Groups ask to delay vote on Duke's rezoning
Herald-Sun, 10 July 2006

Neighborhood groups will ask the Durham Planning Commission to postpone an upcoming advisory vote on Duke University's Central Campus rezoning by a month so they can figure out what officials should ask of the school.

Such a delay "shouldn't cause too much heartburn" among Duke officials since it "says right on the development plan" that Duke has no immediate intention of building anything, said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association.

Schelp added that he and other activists were concerned because they were "surprised to see how little of what" they've discussed with the university in recent months made it onto the largely-blank development plan Duke filed in support of its rezoning request.

Duke officials want the City Council to apply Durham's "university and college" zoning rules to the 128-acre property, replacing the residential zoning that now covers it. A favorable council vote would simplify the review process Duke has to navigate before getting permission from regulators to start erecting new buildings there.

The university's still-evolving plans for Central Campus call for a first-phase redevelopment of the site that would contain less than 1 million square feet of floor space. The school's executive vice president, Tallman Trask, has said campus leaders would like to break ground in about a year.

Schelp said the coalition of neighborhood groups and merchants who've been monitoring Duke's planning process remained interested in making sure there were limits on campus retail development. It may ask city officials to impose square-footage limits to ensure that whatever Duke builds isn't big enough to compete with existing businesses, like those on Ninth Street.

It also may request some sort of building-height limit that would tighten from west to east across the project site, which stretches along Erwin Road and the Durham Freeway from Trent Drive to Campus Drive, Schelp said.

Another concern is the fate of three creek valleys on the site. "We want to make sure those are protected," Schelp said.

Schelp added that neighbors were pleased that Duke seemed to be backing away from the possibility of asking a major retailer like Barnes & Noble or Borders to run a campus bookstore on the site, but would "like to see it in writing."

Asked about the bookstore recently, Trask said a full-blown Borders or Barnes & Noble "isn't going to happen" on Central Campus, and added that even if Duke invited one of the mega-retailers to manage a smaller-scale operation there, "it wouldn't be branded as such."

Administrators are now "leaning toward selling things" at a Central Campus bookstore that people might come to existing university stores to buy, like Duke souvenirs and paraphernalia. They are also interested in placing it in an accessible location, Trask said.

Duke's submission of a largely-blank development plan -- it showed only the 150-foot transition buffers that Duke has to establish at the edges of its property, a couple of stream buffers, three wetlands and five of the many buildings that now stand on the 128 acres -- didn't surprise Schelp all that much.

"Nothing surprises me with Duke," he said. "This happens a lot. Duke has all these committee meetings where they tell us what they're going to do, take questions, and say, 'We'll get back to you.' That's not a conversation with partners. That's a lecture in the classroom with teacher and student. But we recognize that Duke does it its way, and we move forward."

Durham's unified development ordinance, however, says a development plan must include a "schematic layout of the proposed development, showing the general locations of various uses, building envelopes, maximum building heights, parking and service areas, access points and circulation routes, and open space and recreation areas."

Planning Commission members routinely criticize zoning applications that lack a detailed development plan, but their votes and advice are not binding on elected officials.

The commission is scheduled to consider the Central Campus rezoning during a meeting that will begin at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday in the City Council's meeting chamber on the first floor of City Hall.

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Delay proposed on Duke rezoning
News & Observer, 11 July 2006

Neighborhood advocates hope to slow a proposed rezoning of 128 acres of Duke University property.

John Schelp and Tom Miller, neighborhood representatives, sent a letter Monday to the Durham Planning Commission asking the advisory board to delay consideration of Duke's application to change the zoning for Central Campus.

Duke plans to transform the land between the Gothic-style West Campus and Georgian-style East Campus into a mix of new student housing, academic buildings and retail stores.

The university hopes to persuade city and county officials to put the property under the rules of the university and college zoning rules rather than the residential zoning regulations that govern its use now.

Over the past two and a half years, neighborhood advocates and merchants have raised concerns about new campus retail that could pull customers away from homegrown Ninth Street businesses.

They also have pushed Duke to protect environmentally sensitive streambed hollows.

The planning commission is set to meet at [6:00] p.m. today in the City Council's meeting chamber on the first floor of City Hall.

In their letter, neighborhood advocates said they want to see maps and notes designate more natural areas and open space.

They also want rules that would protect the location and appearance of the historic homes in the proposed district. And they want the plan to include limits on parking as well as the size and location of all stores, restaurants and entertainment planned for the new campus.

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Planning Commission Delays Hearing On Duke Rezoning Plan
(WRAL, 11 July 2006)

Duke will have to wait at least one more month to see if it can revamp Central Campus. They want to turn it into a place where students can live, shop and eat, but some nearby businesses don't like the idea.

Before Duke can do anything, the land needs to be re-zoned from mostly residential to University District Zoning. The Durham Planning Commission was set to hold a public hearing on the issue Tuesday night, but concerned neighbors asked that it be delayed.

Residents, along with businesses, are worried about what exactly this development will entail.

Ninth Street restaurant owner Hamad Ghanayem is watching Duke's plans to turn the mostly residential Central Campus into a residential, retail and restaurant development.

"I believe it's going to impact Ninth Street business, said Ghanayem. "(If) people have more choices, they are going to have an impact."

The Regulator Bookstore was worried about competition, also.

"That was a big concern to me," said co-owner Tom Campbell. "They were going to open a bookstore a quarter of a mile from here."

Now, Campbell said Duke administrators have told him a bookstore is no longer part of the plan.

Duke has said it has a vested interest in the economic health of Durham and doesn't want the project to negatively impact places like Ninth Street. Still, nothing has been decided. It's that plan, or lack thereof, that has the nearby neighborhoods concerned.

"Duke needs to provide a much more detailed plan," said John Schelp of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. "What they've submitted is mostly blank."

Concerned neighbors are hoping the planning commission's move to delay a decision on re-zoning for the project will give them and the businesses time to get more details.

"This puts the ball in Duke's court," said Schelp. "We know they know what the issues are. We know we can talk with them because we've worked with them in the past."

[Caution: now entering spin zone...] To show its commitment to Ninth Street businesses, Duke announced a pilot program last week that will give all first-year students $50 to spend at certain restaurants on Ninth Street. [Duke can show its commitment to Ninth Street and other local businesses by expand its DukeCard to be used off campus as we asked... these $50 certificates are a nice PR stunt designed to get good publicity.]

Duke's revitalization of Central Campus is expected to span the next 20 to 50 years, and local businesses are invited to set up on campus. The re-zoning issue now moves to the Durham Planning Commission's August Agenda