Fayetteville City Council Work Session - June 2, 2025
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Fayetteville City Council Work Session - June 2, 2025
The Fayetteville City Council held a work session on Monday, June 2, 2025, starting at 2:01 PM. The meeting included a budget reconciliation, presentations on pallet shelter villages, fire station project delivery, bicycle lane ordinances, pedestrian plans, development incentives, and temporary use standards, as well as council member requests regarding the downtown fire district and historic district. Several votes and directives were made.
Budget Reconciliation and Adoption
City Manager Hewitt and Assistant Manager Yates presented an updated budget that balanced the FY2025-26 budget, including all parking lot items requested by council. The fund balance was estimated at $24.3 million, just under the 12% policy goal, with $7.3 million of fund balance used for one-time items. A budget work session is scheduled for Thursday, June 5, and the budget adoption is planned for the Monday, June 9 council meeting.
Pallet Shelter Presentation (Item 6.01)
Ben McCrail of Pallet Shelter presented their temporary shelter structures for homeless individuals. Council members discussed costs, maintenance, zoning, building codes (temporary units limited to 180 days), and operational partnerships. Councilmember Davis expressed concerns about placement and security. A motion by Councilmember McNair to have staff investigate a pallet village with 14 goals failed 6-2, later corrected to 6-3. A subsequent motion to take the item to the city-county liaison meeting passed unanimously.
Fire Station 16 Project Delivery (Item 6.02)
Blair Hinkle (Frieza Nichols) and Brian Roof (Cumming Group) presented the project delivery methods for Fire Station 16, recommending Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR). Councilmember Thompson moved to authorize staff to use CMAR; the motion passed unanimously.
Bicycle Lane Ordinance Clarifications (Item 6.03)
Staff clarified definitions of bicycle lanes, multi-use lanes, and multi-use paths. Councilmember Benevento requested a process for citizens to petition for no parking on multi-use lanes similar to the speed bump process. That motion passed. Separately, Councilmember Davis moved to approve the ordinance amendments (dedicated bike lanes with no parking); the motion passed 7-2. The presentation and remaining discussion were taken as information.
Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan Update (Item 6.04)
Dr. Zachary Bug presented the updated plan with 144 recommended projects totaling $770 million. The plan includes near-term, medium-term, and long-term projects. Councilmember Banks McLachlan moved to approve the plan and direct staff to coordinate with FAMPO and NCDOT regarding specific areas like Hoke-Lo Road. Motion passed 9-0.
Supplemental Pedestrian Plan Study (Item 6.05)
A targeted study near schools identified 26 high-priority schools; detailed cut sheets were prepared for 12 schools (total $28 million). Councilmember Thompson moved to approve the supplemental plan and place it on the consent agenda, with a request to re-engage the remaining schools that had not responded. Motion passed.
Peer City Comparison of Development Incentives (Item 6.06)
Demetrius Mutos presented a comparative analysis of development incentives across peer cities. The UDO Housing Committee requested staff to continue researching incentives, particularly for affordable housing. Councilmember Hondros moved to receive the presentation; the motion passed unanimously.
Temporary Use Standards & Nuisance Party Ordinance (Item 6.07)
Staff proposed amending temporary use permit procedures to require police and fire review, and introduced a new nuisance party ordinance to close enforcement gaps. After discussion, council provided consensus to place the nuisance party ordinance on the next agenda for adoption. Mayor Colvin made a motion; seconded by Councilmember Davis. Motion passed 9-1, with Councilmember Benevento voting against.
Downtown Fire District Update (Item 6.08)
Mayor Colvin requested staff to review the downtown fire district boundaries and regulations to ensure they reflect current technology and economic development goals. Council voted to support the request; motion passed 9-1 (Councilmember Benevento against).
Reconsider Historic District Location (Item 6.09)
Mayor Colvin requested a reevaluation of the historic district's economic benefits, noting low usage of tax credits. The Policy Committee is already reviewing the historic district and fire district. Council voted to support the mayor's request; motion passed 9-1 (Councilmember Benevento against).
Key Outcomes
- Budget reconciliation completed; adoption scheduled for June 9.
- Pallet shelter item forwarded to city-county liaison.
- Fire Station 16 will use CMAR delivery method.
- Bicycle lane ordinance amendments approved; staff directed to create a no-parking petition process for multi-use lanes.
- Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan update approved.
- Supplemental Pedestrian Plan study approved with follow-up.
- Development incentives presentation received; staff to continue research.
- Temporary use permit procedures to be strengthened; nuisance party ordinance to be added to next agenda for adoption.
- Staff directed to review downtown fire district and historic district for potential updates.
Vote tallies noted where available.
Meeting Transcript
We hear you. All right, we're gonna call the meeting to order. It is two oh one. So we do have a quorum. So if I could go to Councilmember Thompson, welcome back. If you could do the invocation for us. I'm sorry. Thank you, Mayor Pro Temp. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, dear Lord. Another day that you have created, another day that we haven't seen that we shall never see again. We just want to thank you, dear Lord. Thank you for life, strength, and health, Heavenly. Thank you for letting us be in our right minds to be able to come together and do the work that you have so graciously given us the opportunity to do, Heavenly Father. We don't call it a privilege. We call it an honor, an honor that you have bestowed upon us, Heavenly Father. So bless us as we come together and do your work, Heavenly Father. We pray for all of our citizens, all of our first responders, and all of our neighbors who are are struggling right now, who are going through their ups and downs, their trials and their tribulations. Let them know that you can do anything but fail, Heavenly Father. For you are our bright morning star. You are our great I am. You are the one who we call Jesus, Jehovah Jar, and our Jehovah Rafa and Jehovah Nikadu. Dear Lord, we just want to say thank you, dear Lord, for all that you have done. Bless us this day and now and forevermore. We ask these things just in Jesus' name. Amen. We could stand for the Pledge Allegiance. Um conference. So he will be calling in later. So Mr. City Manager. But your last scheduled um budget work session. And um in front of you at everybody's place is the items that uh the council have prioritized for funding, and Jeff um is um going to walk very briefly through kind of a roll-up of what that looks like to make sure we have confirmation from council that we've gotten it correct, as well as to um identify for you what are some funding opportunities for us to accommodate the parking lot that you gave us. Jeff. Thank you. Uh good evening, council, good afternoon. Um, as the manager mentioned, we just wanted to have a little touch point, um, if you will, a reconciliation of what we heard last Thursday, talk real quick about the strategies. Um, at this point, you have scheduled on Thursday of this week another budget work session. We believe we've answered all of the outstanding questions from the budget chronicles, with the exception of one, which is related to the um the information by census track as far as assessed valuations, and that is an extensive project, and that'll take several months to put together, but we are working on it. But beyond that, I believe we've answered all of the budget chronicles questions. So with that, um, you have at your seat. The presentation I have for you today is just two slides, but also a clean copy of your revised parking lot, which represents what was on the whiteboard from last week. So if these are the items that you voted on, and there was a consensus to include. So this is the work, this is what we worked on to balance the budget. So I'm excited to say the balance the budget is balanced. Um, and I'll explain how we achieved that. This includes all the parking lot items and the budget is recommended. To achieve that, we did a couple of different things. Um, as the mayor discussed, along with the change in the sales tax agreement. We were anticipating we had not included that in our fund balance anticipation as of last week.
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