City Council: Residents line up to discuss East Durham development

The brevity of Monday night's Council meeting was broken by the debate of

Tina Motley-Pearson took the lead in the group talking about the Doc Nichols property, raising the spectre of a $300 million-plus Jordan Lake impairment and North Durham County's watershed status as a driver for more development in the eastern section of our small county.

Motley-Pearson raised concerns about the Triassic basin soil contact of the lands underlying the Doc Nichols property -- as well as the Ravenstone and Brightleaf projects -- as being unable to handle development without impairing Lick Creek and other waters flowing into local watersheds.

"The Sierra property is essentially using the same stormwater management practices, and we have good reason, backed by scientific data, that this will lead to further impairment of [the Lick Creek watershed.]"

"The taxpayers will have to pay millions to fix the problems of these subdivisions... just like the Jordan Lake watershed," Motley-Pearson argued. "Durham doesn't give the same respect to Falls and Jordan Lakes. Is $334 million in retrofits to Jordan Lake still not enough to convince you the developers need to do it right the first time?"

Dean Naujoks, the Upper Neuse riverkeeper for the Neuse River Foundation, noted that Durham had moved its growth boundary on the southern end of the County to avoid impacting Jordan Lake, but that developers and governments were moving development eastward instead.

"Durham would never allow this rezoning in its own water supply," Naujoks said, mentioning "there's going to be people who aren't happy" about Durham's rezoning decision impacting Raleigh's water supply.

MacGregor, the project developer, had made a move to buy-down their nitrogen pollution via credits, Naujoks noted. He called for wider buffers and other site plan changes to allow the project to have a more minimal impact on local waterways.

A chain of a half-dozen citizens followed Naujoks and Motley-Pearson, with a common refrain of soil concerns and the loss of rural character in eastern Durham.

During Council's comments on the matter, Diane Catotti pointed out (in a Socratic line of questioning to Steve Medlin) that the current zoning was passed by the County, and noted that she was skeptical the County would "rescind or review" their two-year-old zoning petition. She asked in turn whether City Council could annex and then downzone the property.

Medlin pointed out that Council "[is] not bound to do a direct translation of zoning" during an annexation, though typically the existing zoning was maintained. Asked by Catotti whether downzoning would help address the stormwater issues that residents were raising, Medlin noted that City/County Planning staff would need time to consider and think through the issue.

City Attorney Karen Sindelar reinforced Medlin's assertion, noting that both downzoning and upzoning were both possible to increase or reduce density at the initial zoning stage. She noted that initial zoning stages do not allow protest petitions, not requiring the supermajority vote that carries under the protest mechanism.

Sindelar added that moratoria or revisiting issues like cisterns, buffers, and pollution buydowns could all be done as activities beyond downzoning or blocking annexation as remedies.

"I'm sure the vast majority of you came here tonight to hear about stormwater runoff and annexation," Brown drolled, to the amusement of Council. (Yep, the talkative Brown is back.) "Be sure you're right, then go ahead," said Brown, quoting the so-well-known philosopher Davy Crockett "Folks, I'm not sure we're right on this, and I'm not comfortable going ahead," Brown said, calling for a deferral until August and until Council gets time to get more details on the project.

Mike Woodard noted, in his own interrogation of Medlin, noted that the Planning Commission wouldn't consider the project until August anyway, meaning that a deferral of the Doc Nichols tract annexation wouldn't impact the timeline for any development there.

Howard Clement ended the discussion on a pointed note, stating that he wasn't satisfied with Public Works director Katie Kalb's response, or lack thereof, on the city-county interaction to the annexation and this process. Dean Naujoks of the Neuse River Foundation played straight-man, suggesting without a hint of irony that Clement and the Councilfolk reach out to the City's stormwater staff for details about the impact of the project.

(Ironic, because Kalb herself oversees Public Works, the department that includes Stormwater Management. One would think she could speak perfectly well to the question, right? Right?)