Donna Bailey has lived in Raleigh for over 25 years and has been a neighborhood advocate for much of that time. She served as President of the University Park Neighborhood Association and has also been Chair of the Hillsborough-Wade Citizens Advisory Council (CAC). Donna has been very active in educating the public on what is going on within the city and making sure that resident’s voices are heard. Donna is a former member of the city’s Community Engagement Board.
Donna spoke to City Council on October 14, 2025:
The approval of Z-12-25 was a huge disappointment to many of the residents in Raleigh’s neighborhoods. What is most disappointing is that there was a workable compromise that would have respected all parties.
Raleigh needs to do better managing growth. We all know that AFFORDABLE HOUSING is the number one issue in Raleigh. IF this developer builds the proposed 900 apartments, their financial contribution from this massive project will be $1300 per unit towards Affordable Housing! That is embarrassing.
You all have the power to demand MORE be done to help.
If you continue at this level, we will be LOSING more affordable housing every year.
Mayor Cowell, you mentioned Atlanta the other night and all the tall buildings around their beltline. ChatGPT said that none of the buildings around there are more than 18 stories.
On a more positive note, I’m glad you disbanded the Community Engagement Board. As a past member, I can attest that this board did not improve community engagement. I would like to recommend that the funds and personnel be directed to the CACs, which DO support real community engagement.
If the CACs had not held a joint meeting on Z-12-25 after the staff report was made available, the public would not have had a chance to review it. There is a BIG gap in the public getting information in the rezoning process. This leaves the public at a big disadvantage at the Planning Commission public hearing.
As we saw with Z-12-25, even with the 2 developer led meetings, we were not privileged to hear all the information.
That is where CACs are so helpful. We heard the cases BEFORE the Planning Commission and negotiations often resulted in a better plan.
One way to fix that is to have the Staff report at the second neighborhood meeting. And ideally, this should be run by staff. At the CAC meetings, we hear from staff, the applicant and have plenty of time to hear from residents.
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