DPNA Meeting Minutes

DPNA Monthly Meeting, August 11, 2005

Board members present: Barry Ragin (president), Rob Dilworth (vice president), Claire Doyle (secretary), David Eustice, Katherine O’Brien (members-at-large)

Neighbors present: Sara Dowdy, Melissa Godwin, Angelo Abbate, Andrew Preiss, Bill Anderson (Inter-Neighborhood Council president), John Anderson, Stewart Kennedy, Diane Wright, Bert Chessin, Jason Kutchma (Forest Hills), Brian Shafer (Northgate Park)

Speaker: Beth Timson, Assistant Director for Park Planning & Development, Durham Parks & Recreation Dept.

1. No treasurer report.

2. Board nominations
Rob Dilworth and Daniel Kirk are stepping down to devote more time to family responsibilities. Peg Lanier has moved out of the neighborhood. Barry has invited Michelle Old (head of the Bathhouse Committee) to join the board; she agreed to have her name put into nomination. Bill Anderson is willing to be the PAC rep and a member-at-large.

3. Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)
Public information sessions are next week, and a public hearing on August 29. Detailed information is available on city website. (www.ci.durham.nc.us/departments/planning/udo)

From the city website: “Durham’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) project is the first major overhaul of Durham’s development regulations in more than 30 years. The UDO will replace the current Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances and will work in tandem with the newly adopted Comprehensive Plan to strengthen Durham’s development regulations.”

Zonings in our neighborhood are not changing much. There are height/frontage differences from current zoning. We are part of the “urban tier.” Old North Durham is petitioning the city for a designation so that anyone developing there has to meet neighborhood standards for development (e.g., making sure that homes fit in with the style/size of current homes). Barry urged people to look over the UDO. Bill pointed out that small changes in lot size allocations can change an unbuildable lot into a buildable lot.

4. Bond referendum
Eight bond issues are coming up for a vote in November, including the first parks bond since 1996. More information can be found at: http://www.ci.durham.nc.us/departments/manager/bond_index.cfm
From this page, “Bond Report” and “2005 Bond FAQ’s” will download pdf documents with more detailed information.

5. Bathhouse
Sara Dowdy of the Bathhouse Committee said they are holding off until the cooler weather to do any renovations. Sara has been doing some research on the facility at the library. She’s not a writer but hopes someone in the group could write a little history on the pool and bathhouse. Barry says the bathhouse could serve as our meeting place instead of churches outside of our neighborhood. He is hoping to partner with Durham Parks & Recreation on the renovations.

6. Duke Power lots
Duke Power owns a number of empty lots on the west side of the neighborhood, bordering the creek, where there power lines are run. They are overgrown and there have been problems with litter and dumping. Katherine O’Brien has talked to Duke Power’s maintenance department. They’ve committed to mowing them once a month. Claire Doyle mentioned that she saw the Durham Impact Team out there picking up litter, and that either Duke Power should be maintaining their own land or paying the city to do it. Others mentioned that the Impact Team was probably taking care of illegal dumping as well as just litter.

At a later date, Katherine talked to Duke Power and they said they may sell the lots, which are mostly under power lines and therefore not desirable for building. Friends of South Ellerbe Creek may be interested; the possibility of the Duke Park Preservation Initiative partnering with them was brought up. Katherine is interested in developing partnerships to keep that area mowed. There is a new non-profit that the city runs called Keep Durham Beautiful that might be able to help (See http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/solid/kdb.cfm for more information). Barry mentioned that John Schelp (president, Old West Durham NA) has also gotten assistance from Duke students who have to do community service for drunkenness and other infractions.

7. Traffic circle at Markham/Glendale intersection, parking on Knox St.
The traffic circle is up and working, but not complete. Barry heard from Phil Loziuk of the city’s transportation department; he provided photos of what the finished circle will look like. It is still a temporary installation, but will be filled with asphalt…and we can decorate it! Phil said that as long as it doesn’t look like graffiti, he’s OK with whatever we want to do. The word “beaver” was mentioned (the beaver is Duke Park’s unofficial mascot) and did not raise any red flags to Phil. Barry asked that people near the circle keep an eye out to see how drivers are dealing with the circle (e.g., do they know how to make a left turn).

Andrew Preiss had called Phil about parking on Knox St. along the park. Phil is looking into No Parking on one side of Knox near the park, as it’s difficult to drive through when there’s parking on both sides. Beth Timson said that obtaining a 2-hour parking limit (with parking stickers to exempt nearby residents) is a transportation issue, not a park issue.

8. Official park opening
The official opening of the renovated Duke Park will be Aug. 18 at 6:30pm. Mayor Bell will be there, possibly Cora Cole-McFadden or other city council members, or Darrell Crittenden (director of Durham Parks & Recreation department). Barry has offered city council a tour of the park.

9. September DPNA meeting
The owner of the building formerly known as K-Mart will be at the September DPNA meeting, which will be a joint meeting with Colonial Village and Northgate Park. The owner is interested in hearing what neighbors of the facility would be interested in having in that space. It will be held at the Calvary Methodist Church on Trinity/Elizabeth streets, but in the basement rather than the usual first floor room.

10. Movie night
Katherine has asked for a special use permit for August 26 to show a movie outdoors, either in the park or next to Bill Anderson’s house on Markham Ave.

11. Duke Park, past and future
Beth Timson of DPR was in attendance to discuss park renovation issues. The official opening for the new playground is August 18; the mayor and other dignitaries are expected to attend. The water fountain will still be under construction at that time. The sign kiosk has been ordered and will be delivered in about 5 weeks. The current plan is to place it near Knox/Acadia, in a location that would be visible from the street but out of drivers’ sight lines. There was also discussion of putting it at the entrance to the park. There was proposal from the city a couple of years ago for putting a skateboard park in Duke Park where the mostly-unused handball court now stands. This location is attractive because it is already paved, but there are parking and access issues (including police access). P&R wants a location that is more centralized in the city, and less residential. The other sites they are looking at all have pros/cons. Other possible sites include:

  • The corner of Corcoran/Parrish across from Blue Coffee Company, downtown. This is diagonally across the street from the redevelopment of the old Woolworth site.
  • Near the American Tobacco Trailhead at Morehead Ave.
  • The top of civic center parking deck.
  • The deserted oil company lot across the street from Stone Bros. & Byrd. Durham is buying the Duke Beltline RR loop from Norfolk/Southern and plans to have it converted to a trail. This land is part of the purchase, and the trail will go right past here.

The General Assembly has passed a law so that cities are exempt from liability for injuries in skateboard parks. Beth wanted feedback on whether there is strong neighborhood sentiment to have the skateboard park built in Duke Park.

Andrew said that Duke Park neighbors are generally OK with not getting the skateboard park, and some will be glad it’s no longer an option. But if we don’t put the skateboard park in the handball courts, what will go in there instead?

Beth says we’ve “scraped the bottom of the barrel” where Duke Park is concerned: there’s no money left for any more improvements. There is $8k left in the budget for Duke Park renovations. But there are cracks in the pavement already; there may need to be a new surface coat on the road if the contractor can’t fix it, and that would eat up the last of that money. The root of the pavement problem is that it was a bad grading job to begin with.

Barry: $8k is not going to go very far in renovating the handball courts.

Beth: They could possibly do one tennis court, but with very little room outside the lines. P&R can’t afford to make a tennis court AND remove the wall.

Barry read from an old email reprising the March 2001 DPNA meeting with P&R. At that time, a $1.6 million park renovation plan was proposed by P&R, with allocations for such things as a water park and a family play area. Many of the things on the list were never done. At the time, we were told there was around $400k from the 1996 bond for this, and the rest would be paid for in future bond issues. But the future is now here, and the current bond has no money allocated for Duke Park. Beth says we should have gone to the bond meetings, that that is where those decisions were made. Barry has been in contact with City Council, Darrell Crittenden, etc. He’s willing to let go of the skate park if Durham will work with us on some of the outstanding issues in Duke Park, such as the handball courts, the meadow and the bathhouse. Beth went over where the money is now budgeted (available at the city website, cited above).

Bill: The Walltown contract has already been passed off in a way that people are not happy about.

Beth: People want to know why they can’t get everything they want. But every dollar has been put into a project by City Council.

Barry: There is a sense of betrayal in Duke Park. Nobody here was asked to be part of the CCIP (Citizens Capital Improvement Plan) committee. Not going to the bond meetings should not count against the fact that we were promised something that we didn’t get.

Claire: The people in this room are very involved and go to lots of city meetings: city council, UDO, transportation advisory committee, INC, PAC, etc. Barry and Andrew have been in direct communication with City Council, Parks and Recreation, General Services, etc. for years concerning the park. It was not unknown to the city council or to P&R that there were issues with Duke Park not getting what they were promised: we’d been lobbying heavily for these renovations for years. It doesn’t seem fair that we should be proactive about communicating directly with the powers that be for years, and then be denied consideration because we didn’t attend a bond meeting.

Barry: What improvements can we ask for, that we could go to City Council together and ask for? He emphasized that the projects listed in the bond proposal currently published on the city website are not contracts, they are just proposals that may not see the light of day. Barry will provide Beth with copies of emails about what we were promised from the 1996 bond issue that is now being denied.

Beth’s contention is that we have a nice park now, nicer than most in town, and we should be satisfied with what we’ve gotten.

Bill: we’ve been given much less than we were promised, but the bathhouse gives us some wiggle room where we can work together to get something good.

Beth: if there were more discretion in the budget, P&R could do more of these $10-20k projects. But there isn’t. Everything is big projects with a lot of oversight.

Diane: Is that something useful for us to advocate? Beth: Yes, that is something P&R has advocated for.

Claire: Looking back, it seems like a lot of the problems that Duke Park has had since the 1996 bond issue could have been avoided if P&R’s budget and planning was structured for smaller projects. Besides not getting what was promised, no work at all actually started until 2004, 8 years after the money was allocated. If some small part of the renovations had been done in the first year or two after the bond issue, neighbors might have been more patient to get the rest. The way it is now, parks that are at the bottom of the list have to wait for years for any improvements. If every park in town could have some modest project completed within a year or two of the bond issue, everyone would feel like they’ve enjoyed some benefit.

Beth: Baker has allocated a lot to upgrades because many neighborhoods just want small upgrades and maintenance. Also, there is going to be a way to track the progress of projects available on the website in the future.

Barry reprised the history of interest/opposition to the skateboard park from several years ago. There were a number of people who were very opposed to it, so he’s OK with it going elsewhere.

Melissa: There are several people here specifically about the skate park. What do they think?

Brian: The modular ramps that would fit on Duke Park’s handball court are less desirable. He’d rather ride a real installed concrete facility by a company who understands skateboarders (not a playground company)

John: Lives near Duke Park, so he’d love to see it there as a matter of convenience. He skates there anyway, but it’s pretty boring.

Barry: The locations proposed for downtown are all near a trail, so that would be convenient for people skate to.

Jason: He likes the visibility of having it on a downtown street. It ups the cool factor!

Diane: She sees a lot of skateboarders downtown. She wonders how comfortable parents would be after hours if their kids were skating in a secluded place like Duke Park. She thinks they would feel safer in a more open location.

Angelo: He is concerned that Duke Park is a pastoral place, although he knows that is changing. It would be great for teens to be able to skate in the park but there are better places. When the pool was open, it caused problems for the neighbors. He would like to see parking down where the old shelter was, and turn the handball courts into a new shelter.

Barry would like to move forward with P&R putting the skateboard park elsewhere, and finding some money for the rest of the improvements in Duke Park. Since we have the official opening next week, Barry asked Beth if she and Darrell could come earlier to discuss things informally. Barry will also ask Darrell directly. Beth would like to see a menu of things we still want at the park.

Beth says the bathhouse renovation will be easier to fund if we partner with third parties. Barry says the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association is interested.

Diane: Any possibility that the loop will be open at some times?

Barry: The neighborhood had requested the bollards because of people sleeping in their cars. People were afraid to bring their kids to the park with people sleeping there. The bollards can be unlocked and removed for events. Beth pointed out that if the gate is opened, people who have not reserved the shelter could drive in, and then it becomes the responsibility of the people who reserved the shelter to kick others out when they leave, which is an unfair burden.

Barry: There had been talk about turning the old shelter site into a parking lot. Beth said that city staff is now working out of the buildings back there; they may be using that concrete pad again.

The next DPNA meeting will be held September 8. 

Archive of Minutes of previous meetings