distracted thinking about the budget. Can you make that a norm? Good evening, Tom. You bring us alcohol every year when you do the budget. That's very kind of you, Tom. You can line six of them up right there. Did you get it? Good evening to you. I haven't talked to you in a long time. I keep seeing you in passing. Ships of the night. You were quite the woman about town this weekend, I must say. Yes, you were. KRS-1, SWV. That was a lost into it. That took me back. Really? Is there a water in the cup? Good for you once in a while. Clean your ears out. Can we trade? I want the cherry. I'm super motivated to trade. Thank you, my friend. Appreciate you. I'm just chugging this as soon as someone says it's okay. We should have a word. We should have a contest. Can we just drink the... Oh, it's on now. We're live. Hello. He's the senior. That's funny. Hey, listen, you won't hurt my feelings as I've told many people, Tom. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. What's going on with the mics? I'd like to call this meeting of the Durham City Council to order. May the 21st, 2018. I'd like to welcome everyone here tonight. I'm glad to have you. Would you please join me for a moment of silent meditation? Thank you. Council Member Rees, would you lead us in the pledge? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening to my colleagues. For those of you in the audience, it's the time when we, if you're able, and if it's your practice to do so, please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice, are all for all. Thank you. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Mayor Shul. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Here. Council Member Alston. Here. Council Member Caballero. Here. Council Member Freeman. Present. Council Member Middleton. Here. And Council Member Rees. Here. Thank you, and now we'll have our ceremonial items. Our first item tonight is a very exciting item, which is the neighborhood spotlight recipient for the month of May 2018, which will be presented to Marcella Jones of the JJ Henderson Towers community. Could I ask Ms. Jones and members of her family who are friends who are here with her? I know her godmother is here with her to please come forward. Any friends that you would like to bring, and her brother is also here as well. And I see Mr. Lyons is with us. Come on up. Come here, Marcella. Come right here. Marcella Jones is the recipient of the neighborhood spotlight for the month of May 2018. The Neighbor Spotlight Award recognizes community members that have gone above and beyond in volunteering their time to serve the community. This month, Marcella Jones, a resident of the JJ Henderson Towers community, was nominated and selected because of the wonderful work she has done in her neighborhood, including but not limited to providing information materials to meet the needs of her neighbors at JJ Henderson Towers, advocating for better services for Durham residents as the Durham Housing Authority Resident Counsel President, as a member of the Durham Housing Authority's Crime Task Force, and on the Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities, building partnerships with City County and Housing Authority officials, church members, community leaders, local businesses, and nonprofit organizations to improve the quality of life for Durham residents. Congratulations, Ms. Jones on being the May Neighbor Spotlight for the City of Durham, and thank you for all the work you do to improve our Durham community. We are so proud to present you with this award and just I want to say as a long-time friend and admirer of yours, I'm especially pleased to be presenting you with this Neighbor Spotlight Award and plaque for May of 2018. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much. Um, everything that I do have done and will do is because I'm an advocate for any person with a disability and all seniors. We are seasoned seniors and we are your future. Along with our children, I'd like to say hello to our liaison for the Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities. City Councilwoman, did you honor Friedman. Thank you. Thank you for your help. You still owe me a visit. I'll be there. It's in public now. I'll be there soon. Thank you. Thank you all so much for being here and congratulations to you all as well. Yes, of course. We'll have a quick picture. All right. The next item is the Playball Summer Proclamation, which will be presented to Faith Inman. Ms. Inman here. Ms. Inman here. Well, I will read the proclamation. This is the Playball Summer Proclamation. Whereas the sport of baseball is America's national pastime. And whereas the United States Conference of Mayors, Major and Minor League Baseball have come together to recognize June to August as Playball Summer. And whereas Playball Summer encourages families and communities to participate in the game of baseball, thus creating sustainable enthusiasm for the game. And whereas cities across the country will be coming together during the summer to support the growth of baseball and softball. And whereas baseball and softball produce countless family and community bonding experiences. And whereas baseball and softball have taught our youth valuable life lessons of teamwork, perseverance, leadership and sportsmanship. And whereas baseball and softball have formed a diverse culture showcasing a snapshot of where America stands today. And whereas baseball and softball provide a proud sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself. Whereas we recognize the importance and influence of baseball and softball in the city of Durham. Now, therefore, I, Stephen M. Shul, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim June through August 2018 as Playball Summer in Durham, and hereby urge all citizens to take special note of this observance. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, this 21st day of May 2018. And I'm sorry that Ms. Inman is not here, but we will be presenting this as well to the Durham Bulls, and I'll look forward to that. Our next presentation is for Gun Violence Awareness Day. And I'm going to ask Mayor D'Athaltieri and anyone that may be with her from Mom's Demand Action, or other folks that are here to receive this proclamation to please come forward. Are you? Good to see you. Hey, Keisha. All right. Thank you all very much for being here. I'm going to read the proclamation and present it to you, Ms. Altieri. And afterwards, we'd love to hear a few words from you as well.  And whereas Americans are 25 times more likely to be murdered with guns than people in other developed countries. And whereas, according to Durham Police Department statistics, 233 people were shot in Durham in 2017, an increase from the past two years. And whereas 27 people were killed by gun violence in Durham in 2017, and seven people have been killed by gun violence in Durham already in 2018, according to the Durham County Homicide Database. And whereas in January 2013, Hadea Pendleton, a teenager who marched in President Obama's second inaugural parade and was tragically shot and killed just weeks later, should now be celebrating her 21st birthday. And whereas to help honor Hadea, along with the victims of gun violence here in Durham, as well as the 96 Americans whose lives are cut short and the countless survivors who are injured by shootings every day, a national coalition of organizations has designated June 1, 2018, the first day in June, as the fourth national gun violence awareness day. And whereas the idea was inspired by a group of Hadea's friends who asked their classmates to commemorate her life by wearing orange. And whereas by wearing orange on June, on June the 1st, 2018, Durham residents and Americans will raise awareness about gun violence and honor the lives of gun violence victims and survivors. And whereas we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our children safe. Now, therefore, I, Stephen M. Schulmaier, the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim June 1, 2018 as Gun Violence Awareness Day in the City of Durham and do hereby call upon all citizens to support our local community's efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, this the 21st day of May, 2018. Ms. Altieri. Thank Mayor Schulmaier and our City Council for being so supportive. Not all communities are supportive and we're very lucky here in Durham. This is an issue that reaches across race, religion, gender, ethnicity. No one is immune to it and it's something that I hope everyone will get behind in support. We recognize it nationally and locally. I think of victims and survivors on this day. Hong Zhang, a local Durham businessman who was killed recently by gun violence. I think of him. I think of just a year ago, young woman Daisy Medina who was shot through her apartment building by unintentional gunfire and there are many other survivors and victims that will remember. We'd like to invite everyone on the City Council and in the community to join us on Friday, June 1 to wear orange in remembrance of people and in honor of survivors and also to invite you all on Saturday, June 2 to our Wear Orange event at Hillside Park from 10 to 1pm. It will be a happy event to again honor victims and survivors and to have some fun while we try to do more to prevent gun violence. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you all so much and this is very important work. I don't have to tell anybody in this room the critical importance of this, the future of our community and I'm very, very appreciative of you all being here to do this. Thank you so much. And finally, we will have National Public Works Week and I will ask Marvin Williams, our Director of Public Works to please come forward. Marvin, I'm going to read this proclamation and present it to you. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure facilities and services, there are vital imports to sustainable and resilient communities into the public health, high quality of life and well-being of the people of the City of Durham. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and employees from state and local governments in the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, stormwater, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it isn't the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children of the City of Durham to gain knowledge of and to maintain a progressive interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. And whereas the American Public Works Association has celebrated the annual National Public Works Week since 1960, now therefore I, Stephen M. Shul, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hear by proclaim the week of May 21st of 2017-2018 as National Public Works Week in the City of Durham and urge all citizens to join with representatives of the American Public Works Association and government agencies in activities, events, and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals, engineers, managers, and employees, and to recognize the substantial contributions they make to protecting our national health, safety, and quality of life. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, this 21st of May, 2018. And I will present this to you, Marvin, for any words that you may have. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Shul, Mayor Pro Tem members of council. Actually, there's several members of the Public Works Department in the audience today. I would ask that they stand to be recognized formally and public for all the great work that they do for the City of Durham. So every year I always say that public works were the kind of department that you forget about if we're doing things right and you only hear about us when someone feels we're not doing things to their satisfaction. But we do do a lot of good for the community on a daily basis. And I'm proud to say that all the staff in Public Works is great. We do a lot for Durham and we try to keep the City moving on a daily basis. So we have several activities planned for this week. Today we actually had some activities with one of the elementary schools here in the city. We're trying to get into another elementary school later in the week to talk to them about what public works is. Tomorrow we also have our backhoe challenge at our Public Works Operations Center pretty much all day. So any members of council, if your schedule will permit, you're more than welcome to come. I'll email this information to you later this evening, just so that you have it. We're also going to be delivering hygiene kits to urban ministries on Wednesday as part of our community service activity as a department. And we'll also be having a so-called fun day where we gather all employees of the department down at Southern Boundaries Park for lunch on Friday afternoon. So again, if anyone has availability, you're more than welcome to attend. But I just want to say thank you all for recognizing us as a department and for the work that we do and we appreciate it. All right, that concludes our ceremonial items. I do want to say that the backhoe challenge sounds awesome and I would love to get the email about that. I'm totally there. Totally. And now we will have any announcements by members of the council. Council Member Freeman. May need a few moments. Just one announcement. I just wanted to make sure that I congratulated the hillside track team, track and field team for winning their 3a state women's, sorry, but yes, the hillside women's track and field team for winning their state division, which was 3a. And then I also wanted to thank Parks and Rec for their wonderful work last week with the Bimbe Festival. As we celebrated 49 years, I wanted to highlight that next year we'll be celebrating 150 years of our founding and 50 years of the Bimbe Cultural Arts Festival, and I think it'll be a really big year. So I just want to put that on everyone's radar. And I lastly wanted to spend a little time talking about our shared prosperity goal area and recognizing if you don't know, Black Enterprise is having an upcoming entrepreneur summit, which will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina next month in June 6th through the 9th. And it gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to talk about the opportunity for our emerging entrepreneurs and small business owners in DERM and how they can start, grow, and sustain their businesses. This being the 23rd annual summit and the second time that it's been in North Carolina, I really want to make sure that we get behind it and support it and get as many of our DERM small businesses and entrepreneurs out there. It's forecasted to bring about 1200 folks from across the country and knowing that Black Enterprise has been around for over 40 years, it began as a magazine geared towards driving Black entrepreneurship to a multimedia brand and events firm, and the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals to learn ways to contract with public and private sector organizations at a time when economic mobility and inclusion are such a pressing priority, particularly for people of color. I'm really pressed to push or push and make sure that folks take advantage of the opportunity of learning and networking. So it's timely and extremely beneficial for folks to build an alternative ways to grow and sustain their businesses. And I want to say that if you're interested and you're here today, if you see Andre, I don't see Andre around. Pedigree. He has a flyer which is offering a discount for attendance if you're interested and then also I want to ask if Vivian could queue up a video. Hey everybody, this is Earl Butch Graves Jr. A little more volume. And I want to welcome everyone to the Black Enterprise 2018 Entrepreneur Summit being held in Charlotte, North Carolina June 6th through night. I want to invite everyone to join me in what is going to be our biggest and best entrepreneur summit ever. Our speakers this year include Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Byron Allen, recently purchased the Weather Channel, Don Peoples, the largest real estate developer in the country, Janice Brian Howroy, owner of a $2.7 billion business, and Troy Taylor, the CEO and owner of Coca-Cola Florida. This is going to be the biggest and best event ever. I hope you will come and join us for what is the best event ever in Charlotte, North Carolina. BE in the QC, coming to Charlotte June 6th through night. Be there, come and join me. And I wanted to ask if I could get Mr. Farad Ali from the North Carolina Institute of Economic Development to come up and say a few words about this event as well. Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Manager, and Attorney and Waiting, right? Chief Attorney, thank you so much for the work that BE is doing. The Institute is a partner with BE for this event. They've came to Durham and we had breakfast at lunch and talked about the importance of really getting minority businesses engaged, small businesses and large businesses. There will be over 1,200 people there talking about ways to engage these businesses to work. So it's only two hours away. We have a discount with Andre providing that for this community. I think it would be a great idea for minority businesses and all businesses to kind of engage. We'll have large corporations there. The billion dollar person that you saw, the attorney, is from Tarboro. So she'll be coming with a lot of her friends. So we ask that the citizens of Durham participate in this event. Thank you so much, Councilman Freeman. Thank you very much, Mr. Ali. And thank you very much, Council Member Freeman. Welcome. Are there any other announcements? Council Member Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to just take a few moments to just brag on Durham for a little bit. Firstly, I'm glad to see Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson here and who's just back from celebrating the homegoing of her beloved mother and Mayor Shul. I know you were there with her in your absence. I just wanted to report to you that we had an incredible time in Durham this weekend with about three, by my count, festivals that went on. The ultimate measure of an organization, the health of an organization, is taken when the leader is not there, Mr. Mayor. So you would be very pleased with the way the city carried on in spite of rain. Here in Durham, we call rain ambience. So I had the pleasure of bringing greetings on the Mayor's behalf and the Council's behalf at the Blues and Brews Festival, firstly, which basically is the totality of my wellness program. I wanted to shout out all of the attendees there. Also, I had an opportunity to attend a few of the Moog Fest. Particularly, I was excited about KRS-1 being here on a Saturday night. When I was a kid in New York City, you couldn't tell me that I wasn't going to be signed by Boogie Down Productions. It didn't work out. It didn't work out. So we had a wonderful time at Moog Fest. And I also want to echo my colleague, Councillor Freeman's kudos to Parks and Rec for a wonderful Bembe Festival. We had a packed house out there in the rain and the mud having a great time and peace and love and really representing what Durham is all about. So just I want to celebrate all that went on in our city this past weekend. And then finally, Mr. Mayor, we certainly are big on Durham businesses. But there are literally thousands of us in the city that would make the trek from time to time to Chapel Hill to eat at a restaurant on Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill called Mama Dips. This week, the matriarch, the visionary, the main chef of that restaurant, Mildred Council, affectionately known as Mama Dip, transitioned. And I just want to take a moment to celebrate her life and legacy and thank our friends in Chapel Hill for allowing so many of us from Durham to invade their city for that good eating. A lot of schemes and dreams were worked out over her food and at her table over the years. And I know I speak for the entire city when we celebrate her legacy and her memory and certainly send our condolences and best wishes to our family and friends. She will be missed. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for those announcements very much. Any other announcements? All right. Thank you. Are there any priority items by the city manager? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of Council, good evening, everyone. I do have one priority item this evening, which is agenda item number nine, bid contract for ferric sulfate solution 13 percent would request that this item be referred back to the administration. That's my only item this evening. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do I hear a motion on the manager's priority item? Second. Can you open the vote? Please, Madam Clerk. Close the vote. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much. Mr. Attorney, any priority items? No items, Mayor. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk. No items, Mr. Mayor. Thank you so much. We will now move to our consent agenda. The consent agenda can be approved by a single vote of the council. If any member of the council or resident wishes to remove an item from this agenda, we will remove it from the consent agenda and it will be considered at the end of the meeting separately. I will now read the consent agenda items. Item one, approval of city council minutes. Item two, Durham planning commission appointments. Item three, street and infrastructure acceptances. Item four can be found on the general business agenda. Item five, post city county planning department FY19 work program. Item six, FY17-18 emergency solutions grant funds with urban ministries of Durham, Inc. sub recipient contract for rapid rehousing services. Item seven, contract for professional engineering services for Westclaw Boulevard quarter utility rehabilitation. Item eight, ordinance to adopt water and sewer rates for FY 2018-19. Item nine has just been referred back to the administration. Item 10, annual property casualty insurance plan for FY 2019. Item 11, changes to pre-audit certification requirements for electronic payments. Item 12, construction services with rigs, hair, builders for the solid waste management annex and truck wash project. Item 13, city code revisions establishing civil penalties for unauthorized work performed in the right-of-way. Item 14, small wireless facilities ordinance revision. Item 15, telecommunications license with the MCI Metro access transmission services corp. DBA Verizon access transmission services. Item 16, this item can be found on the general business agenda. Item 17-21 can also be found on the general business agenda public hearings. You have heard the consent items. Can I hear a motion on these items? So moved. Second. It's been moved and second that we approve the consent agenda. Can I ask the clerk to please open the voting? Please close the vote. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. And now we will thank you. We're going to move to our general business agenda. Just I'm looking at these okay. Thank you. We are going to, we have two items on our general business agenda. They are item four, participatory budgeting, PB follow-up and item 16, proposed FY 2018-19 budget and 2019-24 capital improvement plan, CIP. I'm going to move item 16 up first for our city manager to give the budget presentation for this year. We will follow that with the participatory budgeting follow-up. We have many staff members who are here to hear this budget presentation and would like to be able for them to go home and enjoy their families after this is over. And so I'm going to go ahead and move this item up earlier in the agenda. And Mr. Manager, welcome. We're glad, looking forward to your presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening. Mayor Shul, Mayor Pro Tem Johnson, members of the city council, city staff, residents of Durham present here tonight or viewing on Durham television network or following along on Twitter. I'm honored to be before you this evening to present the proposed 2018-19 fiscal year budget for the city of Durham. I would like to note for the record that this marks the 10th budget that I have presented to the community. So by now you're accustomed to our attempts, sometimes far reaching attempts to make the annual budget presentation a bit relevant to our lives and to current happenings in Durham and around the nation. Last year, with the help of Huey Lewis and the news you may recall, we talked about how it's really hip to be square. Well, after another year, I'll admit that I'm still mostly traditional and my wife and kids continue to prod and drag me into that pop culture world. When I think about significant occurrences in the city over the past year, the word refresh comes to mind as well as its frequent pop culture references. In pop culture news, you might be aware that in their effort to re-engage television audiences, producers have seen fit to refresh shows that were popular decades ago, such as the Roseanne show in Will and Grace. So what do you think about when you hear the word refresh? Well, the traditional square me says let's check Webster's or maybe even Roger's C. Thoris. Pop culture me says let's just Google it. Either way, the results are about the same. Refresh to give new strength through energy to enliven, reinvigorate, update, revitalize, and for computer users, you might even say to refresh to update the display on your screen. Certainly, the city's downtown skyline continues to be refreshed, creating a tapestry of the old and the new. This past year refresh many buildings around town, the Chesterfield on West Main Street that was once the center of tobacco industry in Durham, now as a thriving life sciences and technology research center. The Grubb on West Chapel Hill Street, that used to be a gas station. The East Durham Bake Shop on the southwest corner of South Driver and Andrew Avenue, which was home to various businesses over the years. And the Lakewood and the historic Davis Baking Company. These buildings are just a few examples of refreshed development that honors the past. Almost everywhere you go in Durham, something seems to be being refreshed, reenlivened, or reinvigorated. This past year has been one of refreshing for our city government logo, too. Our government's logo was refreshed and updated just a little, to make it a little easier to use. And our coffees with council sessions were also refreshed this year with the debut of our community conversations. We've even refreshed our water infrastructure. The Williams Water Treatment Plant celebrated its 100th birthday with a major makeover to ensure the historic plant continues to provide consistent, high quality drinking water to customers in Durham for many decades to come. You'll see this year that while our mission remains consistent to make Durham a great place to live, work, and play, the city's strategic plan and the five goals that are the framework for the activities, programs, services, and initiatives associated with them are new. Change to build on how Durham is transforming to meet the needs of the growing, diverse, and inclusive community that we strive to be. The strategic plan continues to be the foundation of our planning, driving our operational needs, and guiding this annual budget process. Mayor Shul and City Council members have played a vital role in providing guidance as we discuss strategic plan goals and the entire budget development processes. And we'll be asked to adopt, update a strategic plan in conjunction with the budget adoption process. So as always, I want to say thank you to Mayor Shul and members of the City Council. The development of the FY18-19 budget relied on traditional collaboration and practices, as well as the previously mentioned refreshed community engagement approach. Whether through participating in community conversations, serving on a board or commission, or taking the annual resident satisfaction survey, City staff gathered input from different groups in our community for how their tax dollars should be spent this coming year in this budget. Durham's attractiveness is a great place to live, visit, do business, and attract talent continues to receive national attention. And the things that new and longtime Durhamites love about Durham are many of the same things that are driving others to move to this city. Conservative projections are that about 5,500 people a year are moving to Durham, and I think that's low based on what I see happening. And the development and planning services folks can certainly attest to that. There are currently 300 active site plans under review in the Development Services Center, bringing the total for the year to over 800. While all this growth increases demand for services, it also brings an expanded tax base. The taxable value for fiscal year 18-19 in Durham will grow by $1.2 billion, $1.2 billion, or 4.46%. That's over twice the amount that our financial model had projected. The increased tax revenues, which will generate an additional $7.27 million, not only provide the resources to respond to increased service demands brought on by this growth, such as two new solid waste collection routes, and an additional fire engine company for downtown. But it also provides resources to pay for overall cost increases. But even more important provides additional revenue for affordable housing and park initiative, park enhancement initiatives because of the increased value of a penny. And even some new initiatives such as participatory budgeting process can be funded by these new revenues. The total recommended budget for fiscal year 18-19 is $510.4 million, which is a 15.9% increase from last year. And while that seems like a large increase, a large percentage of the large amount of this increase is primarily due to $76.5 million from water and sewer dedicated housing and stormwater reserve funds to pay for very expensive large infrastructure improvements and affordable housing initiatives. And the general fund, the proposed general fund budget, which covers the city's core services, is $201.1 million, a 5.8% increase from last year. I'm pleased to announce that due to the previously mentioned growth in the tax base, coupled with sales tax growth of 5% and continued fiscally conservative management of the budget, I am not recommending a tax rate increase for fiscal year 2018-2019. A penny on the tax rate will grow to $2.9 million. What this means for the average homeowner is a tax bill of about $1048 per year for the city, or about $87.33 a month, on a house value to the median house value of $181,100, which is the same as last year. Proposed general fund expenditures include modest increases for personnel costs and operating expenses, and this year transfer is increased by 7.1% for capital improvement and affordable housing expenditures. The proposed general fund budget uses a little more than $4 million of fund balance for a variety of one time costs. This fund balance helps safeguard the city against economic uncertainty and emergencies in the future. The city continues to enjoy an outstanding credit rating by all of the rating agencies, in part to sound fiscal management and this percentage of fund balance. As was previously mentioned, the city's strategic plan has been significantly updated, more than a simple refresh, a better reflect and define priority goals and objectives and the infrastructure to achieve them. Again, this year, the city's nationally award-winning strategic planning and performance management will be fully integrated into the city's budget priorities. I would like to take a few minutes to underscore just a few of them. Earlier this year, the topic of shared economic prosperity was emphasized by Mayor Schultz's first state of the city address. In this time of rapid growth, one of the biggest challenges facing our city is how everyone can benefit from this growing economy. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development has realigned its strategic focus to encourage a more inclusive economy, and you will be hearing more about that in the coming year. Through wide-ranging partnerships, the city will put a more targeted focus on providing access and opportunities through on-the-job training, youth internships, specialized job recruitment, small business and entrepreneurial development, and targeted job programming for justice-involved residents. In 2018, the volume and value of land development activity in Durham reached historic heights, surpassing the previous peak year of 2007. The value of this new construction in Durham County in 2017-18 was estimated at $1.635 billion, a 46 percent increase over the value of development activity in 2014-15, which was then $1.17 billion per year. We have almost, we have indicated we have had almost 800 reviews of individual building site plans to ensure that the sites are built, the city's infrastructure and environmental standards, and over 4,200 building permits this year to date. These are historically high numbers and up almost 20 percent over the last three years. This level activity is expected to continue in FY 18 and 19 and for the foreseeable future. The Development Services Center was launched last year to streamline the development review and permitting processes for residents and businesses during this time of major growth, but this process has not kept up with the growth, the pace of growth and development activity. A challenge of this growth is ensuring that the city's requirements for building safety, environmental protection, infrastructure quality, and for protecting neighborhood character are met for all new development. To ensure that housing and business opportunities can continue to be served in a timely and high quality manner, we are recommending nine new positions to support the Development Services Center and the Inspections Department. The good news is these new positions, along with two new programs noted on the slide, will be funded totally by development fees, not property taxes, allowing complete accountability to those that we serve. Creating a safer community, a shift in how we think about public safety is also part of the new strategic plan. We recognize that we have to work alongside residents and community organizations in creating a safer community. Partnering to promote a community environment that is safe and free of harm and hazards is consistently a high priority for our residents and for all of the public safety agencies that work to serve them. To better serve a large portion of South Durham, the county Bethesda and Parkwood fire districts will merge into the city's fire department, transferring a total of 53 positions and creating two additional administrative and support positions. This will result in more efficient deployment of fire and rescue resources, reducing response times and eliminating duplication of services, and in many cases reducing insurance costs for residents. In response to the explosive growth of multifamily residential units in the downtown area, we are recommending that 15 new firefighters be added to support a new engine company at downtown station number one to occur in January. I would like to take this opportunity to a moment to thank Chief Dan Curia for his tremendous work on both of these issues and his leadership of the fire department for the last five years as chief, as well as his almost 30 years of service in total with the department. We wish him well as he assumes the chief position in Charleston, South Carolina in August. At this time, violent crime is trending downward and we believe establishing and maintaining strong relationships between police and the community has contributed to this trend. In addition to including funding for the third year of the take-home car program, funding is also included to include recruitment and retention programs within the police department. The initiative to equip the majority of sworn officers with body-worn cameras has been successfully completed and has shown to reduce complaints and enhance interaction between residents and law enforcement. Establishing positive relationships with youth is also a priority for the police department. So this budget expands the police athletically program and staffing. Through this program, officers provide mentoring opportunities with youth and their families. The new community engagement unit has been launched beginning in McDougal Terrace and expanding to the Cornwallis community. This unit with its 10 police officers aims to build trust and strengthen community relations through proactive policing. And I would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to join the police department and keep Durham beautiful and the Durham Housing Authority for a community cleanup day at McDougal Terrace on Saturday, June the 2nd. This event will also be another chance for officers in the neighborhood to get to know each other. The need for affordable housing continues to be a high priority for the community. The proposed budget continues to support affordable housing goals adopted by the City Council two years ago. Working to provide new affordable home ownership and rental units, preserving existing affordable rentals, enhancing collaboration with the largest affordable housing provider, the Durham Housing Authority, and ensuring housing and stabilization and appreciating neighborhoods continues to be the multi-pronged approach to providing affordable housing. We propose to continue the dedicated housing tax rate this year at two cents while appropriating funds from fund balance to support the remainder of the plan for this year. Also included in the proposed budget is $450,000 to support the realignment and enhancement of the homelessness eviction diversion and support services. This funding along with similar support from Durham County will go a long way to aid city and county homelessness and social service support systems that are strained by mounting demands for services as growth pressures housing opportunities for many of our residents. The dedicated half penny for parks continues to make a difference in our growing community. While the half penny was specifically to improve maintenance, another 12 million and other capital improvements will also be underway this year. Refreshing and upgrading parks and trails including the Hoover Road Soccer Complex and Red Maple and including the construction of the Hoover Road Soccer Complex as well as improvements to Red Maple and CM Herndon Park. The My Durham teen program which began last year will be expanded this year to add another recreation center while at the same time marketing efforts are attended to increase and attract more youth to the program and we also have plans for a summer camp program to be added in 2019. The City County Youth Services Manager approved in the FY17-18 budget has been hired and is aggressively developing a strategic plan for city and county youth initiatives that provide all youth in Durham the access and support they need for success. How we continue to grow has and will continue to be a topic of intense conversation in Durham. While we want growth to meet community needs we also want it to be environmentally sound and sustainable now and in the future. The newly adopted sustainability roadmap will guide our city in these eight different areas and while the path to sustainability is different for every community we've seen through this plan that it touches every area of what we as a city can do. Please take the time to read more about it on the General Services webpage. Additionally this year the proposed budget includes funding for the Joint City County Sustainability Office to update or refresh the Durham Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Plan. The last comprehensive plan was adopted last city's comprehensive plan was adopted in 2005. As we know Durham looks nothing like it did 15 years ago nor our prospects for continued development same as they were then. For that reason we are recommending that a new comprehensive plan be developed to guide growth in Durham. The focus will be to better coordinate city and county services and infrastructure with growth and to ensure that the costs are adequately managed. The comprehensive plan will be completed over a three-year period with the first year involving extensive public engagement outreach and participation. Nowhere is gross impact more felt in Durham than in traffic and parking. In FY18-19 the Transportation Department will increase the number of network parking meters and payment options hopefully making it easy for people to visit downtown areas. Additionally the city-owned Morgan Street Parking Garage is on schedule to be completed in early 2019 and this will add 669 more parking spaces downtown helping to relieve the parking crunch that we're now facing. Finally we'll be taking a closer look at how we can encourage people to walk, bike, ride transit or car share to lessen traffic coming to downtown and certainly to hopefully improve overall public health. Also of note the Transportation Department will be bringing parking administration and enforcement in-house resulting in significant savings and transitioning 23 additional FTEs to the city. Well I've already mentioned a few capital projects I'd like to call your attention to the list here on the slide in particular funding additional funding for the Durham Beltline Trail and the Public Works Operations Center renovation. Maintaining City Streets continues to be a concern for residents responding to the 2017 resident satisfaction survey. Approximately seven million dollars is budgeted to address this ongoing maintenance of city streets. An additional two million dollars is included in the capital improvement plan to pave dirt streets that have been petitioned. I'd also like to remind and mention that tonight the council considered the modest increase of about 1.3 percent for the average customer in the water and sewer rates to continue to support ongoing capital operating and sustainability efforts of water and sewer systems. Finally as I say every year I never get tired of saying it I'm continually in awe of the service that our over 2,600 employees strive to provide to our residents. The annual resident satisfaction survey results shows that our residents continue to be pleased with the city, with city employees and with customer service receiving the highest satisfaction ratings. In fact seven out of ten people are happy with the courtesy of city employees as well as the timeliness and accuracy of the responses that they receive. The proposed budget continues to pay for performance plan with an average of four percent budgeted for general employee compensation increases and five percent is budgeted for sworn public safety employee compensation. Also as healthcare costs continue to rise several new benefit vendors are offering a broader array of benefits and coverage to employees at competitive rates. Funding is also included to begin implementation of the general employee pay and classification study that is expected to be completed this fall. Thanks to funding from the Bloomberg Philanthropies the city kicked off innovation efforts last year. While this funding with this funding the city continues to build on creating and maintaining a culture of innovation internally and externally. In the community we're supporting innovative startups as they attempt to provide solutions involving technology to problems that vex us every day. I must also recognize the innovation team as they join with and push our partners to find ways to help residents following their involvement in the criminal justice system. The city hosted recently its first amnesty day that allowed residents with suspended or revoked driver's licenses to have them restored. This small thing can make a world of difference simply either getting a job or taking care of family. Also to better serve residents who contact the city for service are need assistance to pay water bills. Additional positions are proposed for the Durham one call and in water management's building customer building services division. And while the city makes every effort to engage the community as a part of the budget process new this year is the development of a participatory budgeting initiative intended to involve and engage broader participation from residents to prioritize some project decisions that can directly impact their communities. Approximately $300,000 is included in this budget to support the process with an expectation that the FY19-20 fiscal year will include funding to support project implementation. I've highlighted some of the many key recommendations and invite everyone to take a closer look at the budget over the next few weeks. There are many other projects and initiatives that are necessary and contribute to keeping neighborhoods healthy and thriving from meeting our infrastructure needs to keeping our environment clean. Staff looks forward to delving deeper into the details of the proposed budget at next week's budget work sessions. Developing the budget is always a collaborative process relying on the groundwork of long-term financial and strategic plans developed over several years and at the same time trying to predict what the future holds. As always I would like to give special recognition to budget director Bertha Johnson and her budget and management services team along with the department directors and their leadership to ensure that our strategic plan guides and aligns with budget priorities as well as growing community needs and also would recognize Beverly Thompson and the public affairs staff who always do such a great job in helping assist with this presentation together. But it's now time for the elected leadership and the residents to renew and scrutinize the proposed budget. Residents are invited to share their thoughts at a public hearing two weeks from tonight on Monday June the 4th. We remain committed transparency in the budget as well as total operations. Copies of the proposed budget are now available on the city's website in the city clerk's office and in the budget management services department. And back to the pop culture I also want to encourage our residents to engage with us on any of these social media platforms listed here. So in closing let me say FY17-18 was definitely a year of refreshing while at the same time looking at new and innovative ways to meet the needs of growing Durham. We have a lot to celebrate. In November our beloved and internationally recognized this coming November Durham Performing Arts Center will mark its 10th year of operation and next year we will commemorate Durham's 150th anniversary. We also celebrate its foundation of inclusivity diversity and innovation that continues to successfully propel the city into the future. So at this time I'd like to propose a toast and council members you can take your choice between this refreshing Durham's own refreshing water or thanks to Durham's own Bull City Cider Works refreshing Apple Cider. So as we prepare for the next 150 years may the city of Durham continue to be the great and welcoming city that we enjoy calling home. Thank you. That was very refreshing Mr. Manager. Thank you for that outstanding budget presentation. I'm glad your voice did hold out but more than that thank you for that outstanding budget. This is a fantastic budget. We are blessed with the prosperity in this town that has enabled the manager to present an expansion budget where we're doing many many things that we have been wanting to do and being able to do so without recommending a tax increase which is great on every level and I just want to echo your thanks to our budget staff and to all the department managers and folks that have contributed to this budget but also to you Mr. Manager I know that this is something that you put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into and we always have an amazing budget process and we always have an amazing budget but I think this year is since I've been on council it was probably the best budget that we've had and I just very very appreciative of that so thank you. I look forward to presenting it next week. Thank you council members any comments before we move on to our next item thank you very much and again Tom congratulations it's a very very exciting budget thank you all right and while we're enjoying ourselves up here I'm sorry you all don't have any it's delicious congratulations to the Bull City Siderworks we will now move to item four participatory budgeting follow-up and we have two people that would like to speak on this item and I'm going to first explain make sure that those are the only two people yes there are only two let me first explain to my colleagues how I'm planning to conduct the decision-making on participatory budgeting tonight and hear any comments that you all might have and then we will hear from our two speakers and then we will proceed so here is first of all I want to thank council member Caballero for her work on chairing the committee that brought us this far and we are let's just say that there's seven members of council and we all have our individual opinions but we got she's gotten us this far and I want to appreciate that and seriously very very good job on doing this and and she has also provided council and members of the public the agenda item that we have in front of us which is the the the attachment which is the guidelines for our participatory budgeting that's item five this is the the addition to our agenda beyond what we had previously seen so council members here's what I'm going to propose after we hear from the speakers is that we first work on the participatory budgeting guidelines I believe that council member Caballero has accurately captured the decisions that we previously made as a group in work session I don't think there'll be anything in here that we anyone will be surprised at and I'm going to ask us first to vote on whether or not we approve these guidelines after we've had a chance to discuss them as I say these were the things that we discussed in detail at the work session but of course council members may have other comments on them as we as we go forward today but as again I think she did a great job on writing them up and I don't think you'll find any surprises then again so my plan is to have the speakers then they vote on the participatory budgeting guidelines and then to vote on the thing that we have not decided as a group during the work session which is the amount of money that we'll be funding for participatory budgeting let me just say for the public to understand this is a very important aspect of this the money that is being budgeted for this coming year that the manager referred to is for the implementation of participatory budgeting in the sense of outreach project definition and scoping all the staff work to get ready to implement projects in the following year the amount of money that we'll be discussing tonight will not be in this coming year's budget will be in the budget for the following year the year following so not f y 19 but rather f y 20 but we want to vote on this now the administration has asked us to do that so that we are able to give them the give them the steering committee that will guide the purchase participatory budgeting process some so that they will know exactly the amount of money that they have to work with and can work towards that so that's my plan for the process tonight is everyone good with it okay i'm now going to ask for we have two speakers and i'm going to ask them to please come to the podium here to my right and you will each have three minutes of the first is james chavis and the second is fresher k davis the second so if the two of you all could please come to the podium to my right and you will each have three minutes and mr chavis i'll ask you to speak first and we're glad to have you here tonight good afternoon my name is james chavis i said 2813 ash street apartment b i came to this council before speaking on this presidential budget that people in our community don't even know anything about and our tax money is going to be used for the people not to know anything about is that fair is that an honest procedural way of hell in this we only got one time to hear a little bit about this and now you are already saying that you're already going to put in motion but the people in our community don't know especially our black people this is very unfair government but as we are saying in our black community this is the democratic way of doing things this is not a republican way of doing things to us this is a democrat dorm way and it's a sorry way of doing it so i'm asking our please do not step this until it gets out there in the community and talk to the people that needs to know and understand what this all about thank you thank you mr chavis mr davis please state your name and address and you have three minutes welcome good evening to uh mayor shill uh fellow council and uh city attorney and staff uh my name is fredergate davis the second i resided 3706 uh suffolk street here in Durham i am a Durham native and i'm here on behalf of the Durham uh committee on affairs of black people we want to just talk about the budget and the great efforts and strides that city staff have made in particular the two million line item for the shared economic prosperity uh that mr bondfield talked about um the council has recently uh been introduced and i have a memo that she will share that with us mr davis thank you we're good we got it all right uh council has uh recently been introduced to the concept of shared economic prosperity uh by uh the office of economic and world first development mr andre pedigree and uh one of the greatest areas of inequity in Durham is around a minority business and entrepreneurship gap uh this is particularly uh troubling for natives of Durham as myself who know the history of minority economic uh development here in Durham uh new data about the national black community's conference uh in april suggests from the data that i shared that african-americans compose 40 percent of Durham's population however they own five percent of the firms that have employees employ only five percent of Durham's paid employee workforce account for only three percent of Durham's payroll and generate only two percent of Durham's business revenue in comparison whites compose 40 percent of Durham's population however they own 74 percent of the firms that have employees employ 87 percent of Durham's paid employee workforce and account for 89 percent of Durham's payroll generates 91 percent of Durham's business revenue research shows that racial minorities when owning a business with employees hire more racial minorities as employees than white firms this shows why it is crucial to have minority firms that are growing and expanding they hire other minorities and it's important that we begin to assist in the growth of firms from the economic underrepresented minorities in black and Hispanic communities this memo poses that as a part of the 2018-19 city of Durham budget the two million is allocated to the office of economic and workforce development for the new strategy of the shared economic prosperity the funding will be allocated with the instructions to the director and the department of housing authority director anthony scott working together to determine a program or project of work for the funds the funds must be used for the work that supports the intersection of economic development and workforce development strategies with the specific focus on helping underrepresented minority firms in Durham grow and expand in ways that create jobs and opportunities for Durham's most challenging residents including chronic unemployment populations and the Durham housing authority residents these budget items have potentially have the potential to positively impact Durham in the present and future participatory budget if done correctly has the potential to increase engagement civic participation such as voting by engaging normal underrepresented voices in the budget process an effort focused on strategies for growing and scaling underrepresented minorities firms in Durham has the potential to increase workforce participation and so as we refresh Durham we ask that you leave do not leave out the underrepresented minorities thank you thank you very much mr. Davis I really appreciate your comments thank you so much and you were heard thank you council members you have heard the speakers and now I'm going to ask us to engage in discussion on the guidelines not the amount of money that will be budgeting for the following year's implementation year but rather the guidelines that are in front of you that we previously discussed at work session excuse and would love to hear any comments that you all have just just the point I'm trying to recall if the public has been made aware of the participatory budgeting presentation I don't know if we did that here if or in work session I think it was I'm sorry I'm trying to recall if it was actually done in the public I'm just thinking about mr. Chavis his comments about it not being transparent so to speak yeah I don't know if they that everyone's seen Bertha's presentation so we the first time the we had the first presentation we've had a presentation at the council budget retreat we had a work session presentation and we had the discussion last week those are the three that I can think of there may be others as well our council members may recall others but that's my those are my recollections I will agree with mr. Chavis that not everyone is aware of this however and we that's that's part of the job we would have to do to make this work council member one edit on the yes please um and the geographic boundary section you know I fully expect that you know should this proceed to a not to a second cycle that we would change the districts the PB districts I just wonder if the first line words is for the first year only if the word only kind of boxes us in in a way that isn't really critical yes you know if we are hamstrung and have to go to the wards in a second process we have to amend the guidelines and just wonder if we could take the word only out now thank you I think that's a great suggestion if without objection we will do that thank you thank you council member Austin is there any way to show what we're looking at so that folks at home know what we're talking about to put the guidelines up on the screen yes I think we could do that I'll ask our technical staff if they could look if they would be possible for them to uh put the guidelines up which is attachment attachment five thank you attachment five for the participant for item item four Mr. Mayor Councilmember Middleton thank you Mr. Mayor I want to just for the record just note that the fact that we're editorializing that the wards may be problematic in the future does not give me any comfort that we're going to use them anyway first time around while noting that they are problematic and I think the reason also says just to adhere to a timeline and for the record I'm I support participatory budgeting but I do not understand why we we feel compelled to constrain ourselves to this timeline we can take the time and get it right and make sure that there's a system that is reflective of our population that does not have built-in problems which we have now publicly editorialized that they do yet we're going to use them anyway and then better luck the next time around I just don't understand the logic in that and if we proceed it looks like we're going to proceed I just want to note for the record that I I have concerns about us opining out loud that there's problems structurally with the ward system but we're going to use it anyway the first time and we'll fix it the next time so whatever that's worth thank you thank you very much other comments council members any other comments on the guidelines I'm going to wait until Vivian thank you Vivian has a chance to put these guidelines up or not while we're while we're waiting I would just like to add that also the second comment from Mr. Davis around the two million for shared economic prosperity if if if our workforce and economic development director Andre is still here I don't see him I love to know what he's his thoughts were on it did you have some comments just wanted to ask his thoughts on okay well doesn't look like we're going to be able to get these up in a timely way thank you for trying Vivian apologies that's all right council members what is your pleasure we have the guidelines in front of us in a reason one by one Mr. Mayor I'll move the guidelines in the form as as amended as earlier stated second it's been moved and seconded that we accept these guidelines with the amendment council member Austin added and I'll now ask if there's any further discussion on this item any further discussion all right we'll now vote on the item the approval of the guidelines madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote the motion passes five to two with council member Middleton and council member Freeman voting now all right thank you very much we will now move to the amount that we will be that we'll be using to implement the participatory budgeting projects that are chosen during the next year now we have our participatory budget guidelines thank you Vivian all right council members this now we're now open for discussion on the on the amount for the participatory budgeting I just want to make the comment that it feels a lot like the general legislature right now in our state and I'm a little concerned about that Mr. Mayor if I could comment on that aspect just briefly these materials were made public pursuant to the appropriate rules of our process they are as transparent and available to the people of the city as any other agenda item and folks who have concerns had the opportunity to review these items and sign up to speak as two people did I just wanted to comment that I don't share my colleagues concerns about the process nor that characterization thank you Mr. Mayor thank you very much any other any other comments we are now on the item of the amount of money that we will be allocating for the implementation year I'll go Mr. Mayor that's Councilmember Middleton thank you so much I want to thank the staff for the work an incredible amount of work that they've done on this new initiative this proposed new initiative for our city I want to thank Mayor Pro Tim Gillian Johnson for quarterbacking and leading this effort and bringing it to us there are a couple of numbers that are floating around a range of numbers as low as 750,000 up to 2.5 million dollars of your money to fund this initiative participatory budgeting in my assessment is a good idea it is not however a 2.5 million dollar good idea straight out of the gate I do not perceive that my election was about anything but first and foremost creating a participatory economy in the city and for the folk that are watching this debate at home who are facing eviction that are underemployed the opportunity to come to a meeting with fellow residents including 13 year olds to make decisions about bus shelter placement is just not high on their priority list I cannot make the case with less than six months in office to residents of this city that I found 2.5 million dollars to fund an initiative straight out of the gate which is an experiment this was and we've heard this echoed by a citizen and a resident this was not fresh off of an election campaign this was not an issue that was talked about by the masses as I spoke to people literally thousands of people during this election what I heard was we need jobs we need safety and we need to stay in our homes now with that said that is not to say that participatory budgeting is not a good idea or we can't have it I think we can do it both but I think we can do them do them both judiciously with prudence I've argued for incrementalism in this initiative the first time we had a conversation about participatory budgeting I said let's do between 500 and 600 thousand dollars which would put us on par with Greensboro our closest conversation partner and a larger city by the way that would put us on par with it tonight I'm prepared to vote for 750 thousand dollars which is what our staff has recommended the same staff that did incredible work to bring us a half billion dollar budget with no tax increase now I do not subscribe to the notion that we just in a knee jerk fashion should represent what the staff gives us and that we should just slavishly fall in line but in this particular case this same staff that has come up with a half a billion dollars with no tax increase has recommended 750 thousand dollars and that tonight is what I'm recommended I'm inclined to follow their recommendation there are voices that started this debate with 2.5 million dollars there are voices that on tonight are still at 2.5 million dollars I started at five to 600 thousand tonight I'm prepared for 750 thousand dollars 750 thousand dollars is serious money unlike a couple of my colleagues up here I don't have 750 thousand dollars won't name names but it's a serious number it's more than our sister city of Greensboro spent I think it conveys a serious commitment to participatory budgeting it's a solid foundation but it also says that we're judicious and that we're prudent it also gives us room to escalate as the initiative matures and develops our desire or our willingness to embrace incrementalism in our city has already been demonstrated in our policies our two pennies for housing did not start as two pennies it started as one penny and then we increased it I don't understand why we can't take the same incremental approach to this important initiative we have a housing crisis right now we have a jobs crisis right now and we have an opportunity to do to do something dramatic and impactful right now and still in this radical wonderful way increase inclusivity and expand democracy with participatory participatory budgeting at an amount that I believe is responsible that is serious but also allows us to put more money into things like workforce development the things you talked about during the election uh stabilizing people in their homes helping justice involve citizens get apprenticeships and to be prepared and then we can in the future if we deem it as a city increase the amount just like we did with the penny for housing I would say to my friends and colleagues and allies in the progressive community that I as I pondered leadership and the important attributes of leadership and the nuances of leadership that one of the most undervalued characteristics of leadership is humility just because an idea is a good one does not mean its time has come people want to participate in the budget at home and I think that's what our focus should be as a council and we can do them both we can have participatory budgeting and we can also do something dramatic in terms of the things that we talked about in the during this election cycle I also would ask whatever the amount we decide on tonight I would ask my council colleagues to join me in committing to the people of Durham that we will not raise taxes for this initiative alone that if we think it's important that we find the money we reprioritize in our budget and make the changes we need to to fund this but I'm asking them to support a call not to raise taxes solely for participatory budgeting easy for me to say participatory budgeting and if we do any revenue that is generated from a tax increase if any goes to participatory budgeting that we also earmark some of those funds for some of the priorities and initiatives that have been talked about in this budget that we've talked about on the election cycle we can do both I'm supporting the staff recommendation of $750,000 for participatory budgeting and I'm also committing not to raise taxes for participatory budgeting if it goes well the first year I pledge you you will have no fiercer ally on this council to raise money the levels for participatory budgeting but I'm standing with the staff tonight and in solidarity with members of this community who feel that there are some other priorities we need to be spending money on if we and if we don't spend as much or more on eviction diversion on reintegration for justice involved citizens as we do for participatory budgeting I think that would send a signal that would not be received well by many of our residents and citizens here in Durham $750,000 is what I'm supporting I urge my colleagues to do the same thank you Mr. Mayor I yield back thank you councilmember Middleton colleagues councilmember Freeman I think I mean it's it's it's interesting um I've been weighing this out since we started this conversation and I also am in full support of having a PB budgeting and recognizing that the way that we've gone about this process has brought out all of the concerns around how all of the documentation that's coming from someplace else all of the idea that's coming from someplace else we've we've worked really hard in the last two weeks to try and come together around this and I think it it could be much better if we spent more time coming together around it so that we're not as divided as we are in how this works and what it's for I think I had a conversation with councilmember Cabrero and I was very clear in recognizing like I cannot support a process that does not include any race equity in it there's no conversation about who we're who we're trying to get to participate there's no conversation on what the purpose of this participatory budgeting is the focus is on engagement of who for what and as I continue to ask those questions the answers I get are are still shaky it's still not when I say that this is I don't say it lightly that this is like being at the general assembly right now the fact that there's no there's not enough conversation about things that we agree on because I think that we could all get behind a wealth a well can cooperatively planned participatory budgeting process a well planned budgeting uh fund i like funding resource but to the point at which I said no was really when when mayor shul said that we would have to raise taxes to do this and I'm really concerned that we're at the point where we're saying that we're having a budget presentation and we've already made the decision that we're moving forward with participatory budgeting which is not in the budget and that 750 000 that's still money that has to be found I'm not I've said it numerous times I would be willing to to put four million dollars behind participatory budgeting it is not about the dollar amount it is really about the process and who is going to be engaged and why they're going to be engaged and how we go about this and repeatedly I mean I mean I'm I'm I'm I'm really speaking to the public on this and making sure you understand like this is not about me this is not about these folks up here this is about you and as taxpayers in this city recognizing that the taxes have been increasing whether you're at a flat tax rate or not I can't I can't in good faith support something that's that's going to raise the tax rate itself and then upon it raise the taxes raise the rent raise the I mean continue the displacement this is a continuous circle all of it has impact our decisions have impact and if we continue to operate in a silos that we've been operating in based on the council that was here previously we're going to continue to get the same results because you're not listening to your public as they're telling you they need housing they need jobs they need support they do not need to play with money thank you councilmember freeman other comments mayor pro tem johnson thank you mr mayor um I've said a lot over the last couple years about my support for this initiative and I don't think I need to rehash all of that the 2.5 million dollar recommendation is a um national best practice of 1 million per 100,000 residents recommended by the organizations the nonprofits that implement participatory budgeting in other cities around the country it would put us near the average of the cities that have been doing PB for a while the cities that have been researched and documented in the agenda packet the city of chicago spends around 17 dollars per person in the districts that do PB in new york get ranges from something like five to 16 dollars I think that putting a significant amount of money into this process so that residents really feel like they're being that they're being asked to engage with the significant amount of money that the projects that they can put forward are significant and could really make a difference in their community will have a impact on how successful this will have an impact on how successful this initiative is and I think that we you know in the cities that have the most successful participatory budgeting processes residents are asked to consider spending significant amounts of of money in order to really make really make the sort of work that they want to see in their communities a possibility we are not talking about funding PB in this year's budget because we are we're funding implementation in this budget but not the actual projects flash flood warning everyone yeah we're we're planning to fund implementation but not the actual projects until the next budget cycle there has been very little discussion of raising taxes I don't think that that will be necessary we have quite a strong fund balance that could be used to fund the projects that our residents decide that they want to see in their communities and I will be supporting the 2.5 million dollar recommendation for PD thank you thank you very much mayor pretend council members any more comments yes mr. mayor if I may council members the uh I also want to join my colleague council member Middleton in thanking staff for all of their work on this project they took an idea and a set of principles that um has I think a lot of value and a lot of uh of potential and turned it into a way to make this project work um they also helped kind of put some meat on some options for us including the recommendation that council member Middleton um is in support of tonight also really want to thank council member Caballero uh for leading the committee of the council or the ad hoc committee that we established to do some work on finding common ground around this um I also want to thank um council member Alston and council member Freeman for serving on that committee and for delivering that consensus document to us um at a previous work session uh so that we could begin that conversation um conversations that happened in public meetings um and our work sessions and in this meeting tonight um I think the the conversation we had at our last work session around funding was a little bit frustrating for me because um as I've said from the beginning I'm and this may be odd I'm actually somewhat agnostic about the amount of money we spend on this particular project these particular projects it's more much more important to me that we get the process right and that we engage not so much in letting people play with money but engage in allowing people to have some responsibility over how their money is spent um no matter where we get the money from whether it's a tax increase or fund balance or some other way the money belongs to the taxpayers we took it from them um and uh the fundamental tenet of participatory budgeting is that there should be some opportunity in a city's budget to take a tiny sliver of that budget and put it in the hands of ordinary folks um and to build a process around them a deep engagement process around this uh to encourage people um to learn more about how the process works what they see as the needs are in their communities and to work with our staff um in developing project proposals um with uh hard costs associated with them and and real benefits to the community and then allowing residents of the city to vote on how they think uh the funds allocated for each district should be spent vote amongst the various projects that are proposed as part of this the resident engagement process um and so I have been in the uh perhaps an enviable position of of not having a strong preference about the amount of money we spend on this project and so at the last work session that was frustrating to me because I had one colleague who wanted to spend $750,000 and no more I had um another colleague who agreed with that at the time and I'm not sure how Councilmember Freeman would vote on a funding amount the mayor expressed his opinion which he's expressed before and then and since that a million dollars is the right amount for this project spread out over the three districts uh that we've decided to proceed with under the guidelines just approved and then three of my colleagues including the Mayor Pro Tim who support an amount of approximately two and a half million dollars obviously that is a huge gulf um and I have tried to figure out a way to bridge that but ultimately we have to find four votes for some amount Mr. Mayor otherwise we can't go forward with funding the projects and that's the task before us right now um I so my preference would be to try to find some middle ground um I don't believe Councilmember Middleton is fertile ground for me to seek that middle ground given his strongly expressed view and I totally respect that um but uh if there were five votes for uh an amount of around 1.8 million dollars I think that could get us into trying to find some common ground here if we can't get that uh then I intend to support the Mayor Pro Tim's recommendation although I would ask that she tweak it to be 2.4 million dollars so that the amount is more readily divisible amongst the three districts that we've decided uh in the guidelines um and so that's where I sit Mr. Mayor thank you thank you Councilmember Reese I think at this point I'm going to ask for a motion and then we'll continue our discussions can I hear a motion Mr. Mayor I'll move that we allocate 2.4 million dollars for participatory budgeting all right is there a second I'll second all right it's been moved and seconded that we allocate 2.4 million dollars for participatory budgeting not in this coming year but in the following year fiscal budget uh following fiscal year and now I'm going to ask for other comments Councilmember Capiato I just wanted to say that I agree very much with what Councilmember Reese said and I um uh Councilmember Middleton's word of humility I think that my word right here is compromise and I think that was seven of us that word is going to become more and more important I've had individual conversations with each almost every single person um I've spent a lot of time on this I've tried to seek common ground for me uh part of this is allowing people who don't normally get to participate participate in something very very important I remember my parents being very actively politically growing up and not being able to actually vote for very little except their taxpayer money still got spent so there is a huge percentage of our community that doesn't get to vote in our elections and this is an opportunity for them to come to the table and participate in the way that their tax their taxes get collected one way or the other and so that's why I find this project uh to be so compelling because so many in our community are not allowed to vote and that has always been my motivation behind it and I have uh had pretty um blunt uh conversations with everyone here trying to find a number that is a compromise to me um coming up $150,000 is like me coming down $150,000 so that's point that's 2.35 uh that's not a compromise to me so I will uh I want the four votes and so if we can't come to a number that we all agree with I will I will stay at 2.4 Mr. Mayor Councilmember Alston and Councilmember Middleton I'll be relatively brief I also want to thank our staff and the community for working really hard to get us to this point and to my colleagues as well um and I'll just add that you know I too have expressed interest in finding a compromise position at least on this dollar amount um and in anticipation of us not not getting there not getting beyond the four votes votes needed uh to pass the dollar amount I will also I plan to support the 2.4 million dollar amount um and I'll just add just to echo things that have already been said this is a significant amount of money and a significant investment and I think it's an investment in the capacity of of of you all of our residents uh to lead the way and um serving some of the needs of the community um so I think it's an important uh investment to make thank you thank you very much Mr. Mayor I'm sorry Councilmember I know I promised you that's okay that's a it's a long night thank you Mr. Mayor I want to um I want to be very clear no one is questioning the virtue of participatory budgeting and I appreciate the primers and the uh statements about the virtues of it but let me reiterate everybody up here basically supports conceptually participatory budgeting the expansion of democracy more inclusion these are all wonderful celebratory things so let us be clear there's nobody up here that is bashing participatory budgeting this is about the amount of money um I'm not the best math student but I believe from 500,000 to 750 is over 200,000 dollars of movement um check my math um we have a motion for 2.4 as opposed to 2.5 um I don't know if that represents much of a compromise you know but here we are um and my 750,000 is not just to compromise it's what our professional staff has recommended I want to be very clear the people that crunch the numbers and do this work daily the same people that gave us a half billion dollar budget with no tax increase are the people that recommended this amount this is not a Middleton amount our paid professional staff recommended 750,000 dollars um and that's when I'm supporting tonight um if you want to call that a compromise so be it but it's a staff recommendation and it's a recommendation which I intend to support thank you thank you very much council member free and um I I want to also echo council member Middleton and recognizing that the staff did make the recommendation but I I want to I want to also um acknowledge that council that may approach him Johnson's recommendation for the dollar amount it makes sense it's the timing that I have a problem with and the timing being right now while we're in a housing crisis where we're at 90 or what 89.2 what 91.8 occupancy for the county this is not getting any better there's just I mean I just honestly I think that the process is where I where you lost me in the participatory budget and conversation so the dollar amount was not not my issue which is why if either way I mean if we're going to do it we need to do it right and I want to be clear that if this is what five of us or six of us choose to move forward with I'm going to be vigilant in making sure that there are people of color representation on the on the committee and in the voting and all throughout the process I will not be letting this go are we watching like a hawk and to be quite frank it doesn't matter which way it goes I mean I win because there'll be more engagement there'll be more people paying attention to to the way we're we're spending our dollars the way we're I mean this is this is a win-win for me and I want to be be very transparent in saying that the process that you're highlighting and saying like we've we've gone through we recognize that our process has limited engagement based on people's ability to attend based on people's ability to access so to assume that just based on the fact that this has been shared at a work session or shared previously throughout our normal engagement process means we get the same normal engagement and if we do not highlight that that is an issue it will not be corrected and that is all thank you thank you councilmember freeman any other comments I have a few but I'll any other anybody else thank you all very much I just have a few brief comments I have been I've said during well for the last several months that I have am very supportive of participatory budgeting and I'm really appreciative appreciative of mayor pro tem johnson's work to bring this to us and to try to educate us over over a year or two of public discussion and private meetings with us we've had a whole lot of discussion with us at the council and and in other forums over the last couple of years and I want to appreciate that and I believe in it and I believe in it because I do think it can do just the this exact thing that councilmember freeman was referring to which is it can bring a lot more people into the process and we do need to make sure that is that is all the work we do all this work is we do all the work that we should be doing with a racial equity lens and that we are making sure that people of color are participate participating in this process fully and that their voices are heard and if we don't it will be a failure I believe that the process that we've gone through with the council to get here has been a good one and again I want to particularly thank the members of that committee that have been spoken of before the three person committee that got this work done and got it to us in concert with our staff and I want to thank bertha johnson and other members of the budget staff for their work on this as well I think we've had a good process we've gotten into a good place um and I just will say we just disagree we just disagree this is a group that's used to agree on a lot we just disagree and guess what that's okay it really is we have tried hard to come to some sort of uh agreement on the number we've I think we've done a great job of coming together with agreement on the process uh but we we don't agree on the number that's okay I have maintained that I think the staff recommendation of 750,000 is great I have been saying for the past several months that I would go as high as a million dollars participatory budgeting but I think that's enough I think that that's a good number it's a plenty of money to try this out and try it out well to do it for the first time and to really see if with a million dollars we can all the good things that we can do with that and all the people that we can draw into the process that's a lot of money and so that's my figure and it's the reason that I don't think that I want to go higher so but I just want to say again to my colleagues disagreeing in this context is normal yes we have tried to find some common ground on the amount we couldn't find the common on common ground on the amount so what we need to do is however this vote turns out is to all get ourselves behind it 100 and do everything we can to absolutely make it work just as we do with all of the policies that we vote whether or not we were on the winning side so that's my those are my words however this turns out let's do a great job and let's make it work okay we have a motion on the floor that we approve 2.5 million dollars and FY 20 2.4 million yeah I thought I said that I'm sorry 2.4 million dollars my bad 2.4 million dollars on the on the floor for FY 20 for participatory budgeting and if there are no further comments I'm going to ask the clerk to please open the vote close the vote the motion passes 5-2 with council member Middleton and council member Mayor Schull voting no thank you very much all right council members we'll now move on to thank you very much for that and now we'll move on to our next item which is a consolidated item for Fayetteville commercial this is a public hearing item and I'm going to ask now for the staff report good evening I'm Jamie Sunyak with the planning department a request for future land use amendment and zoning map change has been received from Morningstar for one parcel totaling approximately 2.8 acres located at 4510 Fayetteville Road this is at the corner of Fayetteville Road and MLK Boulevard the subject site is presently designated low density residential on the future land use map and zoned residential suburban 20 the applicant proposes to change these designations to commercial and commercial general respectively no development plan was submitted in conjunction with this request if approved the request would permit any uses allowed in the commercial general district attachment 8 in the staff report provides a list of the permitted uses the Durham planning commission at their March 13th 2018 meeting recommended approval of the proposed by of the request by a vote of 9 to 1 staff determines that this request is not consistent with the adopted comprehensive plan however should the plan amendment be approved the request would be consistent with the comp comprehensive plan three motions are required for this application the first is required to adopt a resolution amending the future land use map the second is to adopt a consistency statement and the third is for the zoning ordinance and I failed to also mention that the matter has been properly advertised and the affidavits in accordance with such are on record and in the files in the planning department office thank you Ms Sonja can I ask if those would you also like to make that same statement about notifications for all of the items tonight at this time that's correct thank you very much you all have heard the staff report and now I'm going to declare this public hearing open we have we have nine speakers we have four proponents and we have five opponents I am going to give each side in this public hearing 10 minutes and that would mean that each of the opponents has two minutes to speak the proponents you all have 10 minutes to split between your four speakers I'm a little bit worried that's not quite enough I think I'll change it to 15 I'll make it 15 minutes that would mean everyone all the proponent all the opponents would have an average of three minutes to speak and the proponents you all would have four speakers to split between your 15 minutes and now I'm going to ask the proponents to to speak and the speakers we have are Mr Patrick Biker Michael Palmer Mr Michael Hall and Ms Yolanda Hall Long and they will have 15 minutes Madam Clerk please state your name and address good evening Mayor Schultz Mayor Pro Tem members of the council my name is Michael Hall I was out here in Durham at 1107 Scranton place and I just want to give a brief history of the uh property in question I'm I am here with my family in the parcel before you tonight has been in my family for five generations in 1941 my grandparents to Lake William and Cali Jeffery's purchased 10 acres which included this site over the years the land was passed to different family members the two parcels now owned by Morningstar Baptist Church were part of the land my mother was instrumental in bringing that church to the community following the footsteps of our grandparents who donated the land for Jeffery's Grove Elementary School in Port and were part of founding of community Baptist on Barbie Road our family has always been interested in community building and this rezoning is no different our land was hung with many memories like my father and I walking through the woods to Stafford Lake to go fishing it was our life with the generations before later great foundation but that all changed when Martin Luther King Parkway became our backyard ever since the city cut the road in our property has been separated no longer an integrated piece within the fabric of the community which our family had a hand in building it's been a 20 year journey for my family to figure out what to do with this property since MLK Parkway was constructed and the subsequent improvements that serve to further diminish the property including another city road project in the works my mother the late Brenda Jeffries Hall pleaded with the city to get assistance considering the condition in which the road projects left our property she passed in March of 2001 and their family has continued the difficult journey which has brought us before you tonight thank you thank you Mr. Hall and now we are you next Ms. Long great we'll hear hear from Ms. Yolanda Hall-Long welcome please state your name and address good evening Mayor Shull Mayor Pro Tem member of the council my name is Yolanda Hall-Long of 4510 Fedville Road giving out of the god for allowing my family this opportunity to be here again in 2004 continuing where my mother left off I attended a JCC PC meeting for the revision of the 2020 comprehensive plan I was advised the plan was at its final stages and that my family would have to use our own resources for our matter to be heard in 2006 using our resources we hired Kimley Horn engineering firm and applied for a CG rezoning to date members of the council the family has spent close to $50,000 trying to rezone the property that has been left in a non- conducive zoning from effects that are no fault of our own and it would be an undue hardship to spend thousands more on another development plan also to note in 2006 the opponents to the commercial general zoning request wanted the application at that time to be changed to office I hired mediators to facilitate the meetings and in the end every use under office and commercial neighborhood presented were rejected by the opponents because in the 12 years since while our property continued to languish land surrounding us has been rezoned to commercial general with absolutely no opposition moving forward I asked myself what could my family do better next time recalling my grandparents community building efforts and knowing that my neighbors had concerns in 2006 some of whom you have received letters from were not amenable to a development plan learning from that experience I came back with the community in mind our community at large supported the Lowes development as it brought jobs to our community and much needed road improvements on Fedville and Hanson roads our community continues to support and benefit from this project and thus I sought out the team responsible for the work although our land the site of the community has been support and benefit from this project and thus I sought out the team responsible for the work although our land the site has lost its usefulness our family from my siblings to cousins all live in and love this neighborhood presently the community agrees that the site is not conducive for residential and that we all want the right type of development my family asks you to please consider these things along with the strong merits of our case the strong recommendations from staff and the planning commissions as justification for our application and we ask for your favorable vote tonight thank you thank you very much miss law mr biker meeting mayor shul mayor pro tem johnson members of the city council just want to make sure our power point is up since that'll be the main point of my conversation with you this evening my name is patrick biker i live at two six one four stewart drive sorry just making sure we don't have technical difficulties thank you thank you very much yes i'm with morning star law group here in durham and i'm here tonight representing yolanda and michael hall i'd like to give you all a brief history of this site starting in 1993 at that time martin luther king jr parkway had not yet been built the vertical line next to the site was a two-lane feyville road fast forward 11 years to 2004 and the city had built martin luther king jr parkway thanks to a voter approved bond referendum jumping ahead to 2010 the lo's home improvement was built and that project spent three million dollars on improvements to feyville road looking at the site in 2017 you can see yolanda and michael's property is right next to a very large intersection of two major thoroughfares each of which carries 19 000 cars per day based in part on these traffic volumes you can see our future land use map has the two corners on the north side of this intersection designated for commercial while across feyville road is designated for industrial given that almost 40 000 cars per day go next to michael and yolanda's property we respectfully ask for the fourth corner to be designated as commercial next in regard to site constraints today the site can only be accessed as right in right out as stated in the staff report the city has funded major road improvements to feyville road so that the streets to the south all will become right in right out as well we think this impending right in right out access limitation is a much greater change for the residents of hanson road and retail development on the whole property keep in mind most of the homes on hanson road are much closer to the lo's home improvement than they are to michael and yolanda's property even with those distances you see on this slide it is vital to note that there is a significant valley with a stream that contributes to a permanently preserved approximately 300 foot forested buffer between this site and any existing residents in addition to this large buffer the udo mandates a perimeter buffer within the hall property that consumes three quarters of an acre as i mentioned earlier the city has funded road improvements for martin luther king jr parkway and feyville road and those improvements will receive reason i'm sorry we'll remove another quarter acre leaving less than two acres that can actually be developed in conclusion i think these long time property owners have sacrificed enough their longtime stewardship while all these changes have gone on around them warrants approval of this rezoning so this family can receive fair market value for their property as residentially zoned property the site is basically worthless because just the reading cost is run between 400 and 500 thousand dollars and that would make new homes completely unaffordable for all these reasons we respectfully ask for your approval and now to close out our team's presentation i'll turn it over to mr michael palmer representing udi thank you thank you mr biker mr palmer please uh tell us your name and address i'm michael palmer 2804 tavasock drive i come here as representing udi as the vice chair of the board so mayor sure will uh mayor pro tem johnson council members and uh manager bonfield uh again we unanimously our staff and board unanimously support this project we're neighbors to this area as well as it fits perfectly in the mission of what udi is all about about bringing um development economic prosperity if you will to particularly uh the african-american business community so that said i think this support for this project i asked for your support but i think it's aimed perfectly at your objective of sharing prosperity in this growing community thank you very much thank you mayor shul that concludes our presentation we'd like to reserve the last six minutes for rebuttal and the clerk is sharing the letters of support from udi and from another neighbor dr charles sanders thank you thank you very much mr biker and you all do have six more minutes remaining all right now we will hear from the opponents and um i have here the names of five opponents i'm going to read your names and if you all could gather over here by the podium that would be great um barry evrit tenuta filial rogers david w lister jesse burwell and terrell warwick if you all could please thank you and uh you're able to go in any order you would like to go in so pardon me you can start in any order you would like would you like to begin and not really but i will thank you i'm shy please state your name and address okay i'm mr mayor shul members of the city council um my name is barry evrit and i live at 812 turmeric lane in the community of green gardens just two short blocks away from the southwest corner of mlk parkway in fadeville road i'd like to express my concerns which my neighbors share about the proposed rezoning of this corner from residential to general commercial my husband and i spent our retirement savings in 2003 to buy our home here because it was away from the concrete landscape of commercial development now we see commercial development chasing us on the northwest corner of mlk in fadeville where there was once nothing but a beautiful tree line we now have a lowest home improvement and an auto zone this commercial development has increased traffic on fadeville road to the point where at certain times of day my neighbors and i can no longer make a left turn out of green gardens to get to mlk parkway instead we must go back to the end of green gardens to get to the bay point communities exit onto mlk with the southwest corner property in question only permitting a right turn exit onto fadeville we fear that motorist leaving a business that would be here would also use our street as a cut through to mlk and with so many young children in our neighborhood this is a concern since miss long the property owner has not included a development plan with her rezoning request any business is possible we would not want to see it used for a sheets gas station 711 or other business open late into the night it would bring bright lights noise pollution which we already get from lows and as previously mentioned much heavier traffic on already overburdened fadeville road we realize miss long has had difficulty selling her property and is desirous of rezoning and we're not unsympathetic after discussion my neighbors and i agree there are commercial businesses we would be amenable to these would include things like a dry cleaner professional or medical office bank daycare center bakery bookstore and many others what they have in common is that they are neighborhood friendly businesses and are not open late into the night we would agree to the compromise suggested by planning commissioner tom miller at the commission's meeting on march 13th that is that the property owner change her rezoning request from general commercial to the category of commercial neighborhood commercial neighborhood would list you a list has a list of uses that is reduced to those most likely to provide welcome community services and the size of buildings are limited to a smaller scale in conclusion i ask that the city council consider the impact that commercial general commercial rezoning would have on the surrounding neighborhoods and i ask that you vote no to the proposal as it now stands thank you thank you miss everett there was no reason to be shy you spoke very well miss filial rogers yes mayor sheltz mayor pro tem johnson and members of the city council good evening evening my name is tenita filial rogers and i live at 726 hanson road i'm a native of durham and i grew up on hanson road when my father moved to durham in 1940s he eventually purchased roughly 20 acres of land on hanson road to allow his children to build homes around him and that's just what my sister and i did we have more than an interest it we have more than a vested interest in hanson road and the surrounding community our property resides my property i'm sorry our property represents blood sweat and tears and sacrifice our father endured for our family legacy my family and the hanson road community understands the need for durham's growth and development but not at the expense of our quality of life my neighbors and i understand is whole wanting to rezone the property but a commercial general zoning is unfair to me and the rest of our neighbors why as you are aware there's no development plan attached to this request nor is there no way of us to ensure the future commercial development there would be attractive compatible and disruptive disruptive to our community and in my opinion without a development plan attached to this rezone request the only viable solution to this dilemma is to rezone the property in question to commercial neighborhood instead of commercial general please keep in mind that in 2006 both miss hall and morning star baptist church asked city council to rezone their properties which would take up the entire corner corner of the stoplight where martin luther king is at hanson road from resident to general commercial and the city council denied the request so more than likely if you approve miss hall's request for general commercial morning star baptist church will be next when will it end i want to propose a compromise and recommend that the city council approve a commercial neighborhood zoning for this particular partial of land and ask you to vote no in the applicant's requested plan and commercial general zone change cn is designed to be less in intense commercial zoning the size of the building allows cn to limit to the neighborhoods the size of the buildings allowed in cn is limited to a neighborhood friendly scale the list of use is reduced to those most likely to provide welcome neighborhood services although small the property zone cn could be subdivided into two cn scaled businesses and just on a personal note yolanda and i have grown up together since we were in kenna garden we went to elementary school piercentown githans and and jordan together and so we are on the this is killing us because we grew up together but we're on the opposite sides of the scale and so the difference is my family has three generations that's on hanson road and we're still there and we continue to be there we're going to continue to be there so a compromise for us is a commercial neighborhood and i think that would be the best compromise for both of us thank you thank you very much miss filial rogers uh mr david lister good evening mayor schul mayor pro tem johnson honored council members um thank you for your service i hope you are enjoying your cider i could use one right about now um i represent the hope valley farms north um hoa i'm their vice president i represent over 900 homes now this position isn't like what you saw in over the hedge where we we measure grass and we look at this sort of thing that's that's ridiculous it's it's about neighbors and family it's about me borrowing an allen wrench from my neighbor to put my wife's bike together it's about me dressing up in i'm in my pajamas borrowing eggs from my neighbors it's a community we have an officer that patrols our community and he takes care of copper heads in garages he fixes flat tires he watches over homes that are on vacation and under construction and he said the problem with mlk is that it divides district three and district four and it's kind of considered no man's land when it comes to police we've seen an increase in crime in our community and unfortunately the man that was mentioned today hong zing was one of our residents we want to continue to be safe also our roads juliet in south roxboro get incredible amounts of traffic there's tailgating there's speeding and unfortunately there is this this problem we all have we we're ruled by these things we we no longer talk to each other and it makes problems especially on the roadway currently i was passed at a red flashing light with my kids going to school because i didn't want to get t-boned that road is going to get worse for the construction on it it's going to be bike lanes so i propose a commercial neighborhood we want pedestrian safe areas so we can continue to be neighbors friends family and i really appreciate the hard work you do the hard work we do if you see the residents here we're diverse and i'm grateful for this opportunity because i've made friends in green gardens on hanson road bay point and for my community and just a very happy birthday to barry who came here on her birthday night to talk to you to be involved in this process so i think she you know she deserves a cider too so thank you for your service thank you mr lister uh and now we will hear from jesse burwell mr burwell welcome back to the to the derm city council chambers we thank you sir thank you very much thank you for all that all those many many wonderful years of service that you gave here thank you sir well mayor shul uh madam mayor pro tem johnson members of the city council mr attorney and mr city manager good evening uh my name is jesse burwell and i reside at 718 hanson road i've lived on hanson road for the past 26 years and i've been a resident of derm for 45 years i moved to derm when i got married back in 1973 and i want to take a few moments to express my concerns about this rezoning request my concern is this a commercial general zoning is intended for commercial general uses so there would be no guarantee what type of business would end up being on the property in question if you approve this rezoning request it will more than likely pave the way for future commercial development that may not be compatible with our neighborhood and could adversely impact property values in our current quality of life a commercial general zone a commercial general zoning of miss hall longs property i feel is unfair to the surrounding uh neighborhoods like the old hanson road community which i represent bay point green garden and others why because the development intensity allowed in commercial general is inappropriate i feel for land located next to a low density suburban residential neighborhood like ours we feel the applicant should really include commitments and a development plan to make sure the property when developed for commercial uses will be a good neighbor to our surrounding homes without this there is no way for us to ensure have any control of future commercial development there uh that it would be a good fit for our surrounding neighborhoods also in my opinion the applicant's request is not consistent with the comprehensive plans policy for protecting neighborhood character and making sure non-residential infield development in the suburban tier respects existing development patterns and community above our community character in 2006 as tenita said uh both yolanda hall long and the morning star baptist church as city council to resume both their properties from residential to general commercial and the city council at that time denied the request so more than likely if you approve this request uh morning star baptist church will be next and others so please keep in mind that those who support this request don't live in the old hanson road community or any of the surrounding communities like bay point or green gardens i what i want to do is just like a couple of the other speakers did and that is propose a compromise and recommend that city council approve a commercial neighborhood zoning for this particular parcel of land i feel the commercial neighborhood zoning would provide for small scale retail and service developments which would be more compatible with and serve the convenience needs of small neighborhoods like ours i feel if you approve a commercial neighborhood zoning it would be a fair compromise to all involved uh and i want to thank you for your time and consideration of my recommendation and we did have a few members of the community uh that support this recommendation to come out and i would ask that they stand at this time thank you thank you mr burwell thank you very much uh and we will now hear from tarot warwick good evening this warwick you see that you have a little over two minutes great thank you thank you very much thank you also for the opportunity to speak my name is tarot warwick i live at 4605 coral drive in the bay point community and i am a homeowner in the bay point community which is located next to the property in question those of us who own houses in the neighborhood purchased our homes while the property in question has been zoned as residential suburban when making the decision to purchase our homes we did not have the opportunity to evaluate the area while zoned as commercial or the impact that would come from that such as increased noise traffic light pollution etc commercial neighborhood would be a reasonable alternative that was created specifically for circumstances such as these if it's not considered here the option of commercial neighborhood will be rendered a dust collector on the books ask that you vote no for the current proposal thank you thank you miss warwick all right um i'm now going to ask if the proponents would like to offer any more good evening again mayor shul airport hem johnson members of the city council would like to briefly address some of the points that were made by uh the folks who just heard from first of all in regards to commercial neighborhood it's very important to look at what that zoning district requires under the udo it limits the building size to 5000 square feet however in terms of uses is generally the same as commercial general so for example fast food with a drive-through is permitted in both zones i bring that up to say if we were to proceed with commercial neighborhood you would be limiting the building footprint to 5000 square feet and that would be driving the end users to be the the fast food type restaurants i bring that up as a contrast because commercial general would allow for a multi-tenant building greater than 10 greater than 5000 square feet say it'd be 10 000 square feet we could then put neighborhood businesses in there at a much more affordable price than what commercial neighborhood would allow so in terms of attracting local businesses commercial general would be a better fit for that in regards to lighting and noise the ordinance standards are the same i also want to bring up the references to morning star baptist church we have not been approached at all by morning star baptist church ever since we started this process they have not called me they've not called the halls they've not content contacted us in any way shape or form to ask how the case is going or if they could join up with this with their property so we're not aware of any intention on their part to resume resume i'm sorry to resume their property want to keep in mind that all these objections were heard by the planning commission and they voted nine to one to recommend approval to the city council and i also want to bring up the neighborhood character issues that have been brought up if there were significant neighborhood character issues they would been pointed out in your staff report i've been doing this type of work for 20 years in Durham and i thought the staff report that was presented before eight tonight was one of the cleanest ones that i've ever seen in regards to a development proposal and so i want to bear in mind why we showed you the history of this site over time it was turned down in 2006 because Fayetteville road was a two-lane road there simply was no traffic capacity at that time now fast forward to today we have the city moving forward with significant improvements to Fayetteville road above and beyond what's already there to four lane it from Cornwallis all the way down to uh spate's uh auto repair shop down at a barbie road so those road improvements are going on today that will provide additional capacity and again that will make the entire area a right in right out access for all points south of marlitha king parkway so i do want the council to be assured we evaluated commercial neighborhood very carefully before we turned in this application we thought it would militant against having affordable rents for local businesses if you think about dillards was a fine local restaurant that we had in this area for many years and then the folks aged out and they've never been able companies like that can't find affordable rents in the area so in terms of the uses i think in terms of cn and cg they're very similar but the 5000 square foot cap on a building we felt was inappropriate for this given that there's almost two two acres of land that can be developed a 5000 square foot footprint who would leave 85 90 000 square feet of just vacant space around that building and so we think commercial general makes more sense the standards are essentially the same and we believe this is the right way for this property to be developed and it is again uh consistent with the other development that's happened at this intersection which has almost 40 000 cars per day at this location anything else good evening again members of the council good evening as i said earlier i know we've talked a lot about 2006 in 2006 again i worked very very hard in good faith to work with my neighbors 12 years i've heard nothing from my neighbors we have continued to be crowded out we've had commercial residential infrastructural changes nothing my neighbors have been talking about traffic i didn't even see my neighbors at hillside high school in 2016 when they talked about st 264 the road widening in fedville where have my neighbors been in the last 12 years commercial neighborhood i asked them to consider commercial neighborhood in 2006 when my next store neighbor was zoned commercial neighborhood massies bait and tackle general store i don't know what more i could have done i understand the new developments of bay point and green gardens they come to speak we were there years before that and unfortunately we can't be a part of that the way we are on this commune on the intersection so i don't know what more my family could possibly do than than we have um so that's all i can really say we have done it we've tried it and this is how we've been left after 78 years thank you thank you very much miss long we'll be happy to answer any questions and thank you very much council members you've heard from the speakers on this item let me ask now is there anyone else who has not been heard that would like to be heard on this item is there anyone else who has not been heard who would like to be heard on this item all righty now i'm going to uh ask that the if there are any questions by council members uh or members of the staff cluster young did you want to add something i did thank you mr mayor and members of council pat young with the planning department just a point of information um the uh applicant was is correct that by right meaning without any additional action uh 5 000 square feet is the maximum size in the compact neighborhood or cn district but i want to make it clear that you can go up to 20 000 square feet uh with a minor special use minor special use permit from the board of adjustment so just for that that's just an point of information thank you council member allston uh thank you a couple questions for staff staff very quickly just to clarify um commercial general cg is the broadest commercial zoning category it is and there are no hardship exceptions to the development plan requirement for approval of rezoning well there's no no requirement for a development plan development plan is a voluntary option that a developer has to bring before you all to provide a proper above and beyond the ordinance minimums thank you um and a couple questions yes well actually for the for the property owner but you're speaking on a happy to answer um for the property owner i think oh i'm sorry yes um i just i'm just curious um is it your intention is particularly with the to rezone to this uh broad of the zoning category is it your intention to sell the property at some later date for the commercial development we would like to be able to market the property we've had no opportunity to market this property it's literally been put in a position where there's no no market under a residential right so and maybe this may be for you mr biker hypothetically if you found a buyer a developer who's interested in the property you could condition the sale of the property on the successful rezoning to cg just i'm sorry run that button you could contract you could this the property owner could condition the sale of the property on the rezoning we could do that but the problem is and i've seen this happen many times over 20 years the people who lose out in that are the property owners and this is an african-american family that's owned this property for over 75 years the i have to tell you the the last slide that we showed you that that shows how a development plan for this project would have cost about 46 000 until yolanda and michael approached me to represent them i had no idea that the fees were that high i had no idea that she did which she's a lot smarter than i am um and so we talk a lot about shared prosperity but if you can't even afford the fees to get your application in how can you ever have shared prosperity for a family that's been that's owned property for for this many decades and so what would happen a developer would take all the soft costs out of the out of the purchase price and that would be i mentioned the grading cost 600 i'm sorry 400 to 500 thousand dollars well that'll be taken out of the purchase price all the soft costs be taken out of the purchase price before you know it yolanda and michael get half of the fair market value for their property and so that's why asking for this zoning designation today puts this african-american family in a position to receive fair market value for property that they've owned when roads have been dramatically road infrastructure has been dramatically increased in this area commercial development has dramatically increased in this area and the industrial development that udi represents has been across the street for a long time and um if they can't afford to even submit an application and they have to have a developer do it then they will lose the profitability that they should justly enjoy after owning a piece of property for that long a time it's a great question though thank you other questions councilmember councilmember caballero and councilmember middleton question for staff question for staff and this may be putting you all on the spot so i know that we are talking about changes to how we do um plan reviews and whatnot in the future partly to make it easier for individuals where it's not so cost prohibitive is this an example of something that we would potentially be moving away from in the future pat young again with the planning department i do think this is a good example of the item that the mayor and several members of council have brought to our attention over the last several months which is an alternative for applicants above and beyond the current development plan which has very rigorous and extensive standards which resulted in a fairly high cost that you've heard from mr biker characterized um that would allow applicants to provide assurances to the community and to council binding assurances at a much lower cost and we intend to deliver that to you all during the coming fiscal year in f y 19 since we last talked i've talked to my staff at detail and we feel like we can do that but it would probably be at least six months with our other work plan items but yes this is an example where that could be used thank you thank you customer millton thank you mr mayor for the staff do do is anybody know what the planning commission vote was in 2006 i'm sorry off the top of my head i do not okay um for the applicants over the good to see you by the way over the decades have you ever received an offer to have your property purchased yes actually we did probably in 2012 in 2012 we had a developer look at the property they like the corner site yes anytime that was 2012 the last time 2012 and then the contract ended in 2014 2014 anytime before that uh that you can we've had a lot of people look but nothing we've had several people look over the years the matter of fact like in 2006 when they talk about the pharmacy that was a big time for pharmacies coming around and pharmacies looked but no we've but now nothing is materialized but you did have a hard offer in 2012 yes and you didn't take it no no no it just it did not materialize we certainly went under contract with them but the due diligence that they did um they found out there wasn't going to be any right in right out so our property lost full access so on top of everything that's happened over and over and over again through the city of Durham we lost full access to the site so losing full access then stripped a lot of you know who might be interested in the site because they can't they won't have full access so once that happened that fell apart my understanding is from what Patrick says and I think Mr. Bill Judge somebody would have to at least be able to get access onto MLK because we don't have full access on the site like we used to so that's a that's a huge thing that changed in in years how would you how would you respond to to residents and citizens that that would say that your family just waited too long to to make a move on the property and development and for lack of a better term progress just went on and now the government's basically being asked to put you in a position to maximize profitability how would you respond to that could you repeat that question for residents and citizens that might say that your family waited too long to to sell the property or make a move on it and as development went on now the government is essential is essentially being asked to put you in a position to be more profitable because you didn't jump on an opportunity whether and I that's why I asked had you had any prior to now how would you because when you know folk come at us from all angles how how would you respond to that well I didn't wait too long we went through the process now it takes a long time to come up with additional money each time you have to come back but we've been doing this for years I've come we've come 2004 2006 you know it takes money to be able to keep coming back so no I don't think is we waited too long and it's never too late and you just move forward and that's what we've done we keep moving forward you know I just want to I'd like to piggyback on that account the commissioner commissioner will do said something and I'm going to echo what she said she said I've been in that area for 40 years and that house has been a staple I'm surprised it has survived this long it has survived sort of echoing what my friend Tanita says it survived because I know the sacrifices it took for my grandfather to be able to in World War two times be able to get that land and pass it down to his family she's been blessed her sister has a home on their family land she has it her mother and father had it we didn't get that same thing because by the time all the changes happened we don't have that opportunity the only option we have is to try to at least rezone it and that's what we'r