Chris Crew was born in Morganton, NC and moved to Raleigh in 1964. He’s been a resident of Historic Oakwood since 1975.
Educated at NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill and is retired from Public Safety. Preservationist, Cook, Trombonist, Brewer, Choirboy, Grandfather.
Chris spoke to City Council October 13, 2026:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to thank you for your recent votes in favor of neighborhood preservation, and I hope that you will continue the trend.
Two recent development issues have drawn a lot of public attention, the future of our water supply, and how we are to manage requests to bring data centers into our community. These are terrifically complicated issues, and during my career in public service working with all 100 counties and 99% of the 553 municipalities, I found that the best chance to make wise decisions depends on listening to both the professionals and the lay people who come before you. In many cases there is far more to know than any single one of us knows, that is why the input of the public is so important.
What I’ve heard in this chamber is that our water supply must grow as the city grows, it’s going to be expensive and slow, ecology matters, and there is a danger of outrunning positive public sentiment.
Data Centers are already among us. All of them use considerable amounts of energy, some, but not all by necessity use tremendous amounts of expensive treated water for cooling, they can be hot, noisy places that on occasion emit PFAS and other forever chemicals into the environment.
These are issues that you and your potential successors in November will have to address.
Another thing I learned in public service is that the PLAN is not nearly as important as the PLANNING PROCESS. Last week it was reported that we’re well underway on a data center plan, so far into it that six months has been deemed sufficient time to accept, digest and react to public input. Our water needs planning seems to be rolling at a similar pace.
A good planning process is comprehensive, transparent and public-driven unless necessity dictates specific expertise, and in that case, the process should still be public facing and public centered. In either case, it is your responsibility to take advantage of the expertise and advice from the gallery. Six months may or may not be sufficient to complete a Data Center review process; the public can only be confident if the process is transparent and inclusive. 2070 seems far in the future (certainly past my bedtime) but it is coming fast and your work on assessing and addressing our future water needs must continue within the public view and with public participation.
An open planning process encourages citizen participation and buy-in. A closed process engenders suspicion and lack of compromise. Keep both of these processes in the daylight and allow the public to help you make wise decisions.
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