Duke Seeks Rezoning for Parcels Adjoining East and Central Campus

As Duke seeks to rezone 13 parcels of land it currently owns, rezoning signs have been placed on East and Central Campuses as a procedural step required by the City of Durham.

Simply put, nothing is changing at East Campus or Central Campus.

“In seeking to rezone this land, city ordinances require Duke to rezone all of East and Central Campus, even though the zoning is not actually changing,” said Adam Klein, Duke’s associate vice president for economic development.

The City of Durham created a zoning category more than 15 years ago called University-College to meet the unique needs of academic institutions like Duke and North Carolina Central University. This zoning category allows universities to do comprehensive infrastructure planning to consolidate stormwater management, parking, tree cover, and bike and pedestrian facilities at the campus-wide level rather than parcel by parcel.

Duke’s East and Central Campuses are already zoned U-C and Duke is not seeking any changes to the parcels – including the Golf Course and adjacent Duke Forest land and Al Buehler trail.

Instead, Duke is seeking to add to the U-C zoning category 13 adjacent parcels it has acquired over the years that are near East and Central Campus.

“The unfortunate outcome from that procedural step is that rezoning signs appeared around Durham, in places that in some cases are miles from the actual land we seek to rezone,” Klein said.

Duke does not have specific plans to develop any of the 13 parcels included in the rezoning request, added Adem Gusa, Duke’s director of planning and design.

“Rezoning these properties to University-College will give Duke the flexibility to include those parcels as part of long-term campus planning,” Gusa said.

The rezoning request is pending approval by the Durham Planning Commission and the city council.