Developments approved by the Council

I was at the quite long City Council meeting earlier tonight.  If this was a typical meeting, I'm surprised how long things seem to take, though it is a larger body than the Board of County Commissioners.  It could be a necessary evil, since, for example, the County Commissioners apparently approved the 1300 lot development on Page Rd. without considering the water situation, while the Council spent a lot of time discussing how the developments they approved will effect the water supply.  The meeting was also sharp at points, such as when a citizen felt he and his wife had been insulted by Eugene Brown in an article in the Herald-Sun, related to the Rolling Hills redevelopment issue, and Brown condemned the person.  I don't know what this was all about.

 

The Rolling Hills discussion was eye-opening, but it took a long time.  At least one Council member thought this should have been done at a work session, but Bell wanted discussion at a regular meeting, I think for community involvement.  Victoria Peterson again talked about the need to hire black men and local contractors, and obviously was speaking about Latinos and undocumented immigrants getting construction jobs, but did not spell it out.  I assume she means well, and I think public work should go to locals preferably, but splitting the working class like she seems to aids the capitalists, and a capitalist of your own ethnicity or nationality will still sell you out and exploit you.  

 

I arrived after the Bill of Rights proclamation renewal.  At that point it seemed like the Council was discussing the apparently dire water situation.  I find it hard to believe that we won't get some temporary relief over the winter, but our current supply would last until April without significant rain.  I think it was Diane Catotti who said unless we get some tropical storms next summer, water levels will be low for a long period.  Maybe it is time to use compostable paper plates, since I already do some of what she suggests to save water.       

 

Connecting Jordan at Southpointe to City water was approved, after a long discussion of how to put this off if we still have a drought in January 2009, when the developer plans to need the connection.  It seems that if the Council declares a water and sewer shortage, the connection will be put off, but otherwise that connection, and all others, happen automatically.  I think it is still a "conservation subdivision," which allows higher density development, but the Planning staff has done a lot of work to improve the plan and verify things like large specimen trees that will be preserved.  They said a primary area will be preserved and most of a secondary area, the high-tension powerline across the site will be preserved as open space, but will not count for the needed 40% open space, and that the nearby inventory sites will be protected.  There are actually 219 houses planned on the site.  A new plan was submitted Monday morning, so I doubt there was much citizen review, and I think that tactic was followed by Scott Mill this year too.  The Planning staff recommended approving the project if a certain amendment was approved.  It seemed like they were helping to push for it, but that was more apparent when it came up a second time in the agenda.  The water connection was approved, 7-0, if I remember correctly.  I didn't realise that Dr. Lavonia Allison, of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, speaks on this kind of issue, and I was glad that she did (as a private citizen), mainly over water supply I think.      

 

The Treyburn project was approved, I think 7-0.  It sounds good, since the developer says floodplains, the old Catawba trading path across the site, and other historical and natural features will be preserved.  One or two people spoke against it, I think mainly over water supply and whether the plan will be followed. 

 

The Ellis Rd. project rezoning, which I think was administrative rather than involving a change in zoning, was also easily approved, 7-0.  Obviously the arguments against the project on 751 applied to Ellis Rd.  I feel like I should have spoken, but the Council did receive my comments in writing (as well as on Jordan at Southpointe).    

 

Jordan at Southpointe came up again at the meeting, after an item about changing the UDO regarding open space.  This is where the most details came up, and it was again approved.  Climate change came up, possibly even from a person associated with developers, as did the contradiction between Mayor Bell's talk of preserving rural Durham, and approval of this project.  The developer was there but did not speak.  I was surprised how the people involved in building all of these projects back each other up, and how some seemed to support the opposition to other developments.  I think it would be interesting to look at class and the dynamics of development in Durham, and the common idea seems to be that developers are to Triangle government as oil companies are to the national government. Land use is something communists don't typically speak on, in my experience, but it is a vital problem at the local level and a Marxist analysis could be very useful, but more on that later.  

 

I got out of the meeting before 11:20, but it still went on a little longer.  Earlier Howard Clement talked about meetings that went on until 3am, and that is one way to decrease the involvement of working citizens.     

 

Over the weekend I forgot that Bill Clinton's visit to the area for his wife was rescheduled to 7:30 Monday.