A Bad Day for Midtown and the City of Raleigh

The Council session of July 1 was a bad day for Midtown and the City of Raleigh. I had sent Council an email earlier so that perhaps you would be prepared for the discussion at Council. But I was sadly mistaken. Like so many times before, emails make little impact as compared to a personal presentation.

Like you, I listened and watched the transportation presentation with the expectation of hearing the options to bring this project within budget. That is what I had been told for the last six months. I was wrong again on all counts. With a Council primed to go on summer hiatus, Council made a decision that will haunt this Council for many years to come – cancelling the Six Forks Road Improvement project. I tried to speak before that decision was made, as some of you saw, but I was denied. Could this have been put in committee for further discussion after 13 years? Could it have waited to be heard upon your return?

Apparently not.

Here are some of the questions that the Council might have asked:

• • Can the project be scaled back to stay within budget by leaving Six Forks as a four-lane road, making all lanes standard width at 10 feet?
  • Can all of the intersection revisions outlined in the Six Forks Road Corridor Study be completed to make them safer as either part of this project or through Vision Zero?
  • What will the City now do with all of that acquired property?

This is just a sample of what you could have done before adopting the one recommendation from staff to cancel the project.

There is bond money, taxpayer money, from 2013 and 2017 specifically dedicated to the Six Forks Improvement project. Shouldn’t the taxpayers have gotten a say in how to utilize the balance of the funds in Midtown before reallocating it to other City road projects?

So what happened?

After two bonds (2013, 2017), the money for the project was available. Project planning was complete with the Council approval of the final Six Forks report (2018) and the inclusion of the project in the Council-approved Midtown-Saint Albans Small Area Plan (2020). Road and intersection design with mapping was completed (2021). So why didn’t the shovels hit the ground? Was it COVID, staff shortages (at least five project managers since 2012), or bureaucracy? Either way, the delay probably cost the City 50 million dollars due to increases in materials and land costs in delaying the project over the last five years, which, in today’s dollars, resulted in a project that was too expensive for the City to complete.

Some blame the failure to execute one of the most important infrastructure projects in Midtown a failure due to excessive community engagement. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The thoroughness of acquiring public input, first as part of the Six Forks project, then as part of the Midtown area plan, was heralded for its community engagement efforts and became the City’s playbook for future public engagement efforts.

Where are we now?

The City has spent nine million dollars (their numbers) on right-of-way acquisition and design efforts over the last ten years. The required right-of-way for the project was never completed, and further negotiations have been withdrawn. Residents and businesses along Six Forks had their lives and future plans on hold for 13 years with limited resolution.

• • As noted in the Six Forks Final report: “One of the most important “Roadway Capacity” recommendations was to make lane widths consistent along the length of the Corridor. The lane widths for vehicle travel between Rowan and Millbrook vary between eight feet and 11 feet.”
  • The plan to reduce congestion and improve safety by standardizing all lane widths to 10 feet died when the road project was cancelled.
  • Improved connectivity and safety for both pedestrian and bike travel on Six Forks Road with a multipurpose pathway will not be completed because the project was cancelled.

Additional public input might have impacted further actions on the part of Council that day. You chose not to allow any further speakers at Council, and the City got one picture again – that of staff! Just like “the Day the Music Died,” so did “Democracy at Council.”

Epilogue: The Midtown-Saint Albans small area plan approved by Council in 2020 had one major objective – to ensure adequate infrastructure to serve current and future residents, workers, and visitors. When the area plan was requested, growth had already made its impact with projects in the pipeline such as the Northside development on Industrial Drive, Wegman’s on Wake Towne Drive, North Hills East, and the Exchange on Saint Albans Drive.

Today, not one recommended infrastructure improvement has been funded or completed in Midtown, despite being the largest tax revenue source for the City outside the belt line.

To nobody’s surprise,  development in Midtown has not slowed, with two major developments above and below the Six Forks / I-440 interchange already either approved or proposed. What will it take to successfully initiate and complete those long-awaited infrastructure improvements?

The fifty-six million dollar bond money for Six Forks has been reduced to seven million dollars, after expenses, for sidewalk and intersection improvements, with an estimated completion in the summer of 2027. One has to wonder if this can be completed without further delay or budget limitations?