can sing it for you. We're all in this thing together. We gotta work it out. We gotta work it out. We gotta work it out.

Thank you. Next up, I have Yolanda Winstead. Good evening. You have three minutes.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Williams, council members, Mayor Pro Tem. I'm Yolanda Winstead. I'm president of DHIC. I urge you not to adopt the resolution recognizing Ashton Seniors in Action and Willard Street United and affirming the role of tenant unions in advancing safe quality and democratic housing in its current form. I strongly support the right of tenants to organize, advocate for their interest, and engage collectively with landlords regarding the condition of their homes. Tenant organizing can be an important tool for improving housing quality, strengthening communication, and ensuring residents have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their lives. However, this resolution goes beyond affirming those principles. It specifically recognizes and elevates particular tenant unions and names specific housing organizations, property managers, and development partners. In doing so, the city risk appearing to take sides in ongoing relationships and disputes between private parties, rather than establishing a consistent policy that applies equally across Durham. I respectfully suggest that the council instead adopt a broader resolution that affirms the right of all tenants in Durham to organize free from retaliation, to communicate collectively with landlords, and to participate in good faith discussions regarding housing conditions and community concerns. Such a resolution would promote an important civic value without endorsing any particular organization or singling out any specific landlord, developer, or property manager. Additionally, any resolution should encourage all landlords, whether public, nonprofit, or private, to participate in collaborative engagement processes with tenants. Productive housing outcomes are most likely when both tenants and housing providers come to the table with mutual respect, transparency, and commitment to solving problems together. A citywide statement supporting tenants' rights, non-retaliation and constructive dialogue would be more balanced, more durable and more equitable than one focused on specific parties. I encourage the Council to revise the resolution and adopt a version that establishes these principles for all Durham residents and housing providers. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. The next speaker I have is Mary Rogers.

thank you so much good evening thank you you have three minutes thank you good evening mayor williams city council and other city members i am here because we need this resolution passed we have come a long way and we are happy to be here I am in support of the resolution. Why? Because it's a pathway. It's a pathway. It's a peace way to bring us together. We can communicate with each other. We can talk with each other in a great, effective way. And that's what we're about. community and residents come together in a way that's peaceful, in a way that's going to unite us to solve these issues. Because if we don't, what's going to happen? It's going to be nothing but a chaotic matter. So let's get together. Let's resolve this. Let's pass this resolution. And the reason why we work together We resolve things. If we don't, what happens? Continuous chaos. We want a place to live, to grow, to love, and we want a place to, and I'm gonna leave that blank because I want you to fill in that blank. I want you to think about it and fill it in. Thank you so much for your time and efforts. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Next speaker I have is Valeria Ramos.

Good evening, and thank you, Mayor, members of the council. I'm a resident of Ashton, Seniors in Action community, and I am standing here tonight to ask the council to vote yes on the resolution. When Willard Street Apartments and Ashton Place were first built, they were rightfully celebrated by our city leaders as a model for affordable housing in downtown Durham. They were built on the promise of dignity, safety, and community for our families and cherished senior citizens. but a building is only as good as the dignity and respect it provides for the people inside. And a promise is only as good as it's kept. Residents have had to face persistent management issues, questions of lease terms, clarifications in practice, basic maintenance requests gone unanswered, general lack of transparent communication, smelly trash, a growing rodent, on grounds, community, and sometimes challenging the accessibility for members of our community from certain practices. We've had a loss of life in our building related to malfunctioning doors, and we refuse to let another tragedy happen. So time is up. Just two years in and we're faced with these conditions. Tenants did exactly what strong communities do. We organized, we formed Ashton Seniors in Action and Willis Street United Tenant Unions to demand our housing managers meet with our organized tenants to address issues of maintenance, retaliation, and security. We're not asking for the impossible. Passing the resolution is not just a win for the tenants of these two buildings, it is a vital step forward for the residents of the city of Durham. When we hold publicly funding housing providers accountable, we protect the integrity of our city's investments. Every Durham resident deserves to know what their local tax dollars are being used to build are being used to build safe stable and respect respectable i'm sorry communities houses across the cities will know housing providers will know that durham stands for safe high quality and democratic housing yes to affirm the tenant unions are vital partners in keeping our communities stable tenants deserve to have their voices heard they deserve a seat at the table uh please vote Thank you for your time and for your commitment to our city.

Thank you. Last speaker I have is Sharon Fosbury.

Thank you.

Good evening. You have three minutes.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening. I'm City Councillors and all the Durham residents. My name is Sharon Fosbury and I'm here with Cynthia Williams. We are two of the co-chairs of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit, also known as CAT. CAT's vision is simple. We want all Durham residents, renters and homeowners, to have access to quality housing. It needs to be accessible to safe and equitable housing across different socioeconomic levels. Tonight we want to express full support for tenants who are organizing unions and especially including the recently formed Ashton Place Seniors Tenant Union. For many reasons, especially seniors and residents with limited resources, organizing a tenant union is a significant step. Being together, it requires courage and trust and the willingness to raise your voice and to speak out about like poor housing conditions, about quality of life. This can be a very uncomfortable situation. It could be intimidating for people. So bravo, bravo to those tenants who are willing to organize and lift their voices. At the same time, CAAT wishes to recognize and support the many landlords that are trying to make sure that their housing is safe and well maintained. There's a lot of great, great landlords out there, right? There's not one or the other. So we want to acknowledge those landlords as well. We value their contributions and their commitment to our community. We encourage landlords to view tenant unions not as adversaries, but as potential partners. We encourage collaboration over conflict and partnership over division. Organized tenant groups can provide a structured, constructive, and collective way for residents to communicate concerns, identify problems, and work together to identify and create great solutions to problems. Strong communication benefits both parties. As Durham continues to grow, CAP believes that the most successful and strongest housing communities will be those where tenants and landlords engage with each other with mutual respect, transparency, and a shared commitment to quality housing. With this, we can achieve the shared goal of safe, stable, and dignified housing for all of Durham's residents. Thank you for your time and thank you for your commitment to all the residents in Durham.

Thank you so much. Those are all the speakers that I have. Mr. Mayor, I'm going to pass it back to you.

Thank you so much. All right. Those were all the speakers. All right. Good deal. Now we will bring it, well, not bring it back before the council. ITEM NUMBER 20, RIGHT? NO, ITEM NUMBER 4, SORRY. ALL RIGHT. SO I'LL CALL THE MOTION AND IF THERE'S ANY DISCUSSION, WHICH THERE IS BECAUSE WE HAVE SOME ADJUSTMENTS TO MAKE, I'LL JUST GET THE MOTION OUT THERE AND I'LL ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING ASHTON SENIORS IN ACTION AND WILLARD STREET UNITED IN AFFIRMING THE ROLE OF TENANT UNIONS IN ADVANCING SAFE, QUALITY, DEMOCRATIC HOUSING.

If I may, the title has been updated. The title in the revised resolution should read, Resolution Affirming the Role of Tenant Unions in Advancing Safe Quality in Democratic Housing.

Is that not?

Is that what you all see as well?

THE ITEM THAT I SEE IN GRANICUS IS THE OLD TITLE AND ALSO I DID NOT RECEIVE THE UPDATED RESOLUTION THAT WAS PRINTED.

SO LET ME READ WHAT WE HAVE AND THEN WE'LL MAKE ADJUSTMENTS BECAUSE I KNOW THERE WERE CHANGES THAT CAME IN AND I'M GOING TO ASK THAT WE READ THOSE LOUD BECAUSE WE JUST GOT THOSE TODAY. SO WHAT I WANT TO DO IS I WANT TO READ THIS RESOLUTION AND THEN WE CAN HAVE DISCUSSION, MAKE ADJUSTMENTS AND THEN WE'LL MAKE A DECISION ON THIS ONE AND THEN MAKE A DECISION ON WHAT'S NEW. WE FOLLOW MADAM CLARK. RIGHT SO I'LL READ THE MOTION AGAIN TO ADOPT ENTERTAINMENT MOTIONS TO ADOPT THE RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING ASHTON SENIORS IN ACTION AND WILLARD STREET UNITED AND AFFIRMING THE ROLE OF TENANT UNIONS AND ADVANCING SAFE QUALITY AND DEMOCRATIC HOUSING ALL RIGHT IS THERE A DISCUSSION NOW WE'LL MOVE INTO DISCUSSION UH THE FIRST POINT WAS MADE UH COUNCIL MEMBER BAKER YOU GAVE US ONE with the new title that stated resolution affirming the role of tenant unions and advancing safe quality and democratic housing, which is a new title. Was that the only change?

No.

Okay. So what I'll do is I'll start with, I'll start with you because you are the sponsor of this item and then I'll continue on because we do have another as well.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you colleagues for all of your consideration as we've reviewed, discussed and pondered this draft resolution and changes were made earlier today that were uploaded to Granicus. The title of the resolution is resolution affirming the role of tenant unions and advancing safe quality and democratic housing. Tenant democracy is not a luxury. It is a right that is denied to too many people. Tenant unions is not a luxury. It's a right that is denied to too many people. And so this is a moment for us to celebrate what Will It Treat United and Ashton Seniors in Action have done. Can anyone else up here name any buildings that are unionized in Durham? It's not a trick question. This is an historic moment. This is a huge opportunity to set a new direction, set a precedent. There are cities where many, many buildings, multifamily buildings are unionized, where tenant democracy is the norm. It's not some exotic new thing that's come into town. And that's the direction that we should be going in, again, because tenant democracy is not a luxury. It is a right that is denied to too many. So this is a moment for us to celebrate and lift up all of the work, the successful work that you have done. And as we heard many tenants in these buildings have spoken before us expressing concerns about conditions, Often what I hear, and I've sat down with you all many times and others from the building, is that a lot of people really love the building, love the building, love the location, love the community that has been built and wanna keep it that way. And the way to keep it that way is to organize together. the folks that we see in front of us here today on the front row here in the council chambers are just a select group, the leading group of organizers, but you will have organized many, many more people, a high percentage of, THE TENANTS IN THE BUILDING. SO I THINK ALL OF THAT IS IMPORTANT CONTEXT AS WE CONSIDER THE RESOLUTION THAT IS HERE BEFORE US TODAY. AND COLLEAGUES THE ORIGINAL DRAFT THAT WAS PUT TOGETHER DID INCLUDE MORE SPECIFIC LANGUAGE CALLING OUT WILLID STREET UNITED CALLING OUT ASHTON SENIORS IN ACTION AND THE LANDLORDS. THIS DRAFT following the direction and that you all expressed that you desired strips that out. This is a general citywide resolution. I think what's important here is that the tenants who have organized see themselves within the broader movement of organizing across our entire city. Not just we want you to succeed, we want this to be a model, but you have done the work of showing our city and other tenants many of whom have already been interested in organizing their buildings, what is possible and how to do it. And if and when you succeed, that means that there's a model, that there is support, that there is institutional knowledge that's been built that makes other organizing efforts more possible to succeed as well. So this draft, again, I just wanna express the primary difference between this draft and the prior draft. Strips all reference to Willard Street United, Ashton Seniors in Action, DHIC, self-help. All of that is removed because this is about our entire city. So again, I think this is an opportunity to celebrate the work that has been done and lift it up and also express policy, a policy position, which is supporting tenant unions and in the future, considering the importance of tenant democracy and tenant unions in future affordable housing projects. This can really be something that we celebrate, something that we implement moving forward. So I really think This is an opportunity to lift up a vital aspect of life and living, which is expanding unions. And it's an opportunity to look ahead and lay a stronger foundation for stronger tenant and labor unions in our city. And I'm happy to answer any questions if any of my colleagues have any.

Thank you. So I'll ask the public as who's listening to pay very close attention to how we're navigating this. There was a there is a version of this. The there's the original version. And then there was another version that was updated in Granicus, which is our VIRTUAL PORTAL OF ALL OF OUR DOCUMENTS. THERE WAS A VERSION THAT WAS PROVIDED TO ME TODAY, TO US TODAY, COUNCILMEMBER BAKER, THIS AFTERNOON. I'M READING OVER THAT NOW. THEN THERE'S A VERSION THAT MAYOR PROTEM RECEIVED, WHICH WAS EDITS FROM SEVERAL COUNCILMEMBERS. AND JUST HEARING IT, IT SOUNDS VERY SIMILAR. BUT I'M GOING TO PASS IT OVER TO MAYOR PROTEM.

and uh at the end we'll read the final rendition of of all of this and um take a vote thank you mr mayor um i think at the end of last week i reached out to each of you individually and then uh shared that i would be providing based on conversation based at the work session um to come up with what i thought was a consensus uh resolution it CHANGED SOME OF THE LANGUAGE THAT THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE HAD FLAGGED. IT ALSO STRIPPED IDENTIFYING INFORMATION THAT WE ALL HAD AGREED ON AT THE WORK SESSION. I PROVIDED THAT TO EACH OF YOU I THINK EITHER LATE THURSDAY OR EARLY FRIDAY IN YOUR COUNCIL INBOXES AND I EITHER CALLED OR TEXTED YOU TO LET YOU KNOW TO LOOK FOR IT IN YOUR INBOXES BECAUSE I KNOW SOMETIMES OUR EMAILS CAN GET uh pretty pretty packed uh so i i did flag for that and i invited all of you for any feedback or chatting ahead of today's meeting i would like to amend when we get to it to amend the resolution that has been introduced by council member baker with the following language madam attorney madam acting city attorney would you mind reading the subsequent language please

Resolution affirming the role of tenant unions in advancing safe, quality and democratic housing. Whereas the city of Durham affirms that safe, stable and affordable housing is essential to the health, dignity and prosperity of its residents. Whereas residents across Durham have increasingly organized collectively to advocate for improved housing conditions, accountability and community wellbeing. Whereas the Durham City Council recognizes that tenant unions are a vital part of the civic fabric of Durham, providing a structured and democratic means for residents to communicate concerns, negotiate conditions, and participate meaningfully in decisions affecting their homes. Whereas all rental housing providers, including those receiving public funds, have a responsibility to ensure quality housing and to engage residents in good faith. whereas constructive engagement between tenant unions and housing providers requires good faith negotiation, mutual respect, and firm commitment to non-retaliation against residents who organize or advocate collectively. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Durham City Council hereby formally recognizes the valuable role that residential tenant unions and other forms of resident organizing can play in the expression of tenant voices in their respective communities. Be it further resolved that the Durham City Council encourages recognition and engagement with resident tenant unions and other organized resident groups by all housing providers operating within the city. Be it further resolved that the Durham City Council calls upon landlords to listen to tenant concerns and negotiate in good faith and to adopt and uphold clear non-retaliation practices protecting residents who organize. And be it further resolved that the Durham City Council reiterates its commitment to ensuring that all residents of Durham have access to quality, safe and affordable housing and recognizes organized tenants as an essential partner in achieving that goal.

Thank you, Madam Acting City Attorney.

So, yeah. Council Member Cook.

Well, I mean, I'm not sure if maybe Council Member Baker is going to address this, but I guess I'm just wondering, there's, we now have three different versions, I think is what I'm understanding. We have an updated version from Council Member Baker, who was the original one that introduced this. We have the original one that he introduced that I think that he's now assenting to amend. And we have this one that's been read into the record. But I don't think that we have an agreement that the one that's now been read into the record is, yeah, I just, I'm hoping that you'll address it. I'm not speaking on my time yet, I just want to clarify.

Yeah, thank you for pointing that out, yes. The original version is out. So there are three versions. We're really down to two at this point. I am fine with the other version, however, There is one clause in the version.

Council Member Baker, I'm sorry, can you say like original is out and then which version you're speaking about just so we're all on the same page? Sorry to interrupt you.

The original version recognizing Ashton Seniors in action in Willard Street United and affirming the role of tenant unions in advancing safe and quality democratic housing is no longer a version that is being considered by this council. The Mayor Pro Tem has shared the version that she put together. The current official version is loaded as revised resolution. pretty similar there are a few differences um the one currently up for a vote is the revised resolution uh as uh as it is written in uh granicus um i would entertain the uh version that you've provided mayor pro tem with the addition of the second to last be it further resolved clause in the revised resolution, which reads as be it further resolved that housing receiving city funding and associated management operating in legal agreements shall to the extent practicable support and protect tenant democracy, including the right of residents to organize tenant unions or other tenant organizations and collectively advocate regarding the conditions, management and policies affecting their housing with protections against retaliation for such organizing. So if you, if my colleagues are open to including that in your version, then I think that we could find a final resolution here.

Mr. Mayor, I don't actually have that copy in front of me. So I can't, I'm one of the folks who just has to like physically read the thing. I can't just, so.

Is it not loading for you?

Well, if there's a paper copy up here, could someone just send me down a copy? Thank you. You're saying your second to last, be it further resolved that the Durham City Council supports negotiation of written agreements between tenant unions and housing providers, that clause? Is that the one?

What's the next one? It kind of goes on to this one.

Okay. Is it the be it further resolved that housing receiving city funding? Be it further resolved, yes, the second to last clause. I would like a second to read it because I haven't had a chance to read it.

And just to say that for those of you who are following, it is on Granicus, but it is also online. So if you are looking at an online agenda, you can pull it up as the revised version.

Council Member Baker, I'm not opposed to this language. I do think it is redundant. So my ask would be that we find another clause that maybe we can swap it out for. I know this is silly, but we do, historically, we have tried to make our resolutions one page. We've tried to make them pretty brief. So if anyone wants to figure that out for me right now, that would be amazing. But I'm not opposed to that clause being entered in.

Mr. Mayor? The only, you know, the... The only thing that to me seems a little bit, I'm not sure about, is the reference to housing receiving city funding. And I think part of the resolution, if we can call it the Mayor Pretend version, was to simply call out all housing providers, regardless of sorts of funding. So I don't see a reason to call out housing providers that receive public funds. To me, all rental housing providers should be operating under the safe standards period.

Can I ask a question?

Well, no, so I think that clause is important. In this particular case, I do have, well, first, I want to thank you all for your organizing work and what you all have done to advocate for the community and do what your contribution is. I'm a tenant as well, and so I can wholeheartedly identify what it's like being subjected to your landlord, but also this pervasive issue across Durham, particularly when it comes to senior housing. A lot of seniors, for lack of better words, are being terrorized, and so they, by poor property management, I witnessed it. I've gone to plenty of meetings about this, so it's really important and vital that we set the tone and tone and standard, these words are running together, for your advocacy work, but also as we invest. So when I think about Ashton Place, I do believe that they received about $3 million from one of the housing funds. And so I think it's important as we talk about the standards we're setting, if we're gonna be investing, I think it is a certain standard that we should hold folks to in terms of living conditions for people who are residing in these communities. And so that's what I feel like that kind of speaks to, but Mayor Pro Tem, I'm more than happy to hear more about what exactly is redundant. I know you've only had a short time to read, so if you could explicitly state where you're finding redundancy at, that'd be helpful for us, with me.

Thank you. I'm saying that the, hold on.

Right, your fourth whereas clause references that.

Yeah, it's basically the, Oh. Anywhere where it's either the be it further resolved. Yeah, so it's well, it's kind of sprinkled in everywhere. I mean, I'm not going to. I think for me, the big concern is that I didn't want to just say public housing. or publicly supported housing. In my opinion, and I said this at our work session, all landlords, whether they are receiving city funds or not, need to provide quality housing to their tenants. That is a contract, in my opinion. You have signed a contract. That is what a lease is. And so as far as the tenor of the resolution goes, as long as it has that, very clearly stated that we expect all landlords, whether they are publicly supported or not, to support tenant organizing and negotiate in good faith and provide quality housing. I'm kind of, you know, not particularly stuck on where we put a where, you know, where whatever clause, if that makes sense.

Because I was I just had one follow up because I wasn't at the I kind of watched the last word session on like line or whatever, and so I just want to clarify because I thought during that one of my colleagues said it like we don't want to create the perception that we are like. Trying to mediate between like private landlords and such, and so now what i'm hearing is that you wouldn't include us to be inclusive everyone. But what my notion is that if you it's about taxpayer dollars and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and the expectation of. Like this property, in example, is only two years old. There's no way on earth that these residents should be in Dorna's type. So I just want to set the standards of city. If we're going to take public dollars and help fund affordable housing, there should be a standard for who we're partnering with. If you've looked at some of these property management companies, they have record laundry lists of grievances from across the country, and yet somehow we find them here in Durham, and we continue to partner with them. So that's why I'm really going down an avenue of setting a standard for what we're gonna put our money at in ensuring that our residents have these quality living conditions moving forward. So I apologize, Mr. Baker.

Thank you, no, I appreciate all that's been said. The reason why that one clause is necessary is because this is not an ordinance. I wish it could be. There's a lot of state-level preemption in this legal realm. This is a statement. We're making a statement, we're putting it out, we're lifting up the work that's been done. Why call out the city? One, it's not redundant. I'm calling out the city specifically because this is the city. We are the city. We have control over what the city does. Again, it would be great if we had the power of adopting an ordinance to this effect that could provide stronger regulations on behalf of tenants and our most vulnerable tenants. That is not something that we can do at this time, but we can do is control what we do. And so that is a vital part. There's lifting this up, there's making a statement, and then there's also implementing policy and the provision, the clause that I am supporting would do just that.

uh councilmember kovac yeah thank you mr mayor thank you to councilmember baker for bringing this forward to mayor pro tem for the resolution that's proposed i just want to reiterate that i think our speakers from tonight from the tenant union tenants unions really said it best all tenants have a right to safe sanitary peaceful environment and a place to love to grow and to insert whatever it is that matters to each of us i think that was really poignant and reflects you know, the discussion here this evening. And I also want to echo the congratulations and the celebration of the work you've done as really being standard bearers and leaders that hopefully sets an example for others across publicly supported and private housing across our city and so i really just appreciate respect the work that you all are doing and thank you for sitting down and speaking with me and many of my my colleagues um we want to see these properties celebrated again and for you all to be proud of them again and i do believe that strong partnership with attendance union will help to make that happen I ALSO THOUGHT IT WAS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE INTERSECTION OF WHAT WE'RE HEARING AROUND ISSUES OF VIOLENCE AND HOMELESSNESS AND I THINK SO MANY OF THESE ISSUES ARE TIED UP WITH SAFE AND DIGNIFIED HOUSING FOR EVERYBODY. AND SO IT'S REALLY CRITICAL THAT WE THINK OF THAT HOLISTICALLY BUT THAT SAFE AND DIGNIFIED HOUSING PIECE IS SO IMPORTANT AND IMPACTS ALL THOSE OTHER ISSUES YOU'VE HEARD US DISCUSS ALREADY THIS EVENING. In terms of the discussion around the clause, I have a question for Acting Madam Attorney. I know there was some discussion, if I may, just around aspects of the original resolution that you asked us to just, the CAO asked us to show some caution around. And I think it had to do largely around certain language where it seemed to be us dictating where we don't have the authority to dictate. I'm just sorry to put you on the spot here in an acting role this evening, but with the clauses that's being proposed to retain around, you know, legal agreements shall to the extent practicable around promoting and support and protect tenant democracy and the clauses that follow. I just want to reflect back and see how that fell within the CIO's assessment.

Good evening, Acting City Attorney Hernandez. Yes, I would point council's attention to the memo that we sent to avoid giving legal guidance from the dais. But yes, I think you accurately reflected our caution in using language that was dictating in a private landlord and tenant relationships.

Thank you. I'll refer back to that again right now. Thank you.

Council Member Cook.

It's a new language, but it uses some of the same type of language that they said to be cautious of.

Council Member Cook.

Thank you. So just back to the process for a second. I think that the one that is the revised version that Council Member Baker has put on our attachment to the agenda is the one being considered. Now we have, I think, what is going to be a motion to amend it to reflect a different. And so I think that the question then is, is it a friendly amendment? And it sounds like other outside of this one closet, it is a friendly amendment. I think that that's where we're at. For me, this causes pretty much the most vital part of this resolution. It's actually exactly the opposite. I think of the language that the city attorney's office was concerned about. It is not around private relationships. It's directly about where we put our public money. and what we value when we select folks who are going to run places that we have subsidized with taxpayer dollars. And so do we prioritize funding, gap financing, being in relationship with folks who are going to hear and support tenant unions? That that is an inherently a self-directed and that is like the point of a resolution I feel like that's like even better than any sort of resolution that we've passed recently because it gives direction to our city staff about the values that this council sees in how we form the relationships I will say that it I don't think it was unanimous the decision to take out some of the identifying language I certainly was not in favor of that although I understand I'm taking my guidance from the residents and I understand that that is Okay, with the residents and so that is totally fine by me. But I do think it's important to recognize that this is public money and therefore we are stewards of it. And if we want to talk about a value statement. What better way to talk about it than to direct ourselves and our staff in how we form those relationships and where that money goes so That, to me, feels like the most, actually the only operative statement, really. The rest of it is like, we hope that folks play nice. We really do. I mean, we really do hope that. I really hope that, team. I hope it. But also, what can we do? What's our responsibility here? And we have a responsibility here. And it's to ensure that when we're making these decisions and putting taxpayer dollars on the line that we are upholding the values that we also hope that everyone else upholds. So to me it feels like the most crucial part and also the furthest away from I think the concerning language that was talked about in the memo. So that being said, I feel like that is the most important part of this resolution and it certainly needs to stay. I feel like the rest of it is relatively similar and good in spirit, support it. But for me, that clause has to stay in.

Just to clarify, when you said that clause, that's the one Councilman Baker, okay.

The one he's adding, which is that housing receiving city funding and associated management, operating and legal agreements shall to the extent practical support and protect tenant democracy, including the right of residents to organize tenant unions or other tenant organizations. and collectively advocate regarding those conditions, management and policies affecting their housing with protections against retaliation for such organizing. Literally saying that if we are giving you public funding, we are holding you to a higher burden as you should be held to a higher burden because you are getting taxpayer money for that. And so the higher burden that we are holding you to is to support our values. I think we do this in contracts. We hope to contract with folks who are paying fair wages. We talk about this a lot. We can't force other people to have minimum wages during minimum living wages, but we hope that the folks that we contract with and who we give city dollars to are going to support that. This is the same hope. It's not directing. We can't make anyone do it, but it's the hope that if you receive that city funding that you're going to follow our value system on that.

All right, and spirit on the fly edits Thank you all for this robust conversation i'm so looking at the if we wanted to grant his version in the second to last just one know as folks will be. Flexible just like if we added language because i'm hearing all the sides, but we added language and Mr city manager, please do not look at me for this one. but that will ask you when you negotiate these contracts to include that language in there as we're looking at the partners we partner with or just like the contractual language. So just wanted to throw that out there as an option that we've recently read. or more than happy to pass this down. So basically like we're talking about, be it for the resolve that housing and receiving city funding and associated management. So I'm assuming that in that the first part at sentence, we'll add in language in that would, since the city manager is our employee, that we can add language in there around what we wanna see and how the contracts are executed. That would work.

While he's taking a look at that, let me, LET ME JUST HAVE COUNCILMEMBER KOBAK, THEN I'M GOING TO ADD SOME REMARKS.

GO AHEAD. SURE, YEAH, AND JUST GOING BACK TO THE MEMO, IT WAS A LINE, BE IT FURTHER, IN THE ORIGINAL ORIGINAL, BE IT FURTHER RESULT THAT THE CITY COUNCIL CALLS UPON DHIC AND ALL PUBLICLY SUPPORTED LANDLORDS TO LISTEN TO TENANT CONCERNS AND NEGOTIATE IN GOOD FAITH AND TO ADOPT AND UPHOLD CLEAR NON-RETALIATORY PRACTICES PROTECTING RESIDENTS WHO ORGANIZE. And below it said, because city's loans were focused on construction of affordable units, we do have some concerns with the language and the proposed resolution that expressly supports the use of public funds from the city for tenant advocacy. That's what I was thinking of. And so I wonder, and it may be that Council Member Burris' proposal addresses that. It could be just that encourages is language that is something we want to do rather than saying shall do. It may... But going back to, but I just wanted to point out this and I'll go back to Council Member Burris' recommendation.

I'll just share just some brief high level on this. I too am a tenant and I get exactly what this is all about. We are the Durham City Council. We're not the Durham City Council of just publicly invested housing. I remember back with Birchwood Avenue Apartments when they had been there over 50 years, and then they were given 25 days to get out. It was private property. Mayor O'Neill, Mayor Pro Tem Middleton and myself got in my truck and we drove over there. Bull City Tenants United was there helping them out. But those folks were left out in the cold, had nowhere to go. I EVEN DROVE SOME OF THEM IN MY VEHICLE TO HELP THEM FIND A PLACE TO GO. SO IF WE'RE JUST SAYING CITY INVESTOR DOLLARS, THEN WHAT ARE WE SAYING TO THE FOLKS THAT ARE IN THE CITY OF DURHAM? I MEAN, THIS IS A RESOLUTION ANYWAY. IT'S NOT LIKE WE CAN LEGALLY BIND SOMEBODY TO DO ANYTHING. THIS IS A DOCUMENT THAT SAYS WHERE'S THE CITY POSITION ON IT? AND YOU CAN REFER TO THE RESOLUTION. BUT IT'S NOT MY INTENT TO LEAD A COUNCIL WHERE WE'RE TRYING TO GOVERN THROUGH RESOLUTIONS, BUT WE CAN MAKE A PUBLIC STANCE. I've spent a lot of time with the residents, the ones that are organizing. I've spent a lot of time speaking with the actual landlord. I'm very impressed with the leadership that they have. And I'm more so impressed with the fact that the residents in the building have trusted them to lead them. And Willett Street and Ashton Place are both affordable housing properties, but they have very different funding structures. And it's very nuanced. The discomfort I have in this is there's a lot of people that's become the middleman. And there is a contract called the lease between the residents and the landlord. If that lease is not addressed, then therefore there are legal protections. I don't want to give false expectations that, okay, the Durham City Council passed a resolution and now you better, because that's misleading. so the reason why i'm assuming the reason why the attorneys told us to be careful of trying to dictate is because we don't have that authority but i feel very uncomfortable colleagues leave i hear the points i hear all sides i do feel uncomfortable in this resolution reducing the durham city council to only folks that have publicly invested funding now just to be clear that it's it's not replacing any of the other causes about all of housing all of housing is in it multiple places this is sort of an extra

that's like, and in addition, if you're receiving public dollars, we as the city are concerned about this specifically.

I'll go back to my original statement. If you are in the city of Durham, then therefore the spirit of this resolution should apply to you. And that is why I supported the idea of removing specificity out of it regarding an actual property or an actual landlord. This is not about choosing size. This is about an actual position. and that's what I'm gonna support tonight. Anything that requires, anything that is leading us to any specificity of demand over actually supporting, I'll take issue with. Mayor Pro Tem, then Council Member Baker.

Thank you. Council Member Baker, would you be amenable to, instead of that housing receiving city funding and associated management operating and legal agreements, instead of shall, to what Council Member Kopach encourages, right? Like changing some of the, because once you say shall, as we've all learned in closed session with the city attorney, changes the intent of the statement. And so I hear what y'all are saying about that there is a higher bar, right? And I think that that, like, I get that. And I think we're trying to do two things. We're trying to have a higher bar for those getting public funding. And we're also trying to elevate tenant organizing and the rights of all tenants. And so I think if we can just, Strike the word or say encourage or whatever which is what I did with the kind of updated Whole resolution, I'm fine with that I think we're getting somewhere here.

I It is shelled to the extent practicable, so it's not a straitjacket. I would feel more comfortable amending that piece of the clause with the proposal from Councilmember Burris. And if you'd be amenable to that, we can add that to your amendments to the resolution and we got something.

Councilmember Burris, do you mind saying yours again? I'm sorry, not to put you on the spot, I apologize.

All right, so here's where we are. Be it further resolved that the Durham City Council calls upon the city manager to negotiate with housing providers receiving city funding that they, to the extent practical, support and protect tenant democracy, including the right of residents to organize tenant units or other tenant organizations, and collectively advocate regarding the conditions management and policies affecting their housing with protections against retaliation for such organizing.

Thank you, and seeing that you had had a conversation with the city attorney, and I'm not getting any head shakes of no. It seems that that language would pass muster, which is one of the things that we are a little bit anxious about on this dais.

Does the city attorney have that language?

Yes, she's helped Councilmember Burris draft it.

I wonder if she could, Attorney Hernandez, if you could reread that. That'd be helpful, yeah.

So I'm comfortable with that, and I'm the person who's asked to amend the resolution, and it seems like Councilmember Baker, the other author, is also comfortable with that language.

Let me just hear it one more time.

Okay.

Be it further resolved that the Durham City Council calls upon the city manager to negotiate with housing providers receiving city funding that they, to the extent practical, support and protect tenant democracy, including the rights of residents to organize tenant unions and other tenant organizations, and to collectively advocate regarding the conditions, management, and policies affecting their housing with protections against retaliation for such organizing.

Yes, I'm happy with that and would consider that a friendly amendment.

I'm just wondering if we can, sorry, attorney Hernandez. So the section providers, and then can we have like providers and their and their contract contractors? Yes, the associated manager. I like that. I like the like, completeness of the section, the associated management operating and legal agreements section. I'm wondering if we can keep that in by moving.

So to clarify, with housing providers, And their agents or you want something more along the lines of.

Well, I guess I mean I yeah I mean I think if you think that housing providers and kind of encapsulates all of associated management operating and legal agreements.

I think actually the that original language about like associated management operating legal agreements was a little bit fuzzy to me, I like agent so like providers in their agents right that would sort of that should incorporate all the.

parties, right? So for me, you're fine.

I was going to ask Acting City Attorney Hernandez if she could read the whole thing before so that we could hear it. But I didn't. But you you're in the queue to speak, Councilmember Baker.

With this additional clause and your proposal, I would consider all of it together a package deal of a friendly amendment.

You guys are so interesting. That works for me.

Acting city attorney Hernandez, do you mind reading the updated resolution into the record for both the public and for the city clerk? Thank you. The whole thing.

The whole thing.

Yeah.

You're welcome.

Resolution affirming the role of tenant unions in advancing safe, quality, and democratic housing. Whereas the city of Durham affirms the safe, stable, and affordable housing is essential to the health, dignity, and prosperity of its residents. Whereas residents across Durham have increasingly organized collectively to advocate for improved housing conditions, accountability, and community wellbeing. Whereas the Durham City Council recognizes that tenant unions are a vital part of the civic fabric of Durham, providing a structured and democratic means for residents to communicate concerns, negotiate conditions, and participate meaningfully in decisions affecting their homes. Whereas all rental housing providers, including those receiving public funds, have a responsibility to ensure quality housing and to engage residents in good faith. And whereas constructive engagement between tenant unions and housing providers requires good faith negotiation, mutual respect, and a firm commitment to non-retaliation against residents who organize or advocate collectively. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Durham City Council hereby formally recognizes the valuable role that resident tenant unions and other forms of resident organizing can play in the expression of tenant voices in their respective communities. Be it further resolved that the Durham City Council encourages recognition and engagement with resident tenant unions and other organized resident groups by all housing providers operating within the city. Be it further resolved that the Durham City Council calls upon landlords to listen to tenant concerns and negotiate in good faith and to adopt and uphold clear non-retaliation practices protecting residents who organize. Be it further resolved that the Durham City Council calls upon the city manager to negotiate with housing providers receiving city funding and their agents that to the extent practical, They support and protect tenant democracy, including the rights of residents to organize tenant unions or other tenant organizations and collectively advocate regarding the conditions, management and policies affecting their housing with protections against retaliation for such organizing. and be it further resolved that the Durham City Council reiterates its commitment to ensuring that all residents of Durham have access to quality, safe, and affordable housing, and recognizes organized tenants as essential partners in achieving that goal.

I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution as read into the record by Deputy Attorney Hernandez.

Second.

All right. It's been moved and probably seconded. I do want to just briefly state again, I really appreciate the tenant's leadership on this. And I appreciate the landlord as well. I'm not going to say the date because it's a residence only meeting, but I do know that there is a meeting coming up. between the residents and the landlord. And there has also been an agreement for the organizers to meet with the landlord and the partners as well. And I will leave that information amongst you, just the folks that could be convening as well. Not every landlord is a good landlord. Not every landlord is a bad landlord. Not every tenant is a good tenant and not every tenant is a bad tenant. That is the reality. Also, North Carolina is one of the states that has the least amount of support and protections for tenants. But I want to also highlight that we do have some landlords and developers who are great partners. DHIC is one of those, and I appreciate the work that you all are doing to be an affordable housing developer. And I appreciate the residents making sure their voices are heard and making sure that the conditions in which you deserve are voiced. There's a lot of work. There's a lot of work that's been put into this. I just ask that anyone that's going to get in between and support you all do it in good faith. I was a bit more closer to this project than others since the Birchwood Avenue. And for those who are supporting and advocating, I beg you to do it in good faith, because you do not want to lose trust in any side of this. That is so important. So that means don't tell people that the mayor is voting against them. Don't do that to try to convince people. Just do your work in good faith. Because we don't have unions in this state. So when we are allowed to unionize, you're who we rely on. This state does not allow us to legitimately recognize it. So don't screw it up. Please do it in good faith. And we will have your back on all sides. It's been moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. We are in recess for 10 minutes.

Ciao.

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we don't have quorum anymore let's all get back going let's all get settled please we're starting at number 16 correct One, two, three, four. All right, we're gonna go ahead and get started. We are on item number 16, Consolidated Annexation 822, Dr. Nichols Road. Ready for the staff report.

Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, honorable council members, good evening. I'm Javar Jones with the Planning and Development Department, happy to be before you tonight. Before I begin, staff would like to state for the record that all Planning and Development Department hearing items have been advertised and noticed in accordance with state and local law, and affidavits of all notices are on file in the Planning and Development Department. A request for a utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation, and initial zoning map change has been received from Tammy Rosario, an individual landowner, for one parcel of land totaling .85 acres and located at 822 Doc Nichols Road. This annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits. The current zoning is residential rural county jurisdiction. The applicant proposes to keep the current zoning designation of residential rural, which the city must establish within its jurisdiction through a direct translation. The application proposes this annexation in order to connect to city water and sewer. The property is currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map. The proposed RR zoning is generally consistent with the designated place type. If the proposed zoning is approved, there will be no change to the place type designation of mixed residential neighborhood. Thank you. Staff and the applicant are available for any questions.

Thank you. You've heard the staff report. Are there any technical questions for staff, colleagues? All right, at this time I'll declare the public hearing open and I do not have any speakers for this item. So therefore I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council.

Just one little question. I'm just curious, do we have, and maybe the answer is no, but do we know how this got left out in the first place? Like why this was like this?

My honest answer is I don't know how that got left out.

All right, I was just curious.

The last time council member Baker said just one little thing, it was bringing a resolution about Tennessee rights. All right. Okay.

Yes. I do have one question also for staff. This is probably a minor thing, but on the financial analysis impact, it shows that estimated general fund expenditures, ASSOCIATED WITH PROVIDING SERVICES, I'M SORRY, ESTIMATED GENERAL FUND REVENUES GENERATED FROM THE ANNEXATION OF BUILDOUT IN FY27 ARE 4,435, RIGHT, AS REVENUES. ESTIMATED GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURES ASSOCIATED WITH PROVIDING CITY SERVICES OF BUILDOUT ARE 4,403. AND THEN IT SAYS THE ESTIMATED CUMULATIVE GENERAL FUND LOST TO THE CITY OF BUILDOUT IS 32. ISN'T THAT A SLIGHT GAIN? I KNOW IT'S JUST VERY SMALL, our revenue's greater than expenditures, and therefore it's not a loss, right?

Right, so in reference to the $32 part, it was revised from finance, and we met because it was a little particular, but according to their model in that first build-out year, it would be positive by $32, but in all subsequent years being negative.

Gotcha, okay, okay. So positive the first year, but again, by $30 or whatever in the other years.

Correct.

Negative, but we the benefit is we are getting water and sewer. We're filling the donut hole. So other benefits.

Correct.

Gotcha. Thank you.

All right. Therefore, I'll entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing 822 Doc Nichols into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with MXT LLC.

So moved.

Second. Moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. I'll also entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the Unified Development Ordinance by taking property out of residential rural Falls Jordan Watershed Protection District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential rural Falls Jordan Watershed Protection District B City jurisdiction.

So moved.

Second. Moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. And please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. And finally, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the consistency statement as required by North Carolina General Statute, Section 160D-605. So moved. Second. Moved and probably seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Next is item number 17, consolidated annexation, Avalon Place Phase 9. Ready for the staff report.

Mayor Williams, Mayor Bertin Caballero, and honorable council members, good evening. I am Peyton Burgess with the Planning and Development Department, and I am happy to be here with you tonight. A request for a utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation, and initial zoning map change has been received from Marie Farmer with Parker Poe for one parcel of land totaling 21.6 acres and located at 3132 Cheek Road. This annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits. The current zoning is residential rural county jurisdiction. The applicant proposes to keep the current zoning designation of residential rural, which means the city must establish within its jurisdiction through a direct translation. The applicant proposes this annexation in order to connect to city water and sewer and facilitate the development of up to 30 homes. A direct translational zoning is one in which the existing county zoning is translated to the identical city zoning district upon the annexation of the property into the city limits. A translational zoning does not and cannot include a development plan and any future development may proceed according to what the zoning would permit. The properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map. The residential rural zoning is generally consistent with the designated place type. Thank you. Staff and the applicant are available for any questions.

Thank you. You've heard the staff report. Any technical questions? Thank you. At this time, I'll declare the public hearing open. And I see applicant available. How much time do you believe you need? Think you need?

Five minutes.

Please put seven minutes on the clock. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and members of council. My name is Marie Farmer with Parker Poe, 301 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh, here on behalf of the applicant, Meritage Homes. I am accompanied tonight by representatives of Meritage and the project's engineer, David Dunn, with BNK. As Javar explained, or as, excuse me, Payton explained, this request is to annex one parcel adjacent to the city limits located along Cheek Road east of the intersection of Cheek and Junction. The parcel is currently vacant and totals around 21 acres. This proposal is very straightforward and consistent with all five applicable comprehensive plan policies. It is consistent with policy 165 because the request is contiguous to the existing limits and will reduce the existing enclave or donut hole that you can see running along Cheek Road currently. The request is also consistent with policy 118 as the property is within the urban growth boundary and not located within a future growth area. It is consistent with policy 117 as the city's analysis has found that the proposal will be revenue positive. It is consistent with policy 119 as the city's analysis did not identify any barriers to emergency services. And finally, the request is consistent with policy 128, as Meritage will ensure that the required upgrades to the existing sewer are provided upon development. And this does include extending sewer to Cheek Road, which several neighbors expressed gratitude for during our neighborhood meetings. The applicant has also committed 110 feet of right of way, approximately four acres, for the Northern Durham Parkway to extend through this site. And construction of this critical transportation corridor is already currently underway, making this an essential component of the planned connection between Northern Durham and I-540. Because this request is consistent with all five applicable comprehensive plan policies, and because the proposal does provide public benefits, including the extension of Sewer to Cheek Road and construction of the Northern Durham Parkway, we do respectfully request approval of this proposal consistent with the Planning Commission's unanimous recommendation for approval. Thank you.

Thank you. I have two speakers. They are virtual. The first person is Jamison Boone. Can you hear me?

I apologize, Mr. Mayor. He switched it in person.

All right. Katie Ross. Ms. Ross, can you hear me? Do you see her online?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I've asked her to unmute.

All right. Ms. Ross, can you hear me? Mr. Bowen, could you come on up? Could you?

Oh.

I'm so sorry.

Oh, apologies, Mr. Mayor. This is for item, these are both for items. This is item 17.

Yeah, got mixed up again. I don't have a speaker. No, there are no speakers. That's 18. That's 18. We're on 17. We're on 17.

All right.

I'll get used to this. Sorry about that. All right. I don't have any speakers for this item. So therefore, I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council. Are there any questions? All right. I'll entertain a motion to... Mr. Mayor. Yes. Yeah.

Just briefly, the... I just had it up. The mixed residential place type, so I'm pulling up right now. is I'm just gonna read from it. Designed to add diversity of housing types at different price points and densities to serve residents diversity of needs, ages, incomes, and lifestyles. Residents are served by supporting commercial civic institutional places in immediate area like schools, community centers, libraries, small scale grocery stores. Residents living in mixed residential neighborhoods can easily and safely walk, bike, and roll within and around their neighborhoods to get to supporting places and transit stops. um publicly accessible amenities like parks trails and recreational facilities are found throughout um let's see direct routes for bicyclists good street connectivity um i don't think this is consistent with that uh these are large lot single family homes so um i i'll be voting i'll be voting against this one thank you

All right, quick question to the applicant, just briefly. In regards to the diversity of homes, are you considering that within your project or within the entire area?

So within this specific parcel under the residential rural designation, 30 single-family homes could be built, but within the larger community, there will be a mix of housing of single-family and townhouses.

Okay. All right. Mr. Mayor? Yeah. Actually, Ms. Farmer, if you can confirm, so when you said the larger development, can you explain? So this proposal for the 30 homes, right?

Yes, yes.

But you're saying there's a...

Meritage already has under construction a development that was rezoned and annexed quite some time ago.

It's like right next door. Right next door. Okay, that's what I saw, okay.

Yes, and so this is simply to clean up an oversight of this parcel, which again includes the access of the Northern Durham Parkway to be annexed into the city to allow for that extension of water and sewer.

And so the parcel is already under construction. That includes what kind of housing options or types?

the parcel that is before you tonight or the larger development?

The larger one, yeah.

The larger development will be a mix of single family homes and townhomes.

Okay, thank you. And to staff, that's one thing that comes up sometimes, the interpretation of what is determined to be diversity of housing types. Is it within the actual project itself or is it within the the region, well, that area. And I don't know if we clearly designate that. And it just really sparked my interest when Council Member Baker asked that question. His interpretation, I'm assuming Council Member Baker is, will we see a diversity of housing types in this property? My interpretation is, does this property add to the diversity within the area? And I don't know if we clearly delineate that determination. That's just something I'm thinking out loud about, but I guess it's up for interpretation. Thank you. I don't think there's an answer for it tonight. I think it's a matter of what our interpretation is.

When staff interprets the policy, typically within those place type policies, in our commentary, we have identifiers. So usually for smaller sites, we look for a mix of housing in the general area and the overall place type. And when you start to get into those larger 20 plus acre sites, that's when we look for consistency with the policy to be multiple housing types within the project.

And that's very helpful, but I don't know if there's a threshold that's identified. Okay. Yeah, go ahead.

I have a question for the applicant. And I apologize if you've already stated this. I just want to go back. So what was profit a part of this project? Or what's the public benefit that you all are offering as a part of this project?

I was not involved in the rezoning and annexation for the larger portion. So I can't speak to what occurred for that zoning. But I do know, again, the housing types that will be built.

Okay, so to staff, does anyone have any recollection of what was proffered as a part of this project? Like, was it that great that, you know?

Hey, Peyton. We are working to get the original proposal pulled up, but that was before I was here, so I'm not positive off the top of my head exactly what that rezoning consisted of. And I'm gonna kind of look back, because I think that they were trying to get that pulled up, and so maybe in just a second they can come up and have that development plan. But yes, I'm not sure off the top of my head exactly what all the proffers were for that rezoning.

I will say I do believe it was an older legacy case from quite some time ago and before we had the modern development plan, so it might take a bit to dive in to see exactly what was included for the larger.

Just out of curiosity, so it predates Peyton and probably definitely, I've only been on council for like nine months, so I wanted to know in this case, since this is happening in phases is what I'm assuming, how many of the proffers have been met? Because we're currently actively trying to track down some of the profits that have been promised to certain communities, well, just around public schools. So I'm just curious at this point, where you're building out in this phase, where are we at in terms of like the profits that have been already promised and they've been solidified at this point. But I recognize it'll take some time. So I don't want to make perfect enemy of good.

Good evening, Councilmember Sarah Young, Planning and Development. Erin is trying to pull up the development plan, but the original development plans are from 1986-87, which really predates like any standard modern proffers. We're still willing to look it up if you give us a few minutes, but that may help kind of put it in context.

So the proffer is older than me. Okay, thank you. No, it's not, again, I don't want to make perfect enemy. I thought it was like maybe a couple years back, but not like 39 years back.

Thank you. All right, well, back to the case that we have before us. I'll entertain a motion. Gosh, I was six years old. Oh, Council Member Cook.

Oh, oh, that's a big one. I have one more question for the applicant. So you said earlier that this was like an oversight I 40 year ago oversight I do y'all is there does this owner own other properties nearby will we be seeing other things is it coming to us in pieces as Councilmember burst was asking to should we look for other things coming in the future.

so the larger development that is being constructed under that legacy zoning is an eight phase project and so this would be potentially the ninth phase of that again the construction of the northern durham parkway is already underway on this parcel so this will simply allow for the sewer to come up from the southern portion to cheek road and then for the water that already exists in cheek road to come further south when this property was acquired the assumption was that this parcel was already annexed into the city and the applicant became aware that it was not annexed into the city once they started diving into it further. And so that's why, before you just simply clean up that oversight.

But this will be the whole oversight cleanup?

No, this is just to include this one.

Right, sorry. We've got the prior eight phases. This is number nine. The prior eight. already and legacy changed um do we have other things that will come in front of us again after this is the question no okay thanks

I should clarify, there is always the possibility at some point in the future, they're looking at this. This, again, being phase nine would be potentially three years from now, they would be looking at construction on this property. Of course, we don't know what's going to happen with the new UDO. There's always the possibility of it being rezoned in the future. So I do just want to clarify, for the record.

But this property, not like they don't own a whole bunch of properties around it, and we're going to like see it coming to us in phases. No. Okay, thank you.

All right. I'll entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing Avalon Place Phase 9 into the City of Durham and to authorize the City Manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with Meritage Homes of the Carolinas Incorporated. So moved. Second. Moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes five to two with council members Baker and Cook voting no.

Let's see, I'll also entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential rule, Falls Jordan District B Watershed Protection Overlay County jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential rule. So moved. Falls Jordan District B Watershed Protection Overlay City jurisdiction.

So moved. Second.

Moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes five to two with Council Members Baker and Cook voting no.

Thank you. I'll also entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General Statute Section 160D-605. So moved. Second. Moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Item number 18, consolidated annexation, Page Road Townhomes. Ready for the staff report.

Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, honorable council members, just like to say good evening again. I'm still Javar Jones, still work with Planning and Development Department. Also still happy to be here. A request for a utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change has been received from Marie Farmer with Parker Poe for one parcel of land totaling 4.01 acres and located at 4213 Page Road. This annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits. As part of this application, the applicant is seeking to change the zoning district from residential rural to planned development residential 8.728 to allow up to 35 townhouse, detached row house, multiplex, or apartment units. The property is currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map. The proposed PDR 8.728 zoning is generally consistent with the designated place type. If the proposal, if the proposed zoning is approved, there will be no change to the place type designation of mixed residential neighborhood. Thank you. Staff and the applicant are available for any questions.

Thank you so much. You've heard the staff report. Are there any technical questions? All right, therefore, I'll declare the public hearing open. All right, how much time do you think you need?

If we could have six minutes for this one.

All right, please put seven minutes.

Good evening again, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of council. My name is Marie Farmer with Parker Poe, 301 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh, here on behalf of the applicant, local developer Gurang Gala. I'm also joined by the project's landscape architect, Brandon Moore, with the site group. The case before you tonight is a small-scale infill project that adds housing along a growing corridor, is complementary to the surrounding residential development, and reflects the comprehensive plan's vision for the property. The request is to rezone and annex one four acre parcel along Page Road directly across from Shakespeare Drive and the Page Towns and just south of 40 and Page and the intersection of Page Road and Chin Page Road. The current zoning on the property is residential rural, which would allow for five single family homes. And we are requesting PDR with a textual development plan to allow for a 35 unit small scale residential development. The request is consistent with that place type map designation mixed residential neighborhood. This includes neighborhoods built on undeveloped land designed to add a diversity of housing types with the primary use being residential. So, as was I believe explained earlier mix residential neighborhoods smaller than 20 develop both acres should increase the mix of housing in the surrounding area and immediate vicinity and so, as you can see here, we created this image to show. the different housing types that already exist along the corridor. You can see the single family in pink, the townhouses in orange, and the apartments in purple. And so this request meets this designation because we are proposing a residential use on undeveloped land that will add multifamily options to the area. This request is also within the urban growth boundary where the comprehensive plan expects development to occur. The annexation is consistent with policy 165. It is surrounded by existing city limits, and so it will be contiguous, and it will, again, reduce that existing donut hole that currently exists. We have included 14 text commitments to align with the comprehensive plan and growth trends here in Durham, including again, a maximum of 35 residential units, including various housing type options of townhouse, detached row house, multiplex and apartments with design variations. We've prohibited mass grading, required all new trees to be native. We have proffered $35,000 to the dedicated housing fund, $5,000 to Durham Public Schools, which comes out to around $1,600 per student that would be generated by the proposed zoning. In terms of transportation commitments, we will be constructing the southbound left turn lane onto Page Road at the site access point, constructing a 10 foot shared path for the full frontage of the site and also dedicating 25 feet of right of way to accommodate the road widening of Page Road that is called for in the comprehensive transportation plan. We know that council has expressed recently appreciation for concept plans to help visualize projects when they are submitted with the textual development plan. And so we have provided this plan to illustrate that extension of Tula Bloom Lane through the site. the access onto Page Road, and then that multi use path and right of way dedication along the frontage. You can also see here that the sidewalk that exists along Tulip Bloom Lane currently will be extended through this site on both sides and connect to the multi use path along the frontage. Staff has found that the request aligns with the majority of the applicable policies, with four policies exceeding UDO requirements, which is substantial for a small-scale development, again, four acres, 35 units. Those commitments that we are exceeding, the UDL focus on issues that this council and citizens have deemed important. Again, prohibiting mass grading, committing to native plantings, and making donations to the Affordable Housing Fund and to Durham Public Schools in a manner that is appropriate and an amount that's proportional for the size of this development. In terms of the place type, the request is also consistent with all applicable policies which focus on adding new housing types to the area. Again, which we've done by introducing new housing types such as the row houses and multiplex as options. So overall, this proposal is consistent with the comprehensive plan. It is compatible with the zoning and uses nearby. It will improve the balance of uses in the area, again, by providing those new housing types that will meet growing housing demand here in Durham. And there is adequate infrastructure that is available to support this modest development. And so we would respectfully request your approval, consistent with the Planning Commission's unanimous recommendation for approval. Thank you.

Thank you so much. All right. I have one speaker, Pablo Friedman.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of city council, city manager, staff, millions of folks in the audience, and the millions of folks online, and to our lovely council members who like to be on their cell phones when folks are speaking at the microphone. So three minutes, I feel like I have won the lottery tonight. So I'll try to make a judicious use of these three minutes. So I wanna lean into what Council Member Burris said earlier tonight around the proffers, particularly to our public school system. So I do wanna congratulate the applicant on proffering $5,000, because if you do the math on the net number of students, which is three, it is, as they pointed out, $1,600 per net student. I think that's a step in the right direction. I would challenge everyone on this council going forward to hold every single rezoning request to that standard if you're willing to uphold it tonight with Parker Poe and this applicant. So thank you on that. Here's where the math gets fuzzy. So if you read the documents that were included with this request, in the report, it says the potential with the current zoning is negative one student. I don't know how you can have a negative student, like that doesn't mathematically compute. So I think if a council member could ask staff how the math gets to negative one student, I think that would be great for the public. Because if every student is being weighed at $1,600, well, you're talking about $1,600 potentially lost to the public school system. The other part as I lose or as I have the next 90 seconds, I wanna talk about our emergency services. And I do wanna thank the reports because now there's more concrete data and numbers around our emergency responders. And so if you look at the report, it talks about the revenues generated by this rezoning request is $131,000. Total expenditures is $40,000 that the city will incur with a net value add to the city of 91,000. Well, here's where the math gets really, really tricky. If you read further down, the EMS numbers aren't calculated in that calculation. So EMS equipment, operational and personnel is $27,000 and $91,000 respectively for a grant total of $118,000, which means city taxpayers, which are also county taxpayers, are on the hook for about $26,000. So the taxpayer is actually losing on this rezoning request. And so at previous public comment, I talked about how these applicants have to be giving serious proffers to emergency responders. Because right now, if you just on the, beautiful mathematical calculation, the taxpayers are going to have to subsidize this development to the tune of $27,000. I think that's bad public policy. Council Member Rist, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, Mayor Williams, and Council Member Baker, when you all face the voters next year, I hope you have a good response to why you're not doing more for emergency responders. Thank you.

Thank you. That's the only speaker that I have for this item. Ms. Farmer, do you need a response?

I guess the apologies, I am not that tall. The only thing I would like to point out is in the city manager's memo, the financial impact is summarized and explains that the estimated cumulative general fund net gain to the city as a result of this project being built out is $88,103, but we would defer to staff on the overall cost analysis. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, at this time I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council. Any questions? Yeah, go ahead.

All right, I have a question for the applicant, please. I just want to highlight, just thinking about some 2026 data that shows where about 31% of our residents are cost spurting here in Durham, with 48% of those being renters and 18% of those being homeowners. So I do see where you all have proffered 35,000 for the housing fund and 5,000 for the one-time donation to DPS. I feel like is there a way we could actually increase that? Because it's not as significant as you were proffering units or so or affordability in terms of like 30 years. I think that based on what folks stand to gain, 35,000 is significantly low for me. And so I wonder if there's an opportunity to discuss with your client about a more substantial investment considering the current circumstance we're in here in Durham.

Yes, that is a conversation that we have had. Historically, as this council knows, for smaller projects, applicants have typically proffered $1,000 per unit, but we do understand as recent as last month, this council did approve a small townhouse project that offered, I believe it was around $1,250 per unit. And so that is something that we have discussed. And we are prepared to increase the donation amount to match that project that was approved last month. So I believe that would increase our donation amount to $45,000. All right.

Thank you. I'll yield for my other colleagues.

Any other, yeah, go ahead, Council Member Wurst. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, yeah. Thank you, Ms. Farmer again for the presentation. Yeah, so I think this is a pretty good infill project and I appreciate the increased density. We need more housing supply in Durham. So I think there's third of our units when you, there could have been just five units there, right? So I appreciate the increased density. I appreciate the range of housing options you're offering. I appreciate the completion of that street network. I drove by there the other day, so that Tulip Bloom Lane, it's gonna be completed. I appreciate that. And I appreciate the infrastructure improvements and also this additional proffer, thanks to Councilman Berger's question. My only question was, I'm looking at the comprehensive plan consistency review. So one thing I'm wondering about is the green building and whether you've considered green building standards for this project. So for... That's one of the policies that was not met.

Yes. And so that policy, I believe it's policy 49. There are several ways to sort of meet that policy. One of them is using green building techniques. So at this time, again, because Gerang is a local developer, he's looking to partner with someone on this project. and we've left open the options for the multiple housing types, it would be difficult to restrict the design at this stage without knowing the exact housing types and partners here. Again, given the scale as well, it is our understanding that those green building standards can drive up costs. And so we are trying to keep costs lower given the scale. So that is not something that we have considered here. Another way to meet that policy is by including EV charging. So that is something that we sort of looked through. If I could pull up on the screen again, the concept plan, if you recall, it is a pretty, funky shaped parcel. And so we were trying to figure out if there was a way that we could include space for potentially an EV charging station. I think what would be more likely here is for us to be able to wire the units to allow for EV charging. I know that the policy calls for publicly accessible EV charging station to technically meet the policy. But I think given the size of this project, it would be difficult. And to be honest, I'm not sure how many folks would come to this small community to use the one publicly accessible EV charging station. But Gring does have experience wiring units for EV charging.

So you're saying that they would include in all the units potentially what you're suggesting is like level two charging in the unit?

Yes.

And is that something you're prepared to... commit tonight or is that still under consideration?

So my understanding is we have attempted those types of proffers in the past, but it is very burdensome based on my understanding. I will defer to staff for staff to be able to go in and do the inspections to see if that wiring is in the home when they go to do those. So it is my understanding that it is staff's preference for us to not make those zoning commitments, but It is something I wanted to speak to because Greng does have experience with it, and that would be the goal here.

Yeah, Director Young can speak to that. So it sounds like putting a level two charger in a unit won't currently meet policy 49, given what Ms. Farmer just said about staff's ability to actually like confirm that. I'm just wondering whether, is that something in the new LDC that's also potentially changing or where are we? Because I think that's certainly, I think a strong offer. And as EVs are growing in this community or in this country community, and I get that like every development may not, having like a public charging station may not necessarily be the most sort of like in demand, but having units that, or having that ability in the unit could be a great opportunity or a great option. So yeah, I'd love your thoughts on that.

Sure. And this is definitely something that is a best practice for sure. One of the challenges that we have with enforcing a proffer like this is that the planning and development department doesn't have authority to inspect or hold up a building permit or a CEO based on land use regulations, even proffers. The building and safety department, who are the folks that inspect buildings and would be the ones looking at whether the structure is wired correctly, they are limited in their authority and they can only enforce the building code. So that's a bit of the conundrum that we're in, is that neither one of us has kind of the authority to really enforce it. And so without a proper enforcement ability, that is concerning to staff of whether or not we would get these

I think I appreciate that. Maybe this issue for the manager, maybe to sort of like think about it, was there a way we can somehow as a city connect those, sort of figure out a way that we can do that across department lines.

Yeah, I have a follow-up question to that because previously, I mean, I know if it's a community one, you can see it. So that's, I'm assuming how you can do it, but people have also proffered wiring for photovoltaic, even if they haven't provided photovoltaic. And so how are we enforcing that?

So those proffers are the ones that brought to light how problematic this is.

Okay. So because of that proffer from previous, that's how we, so when we're talking about an individual unit and the wiring for a thing, like obviously if they offer photovoltaic, you can see it, but the wiring is...

we've had folks in the past i think proffer or at least attempted to proffer conduit or pre-wiring but that's not something that we can go inspect for and that's not something that the building and safety department can hold someone accountable they can't hold their electrical permit for it though that is not a requi if it's not required as part of the building code they don't have authority to enforce that okay i'm gonna i'm gonna follow up with that because there's

Okay, it doesn't seem, I hear what you're saying and I am thinking, knowing how easy it is for people to hold up a permit in our planning, in our inspections department, that seems slippery to me. Like it doesn't seem, yeah, I'll follow up. So I hear what you're saying, but I think that Yeah. Okay. We'll have a follow up conversation. Maybe it can be a JCCPC topic.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I have a couple of questions. Yeah. We're all very confused about that. So that'll be okay. A couple of questions. I'm wondering about that open space. Has there been discussion about whether it would be public

yes it's right there on the corner sort of like right at the road on the concept plan so the community amenities for this project including the open space are planned to be private and if the units are for sale the hoa would manage those if they do end up being rental units it would be a management company and so in either scenario the the cost and liability would be difficult for to spread out over just the 30 homes that would be a part of this community. And so we felt it was more appropriate for them to be private. And given that we are meeting Policy 50, which calls for being within close proximity of a public park, we are within a four-minute drive of Briar Creek Park.

And I understand that I understand that y'all are leaving your options open, and so we have this sort of variety of possible types of units it's a massive variety, though, like they're one is not like the other, and we were looking at anything between like an apartment building and townhouses right like. it's it's quite different and so i'm wondering. Because i'm looking at it as compared to think come Council member rest was talking about this to the policies that are not met, which are several I mean it's. You have exceeded a few but we're we're only at about like a 65% meeting or exceeding right so we're still looking at a pretty big shortage on some of these policies. So like commitments to accessibility needs the green building techniques, some of these things and i'm just wondering like what can we work in is there anything that we can work in understanding that you're leaving the options open for this diversity.

Yes, and I do want to point out the commitment, the variation in the housing types, it in large part has to do with whether or not the units will be subdivided or not, but we do have a commitment that all of the units will be designed to appear like townhouses and that they will have vertical separations only. As you can imagine, with the shape of this parcel, it would be very difficult to do horizontal separated apartments, for example. So whether they are the row houses or townhouses or apartments, they will likely look similar. In terms of our comprehensive plan policies that are not met, I think policy 96 is one that we can also address tonight because we do not have an impervious service limitation currently. And I did talk to our folks and we can add a commitment tonight that the total site impervious service shall not exceed 70%. And so we would be meeting policy 96 with that.

That's helpful. And I think that you're probably going to answer this like you answered the green building one, but the accessibility for the accessibility, which is policy, I think it's 40. 48.

Yes. So we do not have commitments to address policy 48. Typically, this council has seen commitments for first floor bedrooms, and that usually requires larger, wider units. And so I think in order to achieve the density here, although it's only 35 units, I think it would be difficult to accommodate here. OK.

Yeah, and I appreciate this. I appreciate that it's I'm good with my questions. I appreciate that it's that we're leaving the options open here. And I can understand why. And I appreciate that it's a local developer and that we kind of have to bear in mind costs. I'm also just aware that we don't actually really need more housing in Durham. We need more affordable housing in Durham. And that's that is a different thing. And we're not getting any affordable housing here. So when we're talking about like leaving options open to cut costs, I think that I would feel more inclined to to be understanding of that when we would be getting actual affordable housing. And I understand there's a donation to the Dedicated Housing Fund, and I appreciate the City Council Chambers, Increased offer there, but that does not in fact build affordable housing, so we get density and we do get. City Council Chambers, Good things, but we really don't get the things that are most needed in the city, yet we are sort of giving this big boon of a change in. City Council Chambers, In zoning and annexation so it's it's just a something that i'm balancing I haven't made up my mind about it, but something that i'm just thinking about where it's. It is a big boon. And then we sort of are getting a lot of things that we don't know, like a lot of things that could be useful. We are getting some positives. But overall, I feel like we're not getting what we most desperately need, which is affordable housing. So just things that I am thinking of. Thanks.

Thank you. Good evening. I will be supporting this project. It's quite small. And in fact, they are offering significantly more than many other. Usually once we get under 50 units, it becomes a lot harder for folks to do much of anything. And I do actually believe supply matters in a housing ecosystem. It is not the only thing that matters. There are many tools that affect the cost of housing. And supply is one of them. And that is pretty much accepted across the country, regardless of your political background. You're seeing a lot of leftists, socialists, and others recognize that supply matters in the housing ecosystem, especially when you have a very quickly, population quickly increasing, as we see, not just in Durham, but across the entire region. So that's a very small site. It's tricky. There's not a lot you can do with it. It's exactly kind of what we want to do. Small infill, closer to amenities and other places, providing a housing type that's not there, changing the development pattern from, you know, single families. The previous case was all single family. Made more sense where it was, but this is, closer in. And so you want to see smaller, denser units that then can get built and sold or rented at maybe not a subsidized price, but certainly at a more affordable price. And so it hits a lot of the targets. A comprehensive plan in many ways is aspirational. if we want transit we have to put the people on a route we want commercial you have to have the residents there to support the commercial or it doesn't come and we are undoing many decades of not great development patterns and slowly painfully we are moving in the right direction we're not always going to get it right but i will be supporting this and i appreciate the developer you know trying to meet us on many of our policies even though the project is small

And so I just have more of a comment, just thinking about like, I appreciate my colleagues for uplifting the variables in which how they approach the issue and that we all have different ideologies and approaches to it. But I think that overwhelmingly what I'm hearing from a lot in our community is that people feel like development is happening to them and not with them. And that's just the crux of the matter. As I recall in Minnesota, there's a conversation I had with a bartender and she spoke about how she didn't mind paying higher taxes because they had sufficient public transit, they had housing that was subsidized more so. And so I think as we have these conversations about people are not opposed to growth, but to some of our residents, it feels like they are subsidizing the cost of growth and there's not a public benefit. to them as we are bearing the burden. So I think there's a lot of, maybe some reluctancy as we saw what happened earlier this year with some of the tax, and this is not particularly you, just a general theme, when we saw that with some of the tax evaluations or reevaluations and the refunds that were given, I don't think homeowners have that same luxury or privilege, right? And so it's a situation or environment where we felt the rich keep getting richer and that the people who have built this city are being pushed out via public policy. And so we could talk about supply and demand, but I think that it comes a point where we have to be introspective and think about maybe our approach is currently not working for everyone in the city and no one should be left behind. So that's where I'm at and thinking about, I do appreciate you for your profits, but it's a little hard when you hear people every day in a grocery store, the gas station, the air salon, telling you about how they cannot afford to live in this community, how they are generations deep in Durham. And so when we talk about type of housing we wanna see, and I get that we're not, I'm not gonna like perfectly the enemy of good, but I think there's an overall sentiment from many in our community that we talk about it a lot, but we're not currently being about it here in this community. So I just wanted to put that out on the record as we continue to contemplate this case.

Mr. Kovacs. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and to my colleagues for this great discussion. So I appreciate the increases in the affordable housing proffer. I'd love there to be a discussion with staff and colleagues about what we think that right benchmark should be based on different sizes, but it's good to see that increase in a greater amount per unit, as well as the proffer around our public school support. Another thing we've been discussing in our joint city county planning committee which cons member baker chairs and mayor pro tem cabrera and I serve on as well as cons member burris. is looking at the application again and what information that we collect and so we've already made some suggestions it's not. On the immediate work plan, but we have asked for it to be added to future work plan and come on a future agenda. so we can discuss and make sure that we're getting all the information we need, including the right information for cost-benefit analysis. And so that's something that's definitely on our minds. One question I have for the applicant is around a lot of developments going up in this area and just the experience of neighbors and passersby. What kind of screening will there be between the site and the developments and on the road front itself? There's some developments that are completely screened from the road with kind of a multi-use path or sidewalk in between the development and the main thoroughfare. What will this project have in that regard?

So currently under the ordinance, no project boundary buffers are required. If you can, or if staff could pull up the concept plan again, you can see that we are planning for a 20 foot project boundary buffer around the site and we are happy to make that proffer as well tonight that that will definitely be included. And if it is the will of the council, we would also be open to adding a commitment that 10% additional planting units above the required amount would be provided within those buffers to ensure that that screening is provided from the road and from the adjacent community.

Thank you. And staff captured that? So I wanna make sure we have that language.

Actually, I was gonna interject just to make sure that we were caught up on the commitment. So thank you. to Marie. Um, just want to confirm and just capture it correctly. So in reference to the, um, Durham dedicated housing fund, an increase in profit increase from 35,000 to 45,000.

That is correct.

Okay. Also a commitment to limiting the total impervious on the site, which shall not exceed 70%. Correct. Um, committing to a 20% project boundary buffer.

a 20 foot 0.4 opacity project boundary buffer. And then if it is the will of the council, if further screening is desired, we would be open to adding a commitment that 10% additional planting above the required amount would be provided within that buffer. So it would still be 20 feet, but additional plantings would be provided.

Okay, yes, we've got that. Hmm?

Yeah, and I think the discussion around drivers of affordability and displacement is a really important one, and I think it's going to be ongoing. I think ultimately it's a multivariate issue, and I think it's important to continue to see the complexity and what factors go into that. I mean, personally, part of my background is in affordable housing policy at the federal level, as well as economics. And part of that was, you know, advocating to redress the wrongs of redlining, which was a very intentional public policy. And, you know, I think, you know, I think It is clear the impact of decades of intentional planned artificial housing scarcity, which meant that when Durham saw a record in migration around the US and from around the world in the last 10 to 15 years, including like a big spike during the pandemic, we were wholly unprepared to respond. And the result was exactly what you would expect. a quick and rapid increase in housing prices. And that's exactly what we've seen and what we've been digging out of for the long term. You know, so I think what I've learned is you can't throttle you can't throttle housing in in-demand neighborhoods have skyrocketing supply and expect to see anything other than displacement, increased homelessness. And I think that's what you've seen in Durham and across the country. And I think what we've seen is the cities that have done this the best to get their housing costs under control are those that have paired both really strong tenant protections with a focus on having more housing as a really critical twin strategies to fighting displacement, which is something that's really important to me. And I know that's something we talk a lot about in Durham. And so it's just my contribution to our friendly discussion from the dais. And thank you for answering the questions.

Thank you.

Sorry, just can I bring you back up just to confirm with the extra tree planting also be native like the rest of the commitment? Yes, that is correct.

And just to confirm, so I'm sorry, back to the EV charger. So that's not a commitment you can make is that we're saying right now, at least for now, we can't sort of give you credit for that because we can't verify that. Is that something you're still gonna do anyway?

For which one?

For the EV chargers, the in-unit level two.

Yes, and I was speaking with Gerank further. He has done several projects in Wake County where he has done the EV charging in all of those projects. It's something he's passionate about. He recognizes for the market here as well. It benefits him to do the EV charging as well. So that while we can't include as a proffer, if you look at his record locally, it's something he does and he plans on doing here.

We appreciate that. Sorry, we can't give you credit now, but it's something we'll, I think planning, Joint City County Planning, maybe the manager can help us to figure that one out. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all so much for your comments. This this this council is is we like to go really deep into these and you can hear we look at the technical data here and colleagues. I really appreciate that. And we also are very connected to, you know, just the the everyday. Uh, struggles that people people are facing. I understand that states are different. Uh, but one thing that we are experiencing across the nation is the affordability crisis. And for the first time, we have five generations living at one time. Um, we don't have a lot, but we, you know, there are some things such as like, you know, the, uh, when it comes to taxes raising. You know, just trying to, folks that meet that certain threshold at a retirement age, we try to help them out as much as possible. It's still not enough. But, you know, I think Council Member Kobach, I really agree with your commentary. We gotta have the supply as well as the protections And North Carolina is not favorable in many ways. And so we'll take it. I do hope that everyone will take this energy to the General Assembly and allow us to have more flexibility and tools at the local level so that we can actually be able to provide for our residents. But in the meantime, until we'll just have to deal with what We'll keep wrestling here at the local level as much as we can to get the best product and the best resources. But I'll be supporting it. And thanks for all the proffers. And at this time, I'll entertain a motion. I'll entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing Page Road townhouses. into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with DTR properties LLC.

So moved to second.

I moved to probably second it. Madam Clerk, please open to vote. Two more, please. Yeah, I need I need there we go. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes five to two with council members Baker and Burris voting no.

All right. And I'll also entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential rural county jurisdiction and establishing the same as planned development residential 8.728 city jurisdiction.

So moved. Second.

So moved and probably second. Please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes 5-2 with Council Members Baker and Burris voting no.

Thank you very much. And lastly, I'll entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General Statute, Section 160D-605. So moved.

Second.

So moved and probably seconded. Madam Clerk, please open to vote. Please close to vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right. Last one. Item number 19. Just to be sure, Madam Clerk, Katie Ross is on the line. Go ahead.

Yes. Yes, I am.

All right. Thank you. I'll call you soon. All right. Ready for the staff report.

Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and honorable council members, good evening. I'm Peyton Burgess with the Planning and Development Department, and still happy to be here with you this evening. A request for a utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation, and initial zoning map change has been received from Jeremy Anderson with Thomas and Hutton for three parcels of land totaling 10.91 acres and located at 416, 426, and 430 Sharon Road. This annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the primary corporate limits. As part of this application, the applicant is seeking to change the zoning district from residential rural and residential suburban 20 to plan development residential 4.583 to allow up to 50 single family dwelling units. The properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map. The proposed PDR 4.583 zoning is generally consistent with the designated place type. Thank you staff and the applicant are available for any questions.

Thank you so much. You've heard the staff report. Are there any questions? I mean, comments? All right. At this time, I'll declare the public hearing open. And the applicant, please. How much time do you think you need? About seven minutes, eight minutes. Okay.

Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and members of the Durham City Council. Thank you for your time tonight. My name is Juan Montes. I'm the director of land entitlements at In My Homes, the developer of this project. I wanted to give you guys a quick introduction to us, although we may not need it. We're no stranger to Durham. I wanted to share some of the significant investments we've made in the city. Just to name a couple examples, we have approved plans to build and dedicate a public children's park worth roughly $1.7 million. That's not including the land value. That's at our Olive Branch Crossing project off of Shady Grove Road. We're making significant road improvements worth millions of dollars to various areas in southeast Durham to accommodate the city's growth. We're continuously looking for ways to invest in Durham and the application in front of you tonight is no exception. with the proposed Oak Grove Landing project, a far smaller project than the Olive Branch Crossing. We've done everything we can to make the numbers work and invest in Durham with the $96,000 investment to the Dedicated Housing Fund, $15,000 to the Durham Public Schools, and $15,000 to Durham Public Safety MS. We're helping a neighbor near a sewer connection hook up to water as they have a failing well that could cost MI Homes approximately $10,000. I'll let Jeremy talk to an AT&T easement in just a moment. But we see these as collectively good contributions to the community, although comparatively speaking to some of MI Homes' larger projects, they can seem small. But again, we are proposing maximum 50 units here, which is far smaller. But I also wanted to briefly explain how we got to where we are with this proposed case. This project first proposed 76 townhomes, but at our first neighborhood meeting, a lot of folks that you see here today, the biggest concern we heard was density and consequential traffic along Sharon Road. After that meeting, we assessed not just this site, but the surrounding areas. and quickly pivoted to single family detached homes as it made sense to satisfy the neighbor's concerns, but also provide a clean transition between lot sizes that are half an acre to acre lots to our north and to our west, and to our smaller, now our proposed lots, about .1 acres, and then to .04 acre town homes to our south and to our east, creating that good transition of product. We're installing right-hand and left-hand turn lanes to our site to mediate our site's incoming traffic as well as general road improvement, frontage improvements. I'll let Jeremy speak to the rest of the proposal, but I'm here to answer any questions.

Give me a second to pull the presentation up. Is it on here, Peyton?

Are you asking staff if the presentation is on there?

Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I was looking for the presentation. We have a brief presentation, and it's not on the desktop right now.

A lot of wrinkled foreheads.

I can... I can just wing it.

Sorry, there's been some internal email crossing that didn't get it to the podium, I think. Okay. Our apologies.

Any chance flash drive will work? I have a flash drive, but I don't want to risk corrupting the system. My apologies. Authorization code.

67. OK.

Try it and see what happens.

We're just going to go.

I promise there wasn't anything magic on it anyways. But I will do my best to talk through this. Jeremy Anderson, land planner, Thomas and Hutton, 2510 Meridian Parkway here in Durham. I will go through some of the technical details and some of the steps we got to get to this point. Juan kind of covered the broad picture of the goal and the desire here for this project. Quickly, the map that would pull up shows that this is a mixed residential neighborhood place type map, which we are consistent with. As Juan mentioned, there are existing single family homes to the west, half acre to acre lots. We're proposing a smaller single family lot, and then across the road is townhomes. So this is a mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map. We're consistent with that, and we do think we meet that policy by being another product type in the area, albeit single family, a smaller type single family. I want to go through some of the key commitments, tech commitments we've made so far. I'll go through these in a couple steps because we've made some various different times through the process and I think it's important to outline when we made those. Again, 50 residential homes is what the commitment is. The affordable housing proffer, similar to the last case, it's a relatively small project, but we are making a proffer of $96,000 to the affordable housing fund, which is roughly $1,900, $1,920 per unit, which I think is a pretty strong proffer. We've thought through that long and hard. We weren't able to do units, but we think that's a very sizable and meaningful contribution. $15,000 to the Durham Public Schools Fund, native trees, and then quickly on transportation. So Juan mentioned we're doing two turn lanes out front. This project is really nowhere near the threshold for TIA. We're like one-third the number of trips required to get it to require a TIA, but we are doing two turn lanes, left and right, to mitigate traffic on Sharon Road. And just quickly, Sharon Road has a capacity of approximately 14,000 vehicles. Today it's about 11,500. We're adding 300, so from a capacity standpoint, if traffic is a concern, we know it, but the stretch does have some capacity here today. We've had three neighborhood meetings today. We had one kind of fourth with a couple members of the community. So three to four neighborhood meetings. And coming out of the last neighborhood meeting, we made some additional proffers. I want to kind of highlight those because those were kind of in direct response to the neighborhood meeting. We've heard lots of comments about Durham EMS either tonight as well as previous meetings, especially in East Durham here. So we're making a proffer to the Durham Public Safety EMS at the amount of $15,000. We have added some perimeter landscape buffers between this project and the adjacent residential. So we made that along the front of the property. um initially a 10 foot wide 0.4 opacity buffer we'll talk about another buffer in a second uh 10 foot buffer along uh sharon road to just provide a little buffer between the road and some of the homes we are committing to 55 impervious limit instead of 70. So we've dropped that number considerably, and then we are committing to studying the downstream culvert at Gus Road to the 100 year event. So it's more of a neighborhood wide assessment than just on the site. So we will study the culvert at Gus Road, which is just north of the project, where our water will ultimately discharge under the road. And if that analysis shows that we are increasing that or causing an issue, we will have to detain more and treat more onsite. So it's a kind of a twofold, making sure that the neighborhood street is properly maintained and our water is not gonna cause an impact to it. If it does, we will treat additional stormwater onsite. A couple additional text commitments that we made following the planning commission meeting that I wanted to highlight, green building standards. And I appreciate all the work Peyton has went into this. There's been discussion about that. We have made the commitment, although similar to the previous project, we may not get credit for it, but the developer is committing to putting 240 volt EV charging in each garage. It is a proffer still written in there, if you read the proffer. So we did leave it in there. There's still lots of back and forth about if those commitments can stay, but that commitment we're committed to doing regardless. And then we also have a commitment in there to meet one of five or six different green building standards. Each house will be required to provide a certificate prior to CO. So that one is enforceable because I think you can provide the certificate. So we're going to have that commitment in addition to the EV charging. We made a commitment that all 50% of our open space will be in environmentally protected areas. That is something we're happy to make a commitment to and did meet one of the policies. We added a 10 foot landscape buffer along the western property line, again between us and a single family homes. That was one that we were on the fence whether we could do or not, but we did make that commitment. So that's another landscape buffer between us and the existing residential. And then we've committed to 22% tree save. It was a modest increase, but it's it's increasing or exceeding the policy and. You know I think if it was mentioned to us if many projects do that that does that up to a significant amount of tree save if every project does a little bit more so we were we were able to do that. And then quickly, I want to touch on the comprehensive plan policies. The staff report says we meet 15 of 23. We've made some additional profits that I mentioned. We're at 18 of 23. And I kind of want to touch on the ones that we aren't meeting. So affordable housing, we're not meeting it because we're making a cash proffer instead of units. So I've already went through that one. we are now meeting the green building policy we are meeting the open space location policy that by by locating our open space in the sensitive environmentally sensitive areas policy 82 we cannot meet that's 300 foot stream buffers the site i think is about 25 stream buffer already if we went to 300 foot stream buffers we would have less than half the site left to develop so that's really not feasible for a small site um policy 104 public park donation um that one's tough again on a small project liability so we're we're not willing to make the public park contribute commitment policy 108 is green infrastructure we're working on that one that was again difficult on a single family development that doesn't have um not to get in the weeds, but single family lots and public roads is hard to meet some of these green infrastructure where they're asking for pervious paving or rain gardens. It may be possible, but we can't put pervious paving in a public street. We can't put pervious paving in a private driveway. I don't think it's allowed to do it on private single family lots. Some of these policies are tough for single family lots and public roads, and that's essentially what most of this project is. We don't have a common clubhouse or something like that where we can add some of these Possible green infrastructure commitments. And then policy one sixty five is the last one we're not meeting and that has to do with the annexation. We are technically creating a little donut hole. There's one parcel that's two parcels that are out front on sharing road that. We are encompassing and then because the. Property across the road is within the city. We are contiguous, but we now create a donut hole. We did reach out to that property owner. Um, uh, and I had a conversation with them. They're not. interested in joining the application or annexing in. So we did reach out and made a valid effort to ask that question, but they're not interested in annexing, so we're left with that donut hole. With that, I think I'd just reiterate some of the high points that Juan and myself hit. We think this is providing a single family, a different single family, a smaller single family product type to Durham for additional housing, as we discussed all evening. It's an infill neighborhood surrounded by residential. It's kind of landlocked. So I think this is, again, an infill residential neighborhood. It's been mentioned several times this evening, and this certainly checks that box. Financial contributions to affordable housing, as well as Durham EMS and Durham County Public Schools. And then the additional landscape buffers and green standards. We've really worked hard to add additional buffers or different, excuse me, additional standards and commitments to meet as many policies as possible. With that, I'll be available for any questions. Thank you. And apologies again for the technical difficulties.

All right. Thank you. All right. I have several speakers. I'm just going to queue everyone up in the order that I have you. But I'll start online first. Katie Ross. Ms. Ross, can you hear me? As I'm calling Ms. Ross up. Yes, one moment, Ms. Ross. I want to call up the others to get ready. Jameson Boone, Adam Shiflett, Eric Hester, Ian Scott, Pablo Freeman, Pam Andrews, Faith Bowen, Wanda Allen, Sammy Henry, Melissa Fizzle. All right. Ms. Ross, can you hear me?

Yes, you freaked me out earlier, Mr. Mayor. I was trying to get on and nothing was working.

Gotcha, gotcha. Well, you have three minutes. Welcome.

OK, so this project, 50 market rate single family homes, which the Planning Commission rejected, I believe, on a 7 to 2 vote, has no affordable housing. There's no question that since 2020 the number of new housing units projected to be needed by 2050 has already been exceeded through new units already built those under construction and those you have already approved and that's just in six years. Some of you defend this by saying, well, some projects might not be built, even though we approve them. But my, my very limited research into this and I think you should do research into this too. is that Durham actually has a very high percentage of approved projects proceeding on to completion compared to the state and nationally. So there is no crisis or shortage of market rate, especially single family homes. And I haven't seen any discussions of a comp plan or the new UDO that is encouraging whole neighborhoods A single family home, in fact, what i've seen is quite the opposite, so this this project doesn't meet that. In addition, even tonight you've been talking about or some people i'm talking about we have this big influx of population, but I would like to know, and I think you should know whether the population projections from 2020. are still valid given the loss of jobs in the RTP, the loss of federal worker jobs, plus reduced tech expansion in the region. And on top of that, a big topic of recent discussion is how AI is replacing people's jobs. And I think that's going to be something that you should look at in the not very far future. I would just ask you to consider all that. This doesn't meet any needs of the region. It would take out 11 acres of wood that we do need. So thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Ross. Well, now those are all of the, that's the only virtual speaker I have. I'll now move to in person. And I just queued everyone up. If you want to sit down and wait till your turn, that's fine. You don't have to stand. It's up to you all. Welcome, Mr. Boone.

Thank you, let me get this set up, one second.

Does that work?

Can't see it?

Not yet. It may come up. It's a bit delayed.

There you go. Okay, sweet. Hello. Thank you for having me and for listening to all our concerns today. I'm Jameson. I live at this property. Proposed development is directly in my backyard, so I will feel an immediate impact from it. My house is the third from the right, near the photo site, right? And just wanted to address some of the environmental concerns I had with this development. The blue line is a stream that, at least I believe, maybe others do too when you see the picture, that the developer accepted it as an intermittent stream. I haven't seen an environmental assessment, but from The professional side, so I'm a registered forester, I practice forestry in this area. I've done stream assessments. To me, it's a perennial stream, but I haven't done the full assessment. And it's important. The stream directly impacts my family. My kids like to play in the area. The neighborhood, a lot of the neighborhoods around have increased the runoff that has directly raise the stream level, causing incising. You can see some of the erosion on the right side. The development would happen on the left side. And it's a pretty relatively, not pristine, but it's very clear water. We don't have many of these in Durham, especially in this area anymore. Most of the development near. This is an extensive watershed. It's part of, you know, the Falls Lake where we get drinking water. Many of the other developments along Lick Creek have been filled in sediment. And after about five minutes of looking for creatures, right, you know, this is just something fun, you find a salamander. And salamanders happen in clean water they don't like sediment so when sediment comes in especially this type of soil it fills all their pores and they go away they lay you know their eggs they have a 300 foot buffer where they live and breed you know a hundred foot would be at least acceptable I didn't hear any of those suggestions from the developer this is One area that means a lot aesthetically, but also just the stream protection. We have owls, we have bats that we like to watch every night. It's just an important area for us. So with that, I'll leave the floor. Thank you.

Oh, you can just come. Next speaker is Adam Shifflett. I'll tell you what, you guys just come in. Just do what you do. You're all going to speak. Got to let them know how to do it, Pam. Got to let them know how to do it.

My name is Eric Hester. I'm born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. lived on Robins Road for 45 years. 2014, we established our neighborhood association, which is shown right here, highlighted in yellow. It's known as Sharon Acres. And we've had a great time of getting to know our neighbors since 2014. You see the boundaries that we have on Wake Forest Highway at Robins Road up to Hocut Road. We cross over. onto Sharon Road to Baird Drive and from Baird to Van Drive, and then we come down to Chickasaw. We recently received the notice of the development proposal, Sharon Road and the 400 block being Oak Grove landing. The original proposal was to build 80 town homes, but have now modified the proposal to 50 single family dwellings on less than 11 acres. On June the 9th, our community came here for the Planning Commission, where the Commission opposed the annexation by a vote of seven to two. This hearing is not just about 50 family dwellings, but about the all-encompassing involvement or development that exists on being proposed on Sharon Road in the immediate area. Our traffic is out of sight. At my age, doctor's appointments are really serious and important. I cannot make an appointment before 10 o'clock in the morning or be out after 3 o'clock because of the traffic that backs up on Wake Forest Highway. Now on our Sharon, Robin's Road, because it's a cut-through from 98 to Sharon Road to get wherever they're going. We're not opposed to annexation, but when it's all said and done, There will be over 1,000 apartments, townhomes, and single-family dwellings added to Sharon Road alone, which right now it's only a two-lane country road with a few turn lanes and no additional traffic calming measures. This, in my opinion, is an unthoughtful and irresponsible way of planning. Right across the road where they're proposing this 50 single-family dwellings, they're right now constructing 100 townhomes right across the road. Volunteer, or people who are, those who work for first responders, their call volume is out the window. That's very overwhelming, which I understand why that we have a shortage of personnel in each one of these departments. As I was traveling through several of the existing developments, it's not an uncommon sight to see for sale signs popping up. in front of the houses to include one of the new developments sharing place, which is right here. Long-term neighbors are now seeking options to get away from the havoc that's being created. I do respectfully ask that you deny this annexation until such time the city is able to thoughtfully, responsibly take care of our existing communities. Thank you, sir.

I'm okay. I'm good. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members, thank you all for hearing us out. We've all stayed up past our bedtime, so I hope that's meaningful to show our cause here. I just want to say that this planned development is kind of right in the heart of our community, right? We're all a tight-knit group of neighbors and friends who've grown to know each other and be part of this community. And this is kind of tearing a hole right in the middle where it kind of disrupts a lot of the nature and the community. The Robbins Road where I live has become, it's a neighborhood, a residential street, but it has become, it feels like I-95 traveling through Manhattan at five o'clock sometimes because it's like, it's, it's there's no sidewalks there's no street lights and there's just two ditches on the side of the road but it backs up as a cut through from 98 to sharon and my house is right there and i have kids on the way and i concern for them to be able to play in the front yard so we're not anti-development we just don't want it right into the heart of our neighborhood we understand that it has to happen and it's going to happen and it's good for the city for that to happen but we just want it to be Thoughtfully done and make sure that we set the table before Diners come like before we build more houses that were ready as a community We're ready with the infrastructure with the roads with the transportation We want all that to be done before housing that we don't need is added right in the middle of our community and The other developments that are happening around are much more less effective to our neighborhood. And I think that's a good positive thing. But just I wish that you would go with the planning commission's recommendation of not pushing this through, because they did vote it down. So that is my time.

Hold your applause.

Hi, everybody. Thank you so much. It is well past my bedtime. So yeah, thank you. I just want to say that, like Davey said, I love my home. I picked my home so that I could live in a more rural space and could have a yard and could appreciate the nature. And unfortunately, I feel like that is just no longer an option with all of the development that's popping up around us. I also am not anti-development, but I am anti-moving very fast when the development we have isn't yet filled. So there's several developments all along Sharon Road and in the surrounding areas to our home, and they've been up for sale for a very long time at this point. I think, don't fact check me here, but maybe close to a year for some of these town homes that have been built across the street. And it's sad to see that trees have gone down and, you know, green spaces have disappeared in favor of development that isn't being filled. So I'm asking not that we stop the development, but that we take a pause and wait for the demand to catch up to the supply that we have very quickly infused in rural Durham. The other thing I'm asking for is not that we don't develop these 10 acres. I mean, personally, I'd prefer we leave them undeveloped, but that's not realistic. So what I would ask is that we follow the design and nature of the current neighborhood that's in place, which is single story brick homes that are, you know, ranch style. They're on half an acre to an acre. That's the look and the feel of the neighborhood, and I understand the developers have said that we're, you know, slowly transitioning from that feel to single family homes that are on a smaller lot to the town homes, but I think that paints the picture a little bit too pretty. And I think if you were to walk into our neighborhood and look at this donut-shaped development, I think the transition would be a little bit too stark to be as aesthetically seamless as we're being led to believe here. So yeah, like I said, there's been 1,000 apartments and townhomes and dwellings all along Sharon Road. So let's fill those first. Let's not say yes or no today. Let's pause and let's fill what we have and then reevaluate. The other thing I wanted to highlight is that with all these additional homes, that's additional kids, that's additional people that need to enjoy the space, and we have no third spaces. We don't have coffee shops, we don't have parks. Let's add some of those so that we don't drive up crime by giving kids nothing to do. Okay, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and city council members. My name is Adam Shifflett. Born and raised in Durham, and now as a father, my family and I have called the Sharon Anchors neighborhood our home for the past eight years, where I'm now the chair of the Neighborhood Association. I am not opposed to growth. our area is experiencing a deluge of development and housing continues to be added without the infrastructure walkability services and local amenities needed to support it we already feel those effects 98 sharon and robbins road all have speeding and congestion concerns you may have heard there was a school bus hit on the road this week another one of my neighbors was involved in a traffic accident earlier this year We have no walkability, and although my children's bus stop is less than a mile away from my home, we can't safely walk there. Now there's a proposal to add 50 house development in 10 acres, isolating itself in the middle of our neighborhood. We've met with this developer about four times. We did not ask them not to build. We asked them to plan with us and create a development that can become a part of our community. We asked for meaningful proffers, addressing traffic, pedestrian safety, the creek, blasting, and improvements that would benefit all our community of neighbors. After those meetings, those commitments still aren't enough. And this project does not exist in isolation. Development after development is coming to this part of town while the same deficiencies in road, sidewalk, connectivity, and local services remain. We try to be partners. Our voices should matter. We ask for reasonable improvements. We try to make this a better project. Growth will continue in Durham. The Planning Commission considered this project and voted not to recommend approval. Let us make sure we're not just building more houses, we are building communities together. So tonight, I ask you to listen to that recommendation, listen to the families who have already called this community home, and vote unanimously no on this Oak Row rezoning case. Thank you.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of council, city manager, the millions of folks who care about democracy and public goods. And to the council members on their cell phones, thank you. So I want to congratulate, in the spirit of former Mayor O'Neill, the developer for proffering 15,000 to our local schools. This project would net nine students. It does come out to a proffer of $1,600 per net student, which is a good standard to have. And I hope going forward, the council continues to hold projects to this standard. We've had some projects proffer below that amount and gotten approval. I hope you all set a new bright line with that amount of money going forward. So thank you to the developer for that. I wanna talk about the math. I know Mayor Williams, you've questioned my math, but I wanted to come tonight with receipts. So here goes. According to the reports, the revenues generated by this project is $191,000 and the expenditure on the city side is $50,000. So on its base, you're looking at $141,000 net to the city on this project, which is great. We want more tax revenue. That means the residents don't have to bear the property tax burden. Here's where there's a giant asterisk involved and where I think those of you on the dais need to exercise your voice, particularly those of you who are facing the voters next year. EMS equipment, operational and personnel is estimated at $39,000 and $131,000 respectively. That's not included in the cost benefit analysis. And net, you're looking in terms of the cost of the taxpayer of $170,000. If you approve this development tonight, as is, Right now, the taxpayers would subsidize about $15,000 of that amount. I do want to congratulate the developer on bringing the proffer of $15,000 for EMS. And it's the first time I've seen something like that. And I think there are many of us here in the audience tonight who have talked about EMS and paramedics. The only thing that's changed from what we've talked to now is now you have reporters publishing articles about it. You know, there was a student at Southern School of Energy and Sustainability who couldn't get an ambulance, and that made the news on CBS 17, right? Then WRAL has reported on it, WNC, the News and Observer just had an article out today about this. Those of you who are facing the voters, I need you to lean into your progressive muscle and hold these developers accountable to public goods, because the alternative is the residents are subsidizing these public goods. Just like the way that you laced in the tax administrator when he came before you to work session, that's the kind of energy I want to see. That's progressive energy. Progressive energy isn't what council member Caballero said in the last case, talked about supply. That is classic Reaganomics. I thought we were progressive in this council. Let's vote like it, thank you.

Good evening. Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of council, I'm Ian Scott with the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange, and Chatham Counties. As you can predict based on my role, I am here to speak in favor of this project, notwithstanding the controversy and concerns that have been expressed by citizens and community members tonight. I want to advance the conversation we've been already having this evening in council chambers about housing demand and the need for additional supply. I wanted to underscore the Bowen National Research Study released in 2024. It's a five-year snapshot statewide, citing 764,000 home units needed in the state. Durham County's share of that is 33,000. We are not meeting the demand needs in this market yet. We're doing a good job, but there's still excess supply, and as long as the supply is exceeding the demand, we're gonna continue seeing upward pressure on prices. That makes every other housing goal, all important and noble, harder and harder to achieve. As long as the market's failing at basic market rate and costs are going up, you're going to continue seeing pressure for existing residents that we don't want to see happen. So I'm not arguing that you approve every application, but I am asking you to keep that 33,000 homes goal front of mind as you think about this and other projects. So Oak Grove Landing. It's inside the urban growth boundary, so this is not a sprawl. It is marked for mixed residential in the comprehensive plan place type map. Staff reviewed the project and found it's consistent with the comprehensive plan, the cost benefit analysis you have in front of you, cites positive net revenue to the city. So it's contiguous, it's consistent, it's not without concern, but I just wanna make sure that we're also focusing on the folks who hope to afford a home in Durham who might one day buy this home that we're talking about tonight. Thank you all for your leadership and your service to the city.

hi evening mayor and council my name is melissa fissel i'm a resident within the on robbins road on the grove park area i'm here to oppose the new development due to the inadequate infrastructure that we have especially in this area Right now, I didn't bring it, but within a six mile radius, there are 17 developments currently in progress. This is not including the ones that have been completed or in the final stages. And that branches out between Olive Branch Road, Sharon Farm Road, and Mineral Springs. These 17 projects increase housing developments based off of what the developers have within their building plans to over 4,500 houses. That's only in a three-mile radius. If we go ahead and I have a child that attends Durham Public School, Southern, I'm 3.3 miles away from Southern High School, and during peak hours in the morning, it takes 23 minutes to get her to school when it should take only six. When we look at the severity of the traffic impacted, this also is causing a lot of traffic to go from Mineral Springs, Highway 98, and also Olive Branch Road to cut into these back roads. I know Adam had mentioned a neighbor that witnessed a bus crash That was myself. I personally witnessed it because we have cars coming from Highway 98 trying to get to Mineral Springs and they cut through these rural roads that are not supported with the infrastructure where the bus was making a right turn and someone rear-ended it. Luckily, no students were there because it was too early. It was 7 a.m. But again, there's no way to go ahead and address or get ahead of this traffic because it starts earlier than 6 a.m., which I'm witness to on my way to the gym. Within this radius, also we need to consider there's no street lights. There's no sidewalks, and there's no bus or transit transportation. So when we're unable to get my daughter to school, there was a few times the school said, hey, let her take the public bus. Well, we can't. There's no buses around. So we're unable to go ahead and support that. we need to also go ahead and take into consideration that there's current bus stops already on Mineral Springs, that there is one that is in front of a church, Grove Park Chapel, an elementary school. I have witnessed multiple times people on the opposite direction they go through even though the buses stop. That's now putting kids at risk and what Eric had proposed and showed, show status that EMS takes extended time to get there when they're only two miles away. So again, we really need to go ahead and focus on updating the infrastructure if we're trying to get these new developments to be placed in rural homes because again, 4,500 homes in a six mile radius, we have to be worried about the safety, thank you.

Ms. Andrews.

Yes.

No, I called you Pam earlier.

Ms. Andrews, I want to be respectful. Yes, hold on. Okay. Can we see that or no? Hold on, wait a minute. Here we go. Got it now. How do I lower this? I don't know where this is lower. Oh, here we go. Hold on. Okay. All right. Good evening, everyone. Pamela Andrews. September 11th, 25 years later, we remember our first responders and innocent folks who lost their lives. 441 first responders died, 343 were firefighters that tragic day. We must support our first responders and give them adequate equipment, staffing before more homes are approved. Next. Since 2023, we have spoken about response times using the Durham Fire Department audit from October of 2022. NFPA 1500, practice of two in, two out, cannot be met with three firefighters riding on a truck per shift. Four are needed for this ASHA standard to be completed. Next. New fire stations for Southeast Durham is not in the capital improvement plan as promised after the approval of Berry Farm in November of 2023 yet. Station 8 does not have a ladder truck, which is in need and needed for apartments, tall homes, schools, townhouses, townhomes, nor is it the station 17 at this time. Next. The Durham Fire Department responded to this three-story townhome with two ladder trucks, Ladder 3 and 17. They needed more, so they sent Ladder 12 and Ladder 2. Total of 52 firefighters this July of 2025. Southeast Durham needs ladder trucks before more is approved in this area. Next. EMS response times were also studied in the audit showing 68% of the calls were EMS related and were not meeting the target times. In January 2023, there were eight to nine vehicles in service when 18 to 19 were required. Next. June 2025, the director said new positions were needed. We have not added any staff transport units in the Durham EMS since 2018. At that time, the call volume had increased over 24%. Next, double click. Demand for service has outpaced our ability to supply these services in what we need is a timely and appropriate fashion that is quoted today in the News and Observer. Average hold time is 35 minutes. In an emergency, eight minutes can mean the difference between life and death. Durham EMS surpassed 60,000 calls the past two years with 12 to 19 ambulances at peak times when 32 ambulances are needed. Durham County has grown 15.4% to over 347,000 residents 40,000 new residents since 2016. There are many more developments to be completed in southeast Durham that are under construction. Fire and EMS services are a huge concern. City and county leaders must plan for the safety of our citizens and first responders before more is approved. Yes, you proffer for our ambulance, but one ambulance is for, per the News Observer article, not me, a new ambulance in this article says $415,600. And we need how many of those? 32 is what is quoted in the article today. I'm not making this up. Here's the article. We need help in southeast Durham. I say it until I can sit up here and cry. We need help in southeast Durham. It is pathetic. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Wanda Allen, and I want to go on record that we met with the applicant on three different occasions in efforts to address concerns regarding the proposed development. We really wanted to see how we could come up with a solution to allow for our properties not to be damaged and the environment and public safety. We had two, I'm gonna address two significant concerns that remain unresolved. The boundary buffers and blasting. Residents requested preservation of existing undisturbed buffer between the proposed development and existing homes. These buffers provide privacy, mature trees, and also protect the wildlife. Next. Please take a look at this slide, an example of a development by this applicant along Sharon Road. Residents stated this was our concern, the limited buffing and loss of natural separation between the existing homes and the new development. The applicant heard our request but committed not to honor our request, next. The second concern I want to address is the blasting. The Planning Department and the City Council are making decisions without being informed whether blasting may be required, decisions that can have a significant impact on the residents' homes. PRD has monitored more than 40 development sites in the Lick Creek Protective Watershed since 2023. Of 28 of those sites are currently under construction, 26 required blasting. So that's 93%. Yet Durham continues to allow rezoning applications to move forward without identifying whether blasting will be required. Meantime, meantime residents continue to experience damage associated with blasting. There are several cases that have been documented where structural engineering has concluded from blasting, yet homeowners have not received any reimbursement. Blasting must be identified before rezoning occurs. We have requested these projects not to be approved until a stronger protection before damage occurs. Thank you.

My wife, Rebecca Ferguson, signed up to speak, and she had a child care emergency. I would like to speak on her behalf. I'm her husband.

If I may. What was the name again? Rebecca Ferguson. Madam Clerk, do you have that record?

I don't have a Rebecca Ferguson on the in-person speaker list.

Okay, I mean, it's a public hearing. I'll allow it. Thank you, sir. I don't have it, so make sure that you speak with the clerk after you speak.

Yes, sir.

The lady right there.

Thank you. My name is Luke Ferguson, and I'm a resident on Bayard Road. My wife and I and our two children live there. After talking with those who live here, my view is that the rezoning application right now is not what this community needs. We need more green spaces, more meeting places, safer traffic, and a chance for our kids to grow up, and a chance for our kids to grow up in a neighborhood that still has woods, something that I grew up with and would love for my children to have as well. Despite the concessions the developer has made at this time amid all of this, and despite the need for more homes, since you have approved two other developments, we may not need to approve this one. This annexation feels like trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. The corners will cut into our lives with traffic and overcrowding and undersupply of businesses that currently is in place with the infrastructure being lacking. Please help us to flourish with the life that we have here in what measure of peace we can. And I also request that you do not approve the rezoning application until there is enough infrastructure to support the progress of these developments. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome.

Hello. My name is Sammy Henry, and I want to represent three people. I've heard about this tight-knit community that I've lived in for 11 years, and there's only one person in this room that I've ever met. I'm going to tell you about an American dream. All the numbers and all that stuff. Yeah, the American dream. Young black man who was born in 1967 and lived in the worst housing project of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He moves down to North Carolina, Rocky Mount, and at age eight, his mom dies and he's being raised by his grandmother. In the fourth and fifth grade, he lived in a house with no bathrooms. but he has a dream. He graduates from high school, goes to NC State, get a degree in textile chemistry. He has a dream. He starts a business. His wife starts a cleaning business, so he goes out and he expands that cleaning business. And then he comes the opportunity to own a business where he makes hotel reservations for medical patients at discounted rates at Duke and UNC called MedStack. four hotels that have $90 rates that I've negotiated rates for these medical patients. Building that business, I lost two houses. But in early 90s, I came across this business and I got a dream of, I wanted to own a small farm. I lost two houses, but I still have that dream of owning a farm. I have the opportunity to buy me a small farm. Yes. Can it get crowded? The bus accident, that happens everywhere. You just can't blame it on the traffic that's there now. That happens everywhere. An accident on the road, that happens everywhere. You just can't blame it on the traffic now. And I want the small farm. This is my chance at getting a small farm. Help me achieve my American dream. Ms. Smith back there in her 80s, it's like this is her opportunity to pass something out to her children. It's not just people all over the city, but we got dreams too. Thank you. This is my dream.

All right, those are all the speakers that I have. Would you like to respond? Was that the landowner?

Yeah, that was Landowner. Yeah, he's come here to support the case. His dream is to sell this property and buy himself a farm, as he's made clear. And I'm here to try to help him do that. But I do want to address some of the comments that were made here tonight. To be clear, we're supposed to have two neighborhood meetings through the process. There was a technical, we had those two neighborhood meetings, there was a technical issue and we went ahead and did a third neighborhood meeting. And then the HOA, which we looked up, I can't really find the Shannon Acres HOA, but it is a good group of people that you have here that are concerned about their community and we wanted to listen to them and we sat in on a fourth neighborhood meeting. Through these four neighborhood meetings, the public showed their concerns and we listened. But I'm a little disappointed tonight because the conversations that we had on these neighborhood meetings did not reflect what happened here tonight. They were concerned about traffic and they wanted lower density.

That's what they asked of us and we did that.

Not once did I hear that they wanted, well, I heard tonight that they wanted thoughtful planning. I didn't hear a single proposal or idea that they wanted us to do that we didn't do. I wanna talk about the perimeter buffer that was mentioned in the salamander that was spoken about. We're doing a 100-foot buffer. We've run due diligence studies like we do on every project. We've run a phase one study, a cemetery study. We submitted to SHPO for historical studies, archeological studies. We did a threatened and endangered species study. No protected species identified in the project area. There was suitable habitat for Michaud's, sumac, and smooth corn, coneflower were identified, but these species were still not found on the site. So just addressing that there. I understand there's concerns about traffic and there's concerns about bus riders. I live right across the street as well. I live in Brightwood Trails. My son gets picked up from our neighborhood and dropped off every day. So I understand some schools may, from different districts, I get that. you know, us as developers, we can only try to help and we can try to contribute some money to these efforts, but responsibility of this lack of buses and lack of VMS doesn't fall on the developer. It falls on the government, and we can only do so much to try to help with that. I think that's the only thing that I really wanted to touch on. There was one mention about requesting buffers. We did that. We actually added the 10 foot buffers on the western property and all along our southern properties. Our 100 stream buffer is going to be undisturbed so the neighbors to the north of that from this neighborhood are not going to see this development. So I just wanna leave it at that, that that's the truth behind what happened, and I'm here to answer any further questions that you all may have.

All right, thank you. Those are all the speakers that I have. This time I will declare the public hearing closed and back before the council. Colleagues, any questions, I mean, any comments? Yes, go ahead.

all right good evening night morning almost um thank you all for your patience and also just uplifting some of the things i'm just gonna get straight to the point that i have um i've heard several things that have been of concern i've also had opportunity to meet with some of the neighbors to hear the concerns and also have traveled out in the area um we have a very real problem here um in terms of growth and infrastructure and so while we talk about you know we have to build i've heard this is no um shade to the home builders association sir very nice comments um we talk about how we need to build build build but there's also some theories out here talk about the america's growth ponzi scheme to where we create this illusion of wealth we keep building but we're not and we tell our people that, hey, we have this new tax base to take care of all this growth, but we're constantly behind. And you're seeing it in this area, right? We don't have sufficient EMS. You don't have sufficient transportation in that area. I believe looking at some of the things that are here is that in the report, there are no scheduled city of Durham or NCDOT road improvements, knowing the impact to Chiron Road. So it's the expectation that we diminish the quality of life for residents as we continue to build out, because that situation at Southern is very real for me to know that someone's child could have passed away. And I get it's not the developer's fault, right? But as a city, it's our responsibility to think about the quality of life for all of our residents. And I am the ward two representative. So I take this very seriously. Also, Trance is not currently provided within a quarter of a mile of the site, so we're not doing very much to address walkability. Also, there's no continuous sidewalk to get to the Ravenstone Shopping Center. These are very real issues. So while we think about all the things I've heard around growth and that we have to do X, Y, and Z, again, it feels like that the residents are footing the bill for growth. and they're not seeing the benefit of it. And that is unacceptable to them. But we all pay taxes, we all live here, and we wanna make sure that you are getting your money's worth. And so I'm a hard no on this project, and I'm just gonna leave with that because I don't see the community benefit And you all respectfully are not the ones who, again, are in grocery stores, gas stations, out and about, who have to hear about the impacts that growth is having, particularly in this corner of Durham. That is what I receive as a council member, and I take that very seriously. And I also, I mean, I commend you for your profits, but $15,000 for EMS, what's like a quarter tank gas for like an EMS vehicle? Like that's not sufficient to me. Based on the price of what you're gonna receive as a developer, off these properties. And so at some point, we gotta start making things make sense and get beyond the talking points and make sure that everyone has a decent and fair quality of life in Durham. And my last point is that we, Durham, we're a city of like, we want to do walkability space. And I keep telling folks, like, we all love farmers markets, right? but what happens when you get rid of farmland? Where's our food gonna come from? We're not being realistic about what growth looks like in these areas, and it's not to your fault, but I have to be that person for me to go to sleep at night and feel confident about decisions I've made that's gonna impact communities every day. I must think about all these things, and I think that we have not really addressed this quarter, and I cannot imagine a situation of putting anyone at risk because someone's gonna make a couple dollars off of it, so thank you.

Next. Is there anyone else?

Go ahead. You can just raise your hand. For the folks who came, for most of y'all, are y'all in the county or are you city residents? If you're county residents and not annexed in the city, can you just raise your hand? I just want to have a sense of, okay, that's fine. Okay, so really quickly. The city builds sidewalks, the county does not. In fact, we can't even figure out legally in the state of North Carolina how to get them to build it, but then we maintain it because they don't have the same level of public works. So some of the amenities that you all rightfully want are because you're a city resident. If you are a county resident, by default, some of those things are not going to be provided for you because you're not in the city of Durham and we do not build sidewalks in the county. That is something we're trying to investigate in some cases, especially in front of schools, rightfully because of safety concerns. So there are several schools still out in Durham County But that is not going to be an easy feat. I appreciate the residents who came out tonight. I just wanted to share that because it was something that was mentioned pretty frequently in the public comment. You're in that space that is kind of in between. My map shows the city of Durham line. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't interpreting that incorrectly. I just wanted to respond to that because I know that that might have been confusing for either residents who came and spoke or anyone who's watching or watches the recording. Generally speaking, it is a challenge to provide infrastructure in non city limit part of Durham.

Any other comments?

Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks to everyone who came out and spoke. So perhaps you can give some information about public comment.

No, no, no, no, no, not we. I've already closed the public hearing.

I'm sorry. City Council Chambers, I just want to note that as part of our affordable housing plan that I mentioned earlier there's going to be an update to the projections of the housing need of housing at different price points. City Council Chambers, For the city, and I think that will be really useful information I heard some comments this evening questioning whether. You know, we still have up-to-date information on what we expect projected in-migration to be. You know, clearly, you know, we took a huge hit, you know, due to harmful federal policies that just decimated some industries and government departments in our region, but it'll be good to get that update through that process on what to expect going forward, and so that will be helpful information, I think, for me, and I'm sure for all residents as well. Yeah, I hear the infrastructure concerns are real. You know folks living there like you know you are seeing incredible impacts from, you know, the decisions that the city made years ago to drive significant additional development into this part of Durham, and with the park there I think that is only going to increase and so I do hear and believe that the city and county both need to do more to specifically look at the infrastructure needs of this area. I think if you wanna look at one of the most harmful drivers of sprawl and the concerns you're seeing, it's our current UDO that we've been operating under for a long, long time. And so making sure that know we're progressing work on our land development code the new ldc and you continue to advocate for what you want to see in that because it's much easier to think about what are the needs how to address the needs of one part of a community or an entire community through that broader planning process than through piecemeal rezoning and annexation cases though i understand in the short term that's where you feel like that is where you can have influence that's where you can help You know address the real concerns that you're facing, but I think we need to also at the same time, keep in mind that bigger picture and make sure we're addressing this from. You know policy standpoint of budgetary standpoint and a land use standpoint will be really critical and so just to be honest like those are the tools, where you know you're going to be able to see. You know. resolution to some of the challenges you're facing it's. you're going to see a lot less impact through individual development cases that come forward that have 3040 50 units, even if I get it's right next to your House there's a big going going on right right right near my House blasting shook my House. You know it completely changed the face of the neighborhood near where I live, and so I get. and I respect anyone who wants to advocate for their quality of life and where they live. I think there was a lot of this one that was sort of on the cusp for me when it came forward. I was glad to see progress made since planning commission, I think on four or five different policies, including addressing some of the concerns when I read the transcripts of the community meetings that folks were asking for, like the 100-foot buffer to the stream, which I heard one resident say tonight, I think it was the forester saying he'd really like to see a 100-foot buffer. I do see that in there, as well as the buffers to the neighboring properties. You know one question I have for the applicant is what about around where the donut hole is and along the roadside what kind of buffering. is going to be in place in in those places I know you've talked about to the to one side to the other side, and you know to the top side i'm sorry if I don't have my cardinal directions here straight at 1123. But I'm curious to hear what other sort of buffering there is to try and mitigate some of the impact that the neighbors have rightly raised concerns about.

Sure. Yeah. So we've committed to a 10-foot buffer along the western property line, which is the rear of all, like a row of single-family homes. And then around that one donut hole, there's a couple properties there, a few properties there. We are also putting a 10-foot buffer around those properties. and i've always i've said this publicly and i've said this in my projects that you know not all good all developments good development but i'll at least always try to put in a perimeter buffer to provide screening for you know rear yards and backyards and now to our north is a very densely wooded 100 foot buffer um if if you've seen out there you can see the satellite view it's very densely wooded we've committed to no disturbance to that buffer with the exception of our sewer outfall that has to go through there in order to serve the site so that's the only disturbance that we're going to be doing to that buffer City Council Chambers, And now, a lot of just to clarify a longer Western buffer and then around those properties there's not a lot of vegetation there as it is so we're going to be planting there just to actually improve that situation for them.

City Council Chambers, On the street frontage.

City Council Chambers, The 10 foot so 10 foot buffer along the entire street frontage. yeah there's there's not that much frontage short side anyway there's like the street entrance there's the lots where we're putting the 10 foot buffer and then on the other side there's a little strip of buffer uh that we can't do that much about

And otherwise, by right, it's 16 single family homes can be built on this property?

That's my understanding.

That was the base zoning. Okay, and then you addressed the location of kind of trees in environmentally sensitive open space. I appreciate the green building proffer as well. Another thing I'd like to raise just to my colleagues and to staff is that I'd like us to take a look at publicly accessible open space and HOAs. That's something that I intend on raising. You know, I hear that there are liability concerns and maintenance concerns. We're going to have a lot of private development that's going to continue to happen all over the city. And often, you know, having like a pocket park or something accessible to neighbours I think would be really helpful. And I think that it's something that I'd like to see how can we potentially make that happen despite concerns generally over developers and HOAs about making that happen. It's something that I'd like to research more to see how we can

Can I just mention, Councilman, that I completely understand that sentiment and that is why MI Homes is committing a public park. We're donating that land and building the entire park to the city of Durham. That is our way and that is what we try to do now. $1.8 million plus the land value, I mean, that's not an easy endeavor. To be able to do that as a developer, you have to have enough units to be able to fund that. In this particular development we just don't have that kind of spread and we've spread ourselves pretty thin with the profits that we have made. And you know, there is concessions that you could say developers are making a lot of money, but I could argue that back that we're doing everything we can to fulfill the profits that were that were that were given here.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, a couple questions for staff. So one resident mentioned a stream, maybe intermittent stream there. Can you just clarify what, at least from the maps you have, Mayor Mrakas, This this issue of a stream that's just not showing up on the plan or something we can clarify that can I may I just payton.

Mayor Mrakas, One thing I should have mentioned with our due diligence reports we have environmental scientists that came out and did a full delineation of the site. Mayor Mrakas, It was deemed intermittent by the environmental scientists and it was concurred by the state and the core they agreed with us and we have that concurrence letter so. I don't know what else you can do to deem a stream intermittent or perennial, but it was deemed intermittent. And by the way, in the UDO, a perennial stream is still a 50-foot buffer. We're doing 100 feet because of our impervious cap. So once you go up above 24%, you have to do a 100-foot buffer.

And that buffer's also for the intermittent stream as well? I'm sorry? Is that for the intermittent stream as well?

I believe if you look up the chart for the Neuse River Basin, go ahead, Jeremy.

Jeremy Anderson, let me just clarify. The stream was determined to be intermittent, but because the project is over 24% in the FJB, that intermittent stream becomes a 100-foot buffer. If it was a perennial, it would be a 100-foot buffer already. So regardless, it's a 100-foot buffer. whether it's pretty or inventive, because this project is over 24% impervious.

It is an intermittent.

Pardon me?

It is an intermittent, yeah.

Okay, thank you, appreciate that. And then another question, and this is maybe either for the planning staff or the manager, so just on the question about sort of how do we account for costs in the documents we receive. So is the, when we do the cost benefit analysis, I don't know if that's your department or the manager or whoever that's done, so is that from the perspective of just city finances or is that sort of a broader perspective impact to the city? Because I think there may be some question about like what are we counting here? My guess is, Erin's moving up here slowly, my guess is what you're looking at is like tax revenue to the city and cost to the city. We don't pay, the county pays for EMS, not the city, so I'm guessing that any cost for EMS are not included in the calculation, is that correct?

That is correct, yes. So this is something that the city's budget management office completes and then each individual department does their portion of the analysis and then the budget department puts it all together with the city's finances, not the county's.

And has there, since we do have a joint city, county planning department, has there ever been consideration of doing a sort of broader county and city calculation about sort of impact revenue and expenses for development? So we get a full picture, because of course residents, like some live in the county, some live in the city, who has jurisdiction for what is always confusing for residents? So is that something we've ever considered to give a more comprehensive community-wide analysis?

Aaron Cain with the Planning Department. It certainly has... Am I making your head hurt, Aaron?

I'm sorry?

Am I making your head hurt? No, no, no, it's all good. I know it's something that we have discussed at JCCPC. It's been brought up several times. I know a couple of the county commissioners have brought up that interest. But it has not yet moved forward with the county finance department. Right now the cost benefit analysis is only done through the city departments, through the city budget and management services department. and addresses city revenue and city expenditures. The one thing you're starting to see now at the request of the county is regarding emergency management services. We work directly with county EMS to get those numbers from them and report them to you. But they are not gonna be reflected in the cost benefit analysis that you give because that only reflects city expenditures and revenues.

Yeah, I would just urge the Planning Department, Joint City-County Planning Commission, and the manager to think about that. Because again, for residents, who pays for what can be a little bit confusing. So to get a sense of what is the impact of development overall for city and county. Appreciate that. So just a couple other thoughts. So I appreciate the residents who come out tonight and again stayed late, much past your bedtime to share your concerns. And I get that, I feel these concerns about infrastructure, about traffic, about EMS. We hear this a lot. And I think we have a challenge here. We're sort of, we're a growing community and I think we're being, and I think we're building out our infrastructure, right? typically infrastructure follows housing it doesn't come before housing and so we're building that out we're building it slowly it takes time but we are building that infrastructure i think in the in the meantime i think we're all being asked to make room this is america we don't choose who can live in what communities people can live where they want to live We know we're a popular community. We know our region, our state is growing rapidly. And I do want to, given that, I do want to, we've been talking a lot tonight about housing, and I want to weigh into that debate a little bit. I also want to say before I weigh into that, I want to appreciate the applicant. While we've asked you to do a lot, you came to us, you've come to the residence and asked for their input. You've come to the Planning Commission and revised since then. We've asked you as much as you can to meet these comprehensive plan policies. You've squeezed more to meet more of them. So I appreciate that you're meeting now, I think, 18 of 23. And I know it's a small site. All the ones we heard about tonight were small developments. I appreciate you're trying to squeeze some of this stuff in. And yeah. So in this housing debate, again, we've heard a lot tonight. about you know do we we've heard a resident say we don't really need more housing supply we've got it all right the truth is we have 400 people a month that come to durham right and again it's because we've built a wonderful beautiful attractive place to be people want to be here because we all love being here and that's why they come and so we are challenged to find places for people to live 400 people a month come to the city of durham to durham county um Also, this issue of supply, as I think you all heard, at the federal level, the federal government has passed the Road to Housing Act. It's a bipartisan housing act. For the first time that anyone can remember, talks not only about funding affordable housing, but also incentivizing communities to build more housing, to change their rules and regulations to allow more housing to be built. And it's because there's a growing consensus on left and right that we need more housing supply. That debate is becoming, again, it's a bipartisan consensus at the federal level. We don't see that much. It's also true that we need, we've heard, well, we don't need a supply, we need affordable housing. The truth is, and there was a presentation recently about this, that we've, because of the building we've done in Durham, our rents have remained stable the last couple years. It doesn't mean everyone's rent has stayed the same, but overall, overall averages show that rents have remained stable in a rising housing market around the country, and especially where we are. we've benefited from having more supply that that has translated into housing costs being stable. That's something we can really be proud of because not every community is facing that. On the issue of affordable housing, it's interesting, we've battled here over four cases, right, that are a total of 116 units. These are all smaller info projects. As I mentioned in my comments before the meeting, the mayor and I were at Sankova Landing, that's 160 units, all affordable at 60% AMI. So we need housing of all kinds. We also need affordable housing, and we're building that. The last thing I'll say is that I think this night, if I can have a couple more seconds, the $96,000 proffer actually, and we talked a lot about this on council related to the 505 project. In that project, the housing director said essentially the cost for subsidizing what would be market rate units making them affordable is about 55, $50,000. So essentially, your proffer of $96,000 to the dedicated housing fund would translate into the cost for creating two subsidized units from market rate units. So that translates in about, overall, if you took your 50 units, about 4% affordable. We're typically seeing about 8% or 9% affordable in developments. not smaller ones so in this small development you're essentially giving us an effect four percent affordable so i appreciate that i think the mayor wants me to wrap up my comments um it's getting late no projects are perfect i think you've done it i think you've passed the threshold to make this work with this site i'll be supporting this and i appreciate the comments from my colleagues and look forward to the vote from the cook thank you um i really appreciate y'all being here late um

I think it's an important thing that this policy is made in the middle of the night, and folks don't get to see it. So I think it's great that y'all are here, and I think that more people should be watching. You can replay it on YouTube at 1.5 speed. I think that this conversation about numbers is really important because what we know is that numbers can be weaponized. And we heard earlier a reference to a study, and I want to talk about that study because I think that we really need to talk about where our data is coming from. The Bowen study was referenced. That's a study that's commissioned by Realtors Associations. The firm is out of Ohio, but they pretty much only do studies in North Carolina. They are counting. households with incomplete bathrooms as needing more housing. They're counting people who live in households without complete kitchens, like our good friends at Vivo Living and all of the places that we've converted from like, well, not apartments. What am I talking about? hotels yes um all of those are not counted they're not counted towards our supply and they're also counted as those people needing housing okay so we got it double on both of those um we've also got it double where we've got substandard housing we've got habitability issues not counted towards supply and we're counting those people as needing housing a really really big one that is counting doubly against uh that this we're in favor i guess of this housing ponzi scheme is cost burden. If you are cost burden at 50%, we are considering your housing not suitable for you. We're not counting that housing in supply in this study, but we are saying that all of those people need more housing, okay? So these numbers are madly inflated. Oh, and they also, they count commuters. They count commuters who live in other places and commute to the city. So when we talk about numbers, I mean, we really need to talk about where they're coming from. Honestly, I can't believe that we're utilizing that study. It is wild. And a 10-minute deep dive would say that. It's a wild study to be using. We don't have any reason to tie our rent stabilizing with our growth. We don't have any studies that show that. And in fact, we are seeing rent stabilize all across the country because we saw a massive increase during COVID. So a massive increase. And we are now seeing things level off, but they are still increasing. Rents are still increasing. If you spend a day in eviction court with me, you will know that the rents are still increasing. Vacancy rates also remain extremely high. And they're not affordable housing units that are vacant. They are unaffordable. They're vacant. They are sitting vacant. We heard talks about that folks are not able to sell. We're seeing that happen. People are going to stop building, by the way, because they're not going to build. No developer is going to build themselves into not profitable units. So at some point, they're going to stop building. But right now, we do have this massive increase in vacancy. And right now, it's profitable. We saw in our recent tax issue, if you all read our article about how we're subsidizing landlords, it's profitable to have vacancy rates they have price set across the country we're in lawsuits about it about price setting because it's profitable to leave some of these units vacant and charge higher rents it's never going to work that we're going to add supply of market rate housing into our system and that suddenly costs are going to go down it's literally never going to happen that would be like the antithesis of capitalism what we're doing here with this project is locking ourselves into 50 single family homes with not one single unit of affordability, not one. And sure, it may be that there's like the cost of subsidizing something into affordability, but you have to have a unit to have a subsidy attached to it. There is no affordability here. So we're locking ourselves in for these 10 acres to have not one single affordable unit to create 50 more market rate units in a place that is overwhelmed with residential and the infrastructure cannot support. And frankly, the commissioners voted against this because of the infrastructure. If you read the commissioner comments, every single one of them that voted no, they're not worried about like, oh, we want to see 10,000 extra dollars here or there. That's not what they're worried about. They're worried about the quality of life and whether or not the infrastructure can support it. And it cannot. We have no plans to improve the infrastructure out here. And we can talk all we want about building sidewalks, but we are way behind on our sidewalk building, and sidewalks are extremely expensive. And if we're going to be subsidizing developers building more residences that we don't need, then who's paying for the sidewalks? I honestly like this project. I can't, yeah. I can't believe it.

It is 1145 and it's my turn to weigh in on the housing debate. I appreciate the proffers that have been made. I appreciate the residents who've come and spoken with us this evening. I appreciate the debate and conversations and deliberation of my colleagues. um i associate myself with um the comments um of uh councilmember cook and councilmember burris particularly around um the the ponzi scheme the growth ponzi scheme which um you can You may have heard of it, but it's prevalent in the conversation from Strong Towns. If you look up Strong Towns, Chuck Marrone. This may surprise people, but I actually believe in the importance and value of supply. I think it is a vital part of the equation. However, I'm gonna come back to a word that Councilmember Cook used, it has been used as a weapon. Not as a legitimate conversation, sometimes as a legitimate conversation, but primarily as a weapon. As a weapon so that we don't talk about other things. We don't talk about responsible growth management and sequencing and adequate infrastructure so that we don't talk about the growth Ponzi scheme that is put into great detail by Strong Towns. We don't talk about placemaking and framing great spaces for people and high quality urban design. We don't talk about creating communities and community building. We don't talk about farmland and connected wildlife and wildlife corridors. so that we don't talk about true housing diversity and ensuring that on every single block we have a variety of housing options. We talk about supply so that we don't talk about great public spaces and great public goods and everything that goes into true civic spaces and third spaces and places we can walk to so that we don't talk about the elements of walkability, which are the three Ds of density, of uses diversity of uses and and uh urban design um and so that we don't talk about uh when we do talk about the cost of housing we don't talk about the cost the added and increasing costs of transportation because uh everything that we're building requires more and more driving for longer longer distances on less and less connected streets and roads. And so I think it is vital that we have more sophisticated conversations about the way that we're growing, what the development looks like, what we're protecting and the timing of that development. I think that's all vital. And connecting again to this case, Parcels are strangely shaped. They're located in odd places. Sometimes a developer builds something out and leaves some strange parcels, and then another developer comes along and has to build something within those parcels. And what do we do? We've grown by half the area of Manhattan since 2017. That's a lot of growth that I don't think has been Well and thoughtfully coordinated and managed and so yet again I find myself in a position where. As a as an urban planner and someone who actually loves watching buildings come out of the ground loves. urban places and cities and density and building heights, I find myself voting against stuff because it's not a vote of no, it's a vote of this isn't good enough, this doesn't meet the standards that we need to meet. And in this case, sometimes it's we're not ready, this isn't the time and we need to do more thoughtful growth management, thank you.

Yeah, I think those are really important comments. I do believe we're facing down decades of poorly managed growth that we're trying to figure out how to adjust to and dig ourselves out of now when we have, you know, already grown so much to the extremities of the city. And, you know, one of the reasons we've done that is our current UDO and because of decades of advocacy of folks who, you know, have lived in sort of high demand neighborhoods kind of closer into the city where you want to have greater density, you want to have more people in your infrastructure, near transit, near other amenities. And that was basically blocked for decades. And so the result of that was to push our growth into the outlying areas. And I think Strong Towns is a great resource. I think the housing trap is real. Typically, I see it as applying where we're pushing ourselves even further versus where we have significant growth already, where we're looking to fill in. I hear the call for additional commercial. I've heard call for grocery stores. Grocery stores will locate places that have enough people. And so at a certain point, we're sort of stuck in between whether we plan on having certain parts of the community have more people or not. But it's not a question of growing out and out into outside the urban growth boundary in new places where we haven't grown before, which is where the housing trap and the Ponzi scheme most directly applies. I would concur with my colleague, Councilmember Cook, that was not a great study to draw upon, so I appreciate her highlighting that. I do think a good study to look at is through Pew Charitable Trust. New housing slows rent growth for most for older, more affordable units. And data shows that limited supplies associated with the greatest rent increases in low income neighborhoods. So also, it's a reality that if we're thinking about our most vulnerable, low-income folks who have faced the greatest pressure in a growing community, those are the folks who also benefit most when we find places to welcome in our new folks and have new housing. So I get the trade-offs are real. And what neighbors are experiencing in this, what my neighbors have experienced, it is all incredibly real. And sometimes it's hard to get that sequencing right between housing and infrastructure. sometimes you want the infrastructure first sometimes the infrastructure has to follow the housing and this is an area of durham where i you know i would like to see us not you know put any more in theory of housing but it's an area where we said we will and it's not you know pushing into those greater extremities of the communities so um and so i think it's important discussion um i think the trade-offs that we have to weigh here as a council are real

um and and i think uh this is a really tough one so i appreciate everyone who's spoken this evening and they appreciate the opportunity to share uh my piece and my time uh as well so thank you all everton thank you and i'll be brief because it is late um i will be supporting this case these cases are always super challenging to me part of it is because of the landowners and time and time again the folks who come sometimes they don't come partly because sometimes people are rude to them um It's you know who plays and and we all have opinions on capitalism we're not going to deal with that tonight, but who gets to play and who doesn't who gets to benefit and who doesn't. And so, this becomes very challenging because a lot of times it's long term residents who have families moved away generations are aging. And they need to sell because that is how their family has built wealth. And that's just how that family did it. They didn't do a 401k plan, or they didn't invest in the stock market, or this was the opportunity that their family had. And not everyone gets to play in that space, right? And it is an unfair system. And I don't love these cases. I have a good friend who lives right down the road from this neighborhood. This is part of the city. I know it deeply well. I'm there pretty often. I've seen the traffic change over time, and I've approved many of the cases there. So I get the resentment at some of us for saying yes to a lot of these cases. And I often land with there's never a really good answer. You're always going to upset somebody. You're never going to get it right. So you're left with trying to do the best as you can with the data you have in front of you and previous cases. And did this case improve on what a previous developer did? And how big is it? What's the impact? And in every case, this development has done more. than many of the cases that i've seen on council including on donating not an uh not an a low number for a project that's not that big i think a year year and a half ago anything that was under 100 units we rarely got any kind of proffer for affordable housing because it is actually hard to make the math work on it i know folks don't want to hear that they don't have a lot of compassion maybe maybe that's not the right word for developers but we all have jobs in this economy and some folks choose to go into this space and it's not my decision moralistically as a council member to decide whose job or whose ability to earn a living is better or worse than my choice on a rezoning case is to look at the merits of the case and to really think about the benefits and you know maybe not the benefits and make the case there and it's never easy and it's always hard and there's always somebody or a group of folks who come out disappointed and that's just the nature of governance and that's the nature of being in a democracy and i will be supporting this case because that's how i weigh my options did i get something did the community get something Was this case better? Did it align more to the policies of the comp plan than previous cases? And on all those questions, that is a yes. And so faced with those facts, that is how I make my decisions. And I understand that residents may not be pleased with how that decision goes.

Thank you. I'll be brief as well. Durham is the number two most educated city in America. So you're going to hear a lot of very technical, deep dive, high level, low level conversations or debate around these cases. I have multiple degrees myself, but I'm not going to speak from that. I want to speak very natural to folks that I run into. People say, listen, Mayor, it is extremely expensive in this city. I don't know how I'm going to make it. As I said earlier, there are five generations living at one time. There are people who are retired on fixed income, and inflation is real, and they are struggling. We've put some public policy in place so we can fight displacement as much as possible, even with the complications that we have at the state level. I also run into people who are extremely excited that they finally have a place to live. As a matter of fact, I have a dinner to go to not far from this because it's a new development where they actually are able to move in and they want to show me their home. The fact of the matter is we all have our own perspective. We all have our own experiences and we all have everybody else. Everybody has their own story. It doesn't sit well with me when And again, this is not a swipe at anyone. It just doesn't sit well with me when there's a versus between the haves and have nots. And we can sometimes get so technical that we forget who we're talking about or who we're serving or who we're providing for. Nobody's going to be happy all the time. Nobody's going to be mad all the time. But what I do know is I don't need a freaking study to tell me the growth that's happening in this community. What I do know is we went from 280,000 people to now almost 330,000 over a very short amount of years. And it takes a really long time to house people. And I know there are folks that are unhoused for multiple reasons. There are people that are struggling to find a place for multiple reasons. And I know that I'm grateful for the council prior to me or well before me who said, you know what, we should be able to build every housing type at every income level, expanded housing choices. And when that fight came about, I heard some of the same arguments. I'm also grateful for the council that I joined when they said, you know what, a church can build on their property. because there were folks advocating for a UDO that said, if you are a church who owns property, you can only be a one unit for the spiritual leader. We were literally advocating for those things. So I'm glad that we made those changes. It is very uncomfortable, but it doesn't sit well for me to the basic needs that should be basic rights we try to make it difficult to provide that for people. And in this case, yeah, it does matter. The gentleman, I didn't know he was the landowner until after he spoke, but I mean, it's really interesting. This is his one shot to get to that point of having what so many people have in this country. So I don't care whether it's capitalism, socialism, or whatever the heck it is, WE'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO PUT ROOFS OVER SOMEONE'S HEAD IF WE COULD ACTUALLY PROVIDE THE SUPPLY FOR IT. GOVERNMENT IS A JIGSAW PUZZLE. WHATEVER WE PUT OVER HERE, WE'RE TAKING AWAY FROM OVER THERE. BUT WE ARE NOT A PRIVATE CORPORATION WHERE EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE PERFECT AND WE JUST PULL MONEY OR GROW MONEY OFF TREES AND JUST PROVIDE OR BUILD A SIMS SIMULATION OR SIMS GAME WHERE WE CAN JUST MAKE IT PERFECT. WE'RE IN NORTH CAROLINA FOR GOD'S SAKE. I made a statement earlier, so you can't even unionize in the state. Yes, you can, but it's been defamed. We are limited in so many parts, so many ways. I wish we could all get together and take all of this energy to Raleigh and say this is what residents want in this in the state. That that is that is real impact. But until then, we'll keep battling it out in here. And I hope that we could house people. I hope we can provide multiple options for folks. I hope that we can provide, you know, housing for the folks that we aren't seeing or not taking the time to look at. And I'm not going to make it so technical. We talk about buffers more than ever. When I go to New York, I'm like, Jesus Christ, a buffer is like five inches. But I understand the quality of life matters as well. And I respect that. I respect it. BUT THIS IS A FOR ME, THIS IS ACTUALLY IT'S RATHER EASY. IT'S RATHER EASY. I AM GOING TO SUPPORT IT BECAUSE I SEE WHO WHO'S NOT HERE AND WHO'S IN NEED. AND THAT DOESN'T DISCOUNT ANYONE WHO IS HERE OR ANYONE WHO'S WHO'S PREFERENCES AGAINST IT. BUT ANYWAY, IT IS LATE COLLEAGUES. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR COMMENTS. And I am going to get us to this motion. So I entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing Oak Grove Landing into the City of Durham and to authorize the City Manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with MI Homes and Raleigh LLC. That is the motion.

So moved.

Second. Moved and probably seconded. Madam Clerk, please open to vote. Let's see, one, two, three, one, two, three. I need one more. All right, please close the vote.

And the motion passes four to three with council members Baker, Burris, and Cook voting no.

Thank you. I'll also entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential rule and residential suburban 20 Falls Jordan District B watershed protection overlay county jurisdiction in establishing the same as planned development residential 4.583 Falls Jordan District B watershed protection overlay city jurisdiction.

So moved.

Second. Then moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes four to three with council members Baker, Burris, and Cook voting no.

Thank you. And also, lastly, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the consistency statement as required by North Carolina General Statute Section 160-605. So moved.

Second.

Moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

The motion passes unanimously.

Colleagues, I need one more order of business. I need to ask for an excused absence. Oh, this is the correction. All right. Well, before we have our last item, I'll need to ask for an excuse absence. For what? For Thursday.

This Thursday?

This Thursday, yeah.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. All right. Item 21, Transportation Improvement Agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the Durham to Roxborough Rail Trail Corridor.

on the staff presentation. All right.

Are there any comments? All right. I'll entertain a motion to authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute the updated transportation improvement agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for right of way acquisition for the Durham to Roxborough Trail in the amount of $1,383,070. So moved. Second. 1383703. Move the property seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote.

Motion passes unanimously. We are adjourned.