This will be short. This will be short.   That's a bad try. Leave it over here. Leave it over here. One moment. Leave it over here.  Hey Badger. Hey. Easiest question on that was mean. Because we see more like that. Great. There you go. The pine cracks. There that's really awesome. Yeah. If it was filled with something, it would have been even better. Very nice. I knew it was great when- Youth Commissioner in the blue shorts with these young people. I'm going to call this meeting of the Durham City Council to order, and I want to welcome everyone here to our meeting, everyone here in attendance on this Monday, May the 7th, 2018. I would ask you first to please join me in a moment of silent meditation. Thank you. Council Member Rees, would you please lead us in the Pledge of the Flags? Well, thank you, and good evening, everyone. If it's your practice to do so, and if you're able, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much, and now we will have the roll call. Mayor Schuyl, here, Mayor Pro Tem Johnson, here, Council Member Alston, here, Council Member Caballero, here, Council Member Freeman, present, Council Member Middleton, here, Council Member Reese, here. Thank you very much, and now we'll have the one ceremonial item tonight. The ceremonial item tonight is National Drinking Water Week Proclamation, and if I could have Douglas Anderson, plant operator at the Williams Water Treatment Plant to please come forward, and perhaps Wayne Drop would also like to come forward. We've got some really special young people in the audience tonight, too, that you're going to hear from in just a minute, hear about in just a minute. But first I will read the proclamation. Whereas water is a basic and essential need of mankind, and whereas our health, comfort, and standard of living depend upon an adequate supply of safe, clean water, and whereas throughout the years the City of Durham has taken a lead role in source water management and protection, as well as the production of a consistent supply of high-quality drinking water, and whereas climate change may impact the availability of our precious natural resources, and whereas our drinking water and water resources are undervalued, and whereas we are all stewards of the water infrastructure upon which future generations depend, and whereas dedicated individuals and organizations such as city employees, industry leaders, scientists, environmentalists, and students have made significant contributions in developing, operating, and maintaining our water treatment and distribution systems, developing and conserving this precious resource, educating the public on the value of this resource. Now therefore, I, Stephen M. Shull, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, to hereby proclaim May 6th to 12th, 2018 as National Drinking Water Week in the City of Durham, and urge all residents to help make Durham a more sustainable community by embracing the theme of Viewshire's War Conservation Poster Contest, Saving Water is Always in Season. Witness my hand, the Corporate Seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, it's the 7th day of May, 2018, Stephen M. Shull, Mayor, and I'm going to present this now to Mr. Anderson for any comments that he might like to make. Thank you, Mayor Shull, Mayor Pro Tem Johnson, members of the Council, and my fellow Durhamites. My name is Douglas Anderson. I'm an operator at the Williams Water Treatment Plant out there on Hillendale Road, a facility that has been supplying Durham with reliable, clean drinking water for over 100 years. Tonight, it is my honor to speak on behalf of 340 dedicated people in the Department of Water Management. We are proud to accept this proclamation and we thank you. Water is vital. Civilizations have risen and fallen over it. Wars have been fought and will be fought over it. Oil may have been the lifeblood of human industry for the past 150 years, but water has been the lifeblood of human civilization for 12,000 years. And here in Durham, a quarter of a million souls can go about their lives without giving it a thought because 340 dedicated people are doing their jobs. From filling a glass to filling a fire truck, water touches all of our lives, it keeps us healthy and safe. Now here in Durham, we are uniquely blessed. We happen to sit atop two major watersheds and we have two fine reservoirs, but with abundance comes responsibility to use water wisely, to protect our resources, to maintain our infrastructure, and to consider the downstream impact of our water management strategy, and of course to conserve whenever and however we can.  Here in Durham, our per capita residential water use is 67% of the state average, and incredibly 52% of the national average. Well done, Durham, keep it up. You're wondering where I got that fun fact. That one and more are in this. This year we are proud to have completed and published our annual water quality report two months early, in time for drinking water week. This report is available in print and online in both English and in Spanish. Tonight I am joined by my fellow operator, Joe Alex Rios, and electrical engineer, Paul Rancivia, both of whom helped with the translation. Thanks a lot guys. So we thank the city council, our fellow city departments, and the entire city of Durham for your support for all that we do here in water management. Cheers everybody. With that, I'm going to turn things over to my colleague, Erin Harrison. So we alluded to this little earlier. We host an annual poster contest for water conservation, and this year's theme was saving water as always in season. So we had a lot of great entries. You guys can see those posted outside. We had over 200 posters entered, and over 10 schools, I believe, or maybe it was 10 schools exactly that participated. So we have some of our winners here. We've got local winners and state winners here tonight. So I'm going to go ahead and announce these folks and recognize them if you wouldn't. You guys can stand. Awesome. So we'll start. All right, we'll start with the kindergarten through second grade category. When third place, we have Beatrice Makarushka in second place, and I don't think that she's here, but it's Heidi Mabel Santos Martinez, and in first place, Mary Nolan, and Mary also won first in the state as well. Mary also won first in the state. Congratulations. All right, in grades three through five. In third place, we have Connor Hernandez in second place, Atlas Ladd, and in first place, Kent Lee. And all three of these folks won first, second, and third respectively in the state as well. In the in grades six through eight. With third, we had a tie locally. We have Mackenzie Norman and Esther and Esther Adesina in third as well. And in second place, Mary Catherine Holder, and in first place, Amelia Leonard. Esther, Mary Catherine, and Amelia also won in the state as well. Thanks for reminding me. Also, we have some teachers here, and I really want to recognize you guys. Thanks so much for participating in the program. We really appreciate it. Couldn't do it without you. Please keep participating. We love your posters. You guys too. You can do it until eighth grade. So thanks so much. Well, that was a great presentation. I learned something about Durham's water conservation relative to the rest of the state and the nation, which was great to learn. And so thank you all so much for that presentation. And thanks to the kids, their parents and teachers for that great work. And now I'm going to ask, are there any announcements by the council? Mr. Mayor, memories. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. I have three announcements tonight.  But you should definitely turn off the water while you're brushing your teeth. Really good idea. The second thing is it's a little embarrassing, but we're going to be here together for a while this evening. Good number of us are I'm suffering from a sore throat tonight. So my voice is a little bit iffy. And if you see me going out into the side here to get some more ice from our water, we can still hear everything that happens in there. I don't mean any disrespect. I'm just going to have to keep going there to help my throat with some ice. The third thing I wanted to announce is that tomorrow is primary election day here in Durham. And Mr. Mayor, I don't know if you're aware, but early voting turnout was pretty low here in Durham, a little over 5% of all registered voters went to one of six early voting sites around the county to cast their ballot for some really important local races that are on the ballot, specifically sheriff, district attorney and school board. And those races obviously have a direct impact on our lives here in the city. The sheriff we elect will determine how deputies enforce law across Durham County and whether or not our jail will continue to honor ICE detention holds. The school board we elect will determine what kind of schools will teach our children and how our children will be supported by those schools and the district attorney we elect will determine how many how myriad criminal cases are handled here in Durham County from how prosecutors treats someone who's charged with the lowest level of misdemeanor possession of marijuana to how and whether or not that office will seek the ultimate punishment of the death punishment of the death penalty. These and so many other issues will be determined by the folks that we elect tomorrow. So if you haven't already voted during early voting, please research the candidates for these critical local offices and find those that reflect your own values and then follow and then find out where your local polling place is and make a plan to vote tomorrow. Folks can go to the Durham County Board of Elections website to find a search function that will tell you where your local precinct is located, which is where you'll be voting tomorrow. You can also go to my Facebook page at Charlie Reese Durham City Council or on Twitter at cm underscore Charlie Reese, where I've shared those links to find your polling place. These offices couldn't be more important to how we live our lives here in Durham. And I want to encourage everyone to get out and vote. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you very much, Council Member Reese. Council member Caballero. I see that your shirt is about to your previewing your announcement. Yes, I am. So I am very excited about May 16. I am read for Ed. I will be in Raleigh with my public school kids and we will be there in support of our teachers. My understanding is now Guilford County and Wake County have also canceled classes along with Charlotte Mecklenburg and Durham and a few other smaller counties as well. So I hope to see you on May 16. Thank you very much. Any other announcements by members of council council member Freeman? Yes, I would also like to add to the election day tomorrow comments and just say that it's really great if you have a chance, even if you have already voted to stop by and see your precinct judges and bring them some snacks. I know they'll be there all day. So 6am till 730. I'll just close at 730. So just make sure you stop by and visit your poll locations. Thank you. And then also, I had a few other things. So I read a New York Times article and it kind of struck me on the issue of shared economic prosperity. And I wanted to say that I had the opportunity to meet a few of our local business owners and I was really excited by Be downtown and Power Dance Studios and Mead Girl and Protection One. And these were all, you know, local local businesses in the community from folks who have been here for a long time. And I just really would like to see what it looks like to support them. I mean, with less than $50,000 invested in their businesses, I think we could do a lot to improve women and minority businesses in the downtown area and the surrounding areas around. And so I just wanted to bring that up because that it's been pressing in my mind and then also recognize that they would be willing to, you know, hire locally and they would be more likely to hire reentry folks returning from incarceration. I also had the opportunity to receive a book snapshot by a Marcus Hill. And I just wanted to make a plug that if you haven't had a chance to check it out, it'd be great. A lot of local students have actually penned poems in the book. And it's really interesting to read some of their writings. I wanted to also point out, I think Tuesday was May Day and I actually missed the event, but I wanted to thank all the organizers who pulled it together and made sure that we celebrated our union workers and our union organizers. It's important to make sure we support our local unions. And then lastly, I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that I know we had a mishap with Malcolm X Day proclamation, but I did resubmit and I would like to say that it would be nice to have an update from the May 19th, 2003 proclamation that was given previously so that it included El Haj Malik El Shabazz, because I know it's easier to say Malcolm X, but his name is actually El Haj Malik El Shabazz. Other than that, I think that's all I have for right now. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Freeman. Any other announcements by members of the council? All right. If not, we are now down to our consent agenda, the consent agenda. Pardon me. Oh, I'm sorry. Priority items. Pardon me. Thank you. Mr. Manager, any priority items? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. No priority items. Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. Adam Clerk. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Pro 10 and Council. I respectfully request that Council remove the February 5th Council meeting minutes from the consent agenda item one due to a duplication. I'm sorry. I couldn't quite hear you, Diana. Could you speak up a little bit? Yes, I would respectfully request that Council remove the February 5th Council meeting minutes from the consent agenda item one all right to a duplication. Alrighty, thank you. I think we will go ahead and ask to just take them both off because they're both on the same item. And we'll just do them both next time. Is that good? Yes. All right, great. Do I hear a motion on the clerk's consent? Priority item. So moved. Second. Thank you. Madam Clerk, will you please open the vote? Close the vote. Thank you. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much. And now we will move the consent agenda. The consent agenda has all the items on the consent agenda can be approved by a single vote of the Council unless an item is removed by a member of the Council or a member of the public at which time at which point it will be considered separately at the end of the meeting. And I will read the items on the consent agenda. We just item one we have just referred back for a future meeting item two adopt preliminary assessment role and set public hearing for confirmation of assessment role for sidewalk on a portion of hardwood drive item three interlocal agreement between the city of Durham and the Durham County for the sharing of sales tax revenue item four. Amendment one to Durham County interlocal agreement for housing opportunities for persons with AIDS, APWA. Item five second amendment to agreement with the housing authority of the city of Durham for housing opportunities for persons with AIDS services. Item six families moving forward 2017 and 18 community development block grant sub recipient contract for comprehensive case management services. Item eight installation of signalized pedestrian upgrades in Durham. Item nine water tank maintenance services contract item 10 bid report mark 2018. Item 11 design build services with the chase construction services LLC and commissioning services from the Kraken and Lopez PA for the city hall and annex HVAC and lighting project. Item 12 contract for private drainage assistance projects SD 2018-06 SD 2018-07 and SD 2018-08. Item 13 resolution to support the upper news river basin FY 2019 budget item 14 and 15 can be found the general business agenda. Item 16 through 18 can be found the general business agenda public hearings. Item 24 the 2018 Bloomberg mayor's challenge grant. Item 25 agreement with UG strategies LLC to fund Moogfest 2018. And those are the items on the consent agenda. Can I hear a motion? Move for consent. Second. It's been moved in a second that we've passed a consent agenda. Thank you very much. Just make sure that none of these items have been okay good. It's been moved in a second that we that we approve the consent agenda. Madam clerk will you please open the vote. Um Mayor Schull I just wanted to ask I noticed that number seven was missing is there um it was referred back in the work session. Okay thank you referred back in the work session thank you. Remind me what it was. I will in a minute. Oh no actually that was acted on at the work session. That was the uh Jackson pedigree street development loan commitment. The city council suspended the rules and voted and took action on that item. Thank you very much. Well now uh Madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote. Motion passes seven zero. Thank you very much. All right we are now down to our general business agenda and we are going to item 14 which is the 2017-18 Durham Youth Commission annual report. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening Mayor Schull. Good evening. Elected officials I'm I apologize Mayor Schull, Mayor Pro Tem Johnson, elected officials, city manager Bonfield and city staff. I am pleased to stand before you tonight with members of the Durham Youth Commission. I promise them that I wouldn't say much. I'm gonna allow them to have the platform. I will now introduce president of the Durham Youth Commission for the 2017-18 term Ray Palmer. Thank you. Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. My name is Ray Palmer. I'm the president of the Durham Youth Commission. I'd like to thank you all for having us here tonight. But before the presentation I'd first like to recognize the elected officers of the Durham Youth Commission. We have our vice president Rita Kibicho, our community affairs officer Jenny Uba, our governmental affairs officer Isaac Atkins-Piercy, our media and public affairs officer Georgia Chotis, and our secretary Jake Jeffries who was not able to join us tonight. Now I'd like to introduce our speakers. They are Jessica Uba and Natalie Perkins, both our second year members of the Durham Youth Commission and have shown tremendous leadership for the past two years. Now without further ado I'd like to yield my time to our presenters. Thank you. Thank you Ray. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having us again. My name is Natalie Perkins. I'm a senior at Hillside High School and this is my second term with the Durham Youth Commission. Good evening everybody. My name is Jessica Uba and I'm a junior at City Medicine Academy and this like Natalie is my second term in the Durham Youth Commission. So today prepared for everybody is an outline of our 2017-2018 service year. So in an effort to actively involve youth in the policies that directly affect them, the Durham Youth Commission was created in 2005 under the guidance of Mayor Pro Tim Coral Cole McFadden. So the Durham Youth Commission is one of the 25 chartered and 16 uncharted councils across the state, part of a bigger organization called the State Youth Council. The Durham Youth Commission is a city funded commission composed of 30 high school age kids raised 9 to 12 from all over Durham. And as you can see these are some of the schools in the current dirt equation. So the Durham Youth Commission exists to promote civic education, leadership involvement, as well as service learning opportunities for Durham Youth. And because the Durham Youth Commission provides all these opportunities for Durham Youth, we were honored to host our 2017 service learning conference this year. So the North Carolina Department of Administration under the leadership of Governor Roy Cooper and the Council for Women and Youth involvement encourage local councils to host annual conferences that promote participation in leadership and citizenship programs. Since receiving our state charter in 2006 the DYC has hosted conferences in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and most recently in 2017 generating additional revenue for the city. Our theme for 2017 was service learning and team building entitled A Day of Giving. And with well over 80 teens and 20 advisors and attendants we transcended across Durham to the Duke Lemur Center, Habitat for Humanity Restore, Durham Central Park and we helped set up for the annual Beats and Bars Festival. Our entertainment and highlight of the conference was attending the Duke versus USC football game. Our t-shirt was designed by city manager office, excuse me, in turn Lori Bryant. Effective this year the S-Y-C has mandated that each conference host provide information to attendees on a topic of interest to you. And our topic was the issue of bullying. We wrote down reasons why people would bully and as students were leaving they would stop on the papers trying to resemble stomping out bullying. So I will now be highlighting the other conferences that we were fortunate enough to attend and the conferences that we'll be attending as well. So in November of 2017 we went to Rocky Mount for the annual mini-grand conference. There with an annual appropriation from the North Carolina General Assembly as well as the North Carolina Youth Endowment Fund, we received we got $6,000 which we delegated to different youth projects of an upwards of $500 and some of the projects were building libraries in your schools as well as peer tutoring programs for after-school programs. So members also attended the National League of Cities conference which was in Charlie. There we attended different seminars and youth leadership sessions and also networked with other youth councils. So we also got a chance to listen to various guest speakers at National League of Cities such as Mayor of Baltimore, Catherine Magic John-Sana, Austrian Mark Edward Kelly and his wife politician Gabriel Giffords. So earlier this year we were also fortunate enough to attend Concord Youth Council's team building conference. So there we learned about the different aspects involved in team building as well as got to scope around the different tours in Charlie as well as Concord's World without Mortar's Viewway. So the Spring Convention which we'll be attending next week is the annual final conference for the State Youth Council. So this is just a time to acknowledge all the amazing works that all the State Youth Councils have done collectively as well as awards giving to the most outstanding council member, the most diverse council, as well as the scrapbook competition. So being a part of an organization where we are taught about civic engagement we have participated in our community in many different ways. We regularly attend kids voting offered through Durham County Cooperative Extension events where we help kids learn more about the electoral process both locally and nationwide. We also host our annual Peace Tours for War Toys event around Christmas time each year which is sponsored by the Durham County Gun Safety Team North Carolinians Against Gun Violence West End Community Foundation Incorporated and Durham Parks and Recreation. At this event we encourage and promote positive social play amongst young children in the neighborhood by having them exchange toys such as guns and swords for more peaceful toys. And last year we invited Mr. Sidney Brody who created a quilt dedicated to those deaths which resulted in gun violence. In January members attended the Martin Luther King Junior Youth Lock-in hosted by First Calvary Baptist Church. There we had sessions and presentations relating to Martin Luther King Junior's work and we also had sessions on how to solve problems in our lives. On the morning of January 15th we all participated in the march that took place in memory of King's work and legacy. And we also attended this year's community conversations to keep ourselves updated on the different aspects of how Durham is evolving and we participated in sessions on public safety, affordable housing and transport and Durham's education and economic development. In March D.Y.C. members participated in the 2018 annual women's forum. This is the third year that we have been asked to assist with this event and we were honored not only to receive the request but to also be in the presence of such amazing trailblazers making an impact locally and nationally. D.Y.C. members also attended city council meetings to stay connected with leaders in Durham and keeping ourselves updated on what is taking place in our community. Durham Youth Commission members also participated in the National Night Out event that takes place yearly to support building stronger relationships with law enforcement. A few of us had the privilege to travel with elected officials throughout various neighborhoods and it was awesome to see engagement on so many different levels and to visit areas of Durham that we were not so familiar with. So in the Durham Youth Commission services are vital part of our year as each member is required to complete at least 40 hours of service per term. So some of the organizations that we have volunteered in this year are listed above. So during the Disabled Label event sponsored by Durham Parks and Recreation we were able to promote a better understanding of people with disabilities by informing the general public about mental disabilities. Also through the Interfaith Food Shuttle we spent every third Saturday of the month helping with mobile market. A temporary market is set up in the community and residents go through the line and shop for food as we help them carry the foods and collect the food. Also one of our Durham Public Schools, Durham School of the Arts, hosted a Fall Arts Festival where students got to showcase their talents. So we were there and we were able to collect funds and help organize the event in any way possible. We were also fortunate enough in December of 2017 to go caroling at Chick-fil-A in the Hillsboro branch. There we received $300 for our service and we decided to donate this $300 to sister cities of Durham cultural exchange students from Toyama, Japan. So we also assisted in the Durham Parks and Recreation's parents night out. There we gave parents a chance to have a few hours for themselves as we danced with the kids, drove with them, and also played different sports and activities with them. So during this term one of our advocacy projects was mental disabilities. So in order to learn more about mental disabilities and how they affected us as students we broke up into different teams and talked about how we could cope with it better. Also in the Food Truck Rodeo and other events hosted by Central Parks we're able to generate to inform the public about a better way of recycling and the importance of recycling. So as a youth commission we proud ourselves in being involved with the city and here are some of the leadership involvements that we've been a part of in the last year. One of the ways that we do this is by serving on the Youth Advisory Council. Ray Palmer, our current president, is a part of this youth council. We also have Vanessa Taylor who serves on the Southern Coalition for Social Justice Committees. We've had an amazing year so far and looking ahead to the next term these are some of the areas that we'd like to focus on. One of those areas is connecting with other Durham youth groups who are doing similar work in our community to learn from each other and partner on projects and advocacy work. We'd also like to focus on one advocacy project determined at the start of our term and after collaborating with other youth groups we can revolve our term around that topic. And we'd also like to make more connections with elected officials attending events together having important conversations and working on hosting events and our projects together. This also means that we will be serving on boards and commissions. We want to have a stronger relationship with the city and the county. So we would just like to take a moment to thank all the partners and organizations to help this year be as successful as it truly was. Also for our students, college is right around the corner and we'd also like to take a moment to celebrate all the amazing colleges our seniors have a cutting accepted into. Thank you. Is that the last is that the end of your presentation? Yes thank you thank you so much for taking the time to listen to our presentation and we look forward to serving another year with the Durham Youth Commission. Awesome. That was beautifully presented and really good good good job and I'd like to ask all the members of the Youth Commission if you all wouldn't mind standing I see other members out there would you all please stand up. All of course welcome to stay but I hope you'll also do your homework. So thank you all so much that was great. Let me just say that I see some signs in the back of the room. We have a rule in the chambers that no signs are to be up. I appreciate that you're deliberately in the back not blocking people understand that but I think we have to be consistent with our rules. So I would just appreciate if you would put the signs down. Thank you so much. We definitely got your message however and have seen them so thank you. I'm waiting for my computer here to help me. Team first quarter crime report. Alrighty and now we'll have the 2018 first quarter crime report. Welcome Chief Davis and staff. Thank you appreciate it. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Hate to come behind the youth crime the youth commission they did an outstanding report I guarantee you mine won't be near as exciting but thank you for indulging me it seems like I was just reporting here not too long ago. Yeah so for the first quarter of the year this report will cover the Durham police department six performance measures part one violent crime our part one property crime part one index crime our clearance rates response times to priority one calls and our staffing levels. It also includes some of our highlights from the first quarter in this particular report we don't have an update on you visas because we did the full report during the annual however I will say during the month of April we had 18 you visa applications that were submitted 12 were approved so there was about a 67 percent increase in the approvals according to our records so part one index crimes is a total of part one violent crime and part one property crimes part one index crime was down by 23 percent during the first quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2017 reported crimes dropped in six of seven part one categories there were double digit percentage decreases in reported rapes robberies aggravated assaults larcenies and motor vehicle thefts larcenies actually accounted for more than half of these crimes which was about 55 percent of all of our part one crimes part one violent crime part one violent crime includes reported homicides rapes robberies and aggravated assaults part one violent crime was down significantly by 41 percent during the first quarter this is due to the double digit decreases in our robberies and our aggravated assaults this chart shows a weekly comparison of reported violent crime during 2018 compared to the same week in 2017 so as you can see for the first quarter week to week violent crime was down this illustration basically shows the number of crimes that were actually down from week to week the number of reported violent crimes was lowered during every week in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same week in 2017 there were six homicides in the first quarter of 2018 compared to five in the first quarter of 2017 one of the six cases remains open at this time the number of reported sexual assaults dropped by 23 for the 24 sexual assaults reported in 2018 actually occurred in 2017 or earlier robberies dropped significantly during the first quarter of 2018 to the lowest first quarter number since 2012 we saw a reduction in both business robberies and robberies from persons the number of aggravated assault victims dropped by 39 percent and the number of actual incidents dropped by 33 percent incidents involving two or more victims decreased by 42 percent and the number of victims in multi victim incidents decreased by 47 percent 35 percent of all aggravated assaults during the first quarter originated from multi victim firearms versus 45 percent during the first quarter of 2017 part one property crime includes burglary larceny and motor vehicle theft overall part one property crime was down by 18 percent in the first quarter there were double digit decreases in motor vehicle thefts and larcenies and an eight percent drop in burglaries similar to the violent crime weekly comparison chart this chart illustrates a weekly comparison of property crime during the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same week in 2017 property crime was down during 10 of the 13 weeks in the first quarter burglaries were at a 10 year first quarter low this year down 31 percent from 10 years ago approximately 80 percent of burglaries were residential and the remainder were business burglaries items most frequently frequently targeted included jewelry electronics and computer equipment and on some occasions cash as mentioned earlier larcenies made up 55 percent of all part one crimes in the city 42 percent of larcenies were from vehicles or thefts of motor vehicle parts 27 percent of larcenies were from shoplifting incidents older model Honda Accords continue to be our most targeted stolen vehicle those of you who have them a trend that has continued now for several years moving on the clearance rates we compare our department's clearance rates to other departments our size in 2017 our population grew we're now in the category of cities with populations from 250,000 to 499,000 in the first quarter our clearance rates were better than the average for cities our size in all categories during the first quarter of 2018 keeping in mind that we are only comparing the first quarter and will strive to maintain our high clearance rates the homicide clearance rate is above 100 percent because there were four cases from 2017 that were cleared in 2018 moving on to priority calls priority one calls there were 2127 priority one calls for service in the first quarter of 2018 which was a 7 percent decrease from 2281 priority calls during the same period in 2017 our average response time was 6.2 minutes which was below our target which is typically 5.8 minutes some 50 seconds difference 49.5 of all priority one calls were answered in less than five minutes in the first quarter of 2018 our target however is 57 percent our sworn staffing was at 94 percent at the end of march 2018 with 32 vacancies our non sworn staffing was at 89.5 percent at the end of march 2018 we currently have 24 recruits in our basic law enforcement training academy that's class number 47 this academy is scheduled to graduate this summer we're starting to see good results in our efforts to track a diverse applicant pool our next class is somewhat indicative of those efforts this class that will be graduating in the summer currently has seven black males one black female eight white males six white females one hispanic male one hispanic female and one asian male we also have seen recruits from a previous class who took i'm sorry we have seven recruits from a previous class who took their state tests on this past friday and we hope to have them sworn in in short order in the next couple of weeks we continue to test applicants for the next BLET academy class number 48 which is scheduled to start in august we continue to accept applications for our lateral candidates as well our elect training this training is abbreviated because these officers are already state certified as a force multiplier we have started to utilize our retired reserve officers who now work at city hall and on our main front desk instead of having our patrol officers to man these positions allows more officers on our patrol shifts for the first quarter the police athletic league was very active we expanded our police at the athletic league in the first quarter 2018 to provide support to our public housing officer so there is now formal programming in our with our public housing officers the purpose of PAL is to provide mentoring opportunities for officers to engage with youth and their families and to enhance the relationship between our department and the community the program provides activities for children who may not have resources to participate instructor sports PAL includes basketball baseball soccer golf and cheerleading programs for our young people during the first quarter we had a PAL basketball program with more than 400 third through fifth graders who played from 20 different Durham schools there were 20 co-ed teams and four all girls teams we also partner with the Department of Parks and Recreation on many of these initiatives as you know in 2018 in the first quarter we launched our new community engagement unit in the first quarter of this year we started in mcdougal terrace and have recently expanded to the Cornwallis community the unit's goals are to build trust strengthen community relations through proactive engagement reduce the impact and the fear of crime and provide safe and secure communities during the first quarter it is obvious that our officers presence has made a significant impact in those communities the unit has 10 officers assigned currently one sergeant one corporal and eight officers they have a flexible work scheduled to meet the safety needs and engagement opportunities of the community the officers have already planned several community events officers took the youth from the community to movie with a cop at northgate cinema and then brought them to dpd headquarters and gave them a full tour and we had a very hard time trying to get them to go back home they enjoyed this outing so much they asked the officers could they spend the whole day with them so our officers are also working with a tutoring program at t a grady after school in their computer lab working with kids to help them with their homework and in a couple of weeks Saturday June 2nd in partnership with keep Durham beautiful the unit is planning to do a community cleanup in the mcdougal terrace area more information on that to come my last slide here is about the 2018 first quarter eagle awards in celebration of women's history month dpd held its second annual eagle awards luncheon on March 16th the eagle awards was established to honor women who represent excellence achievement and gallantry in their roles in the department three retired police women were honored as dpd's trailblazers officers mcfall and kiefer were recognized as the Durham police department's first female patrol rifle experts and Portia Sidbury was recognized for her work as the department's first civilian property and evidence supervisor investigated moody received the eagle crime fighter award for her work on a multi-agency task force focusing on a series of robberies and burglaries targeting asian victims in the triangle area her hard work resulted in federal indictments against six people three women were recognized for the sister-in-law award for their contributions to the work and mission of supporting others in dpd and at north carolina central university we recognize sergeant shero geiger who has honored who was honored for her work in helping the Durham police department annually during national night out and last but not least uh dpd crime analysis supervisor mary roberts was recognized for her exceptional analytical skills as she is a vital role in helping the Durham police department analyze crime trends on a weekly basis that concludes my report and i thank you for your attention chief yes sir that's a great report um we'll talk about that in a minute i think we have two people would like to speak on this item but before we do could you please introduce your two deputies who are here today and we all know them but not everyone does absolutely this is deputy chief anthony marsh and deputy chief todd rose great thank you very much thank you all right chief we're going to hear now from a couple of speakers and then we will get back with you and there'll be comments and questions from the council thank you we will have two speakers and if you could please come up as i call your name the first will be the reverend curtis gatewood reverend gatewood welcome we're glad to have you here and you have three minutes thank you appreciate it may are shorter than council i represent a ministry called jesus uniting souls to increase community engagement which is an acronym justice administration also a spin out from that ministry we have a campaign called stop killing us solutions campaign as we reflect upon Durham's first quarter crime report presentation i'm inclined to believe our city's police chief davis has done an outstanding job working to achieve maximum results within a system crippled by the disabilities of institutional racism and societal neglect for the poor and most vulnerable it is within that context i rise to say we can do better and must avoid becoming drunk from the wine of immunity when it comes to deaths in the black community i would like to believe i am part of a new movement new collective body of organizations with a growing intolerance who refuse to become immune to the continuous news that there has been another shooting and killing within our neighborhoods each time i hear it i urge everyone to be appalled justice administration and it stopped killing us campaign i have scheduled a press conference with residents at oxford manor on wednesday may 9th at 10 a.m there will be residents there there would be justice partners and others to discuss and announce a march that's coming to derm called stop killing us march and rally keep in mind even though we hold this event in derm it is not just directed at derm we also see derm as a symbol of black upward mobility as we stand in the shadows of the great one such as brother john merit who was a uh actually uh born into slavery but he was able to during 1898 while there were land takings and murders taking place in wilmington he opened the doors of north carolina mutual life insurance company we have as a part of his organization or about seven men a part of those men was the founder of north carolina central university so we use we use derm as a symbol of what can happen what is possible so we're urging those who are part of derm part of our society yes we're going to hold police accountable but we're also going to hold churches accountable we're going to hold organizations accountable we're going to hold our neighborhoods accountable and we must stop the killing thank you thank you reverend gay wood and now we'll hear from chris tiffani mr tiffani you also have three minutes roughly 10 000 criminal complaints and arrests each year in derm many guilty many not guilty and most of the unwarranted interactions with suspicious persons do not result in arrest but we are treated differently because of age sex race color class status nationality or where we live as a matter of policy and you think of any occasion this is a survey can you think of any occasion in the last year when you felt you were treated unfairly because of your race or ethnicity yes white six percent other 43 percent that's white six percent other five 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 43 percent 43 percent big difference suspicion is in the minds of the suspicious fearing threat where there is none so the innocent are often suspects a black woman by the name of sarin davis indicated on national television that she has frequently been treated like a criminal suspect right here in Durham North Carolina but it's okay to treat students like criminal suspects if they live in one of your in or near one of your target areas that's not implicit bias that's institutional racism against kids too young to drive or vote and unable to move out of unposed target areas but don't complain because as it was said at last fall's crime report law-abiding citizens don't complain so complainants must be criminals and then complaints reportedly went down after implying the complainants must be criminals so don't take police force use of force reports too seriously when you don't require police force to document use of force against pedestrians relying instead on complaints from civilians presumed to be liars and or criminals whose complaints can be revised after submission or made to go away and you keep denigrating city complainants that are even putting them in the county jail for verbal complaints where there's even more to complain about instead of fixing problems they try to neutralize complainants google neutralization of guilt cops misconduct or misbehaviors often like that of juvenile delinquents another survey question county sheriffs and city police chiefs and several counties were asked how do you discredit complainants responses included suggesting that complainants are criminals drug addicts alcoholics confused mistaken ignorant or liars complaining can result in slander by police officials and or other politicians as well as more blatant reprisals fix your complaint system and some other policies i've already indicated thank you mr tiffani all right uh chief davis uh we now will i ask you back to the microphone and appreciate your report very much um and i'm going to ask other council members first if there any comments or questions for the chief council member allston uh thank you mr mayor good evening chief davis um i want to appreciate the comments made by reverend gatewood um and agree that we can always do better and i'm also uh someone who's appalled by the rate of gun violence that afflicts um many of our communities and particularly our communities of color that said i do want to echo the comments made by our our mayor and say that this is a great report and i think it's important to appreciate when we are making progress here in durham and in particular i wanted to uh appreciate the lifesaving efforts that are detailed in your in your report um and say i know we we get these reports quarterly but that's not something that i want to ever take for granted um they were extraordinary and i want to thank your officers for their work um i did have one question in part just because i missed part of your your presentation but you said it was you we had a 10-year first quarter low in property crime or was it a particular property crime actually overall property crime okay i'm gonna check again but i i think it was overall property crime now that's what she's referring to it was that 10-year that 10-year spell that you were talking about the first quarter burglaries burglaries yes i'm sorry thank you you you you he confused me you're very you're very casual and you're reporting on that but that's huge well thank you thank you mr mayor thank you for highlighting that council member um council member freeman i'd like to echo um council member austin's praises as well thank you for the police force and for your work um i just really wanted to touch on um mr tiffani has raised this issue around pedestrians and complaints quite a few times and i don't know if there's any tracking of what that might look like or how that might happen but um is there anything that you can give a response on that well we keep a very very robust um accounting of complaints that come in and all of our complaints are documented but as far as identifying a pedestrian type scenario as being a trend or a repeat problem i'd be glad to talk to mr tiffani in in deep in deep detail is this a personal situation or is this information that has been gathered from other individuals but we can certainly look at our data and you know just me looking at our recent report there's no indication of pedestrian type complaints and just another question it's kind of just from some of the incidents that have occurred and some feedback i've been receiving i just wanted to know if there was any tracking on response time as far as wrapping up a crime scene so i recognize you well we can you're tracking how how long it takes to get there but as far as how long it takes to kind of remove a body from laying in the street well we certainly try to wrap up a crime scene in a timely fashion but depending on the nature of the crime we don't speed up the process because of the collecting of evidence now we certainly don't want to create an environment that's shocking to the community so crime scenes are typically especially crime scenes that involve victims that may have been injured or something of that nature we quickly want to make sure that the scene is safe that we can collect evidence and that the individuals that are involved get some type of treatment as soon as possible typically those types of scenes are managed by supervisors there's always supervisors that are around to make sure that officers go back in service when they're supposed to that's an issue that we discussed in length last year just talking about how quick will we get our officers back in service and move those from the scene that don't need to be there but we can always pull the data but every every scenario is going to be you know evaluated on a case by case basis was it a traffic accident or was it just a scene where an individual had vandalism to a vehicle or whatever the case might be we'd be able to evaluate whether or not an officer took more time than needed on a particular call I hope I've touched the area that you think I think I'll probably want to follow up on it that's fine we'll have a deeper conversation thank you I appreciate that absolutely councilmember Reese and then mayor pro tem johnson thank you mr mayor um how's it going chief good sir uh I want to echo what everyone else has said about how good it is to see the investments that you've made and the decisions that you've made about how we respond to crime reaping these kind of benefits for our city I think when any when you see a crime reduction like this I think you tend to want to know not just the numbers are great but is there anything in particular that you think is driving this reduction in crime is it uh I know the report the longer version of the report outlined a number of key arrests around robberies and assaults do you think that that's part of what's happened in the first quarter I absolutely believe that the work that has been done by the individuals we have some really sharp investigators and some folks that will keep pulling that peeling on that onion back until they get to the bottom of the crime and some of my staff are here and not standing up front but they have been very very aggressive in making sure that investigators are looking at connecting crimes uh communicating with other agencies of the jurisdictions about similar types of trends and mo's so that we're not working in a silo and some of that has been very helpful as well I think being laser focused on the individuals who are committing these crimes as opposed to spending our resources in other places I think has been very beneficial to us do you have any sense of what the reduction in crime looks like district by district I think that would be interesting to know about like are there parts of the city where the reduction in crime is especially notable we've actually seen some significant reductions in district one district one has had significant reductions and so has district four especially in the first quarter I really believe even though we're talking about robberies and and doing really good thorough investigations I believe the visibility and the type of relationship that we're we're trying to establish in that district for area has been beneficial along with the work that the staff is doing I believe also that our our vehicles our officers are you can't turn a corner without seeing a Durham police car now I think the take-home vehicle program has has really helped with the visibility in the city as well if I just again want to thank you for your leadership over the time that you've been here I think like I said before the investments that you've made that the calls that you've made and the important work that your senior staff and the officers in the field are doing has really made a huge difference in our community I just wanted to underline before I give up the microphone to the mayor pro tem something that councilmember allston touched on and this is kind of deep in the report and I know you don't like necessarily to talk too much about a specific officers but I couldn't help but notice in the report that on january 16th of this year there were two separate calls for support for suicidal individuals in the city within just a couple of hours of each other one of those involved a corporal vandal water who in addition to officers ramos and weiss who really from the description put themselves in harm's way to protect someone from taking their life on a highway overpass and also wanted to highlight the work of officer burke stressor who responded to a call I think the call went out as a man who had threatened to kill himself with a gun but when he arrived it turned out the individual had attempted to hang himself and officer burke stressor happened to come just in time had a pocket knife and was able to help this individual survive it's those kind of things that we often don't think about and when we think about the risks that that law enforcement officers take in protecting us but those two incidents in particular reached out to me as as situations where our officers are willing to do whatever it takes to help folks in our community and I know you're especially proud of those officers and they won a couple of your officer of the month awards for those efforts and they just wanted to say how much I appreciate that as well so thank you for their work thank you thank you very much we'll make sure that we share those comments with the officers it really does make a difference thank you thank you mr. mayor thank you councillor mayor pro temp thank you mr. mayor and I'll just echo all of the gratitude from my colleagues for your excellent work and the direction that we're seeing happening in the city it's really it's really great it was really inspiring to see the the changes that are happening here I just had one quick question in the juvenile arrest section of the larger report there's a very young child an eight-year-old who was arrested for vandalism I'm wondering if you could give us a little bit more information or insight around the process when a child that young is is involved in criminal activity so because the child was that young what we would typically do and I can have my my staff here sort of echo is to file a petition and you don't want to help with that because because typically you would because a young person is and and provide various help services for that young person that one's in the report but it happens quite frequently if there's no parent that we can communicate with then of course we report it to social services petitions are done so that we can make sure that that child was presented in a courtroom setting and have a judge involved and make sure those referrals and individuals who are responsible for that young person to make sure that they get the appropriate help that they need it's not a situation where an eight-year-old is treated like a real criminal because they're they're really a baby chief marsh did you want to add something good evening mayor mayor pro tem members of council manager bonfield i can't add too much to that um certainly also to i don't haven't read the report so i'm going to look into it first thing in the morning but there may be some other history there that we're not aware of i don't know if this was the first time or if there's a pattern or if this is a neighborhood issue um but i will have some answers tomorrow that'd be great thank you so much and you extracted that from the report yeah it's on page five of the report just as part of the youth arrest and doing out petitions uh listing thank you you are thank you madam mayor pro tem uh councilmember middleton thank you mr mayor good evening chief the entire command staff good to see you folk uh chief of course firstly just congratulations on the numbers thank you and the report i echo the comments of my colleagues i didn't want to say that a few weeks ago i took a daylight right along in district one uh with patrol officer jg mor whose professionalism and demeanor just really impressed me and and you know it flows from the top down i'm sure so i just wanted to put him on front street and make him famous that i had a wonderful experience i want to say to my fellow residents and citizens as well you don't have to be a council person to ride along with the police you pay for the gas um so if you're ever interested in getting a first-hand look uh it is available to you to take ride all i'm right right it is available for you to take ride absolutely i'm new here it is available for you to take ride along you don't have to be elected uh to the city council to do ride along so i just wanted to and i do plan on taking uh some night ones as well in district four so thank you so much for that and then i congratulate you on the the mark a change in culture that's occurring in our police department i want to say something else to you chief and and i i want to say it from this desk in this context uh for the record um because i i know that you've been catching a little heat from some of your colleagues around the world uh on the historic action that we took on april 16th and i want to be very clear uh that chief you joined us um during a program that was already in progress and that our action on april 16th was not predicated upon anything you said it was not predicated upon your recommendation it had nothing to do with you skewing or mixing words about what your experiences have been with your colleagues around the world that was us and any heat that derives from that should come this way and not to you you've conducted yourself with nothing but integrity and straightforwardness uh and your words have been clear as they were during the process of selecting you and as they've been since you've been here so i want to at least for me personally apologize if you've experienced any discomfort because of the actions we took any questions about your character or motives all of that fire belongs to us and i want to be on a record and for those that are i know watching around the world tonight i want to be very clear uh that that uh was something that resulted from a trajectory that predated you it was a family discussion that was going on long before you got here uh i congratulate you and i congratulate the men and women under your command and thank you and keep up the good work thank you sir thank you mr. mayor thank you council member middleton any other council member any comments many other council members all right i have a few questions chief um the um i just wanted to offer a word of caution about the fabulous statistics uh which are that believe me i know i think that i don't want to offer them to you i know that you know but i do want to say to the people who are here and to the people who are watching that um not to uh rely too heavily on one quarter statistics um i happen to have a theory about these statistics which is that they have something not only to do with the great police work but something to do with the weather and um i think that uh they clearly also have things to do for example with the robbery task force when you look at those robbery numbers and the weather had nothing to do with the clearance rates which were remarkable uh and so but i do want to just say to members of the public and people who are watching that uh we we had a great annual report from you about a month ago uh this is an excellent report great results but we're not going to see a straight downward trend trend in crime in Durham we are on a 17-year downward trend but it is also a bumpy trend uh and so i just i don't want to set expectations too high absolutely um i just want to mention there's a chart the chart with a burglary and i'm not asking you to respond to this but the three-year average looked wrong to me so i just thought you might want to take a in the in the powerpoint um again i want to mention clearances uh they were stronger than in almost all categories uh than we've seen in a while and the robberies and violent crime as a whole our clearance record was outstanding i do have a question in the longer report um there were six arrests on march 21st for prostitution and i noticed that services were offered from the crisis intervention team which is great i have concern about these arrests i don't doubt that there are i know that because i hear from people who say the prostitution my corner are the things happening there as a result of that that aren't good so i don't think of that as so i understand the problem but i also hope that we are able to be diverting these people from uh our criminal justice system and into the services that they need and so i wondered if you could comment on that absolutely i happen to know for for a fact that the recent um effort to try to um engage those individuals was met with a team of our crisis intervention folks and not only did they go out with the crisis intervention team they also went out with other referral type um entities and i can't remember exactly who it was but i know they do a collaborative effort to sort of do a pass off to individuals who need help also um individuals that are um under the influence of some types some type of substance as well so um it's more than just officers going out to round up individuals that are in a desperate kind of a situation in the first place so we have employed those services sometimes services are refused but we make sure that we offer them and try to encourage individuals to take advantage of them thank you i appreciate that i do think that's really important and i appreciated reading that in the report and i'm glad to get the explanation um and the you mentioned the the recruits uh the the on page six of larger report the the number of recruits um i was very impressed with and it was great to see it was great to hear from you about the diversity of our current BLET class yes that sounds like the most diverse class that we've ever had at least since i've been on the council i think so if i could just get them out of the classroom right i got it well i know they've moved along uh to a point where we feel pretty comfortable about this group but of course it takes months of going through the process in order to start seeing the fruits of your labor and and now we're starting to um see uh the the diversity come through in our recruiting efforts and the intentional effort fantastic uh the misdemeanor diversion uh statistics the the it's the department uh referred six 16 to 17 year olds and six 18 to 21 year olds to misdemeanor diversion court during the quarter just 12 people this seemed lower than previous quarters and i wonder if it was lower or am i wrong about that and it it may be lower we know that there is a policy that our officers have to comply with so if it's lower and they're compliant with the policy which i believe they are because they quite frankly have been very receptive to that policy um then that's really sort of a good thing sure and not not so much that we're locking you know young people up i think the um the misdemeanor diversion program is working for us and giving these young people an opportunity to uh go through the court system in a different kind of way but you're absolutely right when we first started this program we had huge numbers of individuals that were were going through the program itself but um i i really can't say why we're not seeing as many you know shoplifting and you know small amounts of marijuana and those types of cases but it's a good thing and they are absolutely following this policy right thank you and then finally i wanted to just second the comments of several of my colleagues councilmember austin councilmember reese about the descriptions of the great work of our officers in solving crimes saving lives of people intervening in mental health crises and i also want to say again to members of the public that this is available if you were interested in reading in a lot of detail about the work of force you can go to our city website where to the agenda for this meeting and you will be able to read uh in great detail the first court crime report which details a lot of that activity and i i think that's very valuable and i really appreciate it thank you any other questions or comments council members well chief thank you so much and deputy chiefs we appreciate you so much and great work we're moving in a really good direction and i just want you to know you have the full support of our community and we really appreciate it thank you thank you can't all right now now we will move to our general business agenda public hearings and we will be with item 16 the all west Durham neighborhood protection overlay and thank you Patrick we will hear from staff welcome good evening i'm matthew filter with the city county planning department before i begin i would like to note that all required notification for the public hearing has been performed and is on file for review in the planning department the old west Durham neighborhood protection overlay is a proposal drafted by the old west Durham neighborhood association o w dna with technical support from the planning department the purpose of the npo as authored by o w dna is to ensure that new residential development is compatible with the established urban form modest scale and mill village character of the neighborhood preservation of green space and tree canopy are the primary motivations for a formulation for the formulation of a number of these standards and that is their language the npo submittal includes joint text and map amendments tc 180 0001 a text amendment containing the proposed npo standards and z 180 0002 a zoning map change applying those proposed standards as an overlay to 428 parcels in old west Durham the proposed npo applies to only one and two family residential uses the main components of the proposal include establishing limits on primary and accessory structure square footage reducing the maximum primary and accessory structure heights standardizing lot dimensions to reflect the predominant subdivision pattern requiring a backyard tree reducing off-street parking requirements and limiting the surface area of parking areas i would also like to bring your attention to one additional matter regarding the npo text last friday o w dna requested that the planning department communicate to council they would like to amend their text proposal in section c one f to increase the square footage cap and accessory structure from 700 square feet to 800 square feet thus their new proposed text would read the total square footage of an accessory structure shall not exceed 50 percent of the heated floor area of the primary structure and shall not exceed 800 square feet as this is a recent development it is not in the staff memorandum but may be considered by council in your upcoming deliberations if the proposed ordinance is to be adopted this change will be incorporated unless council directs us otherwise for context the planning commission recommended denial of the npo by a vote of five to four and this was to both the text amendment and map change after a public hearing which was held on march 13th 2018 after the combined public hearing for these two items the city council may consider the following four motions two for the text amendment and two for the map change motion number one to adopt the appropriate consistency statement as required by ncgs 160a-383 motion number two to adopt an ordinance amending the united excuse me the unified development ordinance incorporating text revisions to article four motion three to adopt the appropriate consistency statement as required by ncgs 160a-383 and motion number four to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by establishing a neighborhood protection overlay district for the subject properties on the zoning map thank you and myself for another planning department staff member would be happy to answer any questions you may have now or after the public hearing thank you very much you have heard the staff report i will now declare the public hearing open and i will first ask if there any questions by members of the council just member reese thank you mr mayor mr filter can i ask you to describe for me the specific role that the planning department has played in this process sure the planning department provides technical assistance to the neighborhood association so we help them collect data we help them they they share the ideas of the the types of regulatory text they would like to see in a draft we help them word that we notice public meetings we put information up on the project website things of that nature so but um are you but you the staff is not coming to us with a recommendation about whether or not we ought to do this right yes the staff does not recommend approval or denial we just merely state that it's consistent with the comprehensive plan and other planning documents and policies at this time the recommendation also includes language that suggests that the proposed changes are reasonable and in the public interest is that correct correct can you tell me help me understand what that means sure you good evening pat young with the planning department i think as mr filter alluded to it means that it's consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adopted policies and plans that city council has adopted and promotes those plans or is neutral relative to those plans so the suggestion that the so the recommendation and the report that the proposal is reasonable and in the public interest should not be read as any kind of endorsement by staff that we ought to approve this overlay is that correct it's not an explicit endorsement the the language of reasonable and public interest is required by state law it's consistent with your consistency statement that you're required to adopt but it does tie through that to the policies and and adopted policies in ordinance of this council it's not a recommendation but it's a statement by staff that it's not inconsistent with any previous policy adopted excellent so is it fair to say that staff even though that staff is uh give it provided a lot of technical assistance and the other aspects of the process that mr filter pointed out it's a fair to say that the staff is neutral as to the decision we have to make tonight yes sir thank you that's all i have mr mayor thank you very much council member reese council member for me um thank you along those lines could you could you give me some context for i know this process started about 10 years ago is it the application that is being acted upon now is was submitted in 2014 correct 2014 and can you give me some context around the compact neighborhood on 9th street and how it's related to this um the design district i think it was for 9th street in relation to how it works with this old western neighborhood sure i'm gonna defer to my colleague scott whiteman who was here at the time that that occurred thank you good evening i'm scott whiteman with the planning department we win the 9th street compact design district was created through the adoption of the 9th street plan there was a recommendation in there that with the added density in that area that the the city of the neighborhood should pursue some sort of protection for the the primarily residential area in old western which at the time was a instill is that a neighborhood protection overlay so would that have served i think i'm coming to council member reese's point about a recommendation there was a recommendation at one point in 2014 to have a neighborhood protection overlay i'm gathering from old western yeah i don't remember the exact wording that was in the plan but it was there was a recommendation that um we at least pursue that option thank you thank you mayor pertin thank you mr mayor uh i had a quick question related to um people potentially being in a situation where the rules were what they want to do very slightly exceeds the rules because we've drawn a line and there needs to be a line but there may be for example one of the things was one of the rules in the npo was a minimum lot with the 50 feet are there are there ways for people to if if their project um is just a little bit outside of what the npo allows to get a variance like they would get um in another sort of zoning matter through the board of adjustment correct they could seek a variance great thank you thank you councilmember middleton thank you mr mayor it is it within the staff purview to verify what the actual percentage of respondents were in a neighborhood that were in favor or not in favor if it's not it's fine because i've seen a number of different target points and numbers of just exactly how many residents support it and how many don't and then parsing of who's actually an owner or a renter so was it within your purview to get any sense of what the real number is so there is no kind of whip count as of today you know there's this category in this category in this category and these people are for and these people are against um there have been various uh parameters that have been taken throughout the process different meetings in which people registered their support or lack thereof or somewhere in the middle there is an initial petition where the uh city recommends but does not require 51 of property owners to sign on to the petition the neighborhood association got i believe around 29 percent not 51 but there is no ongoing whip count that shows a majority are in favor or majority are opposed there are different points in time that have shown that a majority of participants at a given time were in favor but those are individual meetings and it's only participants out those meetings thank you councilmember any other questions for a staff at this time all right uh if not we are going to hear from speakers let me explain the process this is a zoning matter and so a zoning matters require an equal amount of time for speakers on both sides of the question so those folks who have signed up um conveniently 17 proponents and 17 opponents well done and thank you and uh really appreciate the way you all coordinated that that that we will have an equal amount of time for both sides so i'm going to set 35 minutes for the proponents to be followed by 35 minutes for the opponents actually i changed my mind i'm going to provide 40 minutes for the proponents and 40 minutes for the opponents so that that will mean that each speaker i'm going to ask the clerk to please time each speaker at two minutes uh and if we do that that will leave about five or six minutes for each side for a response if you want to take that extra time uh so let me just say that again so i hope that i'm clear and then i'm going to ask the city attorney if that's kosher okay uh i'm going to assign 40 minutes to both proponents and opponents ask that each speaker take two minutes which will be timed you'll see it over here on the timer to my left if you'd like to speak speak more briefly than that that makes all of us happy uh and and then at the end that will leave about five or six minutes uh assuming people keep to the time uh for people to offer any uh additional comments that they might have so mr city attorney is that good okay thank you very much so that's the city that's the that's the uh procedure that we're going to follow i want to thank here before i get started uh our uh one of the things that happens behind the scenes here at city council is a lot of work by the clerk's office and you all know our clerk diana schreiber but i also want to thank laverne brooks and tonetta amus who we're here tonight and who are helping make things run smoothly and i just want to offer my appreciation to both of you all thank you all right uh we will start with the proponents and i'm going to call your name and as i call your name i would ask you all to please line up in order over here to my right and you'll be speaking here from this podium uh michelle nowlyn barbara wellanets or linus i'm not sure if i'm saying that right i've not i apologize simian firman jone dayhill kathy sailor boo walukas john shelf dan welch william r williams christine cupido cupido cupido i'm sorry i got that one wrong too uh bill can't read the handwriting plough or plonk ellen dagenhardt and then someone who's simply listed their name as susan uh who lives on legion avenue if that's you you know who you are susan sewell susan please you can do this marcia karenis memet osterk rob emerson john martin and those are the seventeen people that i have signed up to speak in favor now let me ask this is there anyone else here who would also like to speak in favor of the npo who has not signed up to speak anyone else who would like to speak in favor of the npo who has not signed up to speak okay it's not seen uh then we will begin or how you doing over there vivian i think we should have an opportunity have another backup there we go to give us just a moment of technical issues is this it there's there oh mayor pro tem let me know there's a young person in the back who would like to speak apparently they're already speaking okay thank you vivian another person who uh makes things work smoothly around here vivian cruise swatco so thank you uh and we'll now hear from uh miss nowlyn you have two minutes please introduce yourself and state your address thank you uh good evening mr mayor and members of the city council my name is michelle nolan and i live at nine ten verge street in old west Durham where i have resided as a homeowner for at least 20 years thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you this evening um i'm here with many of my neighbors to speak on behalf of the proposed neighborhood protection overlay um many of whom of course are lined up here behind me and i just want to provide a very quick overview of some of the considerations that launched us on this path of more than six or seven years ago first off is displacement of long term neighbors and friends many of whom are low and fixed income residents who've been forced out of their uh units because of rising taxes and rising rents and their units secondly is the numerous tear downs of historic mill village scale homes to make room for very large homes that would be more appropriate in a more suburban setting um and rental units that essentially function as rooming houses within our community protection of our tree canopy and open spaces whose beauty and wildlife enrich our community and make it so attractive for others and for all current residents we also wanted to stop the pavement of entire backyards for parking ensuring that those parcels will no longer support the trees canopy or even maybe a blade of grass into the future we wanted to address escalating problems of stormwater runoff the result from increased paving and uh increased expansion of impervious surfaces within the community green street now regularly floods in my own backyard is falling into the tributary behind my house because of the increased velocity and volume of stormwater from development up the street we wanted to protect the walkable bikeable and porch friendly streetscape that makes old west Durham so appealing to so many we wanted to encourage accessory dwelling units to retain affordability and we wanted to do this while accommodating reasonable in scale expansion as councilwoman uh freeman had noted is no one here two minutes i believe are up thank you very much all right thank you and now we will hear from barbara wellanets wellanets i'm sorry you can help me with your name it's wellanets but either one will do um first i'd like to ask the supporters can you introduce yourself and say sorry so it's barbara wellanets 26 12 west nock street and could i ask the supporters who are here tonight to stand just so we can recognize who's here thank you those are all residents of our neighborhood um i wanted to let you know because i volunteered to join the npo work group last spring how we developed the proposals a group of 10 to 12 folks first studied national trends county property statistics we gathered new data on the heights and garages of old west homes and took hundreds of reference photos we sought neighbor input and technical advice from city staff and resident experts we then focused on addressing the characteristics of the outlier properties that have caused the greatest concern and it's very obvious just how out of scale and character a few of the new homes are so the npo proposals were then carefully crafted based on data and adjusted after neighbor feedback we believe we struck a reasonable balance between maintaining old west character and scale respecting property rights and allowing continued densification the npo will allow and in fact encourage more adu development about 50 of old west will continue to be zoned now for two-family use and finally there is ample opportunity for adding housing capacity in the upcoming compact design district rezoning along hillsborough road we will work with the city on this so this debate does not have to be about preserving old west character or allowing for more density and affordability we can do all of those things thank you thank you very much uh simian firman good evening mayor shul mayor pro tem johnson and members of the council my name is simian firman and i live at 2707 west nock street i'm on the board of the neighborhood association and i am a convert to this neighborhood protective overlay when neighbors came to my door four years ago seeking initial support for this npo i literally chased them off my porch my knee jerk reaction was that any new zoning had to be some form of government overreach but over time i got involved in the neighborhood i joined i joined the association board because we needed a treasurer at the time i watered trees the association had planted around the neighborhood i learned people's stories and realized i belong to a diverse neighborhood of people with shared interests all while witnessing this steady increase in high dollar development so the house in the picture here is uh is my little 900 square foot chalet that i purchased in 2004 for $91,000 the texas has value today of this home is $259,000 so dorm is rising it's becoming more expensive and less affordable for any fortunately my salary has not tripled since 2004 and as a solidly middle-class university administrator i probably could not purchase my home today at market value but none of the opponents i've spoken with during this process have described to me the benefits that these oversized homes and thinly veiled high dollar student dorms bring to old west urm at the core of their concern what i hear is a self-interest in a desire to protect what they call their investment or their wealth i think we can do better this npo is not perfect it attempts to guide smart purposeful change that serves our entire community homeowners my neighbors who rent and those who would like to join us this npo could be a cornerstone of progressive housing policy and strategies but i hope all of you as our new city council will help bring about the time is now tonight is that time i thank you and i yield a remainder thank you very much mr ferman uh john dayhill good evening thank you my name is joanne dayhill i've lived in germ for 20 years and purchased my home at 1006 ira del in old west 11 years ago it's been over a year since the neighborhood engagement process began during that time 16 open invite meetings were held in order to gather feedback consider options and gauge neighbor sentiment at each of the three publicly noticed meetings the planning department surveyed the attendees each time there was a strong majority in favor of the npo the opponents recently conducted their own survey the aggregated results including both owners and renters showed a 63 to 33 percent majority in favor of the npo the opponents have circulated a map highlighting properties that are in documented opposition to the npo however the right the map on the right highlights those properties that are owned by residents in the neighborhood this map serves to emphasize that non resident developers are a key component in the opposition to the npo our neighborhood is more than just a place for developers to make money it's a place we are grateful to call home and we're asking you to give equal weight to the people who reside in old west Durham believe that the current draft is a balanced proposal offering protection to the neighborhood while still allowing reasonable redevelopment and densification i urge you to vote yes for the npo thank you thank you very much kathy sailor you have two minutes thank you good evening good evening so my name is kathy sailor and i live in old west Durham in an old house at 109 hail street that i have owned for 25 years for that same amount of time i have also owned rental property in old west Durham including currently five rental houses and two duplexes within the npo boundary area i love living in old west Durham it's a great place to live to raise kids and to age in place the shade tree canopy is wonderful and necessary for a habitable healthy neighborhood the lots are pretty small and we are all close to our neighbors it is a real community i look at this zoning overlay from two perspectives as a resident of old west Durham who wants to protect the neighborhood and as a landlord who wants to have rental income from it i think the npo strikes a very good balance it prevents developers and landlords from overbuilding and maximizing profits at the literal expense of the neighborhood as a landlord myself i personally don't have much sympathy for that approach but it still permits owners a generous allowance to improve and enlarge their homes but finally and most importantly or importantly it encourages more small separate units by relaxing the adu rules and allowing seven and even 800 square foot adu's on most slots large enough for the addition of a one or two bedroom apartment i think the npo will encourage the orderly densification of our neighborhood without destroying it thank you thank you very much and now we will hear from boo walukas you have two minutes thank you my name is boo walukas i rent my home in old west Durham at nine oh five rose hill avenue many renters i know in the neighborhood want to stay here and hope to buy a house in old west someday if we can still afford one but for now what's important to know about many of us is we live in more than half the old west properties many of us are active participants in old west and are engaged citizens that help keep the neighborhood fun friendly and safe we contribute to neighborhood and city wide events and initiatives we pay property taxes indirectly through our rent we are voting residents of Durham many of us support the npo despite some of the landlords placing signs on our lawns declaring opposition we are counting on the npo to help keep some of the smaller older units in operation as long as possible it's the small houses duplex and adus that will remain relatively affordable thanks for the opportunity to include our voices in this hearing thank you miss walukas and now we will hear from john shelf shelf you have two minutes good evening good people my name is john shelf i'm at 1022 rose hill in old west Durham we would like to point out that the single and two family section of old west Durham is already one of the densest in the city at six to eight units per acre the npo will allow neighborhood to add more density by encouraging adus or granny flats the truth is old west Durham has been broadly supportive of density within our neighborhood over many years we supported the ninth street district we supported the new developments at solace 810 ninth street berkshire erwin mills ninth street north station nine apartments all those are within the boundaries of old west Durham no other neighborhood association in Durham has supported that much density Durham's npo process is the only available tool for neighborhoods to proactively participate in their in their zoning if this npo is turned away it is unlikely other neighborhoods will pursue this option and they will receive the message that neighborhoods have little say in their future we prefer instead of the city work together with our neighborhoods to pursue the changes needed in our urban tier i've gotten to know a number of families over the past few years that have left the neighborhood outside developers have come in bought their houses gave them notice to leave they were they had their roots in the neighborhood they sent their kids to ek po they were right across the street from the food line they can catch a bus to go to work on the on route 11 they're gone they were sent out their houses were demolished and replaced with bigger houses that charge three times the rent the npo is not a radical preservationist proposal we are not trying to stop new development we are simply asking that the new development be in scale and in context with the neighborhood that means smaller than what the market has recently provided and smaller translates to affordable we urge you to pass the npo tonight thank you thank you mr shelb we'll now hear from dan welch mr barrett if possible i'd like to hold my comments and rebuttal that's fine thank you thank you we will now hear from william r williams my name is william r williams and i live at nand 15 hardale street with my son we are homeowners we've been there over 20 years we love always there we really do and we hope you'll favorite with the npo thank you thank you mr williams we'll now hear from christine cupido good evening mayor and city council members my name is christine cupido i live at 2406 angle wood avenue and i live in the watts hillandale neighborhood which is contiguous to old west Durham i learned from the wd listserv that a group opposed to the owd npo conducted a survey only for owd property owners and renters i want to officially and respectfully complain about being deliberately excluded from this survey on behalf of myself and all others within 600 feet of old west Durham boundaries who received letters from the city encouraging our participation and since our property values are affected by what happens in old west Durham i live within 600 feet of old west Durham and can see the backside of the unsightly macmansion on laundale from my front yard on angle wood one street over in watts hillandale it looks like those of us within 600 feet were deliberately excluded and disenfranchised in this survey my vote counts two and i am for the npo i live on the 2400 block of angle wood and i own three rental houses next door to me and across the street all in the 2400 block of angle wood avenue all four houses are adversely affected by the view of the unsightly macmansion and its two-story garage apartment unit on our block i therefore vote for the npo for all these properties within 600 feet of old west Durham as you probably know watts hillandale is a local historic district and we are more protected from other property owners bulldozing down a perfectly good bill house built in the 1920s to 1930s and replaced with ugly macmansions that tower over and dwarf the existing and charming historic homes i support the npo to help provide similar protections for my old west Durham neighbors and their houses part of the charm of Durham are the cute little historic bungalows from the turn of last century and i encourage you to support them i would also like to mention that the watts hillandale board drafted a document in support of the old west Durham npo i don't have time to read it now but i do have have copies for everybody on the council thank you if you could please give those to the clerk that would be great okay thank you thank you miss cupidow i really appreciate it and now we will hear from bill plonk improve your handwriting a little bit mr plonk sorry i'm a doctor fair enough then there's no way you're going to do that i was the one doing the scolding thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening um as i mentioned i am a physician my wife is a nurse um we moved with our three children into old west Durham nine years ago and purchased a home on rosehill avenue we love the charm and diversity of the neighborhood and hope to live there the rest of our lives just this past friday we hosted a neighborhood gathering in our front yard um my wife joined the owd na board soon after we arrived and has worked diligently on developing the npo she knocked on doors distributed flyers attended dozens of meetings and met individually with concerned neighbors uh seeking a middle ground between neighbors who want absolutely no development and those who want absolutely no restrictions the board has consistently solicited input from all quarters and compromised on far restrictions adu thresholds and npo wording uh the city council should recognize that this npo represents its last chance to provide any protection to the owd neighborhood from unscrupulous development if this effort fails i doubt the owd na nor any other Durham neighborhood group will make the effort to propose another npo in the future if this effort fails i also fear that old west Durham as we know it will cease to exist replaced by student housing and look mansions that no one not even a physician like myself can afford thank you for your consideration i encourage you to support the npo thank you very much and now we will hear from ellen dagenhardt good evening good evening hope y'all are well i'm here because i support historic preservation um i live in trinity park at $1409 avenue and i own the house at 900 verge street colloquially known as the prohibition house uh former liquor house and you know you should go on john chelps hike so you can learn the history it's interesting i support this because this meets the historic preservation goals it supports the historic character of the neighborhood it will slow the rate of the tear downs that we've seen in the neighborhoods it is an organic and well supported neighborhood driven initiative it allows growth through sensible expansion of existing homes and constructions of the 80 years to accommodate parents and allow tenant income new construction will be in keeping with the neighborhood this will help to slow the rise in rents and in home prices we know that the prices are going to continue to rise that can't be helped or dorms just too great so this will also see fewer tear downs that'll fill up the landfill there'll be less impervious surface with the npo and we sure heard tonight about how important water is so we see oh the old west dorm threatened due to its location and it's proximity to duke and we hope that the npo will stabilize dorm this part of dorm and we've lost too much of dorm some think this is too restrictive others not restrictive enough you might think it's just right i hope you will and that you'll pass it thank you very much thank you miss taken heart now we will hear from susan sewell miss sewell please state your name and address you have two minutes my name is susan sewell i live at 2904 legion avenue that is in tuscaloosa lakewood neighborhood we are the first to have passed an npo speaking on behalf of the board of tuscaloosa lakewood neighborhood association our board passed a resolution supporting old west dorm and their neighborhood protection overlay this is an important tool for neighborhoods and an opportunity to create unique zoning and unique areas tlna was the first neighborhood in durham to complete the neighborhood protection overlay it almost took us five years too we know from experience just how many volunteer hours and how many years it takes please i urge you to support this npo thank you miss sul marcia carinas please state your name and address and you have two minutes hi thank you thank you um my name is marcia carinas and i live at 906 carolina avenue and old west dorm it's part of the national historic district i've been in durham for 27 years and and oh west dorm since 2007 and um this past weekend we had hundreds of visitors come to our historic millhouse on the preservation durham home tour and um i'm not alone to want to preserve the whole the mill village and the history of these homes and the unique character of our neighborhood so i support the npo in hopes that it will help preserve the history of durham's textile manufacturing industry and i hope you'll do the same too thank you thank you very much and now we will hear from memet austirk and sir please state your name and address and you have two minutes thank you for your time my name is uh memet austirk um i live in a small millhouse on carolina avenue built in 1904 um and i'm really proud to be in that house um i moved to old west durham um about two years ago uh from a sterile neighborhood in carrey uh to me uh that was a huge change i mean that um old west durham was everything carrey was not all of carrey we won't deduct that clapping time from your time i was i had to say that i was particularly attracted to the rooted uh and historic field of the neighborhood uh proud pecan trees that witnessed many generations of north carolina families and many many beautiful gardens i had to say that i was also impressed with the care that many homeowners took with their builders in preserving the look and feel of their existing homes when they renovated or expanded their homes i was also impressed with some new constructions sensible uh sensible constructions that preserved the tree canopy and created beautiful homes that fit the character of the neighborhood at the same time i unfortunately i was very disheartened seeing some new constructions that uh essentially filled their entire lots left no trees behind and invaded the privacy of their neighbors i believe uh these uh how constructions are a threat to a gem we have in durham and so i do value um the uh a role of old west durham in the north carolina history and i would like to do everything i can to preserve that and i hope you will too thank you thank you miss us mr osther we will now hear from rob emerson mr emerson please say your name and address you have two minutes thank you uh my name is rob emerson and i'm here representing preservation durham and the current president of the board of directors of that organization and i live at 1202 north craigson street in durham old west durham is one of the earliest neighborhoods in the city and it's rich with reminders of our history and thus of significant interest to preservation durham part of the area included in this neighborhood protection overlay lies in a national register historic district the many houses in the neighborhood are physical reminders of the mill village that was so important in durham's early industrial boom although preservation durham was conceived more than 40 years ago in response to demolitions blamed on disinvestment and urban blight the challenges we face today are more about preserving the character and economic diversity of our neighborhoods particularly those surrounding our thriving downtown pace of change in durham is breathtaking and small well-built homes and walkable urban neighborhoods that were once affordable to middle-class workers are being systematically replaced with much larger homes of less quality excuse me local historic districts and neighborhood protection overlays are among the few tools available to residents to help mitigate these effects of rampant speculative development and rising property values and tax rates preservation durham supports every tool in the kit that helps our urban neighborhoods increase density where appropriate without sacrificing the historic character and integrity that makes them desirable places to live we fully support the old west durham neighborhood in their request for the npo thank you thank you mr. hemerson uh we will now hear from john martin mr martin please state your name and address you have two minutes thank you my name is john martin i live at 401 east trinity avenue in old north durham um i have lived in durham i like to say even longer than steve schule because i came to duke a couple years before you did um i i rented apartments in old west durham um for a number of years and then i um ultimately owned a house in old west durham right now i do not own any property so i have no financial interest uh in it but i know the neighborhood and i and i care about the neighborhood we all know that a huge amount of change is going on in our older residential neighborhoods that's true in old west durham it's true in old north durham um and and many others as well this is a response to that now i've listened to some of the things that opponents have said in the newspapers some of them have said it'll drive down property values others of them have said no it's going to gentrify and cause prices to go up this is quite an ordinance that can cause prices to go both up and down at at the same time um if they're to be believed the way i see it this is an experiment it's an attempt to see what will happen if we do this it's not going to affect the whole city it won't affect most of the city but it will affect one neighborhood if it doesn't seem to work if it seems to have bad consequences you can come back in a couple of years and and and and change it repeal it um amend it so but if you kill it now you'll never know what kind of consequences something like this might have had so please give it a chance think of it as an experiment an attempt to deal with the massive changes that are going on in residential neighborhoods in durham thank you thank you thank you mr martin is there anyone else who has not signed up to speak who would like to speak in favor of the npo anyone else out here tonight who has not signed up to speak who would like to speak in favor of the npo okay um by my calculation uh that uh the there is about uh eight minutes left on the proponents side all right um and now we're going to hear from the opponents uh and we will i'm going to read out the names of the speakers and if you will do as this last group did and please line up in order to my right um as i call your name and if you need some technical assistance uh i'm sure that someone will soon arrive to help you you won't believe how this happens but out of the back someone will dash okay Howard Sykes Joyce Sykes Marty McFarling Glenn Martin Leanne Nelson Jeff Moncine Rachel Moncine Overcash Jean Cristian Rostani Jacob Rogers John Temple James Wilkins James Speed Rogers James K Bach I believe Cyrus Duster Wayne R. Hadler Chris McKeel Nicole Robert and i'm sorry if i have not gotten your name right there um and if you all would please line up to my right now let me ask are there other people who would like to speak tonight who are opponents of the npo is you want anyone else out here tonight who would like to sign up to speak as opponents okay why don't you go over here and please sign one of these cards and then you can line up behind the others after you've done so thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak tonight as opponents of the npo okay so uh i'm going to call your names are you is the technology ready yes great okay i'm going to call your names and uh as with the last group you will have two minutes please state your name and address and you will have two minutes there's a timer over here that's in front of you uh that you can see how your time is uh and uh if everyone here speaks for two minutes then this group would have about four minutes left uh at the end of all of your time if you speak shorter than that you'll have a little bit more and i'm doing an estimate of that okay all right uh Mr Howard Sykes if they could put up the slides uh i know you've gone to look at uh several of the properties i think some of what you haven't seen working produce yourself with your name and address please i'm sorry Howard Sykes 15 twin leaf place uh 23 year resident of city of Durham um this is an example one of the properties that belong to people that are suggesting we need to change things i think it's sort of the i got what i want uh other people do as i say not as i'm doing uh i don't see that much between one and i've taken most of these from the work session slides where they showed these two homes and didn't mention that the smaller home is somebody who has written to the city council that he's actually happy with the home next to him i find more upsetting is i look at and again this is from the work section slide uh they're including properties 910 i guess because it had a high far is not even in the in the area that's covered by uh the npo uh 910 so at a low fall they didn't include the garage that's on there um again two items that were in the work section package so they presented to you the comment that an accessory structure uh can't exceed 25 feet within the property line but they're asking you to approve an npo this says it can't exceed 16 feet and needs a 10 foot set back so i find the fact that planning is verbally telling you one thing and you sign something else is very upsetting uh another chart from that uh they didn't have to mention that the reason these bars are higher in the red one is because they included multifamily homes not covered by the npo uh they've got a slide here showing old homes and house more than what but they didn't bother to include the 43 garages and six structures that are larger than 12 by 12 that actually changes a lot of these statistics uh thank you very much thank you let me just remind you all that at the end every you will have some time assuming everyone keeps their time uh for some additional comments uh Joy Sykes my name is Joy Sykes and I live at 15 Twinleaf place also and have lived here for 23 years um this the slide that came up here uh indicates when properties were built in old west Durham and certainly can conveys the idea that old west Durham isn't a community that's all looks alike it's been built at very much different times it's very eclectic it's not just old millhouses it's a huge variety of houses in the in that district it's called out keep talking you you can help her if you would like he said he was doing it um we talked about the adus and the proponents talk about um the increase that could be done under the npo with adus and even increasing the square footage that's allowed but because of the height restriction what it doesn't allow is a garage as well as an adu which is a an attractive way of achieving increased density and also in terms of the backyard canopy tree that basically eliminates um adus because when a canopy tree grows it covers 30 to 50 foot spread when it's a mature tree and with the height restrictions of adus we might end up with some very creative um and inconsequential uh views of the adus which um could have flat roofs of the of the winds reflected here and I would ask since I'm running out of time if any if the proponents or the opponents of the adu of the npo would just please stand up thank you very much miss Sykes we will now hear from marty mcfarling just to mcfarling you have two minutes please state your name and address good evening council members i'm marty mcfarling i live at 5014 renville driving greensboro north carolina but i'm a property owner in old west dorm and i used to live in old west dorm back in the early 90s uh basically um number one i just want to point out i'm the guy that since y'all a three-party mail hopefully everyone got to read it and understand a little bit better position on what a the npo could do to a personal property or that was one of the main things i wanted to try to point out was case in fact of how this thing may work with someone uh i want to know that the um npo the purpose of it was preservation of green space and tree canopy were the primary motivations for the formulation of a number of these standards okay we were able to go on and find some um department of um agricultural uh aerial photos first one being from 1940 that you're looking at right now kind of the big empty spot there is e k po you look down in the left corner the lowest point that's main street going in an angle the street above it that goes at the other angle and then twist to the side is hillsborough ray so you can get an idea that's what old west dorm looked like in 1940 the next slide will show you what it looked like in 1955 okay then the next slide will show you what it looks like in 1972 and then the last slide we have is 2015 and i'm not going to sit here and tell you what you're uh seeing but uh there's a lot more green in 2015 than in 1940 now please remember the mill houses were released by the mill and sold off to the individual owners in 1945 so in 1940 everybody probably would have had a backyard garden so they could have eat some food with the wages that were paid there and the other thing that really i need to um get you to consider is that the planning commission voted not to recommend this proposal they have specific reasons why so finally i ask you tonight to vote to delay this petition thank you thank you mr mcfarling and now we will hear from glenn martin mr martin you also have two minutes please state your name and address my name is glenn martin i live at uh 24 for indian trail in watz hospital hillondale i uh thank you for hearing me out we've my wife and i've lived there for 30 years i own three duplexes in old west dorm and i want you to vote no on the mpo uh before the petition uh to start the mpo in 2014 proponents passed flyers around specifically stating that uh additions to existing homes would not be affected only new construction would be affected they said still they only got 31 percent of old west dorm home owners to sign the petition to explore an npo in 2014 far less than the 51 percent the mpo before you now affects all homes existing or new the mpo before you has been started with a lie by the very proponents who pushing it in front of you today had the proponents not changed the mpo to affect existing homes i wouldn't be here okay um so when proponents changed the mpo to affect existing homes process should have been stopped thank you very much um i hope you vote no on the mpo and i wanted to say also that on the listserv when i've stated my views very pointedly against certain points i have been attacked saying i have no rights i don't live there specifically i have no rights i don't live there so uh i own three properties i pay taxes i feel like i have right to state my opinion and thank you very much for hearing me out thank you very much mr martin uh we will now hear from lianne nelson you also have two minutes please state your name and address my name is lianne nelson my address is 2404 indian trail i am the co-owner of three properties in old west dorm i want to say three things number one the proponents have stated that they believe that this will cause house prices to be lower this these properties are investments of mine these are part of my retirement plan i do not want to see my investments uh value decline as the proponents of state of the expect will happen number two this will not help historic preservation there is nothing against tear downs in fact historic districts you can tear it down with the one year waiting period this doesn't do anything for historic preservation i think it will cause more tear downs because it's a better deal to tear it down and build new since uh you don't get any benefit from adding on to the old house the third thing is um i don't really want to be part of an experiment thank you thank you very much and i see my time is it okay i can use some of her time um mr monstein you can use two minutes but you will your the opponents will have more time at the end and if you all can agree to you having some of that time that would be fine but everyone gets we don't we don't yield time at derma city council so yeah okay okay thank you okay thanks um well several weeks ago i met with don moffitt a former city council member and rental property neighbor of mine we discussed the npo overlaying he asked me a question how did you get uh so much time how did you i'm looking at the clock it wasn't moving so uh how do you lucked out yeah i know i got a couple extra seconds oh i'm sorry jeff monstein i live at 44 17 turnberry circle in derm um so he asked me how many how'd i get so many properties my wife and i decided to start a college fund for my children i thought rental property was a great way to do that um so it worked i have four children graduated college i have a social worker a spanish teacher one in hr and a son with a business degree but in addition to being very proud of those kids i'm very proud of the work i've done in old west in old west derm i've been investing in property since 1985 over the past years i've remodeled and refurbished dozens of homes and more recently i had to rebuild some of these homes these houses i have had to rebuild or way beyond any repair with crumbling foundations and many other structural issues old west derm has not always been what it is today for almost 30 years i had many homeowners and investors calling me asked me to buy their homes many of these homes were in horrible disrepair many were inhabitable and vacant for many many years i believe the reason many of these homeowners or property owners sought me out is because of my reputation of taking great care of these properties and i would not do anything to harm the neighborhood in many cases a lot of these homes were in the same family for many generations every project i've done in old west derm has been done under the unified development ordinance everything has been done to to match or for permitting zoning setbacks i've done everything above board um and as i mentioned if this mpo passes building a ad you will be next to impossible old west derm is a great place to live close to duke the future light rail system nine street this was accomplished without any government funding tax credits overlays uh or any other type of government intervention please vote no thank you mr monstein and i just want to say i appreciate all the time the city council members have given me you know on a one-on-one basis when we met so thank you very much for all that thank you sir rachel monstein over cash i have two minutes please state your name and address rachel over cash live at 1004 weeping glenn court all the way in raleigh i lived in old west derm um five years ago before moving to raleigh over the past few months i've had the opportunity to hear both perspectives of the old west derm npo one from my father jeff monstein and the other from the old west derm listserv as a former resident of old west derm i originally subscribed to stay connected with what was going on with the neighborhood more recently i've been able to see firsthand the animosity and hatred that the residents of this community like to communicate from behind their computer screens when my father met with council members um they asked him why so many people dislike him in old west derm and his response was that he was not sure i'm standing up here not only against the npo but against the fact that all this started from a small group of people who have made this a personal attack on my father every single example that has been shown in the previous power points have been my father's properties i can assure you that he's not the only one in the neighborhood who's been renovating and rebuilding homes one only needs to look at this listserv propelled by a small group of neighbors who claim to stand for the same values that old west derm boasts to have a glimpse into the feelings against my dad it is appalling at what comes out of the mouths of those who identify as neighbors who stand for diversity harmony and community i've read the rumors and innuendos and they seem to have taken on a life of their own residents have accused him of burning down his own home and purposely displacing a family to build a new one other personal tax have attempted to discredit him and hurt our family in the process he has been vilified as some profit driven out-of-town developer who doesn't care about the neighborhood this couldn't be further from the truth he has been in north carolina licensed general contractor for 15 years who has the ability and insight into whether a home can be saved structurally if he was going to tear down all of them for profit reasons that would have been done a long time ago think about all that has happened in old west Durham and the surrounding area it put into effect this npo will stop the positive growth that has been occurring in old west it will also hurt others from selling their properties i ask that the city council take into account exactly how this manifested and the kind of precedent passing this npo was set for other areas of Durham and this thriving community thank you miss overcash we'll now hear from jean christian rostani and you also have two minutes please state your name and address good evening good evening my name is jean christian rostani we have been living at 19 carolina for 22 years i'm an artist my wife is a teacher at Durham public schools as such we were never able to enlarge our house as desired so our girls still share a bedroom now we can contemplate expanding our house and launching my workshop and build an adu which will allow us not to be eventually priced out of our neighborhood in our old days we have one of the largest lost plots in old west so under current regulations we could build all this in a one and a half story format including a 900 square feet adu all for a total footprint of 2,700 square feet of or 22.5 percent of our lot this could easily be done with adequate setbacks but the npo would not allow this studies show that increased density provides more affordable housing protects the environment against pro i know that you may are sure and the council in general are aware of this as you are on record for calling for higher density in our town and doing so close to the future light rail would be ideal so i respectfully ask you to vote down this npo like the planning commission did if you feel that you have to pass this npo may i misuggest some vital improvements first no cap on far it is unfair that encounter productive that small lots are allowed to 55 percent for while it goes down to 20 percent for the largest lots larger lots are more apt than small ones that are committing the density this argument resonated with the planning commission which has expertise in these technical matters second a food base a food print base base for should be an option as it is as it promotes building up and reduces the amount of impervious surfaces you could add a provision that far is 32.5 percent of total less of total square footage or 25 percent if only footprint is considered whichever the permit applicant chooses keep third keep current high limitations only with this modification with this npo not negatively affect density local local economic development affordable housing tax action revenues and the paramount protection of the environment thank you thank you very much i will now hear from jacob rogers mr rogers please state your name and address and you have two minutes sure my name is jacob rogers i'm at 929 damberry drive here in durham i'll also represent here to represent the triangle community coalition and its membership i want to talk about this npo as it relates to public policy and how it is a a bad public policy and as it relates to public policy in a growing community over neighborhood protection overlays discourage the very things that we need creativity and a variety of housing options as we grow density will be the key to avoid urban sprawl which is what we've seen in areas like north raleigh the neighborhood the old west Durham neighborhood is very close to ninth street and we'll have which will have a light rail station and density is really needed to make those work and as we study policies such as the neighborhood npo's we must take into account our community needs today and for the future we see examples and other municipalities of how they've pushed development out to the suburbs and creating massive demands on infrastructure which end up costing us all and of course i also want to mention the missing middle for housing this includes do places try places apartments ad use tiny homes and all other types of housing are important to have as more people want to live in urban areas it gives us more options with a variety of prices i do want to plug in this added restrictions do not incentivize more housing more housing options and will result in less supply and therefore higher prices for the homes as we grow policies that demonstrate its exclusivity such as protective overlays only serve a small group of population and don't share the inclusive values of our city i'd also like to show your attention to the diversity of the people who stood up opposed to this npo and i would ask you vote no thank you thank you mr rogers i will now hear from john temple mr temple um you please state your name and address and you have two minutes nice to see you outside of walking around our block and out of shorts and t-shirts my name is john temple i live at 1015 hell street and i have since 1964 my house was built in 1900 the npo to me is a lot like the emperor's new clothes supporters are thinking it's wonderful they don't see the truth that it's not there's nothing there opponents like me see that it's arbitrary and unworkable that it won't protect which is their point the neighborhood the present zoning does that just fine the elements of the far just seem to me to have been pulled out of the air to me and others there was really no explanation or supporting reasons why the components that were chosen were chosen i think the majority members of the city county planning commission saw that and voted not to recommend passage of the npo because of that a lot of what was done to me has been secretive and attempts were meant were made to mute opposing voices like mine a control everything attitude that no one needs especially when the results of the process does nothing at all to protect the neighborhood i've lived in the neighborhood for 54 years it's always been a great place so i have a long history in the neighborhood many years ago some realtors and developers saw value in the neighborhood renovated and replaced some of the housing stock that was really dilapidated long ago a lot of these people weren't there to see that to me they were not attacking the neighborhood they were improving it now they are part of the reason the neighborhood is so desirable if this process began in 2012 like i read in the newspaper it was long before any of those large houses that are in contention now were ever even built but those houses i think have been used to stir up support for what i believe some already wanted to do control the property rights of others the npo will not help renters property values are going to go up and taxes are going up and rents are going to follow i fear the npo passage will mean fewer rental opportunities and lower density in the neighborhood i really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to to say my words you can read the three letters i've sent you thank you we have read the mr temple i can assure everyone out here we've all read all your emails okay and i and some of us have committed them to memory thank you thank you thank you mr temple uh we will now hear from mr james wilkins mr wilkins yes that's all right mr wilkins you have two minutes please state your name and address welcome my name is james wilkins i live at 9 29 alabama avenue uh thank you mayor shill and honorable counsel for hearing our concerns tonight my family has been on that corner we're in our seventh decade we didn't need anyone to help protect this neighborhood long before most of these folks came into the picture um maybe when it should have been protected was before then because my biggest concern and i've got a couple gentlemen in the back at life for you to stand up if you're still there there was st john's missionary church in the adjoining wall town their reverend sent them tonight they allowed me to speak at their service yesterday because i have a concern about what's going on in our community of durham there's a new york times article which is not the same article that was referenced by a council member earlier black people asking where do i fit in and my neighborhood used to have some you know racial blend we don't have that anymore wall town we were flanked by two communities that had that uh hickstown is to the ground and now wall town is heading in the same direction and that church and those folks are very concerned they don't want to see this in old west durham because they have a fear that it's then coming to wall town and i don't like the lady before i don't want to be a part of any experiment i don't like experiments that i keep giving being given results about what's going to happen with this but the results are you know that that's just someone selling you pie in the sky and there was i think the gentleman on the end asked or someone asked a question of mr filter about what the cities are planning department's participation was in putting this together probably the best way to explain that would be that if we were building a soapbox derby car and we were doing it against the two sides here tonight it would be like having nasa work for the other side to make that a super speedy car because that's what they've done and that's the real unfair part of this thank you folks thank you very much mr wilkins uh we will now hear from james speed rogers mr rogers uh you have two minutes please state your name and address hi um my name is speed rogers and i live at 1007 drew street here in durham just off allston av and i planned for three minutes so i'm going to cut a little bit um some people have already spoken about the climate impact of this down zoning um but beyond impeding the council's goals in regards to the paris climate agreement this down zoning is an unjust restriction on who is able to live in durham's urban core dozens of academic papers as well as high-profile books such as the color of the law by ric