It's another week, another meeting in the Duke administration's effort to gain community support for plans for the new Central Campus.
Provost Peter Lange gave a PowerPoint presentation and fielded questions last night at Asbury United Methodist Church, which sits across from East Campus on West Markham Avenue.
"There isn't that much that is new, which is really a sign of the stability of the master plan," said Lange, who gave an almost identical PowerPoint presentation in the same church basement last March.
The provost invited a small group of community leaders to a private Aug. 23 meeting in the Allen Building in order to address a widely-disseminated list of community concerns before the public meeting.
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Wednesday's meeting was held to rally support for changing Central Campus' zoning from residential to university-college.
The change--which will be discussed at an Oct. 10 meeting of the Durham Planning Commission--would allow the University to build a mix of university-related buildings, including restaurants, academic structures and retail businesses.
Some community members said they are concerned new developments will be economic competitors with off-campus businesses.
"If you've got restaurants in every building on campus, they're never going to leave," said developer Glenn Dickson, who helped build the Ninth Street North complex.
John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, said the renderings of Central Campus that Lange projected did not assuage his concerns about new retail developments.
"Slides on the wall of ideas and committed elements of a development plan are two different animals," Schelp said. "One is binding, and one is not."
Lange said he was hesitant to make permanent promises about the nature of retail on Central Campus, adding that the development of the campus could take 50 years.
"Someone asked me, 'Would you confine yourself to the current scale of retail on campus?' and my answer would be no," he said.
Frank Duke, Durham's planning director, informed University officials at the meeting that Duke must submit its zoning request by Oct. 3. Lange and other officials expressed their hope that the community would be behind the change by then.
"Three or four weeks represents an energizing challenge for us," said Kemel Dawkins, vice president for campus services.
Dawkins and Lange said they hoped to meet with community members shortly to negotiate compromises on the development plan.
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