Image credit: YouTube page of City of Durham [1, timestamp 38:00]
As reported in the last issue of PARADE, the City-County Planning Department is now engaged in a complete rewrite of Durham’s zoning and development regulations, the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). An initial draft of the new code was released at the end of September and portends big changes, especially for traditional neighborhoods.
Under the current UDO, adopted in 2006, residential neighborhoods are regulated by a number of districts which recognized varying lots sizes and types of housing. In Old West Durham, most property is zoned Residential Urban (RU) for smaller lots. In Watts-Hillandale, some property is zoned RU, and others are classified as Residential Suburban (RS), specifically RS-8 and RS-10, which require slightly larger lots. All of these zoning designations allow single family homes, duplexes, and accessory dwelling units. Under the ‘small lot option’, all of these lots can be subdivided and redeveloped into 25-foot lots as small as 2,000 sq. ft.
District standards of current UDO. Image credit: Engage Durham [2, slides 23-24]
The draft UDO would place Old West Durham, Watts-Hillandale, and almost every other neighborhood in the city into a single zone called Residential District (RD). Under the proposed RD zone, three different development scenarios are envisioned. The first scenario would allow a traditional single-family home with one or two units and an accessory dwelling unit. The buildings on the lot could cover 50 percent of the lot’s surface area and could be three stories high.
The second scenario would allow a separate dwelling unit of up to 1,200 sq. ft. for every 1,250 sq. ft. of lot area. Like the ‘small lot option’ allowed in current UDO, the maximum footprint for a house under this scenario would be 800 sq. ft., but unlike the current rules, each house could be three stories tall and there could be more of them. For a typical 50 ft. neighborhood lot, this means the traditional home on the lot might be replaced with four or more separate units depending on lot depth, building layout, and setbacks.
The third scenario in the new UDO would allow a traditional neighborhood lot to be redeveloped with apartment buildings containing one unit for every 625 sq. ft. of lot area. That might result in more than ten apartment units on a typical Old West Durham or Watts-Hillandale lot. Up to 70 percent of the lot area could be covered by buildings. The buildings could be three stories tall. Things like setbacks and street, side, and rear yard requirements for development in all three RD development patterns are generally less than those imposed by today’s rules.
So far, only the regulatory outlines of RD and other zoning categories contained in the proposed UDO have been roughed in. Things like parking, open space, tree requirements, stormwater controls, and lighting rules have yet to be laid out. Questions abound:
· What will become of development plans negotiated between developers and the public?
· What about historic preservation and protecting neighborhood character?
· What about affordable housing?
· Who will benefit from the redevelopment the new code encourages?
· Will the new UDO require developers to build small, market entry homes in new developments?
State law allows this, but Durham has never discussed it. Some critics are worried that the new rules favor redevelopment of existing affordable neighborhoods with more expensive new dwellings accelerating gentrification and displacement. Still others perceive that the new code favors rental housing over homeownership and worry about the consequences that will have for wealth distribution in Durham. For most Americans, intergenerational family wealth depends upon owning a home. Once a lot that held an affordable single-family home is redeveloped into an apartment building,
the property is forever unavailable for families reaching for the bottom rung of the wealth ladder.
The draft UDO can be reviewed on the city’s Engage Durham website. A schedule of engagement meetings is also posted there. A final draft of the new code is supposed to be ready after the first of the year.
This article was first published by PARADE, the shared newsletter for Old West Durham and Watts-Hillandale neighborhoods.
Work Cited
“New UDO Oct 22 Virtual Community Meeting.” YouTube page of City of Durham, 30 Oct. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIzQ-FexhxY.
“Unified Development Ordinance, Code Audit and Approach.” Engage Durham, 1 May 2024, https://engagedurham.com/DocumentCenter/View/601/Durham-New-UDO-Audit-and-Approach-Presentation-JCCPC-20240501.
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