751 South Development in the General Assembly
Today a bill, SB 315, was filed by Representative Tim Moore from Cleveland County. This bill would force the city of Durham to extend utilities to the 751 South development. Just last week the Durham City Council voted not to extend these utilities, but back-room deals have been going on in the past week. Senator Floyd McKissick, who valiantly turned back a similar effort last year, now has thrown his lot in with Representative Moore in an unprecedented usurpation of local control.
This bill comes up for a vote this week, and we need to act now to stop it!
WRITE AND CALL our delegation in Raleigh tonight (leave messages).
Tell them to stand with the citizens of Durham and VOTE NO.
Land use decisions should not be made at the state level to curry favor with well-heeled developers.
[email protected], 919-
[email protected], 919-733-4599
[email protected], 919-715-2528
[email protected], 919-
[email protected], (919) 733-4809
[email protected], 919-715-3019
Durham citizens have stood strong in opposition to this development and developers tactics for YEARS.
We need our Delegation to stand up for us NOW!
Action Items: Affordable Housing in Durham
The newly energized PA Housing Workgroup has two urgent action items for members and supporters. See below for additional ways to get involved with the Housing group and their upcoming calendar of action.
ACTION ITEM #1 - Ask City Council & County Commission to add staff to plan affordable housing around transit stations.
Contact County Commissioners about Action Item #1. [email protected]
Contact City Council about Action Items #1 & 2: [email protected]
Below is a message for you to edit as you wish.
Dear City Council & County Commission Members:
In your FY13-14 budgets, please add Planning staff to work with the community to plan affordable homes around transit stations. Now is the time to plan to preserve and build quality affordable homes near proposed transit. Residents who are disabled, elderly, or working families need affordable homes near transit to get to work, school, and medical care. Durham is required to do these plans to get state funds for transit. The cost of additional Planning staff would come from fees, not taxes. Thank you for your consideration of this request.
---
ACTION ITEM #2: Ask City Council to fund supportive homes for residents with special needs (extremely low income, disabled, or homeless).
Contact City Council about Action Item #1 & 2: [email protected]
Dear City Council Members:
This year, please budget at least $768,000 for supportive homes for residents with special needs. Quality homes are needed for extremely low income people who are disabled or homeless. Homes with support services will serve disabled veterans and chronically homeless residents. Funding of at least $750,000/year will help us reach our goal of ending homelessness in Durham. Thank you for your consideration.
CALENDAR:
Next Housing Workgroup Meeting: Thursday, May 23, 12:00noon-1:30pm, at Reinvestment Partners, 110 E. Geer St., 27701 (overflow parking on Mangum St. in front of Mike's Transmission).
Durham CAN Team meetings: Thursday, May 30, Eno Rive Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 4907 Garrett Rd., 27707.
City Council Budget Hearing: Monday June 3, 7:00pm, City Hall.
County Commission Budget Hearing: Monday, June 10, 7:00pm, County Commission Chambers.
751 South - City Council to Take Action June 27th
After previously deciding not to vote on annexation of the 751 Assemblage until the pending superior court case over the county’s rezoning is heard, the city council has now scheduled a meeting on June 27th to consider providing water and sewer to the project without annexation. (Update: They will also discuss voluntary annexation).
Recall how the developer bought up several low-priced properties within the watershed, zoned for low density housing specifically to protect our region’s drinking water. The developer then privately surveyed one arm of the publicly owned Jordan Lake to move their new property outside the watershed boundary, and had a former county Planning Director quietly approve it. A majority of our County Commissioners then obliged the developer by not performing an independent survey, and even rejected a citizen-paid survey! Suddenly the developer’s property allowed high densities and skyrocketed in value.
Rezoning the property for ultrahigh density demanded several tricks using the County Commission, the Department of Transportation, and the denial of citizens’ protest petition rights. That issue now sits before a Superior Court judge.
Meanwhile, the developers require several actions from Durham’s City Council. The first of many steps was shifting the Urban Growth Area (UGA) boundary where the city provides services. Once again Durham’s elected representatives could have said no, but with Council members Woodard and Catotti dissenting, the City Council favored the developer.
Sustainable development means protecting our drinking water and other needs, not just for the next 20 years, but for the next 200 years. People of this region will always drink the water from our reservoirs, including Jordan Lake, and increasingly that water carries many pollutants after running off paved surfaces or through sewage systems. Preserving the critical watershed protects our water resources from pollutants flushed from our clothes, bodies, and pavements.
The City Council can stop the damage this project will bring our region by refusing to supply water and sewer. The area’s soils can’t handle any more septic systems than the site’s original zoning allowed, and without municipal sewage treatment, density will be limited. That limitation will lessen the damage to our region’s water supply.
Please write Mayor Bell and the city council TODAY and ask that they vote NO on providing utilities without annexation. We ask that they postpone this vote until the Superior Court Case regarding the County’s rezoning has been concluded. [email protected], [email protected]
City council is scheduled to vote on this matter is at 3PM on June 27 in the Committee Room (2nd floor of City Hall, 101 City Hall Plaza). Please mark your calendar and attend to speak against this if you are able.
The city should not provide water and sewer to an area that it is not guaranteed to annex. A thorough analysis of this project has concluded it will be a higher cost to the city than the money it will provide. This fact, in addition to it being an environmentally sensitive area and major water source for the Triangle, calls for a “NO” vote from City Council.
Recall how the developer bought up several low-priced properties within the watershed, zoned for low density housing specifically to protect our region’s drinking water. The developer then privately surveyed one arm of the publicly owned Jordan Lake to move their new property outside the watershed boundary, and had a former county Planning Director quietly approve it. A majority of our County Commissioners then obliged the developer by not performing an independent survey, and even rejected a citizen-paid survey! Suddenly the developer’s property allowed high densities and skyrocketed in value.
Rezoning the property for ultrahigh density demanded several tricks using the County Commission, the Department of Transportation, and the denial of citizens’ protest petition rights. That issue now sits before a Superior Court judge.
Meanwhile, the developers require several actions from Durham’s City Council. The first of many steps was shifting the Urban Growth Area (UGA) boundary where the city provides services. Once again Durham’s elected representatives could have said no, but with Council members Woodard and Catotti dissenting, the City Council favored the developer.
Sustainable development means protecting our drinking water and other needs, not just for the next 20 years, but for the next 200 years. People of this region will always drink the water from our reservoirs, including Jordan Lake, and increasingly that water carries many pollutants after running off paved surfaces or through sewage systems. Preserving the critical watershed protects our water resources from pollutants flushed from our clothes, bodies, and pavements.
The City Council can stop the damage this project will bring our region by refusing to supply water and sewer. The area’s soils can’t handle any more septic systems than the site’s original zoning allowed, and without municipal sewage treatment, density will be limited. That limitation will lessen the damage to our region’s water supply.
Please write Mayor Bell and the city council TODAY and ask that they vote NO on providing utilities without annexation. We ask that they postpone this vote until the Superior Court Case regarding the County’s rezoning has been concluded. [email protected], [email protected]
City council is scheduled to vote on this matter is at 3PM on June 27 in the Committee Room (2nd floor of City Hall, 101 City Hall Plaza). Please mark your calendar and attend to speak against this if you are able.
The city should not provide water and sewer to an area that it is not guaranteed to annex. A thorough analysis of this project has concluded it will be a higher cost to the city than the money it will provide. This fact, in addition to it being an environmentally sensitive area and major water source for the Triangle, calls for a “NO” vote from City Council.
Billboard Bill On the Move
PA Members and Friends,
Please see the following message from Tom Miller. We are asking you to send a quick email to the Senate Finance Committee (emails below) and ask them to vote NO on Senate Bill 183. Then ask your friends and neighbors to do the same!
Thanks for your continued activism on this issue!
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Your e-mails and resolutions are really beginning to work! Support for the billboard bills has been dropping off as your legislators have begun to express some doubts about this legislation which has proved to be so unpopular. The sponsors are determined, however, and the billboard industry’s lobbyists have been relentless. There is a strong chance that they will push the bills again this week.
We need your help right now! This week we expect that the powerful Senate Finance Committee will vote on the bill. Please send the members a short, unequivocal e-mail asking them to vote NO! on Senate Bill 183 – the Billboard Bill.
In your message, say that you are opposed to a measure that would dilute local billboard controls and double the area of trees to be cut down in front of billboards. Point out the results of the recent state-wide poll about billboards. Citizens across our state oppose industry's attempt to override local billboard controls. An April 2011 statewide poll confirms this ...
Eight out of every 10 voters surveyed (80 percent) said they opposed allowing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. Senate bill 183 would permit digital billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of any interstate or highway in a commercial and industrial area –as many as seven billboards every mile.
Two thirds of those surveyed said they generally opposed any increase in the number of billboards in North Carolina.
Seventy percent of North Carolina voters surveyed said that electronic billboards that flash changing ads every eight seconds would present a distraction to motorists, according to the poll.
More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances.
Here's a new website with more background: http://www.savetheview.org
Please forward this email to your email lists and networks!
The time is now. Together, North Carolina’s neighborhoods can stop out-of-state billboard companies from spoiling our state’s natural beauty and overriding local decisions.
Thank you,
T. R. Miller
Durham InterNeighborhood Council
****
Send your short, polite message to important legislators at these email addresses (it's easy, just cut & paste)...
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Please see the following message from Tom Miller. We are asking you to send a quick email to the Senate Finance Committee (emails below) and ask them to vote NO on Senate Bill 183. Then ask your friends and neighbors to do the same!
Thanks for your continued activism on this issue!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your e-mails and resolutions are really beginning to work! Support for the billboard bills has been dropping off as your legislators have begun to express some doubts about this legislation which has proved to be so unpopular. The sponsors are determined, however, and the billboard industry’s lobbyists have been relentless. There is a strong chance that they will push the bills again this week.
We need your help right now! This week we expect that the powerful Senate Finance Committee will vote on the bill. Please send the members a short, unequivocal e-mail asking them to vote NO! on Senate Bill 183 – the Billboard Bill.
In your message, say that you are opposed to a measure that would dilute local billboard controls and double the area of trees to be cut down in front of billboards. Point out the results of the recent state-wide poll about billboards. Citizens across our state oppose industry's attempt to override local billboard controls. An April 2011 statewide poll confirms this ...
Eight out of every 10 voters surveyed (80 percent) said they opposed allowing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. Senate bill 183 would permit digital billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of any interstate or highway in a commercial and industrial area –as many as seven billboards every mile.
Two thirds of those surveyed said they generally opposed any increase in the number of billboards in North Carolina.
Seventy percent of North Carolina voters surveyed said that electronic billboards that flash changing ads every eight seconds would present a distraction to motorists, according to the poll.
More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances.
Here's a new website with more background: http://www.savetheview.org
Please forward this email to your email lists and networks!
The time is now. Together, North Carolina’s neighborhoods can stop out-of-state billboard companies from spoiling our state’s natural beauty and overriding local decisions.
Thank you,
T. R. Miller
Durham InterNeighborhood Council
****
Send your short, polite message to important legislators at these email addresses (it's easy, just cut & paste)...
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Stand Up For Education - Take Action TODAY!
PA is a member of Stand Up Durham. We are urging everyone to call or email a member of the school board prior to their vote on the budget this Thursday, May 12th. The budget proposed by Superintendent Becoats would cut 117 positions from DPS. Join PA and the Stand Up Durham coalition at the school board meeting this Thursday at 6 PM at 511 Cleveland St. (Meeting starts at 6:30).
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Good evening fellow supporter of public education. You are getting this email because we need you to act. As we’re sure you know already, stakes are high for public schools in North Carolina. The state government is proposing drastic cuts to our schools, and many are worried that we’ll never be able to recover. We cannot continue to stand by and let our children’s futures be jeopardized. We cannot continue to stand by and let our dedicated school workers take the hit for policies that take money from the things we need and give it to the wealthy.
Stand Up Durham is asking you to take action now. In order to get what our schools need, we need to tell the state, the county, and the Durham school board what we want. We told the state loudly at last week’s One Voice Rally in Raleigh, and we will continue to let them know what we need. But we also must ask our local leaders to Stand Up, Be Brave, and support public education.
The Durham school board meets Thursday at 6:30 at 511 Cleveland St. to vote on a budget proposal laid out by Superintendent Eric Becoats. This budget would cut 117 positions from DPS, and we cannot afford a single cut to our people or our programs. We appreciate that the school board is planning to ask the county to raise property taxes in order to avoid bigger cuts, but we need them to Stand Up, Be Brave, and ask the county to fund a budget with NO CUTS TO POSITIONS AND NO CUTS TO PROGRAMS.
We are asking you to immediately send an email or make a phone call to a member of the school board listed below. Tell them why public schools are important to you. Tell them your story. They want to hear from you. In addition to your story, we are asking that you ask them to:
1. Stand up and be brave
2. Pass a budget that calls for no cuts to positions or programs
3. Ask the county to help fund it
4. Let them know that you are planning to contact and speak with county commissioners and state representatives. If they act with BRAVERY, we’ll have their backs.
After you send the email, mark your calendar and join us on Thursday, May 12 at 6:00 at 511 Cleveland St. in downtown Durham for the DPS school board vote on next year’s budget. Please contact Stand up Durham at [email protected] or 919.210.9256 if you have any questions.
School Board Contacts
Minnie Forte-Brown (919) 530-7106 [email protected]
Heidi Carter (919) 490-0513 [email protected]
Natalie Beyer (919) 382-2823 [email protected]
Leigh Bordley (919) 536-4230 [email protected]
Nancy Cox (919) 419-6369 [email protected]
Frederick Davis (919) 544-4999 [email protected]
Omega Curtis Parker (919) 544-3455 [email protected]
Stand Up Durham is a coalition made up of the Committee for Democratic Education, Durham Allies for a Responsive Education, Durham People’s Alliance, The Dream Act Fellowship at Southern High School, and parents, students, school workers and community members.
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Good evening fellow supporter of public education. You are getting this email because we need you to act. As we’re sure you know already, stakes are high for public schools in North Carolina. The state government is proposing drastic cuts to our schools, and many are worried that we’ll never be able to recover. We cannot continue to stand by and let our children’s futures be jeopardized. We cannot continue to stand by and let our dedicated school workers take the hit for policies that take money from the things we need and give it to the wealthy.
Stand Up Durham is asking you to take action now. In order to get what our schools need, we need to tell the state, the county, and the Durham school board what we want. We told the state loudly at last week’s One Voice Rally in Raleigh, and we will continue to let them know what we need. But we also must ask our local leaders to Stand Up, Be Brave, and support public education.
The Durham school board meets Thursday at 6:30 at 511 Cleveland St. to vote on a budget proposal laid out by Superintendent Eric Becoats. This budget would cut 117 positions from DPS, and we cannot afford a single cut to our people or our programs. We appreciate that the school board is planning to ask the county to raise property taxes in order to avoid bigger cuts, but we need them to Stand Up, Be Brave, and ask the county to fund a budget with NO CUTS TO POSITIONS AND NO CUTS TO PROGRAMS.
We are asking you to immediately send an email or make a phone call to a member of the school board listed below. Tell them why public schools are important to you. Tell them your story. They want to hear from you. In addition to your story, we are asking that you ask them to:
1. Stand up and be brave
2. Pass a budget that calls for no cuts to positions or programs
3. Ask the county to help fund it
4. Let them know that you are planning to contact and speak with county commissioners and state representatives. If they act with BRAVERY, we’ll have their backs.
After you send the email, mark your calendar and join us on Thursday, May 12 at 6:00 at 511 Cleveland St. in downtown Durham for the DPS school board vote on next year’s budget. Please contact Stand up Durham at [email protected] or 919.210.9256 if you have any questions.
School Board Contacts
Minnie Forte-Brown (919) 530-7106 [email protected]
Heidi Carter (919) 490-0513 [email protected]
Natalie Beyer (919) 382-2823 [email protected]
Leigh Bordley (919) 536-4230 [email protected]
Nancy Cox (919) 419-6369 [email protected]
Frederick Davis (919) 544-4999 [email protected]
Omega Curtis Parker (919) 544-3455 [email protected]
Stand Up Durham is a coalition made up of the Committee for Democratic Education, Durham Allies for a Responsive Education, Durham People’s Alliance, The Dream Act Fellowship at Southern High School, and parents, students, school workers and community members.
Our Billboard Activism is Working!
Your e-mails and resolutions are really beginning to work! Support for the billboard bills has been dropping off as your legislators have begun to express some doubts about this legislation which has proved to be so unpopular. The sponsors are determined, however, and the billboard industry’s lobbyists have been relentless. There is a strong chance that they will push the bills again this week.
We need your help right now! Together we will stop or at least blunt these bills. Please send a short email to the addresses below by Wednesday morning, April 27 (day of a key committee meeting in Raleigh).
In your message, say that you are opposed to a measure that would dilute local billboard controls and double the area of trees to be cut down in front of billboards. Point out the results of the recent state-wide poll about billboards. Citizens across our state oppose industry's attempt to override local billboard controls. An April 2011 statewide poll confirms this ...
Eight out of every 10 voters surveyed (80 percent) said they opposed allowing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. Senate bill 183 would permit digital billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of any interstate or highway in a commercial and industrial area –as many as seven billboards every mile.
Two thirds of those surveyed said they generally opposed any increase in the number of billboards in North Carolina.
Seventy percent of North Carolina voters surveyed said that electronic billboards that flash changing ads every eight seconds would present a distraction to motorists, according to the poll.
More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances.
Here's a new website with more background: http://www.savetheview.org
Please forward this email to your email lists and networks.
The time is now. Together, we can stop out-of-state billboard companies from overriding local decisions.
Thank you,
T. R. Miller
Durham InterNeighborhood Council
****
Send your short, polite message to important legislators at these email addresses (it's easy, just cut & paste)...
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
We need your help right now! Together we will stop or at least blunt these bills. Please send a short email to the addresses below by Wednesday morning, April 27 (day of a key committee meeting in Raleigh).
In your message, say that you are opposed to a measure that would dilute local billboard controls and double the area of trees to be cut down in front of billboards. Point out the results of the recent state-wide poll about billboards. Citizens across our state oppose industry's attempt to override local billboard controls. An April 2011 statewide poll confirms this ...
Eight out of every 10 voters surveyed (80 percent) said they opposed allowing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. Senate bill 183 would permit digital billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of any interstate or highway in a commercial and industrial area –as many as seven billboards every mile.
Two thirds of those surveyed said they generally opposed any increase in the number of billboards in North Carolina.
Seventy percent of North Carolina voters surveyed said that electronic billboards that flash changing ads every eight seconds would present a distraction to motorists, according to the poll.
More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances.
Here's a new website with more background: http://www.savetheview.org
Please forward this email to your email lists and networks.
The time is now. Together, we can stop out-of-state billboard companies from overriding local decisions.
Thank you,
T. R. Miller
Durham InterNeighborhood Council
****
Send your short, polite message to important legislators at these email addresses (it's easy, just cut & paste)...
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Housing And Community Development Funds at Risk
Our PA Housing Committee is working tirelessly So ALL can call Durham Home. They need your assistance with the following urgent action item:
On Monday, May 2nd, 7pm, at City Hall, please stand with the People's Alliance Housing Committee to support the Southside Neighborhood.
We will ask City Council to fully fund services & housing to revitalize the Southside Neighborhood, along side the redevelopment of Rolling Hills. The for profit developer hired by the City will just build in Rolling Hills. Durham nonprofits will work with the SouthsideNeighborhood.
Housing, jobs, and services are needed for real transformation of Southside for the people who live there. Southside is one of three target neighborhoods. Please ask the City to complete the revitalization of Northeast Central Durham and Southwest Central Durham.
In this recession, we should increase our commitment to house the homeless and prevent homelessness throughout Durham. SIGN THE PETITION!
Contact City Council at: 560-4333 or [email protected]
Please help us get the word out and take action today!
During this recession it is imperative that Durham maintain basic services that feed the hungry, house the homeless, and improve neighborhoods.
Please ask City Council to:
1- Keep funding basic human services.
2- Maintain the same level of affordable housing production.
3- Invest in all three target areas (Southside, NECD, SWCD) and their residents.
4- Call a "Summit" to develop a funding plan to continue basic services, housing, and other critical needs.
Contact City Council TODAY [email protected] and ask them to continue funding services for residents and continue to revitalize downtown neighborhoods.
SIGN THE PETITION! (and then pass it along!)
751 Assemblage - Fight It!
URGENT ACTION NEEDED!
751 Rezoning Petition - BOCC Needs to Hear from YOU!
Have you signed the petition yet? PA has been hard at work getting signatures on both our hard copy and online petitions urging our City and County Government officials to vote NO on the 751 rezoning case. The County Commissioners open hearings on 751 at7:00 p.m. on June 23rd. Please mark your calendar - we need to let them know that this is not a good plan for Durham - it is ALL PAIN, NO GAIN!
The 751 Assemblage (rezoning case number Z0800003 - changing land from rural low-density to mixed use high-density) is a $500 million, residential and commercial project proposed for 165 acres in the environmentally sensitive land adjacent to Jordan Lake, the plans for which include 600,000 square feet of retail and office space and 1,300 residential units.
This is NOT smart growth - This is growth REGARDLESS OF TAXPAYER COST! The bottom line- 751 is in the wrong place.
The only way to stop this is with YOUR help. First, Sign the Petition if you haven't already (and pass it on!) http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/VoteNo751
Then please email, call, or write the County Commissioners and cc the City Council: [email protected] & [email protected]
This case should go to the City to work out water and sewer before any approval vote by the Commissioners. Tell the Commissioners to either VOTE NO on 751, or at the least pass on voting until the City has worked out water and sewer.
Please help us educate the citizens Durham -
Tell your friends and neighbors to take action today!
We also have some other exciting ways to get involved with this issue here at PA. Please email Kate at [email protected] to find out more.
751 Rezoning Petition - BOCC Needs to Hear from YOU!
Have you signed the petition yet? PA has been hard at work getting signatures on both our hard copy and online petitions urging our City and County Government officials to vote NO on the 751 rezoning case. The County Commissioners open hearings on 751 at7:00 p.m. on June 23rd. Please mark your calendar - we need to let them know that this is not a good plan for Durham - it is ALL PAIN, NO GAIN!
The 751 Assemblage (rezoning case number Z0800003 - changing land from rural low-density to mixed use high-density) is a $500 million, residential and commercial project proposed for 165 acres in the environmentally sensitive land adjacent to Jordan Lake, the plans for which include 600,000 square feet of retail and office space and 1,300 residential units.
- The developers do not commit to assisting with transportation. No buses = no jobs for urban Durhamites who need them most.
- The developers do not commit to affordable housing.
- The developers do not commit to meeting proposed new regulations for Jordon Lake water quality - posing the question - who will pay the cost of the retrofits which will be in the millions?
- The developers do not commit to restrict retail to fewer than 75,000 square feet; there is nothing to stop this from becoming more big-box sprawl.
- The project further imperils the already impaired water quality of Jordon Lake
- The project will contribute to air pollution with an estimated 40,000 new trips a day.
- Low wage, low skilled workers will not be able to get to, or afford to live in, 751 South
- The infrastructure to support the project is a drain of tax dollars, and certainly no gain for Durham taxpayers: for the first 10 years, new county taxes will cover building a new school only; and new estimated city revenues may not cover the development's need for police, fire, garbage, recycling, street maintenance, storm water monitoring, parks and rec.
This is NOT smart growth - This is growth REGARDLESS OF TAXPAYER COST! The bottom line- 751 is in the wrong place.
The only way to stop this is with YOUR help. First, Sign the Petition if you haven't already (and pass it on!) http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/VoteNo751
Then please email, call, or write the County Commissioners and cc the City Council: [email protected] & [email protected]
This case should go to the City to work out water and sewer before any approval vote by the Commissioners. Tell the Commissioners to either VOTE NO on 751, or at the least pass on voting until the City has worked out water and sewer.
Please help us educate the citizens Durham -
Tell your friends and neighbors to take action today!
We also have some other exciting ways to get involved with this issue here at PA. Please email Kate at [email protected] to find out more.