City Council - workshop

Bye.

All right. We'll call the work session to order. And Councilor Jonathan Lambert-Melton is absent and excused. Councilor Silver will be a few minutes late but coming. We have Brandon Poole filling in for the city attorney and Evan Raleigh filling in for the city manager. I think I got it all. And let's turn it over to staff. We're going to be talking about Nash Square Public Realm. And we have T.J. McCourt.

Good afternoon, everybody. Excited to be here to give you an update on the Nash Square Public Realm Plan. This is a master plan, so a new vision for the future of Nash Square. But it's unique. It's not just a park master plan. We've scoped this out as a public realm plan, being very intentional about looking at the streets and sidewalks around Nash Square, in addition to the park itself. Really a cross-departmental collaborative effort that's tapping into just about everybody in the city of Raleigh. We got started on this project early in 2026. Over the summer, we moved through some alternative concepts that we dug into with the community, which brings us to our current phase, phase three, draft concept review. We're still going over some technical items right now. We expect to bring this out to the public for review later this fall, and then ultimately bringing it back to you all to council early next year for final review and approval. Before we take a look at the draft concept plan that we've arrived at right now, want to make a note on the historic context of Nash Square. As I'm sure you're all aware, it's one of the four original squares that was laid out with Raleigh's Christmas plan in the 1700s. And we can look back to the 19th century to see some of the circulation patterns, some of the uses that are still recognizable at Nash Square today. It was around the 1950s that Nash Square, as we know it and love it, was laid out in its current design, but it has evolved over the years, over the centuries really, and continues to evolve in the future. So our plan is very much in keeping with that historic pattern of evolution, wanting to make sure that Nash Square is something that's going to serve the needs of Raleigh as it continues to grow in the years to come. but honors that history that we came from.

Did you just speak, what was in 1929, all those little scatter parts?

Planting areas, so those were specifically flower beds, kind of formal flower beds all throughout the square. There's a lot out there that's going to stay the same. First and foremost are the trees. To every extent possible, we're going to protect the historic oak and willow canopies that make Nash Square, that really identify Nash Square in people's minds today. We mentioned some of the circulation. the layout of the paths at Nash Square today that we're gonna be maintaining, but there's a lot that the current plan doesn't really take advantage of. For example, at Nash Square, there's incredibly varied topography out there. When you look at it from that top-down plan view, it all looks very flat, but there's actually about 15 to 20 feet of elevation change So there's a lot that the new plan is going to do to take advantage of that. And of course, the changing context, right? We all know we've got the new city hall building coming in next door. We've got a lot of private development in the blocks around Nash Square. They're going to place a lot of new demands on how this public space gets used in the years to come. I want to highlight a few of the community engagement activities that we had throughout the process. Community interest in this project has been incredible. We've had a really great opportunity to dive deep into the details with folks in Raleigh. We had a kickoff party at the beginning of the year, had almost 200 people attend there. This spring we were out, we had a Tuesdays in the Square series, a lot of tabling opportunities where myself and other staff were out at the Square just to meet people, see how the Square is used every day, help spread awareness of the project. We got to hang out with the kids from Explorers Middle School who are out there for recess just about every day. I got to wear the Sammy the Squirrel mascot costume. That's been a huge hit. Lesson learned, if we can get a mascot at every one of our planning projects, I think we'd get a lot more attention. We had this past summer a new Nash Bash block party. We closed down Martin Street, had food trucks, vendors out there. This was also a great opportunity to do some immersive activities, site tours around Nash Square, gave folks a chance to interact directly with the design team, ask questions, get out into the park and really visualize how some of the changes that we're proposing would actually look and feel on the ground. Really, really great event there. And of course, throughout the project, we've had a lot of online engagement. We've reconvened a series of focus groups that have staff subject matter experts, members of the community, representatives from community partner organizations, Downtown Raleigh Alliance has been a fantastic partner, and representatives from advisory boards and commissions all around the same tables to dive deep into some focus group topic areas, really help us iron out the details on this one. So through all of that, some of the top community priorities that have emerged are, first of all, of course, protecting and renewing that tree canopy, honoring the historic character out at Nash Square. We were really encouraged to extend the square. Again, look at the streets and sidewalks, that more holistic public realm as an opportunity to bring activation, to bring new energy and new life to the square, while maintaining a relatively light touch to the interior, again, WITH THAT TREE PROTECTION BEING FIRST AND FOREMOST AMONG OUR CONCERNS. THAT DIRECTED US TO REALLY REIMAGINING WHAT HARGETT STREET MIGHT LOOK LIKE, THAT INTERFACE BETWEEN NASH SQUARE AND THE MUNICIPAL BLOCK WITH THE NEW CITY HALL BUILDING, AND ULTIMATELY SUPPORTING FLEXIBLE EVERYDAY USE. WE HEARD FROM THE COMMUNITY THIS IS NOT A PROPERTY THAT NEEDS TO BE A BIG EVENT SPACE. WE HAVE MORE SQUARE FOR A LOT OF THAT MORE INTENSIVE USE. THIS IS A MUCH MORE RELAXED SETTING, SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE TO enjoy time outside downtown on an everyday basis. So, as I mentioned this summer, we looked at a few different alternatives for how we might approach Nash Square. I won't go into these in detail, but just wanted to give you a little bit of a sense of some of the options that we looked at that helped us arrive at the draft concept we'll take a closer look at today. Each of these alternatives took a different approach to how the center of the square might be reimagined. Again, that kind of interior circulation pattern, different ways that we might meet needs, as well as the interface of the square with the surrounding streets and sidewalks. This image shows three different treatments that we looked at for Hargett Street in particular. And here what you have on the screen is a comparison between, on the left, the existing conditions out at Nash Square today, and our proposed draft concept. I won't go into a great deal of detail this afternoon, but do want to zoom in on a few key design details, starting with Hargett Street. Again, that interface between the new City Hall and Nash Square itself. We're introducing a number of pretty major changes here. One, right in the center of the screen, is a new mid-block crossing along Hargett Street, really wanting to make it much more of a pedestrian-oriented space. In this diagram here, you can see some of the curb-line shifts that we're proposing, so this would add bump-outs to all of the corners, which is gonna shorten that crossing distance. We wanted to put special emphasis on the corner of Hargett and McDowell directly across from City Hall. Ultimately what we're looking to do here is reclaim a lot of vehicular oriented space today to extend the feeling of being in the square even as you're walking on the sidewalk surrounding it. So this is a perspective view you can see outside right now of Hargett Street and what the look and feel kind of spatial relationships might come to be as we introduce that mid-block crossing, new street tree plantings, seating along the edge of Hargett Street and other ways to kind of activate that space, make it feel like a more pedestrian-friendly zone. We're working closely right now with our partners in transportation and the Raleigh Arts Office on plans for restriping of Hargett Street next year after the City Hall building opens. These plans are still very much under development. This is a draft that we're looking at today, but in general you can see the intent here to restripe Hargett, create a future amenity area for the park. This can all be done at relatively low cost before we implement the full vision of the master plan, but this is going to be a gesture toward, again, helping reimagine what that interface between the park and city hall might look like, and introducing some of those key features like bump outs and a mid-block crossing ahead of the full future vision for redoing Hargett Street. We'd be looking at a few precedents here, different ways that murals, public art, kind of temporary barriers can be used to reclaim some of that vehicular space for the pedestrian realm. Zooming in again here at that corner of Hargett and McDowell, this shows a little bit more detail of what the plan proposes. If you compare a shot of what that corner looks like today, we have the brick walls, the plantings that really obstruct sight lines, make it a little bit difficult, not so easy to navigate your way into and through the square, and a rendering here showing what it might look like were we to open up that corner. This creates a central plaza area for gathering and seating, spending time, but also walking through. We think ultimately is going to make the square more navigable, feel more open, inviting, and safer with those expanded sight lines. Switching now toward the interior of the square, I want to take a look at that interior circle path. Again, this shows an overlay of the existing conditions in blue and where we're proposing to make some changes. So specifically here, if we're looking on that southeastern side, you can see this crescent start to form where we're looking at widening the existing walkway there, introducing some planted islands and islands for seeding and gathering. These are kind of small cafe tables and chairs. It's a way to introduce both new patterns of circulation, a lot more options for people as they're walking through the square. You're not going to feel quite so constrained with the current benches along the pathways as they're laid out now. We can instead, again, open up that space, make it a lot more flexible, a place that people would actually want to spend some more time And this is an area where we've really taken advantage of that topography on the southeastern side there. It's a lot flatter. It's a lot sunnier, more open space. So this is an area of the square we had a little bit more room to work with. Think about introducing some more paved areas than we do otherwise. Zooming in now quickly to the Central Plaza area. This is another place in the interior we're looking to make some changes. Today we've got the brick walls surrounding the Firefighters Memorial in the center of the square. We're working closely with the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Foundation on all of these plans. We don't have the exact details figured out yet for how that memorial would be incorporated. That's something that we're working on over the next few months and we'll be coming back to you all with a recommendation But in general, we are looking at removing those walls, really opening up the central plaza area, creating more usable space with flexible seating, added shade, sculptural benches that are going to allow views both in toward the center of the square as well as looking out into the rest of the square, making that central area function better both as a crossroads and as a place to spend time. So as far as our next steps, we'll continue work on those interim improvement plans for Hargett Street, continue our discussions with the Fallen Firefighters Foundations for how the memorial will be incorporated into these plans, get into the details on some utilities, furnishings, taking a very close look at lighting and public safety, crime prevention through environmental design, how this plan can support those goals, as well as design and construction cost estimates. Again, ultimately coming back to you all with recommendations around all of this early next year. With that, I will pause and open up to any questions or discussion.

Thank you, Mr. McCourt, and I will just, I'll start down here with Councilor Patten.

Hi, thanks for this. I'm curious, can you go to the render that was, yeah, this is good. Nope, that one, yep. So when you showed the ones lined up across time, it looked like there was a stream, and then I see this sort of squiggle here. Are you all daylighting a stream or something?

Yes, so the intention here, we're looking at options with stormwater as far as whether act true daylighting is a possibility, a feasibility. More than likely, it's going to be a planted expression, kind of green stormwater infrastructure that will be functional, but maybe comes a little bit short of full daylighting. There is a historic stream that runs through this northwest corner of Nash Square. So through plantings and other green stormwater infrastructure elements, we think we can bring that stream back to life in some new ways, along with interpretive signage, ways to help people understand how the square used to be and how it used to function naturally. So yeah, that's what you're seeing there.

And then second question it sounds like you're doing some interim accessible steps is the vision to Fully actualize this through a future parks bond is that the some of the kind of finance funding?

Recommendations is something we're going to look at over the next few months as far as how this will be implemented But yes, there is currently no funding identified for construction and implementation Councillor silver

TJ, thank you. I like how this is evolving. Certainly the treatment of Hargett Street, great solution, blending in, making that more of a presence to complement the new city hall. A couple of questions, because you mentioned the crime prevention through environmental design. I know we talked about this. I agree we need to save the canopy. What conversations have there been about lifting up the lower part of the canopy? Because if you go back to your first rendering, if you go back for a second, not that one, the one before, keep going back. Even that one's useful. Keep going back. Right there. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a wall. And I know that you talked about strategically we can transplant trees, but I'm just trying to understand as you go to the next slide, when you see more open, it does give a sense of safety. It is a green oasis. So just want to speak to me about opening up the corners, which I agree with, as plazas, but elevating the canopy, because even walking by there today, I just cannot see in there. It's just... an obstruction which is one of the principles that crime prevention through environmental design tries to solve.

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Something we're really keying in on over the next few months. With our maintenance teams out at Nash Square today, as far as what can be done, not a few years from now when we actually do major construction here, but what can be done over the next few months. It's a conversation that we're having, working obviously closely with Raleigh Police on all of this. I think you're exactly right. So the interventions at the corners I think are gonna do the most to really open up the feeling of Nash Square as we're walking through it, being able to see where you're going, where you're going to leave, as you're opening up into the square as well. I think we're not at the level yet where we're looking at kind of species selection for a planting plan, but making sure that you're exactly right. Limbing up the trees, looking at the trees that are out there today that are a little bit bushier at that kind of three to six foot height, making sure that the canopy trees that we are maintaining are actually canopy trees that won't be obstructing views. So yes, definitely something that we're keyed in on. And again, getting into the details really over the next few months.

Now the most difficult one, and I say this with all respect because I discussed this issue many years ago, so it's not new. You talked about the Firefighter Memorial. Was there any conversation about relocating it to another appropriate location? Again, we value our firefighters. It is a very emotional memorial. But as we look for the evolution, I just want to make sure that is on the table as difficult as a conversation as it was. I kind of did some history and maybe be helpful that we were kind of approached with the memorial. We weren't, City of Raleigh didn't ask for it. So I'm just trying to wonder as we look to take a new approach for this park, is that something on the table? Because I know you were very delicate in how you talked about the memorial. So As comfortable as you are sharing, are there ongoing conversations about the future of the memorial?

Yes, so it is a delicate situation. I think one thing I would point out is that it is a memorial for the state of North Carolina, for firefighters across the state. This is a state-owned property that is managed by the city of Raleigh, but we as the city do not have carte blanche to kind of make all of those decisions. So it is an ongoing conversation. I think whatever we bring forward as the final recommendation... would ultimately be something that the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Foundation would be supportive of. Right now we're looking at those options. We have discussed the alternative or the potential for relocating the memorial off-site. At this time the foundation is not supportive of that. They want to maintain the memorial within Nash Square itself. Whether it stays in its current place and exact configuration I think is something that we're talking about.

Or closer to an edge where it gets a lot more visibility. I think that's right. Okay, thank you.

So looking at the staff report, I'm just trying to figure out what the timeline is going to be, because you indicated there's going to be another round of community engagement, and then you're also planning on bringing it back to us maybe, I thought you said earlier, next year. So do you have like a timeline that you can highlight when things are supposed to happen before the final draft comes back to us and when the final draft will come?

So what we decided to do was wait until we had honestly settled the issue on the memorial with the Firefighters Foundation before we bring this draft concept out to the public for full public review. We didn't want to get into recommendations that might ultimately have to change. We think the memorial is such a significant part of this future design. We want to make sure when we present a new concept to the public that we've had that issue settled. So that's really the timeline issue right now is getting that all buttoned up. But we do anticipate before the end of the year, within the next two months or so, bringing this out to the public. And then that would set us up to do cost estimates based on that final design. And then again, coming back to you all in the spring of next year.

Yeah, I just wanted to check. I think it's on the east side of Nash Square. I noticed over the summer just more sunlight than usual. So I do think we lost a large tree. Could you speak to that?

Yeah, absolutely. So we have taken down a number of trees in Nash Square over the last six to nine months. I will say none of those are associated with this plan in any way. We did, as a first step, do a thorough inventory and health assessment of all of the trees out at Nash Square. There were several identified as high hazard that had extended past their expected lifespan. So there are a few removals that have been done. Over the past few years, we've seen actually some very large trees, mostly on that eastern side of the square, have to come down. I do believe there's one more, a willow oak kind of shown on the plan here that'll be coming down over the next few weeks if that process hasn't already started actually. So again, those aren't really in response to anything being proposed as part of this plan. It's just part of the natural life cycle of the trees out there. What this plan will do is respond to where New planting needs to be done for succession planning to maintain that canopy over time. Again, not just looking a few years into the future, but decades into the future. And ultimately, though, you know, we're looking at that as a potential opportunity. A lot of the grass on that eastern side of the square is a lot easier to maintain in a healthy condition so that it can be used by kids who are out there, right, at lunch, running around, playing catch. Introduces a lot more activity into the square area. where usually we would have had to maintain just mulch beds because it was impossible to keep grass alive in such shady areas. So there are pros and cons that go along with the tree removal. Ultimately, anything that's been taken out over the past year has been done as a public safety measure.

Okay, great. Yeah, I'm just very happy to see, in general, the protection of the tree canopy planned. And I think I saw a couple of new trees that were planted, too.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, we're planting new trees. You know, it's been our typical approach. Anytime a tree comes down, we usually try to replace it with something of a similar species. I think this plan will have a little bit more intentionality behind it, introduce a lot more tree planting actually in the final plan. Again, just in strategic locations, mostly around the edges.

Thank you, Brent. Excuse me. Thank you for the presentation. The main thing I wanted to point out and I've noticed, outside of Hargett Street, there are no mid-block access.

Is that true? Currently, yes. Hargett Street is the only place where we're showing a mid-block crossing.

Okay. Is that from just design safety? Is that...

Yeah, so Dawson and McDowell are NCDOT maintained streets, very, very high traffic, high speeds, not somewhere that's going to be suitable for a mid-block crossing. We are still looking at different options for Martin Street at this time. It didn't look like there was a necessity to introduce a mid-block crossing as a part of this plan. I think that's something that, right, as new development comes through, we're still keeping a close eye on. There are a lot of moving pieces to juggle here, right? Hargett Street and Martin Street are both very important for BRT, bus rapid transit circulation in the downtown. So we need to make sure we're maintaining space for those buses. Ultimately, Hargett Street is the one that we identified as the best opportunity for that kind of intervention.

Okay, thank you.

I would just point out also all corners in the plan propose significant bump outs, again, to reduce that crossing distance at the corners, at the crosswalks.

DJ, can you talk about the change of grade, how it's going to be dealt with? And I think it's the southern part of Dawson and all of Martin, there are some significant grade changes. The root zone seemed to be hugging the mini retaining wall. So can you just talk about how you're going to handle that? I didn't know it was 15 to 20 feet. That's shocking. It's significant, yeah. Wow. Is that mostly at the southern part?

It is, yeah. You mostly see that along that Martin Street profile. Tough to make out in these plans, and I don't have a slide in this deck that really zooms in, but we do have kind of a terraced seat wall along Martin Street in this plan. Probably make that out a little bit at the bottom of the screen. But yeah, that's one of the ways that we're trying to, yeah, again, turn that into a more usable space, help negotiate some of that elevation change.

Are you going to set it back or are you using the existing edge of the park? Because I know around the tree you want to protect the root zone, but are you going to carve in to create those seat walls that won't be right onto the sidewalk but set back? So I'm just trying to understand that edge.

A little bit of both. Again, I don't have kind of a zoomed-in slide for Martin Street. We are... proposing to shift that curb out a little bit. So I guess it will be a little bit of both. There will be some carving into the park, again, not where we have any trees right now, but primarily it'll be reconfiguring some of the lanes on Martin Street to gain additional area outside the park.

Last question, this is owned by the state. Can you talk about the approval process for us and then what happens on the state side?

Yeah, so primarily that goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. So they're kind of the clearinghouse for this sort of thing. So this is within a National Registered Historic District. for the depot district downtown. So through that State Historic Preservation Office review process, we also work with the State Property Office, State Construction Office on review of all of these plans. We've initiated that process, gotten good feedback so far. We'll go back to them with this draft concept. Ultimately they'll either issue a finding that there are no negative impacts associated with this plan, or if they do have any recommendations, we would have those by the time that we bring the final plan back to you in the spring.

I would just add, and I think this is great work. I love all the public engagement and the direction that you're going with it. My question would be on the programming of this. It's always been noteworthy to me that we don't seem to program the square much, and I've not quite understood that. So I'm just curious, as we go forward, how are we thinking about... programming the space, and then if, you know, Moore Square obviously has a much more active programmatic, but what's the vision?

Yeah, I think that's a great question. So a management plan for Nash Square, which will include maintenance items in addition to programming, historic interpretation, is all something that we'll be looking at. I don't know that we'll have every detail settled as far as exactly what programs we'd be proposing as part of the master plan, but we're having that conversation to make sure that whatever's in the master plan is going to support that future programming. Uh, so we're talking about a lot about what can be done on Hargett street as Hargett street is kind of me re-imagined, uh, uh, both in that mid-block area, along that edge, potentially being able to shut down Hargett Street for special events. And then on a day-to-day basis, really wanting to focus on programming that's gonna invite more everyday activity into Nash Square. We do hope that increased residential density, kind of office use around the square is gonna do a lot to invite more people into the square on a day-to-day basis, kind of, yeah, yeah, again, create more activation. We have heard a lot of sentiment from the community that they do not want another Moore Square. So the character of the programming is going to be very different. But yes, we are looking at as many ways as possible to invite the great kinds of activity that we'd want to see out in a park like this, make sure that it is populated, that it is being used. And yeah, we've got eyes on the streets through that activity. Great.

Last question. I love parks, I don't know what to say here. Clearly, this is, yeah, it is different than Moore Square. This is more of a passive park, a green sanctuary. I'm looking where you have some of the seating. I won't get into it now, but, you know, Stephen knows me. If we talk about, you talked about seating and furnishing. Since this will be a gathering place for people to enjoy the green space, to reflect, to relax, just looking at some of the seating options so it's not so formal, whether there are... you know, arrangements where, you know, some cities have, you know, the checker table with seating around it, accessible to people with disability. It has a variety of seating because the main purpose here is to sit, reflect, and enjoy, and just wanna make sure that the formal nature won't force you into having seats in a row versus more conversational. I did see in one slide you had movable furniture, which I'm sure was an option, but just wanted to take a deeper dive since this will be more of a passive, relaxing type space.

Yeah, I think that's exactly right, and the final version of this plan will have a more formal study on furnishings, on seating options. Right now, I'd say the concept is to promote as much flexibility as possible and as much variety as possible, Right now, you're right, there is one type of bench out at Nash Square, and it's kind of repeated a few different times. There's good reasons for that, right? It's part of the historic aesthetic. At the same time, we understand people wanna go to Nash Square with groups. Sometimes it's one-on-one, sometimes it's by themselves. So this plan is really gonna be about providing that flexibility, that variety. Yeah.

Councilor Jones.

Thank you. It's an awesome presentation. Thank you so much. I want to learn more about the middle school that comes. You said, is it more square? Explorers. Explorers, I'm sorry. Explorers, middle school that comes. What did they want to see? And have we included parts of this that would speak to the fact that they do recess here?

Yes, absolutely. So we talked with some of the teachers out there that are interested in doing, because some outdoor learning, you know, not as a full outdoor classroom space, but some of the Central Plaza reconfiguration really lends itself very well to that for the size groups that they work with. I'll tell you. The kids are pretty excited to be able to run around in the grass on the east side of the square. You know, again, that used to turn into a mud pit after a couple months, but a lot healthier now, so they were excited to kind of see some of that place to, you know, throw a football, throw a frisbee, that sort of thing. And they're out there for lunch, and if you go out there at lunchtime, you know, most weekdays now. You'll kind of see people sitting around that brick wall around the memorial. They're making the best use of the space, right? People do. But I think that, again, with the kind of cafe tables and chairs, the different benches that we're introducing as part of this for, you know, groups of five to ten people to be able to sit together and have lunch is going to fit in perfectly with, yeah, how they want to be using the square.

Yeah, that's great. I just find we have a captive audience right there. How do we teach them about civics? How do we teach them about our history as Raleigh? We definitely have the City of Raleigh Museum, but for those that are going to be there every day, how do we make sure that they're seeing us as the city that they're growing up in? So I think that's really interesting.

Thank you. Okay. I think that wraps that one. We appreciate all the work and presentation. Sammy the squirrel.

Yeah. I'll be seeing you soon.

Nikki Jones next on Glenwood South Update. And while he's coming down, I'll give a shout out to Mayor Julie Hoy, who is here from Salem, Oregon, also the capital of Oregon. And she was in the Bloomberg program with me and is visiting. So welcome to Rob.

Good evening, mayor, members of council. I hope you're doing well. Nikki Jones, city manager's office. Tonight we'll be giving you an update on Glenwood South. So went back and looked at some old presentations. We have been in front of the council probably three to four times, I would say, in the past five years talking about Glenwood South. And I think that's just indicative of the dynamic nature out there. But today, we're going to update you specifically on some changes that we've recently made to address some of the challenges, some proposed improvement based off of some neighborhood discussions that we've had, and some future opportunities as well. And so with me, I've got a number of staff behind me because this is a multidisciplinary challenge that we're facing at Glenwood South that I've really come to appreciate. And so you'll see a number of staff members come in front of you tonight. So specifically, our discussions will include the history of the hospitality district and where it stands today. In addition to that, you'll hear about the noise ordinance. So we promised we'd come back and give you an update on how the noise ordinance is going. So tonight you'll get some of that. We'll talk about zoning. So that's actually a new topic. We've never talked about zoning in front of the council as it relates to Glenwood South. So I think we've got some good information for you on that. We'll talk about public safety. We've made some recent changes. The chief will come up and talk about some future opportunities. Transportation, specifically, there are a number of issues that we've heard. Tonight, we'll have a neighborhood focus as it relates to transportation. But if I could, I'd first like to kind of set the stage of where we're going to go tonight. So Glenwood South is just an incredible part of our downtown. Vibrancy, commerce, and just great neighborhoods around it. It's always been a place where there have been a mixture of uses. It's always been a place where there's been growth. And so I'll go through just a quick evolution of Glenwood South. So beginning as a light industrial and commercial area. At one point in time, Glenwood South even had a streetcar close to it. I just learned that. Troy Burton from Parks, if you didn't know, is a great historian. He shared that piece of information with me. So over time, homes were built near and around the area. At the same time, industrial and commercial uses started to wane. Sometime after that, there were calls for revitalization efforts. Building vacancies were rising, and at the same time, there was a strong push to add commercial uses because the neighborhoods were demanding it. They demanded the services. And so today, Glenwood South is certainly an emerging part of our urban center. And with that, there are a number of benefits and there are a number of challenges. So with all of that, we're gonna talk about some of these things today. So first and foremost, I'll bring up Ms. Whitney to help us understand the history of the hospitality district and also understand where we are today.

Good afternoon, mayor and members of council. Once again, I'm Whitney Schoenfeld with Special Events and Hospitality, and I'm gonna be providing some background on noise and nightlife within Glenwood South and where we are today. We'll start in 2014 when city council at the time established the boundaries you see here on the screen as a designated hospitality district. This allowed for additional provisions for amplified sound and was in response to a growing concentration of nightlife businesses offering amplified entertainment within this area. The Hospitality District was originally established as a one-year pilot, and after some minor boundary adjustments, it was extended and made permanent in 2015 through the Amplified Entertainment Permit Ordinance. As you are all aware, there's been a significant amount of work related to the noise ordinance over the last several years. We'll touch on that history in a moment, but as the ordinances have changed and certain permits have been repealed, the official hospitality district designation ended in 2024. Today also provides an opportunity to talk through some of the district terminology when referring to Glenwood South. Several of these terms here on the screen are used interchangeably, but there are some important distinctions between each of them. First is the hospitality district. As we just mentioned, Glenwood South is no longer officially designated as a hospitality district. However, it is still commonly and casually referred to just because of the concentration of establishments within this area related to nightlife activities. RPD also uses this term operationally, but it's important to note that it refers to a broader downtown area, not just Glenwood South. It also includes Fayetteville Street and the Transit Mall as well. Next is entertainment district. So this is probably the most accurate description of Glenwood South today. Again, just because of the concentration of nightlife and entertainment establishments within this area. It doesn't come with any additional privileges and it doesn't have any set boundaries either. Most importantly, Glenwood South is not a social district. While people may go to Glenwood South to socialize, and it's often thought of as a social cluster, in North Carolina, a social district has a specific meaning, and it's a designated area where alcoholic beverages can be consumed. If you think of our sip and stroll areas, we have sip and stroll downtown, sip and stroll Seaboard Station. Those boundaries of those social districts does not include Glenwood South. So as mentioned, we've been working for several years on the city's updates to its noise ordinance, specifically as it relates to amplified sound at commercial establishments. From 2014 to 2024, we had specific decibel limits and permit requirements, and Glenwood South had a different permit than the remainder of the city. Through council direction, we began work in late 2021 to make updates and do research in order to change how we regulated amplified sound within the city of Raleigh. In 2024, we moved to a reasonable person standard, and that change is what repealed the amplified entertainment permit, the hospitality district entertainment permit, and the hospitality district designation itself. Then in January of this year, we implemented a new decibel objective measurable standards. And that was done after work with our consultant, Brian Block, from Sound City Planning, who helped us develop those recommendations. Currently, we have baseline decibel limits that apply citywide with higher limits allowed in Glenwood South. The higher limits for Glenwood South are within the boundaries that you see here on the screen. So these are just specific to the noise ordinance. And shifting into data that we've been seeing since the amended noise ordinance took effect, looking specifically at Glenwood South, which is an area of approximately 4,000 residents, we've received 120 amplified sound complaints through mid-August of this year. 89 came through 911 and 31 came through Ask Raleigh, which is our new portal that we went live with earlier this year to help manage noise complaints. One important thing to keep in mind is that complaint totals do not equal individual callers. We do have some repeat callers that help account for a large portion of the complaints that we receive. You'll see here that most complaints have not resulted in a violation. The majority of businesses are either in compliance when staff responds or they are brought into voluntary compliance. We've had very limited enforcement action. There have been five citywide citations issued since January and zero of those are for Glenwood South. And when we compare 911 loud noise calls to the same timeframe of last year, we've seen a 22% decrease. Nine of our top 10 callers, we're also hearing from them less as well, but one remaining caller does account for 75% of the 911 loud noise calls we received for Glenwood South. Every complaint is still responded to, but it's important context when you're looking at the overall numbers. So the numbers alone do not tell the whole story. We have been receiving positive feedback from both businesses and residents regarding the amended noise ordinance, specific again to amplified sound at commercial establishments. One of our biggest changes and success stories is RPD hiring four noise ordinance compliance officers, or NOCOs as we call them. They provide dedicated coverage seven days a week, and they respond to amplified sound complaints coming through 911, the non-emergency line, and Ask Raleigh. Their focus is on education and working with businesses to obtain voluntary compliance and then enforcement of the ordinance when necessary. NOCOs also conduct proactive sound monitoring, especially in Glenwood South each weekend before any complaints would come in. And then they've also actually worked with a lot of businesses to encourage businesses to purchase their own sound meters. So businesses are doing that so they know the allowable levels that they can stay within. We have new resolution codes through Ask Raleigh, which has really helped with transparency with residents when submitting complaints. If they provide their contact information, they can track the status of their complaint and see the outcome, whether a business was in compliance, brought into voluntary compliance, or if a warning or a citation was issued. They can see all of that. Overall, we think that the amended noise ordinance is working well and as intended. We have cleaner objective standards so both businesses and residents know what to expect. It ensures predictability and accountability. We have a consistent response when complaints are coming in with the four NOCOs that are now working. And as the data shows, the majority of complaints are resulting in businesses that are either in compliance or coming into voluntary compliance. I'll go back, sorry. But with several months under our belt of the new noise ordinance, we have identified some small areas that may need adjustments. So we'll continue working through those items and bring those back to council at a later date. And with that, I will turn it over to my colleagues in planning and development.

Thanks, Whitney. Good afternoon, Council, Mayor and Council, Pat Young, Planning and Development. Here to talk a little bit about what we're doing currently in zoning and land use in the Glenwood South area and what some items and actions we can take and bring to you as options going forward. I'll start with talking a little bit about the Future Land Use Maps vision for this area. It is a story of success, in fact, success so great that it has caused a lot of the problems, very serious problems that you're confronting, that we're confronting today. As you heard from ACM Jones, the Glenwood South area was still transitioning during the 2000s when the current 2030 comprehensive plan was being developed, late 2000s. As you can see in this map, the comprehensive plan identified three primary land use patterns that were intended to be reinforced and developed in this area. The first is there in Brown on the east side of that map, which is our central business district, right? and I'm quoting the comprehensive plan here, that's intended to be a vibrant mixed-use center, has the most intensive uses in the city, up to 40 stories in height, tapering to the edges. So Glenwood South proper from P Street down to Hillsboro is entirely within the central business district. I think, as you heard from ACM Jones, and I'll show you some More recent development in the in this area as you're well aware of It's met that intention at this area the second there to the west of the central business district is office and residential mixed-use That's in the light blue That's intended to be moderate scale residential in offices with limited retail Right so that it is intended to be a transition for the neighborhoods to the west and That area has a preponderance of residential and low-scale office, right? Attorney's offices, insurance offices, things of that nature. The primary challenge is coming when we look at that area in the very northwest of the screen, the neighborhood mixed use, which is in pink. Neighborhood mixed use is designed for neighborhood supportive retail. So the comprehensive plan, I'm quoting here, calls for there to be a service area of approximately one mile, right? It's intended to be neighborhood scale restaurants, retail, that serve the adjoining or nearby neighborhoods. Based on my conversations with my colleagues from The police department, there are folks attracted to this entertainment and restaurant area from at least two dozen counties in North Carolina on any given Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night. So the intensity and impact, even though the use is aligned with the future land use map, and this has been a neighborhood serving corridor for 75 years, the intensity and impact of the uses has changed because of how attractive this area is and what you're seeing essentially spill over from the development on Glenwood South into this area between Glenwood and St. Mary's on the north and south side of Peace Street. So the 2030 plan also calls for Lumen South to be a mobility hub and to align with the planned northern BRT route and to have a diverse mix of retail and restaurant uses. And again, this vision has come to life since 2009 adoption of this plan. And what you're seeing here is some of the recent successes. Really, since that 2009 plan, you've seen a significant change and an increase in scale of development in this area. So when looking at our zoning regulations, we think from a land use perspective, it largely aligns with a key challenge area being the intensity and impact of uses in the neighborhood mixed use area. As you all are well aware, and as shown on the slide here, zoning is a tool that, especially in North Carolina, has got some limitations. My colleagues have talked about some of these areas. We do have tools for those, but those are not normally zoning tools. What zoning really focuses on is what are allowable uses, again, you're well aware of this, and what are the development standards that we have in place for the uses that can include things like hours of operation, separation requirements, parking and access. So there are a handful of tools that are available, which we would recommend to you, and we will bring you information over the coming months, working with our attorney's office, that look at separation, use authorization, operational standards that could be applied, particularly with a focus in the neighborhood mixed use area. An important qualifier to that is because of state law, we cannot apply that to existing businesses. So any existing retail or restaurant use has what's called in North Carolina vested rights, which means that they were legally established and can continue to operate in the standards they're operating under today. Any new use or a conversion of use or substantial expansion of use would be subject to new standards if we brought you those and you all adopted those. So it's important for the community to know, and we've talked, we've had several meetings with the neighborhood, that any new standards will be applicable to new development that occurred. So we do have a zoning enforcement team within planning and development. We are complaint based. We want to make sure that there's not either the impression or the reality of selective enforcement. So we only investigate when a complaint is lodged. But when a complaint is lodged within 48 hours, usually sooner, we'll go out and investigate. We'll determine whether a violation exists. We'll issue a notice of violation. The intention of notice of violation is to achieve compliance. rather than punitive purposes, but we will issue civil citations if there's not compliance within usually 30 days. Sometimes it could be less, depending on the nature of the violation. And we will issue civil citations if there's ongoing non-compliance. We have six active cases in this area. We've worked with the neighbors actively and those are all currently in progress and strongly encourage neighbors both in this area and anywhere in the community to let us know if they it's beneficial to have community members be our eyes and ears because we do have limited staff in this space and we don't typically work nights and weekends when a lot of these violations occurs. Also talk briefly about food trucks. Food trucks are allowed on private property. There are limitations that are shown on the screen. I won't read this slide to you. We also allow food trucks in the public right of way, but only in designated areas, five designated areas. Outside of those areas, it is not permissible to operate a food truck in the right-of-way. Our colleagues in Transportation and PD enforce on those right-of-way violations, but Planning and Development are responsible for the ones that are on private property. We have had some complaints in this area about unpermitted food trucks or food trucks that are operating too close to the entrance of an existing business. So we're in active enforcement on a couple of those in this immediate area. And then push carts, very similar, right? In the public right-of-way, there's time limitations. PD is enforcing on those. What often happens is they'll move to private property outside of these hours because, again, we have not typically had enforcement. So my commitment to council and to the community here is to work with our colleagues. You're going to hear from my colleague Charles Williams with the fire department. about Net Forces, which is something I think most of you are familiar with, which is a multi-departmental enforcement team. We are committed to having our folks out there nights and weekends with Net Forces to step up enforcement on food trucks and push carts. So with that, certainly be available at the end for any questions. I'll turn it over to Assistant Chief Charles Williams to talk a little bit about net forces and public safety.

Yeah, I mean, do we want to do questions now? Or I know we've covered a lot of territory with Whitney and others. Just hold it to the end, or does anybody want to? Okay, I mean, this is just, I would go ahead and just do a few right now on the planning if you want. Do you want to go ahead and ask questions?

Mine's very quick. I was surprised about the zoning enforcement in Glenwood. You have to be pretty savvy to know that someone's in violation of zoning. Without disclosing too much, can you talk about the nature of the call? I was surprised to see that. So can you kind of, without, I don't know if they're active and you can't share that much, but just what are those types of complaints for zoning enforcement?

Sure. So there's some real active and knowledgeable and involved neighbors in this area, as you all are well aware. And they have several that have really good knowledge of the UDO. So they've really helped us a lot by providing pictures and documentation of some illegal signage, food trucks operating outside of the food truck requirements, some what appear to be unpermitted requirements. Again, we're investigating all of these. We'll have a very detailed report for the neighbors and, of course, available to council in the coming days and weeks.

Councilor Ford. Can you go back to the slide with the push carts and the food trucks? Sure. So that's the push carts. They stop at 1.15 in the morning.

That's right.

And then the food trucks can go to 3 and then to 10. Why is there not a consistent time? Why do they all stop at 1.15?

That's a great question. I think the best answer I can give you is that the private property food trucks, the public right-of-way food trucks, and the push carts were done at three separate times by three separate councils. So we could work to align those.

We probably need to because I know – The previous senior chief will do his thing in a minute, but one of the reasons why we try to put limitations on the time is to get people out of the area based on folks congregating after the bars close. So I don't think you should have 3 o'clock as an ending time for one category. Any other categories, stop at 10 or 1.15. I think everything should be 1.15 so that RPD, you know, that's a tool that they can use to get people out of the area. So whatever we need to do, if you need a motion or whatever it is that you need from us, I would imagine that – I should ask my colleagues, but – But we should have some consistency, and it should really be everything stops at 115. So whatever has to happen to make that happen.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember. As I mentioned, we'll be bringing back some opportunities for either through an overlay or through a UDO text amendment, and we're working through the Attorney's Office with the best tools for that. Some changes to the zoning. We'll also bring some changes that will effectuate what you suggested for you all's consideration.

Council Branch wants you to know this is a work session, so we cannot make motions. We appreciate that. Any questions down here?

Well, I have a question that's not for you, since we're doing questions. I actually want to go back to Whitney. It goes back to, I want to make sure I heard this correctly. You said one person was making 75% of the 911 calls.

The 911 loud noise calls specific to Glenwood South, yes.

Okay, in this report you had 89 911 calls. Do you know how many of those were specific to Glenwood South?

All of those 89 are.

Okay, so that means 66 calls were made by one person.

I would want to go back and look specifically to make sure.

I did a quick math. Yeah. It's about 66. Yeah, right. 22 is 25%. So 66 calls were made by one person. Okay. That's helpful for me in just understanding the impact because I notice I receive fewer emails and calls than the previous year. But that's telling, I think, as well.

Yeah, we're happy to hear that you all are hearing less from folks too. Let's try and keep it that way. Yep. Councillor Jones.

One question, the entertainment district, I know that you had the definition there. Is that an official thing or that's just something people call the entertainment district?

Yeah, it's not official, no official designation.

The no boundaries thing got me confused. I was like, what? I don't understand. So I just wanted to clarify that. And then secondly, on the food trucks, I remember when we were talking about the push carts and the food trucks, there was some questioning about... if we have people get out at two o'clock in the morning and they need something to eat before they go and drive that was partly so i don't i don't remember if that was the reason why we did it that way or if we just didn't acknowledge it but i do want to mention make sure that we note that if there's drinking happening until 2am i think there was some sort of trying to make sure that they're absorbing all that alcohol before they get into a car

Yeah, Councilmember, that was in the discussions and deliberations that led to that time. But when we bring back the changes that Councilmember Fort alluded to, we'll talk about all the context pros and cons.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

And if I don't mind adding, years ago when DROA was trying to brand downtown, they gave... If you remember from the colors, one was entertainment, government. So they tried to give parts of downtown personality and a district. And so if you recall, they still use those colors, but Glenwood South was identified as the entertainment district for downtown. And I guess that remained in some way or another. I'm sorry.

Councillor Putnam. Hi. Hi. So I just want to make sure I'm understanding. You're saying you're going to bring us back options for one thing that could happen is a special use permit. So if you were going to operate a nightlife establishment, you might, pending council discussion, need to go get a special use permit that would have... apply like mitigating standards for the person who would have to make their case by the board of adjustment and that and these like distance requirements that could could be contemplated as businesses turned over then over time there would be a less there would be lessened concentration of bars and nightclubs is that right

That's right. I think it would be a toolbox that would include probably all six options you see on the screen there and the white bullet points. And then you all would have some discretion about where to apply those and how to apply those, right? If we do it through a UDO text amendment, which is a little operationally easier, right? You're not directly rezoning property, but it would apply citywide. So there would have to be a discussion about impacts in that regard. If we did through an overlay, it would only be in a specific area. But you're right, the impacts would take many years to see fruit because how the length of tenure it takes for those businesses to change over to new uses. Great.

Just one. Go ahead. I have one for Whitney, too, but if...

well you're up here just this idea of the districts and you mentioned that there's these vestigial that we had these different and now we have the fourth Ward entertainment district see miss Rainey out there when does council make those decisions when is it some of them seem to be staff driven I just wanted to get some clarity on how we think about districts in our city

Yes, so the district designations have not been initiated by planning and development, so I would need to try to phone a friend about maybe how I'm looking at Nikki and Whitney to maybe speak to that. Unless there's not typically, in my experience, zoning standards that go with these districts, so they're really more for promotion of an area or identification.

Pat's absolutely correct, and I would say there's probably not a process around it. The hospitality district, was delineated by y'all. Not this particular council, but the city council. So if you wish to put a process around how we create districts, that can be done.

I think some of it was when DRA did their downtown plan, I think a lot of that was around what already exists. They were like, there's a cluster of this here, so I guess that's the government district.

There's a cluster of this existing here, so that's the... Yeah, I mean, I start seeing people, is it the warehouse district or now is it the west end? Everybody's using these different terms, coming up with it. I'm not sure if, like I said, I would like to clarify at some point how we get into naming districts and...

Signage particularly when it gets into signage Yeah, I can't say I've researched this with a hundred percent certainty But my guess would be the districts have come to the council and been established by the council when a different regulatory Framework was being set within the district so something like one this being about creating the hospitality district that came with its own permitting regime and so it would have gone to the council table for that and the delineation of where those regulations applied and where they didn't and

Okay.

Thank you.

All right. And then Councillor Patton. Yeah, I had one for you, Whitney. I appreciated you going over these different names we use and which ones are colloquial and which ones are regulatory. The thing with the shunt trip breaker where you have to be able to turn on the lights and turn off the music, is that... Does that exist anywhere right now? It does not currently.

That was a part of the nightlife permit.

But there's not an equivalent version of that?

There's not currently now.

Okay. Got it. Okay.

Yep, yeah, just wanted to add you know when I think about Glenwood South for me It's really a vibrant place to live to work and to play and it's so much more than an entertainment district And I do think we as a council need to rebrand this area because there are thousands of people that live here That live all around nearby and walking distance. We have so many different different kinds of businesses. It's not just bars. We have flower shops and doggy daycare and bakeries and we also have vape shops, dispensaries, late night hookah in bars that I wish didn't exist. But if we can shift the image and really think about what it is we want and to make that very clear, both from council, from the city staff point of view, and then to see that in our comprehensive plan, at least to me, that means we put a vision forth of what it is we want. And that is one way I want to see us move forward.

I agree with that wholeheartedly, and I also want to add the community as part of that, because as you see, we've been dealing with this for 10 years, and it started before I was on council. So the residents are still there, so we need to make sure that they're a part of whatever branding we decide to do as well.

Okay, I'll turn it back over to, is it Nikki Jones, or who else needs to?

Yeah, it's Assistant Chief Charles Williams.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council, Charles Williams, System Chief, Raleigh Fire Department. I'm here to speak about the acronym of NETFORCES, first of all. It stands for the Nightlife Entertainment Task Force, which was established back in 2003. It consists of a collaborative group of departments. I have a loud voice. Someone pull this back. A collaborative group of departments that conduct life safety inspections and also check for ABC licenses for compliance. We conduct periodic inspections citywide in a rotation throughout the city. Okay. Thank you. Throughout the city. in three net force districts that we have RPD and the fire department have formed together throughout the city of Raleigh collaboratively. Also, we have previously conducted this inspection on Glenwood South of ten locations randomly that consisted of several violations that I will turn to here next. They consisted of occupancy load postings needed, electrical violations, means of egress destructed by stock storage, change of occupancy, and exercise needed and maintained. Of these violations, we have conducted a reinspection as of August of this year, and all of them have been corrected as of such. Of the occupancy of the three, there was three businesses that need a change of occupancy. They have to be vetted through building safety division, which will require plans and proper permits. Any questions?

Questions for the? Nope. Thank you. Thank you.

Oh, sorry about that. I'll turn it over to the police chief.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council, Chief Boyce, Raleigh PD. Talking about Glenwood South, I would tell you this is the happening area, not only here in Wake County, but just in this area of the state. A lot of our interactions, especially when we make arrests, most of these individuals are from outside of Raleigh. So this area has grown. The image, we just talked about what this image is, what it looks like to other people. It looks like it's a club spot for folks pretty much from here to eastern part of the state, to come into Raleigh, have a good time, and unfortunately sometimes get in trouble and get arrested by RPD, and they don't even live here, so that continues to be a challenge for us here at RPD. What I will say when it comes to safety in Glenwood South is not only RPD, my partners from other city departments, from planning, special events, Raleigh Fire, transportation, more specifically parking, all come together to continuously look at what can we do to improve safety in this area. As you see here on the slide here, what have we done and what were the outcomes? One thing that we looked at is our traffic pattern changes. I'll talk about that here shortly. The police presence. We get a lot of help from other outside law enforcement agencies. I'll talk about parking deck and parking lot safety and magnetometers for bars and clubs. I'll briefly mention that at the end of my presentation. So when you look at traffic pattern changes, so in 2023, we first looked at a traffic detour plan that took a lot of traffic off Glenwood South, off Glenwood Avenue. If you remember back then from Hillsboro Street to P Street, it was an opportunity for vehicles to, as we say, just cruise to strip. That was very challenging for us on Fridays and Saturday nights, especially when we needed to get Raleigh Fire or Wake County EMS to a location. We had to deal with traffic and that slowed up response times. So we definitely wanted to address that. So in 2023, but we created the traffic diversion plan. It was more of a serpentine traffic pattern that if you're coming from either Hillsboro Street side of Glenwood or the P Street, you could only go one block before you diverted off to a side street to go up one block to get back on Glenwood South or Glenwood Avenue. That was very effective. But we saw that we needed to make some changes with that because not only did it slow up regular traffic, it also slowed up our response for public safety. So we wanted to look at what can we do to increase response times for public safety. Well currently, now we only have a one way Diversion. So all traffic coming northbound on Glenwood Avenue can flow going from Hillsborough Street to Peace Street. The southbound traffic from Peace to Glenwood, now that is shut off. You can't go south on Glenwood South. What that has created is an opportunity for our public safety partners with Raleigh Fire and EMS. They have more room and we can quickly manage the crowd and get them out of the way if we needed to get those emergency services to a location along Glenwood South. That's been very effective and has proven to be very responsive to some of the 911 calls that we have in this area. We also been able to manage this area better with some of the changes, and I want to give credit to our folks in transportation and parking. I see Caitlin out in the audience here. So what have we done to manage this area better? One, we have geo-fenced. Not only our e-bikes and our scooters, but we also have geo-fenced our Lyft and our Uber's ride share programs. What we saw over the years is that a lot of folks at the end of the night, they're calling for an Uber, they're calling for a Lyft, Those vehicles would just stack up on Glenwood Avenue, and it would create a bottleneck in getting traffic out of the area at the end of the night. Well now, since we have geo-fenced this area where you cannot catch an Uber or Lyft on actual Glenwood Avenue, it has helped create an opportunity for folks to come out of these clubs and bars, walk to a safe area, get their ride share, and get out of the area very quickly, but also very safely. In addition to the rod share, our e-bikes and our scooters. We learned this from July 4th, where we were trying to handle multiple scenes, and we had scooters going right through our crime scene. So we worked with the city, other city departments, to geofence our e-bikes and our e-scooters, so they are also not on Glenwood South during the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., Once again, it helps with all the safety with individuals that take that mode of transportation. Also, safer egress. I think Councilmember Jones talked about how at the end of the night we have a large number of folks who have consumed alcohol. We know our sidewalks are only but so wide. We want to make sure that we create more space so they can quickly and safely leave those establishments. So by doing this traffic pattern where we're closing all southbound traffic from P Street all the way down to Lane Street, Now they can walk out of those clubs and bars, be a little bit safer getting to their ride home. So we're very thankful for that. And the overall goal here is just safer pedestrian mobility. We understand just from a SEPTA perspective that these sidewalks are what they are. So we got to create opportunities where vehicles and pedestrian can coexist in the same area and everyone gets home safely. So police presence, this is the first level of force is making sure that we have the adequate amount of police presence in any situation. So what we do here, I would like to say thankful to our partners in Alcohol Law Enforcement, Wake County ABC, in addition to North Carolina State University Police Department that helps help us keep this area safe. A lot of what you see are covert, excuse me, overt positions, but we do have some plainclothes covert assignments in this area to help us keep this area safe. We also have increased our foot patrols, not only on Glenwood South, but on the side streets. This was also something that we looked at as a result of the July 4th and July 5th incidents were was that we increase our presence on, say, the Boylan Street corridor as well as the West Street corridor. And we do that by increasing our foot patrols in those areas. Also with our police vehicles, we learned that we can take our vehicles off Glenwood Avenue or once we block it off with traffic cones, we can position our vehicles on those outside corridor streets west and Boylan to increase our visibility, to help increase that perception of safety, that sense of safety in this area. So we use our vehicles quite often. We put our cruiser lights on. That is the mode where they don't go like a flashing. They just stay on a steady blue. That visibility has helped increase the safety in the area. Also, we're very fortunate to have two utility terrain vehicles that our hospitality officers use on Fridays and Saturday nights. These are the vehicles where our officers can get into these parking decks a lot quicker. They can go in areas that a traditional patrol car cannot. They also respond to 911 calls a lot quicker, given that they're in a smaller vehicle. So we're very thankful to have two of those vehicles specifically assigned to the hospitality area. This is in addition to, we have about 10 of them department-wide, but two stay on Glenwood South or the hospitality area every Friday and Saturday night. Next is our mounting unit. We're very fortunate to have a mounting unit here at RPD. We have some very large horses, so we have now incorporated our mounting unit on Fridays and Saturday nights to be present. They haven't interacted with the crowd, but they are in the areas more on, once again, those corridors, the West Street corridor, the Boylan Street corridor, just for visibility. Obviously, the officers that ride those horses, they sit up high. They can see at a higher level things that go on, and they can quickly call in to the incident commander that's on scene that, hey, there's a crowd forming over here. You may want to send some officers. So we're very fortunate to have those mounting units in the area. We also are gonna be using a mounting unit to spread, go beyond Glenwood South a little bit further, go into the Brooklyn Heights area just for some visibility as well as some presence in that part of the neighborhood. That's one of the things that came out of the conversation with meeting with those residents there is increasing our visibility beyond, say, the P Street area and going into the Brooklyn Heights area. And we're gonna use our mounting unit as a part of that strategy to increase our presence there. Next, camera trailers. We have two new camera trailers, and I will tell you, they are not flock cameras. These are live feed cameras. They are not recording anything. They are actually feeding footage back to our real-time crime center in our detective division. Personnel within our real-time crime center, they are now able to see, they're the force multiplier. They're able to see areas along Glenwood South where officers are not present. They're able to look, use those cameras. Once again, if they see something occurring or about to occur, they can call the incident commander and get officers to respond to those areas. We not only use these cameras in the Glenwood South area, we use them obviously downtown in the Central Business District, and we've received a very positive response from business owners and residents in this area. I just saw one of our local news agencies reported on the camera that we have right at the Wilmington Street Tunnel. That camera has been very useful in providing a sense of security right there in our Wilmington Street area. So we use those on Fridays and Saturday nights as well for Glenwood Avenue. So very thankful for that piece of equipment. Next, private parking lots and our deck safety. This is where we see most of our activity at on Fridays and Saturday night when individuals come into the Glenwood South area. Our officers are having multiple, multiple interactions with folks in our parking deck. Since we've been so successful, we just changed our tactics in that we've mandated that every 30 minutes that we're going to have patrols in those decks. The incident commander on Friday and Saturday nights makes sure that the officers are going from the bottom level all the way up to the top level, the stairwell, just for that sense of safety and that presence in our parking decks. That has been very, very effective. We have recovered multiple illegally possessed firearms. We have recovered a significant amount of drugs. And we have located a large amount, a huge amount of folks who have active warrants for their arrests. So anytime that we can have those interactions before people leave that parking deck or leave their vehicle and not get into the club with the weapon or not cause a problem out on Glenwood, that is a win. So we're going to continue with those every 30 minute patrols and our parking decks because we see the benefit of being proactive and helping with the overall safety in this area. So I want to finish with magnetometers. This is something my predecessor, previous chief, mentioned some years ago about one of the tools, a piece of equipment that we are encouraging our bars and club owners to maybe make an investment in in keeping their establishment safe. We work very well with the security down there. They work very well with RPD providing us information about individuals who might have a gun. And you can see here we've had three occurrences on Glenwood South where private security alerted officers about individuals who were illegally possessing firearms. Thank goodness we were able to intervene and get that individual in custody and remove those guns and prevent those guns from entering into any bar or club. I did highlight in the second bullet point here the incident that occurred on Fayetteville Street. That incident happened inside the club, and I just asked myself, I wonder if that establishment had magnetometers, could that have been prevented? So I offer that for all the bar and club owners that are listening or that are here in the audience. Just take a look at that piece of equipment and see if that's worth the investment, which we think it is, but see if it's worth the investment to keep your establishment safe. I will say this. We're going to continue. Every Friday and Saturday, we have officers on Glenwood South. We come back on Monday. We roundtable, hey, what did we have to deal with this past weekend? What's working? What are we doing to increase safety in this area? And it's a constant, evolving conversation that we have. But I look at where I think Councilmember Branch said 10 years ago, this area started to become very vibrant. To look at where it's at now, it requires us every single day, every single week, looking at what we do at RPD and ensuring that we are doing all we can to keep this area safe. So very thankful for our partners, very thankful for some of the changes you guys have made, especially the noise compliance officers that have been a game changer. I have also received less emails and complaints about noise. So it is helping us keep our area vibrant. But I also want to say we're having those conversations with our community on a regular basis. The bar and club owners, as well as the community that sort of borders this area or live in that area, it's important that we continue those conversations to work collaboratively to continue to keep this area safe and vibrant. So that's all I have now and I will turn it over to, is this you Pat? Oh, Mr. Ritchie.

Thank you, Chief. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Kenneth Ritchie with Transportation. Before I jump into the transportation-specific items, I think building off of the collaboration and partnership that the Chief just spoke about, looking at our Municipal Service District. And that really is a partnership between the city and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, obviously with the Glenwood South being part of that overall district. So I'm going to take a couple minutes just to highlight the roles and responsibilities that really govern the partnership. More detail certainly will be discussed during the retreat as we look at downtown as a whole, but we thought it would be good to kind of provide that context with that. So as we look at those roles and responsibilities with DRA, they have their safety ambassador program that really is a supplement to the work that RPD does. It really helps us within our parking deck and with our parking assets to really kind of promote the safety and the experience for all that come to downtown Raleigh. Additionally, they're tasked with economic development, visitor marketing communication, stakeholder engagement, and conflict resolution, bringing in the city and other parties when we have situations that do start to get elevated. When we look at the services the city provides, really looking at how we protect the cleanliness of our downtown, biohazard remediation, street sweeping, a lot of those efforts that we have a team within transportation, our team downtown, that daily is passing through those zones and really looking at making sure that we are keeping up that appearance to continue to make downtown a place that people want to come and really enhance the vitality of that downtown. Certainly we will get into more detail on this at the retreat. Now, as we get into the transportation-specific items, we're going to really highlight three areas. So parking in and around Glenwood South, certainly as we've talked about, the contextual, the historic residential that we've got that really borders the area, and then the parking within Glenwood South area itself. Micromobility, so our scooters, our e-bikes as the chief reference, and then mobility safety, a lot of those efforts that we're looking at to really enhance pedestrian safety and multimodal safety in the area. As we start kind of along the perimeter, it's important to note that we have four residential zones that are really within proximity of Glenwood South. The blue highlighted there is our Zone B. The brown is our Zone K. Those are really the Forest Park neighborhood. To the north, the red zone is Zone F. The orange is Zone H. That is our Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood, areas we work very heavily with. Certainly to note that in 2023, those were the areas where there were concerns being raised of spillover from Glenwood South. And by action of the council, we did raise those parking fines. So safety and compliance issues with the residential permit program to $200 a piece. A data point with that is this year we have seen about 2,600 citations, either safety or residential. Only 6.5% of those are repeat violations. So certainly speaks to it's working. I think it also speaks to the regional nature and the destination this is that we have people that are continuing to come in, park in those areas, get it, and then obviously they figure out how to mitigate that the next time they come in. So when we look at the Glenwood South area in general, I think it's, to highlight some metrics, we have 115 metered spaces within the Glenwood South District, 17 meters. Consistent with the downtown city minus Hillsborough Street, that's 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. is when those are metered. In the piece to lane section, and this is aligned with that last bullet that speaks to the no parking tow-away zone on Friday and Saturday nights that you just approved on August 18th, 74 of those spaces are no longer available for parking. during that time so certainly it helps to enhance the safety much like we want to do but certainly okay where does that demand then go and so certainly I think we've seen and had those conversations with the community about how we can try and mitigate those concerns and balance that safety that we need not only on Glenwood South but certainly throughout the community. Also in the area five mixed-use loading zones, four curbside pickup zones and three bus zones really looking at how we make sure that people have access food and that we're helping to supplement that experience. So now we'll kind of turn our attention to micromobility. And when we speak to micromobility, we're talking about our scooters and our bikes. As the chief referenced, we have implemented weekend geofencing within the Glenwood South District. So there is a fence around the area that when scooters or bikes that are operated by Lime and Spin, who are the two vendors who are licensed to operate in the city, when they hit that zone, the units will power down. So they cannot ride through that area during that 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. window. Certainly we have seen some benefits to that. Part of a lot of the work that you've seen with some of our corral work that I'll speak to here in just a minute has been really trying to make sure that we've got places for these units to go so they don't just end up abandoned in the middle of the sidewalks or in the middle of the street on Glenwood South. With the implementation of the original 13 corrals that were really the pilot, We've seen roughly 72% compliance rate with parking of those units in those. And that success has really led to us really expanding what that effort's going to look like throughout downtown. And we are looking at 70 new locations for micromobility corrals throughout our downtown. to really help to mitigate some of the challenges that the scooters and bikes can have when they are not properly parked. We are actually working with the vendors. They've got technology they can use that can help to incentivize and really promote parking in those corrals that we think really is going to be a change for downtown that is going to be beneficial long term as we continue to move forward. And then getting into mobility safety. And certainly this is an area of partnership, ongoing conversations that stem from this, from the Glenwood South Neighborhood Collaborative and certainly the areas around it. The Glenwood South Safety Pilot, and this was bred out of council direction from two or three years ago, as we look at how do we enhance, knowing that we've got this growth in pedestrian activity in downtown, in this area, how do we enhance that safety? What can we do to really start to promote that safety, enhance that? As we kick that off, some of the engagement we got and some of those top values that we saw, increased visibility when crossing streets, reducing vehicle speeds. And as we saw, 92% of our participants talked about walking as the most common form of transportation in the Glenwood South District. So a lot of our focus has been, through the pilot, how do we target really some low-cost alternatives to really start to enhance that pedestrian safety? And certainly the team has looked at and has started building on those. With phase one has been some painted curb extensions. There's three intersections that we're looking at. Johnson, North, and Tucker are the three. Johnson and North are completed. Tucker will be upcoming. Certainly there's been some coordination with some development in the area that has delayed that one a little bit, but we are looking at that one being done before the end of the year. A future phase, as we put down some of these tactical, we'll look at potential raised crosswalks. That is a discussion that we certainly want to continue to look at. We're working through what that may look like in the future. Some upcoming projects to highlight, certainly the Tucker Street painted curb extensions that really allow pedestrians to step out a little bit further and gain that visibility with their potential vehicular conflicts. from Johnson Street to North Street, a new term. Everybody knows traffic calming. Now, turn calming. So we've seen this implemented in other cities, and it's exemplified in this example from New York here. But what it does is it really incentivizes cars to take that turn slower and more intentionally versus that cut. So it really does allow pedestrians to have better visibility. With the model, it allows pedestrians It allows our emergency services to be able to get over them without undue impact. And what we really hope is that this is gonna continue to help to change some of those behaviors that really will promote pedestrian safety in downtown. And then the last one to highlight, the only unsignalized intersection on this section of Glenwood South is at Lane Street. That signal has been awarded as part of a three signal package. We're anticipating that to be constructed and operational hopefully by the end of 2027 at the latest. So certainly lots of enhancements coming to continue to promote safety in the Glenwood South area. And then, certainly this was referenced, ongoing conversations with the community, and certainly I know some of the council members have been engaged with the Glenwood Brooklyn residents and some of the concerns they've had. We had about 10 staff from transportation that met out in the field with them on August 27th to hear the concerns, to walk the area, to see those. We are actively evaluating based off the data that we received from them. working with them, and certainly anticipate that there will be some things that we can look at to try and mitigate some vehicular speeds, cut through traffic, and the parking enforcement, which as I referenced earlier, I think really is becoming a product of new people coming in, not paying attention, not as much repeat offenders from that standpoint with our parking enforcement. So with that, I will pass it back over to Assistant City Manager Nicky Jones. Thank you, sir.

So first and foremost, thank you for hanging with us. Those were a lot of slides. Really appreciate the attentiveness here. But I think what we're trying to show today is how complex this issue is in a really small geography, how well our team works together, like there are no silos. But we also wanted to show you that we're thinking ahead as well. So text amendment. Pedestrian safety so we you heard about some of the increased patrols in the neighborhoods and the parking decks That's something that we want to maintain the magnetometer program is voluntary, of course, but I think what we can commit to is the engagement with the bar owners around that topic and And then, of course, our net forces. So our net forces has been something that's been kind of sporadic. What we are committing to is something on a higher frequency or a higher cadence. So we want to ensure life safety is occurring within this boundary. With that, I'll take any questions.

Okay. Thank you for all of the presenters and all the work that went into this, Councilor Branch.

Yeah, I just, of those recommendations and of items in which you all mentioned we're bringing back, what's the time frame?

The text amendment, I'm going to defer to Director Young. The pedestrian safety improvements you heard were coming soon. Again, I'll defer to Mr. Ritchie here. Increased patrols are happening now, so we have to sustain that. And the magnetometer program, we will engage immediately on that. And as far as net forces, we are working over the next couple of weeks to determine what the cadence and frequency is, but you can expect that in the next two months at least.

I think in terms of the tax amendment and zoning overlay, about six to nine months. There are a number of issues that we want to make sure that we address fully and are prepared to talk to the community about before we bring it back to you for action.

Councillor Silver.

Just one question. I know, Mr. Ritchie, you talked about the DRA issue. We see their presence clearly around the transit hub, at least the Go Raleigh transit hub and Fayetteville Street. Do they have a visible presence in the entire BID area? Because I'm not sure. I mean, I don't go to Glenwood South that often, but do they have a presence there as well?

So I think they have a larger presence in that area during the week. I think during the weekends they do have a limited presence, but certainly with the increased presence from RPD. I think they're there to help supplement, provide some of that customer service, but you don't see quite as much from them.

Well, we always hear from DRA. DRA representative here.

And you're talking about the ambassadors, right?

Yes. Hey, Will Gaskins from Downtown Raleigh Alliance. Short answer is yes. There is an ambassador presence in Glenwood South throughout the week and into the weekend.

Is that the ambassador program?

Yes. So our ambassador program has three different layers to it. There's our social services personnel, our outreach ambassadors. There's the kind of royal blue ambassadors that you see throughout downtown. And then more recently, you've seen our kind of enhanced security presence ambassadors as well. that presence is located directly in the vicinity of the transit center. So that might be some of the delta there.

Yeah, I have a couple questions I can start with parking. I think this site It's a really striking statistic that you give the 2600 citations only 6% are repeat occurrences I'm curious if you know anecdotally Like are are you getting any feedback through people's appeals of their citations at my signal like What is happening or like what opportunities do we have? Clearly it's like people are coming here one time, they're parking in a wrong spot. So we have a very small window to make them aware of what they should or shouldn't do. Like kind of what are our opportunities there?

So certainly we use our ambassadors as more than just enforcement. A lot of times they're out there on the street trying to educate. So certainly we take those opportunities to try and educate on it as well. That's really, I think, the big thing that we really try and do is to make sure that we're not just out there doing force. We're really trying to use that as an opportunity to educate, which I think also plays into the fact that you've got that really minuscule number of repeat offenders that we're seeing.

And are they strategically stationed in these areas at the times when people would be arriving to park it? I don't know what time people go out. 10 is when I did it when I was young. Standing there being like, you sure you want to park here?

So I wouldn't say they're staged. I mean, we don't have enough ambassadors to really stage each zone, but certainly they are making passes throughout the evening and certainly throughout the weekends to try and help. And certainly there's a big focus. I went out with them within the residential zones to really try and help enhance that and make sure that people understand how the residential primary areas work. Okay.

Got it. And then another question I have is around the magnetometers. I hear on this slide we're calling it a magnetometer program. On the previous slide where it's referenced, it kind of just says, I sort of got a sense like we would love for bar owners to do this. So what's programmatic about it?

Just from a business perspective, you know, you have that presence in front of your club. You know, you give them the sense that, hey, is this really safe? Is it not safe? So a lot of bar owners look at it as it's not appealing for their business to have that piece of equipment used before entering their location.

I guess the calling it a program implies to me that we are maybe subsidizing the cost of it, or we are strategically ticking through businesses and checking off who's participating and who's not, or what makes it a program?

Oh, OK. I'm sorry. Totally misunderstood your question there. So a volunteer program, are there any type of grant opportunities for club owners or bar owners to participate in some type of program where the cost would be offset to help you know, amplify or increase the usage of that piece of equipment. So just we were talking about briefly, like what would a grant program look like to incentivize bar owners to buy that piece of equipment?

Okay, so you'll bring us back? Yes. Because that would be a grant from the city to the business owner to purchase a piece of equipment.

I wouldn't say from the city. I don't want to misspeak and say that from the city. Sure.

It's certainly in its infancy right now, but that's what we talked about. We need to talk to the attorney's office to make sure that there's some legality around it. But we also want to engage with the bar owners to... better understand what they need. So I think it's in its infancy, but theoretically, there could be some sort of incentive program, theoretically. Can't commit to that right now.

Sure, okay. So just to say, we're gonna see more meat on the bones of that in the coming months. Okay. I would also like to just sort of put a flag on the idea that if we are going to adopt a text change that would apply to future businesses as change occurs, that we may wish to consider magnetometers being a factor in the special use permit or administrative review process. And so I just ask that that be considered pros and cons about that being a requirement rather than a request at into the future. And then last thing, this may be coming at the retreat, but I would like at some point to be presented with information around crime statistics. I mean, I think Glenwood South is where we're talking about it. But I think there's real public safety. There's perceived public safety. And then also comparative, I think, is really important. How are we doing compared to ourselves over time? And how are we doing compared to nightlife districts in pure cities? So that's just information I'd like in the future.

Yep, Mayor Purtun.

Yeah, I just want to reiterate a few things. I mean, well, first, thank you to all of staff that has put a ton of work into this because I know it's been an effort. And I'm just going to say again, I don't want us to be known as the party destination for all of eastern North Carolina. I don't think it helps Raleigh. And so I am thinking about how do we work with businesses and residents to redefine this part of downtown to what it is we want to see, and then also to free up valuable city resources. So our police put in a tremendous heroic effort every week in Glenwood South to And then maybe we don't have resources we want elsewhere. And so we have to think about that. There's an opportunity cost here. As well as the more focus we have on Glenwood South with restrictions on parking and traffic and the police presence means we do have spillover. So it's not just an impact on Glenwood South, but all the surrounding neighborhoods. end up impacted. So I'm just going to say this is a continued focus for me and I hope it will be for this council as well to really just come up with a new vision for how we want to see this district. Council Branch.

Yeah, definitely. I agree with everything that was said. The thing I would add to it is as we create and develop something and we're fixing this issue that we don't just push it somewhere else. So as we're looking at policies and procedures, look at the lens. Yes, Glenwood South, but think about the entire city because there are other parts at other times where we've had different issues and different challenges throughout my lifetime here of partying as an adult. So... Just keep that in mind as we move forward.

Okay, any other final remarks? Okay, with that, then we will thank everybody for attending this work session. We will adjourn until 7 p.m.

Oh.