Patterson Place Parcels Could Lose Watershed Protection Designation

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More than 20 acres between Mt. Moriah Road and Southwest Durham Drive within Patterson Place may be removed from the Falls/Jordan Watershed Protection Overlay Protected Area.

Durham City Council members expected to hear a presentation on the proposal during their work session on Oct. 10.

J. Michael Waldroup, in a letter submitted in November 2023, is arguing that the 14 parcels fall outside the five-mile distance from the northernmost point of Jordan Lake, which defines the overlay boundary. He’s asking the City Council to authorize referral of his request to the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission for further review.

Waldroup wrote that the Patterson Place parcels received their protected area designation in error due to older surveying methods.

“As I understand it from those in the land-planning business who were here when the original Jordan mapping was done, the watershed mapping determination was done even before Jordan Lake was completely filled,” Waldroup wrote. “Those doing the mapping used old 5’ contour topographic maps that the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) had prepared for the construction of Jordan Lake. The upper end of the lake is so shallow that even a 2-foot error in elevation on those maps translated to many hundreds of feet of horizontal error in the location of the 5-mile boundary; the surveying technologies of that era do not begin to compare with the x, y, z horizontal and vertical accuracy available to today’s surveyors.”

He noted that the Patterson Place proposal gives the city “an opportunity to correct a significant mapping error.”

Sara Young, Durham’s planning director, confirmed that the new survey offers credible evidence to support removing the designation.

If the council approves referring the request to the EMC, the state committee would review the application and rule whether to approve it. If approved, the city planning director would bring the request back to City Council for its blessing.