Bull City Rising

Updates: McPherson Townhouses, West Point Park in the Herald-Sun

The local press has updates in today's paper on two stories we've looked at here at BCR recently:

First, Monica Chen provides an update from Monday's design design review team looking at the McPherson Townhouses. As noted here last week, the response from neighbors to date was well described by the H-S as cautious optimism, with a representative of the Neighbors for Sustainable Development in Trinity Park citing positive elements of the design and the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association noting that a committee is reviewing the plans.

The townhouse proposal will next make its way to the Development Review Board. (Jim Wise from the N&O also has an update in today's edition.)

Also up: Ray Gronberg has the Herald-Sun's take on the debate over the 60-acre tract of land just south of West Point Park on the Eno, a site that's been at the center of a minor tempest over the dual possibilities of the city in partnership with other groups buying and preserving the open area -- or of the state doing so in exchange for control over the City-managed West Point Park.

New items from the story: City Councilman Mike Woodard notes the landowner's threat to sue local government if the land is downzoned (which would otherwise be one very, very low cost way of keeping dense development off the sensitive land.) Also, it looks like the landowner and her development partner have optioned land from a local church that would provide access to the land from Roxboro -- a development that makes it easier for the long-time property holder to develop the tract.

Most parties we've talked to, including City Councilwoman Diane Catotti, have signalled an openness to looking at the possibility of state control for the park, but given it seems the ongoing nature of the dialogue, most of the stakeholders involved aren't interested in giving too many specifics just yet on the idea. Expect significant caution from city staff and possibly officials over the prospect of giving up what local officials see as a jewel of the park system.

More on these as we learn about 'em.

West Point Park: City dodges state takeover and preservation overtures?

A debate over development plans near the Eno River has taken a strange turn in recent weeks, bringing to bear a debate over one of the City's most treasured parks -- and whether a horse-trade opportunity with the state would help preserve, or impair, the public's use of Durham's aquatic treasure.

As Jim Wise has reported over at the N&O, one of the last vestiges of the much-despised Eno Drive roadway proposal has reared its ugly head in recent months, as a local development team's floated proposals to develop Mildred Lee Ray's 60-acre parcel near the Eno River in North Durham.

That parcel received permission for high-density development a few decades back, when Eno Drive was expected to create a Northern Durham beltline connecting the two ends of I-85. Despite the road's demise, as Wise noted in his May 31 article, a Chapel Hill developer proposed the creation of almost 250 homes and townhouses on the parcel, which sits to the south side of the Eno River and the City's park on the river, West Point Park on the Eno.

(The Ray parcel appears in light purple along the southern boundary of West Point Park in the image at left.)

Although other suburban subdivisions flank the Ray parcel (and the Eno in general), this 60-acre tract has attracted intensive attention from the non-profits active in the preservation of the Eno corridor due to its sloping towards the river, rather than away from it as most developed parcels along the Eno do.

"We're not even open to talking about any other ideas than preservation," says Dave Owen, treasurer of the Friends of West Point on the Eno Park, a local association dedicated to protecting and enhancing the city park. "This is one piece that's got to be saved."

A sentiment that raises what could be a very pricey proposition for government: can the parcel be bought out, and if so, by whom -- and at what cost?

City to re-assess Walltown, Trinity Ave. pools -- adding funding for South Durham rec center to boot

Ray Gronberg of the Herald-Sun had some of his usual good work in the daily fishwrap on Monday, covering Mayor Bell's wise interest in reopening the most painful scab on the post-Thomas Stith City Council when it comes back together in August.

To wit: an evaluation of how the proposed Walltown Park pool and the City's acquisition of the old Trinity Ave. YMCA from Duke might actually be able to "complement each other."

[A]dministrators of late have also talked up the idea of including splash pools and other kid-friendly amenities in the project. That and the potential addition of Duke's pool to the mix has Bell wondering if the plan for Walltown should change.

"My first thought was since we'd have an indoor pool at Trinity, maybe we could do with something different at Walltown that's maybe not as costly," Bell said, adding that one possibility is turning the Walltown project into an outdoor pool.

An outdoor pool could actually make some sense for a variety of reasons. The closure of the one at Duke Park still smarts in a number of local neighborhoods after so many years, and there remains only three for the whole city (at Long Meadow, Hillside and Forest Hills.) Yet these remain popular outdoor options especially for kids and families.

And in the case of Walltown, that's what the whole point of the approved rec center and proposed pool are intended to be: creating positive options for youth and teens outside of the dangerous, easy draws of mischief.

Frustrated on the Fourth, or, parks' patriotic pause poorly promulgated?

Ah, the Fourth of July -- a day when folks take off from the job, kick back with their families, grill out a bit, maybe head down to their local park to hit the playground... or maybe one of those splashgrounds, or a swimming pool?

Well, at least one Durhamite who's also a regular on a local Internet forum found out the hard way that the latter aren't exactly possibilities on a public holiday:

I'm just pissed because we wanted to go out to a park today with our 16 month son to play in the water spray. I wasn't sure if they were running because of the water restrictions, so I thought I'd just check their website. No mention of water sprays being off, so we called just in case. No indication on their outgoing message of them being off, so we went out to Forest Hills park. We thought there might be a chance the sprays would be off, but we figured that the pool would at least be open. Nope. No water to be had except from the water fountain.

What the hell?!? Why don't they at least take the 3 seconds to update their website and/or answering machine with this info?

What, pray tell, was the problem here? Well, if you went to the City's web site on the Fourth of July, you saw an item under the Events box about Fourth of July festivities. Clicking on that link took you to a helpful and detailed explanation as to how logistics at Friday night's fireworks at the DBAP would work. (That information has since been pulled, replaced with a release covering Monday night's second try at pyrotechnics given the rain cancellation over the weekend.)

Yet that homepage-linked announcement contained zip, zero, nada in the way of information about which City services were open or closed on the Fourth.

Shooting the Bull: Podcast for June 15, 2008

In this week's edition of "Shooting the Bull," Barry Ragin and I chat with Valerie Parham-Thompson of We-Love-Durham.com, about things to do with families and kids this summer in the Bull City. We also touch on the Cora Cole-McFadden allegations in the H-S, among other local political topics. Thanks as always to the folks at WXDU for the opportunity to host this weekly show.

If you missed the Sunday night broadcast, you can download or listen to the show from the Internet Archive, or listen to it via this embedded player.

City Council (finally) reaches the budget discussion

(This is a continuation of the June 2 City Council meeting coverage; see the first part of the recap here.)

As predicted, advocates for the arts drew far and the largest group of supporters to Monday night's City Council meeting. Other groups spoke up for non-city agency (NCA) funding, but none as organized and numerous as the arts groups, galvanized by emails and meetings in the weeks since the budget proposal has hit the streets.

Whatever you think about the cuts to NCAs, it's a bit sobering that 95%+ of the 2-hour-plus marathon discussion focused on a few million dollars in spending out of a $356 million budget. Not that this level of civic interest in the arts and youth groups isn't important -- it absolutely is.

Yet one might think that with a higher level of interest in where we spend, you know, the other $354 million each year, we might cough up some funds for these programs in the first place. I'm just saying.

But, no. Three speakers on the $5 million-plus pay parity plan for public safety employees, one of the key budget drivers. Three on, of all things, taxi standards. And one (the very plucky Victoria Peterson) calling for matching funds to meet a state anti-gang grant. Every other speaker focused on the tiny, but emotionally-tugging, non-profit funding.

Hey, Mr. Bonfield - that's your new city for you. Don't worry about back-room politics with Sunshine State developers; you'll get to deal with all the public input you want, anytime you want it. Just think, you inherit all this next year. You can thank us later.

The kids: A number of youth stepped up first to the plate, supporting Duke's Youth Noise Network (YNN) program and the Triangle Champions youth track program. After a round of applause for their patience and their bravery in speaking before such a large crowd, it was off to the races with public comment on a range of topics:

The arts: Sherry DeVries, the executive director of the Durham Arts Council, was the first "big person" to appear before the mic. She noted that she was joined by a number of arts supporters in the room, a number that seemed to reflect a good one-half of those residents.

DeVries called the arts cuts a "devastating blow" to the community, including the hits to the African-American Dance Ensemble, Full Frame Festival, St. Joe's, and the Walltown Children's Theater. She noted the impact of the arts on everything from adding $103 million in Durham economic impact to reducing the drop-out rate among community youth.

She listed three priorities: provide three-year funding committment for the Cultural Master Plan; restore the lost non-city agency funding; and for the scheduling of a joint meeting between city leaders and arts leaders.

Kevin Costner to return to Durham for City's Fourth of July celebration

The press release came across the wire today and told the story: Kevin Costner's coming back to the Bull City, in this 20th-anniversary year for "Bull Durham."

He won't be in D-Bulls blue, orange and white this time, though. And he won't be back at the old Durham Athletic Park, which presumably will have the dirt moving and the grass torn up by then as part of its renovation project.

Instead, he'll be coming to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park to perform a concert with his band, Modern West, with whom the actor performed (in an earlier incarnation of the group) before his movie career took off. Costner and his backing band will appear at the DBAP on Friday, July 4, for the concert, which will be followed by the City of Durham's annual fireworks extravaganza.

Read more over at the Durham Bulls' web site, or sign up for access to web pre-sales for the event on June 4 (tickets otherwise go on sale at 9 am Thursday June 5 via the Durham Bulls box office.)

Sharpen those pencils -- it's budget time, and Durham's hiring

As the Herald-Sun and N&O both pointed out yesterday, the City of Durham's proposed FY2009 budget represents a pretty sizable jump in spending from the current year's issue.

The City is proposing an increase in spending this year of 5.3%, a rate that's a fairly digestible number in the abstract, and representing $17.9 million in additional spending for the coming budget year over this year's figure.

Who's Paying the Bill?

Of course, the number that's garnering attention is the increase in property tax revenues: a sizable 16.5% increase over the FY08 figure. The biggest contributor to that is a 28.6% increase in Durham's assessed property values thanks to last year's revaluation, bringing the Bull City property tax base from $17 billion to about $22 billion. Yet the City's budget proposes only a 9.4% reduction in the property tax rate. (Which also means, an 11% rise from the revenue-neutral rate.)

The net result? A $17.6 million increase in Durham's estimated property tax collection. Though that's not the only net new increase in cost to most residents. An additional $12.3 million in operating revenue increase is projected, almost of all of which is attributed to the implementation of tiered water rates.

Of course, this impacts businesses as well as residents, but given the increase of pricing across-the-board for all residents with the increase of base sewer and water fees, this revenue source is one to be borne by practically every household. (And don't expect the rates to stay constant -- the city is projecting water/sewer revenue to rise from $58 million this year to $70 million next under the tiers... then all the way to $93 million by 2014.)

H-S: Walltown rec center creeps forward

In case you missed it this weekend, the H-S' Ray Gronberg had an interesting story about the Walltown rec center, a project funded out of the 2005 general obligation bonds, but which has, like so many of the bond issue-backed projects, moved slowly off the starting line.

Fear not, Durhamites -- the City Council is set to review the project proposal sometime in June, before the Council takes its annual one-month break. As with the multimodal transportation center last year, the Council will be asked to approve the structural steel order to lock in one of the most inflation-sensitive parts of the budget.

The design has shifted to a single building from the previous two-building design that would have preserved room for a pool between the two facilities; instead, any such pool will be an add-on to the single, larger building down the road.

The center is running past its June 2009 opening date, Gronberg notes, but only by a couple of months, it appears.

Meanwhile, the City is still negotiating deal points with Duke over the sale of the former Trinity Ave. YMCA to the municipality to become another central Durham rec center, this one featuring a pool from day one.

City Council: City projects, millions in bonds highlight this week's agenda

This week's City Council meeting won't likely spend much time on the subject of the much-discussed development review process, with the consent agenda carrying the only mention of the City staff's proposal, and that being limited to the chance to "review and provide comments" on the first stage, a task that largely happened in other meetings of late.

To be honest, the manner in which this whole matter is coming before Council is puzzling. The inclusion of the proposal to kibosh the Planning Commission's ability to defer hearings by that advisory board on projects for up to three months has been as so much bloody raw meat before neighborhood interests, who've raised significant concerns about whether this particular recommendation takes away a real chance to bring developers and neighborhoods together.

All in all, in fact, the timing of this hitting the public debate right now is odd. For one thing, the annexation, utilities, street closure and Planning Commission changes represent just one-eighth of the sum total of proposed changes to the development review process; the remainder will be rolled out over the next eight months to Council all the way through December.