City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, welcome everybody to public comment. As you know, we have two minutes per person because we had over 40 folks signed up this evening, and I will just start at the beginning of the list with Ms. Octavia Rainey.

Good afternoon to everyone. I would like to say thank you for the Fourth Ward Entertainment District. It was truly a blessing, and I'd like to thank Dr. Jane Harrison, the city manager, Ms. Painter for all her hard work, all of the city staff. We all worked together to make this happen. It has truly been a blessing for me after 47 years of hard work just working on the Fourth Ward. So I am very excited about the Fourth Ward, and it is just a pleasure having the Fourth Ward Entertainment District. Thank you all so much.

Thank you. And I will also mention that Councilor Lambert Melton is absent and excused this evening. Kevin Kwong.

Hello, everyone. Well, it's actually great to read that in a new survey in GoRaleigh that they will put study on the west raleigh micro transit district and i hope they would get good feedback on it and i hope the micro transit district would do well because west raleigh is currently i think they're going to do away with 11l and 27l in the process but with the micro transit it is actually a good thing that it will serve more area and the first mile and last mile problem hopefully would be better resolved. Just like what they have done this last month, that they changed the alignment of 305 from Union Station to Holy Spring. Now they run it on Avon Ferry and Centennial Campus instead of Zhongshan Lin. Personally, I actually don't like that because they take away the route outside my home. But actually, there will be more people using the services, right, if you run on Centennial and even Ferry. And I hope GoRally, the city bus will do the same and follow the model of 305. And let's say what I have said last year in September 16 meeting, 11L going to run in Centennial campus and probably Dix Park. and I think with that change, it would make the realm more accessible to people in West Raleigh, and hopefully that would make more people take the bus. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next, I have Mr. Joshua Bradley.

Good evening, Mayor and Councillors. Josh Bradley, 1324 Spring Long Court. I came today for three reasons, but I've got two minutes, so let's see what we can do. If y'all were considering a team curfew still, I would stop. that because it wouldn't work and it would be penalizing parents who work all the time or have kids start their adulthood with a record, which would be very bad. Speaking of the police state and surveillance, we should join the rest of the country in contracts with Flock Cameras and Axos and any of the other things. Because statistically, they don't really help us out. But they do really, really interfere with people's privacy. There are a myriad reasons that if I had more than two minutes, I could tell you why they're bad. But join the rest of the majority. There's good support on the right and the left to get rid of them. And don't switch them out with another brand. The whole concept needs to go. And the next thing I wanted to talk about was related is the data centers, right? How's the AI that are probably used to surveil the citizenry? It's never going to be worth the environmental cost. It's never going to be worth the increase to electricity demand. It's never going to be worth the cost of the water that it's used to build it. And Lord knows, don't let them put a diesel generator to run it until we get on the grid, because that's just god awful. So I think it's important that I know the moratorium is something you have to do due to state law. And a lot of people talk about we got to be careful around the state law because they don't like us because we're a blue city. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you stand up and resist or not. They're still going to come after you. So now is the time to stand up, comrades. This is time to be strong in the face of the encroachment of fascism. And thank you very much.

Thank you. Larissa Green.

Larissa Green, I'm here in opposition to Z4325. Tonight, I want to acknowledge the Planning Commission's motion to deny this case, a motion grounded in Raleigh's own 2030 Comprehensive Plan. Section 3.16 states, the designation of an area with a particular land use category does not mean that the most intense zoning district described in the land use categories is automatically recommended. A range of densities and intensities applies within each category, and the use of different zoning districts within each category should reinforce this range and be based on infrastructure capacity, community character, protection of common open space, and prevailing density and lot size in the surrounding area. The flume is not a blank check for maximum density. And the reality here is clear. The infrastructure lacks capacity. We have already seen that acknowledged. not through a comprehensive infrastructure solution, but through the introduction of a gate. The comprehensive plan does not say that infrastructure concerns should be ignored and managed after the fact. It says infrastructure capacity should help determine the appropriate intensity of zoning in the first place, and compatibility matters too. Raleigh's UDO section 2.2.7 reinforces the importance of established neighborhood character and mitigating adverse impacts on surrounding homes. We cannot selectively apply our planning policies embracing the portions that justify increasing density while disregarding the standards that determine whether the density is actually appropriate. Planning is not an exercise in determining how much can be forced onto a parcel. Compliance is not the same as compatibility. Please deny Z4325, and as you consider the broader future of Raleigh, say no to incompatible development, protect our NCODs, and ensure that growth strengthens, not erases, the communities that already call this city home.

Justin Clifton.

Good afternoon, Council Members. I want to start by commending the Council and Chief Boyce for the discussion on August 18th about FLOC and ALPR technology. Council asked great questions, and I happen to have a copy of Operating Instruction 11007 right here, the directive that governs RPD's use of this technology, and I would like to continue that discussion now. During the session, Councilmember Jones asked whether the audits are public facing. The answer is actually on page six. The system shall be audited annually and the report submitted to the chief of police, not to the council, not to the public, once a year and only to the chief. Council member Patton inquired what would happen regarding data sharing if the rules changed. A great question because, in fact, much of what was said is not contained in this instruction. The chief said RPD does not share with ICE, that RPD deletes at 30 days, but the directive never mentions immigration, and it says 90 days, not 30. Every one of the promises that he made is stricter than this directive requires. And I give him credit for that. That's a good thing. The chief's holding himself to a higher standard than his policy. That is accountability. But a standard that is not written down can change when the chief does. And no one has to tell us. And this directive only governs RPD. It does not govern FLOC. And FLOC has been shown to disrespect these documents. In Mountain View, California, FLOC turned on nationwide search without telling the police department. In Illinois, a state audit found FLOC had given Customs and Border Protection access to plate data against state law. Hillsborough has ended its FLOC contract last year over language that let FLOC share data with any government entity it chose. Chatham County ended theirs in April. And Pittsburgh voted 4-1 in May. I am asking council to put the FLOC contract to a recorded vote. I would vote to end it, but you can't vote on what you can't see. Require the audits to come to you. Thank you.

Thank you. Tim Niles.

Good evening. Raleigh's population just reached 500,000. This gives us real data for discussing housing, density, and zoning. Your comp plan is designed to handle growth to 580,000 by 2030. I don't want to hear the plan is just guidance. A citywide rezoning in 2015 implemented a new UDO handling 580,000, bringing the law in line with the guidance of your comp plan. From 500,000, we can project 530,000 by 2030, well short of the 580,000 plan. We can follow your plan and provide all the housing Raleigh needs for anticipated growth. Your plan shows us where Raleigh can handle density with infrastructure and transit. There's no need to upzone properties. Your plan can handle the growth if you encourage development to where you planned it. Your plan doesn't even take into account the added density from the missing middle. And from 2020 through mid-2025, you upzoned properties for 35,000 more units over existing zoning. You added capacity to the law with missing middle and upzonings. To recap... We may get to 530,000 by 2030. Your plan handles over 630,000. You've done a good job planning. You haven't done a good job encouraging development to follow your plan. Developers know they don't have to. They bring any rezoning, and if it adds density, you don't care if it follows your plan. You don't care if the infrastructure is there to handle it. You just rubber stamp it. You have given up your power to manage anything. Your plan can handle at least 100,000 more people than we were on track to welcome to Raleigh. What's the point of creating a new plan if you just ignore your current one? Thank you.

Thank you. So

I'm here to talk about the issue with Dallas Center with the rest of this growing coalition that's building up in Raleigh and Wake County because of how this is touching on so many aspects of the problem we're facing with the infrastructure. I'm just going to talk about the things I know well of. Raleigh's water, you're providing it not only for residents in Raleigh, but also for people in Ghana, Wake Forest, Roseville, Nightdale, Wendell, and Zebulon. We were just experiencing a stage two emergency. We just recently lifted that emergency, but your website still says that residents are encouraged to conserve, and meanwhile North Carolina, we're still very much in a drought. Why entertain the idea of having a data center in the first place? And the other thing is the proposed data center is built right on top of historic black and brown communities in Raleigh, District C. You have to know that that was where that was, so entertaining the idea is nothing short of sadistic. You pass a reparation, a resolution for, basically you apologize for the gentrification that you did in the past. What was that even for then, if you're entertaining the idea of a data center in historic black district in Raleigh? That's why you said pushing for a moratorium on a data center with this growing coalition against data center. And one thing real quick, maybe this is more for our audience, What you're seeing right now is only a piece of this systematic.

Thank you. Alyssa Heyman.

I have something for you. Thanks. Hi, everyone. How's it going? My name is AJ. I'm here on behalf of Sunrise Movement. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to stand here right now fighting against something that overwhelmingly does more harm than good for us all. What will it take to get North Carolina to prioritize its people? In an ideal world, elected officials would stand up for us, their constituents, whose taxes pay their salaries. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case because we are in an affordability crisis while data centers get tax breaks. Our homeless community is facing the ailments forced upon them by climate change every day while these data centers get tax breaks. We've been in a drought and have had to limit our water use while data centers get tax breaks and use up our resources. Our state has been ranked dead last in public education, and data centers get tax breaks. AI is being used to track down and abduct our undocumented loved ones and terrorize black and brown communities, and data centers get tax breaks. The list goes on. We need protections and regulations to the strongest extent. We need to pass a 32 month moratorium without carve outs. At the end of the day, you have the power to protect us and do right by us. Will you do what it takes? Thank you.

Lameshia Whittington.

Good evening, City Council and Mayor. Good evening. Professor LaNesha Winnington, co-founder and president of Democracy Green. I come here today both with my colleagues who you'll hear after me. We have already submitted formal comment which has data and our response to the teen curfew that we are saying no, but we are also saying how to implement other alternative strategies to that no. So that's already been submitted and received. So my comments are going to land the plane because you have the data. You'll have it from us if you want to have a conversation. We are very much open. As a former youth organizer alongside my brother, we ran and led a nonprofit that had a program called Noteworthy for seven years, from 2013 to 2020. And we taught in over a dozen Raleigh community centers, more boys and girls clubs, and we were in every single community that you could believe. We paid for the instruments. We didn't need anything from Raleigh. Yet and still, we were gentrified out of our own home at Method Road, a historically black community. Even then, we were not supported, and our community centers, unfortunately, didn't understand the vision of not just sports, but everything else because we taught classical music. We understood the gentrification that was happening in our communities when the same kids that we were teaching were now being pushed into hotels, living beside gang members. And guess what? Our programs were being eliminated, but the gang members were still there training up our youth. So now we're seeing the outgrowth and the results of our kids that are under invested in and we respect and understand the load, the labor that not only the chief is having to navigate during high season tourism, which is even our teens by the way, right? That's out of town individuals. We have to think strategically and now no longer proactively because if we would have thought proactively, the CACs of Raleigh would have never been disbanded. That's where their elders, those teens, that's where their mothers were. That's where their grandmothers were. That's where their uncles were. And while they were in the community centers leading the gamut for their communities, their teens could come to after school. Well, baby, those elders are no longer the CACs because they've been disbanded. So we're going to have to go back to history and understand what did work so that we can implement, so that we can save not only our community, our teens.

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Sonya Whittington, and I serve as the Executive Director for Democracy Green. And I'm here to advocate for increased activities and opportunities for teen socialization rather than proposed teen curfews in response to the teen takeover that occurred July 4th. Rather than simply restricting where young people can go, I believe we should invest in creating safe, structured, and engaging places for them to go. Raleigh Teen Connect RTC, an after-school program, currently exists at six locations. St. Monica Teen Center, Method Road Community Center, Green Road Community Center, Roberts Park Community Center, John Chavis Community Center, and Peach Road Cultural Center. I would encourage the city to build upon the existing RTC model in several ways. First, extend RTC availability beyond its current weekday schedule so that teens have access to safe structured spaces on weekends and during those high-risk periods, including the 4th of July holiday. Second, consider 11 p.m. closing time for designated 10 zones rather than relying solely on citywide curfew. If the goal is to keep young people safe during late night hours, we should provide them with somewhere safe, supervised, and welcoming to spend their time. Third, these extended teen zone hours could include music, performing arts, recreational activities, and food trucks, creating environments where young people can socialize, express themselves, and build community. And finally, we need to recognize something very simple. Adults want opportunities to unwind and socialize after a long week. Our teens do too. Young people need opportunities to gather, connect, have fun, and build relationships with their peers. The difference is that we have an opportunity to make sure those opportunities are safe and structured. If our response to youth behavior is only to restrict, we must not miss this opportunity to address the underlying need for connection and belonging. Instead of asking only how do we keep teens out of certain places, we should be asking where do we want our teens to be. Let's invest in the answer. Thank you.

Isaiah Allen.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Raleigh City Council. My name is Isaiah Allen. I am a lifelong Raleigh resident in Demarcus Green's North Carolina Piedmont Regional Advocacy League. We urge you to reject the citywide juvenile curfew because this data simply does not show that Raleigh is facing a citywide youth crime crisis. Downtown Raleigh crime has decreased by 22%. Wake County has recorded a 4.2% decrease in juvenile crime year over year. The incident that happened on the 4th of July was very serious and we want to acknowledge that. But at least 27 of those individuals initially arrested were adults between the ages of 18 and 24. Furthermore, approximately half of the young people gathered reportedly came from outside of our city. Yet this curfew would restrict Riley residents youth every night, including those who had absolutely nothing to do with this incident. One of the other things we'd like to highlight is that seasonal violence is a very real and well-documented issue. The Raleigh Police Department has acknowledged this through initiatives like their Summer Action Plan. Nationwide crime rates increased by an average of 10 to 12% during summer months, especially with our youth. But what we should not do is make policies and decisions that will have long-term effects based off a moment and a season. As adults, we must lead by example. Sometimes that can mean protecting them. Sorry, excuse me. As adults, we must lead by example, build better relationships with and protect our youth. Sometimes that can mean protecting them from policies that will directly affect their freedom and ability to simply enjoy themselves. Thank you. Thank you.

Sarah Quadri. Is Sarah here? No. Okay, Mickey Brigham.

Good evening, council. I'm here to urge the city council to pass a moratorium on data centers and stop another case of environmental injustice in Raleigh. The proposed data center on Jones Sausage Road would be a 100,000 square foot industrial facility directly across from a working class neighborhood. Imagine if it moved into your neighborhood, a warehouse the size of two football fields filled with computers operating around the clock. The developer has emphasized that this facility would use air cooling rather than large amounts of water, but that doesn't make the environmental impacts disappear. It means even greater electricity consumption and enormous amounts of heat being discharged into the community. A peer-reviewed study published this year found that data centers can raise temperatures in surrounding areas by as much as four degrees Fahrenheit. Working people are already dealing with rising temperatures. We're breaking records for extreme heat every year. People die from heat stroke. We should not be putting another source of heat and industrial pollution directly next to people's homes. The companies building these facilities stand to make enormous profits from them, but the community has to live with the consequences. Heat, pollution, noise, and the loss of their quality of life. The developer withdrew this particular annexation request, but that does not mean that the problem has gone away. The company has said it is still pursuing this project. And this is exactly why we need a moratorium, to give the city time to establish rules that actually protect working people. Raleigh's the only major city in the state that has not passed a moratorium. Charlotte did it, Greensboro, Durham, Cary, Apex, Asheville, and dozens of other municipalities have. So I urge you to stand with the people, pass a data center moratorium now, use this time to work with the community to pass strong and specific regulations that will protect the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Katie Boatner.

Hi, y'all. Good evening. My name's Katie Boatner, and I'm here on the behalf of the workers of Raleigh-Wake. I'm here on behalf of the underemployed of Raleigh-Wake. I'm here on behalf of the intergenerational community members of Raleigh-Wake. And I'm here to say fully a moratorium on data centers. We don't want data centers in Raleigh-Wake. We don't need data centers in Raleigh-Wake. I'm sorry. It seems very obvious to me, but I'm going to get it together. Look, we are the only major city not to. We need to be leading our state. What is this talk about 0% income tax for corporations by 2030? How are we going to lead our state when we are losing $1.3 billion in public monies? We are dead last, 50th in public education in this state. How are we going to turn this boat around by more surveillance? by environmental racism on our people. Why are we putting this in Southeast Raleigh? Put it in North Hills. I just found out today across the street, we're paying $2 billion to let Atrium take over. What is this absence of transparency and the absence of democracy? We are the constituency. We love living here with cleaner air. We want cleaner air than we have today. We are not going to get that if we put a data center in Southeast Raleigh. We're going to have further surveillance of our people talking about a teen takeover. Teens are just being teens. What teen takeover? We need to surveil our black and brown teens even more than we already are. What is this? Please, my comrades have way more statistics, way better things to say. I'm just here to say right now, moratorium, fully moratorium. We are better than this. Thank you.

David Allmark.

Hey, as you know, I love open mic nights, so David Ulmer, 2105 Cedar Bluff Court. This one won't win me many friends, and this is something that you can't really do anything about, but public service announcements are important. Voter participation in 2024, 75% of voters over 65 voted. You have to combine Gen Z and the millennials to outnumber them at the polls. If you're over 70, you can just not vote. You can exercise your right by not exercising it. You don't have to vote. I had coffee with Councilmember Patton two years ago, and I'm stopping at 65. There's a lot of people in here talking about younger people. There's nothing wrong with passing the baton and just saying, look, I don't have to vote. I don't have to exercise my right as I advance in my age. Yale professor Samuel Moyan wrote a book, Gerontocracy in America, how the old are hoarding power and wealth and what to do about it. I didn't agree with everything as far as solutions, but I know one of the major political parties in this country right now is kind of working through this generational challenge that we have. This president, the last one, you don't think age was a factor. Feinstein, RBG, changed the court. She could have retired. Ed Markey in Massachusetts will go back to the Senate, and he will not be done until he's 86. You can go to Kelsey and place bets on that one finishing out. You know, look, you guys get this at some point. When you guys did the Civic Assembly, you knew that that was the only way to get the demographic that was actually representative of the city of Raleigh. Even though CACs may be popular with some, the Civic Assembly was the best chance you had to get that diverse group. So, again, this isn't about telling a group of people that they shouldn't be allowed to vote. It's about being a generous person and saying, look, I've had my chance. If you're 70, you've had 50 years of voting. The country either did or did not end up the way you wanted it to, but just pass that baton. Just let these younger people vote and decide what happens to our future. So, thank you so much.

Thank you. Dishana Kabassan. Is Miss Kabassan here? Okay. Catherine Mahaffey. Okay.

Good evening. I'm Catherine, and I'm here to urge you to enact a moratorium on all new data center developments in Raleigh. These facilities have severe impacts on noise, air, and water pollution. Data centers must run 24-7, and when the energy grid is strained, they rely on industrial diesel generators that produce toxic emissions exponentially more. And then we are already facing drought conditions, so allocating our precious water to cool server banks feels like environmental negligence. On top of that, these centers strain our local grid and force a deeper reliance on fossil fuels, directly undermining our city's sustainability goals. Environmental burdens like this do not fall equally. Proposals like the Radius DC project in Southeast Raleigh continue a long harmful pattern of targeting historically black communities with heavy industrial strain. That's unacceptable. And what do we actually get in return? A false promise of long-term jobs. In reality, these massive facilities require very few workers to operate. In fact, the AI technology driving this data center expansion is actively contributing to job cuts, not local employment growth. Our public resources and land are finite. Instead of prioritizing these facilities, our city should advocate for investments that directly serve our residents, like local renewable energy infrastructure and small businesses that keep real, sustainable jobs right here in our community. Please put our community's health and equity and resources first by placing a moratorium on data centers. Thank you. Thank you.

Maria Rouse. Is Ms. Rouse here? Okay.

Thank you, Council. My name is Maria, and I'm an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation here in Raleigh. I'm going to get a little bit personal for a little bit, so sorry, y'all. My family moved here to the Triangle in 2005, over 20 years ago. It was a big change. I was in kindergarten in Iowa, and I was really scared about starting first grade somewhere new. And I remember most of all worrying about not having somewhere to play and explore nature like I did in Iowa in my backyard. And I was so pleasantly surprised when I moved to Apex, and me and my friends got to run around the forest, and I have so many fond memories of that to this day, and I'm so appreciative. And Raleigh's not Apex, to be sure, and both places have grown immensely since I was a kid. Now, as an adult, I'm a public health professional, but I still hold the same little kid inside who cares about her home and her community. Now I know that if the data center in Southeast Raleigh eventually goes through, the kids growing up there will have no idea that they're playing across the street from a huge data center estimated to contribute to 36% of asthma deaths by 2030, which is total annual public health burden of more than $20 billion in 2028. But it's not about the money. It's about the lives. These centers will consume five million gallons of our water a day, equivalent to the use of a town with 10 to 50,000 people during a severe drought. Not to say anything of the risk of soil and groundwater contamination in the neighborhood where so many families live. I, and I know that six-year-old Maria, too, would implore you to please consider prioritizing the health, which is ultimately the wealth of our community, of our future, our children, our shared thriving, and proactively pass a data center moratorium, 32 months, to keep our homes safe from the known dangers that these facilities bring. We have the evidence. We know that they are not safe. Thank you.

Thank you. Paul Baer.

Is Mr. Baer here?

Okay, then we'll have Elijah Whitmire Balthazar.

Good afternoon. My name is Elijah Whitmer-Balthazar, and I live in Southeast Raleigh. I urge the city to pass a moratorium to pause all data center development. We are currently living through a cost of living crisis. Food, rent, gas, utilities, and insurance, these are my daily struggles, and the daily struggles of the vast majority of people too. Data center development does not seek to alleviate any of these core issues. but is actually detrimental because they consume so much energy that our current electrical grid wouldn't even be able to provide enough energy to keep both the data center and our homes powered simultaneously. Upgrading the capacity of the electrical grid becomes necessary, but who bears the burden of paying for that? Because it isn't the tech companies with literally billions of dollars in annual profit. No, it's the already struggling people. The electric company spreads the cost of building more capacity among the people by raising our electric bills anywhere from six to 29%, and in extreme cases, as high as 57%. Alongside compromising our finances, data centers also compromise the integrity of our electrical grid. These hyperscale data centers consume as much energy as a small city all on their own. This creates an incredible amount of stress on our infrastructure that makes it more unstable and power outages more likely. It also creates a dependency on these data center corporations. Demand response programs are when the city pays data centers millions of dollars to pause their activities and use less electricity. This is necessary because sometimes the city's demands for electricity spikes, and the energy is much better spent on the hospitals than data centers. But what happens if these privately owned data centers start to say no? Why should we leave critical infrastructure decisions in the hands of tech oligarchs and not the people who will suffer the direct consequences? This is yet another example of how the system is unjust, how it prioritizes the profits of industry over the well-being of actual people. The cost of development should not be the burden of the people when we have not been asked how we feel, what we want or offered any real benefit. And control of our infrastructure should be in the hands of the people who live here. When I ask for a moratorium, I ask the city to stand on the side of a just future by prioritizing the people's needs and not the tech billionaires. We deserve affordable energy and reliable infrastructure. Thank you.

Mama Kai Sanders.

Good evening, y'all. It's another amazing day in paradise. I'm so grateful so many people are here. Come back often, because we're usually done by now. So I'm just saying. I'm here every month, twice, so please. Join me. I have to admit that I am a little bit heavy-hearted with all this discussion about the curfew and stuff like that, because while Raleigh might be having its growing pains, what we're experiencing was planned for. When children are watching their parents struggle and simultaneously see the rich occupy spaces they once played in, they see the gap growing between what they have and what they can't attain. So they're following the loudest voices in their circle of fluence who have the kind of money they desire. So much of entertainment and media is centered on violence. So what do you expect children to do differently? Now I realize this is only one story to tell, so I'm going to ask you to consider convening a focus group to discuss how our community centers can be turned into an enterprise model. And I've asked for this before. So the community can step in to run them as spaces that actually serve the community. That is kind of the end of my comments as far as that because I've talked about it before and I feel like that I'm grateful for community engagement, setting up a meeting. I'm not sure why it's on a Monday night instead of on a weekend. But I do want to say that there's a young man who signed up to speak behind me. I'm not sure if he's here yet, but if he has an opportunity to speak when he gets here, I'd appreciate it. He's going to talk about the Possibility Festival at Dix Park this weekend. And so if you'll give him a chance, if he's not here, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. So is Shire Thompson here? Okay, so if he comes in later, we'll just flag that and we'll let him talk. Alex Barringer.

all right good evening everyone thanks council thank you mayor for taking the time to hear us out about this and i am here uh in support of a moratorium on the data centers now You see that this issue crosses lines easily, and I believe y'all do want to get this right. We don't have a bunch of schmucks up here. We got people that have great histories doing great things, and I have a feeling you will. But the reason why it does cross lines is because it's not necessarily a party issue. This is a class issue. The data centers are essentially a invasive species, if you look at it from an ecologist perspective. They extract resources. They tend to propagate as well. Once you get one, it makes sense for more to pop up with their infrastructure. Now, I don't think the data centers are going to come to you and say, let's build a hyperscale giant one in downtown Raleigh. But what they will do is start with these smaller scale ones, 100,000 square feet is the perfect start. And these things don't have a single point of failure. So the way that they work is that... This one, they won't use evaporative cooling, but they will have to cool it. In an emergency, they will use diesel generators. And the environmental harm and impact will be sustained. And I know you all have some long-term thinking that you want to get right, and I think you will. And the last thing I want to offer is that I don't think this would happen, is that you all pass a moratorium. You know, Raleigh City Council passes a moratorium. residents are pissed. I just don't think that's going to happen. I think you have great, great support. So I appreciate it. Thank you.

Nicole Drapluck.

Good evening, council members. Nicole's indisposed. My name is Doug, and I'm with the same organization as her, the Pire for Socialism and Liberation.

Mayor? Yeah. He didn't sign up to speak.

Okay. Yep. Because you aren't Nicole, if you want to just put your comments in the basket, we can read them, but it's unfair to let you speak if other people who didn't sign up can't speak. I understand. All right. Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

We're seeing AI companies frantically trying to put up data centers which raise our electricity bills and use huge amounts of water. We're not buying that these create jobs, a story they keep trying to tell us. These are temporary construction positions at best that end as soon as the construction is finished. And they only need a few people to continuously operate them afterwards. Meanwhile, the companies use these data centers to replace real jobs and institute surveillance technology which does not benefit the people of Raleigh. We do not want these. They do not benefit the people who live here. We ask that you pass a moratorium against data centers. We've seen cities as close as Durham achieve this, and this has bought them key time to study the impacts of data centers. It's important that we set the rules on things that affect our community's resources, key resources like water and electricity, rather than letting these companies come in, build a data center, and take our resources. Building a moratorium is key to this, and we appreciate your consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. Jen Lawson? Is Ms. Lawson here? OK.

Good evening. I'm going to give you a little break from the data center, but I'm very much in favor of the moratorium. Would not be upset about that. You guys have a heavy responsibility, especially with all of this, and it's so inspiring to see all of you all here. So this one should be easy. My name is Jen Lawson, and I live at 6301 Johnsdale Road, just a few houses from the property in rezoning case Z4325. I'm asking you to oppose the rezoning because my family already experiences the traffic, pedestrian safety, and stormwater problems that additional density at this location would impact. Johnsdale is heavily used by traffic going to and from Millbrook High School. Turning left from Johnsdale onto Litchford can already be extremely difficult. And when I'm turning left from Litchford onto Johnsdale, I'm regularly met by cars traveling at high speeds into the turn lane toward me. I have to use my horn to avoid a dangerous situation almost daily. But I'm not only concerned as a driver, I'm a mom. My kids and I walk from our home down Johnsdale and through Ravenhill to Millbrook Exchange Park. During school hours, there's already no consistently safe way for us to make that walk. We don't have sidewalks or curbs, and we're sharing the road with significant school traffic. Adding the traffic generated by a higher density development would make something as simple as walking with my children to a neighborhood park even less safe. I'm also concerned about stormwater. Our yard has flooded in the past during construction of the apartments behind our house. I've already seen firsthand what nearby development can mean for water on my property, so increased development this close to my home is not a hypothetical concern for me. I understand Raleigh needs housing, and I'm not opposed to responsible development, but the infrastructure here needs to be able to support the density being proposed. Reducing this proposal from 54 homes to 47 doesn't fix the roads. It doesn't give Johnsdale sidewalks. It doesn't make the intersection safer, and it doesn't address the stormwater concerns we've already experienced.

Please listen.

Thank you.

Victor Urquiza. Victor here, okay. Next we have Nimal Rett.

Good evening. My name is Nya, and I am a Raleigh resident asking the council to put working people's needs first when deciding who receives tax breaks, incentives, and subsidies. Raleigh offered the software company Pendo $590,000 to expand and create jobs here and had county and state support. At the Lenovo Center, local hotel and resident taxes support roughly $300 million in renovations to a publicly owned arena. A tax break allows a company to pay less than it would owe. A cash grant uses public money to help cover the costs of a company. Residents deserve a clear accounting of who receives the revenue and what the public gets back. As Radius DC continues pursuing its Jones Sausage Road proposal, Raleigh should establish protections before making further commitments. North Carolina ended their electricity tail sacks exemption, but equipment exemptions remain. That means qualifying companies can still avoid taxes on purchases needed to build and operate their businesses. AI can be useful without its development depending on corporate tax giveaways. This council should judge development by whether businesses need public assistance while residents must wait for affordable housing, reliable transportation, and better services. Adopt a data center moratorium. Reject new city subsidies for data centers. Publish what past incentive deals have cost and delivered. Demand that state lawmakers and the remaining data center tax exemptions and make developers cover the infrastructure costs their projects create. Thank you. Thank you.

Isabella Burke.

Good evening. I'm Issa Burke. I'm a musician and an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I think a moratorium on data centers is a great start. Big tech claims that data centers create jobs, but these temporary jobs are ultimately in service of the larger project of replacing workers and their pesky wages with automated systems. This is why they are so obsessed with shoving data centers into every working class community of color they can find. For example, Meta's $10 billion data center in Indiana employs around 300 permanent workers, which is roughly one job for every $33 million invested. Meanwhile, MIT recently found that AI can already replace 11.7% of US labor, equaling $1.2 trillion in wages, and a quarter of US companies are already replacing workers with AI. If we're going to talk about investing in jobs, I suggest we make these corporations pay their taxes and use that money to create some jobs in education, in better public transit, in planting trees so we don't all die of heat stroke, in meaningful jobs that will improve our lives. If AI and the fruits of automated labor were controlled democratically, it could bring us all lighter workloads and a better standard of living, But instead, AI is bringing layoffs, higher utility bills, sloppy imitations of art and music, environmental devastation, and truly dystopian surveillance and military technology. The AI revolution is not inevitable if we all decide that we don't want it. And it seems like we all don't want it. None of us are going to be wishing on our deathbeds that we had had more cloud storage or spent more time asking chat GPT how to tie our shoes. But if we don't take action now, we will be on our deathbeds wishing that it was safe to go outside. Thank you.

All right, Jackie G. Good evening.

Just because youth curfews have become common doesn't mean they're right nor best for our kids. Reject being like those behind Project 2025. Reject fearmongering. Demonstrate your competence by voting no to the youth curfew. No police state. Come up with actual solutions. We all want the same thing for our children to be safe, thrive, and grow up healthy. Curfews are lazy, reactionary, a control tactic leading to increased surveillance. Curfews will increase police contact, fear of and erode trust in police, increase stress and negativity, impact mental health, and reduce teen autonomy. Curfews send the message kids are guilty until they prove their innocence, intend to cause trouble, are not respected. You have 11 exceptions in the ordinance. In the moment, police will arrest first and then assess exceptions that will lead to trauma. Curfews are not a start to anything good. It's a gateway for more restrictions, a slippery slope. They do not help kids create meaningful community engagement. They do not help build a city that values kindness and inclusion. They do not improve psychological well-being. And we all know our kids have been suffering for years, COVID, defunding education, food services, mental services, and much more. They are attempting to grow up in a toxic society we created. They are witnessing violence, hatred, corruption stemming from the highest levels. Want to actually help the kids? How about increase Raleigh Youth Council funding and perhaps collaborate investigating root motivations for teen takeover events? Vote no to the youth curfew and yes to a data center moratorium. Thank you. Thank you.

Mary Ellen Hunter. Hi.

Mary Ellen, born and raised in Raleigh, and own a home by Lake Lynn.

I've spent my entire life watching rapid changes and development occur in this city. The traffic, noise, light, pollution, population all rapidly increasing. That is one thing. This is another, and I will not let this happen in my community. I watched the city council session on June 16th and have been in touch with Raleigh Waters AD. One thing he said after the meeting was, data centers can impact a community in both good and bad ways. Let me just say, there are no benefits a hyperscale data center has on a community, period. Listen to any other communities speaking out about this right now. It's devastating. These developers only put profit over people and destroy everything, not only in their surroundings, but so much further than any one of us can begin to understand. I cannot believe this topic began in conversation during one of the worst droughts our state has seen. Drinking water is a precious finite resource. You may argue this facility would use a closed-loop cooling system, but what you're not thinking about is the mass amounts of water it takes to cool the energy plants. If AI continues at this rate, the planet will run out of clean drinking water in less than five years. Think about that. My husband and I plan on starting a family soon, but the scary question that keeps coming up is how could we bring children into this world knowing there is a strong possibility that our planet could very well run out of fresh water. We do not know the long-term effects of living near a hyperscale data center, but what we do know is that people are getting very sick. It is poisoning the water, air quality, and sending out massive waves of radiation that are lethal. These facilities are already shown to cause asthma, many cases in children, heart attacks, strokes, seizures, cancer, premature death, and more. Show of hands, y'all, would any of you like a data center in your back?

Thank you. Danny Hummer.

Hi, my pronouns are they, them. I'm a resident of Raleigh. I've lived in North Carolina for 34 years. Data centers are not economically efficient. They will not bring in jobs and money. Ultimately, I am asking you to pass a full moratorium on the data center in Southeast Raleigh. Who is actually making more money from AI? Federal Reserve data shows that the top 20% of US households by income who own nearly 90% of the country's stock market wealth are the ones benefiting the most from AI. According to Moody's analytics, over the past three years, spending growth among the richest 20% of US households is about three times the rate of the bottom 80%. Let's talk about human ingenuity and human intelligence. Did Malcolm X use AI? No. Did Queen Emma Nerenes use AI? No. Did Tecumseh use AI? No. Did the great and wise Persian poet Rumi use AI? No. Did Rosa Parks use AI? No. Did Isaac Newton use AI? No. I have a whole slew of other very influential historical figures who did not use AI, but my seconds are running out soon.

All right, thank you. All right, Laura Harris. Is Ms. Harris here? OK? Oh, OK.

Laura Harris, District D. I did not really properly prepare remarks, but I think the turnout this evening points more plainly to the need for a moratorium than any remarks I could make. A few things, though. As other people have alluded to, when new technology develops, policy usually lags behind. And a moratorium gives you a chance to put a pause on that and actually figure out how to deal with this thing. From a planning perspective, ordinance perspective, it allows you time to make the city ordinances robust enough to protect your people and protect the community. And it's not something that a few weeks moratorium is going to do. It's going to be a years-long moratorium to be able to properly do that. Data centers, as other people have said, take up space and resources that could otherwise be used for the public good. So choose the people over big tech. enact a moratorium. Thank you.

Thank you. Aiden Lai. Aiden here. Okay. Lorraine Snyder. Is Ms. Snyder here? Okay. TJ Lansbury. Good evening.

My name is TJ and I live in the Litchford Forest neighborhood. I'm here tonight to voice my strong opposition to the Z4325 rezoning request at 6309 Litchford Road. While the applicant recently scaled their request down to R6CU, this is not a true compromise. It is the dangerous precedent of high density infill that threatens public safety, our infrastructure, and our local history. First and foremost, this project is a direct threat to student and pedestrian safety. The developer is pushing to route the primary access point for up to 47 units onto Johnsdale Road. Johnsdale is a narrow annexed rural lane only 17 feet wide. It has no sidewalks, no curbs, no gutters, and no painted lines. Millbrook High School students walk along these very corridors every day. Forcing dozens of additional cars daily onto an unlit, shoulderless road where neighborhood children live and play is an unacceptable risk. Furthermore, Litchford Road is a critical minor and primary emergency artery for the Raleigh Police North District Station and Wake County EMS. Gridlocking this corridor with high-density traffic without first fixing the surrounding infrastructure will directly slow down emergency response times when every second counts. Finally, this rezoning will permanently erase a piece of our city's history. The 1903 Litchford House stands as the last rural vestige of what was once a massive working farm. The developer's current plan is to simply photograph it before leveling it. We deserve development that respects our past and protects our present. We are asking for infrastructure before density, transparency for the community, and for this council to prioritize the safety of your residents. Please deny case Z4320. Thank you.

Eugene Myrick.

Good evening. I want to go back to the rezoning of New Bern Avenue. When New Bern was rezoned, we all knew that it was in regards to the BRT, but affordability was also mentioned. Not only New Bern was rezoned, but Tarboro Road, Oakwood was also rezoned, right in front of St. Aug. But the first thing that I see being built right across from St. Agnes Hospital is $700,000 condominiums. So we know good and well that this wasn't about affordability. Furthermore, I'm quite sure no one knew that hundreds of trees would be removed from District C that are being removed from New Bern Avenue as well. This means our air will be dirtier. As folks are moving to put a data center in District C as well, this also means our water may be dirtier. So with that in mind, please keep in mind that election day is November 3rd, and as hundreds of trees and thousands of branches are removed from New Bern Avenue, I'm gonna be looking to see if one branch in particular is removed from District C. With that in mind, It's been 1,176 days since this council voted to rezone Shaw University from an institution to a business district. And still 1,176 days later, we have not seen a master plan for Shaw University. not a campus plan, but a business district. Considering you was the guest speaker at convocation today, Mr. Branch, I'm just wondering if Dr. Diller would be so kind as to show you that master plan that we still have not seen. And with the massive Omni Hotel being built across the street from SD Hall, I'm wondering if any vibrational studies are being done to protect this building, which was the first dormitory for black women in the country. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Athena Wallen.

Hello, my name is Athena Wallen. I attached or I sent in an image that I compiled that indicates all the waterways of Wake County and it's attached to the what have you. So all of those blue lines in that image are creeks, are streams, are waterways. Riparian buffer rules apply to every single one of them. Every one of those blue lines is supposed to have a 50 foot riparian buffer on both sides. Within Raleigh's city limits alone, we have nearly 1,200 miles of waterway, but fewer than 200 miles are maintained by the city. The rest exists on private property and stream bank integrity becomes the responsibility of landowners. That's a lot to ask for from any solitary property when 75% of stream banks are experiencing high, very high and severe erosion. The last stage of erosion is the widening and shallowing of the channel, which brings destructive flooding even closer to development, which is currently maximizing its impervious surface footprint while our riparian buffers are disappearing. This map demonstrates the confines of development, or at least it could. Every one of those blue lines tells us what the adjacent land needs to support the greater connected system. Everything is connected. We have a lot of waterways. We all gotta help each other out. Every hard angle of a creek bend tells us floodwater will collide and erode that bank more quickly. Every confluence of streams tells us to be prepared to slow and hold excess water to help alleviate downstream burdens. Every low point along stormwater creeks tells us unexpected floodwater is more likely to breach that stream bank. We must seek out policy changes that enable the city to support the needs of our stormwater creeks as the connected systems they are. We need to acknowledge that the part of mitigating future flood destruction is simply anticipating it and knowing that it's around the corner. We need to collaborate.

Thank you. Jeff Zabawa. Yeah, almost.

Good evening. The Raleigh Planning Commission serves an important role in advising the City Council on growth, development, and rezoning matters that reflect our community. The Commission has already denied the rezoning request for 6309 Litchford Road, Z4325, not once, but twice. I respectfully urge the council to do the same when this matter comes before them to vote. You've heard many reasons why this proposal's level of density is inappropriate for the neighborhood. I would like to show you one personal example that highlights this real-world impact of the decision could have on the residents. This past weekend I was driving down Litchford Road. I saw two women and a child walking along the roadway. I can only assume they were making the trip to the gas station to buy some ice cream or some candy for the child. However, what stood out was one of these ladies was in an adult mobility scooter. To make that trip, however, they had to travel on the roadway. There are no sidewalks, no crosswalks, and no safe pedestrian infrastructure to help them navigate this busy corridor. Like many residents along Litchford Road, they must rely on the drivers, seeing them and hope they can reach their destination and return home safely. Approving additional density at this location will bring more vehicles and more traffic to a road that is already failing to provide safe accommodations for pedestrians, While I understand there are plans to improve Litchford Road in the future, these improvements are not imminent. The residents that live there today, including the families like the one I witnessed, will continue to face these unsafe conditions in the years to come. I can only imagine that that little girl will graduate high school before Litchford Road is improved. I urge the council to prioritize safety and the quality of life for the existing residents over additional density, and I respectfully ask you to denies the rezoning of 6309 Litchford Road.

Thank you. Mary Black.

Peace, y'all. I'm here today with Triangle Afro Socialists and Socialists of Color, Democracy Green, Young Americans Protest, Saving Adolescent Girls Everywhere, the Education Justice Alliance, and a cohort of concerned citizens that don't believe a youth curfew is a good idea. I'm also here with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Sunrise Movement, the Black Hive Movement for Black Lives, Radical Futurist Lab, and a bunch of other concerned citizens that believe Raleigh needs a data center moratorium. Now these things may seem like desperate concerns, but I can promise you, like most issues under our ever-growing fascist police state built on racism, ecological destruction, and community sacrifice zones, they are not. Simply, what is our reality when we take away opportunities for youth to grow and develop, and instead prioritize the growth and development of extractive industries? On a global scale, qualitatively, we are living that reality. We have more water resources diverted to data center use. We have higher energy bills. We have more pollution of our air, soil, water, and communities. We have more Wake County students experiencing homelessness. We have more state-sponsored surveillance. And yet, we feel less safe for all the flock cameras and potential curfews. We have less community centers that prioritize youth programmings. We have less tree canopy, less community engagement, less community awareness, and less community participation. Data centers and curfews are two realities where the data just doesn't match the ask. Even when you look at what you would call small or edge data centers, you can still create pollution, negatively impact health of nearby residents, and have resource impacts. They don't create jobs, they don't bring economic prosperity, they don't improve our grid, and they just aren't something you can wait and see about in order to not poke the bear that we know as the big bad General Assembly. Likewise, data and research proves curfews do not stop violence. They instead stop young people, disproportionately black and immigrant young people, from walking home from work to a friend's house or the bus stop without becoming a target for policing. Over the last year, I've been working with organizations to build toolkits for elected officials, so we have solutions if you're looking for them.

Thank you.

All right. Did Shire Thompson come in? That was the one person. Okay. If not, that concludes our public comment for this evening, and we appreciate you all coming out.