SCAD comes before Council tonight
Real estate developers hope the third time is the charm tonight as the highly controversial, privately-sponsored rewrite of Durham's development codes makes another trip before Council.
This BCPI article is written by Brian Callaway.
Schoolhouse Rock could make an entertaining trilogy by following the trek of tonight’s main agenda item at the Durham City Council meeting. The nascent local “bill” is the 52-page text amendment to Durham’s development rules which has had an interesting journey since inception: the proposal, “Simplifying Codes for Affordable Development” or SCAD for short, was written, submitted and named by developers.
Tonight’s public hearing follows the August 21 surprise request for a 90-day continuance by Raleigh developer Jim Anthony, one of the official applicants of the text amendment. At the time Mr. Anthony stated he wanted “to allow for continued engagement with the community for those who feel they have been left out of the process.”
“It breaks my heart to see how divisive this has become in the community. Durham deserves better,” he opened with in August.
City Council subsequently summoned a taskforce of equal numbers of proponents and opponents. That taskforce met three times last month: October 24, October 25 and October 27.
Highlights from the taskforce meetings include the following:
Bob Chapman, co-author of SCAD and longtime Durham developer, mentioned that there are several projects waiting for SCAD’s approval that will not happen without SCAD’s passage.
Jim Anthony, the main SCAD applicant, stated that he would be willing to remove the highly controversial “Progressing Affordably Toward Housing” (PATH) program from the rest of SCAD to separately consider it later.
Thomas Hennessey, who records show owns 94 properties mostly in East Durham, traveled into town from his residence in New Jersey to attend as a proponent.
Tiana Joyner, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity, expressed numerous concerns about how Habitat’s name was misused by the applicants and publicly documented that SCAD proponents have harassed her and others affiliated with Habitat.
Katie Ross, a retired attorney and resident of Bahama, shared thoughts from the perspective of County residents, who are poised to be impacted as well since Durham’s development code currently covers both the City and County (though the Board of County Commissioners would have to separately pass SCAD).
Tom Miller, a member of the InterNeighborhood Council (INC) SCAD working group and Watts-Hillandale resident, expressed very specific concerns including elimination of buffers, increasing the maximum size of ADUs from 800 feet to 1200 feet, among others.
Subject matter experts Dr. Danielle Spurlock from the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC and Dr. Kay Jowers from the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke are conducting a joint research evaluation about SCAD-related topics and will have preliminary results in early 2024.
The taskforce mentioned formulating a joint statement to pass along to Council, but no such document or statement of agreement was created. Indeed, very few points of agreement were reached throughout the three sessions.
Some taskforce members, especially the opponents, suggested continuing to meet in the months ahead. Mayor Elaine O’Neal cited that taskforces typically operate for months to create a detailed final report that expresses their findings and/or recommendations to Council. She had recently participated in a taskforce that lasted for 18 months.
The SCAD proposal on the Council’s docket for this evening still stands at 52 pages in length, the exact length it was in its last version presented to Council. Although the taskforce spent nearly an hour discussing in detail the impact of SCAD on buffers, it appears that none of the language around buffers was altered in any way.
There is one noteworthy change in today’s version that was made to the highly controversial PATH Program. Originally, the program proposed to reduce the required timeframe for affordable units to remain affordable from the nationwide standard of 30 years to just 5 years. In the version of SCAD presented to Council tonight, that timeframe has been changed to 15 years.
Perhaps now there can be celebrations since the chocolate ration was increased from 30 to 15.
The Planning Department had previously written to Partners Against Crime District 1 (PAC1) and stated that SCAD “does not ensure any affordability created as a result of using the regulations, with the exception of the PATH program.”
That means the net impact of a set of regulation proposals—marketed explicitly by its writers as creating affordability—will be to decrease the length of time any affordable units that do get built would stay affordable.
Council is expected to pass SCAD today, especially after voters overwhelmingly indicated a preference for SCAD proponents in municipal elections earlier this month.
Councilmember Leo Williams, who voted on March 20 to try to pass SCAD before the Planning Department could even review it, was decisively elected to be the next mayor. Incumbent Councilmember Javiera Caballero, who had fawned over SCAD back in 2022 in Joint City County Planning Commission meetings, was easily re-elected to her seat, while Councilmember Dr. Monique Holsey-Hyman finished fifth in her bid to maintain her seat despite expressing a consistently skeptical stance towards SCAD.
Tonight will be the third and guaranteed final appearance for SCAD before this particular Council at 7pm tonight in City Hall as this will be the final regular Council meeting for Mayor O’Neal, who is stepping down, and Dr. Holsey-Hyman. The new mayor and two new councilmembers will be sworn in at the start of the next meeting on December 4.
To participate in tonight’s meeting, in-person attendees can sign up to speak at the Clerk’s desk upon arrival to Council Chambers. For digital communication and viewing, please observe these notes presented on the Council agenda:
Click here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BMCw6CJzQAuiMw8jB9NeCw to register to speak during the City Council Meeting on a below-listed agenda item. Your registration should be submitted by 2:00 p.m. on the day of the City Council Meeting, and your access will be audio only. Please note that the chat and Q&A functions will not be available in the virtual meeting.
Registration is not required to watch the City Council Meeting. Click here for ways to watch.
Registration is not required to provide written comments to City Council. Written comments can be submitted here by 2:00 p.m. on the day of City Council Meeting.
DISCLOSURE: The author, Brian Callaway, has spoken publicly against the SCAD amendments. The lack of local news coverage of SCAD proceedings necessitates publishing of this article despite the author’s previous engagement on the matter.