Council Planning Retreat – January 24 & 25, 2025
Highlights from Council’s Planning Retreat
Raleigh’s budget is a blueprint for our lives
Our city’s budget is far more than just a financial ledger—it’s a blueprint for our lives and futures. It shapes the services we depend on every day, from police and fire protection that ensure our safety, to public transportation that keeps us connected, and parks and green spaces that enrich our quality of life.
Mayor Cowell: “It’s going to take focus, attention and every tool in the toolbox.”
Day two of Council’s annual retreat kicks off on January 25th with a discussion of affordable housing. It will be interesting to see if Mayor Cowell can convince her fellow Councilors to move beyond the kinds of fuzzy math that has concealed the real size and causes of Raleigh’s affordable housing crisis. Effective solutions will be fact-based, data driven and will reform current growth rules that promote the loss of five thousand affordable units each year.
Be strong, be resolute, preserve Raleigh’s cultural resources
Raleigh finds itself on lists of superlatives, and one factor that places us there consistently is our collective effort to maintain the character of our fair city through preservation of our historic landscapes, land use patterns, architecture and rich cultural heritage.
JANUARY 21, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
Highlights from January 21, 2025 Council Work Session and Afternoon Session
Make sure they fund the things that matter
Attending the city’s budget listening sessions was more informative than just how the budget is created. It showed people have a lot to say. They have a lot they care about. Of these things, the 3 that kept coming up were Affordable Housing, Transportation, and Public Safety.
January 14, 2025 City Council Meetings
Council discussed the strategic plan during the afternoon work session and heard public comments in the evening.
The Attack on Single-Family Zoning
I have experience valuing homes that are next to duplexes, fourplexes and apartment buildings; I see what’s happening in these neighborhoods. Once zoning is changed from single-family to multi-family, developers move in and start competing against families for older homes. Unfortunately, the builder always wins because they have more money and are willing to pay cash. Homes, perfect for a starter family or in need of being rehabbed will be purchased by a developer who will tear the house down to make way for a new multi-unit building on a small 5,000-square-foot site. (It’s called the highest and best use of the land). The moment construction starts, the value of a nice condition single-family home next door goes down; the appraisal term is called external obsolescence. Welcome to capitalism in America.
Jan 7, 2025 City Council Meeting
Highlights from the January 7, 2025 City Council meeting
Every Resident Has a Stake in the Comp Plan Update
The city is starting to write a new Comprehensive Plan, When adopted, it will replace the current 2030 Comp Plan, which was adopted in 2013 after several years of public input and dialogue. What is a Comp Plan? It’s a set of policies meant to guide every decision made by city leaders.
Time to Prioritize People in the City Budget
Community engagement for the 2025 / 2026 Raleigh Budget has started. I attended the first virtual session in December, not October, thinking that they would actually engage with the audience. Instead, input was gathered through a number of questions, rather than an informative session and discussion with the public to gather more information about resident priorities and needs. My session had a well educated audience, yet little time was afforded for actual public input.
Neuse River Park – habitat degradation – what can the ecosystem sustain?
When I first joined City Council I met advocates who introduced me to the idea of developing a white water rafting facility in the Neuse River near Falls dam. I was initially enthusiastic about the idea to add recreation to the river. However, as I learned more, I realized the tremendous negative impacts such a facility could have on the wildlife that depend on the river.
I am not anti-development. And neither is Livable Raleigh
INDY Week, please stop referring to me as anti-development. You refer to me as “Livable Raleigh co-founder Stef Mendell, who ran on an anti-development platform.” This has got to stop. I am not and have never been anti-development. And neither is Livable Raleigh. Let’s try to work together and find reasonable ways to accommodate appropriate development. Labeling individuals or groups as anti-development only furthers polarization.
Time for Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives
Nearly half of the housing stock in Raleigh is rental housing and much of the affordable housing efforts by the city have been gap financing for affordable rental units. I think there needs to be a greater focus on creating dense, affordable, multi-family home ownership opportunities, and I think the best way to go about this is by incentivizing and/or subsidizing the creation of limited equity housing cooperatives.
An Open Letter to Mayor Cowell
Open letter to Mayor Cowell. Our proposal is a simple one: Council should not vote immediately after the hearing on the matter addressed by the hearing. Instead, it should take time to consider what the hearing was about, and what was said – and give the public a chance to think about it also, and to react.
December 3, 2024 City Council Meeting
Highlights from the December 3, 2024 City Council meeting
Neighbors left out of the rezoning process – AGAIN!
Neighbors are generally supportive of affordable housing, stating “Given Raleigh’s commitment to providing affordable housing, … eventually an affordable housing development will probably be placed on this site. Our efforts are to assure that a smaller number of units will be allowed and thus the development will be more compatible with our neighborhood and the environment.”
Fix This NOW!
Homeowners being sued by a builder in Woodcrest. This lawsuit is made possible by the City Council which allows major developments without neighborhood input or process and rezoned the missing middle without providing protections in established neighborhoods.
November 19, 2024 City Council meeting
Highlights from November 19, 2024 City Council meeting.
Mayor Baldwin Gaveled Out!
An article like the one in the N&O (11/17/2024) about Mary-Ann Baldwin’s self-described “record of progress” is to be expected but there is a lot to unpack here that could help give the new mayor of Raleigh Janet Cowell some direction.