In their last forum of the campaign Tuesday night, candidates for Durham City Council took on such issues as the cost of the city's growth on its infrastructure.
The six candidates vying for the council's three at-large positions--Lewis Cheek, Tamra Edwards, Dan Hill, Angela Langley, Thomas Stith and Joe Williams--also took questions from an audience of about 50 people on topics including transportation, city mismanagement and affirmative action.
But the most frequently addressed subject was development, as two audience members challenged the incumbents to defend the council's approval of recent development projects in light of overcrowded schools, increased traffic and environmental damage.
Cheek, Hill, Langley and Stith--four incumbents who often vote in favor of rezonings for new developments--said growth provides many benefits like more jobs and a larger tax base, and can even help traffic by putting people's homes and workplaces closer together.
"For years, people in Durham lamented the fact that we had no growth. Now we're lamenting the fact that we have too much growth," Hill said.
He admitted that Durham schools are overcrowded, saying 2,500 children throughout the county are stuck in trailers rather than permanent classrooms. But he said waiting until the trailers are eliminated to pass any more rezonings would mean 10 years without any development.
The four council members said one cure might be more communication among the city, the county--which oversees the school system--and the city/county zoning committee. "I just really think it's a question of proper planning," Stith said, adding that such communication is becoming more common.
But Edwards, the one incumbent among the at-large candidates who typically opposes controversial rezoning proposals, said the current pace of development is too rapid. "I do not believe Durham should grow at the cost of the lives of the people of Durham and the souls of their children," she said. "Am I against development? No. But I am against it if it's not strategic."
Williams, the lone candidate not already on the council, said he would talk to citizens before deciding whether to support any rezonings.
Another development-related question focused specifically on downtown, as candidates debated funding downtown revitalization.
The city recently raised property taxes by 1 cent to set aside money for initiatives like a $38 million parking garage to supplement a potential redevelopment of the American Tobacco campus by a private company.
Williams said the city had nothing to show for the tax increase. "Listen to me careful: I do not see where the money they say they have spent downtown [has gone]," he said. "Downtown has benefited from that money--in somebody's pocket!"
But the incumbents said that even though the American Tobacco project and others have not yet gotten off the ground, other projects--like the West Village apartment complex--have become a reality.
They said it is important to invest in downtown as the center of Durham. "I'm a believer in downtown, I'm a believer in trying to put things into downtown," Cheek said.
Langley agreed, but added that nearby low-income neighborhoods were still suffering. "Millions of dollars have been put into downtown, but it hasn't done anything for the neighboring communities downtown," she said.
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