Preserve Rural Durham

UPDATE- The Durham Fire Chief allowed a new blasting permit to be reissued this week. Stay tuned for more information. “Because there were multiple complaints about the blast, we issued a stop-work order while investigating,” the Durham Fire Department said in a statement. “We await additional information from the blaster before a new permit is issued.” Many residents posted on Ring Neighbors after the blast. Some citizens went to the blasting site! Some called the Sheriff Office. Some called Fire Station 8. Some called 911. Many residents felt it! Citizens have raised concerns about the blasting process for years. The developer hires a blasting company usually the one mentioned in the article. The blasting company hires a company to complete the pre-inspections and to monitor the seismograph! If you’ve ever seen a seismograph, there are NO NUMBERS or data available to the observer! It goes via a solar cell to a “mystery” person who monitors the data. Residents were denied this data previously. Families like the Ellixsons were told the data is only given to the company who employs them, the blasting company! Why isn’t there an INDEPENDENT 3RD party monitoring the blasts? It should not only be the blasting company who receives the data? WHO is protecting the citizens? 🧨💥👷🏼 Link to CBS17 article https://loom.ly/UoXSwtA

Second Neighborhood Meeting for 2613 Carpenter Road will occur on Monday, October 28, 2024 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. Please share with your friends and neighbors in the Cheek Road, Burton Road and Carpenter Road areas. Neighborhood Meetings were not to occur on Monday nights as we have seen before in other cases. The Planning Department has been notified. There are plans for more townhomes. The Property is within Durham County and currently zoned Rural Residential (RR). The property will be annexed into the city with a new zoning code. Please call in and ask Questions, concerns and seek clarification now before this project is approved. The link to register is To join/register for the meeting, use following link: https://lnkd.in/evVzdqeN

Monday night, October 21, 2024 the Durham City Council’s meeting with have another Mineral Springs’ development presented to the council for annexation. Mineral Springs Townhomes project will annex two parcels for a total of 10.844 acres. 1402 and 1412 South Mineral Springs plans a development with a PDR of 5.349. The traffic count for the area of South Mineral Springs, Holder Road and Sherron Road is shown! 1598 new dwellings in the seven developments listed with 867 townhomes being built! The increase in vehicular traffic is 12,928 trips per day! You know the traffic issues on either end of South Mineral Springs Road. What road improvements will be made? Please note: the contour map shows the flow of water right down Holder Road where flooding already occurs! Water would then flow down Little Lick Creek to Grove Park Lake which was dredged a few years ago along with a very expensive Stream Restoration Project. The polluted water then flows into Falls Lake! Please call in and speak if you can not attend in person. If you plan to call in you must register by 2:00 Monday (TODAY). Click here to register to speak during the meeting! https://loom.ly/as1__DM Your registration should be submitted by 2:00 p.m. on the day of the City Council Meeting, and your access will be audio only. Registration is not required to provide written comments to City Council. Written comments can be submitted here by 2:00 p.m. on the day of City Council Meeting

Monday night, October 21, 2024 the Durham City Council’s meeting with have another Mineral Springs’ development presented to the council for annexation. Mineral Springs Townhomes project will annex two parcels for a total of 10.844 acres. 1402 and 1412 South Mineral Springs plans a development with a PDR of 5.349. The traffic count for the area of South Mineral Springs, Holder Road and Sherron Road is shown! 1598 new dwellings in the seven developments listed with 867 townhomes being built! The increase in vehicular traffic is 12,928 trips per day! You know the traffic issues on either end of South Mineral Springs Road. What road improvements will be made? Please note: the contour map shows the flow of water right down Holder Road where flooding already occurs! Water would then flow down Little Lick Creek to Grove Park Lake which was dredged a few years ago along with a very expensive Stream Restoration Project. The polluted water then flows into Falls Lake! Please call in and speak if you can not attend in person. If you plan to call in you must register by 2:00 Monday. Click here to register to speak during the meeting! https://loom.ly/as1__DM Your registration should be submitted by 2:00 p.m. on the day of the City Council Meeting, and your access will be audio only. Registration is not required to provide written comments to City Council. Written comments can be submitted here by 2:00 p.m. on the day of City Council Meeting

DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR? Citizens BEG frequently at City Council Meetings to create INFRASTRUCTURE BEFORE MORE DWELLINGS ARE APPROVED in Southeast Durham. Currently Southeast Durham has over 17,158 dwelling units APPROVED for construction with 4,408 pending approval. This equals 21,566 DWELLINGS which will provide an additional 39,000 people a home JUST IN SE Durham. Currently 49 Subdivisions are under CONSTRUCTION NOW. Thanks Zebulon for seeking infrastructure before more dwellings are approved in your town! "They need to catch up with the infrastructure before they keep approving all these other new subdivisions," said Mary Beth Carpenter, a Zebulon resident. Carpenter serves as Executive Director of Preservation Zebulon, a non-profit group aimed at preserving the town's history. While she stressed the group is not against the project, she wanted more of a response from Pulte, the developer, regarding remains on the site from a cemetery that was once there.

Neighbors and friends, Many PRD members and neighbors felt a dynamite blast from a site on Baptist Road yesterday. This blast caused residents to panic and reach out to the sheriff office, fire station 8 as well as some neighbors went to the blasting site to seek answers. This powerful blast exceeded what citizens felt was the limitations on a blast. Citizens beyond the “Pre- Inspection” required zone of 750 feet were affected! Some felt a blast so strong it almost knocked them out of their chair! PRD made contact with Durham City Fire Officials last night and as of this morning a STOP Work order was issued by Fire Chief Zoldos while an investigation is undertaken! If you felt the blast, have damage from the blast or have security cameras that captured the blast, please let us know and also email your city and county representatives. As you know, PRD has spoken up for citizens many times at Durham City Council about blasting damage as innocent people have suffered from damage. People have shared on Ring Neighborhood conversations site their observations! The more people that share these experiences with elected officials, the more we can impact a change. Please share.

Brunswick County Commissioners Mull Development Moratorium due to a lack of Infrastructure. Sound Familiar?

For those who didn't participate in the Neighborhood Meeting Tuesday night, the site across from Oak Grove Elementary School is proposing 200 units of apartments and townhomes. A minimum of 12% will be townhomes with the remainder of the 11 acre site being apartments. There will be 2 access points onto Highway 98 and One on Valleydale Drive. Thanks to the neighbors who attended the meeting. Many neighbors asked great questions including a lack of infrastructure, traffic, flooding along Valleydale and Mineral Springs, blasting, retention pond drainage onto neighbor's property and much more. There will be another Neighborhood meeting in the future.

ACTION ALERT by SOUND Rivers. SOOOOOO…. What can you do to help save Lick Creek and other streams in SE Durham? Glad you asked. You can use this link below and quickly send a letter to your city council members who pass these large developments in the Lick Creek Watershed with Triassic Basin Soil. Mass grading in this highly erodible soil exacerbates the destruction of our creeks and creates “TOMATO SOUP” which pours into our creeks and streams and then onto Falls Lake and the Neuse River. Fill in these few blanks and a letter will be sent to the Durham City Council. It’s super easy! Please take a minute to complete this Action Alert. https://loom.ly/nxL2OQ4

RESCHEDULED MEETING TUESDAY, October 15th from 6 to 7pm. 3811-3909 Wake Forest Highway PDR will be 17.66 which is VERY DENSE. Please Tune In and learn what is planned for these two homes and acreage behind it. See the ZOOM link in the comments section