Action Alert
Do you love visiting Sandy Creek Park or the Dry Creek/Mount Moriah Bottomland Natural Area? Perhaps you go to bird watch, enjoy the pollinator garden, or to forest bathe among the mature trees? These are fragile but beautiful ecosystems, rich in bird and animal life. They need our care and protection. A developer is seeking to rezone land next to Sandy Creek Park for 140 apartments, risking stormwater pollution, habitat destruction, and traffic congestion. The developer also wants to build 1,000 townhomes in Orange County’s Rural Buffer Zone, affecting wetlands and wildlife corridors. The Planning Commission voted against both, but the City Council could override the Commission when the Council votes on Feb 3rd, especially since two of its members will be missing. More housing is important, but we must also preserve open space for everyone. The New Hope Bird Alliance is rallying support, and we need your help!
Act Now: Two Ways to Help
1) Write to Durham City Council members at citycouncilonly@durhamnc.gov before January 31 to urge them to reject these rezoning petitions as harmful to birds, people and wildlife and the wrong type of development for their locations.
2) Attend the Durham City Council meeting in person on February 3 at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall, to support NHBA board members who will be speaking in person at the meeting and to demonstrate citizen concern.
Below is a template you may use to reach out to Durham City Council members:
Subject line for Pickett Rd Apartments project: Please reject rezoning request for Pickett Rd Apartments, Z2400001
As a bird watcher and someone who cares about the environment, I am very concerned about the request being made to rezone land along Pickett Rd. for a large apartment complex, as it would be detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the public.
- I appreciate the need for more housing in Durham and note that there are already hundreds of new apartments just being built only 2500’ away on Pickett Road and not right next to the park, which is a fragile and irreplaceable natural area enjoyed by many people. Land is already cleared for 900 new apartments 1.1 mile away on 15-501. Occupancy of existing apartments one half mile away are currently only 50% occupied.
- This would allow construction of 140 apartments with 145 parking spaces beside Sandy Creek Environmental Park and wetlands, a recreational area with paths, mature trees and ponds that supports a rich variety of birds and wildlife.
- The park is used by a diverse cross section of people, including school children, families and the disabled.
- The plan drastically increases the size of the development resulting in the removal of more trees, some 100+yrs old and encourages off-trail destruction of the habitat. The plan would create a vast impervious surface to allow stormwater runoff downhill to destroy and pollute the already flood-prone creek and wetlands. Sandy Creek flows to New Hope Creek and Jordan Lake Reservoir which provides 16.5% of Durham’s drinking water.
- A development of this size would exacerbate existing traffic safety problems on a blind hill with no shoulders right beside two schools and an assisted living facility where speeding is already a problem. The property has no direct access to 15-501 and would add substantial traffic to an area already used by 5 schools.
- A smaller development of owner-occupied houses here would be far more
beneficial to the health, safety and welfare for the citizens of Durham. - The lights and noise from 140 apartments next to the park will disrupt bird habitat, nesting, foraging, and migration. A 4-5 story building next to the park increases the chance of migrating birds colliding with windows and being killed. Each year over a billion birds are killed in window collisions across North America.
Subject line for Mt. Moriah Rd project: Please reject rezoning and annexation request for Moriah Ridge Property, BDG2300033 and Z2300051
As a bird watcher and someone who cares about the environment, I am concerned about the request being made to annex and rezone the Mt Moriah Ridge Property into Durham for the following reasons:
- Durham’s development priorities should be to develop within the current urban core and not spread into what is considered rural and agricultural lands – areas where annexations and utility extensions should not occur. The Urban Growth Boundary balances the desires and needs to protect rural character, drinking water, and environmental lands, and the desires and needs to accommodate existing residents and to provide enough housing for population growth.
- Much of the property is of high habitat value including portions of the New Hope Corridor Wildlife Protection Area. It would be more appropriate to protect this land as the Dry Creek/Mount Moriah Bottomland Natural Heritage Natural Area. The land is important for maintaining and protecting wildlife including birds.
- Annexation of what is considered rural Orange County into Durham for development purposes is a bad precedent for Durham to be setting. Annexation could lead to other developers only purchasing a few acres in Durham and then wanting to annex large tracts of rural land adjacent to Durham.
- The Planning Commission found that the ordinance request is not consistent with the adopted Comprehensive Plan.