[Music] since it's 1 pm welcome to the uh city council session for today and I have not let see Council Harrison is chewing I will not ask her to say the Pledge of Allegiance I will say it if we can all stand we can uh aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right uh first we have the consent agenda and I will ask the city manager if there was anything pulled no ma'am okay so do we have a motion to approve motion to approve okay second second uh all in favor of the motion I I all oppose nay right eyes have it and next we go to public comment I have uh just we have recently uh just want to remind everybody who is here for public comment that this is uh your chance to be heard by the city council we will not respond or engage or uh necessarily answer your questions um we will just be listening and with that I will call up the first person on the list which is Curtis [Music] Johnson um good afternoon councel and mayor congratulations um I'm here my ADD I think I need to give my address first before I get started no okay um I'm here on behalf of 501c3 nonprofit organization named Mighty manavala Outreach and we're here asking the city and the council for $100,000 um out of the budget to for capacity building operational cost and Direct Services to fight a mental illness and the opor crisis um and I our staff all are getting uh certified and peer support and we're collaborating with South light as we will be submitting a um application to the county for the settlement opor crisis as well and my uh program director is here um Miss Gillespie who has just retired from the women's prisons um substance abuse uh Department as administrator and um as well lost uh a child as a direct result of fent law crisis uh as myself uh lost a child three years ago um as a direct result of um substance abuse so um we are very committed into fighting this epidemic and helping people get healthy and live productive lives um so we're here asking if the city would consider partnering or collaborating with us we have a landlord at for that owns a property at 402 brag street that is willing to lease that property to us for this um project as well as um I've spoken with Miss Karen cook at saight and we're um in terms of um collaborating on how we can uh collaborate to um work towards the goal of stopping people from dying and saving lives I also am here on another agenda with my nonprofit organization um to do some affordable housing um my church home located at 3300 Rock chir Road um word of God Fellowship they have 130 acres and my pastor and the board has said that they would be willing to lease that property uh to my organization to help fight the uh housing crisis in our city um and we at but when we called when I called the North Carolina housing agency they told me that we must have someone who has developed uh as a partner on this um project so we're here hoping that the city will partner with us or lead us to a developer that will help us um make this project come to fruition thank you very much thank you for coming uh next we have joy pz good afternoon my name is Joy Paris and I'm here representing the pointer YMCA um we're on fateful Street in downtown Rally and we are here asking you to extend the 2-hour free parking in the city parking decks um we have members that regularly use this new amenity to downtown and praise the efforts of our downtown organizers for creating this opportunity since the 2-hour free parking went into effect we've seen an increase in both our memberships and our daily usage of our YMCA Branch our year-over-year scanning has increased um starting the day after the free parking went into effect um we saw almost 900 more scans in November of 2024 than in 2023 and almost 2,000 more scans in December um which was really impressive for us um our group fitness classes are full so we have the opportunity to add more and serve more people in downtown the pointer white also works with the small business um parking program is we have six full-time staff that use that but we also pay a parking stien stien for our part-time staff and most of that goes to the city Lots because um we are paying our staff they pay you guys to continue to park there um and it so the extra two hours really helps us um be able to stretch that budget for our um for our why further the pointer y opened in 2018 with a large part of our goal to serve the people who were already in downtown we had a good percentage of people who commuted into the area for work along with promoting um promoting to the growing resident population while parking was always a challenge for some many already had parking options in towntown um or we could easily explain why the Y didn't offer free parking like many places 2020 changed a lot of those things we lost a significant portion of our membership when a lot of downtown companies moved to work from home we made changes in how we promoted our classes to bring people in the doors um but that involved more people driving downtown and considering pointer a destination why as we continue to build our membership um with those coming back to downtown and with the growing resident population um we still want to be able to serve those that see us as a destination and coming downtown and the free parking helps with that we understand this program is not without a cost we get that we would ask you to consider the proposed options of earlier or additional parking fees for evenings on Friday Saturday and Sunday or throughout the weekend as downtown has rebounded those coming to downtown during those time frames have come back quickest they've come back more often and they seem to be more willing to pay for parking in different areas we really appreciate your consideration of keeping the 2hour free parking in those City decks um the availability of that parking really boosts our membership overall for the Y and it helps us to be able to continue to serve the downtown community well thank you thank you next we have Miss Octavia Rainey good afternoon I'm here to ask you do not not put the housing Bond on the table unless this council is going over to the general assembly to change the tax code we have a very good opportunity of making that change because of Western North Carolina they are coming to the general assembly on that tax code because they are not happy with what's going on I said to the city you have a lobbyist I have been a lobbyist and the lobbyists don't meet with the citizens of Raleigh I don't understand it you pay the leave of municipalities to lobby as well they don't meet with the citizens of Raleigh I'm very surprised it's like this is a secret but it shouldn't be a secret I know the taxes are high and in southeast R we barely can't pay our taxes it is time to change the tax code but we have the opportunity now to come in behind Western North Carolina they will be at the general assembly and the tax code is on the table if they make changes to Western North Carolina they got to come in and make changes across the table but we should be in a position where we are already organized and our point is on the table now if we don't take this opportunity to jump at this then what are we doing we just can't continue to put Bonds on the table because they are a taxes they are a tax so what I'm saying to you is that you have Philip Isle to my understanding is the city lobbyist then you have the leag of municipalities that also you pay to lobby for you it is about time they come to the citizens of Raleigh to ask them what do you want to see changed in the tax code so at least they'll have a general idea of what they're over there doing at least they'll know that you need to be in that table in that room when they talk about Western North Carolina I was a lobbyist for 10 years that was part of my job part of my job to go out and mobilize the community to come over to the general assembly to lobby for what we want Philip Isley should not be any different now I don't know how much you pay him but I know he needs to come to the citizens of Ramy and tell us what is he over there living for and we need to put the taxes on the table Western North Carolina is going to walk in and we need to be at that table thank you immani Cumberbatch thank you for this opportunity and thank you for your leadership I'm imman Cumberbatch I've worked at marbles kids museum for 11 years I'm the director of guest engagement and I'm on the senior leadership team I oversee the guest experience on our campus every day and that begins as they pool into downtown looking for parking so we're asking that you extend the 2-hour free parking in the parking decks marble serves over a half million visitors per year who come to downtown Raleigh from all 100 countries counties all 50 states and from dozens of countries from around the world we love welcoming families School groups and chaperon to our state's capital city and pride ourselves on being one of the most accessible and most affordable large-scale Children's Museums in the nation the recent addition of 2hour free parking is a game changer for our guests giving our families who come from all walks of life access to free parking in a clean and safe location is one of the single most impactful things the City of Raleigh can do to support access to the informal learning environment that marbles provides our community in fact we heard from residents of Wake County in a 2023 Fe feasibility study performed by guinsler that one of the top reasons that kids and Families don't come to marbles is the affordability and accessibility of parking our core audience ages are birth to 10 years old that's a lot of busy families with childrens and babies looking for spaces where they can safely unload away from the street a lot of families and chaperon needing to maneuver their strollers diaper bags lunches etc by continuing this initiative parking and downtown will become convenient and affordable for guests to visit often in December alone the CR campus attendance at marbles increased by 7% and since providing 2hour free parking in December and January Marble's play store sales have increased 5% and Marble's IMAX revenue is up 42% over the last year from December through January by offering free parking you've made the choice of coming to a movie in downtown Raleigh more affordable eliminating the barrier of parking fees for 2 hours has made immediate impact in marbles attractive more guests in downtown Raleigh our guests eat in the restaurants they shop in the stores they play in more Square our guests bring significant foot traffic to more Square District which helps increase Public Safety I'm here speaking on behalf of Team Marbles and the thousands of families we serve most of whom live in the greater Raleigh area and ask that you continue to offer 2hour free parking and clean and safe parking decks particularly on the weekends it helps downtown it helps families connect through play at marbles thank you thank you next we have Nikki W um late Thursday night I was downtown at Mor Square station and I made the announcement that they declare White Flag for the night as it was obvious that people didn't know by the number of people that were present um and so people their things and they were making their way on the last bus over to the shelter I personally wanted to assist one gentleman because he was the elderly and had mobility issues um we called to the shelter they said they didn't have transport we called 2 on1 we called all over they said to call the RPD a c was $30 for 3 miles I did not have that after waiting in the freezing cold for over an hour we were um an officer in my halfway responded to the call in a pickup truck I ran over to theum he immediately said he just came to tell us that Rd was not a c service he was not compassionate and unwilling to assist from the beginning of our meeting during a 10 to 15 minute conversation he made multiple offensive remarks about us wanting other people to do it for us that this was not a police issue but an issue of pot planning he stated his job was to lock people up and that he should be chasing a car that sped by but instead he was stuck wasting time talking to us about a non-emergent matter he said we should go back where we came from that the police's job was not to keep was to keep criminals out the street and did not see this situation as a safety issue or find it necessary as a pre preventative measure to save this man from the freezing temperature even though it was evident that the older man was in a state and told him that he had just come from the hospital a few days earlier he showed no concern we pleed with him me and two others to make a a one- Time courtesy to assist this gentleman to the shelter and he replied unhoused people need to figure it out for themselves like everybody else I continue to ask and he finally stated he would make a call for the car but it could take up to 2 hours as they were responding to real calls I told him I would bring up this issue in city council to find a solution to the transportation Factor um and as in the past that shelters had required an escort after a certain time of night he was asked if he attended and with pride he stay no because he is responsible for himself and his actions as if to say that people who come to bring up concerns or bringing about complaints that don't need to be made or should not be this is the exact reason a compassionate response team needs to be expedited there has been discussion in Raleigh for a while but nothing has formed acorns does not serve as that in other areas this program has proven effective officer heway who immediately formed us that we um he was a supervisor had no compassion for us because we were unhoused had no money his bad attitude is what leads to bad behaviors if we had a compassionate Response Team ideally the elderly man would have been transported to the shelter in less than half the time and without being belittle or discouraged as a human being if three people had not been there to push for his transport that night I believe it's possible that this man may have frozen to death and we've already had three of those or more this past January so please find this matter important enough to prioritize the compassionate Response Team thank you next we have mamai Sanders good afternoon it's another amazing day in paradise that's a really hard act to follow and it's really hard to stand up here and look into faces that um sometimes look like they lack compassion where I understand it's kind of like some of the things that are said are kind of like water to a duck you just have to let it roll off but the person that you're talking about that was in crisis is the person that you serve and so that wasn't ever a part of my comments but it's it just felt right to say especially when there's no there's no reciprocal conversation around important issues that have um become EXA bated um under the previous administrations um I actually wanted to talk about I tuned in a little bit yesterday to the budget work um session and um there were just some things that I wanted to share um from my experience because I did attend six of the sessions one virtual in December and then all five for the districts um District C had the most diversity but again when you're only looking at approximately 30 people attending and about a third of them being staff um that doesn't say a lot um there was no representation that I could see um or hear in people's conversation that represented anyone from the laat from the latinx community um and so I've been wondering if any efforts have been made to bring exclusively Spanish-speaking conversations to a community that's grown by over 400% in the last few years um and that's not just for the budget before the comprehensive plan as well um in attending one of the sessions I couldn't get one of the things I couldn't get answered was about um how do public private Partnerships work um the gentleman who spoke and I feel really bad for never remending remembering his name but he was the speaker for this um reflecting Raleigh storm water conversation this was a big part of him saying that Solutions are brought by the citizens and so public private Partnerships are really important and so if something can be done to make that a little bit more clear about how the public can bring something to the city's attention that you might be able to partner with um instead of just waiting for an RFP to come out that would be appreciated and then in the last few seconds I just want to suggest that um if you could also have some information about the discretionary fund so that I can share that with people more easily that would be greatly appreciate it too but thank you for your service and I appreciate this opportunity to speak peace y'all thank you right next we have Nicholas riddle uh good afternoon mayor mayor protm and members of the city council my name is Nick riddle and I reside in the battery Heights neighborhood with my wife Billy six-year-old daughter Zan who's a first grader at Hunter Elementary School uh my neighbor Mindy Taylor attended the most recent city council meeting where she communicated the urgent need for safety improvements at the Tarboro Street and East Martin Street intersection in the wake of her 5-year-old son having been hit by a truck while walking home from school on January 29th as the parent primarily responsible for walking my daughter to and from Hunter every day I've experienced multiple close calls related to drivers not yielding to pedestrians in the crosswalk and had longed feared that this worst case scenario would come to pass following an incident in December where a car turning left from East Martin Street onto tarbor Street nearly collided with a group of approximately 10 children and adults which included my daughter and myself I organized ongoing Communications between concerned neighborhood parents in order to seek solution to address these safety issues Mindy provided us with an update about planned changes to the intersection following the remarks she made to the council last week and her subsequent discussion with the city's Transportation director I was pleased to learn about some of the planned initiatives to improve safety at this intersection from what I understand there are plans to repaint reflective markings on the street Place yield to pedestrian Signs by the traffic lights Place flexible delineator posts at the crosswalk and plans to work with RPD on increasing traffic enforcement on Martin and tarbor streets these would be welcome changes in addition to the improvements that I and other neighbors have uh already made note of these include updates to the pedestrians signal at the crosswalk which now gives pedestrians a head start when Crossing as well as recently added signage on tarbo Street showing the school zone limit school zone speed limit and the rate speed of drivers traveling down the road based on feedback I've received from a neighbor with an expertise in Street design I'd also like to advocate for Speed bumps to be placed as a lane divider on East Martin Street to slow down traffic turning onto tarbor Street I'd further like to P push for improvements at the intersection of East haret Street and Tarboro Street which similar to East Martin Street and Tarboro Street intersection is poorly marked and potentially hazardous for pedestrians crossing the road thank you for your time and for the city's continued responsiveness to the issue thank you right next we have Athena Wallen hi everyone Athena Wallen your resident on Brookside Drive but I want to make it clear that despite me standing up here and mentioning Brookside every time I'm speaking for city-wide changes and that's part of the conversation that I want you to remember every time I'm up here that despite me saying I live on Brookside Drive and add advocating for my neighbors and myself I want to see Citywide changes and part of this falls into place with the Brookside Brookside parking proposal um about 10 years ago I sat around a table with a few City councilors and York Management Property Management folk and uh we were discussing the importance about bike Lanes on Cameron Street in the village District they were not going to put down the bike lanes because it didn't fit the theme of or the feel of the the environment and I was pleading for the city to acknowledge the importance of multimodal infrastructure around Community spaces like grocery stores libraries and schools so you see why I'm here on Brookside Drive it being a school street and I'm still arguing the importance of two blocks of bike lane this is an invaluable learning asset if we have Community spaces that pull in all sorts of modalities all sorts of people from all around our city we should be looking for infrastructure to support everyone who goes to those places and it should be something that we put into motion like a blanket slate we know a diverse usership is going to go to a location let's try to plan for the infrastructure structure around it this isn't just Brookside it isn't just the village District uh in District D there's the Athens High School and the question about where that public library is going to go and I want to insist that you keep them close together the school is already a safe Zone we want to expand the area around the school to be safe for all usership so let's plan to have infrastructure around that school and that Library again because we know so many different users so many different modalities are going to those places if we have locations that we know infrastructure is going to be concentrated then maybe we need to consider how to build up that sort of educational space so if we plan for these things and we acknowledge that there are programs that Raleigh already has such as Safe Streets for all safe routes to school NC Vision zero all of these things are going into Loc ations like my neighborhood like Brookside Drive and this is why I keep coming because I want that to be the conversation I'm not a bike person just asking for bike Lanes thank you thanks next Roy atrod well it's been about a year but here we are again appreciate the time to talk to you uh mayor and City Council Members I'm here to speak uh specifically about special item uh asking for a waiver for the TW 24mth waiting period for Z 5422 it does not meet the materially changed conditions condition for that waiver um that would improve acceptability and viability for this project because the transition zone that is cited actually adds another incons consistency to the policies that this is already inconsistent with it goes against all four major plans that guide height density and planning in this area the not only the comprehensive plan but the Capital Boulevard Corridor study as well as Equitable Transit oriented development guide book and the downtown plan itself council member Mitch Sil has talked many times about the Capitol Boulevard Corridor study being a key development guiding plan for this area it designates very specifically three stories at neighborhood Edge 12 stories well separated from neighborhoods the comprehensive plan 30 stories as this request would ask for violates many different comprehensive plan policies two uh three different core definitions as well as three different tables or two different tables one of which is the main height guiding table uh lu2 uh this area is designated general height is restricted to 3 to 12 stories 3 stories would also violate the approved transition plan or transition area that was given to the neighborhood uh staff very specifically stated that any other rezonings would have a higher bar to come across uh because that was another policy that would it would be inconsistent with while the area is not currently in a transition zone I hope it will be soon because I want that ridership I want public transportation I want our city to grow and I want it to be vibrant but the Equitable Transit oriented development guide book is very clear on transitions from density and height near stations to engage neighborhoods um to engage lower density um it has and to create graceful transitions as there it's quoted North Hills is shown as an example of how you can have height and density that doesn't overwhelm a neighborhood but engages that neighborhood last the downtown plan specifically has illustrations that so seven to eight stories in this area I additionally note that I don't believe it meets the substantially changed rezoning request itself um because it isn't a substantial change um adding affordable housing adding money to the affordable housing budget is admirable but it's a very small part of what their their overall plan could be uh it doesn't take into account 33% of the additional units should be given for additional height um and this height was already given into the area went from 3 to 12 stories back in 2015 without public comment so I would just ask it to be denied based on it not meeting the requirements thank you Ben cun is Ben here okay good afternoon Ben 1223 Pierce Street I live on the other side of the railroad tracks just west of West Street um you heard everything Roy said I won't really repeat it other than um there is no policy basis to bring this back in terms of any material change whatsoever um if you're looking at the $1.2 million that is being offered in a transactional manner to get your vote um they could give that money today if they really cared about affordable housing as opposed to your vote they could give it to you today so I've practiced law here in rileigh since 1996 I've done land use zoning and real estate work since 2001 24 25 years I've represented developers I've represented neighborhoods opposed to development um I've gone to the Supreme Court on cases I was in a deposition this morning um I understand these issues I've been here as long or longer than many of you and I I really do and and this is one of the cases Z5 Z 5422 that made the least sense that I've ever seen as a land use professional being even proposed and letting get out the gate it makes no sense from the policies that are in the plan books you can read them all we have we've showed them to you it talks about tapering and transitioning down towards the well adjusted neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area to be respectful of them so that you don't overpower that we are all for I am all for good development on this site it is Zed for 12 stories across 2.6 acres of land more if you're going to give them a little bit more three acres make it three acres that is an enormous amount of density 12 acres over three TW 12 stories over three acres is enormous that was more than your plans called for when you gave when this Council not this Council the prior Council gave them 12 stories when they were the staff was recommending only seven and I've seen the transactional nature of things and it's it's it's starting to become difficult I have clients that have road closing petitions that can't get here can't even get to a hearing because staff is saying they don't think it's in the public interest unless they give the city money in exchange for the road closing I've seen emails it's very clear that is unacceptable this is unacceptable it should not be part of a land use decision-making by this Council and you've already denied it there's more than enough policy basis not to uh to to allow this waiver request it militates against it and you should deny it I've got nothing thank you apologies uh Rusty [Music] Sutton thanks for allowing me to be here I'm Rusty Sutton owner of the green monkey on 215 South Wilmington Street since our opening on September in 2023 downtown has improved and our customers are seeing it unfortunately the pace of these improvements didn't match the urgency of our situation I stand before you today to ask you to keep the 2hour free parking in the city on decks it's not just a program but it's a Lifeline to our small businesses downtown and it's working customers are visiting earlier and staying longer your improvements are making a difference and I appreciate your efforts however much work Still Remains let's keep working together to move our downtown forward to a Vibrant Community Hub full of thriving small businesses to that together we can do it please vote Yes to make the 2hour parking permanent thank you thank you right and then I think the final person Joseph gray was not here is that correct all right so that concludes the public comment mayor before we move to the next item may be excused for a moment yep right we also uh there was one voicemail public comment which the council received so all right uh next we have the report and recommend of the Planning Commission good afternoon Madam mayor members of council bam Walter rol Planning and Development I'm joined by the chairperson of the Planning Commission Miss blanny Miller our usual reminder about upcoming holidays I don't believe any of these actually conflict with meeting dates that are currently scheduled and then uh looking ahead to your next meeting on March 4th there's nothing scheduled for public Hearing in the afternoon there are a handful of items scheduled for public Hearing in the at the evening session and then nothing scheduled yet on the March 18th meeting which is what we're suggesting today for the items on the agenda coming out of Planning Commission there are four and I'll just walk through those the first is on now Road this is less than an acre it's going from a residential for district to a mixed use residential district they're offering a frontage and some conditions Planning Commission had a split vote here there were some uh concerns and questions from the commission about height uh that rx3 residential mixed use District would allow 50 feet compared to the uh 40 feet that are typically allowed in a res in a residential district otherwise again suggest some hearing date of March 18 another request coming out of Planning Commission for you is also a a residential district going to a residential mixed Ed District again a split vote from the Planning Commission on this one uh with suggestions for you to consider height as well as storm water on this item the recommendation on the previous item was height only this is height and storm water again suggesting a public hearing on March 18 this text change to zoning conditions is on Lewisberry road if it feels familiar to some of you that's because it was rezoned only last year uh so this is a just at an acre they're changing the conditions on the case uh Planning Commission recommends approval here so what the applicant is managing is they have moved into the administrative site review process and discovered an easement that they were unaware of when they made the offer of voluntary zoning conditions to you and the previous request and so they're asking for some relief from that suggesting a public hearing date of March 18 here and then finally an amendment to the comprehensive plan uh related to a new segment of South Hall Road so this would remove a a segment so this is um existing South Hall this is skyrest and this would be an extension of South Hall that would connect here between the two and they are asking to remove that from the plan uh Planning Commission recommends denial 5 to one the vote uh that did not support denial felt like there was they had not been provided enough information about impacts of the removal to the Network overall the um this isn't really so much about the connection between here and here as the bigger the bigger picture and they wanted more information about that again a suggested public hearing date of March 18 what questions could I answer for you or could miss Miller before you schedule hearing or or would you like for us information you'd like for us to bring back to the public hearings councelor silver I'd like to uh ask the question of council member branch on the other case on compassionate um I was told that there may be desire to move it up to March 4th public hearing because of there's an affordable housing component in order to submit that application for consideration was that brought to your attention or are you so yeah the applicant reached out to me I was going to bring that up um after everyone to actually have this one excuse me scheduled for March 4th um because I also think it's a better fit also for the community because there may be some changes that may need to be made in order to meet any deadline if it's approved so at the appropriate time I'll make the motion other questions yes councelor Patton uh might be for blanny um on South Hall Road what information did the Commissioners like what would what information were you desirous to see before you would have felt informed or do you think you would have gotten to the same result even in light of some additional information great question the one member who it was only one member who said that they wanted um additional information commissioner well I will say I was um absent for this meeting so I have been catching up through looking reviewing our minutes and other um um staff reports and those kind of things it's worth noting in the minutes that the Commissioners that voted to recommend denial each of them said that they were genuinely torn on the case and that there were competing factors that they were trying to weigh um and I would recommend taking a look at those minutes to see a broad overview of those other competing factors as well for your consideration other questions all right so do you want to go one by one or yeah you want to just take them okay so Ashley I'll make a motion that um Ash our group these our group um items resoning z31 24 um Tex change to conditions tcz 4124 and a comprehensive plan Amendment CP 524 with the recommendation of the public hearing for March the 18th okay all in favor of that motion I all oppose nay right and I move for rezoning Z 4024 for a public hearing of March 4th second any other discussion if not all in favor of the motion I I all oppose nay all right may I just confirm you mean the evening of March 4th yes thank you very much all right do we have other motions okay thank you uh next we have special items zoning Z 3224 good afternoon Hannah Reco Planning and Development so this case z 3224 was on the report of the Planning Commission at your last meeting on February 4th you deferred setting the public hearing to allow the conditions to be revised um which the applicant has done specifically condition one which lists prohibited uses has been amended to add vehicle sales and rental and vehicle repair so uh should you wish to schedule the public hearing today uh suggesting March 4th through March 18th um for context you have um five items scheduled for March 4 4th currently and you just scheduled three for the 18th questions nope I'll just move to set the public hearing for March 4th as suggested okay second any other discussion all in favor of the motion I all oppos nay all right okay good afternoon again bam Walter Planning and Development as foreshadowed in public comment you have in front of you this afternoon a request for waiver of the 24-month waiting period for a rezoning request from 2022 that case was Z 5422 at the North East intersection of West P Street and Northwest Street you can see that area outlined with a heavy black line here the request for the this was last in front of you on May 2nd of the of 20 2023 and so the applicant would be eligible without special waiver to apply for resoning uh in early May of this year so regardless of Your Action today they could app apply for resoning very soon and then just as a a reminder the Udo prohibits staff from accepting uh new petitions when the property has previously been advertised for public hearing and then the request is either withdrawn or denied by by you all either by the applicant or by you uh and so the Udo lays out a handful of criteria that you may wish to consider uh in evaluating whether or not you think a waiver is appropriate here so change circumstance some uh cor correction to a clerical matter newly discovered information uh around around or uh adverse impact uh something that could not have been discovered in time for the earlier public hearing a substantially changed zoning request or any other circumstance determined by you to be reasonable and in the public interest this is a legislative decision okay uh today's request is based on the the applicants uh justification for the request is the adoption of CP 423 a comprehensive plan Amendment which was uh brought forward in 2023 and acted on about a year ago that expanded the downtown transition area and then they are also suggesting a new condition requiring a $1.2 million contribution to the city's affordable housing fund those are the the two items they noted specifically in their correspondence to you I will say uh two things uh one uh Jason Baron from Morning Star Law is is here to answer any questions that you might have of the applicant about their request and I'm going to talk a little bit about the development agreement with us which was associated with earlier zoning request Kim Bowers is also here and can answer more detailed questions about that so just a reminder about this request some of you were here some of you weren't honestly I didn't remember all the details of this I needed a refresher too so this uh request last time this is just over uh 2 and a half acres the current zoning there is in industrial mixed use with a 12 story height limit the request was for downtown mixed use with a 30 story height limit they had an urban General front edge offered and as well as some conditions the request was consistent with a lot of policy and the Planning Commission recommended approval uh and then there as I mentioned there wasn't a a development agreement in discussion by the same applicant with the city um so there's that site adjacent to Future SMY Hollow park couple of views of the site currently the conditions that were offered at that time I do not have information right now about what conditions will be offered that may be a question you wish to ask ask the applicant they had prohibited a handful of uses they had limited uh on uh surface parking between the building and the eastern boundary of the site so that would be the park side of the site and they had provided for uh pedestrian connectivity to the Future Park they had also provided for a certain square footage of outdoor amenity area uh um on the site and then limited their office use uh to a particular square footage the development agreement uh I'm actually just gonna hand to Ken to walk you through this I think that you would be better served by that thank [Laughter] you so I'll give a brief summary but this was something that was current at the time and since this um since these terms were negotiated the city is moving forward with the park as a city project so I'm not sure how much of this is is Germain but this is what was on offer um a little less than two years ago which was that the developer would essentially take over the construction of the park so instead of the city bidding out the and doing the construction management the developer would do that on our on our half I think part of the intent of that was to be able to manage the construction of the park and the construction of the of the development as a single unified project that would then be delivered on a single schedule um at the time there was a uh budget gap between what was allocated in the bond funds and the full cost of everything that was shown in the park master plan developer was going to make a financial contribution to fill that Gap since that has occurred the city has won an $8 million Grant and so there is no longer a budget Gap in the par to be filled um there's going to be a collaborative process on the park design mainly since there's so much Frontage on the park there's going to be coordination with the development Edge and the park Edge so it would come off as a sort of unified design the land sale is something that did move forward and is still pending there's a a contract to purchase the property um that is still active but has not yet closed that was for a strip of land on the steep slope of the of the city property that would be part of the the development assemblage so that was um a summary of what was an offer at the time thanks I have a I have a question for Ken so you mentioned there was a $8 million Grant yes was that with the federal government or with someone else remember I'll refer that to stepen B recipient I can't remember where it came from good afternoon Steven Bentley with Riley Parks it is a Federal Grant that is correct we're working with our National Organization to determine whether those grants are still in play we do not have a contract for the grant we were only awarded the grant okay that was my question thank you I also wanted to just very high level remind you of cp4 comprehensive plan Amendment CP 423 um again that was that's it's been a minute and some of you were not here so this was a privately initiated request to amend the downtown transitions map the downtown transitions area to apply downtown transitions to a to additional areas uh and I'll talk a little bit about those so this went through just like every comprehensive plan Amendment it went through Planning Commission review it came back to you you all sent it to a committee for discussion and your final action in February of last year was to act on part of the requested Amendment and so the area shown here in red which includes the area of the waiver request uh was added to the downtown transition area map at that time and that's one of the changed circumstances that the applicant is referencing for you so ju just uh here's on the far left here is what the map looked like before the amendment the request was to add not only the area north of PE street but a small area south south of PE Street the committee recommendation back to the full Council was to only add the portion uh north of PE Street and I I have this here for reference if we have to go deep again on downtown transition history uh so what this uh Amendment did was it it added this area and so it means that there are uh one or two additional policies that would be considered in evaluating a request on this site and addition to all the policies that were already and that's that's very well rehearsed in the previous staff report but I would add a a some additional policy for considering consistency of the request with the comprehensive plan for for any request on any of those sites shown in red not just the waiver request site B would you speak to what exactly that means so what kind of condition or I'm sorry policy uh is implied here for the downtown transition area so it uh the the language talks about the um transition in height between in in this area uh as a sort of an area of transition between downtown and and the non-d downtown area or the N the neighborhood non- Central business district area um just an expectation of a of a sort of a Down movement in height across the area but no specific height recommendation I would I would I would not I I don't think so no given all the other policy in the plan um that this this policy does not necessarily Trump the family of other policies that are relevant here thank you other questions yep um I don't know if you can speak to this has the wait and it sounds like the applicants in the audience so maybe they can has the applicant indicated the reason for the request for the waiver as as you told us at the beginning they could just go through the process again uh beginning March 3rd Which is less than three months away I don't know specifically I would expect there's some contractual timing issue they're trying to satisfy Council silver I should have said it's at the front end of the conversation um just for the benefit of my colleagues and those that are listening uh I do not have a conflict on this case I referred uh the matter to the City attorney we had this conversation and uh she agreed as well uh that I have no conflict on this case so I'll be voting on this matter we have discussion go ahead just PE back on councelor Patton if the applicant is here is it possible for them to tell us why yeah I think we have from Morning Star Law yep uh good afternoon Madame mayor members of the council Jason Baron with Morning Star Law Group here on behalf of the applicant Raleigh development company appreciate the opportunity to be before you tonight or this afternoon rather uh honestly the reason for the request from a um from a substantive standpoint as it relates to the matters that are included as the basis for the request is the materially changed condition associated with the comprehensive plan why do it now um why not wait it's a sense of urgency associated with the park Master planning that's going on with Smoky Hollow park my client is very excited about the opportunity continuing to collaborate and partner with the city related to Smoky Hollow park that's going on on a daily basis my client feels like every day that we wait we're losing in an opportunity to really maximize the relationship between this site which has a shared boundary of 800 feet with the the city's Future Park with what the city's doing with the park so that's really the basis that's why we are here three months earlier than we would otherwise be pursuant to the to the two-year period that would otherwise apply okay other questions councelor Harrison then councelor Branch yeah just a couple questions so um it sounds like you have some intent to uh work with the city on the park does that mean you have an intent to restart that development agreement or in some other capacity yeah and and whether it's a development agreement or as as was mentioned that the city has received a grant we're certainly interested in participating financially whether it's through a development agreement or otherwise um there's definitely a spirit of collaboration that will be the Hallmark of what this development will be so I would anticipate right now there's not a proposed development agreement because we're not in the rezoning process I would anticipate there would be some proposed development agreement around that concept do you have an expect expectation of the type of contribution that you're anticipating uh not at this point but again that's that's a conversation we're looking forward to having in the letter about this request there is mention of the affordable housing um contribution of $ 1.2 million is that based on let's say the number of units that are built is that uh certain percentage of the units that's built um what how how do you imagine that being written in a condition yeah and and again um once we get into the zoning process we're excited to work that through right now we don't have the details of that condition worked out as of yet but I would I would imagine that the condition would include as you allude to some sort of trigger related to when that $1.2 million would become doe and payable uh from a timing standpoint when that payment would occur we would anticipate would occur consistent with other cases that the city has seen and that would be prior to co of the first unit on the site and do you anticipate that the amount is dependent on reaching a certain number of units of construction so we've had uh affordable housing contributions in the past where they don't get activated until let's say you build a thousand units right and and at this point we don't have a hard yes or a hard no on that point that's a conversation we're interested in having with the city can you tell me have your Heights materially changed so what you're looking for in terms of heights because that was really the main concern that came up in this case before whether the heights are appropriate for a downtown transition area and you know next to uh certain neighborhoods right and um and you mentioned downtown transition area and I wasn't involved with the case previously neither was the downtown transition area involved with the case um and that's why we are here and that's why we're making this request um at this point we don't know what our finalized um height condition will be we are interested in working with the community associated with what those Heights are especially as it relates to the downtown transition area that is now applicable to this site specifically and you make a great Point uh councilwoman Harrison that is why we are here I mean I would argue that regardless of anything else that's going on with the site if you want to talk about a materially changed condition asso associated with this site specifically the land use recommendations have applied with respect to this parcel specifically so we just want the opportunity to have those conversations so what I would say you know in terms of the downtown transition area being implemented that it gives even more reason to have that step down and height and so what was proposed prior I believe is what you're still proposing in terms of height so there's been no material change in height is that correct at this point we don't have a proposal before you with respect to height we are willing to talk about what an appropriate height is okay councelor Branch you kind of touched the point I was making and I wanted to ask about is that engagement in in working with the community um have you done any Outreach or any anything to date before coming before us not within the last couple of years not within the last 18 months since there was I think believe I believe and I didn't work on the case previously um there was I believe one neighborhood meeting that occurred after the case was decided um honestly you know during that two-year waiting period And I think you've probably heard the same from the community kind of kind of tough to have a meaningful conversation related to what we want to do with the site until we know we've got something to talk about and that's what we're anxious to do we are definitely interested in having that the type of community out you're talking about and having conversations with the community around what makes sense here so basically just just to make it clear for everyone and those watching you're coming before us to ask for basically permission to start the rezoning process to engage the community which will require multiple Community meetings before coming back before council with a case for us to vote up or down that is yes the answer is yes okay Council Jones does um thank you for being here um does this prevent you from having those conversations are you not allowed to speak to the neighbors right now no we could certainly um have those conversations um in advance of the the expiration of that two-year filing period or refiling period rather again I as I mentioned we had there was one meeting that occurred after the the case was decided last time until that 2-year cooling period is resolved it it makes it kind of tough to have a meaningful conversation especially with the reapplication or the the newly applied downtown transition area so the policies that with respect to the property have changed and so I think it just makes it easier to have a meaningful substantive conversation relative to the case uh during the zoning process thank you and then my next question is um mayor proem we mentioned you mentioned the grant um was the is the fear that we won't we possibly won't receive that money is that why you brought it up I was just curious just curious okay cool thank you okay councelor Lambert Melton does you want yeah I mean I was just going to to level set this case is going to get refiled whether it is in May after the 2-year period has lapsed or tomorrow if this waiver is granted is getting refiled we're not voting on the case today and it sounds like you've got some work to do um to get the case to a suitable place where it would be approved when it is refiled and comes to the table after a public process um I do think though that the implementation of the downtown transition zone did create a change um so I think you've met your threshold for a waiver I think the waiver gives us some flexibility for you to start having those conversations I think you've got work to do when you before you bring this case back to us for a vote um but I do think there is a benefit to having you engage with staff on the Park which is critical I I'm a little worried about our grant funding now too I don't want to put that in the universe but it's you know it's like the elephant in the room um and the affordable housing aspect so I mean I would move to uh uh Grant the waiver so I was just going to weigh in that um I wasn't here obviously when all this went down this is uh I know one of the more controversial cases from the last Administration to me I mean when I was campaigning this is one of the most strategic pieces of land in the city I mean it's on the brt the S line it's right near Smokey Hollow park which is uh pretty incredible um the stream restoration like major investment by the city um obviously northern part of downtown so this is an incredibly important uh decision and I I would also be in favor of starting the conversation agree there's a lot to be done I've already started the conversation with the neighborhood I mean I I hear from y'all I know there's um have talked to the attorney so um I think it would be helpful given the complexity of this to um start that engagement and and and see where we get and I will also say since I live in one of these historic transition areas um I also understand the Precedence and and the uh the importance not just for this site as important as it is but for this entire all of these shaded areas in the city so I would also be supportive of just starting that conversation I councelor Patton yeah I um you mentioned brt I think it's a good mention um for my part I'm not going to be able to support this waiver be I think it would be appropriate to begin this process again on May in May when it uh could could begin again um because we're going through the major investment study and a big bone of contention during the last time we heard this was will it or won't it be right where the brt stop is and I think we'll have more certainty to apply to the conversation later on this year and so for my part it you know I'd rather just begin when it's eligible again yep yeah I just want to add I'm not going to support the waiver at this time I do appreciate though um if it does proceed that you all truly consider the Heights and think about how that has an impact on the neighbors um in terms of materially changed conditions all I see are changes that would say the heights should be lower and there should be step downs and so that's where I I can't agree to the a waiver um but I understand if it moves forward I just really hope that yall will work closely with the neighbors and that Council will work closely with the neighbors so that we can find you know an opportunity that has resolution for as many you know individuals as possible whether that's folks needing affordable housing people excited about the park or people who already live here right any further discussion all in favor of the motion I I nay okay so that is 53 vote thank you very much okay the next item is the Downtown 2hour parking pilot Kenneth Richie good afternoon mayor and councel Kenneth Richie with Transportation here to provide an update on our Downtown parking to our no charge pilot just a little uh run through of our agenda so I'll provide a quick overview of the program of the pilot and how we arrived at the pilot and with that overview of a little bit of a level set of where we are with the parking Enterprise especially as it relates to our off Street assets we'll kind of go through a review of the pilot performance uh we will review some of the feedback that we have uh obtained from the public through our partners at Dr and then we'll talk about future considerations so just a little bit of background on our two-hour no charge parking pilot this this whole item originates out of the downtown Economic Development strategy that was a report put on in joint effort between the City of Raleigh and downtown Raleigh Alliance is one of those key development opportunities uh as part of that this did initiate through direction from the council at our October 15th meeting a pilot of this two-hour no parking that pilot initiated on November 15th it's anticipated to run through uh February 28th so for about another 10 days uh with that there's no charge for the first two hours in five City own decks and on the next slide we've got a map that kind of highlights those decks uh this is active from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday the LI the visit is limited to one vehicle per day so if a vehicle enters the deck if they stay for 15 minutes or they stay for the 2 hours that is their their free time uh for that for that particular day A Time Beyond parked Beyond two hours is charged at our posted rates and this is not available during special events with special events being categorizes those types of events that really draw 10,000 people or more and we've got a $10 flat special event rate that applies in those situations so this is looking at the program eligible parking garages uh it five decks are the municipal deck uh our Wilmington Street Deck The Morris Square deck Blunt Street deck and the City Center deck so we've got four decks there along fville Street and then the municipal deck here behind the building so looking at the rates pre-pilot uh we had the first 15 minutes have always been at no charge uh beyond that you would have a charge of a dollar for the first hour for the first two hours and then beyond that you would have a $2 per hour up to a daily maximum of $14 under the pilot there's no charge for the first two hours uh then after that it you acrew at $2 per hour up to that $14 Max again for the hours there's no charge after 7 p.m. during the week and certainly no uh charge on weekends uh under these under our current and under the pre- rates as well as the pilot rates so as we look at uh getting into some of the performance one thing we did want to to kind of Rectify is looking at where we were pre pandemic and then looking at where we were in 2024 as we think forward uh in 2019 pre pandemic our parking revenues were about 13.1 million uh certainly since that time a number of things have changed in the parking environment uh changes in the an office workplace uh monthlies have gone down certainly during that time we are seeing a a a slight increase in that but certainly we have not recovered to the point we were pre- pandemic uh we've seen some hourly changes also uh in 2019 we had a five after five program uh that was initiated in 2016 that helped to cover our custodial uh contract we have for the deck that was suspended in 2020 and in 2022 2021 2022 we did add the small business parking program that has certainly been a supplement to the business Community but based off of and this is a number I believe was shared during the council Retreat our fy2 estimated shortfall overall is about 2.7 million uh certainly consistent a lot of an overwhelming majority of our revenues do come from our off Street assets so a summary of our pilot performance and this is really looking at our two full months of the pilot so December and January we have seen an average 28% increase in the number of hourly transactions uh with that with the first two hours free we have seen an average decrease in hourly Revenue each month of about $23,000 and this is just a a more substantive data set uh that led to those numbers this does capture November December and January and compares the 2024 2025 numbers during the pilot against the comparable months from the previous year just to provide us that comparable and as you can see this this does show the increase in our in our transactions as well as the uh decrease in our revenues so P looking at Pilot feedback and a lot of Kudos goes to our partners at Dr for a lot of the leg work in terms of communication with customers and with the the stakeholders in downtown uh through this process there were a number of surveys that were completed uh with that they had a the community survey had 627 respondents the storefront survey had 74 respondant Outreach was through email and social media as well as uh their virtual focus group meetings that were had to solicit uh feedback from there there were three of those that were held uh throughout January some of the general themes from that feedback stakeholders uh were highly supportive of the program uh and praised the immediate impacts and benefit of the program uh positive retention and attraction tool is some of the words that were brought up uh office Brokers and property managers reported that it helped significantly in leasing office space so certainly I think there was a number of benefits to the to the downtown community that this uh pilot has started to ship so as we look a little bit more deeply at some of the numbers from that feedback looking at increased downtown visitation with the feedback 88% of community respondents indicated that the two hours of free parking in city-owned decks would increase their likelihood of visiting downtown looking at business Vitality 91% of storefronts indicated that the program would have a very positive or somewhat positive impact on the overall health of their business in program support 95% of the community respondents and 97% of the storefronts support the pilot program becoming permanent so a couple a few impact stories that came from those and you heard from some of these during public comment the pointer YMCA did report their best January on record uh with leasing Brokers are seeing positive results from existing and perspective tenants and with events visit rall has indicated that this program helps to book events in downtown Rally and really looking at that Target that audience of events that are less than 10,000 I think is where we've really seen the impact of that so as we think about that $223,000 a month Revenue impact from this program as we had dis as we had kind of highlighted during our presentation back in October uh we have looked at some considerations for Revenue mitigation really aimed at offsetting the revenue loss from the the two-hour parking um and I've got more details if we would like to to dive into those we can uh a re potential of reinstituting the $5 at five program on Fridays and Saturdays uh we've got that same reinstituting that same program but consideration of Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays we could look at extending paid hours uh and adding two hours onto the end so instead of cutting at 700 p.m. cutting at 9:00 p.m. you could extend paid days to include Saturdays and then the other option would be a consideration of rate increases so in terms of discussion uh what staff would seek is feedback on the pilot and considerations of next steps for for the 2 hour parking and future parking policy discussion potentially at a work session or within a committee to really look at the parking Enterprise overall uh as the parking Enterprise is really intent to be a self-sustaining uh entity uh the projected shortfall obviously does create some challenges as it relates to compliance with our Enterprise nature which then ultimately does have impacts on our general fund but certainly I'm happy to take any questions thank you do I have questions for Mr Richie councelor Patton kick it off um I looked ahead in the slides it looks like you've done some analysis of what some of these mitigation options how much they would offset or not um it might be useful to inform our discussions because it wasn't in the backup memo as we prepared over the weekend I know you didn't it looks like not all all of them were analyzed probably waiting on our discussion for further analysis but it might be fruitful if you run through real quick I'm happy to run through those real quick so this is just some background on the five at five uh we won't run through that but certainly an item that was suspended just prior to covid so after modeling the five at five uh we would we would project that Revenue to be about $26,000 uh which doesn't fully offset um the projected Revenue loss uh from the program itself based off the averages we've seen over the first couple of months uh if we did extend that to Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays uh does get us pretty close to offsetting may not fully offset but get does get us closer just extending the uh the paid hours only adds about $62,000 of Revenue uh so does not offset uh that or mitigate the the revenue impact of the program uh adding Saturdays does increase the potential Revenue but again does not offset the M the Lost revenue from the program and then certainly a consideration would be U rate increases uh we have have looked at that tentatively um and certainly it we can add back some Revenue that would mitigate the 2hour but certainly is part of a larger discussion of the overall Enterprise uh we would have to dive into that a little bit more deeply in a in one of those other settings thank you do you have followup okay Council Branch um when's the last time we had a rate increase for parking five years ago okay yeah a lot has changed since then um my other question is how does going bringing five after five even if it's I'm thinking Thursday Friday and Saturday what's the messaging when we say the first two hours are free can you help me navigate that so I think it does create a little bit of a challenge I think if we reinstituted the five at five program then you in terms of the applicability of the two hours beyond that that five o' time frame probably so then you probably look at the 2hour free being from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and that model okay okay thank you Council Jones thank you um in this with the five after five if we did that is there fear that that would because right now it's free after five um that that would hinder people from coming downtown to nighttime activities I think certainly there's there's some concern that has been raised from the community as it relates to to that type of impact yes councilor Lambert Melton yeah I just want to add some thoughts or not questions um is that okay at this point um you know I appreciate that uh we have a fisal responsibility to be good stewards of the parking fund but I do think that we're looking at this situation maybe through too narrow of a lens you know when we see this type of feedback more folks coming downtown business owners telling us they've seen increase in traffic solely because of this program the YMCA is saying they've had their best month um there's got to be some impact on sales tax Revenue um more foot traffic and people in our decks and downtown is obviously going to have an impact on Public Safety both real and perceived um and so I would be interested in having a more holistic discussion uh about the positive impacts of this program and other ways that um we can either quantify or intangible benefits I think there's going to be some fiscal quantification we can do on just the sales tax and I'm interested in seeing after a full calendar year the Sor of impact we've had so I would support keeping this pilot in place through the end of the calendar year having it come back to us in in early 26 to have a discussion about what did we see on sales tax increases how did it affect Public Safety how did it affect Economic Development um I know we had a discussion at The Retreat about potentially divesting of some city-owned decks maybe we have a conversation at that time about here's the five we've been using for free for two hours here's a handful that we don't see a great need for but I'd rather have a holistic conversation and for purposes of this year's budget finding a way to absorb the uh the um Revenue loss well I'll second your uh I'll make that a motion okay motion so move I guess and I would just piggyback on uh councelor Lambert Melton I feel like these decks are some of the most strategic Assets in the entire city because they have such an incredible impact on economic development um our tax base the portal into the City of Raleigh um they I also respect that we want things to pay for themselves but I just feel like we are not capturing all the external benefits and risk of these decks and yesterday we had the CIP conversation where we talked about the number one criteria that gets weighted above all others is Public Safety health and urgency I mean these decks would be to me at the top of any list of uh in terms of the cleanliness and the safety um of them and I would so just support continuing this but then having this much more holistic broader conversation we've all heard that the City of Raleigh right is owns a lot more decks than most other cities um you know could we through some divestment um better manage those shortfalls and and have you know a more stable forward strategy can I can I ask for a friendly amendment of as having the report come back to us in August and possibly go to the transit Transportation committee then the reason I want to say August and not went into January of next year is we we'll be done with this year's fiscal budget and then we can get ahead of projecting next year's budget for any changes or things of that nature I I just feel strongly we need a full calendar year of data and so the program went into effect I guess for the holiday season last year I would prefer to have it through the end of of fiscal year through through the end of calendar year 25 so I support the motion uh but want to be clear as we come to the end of the year whenever that report is provided I know it's a matter of semantics when you say free it's really subsidized it's costing something so for the public is free but it's actually costing and so I think to extend it to the end of the year uh take a deep look I don't know when is the right time to do it whether it's August or the end of the year but we need to have enough time to make a decision because at that point we'll be looking to extend it a few more months while the study is underway so just want some recommendations in Q for us to debate it uh that's my concern is if we say the end of this year then we're looking at the first quarter uh at least of the year to determine what's been the impact what do we do uh so I just want to make sure we are fiscally responsible we're offering a subsidy to help downtown businesses but council member Lambert Melton you made very good points about sales tax and other tangible benefits that are coming from this program so I'll support the motion but I'd look for some type of report before the end of the year don't know what the timing is so we can start January with some real concrete evidence otherwise or at least some benefits otherwise we'll be looking to do another two-month extension or 3month extension until we decide what new program to put in place but I will support the motion councilor Patton um back to you for just a sec um and then I I do have some comments but early in the slide I think slide six you show revenues from 2019 to 2024 and at the bottom of the slide it says the estimated fy2 shortfall is 2.7 million so that's money that will be subsidized from the general fund if we don't account for it elsewhere right and so my question is the 2 .7 million shortfall includes the $240,000 of estimated loss revenue or would if we continue the program our estimated shortfall is actually closer to 3 million does that question so I I do not know and I don't know ifia or I'm gonna I'm gonna call a friend here to that's all right no so I'm happy so good afternoon saudian uh Sadia satar from budget and Management Services so council member Paton the number that you see the 2.7 million is actually what we um have in the budget at present we did subsidize parking um you know as our friends mentioned this is something that should be able to sustain itself but unfortunately we haven't been doing so due to co and other um you know um other uh impacts um we are currently in conversations with our friends in transportation to figure out what the impact of this 2-hour pilot will be to the 26 budget again it is a little early uh the pilot of course will end at the end of the month uh but we are in really close um you know conversations with um transportation to figure out that 240 um you know what that impact would be I do not have a definitive answer for you but of course staff can definitely come back and we will come back as we produce the budget just kind of share some further impacts okay um and I guess one Les less for yall back to the table um what I wonder if the if the body would be interested in one thing we didn't hear about is um rate increase the potential impacts of rate increases my gut tells me that of all the mitigation strategies provided a rate increase on the hours after two is going to be the most palatable to the public and the easiest to communicate but we don't know how big those rate increases would need to be to provide the necessary Revenue um I'd be happy to take this into Transportation committee and like make a determination about what's happening for the program today but take into Transportation committee even right now or next month to discuss that that component and and have further discussion on which of these mitigation options would be most palatable to the public just for consideration okay mayor P for um one thing I will say is I know that we have like Festival season that will end like September is October so you get through Hopscotch bugaloo all that stuff downtown so maybe getting the data back kind of splitting the difference between you and council member Branch like October is um would still give us an opportunity to to weigh in before the end of the year because you have the data from this last holiday season but we would have gotten through a number of our bigger weekends and so if you bring us something back in October that still gives us a little time to kind of negotiate um the and look at the data I'll just add as long as the vote is to keep the pilot in effect through the end of the calendar year I care a little less about when we get the data what I'm worried about is that's about to be the holiday season and if we signal it all to the public or the business owners that the program is at risk right before the holiday season that's probably the worst possible time to create that sort of headache and so as long as it's clear that the pilot is staying in effect through calendar year 25 we could have a discussion on some of the data at any time I'm fine with October I'm fine with August whenever staff feels it's appropriate so I guess my uh I'll accept I guess I'll modify my motion that we'll keep the pilot in place through calendar year 2025 to have a more holistic discussion and staff can bring us data in pieces or in in whole or in part um whenever you feel it's ready at sometime in the fall um I just also wanted to anecdotally add since I have the mic right now is this is a much bigger problem than this 2-hour pilot I mean we're talking about a $2.7 million deficit this is $240,000 we need a long-term strategy on our parking uh fund and decks and whether we want to be in the parking business but this program itself which is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall conversation we're having um has has done a lot of good I think there was a I think maybe it was our social District where Bill King downtown rale lines had said it was more popular than the tree lighting maybe that's what it was this has got to be pretty close to that the 91% and 88% and so I definitely want to keep it in through the end of the year and then have the conversation about the data when we have it so I'm fine with that being the motion on the table and then coun it's now moot okay okay any other discussion about parking not all in favor of the motion I I all oppose nay all right so that's unanimous thank you all right we now have the report and recommendation of the city manager yes good afternoon mayor and Council we have one formal item on the agenda today but we have a special guest who's bringing a gift and I have an announcement after the formal item so we will start it off with someone who is no stranger to us um ruffen Lewis Hall um is here as the new president and if you know you know uh as the new president and CEO of the dicks Parts conservancy and he has a gift to bear thank you madam city manager I won't I won't respond to that I think we all know the problems when you've know somebody for 20 years got lots of stories uh thank you for the opportunity to be here here my name is ruffen Hall I'm the new president CEO of the dicks Park Conservancy uh I wanted to take a moment to send regards from our board chair Bill Ross he's actually traveling today we also have our vice chair Nancy McFarland and at least one board member here and Franklin in the back did I miss there's another board member here that didn't tell me okay so but they're Al but they're all watching closely online so uh it's a little weird to be talking at this particular podium I've never actually done that so uh I appreciate it uh let me just say really quickly I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you for your service uh we all know what that really feels like but it you really don't know what it feels like until you've been up at the table so thank you for your service in all regards um what I wanted to really do today was uh talk about some pretty exciting things that are going on with the park before we move into the 10-year plan um we have really three priorities at the dicks Park concern y uh partnership fundraising and engagement and part of my job is to do at least half a good a job as my predecessor to make sure that we continue all the good work I don't think I'll get get to that standard but I will certainly try and so that partnership really starts with our number one partner which is the City of Raleigh and we all know the Trap of saying too many names and getting in trouble and forgetting some so let me just say thank you to this mayor and Council thank you to the mayor and council members since 2015 that led the acquisition some of the folks are are the same players in the room not only the staff at the city but the dicks Park Conservancy board and all their members and the dicks Park Conservancy staff I do want to say a special moment to say thank you for the working relationship with city um parks recreation and cultural resources Steven Bentley uh Adam foreman and of course Kate Pierce uh we really really appreciate that strong working relationship and it makes a different a difference every single day the other part of that priority that I mentioned uh has to do with fundraising and so one of the things coming up very soon there's lots of great things happening at at Dicks Park too many to mention here but one of the big ones is the uh upcoming upcoming opening of the Gibson play Plaza and this partnership with the conservancy and the city is making a big difference it makes a difference to get things done like the Gibson play Plaza and under the category of fundraising what I have today is our next payment and so uh the Conservancy has made a commitment of $26.3 million towards that project look in early May and then for for some other folks like yourself there'll be some events in April to um be be on the lookout for some invitations to celebrate that moment of that 263 26.3 million we've already paid 16.8 million and so there's another $3 million commitment that I'd like to give you today now this is a check for $3 million from the Conservancy to the City of Raleigh now most of the time and this is from my experience we do a ceremonial big check right but the thing about this particular check is that it's actually the real check bank it may be small but this is mighty so um the other thing thing about not having a ceremonial big check is because this is an ongoing partnership we have additional payments to make we have additional commitments to make we have additional things to work on together and I'm just really excited to continue that partnership and continue to work with the city so I'm going to go give this real check to our city manager and ask Kate Pierce to come up and talk about the 10year plan thank you and thank you mayor McFarland for making all this happen as well thank you Kate pierce with Raleigh Parks here to talk a little bit about the dicks Park 10-year implementation plan and where we're headed over the next 10 years so um just a a quick background information for those of you that are new to the table or new to the park partnership and the process to develop the 10year plan um since 2016 the city and Conservancy have been working together to guide the future of dicks Park and we've accomplished a lot from our first event destination dicks on the hottest day of the year in 2025 to the adoption of the dicks Park master plan and most recently the opening of the ston houses Visitor Center um and various art projects we've accomplished a lot together as a partnership and 2025 is a Hallmark year for us one it marks the 10y year anniversary of the purchase of the property from the state of North Carolina two it is the opening of our first major project from the dicks Park master plan the Gibson play Plaza and then there are a number of other things coming across the year including something that I think the community is really excited about um a troll build uh in the fall of this year so lots to look forward to in 2025 but really what are our next set of priorities between the city and the Conservancy to move forward the Council adopted master plan and the recommendations of all the subsequent plans and studies um most recently we finished the cultural interpretation plan which really took a look at the long history of the site had a lot of Engagement with various descendant groups to how we recognize and honor the history of the site to Future Park visitors all of the plans to date are rooted in community engagement and so the 10-year plan doesn't really change the ideas that came from the community it tells a it provides a road map about how we advance those priorities so the master plan and subsequent studies tell us what to do the 10-year plan tells us how can we do it when should those projects happen who should lead those efforts and how will those be funded and it really is a conversation between the city and the conservancy and a consensus building process that recommends a new schedule of projects plans and studies to implement those Community projects and more importantly it's the strategies around capacity funding role and responsibility governance between the conservancy and the city to realize all of the projects that were developed from Community engagement in the master plan and the subsequent studies so the 10-year plan is our road map on how to get things done and we're here today to provide some high level recommendations on that and then seek your approval to come back at a future meeting with much more specifics so the key recommendations one is to update our project phasing based on things that have occurred since adoption of the master plan so DHHS has shifted their moveout timeline that has significant impacts on how we develop the park we have better understanding from subsequent plans and studies with more information so for example the Rocky Branch feasibility study gives us a lot more information on how we can actually advance that project and we're talking a lot about funding availability and constraints and how do we continue to imp ment projects giving the given the different and changing nature of funding in addition to project phasing we really do want to take a hard look at our funding strategy and what are those funding tools that will support long-term part development so we ask to establish a task force that looks at a variety of tools including value capture mechanisms like tax increment financing or tax in increment grants um this would all come back to council for review and approval but we want to start that work in ear Earnest so that we can develop a long-term funding strategies to support Park development in operations in addition one thing that's keeping me up at night is thinking about the state's transition from the dicks campus to their new headquarters on Blue Ridge Road their lease currently terminates January of 2027 and we have a lot of work to do to get ready to be for the city to be responsible for all of that new real estate all 308 Acres Legacy infrastructure systems and all the costs of associated with that so working together with our partners in planning and development services we've looked at a variety of scopes of work including the DHHS transition plan looking at early demolition abatement and Landscape stabilization potentially a zoning update how are we going to decommission existing infrastructure and rebuild new infrastructure to support Park development and what are we going to do with all of those old buildings that we choose or may not choose to save on the campus of this work has Associated costs and has Associated responsibilities tied to that so we do want to initiate an Adaptive reuse and Redevelopment strategy that would be funded jointly by the city and Conservancy the contract would actually be managed by the Conservancy but the work would be overseen by the dicks Park leadership committee and then ultimately come to this table for review and approval and finally I think one of the big ones is governance so we've had uh anou that then turned turned into an MOA and I think it's time again to look at our partnership agreement between the city and the Conservancy to think about the roles and responsibilities between two organizations who's best prepared to do what to relook at the composition of the leadership committee and the Community Committee to make sure that we are both engaging the public in the right way at the community level and have the right leadership around the table to make the decisions and potentially to think about a master plan amendment process that starts to incorporate all the subsequent plans and studies that we have done to date so those are our highlevel recommendations for you um this these recommendations were unanimously approved by the leadership committee so our recommendation to you today is to adopt the 10-year implementation plan but to direct staff to return to a future Council work session with specific recommendations on building related work funding and governance thank you for that very uh informative report Kate Pierce and I know there will be many questions um I'll start with councelor silver yes well first Ruffin congratulations we had our meet and greet the other day so it's good to see you on the other side of the podium and Kate uh thank you for what you do and thank you for who you are we certainly appreciate your contributions uh I've been honored by the mayor to be on the leadership uh committee as well as leant dicks Park so it's my pleasure and it was refreshing to see this plan uh I do if you can go back to the longterm funding slide uh just have one recommendation it in terms of this task force it says to explore and assess a variety of funding mechanisms including but not limited to yes for a very long time I'm just going to have to put my New York City Parks commissioner hat on for a second to really explore concessions when I mean concessions it's not a onetime vendor at an event but a a concession that you can look at some of these buildings to form public private Partnerships that is owned by the city but actually provides a use by way of an example uh when I was in New York City we had over 400 concessions that generated $64 million annually they got reinvested back in the park nothing from taxpayer money primarily these were all specific uses by way of an example ice skating rings uh tennis courts and I can go on and on it provided a benefit in the park own by the city it was built by the private sector and we got a lot of our restrooms at no cost uh that these individuals had to own and maintain and because it was a term 10 20 years uh it wasn't a private use it was still owned by the city I would just encourage both the city and the Conservancy to put that as an option to explore each state is different there is some public private legislation the state statutes that I think could be beneficial to get some of these projects done quicker at zero to no cost to taxpayers so I think this is certainly an asset with all those buildings on site particularly your last slide talked about the group looking at reuse and adaptive use for some of the buildings just want to make sure there's that bullet on there uh as well under long-term strategies I think that could be beneficial not only to the city but the entire region because this is a regional destination but thank you for the presentation I enjoyed it and hello mayor I good to see you as well all right uh councelor Jones thank you so much uh for being here um I have a few questions can you go back to the slide where we yeah that one okay you read my mind thank you um the 14 to 18 million estimated annual operating cost that we will that will start in 2027 yes so that is the cost to operate and maintain all of the existing buildings without anything without any demolition so we're trying to get ahead of that to reduce that operating cost and that's what where this governance task force is going to be charged with figuring out these these funding medications so since we purchased the property in 2015 was it always anticipated to wait until 2 years before we retain that ownership to have this discussion or how how what was the plan yeah so um originally the state was supposed to vacate the property this July this and so with the state's extension of the lease to January of 2027 it gave us a little bit more time to think about because a lot of the costs and a lot of the potential revenue is associated with the buildings and until we actually had a solid timeline on when those buildings would transition it was a little bit premature to get into kind of the conversations about what the Adaptive reuse could be because we couldn't tell a partner hey do you want to use this building but we not have access to it until January of 27 if that makes sense okay and then so this governance um committee who is part of it and who chooses those yep so what we would do is we would look to the city manager and to the president of the Conservancy to recommend folks to support those task forces um the governance both of the groups we're so two two levels one is we're thinking that those members should be part of the leadership committee table but that's something we can bring back to the manager and to um the r to Ru the ruen to the CEO of the Conservancy but the idea was that it would be a subset of the leadership committee that would be on those task forces supported by staff working groups um if there is direction from this table to consider other members we could definitely do that can you help me understand what why not just the leadership committee doing it help me understand what the governance committee is as it's just a lot of meetings to it would kind of be like a a transportation subcommittee or a growth in natural resources subcommittee let's get a working group together that can bring some recommendations to the larger body understood um I I'm trying to see if I had any more questions um not at this moment I'll councelor Harrison yeah thanks for all these updates I was just looking at the I think the plan here um and it has you know immediate needs um you know things we're working on right now like Gibson play Plaza goes out to 1 to twoe projects 3 to 5 year 6 to 10 year 10 plus years and I know some of these are very big ticket items and so I'm curious is it somewhere where the dollar amounts are could that be added maybe just like a little $1 means you know a million dollars that kind of thing um um we plan to bring all of that back to you at a spring work session we do have price ranges already associated with each of those phases they are large numbers so we wanted to find some time with y'all prior to to run through all of that and then bring it to a work session for conversation but yes we can add that and I'm curious the order that show up the bullet points are those prioritized or do you have any sense yet from like the leadership committee for example on that um we are very confident in the immediate and the one to two years we are less confident as the as the time pushes forward so a lot of it is going to be funding dependent and then prioritization with funding available for those later projects but everything kind of in the one to two year and immediate categories are fully funded um a lot of it really is funding dependent and then we can prioritize once we know what our funding streams are and when does council have an opportunity to weigh in about you know again where those priorities might be especially for Big Ticket items yeah I think that's that's a good question we can when we come back to the spring work session um we can talk bigger picture about what some of those major Milestones are so for example um the the work to redevelop the ridge that's very associated with all the building related information that would come back to council for contract amendments budget amendments real estate transaction leases so there's multiple touch points for Council on the back end but we can definitely think about how to front end that so you're influencing how these projects move forward as well there's a lot of just realities though that none of us have control over timing of leases or you know timing of the state's lease funding realities and so we're trying to create a framework that gives us the best tools to move forward efficiently and effectively but at the same time we can have a prioritization conversation I think something else I'm looking for and it's probably in here to some extent are lowcost activations so you know like the landbridge that is very high cost very cool but that will be a hard one to get to now you have in the 3 to 5e Mark a community garden you know that to me is something that could be implemented in the near term for low cost I think I've already mentioned a rough and I'd like to see chickens um alpacas llamas maybe a hippo whatever you want to do but just something that is going to bring people to a space and interact with the environment in I think a unique way and again you know hippo maybe not but just things that are a little bit easier to implement and again get people really understanding you know their connection to the environment I think that is always something that is a struggle um you know for people who maybe haven't had that access growing up we can definitely do that and if you look if you have the plan document pulled up if you look to the I'm not going to be able to pull the page number from my head but right after the series of maps there's a list of projects that can move forward as quickly as funding is made available and those are the less expensive projects that also might also have great Community benefit and I believe the Community Gardens is is listed there but those are projects that don't require huge sums but can move forward and have a positive impact other yes councelor Pon um yeah hi Kate Hi um I just from like a bureaucracy standpoint I feel like a lot of time we like this a lot of times when this to the topic of digs comes before us we're like approving a study or in this time this time we're approving a task force but there's also the leadership committee and the Community Committee and the Parks Board and this and that there's like a lot of churn just around like at this very high level of like orchestrating the park and some we're not always May perhaps it just hasn't happened during my time on the council to talk directly of the doing uh do we do you think that this govern's task force is going to sort of move us in a direction where there's a little less like churn and motion and like it feels sometimes like the work is duplicative across these different groups yeah I think you know this is the conversation that's going to need to happen at this table is what does the council want the council's role to be in the future of dicks Park what does the council want to delegate to other organizations or other committees like the leadership committee or the Community Committee and I think we will probably make some suggestions around all of that to help clean up because we do we have the Community Committee the leadership committee we also even though they're we go to Parks Board even though they don't have a voting voice here and then we also come to this table so I think there's some efficiencies to be found but we'll look to this table for guidance on how to best structure governance and also how to move the project along at a more efficient pace and I just want to piggy back onto onto counselor Patton's Point um at least for the last two years it's felt very directed like I I don't feel like council at least for my view has had that say we've been told things and then you come back and tell us things so as we develop this governance task force I would be very um interested in having our uh Council Representatives on there so that there's now I understand that's our job how do we make sure that that information transitions because it hasn't been yeah like it just hasn't and so I want to make sure that there is clearer ways for us to have that knowledge and a place to to to also input thoughts in because it it's felt very not that way so far yeah thank you we can do that I can make a com yeah uh I am the uh liaison both on the leadership committee uh both mayor McFarland and Ruff will have to hold me back uh on all the things I want to say after running about 2,000 Parks so certainly I hear what you're saying and and we'll have those conversations not just me along with the leadership committee about providing more certainty the master plan is more of a you know if it's not fully funded you have a master plan and the question is typically it's fully funded so it's just phasing it to get it built we're kind of building as we go as we get the funding sources so you kind of have the master planning process then you have the programming which is what's Ono and then you have maintenance so they kind of fall into these different tranches and so maybe as I come back to communicate to council members if we show them kind of the long-term planning in terms of the master plan and then the fundraising then there's the programming then there's the maintenance but then there's another big issue is that what do you do with all the buildings and there's also a strategy about the redaptive ReUse which I'm not sure it's in the master plan so if it helps as I come back it's up to all of you either individually or collectively I can just report back on what I'm hearing but also being a member of the leadership team offer my advice and guidance as one of many voices so I'll certainly play that role if this Council desires me to do that Madam mayor just briefly just really Qui I like thank you um councilman silver um I think from what I've seen over the years everything you mentioned has been done I think the last couple years everything shifted to get Gibson built and so it sent it around Gibson and sent around Lake Willer Road um the work we're doing there so it was more project oriented I think over the last couple years but I think it is time to probably do another reset all the things you mention just bringing it back to this current Council because I I was sitting here I'm the only one that's left that went through everything else that you just mentioned so um great points and that is precisely why I recommended that we do a work session in the spring so that everybody can be brought up to speed and have more clarity around what currently is the expectation of the Conservancy as well as the city as the owner of the property so it will will be a full 2hour working work session so get ready yeah well and I think Kate's done a great job today answering all these questions I would just say this is all very helpful to know it might be like what are Council decisions that are coming up in the next year you know is it about governance is it about the demolition program just if you can really spell that out for our work session um I understand the confusion because this is a sprawling complex um so how we can sort of break that down and make it easier but appreciate your I also just as disclosure we already had one ethical disclosure today I will say that I was not involved in any of this work for the 10-year plan uh they they shut me out of the room and um so I have actually not seen this until we all saw it um so just to say there is uh I was not part of something that we will then ultimately vote on all right uh so we don't have a vote today all of this will come back to council we do we are adopted okay yeah move for adoption Amendment please uh if you can include on the long-term strategy whether we call it public private Partnerships concessions I think that would be helpful to make sure that's it says but not limited to I'd prefer to be more clear and explicit so there is a thoughtful conversation about that if you'll accept that as a friendly Amendment yeah okay any other discussion if not all in favor of adopting this say I I I'll oppose nay and it is a unanimous vote thank you thank you Kate um and two quick announcements one I am happy to announce that last night officer gillick and you all will recall officer gillick was the officer involved in the situation at re Renaissance Park last month was stepped down from the ICU unit last night to a non-em mergency room so thankful for all the prayers and all of the visits and gifts from the community and the well wishes and the next stop will be home he still has a long road to recovery but it is good to hear that he is stepping down and lastly as the snow is coming upon us tomorrow um staff is working to make sure that if there are any operational impacts we will follow our normal lines of communication I will communicate with Council we will communicate through our communication platforms um so that the public will be made aware of any changes to operations and we're working on those schedules right now so hopefully it holds true when we only get one to three as opposed to the six deny that they originally said and let's just say our mayor has a whole lot of work to do so she cannot be sledding over there at Dix this go round because we need her here next week um for some things but staff is working to be prepared and we'll start the Browning process today to make sure in addition to what NCD is doing that our streets are safe and passable for those folks who have to get out and drive and that concludes my report today if the mayor is sleding at Dicks can we get a picture um mayor McFarland or Mr all thank you that works too yeah all right uh thank you and very good news about officer gillick um okay so next we have the matters for public hearing sure uh first we have Mr abery from housing and neighborhoods good afternoon mayor city council um I do have two uh public nuisance abatements that were completed that are on this list uh the first here is 1503 Beauty um this property just had trash bottle kind of all over the place um we did tap acorns to go out and kind of do an assessment and their assessment that nobody was living there it was just kind of being used as a hangout so to speak um no contact with the owner after we sent out notices no phone conversations or anything like that um so that resulted in the nuisance batement uh second one was one9 C Brook Road um the grass was encroaching into the sidewalk and the street and probably knee high or thigh high in some places um there was no no conversation with the ownership about that after we sent out notices and that resulted in the nuisance patment Madame mayor y my understanding on the second one that one's been paid um I just text the owner when I saw it on the agenda I reached out to him um I think we had a Rocky Mount address but he's actually here on the background I showed to Ay M address okay and he's actually here in Raleigh as well okay so I reached out to him and I just text him he said he paid it okay so if we can just get that verified by the clerk's office or our finance before cuz I was told it was paid today we can check that and I guess okay hold it yeah we can hold it that's why is we can hold it so if there's any questions about these these two I'd be more than happy to answer do either of them have uh previous leans for other no okay so move to adop you have to do hear all right so open the hearing on uh should I just read that so it would be 1503 Beauty Avenue let do it solo all right and then there's no one here so close the hearing move for approval second all in favor I I all opposed all right uh and then we're just going to hold the next one yeah I say just hold this one then staff if if all else fails we'll do it at the next meeting but I literally text him and he said he's paided Madam attorney what do we need to do well it was slated for public hearing so my recommendation would be to open the hearing right and take no action okay can find out we should be able over the course of the rest of the day find out whether it's actually been paid so that we can you guys can take action today okay right so I'm going to open the hearing at uh 109 seabook Road and close it leave it open and I just or just leave it open leave all right once again we're gonna we're gonna okay we're now leaving it open yes all right moving on to uh the next item also uh Mr abany yes 617 South Blunt Street um this property is a rental property uh has a pretty colorful history to it it caught on fire in uh August of 2023 um the kind of the way that way that works is the fire department goes out and the report is generated and then development services go as out right after that and evaluates the property for what permits are needed for repair um that was done right after the fire in August of 23 uh we usually in the way it comes to housing and neighborhoods code enforcement is if there's nothing done over a certain amount of period we we give them time to do insurance claims and P permits and kind of start repairs and that kind of stuff if there's nothing that's done we start we start on our case with it um in November of 2023 we started a housing case and notified the owner um that all those permits were needed to bring that house back into compliance um the owner did go and apply for a building permit only um again development services required building electrical mechanical and plumbing to make the repairs um that was immediately kicked back to him and they have they haven't done anything since um we have met we have talked to the property owner we met him on site met I met him on site in November and urged him hey go pull your permits go you know start the work on this and he has not done so um this property does fall into the Prince Hall overlay District um historic district and we ident we talked with planning about the possibility of you know reaching out to the ownership see if they'd be willing to maybe sell it and we could in a way to make keep that structure alive in the historic district uh that phone call went kind of unanswered um again we met in November and urge that property owner to you know take some action and that has not occurred um kind of what you see from the pictures we've got some pretty severe um structural damage to the house um it's in various states of being open uh we've had folks getting inside and we'll go back over there and kind of secure the front door and that kind of stuff but um it's right near the sidewalk so there is an element of unsafe uh for pedestrians walking by um as you can see the fire damage was pretty extensive he actually made the repairs to the the house next to it and it a it's a duplex uh majority of the damage was on the right side of the duplex and as you can see it was completely gutted after the fire so if you have any further questions I am asking you to adopt a demolition ordinance um and we would we would move forward with that process question yeah go ahead um has our historic Raleigh historic division or preserve Raleigh have either one of them groups are they aware of this yes and have reached out and they're not interested in helping preserve we we had a lot of communication up front with planning um the historic folks in that group and uh that we crossed all those checked all those boxes okay there are there any other leans on the property from other abatements no okay and are there property taxes up to date do you know um I'm assuming they are without without looking at them but I have I can't confirm that right now um I would say I probably have a little bit of hesitancy just based on the location of the property and can imagine that there may be Community folks who are not aware um so I don't know that I necessarily want to take action on it today without having some conversations with some Community folks to see if there's some interest in trying to do something different before we agree to demolish it is just my thought like a two week old something something along those lines just to reach out to some folks and say do y'all want to try to contact the owner try to do something to preserve it before it gets demolished just because of where it's located I don't know that um should we should do anything with it until we at least try to have some conversations with some folks yeah I was thinking the same thing that's why I asked about those two groups but I'm definitely willing to hold this one for two weeks okay so um should I open a hearing or just uh open I'll say open it and hold it open keep it open all right okay so I'm opening the hearing on 617 South Blunt Street and we will bring it back if March 4th yeah I'm sorry what was the date March 4th two weeks during the day and just so I'm clear um is that something you're wanting code enforcement staff okay okay okay thank you all right the next uh the city clerk tax equity and fiscal responsibility Act of 1982 Lindenwood education system good afternoon mayor and Council uh this request to hold this public hearing was received uh it wasn't abundantly clear what member of Staff should um handle presenting the item I guess I drew the Short Straw so bear with me I'm going to try to set this up for you guys basically we have a out ofate Corporation looking to acquire the educational resources of another company in order to do so they're going to utilize the financing tool of tax exempt bonds which will be issued by a government agency in the state of Wisconson um the IRS or the Internal Revenue Service regulations do require that a body a public body hold a hearing uh due to the fact that tax exempt bonds are going to be used in this financing so um I would point out no one has signed up to speak uh either in support or in opposition um so you may just wish to open to hearing uh if Council has any specific questions about um the details of the deal we do have a an attorney who's here and Raleigh representing the parties involved happy to answer any questions before you open the hearing any questions yep councilor Patton L for you Lou I it seems like this is not our debt this is not the taxpayers money this is sort of a weird oneoff because the millermont college that they're acquiring happens to be located in the Raleigh City Limits but I this so it might you said like an applicant not an applicant but someone associated with this transaction is in the audience yes uh m m is here Paro representing the the borrower the borrower perfect thank you um I just have a couple questions and maybe you can speak to them as I was looking up millermont College in preparation for this they for-profit um Career and Technical education facility we have a stunning community college system here in Wake County with Wake Tech I was noticing that on the US Department of Education college scoreboard uh millermont College currently only has a graduation rate of 49% less than half of attendees graduate and only about half of them return for a second year can you speak to a turnaround plan I cannot speak to the turnaround plan um I I know that they plan to continue the same educational opportunities at the location in Raleigh um this is a part of a larger Bond financing um to acquire educational assets across the country it's $175 million of um 501c3 tax exempt bonds that will be issued in Wisconsin um and like you mentioned it's it is no debt of the City of Raleigh this is just a requirement through the Internal Revenue code to host a public hearing um due to the fact that a portion of the proceeds will be used on a project located in Raleigh okay did you have any questions no okay all right so I will open the hearing on the Lindon education system uh educational asset acquisition I'm not quite sure how to title all this but uh all right and then close the hearing and so there is a Associated resolution that you would want to consider adopting okay does anybody want to pull up the resolution and make a motion I don't want to put up a resolution I I'll be honest with you I am struggling with this one I don't want to not saying it's a blank check but I just feel uh I appreciate council member patents uh due diligence you know usually you have a staff report I I just can't put this in context I understand why they're doing what they're doing uh but I don't know implications of saying yes I don't know implications of saying no and so I don't know if we can hold this whose responsibility is it to get more information you know um we have two resolutions in the packet uh I'm just personally struggling with feeling as if I don't want to vote on something if I don't feel I have information to make a decision I just don't know what I'm saying yes to know this reminds me we used to have to sign off on people wanting to be notary publics and they used to come to the city council and we'd have no idea who these people were but somehow it was our obligation to have to sign this document and I feel like this is sort of equally a junk law that forces a bunch of counselors who have no idea what this is to so I mean to some extent I kind of agree with all of you like why should we waste the citizens time or the city time on something that has nothing to do with us right I think that's fair and accurate I think the purpose of the hearing if we were to imply the statute or the regulation is to receive public input you've received none um what if we just choose not to make the resol you know the hearing and then people will never come back to the Raleigh city council for these things again well the county said no right I mean they could go to another ref to do it did as far as the venue for conducting the hearing is we actually when we received this request we did reach out to W County uh suggested that because it was an educational matter that it would be more appropriate for Wake County they kind of they have a informal rule of thumb I think I would describe it as if the project if the project is located in a municipality then that municipality should be the should conduct the the public hearing to receive any public input well may may I suggest that our City attorney reach out to the county attorney and they sort of work out some some plan for this to because it is the educational matter that you can just let them know the council would prefer the county commissioner's weigh in on it that would be my recommendation so sounds like a motion if you make it might get a second so moved second we would need to hold the public hearing open until we have resolution okay so I'm going to reopen the public hearing on lyndenwood education have to set it for um well we don't know what the date certain is going to be is two weeks March 4th enough time for you to have those conversations or you need a month I'm I'm I'm going Advocate on behalf of the City attorney I give her some time yeah um I don't know that I think two weeks is going to be first meeting in May yeah perhaps March 18th I would say I would say may give her she's got because it's attorneys and they're going to have to reach out I mean I know the representative attorney is here but she's going to have to call there's going to be some calls that have to be made and we're talking to attorneys and they have more than just this to deal with I would suggest I would suggest May yeah had the first meeting in May okay so we will hold the hearing open till the first meeting of the council in May all right next we have the petition annexation uh ax2 2424 which is 591 Jeff's Grove School Road and 5829 creedmore Road good afternoon mayor and Council uh we have an annexation request here on Jeff grow grow School Road for about 1.69 Acres um on the map on the screen you can see the existing boundaries of the city's corporate limits so our tax base where uh Property Owners pay taxes and the city provides services that's the hatched color um I'm trying to draw here you can see the non-hatched or colored areas are the city's etj there's a cluster around jeffre Grove and creedmore and then one over uh to the West off Ponderosa the subject site is gray so the property under request is surrounded on all sides by uh corporate limits tax base and our our service area um the property has an approved development um subdivision for 17 town homes on the site uh and water and sewer are nearby as you can see on this map uh you can also see the existing subdivision um in the area as well and water and sewer are just north of Jeff grow School Road this is the zoning map the site uh was rezoned in 2016 r10 with zoning conditions uh most ly residential zoning in the area as well along creedmore you can see office and Commercial mixed use zoning districts uh pretty flat topography on the site an aerial view again showing the approved subdivision there uh are two existing houses I believe at this point they may have been have been removed um the site is surrounded by um wooded Lots associated with the adjacent subdivisions um and there is some trees on the Frontage on jeffree's Grove as well uh this is the subdivision um for the 17 Town Homes um and that's my presentation thank you uh now we'll have questions councelor Jones and then Council Harrison sure okay yeah just um curious do you have the 10-year Financial impact analysis that you can bring up we do um I just want us to uh um go into this in a little detail because we did have a great discussion at the council Retreat about the benefits and costs of these annexations and I wonder if you could just take us through this I realize no one can see it probably out there maybe you can see it on your computer I can see it on mine um this looks like a good deal for the city um could you tell us more about that am I reading that right yeah I will defer to my colleagues in budget thank okay thank you all right good afternoon mayor and councel Allison bradsher with the finance department yeah this will definitely be an eyore for many to read um we have been utilizing this 10-year Financial impact analysis since 2023 uh so at the time we did a benchmark with what other municipalities in our area were doing and specifically we found that Durham had been using this for some time uh so the model really looks at only the general fund and it looks at property taxes that will come as a result of the increased assessed value and it also looks at sales tax specifically when we're looking at residential meaning more people coming in the area we would expect our sales tax to increase uh the model is a very simple approach for what can be a very complex calculation associated with grp grow uh as you just noted especially with the timing of necessary Capital infrastructure uh so the model uh also does not account for any Community benefits uh that arise as a result of the annexation so one a little later on your agenda today is actually a lowincome affordable housing for seniors so the financial model isn't smart enough to take that into consideration uh it also does not uh look at Enterprise operations cuz arguably those are going to pay for themselves and what I mean by that is uh predominantly like Solid Waste or Raleigh water so I mean I'm happy to do a a line by line if if that was your preference but I just wanted to give you that sort of big picture um again this is a a a rather simple approach to again the the timing of when again mainly Capital infrastructure would need to come online to support uh these areas of annexation so I would not want a positive or A negative to be taken extremely literal because we have conservative growth rates here Etc so a lot can change in a tenear window uh here in the city so just to clarify a couple items the sales tax is the assumption that people are moving from outside the city yeah I mean generally that's what we've got to assume and we look at it more on a population basis so the assumption is that with new residential um opportunities those are additions to the population and not monopolizing from another area again that's just our our key assumption okay so maybe a more conservative assumption would be like 50% of these people are from outside the city or something like that absolutely yes yeah so that would affect the amount of sales tax and then when I'm looking at this just to make sure I've got the right number at the end the estimated cumulative impact um at the very far right corner that's positive for fiscal year 30 sorry 20 33 34 34 correct and is that the number I should be looking for that is correct yeah that sort of bottom corner number there because what that does is that looks at it essentially over this time Horizon with some conservative growth assumptions of our property tax as well as our sales tax we do look specifically on the timing of expenditures again we base that on a a big picture budget view we only look at Public Safety transportation and parks and then again we try to time again from a big picture perspective when those Capital Investments would come online again using the budget as our basis but ultimately yes that bottom kind of corner number is the one uh that if you if you wanted to look at this literally with all those factors you know this particular ular analysis would be net positive over a 10-year Horizon and just one more question is inflation considered in any of these values over time yeah we haven't really figured or Incorporated inflation we've just assumed our normal growth rate so sort of property tax at 2% you know sales tax may be a little stronger uh that's really as sophisticated as this analysis gets thanks Jones thank you um as we look at this chart um cuz we have four annexations and two of them are negative and two of them are positive this is one of the positive ones and so in 10 years time whatever you guys are calculating to get to that number if I look in the chart five slots before that we we're at 51,000 50,000 40,000 so or 49,000 and it's going down so how how do how do you guys use that in or how should we use that as information because it doesn't look it looks like 5 Years From 2033 it's going to be in the negative yeah I think that's really looking at it maybe on a per annual basis so if you if you do look in the very beginning what we're assuming is the city is going to generate some of that Revenue initially early on but those Capital assets necessary to support these so again I know we talk a lot about fire you know those would come on later but I I wouldn't want to pin it to one annexation case because that's where it gets a little tricky we can't necessarily say or I would not want to say that as a result of this one annexation we're now need to need to go make all these Capital Investments you've got to look at it as a totality of an area um and and that's why we're trying to use sort of the the law of averages which again may be fruitful or not I yeah I guess that's where and maybe we don't need to take up like a ton of time here where I can speak to you separately and and you can help educate me on it because it's it's hard when I'm looking at all of these if we're getting a bunch I understand this one case and I I'm not saying oh we should just deny this one and we will save everything because we won't but if we're continually in every annexation looking at negative negative negative I need to understand how on Earth that makes it responsible to not and and how it doesn't add into what we listen to from our department heads and they said we're not making enough on annexations and I get for the 200 Acres like that makes complete sense this is much smaller or I know they're not going to be at fault for that nor am I blaming it but if we're making these decisions on an every hearing you know public hearing doing some annexations I don't want to just be saying yes yes yes yes yes and then cumulatively going okay well we saw that coming you know so maybe there's just something I'm not understanding but as I looked at that that really struck out to me this time yeah coun silver I just have a question uh about the effective date so I understand because I'm looking at this motion to approve and I'm just again it's the first time I'm doing this I looks like I have several dates as an option uh as well as another part that talks about uh extending utility so can you explain to me so I understand why choices are listed for February 18th June 30th this year or June 30th next year sure I'll let my colleagues in planning back up to answer that question Allison St close though cuz my question is going to be for you okay I'll stay close so the question is why do you have options for I want to know because you I'm planning on making a motion but I'm given three options for dates so I don't know the implication if it's February June this year or June next year so I I see there's another part that talks about including uh authorization to extend utility so I don't know if that's tied to the effective date so hi B how are you council member silver it's great to see you bam Walter Planning and Development you do have three options in front of you uh we offer you those three options based on state annexation regulation the first option is annexation effective today service available effective today and then the other two options are um the way the state statute is worded you have that option that you could delay until June 30 of the current fiscal year or June 30 of the subsequent fiscal year so depending on where you are in the fiscal year that could be a big make a big pretty big difference right okay so here it's like an 18 months different difference it could be as much as a 24 month difference in May it's a it's a smaller difference right um and then my understanding is service not is not available until then with the Deferred annexation and we have your uh fellow council member Paton may want to talk she's been a proponent of some deferred uh effective dates so she may have some information to share with you on that front about her thinking why she's gone that room yeah absolutely I'm happy to jump in and add some color to why we started exploring the use of delayed effective dates um at the beginning of the prior term is when we were um informed that the the formula that had been used to calculate fire service sufficiency changed and so as as a result some of the assessments of whether sufficient service was available were also changing at that time and you know when we when we Annex whenever that's effective we're agreeing to provide all the services available to the city um but so there was a there was a period of time where there were a lot of annexations coming through in my district where there were these emerging fire concerns and it wasn't if felt not comfortable to me to say that we were going to open up all city services to be available immediately and so it in the intervening time since then we've uh initiated the fire master plan return soon but that's when they started seeing them presented this way and that could be a time when it might be appropriate and a occasion like this one where it's surrounded on all sides it might not be appropriate okay that's why I thought this is is a dnut hole so to speak that's being filled okay um Alison I just had one question for Alison welcome back um going back to this fiscal analysis um so you you kind of spoke to this but I just kind of want to put a fine point on it like sometimes we see these and they're Revenue positive that bottom right corner is a positive number sometimes we see them in the revenue negative can you just confirm my understanding that most uh Suburban patterns of development are typically Revenue negative and that the revenue positive centers of our city are like downtown North Hills and other commercial centers and and so it all sort of all goes into the the the wash and comes out a little bit even so long as we don't tip the scales too far in either direction yeah I mean certainly my colleagues from Planning and Development could opine on that maybe better than than I can but a little bit to your point when you are looking at assessed values again the primary revenue generator for the general fund is property tax revenues those higher assessed values are more centralized in your in your core um and so I think to offset what you just said that's absolutely correct you would not necessarily think of a I think what is a 17 Town Homes right to to be a major property tax uh generator just based on you know how uh how th those assessed values are established thank you all right is there a motion or yep I will I'm sorry oh you do the hearing yet I'm sorry sorry opening the hearing on ax24 245901 Jeff Grove School Road and 58 5829 creedmore Road closing the hearing now okay let's see if I can I move to approve the annexation of the property in question uh with the effective date of February 18 2025 as well as plac in the property in the appropriate electoral District second any other discussion not all in favor I I I all opposed n all right yes okay the next one we have is uh ax 2824 uh 3800 Auburn Church Road and we have Robert Tate from Planning and Development good afternoon Council Robert Tate so this is annexation petition ax 2824 for three Parcels totaling 8.93 Acres along Arbor and Church Road um so this is also within a donnut hole of the primary corporate limits and inside the etj um and is also associated with an approved uh spr here is a overview of the site and location to of utilities so water is already accessible to the site along Auburn Church Road and Sewer is along the southern um periphery of the of the parcel current zoning is predominantly Industrial in this area um you'll find that pretty common along the Jones haers Corridor I'm going towards Garner along the I40 intersection um the site has some to topographic features um but no flood plane another quick look at the site so here's that approved plan um it's for an office and warehouse space of about 12,000 to 13,000 square feet here is a ground view of the site which has a current use which is still Associated to that industrial and office use and that is my presentation any questions questions for Mr Tate just one question do you know about how many jobs they're bringing to this area or as economic development share that I'm not sure about that the applicant did not provide that but I believe the applicant is here okay open the hearing before applicant we will open the hearing on uh 3716 3800 Auburn Church Road please yes so I'm you might have to repeat the question for me how many jobs are you all looking to bring to this area so I am just the engineer representing the the clients I'm not sure they currently work in the the facility that's on site and so they're planning on building a newer larger facility next door and then they're going to look to lease out the space that they have now um I've been in there before the office is probably like 20 25 people okay councelor Harrison and what is the company or American Plumbing they Plum single family homes okay and I just want to note a couple things I saw in the application and this might actually be back for staff um so it looks like it is negative in terms of the fiscal impact so there is a cost to the city I also see that National Fire Protection Association standards are not met for the site um perhaps that would be from fire could we hear more about that y did good afternoon Hart Griffin fire chief Emergency Management uh Council M Harrison this meets the needs is just like uh many of the other ones um the fire service response times are elevated especially for the ladder trucks in this particular one um it goes to say everything I've continues to say for the last two years is it's going to be compiling for us to meet those needs for service in those particular areas uh we do try to modify it and add more resources to those dispatches but over time it's going to drain us thank you and I will note with the fiscal analysis it's netive 95,000 as of fiscal year 2033 it's negative basically from 2027 on the negative as in cost of the city keeps growing um so the trend line is for that to grow so I I I don't have an opinion about this case I think I'm just trying to put some information out to our Council so that we can start to think about are there lines we don't want to cross when it comes to these fiscal impacts and what numbers are concerning to us and I just want to jump in on uh just piggybacking on that and I'm not saying I understand it because this is not something I've brought up to the table before but as I look on that and there's another one that's going to come up that's going to be negative $319,000 in the same fiscal year so it's as we talk about balancing and and and if we're going to have a high density to balance and offset this then it's I'm I'm struggling understanding why that something we're not talking more about can I have a question for chief yes sir um I know the response in everything for a home and for a warehouse can you speak to you know that if this was a house being built here or if it's a warehouse the distance is the distance so the time will be the same regardless but can you speak to a warehouse structure and what goes into their bill that may assist you all well residential structures versus Warehouse is space allocation and residential normally doesn't come with sprinkler system as warehouses do now the need for ladder trucks become more apparent with with larger structures because you have larger flows of water residential structure the the problem is it's high life Hazard so we go into a different mode of rescue when it comes to residential structure as opposed to commercial structures commercial structures also bring Hazard materials right so there's a lot of things that go into a commercial plus the amount of people right now currently we dispatch 10 apparatus with a commercial structure that big you're going to get more apparatus roughly 16 apparates going to one structure on the commercial based on the level of it and that's going to come through dispatch it come as a lb a large building structure or a medium building medium building so it's totally different the more we build mix use we have to accommodate that with the assets to send for dispatch and on average how many big structure fires do we have a year roughly right now the seef rale we have 4% fires two of those are working 2% roughly working fires uh but 11 of our stations make over 45% of fires in this city right thank you I think for the record we need to get the gentleman's name that's speaking on behalf of the applicant my name is Luke Perkins with swift Partners thank you any other questions for yes councelor Patton yeah just while we're trying to have a broader conversation around pros and cons of the tax revenue and the fire response times um could could we also ask the City attorney to chime in these all four of the annexations we're considering today are contiguous and inside of the etj uh consideration for denial would that carry any legal risks they still go water I think certainly the expectation is because it's in the etj uh that the council would approve the an annexation um but as we have talked about in Clos session we are uh revising our process to make sure that these come to you uh earlier in the process for consideration and and one question for the attorney or for staff If This Were was denied because it's in our etj they can still eventually connect to water at a higher rate is that correct that's correct and I'll just jump in and in no way I don't know that I'm sitting here saying we should deny I think that having this conversation so that we can say all right where are we going to make up that money in 10 years and having a plan for that and answering that that's more so what I'm trying what I think the the conversation needs to be because as we listened in our Council Retreat the accumulation of all the the annexations whether they're big or small are draining our staff and our staff is coming up saying we can't we can't we can't and I need to be able to tell my residents you know what what that is so I want to be able to say in this we we're we have a projected loss and negative but this new uh the approval of 30 stories that's actually going to offset that and and that's really the conversation I'm trying to have here rather than an approval or denial go ahead I agree with council member Jones um that is good to disclose to the public because you're right um if you look at it I mean most single family is being subsidized over the long term for infrastructure we don't have a similar impact analysis I'm going from 20 to you know from 20 to 15 to 10 so not sure that this would be difficult to have this conversation here at the table but in general you are making a good point we just don't have that kind of information as we look at zoning cases that as we say no it needs to be less dense few units less intensity what is that fiscal impact of a versus B which actually would offset that so you do make a good point at the same time there is a doughnut hole that needs to be filled and if you look at the entire footprint of the City of Raleigh you do have this throughout and so uh you know there are a lot of considerations to weigh yes this one if you look at it is a is a net loss over time uh as council member Branch was saying asking about the jobs is this a permanent Improvement on the property could it change over time those are some unari uh putting the building aside do we want to fill the dut hole is what I'm thinking of as we have this conversation but you make a very good point and we currently don't I don't believe do that type of fiscal analysis in zoning cases that should not be the only consideration there are other factors which is what we discuss so you make a valid point I'm just not sure how we can resolve that right now here at this table but to me the donut hole of filling it in is also important as we look at our entire city I'll just say I just want to finish it up with um as we talk about it rather than a whenn loss say yes no how are we saying exactly what your point is which is this is why we're making this decision we don't want to if it's in within our etj there expectations that that these are the promises that we made that we're going to accept it um and on top of that is going to bring jobs and everything so I think to give the residents a more uh a fuller understanding of the complexities of that that's what this moment is for when we're I feel like that's what public hearings are for so that they don't just look at it as oh you're just annexing everything you're just saying yes to everything when we can say this is why we're saying yes is is important for transparency all right any more questions or I can close the hearing all right closing the hearing do we have a motion on this case so ma excuse me Madame mayor I move to approve the anization by adopting the ordinance anization property on the on one of on February 18th of 2025 and to adopt the resolution placed into the property in the appropriate electoral District second any other discussion all in favor of the motion I I'll oppose nay all right thank you next we have uh petition annexation ax 2924 2312 and 236 trewick Road and 2315 Andor place this is in District C Matthew Burns good afternoon mayor members of council Matthew Burns of pining and development uh so this is a request for annexation for a site in North East Raleigh uh located along trck Road near Sky trest Drive uh the three parent Parcels that made up the request are just about just under three acres and uh it has since been subdivided into 32 Parcels for future construction of town homes um but has not changed ownership it is associated with one approved site plan and uh there is one subdivision plan that's currently in review but the site is vacant um the request is in an area known fire service consideration being outside the standard uh fire response time for an initial full alarm response um and the topic of Service delivery will be evaluated with the fire service master plan which is ongoing the site is contiguous to corporate limits to the West and East and contiguous to the egj everywhere else so it's also a donut home uh donut hole there are utilities uh along Trey Road uh both Water and Sewer are available on the site and here on this map you can see the platted town home lots the SES zoned are six residential six currently and uh surrounding zoning is also uh predominantly residential six um site is fairly flat and there is no flood plane on site here is an aial and a snippet from the subdivision plan that I had mentioned earlier and finally here are a couple views of the site so this is uh South along trck road then North along trck Road um South along Andor place and North along Andor Place uh please let me know you have any questions questions okay I will open the hearing on uh 2312 2316 treor Road and 2315 Andor place all right closing so Madame mayor I would move forward with the anization effective date of February 18th 2025 and place the property and the appropri Electoral District second discussion all in favor of the motion I I I'll oppose nay right eyes have it next we have petition annexation ax 3024 uh 2900 Cree Road and we have Mr Tate hello again Council Robert Tate with Planning and Development so this is anation position ax30 24 for a property at 2900 cre Road um this site is approximately 1 one I'm sorry 2.3 Acres um in zone cx3 um there is an Associated ASR under review for a 50 unit senior apartment complex um water and sewer is accessible to the site along Fox Hollow Drive and is also um outside of the NFPA response standard times um this is also a doughnut hole um annexation so surrounded by um corporate limits on all sides and then just want to note that this site is within 1,000 ft of the annexation agreement line with Garner so they have been notified about the public hearing so just showing a quick area of the utilities like I mentioned along Fox Holo Drive zoning um predominantly in the surrounding areas residential but there there's this note of commercial and office mix use kind of at the southern Terminus of Cree Road uh and then here are a few street views for your reference I'm available for any questions you may have all right questions all right we'll open the hearing on the property um do I need to yeah 2900 cre Road um any other yep closing it on 2900 um do we have a motion I move for approval of anization um effective date of February 18th 2025 and place in the appropriate electoral district and this closes a donut o and one question I'm sorry was there was this for affordable housing Type M yes okay thank you second okay all in favor of the motion I I I'll oppose nay so eyes have it and next we have uh street name change uh a section of Chester Road to be renamed pedford Road and we have will Shoemaker here from Transportation good morning mayor and counil uh good afternoon sorry I'm a little bit late um will Shoemaker from transportation to talk about uh street name change of Chester Road uh this is a staff initiated uh street name change it started in 2024 when we reached out to the public uh peder bro jumping down a little bit we reached out to the Raleigh historic commission uh and asked them if they had any recommendations for names and they recommended pedford Road based on uh a Mr James pedford who is was a free black man uh who was a tenant Farmer for the mores and purchased a 16 acre tract of land just south of this intersection so this renaming is going to honor his legacy um the next slide is going to show a map of what exactly we're talking about here but we're really only renaming about 175 foot of uh Chester Road between Chester Road and Overland Road and the map will clarify uh why we're renaming the same street name there are are zero properties addressed off this so zero properties are impacted and we're going to be recommending the street name change to be uh pedford Road after this and so if you look at the the map here we are really only uh talking about that little finger between Chester Road and Overland Road uh when The Interchange there was some Road reconfigurations and so right now it's causing confusion to drivers uh where you're coming south on Chester it says continue on Chester out to overin and a lot of people are just continuing uh South through that intersection and then hitting Elmsford way which is a private Street and it's causing some issues with that HOA with people turning around and causing damage with some of the streets we've worked with that Community for quite some time trying to increase signage trying to increase markings in there um it just hasn't worked and then uh through our continued work with them uh a private development has come in and uh that site right there is coming in for Town Homes to to develop and they want to address off of this new um uh private street that was recently constructed through the the apartment complex it's currently unnamed and so that gave us a great opportunity to go ahead and name that private Street have it uh continuous go from this uh stub street through their site because it did create this four-legged intersection where it didn't exist so we're we're doing a lot of positive things with this change to uh increase the consistency of the road Network the naming conventions uh allowing a new development to have proper e91 addressing as well as trying to increase uh or I guess decrease driver confusion with this weird Chester to Chester to Oberlin uh connection through here and so our recommendation to to you as a council today is to uh adopt the street name change from Chester Road to peder road with an effective date of April 1st 2025 and I'm here if you have any questions do you have any questions if not I will open the public hearing on on the change from Chester to pedford Road and then I will close the hearing I um make a motion to adopt a resolution uh changing the name and have it to be effective April 1st 2025 okay any further discussion if not all in favor say I I all oppose nay eyes have it thank you okay next we have rezoning z42 2459 Le PBG Road good afternoon Hannah Reco Planning and Development so this hearing um for this resoning request c424 was opened at your last meeting on February 4th I was deferred to allow the applicant to revise the zoning conditions which they have done um specifically uh condition five pertaining to Affordable units that um the owner would provide the duration of that affordability was amended it used to read 10 years and then now reads 30 years all the other conditions remain the same so happy to answer any questions you have okay any questions from Mr recal are you doing the development agreement presentation separately um yeah I think we have that material available again I don't believe there are any changes with the development agreement though okay well I'll open the hearing on zo 424 59 Lewisburg Road and I will close the hearing any motion I move to adopt the proposed consistency statement dated February 18th 2025 contained in the agenda materials and to approve the zoning Amendment with the add adoption and effective dates described in the agenda item under recommended action this approval is also deemed an amendment to the Future land use map to the extent described in the adopted consistency statement second any other discussion if not all in favor of the motion I I all oppose nay eyes have it next we have the development agreement uh da1 1254 59 Lewisburg Road sure um there's been no change since I last presented this but um just R briefly it is to construct uh a Greenway trail that starts on the city property while in drive but is mostly going to be located on private property um adjacent to the city's Greenway property and it's going to continue across Lewisburg road with a new uh signalized pedestrian Crossing and there's a cost sharing agreement in this and the uh Trail is to be completed by the time the 50th unit is ready for certificate of occupancy I'd be happy to answer any questions about the details of the agreement which is in your agenda backup see councelor Patton moving her microphone oh you know I always got questions um can um so the can you share so this we're doing like a 50/50 split they're going to construct it but and we're going to um offset the cost by about half um it's about half a million dollars can you it sounds like it's a split of some cash reimbursement and some credits can you kind of talk through that for the yeah and although there's I want to stress while there's dollar figures in the agreement there's also language that gives um some uh latitude to City Administration to adjust the sources of the payout depending on specific conditions but essentially um the cities of uh authority to collect uh facility fees which we collect for open space and for um roadway projects uh for impacts they're essentially impact fees uh is from the city's Charter and the city Charter allows on the open space side that if a land owner dedicates land for open space that they can deduct the value of that land from their their facility fee payments so one of the payment mechanisms is because they're dedicating a significant amount of the site as a public access easement that the trail is going to run across and of course that me makes it unbuildable so it's valued as if it were a fee simple interest that is one component of that on the roadway side uh you can also deduct if you uh uh build a roadway project this over and above code requirements um either dedicating the land or the actual Capital cost un likee the open space fee can also be deducted from the fee calculations now this particular project under the current uh fee structure at full buildout would owe about $2 million worth of fees between the open space and the um and the and the uh roadway fees thare fees because of these reductions it'll be a lesser number than that but it'll still be again significant of Revenue on the facility fee side now what you can't do is uh pay for any of the capital cost of constructing the trail facility so um the the roadway Crossing uh the signalized roadway Crossing is estimated at approximately $200,000 that would come out of a credit against uh Transportation facility fees that would be due the balance of the city's roughly half million dollar input into this million doll project uh is going to come out of um uh Capital CIP money so that'll be a cash payment so I hope that clears up all the num that are in the development agreement thank you any other questions yep councelor Jones um I just wanted to first of all thank you um in this development agreement I know last time we asked about uh Park maintenance costs and I wanted to thank uh parks for responding but I was wondering if you could come up and just uh let everyone know what those costs will be and how we're going to absorb them [Laughter] good afternoon Stephen Bley with Parks yeah our Park operation staff which is by a crow flies is about a half a mile from there um but we calculate it's around six or $7,000 a year um considering the size of the park budget we could absorb that into our current operations thank you so much all right any other questions all right so I will open I'm of course already getting lost on which one I'm on open the hearing on z202 24 721 Chapel Drive close the hearing do we have a motion oh sorry okay I move to adopt the development agreement oh you're right i' named this the wrong it's okay I should have opened it on da 12559 Lewisburg Road right and then close got there okay so we had a motion and a second all in favor I I all oppose nay all right thank you all right next one yep number 11 yes c224 721 Chapel Drive yes z202 24 uh this hearing you opened at the last meeting February 4th it was deferred to allow the conditions to be revised um those revisions include um one to the condition pertaining to affordable housing a detail has been clarified that it the number will be rounded up to the nearest whole number uh the others remain the same so happy to answer any questions you have questions from Miss raal nope okay so I will open the hearing c202 24 721 Chapel Drive and I will close the hearing have a motion we need to close it she did okay thank you I move to adopt the proposed consistency statement dated February 18th 2025 containing the agenda materials and to approve the zoning Amendment with the adoption and effective dates described in the agenda item under recommended action second all in favor of the motion I I all oppose nay eyes have it all right and that concludes so mayor if you would like to go back to 109 C Brook Road Finance staff confirmed that the payment was made at 1:30 p.m. today okay so I should close that hearing so I am closing the hearing for 1009 sebr Road no AC no action okay thank you all right all right next we have the report and recommendation of various committees and the only one that has anything uh actionable right Transportation Transit so you're going to advertise that's right transportation and Transit committee will meet next Thursday February 27th from 3: to 5: here in the council chambers uh I will not be in attendance um council member Lambert Melton will preside the meeting and council member Harrison will be able to sit at the table in my stad our topics will be the NC doot High crash intersections and pedestrian improvements at East Waker Mill Road in Atlantic Avenue okay all right and that's the only report out of committee so I'll go to the report of the mayor and city council and um councelor Harrison I'll start with you if that works yeah I just want to thank uh Wake County Commissioners uh Tara Waters and Sofia Jackson um they visit Ed um with me um to look at some Library sites over the weekend around Athens Drive community library and um we had a great time we actually went to wellfed community garden which is one potential option um they are looking to make some changes um so uh as we drove around we just had really good conversation um and I want to just again thank them for their partnership as we can consider how the library bond is going to impact and um really contribute to our Raleigh residents you know our library assets okay just wish everyone to be safe tomorrow we are on way County Public Schools will be closed so kids have fun just a few things um in the next District EC community meeting will be on Wednesday March 12th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at La cusina Italian restaurant uh the next is our book club decoding democracy book club which we had our first meeting last Saturday it was great some great conversation um so please join us at Overland Regional Library on Saturday March 15th from 9:30 to 11:30 for that and then lastly uh I have had the privilege over the last few weeks of attending the majority of my uh assignments for boards and commissions and it's been great conversation but what was uplifted and was come to the top for me is the continuation of our discussion at Council Retreat um what is the definition what does that look like and so I didn't remember exactly what we said about that it will that conversation continue in work session will do we need to send it to committee how will we close the gap on what we started in Council Retreat and I'll I'll ask the city manager so it is scheduled for a work session I want to say in April to bring that item back um and that will be taken all of the feedback that was received at The Retreat we tried to get it in March but there are too many budget items that we're trying to um or items that have budgetary impacts I probably better to say it that way that we need to get done in March perfect thank you so much and I will um let everyone know as I go back next month that it'll be coming back in April for further conversation and then on that same topic for cac's we have been in contact with the leadership of uh cac's and we are still working on getting our schedules to match up so that we can continue meeting and and conversing with them so everything is sounding good and hopeful for next month so thank you so much so I had uh two issues um the first is the public comment we have had a lot of discussion on this so I wanted to um bring it back to the table uh we currently have one hour on days like today we have three hours on the second Tuesday I am proposing that we move from 3 to two so we have a total of three hours a month um I know I've heard from a lot of folks um many people don't want changes um I think there's also right now we're using two and a half hours a month so if we have three it shouldn't have um any huge impact but creates more predictability for staff Council and still meets that um what has on average been two and a half hours a month so I would make a motion to go from three to two hours on the second Tuesday second all right is there any y yeah I just had a couple remarks on this topic um while the discussion I think on public comment might be trivial to some two or three hours when we typically do not surpass 2 hours the question for me is more about trust and priorities what we spend our time on and I do want to show our commitment to listening to the people that we represent if public comment is the Forum they choose I will be here and I do feel especially strong about the issue right now because of our state and National political climate many of us are struggling to talk with friends and family these days myself included we're challenged in listening to others with differing viewpoints and I don't want us to limit our exposure to Alternative perspectives is it challenging to listen to public comments sometimes yes it is have I been called out in ways I find unfair yes I think we all have but I do value the space because I learn a great deal about where our residents are coming from and I know the public doesn't have all the answers or even necessarily the facts but neither do I depending on the topic at hand and I think again in this particular climate right now when votes supposedly don't count when we have folks like judge Griffin falsely claiming to have won a North Carolina Supreme Court race um when election violence is pardoned what we saw with the riers on January 6 um when government employees are fired without cause which is happening to many of my colleagues trust is lost so I just want to encourage us to continue to have City Hall be a trusted space where people know their voices will be heard so no matter what hours we end up with please keep coming keep talking to us we want to hear from you and then I'll just add on uh I Echo I can't put it as eloquently as you just did councelor Harrison um but as we look to what feels like unwarrantedly lower the time that people are allowed to come to us I challenge residents you need to look and see where your representatives are listening to you where do they have that space if they want to cut we we're going to cut time here where are they making it up um so please whatever the vote ends up being tonight please remember that you are your Advocate and I need you to ask those questions thank you okay any other discussion if not all in favor of the motion I I I all opposed i n yeah okay so that's a 53 vote and thank you um the second we're leaving it at 7 o'clock start time is that correct yes the second issue was just panhandling um I know uh this is an issue U still uh many of uh folks here at the table have had um different concerns both for the individuals um out there uh concerns for uh the public safety staff trying to enforce some of the laws for Citizens um no easy answer on any of this but I would just um make a request of uh the City attorney and staff to come back um to the council with your thoughts on how we better address um this circumstance both in urban areas and on highways um across the city um this is not unique to any one area um so uh no date certain but if you could just come back with your best thoughts on um how we should better address it thank you well that was one of my Council items so thank you mayor uh that you eloquently spoke about we just want to respond to a lot of what we heard but to be very responsible so very grateful to the City attorney and uh it was a Deputy Chief of RPD that uh Raleigh Police Department that uh understands that we have to find a solution going forward the only thing I'd want to note is that as part of Black History Month I'll be spending part of my Saturday with Miss Octavia Rainey I I left the flyer in my office uh but I'll be very excited uh to spend a good portion of my afternoon uh in East Raleigh I'm sure there'll be a lot of surprises that day so I look forward to spending part of my Saturday with you thank you very much um in keeping with tradition I just wanted to lift up a couple good things we did during consent the cons through the consent agenda today um one that's been on my radar for a long time as we put a No Parking towway Zone on Old Buffalo Road uh this is an area where I've gotten a good amount of community feedback and uh I just think the neighbors will be glad to see that in place uh we also approved contract for services for referees and umpires and this was needed because post pandemic particip participant registration across this is a quote from the the agenda item post-pandemic participation registration across all the athletic leagues is increasing by 7 to 12% per year and I just Contin I continue to think of the phrase social cohesion and it's a comfort to me that rites are spending more time Gathering Together engaging in joy and community and and also physical activity um so those are the two I wanted to highlight other items I have my next office hours are Thursday March 16th from 6:00 to 8 location to be determined and then I recently received a constituent concern from a resident who lives in Bedford who experienced a house fire and had a difficult time meeting the requirements to rebuild in effect like essentially their same house um and I believe it's related to some onerous forestation requirements and I'd just like to better understand the the piece of the udio that tripped them up what was the spirit of it other scenarios where this might be creating unintended barriers for residents so if I could just get a report in a manager's update um related to that what was that address uh I don't have the address there I live in the neighborhood of Bedford I think planning staff is already like aware of it uh I just want to uplift what the mayor um brought up um I've had some folks reach out to me too about issues particularly downtown with some of the pan handling um one thing that Wilmington doeses and this may already be on your radar Madam city manager is they have posted notice and signs about panhandling but the signs also have a section that says there's a better way to give and there's a QR code to a landing page with like resources where you can make contributions and so I think that strikes a good balance um so I'd be interested in seeing something like that um where we're providing some clarity and then also maybe some assistance um and that's all I have I guess we all want to wait you on the pan thing um but I would also ask that the city attorney's office be involved especially as it relates to um intersections and traffic links because you know I literally today saw someone panhandling walking in between cars trying to get money when the lights red and certainly when it turns green that person's in the middle of the street uh trying to collect money so certainly any information about restrictions um particularly around traffic and intersections and things like that and other than that no report all right um so now we have move on to appointments um bicycle and pedestrian advisory well I will turn it over to M uh pdet thank you um first as you started off with bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission two regular vacancies we have several nominations here that will be coming back on your next ballot Jim Brennan was nominated by council member Jones James th aser was nominated by council member Lambert Milton and council member Harrison nominated sha Fernandez and Britney Bryan so all of those uh four names will be coming back can you list me as a co- nominee nominator for Britney Bryan please sure I she had asked and I forgot so thank you next is design review commission one alternate vacancy council member Patton nominated Anan kada so that will be coming back human relations commission won alternate excuse me alternate vacancy jarma Allen received eight votes so would be appointed Planning Commission to regular vacancies few things going on here Jessica Cochran received five votes however there were several nominations made and I understand there may be desire to hold um I'll just go ahead and read the nominations that were made on the on the ballot um council members Jones and Harrison nominated Nick Nick Neptune council member Branch nominated Jason Crest and council member Branch nominated to lulup omay so it's up to the council as to how to proceed with that item I was just going to say historically if someone received five votes we went ahead and move forward with it and then that still leaves the opening yeah I I would go ahead and if she got five votes okay um yeah and there will be I think there will be more nominees coming uh yeah and if if you don't mind if I could be a co- nominee for Tula makay all right um so I'll bring back the remaining regular vacancy with the um three names okay um next is nominations Board of adjustment one regular vacancy um slight change from what is advertised in the agenda packet Dr Steven Kenny's term is expiring he initially said he wanted to be considered uh after the agenda was published changed his mind um so the council may wish to consider elevating the longest serving Alternate which is Ryan Tori to a regular slot and declare an alternate vacancy at the conclusion of his term so moved second it was second okay yep all in favor I all opposed all right so I'll bring that um alternate vacancy back next is environmental Advisory Board um a request has been submitted by the board chair to remove member Zoe neber per city code the chairperson May submit a letter to the city council requesting a removal of a member due to missing three consecutive unexcused absences the letter from the chair including additional information was included in the agenda packet for consideration um also included was broader attendance information Mo move to accommodate the removal request from the the chair second okay any further discussion all in favor of the motion I I all oppose nay all right so that vacancy will be coming back on a on your next ballot can I go ahead and nominate Tina Scott for the newly available vacancy sure next is fair housing hearing board one regular vacancy the term of Cassandra hexall is expiring and she would like to be considered for reappointment per Council direction information was provided in the agenda packet relating to her attendance so moved all in favor of the motion I I all opposed okay and lastly is Raleigh Transit Authority to regular vacancies terms of Jennifer Truman who was your chair and Sarah pra are expiring Miss Truman would like to be considered for reappointment Miss pra does not past practice has been to elevate the longest serving alternate member um for the outgoing slot U which is joh Lee Thomas and declare an alternate vacancy so two things to consider here the reappointment of um Miss Truman and the elevation of Mr Thomas move to reappoint and Elevate second okay all in favor of the motion I I all oppose nay and then Cassidy I have a nomination for the new vacancy for the alternate that that created um William mckenny okay thank you so that alternate vacancy will be coming back and that's it thank you all right next the report and recommendation of the City attorney no report and then we have the report and recommendation of the city clerk hopefully you do better than the education institution mayor and Council you're agenda materials included uh draft minutes from your February 4th and February 11th sessions move for appr second okay all in favor I all opposed right okay and we do not have a closed session today do not okay that's our gift to you today all right all right well um everybody be safe and thank you we are Jed n [Music] la