This is it. Sure. Yeah, I didn't have to tell you which one it was. It was the only PowerPoint on there. So let's just do a switch. Here you are. And it's right here. Bring it up. Right now you're the only PowerPoint that I'm aware of. I'm just going to make that full screen. How do you make it full screen? You can close it. And then actually what I'll do is do that because that's right now you're the only one that I know of. So come up here and hit F5. You just hit two and then you can go back to three and it'll it'll go to the camera. So there you go. And then just hit F2 and then we're done. Yeah. Good evening. We'd like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order on Monday December 5th at 7 or 1 p.m. and certainly want to welcome all of you that are here for us this evening. As we take a moment of solemn meditation I would just like to ask you you might remember we had two great university leaders to pass in the last week. One was Chancellor Debra Sonders-White at NCCU and the other was Dr. Keith Brody. Some of you may not had an opportunity to attend the services. I was at NCCU and I duked this evening. So as we take this moment of solemn meditation if you could remember those two persons it would be appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. I would ask Councilman Davis if you would. Thank you Mr. Mayor. We are honored to have several scouts from scout from Troop 439 from the Bahama Ruitang Club to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight. A Pledge of Allegiance is 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. Mr. Mayor. Madam Clerk would you call the roll please. Mayor Bill. President. Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden. Councilmember Davis. Councilmember Johnson. Councilmember Moffitt. Councilmember Reese. And Councilmember Shul. I'd like to ask if the members of the Keep Derm beautiful board if they're here if they would join me at the podium if you don't mind. And also the staff here sorry I think after we finish we'll go down into the well. Oh come on up here if you don't mind. I mean if you want to sit on this fine. This evening we have the opportunity to recognize Keep Derm beautiful for its environmental stewardship award. Keep Derm beautiful will be helping the city of Durham to increase our green infrastructure and urban tree kind of paying through a grant that has been provided by Duke Energy Foundation. The grant implementation is a partnership between the city of Durham staff from the Department of General Services and Keep Derm beautiful and the grant from Duke Energy Foundation will provide eighty thousand dollars to allow our city staff and Keep Derm beautiful to engage Derm's civic business and residential partners to renew the urban tree canopy in identified areas of East Durham. As Environmental Awareness Campaign and Urban Tree Summit will accompany the Urban Tree Restoration Program which altogether will provide volunteer opportunities that engage residents and civic organizations to build quality of life by cooling our streets and homes in the area especially during the summer by reducing energy use and filtering pollutants from there and water. And the diversity of the tree species will enable wildlife habitat and protect water quality in Derm's critical L.A.V. Creek watershed. This is an effort that is greatly appreciated by the city of Durham and hopefully the residents of East Durham and we like to talk about a lot of things happening in our community through partnerships. And this is another great example of partnership between the public sector being the city and the private sector being Duke Energy. And I'd like to ask Miss Indira Everett who is the manager of Duke Energy for our area. She would join me if you don't mind Indira. And in this case I guess we need to go into the canopy. But why don't you come up and make some comments and we can go now when we do that. Good evening Mayor Bell council member staff and all of theirs in attendance tonight. Tonight I'm proud to represent Duke Energy and award its first ever grant as you heard in the amount of eighty thousand dollars to keep Durham beautiful. I like to thank you all for your leadership and ensuring the city and Duke Energy continues to closely work together as we have an open communication and transparency as it relates to our vegetation management practices. I've observed your staff all year their commitment and their passion and that is one of the reasons that I was so proud to advocate for this grant during our recent cycle. At Duke Energy we care about and value the efforts to build the community at large and that is certainly exhibited within your staff. Today's award is an extension of the partnership we enjoy. Our staff looks forward to participating in the upcoming Durham Tree Summit where best practices for caring for trees will be shared with the community. Again I want to say a special congratulations and I look forward to our continued collaboration of ways to better serve the citizens and the residents of Durham. And so at this time I have a official check that I will give make sure I give that to the right person and then I do have a check for a check presentation that I'd like to present to you. We unfortunately have lost another colleague, a former City Council person in the past week and we'd like to present a resolution on what asked the Mayor Pro Tem if she would present it. Members of the family here. Our Cynthia's family members here, our friends. If you would join me please, up here please. I didn't have the privilege of coming up please. I didn't have the privilege of serving with Cynthia when she was a member of the City Council but I certainly worked for her when I was on the Board of County Commissioners and in the community. So we were very pleased with her contributions to the City of Durham even when she wasn't on the City Council and sorry to hear about her passing and this is a resolution that we'd like to present to friends and family and ask the Mayor Pro Tem if she would do that. I had the honor of being a City employee when Cynthia was a City Council member and she was an awesome leader. The larger resolution will be coming later so I'm just reading it now. Resolution memorializing Cynthia Denise Brown. Whereas Cynthia Denise Brown was born in New York, New York on October 9th, 1958 to the late Laverne Martin Brown and Robert Brown and the eldest of six children whereas later in life she became a resident of Roosevelt, North Carolina, received her undergraduate degree in political science from Bennett College in Greensboro and her masters of public affairs from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and whereas immediately upon completion of her graduate studies she became the assistant director in a shelter for battered women and their children in Greensboro and subsequently shelter director in High Point, North Carolina and whereas she used her training to increase grassroots community people's capacity to build their own organizations, build effective alliances and advocate for public policies that address their needs and served on the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the resourceful communities program and the heirs program and whereas for the last years, last six years as a trainer with dismantling racism training teams, Cynthia continued to address the impact racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism and homophobia had on undermining the work for justice and whereas Cynthia was a former Durham City Council member serving from December 1995 to December 1999 a 2002 U.S. senatorial candidate and co-chair of the first U.S. Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Greensboro from June 2004 to May 2006 and whereas while residing in Lexington Kentucky she was leadership program director then interim executive director for Southeast Women's Employment Coalition and whereas her affiliations and honors are many just to name a few Highlander Research and Education Center board member, process observer for the African National Congress during South African elections, board member of the Women's Center for Self and Abuse Prevention Agency, the Institute for Southern Studies, the NC Coalition on Black and Brown Civic Participation of which she was a founding member, the Latino Community Development Center, the NC Conservation Network and she was the principal consultant, consultant of the Sojourner Group, a business that she founded to help nonprofit groups to strengthen their leadership and their organizational development issues and whereas Cynthia served on numerous boards, received numerous awards and was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and whereas as the WK Kellogg National Fellow she studied cultural, racial and economic justice issues in Australia, Brazil, Guatemala, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Chile and other places and whereas she worshiped at the St. Paul United Methodist Church while she was a resident of Reedsville, North Carolina where she learned strong Christian values that guided her through life and upon her relocation to Durham she became a member of Russell Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and whereas Cynthia Denise Brown will be long remembered for her conscientiousness, distinctive diligence and unselfish service, a woman who provided exceptional leadership to numerous civic, religious, educational and other organizations throughout her career. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Durham City Council that this City Council pauses in the moment of silence and memory of Cynthia Denise Brown, that this governing body pays tribute to the life of Cynthia Denise Brown and the unselfish contributions she made to the city of Durham and other communities, that this resolution be spread upon the official minutes of this governing body, that a certified copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Cynthia Denise Brown. I will not take very much time I'd just like to thank you the City Council for this great opportunity and for honoring our niece Cynthia Brown. Thank you very much. Let me ask other comments by members of the council Councilman Reeds. Yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple of announcements. First and foremost, I want to congratulate you, Mr. Mayor, on having been named the Order of the Longleaf Pine this past Thursday here in Durham. This is the most prestigious award that a North Carolinian can receive from the State of North Carolina and honors those who have a proven record of service to our state. Mr. Mayor, it was well past time that you be so honored. Congratulations, sir. Mr. Mayor, as you may well be aware, as a member of the Order of the Longleaf Pine, you have this special privilege to propose the official toast of the great State of North Carolina and select company anywhere in the free world. If you choose to do that now, it'd be great. Maybe next time, maybe next time. Second, this past Saturday, December 3rd, 30 lucky young children here in Durham were given a very special Christmas gift, a shopping spree, thanks to the work of our Durham County fraternal Order of Police. This year's annual Cops and Kids event brought together officers from the Durham Police Department and deputies from the Durham County Sheriff's Office to help these 30 kids do some Christmas shopping at Target. The organizers of the event raised money from private donations to provide $150 for each child to spend on themselves for Christmas. Sadly, for two of these lucky kids, they were accompanied on their shopping spree by this rookie member of the City Council, but somehow they still managed to have a good time. For the record, baby alive dolls are still quite popular with the kids today. It was a really great event. Lastly, and this is the last thing I'm going to say, today is very nearly the one-year anniversary of the first time I ever sat in this chair and I joined the Durham City Council. For nearly a year, actually it's 363 days, but who's counting? I have worked as hard as I know how to earn the trust and confidence that the people of this city have placed in me and the most important thing I've learned in my first year on the City Council relates two things. Number one, how little I knew when I took this oath a year ago, and number two, how much I still have to learn about how to serve this incredible city we all love. And so, as I honor my first year of service, I wanted to add a special note of appreciation to the two folks up here who have served our city the longest on the City Council, Mayor Bell and my seatmate, Mayor Tim Corkall McFadden. I'm so grateful for the two of you for your leadership and for the benefit of your wisdom, and I'm incredibly glad that I'll have at least one more year to serve the two of you because, did I mention, I still have a lot to learn. I appreciate your indulgence, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Well, thank you, Charlie, and I think you've done an admirable job as a member of this Council and appreciate your service you have for saying. I know we'll continue to see that, so thank you. Is that the program? Do you have a comment? Yes, sir. To take this time to thank all of our city employees for the hard work that you do, you are the ones who keep the city rolling, stable, and we really appreciate all that you do, so let's give them a round of applause for their fearless leader. I have a special appreciation for city employees because I was a city employee at one time, and it is really a blessing and a privilege to serve my hometown right now. Thank you. Well, it's interesting. Well, I just want to, since the Mayor of Pro Tem mentioned about city employees, I was at my home on Thanksgiving Day and looked out my window and saw some city employees across the street, evidently one of my neighbors that had problems with their sewer outfall, and these guys were out here to the rescue. In fact, I went out to find out why they were there. Yeah, it's a while, but they told me what they got a call, and I said they need to come out, so they were there. Recognize Councilman Monk. Thank you. I'm going to follow up on those comments too, and particularly, I want to lift up our Parks and Recreation Department. This is a busy time of year for them. I went to Center Fest on Saturday, and I was amazed at how many people were there. I've heard an estimate of six... I'm sorry, what did I say? Center Fest. Oh, I'm sorry. I got the first letter wrong, Winter Fest, and I'm thinking too far ahead. The Winter Fest, which was on Saturday, was out at the stadium. I've heard an estimate there were six to seven thousand people there, and that what we saw, my daughter was like, oh, sledding. I think I'll pass, because there was such a line for every single event. Horse rides, s'mores. I mean, there were so many activities, and everybody was patient and happy and having a great time. It was really a wonderful organization. The same department will be putting on our holiday parade this very Saturday, so parade is at 10 o'clock. It'll come down Main Street, essentially just east of Roxborough, all the way to East Camp, Dukes East Campus. So come down Saturday morning and take in the holiday parade. The mayor has been pushing for this for quite some time, and it's going to happen on Saturday. And finally, the same group will be also putting on an event for seniors here, a huge holiday party that will happen, I think it's next week. So I just want to just acknowledge, in particular at the moment, the Parks and Recreation people, and thank them for everything they're doing to make the holidays so neat for so many of us. Thanks, Don. Any other comments? I guess we need to congratulate, congratulate, congratulate Wendy Jacobs on her being named Chair, James Hill, and James Hill Vice Chair of the Board of County Commissions. Okay, we recognize the City Manager for prior times. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Priority items this evening, agenda item number 14, fire and police compensation and classification plan recommendations. This item is being referred back to the administration and will be deferred to the December 8th work session discussion. Entertain a motion on the City Manager's part. The property moved and second Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Open the vote. Close the vote. It passes 7-0. Thank you. Recognize City Attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. Recognize the City Clerk. Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we have Mr. Nicholas Coleman this evening joining us. He was recently appointed to the Human Relations Commission, so he's here to be sworn in. Thank you. I, Nicholas Coleman, do hereby solemnly swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of my office as a member of the Human Relations Commission. So help me God. Thank you. Nicholas, while you're signing it, let me say on behalf of the council, we appreciate your willingness to serve on a very important committee as are most of our committees. I was impressed by the fact that you're so young and willing to offer your service in time and we certainly appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, we will begin with the agenda. As you know, the consent agenda items may be approved with a single vote. If a council person chooses to remove an item for discussion, we'll discuss that later in the program and likewise as someone from the audience chooses to remove a consent agenda item, we'll discuss that later in the program also and I'll just read the heading of each one of the consent agenda items. Item one is boards, committees, and commissions attendance reports for the period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016. Item two is the Durham Workforce Development Board appointment. Item three is street maintenance performance audit for November 2016. Item 14 is resolution, memorializing Cynthia Denise Brown, which you've just had read. And item five is a single space parking meter contract. Item six is multi-space parking pay station contract. Item seven is second contract amendment with Republic Parking Systems Inc. for parking management services. Item eight is Durham Orange Light Rail Transportation Project Donation of Rider Wing. Item nine is roof replacements at various department of water management facilities. Item 10 is asbestos cement water line replacement. Item 11 is utility easement maintenance tree removal, SR 62 amendment to contract with L-J Inc. Item 12 is public safety radio replacement capital improvement plan purchase. Item 13 is the Durham Performing Arts Center seating replacement. Item 14 is item confound on the general business agenda has been referred back as city manager priority. Item 15 is a budget recommendation for 10.01 transformation and 10 initiative. Item 16 is 2016 COPS hiring program grant project ordinance. Items 20 through 27 items that can be found on the general business agenda as public hearings. And item 31 is an item that can be found on the general business agenda also. When I take a motion for the approval of the consented agenda with the exception of item to include item 14 which is being referred back. It's been propped and moved to the second. Madam clerk, were you open about? Close it up. It passes seven to zero. Thank you. We move to the general business agenda. Item 14 is firing police compensation which has been referred back. Item 31 is a consolidated annexation for Ellis Road Town houses. Recognize Councilor Moffitt. I'm going to make two brief comments about the consent agenda. The first is on the attendance reports for boards commissions and commissions. There were 11 people serving on these commissions with attendance under 60% and they will be getting a letter from our city clerk. We do want people who are on these commissions to actually attend and serve because they're really important to us. The second thing I wanted to do because we talked about budget for the transformation intent initiative, I just wanted to call out the board of county commissioners because they've also provided some funding to help pay for a part-time health community worker who will be in the focus area. And I just wanted to thank them for their collaborative effort. Thank you, Don. We so noted and appreciate it. Okay, if we move to item 31, consolidated annexation for Ellis Road Town houses. Good evening, Jacob Wiggins with the planning department. As the council may recall, this item was continued from the November 21st, 2016 hearing. This is a request for a utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation, and plan amendment, excuse me, end zoning map change for Ellis Road residential two. This is for four contiguous acres totaling approximately 25.6 acres, excuse me, four contiguous parcels. The Abelgin has recommended requested an initial zoning designation plan development residential 7.550 for a maximum of 165 townhouse units. And they are also requesting a change to the future land use map to change the site, which is currently designated as a low density residential to medium or excuse me, a low medium density residential. And I'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have at this time regarding this request. I recognize Councilman Schuel. We do have one person that's time to speak for this item, Laura Hall. I'm about to recognize the Councilman Schuel, please. Mr. Mayor, I'll hold my comments until after the speaker. Thank you. Laura Hallman. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, Laura Hallman, Spaulding and Norris. Here tonight, as I want to thank you first and foremost for allowing us to continue our case to allow for some dialogue between myself and the applicant or developer on this as it relates to affordable housing. I spoke with the contract holder for the Ellis Road Town Homes property after the meeting on November 21st. We discussed the project and the goals of the City Council specifically related to affordable housing. The Ellis Road Town Homes project has agreed to numerous requirements, which will serve to benefit the public. Ellis Road will be widened along the property's frontage and turn lanes will be added to access points into the development. Necessary striping will also be undertaken. Further, a bike lane will be added to the frontage of the property. More importantly, an extension of gravity sewer line to the property will be done, allowing an aging pump station to be taken offline. While the Town Homes proposed in the Ellis Road Town Homes project are not affordable housing, they present a distinct housing option within the reach of the average homeowner. Town Homes as a product category increase the diversity and affordability of housing options. Single family homes being built in mass are commonplace in Durham and surrounding areas and have largely approached unaffordable pricing. People who live and work in Durham and RTP often cannot afford the skyrocketing prices of surrounding single family homes. Town Homes offer a different lifestyle decision and are a less costly alternative to their traditional single family home. We have previously discussed the commitments to architectural elements that sets this project apart from others. Varied building materials, styles, colors, features and the like will make the Ellis Road Town Homes project avoid the monotony of repetitive building facades. This project may serve as a benchmark going forward and has been stated as such by both members of the Council and the Planning Commission. In addition to the aforementioned commitments, the developer offers the following proffer. The developer shall provide a payment to the City of Durham of $50,000 for the purposes of affordable housing. The payment shall be provided prior to the approval of the final PLAT. I thank you for your time and consideration and I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Let me ask you a question by members of the Council of the applicant. I recognize Councilman Shewell. I don't have a question Mr. Mayor but I do want to offer my appreciation to the applicant for that proffer of the donation of the $50,000 and appreciate you for taking that back and I think it's really important that all of our developers be helping us build affordable housing and I much appreciate your proffer Ms. Alma. Thank you. It passes 7-0. It's been properly moved in second. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. It closed the vote. It passes 7-0. Thank you. Let's move to the general business agenda for public hearings. Item 20 is street closing on Huntsman Drive. Thank you. Jacob Wiggins again with the Planning Department and I would like to affirm that all the notice requirements for planning items tonight have been executed in accordance with applicable state and local law and affidavits are on file with the Planning Department indicating such. This is a request from Robert Schunk with Stewart. He's proposing to close 223.52 linear feet of Huntsman Drive. This right of way is currently open and the portion requested for closure is currently un-maintained. As part of the rezoning process for the Meadows at South Point 2 development, the applicant voluntary proffered to close this connecting stub. If this request is approved, this right of way will be divided equally amongst the two property owners. There are currently no outstanding issues based upon the review of this request and staff recommends that the council permanently close this 223.52 linear foot portion of Huntsman Drive. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have. Again, this is a public hearing. You've heard the staff report. I ask the first sort of questions by members of the council. If not, we have Mr. Robert Schunk's comments. Three minutes. Mr. Mayor, Mayor of the City Council, I don't have any prepared comments but I'm available for any questions you might have. I also want to speak on this item. This being a public hearing matter, I'll let the rec reflect and no one else has to speak. I'll declare public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact for the council. The property moved in second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? The close vote. It passes 7-0. Item 21 is the street closing for Dickinson Lane 2. Good evening, Kyle Taylor of the Planning Department. Robert Murphy proposes to close 402.05 linear feet of Dickinson Lane. The right of way is currently dedicated but not improved. If this request is approved, the adjacent parcels and right of way will be combined into one parcel of land with an area of 14.722 acres. There are currently no outstanding issues regarding this request. Staff recommends that the council approve the permit or closure of 402.05 linear feet of Dickinson Lane. Thank you all available for any questions. This is a public hearing. You've heard the staff report on our questions by council members of the staff. I'd like to recognize Robert Schoenck. Again here for any comments, Mr. Mayor. Any comments by members of council questions on this item? Is there anyone else in the public who wants to speak on this item? I'll let the rec reflect and no one else in the public has to speak. I'll declare public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact for the council. It's been a proper move in second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. I can move to item 22, zoning map change, ample storage, 52.39 and North Carolina Highway 55. Good evening again, Kyle Taylor of the Planning Department. Zoning case Z1500041, ample storage, 52.39 NC Highway 55 is a rezoning map change request for one parcel of land with land mass of 4.04 acres. The project is located at 52.39 North Carolina Highway 55. The subject site is presently zoned commercial neighborhood with future land use designation of commercial. The applicant proposes a designation of commercial general with a development plan. The development plan associated with this request graphically commits to the following general locations of site access points, street coverage areas, building envelope, size and location of project boundary buffers. There is one text commit appropriate with this application which limits use to self-storage. Planning Commission recommended approval by a vote of 11 to 0 on October 11th, 2016 and staff determines that this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and other adopted plans of policy. Thank you. I'm available for any questions. This is a public hearing. You've heard the staff report. Let me ask other questions by members of the staff. We have one person to sign up to speak, Neil Gosh. You have three minutes. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Cole McBeth and members of the City Council. My name is Neil Gosh. I live at 4 Silverwood Court here in Durham. I'm with the Morning Star Law Group and I'm here on behalf of Ample Storage for this rezoning tonight. We have with us our engineer Patty Hildreth with CMS Engineering and Mr. Terry Wethington who is with Ample Storage. I know I've met all of you before on an individual basis at some point but I thought I would take some time to more fully introduce myself given that this is my first time in front of the entire council. You may know I'm a native of Durham. I grew up in Parkwood, lived in the same townhouse for 20 years until my parents moved to North Durham where they still live today. I'm a proud product of Durham Public Schools. I went to Parkwood Elementary, Lowe's Grove Middle School, Jordan High School and you know in my time here at Durham I've seen a lot of changes and I think they've all definitely been very positive. I want to thank you all for being influential in shaping the direction of our city. That being said I'll get to the matter before you tonight and I'll try to be brief. I want to thank staff for their presentation and their recommendation and you should also know that we did receive a unanimous recommendation for approval from from the Planning Commission. Not an easy feat and I think there's a fairly straightforward rezoning. We're trying to establish a self-storage use on this property which is a less intense use than what would otherwise be allowed here. The access to the site will be through an existing driveway that will be shared with the adjacent property and that reduces the amount of curb cuts along Highway 55. I think that's a good thing reduces the potential for traffic conflict. There are conflict points along 55. It's an ideal use for this location. It borders the railroad corridor and it's fronts on the Highway 55. As I said we have our team here to answer any questions you have. We respectfully ask for your approval of this matter and try to answer any questions you have. Thank you very much. Are there questions by members of the council on this item? Is there anyone in the public that wants to speak on this item, either for or against? Let the record reflect that no one else asks to speak on this item. I'll declare the public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact before the council has been properly moved to second to recognize Councilor Moffitt. I just want to take a second to say that we're seeing an amazing number of these kinds of projects in some places where I think there may not be appropriate but I do agree with you, Mr. Gosh, that this particular site seems to be well suited for this. I was going to say the same thing. It seems like we're getting more requests for storage facilities and I assume it means that there's an advance and I assume it means that you've got people here who are moving in apartments that don't have space so they use these units. I hope the demand is there because I hate to see some of these things go down. I know this particular developer does a quality product and I agree this location is a good site for it. If there are no further questions, the public hearing is closed. Madam Craig, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. We have a consistency statement. It's been properly moved in second. Madam Craig, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Thank you. Move to item 23, zoning map change to towns at South Point. Good evening again, Kyle Taylor of the Planning Department. Zoning Case Z1500042, the towns at South Point is a zoning map change request for 8.28 acres. The project is comprised of three parcels of land located at 6300, 6300 and 6304 Barbie Road. The subject site is presently zone residential suburban 20 with a future land use map designation of low-medium density residential 4-8 dwelling units per acre. The applicant proposes a zoning designation to plan development residential 5.918. The development plan associated with this request graphically commits to the following general location of access points, tree coverage, location of multifamily building and parking envelope, size and location of project boundary buffers. Tech commitments have been proffered. The proffered commitments will require that the developer provide a monetary contribution during public schools, dedicate additional right-of-way, provide an undisturbed landscape buffer along the western and northern property project boundaries, provided dogway stations, limit to the development to townhomes in the preservation of the single-family home, provide a strip, striped, crosswalk across Barbie Road and constructing northbound left turn lane. Planning commission recommended approval by a vote of 7-5 on October 11, 2016. Staff terms of this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan, other adopted plans and policies. Thank you and staff is available for any questions. Okay, we've heard the staff report. This is a public hearing. We'd ask first other comments by members of the council on this item. If there are no comments by members of the council, let me first see who else wants to speak. We have two persons that are signed up to speak as proponents. We have one person that's signed up to speak as an opponent. Let me ask is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item that has not signed one of these yellow cards? That being the case, let's start with the proponents. Initially, 10 minutes and likewise 10 minutes for the opponents. Recognize Ken Spaulding and John George Stancil in that order. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the council. My name is Ken Spaulding. I represent the applicant in this matter. Usually I go into the land planning aspects, but let me deal with process tonight and then George Stancil will deal with the actual land planning aspects. The process is this. This particular development has been before the planning commission on two occasions. Proud to my involvement, they received a 12-0 vote against it. We got involved. The developer wanted to work on this further, and we agreed to, for me to represent them, move forward with it by going back to the planning commission, going back to the neighborhood and neighbors, and meeting with them to try to see if we could resolve the issues that caused the planning commission to be opposed to it and for them to be opposed to it. So we worked extremely hard. We had a meeting with them. There were about over 20-some-odd people there. We went down a list with all of their concerns. We went back for the team to meet and talk about it. I received a call from Shonda Allen, who was a representative of the neighborhood, and for one of the first times in my 30 years of doing it, we had a representative from the neighborhood who wanted to sit down with the team as we worked through trying to see what we could go along with and what we were unable to. What we ended up doing, we rolled up our sleeves with Ms. Allen there, and we worked extremely hard with George and others, and we were able to create a win-win situation for most of the residents at our neighbors. Now, what we were able to do was we were able, this particular development was 7.6 units an acre. We were able to reduce that down to 5.9. It was actually 62 units of the townhomes, and we were able to reduce that down to 48. We also repositioned the building to pull it further away from the closest residents that we had at that location. We worked extremely hard. We also, they wanted to make sure that we had an attractive townhomes. So what we ended up doing, we agreed to certain architectural guidelines that satisfied them and satisfied some of the members of the Planning Commission.  As a matter of fact, when we came back and met with the residents again, seven of them were there, some of them afterwards told me how much they appreciated the significant compromises that we had made. There was still a very few that had indicated that they would be opposed to the development. Ms. Allen, who represented them, is not here this evening, I don't think, but she worked hard to try to get all of these matters addressed. I want to say that the Planning Commission voted after turning it down unanimously. They voted for us to be successful in this by a seven to five vote. We came on up to the council because we did not want to go from the Planning Commission the very first time with a vote against us and come to this council and try to work it out with the council without any regard for the neighbors. We didn't do that. We are here before you now. We meet all the policies, requirements, the comp plan. We made reductions both that will be in both traffic. We're making recommendations of commitments where we will also contribute to the school fund and the school system for the students that will be a part of our development. George, if you could take it from there. Good evening, members of council. George Stanziel, President of Stewart. I reside at 115 Cofield Circle. I've got a number of slides to go through. I'm going to try to go through them very quickly because I don't have much time. So I'll just move as quickly as I can. When we met with the neighborhoods, they asked us to kind of step back and look at this area in a more regional kind of way, not just look at our site. So the slide that you have before you is really looking at where our site is kind of in context with surrounding densities. You see that there are in the five, a number of them that are in the five and 5.9 range directly, for instance, right across the street from us. In the area that we looked at the area in green that you see 2700 single family homes, 529 town homes, and over 400 apartments. So my point about this is that there's a very generous mix of housing types and housing styles and lifestyle in this general area. Moving down closer to our site, you see our site there in the middle. We're proposing 5.9 units per acre directly across the street. There is an apartment project that is 5.9 units per acre, Auburn Village to the north, 5.37 units per acre. These are all projects that have a mix of use, a mix of housing densities within the overall project so that there's single family, there's multifamily, there's town homes that are mixed within all of these developments. And you see I-40 directly to the south and Barbie Road there to the east of our site. This is our site. You can see that in general, the homes adjacent to the site are anywhere from 100 to 200 feet from the site. We're adding an additional buffer and the corner there up in the left-hand corner is what Mr. Spaulding was referring to where we actually pushed our development envelope back so that the homes that were the closest to the site would have more buffer. I wanted to just show this very quickly. This is a development on Hope Valley Road. I know it very well because I live there. It's an 8 acre town home community that is embedded in a single family development. Eight acres, seven units per acre, which is greater than ours. The surrounding neighborhoods have really become our friends. They like our development. We do things together. We're on the same listserv. It's just a very, very, it's a wonderful situation that we have there. And you see across the street multi-family development, town home development, and of course a church. So this is, to me, a very, very good example of how our project fits into a single family community. We had five meetings with the residents. We addressed their key issues. We reduced, as Mr. Spaulding said, the units from 63 to 48. We reduced the density from 7.6 to 5.9. We added a dogway station in our, as a committed element. The community had some concerns about walking, people walking dogs through their development and not taking care of business. So we added a dogway station. We increased the buffer in the northwest corner, as I said, and the homes are 100 to 200 feet from our property line. We also added architectural commitments that were requested by planning commissioners, which we were happy to do. And these relate to colors, materials, multiple materials, multiple colors per building, and then setbacks of the buildings where the buildings aren't flat across the front, but they actually set back, each unit sets back from one another. We then, we also were asked to conduct a traffic evaluation, and this is not a TIA, but it was an evaluation of cut through traffic through the neighborhood. There was a sense that there was a lot of cut through traffic from areas to the north and so forth. We did that evaluation by counting cars on both ends, and we found that most of the traffic that was using that as a cut through was from within the neighborhood, and that our project would add one car every 12 minutes, potentially, at peak hour. So it's relatively a very small impact. This project provides lifestyle choice for single people, couples, and young professionals. It allows diversity of residents close to major transportation corridors and job centers. It generates less traffic than single family at four units an acre, which is the low end of the comp plan four to eight unit per acre range. It generates less school children than single family at four units of the acre, and provides efficient use of land and public services while providing a variety of dwelling types. I'm going to run out of time here. I don't know if we can ask for a few more minutes, because I want to address a couple of points that the planning commission brought up. Can I ask for a few more minutes? I have a question. I'm still going to stick with the time. Okay, then I will. Okay. All right. So unless there are questions of the members of the council, we're going to move to the opponents and then we can come back for questions and we'll have them. I'd like to recognize your card. I just need to find out where it is. The person who was opposed to deciding I can't find your card. Good evening. Good evening. Mayor Bill and all the committee members and attendees here. I'm here today. My name is Kendra Edwards. I'm representing Shonda Allen who has a personal matter and she was not able to attend this evening. I'm here as opposing as we have discussed before with the Towns of South Point committee personnel and attorney Spaulding that we still oppose this project because of the traffic issues as we have stated before. We are aware that there have been speed bumps added to Windcrest Road, but that does not stop people who don't live in Urban Woods or Cricket Creek from coming through the neighborhood. I stand here to represent Urban Woods saying that out of the 80 lots that are located within that subdivision and being a person who grew up there since 1975 when Mr. Herndon started building those homes and knowing that Cricket Creek used to be woods and we used to play back there. I also speak standing to oppose it because most of the people who live there now are elderly and they're not here tonight because they don't come out at night time. We did have a larger presence at the first hearing we had and we had those people here to help represent. I stand here to represent them saying that we just feel that it's going to cause more traffic with all of the things that are going on. I actually went to the development tracker and pulled all the different things that are going on over there and I own part of the house with my mother and I'm just looking at all the things that have transpired over the years and the development and how it has developed but it's been a lot of traffic. I mean there have been times where I've had to sit at Urban Woods at the entrance of Windcrest Road for 10 minutes waiting to get out in the morning to go to work or go home at night because the traffic has increased. I think that we just stand where we are that we just don't feel that that would benefit our neighborhood to have more townhomes where they're already some down the street. You have apartments here and as you drive now to Barbie Road you now are going to have more townhomes on 54 and more apartments over here and it's just going to be more and more traffic and I know that they said they did a traffic observation but I just feel like for the neighborhood for us and for the people who live there we just feel that it's just not feasible for us to have more townhomes more traffic. We're going to have Duke at the while on our back door that's going to be even more traffic of people coming in going to the doctor and I just feel for us it's just not going to be a feasible thing for us and yeah I just it's just and you know and Miss Shonda and I talked about it before I came and if it is approved we asked you to help us because we've had increased crime recently. We had a neighbor to be her home to be vandalized basically and they went through her whole entire home. Our neighborhood is not as bright as it should be to help us feel more secure when we're out at night. We can have our lights on but if the street is not lit up properly like last night when I took my mother home I almost hit someone because I could not see them because they were in a very dark area. So we asked that if you do approve this although we're opposing it we're asking that if you could help us to make our neighborhood more safe about providing us sidewalks improved street lightings.  We also asked that you know if you do approve it that you put more speed humps through our neighborhood to help minimize how fast someone is driving. There are children playing in the neighborhood in some parts of that but we really would just really not prefer not to have increased town homes that increase the traffic flow within the area of our community. Thank you. You're welcome. Are there questions by members of the council? First let me ask is anyone else who wants to speak on this item either for or against we've had a proponent and anyone wants to speak against the project. If not I have some questions for the proponents if you don't mind. No proponents. What is the plan for exiting and entering from barbie road you have all the town homes on the are they facing barbie road. Yeah there will be no entrances or exits into the neighborhood. I mean I'm talking about a barbie road it'll be one entrance exit. When do we see that? I travel this road every morning so I'm very very familiar with it. So just to clarify for the council there will actually be two points of access only one point of access for the town homes there will be a secondary access driveway for the single family home that is proposed to be left on site. There will be no interconnection between the town homes and single family driveway. If you actually look at the development plan you'll see that the the connection is shown towards the north of the site. You'll see that it aligns with existing roadway improvements. Obviously the developer will be required to put in northbound turn lane into the development as a condition of this approval to help offset any potential traffic impacts associated directly with this project. I guess I'm what what what what what number is that? What's the attachment number is that? What what is the attachment number for the these two arrows up at the top which you show in and out is that supposed to be the that that is the point of access for the town homes it indicates a full access drive connection. And can you tell us what type of buffer is being left between the yellowstone drive development or well the urban urban woods development and this is this are these just trees or is it a planet buffer or just what what is it? Mr. Mayor, Mr. Medellac can assist with that. The the buffer of existing vegetation will be 30 feet but we're also along the strip of land we're also committing to additional evergreens as well. Additional evergreens? Yes sir. I'm trying to determine the concern of the residents about the town homes going through their property what what will be the access for the town homes through their property. So the access to the town homes will be halfway between so when you're going north bound on the barbie road when you cross 40 you have the apartment driveway to the right as you cross 40 and then as you go forward to the north halfway up to wind crests there'll be a left turn lane into the project and now that section of the road there's already three lanes of pavement so there won't be any widening done in front of the project we'll just be striping a left turn arrow into the site. Does that help clarify that? So how far off of barbie road will the homes actually be? I see a setback of is it eight feet? I'm trying to I'm trying to determine barbie road is a narrow road two lane road there's no possibility of it being wide and there are no plans for widening barbie road is that correct? Steve are there any plans for widening barbie road at all? Excuse me I had to check with our transportation expert uh Mr. Judge has confirmed there are no plans for the widening of barbie road at that location. There are there are not? There are not. So it's pretty narrow road I'm just trying to figure out how far the building is going to be set back off of barbie road is this eight feet? So along this section of road we have a three lane section it's about 37 38 feet wide of pavement and then we're dedicating 10 feet of right of way and then yes per the plans the closest that the buildings would be set to could be set to barbie road would be eight feet but that's following the standard minimum requirements of the the zoning district Mr. Mayor the right of way here is about 70 will be 70 feet upon the dedication of the additional right of way. So what what do we have along I'm trying to envision what's what does the roadway look like in front of the townhomes that are being built? It's a three lane section there's three lanes so there's I don't mean to barbie road I mean with just with on the section of property that you own how do people get in and out I mean you got I'll assume these are garages that front barbie road or not? No no no Mr. Mayor. Are there any garages at all there are they on the back of the road? We're not able to show the the layout of the site but in terms of the layout that we've provided we've provided a driveway coming in perpendicular to barbie road and then looping south towards the southern property line and all of the driveways will be facing internal to this internal street that we're proposing. So the driveways are internal to the project? Yes sir there'll be a we would the plan is to develop a build a cul-de-sac internal to the site so as you drive up barbie road you may see the sides of homes and further into the project you know see some the rear of some homes. Okay are the other questions recognized councilman shul? Thank you Mr. Mayor. I have a question for the for the applicant. Have you all considered a proffer or a donation of any affordable housing funds to the City of Durham's affordable housing fund? Yes councilman shul and I'll get George to read it in. Yes there is a commitment by the developer commitment to Durham and Durham's affordable housing program to make an in lieu of payment here I mean to the City of Durham George could you read that in and that will be in the amount of $35,000 for this 48 unit townhome. So it's before you the commitment is the developers will provide a one-time donation to the City of Durham's affordable housing fund of $35,000 the payment shall be made prior to the final plat approval. Thank you very much I notice it's not as much as $50,000 which is the last applicant provided. They had a lot more units. But thank you very much I appreciate the proffer very much thank you. Yes thank you I want to appreciate everyone that's here for this and particularly the people who live in the community I know that you all feel like I know from meeting with you all and with your joining neighborhood and you all feel pretty much under attack that there's a lot of development going on out there and a lot of increases in pressure on the neighborhood. Tonight's case is about 34 units it's about 34 rooftops because 14 can be built there now what's being proposed is 48 I have my numbers correct and so the the trade-off for me it's and I think about the neighborhood and I think about those 34 units and I think about the fact that if if this is approved tonight it comes with buffers that that if the if the if what's built on the property is the 14 homes that can be built there there can be driveways on to Barbie Road which is not planned in this project there can be they can build without buffers and so that's what I'm trying to weigh in terms of what what works for the community I know that those 34 homes that that that it just seems like one more straw on the back of the camel but there's a there are there are trade-offs in not approving it so that I'm thinking that through as I'm listening to everybody tonight and thank you Mr. Mayor. Recognize Councilman Davis. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I've been impressed with this proposal mainly because they got a unanimous denial from the Planning Commission initially and I appreciate the fact that you all went back and met with the neighbors still haven't convinced all the neighbors but at least there's been a conversation about the things that you would do to satisfy the concerns that they put forth and the concessions that were made it's the kind of thing that I think is the kind of norm that we ought to have if indeed there is that outcry from the Planning Commission from the neighbors that the developers will want to take a look at what they put forth and to come back with the proposal that meets me to those concerns to sit down with Mrs. Allen and others to at least have her to be willing to talk to you I think is a good sign and to be able to go back to the Planning Commission and get a total reversal not total reversal but a change in the voting process and I read the comments that have come and lots of people I feel didn't want to change their vote even though they saw the proposal in a much more favorable light than they did initially so I think this proposal is is something that is good we have a continuing flow which is a positive thing for people coming to Durham and they have to live some places and I think that this kind of development that would meet a lot of the needs of young professionals is a good thing I think that the access to Bobby Rood that you've suggested would keep the flow of traffic from backing up into the neighborhood and I think that this is something that might be good for Durham so I applaud the things that you all have put forth thank you Mr. Mayor thank you could someone talk to me about the development process on this property in terms of how much true cutting would be required to make this development take place could someone talk to me about that speak developers and let me give you a reference point if you go down Barber Road towards 54 to your left at the corner 54 in Barbie it's like a moonscape I mean used to be trees they're putting apartments up I just hope I've seen the plans I just hope it does something better but my concern is the runoff is going to take place on that property and I know when they did the metals across the way that begin to impact the the pond down at Parkwood so my question is what kind of protection are we going to have on this site to minimize runoff or how much you're cutting are you going to be doing well there will be some clear cutting I understand that we are saving a lot of vegetation behind the units that are adjacent to the to the the existing neighborhood one of the things that affected the project you're talking about the meadows project there is that a large majority of the project between where those where that clearing is now and the existing neighborhood was committed to no development so what you saw in that project was that all of the development was sort of pulled up front and a lot of in fact all of the all of the the land that was behind the there's a stream back there all of the land from the stream back to the to the existing neighborhood is under will be undeveloped so it you know we've sort of I guess clustered the development up closer to the road this project is a single road that project is multiple roads it's a this is a single road single cul-de-sac with with units we haven't done grading plans yet so we don't know quite the extent but we'll minimize it it's not a steep site runoff we will deal with the city and you know stormwater regulations that you know we all have to live with and are great and strict so I you know I know that we have a Robert I'm sorry the commitment to tree save and open space is about 30 percent of the site that will remain um and maybe more between 30 and 40 percent so um you know we're not intending to take down all the trees we're intending to limit it to the development we the pieces that we have to do to get the road and the units in single road any comments about that Steve just for clarity I want to make sure the council is aware that the only protected portion of this site are the areas that are shown on the development plan as undisturbed buffers while the applicant has indicated that there will be 30 percent open space that is not a requirement they're just going to meet the minimum ordinance standard beyond that anything within the the residual portion of the site potentially could be cleared and graded and there are no additional protections to prevent that from occurring that that's what gives me pause about the development I I agree that having basically two ends and outs on this is it's a good piece I mean I agree if you had single family homes all along that ever had all of them had dropped in fact I don't even know department transportation will allow you to have those cuts out into the barbie road but I am concerned about the impact that this development could potentially have in terms of runoff not only to surrounding properties but more importantly to where it runs to I'm just sort of tossed on that seeing when I'm seeing when I'm seeing now this occurring around that corridor just down the way let me ask are there other questions or comments on this can I just clarify one thing along the western edge of the project of our of our site adjacent to the neighborhood the way the the way the the topography works is there's actually a ridge about at the property line just sort of east of the property line so um to just in simple terms our our property and their property is say about the same elevation but there's a ridge in between so the the drainage will go to the south end of the site toward 40 not to the west toward the neighborhood it's the low part of the site so that's where the pond will be let me ask other other questions or comments if not I'm going to close the public hearing and Matt it's not back before the council entertain a motion on the item it's been property moves in second further discussions recognize the mayor pro tem the speaker wanted to to say something so you mentioned about the concern of the runoff for the water I think that's what you were talking about if I'm not mistaken is that correct so right now and we mentioned that several times Carlos capo who is not able to be here today um had mentioned that in one of the meetings with the developer and because we already have problems we I live down between cricket creek between castell and and willing circle and we already when it rains really really bad it floods in the ditch there and it banks up into a um the house that's on the other side of the last house in urban woods they their yard floods so all the water that comes from up from Yellowstone and it goes down and up from people's yards it runs down so one of the concerns that um Miss Sylvia who was we'll live in the back of these town homes her concern was that how is the water runoff from these town house when I affect her home and her also concern was you know what's she gonna have people looking in the back of her house she has little kids um so we do have the concern just like you said is that water their water problem gonna affect us so I thank you for mentioning that but that is another concern of ours what did you get a response from the developers when you asked the question um the response that I remember was that it wasn't gonna affect us like that they just told you but we still have that concern because I mean I let I know what it feels like to live in a unit where your water runs and your heels starts to degrade um and you no longer have a buffer or retaining wall to keep that dirt in place um so but that was what they told us that it wasn't gonna affect us because they were gonna run it towards um the Clemens house and they were gonna have a little drain there and it should not affect our neighborhood but if you look at how urban woods sits closer up to um the Clem the back of the Clemens house where the Rollins live um that area actually is a hill and whenever it rains snow sleep whatever that water comes down and it goes into a ditch at that area but then you have the the crest heel right at the top of Forge road where all the water actually runs back down again so you know we do have water issues we don't have curbs and gutters but we do have a water issue out there in our neighborhood currently so that is another concern that we do have I was looking at the partial numbers around the property I didn't recognize Roberts the Clemens that do you live in any of these homes that are close not the Clemens they live on Bobby road but if you look at the um it's the it's the fourth house before the empty space because I don't have I don't know how to pull it up on the map but on the development can you hold on for a minute I'm probably taking more time than my colleagues want but I really want to try to understand this could could you pull attachment five up I think that's the one that we were looking at is anyway you can get attachment five up see which map are you trying to pull up attachment five the development plan which shows the property and then it shows the houses that are surrounding it so so Miss Sylvia lives so the Rollins should be number nine map up on the screen also yeah I want to see them I want the map that we could all see at the same time it's up there now okay so the the Rollins live in number nine that's where urban that's the last house in urban woods and then the people who live from 11 through 16 there'll be the ones who live on the back side of these townhomes so um one two three thirteen is where Miss Sylvia lives if I'm not mistaken and um where they what they explain to us is what they just explained to you that there is the different ridges or whatever but they still are concerned about the water running down because there won't be a retaining wall or anything to keep the dirt from going away but as they talked about on behind the Clemens which is on Bobby Road they were going to have a little runoff there and it was going to run towards 40 well in that area there's the after you pass the Rollins house there's still a little open area where the water can still run down it's like a little street but it's not an open street mr. Herndon didn't build it so it could go out to barbie road so um the water still comes that way and I know in the last big rain we had all the water that runs from from the top of the neighborhood that comes down wind crest a yosemite circle ford road all of that water runs right there and it stops um let's see I don't have my house up here but it stops at the end of um ford road at the back of that property behind um uh castel and ford road they kind of go like this and it's my house my neighbor's house and another neighbor's house and then a lady sits on the other side of the last house on ford road the water puddles right there because that's where it runs to so it just it's causing a lot of problems let me ask the developers because I'm really trying to understand the impact on the houses that are next to the property that's been been developed so tell me what impact in terms of runoff is your development going to have on these houses that are right adjacent to the property houses three two one sixteen fifteen fourteen thirteen on down can somebody speak to that it shouldn't if you look at that map that line you see that line that goes there it's minus what line that dark line that yes that that's a ridge that's what I couldn't understand I don't know what these yeah and that that's a ridge and then miss silvia's house tell me show me the ridge again please where somebody just point right on the screen not up there point to the ridge here that line there okay okay all right and then miss silvia I think is number 11 she's 13 or 11 whichever it is she's close to 200 feet away on the other side of that ridge but also the concern that was expressed the reason it sort of died down because our explanation is what Durham requires that we cannot have any more runoff on our property with the development than we had before but the benefit of what we will be able to do miss clements house it was discussed is our is our house that's that single family home that's where we're going to have the retention part right in that area where that is and and that's where that's drawn there so that out the water will flow south and by being controlled which is not controlled now you can just have it it's just free flow now but it's not going to be free flow now once we're able to develop this because we're going to have it controlled so that it will go to the retention pond and we'll hold it for a certain period of time and disperse it and let it out in a periodic manner so hopefully this will not hopefully this should be much better than what they're having to address right now today okay I didn't see anything about a detention pond on this map that I'm looking at you just threw it in is that part of it Steve went at this juncture the developer has not committed to a specific location on the site for retention however what they're describing would be consistent with typical practice associated with storm water so how do we ensure that once they walk away from this if we approve it that the detention pond is where they're showing is going to be a fact that you got a detention pond only didn't see a reference to detention pond mr. mayor this is the low point of the site so the natural grade falls to this point of the site so you know we can push water uphill we can force sewer uphill with pump stations but water always has to flow downhill so this is the the low point of the site and if I may I can show the where the kind of the valley is on the site I accept that I guess what I when I'm asking about is you don't have a detention pond on this map now so when when do we see that so after after the zoning process provided we get approved we would submit a site plan that would be reviewed by all the departments of the Durham and at that time the detention pond would be shown that that comes back to us no sir no that's that's the point it doesn't come back to us so how do we get some assurance before it goes back to us graphically where that pond is is roughly 20 feet lower in elevation than this western property can you put in writing that we commit to have a detention pond located on that site to address the issues that we're talking about is that something that can profit if they choose to or if you can give it a word so we you can do it appropriately certainly the applicant can choose to indicate either by written text or graphic representation that the storm drainage basin would be located at the southern edge of the end of the site and we're willing to commit to that I mean it's a requirement frankly that we have to have a detention pond so and we were happy to commit to the fact that it's going to be generally in that location in the southern part of the site but we have to have a detention pond and it and it has to be on the low end of the site because it all has to drain that one so we're happy to make a commitment if we need to it's your you know your pleasure as to how clean the planning director and the city attorney to say what wording you need to have to at least have that comfort level that you're going to do that and I haven't I haven't seen it done like this before but I'm sure that we could so very quickly in other projects developers have indicated that stormwater retention features will be located within a certain area again they can do it one of two ways they can have a note that indicates that written text or they can actually show a graphic showing that it becomes a committed element because it is shown on the development what's the note I should have noted we want to go ahead and move forward if we can do this what we can do and I I can't read it because it's so small but we for instance we could commit yeah so okay so I would I would say that the developer would commit to building a detention pond in accordance with Durham's stormwater regulations generally located on uh yeah PID 148 050 and 148 046 that's a five I don't think that's a six did you take it away okay well I thought it was one full five five oh recognize the mayor pro term yeah I really wasn't going to say anything but I see four ladies there that I recognize uh you're from Earlwood and I can understand why you're protective of your community because there are a lot and lots of senior citizens there and and there are just fears about new people coming in and then the stormwater as a matter of fact I had the same kinds of concerns in my own neighborhood I'm not voting for it I voted against it when it came before us before and because I can empathize with you where you are in your walk I'm not voting for you and you were waiting for me to say something so I she sure was sorry so do we have have the wording on that Mr. Mayor based on what uh Mr. Stansial has read into the record um I will confer with uh Donna tool to make sure that we've got the language that's consistent with what's been said on the record okay again my my uncomfort is basically what I said the runoff and I'm seeing the impact that it's having around other communities and you've got an established community that you've buttoned up against and I think we should try to ensure that we have as much protection as possible relative to this issue I can't talk about who the neighbors are on that type of thing but I can't talk about the development it's going to take place on that on that site now we're happy to do this I recognize Councilor Shulman I just want to appreciate Mr. Mayor your uh care for this and the detail with which you approached that it's really constructive thank you do do we have other questions the motion has been made in second and I thought and we're discussing it other other comments or discussions if not uh Madam Chairperson would recognize did you have something to say Steve okay uh would you open the vote close the vote it passes this McFadden are you voting no it passes six to one would counts mayor brought him voting no it's been proper move the second madam clerk we open about close the vote it passes six to one would council member mayor return cold McFadden voting no again okay let's move by 24 I'm sorry I appreciate your indulgence as I veer off the agenda from time to time and what takes the moment because um no department presents more items to us than the planning department it's unusual meeting where we have no cases to hear our next meeting is one of those rare occasions which means that the director of planning Steve medland won't be in attendance and because he's retiring at the end of the year this is his last meeting so before the room is empty I wanted to take a moment not let it pass without expressing my appreciation our appreciation for Steve's tenure with the city I've worked closely with him six years on the planning commission now four years on council he works for two managers the city and the county he's got 12 elected officials and he's done it with grace with patience and with humor he has a tremendous understanding of the Durham community he has a great grasp of planning and zoning issues his department handles a wide breadth of issues and he's been a model of professionalism and excellent customer service the managers are going to be hard pressed to fill the gap he's going to leave behind I will miss him personally and the city and the county are going to miss his leadership thank you Steve I really appreciate that I've been teasing Steve about when he's leaving but I think it's very appropriate for those comments to be made this evening Steve I hope the response is attestation to how we feel about your leadership and what you've done for this the city I won't say for this for the city and county that you as Don said sir for the record we we had a pre-budget meeting today with Steve and I asked him if he was coming to the meeting on the 22nd even though there was no items on the agenda he said he wouldn't miss it for the world so we do expect him to be here I guess that means y'all can leave if you want is that can they leave now okay thank you 24 unified development ordinance text amendment technical revisions to wireless communication facilities regulations thank you very much michael stock with the planning department text amendment tc 16 0 0 0 1 is a set of technical amendments to paragraph 5 3 3 and wireless communication facilities of the unified development ordinance these are a set of tech technical amendments that have been identified by staff necessary to main maintain the policy direction established by the new standards that were adopted back in 2015 and also maintain compliance with apical state and federal law the proposed amendments are summarized as follows they will specify existing require specific specifying existing and intended service providers revise the method for measuring setbacks for freestanding wcf's revise the requirement to comply with setbacks in order to qualify as an eligible facility request clarify the permissibility of freestanding non-concealed wcf's in rs districts and the allowable height in the rs 20 district and also add definitions for fall zone and geographic search rank the joint city county planning committee or jccpc reviewed and the proposed amendments that it's august 3rd meeting the planning commission recommended approval 12 to 0 of the text amendment and in october as a reminder city council will be required to take two actions the first action will be a vote on the ordinance amending the udo and as found in attachment a the second action will be the appropriate statement of consistency and as attachment b of your agenda packet staff will be happy to answer any questions thank you okay it's a public hearing you've heard the staff report other comments questions or members of the council hearing none is anyone in the public wants to speak on the side of the side of the public hearing let direct reflect and no one in the public asked to speak on the side of the before against on the public and be closed matters by court council it's very proper to move the second madam clerk we open the vote close the vote it passes seven zero open the vote it passes seven zero move to item 20 unified development ordinance text amendment historic preservation and other general process changes thank you again michael stock with the planning department uh text amendment tc 16 0004 is a text amendment also initiated by the planning department to make corrections clarifications and reorganize sections of the unified development ordinance related to historic preservation certificates of appropriateness and review notification procedures for various other applications uh the joint city county planning committee also reviewed this proposed amendment at its august meeting and the planning commission recommended approval at its october uh meeting 11 to 1 and again uh two actions will be required one on the ordinance itself as attachment a and the second action would be on the statement of consistency which is attachment b and your agenda packet uh again staff will be happy to answer any questions thank you other questions by members of the council uh is anyone in the public that wants to speak on the side of me the fore against uh direct reflect and no one in the audience has to speak our declared public and be closed the matter for the council it's been brought to move the second madam clerk will you open the vote you pass the seven zero you open the vote open the vote close the vote pass the seven zero thank you thank you moved item 26 consolidated annexation item triangle church well thank you jacob wiggins with the planning departments this is a request for a utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and initial zoning received from the triangle church of christ this is for three continuous parcels generally located at 21 01 page road comprising 22 acres this represents an extension of the existing city limit the subject side is currently vacant the applicant has submitted a site plan for review for a potential place of worship um something that the the parcel is annexed um pending approval of a minor special use permit from the Durham board of adjustment the public works and manage or water management departments performed a utility impact analysis for the site which indicated that the existing city of Durham water main has capacity to serve the project and the budget management services department performed a fiscal analysis which determined that the proposed annexation will likely be revenue positive immediately upon annexation staff has no issues with the application as it's personally proposed and recommends that the council approve the utility extension agreement voluntary annexation petition and initial zoning map change request and i'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have thank you the public hearing is open do you have questions in terms of council of staff on his report uh is anyone in the audience that wants to speak on this item either for against comments uh let the record again reflect that no one asked to speak i would like to put hand be closed as i put council it's been a parking move in a second about the clerk will you open the vote open the vote close the vote it passes seven is zero and finally item 27 i'm sorry open the vote open the vote close the vote it passes seven is zero the next item is the Duke hospital addition this is a quasi judicial matter and there are certain procedures that we follow i would ask the staff to introduce this matter and if there are witnesses persons that want to speak on this item you have to be sworn in if you go to the clerk's desk which is to the left be sworn in and any written information maps that you may want to be considered uh as evidence should be given to the city attorney and also to persons who may be in opposition to this item and when i say in opposition i don't have any persons who have signed up as opponents but let me ask for the record is anyone that is in the audience that is opposed to this item that wants to speak but it's not signed up i'm just turning for the record reflect that no one asked to speak as an opposition uh so we'll move forward those persons have been sworn in let me ask are there any conflicts of interest by members of the council that you know of on this particular item again let the record reflect that no council members indicated they had a conflict of interest on this item so i would ask for the introduction of the item thank you jacob wiggins wood planning department the item before the council is a there's two items one is a major special use permit the other is a major site plan the said been received from duke university for an expansion of existing hospital structure generally located at 2301 urwin road the university proposes an approximate 500 000 square foot 13 story addition at the subject site the causes judicial hearing is for the major special use permit only and it is required as the applicant proposes to exceed the 120 foot height limitation for structures within the university college zoning district the applicant is proposing a building height of 145 feet the site plan associated with this request is included in your packet if the council is so inclined to approve the major special use permit on the staff request that the council act on the major site plan as well at this time staff has no issues with the major special use permit nor the major site plan as they are presently proposed and finds that the site plan meets all applicable requirements of the unified development ordinance pending approval of the use permit and i'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have at this time regarding this request i should have also asked the attorneys who represent this case if you can just come to the microphone and state your name if their attorneys or representatives would sign in and Mr. Mayor if i may i apologize i might also just like to ask that the staff report be submitted as part of the record with any necessary corrections so noted thank you if you could just state your name and address is your representative yes i am walter havner i'm a landscape architect in durham wood surface 678 my address is 402 hogan wood circle chapel hill north carolina i am here today just really to answer questions uh that you the council may have fine uh let me ask other questions by members of the council on the staff report that's been presented uh that being the case then does aprican have any items that he wants to present as a partner no sir just here to answer questions uh let the record reflect that the aprican had nothing to present he was here strictly to answer questions there are any questions of the council about the council of the aprican again is it anyone that is opposed that has questions of the aprican let the record reflect in both cases there are no questions asked by either the council or any person in the audience of the aprican uh i'm going to close the testimony and would ask other recommendations specifically by the city staff jacob begins with the planning department the staff recommends approval of the major supposed use permit um and the major's height plan recommendations by the staff uh let me say the council if you don't have any more discussions has two motions one would be to grant to permit with the conditions as stated on the staff's recommendation or two you can deny to permit with decision direction administration prepare a decision for denial with support and reasons for the next council meeting or three you can grant the permit with additional conditions besides those of the staff's recommendations uh with the direction that the administration prepare a decision to grant permit for the next council meeting i would ask which motion if any of the three uh does someone want to make a motion to grant move that we uh approve the permit with the um conditions that the staff recommended it's been properly removed and second let me ask as the staff have any questions about the recommendation of the council jacob begins with the planning department no sir uh let's reflect that the staff had no questions of the of the council's recommendation of the motion uh that being the case i'm going to ask the clerk to open the vote and close the vote it passes seven is zero site plan mr mayor recognize council marker um after consideration of the evidence offered tonight i want to move that we um approve the major's site plan as presented it's been properly moved and seconded for the questions discussions on that item i'm hearing on madam clerk we open the vote close the vote it passes seven is zero okay that concludes that item and all items on the council are there any other items that the council wishes to bring forth at this time if not the meetings adjourn at eight fifty one p.m thank you


For the best couple of years I was searching for ways to track my sleep and consequently tried to improve it. I started by journaling and writing down the details of my every night sleep. Then I moved to using a variety of different sleep apps so I actually had to sleep with my smartphone under the pillow. Then I started using my smartwatch but none of the tools were either comfortable nor accurate. And then I came across the Aura Ring Sleep Tracker. Hey what's up Recky or the founder of your inception, welcome to my channel. Subscribe below to start your journey to limitless performance. Today we're gonna talk about the Aura Ring Sleep Tracker. Now this is one of the most popular and apparently one of the most accurate sleep trackers on the market and I've been using it for a couple of months, almost half a year and I have a lot of things to say about this sleep tracker. Some great and some well not that great. Aura Ring is obviously a ring that you can put on any of the fingers you want to, obviously it has the fits on it and it can measure a few different key elements and signals from your body to understand three crucial things, your sleep quality, your activity and your readiness level. And we'll talk about all three sections more in details in the second part of the video. Now in my opinion this ring looks amazing, it comes in four different colors at this moment and it costs somewhere between 300 to 400 dollars. It's wire resistant, made of titanium, it comes with a charging device and a free sizing kit, so it's basically impossible to order the wrong size. This is basically a Bluetooth device that stores all the data from your whole day and night and then once you get close to your smartphone you can connect it and then all the data will be transferred to your smartphone device where you'll be able to see it, compare it and also then take certain actions to improve it. One of the good things about this app is that it's free, you get it for free with the device so there's no additional cost of using it. Now let's look at the three main features that we talked about. Sleep quality is the first one, obviously one of the main reasons why I decided to test and not then buy this device was because I wanted to track my sleep quality. And Aura Ring does this in a very interesting way, it uses lots of different data to then try to give you a score from 0 to 100 and based on that score you can see if you slept well or not that good. So among other things it checks, total sleep time, time in bed, sleep efficiency, restfulness, rapid eye movement sleep, deep sleep, latency and even timing. Now how important each of these elements is it's kind of hard to say but every day you'll get a total score but you can also check each individual factor so it's quite easy to adjust different parts of your sleep if you know where the issue is. For example if you go to sleep too late at night then you can change this. If you have some other issues you can optimize different parts of your sleep. By the way guys if you like this video please press the like button below. Now the second feature is the activity. Every day Aura Ring gives you the activity score which comes out to show you if your activity was good, if you were too active or if you're not active enough. And to give you this data it checks different things such as total calories burning a day, how many steps you took, training frequency, training volume, recovery time, daily movement and even daily active time. But as you will soon see this activity part has some issues. I'll talk about this in the end. Last but not least there's their readiness score. Now in my opinion this is the most accurate and the most useful part of the Aura Ring. Now some people don't like it but I find it tremendously useful and I really find it very accurate. Now the readiness score is based on the following factors. Resting heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, body temperature, recovery index, sleep score and previous day activity. So as you can see it kind of takes the data from your sleep and your activity from the previous day and then based on that it recommends you either to perform really hard on the next day, go to gym workout or to kind of take a little bit easier day the next day. Now a couple of other features that I really like is that once you get the score over 85 you'll get a small crown there which is kind of a cool and it pushes you to try really hard to get a score over 85. And the other thing is the heart rate variability which many other trackers cannot track and the cool thing about heart rate variability is that it always check your baseline that it calculates after about three to four weeks of use and then it gives you score based on your baseline not based on any other standard. Now why exactly do I use Aura Ring? First of all I decided to buy it because I wanted to see how my sleep looks like and if there's something I have to improve and that was the main reason and this is also why I recommend to many other people. I can also track within the app obviously the sleep stages, I can check my deep sleep, I can check my rapid eye movement sleep and different elements are very interesting to me. Secondly I can see how different activities like drinking alcohol in the evening, eating a large meal in the evening or other stuff influence my sleep so I can change this or optimize it in order to have as least impact on my sleep as possible. I also use Aura Ring when I'm trying different sleep supplements so I can see how they influence my sleep and if they improve it or not. By the way guys if you want to check my favorite sleep supplements check up there there's a link which will lead you to a video which I prepared just for you guys. The second thing is the readiness level I really like that because sometimes I sleep really well but then the readiness score is pretty low which tells you it's a day in front of you that you need to kind of recover take it easy and I find this very useful and very accurate actually I never checked all the scores the sleep score and readiness score before I try to manually say how well I slept or how how well I feel basically and after I do this I compare this to the score that Aura Rings gives you and this is always pretty similar so if I feel well arrested Aura Ring usually shows that as well and if I don't then Aura Ring also informs me about that and this is very useful and where it comes to activity I definitely prefer tracking activity with my Garmin smartwatch that I currently use it's much more I think accurate and at the same time as you will later see Aura Ring has some issues for activity tracking which I personally don't like so yeah I'm gonna talk about this very soon. So how can Aura Ring benefit you? Well the first thing you can definitely improve sleep pretty quickly once you get basic scores and once you track or use Aura Ring for a couple of days or weeks you will see when something goes wrong if you didn't sleep well enough when is your perfect time to go to bed and that kind of stuff so this is probably the biggest benefit you can get out of Aura Ring and the second one is readiness level which I talked about before Aura Ring can tell you if you can really work harder next day or if you should take a day off or you know take it a bit easier and it's really accurate as I said before and very useful especially if you have many really hard days but you had really good sleep however you're not well rested and because of that Aura will kind of tell you to take it easy and whenever I follow this I have no issues with my health I feel really good the next day but whenever I try to push it sometimes there's a small crash that follows and yeah this is something you need to know about and if you check the data every day well you can avoid burnouts or small crashes now here are four reasons I really like Aura Ring first of all I think the sleep tracking is very accurate um based on the data I found based on the studies I found and based on my personal experience I found this data very accurate and if I feel awakened if I feel I have enough energy in the morning and I slept well usually Aura Ring score is 80 and above the second thing is I really like the look it looks very nice very clean it's very easy to wear and I can easily wear it all day around and sleep with it it's not too bulky like this watch for example for sleeping so I really like this the third thing is that you get a free app with that tool or gadget which is not that often in this industry for many other tools you need to pay actually for using the app and the data and the last thing is that by following the data and optimizing your sleep or your performance you can quickly see lots of benefits and results now there are a couple of things I don't like about Aura Ring the first one is the activity tracker now I find the activity tracker not accurate compared to my Garmin smart watch and the other thing about this one is that obviously you wear a ring on your fingers right so whenever you work out for example I work out with kettlebells quite often um you kind of a you can scratch it even though it says it's it's scratch resistant I don't think that to be totally true because I have already some scratches on the ring and secondly it's not comfortable you know working out with with weights or you know even doing like push ups it's not that cool having this ring on it I don't find it comfortable and I don't like using it and at the same time you don't see any data on the ring you have to look at the app later on um compared to like for example my smart watch um so yeah for activity tracking I really prefer smart watch compared to Aura Ring now the second thing I would like to see improved in the next version is battery life according to Aura the battery works for about seven days based on my experiences more like four to five days maximum so that's something that could be definitely improved synchronizing is also a little bit of an issue for me um I'm using the new Samsung S20 and I have some issues with syncing the smartphone with the ring um sometimes it's worked very you know easily and it connects immediately and sometimes it just takes a little bit of more time a couple of minutes I have to turn off the app a couple of times and I really don't like that and last but not least the accuracy of the deep sleep is somehow questionable um I know that those small devices have very hard time accurately measuring the deep sleep um but overall sleep score I find it very accurate so I wouldn't worry about not knowing the excitement about deep sleep at this very moment and I think with the newer versions the deep sleep measuring will also become more accurate so the final verdict do I recommend using the Aura Ring or not well based on my experience based on my data my research definitely I definitely recommend to everyone who is serious about sleep hacking who wants to improve uh their sleep quality who wants to kind of take control or you know his life or her life um because that's what Aura Ring can give you it can help you see different parts of your sleep your day your activity um and show you some potential problems which you can then optimize I find it most useful for sleep tracking it's small it's simple to use it's not that affordable for many but I think you know if you look at the price performance it's well worth the money um so if you want to improve your sleep if you want to kind of know or prevent any kind of burnouts or um you know energy problems or that kind of stuff then Aura Ring is definitely a ring to try um as I said it's pretty cool and compared to all the other devices out there um I really like the size and the feel and look up Aura Ring so if you want to learn more about Aura Ring there's a link below check it out guys I hope you like this video please share it with your friends press the like button below if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me and I hope to see you soon again take care