A Durham Neighborhood Nightmare—City Planning Gone Bad

City Planning has not done its job. The Durham residential neighborhood of Turnage Heights has a new, 13,000 square foot, 20 foot high corrugated steel warehouse—right smack in the middle of a quiet residential area, and in the direct view of residential homes. Residents are furious with the City of Durham for a string of city planning decisions that have gone from bad to worse, leaving a huge empty eyesore looming large over the entire area. Local neighbors as well as other individual and neighborhood supporters throughout Durham insist the warehouse be torn down.

For close to 70 years, the quiet neighborhood of Turnage Heights, just off Morreene Road in west Durham, co-existed peacefully with a family restaurant in its midst--so peacefully that one neighborhood couple even celebrated their wedding reception there. Several years back however, the restaurant closed its doors for good. It sat vacant until the owner of a local appliance parts store, D&L Parts, purchased the property and tore it down in order to build its new store on the site.

January 2007 Portions of the property are zoned “Commercial Neighborhood,” (CN) allowing for limited commercial usage that complements the neighborhood and meets its needs, according to Durham’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). Ignoring the UDO’s clearly-stated intent (UDO 1.2.2A, 1.2.2T, 4.3.1), Durham City Planning granted D&L Parts permission to build a 3,000 ft2 retail appliance store with 9,800 ft2 of “service and storage”. When signs for the “Future Home of D&L Parts” started going up on the site, neighborhood residents inquired with City Planning and were assured that this was an ordinary retail store and that the property behind the store was residential and would not be used.

August/September 2007 Neighbors were suddenly caught off guard in August when a pile of huge steel girders were delivered to the site. A site plan was retrieved and word quickly spread through Turnage Heights that a massive warehouse structure was being developed. City Planning was then asked how this development could possibly meet the stated intent of the CN zoning: For example, how could an appliance store with this much storage space be a limited commercial use and how could it be construed to meet the needs of the neighborhood? No answer was ever given.

Neighbors then started asking questions of D&L Parts. When the city planning director was given clear and direct proof that D&L Parts was a wholesale distributor (not allowed in CN zoning) and NOT a retail appliance store, the planning director ignored the information and said it wasn’t his job to know the day to day operations of the proposed business.

October 2007 The neighborhood filed an appeal in opposition to the warehouse. A new (interim) planning director read the appeal , spoke with D&L and eventually AGREED with most of the neighborhood’s opposition and points of appeal. The same points the neighborhood had been making since August, BEFORE the warehouse was built! In doing so, the Interim Director notified &L that their intended use – indeed the entire premise of the Site Plan approval – was in violation of the UDO and would not be permitted. HOWEVER, THE DIRECTOR AGREED TO ALLOW D&L TO CONTINUE THEIR CONSTRUCTION! At this point the city gave D&L the option of bringing their business model into compliance with the zoning.. When neighbors asked the Interim planning director how D&L could possibly be allowed continue building, he said that the original application was still valid and that D&L would provide documentation of their new business plan when it was brought into compliance.

November 2007 City Planning notified D&L of several additional violations (two of which were previously pointed out by neighborhood residents) including a storage space (the warehouse) three times the size of the retail store – a clear indication of CN zoning violation. [Accessory (storage) use must be subordinate in size to the primary use (retail) space (UDO 5.4.1A)]. At this point, D&L informed city planning that they have decided NOT to use the building once it is built. Nonetheless, the planning director agreed to permit D&L to complete the exterior “shell” of the building in anticipation of a future legitimate use. The building is therefore still being constructed – now as an empty shell..

December 2007 The original site plan application - for a retail appliance store - has been shown to be invalid and misleading per D&L’s own admission. The proposed use does not reflect actual intentions, the interior layout of the proposed building (UDO 5.4.1A) is in violation and the required parking (UDO 10.3.1 Table) is not provided. Nonetheless, the city planning director continues to allow D&L to build!

Practically speaking, the city has permitted a business to build a 13,000 ft2 warehouse shell in the heart of a neighborhood without knowing what the building will be used for or how the interior will be organized….and without ever demonstrating how either the originally proposed retail appliance warehouse or this current warehouse shell meets the intent of the CN zoning - to complement and meet the needs of the neighborhood. The city planning office bends over backwards to accommodate D&L’s “bait and switch” and “I-think-we’re-gonna-use-it-for-???” mental gymnastics while the Turnage Heights residents get stuck with a warehouse shell that will damage their neighborhood for the next half-century or more. This is a classic case of developer-friendly decision-making that makes “city planning” a misnomer.