They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,
With a pink hotel, a boutique and
a swinging hot spot,
Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone,
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Joni Mitchell may not have sung specifically about Durham, but there are those who worry the Bull City is heading in the direction of a paved paradise.
As one of the fastest growing areas in North Carolina, Durham County faces the competing desires of expansion and containment, with vocal citizens on both sides.
The debate defined
The term urban sprawl often has negative connotations. One image commonly associated with it is a retail wasteland.
"Strip malls and commercial development near interstates--in the public's mind, that's [one] kind of urban sprawl," says Steve Bocckino, co-founder of Durham anti-sprawl group Citizens Against Urban Sprawl Everywhere, also known as CAUSE.
But aside from their aesthetic conservationist sensibilities, what most opponents of urban sprawl object to the most is the idea of hasty, unsupported growth.
"Usually it is development at the very edges of a community," Bocckino says. "Often it leapfrogs over other areas of the city, so it's difficult to provide services because it's so far from the places that already have water, fire, sewer, police."
This lack of infrastructure to support new growth is at the heart of anti-sprawlers' fears. "We have so much traffic congestion particularly because infrastructure has not kept up with [the city's land annexations]," County Commissioner Becky Heron says.
"There should be adequate public facilities to keep up with development... because [so far] we have not been able to keep up with the developments that have taken place and the number of new people," she adds.
Another major concern with urban sprawl is that it neglects badly needed development in already existing areas, such as downtown Durham.
"If you look at the schools in Durham that are under capacity, all of them are in the inner city," Bocckino says.
"But all development is taking place at the periphery.... Durham does have areas that could really use some growth, but that's not where the developers are choosing to build. Any kind of growth we have in the periphery competes with the existing city for resources.
"For example, it's very hard to develop downtown with offices when you approve huge numbers of offices in south Durham. It's difficult to revitalize schools in the inner city when you know you have to build new schools on the periphery."
Heron says urban sprawl is not necessary. Perhaps surprisingly, Nick Tennyson, executive vice president of the Durham Home Builders Association, agrees.
"I don't know that we need [urban sprawl]," he says. "What it resulted from was people were living in dense areas of small lots and with the availability of automobiles and the ability to travel and move out, people did.... It's not a function of need but of want."
In other words, Tennyson, former mayor of Durham, says, some people call it "the American dream."
"One of the things that has made the Triangle an attractive place to grow companies has been that people have felt the quality of life here is better and for most people, the quality of life is defined by being able to have a half-acre lot," he continues.
"Communities where property values are low and jobs are scarce have a much different understanding of growth than do we," he adds. "The Triangle's median income for 2002 is about $70,000 for a family of four.... The typical
"Once again, our attitude toward growth is shaped by the fact that many people perceive it as a problem as opposed to seeing it as a solution.... When you begin to talk about urban sprawl, one of the things you find is about 80 counties in North Carolina would love to have some sprawl."
Comparing Triangle growth
Thanks to a burgeoning technology industry, Research Triangle Park--which stretches from Raleigh to Durham to Chapel Hill--is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation today.
The influx of engineers, scientists and researchers to the area within the past decade has caused an explosion in housing developments and supporting facilities--everything from supermarkets to child care centers.
In the Triangle, urban sprawl seems logistically inevitable--and, according to Tennyson, desirable. "Bringing together researchers, scientists and academics results in an urban environment... along with those people came a desire," he says. "A lot of people who moved here came from pretty high-density living situations."
Towns such as Cary, Apex and Morrisville experienced population increases, and with residential subdivisions and shopping centers constantly under construction, struggle to keep their development under control. Opinions vary on the success of Triangle towns in managing their rapid growth.
"I think that Cary is somewhat ahead of [Durham]. They have reacted very strongly with a growth management set of strategies," Bocckino says. "I think Raleigh is behind us in that regard."
One peripheral-growth problem the capital city is currently experiencing is its much-delayed plans to finish the outer loop, also known as Interstate 540.
"Certainly the outer loop contributes to people living farther from their jobs. Making their commute shorter is good, but it's still sprawl," Bocckino says.
"You have to balance different interests. Much of Durham's traffic, for example, comes from people from other counties going to Research Triangle Park. Durham suffers because of that but does not benefit from anything there."
Durham mayor Bill Bell also sees the implications of general Triangle growth on the city's sprawl issues.
"If you drive down [Highway] 55 from Durham toward Apex, the transformation has been incredible in terms of what was once green. Now you find housing developments, apartment complexes, commercial strips as well as shopping centers," Bell says.
"Had that development not taken place along [Highway] 55 there would have been less of a need to widen [the road]. If they had insisted that you widen Highway 55 first, then you would have less of an issue with traffic congestion. That's what I mean by having infrastructure in place to support additional growth," he adds.
The Southpoint battle
In recent years, Durham's most salient urban sprawl uprising came with the development of the Streets at Southpoint, a massive shopping complex in south Durham, officially opening its doors this month.
Protests against the megamall's arrival--CAUSE was actually formed in response to the project--were sounded as early as the fall of 1998, when the City-County Planning Commission approved the rezoning of the land on which Southpoint currently sits.
Although efforts to halt the development of Southpoint were unsuccessful, Bocckino remains wary of the implications the mall has had on officials' attitudes toward growth.
"The repercussions of [Southpoint's] rezoning resound in south Durham," he says. "Despite promises by the city manager and City Council members to keep the current zoning intact, virtually all area around the mall has been rezoned for commercial and more intense uses... car parks, offices."
However, there are those who see advantages to Southpoint's existence. "There were people that cast [the Southpoint development] as a sprawl issue," says Tennyson, who served as Durham mayor during the majority of the Southpoint protests.
"The question is... from what perspective? If you think only from the perspective of Durham, then it is peripheral growth.... I think in the context of the current economic times, it looks like a damn good fiscal move for Durham," he adds.
Bocckino, however, does not see any obvious benefits.
"I've seen the business plan from the mall developers.... I don't think it's going to be that big of a financial impact," he says. "I'm not sure who is benefiting from the growth that Durham is experiencing. People who are pro-growth often say that it helps the tax base, but our taxes have not gone down.
"I defy anybody to show me where the quality of life has gotten better as a result of this growth. I suppose if you were a mall shopper you would argue with me."
Despite lingering dissatisfaction among some Durham residents, Bell applauds one move surrounding the Southpoint development.
"To the City Council's credit, they insisted that the [Interstate] 40 interchange at Fayetteville Road and Highway 751 be completed before the shopping mall opened," he says.
"Had they come along later to put down infrastructure, this would have been even worse of a problem."
The direction of growth
Under the leadership of Bell, who ran with a platform of cautious growth, Durham looks to approach sprawl more carefully than was done under Tennyson's tenure.
"What I try to stress is that Durham needs to look at growth that is more balanced and inclusive," Bell says. "What I mean by inclusive [is] that we need to focus our energies on what's happening in our inner-city communities as well as what's happening in the periphery.
"If you look at the periphery, you have no problem with developers wanting to come in and develop, but when you look at the inner city, it's a different issue, so I think it's incumbent upon local government to help that growth and development," he adds.
Heron is also concerned with unbalanced attention to inner-city versus peripheral development.
"As long as the City Council continues to annex and let developers do what they want to do in terms of density, then you will have urban sprawl and the inner city won't get developed," she said.
As for the specifics of Durham sprawl, both officials trumpet the preservation of south Durham's character.
"I think one of the things in the past that has made this area so attractive is the fact that we do have open space," Heron says.
"I think it's imperative that we make sure we reserve a significant amount of open space for a lot of reasons, [such as] health and recreation."
Heron points to areas such as Eno River Park and Duke Forest, noting, "We really have to be careful that we don't overbuild and that we do preserve open space and that we don't infringe on our critical watersheds and cause further degradation of the quality of life."
Bell notes that the City Council recently adopted managed growth and development as one of its goals.
"We need to manage it so as not to negatively impact the quality of life that many people came to this area for and grew up in," he says.
"That's the green space, not the congested roads and traffic."
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