considers a Natural Heritage Area based on the plant and animal life found there. (That boundary was recently changed to include less of the Oakridge property; Beacon says it hired an outside engineering firm to survey the land and didn’t find the kind of plants or animals on the slopes to warrant the designation.) In order to build more than six dwelling units per acre or build on a larger footprint, Beacon needs the city council to rezone the property. As part of a planning process for the Patterson Place Compact Neighborhood District, planners have proposed stricter environmental rules that, by Beacon’s estimate, could reduce the area the developer is able to grade by as much as about 70 percent. One planning-department proposal would broaden the definition of what is considered a steep slope and prohibit any disturbance of them. Another would require a setback of three hundred feet from the floodplain around the creek and its tributaries, one of which cuts through the center of Oakridge 58’s land. According to planning documents, these changes would protect wetlands, plant and animal habitats, and trees. Beacon, however, views these restrictions as overzealous, arbitrary, and prohibitive of development in an area where the city is trying to encourage it. Last week, the Durham Open Space and Trails Commission passed a statement in support of the proposed regulations, citing two reports recommending setbacks of at least three hundred feet. Tom Stark, an attorney representing Beacon who has served on the commission since the 1990s, points out that the setbacks recommended by those reports refer to a distance measured from streams, not the surrounding floodplains, as the proposed changes dictate. (Stark says he sat out the vote on the statement and will recuse himself from any matters related to the project). But advocates for the New Hope Creek Corridor, including some involved with its establishment thirty years ago, say these restrictions are necessary for the health of the ecosystem, and city-county planners argue that “scientific findings” support their proposal. The grade, location, and soil of the slopes attract unique plant life and, in turn, wildlife, and having an undeveloped setback from the creek gives animals a refuge when it floods. The land has already been damaged by clear-cutting and construction of a sewer line. Grading would erode it further, says Ed Harrison, a former Chapel Hill Town Council member who conducted the field studies for the 1991 New Hope Creek Corridor Master Plan.
“This could qualify for a state park,” says Harrison, who remembers finding a wooded slope as tall as a five-story building in 1989. The corridor—once home to an Occaneechi village first documented by an explorer in 1701—is unique in its own right, particularly the section that crosses 15-501, described by the master plan as “perhaps the hub of hydrological and biological systems occurring in the entire area.” In addition to the coyotes, mussels, and otters, it’s home to deer, an elusive orchid called the Yellow Lady Slipper, and several plants and animals considered by the state to be threatened or significantly rare. The corridor also serves as a connection between Duke Forest and Jordan Lake. “It’s important because it’s a key link between a lot of special habitats,” says Reynolds Smith, chair of Durham Open Space and Trails Commission’s open-space committee. “Without the connection, those threatened species would die.” If new slope and setback regulations are adopted while Beacon’s grading plan is actively under review, it would be grandfathered in, assuming the grading plan, land disturbance permit, and erosion plan are all approved. (Planning for the district is still in the public input phase.) Stark says Beacon isn’t rushing to beat the tighter regulations. “I think they were concerned that they needed to go forward under current regulations because what was being proposed, one, might take some time and slow down— which is not a good thing in the development business, because it’s so costly if you do—and, two, it was felt that the proposals were not based on science,” he says. Advocates for the creek who spoke with the INDY say they agree with the effort to cluster jobs, services, and housing around the light rail stop, but development should taper off to mitigate disturbance of natural areas—and shouldn’t move ahead while rules for the compact neighborhood are still being written. Bob Healy, an environmental policy professor at Duke and chairman of the New Hope Creek Corridor Advisory Committee, says Beacon’s plans amount to “environmental vandalism” seeking to avoid future regulations; grading the land as proposed would make it “impossible” to develop this area in accordance with the planning that has already gone into the New Hope Creek Corridor and the Durham-Orange Light Rail line. “It’s yet untamed wilderness,” says Sutherland, “and it’s being whittled away before we get a chance to discover it.” swillets@indyweek.com
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