By Alex Bass
Alex.bass@triangletribune.com
DURHAM – The Reverend Julian Pridgen, pastor of Saint Mark AME Zion Church, was poised to deliver a Monday message to a packed City Hall chamber about the devil being in the details of the Fayetteville Street Corridor/Heritage Square rezoning proposal.
Pridgen and his fellow rezoning opponents were silenced at the Aug. 4 City Council meeting, during which the proposal vote – delayed from June 16 – never happened. Attorney Jamie Schwedler, representing Sterling Bay – the Chicago-based owner and developer of the Heritage Square property – withdrew the proposal after speaking for 10-plus minutes about what she deemed the proposal’s merits.
Durham City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg affirmed Sterling Bay’s legal right to request a withdrawal, which the Council approved, 5-2, including dissenting votes by DeDreana Freeman and Nate Baker.
For observers, the prevailing issue was “how” the withdrawal happened. “She should have said that in the first five minutes,” community activist Jackie Wagstaff said. “They could sell it to another developer, and they’ll come back and ask for this same thing over again. The election will be over by then.”
Freeman, Mayor Leo Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton and Council woman Chelsea Cook will be on the ballot in the Oct. 7 primary, with opportunities for advancing to the Nov. 4 general election.
Rehberg said six months must pass before the matter can be presented to the Council again.
Terrance White, who was prepared to speak on behalf of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, called the withdrawal’s timing “an interesting turn of events,” and raised two questions: “Are they, really, looking to sell that plot of land, or are they looking to potentially have some type of influence in our local elections coming up?” White reiterated the DCABP’s rezoning opposition, adopted as an official position on July 31. “This particular project does not bring any type of economic viability for the Black community at large,” White said.
Freeman directed pointed comments at Schwedler just as she challenged the attorney’s notion of community on June 16. Then, when Schwedler mentioned Black community leaders with whom Sterling Bay representatives engaged, Freeman noted that Schwedler mentioned no women.
This time, Freeman’s words for Sterling Bay were more expansive. “I hope that they understand the kinds of relationships that they are creating in the community – in a very historic Black community that has faced a lot of discrimination and urban renewal,” she said. “All of those things have happened to them, and you repeat that.”
The packed Council chamber saw a mass exodus after the withdrawal was approved. Peaceful protests continued outside City Hall.
Pridgen said Sterling Bay offered Saint Mark 100 parking spots each Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Sterling Bay would require us to purchase insurance, very expensive insurance, to park over there,” he said. “The gift would end up being a burden in the long run and in the short run.
“It is unconscionable for us to go along with rezoning that property to build more luxury apartments when we’ve got homeless people sleeping on our front porch.”
