The City Council disposed of two long-running issues Tuesday night, at least for the time being.

It approved the city's first "Compact Design District" with zoning to encourage transit-friendly development in the Ninth Street area, while preserving Ninth Street's existing character;

And gave its stamp of approval for renovating Old North Durham Park with no change to the size of its athletic field.

Durham Parks and Recreation planned a public meeting on upgrades for Old North Durham Park Tuesday night, but the meeting did not go quite as planned.

A large contingent organized by the El Kilombo Galactico, a nonprofit with its office on Geer Street adjacent to the park, staged a protest that took up most of the meeting’s scheduled 90 minutes.

They were objecting to any redesign that shrinks the park’s current soccer field and claiming that the Central Park School for Children and developers of nearby property “have been undermining the interests of our community.”