Women's Clothing Boutique Near Me Durham, NC

“When are we going to be allowed to speak?” Mimi Kessler called out from the audience Monday night in City Hall.

The public hearing on changes to Durham’s building code, proposed by developers, had dissolved into chaos after the applicant proposed a 90-day delay.

Mayor Elaine O’Neal called Kessler to the podium so she could be heard over the noise.

“A lot of us came here tonight to have our two or three minutes,” Kessler said. “I don’t hear in your voice and your plan that we’ll be able to talk to you tonight.”

“Yes, yes you will,” O’Neal said. “But not tonight.”

Laughter engulfed the room, which had been packed with residents for the SCAD hearing — short for Simplifying Codes for Affordable Development — since 7 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned five minutes later, before 9:40 p.m., and the hearing postponed until Nov. 20. Only seven people were called upon to speak. Dozens more were in the chambers or tuned in virtually.

Nov. 20 is after the election — voters will choose a new mayor and three City Council members this fall — but before the new council will take its seats.

“Here’s the idea: 4% of the ideas, the planning department said they cannot support unless changes are made. We’re willing to make changes,” Durham developer Bob Chapman explained after the meeting.

Chapman, who is working with Raleigh-based developer Jim Anthony, said they were advised by a “well-respected former mayor” to ask for an extension. He declined to name the former mayor.

Anthony said they want to make sure planning staff can get behind more of the proposed changes.

“It was very obvious that there would be a lot of commentary that was irrelevant,” Anthony said late Monday night. “That just became a light that went on for me today.”

Stephen Knill, the cofounder the Leesville Road Coalition concerned about development in southeastern Durham, opposes SCAD.

“I think Jim made a really smart decision,” he said. “I do think it’s clear they’re betting that the new council will be as or more supportive than this one. But who knows? We’ll see who votes.”

SCAD was written by a team of real estate professionals and submitted by Anthony in 2022.

It aims to make infill development easier by eliminating parking minimums, encouraging building on small lots, and allowing more creative design of accessory dwelling units and townhomes.

Designer-builders Aaron Lubeck and Dave Olverson, who wrote many of the proposals in SCAD, embrace new urbanism, a design movement that promotes walkable blocks with houses built close to shops and public spaces.

Some of the city’s longtime residents have united against it, suspicious that it could accelerate gentrification, change the look and feel of the city’s oldest neighborhoods and benefit the people who wrote it.

A group of homeowners in the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham have been some of the most prominent voices organizing against SCAD. Kessler and Stephen Knill are both active in the INC.

“The vast majority of SCAD’s provisions have nothing to do with housing affordability,” Knill wrote. “Instead, they are designed to make redevelopment of Durham more profitable for the development community — usually at the expense of Durham’s existing residential communities.”

The planning department recommended most of the changes in SCAD. It tweaked a handful of them and said the rest could be allowed if they are evaluated for unintended consequences when the city rewrites Durham’s unified development code beginning next year.

The largest sticking points that remain center on two proposed amendments:

Last year, Raleigh dropped parking minimums citywide.

“That’s controversial,” Anthony acknowledged. “Durham’s not ready for that. Raleigh was, but Durham’s not.”

Durham planning staff members are largely onboard, they wrote in a detailed analysis provided to city leaders, but they recommend keeping minimums for some infill developments where there is not enough street parking.

Planning staff recommend the program, called PATH, “in order to make financing easier” but want a commitment to keep the units affordable for longer than the proposed five years.

Anthony told The N&O that five years was always meant to be a negotiating point.

Bonita Green, INC president and candidate for City Council, said the city should accept no less than 30 years.

The Nov. 20 date penciled in for the City Council vote will make SCAD an election issue.

Four of the sitting City Council members are actively campaigning: DeDreana Freeman and Leonardo Williams are running for mayor (though they’ll hold onto their seats should they lose) and Javiera Caballero and Monique Holsey-Hyman are aiming to keep their seats. Two current members whose terms are ending — O’Neal and Jillian Johnson — are not seeking re-election.

The fields will be narrowed in an Oct. 10 primary before Election Day on Nov. 7.

“People have asked for us to wait for a new council. That’s what I would like to see,” Holsey-Hyman said during the meeting.

Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton said that was problematic and would be akin to the U.S. Senate refusing to take up Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in an election year.

“We’ve got about five or six months left on this council. Is there anything else we shouldn’t be doing?” he said sarcastically. “We have a job to do.”

Williams said he is eager to debate the content of SCAD.

“That’s what I thought we were here to do tonight,” he said, visibly frustrated. “We have not had a lot of honest conversations community-wide.”

Many other candidates attended Monday night’s meeting.

“It’s very frustrating because the only person who can make changes to the text is the applicant,” said Sherri Zann Rosenthal, who is running for City Council. “It’s fundamentally antidemocratic.”

Nate Baker also is running for City Council. He voted against SCAD last year in his role as a planning commissioner.

“For complicated, large-scale, land-use changes, we need to trust those who are shepherding it through,” Baker said Monday night, also calling for a delay until the elections are over.

But there are implications beyond Nov. 20 being one of the current council’s last meetings.

“That’s Thanksgiving week,” Kessler said. “How are we going to get people to come out?”

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This story was originally published August 22, 2023, 8:29 AM.

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Durham County is the latest to launch a guaranteed income program, as County leaders say the greatest need is housing and food assistance.

In the last two years, there has been a nearly 35 percent increase in families receiving SNAP benefits. The program is designed to provide a hand-up to the county's low-income residents.

"We're having people still struggling," Durham County Board of Commissioners chair member Brenda Howerton said.

She has heard the stories of struggle from families in her Durham Community.

"I just talked to my daughter yesterday and where she works, they talked about laying off over 200 people," Howerton said. "And we still have a lot of food insecurity in this community. "

But a new initiative is set to launch called DoCo Thrive, which will help families in need. Although, some families may qualify for government assistance. It's still not enough.

Earlier this week, the board of commissioners unanimously approved the new pilot program that will provide families with $850 a month for a year, a $750 stipend, and another $100 to complete a survey to keep track of the program.

Another 125 people who were not selected for the monthly stipend will still be able to participate in the monthly survey to compare participants with stipends to those who do not receive the stipend.

Howerton said the biggest benefit will be among single parents trying to care for their children.

"Children cannot thrive. If their parents are not thriving and they don't have a house to live in if they don't have food for their children, our children cannot thrive, and they cannot learn." Howerton said.

This will become the second Durham guaranteed income program in the county.

The city of Durham launched a similar program in March 2022 which provides a $600 monthly stipend to more than 120 people who were formerly incarcerated.

February was the last monthly installment for the first group of participants. But the city has earmarked $1 million in the city's budget to continue the program. Who will benefit and what the program looks like is not clear right now.

"There are single parents, raising children, there are folks that are in housing distress because of mounting rent, or mortgage payments. There are a lot of different populations, which is why we are ultimately hoping that this will be a guaranteed income a universal guaranteed income initiative for all individuals as opposed to specific demographics," said Middleton.

It's the success of the city's program that inspired the county.

"We are ultimately hoping that this will be a guaranteed income. A universal guaranteed income initiative for all individuals as opposed to specific demographics." Middleton said. "We have to do the very best we can for the people in this community. This is one of the things that we saw that we could do. "

The total cost for the pilot program is $1.69 million which will be paid through the American Rescue Plan Act. The county is committed to the initiative for the next two years, and applications will start later this year.

Durham County will experiment with providing a guaranteed, basic income for families, leaders agreed this week.

The county will give $750 a month — no strings attached — to low-income families and another $100 for participation in a monthly survey so researchers can see how it’s working.

County Commissioner Nida Allam called it “a lifeline.”

“We know that so many families are one emergency away from financial catastrophe,” Allam told The News & Observer in an interview. “Working multiple jobs to support their family and the bills continue to pile up because the cost of living keeps going up.”

The Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed the measure Monday night.

“Children can’t thrive if their parents aren’t thriving,” Chair Brenda Howerton said earlier this month. “I think about raising four children as a single parent. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy.”

The county expects to select 125 people to receive $850 a month and 125 people to receive $100 for participating in studies researchers can use to evaluate the pilot.

Families making 30% of the area’s median income can participate. The county will take applications later this year.

“You don’t have to be part of our system. You don’t have to already be receiving benefits. We want everyone who is eligible to look at applying for the program,” Durham County Chief of Staff Shannon Trapp said.

The federal government sets income limits according to household size. In Durham and Chapel Hill, 30% AMI is:

Allam hopes the income limit will grow.

“I would love to see it expand,” she said. “Even if you’re not in the lowest income bracket, folks are still struggling.”

The county will seek out a partner to administer the program, which they’ve nicknamed DCo Thrives. They have a tentative launch date of Oct. 26.

It will be the second guaranteed, basic income experiment in Durham, after the city gave money to formerly incarcerated people beginning last year.

The city worked with the nonprofit StepUp on its guaranteed income pilot, called Excel.

Excel was for people who had recently been released from prison and had an income below 60% of the area’s median income. The 109 participants received $600 a month for a year, ending in February.

The typical participant was a 41-year-old African-American man with one child, according to demographic data maintained by the Guaranteed Income Pilots Dashboard. They had a median annual income of $8,769, the city reported.

The city received grants and donations to pay for Excel, largely from Mayors for Guaranteed Income. (Durham County joined its offshoot Counties for Guaranteed Income when it launched this spring.)

Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton helped ensure the city set aside $1 million in this year’s budget to do another guaranteed basic income experiment. The details are being worked out now.

The county’s pilot will cost about $1.7 million. It is using grant money the federal government channeled to local governments for pandemic recovery under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

The Stanford Basic Income Lab counts 45 active experiments in the United States.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has the only active program in North Carolina. It has shared casino revenue with enrolled members of the tribe since 1996.

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This story was originally published August 17, 2023, 10:27 AM.

Durham is one of the largest cities in one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S. As residents flock to the city, housing prices have spiraled upward.

Some developers say they have the solution to the growing demand: make infill development easier by eliminating parking minimums, encourage building on small lots, and allow more creative design of accessory dwelling units and townhomes.

But their rewrite of Durham’s planning rules has pitted them against some of the city’s longtime residents, who are suspicious of their motives and of what could happen to their neighborhoods.

After months of simmering tension, it all comes to a vote Monday night, when the Durham City Council will consider an expansive amendment to the city’s building code known as SCAD.

Raleigh-based developer Jim Anthony submitted a lengthy rewrite of the code called SCAD — short for Simplifying Codes for Affordable Development — in May 2022.

“There was a time when the city of Durham was legendary in the Triangle for being probably the most gummed-up and worst place to try to get a project done,” he said at the time.

Anthony praises the Planning Department’s efforts over the past 15 years but says “sticky spots” persist, making certain sites “undevelopable.”

That’s why the changes are needed, he argues

A group of homeowners in the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham (INC) has united in opposition, objecting to both the process and content of the proposed changes.

Tom Miller, a former Preservation Durham board member and planning commissioner who represents the Watts-Hillandale community, wrote a series of essays detailing their concerns.

“The vast majority of SCAD’s provisions have nothing to do with housing affordability,” he wrote. “Instead, they are designed to make redevelopment of Durham more profitable for the development community — usually at the expense of Durham’s existing residential communities.”

The INC, a coalition representing more than a dozen neighborhoods and HOAs, has encouraged its members to write to City Council members. Miller said developers shouldn’t be allowed to rewrite the code.

“SCAD is extremely complex. Not only are hundreds of individual changes proposed, the changes often work together to compound impacts,” he said. He takes particular issue with eliminating some buffer requirements, shrinking lots and awarding bonuses for affordable housing that lasts five years or less.

Anthony worked with local designers and builders Aaron Lubeck and Dave Olverson on the proposal and outreach. Lubeck said 28 people wrote the various amendments. Bob Chapman has also joined the effort, becoming the group’s spokesman after critical news coverage and delays from the City Council.

They embrace new urbanism, a design movement that promotes walkable blocks with houses built close to shops and public spaces, even publishing a magazine — Southern Urbanism Quarterly — to that effect.

Their team has met with the INC and planning staff several times this summer to refine the proposal, but was unable to win over the INC.

“We thought this was going to sail right through,” Chapman said. “They’re excellent at tactical maneuvering.”

The proposed changes were submitted 15 months ago.

Local advisory boards talked it over in 2022 before the Planning Commission deadlocked 6-6 against it.

Nate Baker, a planning commissioner running for City Council, voted no. He said there was good and bad in the document but that Durham should take more time to get it right.

“Durham’s zoning regulations are broken,” Baker said in December. “We should be making good, walkable, sustainable, inclusive development easy to build. We should make everything else hard to build.”

SCAD had the support of Habitat for Humanity at the time, but lost it after turnover at the nonprofit. Habitat wrote to ask that its name be removed from the application in March and has since issued two statements saying its support was unauthorized.

“HFHD supports sensible changes to the (unified development ordinance) that align and promote our mission and most importantly the overall community good,” the agency wrote Aug. 4. “The Board of Directors of HFHD does not support SCAD as it is currently written, will not apologize for actions related to SCAD, and will not reverse decisions made in March and April.”

The item was initially on the City Council’s agenda in March, then pushed to May.

“We would like it to be broken down a little bit farther for easier reading,” Mayor Elaine O’Neal said March 9. “I’m still learning, and I am still very much conscious that ... this is something different. This is something new, and it’s coming in packaged different.”

The mayor wanted all seven members to vote, so when the May meeting arrived and council member Javiera Caballero couldn’t make it, SCAD was pushed back again.

The planning department recommended the vast majority of the changes proposed in SCAD. It tweaked a handful of them and said the rest could be allowed if they are evaluated for unintended consequences when the code is rewritten, a process scheduled to begin next year.

“The proposed amendments will provide greater flexibility and encourage compact residential development,” the planning department concluded.

The changes also will encourage development that takes advantage of existing infrastructure instead of sprawling into the countryside, where there are no water or sewer lines and first responders are farther away, staff wrote in their analysis.

O’Neal said she valued input from the planning department, which she considers a “neutral party.”

“They’re sort of the stabilizer for me,” she said in the spring.

The unified development ordinance, or UDO, is a highly technical document that dates to 2006. Alterations have been made over the years, perhaps most notably in 2019 when Expanding Housing Choices made it easier to build denser housing by allowing building on smaller lots and making duplexes and accessory dwelling units easier to build.

SCAD expands on that. Here are the highlights:

It also establishes a new affordable housing incentive program.

More changes encourage infill, the process of developing vacant or under-used parcels in urban areas:

The proposal would also reduce yard and buffer requirements, so neighborhoods can get denser:

Lubeck emphasized that density maximums in residential neighborhoods will not change. The modifications will instead allow neighborhoods to reach their full potential.

Barring further delay, the City Council will vote after the public hearing Monday night. It begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

Members have indicated they’d like to vote on the proposed changes in sections, not as one document.

The county’s Board of Commissioners must also approve the changes.

Durham is in the final stages of updating its comprehensive plan for the first time since 2005. (A joint public hearing between the City Council and Board of County Commissioners is scheduled for Aug. 31.)

After that, they’ll rewrite the UDO, which lays out the actual rules for development.

SCAD critics say that should come first.

“Why would the city entertain something like SCAD now, if a better, more democratic and inclusive process is to begin soon?” Miller wrote.

Chapman said that could take years.

“Delay is a great tactic. At some point, people just get tired,” Chapman said. “They may win simply by wearing us out.”

Get headlines and updates about the Bull City in The Durham Report, a free weekly digest delivered to your inbox every Thursday, featuring stories by our local journalists. Sign up for our newsletter here. For even more Durham-focused news and conversation, join our Facebook group "The Story of my Street."

This story was originally published August 20, 2023, 6:00 AM.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to clarify that two amendments only apply in certain zones. Garages will cease to be counted in a home’s square footage only in the Old West Durham Neighborhood Protection Overlay. Maximum residential densities will only be eliminated in commercial, industrial and office zones.

When it opened in 2016, Durham barbecue restaurant Picnic felt innovative by smoking whole hog the old fashioned way.

Using pasture-raised pigs from local farms, Picnic aimed for a depth of flavor some barbecue fans said was only in the past.

In a passing of the barbecue torch, Picnic has been sold to a new owner.

Co-founder Wyatt Dickson has sold Picnic to longtime customer and recent partner Chris Holloway. The sale closed at the beginning of July, but Holloway has had an influence on the restaurant for months, including shifting Picnic into a new counter-service model.

“I’m honored and grateful to have the experience I’ve had,” Dickson said. “I feel like I’m passing the torch to someone who has the same values about the institution of barbecue that I do.”

Dickson opened Picnic in 2016 with chef Ben Adams and Ryan Butler, whose Green Button farm supplied the restaurant’s pigs.

The restaurant specialized in whole hog barbecue, the oldest and most labor-intensive style of North Carolina’s iconic food. Picnic opened within a new generation of North Carolina barbecue restaurants expanding the genre, adding beer and brisket to the menu and aiming to reinvigorate a proud culinary tradition.

First as a fan and now the owner, Holloway said Picnic smokes a version of barbecue he’s loved all his life and doesn’t plan to change.

“When I think of Picnic, I love seeing the parking lot full of people, some coming off the Eno River or the golf course, enjoying traditional barbecue in a traditional way,” Holloway said. “I have no intention of changing it...It’s a time machine, when you eat this barbecue, the pigs we use, it’s the same quality of animal you’d find 100, 200 years ago. Clean, pasture-raised, without any antibiotics. I think you can taste all of that.”

Holloway grew up in Durham and still vividly remembers his first bite of barbecue, cooked just down the road from Picnic at the Pleasant Green United Methodist Church.

Fueled by four Cokes and no taller than a picnic table, Holloway said he was running through the churchyard at the annual pig picking when his mom caught him by the arm and put a bite of barbecue in his mouth.

“I stopped, I froze,” Holloway said. “It’s one of those moments you don’t forget.”

Holloway has operated and consulted in restaurants for years, including multiple concepts within Duke University’s dining options and in Durham music venue Motorco’s restaurant Parts & Labor.

Before that he was a bassist in Chapel Hill bands Queen Sarah Saturday and Collapsis. All the while, Holloway said he was cooking.

Last year after months of weekly barbecue and music conversations, Dickson called Holloway on New Year’s Day in need of a fry cook.

“I said I’ll be right there,” Holloway said. “I started lightly treading in, learning what’s going on. And then a few months ago, I think Wyatt began to feel like he’s ready to do something else. And this is exactly what I want to do right now.”

Both Dickson and Holloway said they shared a sense of barbecue’s history in North Carolina and how a restaurant plays a role sustaining traditions.

“Wyatt and I would say we’re like a little preservation society,” Holloway said of barbecue practitioners. “There’s emotion and tradition and nostalgia for this food. My goal is to keep that alive.”

Holloway said that a few years ago he wasn’t sure the kind of barbecue he loved would be around much longer. Then Picnic opened about 90 seconds from his house, followed by a new wave of barbecue restaurants offering distinctive takes on what it means to cook with fire.

“I think this is a great moment for barbecue, but it’s such a subjective experience,” Holloway said. “I’m up against that first bite, that eureka moment every time someone new walks in. You can’t repeat that, but we’ll come as close as you can to recreating it.”

Picnic will remain Picnic, in name and in philosphy. That means whole hog in the smoker, along with brisket and ribs and traditional sides like collard greens and cole slaw.

“When we pull that pig off the smoker, the effect on customers is real,” Holloway said. “It’s clear this isn’t smoke and mirrors, it’s just an unbelievable taste.”

It also means an eye on pushing barbecue’s place in the modern culinary scene, which Holloway said could mean a series of pop-ups in Picnic’s side yard, serving special menus like Thai dishes.

For Dickson, who was once a law student at UNC before turning to barbecue, it became time for something new.

“Running a restaurant is hard, but I’ve had a great time doing it,” Dickson said. “I’m a little tired and a little ready for whatever’s next. I’m ready for a change, but I wanted to make sure this thing I’ve built goes to someone who cares about it. That person doesn’t just grow on a tree, but Chris understands North Carolina barbecue and the role it plays in the broader society.”

As for that something new, Dickson didn’t rule out a return to restaurants at some point.

“I’m not done with barbecue,” Dickson said. “It’s in my blood. It’s been a major part of my life and will continue to be.”

The pandemic upended Dickson’s original barbecue plans, which at one time included a large restaurant called Wyatt’s in Raleigh’s Gateway Plaza shopping center. Dickson said Wyatt’s was a brilliant idea in 2019, but as the pandemic made real estate and construction more expensive, it no longer made sense.

The last few years led Dickson to believe his passion lied in the institution of barbecue, not necessarily in the restaurant business.

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s how important barbecue is to lots of folks in North Carolina,” DIckson said. “It’s a vehicle for us to connect. There aren’t that many things that bring us together anymore, but barbecue is one of those things that remains. I see it as having a greater importance today and that’s what will always interest me.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2023, 7:02 AM.