By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM — A recent Durham Planning Commission vote that almost went against the city’s Rolling Hills project supplied “a wake-up call” that officials have to sharpen their advocacy of the proposal, City Manager Tom Bonfield says.

The 6-5 vote declaring the Rolling Hills area blighted could have, had it gone the other way, undermined city leaders’ hopes of securing low-income housing tax credits for the redevelopment effort.

Even commission members who voted in favor of the blight designation criticized the city’s handling of the project.

Among other things, they lamented being left with unanswered legal questions, and complained that few supporters of the project had showed up for the Jan. 12 meeting to explain what the city’s up to.

The narrowness of the decision — and the complaints — triggered discussions between Bonfield, City/County Planning Director Steve Medlin, City Attorney Patrick Baker and other officials about what had transpired.

Bonfield said it’s now obvious administrators were “maybe a little complacent” going into the hearing.

“Across the board, we could have done a better job,” he said. “It signals that just because we work with it every day, we shouldn’t assume everybody else sees it our way.”

The manager said he’ll make sure two aides he regards as point men on Rolling Hills, Deputy City Manager Keith Chadwell and Senior Assistant to the City Manager Reginald Johnson, take a more active role in representing the city in public forums.

“They should have been there, and will be there in the future,” Bonfield said.

He also said administrators will pay more attention to the need sometimes to call in city attorneys to advise boards like the Planning Commission.

For his part, Baker said he and he assistants would make themselves available. “You always want to use the resources in a manner that actually makes sense for the client, and if the client wants that resource, we’ll provide it,” he said.

Some City Council members, meanwhile, are hinting the close vote could play into their upcoming decision about who to appoint to a vacancy on the Planning Commission.

Seven people have applied for the post, but four appear to have some measure of council support. They include minister and activist Melvin Whitley, Mechanics and Farmers Bank Chairman James Stewart, Trinity Park inn owner Colin Crossman, and Burch Avenue neighborhood activist Mark Eckert.

Council members weren’t happy that some Planning Commission delegates questioned that the Rolling Hills area is blighted, and that they gave weight to the views of the site’s former developers, Larry and Denise Hester.

The Hesters controlled a nonprofit that in the late 1990s defaulted on an $860,000 city development loan. They own two nearby shopping centers and have made it clear they don’t want any competition from commercial development on the Rolling Hills site.

“Any commission we have in Durham should be balanced,” Councilman Eugene Brown said the day after the planning panel’s vote. “I want them to represent the complexity and diversity of Durham. This board appears not to do that.”