Panel declares Durham neighborhood 'blighted'

DURHAM -- The Durham Planning Commission declared the Rolling Hills/Southside area to be legally "blighted" Tuesday night, but its deliberation was dominated by "eminent domain."

As a result, what was in essence a formality in the process for organizing rehabilitation in the run-down and crime-plagued area off the Durham Freeway gained approval by only a 6-5 vote.

"I'm not sure what we've done," commissioner Jackie Brown said after the vote.

But commissioners were sure the city needs to do a much better job of explaining its intentions to residents in the affected neighborhoods.

"You have to keep at it until you can meet the residents where they are," commissioner Barbara Beechwood said to assistant community development director Larry Jarvis.

Only a few residents have turned out for public meetings on the redevelopment project, even though neighborhood representatives have gone door to door making invitations and one meeting even offered door prizes.

"Even though you go to extraordinary means to bring people in ... you have to do better," Beechwood said.

"This is something that's going to need to be carefully explained," said commissioner Wendy Jacobs.

Jacobs' comment came after almost two hours of presentations, comments and questions that seemed to only confuse the issue more as it went along.

The city's community development department asked the commission to agree that the 125-acre Rolling Hills/Southside project area is "blighted" under criteria specified in North Carolina law, and certify it as a "redevelopment area."

Such designation authorizes the city to create a formal redevelopment plan which, if adopted by the City Council, improves Durham's chances of getting tax credits and other financial aid for the project; and allows the city to impose design and quality standards for future private development higher and stricter than those of its general ordinances.

But some citizens claimed the designation would empower the city to seize private property.

"The city has chosen the most punitive form of redevelopment, where properties are seized by eminent domain," said Larry Hester.

Hester owns the Phoenix Square Shopping Center on Fayetteville Street, and has objected to any commercial development in Rolling Hills that could compete with existing businesses in the area.

He also is a former developer of the Rolling Hills subdivision, from whom the city repossessed most of the 20-acre site for overdue loans in 2003.

Hester's wife, Denise, also objected to the "blight" designation, calling it an "extreme form of redevelopment" with which "demolition is the right under the law. ...

"This entire redevelopment process has been flawed from the very start," she said.

Anita Keith Foust of Trinity Avenue and Ruth Poole also objected.

"A lot of bad things are happening in Durham," Poole said.

Under state law, a city may use eminent domain to acquire blighted property in a designated redevelopment area. Mayor Bill Bell and other city officials have repeatedly said the city will not seize property for the Rolling Hills/Southside project.

In approving the "blight" designation, the Planning Commission also called for a provision in the Redevelopment Plan that bars the city from using eminent domain to acquire owner-occupied property; and to specify that the Hesters' shopping center is not part of the redevelopment area.