The People’s Alliance, one of Durham’s three major political-action organizations, wants the City Council to tag conservative legislators and members of Congress for creating fiscal problems for local authorities.

In a statement released this afternoon, the PA reiterated its objection to the city’s proposed $1.80/month garbage-collection fee as imposing a greater relative burden on the poor than on the affluent.

The statement goes on to say, “We also recognize that conservative legislators in Washington and in Raleigh are working to starve local governments of the federal and state aid they need,” and calls on the City Council to “publicly identify this agenda as the cause of its fiscal problems … and the resulting social problems.”

Here’s the entire statement:

Durham taxpayers’ little-used parking lot at 1111 W. Chapel Hill St. continues to rise in value, thanks to the competition of two prospective buyers.

The city put the .23-acre lot up for bids with a minimum of $37,000. As of Friday, the price was up to $60,000 offered by Self-Help, which wants it for an office-retail project. Next move is up to David Anthony, a neighboring property owner with ideas of his own.

“I’m checking my resources,” Anthony said.

Self-Help intends to use the lot for a 10,000-square foot retail building to be leased to Durham Central Market, a grocery co-op in need of a home.

Market President Beth Fowler has put out an appeal for member/investors at $50 a share, saying that DCM needs $600,000 more by Aug. 31 to break ground in Self-Help’s “Kent Corner” development this October.

In April, the City Council declared the lot surplus property and agreed to sell it to Self-Help, the Durham financial and community-uplift institution, for $37,000. However, surplus-property sales are subject to “upset bids” for a set period before a deal may be closed.

Anthony, and some other nearby residents, are not satisfied with commitments Self-Help has made for its project. Anthony has said he has several uses in mind for the parking lot, and has had talks with Self-Help about cooperation in its development.

Still, he topped Self-Help’s original price with an offer of $38,500. Self-Help offered $50,000. Anthony offered $52,550. Self-Help offered $60,000, and Anthony has until June 24 to make an upset bid of at least $63,050, said David Fleischer, manager of the city’s real-estate division.

Upset bidding may continue indefinitely.

“The numbers keep going up,” Anthony said.

One of the developers of 751 South said City Council members "turned their backs" on Durham Monday night when they voted against water-sewer extension and annexation for the project.

"We are disappointed with the City Council’s vote last night, not only for ourselves but for the City of Durham," Southern Durham Development President Alex Mitchell said in a prepared statement.

"Four members of the Council voted not in the best interest of the City, but in the best interest of themselves," Mitchell said.

Council members Eugene Brown, Diane Catotti, Don Mofitt and Steve Schewel voted against the developers' request, though they anticipated action in the state legislature to override the council decision.

Mayor Bill Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Cora Cole-McFadden and Councilman Howard Clement voted in favor.

Those voting against utility extension and eventual annexation "turned their backs on affordable housing, on $9,000,000 worth of traffic improvements, on thousands of jobs, on the Durham Public Schools, on the Durham County Sheriff’s Department, and on the ability to annex 751 South in ten years when there will be no risk of economic loss," Mitchell said.

"They turned their backs on the opportunity to demonstrate to the state of North Carolina that a project of this scope can successfully be built using the yet to be enacted new Jordan Lake rules. They did not stand up for Durham. They turned their backs on it."

West Village’s owners plan a June 14 groundbreaking for a 156-unit apartment building near the downtown Loop.

Called “West Village III,” the six-story building is designed to architecturally “complement” the former Liggett & Myers cigarette factory complex now occupied by the existing West Village apartments and businesses.

“We view this phase as … invigorating to the entire city,” said Bryan Kane, vice president of Federal Capital Partners. The Maryland company bought controlling interest in West Village in 2012.

Federal Capital has also bought the 10-story Erwin Square Plaza building in Old West Durham, near Ninth Street. (See previous post, below.)

The new apartments are to be a mix of studio and one- and two-bedroom units, with nine-foot ceilings, full-size washing machines and dryers, granite counters and other luxury amenities.

Besides a new building, the owners are opening a new, expanded fitness center for resident and providing access to two Zipcars for resident use.

West Village III had been proposed as a 196-unit, two-building complex, but the Historic Preservation Commission denied approval for plans to build on a lot within a designated local historic landmark.

Leasing for West Village III will be handled by Bell Partners. See www.westvillagedurham.com.

Federal Capital Partners has made another large investment in the Triangle, acquiring Durham's Erwin Square Plaza for $37.5 million.

The 238,792-square-foot building is the eighth local real estate project that the Chevy Chase, Md. developer has invested in over the past two years.

The company has a controlling interest or has provided financing for nearly 2,000 apartments and more than 350,000 square feet of commercial space in the Triangle.

Erwin Square is 96 percent leased. Tenants include Duke University and companies related to the university's health system.

Advocates for the West Ellerbe Creek greenway are pressing City Council members to appropriate more than $75,000 to it in the 2013-14 city budget.

They claim the city needs to set aside more to ensure it doesn’t lose a $1 million federal matching grant. Appropriating more now, though, would accomplish nothing and could jeopardize the federal money, according to Deputy City Manager Bo Ferguson and Transportation Director Mark Ahrendsen.

“It’s not just providing money, it’s the feds saying you’re ready to spend it,” Ahrendsen told council members during a budget work session this week.

The proposed $75,000 is intended to pay for land to complete the right-of-way and finish the project design for those parcels. The city can’t apply to access the federal money until it owns the entire right-of-way and has a completed design.

“That could be 10, 12 months away,” Ahrendsen said. Sale-terms negotiations with property owners must be settled as well as design done.

Since the next step after design is actual construction, any city appropriation above the $75,000 “would hypothetically go to start construction,” Ferguson wrote in a memo to City Manager Tom Bonfield. But if construction starts before the city has access to the federal funds, the grant could be withdrawn.

“Bottom line – adding money to the project has no tangible effect on making the project happen faster, because regardless of our funding commitment, we have to wait on the federal money to proceed,” Ferguson wrote.

Total construction cost for the 1.2-mile greenway is estimated at $1.6 million. The trail would connect Westover Park, in the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood, with the North-South Greenway at Stadium Drive, running along Ellerbe Creek under Interstate 85 and past the Costco and the North Pointe Commons Apartments on Broad Street.

City Manager Tom Bonfield will talk about his proposed city budget for the upcoming fiscal year at tonight's InterNeighborhood Council meeting. President John Martin says he has asked him "to discuss the difficult choices that he and the City Council have to make: whether or not to have tax or fee increases, and which programs to spend our scarce dollars on."

The INC meets in the Neighborhood Improvement Services Conference Room on the third floor of Building #2, Golden Belt Arts Complex, 807 E. Main St. Any interested citizen of Durham is welcome to attend.

Click MORE to read the full agenda

City Manager Tom Bonfield took a moment during his budget presentation last week to recognize a milestone: the 30th anniversary of Councilman Howard Clement’s tenure on the City Council.

Clement was not on hand, though, due to the extended illness that has kept him away from almost all council meetings since late 2011.

“Thank you for this longevity of service to the City Council and this community,” Bonfield said, addressing Clement who had promised to be watching on television.

Clement was appointed to a council vacancy in 1983 and has won election to the Ward 2 seat seven times. His current term expires this year.

“We miss your presence and hope to see you back with us soon,” Bonfield said. “Mainly, we want you to know this great milestone was not missed … because you could not be with us.”

Durham Farmers' Market has joined the 21st century: Its first ATM was installed Thursday and will be ready to use Saturday after a 7:50 a.m. unveiling.

According to market Manager Erin Kauffman, the ATM has been a work in progress for a long time. Some of its fees are to be used for funding another work in progress, a Food Stamp program the Farmers Market hopes to have in operation by the end of this year.

Preservation Durham has dropped its opposition to removing the Liberty Warehouse’s Local Historic Landmark designation after reaching agreements with the building’s owner and prospective buyer.

The City Council is due to vote on removal at its meeting tonight.

According to Preservation Durham Executive Director Wendy Hillis, Liberty owner Greenfire Developer and East-West Partners, a Chapel Hill firm which has a contract to buy the warehouse, have agreed to address several preservationists’ concerns:

• Integrating the existing southern brick wall into the redevelopment plans by preserving the Foundry, Central Park mural and wall, but making strategic penetrations to allow for enhanced public connectivity and programming in Central Park.
• Incorporating of the northeast brick façade and LIBERTY sign into the redevelopment plans.
• Reusing old wood from the warehouse within the redevelopment and recycling that which is not reused onsite.
• Memorializing and documenting the Liberty Warehouse and the tobacco-auction business in Durham, either through an outdoor public exhibit or a dedicated museum space.
• Using architectural forms and materials that contextually relate to the surrounding area.
• A continued dialogue with Preservation Durham around the development of Liberty Warehouse that will include regular communication and meetings as the project proceeds towards construction.    
• Should East-West Partners not become involved in the Liberty’s redevelopment, Greenfire Development is committed to these same criteria.

Hillis and Preservation Durham President Josh Park negotiated the commitments with Greenfire Managing Partner Paul Smith and East-West principals Roger Perry and Bryson Powell.

“We have always recognized that Liberty Warehouse would be a difficult building to rehabilitate,” Hillis said in a prepared statement.

“Our concern has been that any redevelopment project intelligently assess the historic importance of the site and ensure that any new construction is appropriate within the industrial context of the neighborhood.”