"In general, the more detail, the better. And I have a history of trying to work out stuff and trying to get as many committed elements [in rezoning cases] as possible."
--Councilwoman Diane Catotti
"I'd like to see as much specificity as we can see on this, and that's something the neighborhoods have asked for."
--Councilman Mike Woodard agreed.
Durham City Councilman Thomas Stith says Duke University should give regulators more details about the Central Campus redevelopment than it has so far before he and his colleagues vote on a 128-acre rezoning that would facilitate the project.
Stith said elected officials "need to be very cautious in giving Duke a blank check," and insist that the university emulate other builders by giving the city a good idea of how the project will be laid out.
The development plan Duke has submitted to back its request to apply university and college zoning to the Central Campus area is mostly blank. In most zoning cases developers give officials drawings that show how they'll use a site. But the City/County Planning Department has said it meets the minimum requirements of Durham's land-use law.
Stith thinks Duke should deliver more information.
"While it might not be required at this point, typically in other requests like this, we're getting details even though they might not be required," he said. "Certainly we'd want that in this case, given the impact it will have in that area."
The councilman spoke up even as neighborhood groups and merchants were signaling that they'd ask the Durham Planning Commission to again delay an upcoming advisory vote on Duke's rezoning request. The commission is scheduled to meet on Aug. 8, and already has postponed a vote on the rezoning once.
The leaders of the coalition of "stakeholder" groups watching the zoning process, John Schelp and Tom Miller, said in an e-mail to the commission Wednesday that the additional delay would give activists and Duke officials more time to agree about what the plan should specify.
Both sides are eager to meet to talk about the plan, but vacation schedules have impeded efforts to set a date, Schelp and Miller said in their e-mail.
In interviews, both men said they agree with Stith that Duke needs to flesh out its development plan, and voiced confidence that it will.
Miller, an activist in the Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood Association, said he believes that by the time the City Council votes on a rezoning, everyone involved will have a clear idea of what the university is promising.
"We're less concerned about what's been filed than about what's ultimately passed," Miller said. "I believe Duke and the stakeholders will produce something that everybody will be reasonably happy with. We view what's been filed as a point of beginning."
Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, added that he's glad to see council members speaking up in public, given that several have voiced questions behind the scenes.
"The council wants to vote on a rezoning case where we walk in in agreement," he said. "If we walk in there and there's disagreement, no one's happy. Let's work it out."
Other council members asked about Stith's comments said they also want to see more from the university.
"In general, the more detail, the better,"
Councilwoman Diane Catotti said. "And I have a history of trying to work out stuff and trying to get as many committed elements [in rezoning cases] as possible."
Councilman Mike Woodard agreed.
"I'd like to see as much specificity as we can see on this, and that's something the neighborhoods have asked for," he said.
Schelp and Miller earlier this month gave the planning commission a 12-point list of issues the stakeholder coalition wants Duke and the council to address. It covered things such as building-height limits, open-space set-asides and the preservation of the remains of what was once an expansive mill village.
It also asked officials to figure out how to limit the size and location of retail and other commercial uses on the site, to make sure that they're there only to support the academic mission of the university. Schelp and Miller stopped short of offering specific advice about how to do that, saying that the "regulatory calculus necessary to accomplish our aims in a way that will be comfortable for all parties is challenging to us as laymen."
Stith also singled out the question of commercial space, saying he wants restrictions that make sure new enterprises don't have an unfair competitive advantage over existing businesses.
The councilman said that the rezoning could give the City Council another avenue to prod Duke officials to address complaints about student behavior that crystallized this spring after three members of the school's lacrosse team were charged with rape.
Despite all the issues on the table, Miller said he doesn't think Duke's rezoning request will produce the sort of town-gown squabbling that's occurred in neighboring Chapel Hill.
Thanks to previous talks between neighbors and Duke officials, "there's a lot of trust built up, and I'm reasonably confident about how this is going to come out," Miller said.