e at thank you ma'am one last thank you so much your your family is venerable venerable in our community and besides it's legendary I do have a question for you in light of what staff said about the ability to to perhaps get a special use exception for lifting the cap from 5000 does that in any way change your your argument profile against commercial labor not particularly council member Middleton and here's why it's still it was still be very difficult for Yolanda and Michael to sell the property with that contingency out there because that is another discretionary approval that goes to the board of adjustment which means that the council's rezoning today would still have another significant hurdle to be cleared in order for some you know for somebody to purchase the property and develop it as a as a as a commercial use so it's still a contingency and people on my side of the fence in the development community hate uncertainty and that's an uncertainty that by by state law is cannot be determined until the board of adjustment actually votes on it and they have to hold a public hearing just like this one notify all the property owners within 600 feet I believe which means who knows what the board of adjustment would decision would be and keep in mind the staff report that you have before you is a very clean staff report in regards to the issues relate to commercial development at this location do you remember what the planning commission vote was in 2006 or was that they were pretty bad in 2006 yeah 2006 planning commission probably was I don't even have we had maybe 12 or 13 I think two three out of maybe 13 said yes and no no we're talking about the planning commission 2006 and the city council was only two voted for me but again even though that happened seeing that what happened and actually our case was a catalyst for how it's run today we had a pretty big case we had like 600 supporters they had 200 something opponents I had mediation to try to come to a middle ground they're talking about compromise today you couldn't have tried to compromise more than my family tried to compromise and in the end mayor bell even though we lost he looked out and said you know if any of the stuff starts to happen to the north this piece of property cannot stay residential it is not conducive I know people don't want to hear it but it just cannot but we've languished for an additional 12 years while nothing again has been opposed not just to the north but even to the west not even the road changes so we have these people my neighbors my friends telling you they have all these concerns and they have been dormant for 12 years we come back here they are and nothing else has mattered to them nothing and so it is it's perplexing to me it baffles me as Tanita stood up here this was someone who says I was like a sister to her she's like family to me and I don't understand why every time we come forth it's they drum up this opposition if we're not here there's nothing thank you thank you councilmember middleton any more questions sir may assure councilmember anything else all right councilmember freeman then mayor pro tem johnson I had a question for staff and then also for mr. jesse burwell just um if you could just jog my memory I'm just trying to make sure I know is there a cost for text amendments or I'm not texting I'm sorry test for cost for um commit text commitment sometimes so committed committed elements being added to your zoning request no there is not a added cost for text commitments or design commitments added to a development plan under certain uses when you apply for a development plan they are required okay so if you have a if you have a zoning case like this and you wanted to make a text commitment specifically is that possible the only way to provide a text commitment is to provide a development plan okay thank you under the current provisions yes ma'am so specifically you mentioned the I mean I heard that there was no compromise and then I'm hearing you present a compromise has this conversation happened between you and the developers at all we we talked to the the lawyer and you you landed earlier and they were just kind of dead set on commercial general at the end of the day the community is not trying to stop her from rezoning a property we just want some say in what goes on that piece of property because it's virtually will be a part of our community and then you mentioned a protection of the neighbor I couldn't catch it you were talking pretty quickly if you could repeat that part of what you were saying that would be helpful protecting the character of the neighborhood and we felt like commercial neighborhood would allow for businesses or commercial establishments on that piece of property that would be more compatible with our neighborhood and other surrounding neighborhoods thank you then just a question miss Tara warwick yes oh i'm sorry that's okay tinnita tinnita fill your rogers fill your rogers yes sorry um and miss Tara warwick um you you were talking about kind of your family's land yes on make so tell me the street on Hanson road on Hanson road yes how long you've lived multiple generations have you guys ever tried to coordinate any type of purchase across to that piece of land coordinate has there been any conversation about transferring that property to your family to which the the halls family to our family yes and do we want to purchase that family i'm just i'm asking is that what you're asking no no we haven't tried to purchase it okay purchase that land no you haven't but there's we've been on that street like i said for generations and um but we haven't tried to purchase that particular property okay no and then i think it was miss Tara warwick that spoke last yes i completely missed your point i'm sorry i had to run to it could you repeat what you said i'm sorry a little thing okay maybe you could summarize miss warwick uh it's pretty short i just wanted to say that those of us who own houses in the neighborhood purchased our homes while the property in question has been zoned as residential suburban and when making the decisions to purchase our homes we did not have the opportunity to evaluate the area while it was zoned as commercial or the impact that would come from that such as what have been mentioned tonight increased noise traffic light pollution etc um furthermore commercial neighborhood would be a reasonable alternative that was created specifically for circumstances like these and if it's not considered here the option of commercial neighborhood will be rendered a dust collector on the books thank you miss warwick anything else else ma'am i think that's uh mayor pro tem thank you mr mayor i have a question for staff thank you could you um summarize for us what you feel are the significant differences between a commercial general a commercial neighborhood designation beyond the 5000 square foot building footprint i think i'm i'm just unclear of what would actually be significantly different in terms of what they could build on the site with cn rather than cg so it's a good question and we didn't do a comparison of the two but as a quick synopsis um as i was taking some notes drive through retail daycare gas stations office uses are all permissible in both the cn and the cg zoning districts there are a number of other uses like self-storage um vehicle repairs golf courses that are permissible in the cg and not in the cn um the some of the major differences in terms of the district in terms of the udo standards um we're already alluded to but i'll just rehash them um the cn limits the floor area of the building to 20 000 square feet where there's no cap with the cg zoning district um however there is um the limitation that in the cn district which has already been mentioned that if you go above that 5000 square foot threshold um you would need to apply for the minor special use permit thank you in your professional opinion does this cn zoning decrease the um the chance of having a significant increase in noise or traffic or light pollution or the other things that the neighborhood is concerned about the uses are the same so there really isn't the restriction in terms of the only way to restrict something in terms of prohibiting a drive through or prohibiting um a use that may be considered a nuisance to the neighborhood would be doing it through a development plan that's where you get to that level of specificity to prohibit specific types of uses or to limit the building square footage or to um enhance the project boundary buffers above and beyond what the ordinance already allows um all of the uh depending upon the zoning adjacent zonings they would still have to adhere to project boundary buffers for both the cg and the cn but to really restrict specific types of uses you would have to go to the development plan route okay thank you thank you very much uh i have a couple of questions the um could miss sony can you talk to me about the previous history with the 2006 development plan or maybe mr yang do we have any kind of institutional history here on that that you could offer we've heard from the uh from the applicant and uh also from the opponents on this this pat young with the planning department um so a couple years before my time it started in 2008 but looking at the file i think miss hall's characterization was correct the planning commission voted to recommend denial uh and then it was my understanding and and miss hall maybe someone of the applicants can speak to this that it was withdrawn before uh the commission councilmember's final vote neil do you know in that era introduce yourself please mr gush sorry about that nil gush with the morning start law group uh in that era they were they were not considering uh plan amendments and rezoning as a joint item so the plan amendment went to the council first and it was not approved and therefore the development plan rezoning was withdrawn because it was already inconsistent with the conference of plan would not have been approved anyways it was a moot point after the uh plan amendment was denied i can't fully attest but that sounds very familiar i think that's what miss hall was saying this case was the catalyst to change how we look at rezonings that also have a uh plan amendment associated with it and why they're done together yeah why they're done together okay um and the so uh do you agree with the uh the the applicant that the developable portion of this land uh would be given the uh the the planned road improvements and and so forth the the 1.8 or so acres that uh the uh applicant indicated would be developable did this seem like uh plausible did this seem plausible to you uh yes mr mayor it does what we certainly can't we didn't look at that level of site design of the site plan's not in but in terms of the um requested right away dedication and the required stream buffer that would be approximate i would say in the range of 1.8 to two acres would be developable and the um okay that's that's those are my questions i believe thank you very much council members any other questions for staff or for the applicant specific just specific to the plans coming forward in the next six months and around um council member caballeros um question around if this would be something that would be alleviated is there any conversation around i guess where where are we in having more conversation around not just the specific commitments and development plan like how are we at how how far along are we and having a conversation around specifically the issue where people don't have access and then they're developed over top of so that there's some way to track what's happening because i recognize that this piece of land has been developed around and to the detriment of this one family their property values may have been impacted but it's not uh clear to me if we're if we're going to have a way to track how much of that is going to have an impact across the neighborhood so to speak and so i'm trying to figure out if there's anything coming forward in that realm well council member freeman one of the things we'll look at in the comprehensive plan update certainly is ensuring uh that as we continue to develop infrastructure particularly roadways that um and as is currently the case but with the focus in the comprehensive plan on equity and making sure there's not uh environmental justice issues undue impacts on communities of color and and um low modern income communities um and then with each individual case if we think that uh a land use pattern that's going to cause adverse impacts on adjoiners whether those are economic impacts or light noise uh and other impacts like that we'll make sure to disclose those to you fully and as um miss sunyak said we we didn't see any substantial ones in this in this instance and i mean i recognize that it's it's one impact versus the other and that there's no way to kind of measure what we have in front of us as a council without that type of information and so it's harder to make the decision to support you know one property owner over the neighborhood in this instance than any other so to speak well that's certainly a fair comment i think miss sunyak did a very nice job of characterizing the difference between the um commercial neighborhood and commercial general cncg districts and so i i think in the range of uses for cg or in your agenda package so i appreciate your point and we want to give you that additional i do appreciate miss sunyak's work but the the tools are inadequate sure understood and that's why we're going to work to get you an improved tools here and as soon as possible i know you will thank you thank you very much any more questions for staff or for the applicant or for uh any of the opponents if not i'm going to declare this public hearing closed matters back for the council i will accept a motion or any other discussion at this point make a motion that we approve the plan amendment for to adopt the resolution amending the future land use map to commercial for the subject site with we understand that i will be voting against yes all right there's a motion to adopt a resolution amending the future land use map to commercial for the subject site is there a second second madame clerk well first of all i should say is there any further discussion madame clerk will you open the vote close the vote the motion passes six one with council member freeman voting no thank you very much uh mr mayor on move we adopt the consistency statement there a second a madame clerk would please open the vote close the vote motion passes six one with council member freeman voting no thank you motion to adopt an ordinance in many of the udo so moved second thank you madame clerk we please open the vote close the vote motion passes six one with council member freeman voting no thank you very much uh before we move on to the next item i do want to say to the neighbors i think that we thank you mr burwell and and others i do want to say we very much understand your concerns this was a hard decision as many of them are but i think i speak for all of us in saying that we also understand the situation that miss long was in and has been in for a long time and we hope that his neighbors you all can work this out and uh we also hope that uh that the development there will be a development that is conducive to the neighborhood of miss long mr biker we will be uh very observant about what development does go there we can't control that absolutely but we're hoping that you all as you look to sell this land will keep this in consideration i love this area i love my neighbors and that's all we've ever wanted to do thank you thank you very much thank you all okay we're now going to move to item 18 economic incentive agreement with the city of durham and tomsen joinery llc uh and i see mr dickie is here uh and we will now hear from staff go ahead chris i think we're okay mayor shul members of council my name is chris dickie with the office of economic and workforce development before using item to consider approval of repose agreement between the city of durham and tomsen journey llc uh i'm going to give you a little bit of history since this is the first neighborhood of volivation volivation center grant that has come before uh this this council but back in march 2006 uh city council approved the neighborhood assessment plan and plan to assess the economic strengths and weaknesses and opportunity and threats within targeted commercial areas the assessment established a development and for the revival of these areas the process included outreach to local businesses and residents with many opportunities to participate in the process through leadership interviews and visionary charades furthermore the city the city of durham has designated five key targeted neighborhood commercial corridors that lead into downtown durham that are in need of investment the targeted neighborhood commercial areas were identified west chapel hill street between south canyon street maplewood street fable street between the highway 147 homeland avenue east main street between hood street and austin austin avenue uh andrew driver the intersection of andrew driver intersection north magma street between corporation street and intersection the thrust of the neighborhood of volivation grant incentive is to participate in public partnerships that redevelop commercial buildings that will have a substantial impact on physical economic viability of affected neighborhoods which will ultimately over time strengthen the city of durham tax base in those particular areas probably for the past 10 years council i can say there's probably been several major projects that i've worked with where we've made some substantial improvements i've identified some of those in the impacted area there uh tobson journey lfc's located at 400 400 441 and 447 south driver street and 420 422 and 420 424 sailing street consist of seven parcels applied for neighborhood revitalization the center grant an amount of 250 000 to support its proposed south driver district rehabilitation project in the historic andrew driver business district in northeast central durham within the targeted cda but outside the downtown development tear the proposal is a 4.1 million dollar economic development project which includes purchasing 2.2 acres of the old garland millwork and cabinetry complex site consists of 31 square foot of manufacturing space and 12 000 square foot of blighted commercial office space totaled in 14 000 square feet tobson journey will be combining garland and moving in this wood cabinetry and his historic home preservation business into this complex creating tobson journey lc the project will complete it will update modernized mill equipment and renovate 31 000 square foot of manufacturing space and fully develop six thousand square foot of historic street level storefronts six shell spaces of 12 000 square foot of blighted commercial retail places 26 jobs will be retained each with paying livable wages and health benefits during the first year additional 19 jobs are projected to be creative over a five-year period the oe wd partners at nc works career center is currently working with tomson journey to provide training program which entails the development of a customized training that will train current staff on new machinery that will cost approximately 1.7 million dollars in capital investment the polls project will produce 3.8 million dollars in private investments with 250 000 city funding producing approximately 15 of 15 to 1 ratio of private to public funding the polls the proposed project of funded will continue to address and underutilized by the commercial building located along the driver street commercial corridor staff endorses this project which will be a major step in to continue of the transformation of android driver commercial corridor uh whatever questions thank you very much Mr. Dickie um you all have heard from staff and i'm now going to declare this public hearing open we have two people who have signed up to speak on this item uh matt tomson and ben philippo and i'm going to ask you all if you would please come here to the area to the right of the poem podium is there anyone else who would like to speak on this item have you have you signed up to speak okay could you please go to the clerk's desk and fill out the card can i ask you are you an opponent or proponent proponent okay thank you um all righty uh i'm going to give each of you all three minutes uh if you don't take it that's okay too but you you're certainly welcome to take it thank you thank you to everyone on council um and the city representatives for being here my name is matt tomson uh i'm the founder and owner of tomson joinery um i started my business in Durham about five years ago uh out of the back of my pickup truck and i saw an opportunity to merge my growing business with garland uh about a year ago and so i approached the owner there mr herald gates who is 75 years old as a way to carry on the legacy of garland woodcraft which has been operating there since 1947 for me it represented a big step in my business but it also represented an opportunity to invest in the storefronts um and continue the growth of east Durham um this in particular is a project that without the neighborhood improvement grant i would not be able to execute so i appreciate your consideration towards that end and i think that sort of bang for the buck of what the city is going to get out of this investment um stacks up really well both against other neighborhood improvement grants that have been granted in the past and then also other projects that are going on in the area right now so getting six storefronts activated um and myself being sort of um you know sort of working up from the bottom i want to continue to sort of provide opportunities for other businesses to get a foothold um that may not have that opportunity uh in addition on my business side moving more into the commercial realm whereas previously i had done a lot of um projects in downtown Durham on my own but we'd also mainly been focused for the dental being able to move into the commercial realm carry on garland's ability to replicate moldings uh do custom architectural mill work i think that's an important service to the community um garland is currently executing a lot of the millwork package for the self-help project that's right up the street which was also a neighborhood improvement grant um so they're working on the storefronts that are going to be um activated from the self-help project um those are the kind of projects that garland has been great at and they're the kinds of things that i was involved in so it's sort of the right fit um my attitude towards running the business is that it'll give me the bandwidth to continue to hire and train people to protect the trade and the craft while also providing health insurance retirement benefits and a living wage my business has been a member of the Durham living wage but for me it's it's really about um protecting the craft and giving people the opportunity to work um in in a field where they feel like what they're doing matters and they can actually provide for their families thank you for your time thank you mr thompson mr philip mr mayor uh mayor pro tem johnson and members of the council ben filipo 2002 east main street matt is a really humble guy um the undertaking of garland woodcraft multi-acre woodworking site established in 1947 um and then aggregated of many other sites that were various other stores over time and became just a giant garland site um is a huge one and a necessary one um as many of you know um we are losing rapidly sort of an inner ring of uh working class light industrial jobs in Durham um budpiper roofing will soon become a high tech tech office of some kind um art sign company on south goalie in northeastern central Durham um the man is retiring and it will soon become who knows condos or something um and so you know the simple reality is that um good wage jobs in light industrial manufacturing are slipping away from us very very fast and um i think that we should celebrate um you know not only the legacy of garland woodcraft that's been discussed a little bit here uh founded by a man with an incredible name aliza bunion stone um who went by ab for a good reason um you know not only that but you know really um just the idea of as matt hinted towards um creating a new generation of woodworkers and craft craftsmen um in my previous life as director of preservation Durham this was something that um i was really really concerned about is that we have a great number of really elaborate historic renovations happening here in Durham right now and we are not training anyone to do any of that work ever um that is a really really big oversight um we have a huge opportunity with you know again this this 15 to one public private investment here um to kick start hopefully uh you know a whole series of different collaborations um you know beyond um you know obviously matt's intention of creating new jobs there um and the nc works collaboration you know potentially down the road seeing things like collaborations with Durham tech around the corner um but there's a huge need for this talent pool um in Durham and we should have it in Durham um and continue the legacy of garland um and and again i think that um we see i see this as a neighbor and and as an adjacent business owner at eastern big shop um a huge opportunity um to create more um you know well paying good jobs that do not require a overly expensive liberal arts education um so i really hope that you guys strongly consider um this uh necessary um grand for a really wonderful person who is very humble and speaks modestly about this undertaking that they're are moving forward with so thank you thank you mr philly you just knocked half of our resumes up here you know that right not that i can do that great woodworking though so you know um sir i'm sorry that i cannot read your handwriting i think your name might be mr couturel couturel pretty good you got that good welcome you have three minutes tell us your name and address please thank you my name is will gouturel i live on 1020 west mary avenue i was uh born in vung dao vietnam in 1970 in 1975 i came to america and grew up in somerset county new jersey 2001 i found myself i came here with my young wife and uh young daughter to durham and uh we live we've been living here for the past 17 years and i've enjoyed watching the uh revitalization of durham um for the past 17 years and uh today i'm proud to call myself a home owning durmite now for the past 13 years i've been working with hardwood designs a small commercial mill workshop in hillsborough county and we've done a lot of projects i engineered i was their engineering manager and i engineered a lot of projects in the raleigh durham chapel area and i'm sure you're only concerned about the ones in the durham area we did a lot of work for the um for duke the footway school of business i engineered i helped engineered the school of nursing um the new medical suites and just recently about two months ago i was released from hardwood designs and uh i had to basically dust off my resume and start going through the process of looking for new employment luckily i ran into matt about a week after i got released and about uh after a couple interviews two weeks later i found myself uh with a proud proud to be his uh new engineering manager and uh he read me in on his ideas and dreams that he has for this area and after um he shared that with me i was i'm a static to give this opportunity to not only now watch the revitalization of durham but an opportunity to maybe participate in the revitalization at least for the south driver street area so um i hope that this will go through and i will get the opportunity to work with you through matt to help revitalize durham thank you thank you mr katoro appreciate your remarks is there anyone else who has not been heard on this item who would like to be heard on this item is there anyone else who would like to speak on this item all righty um if not i'm going to declare this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council uh for any discussion uh or a motion any questions for staff any discussion mayor pro temp thank you mr mayor i have a question for mr thompson hey could you tell us a little bit about the demographics of your workforce with regard to race and gender sure um we have um it's current currently in my current organization thompson joinery i have uh two hispanic people that work with me um two women um will the vietnamese and african-american sector covered and um a number of bearded and tattooed white guys to go with so we have a mix of people the garland move um is definitely a bunch of guys that have worked there since high school and we're gonna figure out how to sort of move forward from there so thank you so in east irum as you know it has been a majority minority neighborhood for a long time do you have plans to work with more people from the community with regard to your business expansion yeah and i'm totally open to that possibility especially you know there's a distinction in what we do of very high skill work balanced against people who are coming into more of an apprentice mindset as an attempt to build careers um and i am happy to commit myself to working with people in neighborhood to develop those um possibilities going forward uh we went to the pack one meeting um a couple weeks ago and um one of the people there introduced me to someone you know i i hope to continue to develop those relationships going forward that'd be great thank you um and could you you said that you you pay living wage and provide health insurance what's the starting wage my lowest paid employee makes 1650 an hour great thank you so much cast member freeman thank you i um i appreciate what you're trying to do in east irum and as a resident in east irum i am not recusing myself because i have no financial gain but i think it's important to note that as a resident there i acknowledge that there's a tension between the gentrification that's occurring and trying to revitalize it very intentionally and the work that you're trying to do right now as far as making sure that you're making the community you know or navigating the community terrain and making sure you're meeting people in the community and ready to work with people in the community is a good part of that and i really want to appreciate how the office workforce economic development has been intentional about that work for years and in this corridor specifically it is up to us as the council i mean we just took that vote on participatory budgeting and making sure that we're surrounding um projects like this with support because it's not going to happen um within the budget so to speak it's actually going to be us making those those conversations and relationships across the board with businesses like i'm sorry thompson joiner joiner and others out there that are interested in doing um projects like this i mean mr joiner is is being rather humble in this i think this project's full cost is about what four and some million four point five one million four point one million being it gets a little bigger all the time say it again i'm sorry i'm just saying one more time i've missed it four point one million dollars four point one million dollars for a how much was the grant it's two hundred fifty thousand dollars okay i just want to make sure that that is said because it's it's something that we don't highlight and i know you don't want to but it's important that we make sure we say it and that we do this work on the economic development side and then also on the housing side to make sure that folks are being married with work in and housing so that we're not having this displacement that we have that we have right now in eastern so thank you thank you very much council member mayor pritchett thank you i'm sorry i forgot one question could you describe um your practices with regard to hiring people who have criminal background um so i to be honest i have been the hr department um which means generally speaking so long as i'm okay with them it's fine um actually it's not really germane but you know some of my guys have had issues but uh going forward we're also going to be working on with nc works on you know sort of developing the path towards um careers and so i don't know how to answer that so concretely at this point you you are open to hiring people with criminal great thank you any other questions customer caballero um so reading your letter made me laugh my husband was a philosophy and relevance major and dropped out of college and then with a carpenter for a while till he blew out his back and then went back to architecture school so i appreciate your story um and i just want to say that these kinds of jobs are so important uh especially noted when you say the cost of a college degree and we need to be able to create pathways for people uh and the the fact that you are thinking around hiring um people of color especially in the neighborhood that you're in people who are formerly incarcerated carcerator were just as involved as us and i think is crucially important and also very much developing a relationship with Durham tech uh i can't say how important these jobs are for our future uh we're not we're not going to create enough jobs for our future students if we don't start thinking out of the box and start doing things like that so thank you more comments or questions one more if no one else so additionally i just want to i just feel like if i don't say it it feels like it's it's on the burden of recognizing that this type of project can only happen as we work together understand like when i talk about racial equity it is not to to the detriment of white people or people that are not of color it is actually how we figure out ways in which to partner to figure out how it benefits us all and so i just want to be clear and and making that statement because i don't always say that but it is kind of a kind of a a given for me so thank you Mr. Thompson i noticed in in your original letter um and maybe chris can help on this too i believe that the first request was five hundred thousand dollars for the um for our uh grant and now it's two hundred fifty thousand dollars and i think in the letter it said uh we we would need five hundred thousand dollars and able to be doing be able to do the outfit that we would like to do for the retail spaces and uh you talked earlier about the fact that that the this what this grant will enable you to do is do the outfit for those retail spaces am i right uh so that you'll be able to include some local businesses in there and give them an opportunity to have those storefronts which is awesome which is something we haven't focused on i think that you're right i mean you know we we've been right to focus on the jobs that you'll be providing the good paying jobs and the high skills and and it's a tremendous opportunity for people in the neighborhood but in terms of the actual grant and the request for the outfit could you or maybe chris either one talk about the the amount and why this is the amount and why it's different from your initial yeah i'll take a stab at that um i've been talking with matt for quite a few months when this project first came to us and you are correct his original quest was for a half a million dollars um currently in our neighborhood revitalization fund we have 250 thousand dollars that's allocated for this particular year that we have in our particular fiscal budget uh i sat down with matt and basically told him how could we make this work within your budget and we sat down and and we talked and if you see in the write-up normally originally it was 40 there's 43 000 square foot space and 31 000 is for the manufacturing side our focus really was on the commercials development the commercial retail side where there's the upstairs and there's downstairs upstairs is 6 000 square foot upstairs downstairs is 12 000 square foot so strategically what we said was that what can we do can we do the bottom space i know there's a lot of damage to the building but can we do the bottom space with 250 000 dollars she went back and it crunched his numbers and basically said i can and then if you look into the application he did sort of a phase two phase three i think you may want to elaborate on that about the phases down the road it's not incorporated in in this this 250 is going to do the renovation of the manufacturing facilities as well as the bottom where we're going to activate six spaces down there and then down the road when you get some additional dollars he's going to go back and explore the six thousand square foot okay last very helpful thank you okay and then let me just make sure i didn't have any other questions on that yes i think that's okay and i just want to emphasize what my colleagues have talked about which is the seriousness with which we take the employment of people from the neighborhood and especially diversifying the workforce racially diversifying the workforce and i know you'll pay attention to that but i want to just put a marker on it in terms of our concerns this grant comes with that understanding and so i hope you'll be paying a lot of attention to it great all right council members any more questions or comments if not do i hear a motion that uh that i have closed the public hearing have i not yes i have okay can i have a motion that we uh authorize city manager to execute next economic development senate agreement tomson joinery second it's been moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes seven zero great mr. tomson this is very exciting for our city as well as i know it's exciting for you and so best of luck to you and we all look forward to coming over there and maybe cutting a ribbon or something thank you thank you uh thank you chris very much um and now we'll move to item 19 public hearing for confirmation of assessment role for sidewalk on hard week drive sir joiner we'll hear from staff good evening mayor shul members of council and robert joiner public works department item 19 is to conduct a public hearing to receive comments on the confirmation of the assessment role for sidewalk on a portion of hard week drive and to adopt a resolution confirming the sidewalk assessment role staff has received no objections to the assessment i'll be happy to answer any questions that council may have thank you uh i'll uh will you've heard from staff i'll declare this public hearing open uh first of all are there any questions from staff of members of council i have a couple questions robert one person is paying all of this assessment that is correct and is paying an actual cost is that right that is correct and is paying interest of eight point two five percent eight point did i get that right i believe that is correct yes and this is done to provide a safe place for kids to catch the bus that is correct or were there other reasons uh that is the primary one that i'm aware of at walkability also for um folks in and of the area i believe that that person is also receiving some additional help from the hoa okay is the person present is the resident president present who is being assessed um so um okay so there you think they're being uh uh the hoa is helping for the paint with the payment of this leave that is correct let me just say if not i would think this would have been an exceptionally good Samaritan yeah uh and so i was pleased to read that and wanted to give the person their due recognition uh and uh but i'm sorry they're not here and glad to hear that the hoa is is also going to be contributing thank you any other questions you're watching at home right if you're watching at home and you are that person thank you um any other questions anyone want to speak on this item no one has signed up to speak is there anyone who would like to speak on this item if not i'm going to declare this public hearing closed the matter is back before the council Mr. Mayor i'll move that we um approve the aim second it's been moved and approved uh moved in a second that we conduct that we adopt the resolution confirming the sidewalk assessment for hardwick drive madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes seven zero thank you very much thank you mr joiner and now we will move to item 20 public hearing to consider adopting resolution we're sitting in previously ordered water main to serve portions of bandak drive and ron delay drive evening mayor shul and members of council i'm robert joiner public works department item 20 is to hold a public hearing to consider adopting a resolution rescinding a previously ordered water main to serve portions of bandak ron delay drive staff recommends that council conduct a public hearing to receive the comments and adopt a resolution rescinding this previously ordered petition improvement i'll be happy to answer any questions council may have thank you very much you've heard the report from staff and now i'm going to declare this public hearing open first of all there any questions for staff members of the council no any questions i have a question how many of the parcels in question are serviced by aqua there'll be a total of 43 lots served by aqua we'll get to you sir so for bandak and ron delay yes sir yeah there'll be a total of 43 lots is my understanding how many are currently served by aqua this gentleman says 28 it says 27 you're getting some help from marvin it's this one i'm sorry 27 existing residences and 16 vacant lots are served by aqua i i think we do not have an accurate count aqua utilities has not would not work with us to provide us i read that what customers are connected okay i read that yeah all right have homeowners with wells contacted aqua for water service to your knowledge uh i do not know aqua again would not confirm any information for us is this contiguous to the city limits it is it's adjacent to the revenstone subdivision it actually ties into it they'll be part of the water connection we'll connect to revenstone okay those are my questions for now thank you very much uh we have one person who signed up to speak on this matter uh that is mr bruce harris is there anyone else besides mr harris who is present tonight who would like to speak on this idle anyone else beside mr harris welcome mr harris you have three minutes and thank you for being here thank you mayor mayor bro tem and the rest of the council city manager as well i've lived on bandoc drive now for 47 years it was probably the first subdivision on east Durham if you call a subdivision it was not done by one manufacturer but individual development for each individual lots therefore the discrepancy on the number of lots some of those lots are two and three lots that have had one house on them so they're now 27 28 a couple of morrow actually over on all the branch um we petitioned originally for this back in 2009 2010 it came before the council and they approved that and in uh june of 2010 we did that because we had had a single water system that was installed for that because all of the wells not all many of the wells were failing in that area so they had to put that in in order to be able to develop the lots for this subdivision the survey is actually started by the city in 2011 to actually look for the high collapse where they're going to have to be on that uh aqua expressing interest in this water system on in 2012 and they filed in 2013 to take over the system aqua has been good responsible for the water system they put in some improvements for filtering they haven't put in anything for the water distribution system we've had several different breaks on that they've come out and repaired it but it's on an individual basis and they're going to keep doing that my own supply to my meter had to be replaced because a 5 8 or 3 quarter inch pipe was down to the size of a pencil for the water to be able to come through through all the deposits because of the swell system that that contains a lot of those things um so the water system per se we aren't in problems with but we don't have any fire connections on this it's not capacity to do any pumping uh i gave pictures of a house fire that we had in august of this last year it had to bring a tank in to do it tankers in to do that we were 500 feet or less from the hydrant that is up at the corner on ravistone in hill view but they still had to pump water in because they couldn't get the water from the city to do that even though it was that close on it so the major concern i have is that we may have water system that's adequate expensive but adequate uh but we don't have any fire protection for these houses these 27 families on on band octopus as well other than tankers and by the time the city gets other people get there it's maybe too late plus now we're part of the pathesta fire district they're now part of the city fire district they don't have anything to hook up to on our on the street so the fire protection is is is certainly a major concern that if we rescind this type of thing we're not going to have it for again and the next house can be as bad as as what you see there um so i thank you for your considerations and i think even though it's going to be maybe cost effective because it's now no longer 2010 rates that that we're in agreed with the unanimous uh participation for the people on our street and the city but we still need to fire protection thank you mr harris yes let me ask you a question yes sir you all are contiguous to the city yes sir have you ever asked for annexation no at the time we we filed for this we got the reading from the city that because it was only a water supply line and not a water and sewer line that we wouldn't that they didn't they shouldn't bring us into the into the city as per say that because that's going to be a problem we're on septic systems there they're all approaching 50 years old it's about time we're going to start having failures on that so that may be something that we have to look at um further on down isn't getting septic systems on there but right now certainly our major concern is the water system and um and having the fire protection that we need for our community especially since the water supply lines are at the top of the hill and at the bottom of the hill it's just running down one street it's not a big construction so i wonder if i could hear from staff about this question about the sewer lines and the annexation yes sir so typically uh the staff does not recommend if if both utilities are not available staff generally does not recommend in favor of annexation and the reason for that is if only one utility is present then essentially you would have the right of petition if you annex and the city could be on the hook for a lot of money to provide a utility in that area where none exists okay unlike the what we're on the hook for to pay if the water improvements go forward sorry say that again sir not unlike the what the on the hook that we're on if the improvements go forward yes that is correct so explain that to me then so in the uh situation of whether they annex in this particular instance the city is actually constructing a regional pump station that will actually take the ravenstone pump station offline and when that is in place there would be an outfall relatively close to serve this entire community within reason i haven't done an engineering study of all of the ins and outs of how that would serve via gravity sewer but that's about four and a half years uh four years approximately out for construction completion well i guess what i'm getting to mr harris i don't know if i'm right but i'm trying to figure it out is that the the um you all are not paying city taxes that's correct or county yes and you've come to the city for in this case five hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars we're at at this point of city money to to provide this water service i don't know the number we didn't got that feedback we're not blaming you i'm not saying it's a problem you know you did what you did you applied i'm just trying to figure out what the best thing for the city well the the original quote that we had when we did this in 2011 when it was voted on by the council beforehand yeah it was twenty three dollars and fifty cents of frontage foot to put in the the lines i don't know what that number is now but my assumption is that it's probably more than that and in the in the current and i'm just wondering if this is is okay we rescind this now and then if we need it at a later time and so we can get you know a different one than what was agreed upon eight years ago nine right so that seems it seems like a justification for trying to relieve this from the agreement that we originally had which by the way was unanimous i think possible exception one person of a whole street that filed that petition i understand understand but so again going back to the sewer mr joiner there's a there you're saying there's a pump station that is going to be built in ravenstone or a new pump station so there exists a pump station in ravenstone uh that is actually upstream of this property okay in the reach so it would be difficult for that existing station to serve this property the regional station which will be much further uh to the east downstream actually will also construct an outfall that will be take that ravenstone pump station offline and also the bright leaf at the park station okay and so when the both of those pump stations are taken offline uh this there would be a gravity sewer to extend up into the sewer reach to serve i believe most of these houses okay and we won't know that for a few years yes sir we ping that any any other questions or comments from other members of the council any other comments or questions i guess i'm just you know i feel like here we have a neighborhood that's contiguous to the city uh we've got sewer coming there they have water for now i'm very you know i i'm very sympathetic to what you had to say about the fire situation for sure um but it seems like we have a possible reasonable annexation solution in the next few years and uh that might be uh a lot cheaper than this for us so i don't know do you have any comments on that mr joiner that is very likely true sir that's very likely true i'm sorry the the water system the water line is going to be cheaper in the future that will be offset by the fact that potentially you would be paying city taxes if you annex i believe is the the point that's trying to be made sir sure but yeah okay any other questions council members all right um mr harris thank you very much appreciate you're being here um any other without any other questions or comments i'm going to declare this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council we're being asked to adopt a resolution rescinding the previous you order water main improvement on bandak drive i'll move that we um adopt a resolution rescinding the order second any more discussion if not uh could you please open madam clerk please open the vote close the vote motion to rescind passes four to three with the council member middleton voting no council member freeman and council member reese voting no thank you very much um mr harris we have rescinded the resolution the previously ordered water main improvement i know this was not the outcome that you wanted and i think that appreciate your being here and it would be good to have a discussion with our public works department about some next steps given the future the future sewer outfall and so forth so thank you very much all righty we're now moving to item 21 public hearing to consider adopting resolution rescinding previously ordered water main to serve portions of olive ranch road in bookman street mr joiner good evening mayor shul members of council i'm robert joiner public works department item 21 is to hold a public hearing to consider adopting a resolution rescinding a previously ordered water main to serve a portion or portions of allage branch and bookman street staff has received a letter from olive branch baptist church stating that its existing well is failing and is not meeting the church's current needs church feels it would be best serve by connecting city water staff recommends that council conduct a public hearing to receive additional comments and adopt a resolution rescinding this previously ordered petition improvement i'm happy to answer any questions city council may have thank you very much uh you've heard the report from staff i'm going to clear this public hearing open and first i'm going to ask if there are any questions from members of the council for staff if there are no questions at this time we do have one speaker signed up to speak mr todd right mr right here and i'll also ask is there anyone else here at this time who would like to speak on this item is there anyone else who would like to speak on this item welcome mr right uh please give us your name and address and you have three minutes we're glad to see you mayor shul and mayor protein johnson and city council members my name is todd right i live at 116 britain drive raleigh i'm here to represent olive branch baptist church which is located at 123 olive branch road i'm here with our pastor tim wheeler if you wonder why i'm speaking instead of him i was about two minutes late to our pastor advisory committee and they selected me to do the speaking we are here to request that you not rescind the utility order that was approved in 2010 to install a water line to serve the olive branch and uh bookman street area uh as stated we are uh dealing with a failing water system our our well does not meet our current needs um and we are pursuing what we consider to be a temporary fix but we believe that long term we would be best served by hooking up the city water um in accordance to the uh notice that was sent out dated april 23rd at your you have three options you're considering we support option one which is to continue with the design and construction of the water make our advisory committee talked about ways that we could partner with the city uh we're certainly willing to be annexed which we realize that may not provide any tax revenue but we also um are willing to dedicate right away we have a lot of road frontage on 98 highway and olive ranch road and we suspect that down the road there will be some plans to widen those roads so we could certainly partner in that area but the real issue is that you know we have a failing water system that we're trying to deal with i am aware that you all have uh uh had four other issues like this up for rescinding that you voted to not rescind them of course the one before this you went ahead and approved that so tonight there's been a theme of equity about what you desire in your city and i'm not sure that last vote i saw that but i hope you will take a different approach on this vote thank you thank you sir council members uh you have heard the the gentleman and now we are uh i'm going to throw it open for uh questions and comments by members of the council mr joiner i'll ask you uh this is also contiguous to the city this is contiguous to the previous project uh and by virtue of that is close to the city limits but not directly not contiguous council members questions comments all righty i'm going to declare this public hearing closed the matters back for the council do i hear a motion move to adopt the resolution we're sending a previous order water main improvement on all branch road from thank you uh it's been moved in second to adopt the resolution we're sending the previous order water main improvement madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion to rescind passes with council members middleton freeman and reese voting no thank you very much thank you all very much for being here appreciate it a lot all righty there being no more business to come before this council i'm going to declare this meeting adjourned 1041


re pretentious ones. Bodium is several miles from the railroad, but few tourists visit the castle. The principal business of the hotel is to cater to parties of English trippers, who make the neighbourhood a resort for fishing and hunting. An early start from Bodium brought us to Tumbridge Wells before ten o'clock in the morning. This city, although of considerable size, is comparatively modern, and has little to detain tourists. Like Harrogate and Bath, its popularity is largely due to its mineral springs. In its immediate neighbourhood, however, there are many places of interest, and we determined to make a circular tour among some of these, returning to Tumbridge Wells for the night.  This is called a quintane post, and stands in the centre of the village green. It consists of a revolving crossbar on the top of a tall white post. One end of the bar is flattened and pierced with small holes, while at the other, a billet of wood is suspended from a chain. The pastime consisted of riding on horseback and aiming a lance at one of the holes in the broad end of the crossbar. If the aim were true, the impact would swing the club around with violence, and unless the rider were agile, he was liable to be unhorsed. Rough and dangerous sport, but no doubt calculated to secure dexterity with the lance on horseback. This odd relic is religiously preserved by the village, and looks suspiciously new, considering the long period since such a pastime must have been practised. However, this may be due to the fact that the tenant of an adjoining cottage is required by the terms of his lease to keep the post in good repair, a stipulation, no doubt, to which we owe its existence. In Westerham, a few miles further on, we saw the vicarage where General Wolfe, the hero of Quebec, was born. His parents were tenants of this house for a short time only, and soon after his birth they moved to the imposing residence now known as Quebec House, and here Wolfe spent the first twelve years of his life. It is a fine Tudor mansion, and has been little altered since the boyhood of the Great Warrior. Visitors are not now admitted. There are many relics of Wolfe in Westerham, and the spot where he received his first military commission is marked by a stone with an appropriate inscription. Wolfe's memory is greatly revered in England, and he is looked upon as the man who saved not only Canada, but the United States as well, to the Anglo-Saxon race. White is closely connected with American history as Quebec House is the home of William Pitt, near at hand. Holwood House, as it is called, is a stately classic building situated in a great forest-clad park. It passed out of the hands of Pitt more than a hundred years ago, and being in possession of a private owner is no longer open to visitors. Passing again into the hedge-bordered byways we came to Down, a retired village four miles from the railway station, and known to fame as having been the home of Charles Darwin. Down House, where he lived, is still standing, a beautiful old 18th century place which was considerably altered by Darwin himself. The house at present is evidently in the hands of a prosperous owner, for it was apparent that watchful care is expended upon it, but it is in no sense a show place, and the few pilgrims who come to the town must content themselves with a glimpse from the outside. To get a view of the place I surreptitiously stepped through the open gateway, the house itself being some distance from the road and partially concealed by the hedges and trees in front of it. It is a rather irregular three-story building with lattice windows surrounded by ivy and climbing roses. It stands against a background of fir trees with a stretch of green lawn and flowers in front, and the whole place had an air of quiet beauty and repose. On the front of the house was an ancient sundial and across it in antique letters the legend Time Will Show. I do not know whether this was placed there by Darwin or not, but it is the most appropriate answer which the great scientist might have made to his hosts of critics. Time has indeed shown and the quiet philosopher who lived in this retired village has revolutionised the thought of the civilised world. End of Chapter 18