City Council - Regular Meeting

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Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Welcome everybody to the public comment. Uh, councelor Patton is likely excused

uh for the whole evening and I believe that councelor Fort will be here as will councelor Branch. But we have five so we will start and we have Miss Rainey first on the agenda. Good afternoon. I'm here voicing a big concern that I have. I have been We can't hear. Can you hear me now? Can you hear? Yeah. I think now we can. Yeah.

Then you can hear me. Okay. Okay. Um I have been talking to staff and I had a meeting with the housing and development director a month ago and I asked her about the sign on the corner of Raleigh Boulevard and Newman Avenue. And I asked her why College Park was not added to that sign. And I'm going tell you what she told me. She said, "Well, Octavia, there's been some problems about crime crime in the neighborhood in the past." That was not appropriate for a director to tell Octavia Rainey, not no one who's been fighting since 1972. So, she was talking to the wrong wrong person. And I resent that statement and I kept it to myself for about a month. But that ain't right. That ain't right. and I'm not playing with her. Second, when Larry Javvis was the planning director, he had a list of things that he said he was going to do for College Park. So far, that list has not been taken care of, Michelle. It has not. She claims she don't know anything about it. So, why would y'all hire a new director that the old director didn't pass anything down to? That bothers me. City services should be excellent because you know why? We pay our taxes. We pay our taxes and we pay our taxes for excellent service. What's the problem with her number one changing the sign to put College Park on it? That's branding. That's branding the neighborhood. What's wrong with that? And I brought it to Evan Raleigh's attention as well. What is the problem going on with the city of Raleigh? I'm just shocked. The Minute Park was built in 1969. So when they

moved it to the corner of Fisher Street, I asked Larry, I said, "Uh, you going to put our sign up there saying this was built in 1969?" He said, "Octavia, yes, I am." I told her that. Her response to me was she didn't know anything about it. What is wrong with that picture? See, something is wrong here. when staff tell you to your face, make comments to you that is insulting and to be a director of a department housing and neighborhood service, Janet, I got some serious issues about that bond and we need to talk. We need to talk because if I got a director who can sit in my face and tell me some stuff like that and you talking about a housing bond, oh no, no, no, no, no. That ain't going down. That ain't going down. Another thing I want to talk about, Corey, the issue in Raleigh North need to be dealt with because it's headed it is headed to be a racial issue and y'all need Thank you, Eugene Mrick.

Okay, Kesha Monk.

Good evening, everyone. You know, when I first started participating in public comment, I was honestly impressed. residents showed up with bold signs and creative visuals and powerful presentations that help both you all and the public better understand concerns. And it really mattered because you know visual presentations aren't just props, right? Residents prepare them for you all, but they can also be incredibly helpful to the community as well, both inside this chamber and online. So, a few years back, I videotaped the concerns of an elderly homebound neighbor who physically couldn't come to the chamber himself. And because of that video, his voice was still heard. And then the rules changed because as the media became more present in this room, the city decided that sign sizes needed to be reduced. And around that time, I remember being stopped at security for wielding a dangerous weapon. What was that? a sign made of regular copy paper. Yes, I was denied entry because the edges of the paper were too sharp. And I would show you the encounter caught on video, but I can't because video presentations are banned now. And uh image presentations are no longer allowed in the chamber as well. And while I understand concerns about inappropriate content, presentations were already submitted in advance for review. The city had the ability to approve or deny content individually, which, let's be honest, were super minimal. Instead, the decision was made to restrict everyone. And then came the tiered speaking system during public comment. And I get it. If 150 people show up, you guys would be here for hours. But if the maximum amount of people show up, but only 15, I'm sorry, if 150 people sign up, but only 15 show

up, those 15 residents are still locked into the least amount of time to speak. Outside of this chamber, engagement continues to shrink. The community engagement board disappeared. CAC's returned, yes, but with far less influence than they used to have. Comments are disabled on the city's YouTube page. And when there's a public hearing, if you're lucky enough to run into one of those yard signs while driving down the street, the QR code sometimes will lead you to nowhere. So, here's where I'm concerned. And here's what I begin to ask myself. Are we truly being engaged? Or are we just being tolerated? Because while those roadblocks have weakened the public participation system, development continues to accelerate, reasonzoning cases move quickly, densities expanding rapidly, and communities are left trying to fight for visibility, and fewer and fewer tools are available. So, here's my call to action. Re-evaluate these restrictions. Please restore reasonable visual presentation tools. Strengthen the CAC's with real influence because we're your partner. Thank you.

Thank you. John Sakura.

Good evening. I'm John Squera, executive director of Citizens for Safe and Secure Raleigh, Citizens Group Advocating for Public Safety. I'd like to thank Mayor Cowell, Mayor Prom Harrison, Council Members Fort, Silver Branch, and Melton along with city manager Marshell Adams David for supporting Chief Rico Boyce and the Raleigh Police Department. and for improving police compensation in the 2026 budget. In recent polling, 85% of Raleigh citizens across all demographic groups support increased funding of Raleigh police. So, as we enter the 2027 budget cycle, I'm here to encourage continued investment in public safety. While Raleigh's uh crime statistics have improved in some areas, recent high-profile incidents of violent crime remind us that we cannot take our eye off of public safety. A safe city depends on a fully staffed and supported police department, and RPD still faces significant staffing challenges with roughly 80 uh vacancies among its 798 approved officer positions. Recruitment efforts are making progress, but recruitment alone is not enough if experienced officers continue leaving for surrounding departments at the same pace we add new officers. Without retention, we're simply trying to fill a leaky bucket. The clearest way to improve retention is to ensure officer pay keeps pace with both the cost of living and the compensation offered by neighboring departments competing for the same talent pool. Beyond the obvious, I encourage the council to consider additional retention tools as well, including expanded access to take-home vehicles for officers living outside Raleigh and Wake County. Of the roughly 70 officer resignations over the past year, nearly half cited take-home vehicles at other departments as a key factor in their decision to leave. Financially, this deserves consideration. Uh recruiting, training, and ramping a new officer takes about two years, costing the city nearly $200,000 when salary, benefits,

training, and loss productivity are considered. In comparison, a fleet vehicle that may avoid the need for that expense costs approximately $60,000. There are operational efficiency benefits as well. Uh officers with take-home vehicles can often respond more quickly and remain available for service during times otherwise spent commuting to and from a fleet facility. Beyond RPD, I also encourage the council to consider a contribution to the Wake County District Attorney's Office as requested by incoming DA WY Nickel to help fill vacancies in the roles needed to efficiently prosecute criminals apprehended by RPD and strengthening the broader public safety continuum. I recognize this is a difficult budget environment that requires tough decisions. But even in the midst of those decisions, I urge you to keep public safety resources a priority. Our officers and the citizens of Raleigh deserve it.

Thank you. Okay. Uh Yolanda Smith.

Good evening. My name is Yolanda Smith and I'm here to present 706 Tyler Road in Capitol Heights as a dangerous experimental model of what happens when blanket transit policy ignores neighborhood reality. This 7UN project on a 2 acre residential lot is a test case that proved that our current f frequent transit rules are broken. It towers over neighbors and occupies nearly every square foot of land, bypassing the very conservation standards this city promised to uphold. The most alarming result of this experiment is the threat to public safety. Tyler Road is a narrow residential street with no sidewalks. We are a neighborhood of families pushing strollers and walking dogs in the middle of the road. By allowing seven units with zero on-site parking, you are forcing 12 or more cars into a narrow street. When car parks on both sides, you are creating a choke point that is hostile to pedestrians and potentially catastrophic for emergency access. We cannot prioritize developers square footage over the ability of an emergency truck to reach a home. The planning department claims the transit overlay unlocks this density, but the developer is exploiting a dangerous loophole because our NCOD spec specifically addresses the lot size. They're claiming the infield compatibility setbacks that protect our streetscape no longer apply. This is a bad face interpretation of the

law. The NCOD was meant to add protections, not to strip them away. The city shouldn't be able to turn off our safety rules just to build more units. Right now, there is a total lack of oversight that favors development bottom lines bottom lines over the safety of the people walking on Tyler Street. I'm asking this council to direct staff to reconsider how the TOD is applied. We need a case by case evaluation process for TOD projects in established neighborhoods. Density bonus should be only granted if one reliable high transit high frequency transit is already operational on that specific corridor. Two, the project is legally bound to provide actual warranty affordable housing. And three, a safety audit confirms the street can accommodate emergency vehicles and safe walking. Rally needs a smart growth, but blanket policies that ignore zoning with real.

Thank you, Misa Satari. Miss Satari here? No. Uh, Hannity Ali. Nope. Helen Tart. She is here. Uh, good evening. I um I'm here to support the people on Tyler Street, but um I realize that that building is built, but it's happening all over that neighborhood and I something needs to be done about the transit overlay and the missing middle. It's not working to provide affordable housing and it's not working to um for the neighborhoods because we moved into a stable neighborhood. We I back in '89 invested in um what was it in a sketchy neighborhood and we got together and we did a lot of things to make it a better neighborhood. And it turns out that um that ends up making it hard to afford to live there and hard to um find yourself surrounded by castles as opposed to houses

and find yourself competing for resources with people that make five times what you make. and something you need to do. Take another look at missing middle and cuz um we uh it's not working. And um and one last thing I wanted to say about the comprehensive plan is that we in 99 we had a height limitation of 42 feet for our NCOD and somehow or another after the comprehensive plan came into place that went away. We still have the minimum and a maximum lot sizes. But so I would warn people to be very careful when this new comprehensive plan comes in and they start turning it into the um actual code because things get missed and things get changed and you have to watch very closely. Thank you. Thank you,

Tim Niles. Mayor, members of council, I'm Tim Niles and I'm speaking on behalf of Liverpool Raleigh. We want our city to be affordable for people at all income levels. As you know, right now it isn't. By your staff's count, 51,000 households in Raleigh are costburdened, meaning they spend more than onethird of their income to find housing. And that's just the folks who still live here. It doesn't count those who've been pushed out to somewhere else already. 27,000 Raleigh households spend half or more of their income on housing. You know this, too, of course, and you know the problem is getting worse. The city's efforts to bridge the affordability gap have been swamped by the rise in housing costs and the tearowns of older affordable homes. Two months ago, Livable Raleigh presented a plan to do better. The key elements are put an affordable housing bond issue on the ballot of at least $200 million. In other words, almost as much as the bond issue for parks two years ago. Be more ambitious than the 80 million bond from six years ago. Our proposal was the same same as the one by one wake 200 million or more. Also, we ask that you not put the entire cost of doing better on Raleigh taxpayers. We'll do our share. It's only fair that the development industry be asked to step up, too. Developers reap large profits with each reszoning case you approve. Maybe they build a project, maybe they just flip the land and reap the gain. But either way, every resoning approved is worth millions to them or tens of millions. It's real money and it could and should be shared with those in need. In other words, developers would join with taxpayers to address a housing

crisis that is after all a product of the fact that they build lots of luxury housing but not much else. This is this the industry refuses to do except in a very few cases. And in those few cases, their contribution to affordable housing is not commensurate with the increase in monetary value they are given by you and us. Developers do not include affordable homes or rental units in most of their big resoning cases. They could, they don't. Would doing so cut into their profits? Yes, it would. We understand that. The question we ask is why are taxpayers expected to reach into their pockets for affordable housing regardless of their ability to pay? But developers, why are they not expected to contribute a portion of the profits we gave to them? Thus far, your response has been a $11 million housing bond. It's a disappointing effort. As for de developers, they aren't being asked for anything. Please do better. I send each of you a link to our full affordable housing agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, Donna Bailey.

Good evening. I'm Donna Bailey. I'm also representing Livable Raleigh this evening. I want to start by underscoring what Tim Niles just said. The proposal for $101 million housing bond is very disappointing. Adjusted for inflation, it's less than the $80 million bond from six years ago. We need to have more affordable housing, not less. We are long overdue when it comes to our development industry chipping in their fair share. How many times do we have to hear our council members say, "We just can't make industry do that." It's your job to remind developers that you can and should reject reasoning cases that don't have sufficient public benefit. This is wholly your discretion. This is where you hold your power. Contributions to affordable housing are a crucial public benefit that we need and that developers can offer. I have a suggestion and it won't cost you anything. What I suggest is that you as a council engage with the problem of housing affordability and start figuring out how to do more. What do I mean by engage? Start with a vote. Vote to assign this issue to a council committee. Tell the committee to study what the rest of the world is doing. Meet with the public and the industry and staff and listen and learn and come back to us with new ideas and a new commitment to move forward as a city where we can all work and live together. We keep being told we that can't be done. Let's figure out what can be done. What could we do with a bigger bond? What can developers do in a reasonzoning case to add to our affordable housing stock? Why is missing

middle, which was supposed to help us, giving us more tearowns, more gentrification, but less affordability? How is Portland, Oregon doing this, right? But not us. They're a perfect example. talk about gentrification and what happens to Raleigh if only the wealthy can afford to live here, which is what's happening right now. You have four standing council committees, but they're not allowed to meet unless you're given you've given them an assignment. That's a rule you've all set. So, we have four committees, but not one of them are authorized to discuss affordable housing. My request is that you assign the topic to affordable housing to one of the standing committees or create a new committee. In other words, do something. Raleigh is becoming a city for the wealthy only. Is that what we want? It's what we'll get if we stay on the same slow course, falling farther and farther behind every year. Um, I do want to invite you. Liveable Raleigh is having a community conversation on Thursday, June 3rd at 700 p.m. at Tarbor Road. Come and join us.

Thank you. Charlene Parker. Mayor, council members, appearances are often fatal illusions. They hide dark truth behind polished images. As it is written, even Satan himself was an angel of light. You see the ads, you see the clean trucks, you see the smiles, you see a system that looks strong. But behind the doors of solid waste services, there are years of heartache, years of lies, years of betrayal, manipulation, false accusations, suffering stacked on suffering. Leadership says this is a curing workplace, but they say this job has your back. Ask the workers. They will tell you walking into this job each day feels like walking into death. That is the truth. Now let's talk about ethics. The city speaks on ethics. It promotes ethics. It teaches ethics. But inside this department, ethics are not practiced. Friends and family sit in leadership roles. Power stays in the same hands. Workers who do not fit the narrative are targeted, pushed aside, or retaliated against. This is not ethical. This is controlled access to power. The city talks about diversity. It talks about equity, but workers are not getting a fair shake. Opportunity is not equal. Advancement is not equal. Treatment is not equal. And people see it. There are individuals sitting in in roles for years, not stepping up, not stepping down. Why? Because staying in this space benefits them. They get extra pay for doing nothing. While the same workers who keep the city running are not even told these opportunities exist. While these same workers who are pushed off the clock, hours cut, time taken, understand this. This is not management. This is mismanagement. This is

exploitation. They take from the worker and give to themselves. They drain the very people who hold this city together. And they expect us to smile while they do it. This is not sustainable. This is not just and it will not last. We have raised concerns for years and years and the root of the problem is still standing untouched, unmoved, unchallenged. But let me make something clear. There will come a day when the disguise of the angel of light is removed and what is hidden will be exposed. On that day, our words will not stay in rooms like this. They will reach the public. They will reach every corner of the city. They will carry names, facts, and truth that cannot be ignored, silenced, or rewritten. So, hear this now. This department has become something it should never have been. A system that takes more from its workers than it gives. A system where truth is punished. A system where power protects itself. That is corruption. And corruption does not fix itself. It must be exposed. And while we have a promising new leader at the top, many bad apples rem remain beneath her. And something needs to be done about it. You have a choice. Uncover the truth now while you still control the outcome or face it later when the state gets involved and the truth controls you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have the Lorax.

Good evening, Mayor Cow and City Council. I am the Lorax. Please heed my wood counsel. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongue. And I bring you the voices of thousands among. A forest of signatures will come your way to heal the scarred earth and bring a greener day. This is not about what is. It's about what can become. A vibrant tree canopy to grow 24,000 strong. City of oaks, grow them with care. Give them clean water and feed them fresh air. This is the future we ask you to share. Unless Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. But today is the day you can set things right for trees, for the creatures, and all Raleighites. Thank you. Appreciate the extra effort there. All right, Mama Sanders, you get to follow that.

Take a deep breath. Good evening, y'all. It's another amazing day in paradise. Thank you guys for your service and for being here, for listening. Um, I come with a very different message from the Lorax, but um I mean in line 100%. We need the trees. Those are so important. Um, 24,000 by 2032, right? Um, but my message actually has to do my thoughts actually have to do with the affordable housing bond. And I speak about this as an unhoused mom living in our car. Our car is actually sitting on the side of a road right now because it's it stopped working on Friday. And I actually hate this idea. Um it comes from a lot of people with good hearts. I realize that. But it doesn't meet the need. And having just spent last week receiving text messages from a person who had to leave their apartment because they couldn't find h they couldn't find a job to continue the lifestyle they had lived. would went through um 16 months of being unhoused, staying at the Healing Transitions for Women facility just as a shelter, and now moving into affordable housing. um where she feels unsafe. Brand newborn crossings, but she's dealing with some mental illness, very serious mental illness that probably um was disguised before she became unhoused, but became very evident because of all the trauma she endured in the facility because I heard about all that too. And so affordable housing concentrates poverty. And if we want to talk numbers, let's talk numbers for just a moment. If these churches and these citizens are so concerned, let's talk numbers. If you take and pay for a family to live

in an apartment that costs $2,000 a month, which is high for Raleigh, it will cost $24,000 in one year. For $2.4 $4 million you can house a hundred families 2.4 before you would hit function functional zero is what it's called for families with children. Now, we're talking about Miss Octavia talked about the the challenges our youth had. EAC CAC meeting just talked. You know, when we don't focus our efforts on our children, they look for things to make people pay attention to them. All these children that are going through the services or are stuck at the shelter, some of them not even getting in at night at the family shelter because it's so inundated with need. Those are traumas that will eventually come out in their behavior later. And so when you're not actually addressing the problem, the problem isn't affordable housing. The problem is we have plenty of housing. And so just understand that the housing can be afforded. It doesn't necessarily need to be afforded by the people who need it. There are plenty of organ there are plenty of people in this city that could come together and make it possible to thank you Robert Sharer. Good evening. I'm here to uh talk about the proposed bicycle lane improvements. I'll give air air quotes to that to Fairclaw Street. And uh I'm a Raleigh resident. Family moved here in 77. I've lived on Fairclaw Street for 15 years now. So I've had a good opportunity to observe the street and the way that changes in Raleigh have kind of made a lot of changes in Fairclaw Street. Uh it's an extension of Gorman Street, runs between Hillsboro Street and Wade

Avenue. It's a bordered entirely on the west side by Meredith College and entirely on the east side by my neighborhood. Now, we're being offered uh a double bike lane on the west side that is going to be separated by a median. We currently have a a single non-separated bike lane on the west side and one on my side. As part of the plan, the bike lane on my side and the neighborhood side is going to be eliminated. Uh I am concerned about a number of things about this project and also about how uh the the amount of uh communication and the way the communication was uh provided uh leading up to this project. But my main concerns are safety concerns. Uh Raleigh specifies four to six feet of buffer between a sidewalk and the travel lanes. Uh we currently have less than 3 ft. Um, and as a person who takes care of the grass strip up there, I'm often up, uh, very near the traffic, and I can tell you that even with the 4- foot buffer of the bike lane, uh, I feel like I take my life in my hands when I'm standing up there. I cannot imagine what that's going to be like when that buffer goes away. Uh, there are lots of people that use that sidewalk, uh, from the neighborhood in both directions, al bikes as well, uh, as pedestrians. Uh the bike lane is used very much by our neighborhood. Uh it is not going to be adequately replaced by a separated bike lane across the road. Um there's a lot more I could say about it, but there's also traffic issues that that have only increased as the traffic has increased in Raleigh. Uh we have traffic jams in front of our house uh every evening at rush hour. We're going to have a lot worse, I think, if the uh if the bike lanes are put in place. It's going to narrow everything. I think it's good to have some uh traffic some speed buffering that they're talking about with this project, but I think it's also going to lead to uh increased traffic

backups. Um I'm going to be sending an email to uh to each and every one of you with some of my uh concerns. I've also spoken to a lot of my neighbors. Uh the only ones of us who were notified about this project were the ones who were living right on the street. None of my neighbors who do not live on Fairclaw Street were notified at all. We were first notified about six years ago, but the project changed hands several times. The recent most recent uh leader has had it for two years, but uh did not contact us until the design was finalized. I would ask that the design be unfaled and that the construction be put off until we can take a little closer look about how to improve safety for pedestrians and residents.

Thank you, TJ Lansberry. Good evening, city council members. Thank you for your service and your work to improve safety and connectivity through initiatives like Raleigh's active mobility plan, neighborhood traffic management program, and safe routes to school. Before moving to Raleigh in 2015, I biked from my house daily to downtown Boisee, Idaho for my job for more than 5 years. Since moving to Lichford Forest, however, I have not felt safe riding a bicycle beyond my own street because of the lack of bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, and safe roadway connections. Because of these conditions, I drive my teenage son the short distance to Milbrook High School rather than have him walk or bike along unsafe roads. This is not the kind of connected active community many families envision when choosing to live in Raleigh. We all feel the impact from resoning decisions in the closest neighborhoods to the Ferdza city sidewalk. I ask the council to carefully consider the environmental impacts of reasonzoning request Z4325 at 6309 Lichford Road. I am a licensed wildlife rehabilitator with the state of North Carolina specializing in squirrel rehabilitation and I see firsthand how habitat loss affects native wildlife. The mature trees, wooded buffers, and natural areas surrounding this property provide important habitat and travel corridors for deer, foxes, squirrels, birds, raccoons, o aossums, and pollinators that are part of the ecological fabric of our neighborhood. These natural areas also support storm water absorption, water quality, and tree canopy preservation, all priorities Raleigh has repeatedly emphasized through its sustainability and environmental goals. Raleigh's planning commission voted 8 to1 against this resoning. This reflects the serious concerns

residents have regarding traffic safety, infrastructure limitations, environmental impacts, and compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood. Approving additional density in an area that already lacks basic pedestrian infrastructure undermines Raleigh's adopted goals for thoughtful, connected, and balanced growth. Our community is not opposed to growth. However, infrastructure, environmental protections, and safety improvements should come before, not after additional development intensifies existing problems. I respectfully ask that you deny reszoning case Z74325 until meaningful and safe infrastructure, mobility, and environmental improvements are in place. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Lissa Green. Hello, madame mayor and council members. I am speaking today about the resoning of 6309 Lichford Road Z4325. Overpopulating this parcel will have ripple effects through our neighborhood, which will place a burden on every Raleigh taxpayer. This application is not compliant with the future land use map. This area calls for low inensity residential use into the future because Johnale Road still functions on rural standards today. To bring Johnsdale Road to a city standard, it will cost the city of Raleigh multi-millions of dollars. Here's some land use changes around the property. The Old Wake Forest Road project announced in 2018 introduced an opportunity for this area to be more connected on foot and bike,

less car dependent, a lifestyle that we support. In 2015, Lichford 315 apartments were reszoned, adding 296 units, intended to be a step down in density from the Old Wick Forest Corridor. The reasonzoning before you now plans a more dense land use than the Lichford 315 apartments. Litro 315 has tree buffers, 50-foot setbacks, ample common space, and parking. The adjacent new retail like Dunkin Donuts has been built with walkable standards. The walkable community is here. The infrastructure is not. The road plan that was inspired all of this change still sits with funding unsecured and will take additional years to provide crossings and sidewalks. This means added people are living here, walking here, working here without basic safety directly related to city planning. I named my daughter Adelita, which means woman warrior. She's here tonight in the audience with her BFF. Last night, we were reading Elsa's Frozen. The story mentioned a council council chamber. She asked with curious eyes, "What's a council chamber?" So, here we are speaking to council, asking those who have the power to protect our successful Parkside community to make the right choice. The children of Raleigh deserve safe streets. If our street becomes unavoidably unsafe, the city of Raleigh will be responsible to maintain our quality of life. This proposal creates infrastructure demands. We are looking at road widening requirements, sidewalk installation, curb and gutter, drainage improvements, creek erosion control, utility relocation, mailbox relocation, fiber lines relocated, right-of-way acquisitions, tree removal and retaining walls, driveway culverts brought to code, uh sewer capacity increases and tree disruption along the sewer line and more. This is a cost burden to all taxpayers, not just individual land owners. The impacts of development should be mitigated. The disparity between UDO codes and existing

conditions on Johnsdale and Lynchford Road is massive. As we can as we think about city budget shortfalls, how many of Raleigh's other streets have been already pushed past the brink of sustainability? We heard from Yolanda earlier tonight whose road is also too narrow for the safety of added residents. Good planning should respect the limits of the land and surrounding context, not simply test how much can fit. Thanks for coming to council chambers. All right, Eva Fairlindon. Let's see. Can you hear? Good evening, madame mayor and council members. My name is Eva Verindon. My husband Matt and I were born and raised in Raleigh and have lived at 6,500 Johnsdale Road since 2009. For the record, this is my least favorite thing in the world to do is speak in public. I have nightmares. But that being said, I feel that strongly about asking you to deny the reasonzoning case Z4325. This isn't just about changing a map. It's about safety. On May 7th, last Thursday, traffic forced a school bus off of Johnzale Road and it took out our mailbox and the post. Fortunately, it didn't hit a child or another car and nobody was injured. The accident's going to go down as just another sideswipe for John'sdale. This is the third time a vehicle has taken out our mailbox since we have lived there. A school bus is 9 and a half feet wide, including the mirrors. That's more than half of our 17 foot

wide street. There are no lines on the road to show inexperienced drivers or people unfamiliar with the road to show that they need to yield their space to a wide vehicle coming. The city of Raleigh is already years behind in infrastructure updates on our adjacent roads. Please deny this resoning as the existing Johnsdale Road is clearly at its limits. We aren't against growth. We just want responsible planning and respects for safety and character. 32 homes on R4 land is not responsible. What we need is a low density development, but right now that's out of our control. I'm concerned also about yard flooding. Additional houses on the road will mean additional runoff, and that's going to be a burden to all the houses north of the property, including mine. 54 town hound homes are going to destroy the majority of nature on 6309 Lichford Road since they are only required to leave 10% green space. I don't have a lot of faith in the parties that they're going to be responsible to resolve all the drainage issues before this project is done. We as a neighborhood have stood against this resoning from the start. you have our calls, emails, and comments documented. We love our community and we strongly urge you to vote against reasonzoning case Z4325 on June 2nd. Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth Pizzo. Good evening, Madame Mayor and uh council members. Thank you for hearing all of us. I think I'm number five tonight. Uh my name is Elizabeth Pelizo.

I live at 6408 Johnsdale Road and I am here in opposition to zoning application Z4325. You are meeting many of us this evening. Please take note of how we have come together to speak against this application. I am a mother of a young child and I'm here tonight with serious concerns about what the proposed development means for the health and health and safety of our families. specifically regarding our water supply and the potential land disturbance impacts. I am one of the closest property owners to this proposed development site in attendance tonight and I have an active well. We are already experiencing standing water on our property. This is not a hypothetical. It's our current reality. When I think about the scale of land disturbance and what this project would bring, I look at the water that already pulls on our land. I have genuine fear about what happens to the water my family drinks. Standing water near wells and septic systems creates real contamination risks. The potential impacts of significant land disturbance on an already wet site could push that risk to a level no family should have to accept. I have a little girl. The water coming out of our tap is not an abstraction to me. It is what I give her every single day. Clean water is a human right and right now that feels very much at risk. In addition, the loss of mature tree canopy compounds these concerns. These trees are not just shade. They are natural filtration and absorption systems. They slow runoff, reduce standing water, and protect ground water we drink. Removing them increases both the volume and speed of storm water reaching our wells and septics. My daughter plays in our yard. I should not have to worry about what's in our water, what's in the grass, and what's in the land she plays on, which is why we purchased the property with a well in the first place. I want to preempt any suggestion that a city water or sewing connection resolves

this issue. It does not, not for us. Johnsdale Road has unique conditions that make connection cost prohibitive. Our homes have large setbacks from meters and sewer lines. Every sewer connection on the east side of the road requires digging up the street. Many homes sit below grade requiring a pump and city water must be connected before city sewer. We are realistically looking at $30 to $50,000 per household. That is not a solution. That is a burden placed on existing residents to absorb the impacts of a development we did not ask for. We are asking this board to take seriously the potential impacts of this application and it the poses on groundwater safety and consider the cumulative effects of land disturbance on an already waterprone site. Please protect the health and safety of the families and the children who call Lisford Forest home and please deny the application for Z4325. Thank you very much.

Thank you Jason Comparedto. Mayor and council members, my name is Jason Calpedto. I live at Ravenville. Uh I live on Ravenville Drive, uh near 6309 Lichford Road. I'm here tonight to respectfully ask you to deny the proposed resoning request for uh Z4325. I want to focus specifically on planning compatibility and infrastructure. The current character of this area is still suburban in nature. The roads, drainage systems, pedestrian infrastructure, and transit availability were not designed to support the level of density being requested here. The 25L bus line only comes once an hour. Nearby developments that were already approved years ago still lack completed sidewalks and safe pedestrian connections. Infrastructure is already struggling to keep pace with growth in this area. The planning commission recognized these concerns and voted 8 to1 to recommend denial, stating that the requested zoning is too intensive for the assigned future land use category. I also want to emphasize that this is not opposition to growth. This property can already be developed under the existing R4 zoning that still allows meaningful growth while remaining more compatible with the surrounding neighborhood scale. setbacks, open space, and infrastructure capacity. Good planning is not simply about maximizing density wherever possible.

It's about matching development intensity to the realities of the land, transportation network, utilities, and surrounding community context. Approving this resoning would push this area toward a level of intensity that the existing infrastructure is not prepared to support today. Throughout this process, residents have participated respectfully and consistently. We've attended meetings, submitted comments, communicated with staff and council, and engaged in good faith because we care deeply about Raleigh's long-term planning decisions. I respectfully ask that you vote no on this reasonzoning request and support growth that is balanced, compatible, and sustainable. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Robin Munzy. Hi there. Um, thank you for listening to everybody. Um, I am also from the same neighborhood. Um, I wanted to just thank you guys really for um, considering our request for denying um, the reasonzoning of Z4325. Um we have been um coming together as a community like I haven't seen before and um we've been engaged, showing up, leaving messages, not just because we think it's fun, but how important it really is to us. Um, if you actually went down to this spot and looked at the streets that we're driving on and playing on and riding bicycles on, you would see obviously why um the recommendation was to vote no 8 to one. Um, I'm not really reading off my script, so give me a sec. Um, I am going to repeat a few things that that have already been said, but we do support growth. We know that there is going to be development on this property, but growth must be responsible and compatible with the existing neighborhood and supported by adequate infrastructure. I've seen flooding in multiple homes. I've seen kids jumping out of the street into a ditch to avoid high schoolers driving down the street. We're right behind Milbrook High School

and we get their traffic all the time and they are not respectful of it being a residential neighborhood. Um, and we do appreciate the careful review conducted by the planning commission and the city staff. Um, this is what builds public trust and um, we are putting our trust in you right now. Um, it matters because confidence in Raleigh's future depends on council decisions being made in the public interest, prioritizing long-term well-being over short-term profits. Residents need to believe that respectful respectful participation matters and that adopted plans still carry weight and the community voices are genuinely considered in decisions that shape our city. Tonight, we ask you respectfully to continue building that trust, honor the planning review, honor the consistent concerns of this community, and vote no on Z4325. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Miss Nelly Taylor.

Good evening, Madame Mayor, mayor and council members. I'm Nelly Taylor and I'm speaking today about also about the resoning of 6309 Lichford Road Z4325 and why I feel that R4 zoning is significant for this project. I have lived on John Johnsdale Road for over 40 years and I'm very concerned about the additional changes to our neighborhood. The property at 6309 Lynchwood has always been referred to as a farm and I should and I it feel it should be worthy of preservation as historical southern architecture built in 1904. It has always been a reminder of what the area once was a farming community dating back to the 1700s that protected and nourished the land. Mr. Lichford's grandfather was a tailor for pre President Andrew Johnson. It is somewhat shocking that almost no buildings remain from this historical land which goes south to Milbrook train crossing and north to 8020 Lichford Road. As my neighbors have said, Johnsdale Road cannot handle any more traffic. It is not safe now to try and walk or even drive, especially during opening and closing hours of Milbrook High School. It is hard to imagine how it would be with a 100 plus more cars using the roads on a daily basis. It will make the nightmare we have now even worse. Please preserve the land. If not, respect it. Developing at R4 is a compromise regarding the land. R10 is abusive to the history. I encourage council members to prioritize the well-being of current and future residents over profits. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, uh, Miss Victoria Reich.

Greetings to the mayor and council members. I'm Vicki Reich. My family and I have lived um on Johnale Road for 23 years. One of the main challenges we had in raising our five children was when they began driving. And so, as a retired teacher and parent, I have to talk about how reszoning of 6309 uh Lichford would affect the students at Milbrook High School. Lichford Road is currently vacant and no cars or pedestrians use John to access the driveway. The current building entitlements of 32 units on this site adds 288 trips. Um, but reszoning it would add 396 trips. We already have 936 trips a day. So adding 54 allowed units would increase our traffic by 42%. This excludes all the high school numbers. In a single day, the traffic study data from 2023 reveals that 398 cars were documented speeding on John Steel Road at up to 50 miles per hour with speed bumps. Imagine what their cars look like after all that. The street data measurement tool shows John Road measuring 16 1/2 ft wide and the road's edges are also crumbling. Like most of our neighborhood, I'm not against increasing the density of our neighborhood. We have a close neighborhood. I'd love to see more people. We had a Mother's Day picnic Sunday in the circle. It was supposed to go from 2:00 to 4. It went from 2 to six. Nobody wanted to leave. So, we're a rare community. But I'm not against adding more people. Our family lived in Barcelona, Spain for seven wonderful years. And I know about dense living if you've been there. But as we walked many blocks to school every day there, I felt safe because the infrastructure was

safe. I believe part of the reason you were elected in to our Raleigh city council is that when you make decisions, you choose to walk in someone else's shoes. Try walking in the shoes of an inexperienced and impulsive teenage driver who causes a tragedy on Johnsdale Road. and then walk in the shoes of the child who has to go to the park in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. I know you have much to consider, believe me, when faced with resoning applications like this. But please walk in the shoes of the residents, us who live on or near Johnstone Road and put the quality of life for existing neighborhoods first. Vote to deny the resoning on Lichford Road. Thank you.

Thank you. And we have a Mr. Leon Reich.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm so privileged again to be back here before you and speak on behalf of this my community of families that we dearly love. We moved here in 2003 and have just seen in the last five years this community grow with about five maybe six or seven young couples with children and because it's an area that they can de buy into and so we're really concerned about their safety and growing this community and families and children together. You have been provided with all the detailed information on why we as a community oppose this, so I'll not go over any of that. The proposal pushes urban style intensity onto land and a long established community with an infrastructure fundamentally suburban in design, drainage, and transportation capacity. And if you haven't ever driven Johnsdale, please do it. You'll understand how danger it is. and to see our families with children walking down with their children in carriages on the side of the road because there are no sidewalks and if you get off the road you fall into the ditch. That's what it's like to live there and then having cars speeding by. So, we're very concerned not only about the density but about the the the difficulty uh and the danger that it provides. Our persistent and passionate response to this resoning change is to protect the quality of life and the safety of the families living here. Our income levels in most cases do not allow us to transition to different locations if we don't like what's happening to our community. We don't have that privilege. This is where we now live and desire to remain. We are not anti-growth as each one has said but believe that growth must be carefully monitored and controlled well knowing

that the pursuit of developers is first and foremost the biggest and best return on their investment and not necessarily on the quality of life. Once a project is completed they no longer have any responsibility to the community and can disconnect from whatever the long-term outcome of that development is. You as the council have the great responsibility and the power to set limits and provide guidelines that not don't that not just provide housing for more and more people but to protect the sacred quality of life of our families in this longestablished community. I understand the needs of this level of people. I worked the last 16 years before retiring with the uh children's programs with neighbor to neighbor in the community at mentoring helping kids get up to par on their reading. so they wouldn't drop out of school. All my life I've worked with teenagers and so we understand the need for this kind of a community and want to promote it. You as the council have the responsibility and the power now to set limits and provide guidelines that not just provide housing to make this community a better Thank you again.

Thank you.

All right. Last but not least, Lewis Wilkerson. Thank you. Can you hear me? Good. Um, I don't make light of anything that we've heard or whatever, but I'm just thankful I didn't have to dress up to be the Lorax. Uh, but I here I am here to support trees and trees in Raleigh. Uh, I am um, again, Lewis Wilkerson. I'm a hometown Raleigh boy. I've been here all my life and consider myself blessed to have been here and been able to, you know, raise a family and and and to work here. Um, professionally, I'm a a real estate broker here and as such been asked to kind of comment on the value of the trees and what we do tree-wise and whatever and how that affects our real estate. You know, I have a a rare privilege that probably two or three times a month people from from other places in the country will come in that are looking to move here. As y'all know, you see you we we are there's no better place in in the country to be. People that come here love it here. They want to stay here. Maybe that's part of our quote unquote problems, but it's also part of the blessings that we get. Um we have so many benefits there and I'm so thankful for that. But it is such it is so tangible for the people that do come here from other parts of the country when they see especially when they fly in the tree canopy and they see all the trees and they are just amazed at what we have. And maybe if we've been here too long, maybe we don't have that fresh set of eyes to see that and to appreciate that. And you know, the the last time I was here in these council chambers was to uh represent my aunt uh after she had donated to the city her farm that was out on Raven Ridge Road, 150 odd acres to be kept as a as a nature reserve

park. And the topic that day was stewardship. She felt the land that she had been given was a gift from God and it was just hers for a time and that it was to be then passed on. Um, I think what you're doing here is also an aspect of stewardship to that to to make those decisions as we look forward and to be intentional. I can give you all kind of of information about how trees impact and improve property values and all of that. You don't need all of that from me. I'm not a horiculturist, although I did go to NC State. Go Wolfpack. Thank y'all very much. And uh, but you've got Steve Bentley and you've got your parks and wreck people or whatever. They know this. They do that. They manage I don't know what is it 200,000 trees for the city of Raleigh at this point. But we need to be intentional about that taking that next step. We need to plan it forward which is the also in alignment I think with your leaf out program that your parks and wreck people have also trying to promote or whatever. That's the vision and the intentionality to plant 4,000 trees a year for the next six years. That's taking that step out. Some people that have sat at those desks and sat at those chairs envisioned the outer loop of the belt line when there wasn't anything there or they envisioned Research Triangle Park. All of these things in my lifetime, but

thank you. Great. And that concludes our public comment. Thank you. Hey, buy me.