Highlights from Durham City Council

The Durham City Council grapples with a surge in youth shootings, then spends hours debating the Leigh Village Center rezoning before approving it 5–2 amid disputes over traffic, affordability, and infrastructure. Council also weighs oversight of the city’s immigration legal assistance program and advances a major housing project between Miami Boulevard and Angier Avenue.

The Durham City Council weighs a rising minimum livable wage, employee pay, and fare-free transit against a projected budget gap, tax base trends, and long-term commitments like housing bonds and Forever Home Durham. Council also reviews new equity data and resident surveys on streets, safety, housing, and access to daily needs to decide which priorities stay on the budget’s chessboard.

The Durham City Council pulls a proposed police technology contract, loosens RV parking rules after neighborhood testimony, and approves annexing the Kerley Gardens apartments for city water following a detailed debate over affordability, transparency, and the urban growth boundary. Residents also press the council on equitable infrastructure investments and fairness in bond‑funded street work.

The Durham City Council hears sharp public criticism over meeting conduct, questions about COVID relief funding, and extensive opposition to a proposed Peregrine police surveillance contract, followed by the police chief and mayor defending the technology and their approach to public safety. The council also digs into security upgrades in public housing, state-driven Falls and Jordan Lake nutrient rules affecting development, and Durham’s community-wide push to close the digital divide.