Bull City Rising

Quiet City Council night tonight belies busy work session Thursday

The City Council doesn't look to be in session too long for this evening's public meeting. Given the request from backyard chickens advocate Frank Hyman to postpone a vote on the matter a couple of cycles -- the N&O suggests Mike Woodard will push this to Feb. 2 -- there's not much on the docket for this evening.

The general business agenda contains a number of pro forma items, including the adoption of comprehensive plan changes made in 2007 by the county commission and the ratification of an updated annexation boundary with Cary. The City Council has text amendments on the agenda that would ban clothing boxes (such as the Planet Aid structures you see in some parking lots) and that would remove the city's prohibition on beekeeping within the city limits.

Duke will also request to close a one-third mile stretch of Lemur Lane, a road used for access to the Duke Lemur Center that is only used by the university.

Let's just consider this meeting a warm-up for Thursday's Council work session, when a much larger docket is at hand for our elected officials, including:

• Review of park renovation projects in general, as well as a construction manager at risk amendment to kick off the first phase of Northgate Park renovations, and a move forward with new signage in a few Durham parks;
• The proposal to move the District 3 police substation from the Lakewood Shopping Center to Consultant Place, near Shannon Road/MLK Jr. Pkwy.;
• An update from City staff on stormwater rules impacting Jordan Lake and, soon, Falls Lake -- with staff noting on the latter item that the City could end up responsible not just for controlling nitrogen and phosphorus in new development runoff, but for reducing these elements in existing development.
• A number of property and support deals with non-profits, including a proposal from Triangle Citizens Rebuilding Communities, Inc. to buy surplus property on Guthrie St. for $1. TCRC executive director Victoria Peterson has proposed to renovate the building using participants in the non-profit's carpentry program, and has partnered with Associated Industrial Contractors, a firm with experience working on downtown renovations of Greenfire properties and whose principal had a hand in the Old Bull Building transformation at American Tobacco.

Our favorite item coming up on Thursday: ex-Duke president Keith Brodie's application to serve on the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority: "As an owner operator of a jet aircraft based at RDU, I am familiar with issues related to general aviation and commercial aviation." H-K-B owns a jet plane? Who knew?

Duke to take front stage before City Council on street closures, coal transfer site

It's Blue Devil night at the City Council this evening -- though the question is, will Duke find its plans bedeviled in the process?

The big U approaches the dais tonight on two different public hearing matters: the proposed closure of two streets near the Smith Warehouse complex off East Campus, and a proposes street closing near the Durham Freeway to support a coal transfer station site.

The Sumter St. and Maxwell Ave. closings are far and away the more controversial items. The roads buffer the old tobacco warehouses off Buchanan Blvd., which have been converted into arts teaching space and staff office areas for Duke.

Duke has proposed adding over 325 parking spaces in a lot adjacent to what's currently Maxwell Ave., a road that Planning staff reports gets some use as a cut-through access for Campus Dr. service between the campuses. Under the proposed street closings, the roads would cease to be a public right of way.

Some neighborhood groups, including Old West Durham and Burch Avenue's neighborhood associations, have opposed the move, however. Concerns raised include the use of Maxwell as an alternative route for the Burch Ave. neighborhood and the impact of a total of almost 500 parking spaces (including the north side of the warehouse) on local traffic patterns.

AT&T's U-Verse available in Durham -- sort of

To those who've been waiting for more options for high-speed Internet and television service in the Bull City, who've (like me) sat eager to hear more about FiOS rumors, and other reports pointing to 21st century communication technologies in Durham -- your day has arrived.

Well, maybe.

The N&O heralds the arrival of U-Verse fiber optic service in the Triangle, and notes that the new, new AT&T will start offering the service in Raleigh, Cary, and Garner as well as Durham and Chapel Hill. The inclusion of Durham comes as a wee bit of a surprise, given that the telco doesn't have a tremendous presence in Durham County's old GTE territory.

The catch, naturally, is that the service is only available in select neighborhoods, and AT&T isn't exactly putting out a big map of coverage areas, the N&O says, out of a fear that Time Warner will try to undercut the new competition by offering U-Verse-ready homes big discounts if they lock into a long-term service contract.

You can search AT&T's web site to see if your address is covered. Chez BCR on Duke St. isn't; we checked the addresses of Durham's City Council and BOCC members, and none of theirs are, either. (So sorry, Councilman Brown; no HGTV-HD for you, unless you're stuck with TWC.)

Or, look for boxes like this one at right to be appearing on your telephone pole, or their supersized ground-level versions to pop up in somebody's shrubbery. (Heck, there's a blog for everything -- even those who hate these boxes.)

If yours is, post your subdivision or neighborhood name in the comments field.

More on the Morris Ridge, Ninth St. North projects

Two proposed development projects in the pipeline for central Durham have updates in the public eye this week.

First up: a rezoning proposal appeared before Durham's Planning Commission for the second phase of Ninth St. North, the mixed use development proposed by developer Glenn Dickson on the site of the old Biscuit King, just north of Elmo's Diner.

If you blinked, you missed the agenda item, though, which was continued for 30 days at the mutual request of Dickson and of neighborhood leaders John Schelp (Old West Durham) and Meredith Emmett (Watts-Hillandale), who are continuing to negotiate on committed elements and plan features before providing the project with any neighborhood blessing.

Current committed elements on the rezoning plan under consideration this month included a maximum 45' building height within 50' of Green St., and the eventual construction of a sidewalk along the eastern side of Iredell St. Ninth St. North has been proposed to have up to 145 residential units along with retail and commercial space in what could be a 200,000 sq. ft. development.

Also back in the public eye: Morris Ridge, whose plans we looked at here last month, got some media treatment in this week's Triangle Business Journal. Among the new news in Amanda Jones Hoyle's reporting:

• Hank Scherich expects to spend at least $15 million on the project, and for his firm, Measurement Inc., to become a tenant in part of the space -- assuming the 300 employee firm has grown to the point of needing it by then;
• About 25 condo units are envisioned for the first phase along Hunt St., with more to be built as the project moves forward;
• A 600 car parking deck slated for the center of the block once the project is eventually built out;
• Scherich's director of planning/development Drew Medlyn notes that initial discussions with banks "were very positive," and assuming site plan approval with the City and financing are worked out, a start date of mid- to late 2009 is hoped for.

Billboard debate to star at December INC meeting

Tired of all the good cheer and warm feelings the holidays have to offer? Looking to put some cranky back in your life?

Be sure to stop by the Inter-Neighborhood Council meeting next Tuesday, Dec. 9, then, when Fairway Outdoor Advertising's Paul Hickman is scheduled to make a presentation to INC.

The topic isn't specified on the agenda -- but it's a no-brainer that this will be a chance to discuss Fairway's proposal to upgrade a number of their billboards in the Bull City with those shiny new video billboards that can change their appearance and content every few seconds.

As we talked about here back in August, the billboard industry and Durham have been stalemated for years across a demilitarized zone of conflicting laws. Billboards are prohibited in Durham, though existing signs are grandfathered in; under the UDO, you can't renovate a non-conforming property. Yet Federal law protects the billboard industry from having the City remove the signs.

The City/County Planning department has been reviewing the proposal after a vote by the joint planning committee comprised of City Council and BOCC members a few months back.

Capitol and the East Deck: is a boutique hotel in their future?

Speaking of Capitol Broadcasting and their future plans for the American Tobacco Campus, the rumors floating in downtown circles these days tend to circulate around the least-attractive of the structures erected lately between Blackwell and Mangum: the exposed gray parking deck serving the Diamond View office buildings and the DPAC.

The south and west sides of that parking deck lack any brickwork or other aesthetic treatment, not by accident but because these sides of the deck, as well as much of the western edge of the DPAC, were intended to be "wrapped" with residential buildings.

Currently they have some colorful material providing a modicum of coverage, as Ginny noted at her place yesterday; Capitol unveiled some earlier versions of these back in March, as their deal with the City required such wrappers to be in place if the residential liner structure was not under construction by late 2007.

And with the condo market being not so hot these days, it's no surprise that neither the wrapper building nor the freestanding apartments/condos on what's currently Diamond View Park have gotten any traction.

We here at BCR are hearing that Capitol may have a new idea for the wrapper structure, though, one that still brings beds in but has a little more frequent turnover than your typical apartment or condo.

And that concept? Well, it rhymes with "moo-tique grow-tel."

Adam & Eve protest petition continues to draw online signatures

The online protest against Adam & Eve opening an adult-themed store near the Streets of Southpoint continues to draw more signatures, with the N&O now following up with a new story on the matter.

Elected officials have noted that they are powerless to block this retail business, which can operate by right at the location at the corner of NC 54 and Fayetteville.

An Adam & Eve shop is currently located right near the old South Square mall along 15-501 and will relocate to this new site when open. Such mall-district locations seem like nothing new for the Hillsborough based retail and catalog firm, whose Raleigh store is located just up the street from the Crabtree Valley Mall in a respectable restaurant and retail district of the city.

The comments in the online petition -- whose first signer was noted South Durham advocate Melissa Rooney -- describe the area surrounding the proposed site as a "family and church area;" some suggest the store should be banned anywhere in the Bull City, while others say that the store should simply find another, less family-oriented part of the city to operate in.

Can somebody please help Joe Bowser with his leaky toilet?

This weekend's best entertainment value came, as it so often does, from the column inches that comprise the Herald-Sun's letters to the editor section.

And no, I'm not talking about the poor high school senior whining about having a five-to-twelve page paper ("When will the torture stop? and Are you enjoying our suffering?" he asks). No, I'm talking about the letter complaining about Durham's unfair, unreasonable water rates:

I complained recently in this forum about the jump in my water bill from $83 to $132. Well, I paid my most recent bill and it jumped to $142. I guess the powers to be in this city let you know in no uncertain terms that you do not complain about actions they take -- no matter how it impacts you. They say just send your money downtown when I say so.

Those people in power! Those downtown scum, sucking your wallets dry! Just who is the populist who will stand up for the hard-working men and women of Durham?

Why, no less than your faithful correspondent, one Joe Bowser -- County Commissioner-elect, and as we discussed last week, pretender to the chairmanship of the BOCC.

The first thing I began to wonder when I read this was, can somebody please get a plumber over to Bowserville down on Druid Place and stop his toilet from leaking?

Lewis & Clark proposes small-business office space in old Gilbert St. structure

Scientific Properties isn't the only developer bringing an East Durham proposal before the City Council today. In a second item, Lewis & Clark Community Developers propose the use of almost $200,000 in City-managed Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to support the renovation of an abandoned old industrial building as office space for small businesses.

In the case of Lewis & Clark, the firm's name might seem to recognize the pioneering nature of East Durham investment, though the appellation may be more of a happy coincidence. It refers to principals Chuck Lewis, a developer/general contractor in the area for a quarter-century, and Wendy Clark, entrepreneur and owner of a local cleaning company.

The two formed an LLC late last year and purchased the abandoned structure at 801 Gilbert St. in North-East Central Durham, near TROSA facilities and Durham's Food Bank. According to the developers' web site:

801 Gilbert was built around 1917 as a hosiery mill and purchased in 1919 by Julian Carr, Durham tobacco and hosiery baron. He named the building for his "right-hand man" (and former Carr family slave) John O'Daniel. O'Daniel was one of the earliest African-American landowners in Hayti and he contributed to the building of St. Joseph's Church there. He likely handled for Carr the recruitment and hiring of African-American mill employees, a very rare practice at the time.

After Carr's death, the building became The Farmers' Exchange, a farmers' cooperative that had 900 members by 1935. Small business thrived there in the form of "curb markets," where primarily women sold "poultry, eggs, baked and pickled goods, fresh flowers and vegetables." The site later became a poultry processing plant, and a feed mill built just behind the site later became Southern States mill, still in operation. Financial statements from 1955 and 1956 that were found in the building show it was a significant place of commerce for the city. The Farmers' Exchange appears to have shut down in the early 1980's. During the 1990's, "Cobra," a Hispanic nightclub operated in the building. The site has had little to no commercial activity since then.

The developers envision renovating the structure to become the John O'Daniel Business Center, a structure with small-office space ranging between 180 and 430 sq. ft. for between $295 and $595/month rent. The spaces would feature wireless Internet and access to a shared business services area, including copy, fax and mail services. A meeting room capable of seating 90 would be available on the upper floor of the structure.

InSite unveils Golden Belt area rehab plan to City Council

Note: This post has been corrected to note that while Scientific Properties is a likely natural player in the redevelopment efforts around their site, the InSite plan was prepared strictly by the organization and not by Scientific. The note in a City memo suggesting otherwise was in error. -BCR

One of the questions surrounding recent investments in East Durham -- by local government in the Hope VI projects and new home/townhouse construction, and by Scientific Properties in the old Golden Belt complex -- was whether it would help spur further investment in revitalizing the former working-class, and now economically troubled, part of the Bull City.

Judging by today's City Council agenda, the answer appears to be yes -- though, as proposed, in a way that would keep both the City and Scientific as key players in the effort, and with particular focus on the residential blocks just to the east of the revitalized textile factory.

Scientific is a possible likely investor in a master plan that proposes to acquire almost two dozen properties on the blocks surrounding Golden Belt and use a mix of public and private funds to rehab and revitalize the properties for mixed-income housing with a focus on workers earning below the average regional income.

The developer plays prominently in a report from Durham-based planning and development group Urban InSite to look at neighboring areas within what's dubbed the Golden Belt Historic District. (The District's eastern boundary abuts the City's existing investment in Eastway Village and the under-construction Franklin Village on the site of the old Few Gardens public housing project.)