Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy
Group
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Appearance is…
 Appearance is related to
economic development
and job creation.
 Appearance encompasses
everything from rights of
way, trees and plantings,
litter and trash removal,
commercial and housing
code enforcement, sign
pollution et al.
 Appearance is more than
just litter
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
What is appearance
and why is it
important?
1.
Economic benefits
2.
Civic Pride
Crime Prevention
Environmental Impact
Major developments
Gateways
Wayfinding
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Incorporating visual beauty into
public spaces is an effective
method for raising property
values, reducing crime, and
enhancing the local economy.
Individuals and businesses
consider all of these things when
pondering new investments in
Durham.
Active reuse of vacant lots
improves surrounding property
values.
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
What is appearance
and why is it
important?
1. Economic benefits
2. Civic Pride
3. Crime prevention
4. Environmental impact
5. Major developments
6. Gateways
7. Wayfinding
According to a Gallup poll,
aesthetics ranks in the top three
reasons why residents love a
community.
In a public opinion poll of Durham
residents, by a margin of
almost 4 to 1, residents agreed
that Durham’s appearance and
physical upkeep should be a
high community priority
(DCVB).
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
What is appearance
and why is it
important?
1. Economic benefits
2. Civic Pride
3. Crime prevention
4. Environmental impact
5. Major developments
6. Gateways
7. Wayfinding
Disorderly conditions encourage bad
behavior and fixing them can help
prevent crime.
The City of Boston reported a 20%
decline in police calls from parts
of town that received appearance
upgrades.
Violent crime in New York City
decreased by 75% over a 12-year
period after broken windows
policing was adopted.
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
What is appearance
and why is it
important?
1. Economic benefits
2. Civic Pride
3. Crime prevention
4. Environmental
impact
5. Major developments
6. Gateways
7. Wayfinding
A cleaner environment, in addition to
its economic benefits, is also a
healthier environment.
Planting trees can improve
environmental quality and
increase the value of surrounding
structures by as much as 20%.
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
What is appearance
and why is it
important?
1. Economic benefits
2. Civic Pride
3. Crime prevention
4. Environmental impact
5. Major
developments
6. Gateways
7. Wayfinding
Examples:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
DPAC
American Tobacco
Golden Belt
West Village
Duke Chapel
NCCU BRITE
Brightleaf Square
RDU Airport
Nasher Museum
DBAP
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
What is appearance
and why is it
important?
1. Economic benefits
2. Civic Pride
3. Crime prevention
4. Environmental impact
5. Major developments
6. Gateways
7. Wayfinding
Implementing the city’s
Central Durham
Gateways Plan will
improve the appearance
of major entrances and
transition points in and
around the city,
enhancing the overall
perception of Durham.
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
What is appearance
and why is it
important?
1. Economic benefits
2. Civic Pride
3. Crime prevention
4. Environmental impact
5. Major developments
6. Gateways
7. Wayfinding
A cohesive way finding program
would facilitate movement
throughout the community for
residents and visitors, by
integrating road and pedestrian
signage, markers or other
interpretive displays, district
identification signage, parking
identification and information
kiosks and maps.
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
How are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Downtown
Streetscapes
Streetscape quality:
Durham has recognized that
enhancing downtown and
neighborhood sidewalks and
streets is vital to the community’s
quality of life.
Plant material, signage, lighting
and public art were selected to
complement the surrounding
environments. Sustainable
planting spaces were created to
allow minimal maintenance; trees
and shrubs were selected to add
visual interest to the pedestrian
friendly walkways and multi-use
plazas.
How are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Abandoned
Buildings
Abandoned buildings
decrease tax revenue,
devalue neighboring
properties, encourage crime,
and reduce the amount of
available low cost housing.
The City of Durham’s
Neighborhood Improvement
Services, among other
departments, is working to
accelerate the rehabilitation
and/or sale and rehabitation
of abandoned houses in
Durham.
How are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Landscaping
Key Contributors:
Many organizations contribute
positively to a beautifully
landscaped Durham, such as:
1.Universities
2.Research Triangle Park
3.RDU Airport
4.Shopping complexes
5.Downtown Redevelopment areas
6.Civic Groups
7.HOAs/Neighborhood groups
How are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Appearance
Opportunities
•Landscaping
•Signage
•Litter Control
•Roadsides and Medians
There are many key areas which
need attention:
1.147, north of Briggs Ave.
2.Hillsborough Road
3.Fulton St. at Erwin Rd.
4.Railroad Corridors
5.Erwin Road traffic circle
6.15/501 Corridor
7.Avondale at I-85
8.Many Others
What are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
City Programs
Solid Waste Department
Neighborhood Improvement
Services
General Services
The Department of Solid
Waste Management works in
concert with the Department
of Neighborhood
Improvement Services to
ensure faster cleanup of
illegally dumped items, illegal
set-outs, litter, spilled
garbage, quick paint-out
and/or removal of graffiti, and
cleaning of sidewalks and
street gutters. The
department also coordinates
the efforts of Impact Teams
and Summer Youth Clean-up
crews with neighborhood and
community groups.
How do we compare to
other cities?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Lynchburg, VA
City Beautification
SAGE Program (Streetscape
Appearance Green Enhancement)
Developed by a private landscape
architecture firm in 1991, HDLA, to
address the fact that the VADOT had
no funds allocated for beautification
and landscaping along the Lynchburg
Expressway.
HDLA developed a plan for installing a
series of gardens and landscaped
areas along the expressway to
significantly improve the appearance
of this corridor.
The City’s Keep Lynchburg Beautiful
Commission got companies and
community groups to sponsor the
gardens and secured state and federal
grants. They were able to raise over
$1.5 million for the project through
private donations.
The SAGE Program is managed by the
City and funded solely through private
donations and grants.
This very successful nationally
recognized program has now
expanded to other communities in
Virginia including Rocky Mount and
Farmville VA.
How do we compare to
other cities?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Cincinnati, OH
City Beautification
Neighborhood Enhancement Program
(NEP) is a partnership between the city,
neighborhood residents, property owners
and community groups. Funding comes
from the city, private donations and
grants.
NEP is a targeted effort that strategically
selects project neighborhoods using
Quality of Life indicators (vacant
buildings, foreclosures, building code
violations, weeds and litter violations,
junked autos) & Crime Data statistics.
The program integrates and concentrates
city service delivery and community
redevelopment efforts over a 90-day
period to quickly improve the quality of
life in the targeted area.
Services Include: Cleaning up streets,
sidewalks, parks and vacant lots;
Beautifying streetscapes and public right
of way; Building code enforcement &
Identifying and ‘cooling down’ crime hot
spots.
The NEP has been implemented
successfully in multiple neighborhoods
and has achieved lasting results.
How do we compare to
other cities?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Cincinnati, OH
City Beautification
Future Blooms is a high-impact, lowcost community beautification program
started by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful to
improve the appearance of vacant,
abandoned and foreclosed properties
using public art. The funding comes
from grants money.
The program paints over boarded up
windows and doors to create colorful
windows, awnings, flower boxes and
doors to give the properties a “lived in”
look. So far, they have painted over 150
buildings and they recently expanded
the program to include beautifying
nearby vacant lots.
Future Blooms has found that by
beautifying vacant lots and buildings
there is a significant reduction in crime,
less blight, and increased property
values in these areas which has
encouraged economic development.
before
before
after
after
before
before
after
after
How do we compare to
other cities?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Providence, RI
City Beautification
Downtown Improvement
District
Clean Team
In 2005, residents, businesses, and
the City of Providence joined
together to form a Downtown
Improvement District.
The district funds a dedicated
Downtown Clean Team that
complements existing City and
provides enhanced cleaning and
maintenance services in the
downtown area.
Services include: litter removal,
gum removal, sidewalk power
washing, graffiti removal, cleaning
of street furniture, weeding, summer
planting program and other tasks.
This program has significantly
improved the appearance &
maintenance of downtown
Providence.
What are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Special Districts
Durham has several areas which
receive intense beautification
treatment, either through a
special district tax or earmarked
funds through operating budgets.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Raleigh-Durham Int’l Airport
Research Triangle Park
Downtown Durham
Various Homeowner
Associations and
Neighborhoods
What are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
County Programs
Solid Waste Division
The Department of General
Services’ Solid Waste Division
provides litter control
investigation, enforcement and
remediation of properties located in
the unincorporated areas of
Durham County impacted by
illegally dumped litter and
abandoned junked vehicles. The
Solid Waste Division also provides
litter prevention education and
roadside and community clean ups.
The division coordinates their
efforts with Keep Durham
Beautiful, Inc. and the Community
Service Work Program.
What are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Durham City County
Appearance
Commission
The DCCAC is a group of citizen
volunteers that work to promote
appearance related issues in
Durham. The DCCAC works on
initiatives such as this appearance
presentation, the Gateways plan
and the Golden Leaf Awards.
The DCCAC also reviews new
public buildings planned for
Durham.
What are we doing?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Durham Appearance
Advocacy Group
The DAAG is comprised of
representatives from various
organizations in Durham that
care about appearance including
the city and county
governments, the DCCAC,
DCVB, the Great Durham
Chamber of Commerce, Keep
Durham Beautiful,
neighborhood associations, and
local businesses.
What else can we do?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Central Durham
Gateways Plan
The purpose of the Central Durham
Gateways Plan is to develop an
overall identity and a “sense of
place” for an area that is
essentially a “corridor of
gateways” into and through
Central Durham.
http://www.durhamnc.gov/dep
artments/planning/pdf/cd_gate
ways_plan080309.pdf
What else can we do?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Long term funding
for appearance and
maintenance
The Durham Appearance
Advocacy Group has proposed a
variety of options to the City and
County for providing permanent
funding to high priority
appearance related
improvements and maintenance
items, such as a prepared food
tax, ¼ cent sales tax, or penny
on the property tax rate.
Maintaining the community’s
curb appeal needs to be a
standard operating
expense…not a special project.
Government budgets need to
reflect this priority.
What can YOU do?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Volunteer
Opportunities
1.Keep Durham Beautiful
2.Adopt a Highway (NCDOT)
3.Adopt a Street
4.Adopt a Park
5.Adopt a Stream
6.Earth Day
7.Big Sweep
8.Swat a Litterbug (NCDOT)
9.Creek Week (City Storm Water)
10.Litter Sweep (NCDOT)
What can YOU do?
Durham City County Appearance
Commission
Durham Appearance Advocacy Group
Donation/Sponsorship
Opportunities
1. Keep Durham Beautiful
2. DCCAC – Golden Leaf Awards
3. Civic and Neighborhood
Appearance Projects
4. Durham Central Park
5. SEEDS
Call, Write or e-mail
and VOTE!
Tell City officials that you support
an ongoing beautification effort!
commissioners@durhamcountync.gov
council@durhamnc.gov