Very soon, if the proposed new UDO passes, we will be powerless.
To ask questions and get more details on the proposed UDO, attend the meeting at the Bahama Ruritan Club on February 22. It will start at 2:00 p.m. The Bahama Ruritan is located at 8202 Stagville Rd, Bahama, NC 27503.
The Unified Development Code (UDO) controls what development is allowed throughout Durham County. In addition to the location and density of new developments, the UDO prescribes details such as the height of buildings, parking requirements, and open spaces. The UDO specifies the zoning for every area of Durham.
Unless we act now, the Durham City Council majority (always copied by our ineffective majority of County Commissioners) intends to complete the transfer of control over development in Durham to developers themselves. The abdication by our elected officials of their duty to review and regulate how and where Durham grows is happening through revision of the Uniform Development Code to grant developers all the density and freedom from environental concerns they desire. The revised UDO will upzone all of Durham up to the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). The UGB is supposed to protect north Durham County and the few remaining specs of rural land in the south and southeast of Durham, from creeping urban sprawl. The boundary can and will be expanded and ignored if we don’t pay attention. If you want to know what urban sprawl looks like, take a drive through southeast Durham and enjoy the vistas of never ending townhouses and apartment buildings, alternating with ugly construction sites.
The revision, also, eliminates what was previously designated Future Growth Areas. This area between the Durham City Limit and the Urban Growth Boundary, was officially understood to be available for development in the FUTURE , if needed, but only AFTER necessary infrastructure was completed. Recently the council majority has freely granted annexations into the Future Growth Area.
The revision is in the end stages, with the first public hearing happening this month before the Planning Commission. Public hearings before the City Council and County Commissioners will follow through the Spring. If we care, we need to be at these meetings.
We, the citizens of Durham City and County, do NOT get to vote on changes to the UDO. We can only try to influence our electeds by attending and speaking at the public hearings. Packing the chambers makes a strong impression on the electeds sitting behind the dais. By speaking we make a record of what the electeds were told, everyone can see it, and we can hold them accountable at the next election. Knowing that a lot of residents care enough to go to a hearing on a weeknight makes council members think hard about what they are doing.
Emails and written comments are not useless, but they are very easy to ignore. We have no way to know whether any council member/ commissioner opens and reads our written messages. If you can’t participate in public hearings, even on zoom, sending an email is better than doing nothing.