DHA Downtown & Neighborhood Planning (DDNP)

DHA recognizes the need to renovate and/or redevelop many of our communities. We want to conduct this work in conjunction with what the City, County, private sector and community partners are planning for the area as well as what our residents want to see in their communities.

DHA Downtown & Neighborhood Planning (DDNP)

This type of planning requires community engagement and time to walk through the process for an inclusionary impact so that all voices are heard. In an effort to do this in the most feasible manner DHA and the City of Durham have partnered on this comprehensive planning process in the area undergoing the most dramatic transformation, Downtown Durham. The DHA communities in this planning area include Oldham Towers, Liberty Apartments, Fayette Place, Forest Hill Heights, and JJ Henderson.

Click on the map to see enlarged view.

DHA kicked off this planning meeting with the DDNP Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) on January 24, 2018. This Kick-Off meeting served as an introduction to the consultants who are leading the planning effort EJP Consulting on behalf of the Durham Housing Authority and the City of Durham. The architects, LAS, provided an overview of the planning process and the things the team hopes to accomplish in the first phase of this initiative.

The DDNP team completed data collections during the months of February and March to perform an Analysis of Existing Conditions in the planning area. This data collection included a survey of the residents of JJ Henderson, Forest Hill Heights, Oldham Tower, and Liberty Street. The results of the Existing Conditions Analysis were presented to the residents of those communities on March 19, 2018, and to the SAG on March 20, 2018. The Existing Conditions presentation can be found HERE.

In Phase 3 of this planning effort we held a Community Visioning Workshop on April 18, 2018, open to the public. Participants completed four (4) different activities to give feedback on what they would like to see in the overall planning area. For more information on the Community Visioning workshop summary, please click here.

On May 22, 2018 we held a Community Workshop to discuss possible redevelopment options for Oldham, Liberty, DHA’s Central Office, the Durham County Criminal Justice Center and the former Rigsbee Avenue Station. A summary of this meeting can be found here.

“On July 23, 2018 a Community Workshop for the Fayette Place and Southside Phase III properties was held in the Miller-Morgan Auditorium at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). The presentation from that evening can be found here. 

On July 24, 2018 a Community Workshop for the Forest Hill Heights and J.J. Henderson communities was held in the auditorium at J.J. Henderson Housing Center. The presentation from that evening can be found here.

We are now in Phase 4  of the planning effort. On January 17, 2019 a meeting was held with the SAG. At this meeting there was a presentation showing a draft of the Preferred Concept Plans for the communities in the Planning Area. The Preferred Concept Plans were drafted with careful consideration of the feedback received from the Community Workshops.  The Preferred Concept Plans for all communities, with the exception of J.J. Henderson, are only concept plans to present what the community redevelopment could look like. The planning  for J.J. Henderson is near the final stages. J.J. Henderson’s Preferred Concept Plan may be a good representation of what will take place on that site.  The Concept Plans for the other sites can change based on several factors, financing being one of them.

DHA will be hosting community meetings to present the Preferred Concept Plans. Sign up for our Email Updates below to stay up-to-date.

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