INTER-NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
http://www.rtpnet.org/durhminc
Minutes of Meeting of April 27, 1999
Police Department Community Services Room
John Talmadge |
Sierra Club | |
Steve Bocckino |
27713 |
Fern Valley |
John Dagenhart |
27701 |
Trinity Park |
Harry Hutson |
27713 |
Woodlake |
Beth Acierno |
27713 |
Woodlake |
Philip Porter |
27707 |
Hope Valley |
Sarah Hill |
27701 |
Trinity Park |
Craig Copeland |
27701 |
AIA Urban Design Group |
Stan Hoffman |
27705 |
Garrett Farms HOA |
Pat Carstensen |
27707 |
Cross Country |
John Hodges-Copple |
27701 |
Triangle J Council of Gov'ts |
Steve Gaddis |
27705 |
AIA Urban Design Group |
Kim McCarter |
Durham Transportation Div. | |
Diane Pearson |
27712 |
Placid Valley |
Renata Wend |
27707 |
Tuscaloosa-Lakewood |
Jennifer Brown |
27701 |
Durham - Env. Res. |
Ben Turney |
27701 |
Duke Park |
Jim Wisk |
27704 |
Stadium Heights |
Tish & Charlie Steenbergen |
27707 |
Valleybrook |
Tom Jackson |
27703 |
Grove Park |
Karen Hassall |
27704 |
Northgate Park |
Denise Barnes |
27701 |
Holloway St. Hist. Dist. |
Carolyn M. Sommerich |
27701 |
Trinity Park |
Ann Sundberg |
27701 |
Old North Durham |
Norm Krause |
27707 |
Hope Valley |
Erick Larson |
27707 |
City Council/Tuscaloosa Lakewood NA |
Johnea D. Kelley |
27701 |
Duke Park |
Nathan Isley |
27705 |
Durham architect |
Pat Hemingway |
27707 |
The Valley |
Fred Mowry |
27705 |
Colony Park |
Mike Shiflett |
27705 |
INC |
Al Stone |
27705 |
Duke Homestead |
Mike Shifett called the meeting to order at 7:00.
The March minutes were approved with one correction.
The theme of the meeting was "smart growth." Four groups gave presentations bearing on the theme.
Tom showed a fifteen-minute video entitled "Which Tomorrow Will We Choose?" The video presented three different patterns for accommodating the 60% population growth expected in the Triangle over the next generation. The choices were continued suburban expansion, "walkable communities" and "town and country." The video used visualization techniques developed the Envirotek group at NC State to show how sections of the Triangle might change with the different growth choices. The Greater Triangle Regional Council is publicizing the choices and hopes to build a consensus by June.
John said that Triangle growth has forced the local Sierra Club to turn its attention from streams and forests to cities and towns. They are reaching out to other stakeholders in an attempt to agree on a set of principles for smart growth. They have found themselves talking to groups the Sierra Club is not accustomed to working with, like bankers, homebuilders' associations and the Farm Bureau. Developers and conservationists share concern about the pattern growth will take. John hopes to get wide agreement on a set of smart growth principles in time to take these principles to candidates for office in the fall.
Steve, Craig and Nathan believe that architects can contribute to urban design the ability to visualize development. They met with the Mayor and City Manager in November to volunteer their services. Subsequently they spent a Saturday studying the Walker Warehouse as it might be developed as a transit center. They presented the results of that day's work to INC.
Their purpose is not to pitch a particular design but to show how urban design principles can be applied to the Walker Warehouse or other sites to create public space. City design has gone wrong by focusing on the design of buildings and ignoring the space between buildings. But the space between buildings is the public space: "Urban design is the design of the space between buildings." "Design buildings that face out." "People make the place, and places make the city." Their sketchbooks showed how these principles could be applied to the Walker Warehouse to create a public space.
Kim is a member of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization. This group has published a deficiency analysis predicting how traffic congestion will grow from 1995 to 2025. Projecting from present patterns, vehicular miles will grow by 49%, average driving speed will decline 14.5% (from 39.8 to 25.3 mph), and road levels of service will decline from A, B and C to D, E and F. The organization is holding public outreach meetings to get comments on possible courses of action - for example, switching from driving alone (currently 77% of all trips) to carpooling, bus, or rail. They hope to have a draft plan out by the end of the summer. Kim added that the City of Durham will take steps to minimize traffic during air quality alert days.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20.
AAS
5/25/99
Thanks to Watts Hospital/Hillandale, Cross Country, and Grove Park for their recent payment of dues.