Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down. Down. [Music] Down. D. [Music] Oh no. Oh no. Oh [Music] no. Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh. Oh. [Music] Hey, hey hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] Okay. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh. Oh. Ooh. Oh, [Music] Oh hey. [Music] as uh councelor Silver is got got an excused uh absence. So uh we'll mark that for the record. And then as always, we start with the pledge of allegiance. And I am asking councelor Lambert Melton to lead us. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Then we start with the consent agenda and it's my understanding that nothing has been pulled. Move to approve. Second from councelor Patton. Any other discussion? If not, all in favor of the motion. I I. All opposed. All right. And then I believe right that takes us all the way up to public comment. And we've got eight folks for public comment. And I will uh just call you up as as you know with public comment. Uh this is uh the city council's time to hear from you. So we will not respond uh directly to your commentary. Um but it is possible you could follow up with staff afterwards if it's an item that's you know relevant. Okay. So with that, Ricardo Fuentes. Is Ricardo here? Okay. Next we have Josh McIntyre. Uh hi, my name is Josh McIntyre. I live at 727 Gaston Street, apartment H. Um, and I'm mostly here actually just to thank uh the mayor and counselors for your service to our community. Um, I feel like you give a lot of your time to this and uh I appreciate it. Um, I also want to say that uh I I'm really pleased to see Go Raleigh system uh getting more amenities on the street. And I wanted in particular um to invite those of you uh on this council to uh give yourself the opportunity to ride the bus if you haven't. I really um would strongly encourage it. We'd love to have you on the number 12 method. Um I speak just for myself but uh one of the busier routes also like the number one and number 21. Um I think you will see uh some things in the city that you might otherwise miss and uh with that I do have to apologize. I may have to leave to get the bus back to work. But thank you all for your service. Thank you Mr. McIntyre. Matthew Brown. Thank you. Good afternoon. Afternoon. Thank you for your service and thank you for letting me speak. Perhaps the most important element in Raleigh success is its good quality public schools. You can live anywhere in Raleigh and send your children to a safe, healthy school with good teachers. This is not the case in most cities. A key to maintaining our good schools is our magnet program and diversity policy, which ensures that no school has too high a percentage of disadvantaged students. Research is unequivocal that such schools tend to suffer from poor academic outcomes, poor discipline, overworked faculty, and middle class flight. The disadvantaged students who remain receive a secondass education. Research also indicates that a diverse student body is better for all students. Our magnet program is funded in part by grants from the US Department of Education. These grants will soon be eliminated because they have the purpose of promoting diversity, which is anathema to the recently elected president. If our magnet system is cut back, where students attend school will be determined increasingly by where they live. This is where you come in. It is critical that the city provide low-income housing throughout the city rather than segregating low-income families and large housing projects. Small projects throughout the city was our policy for decades. But now the city is moving toward large housing projects concentrated in certain parts of the city. Heritage Park near here is to be demolished and replaced by a project of over 1,000 units. Other similar large projects are envisioned nearby. Please reconsider this. Even beside the issue of schools, it is healthier for society when people live in communities of diverse income and age. Such diversity is what our older neighborhoods foster. It is not natural or healthy to have only rich people over here, only poor people over here, only s senior citizens over here, etc. We should adopt housing policies that promote diversity, not segregation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Next, I have Nikki W. Good afternoon. First, I just want to say I completely agree with Mr. Brown. Mr. around diversity and education in communities is a vital um part of community and uh tolerance and enrichment in our community. I would like to share about the treatment of the disabled and the homeless sector. For some of society, the disabled are imposers upon the convenience and efficiency to many businesses and functions. However, we should seek to find a value in one another and extend patience and empathy to all fully abled and otherwise. Especially in a present time when a very few in government are allowed to decide the value of all. I have observed that in the shelters and in the general public many of these facing physical challenges have been punished for the need for accommodations which may consequently warrant additional time or funding or both and most do not want to have to consider and some avoid until it becomes a mandate for them to do so. The shelters in area have been doing a poor job of accommodating those with psychological and psychiatric disabilities as they should incorporate staff who are properly trained to deal with people who have these issues. The shelter is at the end of the day a business and should be upheld to the same standards and regulations of all businesses and even more so because their business is people. But as we already know, this is an issue that I like to focus on to physically challenge. Last year, a woman who was confined to a wheelchair was put out of the Helen Wright Center in the middle of the night. She cannot get around well and the nighttime darkness added to this issue and as a result her life was taken by a moving vehicle shortly afterward. Just recently two individuals with moilityility devices were put out of the drop-in shelter. While I'm not certain of the incident of one, the other claims she was banned for trying to make the quickest route to the restroom which meant she went through a restricted area and was later stated by staff that she was banned because of district choice award source staff. because she was banned from the drop-in shelter. She was also banned from the White Flag shelter, which is the emergency shelter for freezing temperatures, both run by Vince Haywood. He was not able to be contact, nor did he respond to any contact made regarding their hurry- entry. While I understand that there are rules to follow and policies to be enforced, there should be a mandate put in place that states unless someone has threatened violence of others or themselves, they that one should be allowed to stay at white flag shelters during freezing temperatures. While I was sexually harassed at the point of discomfort of sleeping at a shelter, I was told no one would be put out. Not that this was my concern or my goal, but it was. However, in is disrespect and comfort of the participant not as important as that of the staff. There should also be a low a law put in place where people, especially those with mental or physical challenges, should only be placed outside the shelter if it can be done so safely. Could you also provide participants a grievance procedure if they cannot be heard by those of the immediate facility and feel that they have been rendered unfair treatment or continuously do so? We've been conditioned to believe that money is the most important factor in life. But economic contribution is not even the main object of life. Humanity is fully able people are given preface favoritism. But I challenge you to rethink that and how everyone contributes. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Next we have Mama Kai Sanders. Good afternoon everyone. It's another amazing day in paradise. Um I want to thank you for your service and for being here. Um what I want to share with you is actually um my Citizens Leadership Academy project. And so I'm sharing some personal stuff as well. And so with that, I'm going to say that this might be a trigger warning for some people that it might activate your nervous systems in some way. But just bear with me. I don't think anybody will throw tomatoes. Um but just to be aware of that. Um after attending all the budget listening sessions and stuff like that, I've refined this a little bit. Um, but one of the things that keeps coming up is historically, um, communities used to take care of each other, especially the black community. And we know that many of those communities, if not all of them, were violently dismantled. And that's how public housing essentially came to be, that the government stepped in and took over. And so now here we are in this day and age where everybody's looking to the government to do everything. And it's really not possible without raising the taxes on the people who have homes. And even nowadays that's not affordable for people. And so this was an idea that I came um up with because last December, no not last December, in December of 2023 um Wisdom and I were featured on a platform called the pandemic of love and it is run through by Shelley Tigilski. She's an author and advocate and on her Instagram platform called Mindful Skater Girl. And basically what she did, she put up a story about us and asked people to send us direct cash assistance, which they did. And within 48 hours, over almost $21,000 had been raised. And with that money, I had 329 direct transfers. And that supported three single moms and five children. One expecting mom with her partner and toddler child, a single father, and an elderly gentleman for about 6 to 8 weeks. And then me and Wisdom ended up back in our car because we helped so many people. So, what I'm working on now is called a revolutionary act of love, where I decided since I know how much $20,000 will take care of in one to two months, then I want to see what I can do by expanding that. The thing is is that what I realize is that there are needs regardless of whether we want to call them first world needs or third world needs. Um, everybody has needs. those sidewalks that need to connect a parent and a child to a park in their a more affluent neighborhood is just as deserving as the one that's in a lower income area. And so, um, I'm looking to make this big and bold to be able to partner with the city on doing being able to pay for things like sidewalks, um, to our parks and to our schools and also to contribute to the, um, to the separation allowance, which I think is super important. And so, I'm just inviting you to be on the lookout for that. I think we need to take back our power in the community and advocate for ourselves amongst ourselves because we are the answers to our own problems. So, thank you for this time. Thank you, Miss Sanders. Um, next we have uh Miss Octavia Rainey. Good afternoon. First thing I want to say, the young lady who came up and spoke about the homeless, I need to remind this counselor that you sign contracts with the homeless agencies. In those contracts, it should be discrimination clauses, which means you are accountable. You are accountable. And I don't understand why she keeps coming up here and there's nobody handling these complaints. That is the law. So, you are not following your own law. I have 52 years of fair housing experience and I want to say to you, I don't want to get involved in this. But that girl keeps coming up here talking about her complaints and y'all not paying any attention to her, you violation. You sign a contract. And I don't care whether it's power, prestige, or influence. You have the right to investigate. She has a right to a fair hearing. Now, I don't want to step up my game because I said I only do 10 cases a year, but I don't want to have to step in and intervene. I made a pledge to fight for fair housing, but I can't stand to sit back and hear this coming from her. This is ridiculous. Again, you need to check your contracts and you need to check them or you don't need to give them any more money. Follow the money. It is very important. Second of all, I would like to say that I'm having a memorial for Mary Johnson on Monday at 6:30 at Tarbor Road Community Center. She helped form the RON center. Mary was my producer on the Octavia show for five years and I learned so much from her because I didn't know anything about television but she came in and just set it on fire for me. So I am very grateful to her. The third thing I want to talk about, you need to move the RTL pavilion. It was built in 1990. Y'all spent 13.5 million. July the 4th this year it'll be there for 34 years. You need to move it over there to Dr. Dicks campus. That is the entertainment district. Move it. It has not served any purpose. And you need to ask Live Nation, what happened to the black concerts in 34 years? What happened to them? That's ridiculous. So, you need to and you need to look at what to put out there. I'm making a suggestion, the Courtney T. Johnson Center. You need to move that up to where the Artel Pavilion is. Move that over there to Darth Dicks campus. Build a brand new center. And you need to ask Live Nation, where is our money from Southeast Raleigh. Ask Live Nation to help y'all build a new center. The Courtney T. Johnson Center. Thank you, Miss Randy. Athena Wallen. Hi, my name is Athena Wallen and I am frustrated so I need to open up with a bit of humor. I'm Athena Wallen and just like Alanis Morriset, I'm here to remind you to put bike lanes down on Brookside Drive. We are transitioning a car centric corridor into a multimodal roadway. Now is not the time to add visual obstructions. Uh visibility is a form of equity. It gives every user the road of the sorry it gives every user of the roadway opportunity to see be seen and respond to danger both dangerous driving as well as our generic human error. Um do not prioritize private parking on a car centric corridor that desperately needs multimmodal support for all users of our public roadways. Help us create spaces for people and not unattended parked cars. If incoming development wants to provide additional parking, it should be designed into the plans and contained within the bounds of private property, not spilling out into the public roadways. Additional additional street parking is a luxury, and it's only a luxury for a few dozen people. when our corridor serves over 6,700 different types of cars or vehicles as well as all the pedestrians as well as all of the cyclists as well as all the one-wheelers. We have diversity on the street and we don't have representation of that. Our community needs the city of Raleigh to have the leadership to be able to connect the corridor at every step. If we cannot afford to get to the main goal right away, then every step we take should work toward that goal. If we make a decision to change something on Brookside Drive, it's to make sure that we're working towards that shared multimodal vision. But what I feel is that we don't have a cohesive site of what the future of Brookside should be. We keep talking about two blocks and we're not doing anything to address the safety above the the northern cap of uh Brookside above like Frank Street, sorry. Um all of these discussions, even the plans that you're going to vote on today, stop at Frank Street and address nothing in front of the school. And I don't know when we'll be able to have another opportunity to connect that small segment back into the greater hole. We don't know as residents because we keep asking for things but we don't know where that goes. We have these conversations. We have these votes. We have these times with you and then nothing that really is agreed upon gets set forth. We voted or you voted to have two bike lanes on either side to permanently narrow the road to reduce dangerous driving. And now with this other revised version, you're just pushing that dangerous driving to one side of the road. Thank you. Sorry for the awkward end. Thank you. All right. Uh finally, Nikquay uh Williams. Okay. Okay. Well, that ends the public comment period. Thank you all. Um, next we have the report and recommendation of the planning commission. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of the council. It's nice to be with you. My name is Binham Walter. I work in planning and development. I'm sorry that the chair of the planning commission cannot be here today. She sends her regrets. We have three items coming out of planning commission. Before I tell you about those, a review of upcoming significant days of significance. I would note that the national tax day on April 15th, which does uh coincide with one of your April meetings, I don't think anyone in America thinks of that as a holiday. Uh but but it it will happen on that day nonetheless. So we have some things uh nothing scheduled on your April 1 meeting in the afternoon. You do have some items in the evening. the um item on Edwards Mill Road, one on Lichford, and two on Pearl Road. And then right now there are no items scheduled for public hearing on the 15th. That's an afternoon meeting. So what we are recommending is that the text change around townhouse building types would be scheduled for the afternoon the evening meeting on April 1st and that the reasonzoning requests, one on Creedmore, one at the top green community center would show on your afternoon agenda of the 15th. So, I'll talk to you about each of those. The first request, so this is just over 4 acres on Creedmore Road. This is just west of uh Crabtree Valley Mall, south of Glenwood Avenue. The request is to go from OX to which is office mixed use to commercial mixeduse. They're asking for an increase in height. The planning commission recommends approval. Again, that suggested public hearing date is April 15. The second reasoning request is the Top Green Community Center. This is about an acre and a third and would remove the neighborhood conservation overlay district from this site to allow construction of a new community center uh by the city. Uh this went to the Raleigh Historic Development Commission because this is also loc located in a national register district. They were supportive, planning commission is supportive. Again, we're suggesting that April 15 public hearing date. And then finally, the text change around townhouse building type clarifications. Planning commission does recommend approval here, and this would just clarify the existing townhouse building type description and would clearly state that a townhouse can be on a single lot or that there can be multiple townhouse building types on a single lot. Again, public hearing April 1. What questions could I answer for you before you schedule public hearings? questions for director. No. Okay. U do we have a motion? Move for approval with recommended um public hearing dates. Second. Okay. There's no further discussion. All in favor of the motion? I I. All oppose? Nay. Thank you. All right. So next special items. Can I say something? Yeah. Um, madame mayor, thank you. I want to give some background on how we got here to this special item on Brookside Drive after the city council voted in this past fall for the bike lanes on both sides. I receive emails and calls from some residents who live on Brookside Drive within my district with concerns saying we still need some type of parking. Out of that um I had a meeting with the residents that included members from the PTA um included members from Oaks and Spokes um all on a very wet, rainy, cold day um to discuss Brookside Drive. Out of that conversation, I came back before council. Some of those residents who attended that meeting have been before council even in a public hearing setting. I mean public comment setting and said thank you council branch. You came to the meeting. We were at the meeting spoke to the meeting that was held. Out of that meeting I asked if council could look at possibly have the have staff look at an alternative to still allow some type of parking. And that's what staff has done over a period of months to see is there a way to still look at some type of parking that can be allowed on one side of the street. Also include the bike lanes on two-way cycle track that is on the same side as the actual school because a lot of the residents said we're trying to get to the school. We're trying to get to the school. There is a bigger issue on Brookside Drive that goes from Frank Street all the way up to Wake Forest Road. Wake Forest Road is going through its own new redesign that will deal with that connectivity coming down. This part of this conversation is only for this subsection. This distance and the direction of it has not changed. So out of that staff is presenting an alternative to us today. Um, again, I was responding to constituents within the district. My constituents have differences of opinions and and I can acknowledge that some don't want parking, some want parking, some want bike lanes, some don't want bike lanes. It varies, but this is staff's presentation that they've brought forth, and it's up to council. We can either decide to move forward with this information that received today or keep it as is. Either way, nothing will go on the ground until the weather gets warmer. Thank you. All right, we will invite uh Bradley Kimbell. Good afternoon. Yes, Bradley Kimbell, Transportation Department. Uh thank you for the background. I do have a couple slides related to the area a little bit. So, uh if you may, I do want to emphasize that the reason we're talking about Brookside Drive is a safety concern. Um, and I want to make sure that that we're able to focus there and really what drove the options that were presented and and evaluated previously were to address a current safety concern. Um, so I'll I'll cover the background of that here in just a slide or two and then we'll talk about the recent activity which um, Council Member Branch just just touched on. Thank you. um and then also present the alternative cross-section uh and uh and then get into any other details and happy to answer any questions. Again, the background as far as the area, it's it's just south of Atlantic Avenue and Automotive Way, Wake Forest, the intersection, um the section I've highlighted, uh there is is that area where we are having the the safety concern. That's the intersection on the north end with Frank Street and the driveway into Con Elementary. That is signalized today. On the southern end is the Dascock intersection which is an always stop today. All right. So again, the reason uh the reason that we have a safety concern here is prior to the reconstruction of the elementary school, the parent pickup and dropoff queue extended down Brookside about 900 ft. Uh so you know, many years ago, the pavement width was striped to provide two northbound through lanes to accommodate that inevitable right turn into the Khan Elementary driveway. After 2021, Kh's reconstruction was able to provide better circulation internal uh which the queue today is captured exclusively internal to the site. Um no longer do we need 900 ft to accommodate that queue along Brookside. Uh as a result uh the last few years that additional pavement width which is today still the two northbound through lanes is being used by aggressive driving behavior on that that picture on the right. Again, we just show that as an example of what what is being described, what is being observed by staff uh vehicles driving uh well beyond the post speed limit, passing vehicles, getting into a gap before the signal. Um at at Frank Street and Con Elementary School, that second lane does not extend north. So, so we're seeing the the vehicles accelerate, jump into the gap so that they can then go through the intersection because it is it is one lane north of there. So, so through the conversations I'll back up. Uh, so through the conversations that staff presented at at uh transportation and transit committee, um, we evaluated a couple options. All the options involve trade-offs. um utilizing the existing pavement width that's out there today. Uh trying to program the width, if you will, to take away that that second northbound lane that was no longer needed uh for the queue and create the friction that we would see would help slow the traffic, create that that that slowing effect, a much safer condition overall. So the options we presented to committee ultimately the committee reported out and then council approved the option for protected bike lanes which is there on your show there on your screen. Um as as stated that that was the decision that was made. Staff sent notices out to residents to communicate this was going to be implemented. This was the decision. Um, conversations continue to explore uh a way to find a balance for the corridor and all the needs of the corridor. Staff today is is able to present an an alternative that does provide parking along the west side, as many as 22 spaces based off of offset conditions with the driveways and intersections. two-way travel lanes, uh, two travel lanes, and then a two-way cycle track along the east side, which does provide bike facilities both north and southbound along that twob block section between Frank Street and Glascock. So, there's just a rendering. Again, this is just for concept to see what that space could could look like. As we get into the final design and development of a of an option, we would be able to nail down um staff will be able to then really come up with what the spacing requirements on would be for any vertical separation. But just wanted to show what that could look like from a corridor cross-section. The details of the project. Uh at this time staff is recommending an implementation of the summer to minimize any disruption to the Khan Elementary's operation. They're in summer break uh through the majority of July and early August. We believe we have enough time to implement whatever uh whatever cross-section council so chooses. Uh this revised cross-section is is estimated around $40,000. Um, and if council action, uh, we can send out notices to residents giving them an update about what the next steps are. So, uh, for your consideration, staff recommends the revised cross-section with the two-way cycle track on the east side and on street parking along the west side, uh, along Brookside Drive from Glasco Street to Frank Street. What questions do you have for staff? Questions, Mr. Lambert Melton. I have uh, two questions. Um, first I remember we had a pretty um robust discussion at the transportation and transit committee. We had folks here who were interested in parking, folks who were interested in the bike lanes. Um, and I think at that meeting we did try to find a balance and I recall we specifically asked if a two-way cycle track was possible and at the time we were told no. And so I'm just very curious how that is the option that's being brought to us now and what changed. Thank you for the question. Uh, you're correct. So through the the the month or two of of working at the committee and talking through this uh staff presented what we felt to be the best options available to consider to program the space. Um what we what we felt comfortable with was providing that uh months after the decision and through conversations with our traffic engineering folks uh they evaluated the needs at the signal and one of the concerns that we originally had uh when preparing options was the ability to provide a right turn into Con Elementary. Um whereas originally we thought staff thought that the right turn lane may be omitted with a two-way cycle track solution. Um the input we receive traffic engineering, we're grateful for their input. Uh we are able to provide a right turn lane into the driveway and provide the two-way cycle track at the intersection. Okay. Okay. And then the other question I have is if you are a bicyclist or someone on a scooter, which is what I use, and you're using this two-way cycle track, when you get to GlassCA, what do you do? Like, how do I get to the right lane after the GlassC intersection to continue because I can't go against traffic once I I reach there. Correct. So, so that's one of the reasons why, and I believe it shows up there. Um, this is an example of what our current bike network is just south of the the highlighted section that we're talking about. Uh, today is a sherro condition south of Lascock. And so the all-way stop does allow for cyclists to to stop and and yield and ultimately maneuver in the intersection to get to the other side of the road. But but they would have to time there's no light, so they'll have to time that with the cars. Correct. The hallway condition does create the operational control. Is it going to be I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut you off. Is it going to be marked? Um so a lot of the around here for example if I'm going down Newburn but I want to cut on Person Street the green um path shows where the bicyclist can turn at the intersection. Is that going to be marked here? That level of detail has not been vetted out. We ultimately wanted to get direction from council. Um but but most certainly all markings signings signage would be consistent with the standards. All right. Thank you. Okay. Other Okay. Um Councelor Harrison and then Councelor Patton. Yeah. I just want to say um thank you for bringing back um another option here. I know we did make a decision at the transportation uh committee meeting and at council in the fall on this and I recognize the council member branch has been responsive to residents who had had um other uh needs that they were looking to get met with this. I do understand that. Um, I think my concern with this new proposal is, um, what council member Lambert Melton brought up is that when you're headed south on this, you know, both it's getting onto it, headed south on Brookside and getting off of this H two-way cycle lane that you're going to have to do a diagonal cross or across the street. And so it requires just a little additional, you know, checking for the bicyclist, the scooter person, the cars. Um I think we have something similar on Gorman Street just south of Hillsboro and I use that a lot and it's it's awkward. I'll just say that. So you have to be aware. You have to be I I don't consider this a best practice. Um it is I think better than what we have currently. Um, so I will just say I probably am still partial to the prior um, choice that we made um, just given how it can help us connect to a longer path of connectivity for future bike lanes and just you know the bike system in Raleigh. Councor Pat. Yeah. Hi. Um curious, can you confirm will the cycle track be the same width as all standard cycle tracks or is part of this proposal also narrowing the the width of these facilities? Thank you for the question. So as I mentioned, every option we've that staff has evaluated for the corridor has some amount of trade-off involved. Um I think we at committee evaluated uh three that took into account uh separated with no with no parking um an only parking condition that did not provide bike infrastructure at all. Uh and then an option that did not provide southbound bike infrastructure. Um all that to say this option that's on our on your screen now it's proposed to have 4 foot bike lanes in each direction. So, a total of eight feet for the cycle track and then a two-foot stripe buffer. Uh, city staff would prefer to see a five foot for each uh for each lane and then a three-foot buffer. That would be our preference, but at the same time, we would just want to acknowledge there is a trade-off in in the option before you to put in the onree parking. Got it. So, there's a haircut on the width of both the like the cycle track itself and the buffer. There's like a haircut on the width of all the all of those. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um and then sharing a concern that this cycle track is um very short and that cyclists or other users have to do this weird cross in an area that you you've already identified as being an unsafe area, which is part of why we have to do this intervention. Um we also have the future bike plan. I know that Brookside Drive is sort of lower down on the priority list, but is the two-way cycle track envisioned to stretch? Is that the facility that's envisioned for the whole length of this corridor in time? Uh, you're correct that today Brookside Drive is not on the priority list as far as a programmed project uh with funds tied to it. Um that said, after the active mobility plan is completed and presented to you all later this calendar year, uh we would evaluate all corridors and ultimately bring forward future uh a future prioritized list. Um based off of that, staff would evaluate those projects, whatever they may be, uh and provide a recommended uh facility to support those those needs. uh Brookside Drive at whichever point it becomes a prioritized project uh would go through a similar evaluation um and a two-way cycle track might be the ultimate facility that's extended. It might be but we we don't know at the time of the that whenever a project of such is uh funded the conditions and and needs of that corridor but likely if the two-way cycle track is put in place at this point uh it would help evaluate the ability to extend it north. Understood? Yeah. Okay. So, probably not the clearest of answers. I apologize. No, I'm with I'm with you. I'm with you. Okay. Well, I'm ready for comments at the table when But if there's more any other questions for staff. Okay. So, let's bring it back to the table. I mean, again, I just want to thank staff for your work and looking into this again trying to address the needs of the residents who live on Brookside and the needs of the residents who use Brookside. And it's not easy. It's a heavy lift and staff came and and said there's an option. Again, they even stated when they came to our committee the first time, they didn't have all the information at that time, but they gave us the information they information based on what they had. And when we asked for more and them to dig into it, they had more conversation and this option is available. Um, again, I'm responding to the needs of the constituents. Um my recommendation, my motion would be to go with this alternative. Um but again, it's in the pleasure of the body. It takes five of us to make any decision. I just add um I would add that um I'm a little conflicted. I think if this option was been presented to us at committee last year, we probably would have supported this. I think that was sort of the tone that we were trying to reach there. The two issues that I'm having are we did approve the two bike lanes going in each direction and that felt like we made the decision. Let's move on. I do appreciate council member Branch and the extra time he has spent on this case and whatever I do would not be intended to diminish his efforts cuz I can understand that I know I spoke to people who were very upset that we voted for two bike lanes and wanted to see some parking. Um, I think for me the big issue I have is what happens at that intersection when trying to cross over. Um, I prefer two-way cycle tracks. I think that they're better um for users than having one on alternate streets, particularly when they're on city blocks. Um, but usually when they can go prolonged corridor and have a natural ending point and starting point and this one obviously is a short duration where you have to cross over. So, I am a little conflicted, but I just wanted to um to say I appreciate Council Member Branch's efforts to find a compromise and um you know, wish we would have had this back in the fall, but I understand the limitations at the time. Other comments? Yeah, I think for for me, I can't support this for for two reasons. one is um just sort of procedure and public trust. The council voted unanimously to endorse the um bike lanes on either side and that I sort of thought that was made the matter settled. Um I think it does a disservice to the community to reverse course and uh if we say well some people complained after you did so we're going to undo it. is not uh the type of like thoughtful and informed sort of change of course that I think we we should provide to residents. So um I think we should stay the course partly to just deliver what we said to the residents at the time of the vote. Uh certainly lots of residents came out to advocate at the committee. It was heard twice. Um lots of residents have emailed about it. Um, and then on the content, I think while I appreciate that this is a desire for compromise, I think the residents who were the most upset they didn't receive the parking outcome actually live on the side of the street where the cycle track will be located and shrinking of the cycle tracks and the buffer area. Uh, rather than saying for me, it doesn't end with a result. I don't come to the conclusion that everyone gets a little of something they want. It really leaves me with a feeling that nobody gets anything they want. And so for those two reasons, my at the appropriate time, I'll be ready to make a motion to stay with stay the course of the motion we made back in September. Okay. Mayor Prom Ford, excuse me. I will say that we've received a note in the last couple minutes from um the chair of the bike and pedestrian advisory commission. Um also echoing support for the decision that we've already made. Um, and again, given that's one of our advisory boards and commissions, the fact that they've chosen to weigh in on this as well, providing support, I just want to make sure people um, had a chance to see that before they actually voted. So, other So, yeah, Madame Mayor, um, just based on the conversation here, um, I'm not going to make a motion to move forward. The decisions made, that won't be the decision. We'll just go with it this time. Um, and I just want to thank staff for your work and I want to thank the residents that participated. Um, and that's all I have to say. Okay. So, given that there was a decision made by council last fall, do we need a motion to approve the previous? So, we're just staying the course. All right. Would it be better procedurally for us to vote down this alternative just so the district council member doesn't continue to get pressure to revive it. I'm good. All right. Well, then we'll leave it. I'm used to pressure. Okay. All right. Well, I will say this has been really helpful for me. I was not here last fall and I have heard a lot about Brookside Drive, getting the bigger picture from staff and then appreciative of all the thoughtful conversation from all here at the council and uh trying to uh weigh all these trade-offs. So, thank you all for the work. Thank you. All right, the next it's an easy topic. Advisory boards and commissions. Taiisha Mosley. I'm sure you'll agree that your job is it's another wonderful day in paradise. Right. Uh Taiisha Mosley with the community engagement department. So happy to be with you all today. Um, we'll be having a a part of this is a follow-up discussion from the conversation that you begin at council retreat. Uh, today I'm going to do a brief summary of boards and commissions, talk about bylaws and work plans just a tad. Um, since then there's been some questions about our nominating committees and those processes which I will cover as well. And then I have a couple of recommended next steps for you all. Um and and in those next steps, I'll be turning to you for for direction and insight. I would like to mention that you do have some backup materials with this item that include the retreat slides, detailed information on bylaws and work plans that was requested um by you all and then more details on the nominating committee. All right. So um let's first start with the photo collage here. Um, these are members of various boards and commissions, volunteers that serve countless hours to support the work and initiatives that you all have as a council. Um, their work is not in notice and we really appreciate all that they do for the city. Um, you all have 29 boards and commissions that are included on your website. You have 26 of those that are available on Granus, which is the application software. So if a resident wanted to apply to a board of commission, they would use granted kids and they would see 26 boards or commissions available for their use. And then of that 20 of those are supported by the community engagement department. And so when I talk about support um that's something that was brought to the office about two years ago in an effort to create consistency in the way that boards and commissions and their staff leaison are supported. Excuse me. So that looks like bimonthly meetings that we have with staff leaison. We've created a training handbook for new board and commission members which is just a highlevel overview of being a board and commission member and then oftent times or most of the times uh departments with boards have a separate and more detailed orientation for those individuals. Um I think the piece that the I'll say board and commission members enjoy a lot are our summer socials. So, we've had two so far and that's when we come to celebrate our volunteers. Um, we have music, food and just a really good time. Several of you have been there to support this initiative in the past. All right. Bylaws and work plans. So, this is the annual report that comes before you all that really highlights the expectations and the policy areas that the board and commissions intend to explore. Um it's actually required by council resolution that for the advisory boards to come and give you an annual work plan. Uh your quasi judicial boards are exempt from this and it's the opportunity for council to weigh in on the direction and the goals of boards and commissions. The community engagement team also just for agenda management we in maintain a forecast so we know and we work with the city manager's office to schedule board and commission presentations so that you don't have five on one agenda. So, if you're ever curious of which boarding commission is coming before you, we can provide that information. I want to stop here and thank our communications team because since your retreat um they went to the website of each advisory board of commission and they added the annual work plan and their bylaws. So, currently, thanks to their uh willingness to help us, you can find work plans and bylaws group by group. And then back in January, we provided you all via the city manager update with links to all of these. So you have the option to look at individually or all in one place. Also at retreat, we talked about how your boards and commissions align with the strategic plan. So I'm going to give you the same caveat that Evan Riley gave you when he presented for me at retreat is that this is our best attempt to align boards and commissions. You may look and you may say, "Well, this commission could go with this strategic plan initiative." And you're right. So there's no wrong answer here. It is just for visual representation. Um so again, arts, cultural resources, economic development, and innovation and growth in natural resources are what's on this slide. Um, and so some of the conversation that you had and other items to consider are if there are boards and commissions that could potentially serve better as a subcommittee of another. Um, is there value in certain boards and commissions being standalone? I'll give you um an example. the um historic cemeteries and advisory board did reach out to their leaison and say hey I think it makes sense um if that's something that council wanted to consider that we serve within historical resources and museums um we've also had other just conversation at retreat board saw it so they had questions for staff um and there's you know a mixed review but we wanted you to see that the color coding here just kind of represents those that have similar um mission vision and goals This is more of the same just different strategic plans initiative. So, organizational excellence, safe, vibrant, and um healthy community. And then transportation and oh, sorry, transportation and transit are what's on that slide. All right. Uh when we talk about nominating committees, we just want to remind council that appointment to any board of commission is a legislative decision that only y'all can make. Uh you all can accept recommendations as you deem appropriate, but ultimately that final decision is up to you. I'll give you an example for your community engagement board. Uh staff recommends half of the seats, but you all ultimately appoint them, right? Um and those recommendations that we make as staff are seat specific. Um we have like a seat for a firsttime board or commission member, a senior, a youth seat, things like that. So you do have some of that um practice currently. And then here are the boards who have explicit language in their bylaws that speaks to a nominating committee. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't just share feedback that we receive from certain boards and commissions who feel like their nominating committees are helpful and kind of doing that first review or giving you all feedback about the types of individuals or seats that they're missing from their um, full body. Um, there are some boards that feel like they're contributing and kind of making the appointment process a little bit easier for you all, which you're welcome to agree or disagree, but I just wanted to let you all know that perspective as well. And um this is an item that's in your backup as well. And we originally provided details about nominating committee language back in November of [Music] 2024. And so couple of things as far as next steps. Um during retreat, you also had a conversation about potentially considering rescending the mayor's committee on compassion. So if that's something that you're interested in, you can take action on that today. Another um recommended next step that you may consider establishing a temporary subcommittee made up of um members of council with staff support to dig deeper and study the opportunities for uh restructuring or consolidation and that would also include the review of bylaws specifically to nominating committees. So with that I turn it over to you all for questions. Right. Thank you for the work and the report. Uh, Mayor Pro Tim Fort, excuse me. I I think I may have raised some of these issues at the retreat. Um, and I think the mayor the mayor and I have had some conversations as well about um well, I guess the first thing is do we have too many boards and commissions and committees? 29 seems like a lot. I know that um I think it was either Chapel Hill or Carburl recently went through an exercise where they actually consolidated some of the committees together so they didn't have quite so many um outstanding and then you know there's a question about whether some of the work of the community the committees is duplicative and you know how we can avoid having redundancy in the process by having multiple committees dealing with the same issues. Um, and then the other question that I had is, you know, are the um, the meetings being run efficiently? I I know I've had a couple of folks reach out to me that are serving um on some of the boards and commissions and you know being mindful that these people are volunteers and with some of the meetings um lasting a long period of time particularly the ones that meet during the day folks have other obligations particularly as relates to employment um and that you know some of the time that they're spending um can be a can be a lot of time particularly if the meetings are not being run efficiently. So, these were some of the issues that I wanted to um I guess kind of get a better handle on or a better sense of u when I I made the request at the uh at the retreat. So, just throwing that out here. Okay. Um Councelor Lambert Melton. Yeah, a couple things. I agree with Mayor Prom. Um I would be interested in um taking steps to look at um restructuring or consolidating some of these boards and commissions. I will say that some of the um recommended consolidation or opportunities I don't entirely agree with. Um for example, I do think the police advisory board needs to remain separate from human relations commission, but I do think there's opportunities here to to not have uh duplicative work and so I would be interested in moving forward with that. Um my understanding for the mayor's committee on compassion is it was created at a time for a very specific purpose and I don't think that purpose came to fruition which was to um bring a special guest to Raleigh. And so I don't see an ongoing need for that boarding commission or perhaps it's just folded into the discussion about what do we need or not need. And then the last thing I want to say is and this some of this may be partially on us as a council. I have a big problem with the nominating committees. Um we seem to just be allowing deferring all of our authority to the nominating committees and what's happening is and what I'm hearing from folks is it's becoming this like self- sustaining cycle of friends making sure friends can get on boards and commissions. I do think it's very helpful for us to receive information. These are skill sets we need. I think it's fine if they want to say here are some people you might want to look at. But we absolutely should not be saying, "Oh, we can't appoint anyone to the parks board because they are going to send us their upcoming appointees." Like that is not how we should be doing this. And so if we are going to allow nominating committees to remain, I would want it to be streamlined and consistent. If a board is going to have a nominating committee, what does that actually mean? And I think if we can tool it in a way, like I said, to where it's more focused on here are some skill sets that we could benefit from hearing from, um, I like that a lot better than we're going to give you the list of people and we just want you to just put a stamp of approval on them. Okay. Yep. Councelor Jones, thank you. Um, and just going back to the nominating committee uh, discussion. I serve as liazison for eight um of the boards and commissions and having this discussion with them over the last few months after our council retreat um trying to connect the ones that do. So RHDC has one and I know the parks board is is looking to do one. Uh I've made it very clear and the feedback I've received from those uh committees or those boards are not that they want even want to usurp our authority by any means. It is a way to say that you know when when I explain it previously we had long long long meetings and this was the last thing we did every time. So we'd be sitting here for hours and hours and hours and this was the last thing they do a presentation all of that and then we get to the the nominations. Um so a lot of the times I felt personally that it was exhausting and it was like okay and and a lot of people felt that the opposite was true that council was also doing uh trophy nominations and and and all of that. So this is kind of like a happy medium in their views of how can we recommend not that you have to go cuz I made it very clear nominating committees are not something that we are like okay we're going to only follow their idea it was a way to bring in something because we're not there not every counselor attends every meeting not every counselor is is is is participatory in that board and commission so their feedback is also valuable in who they think that they are missing and so when I look at nominating committees I'm looking it as just the pool of advice of what that board needs, what they think, especially if we are not able to attend every month and hear the conversation and and uplift that. Um so I think that there there there maybe two schools of thought there and um having this subcommittee to further discuss I think would be a way forward so that we can bring all of those thoughts to the same table and we can make a decision based on you know the cumulative conversation because I think there are points on both sides and yep counselor. Yeah, I just wanted to add I did have um some discussion with the Hispanic and immigrant affairs board chairs and we did mention if there was to be any um you know bringing together of boards, you know, the human relations commission would be the most natural one for them. Um and they they were open to that. So can I just want to jump on to that? Um yeah, the human relations commission along with other boards that I've met with have also thought, you know, consolidating is a great idea um as well. So that is uh and I've lost my train of thought, so I will stop there. Sorry. It's gone. Um it's gone. Well, one of the uh Miss Mosley's recommendations was a subcommittee and I think I I agree with that. I'm willing to serve on it. I know councelor Jones has said she's willing to serve on it. Are you as well? Okay, councelor Branch. Okay. Um Okay. Okay. I do not want to serve on it. I know. Okay. All right. So, we'll have uh I think four members is a great number and we have a lot of diverse uh perspectives. So, I think that would be good. And you also recommended that we do this work in fairly short order and don't let this drag on. So, I think by July 1st, we would want to come back to uh before maybe the summer break before uh with some recommendations. I would also add to some of the excellent work you've done compiling data. Really appreciate the consolidation on the website. Um the question of whether council has a liaison to a certain like with the RDU authority we don't. I just think that's confusing for citizens. So I just want us to all know why are we doing what we're doing? what what is the reason why um things like terms I I'm assuming all the terms are the same and the number of terms one can serve is the same but I would love to just get straight on that I would also like to see budgets and I I mentioned that because there are some city sponsored events that some of these boards and committees are putting on some of those could have sizable budgets I will say the human relations commission as most of us know is allocating almost $1.3 million dollar in nonprofit grants. So, there is some pretty major decision makingaking going on on some of these committees. And I just want to get straight again. Are we doing this in the way that's appropriate? And then finally, I'll add on uh CAC's, right? This has been another uh it's been functioning as its own outside of all of this, but I do view the citizen advisory committees, right, as another important aspect of our community engagement. And so this councelor Jones and I are already having a number of conversations with the CA our CAC and other CAC members. Um but that could also while they are not officially one of these boards and commissions. I think including them as part of this could be helpful um as well. So just throwing one more thing into the pot. Yes. Just real quick. I know you say you're meeting with the RCAC's. if we can as council just get some type of update because people come to us and ask us questions and we're I know I have some CAC's that are defunct trying to get people that want to step up and so if I if we can just as a council periodically get some type of update of something I think it'll better aid us in the overall picture. Sure. And just to speak to that, I have spoken over the last few meetings just keeping everyone updated that our first meeting just happened. So there's nothing that that to report at the moment. Um and I've been uh but I I will most definitely keep that in mind. And then my train of thought came back and I just wanted to uplift some thoughts that I've heard from the boards and commissions, which is their how that they they don't understand their purpose, which I think goes back to bylaws and how we discuss what what that means for them. um and and being able to clearly say throughout this committee or task force, whatever, whatever we want to call this, what the intent is of what the information we want to receive back from these boards and commissions is just to make that a clear thought line would be a great goal to accomplish. Yep. And then if I can just a few more items uh communications, I know some of the boards, you know, if they're having an event, how can they communicate that to council? So I would just say as a bigger top how is the communication happening between these um and then you said uh most of them are supported by community engagement. I'm just curious how do we decide which department supports you know which one is having 20 supported by community engagement ideal? you know, sure just some of these other uh you know, pretty in the weeds. Just point of clarity, the community engagement department supports the staff leaison of the boards and commissions. I see. Okay. So, um as you know, there are staff leaison for all of your advisory boards and so we are the support of information kind of a conduit of information between the staff leaison and the boards. Okay. Okay. Well, sounds like we've got some um work to do and we will coordinate with those who volunteered. Thank you um to have a follow-up meeting. Do we need a motion on the first item? Yeah, on the first item um I would move uh that we that the defunct and non meeting uh mayor's commission on compassion that we go ahead and remove that as a formal committee. Thank you. Any other discussion? If not, all in favor of that motion, I All opposed. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Course I just closed my book. Okay. Next is the report and recommendation of the city manager. Good afternoon, mayor and council. Um today, as you all know, there's been lots of conversation over the last year. Well, really over the last couple of years around the condition and the status of downtown. So, today we have Michael Moore and Chief Rico Boyce to kind of uplift some of the activities and some of the efforts that we have undertaken to make the downtown experience better. Um, the presentation obviously will not be all-encompassing, but it should give everyone just a snapshot of a lot of the work that has been going on to make sure that we're creating a safe and clean and inviting experience downtown. So, thank you um mayor, members of council, again, I'm Michael Moore. I'm one of the assistant city managers here. Um, thank you for the opportunity to come before you today. You know, as we are on the cusp of Dreamville and as we're about to move into concert season and festival season downtown, we thought it would be important to get in front of you and share with you some of the things that we're working on that uh you've uh graciously funded through some past actions. And we wanted to do that and then also talk a little bit about some of the safety initiatives that we've got underway. Um, a lot of what we're working on now is really done through the collaboration that we have amongst our staff and with our stakeholders and all the small businesses that are downtown that make uh downtown home and also with um the downtown Raleigh Alliance, which I will use the shorthand of DRRA since council member Silver is not here today. Um, so DRA, Bill King, I don't see Bill in the audience today. Bill is out working on an active recruitment for new businesses downtown. So I will share a little bit of information that he shared with us as well. Um just the things on this slide to highlight these were provided to us by DRRA. Um we do see a lot in the media about closings but what's important to take away from this slide is the number of openings and we're still in that sort of net area of gains and particularly we've seen 10 new businesses open on Favville Street in the last year. They continue to do all they can to market and to lift up downtown. Um you'll see this retail promotion period begins next week. They've got a retail map that they're going to put out later this spring. And you voted to help support small businesses by providing that 2-hour free parking pilot continuation which will continue through uh the next several several months. Some of the smaller things that we're working on that will have a big impact uh in collaboration with DRA, we're working on tree lighting. We're going to do a process where we're going to light the trunks and the limbs of trees. Um it is privately funded by DRA. Um we've identified through our work with them a number of infrastructure uh repairs that we need to do to get all of the outlets in the street kind of up in operation so we can do this. Uh and we plan on getting this going in May and June after uh our folks in urban forestry can do some maintenance on the trees and prep them so we can do that and not not do any injuries to the trees that are out there. Very excited about see this coming on because it's one of those things we've talked about just a radical change and impression of what downtown and Favville Street could look like through our work at the urban pro um projects group and planning and development. We've uh got some uh shade structures for a city plaza purchased. Uh they're due for delivery in May before it gets brutally hot. Uh you hear a lot about the usability of the plaza because of the lack of shade there and we're going to get that corrected. And I'm happy to say I I signed the contract for the design work for uh upgrades to the towers uh for the sound and lighting on the towers just last week. So we've got that underway as well. Um, also as part of City Plaza, we've got a number of lookout tables. You see a little photo of them there. You can also see our uh special event staff enjoying them uh out in the uh one of the sunny days we've had recently. We've also done a number of things to buy some anoric chairs, some planter boxes, some planting. So, that'll be another thing we can do to soften a very harsh uh public space that we've got out there today. And a little bit longer term, but also a very important thing. You'll remember DRRA brought us um a plan called activating the core. It was 10 big ideas for Fateville Street to help help sort of enliven and reactivate uh the state's main street. The number one idea there was to do some rework of what the streetscape plan was to maybe do a little bit of addition by subtraction, taking out some of the plant some of the planter boxes, but to make that more green, to soften the edges of the street, to expand some areas for outdoor dining and for um other public spaces there. And uh so that is underway. Um this is going to give us an opportunity to do something, believe it or not, when we put that plan in place years ago, that was never really adopted as a regulatory plan. So it'll put us a regulatory plan in place so when people do other developments they will follow the guidelines that we've got in place there and again provide that green space and Sydney that we've got there. They've done some initial outreach. I'm sorry. Yes. I don't mean to interrupt but if you can go back to that previous slide a question that I raised during that conversation and I want to just highlight um is have we spoken to the businesses especially specifically the restaurants when we talk about outdoor dining onto um outside spaces do they have the capacity to be able to staff that that's extra staff that's extra money and have they been have you have they said yes that's something we want to do that's a great question because um urban design the urban projects group has started on some of that public engage engagement. They've done three engagements so far and that will be some of the work that they do. It'll help inform the plan. Right now, you'll see uh by this slide on the project timeline, we're in a a kind of an existing condition conditions analysis phase, but we will be doing that outreach and having that conversation with them about is that something that will be of utility to them if it's in place. And I will just respond I think with the downtown Raleigh association when they did the whole economic plan there was a lot of public input into that. So I I have to imagine um I don't know exactly who they surveyed but okay meetings Thursday. Mr. Bowers informs me we have business meetings on Thursdays. Okay. So that was something that during our conversation they said they hadn't. So that's why I'm trying to uplift it now. Okay. Well it would be really helpful to know that if Yeah. We are doing faval. I mean they talked to me when I was CEO of Dix Park. I presume they would have talked to the business leaders on Favville Street. Well again um Mr. Bowers uh from the urban projects group informs me that they are having outreach with the business owners uh this Thursday. So lastly, um we'll talk a little bit about and this will lead into Chief Boyce's comments. We've done some additional uh work around security uh uh there at Go Raleigh station. Um we've done additional investments in security forces. Um but Go Raleigh has also hired their first safety director that they've ever had. One of the key things that they've done is some deescalation training with drivers and supervisors. So, helps maybe head off some of those issues before they become issues. So, that's an important thing that um we're trying to refine as we go forward. Um I know there's be a question about garages and cameras. One of the things that we found is some of our garage cameras are practically antiques. And so we are going to have to do some upgrades there, both on the the the tech side of that, but also on the camera side of that to make them more uh useful. They can be viewed and watched by our police staff, but it's hard to share that with uh the DRA right now. But that is one of those things that we're working on, and we'll hopefully see some funding in the budget to move that along. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to uh your deputy to your chief, Rico Boyce. He's going to do I'd like to turn it over uh to uh to Chief Boyce and let him uh share with you some of the things that they're doing around safety and security downtown. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor Council Rico Boyce, chief of police. At least I thought I was until 5 minutes ago. It's like, man, it's short shortest tenure of a chief around here. U but I'm excited to be in front of you today or whatever. Uh, as you see the title of my slide here saying momentum. We have a lot of momentum going into the Raleigh Police Department, especially our downtown district. I would like to if Captain Van Ananorp is here and his team, uh, they worked very hard in identifying strategies and initiatives that they think that will be successful in reducing violent crime as well as uh, creating a area of vibrancy downtown. I will tell you violent crime overall from year to date uh is down 3%. And our property crime is down by 29%. And that is because of the great work that the officers are doing downtown as well as our collaboration with organizations like the downtown rally alliance. So what have we done to get those numbers? Uh I highlighted a few here in the slide and I'll begin with the bike patrols, the recon bike controls. bike patrols. Currently, we have four bikes uh that we have downtown. They're able to quickly go in places that our vehicles cannot. Uh these officers respond very quickly to incidents that occur in our business corridor, Fable Street, Wington Street, Blunt Street, as well as the Transit Mall, and uh More Square. They're able to be visible uh to deter crime. Uh and it's been very successful. so much that we're going to add four more bikes to uh to this to this patrol as well as we're going to make this team a full-time team come before the summer. Uh that way we have a dedicated unit that will focus only on downtown and being responsive to uh to certain types of incidents that occur. The acorns uh and Mr. S Councilman Silver is not here, so I'll use ACORN as well, but addressing crisis through outreach, referrals, network, and services unit. Uh, they're fully staffed, and the reason why I highlight that is because they're able to serve more of our community that need those services. Obviously, our social workers, we finally got everybody staffed there. They're doing a phenomenal job. And then our officers are working well with our business partners downtown and having those noninforcement type encounters and really connecting folks with the resources that they need. Obviously with more people on the unit, we can do more and that has been successful um thus far. So I'm very excited to highlight the work that the Acorns unit is doing. Next, the strategic auxiliary warrant team. Uh there's an enforcement piece in what we do to keep downtown safe. Uh, Captain Van Antanorp and his team realized that we had several outstanding warrants u for individuals that have committed some very ser serious offenses. So, we had to go on the offense and really make an effort to serve those warrants and get those individuals in custody. So, the past 56 days, uh, this team, which is only a team of two officers, have served over 100 warrants. They've identified uh several uh people of interest that are part of active investigations. Uh they increase our visibility as well because they're on foot. They're able to go in our parking decks. They're able to stop by the different businesses along our main corridor and have those conversations about individuals that we're looking for who have outstanding warrants. Uh this unit, uh the two officers that have been assigned to this unit will continue throughout the summer. uh and we will re-evaluate how effective they are at the completion of the summer and early fall. Next is more foot patrols. I think it's important that as officers that we engage our community as much as possible in a non enforcement type capacity by adding the foot patrols. What I'm hoping here is that it leads into more community engagement and more positive interactions between between law enforcement as well as the community. You know, I I don't want every encounter to be some type of enforcement encounter. I want the community to learn the officers and I want the officers to be able to understand what's going on with people and in their situation and not always look for some type of arrest um angle in when they deal with with with folks. So, I'm really going to push foot patrols uh with all the summer events that's coming to the city and downtown. I think it'll be a positive thing to see more officers just on foot, out of the car, having those meaningful uh encounters with community members. And last, increase our cameras on our Connect Raleigh camera registry. Uh currently, we have 28 registered cameras in just downtown and we have 256 integrated cameras downtown. Obviously, I would like to get these numbers up because the cameras have provided phenomenal information to help us solve crime and keep downtown safe. Uh, overall, just for some context, citywide, we have 96 registered cameras as of today. And integrated, we got 1,318 integrated cameras. So, I would like to increase those numbers. uh we have seen the dividends and the and the the the payoff for having those cameras in our throughout the city but mainly downtown in the business corridor. So all these initiatives and strategies that I've shown here is what has led to that 3% reduction uh in violent crime as well as that 29% reduction in property crime. You know that's lararseny for motor vehicles uh theft. Uh we're trending in the right areas. So, I'm going to stick with this plan. Uh have Captain Vantor make sure that we are following the plan and uh and then like say we'll re-evaluate that at the end of the summer to see if we need to make any changes. Uh I want to say the momentum inside the Raleigh Police Department is very high. The officers are very engaged. They appreciate uh their new chief, not deputy chief, but chief. and uh I'm keeping the morale high and keeping the officers engaged, but also interacting with the community and forming those meaningful um relationships. So, I'll take any questions you may have regarding my slot. Questions for the chief? I got mayor. Are you Are you the chief? Oh, long as assistant city manager Michael Moore doesn't come up, I'm the chief. Uh city manager. No, I'm just playing. um one of one of the questions I have is with the um investments that you're going to make in terms of increasing uh bike patrols and foot patrols and things downtown. Uh how does that impact the contract that we've got with the private security? Is that something that we may need to look at maybe scaling back or um and maybe you don't answer this now. Maybe you talk to the city manager and y'all give y'all time to collaborate. But that would be my question and maybe come back in a um city manager's report with some information about with your increased investments, do we need to take another look at the private duty security um and perhaps maybe give you more resources since you're putting me more resources downtown? I appreciate that, Madam Promp. And yeah, I would like to like have a conversation with the city manager about that and then we can reevaluate. I appreciate that. Thank you, Councelor Lambert Melton. Um, thanks. Uh, two things. Uh, one, at the start of the presentation, there was a mention that sometimes it gets reported a lot more when things close and things open. That has sort of been an ongoing frustration for me. I mean, you will read 10 news stories about one restaurant closing and there's really not any sort of consideration for the fact that five restaurants have opened. And so, we I think it's important for the public to know that we are a net positive on storefront openings and restaurant openings. And while we still have our challenges, we have a very safe downtown comparatively to our peer cities and we are doing work to make it even better. Um, and a lot of that is your department chief voice. Um, and so I really appreciate your efforts. I know it's making a difference. I get my haircut downtown. The folks who cut my hair tell me they feel safer. I go to the dentist downtown. They tell me they feel safer. I feel safer when I'm walking around. The presence is noticeable. One thing that I would like to touch on, and I believe this was in the works, but I do think we need to be finding a way to secure our transit facility after hours when the last bus rolls out. Um, it's an open air facility, which I know poses some challenges, but if there were a way to do roll down gates or something, I think that will go a long way too and also save you some resources. So, I would I would be happy to support that if something were brought to us at the council for approval. Yes. And I've had conversations and started conversation with Paul Callum and his team about about that or whatever. So we'll look at that. Thank you, Council Jones and then Branch and then uh Harrison. Thank you so much, Chief Boyce. Um on the cameras, the increase of cameras with Connect Raleigh and you gave us the stats and everything. Is there anything that uh you have heard from the community of why they may not be participating? Are there hesit are there reasons why there might be some businesses who don't want to participate with the city in those cameras? Uh great question there, Council Jones. I'm going to take ownership and say it's probably us as a PD not getting the information out. Uh we can probably do a better job of sharing what Connect Raleigh truly is. And I think once business owners hear the benefits of Connect Raleigh, that number will increase. Okay. Thank you so much. Definitely. Thank you for the report and the information. And I know this focus was mainly on downtown, but since I have you here, I'm going to ask um in a future manager's report, can and probably at the end of the quarter, can we get stats and and data on the rest of the city by district and how we're doing? And also, I have three police districts just serving my one district. My question is, will you at least look at your those district makeups and figure out how if they're efficient? Right. Um, great question, counselor, uh, Branch. Uh, three three weeks on the job. Uh, that that is part of my like 90day plan and just do a deep dive in our overall structure within the police department and see if resources need to be reallocated. So, we will be doing that citywide. Uh we also will be releasing, you know, crime stats later on once I get in the seat and get those numbers and uh talk to the city manager about about those numbers. We will release that as well. So more to come. Trust me, more to come, sir. Thank you. Good. Three first three weeks. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Hello, Chief Boyce. Oh, glad you're here and thank you for all your work. Um I want to also give a shout out uh to uh Captain Van Antworp. Thank you for your work downtown. I know it matters and I wanted to just get a little bit of um uh feedback uh from you about Glennwood South and how things are going. I'll say from my end, you know, I think things are so much better than they were a few years ago. I don't hear a lot of, you know, the big concerns about crime that I was. I think, you know, noise continues to be something that residents have a concern about. So, I would like to hear about just any recent um uh experiences that your officers are having dealing with uh you know, the noise ordinance and how that's going. Um but before that, I also wanted to make a request. I like to do a yearly uh ride along with RPD and if I could do it with the ebike crew, that would be a lot of fun. I'll bring my own bike. Um unless I could use yours, I don't know. It might be really cool. So anyway, I'd just appreciate that at some point. Um, and uh, I have heard to free parking. I think that does continue to bring more folks downtown and have that uh, kind of just more folks uh, there for an hour or two like at the YMCA and I think that helps with public safety overall. But back to Glenwood South and what you see there. Yes. Overall, when it comes to crime, Glenwood South, nothing has uh, risen to my attention or whatever. We we're keeping things uh pretty calm on Fridays and Saturday nights. The traffic detour pattern is is working phenomenal uh in that area. Uh business owners saying they like it. Hopefully, it doesn't go away. Uh but most of our attention in Glennwood South have been around the noise. Uh we we I'm sure you're quite aware of some of the challenges and some of the complaints we have uh about noise from some of the establishments along the Glenwood South corridor. So, we're working through with the city attorney's office and and just trying to make some tweaks or or some recommendations to some of the business owners of how they can uh properly uh help reduce some of the noise at their businesses. So, that's ongoing. Uh but that seemed like what most of the conversation about and if I had to pick between noise and violent crime, I'll take noise all day. So, that's our challenge for the Glenwood South corridor. But other than that, things are looking good. Positive feedback. Uh I just spoke with uh Niles Haley Haley at the uh Hiburnian just yesterday. He's very pleased with our presence and with our approach downtown on Glenwood South. So overall positive feedback. Uh in regards to your ride along on the bikes, we can make that happen. Maya, thank you. Yes. Right. Other questions? Yep. Councelor P. Yeah. Um probably not for you, Chief Boyce. I I don't know if we have a member of housing staff here. Um, two one one I just want I know that we um are bringing neighbors home program allocated five of the vouchers to downtown residents and I I apologize if we've been told this before but I was curious if they have been allocated and those residents have been housed yet if anyone speak to that. And then while Emily is making her way up I'll just give a comment. My unrelated comment is um I'm glad we figured out a tree lighting a workable tree lighting option. I know there was a lot of talk of the like Edison bulbs going across the street and then the counterargument was that that was a safety concern of its own and I think lighting up the trunks of the trees serves a similar effect. So I'm glad that we found a way to make that workable. Hi, I'm Melissa Sutton. Housing and neighborhoods. Um we are in the process of identifying households for bringing neighbors home. So, we're working very closely with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, with RPD, with Acorns, as well as our um new um care navigation team in order to identify households who would be a part of the pilot. Okay, other questions? Not I mean I'll just thank Chief Boyce and Captain Antworp and all Van Torp and all the folks downtown, the bus drivers, the right uh folks that are working with the unhoused. So I know it's a big a big team of of people, but I think it has been a lot safer. I will say just even this morning I went to uh Empire Properties is renovating the old Boil and Pierce and the Tragant department stores. It's really cool to go see a 1920s tile from the old department stores uh and their kind of vision for that space. So, there are exciting projects going on. Um thank you. Yes. Thank you all. Awesome. And just a couple other quick points. Um so, as many of you know, the lineup for the fifth, I will not say final. Um Dreamville Music Festival came out yesterday. So, if you're really into the music vibe, it's kind of a throwback to those of us who grew up during the 80s and 90s. So, um the young adults will have to share the festival with us this year. It's not all about you, it's a little bit about us. Um so, we're really really excited. Talked to the event producers last night. Um and when the lineup went out, the ticket sales are almost at completion and so really excited. They're going to be on scene. We're going to do some standup press events. um to make this fifth one, not final, um an amazing event. So truly excited about that and hope everybody gets an opportunity to share in um the Dreamville Music Festival, which has been an amazing economic development opportunity that started in a conference room as an idea or a conversation with the former mayor and has morphed into 52,500 people on the big field at Dicks Park. Um, and hats off to the staff who work around the clock to stand this event up to make it amazing with very few incidents. Um, so really excited about what that brings. And lastly, a point of privilege. A few hours ago, the UNCC board of governors unanimously voted to make Kevin Howell the next chancellor of NC State University. And as a two-time Carolina girl, um, I've learned to to love and appreciate NC State. And one of the things I love most about NC State is Kevin Howell. So, an opportunity for him to come back home and kind of do some of the great work to continue the partnership. And really, a university and a municipality kind of go hand in hand. And we are blessed that we have multiple universities here in Raleigh, but there is no relationship like the relationship that this city has with NC State. So the board of governors got it right and it was a unanimous vote. So hats off to Kevin Howell as the newest chancellor. Unfortunately, we can't be over there at the event on at 3:00 this afternoon. So this is our thank you to um to the board and acknowledgement to Kevin. Thank you. All right. Thank you uh to the city manager. Um next we have u matters scheduled for public hearing and the first is uh Bryce Abernathy with housing and neighborhoods will come down. It's uh related to um yeah a public nuisance abatement. Good afternoon mayor, city council. Bryce Abernathy Housing and Neighborhoods. Um I am bringing you two properties today that uh we wrote public nuisance cases on that resulted in nuisance abatement. Um, first is 1310 Pool Road. Um, it was just a sporadic trash everywhere, tires. Um, pretty much the same at 1310 right beside each other. Same issues on each one. Um 1310. This is the second time an abatement has been completed on that property and uh in the past year and uh this is the fourth time we've written up a case and added abatement on 1312. Okay. Questions uh for Mr. Abernathy. Yeah. Have we had any conversation with the family owner? Are there part are there? So there there was evidence that the the property owner was taking care of it like within the past two to three years. Okay. And was addressing issues on the lot, but that has kind of stopped. Okay. Other questions? Councelor Patton, what are the total lean amounts on the properties? The 1310 is a little over 3,000 and 1312 is a little over 4,000. Okay, other questions? If not, we can open the public hearing. All right. All right. And then do we have uh I don't have anybody scheduled to speak on the public hearing. Right. So closing the public hearing. Move for approval. Second. All right. Any other discussion? All in favor of the motion? I I. All oppose? Nay. The eyes have it. Thank you. Uh next we have Hannah Recal from Planning and Development uh related to Z3124 901 Nell Road. Good afternoon Hannah Real Planning and Development. This uh is resoning request Z3124 a request to reszone one parcel 901 Nell Road uh uh from R4 to residential mixed use three stories green frontage conditional use. This is located in West Raleigh off of Nell Road um north of the intersection with uh Chapel Hill Road. see a mix of commercial office, um some institutional uses along the major corridors here, and then a mix of uh scales of residential uses, including some lower scale residential just north of the site off of Lincolnville Road. The site is undeveloped, currently forested. You can see some views of uh what it looks like from Nell Road. And then there's just one proposed zoning condition. It is to limit residential development on the site to no more than eight dwelling units. So, uh existing versus proposed zoning. Currently, there's a residential district on the site. Uh they're requesting RX, which is a mixeduse district, although um no commercial would really be permitted on the site since it's not located at the corner of two streets. And then the proposed condition is limiting residential development. So a an increase in residential development. The request is consistent with the comprehensive plan. It is inconsistent with the future land use map designation which is low-scale residential and then the inclusion of a front edge. It makes it consistent with several of the urban form map designations. See consistent policies listed here. It does include two area specific guidance policies in the region reena blidge small area study and then inconsistent policies again future land use map uh consistency and then response time standards. So if you choose to approve this request because it isn't consistent with the future land use map that would make an amendment to the map specifically in this case to moderate scale residential. And then finally, the planning commission did vote to recommend approval in a split vote, four to three. Um, you can see their finding here. And then uh the three uh votes in opposition um really focused on the requested height uh with proximity to other residential existing residential in the area. Uh and with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Sure. Questions for Miss Recel? Okay. So, we'll open the public hearing and do we have folks? I don't believe the applicant was able to sign up, but they may they may be here to answer questions. Okay. Is is the applicant here? Okay. Okay. Um, then I guess we will move to the person who has signed up in opposition. Sorry, I don't have the list. Bob Gary. He's sent an email. Okay. Oh, Bob Gary. Okay. Yep. Okay. Uh, so then I will close the hearing. Um, so just to check on this one, make sure we're doing this right. Um, I have not been able to speak to the applicant. We had a meeting um set up, but they did not um show up. So I do believe we have it rescheduled now. Um I would like to speak that to the applicant before we make any decisions on this case. It this um you know parcel is within an R4 neighborhood and so it does have some impact to other you know fairly low dense density um neighborhoods and there is some concerns from planning commission. So until I've spoken to the applicant and they come perhaps to our public hearing um I'm not prepared to move this forward. And can I just uh make a suggestion if you you have the option of also leaving the hearing open that would allow more time for applicant to make changes if they want to reopen the hearing for um Z3124 and uh do we need to set a date two weeks? Um I don't want to set it for April 1st because we've got so much going on then. So I think April 15th would be the next date available. Okay. Okay. Um, and just checking if the applicant wants to make any changes, can they do so within that period? Yes. Okay, great. So, that would be I guess a motion to continue the hearing. Continue the hearing to April 15. Thank you. Second. Okay. All in favor of the motion. I I. All opposed. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next we have resoning Z402 24 2340 Compassionate Drive which was um continued um from a couple of weeks ago. That's right. Yep. So this hearing was opened on March 4th. You continued the hearing to allow the applicant to revise the zoning conditions which they have done. Um, and I'll note here that the um they did make some changes in response to staff comment uh in the signed copy and I'll point out uh where those changes are. Um the first uh revision since you last saw this is to the second condition. Uh so there's a reduction in the maximum number of residential units. It now reads 200 units maximum. And then condition five was amended. This uh commits to perform a signal signal warrant analysis at Compassionate Drive and Rock Corey Road. Um this uh now reads that it will happen at the time of the submitt of the first site plan. So regardless of the tier of site plan and and also that um if warranted the traffic signal uh would be uh installed um prior to issuance of the first certificate of occupancy. So before any anyone living on the site would be there and then at the same time the existing hawk signal would be removed. And then conditions 7, 8 and nine are new. Uh seven limits maximum building height to 55 ft. Uh the requested district is for four stories. So that um typically pertains to six uh relates to 68 feet as a height limit. Uh and then uh condition 8 commits to additional storm water mitigation specifically management of the 25, 50, and 100year uh storm events as well as an analysis of the 100redyear storm and the drainage system to um look at additional upstream flooding causes. And the final condition um commits to at least one green storm water infrastructure measured um uh green storm water measure uh and and the um full language uh lists the types of uh measures that would qualify for that. So those are the changes to the case. Um one additional piece of context um on sort of the moving parts of of uh transportation in this area. Um so the site we're talking about is not as visible as I thought it would be. Uh you can see the site we're talking about in red. Uh there are two existing traffic control devices, a signalized intersection at Creech Road and then a Hawk uh pedestrian beacon where the little um stick figure is. And then uh wanted to point out three intersections being studied for signalization. Uh number one is uh the study um referenced in the proposed condition. So that's at Compassionate Drive and then uh there are also uh signals being studied to be studied at Birch Drive and then further to the east at Shepard Valley Street. And then um another component is this green dash line which is a proposed neighborhood street in the street plan. Um so with that I'm happy to answer any questions about the resoning requests. We also have transportation staff here who can answer uh your questions about the context. Questions for Miss Raquel? I have any questions? Okay. No questions. Um and then because the hearing is already open, uh we can call Amy Kraut who has signed up. Yep. Do we know how much time? Okay. Yeah. You got a minute and 14 seconds. Uh yes. Uh good afternoon, mayor, council members. Um just here today with members of the development team and the church community um to say we heard the concerns and and we listened to them. Sent you all an email earlier this week about the neighborhood meeting that we held. We're happy to answer any questions that you might have. I also have Jud Olm here who's prepared to talk a little bit more. But at the end of the day, regardless, Standard Communities is committed to being a good neighbor and any lingering concerns that were at the neighborhood meeting, we're committed to addressing them through the site planning process um and beyond. So, with that, we're happy to take any additional questions. We have our full team here to support that. Um and just want to thank you for your time. Yeah. Thank you and all the members for meeting and and coming together uh and making some changes. Are there questions from the council? All right. So, hearing none, I will close the public hearing. Yeah, Madame Mayor, if I may, um, first of all, I want to thank the applicant and the church for having that additional meeting with the community. Um, I look forward to you all having even more meetings. Um, as I'm my schedule permits, I would like to attend your meetings. So, please make me aware of those meetings. Um, and with that said and with the changes that were made, reducing the height, um, ensuring that a warrant is done, um, addressing those concerns, I move to adopt the proposed consistency statement dated March 18th, 2025 contained in the agenda materials and to approve the zoning amendment with the adoption and effective dates described in the agenda items 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. Okay. Any other discussion? If not, all in favor? I I. All oppose. Nay. The eyes have it. And we appreciate all of your work. [Applause] All right. the uh text change zoning conditions TCZ 4124 on Lewis Berry Road and we have um M Recal again. Good afternoon. Yeah, so this is a text change to zoning conditions case TCZ41 uh 25. The request is not to make changes to the zoning designation uh which is commercial mixeduse three stories parking lot emitted conditional use but to change the text of the zoning conditions. Um so this is located on the south side of Lewisbury Road just east of the intersection with Mitchell Road. You can see Forestville Mitchell Mill Road off to the uh left of this site. um generally a commercial uses uh closer to Mitchell Mill Road uh but residential areas uh in the surrounding area too. Here are views of the site. It is currently undeveloped. So the proposed changes to the conditions um really contain removal of several conditions. Uh these include um one uh specifying that parking would be located at the side or rear of the building without this condition uh with a parking limited frontage. Uh up to two bays of parking would be allowed in front of the building. And then they're proposing removal of a maximum building setback of 20 feet and um a condition describing the the character of development to be residential which includes a certain proportion of the facades being windows as opposed to wall uh removal of uh uh condition several conditions that uh the UDO would require anyway. So offers of cross access screening of dumpsters. Um and then um the remaining conditions um contain a a restriction on retail space, a limit on building height, um uh condition pertaining to access points, um full cutoff light fixtures and parking in outdoor areas, and then a list of prohibited uses. Um so the entitlement here uh is really rather similar. Removal of a maximum um set back does create a little more flexibility. So that's where you see some of these numbers changing a little bit. Um wanted to note that the um there is a pending in review uh site review for this case for this site. Um my understanding is the the maximum setback condition was one of the key sticking points in this particular project proceeding. I just wanted to note that that that is uh in process. Um this site is also in a weight crossroads small area plan um noted with a star there. Um, this plan did mark several proposed streets that would affect the site, but those um were not adopted into the street plan. So, there's uh not a responsibility for the property owner to to dedicate right of way for those streets. uh request is consistent with Future Laneia's map still which is community mixed use and consistent with uh the urban form map uh designation of mixed use center and consistent overall with the comprehensive plan. Um you can see some consistent policies here uh includes one of the area specific uh guidance policies uh from the wake break wake crossroads plan. Uh inconsistent um policies include response time standards uh and um a policy pertaining to parking design and then the planning commission recommended approval unanimously. You can see their finding here. Um happy to answer any questions you have. Okay. Questions? Councelor Patton. Yeah. Hi. Can you go back to the ASR slide? Sure. So this is already in process already in review. Yes. And something about the setback and the in the conditions as they exist. Is this I guess I'm trying to figure out where if that building is 20 feet away or how far that building is away like is this ASR showing us something that's compliant with their current zoning conditions or um I believe there is a conflict between the zoning condition and an easement a Duke Energy easement that the owner was not previously aware of. Okay. Um I I'd have to do some research on this to point out where exactly on the ASR it is, but um Okay. I'm just trying to get a sense. I mean, I can guess I can kind of see where that is, but I do believe it is somewhere in this vicinity that the issue is. Yeah. And I'm just trying to figure out how far away the building actually is compared in comparison to the like 20 foot uh requirement they set for themselves. The applicant may be able to address that more directly. Yeah, that's a good point. Um, and then I wanted to um ask for for reiteration or clarification. You said that some of these conditions are otherwise accounted for by the code. So the um I've received some resident emails, so I just want to make sure I'm accounting for it. So there the property to the northeast I guess would that have um privacy like uh vegetative screenings required by the code the referring to this one here. Yeah. Yes. So, um, neighborhood transitions would apply to this property as a mixeduse development adjacent to a residential development. Okay. And so, that's the one where they get to pick three and do like all trees or fence or three types of um, protective yards. Okay. And so, they'll be able to choose between one of those. And then the um, dumpster screening, is that otherwise tended to by the code? Yes. Yeah. That there they will have to screen the dumpsters even in the absence of this condition. Yes, that's my understanding. Okay. Got it. Um I think that might be all I've got for you. Okay. Any other questions for staff? If not, we'll open the public hearing and we have uh Carus Cahil. Good afternoon, council mayor. Um, we are looking to build a dealership and a garage shop and um, this is 20 ft away, but the only issue is that the Duke Energy Power Line won't like we're not allowed to build under that. So, we want to move the building to the back of the lot instead of having it in the front. Um, this was the old like how it was going to be if we were allowed to build under that Duke Energy property line. And then, um, most of these conditions that we're removing are so like parking. You can't have the parking to the side or the rear if you're going to move the building to the back. Um, things like that. Uh, are there any questions? Hi, I have a few. Um, so I've received emails from two of your neighbors, the ones right across the street and the ones to your uh the one that we were looking at earlier in the yellow. Yeah. And they have some concerns and um particularly I think they were really uh pleased that the parking would be in the back to um I think you have like an automotive use, right? It's like a mechanic shop. Correct. Um, so they had hoped that all the cars would be in the back and um, thought that might be like more aesthetically pleasing. Is it possible for you to build something close to what's shown in that other photo and just move the building back a bit? It would be possible, but the building would be like directly in the middle and then there wouldn't be much space in the back or the front to put any cars. Okay. So, you're basically just going to take take this whole thing, flip it around, and all the parking would be in the front. Correct. Okay. Um Okay. The other thing that the residents talked about is uh that some of the residents were raising is that um just like hours of operation, like vehicle noise um as cars might be coming and going from the site at at times when the people might be trying to sleep. Yeah. Um, have you did you talk with them about this and did you consider putting limiting your hours of operation? They haven't contacted us personally or come to the neighborhood meeting. So, I'm not sure. We haven't really thought about doing that. Okay. Okay. Um, I think then it sounds like there might be an important conversation for you to have with the neighbors. So, um, what I'd like to do is hold your case open until April 15th, and that'll give you a chance to meet with the neighbors. I can share your I can share their emails with you, and y'all can coordinate. I can come if you'd like. Um, and then that'll give you a chance to make any changes and come back before us on the 15th. Okay. And um if we won't if we don't want to add any of that, what would be? So then you could tell the neighbors that you could keep the case the same and then you just uh ask the council for a vote. Okay. Thank you. All right. And there was uh no one to speak in opposition and we will keep that hearing open. Um so I will not uh and then uh do you want to make a a motion? uh move to continue the case till April 15th. Second. All right. All in favor of the motion I. All oppose? Nay. All right. So, thank you all for coming down and um we will see you again. Uh and now we have the report and recommendation of the various committees. Um economic development. Uh we did not have anything. Um growth and natural resources. Yeah, there is one item pending um that is to look at forestation requirements in the UDO. We are going to meet next Tuesday the 20 7th um thank you the 25th at 4 p.m. Thank you. And then um nothing uh yet in safe vibrant healthy and then we have the transportation and transit. Um, Councelor Jones, I just wanted to add something for Safe Vibrant. I've been having some conversations and uh, I've had some several emails from residents in my district about challenges tied to mixed juice development, including noise from overnight garbage collection, late night music, and disturbances from bar patrons walking through residential streets. Just this weekend, there was a hit-and- run incident in front of a res of residents home. So as Raleighs becomes a higher density city, I think we need to have a deeper discussion about how the city can support a balance between vibrant commercial activity and residential quality of life. And I was wondering if we could explore this issue further in safe, vibrant, healthy community committee either in April or May to identify practical solutions and align city resources where they're needed most. Yeah, madam. We've had a conversation about this matter and I'm fine um us moving this forward at our May meeting to give staff a chance to pull some data also not just looking at the five points area but other parts of the city where we may also have the conflict between commercial and residential as the city is growing um so that we can just have you know a good holistic conversation. So it'll be May 27th. Great. So be the day after memorial. Thank you for the suggestion and thank you for taking it into the committee. No problem. Thank you. All right. And then transportation and transit. Yep. Transportation and transit committee has two items pending. Uh one item is the West Raleigh Blue Ridge traffic landscape and then the other is uh traffic management report followup and uh with a focus on Falls River Avenue. We transportation and transit committee meeting will be Thursday, March 27th from 3:00 to 5:00 in council chambers. Okay. Thank you. Anything? Yeah, I just wanted to add um congratulations to Chancellor Elect Howell. I don't know if that's the right term to use. Um, but I have greatly enjoyed getting to know um, Kevin Howell throughout my service on the city council um, as an NC State alumnist. I could not be more excited about this hire and um, just looking forward to uh, interacting with him again in his new role and go back. All right, I'm gonna um since we're now on the report of mayor and city council, uh we'll go over to uh I thought we were doing uh vice mayor. He's really excited. Uh first, I will add my congratulations to Chancellor Howell on the uh new appointment. I think he's a great selection for the university. uh you know I'm a a double to hill as well. So um very very excited. I've I've talked to a number of uh I would say Wolfpack I'll be nice today. Um alumni and assured them that Kevin is the the right person for the job. So I'm very very excited for him. You still wore a blue suit though. Uh so I did you know and when I go to his whatever his events will be it probably be a Carolina blue suit on that day as well. So, um, for my report, I want to thank, um, Congresswoman Deborah Ross, Representative Allison Dah, the mayor, um, and several, uh, community members for attending a stakeholder meeting, um, that I had, uh, last week um, to discuss uh, accessing private um, uh, opportunities for housing for folks who are um, in need of affordable housing. Uh thanks to Emily Sutton from the city and Morgan Mansa from the county u for their detailed presentations. Um and we've gotten a lot of really good feedback from from that meeting which was good. Um secondly, I want to thank staff for organizing and participating in a great community meeting with residents of Bitmore Hills. Uh thank you staff for working on a Saturday. um a number of you in the room who actually um participated in that um and addressed a number of issues about bike lanes, sidewalks, and park improvements in Bitmore Hills. So, thank y'all for your diligent efforts on that. And the uh one thing I want to raise um and y'all can thank Council Member Harrison for this. Um, I need to find out what's going on with the lighting on the greenways because she's out on her bike riding on the greenways in the evenings. And as it's, you know, starting to get warmer and we've got um more time in the evening, I know more folks are going to get out and start running and doing more activities uh on the greenways. And so, if we could have um some type of update about where we are with lighting on the greenways. And then I know uh the chief is still here too. Uh they did have like a a greenway crew that uh from the from RPD that would be patrolling. Uh but again, as we've got more folks moving around um as it's getting warmer and um daylight savings times, I just kind of want to get a an update on the greenways so we can advise folks about, you know, when is a good time to appropriately don't follow council member Harrison, but when is an appropriate time for folks to be out on the greenways. So, Mayor Pro Tim will bring back the Jane Harrison report in the next couple weeks. Michelle. All right. Uh, Council Patton. All right. Um, I wanted to announce my next office hours will be April 10th from 6:00 to 8. Location to be determined. And then just a short report from me today. Um, lifting up the good stuff that we did in through the consent agenda. We purchased two new solid waste service trucks. Uh we also approved uh sidewalks provided for uh where it's really relevant to me are um sidewalks on Capitol Boulevard, from Appliance Court to Brentwood, and from Appliance Court to Westinghouse Boulevard. Um so really really excited about that. Um we also did notice the public hearing for our two MSDs. Every 5 years they go through a public process to uh you know select the provider. And so I want just residents to know that that's in the future. Um and then lastly wanted to highlight the million coaches challenge. So we approve acceptance of a grant award from the parks department which will provide training to parks and recck agencies to help coaches create supportive and inclusive environments for youth. So that's um really great work y'all. Keep it up. All right. Um, we have the state of the city uh on Wednesday uh March 26 at 6 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum here in Raleigh and appreciate um staff's support of that. Um more to come, but we'll be there and look forward to updating you on the first 100 days of this council as well as um plans going forward. Um second, um you know, we've had a lot of questions about federal dollars and a lot of uncertainty. Um just yeah, questions from the table and questions from uh constituents. Uh one of the approaches there, we have had staff give us analysis on the kinds of fiscal impacts that would directly right hit the city budget. Um so that we are advocating for ourselves. uh what I talked to the city manager, Philip Eley, our our lobbyist uh city attorney uh uh McDonald and we uh discussed how to best approach this. Um so I have talked to the Wake County mayors and I'm uh just distributing. So what we did because all these transportation projects affect all the communities of Wake County. when you look at the S-line, the bus rapid transit, they also some of the smaller communities uh had concerns about their post office facilities um and services. So added that in had um dinner with them last night, but the idea is and if you have additional feedback or things, but this kind of reflects the consensus of the biggest impacts on Wake County. Um, it'll be signed by uh the mayor of Holly Springs, who is the president of the Wake County Mayors Association, and would go to the entire federal delegation for North Carolina, so that everybody knows. Um, we have multiple congressional uh representatives here in Wake County. So, we just thought that's the most effective way to advocate for the items that have the biggest impact on Wake County. So, I just want you to see that. if you have, you know, strong uh reactions or feedback, let me know. But we'll be forwarding that back to um the fellow mayors and send that off hopefully in the next week or so. Um and then finally, I'm just excited that we're an NCAA host city um for the basketball. Looking forward to um some good games right here in Raleigh. Right. Awesome. Thank you. Just a few things. Our next district E community meeting will be same place, same uh time, Lacusina Italian restaurant from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., but we are changing the date. So, it'll be a week be uh later on April 16th. Uh I'll be out of town on my normal date. So, I'll see you guys a week later than normal. Um and secondly, are in our in our book club, Decoding Democracy. We'll be moving on to our second book from the UNCC School of Government, and it'll be discussing ethics and government. So, if you're interested, please sign up at christinaaleigh.com and that four is spelled out fo. And then lastly, I just wanted to uplift and highlight um I know that this is typically councelor Patton's legacy here to talk about things in uh consent, but for staff, I really want to just send my appreciation because we had J2 and three and those are bid awards uh for some Leville Road Community Park and Barwell Road improvement project. And as I was reading through, I had all these questions in my head and then I continued reading and every question was answered in it. And so I really really appreciate the detail that you guys are going into to make sure that I don't pull stuff and that I don't ask a bajillion questions. Um so uh thank you. Thank you so much for taking note of that and and being really clear with with what you're doing in consent. So I just wanted to uplift that. Thank you. Stephanie, thank you again. And I want to also thank and well I should congratulate Kevin how um him and I are both members of um an organization together and I want to thank NC State for joining the other land grant institution on the representation of their leadership there. Um April 16th unfortunately I already have a town hall scheduled so I can't make your meeting. Um but also um the city manager and mayor, you should be receiving information if you haven't already about attending and being a part of this town hall. It's for the entire district for district C. Again, it's April 16th at Barwell Community Center at 6:30 p.m. Um that's um the last time I did a district town hall was some years ago. This is including departments. So directors should have some of not all 20 directors but a good number of directors you should have already been contacted as well about your department participating to um share information and also hear information from the community. Um I also want to mention um the storm water at the last meeting um we talked about compassionate drive. We asked staff to follow back up with the residents over there. If we can just get a manager's update of where we are in that conversation and addressing those conditions and concerns outside of this resoning case that we just approved, um it would be greatly appreciated. And lastly, um Miss Rainey mentioned shelters and contracts that we have. if we can also get an update of shelters that we're assisting and then the ones the county is assisting so that we can properly direct people because I know some shelters are handled by the county. All right, I will continue the congratulations to Chancellor Hal. I am excited to work with you at NC State and in my role on city council. Um, I also want to uh just put a shout out for our trees and urban ecosystems conversation tonight. That's part of reflecting Raleigh and we're, you know, doing our updates to the comprehensive plan. So, if residents want to be involved and thinking about our tree canopy and the future of our trees, we will be meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at Dicks Chapel and that's going to be a great meeting. Um, we have been continuing to have District D meetings on the third Saturday of the month. That's at 9:30 a.m. We just had one this past weekend. Great turnout. Lots of new folks are coming. Lots of different topics. So, we usually keep it pretty open. People can bring up whatever they want, but I do believe we will have park staff with us at our next meeting. That's not until April 19th. And we will also have a focus there on trees and our role as a bofilic city. So, uh, put that on your calendar. Thanks. All right, that brings us to, uh, appointments and I will turn it over to the city clerk's office. Madam Mayor, can I forgot one thing? Can I just jump in? Um, madame manager, can we let our last our evening public comment? We had a lot of commenters uh, speak about skate parks. Could we just get a response from staff regarding state skate park goings on in the city? Yes, we're working on one. might have it by this Friday. If not, next Friday for sure. Perfect. Good afternoon. Under appointments, we have Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, one regular vacancy. Sean Fernand Fernandez received seven votes that would be appointed. Board of Adjustment, one alternate vacancy. Council member Jones nominated nominated Rob Codle and Council Member Silver did send an email that he would like to nominate Keith Satiski. So those individuals will be appearing on your next ballot. Design Review Commission, one alternate vacancy. Council Member Jones nominated Dylan Davis. So that will be appearing on your next ballot. Environmental Advisory Board, two regular vacancies. Council Member Jones nominated Elise Denof and Jeffrey Bullard. So those individuals will be appearing in your next ballot. Planning Commission, one regular vacancy. Sorry, Cassidy. Can I also nominate uh Vincent Potter for the EAB vacancy? Vincent Potter. Vincent Potter. Sure. Planning Commission, one regular vacancy. Brian Bernett received three votes. Nick Neptune won. Mark Shelburn three. So those names will be carried over to your next ballot. Parks, Recreation, and Greenway Advisory Board. Three regular vacancies. Um, in addition to the ad hoc nominating committee follow-up, Jack Jack Hilton received four votes. Um, council member Patton nominated Linda Pierol and Michael Alderman, which were two of the recommended individuals from the ad hoc nominating committee and Mayor Cowell nominated Daniel Gilligan. Um, as a reminder, during the March 4 meeting, council member Lambert Milton made a nomination for one of the three vacancies and the council requested that the ad hoc committee complete their follow-up work by providing recommendations for the other two by today's meeting. And um, so included in your agenda materials was the correspondence received from the chair. I will note um staff was made aware this morning that their number two nominee Reagan Buchanan is no longer eligible because she was uh recently hired to work for the city this month. Um so again we have uh existing nomination for Jack Hilton. We have the three new nominees um uh two of which appeared on the list from the parks board and Daniel Gilligan. Yeah. And so that'll be carried over. Is that the direction you guys? Okay. Um lastly, under appointments, Storm Water Management Advisory Commission, one regular vacancy. Uh no nominations. So this will be carried over to your next ballot. Nominations. Historical Resources and Museum Advisory Board. Two regular vacancies. Term of two members are expiring. First is Wanda Cox Bailey. She's seeking reappoint. And the next is Paul Brinkman. He does not wish to be considered. And the board's nominating committee recommends the appointment of Emily Grant to fill his expired term. Her information uh was included in the agenda materials. Well, I would make a motion to uh reappoint Wanda Cox Bailey. Any other discussion? If not, all in favor of the motion I. All opposed. Okay. to that and then does uh what's the pleasure of the council for the second? I mean since we have it and they're nominating I'll figure on the next ballot her name will be listed. Okay. Okay. I carry that over to the next ballot. And lastly, Israeli Convention and Performing Arts Centers Authority three regular vacancies. Terms of three members are expiring. all would like to be considered for reappointment. Per council's request, attendance information regarding uh Mr. Nagaraj and Mr. Patel was included in the agenda materials. And I'm sorry I didn't read the names. Peter Buyers, Sherat Nagaraj, and Gav Patel are the three members. Um I'll move approval for Peter Buyers. Um second, right? And all in favor of the motion I All opposed. Okay. And then for the others just I've I mean I've read their statements. Um I've they've attended when they've attended they've added valuable information that I think is very good. Um based on that I think I would recommend the nom renominating both individuals back to the committee. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor of the motion I I. All opposed. All right. That's it. Thank you. Okay. Um, is there a report of the city attorney? No report, mayor. All right. Thank you. And then a report and recommendation of the city clerk. Good afternoon, mayor and council. Lou Bonap, city clerk's office staff has presented four sets of minutes uh for consideration of approval. All right. Do we have a motion to approve? Move for approval of the minutes. Second. All in favor of the motion. I I. All oppose. Nay. All right. Thank you. All right. Uh we are now uh entertaining a motion is order is in order to enter into close session pursuant to general statute 143-318.11a3 to consult with the city attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege. General statute 143 31811 A2 to prevent disclosure of an honorary degree, scholarship, prize, or similar award. General statute 14318.11A4 to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of industries or other businesses within the city, including consideration of economic development incentives that may be offered by the city in negotiations. So moved. Second. All in favor of the motion? I I. All opposed. All right. So, we are now uh going into close session. [Music] [Music] Hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Oh. Oh. Oh. [Music] Oh hey. [Music] D hey danc down. Hey. [Music] Oh hey. [Music] Data on that. [Music] Down. N [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] Oh god. [Music] Heat. Heat. Oh. Oh. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Ooh. Ooh. 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