Stephen’s Woods

Proposed shopping center at N. Roxboro and Infinity: It’s about TRAFFIC

West Pointe Village is a 300,000 square foot shopping center proposed for the northeast corner of North Roxboro and Infinity Roads.  A smaller, less attractive shopping center was approved for the site in 1999, but was never built.  This was due to the high cost of the intersection improvements included with the plans.  The current proposal offers more shopping options than the old plan, but with sharply reduced road improvements. 
The developer has a well-crafted and highly focused marketing message. He highlights two talking points whenever the shopping center is discussed:

1. North Durham has been starved for retail options for too long
2. $2 million in improvements to the intersection are part of their plan.

Item 1 is true.  However, Item 2 leaves out one critical fact:  The improvements they propose are feeder lanes to guide traffic into the shopping center from westbound Infinity and from northbound North Roxboro just beyond Infinity.  No new turn lanes are proposed for North Roxboro Road.
I believe the intersection is overloaded right now.  Adding a large shopping center without improving the traffic flow through the intersection is a mistake.  I ask you to join me in a lobbying effort directed at the City Government to fix the intersection. 
To be successful, our message must be as well crafted and focused as the developer’s:  “It’s the TRAFFIC”.
The vote on West Pointe Village is scheduled for the October 15^th City Council meeting.   This will be the final opportunity for the public to speak about the shopping center.
What can we do?
1. Contact the City Council members, express your concerns.  To send a general email to all Council members,
mailto:council@ci.durham.nc.us
My advice is to keep emails short and simple:  Remember that it’s about the TRAFFIC.  Here’s a couple of talking points:

• Describe how northbound traffic grinds to a halt before the Kroger shopping center on your afternoon drive home, or how southbound traffic backs up to Milton Avenue in the mornings.
• Ask for the City Council’s help to alleviate the pressure at the intersection now.
• How could the shopping center be successful if first-time shoppers get stuck in traffic jams and decide it’s not worth the hassle to come back?

2. Discuss this issue with your friends who live in River Forest, Eno Trace, Vantage point or Latta Woods.  There’s strength in numbers.
3. Stay informed.  Visit this webpage for updates.

Resources:

West Pointe Village rezoning application (official document describing the shopping center used in the 14 August 2007 Planning Commission hearing) http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/zoning_committee/items/A07_06.pdf
Discussion about West Pointe Village on a Durham blog 26 August 2007 http://www.bullcityrising.com/2007/08/infinity-roxbor.html
Meeting minutes, Durham City Council 20 September 2004  (scroll to page 16 to read about how a group of concerned neighbors defeated a housing development called “Infinity Heights” ) http://www.durhamnc.gov/agendas/minutes/cc_minutes_09_20_04.pdf
NCDOT Traffic Survey Maps (by year and county) These maps are a little cumbersome to use, but this is the official source for traffic data. http://www.ncdot.org/it/gis/DataDistribution/TrafficSurveyMaps/ 
Author contact info: 
David Wiehle dwiehle@mindspring.com

Where To?

Stephen’s Woods needs a new location for our monthly neighborhood meeting. Our current location, the Durham County Library’s North Branch on Milton Road will begin charging $50 per meeting for use to continue using the Community room.

So, we need your help to find a new location (or locations) to hold our community’s meeting once a month. If you have any suggestions, please mention them in this thread on the forums.

Site Features: The Blog

The final StephensWoods.org site feature I’ve chosen to highlight is the blog, better known as the homepage.

Built on WordPress, the homepage not only serves as an introduction to the site and the framework around which most of the structure is wrapped, but also a center for news and commentary. The site is for the entire Stephen’s Woods community and is what you choose to make of it. If you’re interested in contribution an article or opinion piece to the homepage, please contact your block captain, or post to the forums.

In addition to news and commentary, the homepage contains a collection of links of local interest and information, a form which allows you to subscribe to updates, the aforementioned calendar, and current weather information for Durham.

Site Features: The Forums

Stephen’s Woods online forums is the place to discuss what’s happening in Stephen’s Woods, share information and much more.

Use the forums to tell the neighborhood about upcoming events, such as little-league games, block parties, dance recitals and more. The forums are the online home of the minutes for each monthly neighborhood meeting, as well as information and discussion for the upcoming meeting. You can use the forums to share neighborhood watch information, contact your block captain, advertise/seek items for sale (eBay, garage sales, etc.) or offer/request services (like babysitting, lawn-mowing, or dog-walking) or just to chat about the latest basket game.

The forums also serve as the keystone for StephensWoods.org’s user registration system. (If you haven’t already registered, it takes less than 5 minutes, so why not do it now?)

Site Features: The Gallery

The Stephen’s Woods photo gallery is a fantastic place to show off your photos, be they museum-worthy abstracts, action shots from the latest little-league game, or family snapshots from the backyard.

The gallery allows you to upload photos directly from your computer or camera, without the need for complex photo software or sophisticated knowledge of the website. Three clicks, and your photos are online. You can create your own albums or add to existing ones. I’ve created a few examples to get the ball rolling. A random photo from within the gallery appears in the sidebar of the home and article pages.

After you’ve registered and logged-in once, the administrators will give you the ability to post to the gallery (usually, within 24 hours).

Site Features: The Directory

The Stephen’s Woods neighborhood directory is a user-friendly, yet powerful, way to keep in touch with your neighbors.

You can search the entries using any criteria (name, address, pet, etc) or view everyone who lives on a particular street. The directory is password-protected, so that only Stephen’s Woods neighbors can view the information, keeping your information out of the hands of spammers and other ne’er-do-wells. To login, follow these simple instructions.

The directory is compatible with the vCard file format used by many address book programs, (including Apple’s AddressBook, Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla) so you can download the entire neighborhood, or just one entry. It also allows you to send your block captain your vCard, to make adding or updating your entry simpler. (Block Captains, please read the instructions on how to set up your administrator account.)

Registration Issues Resolved

If you have completed the registration, but did not receive an authorization email, please check your spam filters and add stephenswoods.org to your list of authorized email senders. I have gone ahead and activated all users who attempted to register before 6:30pm today.

There also was a mistake in the server records that mis-routed emails going to “webmaster;” it has been corrected.

If you encounter problems registering, please see this post in the forums.

Site Features: The Calendar

I thought I might as well highlight some of the site’s features over the next couple of days, starting with the calendar.

The Stephen’s Woods calendar can be found on the right side of this article’s page, at the top of the sidebar. Days with events attached display as red links and are clickable, showing details of the event(s). Additionally, the calendar also displays a list of the next 4 events and their dates. Events are added through the blog, so for the time being, you’ll have to ask the webmaster or your block captain to post the event in the forums.

If you use Google Calendar, iCal, Mozilla, Outlook, or the dozens of calendar programs that support iCalendar, you can click the () icon to subscribe to the calendar, which will automatically update when a new event is added.

What once was, and never shall be again

A recurring topic at the informal monthly meetings leads me to believe that there is a great deal of concern and confusion regarding the status of “the Covenants” and “the neighborhood association.”
Continue reading What once was, and never shall be again…

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Welcome to StephensWoods.org, the new online community for the Stephen’s Woods neighborhood in north Durham, North Carolina.

Go ahead and register, then drop by the forums and say hello. Or, you can browse the neighborhood directory to get in-touch with your neighbors, face-to-face. And, if you want to show your neighbors Stephen’s Woods from your unique perspective, head to the gallery to share your photos or browse through the neighborhood’s.