Durham Reporter

Durham has been answering the call for more housing, with the most recent project being announced last week when Craig Davis Properties offered $5 million for the Durham City Centre Parking Deck.

But development plans are rarely all things to all people, so building housing complexes is not without its detractors.

The company wants to transform the parking deck into a housing and retail complex, with a six-deck parking lot that would have a limited number of public spaces available.

“Our intent is to take down the west half of the parking deck,” Craig David Properties representative Earl Guill said in a WTVD report. “There’s an expansion joint... we would take down that portion and build back up about six levels of parking.”

While that proposal includes an attempt to ease the downtown parking crunch, some people wonder why the city isn’t trying to find answers to the parking problem as more multi-unit residence complexes are built.

“With more developments happening, there will probably be parking issues,” Kai Halbuna, a Durham resident, said. "Where are people going to park? Where are they going to go?"

Guill admitted that’s a concern given that the location for his company’s project is close to various entertainment venues and said plans call for setting aside some spots for public use, but also constructing well-lit pedestrian walkways to let people get safely to the social spots.

“We have committed to construct a highly visible, with great lighting and wayfinding, a pathway directly through our deck,” he said.

Guill said the project, which will be called “The James,” will take three years to build. It will have 308 apartments and 82 public parking spaces in addition to spots for tenants.

Craig Davis Properties said it would make a $650,000 contribution to the Affordable Housing Fund to allow that group to fund six affordable housing units. Council member Jillian Johnson would rather see revised project plans.

"I think I'll just communicate a strong preference for affordable housing on site given that affordable housing is a huge problem in our city. And that downtown affordable housing is difficult for us to provide,” Johnson said.