Duke's wonderful news on university zoning

LETTER TO EDITOR by John Schelp

Provost Peter Lange announced this week that Duke will go with university/college zoning for central campus. This is wonderful news from Duke -- and truly wonderful news for Durham.

Lange stepped into a difficult position and is to be commended for his positive contributions in a short period of time.

University/college zoning for central campus is something the Duke-Durham partnership neighborhoods voted to endorse in the spring of 2003. The InterNeighborhood Council voted to support university/college zoning for central campus in June 2004. Many, many folks in the community played critical roles throughout this process and deserve our gratitude.

We will continue to keep a watchful eye on Duke's retail plans and will work with planning officials to ensure any campus retail reflects Durham's university/college ordinance -- which limits retail to that which supports the academic mission of the university.

We can now move forward. We can now celebrate a great and wonderful day in Durham.

Editor's note: The writer is president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association.

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