Planning process for Fayetteville St meets mistrust from residents

There's no shortage of plans floating around the Fayetteville St. and NCCU area these days -- from the streetscape plans for the historical corridor, to NCCU's controversial master plan calling for campus expansion in a prized history-tinged area adjacent to the HBCU, to someday-plans for transit and density in the area.

The City/County Planning Department has one more study it's bringing in to the mix: a detailed land-use plan for the corridor, called for in Durham's Comprehensive Plan.

If you think residents might feel a little over-planned, you'd be right. And the resulting tensions were evident at Saturday's Fayetteville-University land use update meeting, held at the Hayti Heritage Center.

They came in the face of not only competing plans, but the revelation by a County senior planner of a 1964-vintage redevelopment plan for the area south of NCCU, and giving the City eminent domain powers over that whole area -- something Planning was quick to say it has no interest in using, though the process of unraveling that plan will take hundreds of signatures and more than a year to complete.

Back to the Comp Plan, er, plan. City/County Planning has decided to tackle the area in three parts: the Fayetteville St. Historic District, the zoning for NCCU, and the North Carolina College Redevelopment Plan (more on this later).

Planners kicked off the meeting by orienting the audience to three key definitions and issues:

• Land use plan: a non-binding set of recommendations for the zoning and future land use of the area;
• Zoning: regulations placing restrictions on use, density, intensity, etc. -- essentially, what can be done by right on a piece of property;
• And, a discussion of what types of zoning exist in the Historic District today -- mostly single and multi-family residential with some neighborhood commerical and office/institutional mixed in

With that, the doors opened to questions.

Or make that the floodgates.

Lavonia Allison, chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People got things started by asking what the connection was between land use, zoning, and tax rates, a question staff could not answer. 

Next up: Denise Hester, the co-owner of the Phoenix Square and Phoenix Crossings shopping centers near the Hayti Heritage Center and the onetime developer behind one of the failed Rolling Hills efforts, questioned why the entire corridor wasn't being discussed at the workshop, including the redevelopment areas north of the Historic District and the future plans for NCCU.  This sparked several comments about the way the current planning process was being handled, with husband Larry Hester comparing the proceedings to trying to bake a cake without having all of the ingredients.

The meeting seemed close to being derailed, but the Planning staff ushered everyone into the lobby to begin a visioning exercise which consisted of breaking up into groups and drawing on top of the current land use maps with recommendations for how the future zoning should look.

There was a fair amount of consensus from the groups about what the priorities are in terms of future land use in the Historic District.  Common themes included:

• Fitting the zoning to current land uses (mostly residential)
• Maintaining the historic character of the area
• Discouraging major outside development and encroachment by NCCU
• Preventing current houses from being demolished or redeveloped 

One group brought up the possibility of creating a Transitional Office overlay zoning area which could help preserve the current homes in the the area while still allowing for a variety of uses.

Staying on track was the biggest challenge the Planning staff faced.  The conversation devolved several times into complaints about NCCU student parking that is overflowing into the community. 

The earlier complaints about a lack of information about the full process continued to rumble in the room even after the visioning exercise, too.

Aaron Cain, the senior planner who is leading the process (and who earlier spearheaded the Ninth Street Area Plan), wrapped up the meeting by talking about the "other two ingredients" in this process. 

The first: the future zoning directions for NCCU. 

Most of North Carolina Central is currently zoned residential, requiring the university to apply for special use permits for nearly every new or updated building on campus.  Deciding whether the campus will be zoned as University/College or some other configuration promises to be an interesting process, to say the least -- especially given the latitude UC zoning gives institutions in the Bull City.

The second ingredient: the North Carolina College Redevelopment Plan, adopted by City Council way back in 1964, which somehow did not include a sunset clause. (Remember what we said about having lots of plans?)

The plan covers the area just to the south of NCCU between Fayetteville St. and Alston Ave., and gives the City power of eminent domain over the area.  Cain was quick to emphasize that the City would like to get the plan off the books as soon as possible and has no interest in using eminent domain in the area. 

According to Cain, all of the nearly five hundred property owners in the area will need to sign off on the elimination of the plan, an enormous undertaking that Cain estimates will take over a year to complete.

While the planning staff appeared to gather the input they were looking for, it was clearly a challenge to keep the focus as narrow as they had hoped. 

The mistrust about the city's planning process was evident throughout the workshop, a point emphasized on the Fayetteville Street Planning Group's latest post on their website: http://fayettevillestreetgroup.com/whats_up_on_fayetteville_street_2009.

Another meeting will take place after the holidays.

Comments

[Todd P]

Getting almost 500 people to agree on anything is a seemingly impossible task, especially given the apparent level of mistrust by some residents. It seems like there would be a more efficient way to go about killing the 1964 plan.

It is odd that most of NCCU remains under the more restrictive residential zoning while Duke's campus does not. You would think they would have the same zoning classification.

[Toby]

@Kevin - regarding the 1964 plan, you wrote (and were possibly quoting someone at the meeting): "The plan covers the area just to the south of NCCU between Fayetteville St. and Alston Ave., and gives the City power of eminent domain over the area." Am I correct in thinking this should have been stated as "between Fayetteville St. and NC-55"? S. Alston Ave separates from NC-55 just north of Cecil St, heading in a more easterly direction. Or does the 1964 plan only affect the area north of Cecil?

[Erik Landfried]

@Toby - I actually wrote this post. That's just what I remember the planner saying...it's possible it's only over to NC-55. I don't think I've seen the exact boundaries yet. Sounds like a total nightmare for the planners. Hopefully they can find another way of getting it off the books.

[Toby]

This map from the city planning department's website appears to answer both of my questions above:

http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/pdf/neighborhood_context_map.pdf

According to the map, the 1964 plan covers a large area south and WEST of NCCU between NC-55 on the east, the creek that runs through Elmira Park on the south, and extends as far west at the ATT. It appears to cover several streets that lie to the WEST of Fayetteville, including Columbia Ave, Atlantic St, Red Oak Ave, and Utah Ave. It also seems to encompass properties on the WEST side of Fayetteville as far north as George St.

Little wonder that planner Aaron Cain handled it like a hot potato...

[GreenLantern]

I'd be curious to hear what the Hesters wanted this time around....

They've often criticized the redevelopment of historic landmarks like West Village and American Tobacco. It's one thing to redevelop these unique properties with taxpayer-supported, city-owned parking decks, or fill up vacant land with new buildings from developers, but it's another thing to expect the government to come in an re-do a tacky shopping center, with its plywood and stucco frontage, because the owners haven't managed their properties well. Even if all they get is an upgrade of Fayetteville Street to the freeway, would it still make any difference? It's never going to look like Brightleaf or Southpoint over there. The beauty parlors and pawn shops fill a need for the community, some good, some not so good, but no one is suggesting to kick anyone out that doesn't fit with the new image. It is what it is.

I don't know if this is what they expect, but everytime I listen to interviews and speeches from Larry, as he sighs disappointedly when developers speak about what they want to do in Durham and how they want to partner with the city, it sounds like he wants another handout. Perhaps it would be a good opportunity to sell out and move on to something with a better vision, rather than constantly complaining about how successful others have been bringing their plans to fruition.