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Community Mitigation and Enhancement: Crest Street, Durham, North Carolina |
Mitigation and Enhancement Measures
The mitigation and enhancement plan was made a part of the final EIS for
the East-West Expressway.
The Crest Street mitigation and enhancement plan would not have been
feasible without suitable vacant land on which to re-establish the neighborhood.
To avoid adverse impacts on people who walked to work, a site near the old
location proved to be vital to the design solution. Fortunately, sufficient
vacant land was located nearby. However, the difficulty of assembling the new
site was increased dramatically when the city rezoned some of the proposed
site for a health-club facility.
The city justified this one the grounds that
commercial facilities near an expressway interchange were economically important
in terms of tax revenues and jobs. This decision removed a critical parcel from
the proposed site. Additional land had to be assembled, and the only remaining
location was a community cemetery. This might have been an insurmountable
obstacle had it not been for expeditious action on the part of
NCDOT and FHWA to secure approval by the Crest Street neighborhood and relocate all of the graves
to a satisfactory site nearby.Over 1,000 graves were involved in this
relocation. The resultant vacant parcel allowed the elements of the mitigation
and enhancement plan to fall into place, and a new site for the Crest Street
neighborhood was successfully created.The Federal "housing-of-last-resort" provision of the Uniform Relocation
and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 provided the flexibility
FHWA needed to commit Federal funds to construct replacement dwellings for the
new community configuration. However, because the State of North Carolina had
not previously enacted legislation commensurate with the Federal Act (including
housing of last resort), an act of the North Carolina Legislature was
required to make State matching funds available.
The mitigation and enhancement plan developed for Crest Street involved
a comprehensive restructuring of the entire neighborhood, keeping it intact in
the process. This sounds like a simple concept, and in fact, it was discussed
several years prior to the completion of the mitigation and enhancement plan.
However, the implementation was not simple and required innovative use of
program resources as well as enormous amounts of time from agency and
community leaders and residents.
Mitigation and Enhancement Measures
The community successfully argued that replacement housing should be provided as a means of preserving the family relationships and social fabric of the Crest Street neighborhood. This reasoning permitted the neighborhood to be treated as a whole and enabled some Crest Street residents outside the highway footprint to be included as part of the mitigation. In addition, based on 23 U.S.C. 109(h) of the 1970 Federal-aid Highway Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and NEPA, FHWA is required to consider fully not only the direct impacts but also secondary and cumulative impacts of proposed Federal-aid highway projects. This further buttressed the idea that the entire Crest Street neighborhood, not just that portion of it within the project footprint, should be included in the mitigation and enhancement plan.
Many houses were rehabilitated with entirely new interiors and modern conveniences. Sixty-five houses were moved from the old neighborhood to the new. In addition, several new single-family homes were built; housing for the elderly was provided in a renovated former school building; existing houses on the new site were rehabilitated; and apartments were built for those who could not afford to purchase homes.
Section 208 rental housing was built with the help of the city of Durham and HUD. Section 208 housing allows residents to pay rent based upon their income, with the remaining cost financed by Federal funds. Although Crest Street residents were given ample opportunity to rent these units, some felt that disruptive tenants from outside the community might prove to be a problem. The Crest Street Community Council attempted to protect the community in this regard by acquiring the right from HUD to purchase a controlling share of the rental units in the event that the private investors experienced financial difficulties.
Another key element in the mitigation and enhancement plan was the provision of modern infrastructure in Crest Street. This included paved streets, sidewalks, sewers, and recreation facilities. The city, NCDOT, FHWA, and HUD shared the cost. NCDOT waived the usual North Carolina requirement that a city acquire a prorated portion of a State highway right-of-way based on its projected use by local traffic. This saved the city of Durham a substantial sum of money that was then made available for infrastructure improvement in the new Crest Street community.
Before the mitigation and enhancements, 22 percent of the households owned their homes (although 20 percent of the buildings were owned by residents for use as rental properties). To encourage people to own homes, FHWA, working with HUD, NCDOT, and the city of Durham, worked out an arrangement whereby subsidies were used to give residents maximum flexibility in deciding whether or not to purchase a home. The subsidies included a combination of relocating homes at salvage value (costing residents nothing), payment of moving costs, city rehabilitation grants, and deferred second mortgages. At project completion, 56 percent of Crest Street's households were homeowners.
As of 1996, there were 155 dwelling units in the Crest Street community, about half of which are single-family homes. The Crest Street Community Council now owns or is obtaining title to all of the multi-family units. This has been made possible because the council owns the housing for the elderly, which it developed with the assistance of HUD and the city of Durham. Using this property as collateral, the council has been able to acquire title to other units and is now in the process of obtaining title to the 45, Section 208 rental units. The former owner of these units went bankrupt, and the apartments had become a liability to the community because of their poor physical appearance and some disruptive tenants. Since they were placed in chare of managing the apartments, the council has rehabilitated them and evicted trouble-makers.
The credit required for this real-estate acquisition was made available by virtue of the council's ownership of other properties, as well as another Federal program, the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) fund. The CDFI made possible the formation of "Self-Help," a Durham equity investment fund whose purpose is to make loans to organizations that have typically been shunned by larger lenders. Self-Help lends money at market rates, accepts prudent financial risks, and is backed by some of Durham's largest commercial banks. Self-Help has loaned the Crest Street Community Council $225,000 to assist the council in purchasing the Section 208 rental units.
The total cost of the mitigation has been calculated at approximately $15,700 per housing unit above what would normally have been spent for a relocation project. FHWA's share of expenditures on this project was not significantly more than FHWA normally spends for housing of last resort. HUD and the city of Durham provided the additional funds.
Today, Crest Street is a viable neighborhood with modern streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure. The houses are well maintained with neatly mowed lawns and landscaping. Two parks provided for in the mitigation and enhancement plan are located within the community, one for active sports such as baseball and the other a picnic shelter and playground with swings and apparatus for younger children.
The W.I. Patterson Community Center is part of a former school building that was renovated during the project. The community center includes housing for the elderly as well as facilities for use by the community as a whole. The Crest Street neighborhood, as well as the lots within it, are physically smaller than they were before the project, which has led to a few complaints from people who liked the more rural environment that existed prior to the mitigation plan. However, the community's attractive, compact appearance more than counters such criticisms.
Even more important, Crest Street retained its sense of togetherness. The New Bethel Church's importance in the community has grown even stronger, while the community center's elderly housing has enabled three and four generations to retain close family ties.
Perhaps the most important legacy of this project is the Crest Street Community Council, whose five governing members are elected by the residents. The council ensures that homes in the community are properly maintained and sponsors periodic "cleanup" days. It effectively serves as a central organization for the social support systems that have existed for generations. With its real-estate holdings, the council has managed to finance its operations without imposing dues on the members. Through its positive influence, it enables Crest Street to retain its cohesiveness and family-oriented environment.