The Durham Arts Council repairs (see below) are among several facelifts in the pipeline for the 100 block of Morris Street, city General Services Director Joel Reitzer told the Historic Preservation Commission this morning.

Redevelopment plans are in the pipeline for both the city-owned building at 102 Morris Street (the Chapel Hill Street corner) and next door at 108 Morris, which a Greenfire Development subsidiary bought in 2004 and is currently advertising for sale. Reitzer said a sale is in process but did not identify the buyer.

In conjunction with those, he said, there is a proposal to make Morris Street two-way from the Loop to the Arts Council parking lot, with a traffic circle added at that point; and to add streetscaping to make Morris Street look more like the parts of Main and Chapel Hill streets dressed up a few years ago.

The taxpayers' pricetag for an aesthetic upfit at Angier Avenue and Driver Street has come down a bit since the original estimate: from $6.6 million to $3.5 million.

That's a result of both depressed construction costs and less-great expectations, according to the city's economic development director, Kevin Dick.

The project area has been reduced from 2,680 linear feet to 2,380, Dick said, and three "deliverables" dropped from the original 11and another modified.

With those adjustments, the streetscape project is financed and under way, and there is a get-reacquainted meeting Tuesday for the designers to lay the project and its schedule before the interested public. The meeting is at Angier Avenue Baptist Church, starting at 6 p.m.