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Jun. 21--DURHAM -- Members of the City Council are steamed that plans for Durham's new $44 million downtown performing arts center could be derailed by the state-owned railroad.
The council voted to approve a construction contract, aimed at starting work on the 2,800-seat venue in September, at a Monday night meeting that extended into early Tuesday morning.
But there is a possible impediment to breaking ground.
While researching the deed to the city-owned land where the arts center is to be built, officials recently discovered that the N.C. Railroad Co. has a right-of-way claim from the 1880s to a 10-foot-wide strip needed for the construction, as well as the property under Vivian Street.
"We're being railroaded by the railroad," said council member Eugene Brown.
Running directly in front of what is to be the entry plaza of the arts center, Vivian Street has been a publicly maintained roadway for at least 90 years and is considered critical to designs for the new building. But after Durham asked for a green light to build, the railroad told the city that it won't sign over its rights to the property unless the city permanently closes the street.
"It's a safety question for us," said Kat Christian, the public affairs director for the N.C. Railroad. "If this project goes into effect, it will increase traffic congestion in the area."
City officials are dumbfounded as to how closing Vivian Street, which is a block away from the railroad line and does not have a track crossing, could improve safety. In fact, they say, closing the street could potentially cause traffic to back up along Mangum Street as patrons are dropped off at the curb -- potentially clogging the track crossing farther north and increasing the likelihood of a collision between a train and car.
"I don't see the relation between closing Vivian and improving safety," said Mark Ahrendsen, the city's transportation manager.
Ahrendsen said the railroad has been pressuring Durham for years to close the crossing at nearby Blackwell Street. The city has refused, seeing that crossing as essential for providing access to the American Tobacco complex and Durham Bulls Athletic Park from downtown. That history is fueling speculation that the railroad is attempting to play hardball by using its claim on Vivian Street to force the city to yield on the Blackwell crossing.
The N.C. Railroad is a private company with voting stock controlled by the state. Durham's council was advised by an assistant city attorney Tuesday that taking the railroad to court could tie up the arts center project for months, maybe years.
Instead, city leaders said, they plan to appeal directly to state officials and the railroad's board to get out of the way.
"We need to quit going through the lawyers," Brown said. "This is a political issue."
Two local members of the railroad's board of directors, Fred Ruffin of Durham and Brad Wilson of Raleigh, said Tuesday that they didn't know anything about the dust-up.
"The railroad tries to be a good citizen," Wilson said. "This is news to me."
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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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