Raleigh City Council Regular Meeting – May 20, 2025
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Raleigh City Council Regular Meeting – May 20, 2025
The Raleigh City Council held its regular meeting on May 20, 2025, at 1:00 PM in the City Council Chamber. The meeting included a consent agenda, public comments, planning commission reports, a special items vote, the city manager's proposed FY2026 budget presentation, public hearings on nuisance abatements, annexations, rezonings, and a text change, committee reports, council member reports, appointments, and a closed session. Councilmember Silver was excused.
Consent Calendar
- The consent agenda was approved unanimously without any items being pulled. It included:
- Petition annexations (AX-07-25, AX-11-25)
- Easement requests (Duke Energy, Marlowe & Moye)
- Professional services contracts (Dix Park, Neuse River Park, Walnut Creek Interceptor, etc.)
- Contract services (intelligence management software, asphalt rejuvenation)
- Encroachment requests (storm drainage pipes, concrete walkway)
- Bid awards (Upper Pigeon House Interceptor Replacement, DMV site abatement and demolition)
- Traffic items (all-way stops, speed limit reductions, no parking zones, material loading zone)
Public Comments & Testimony
- Nikki W. requested assistance supplying food and water for the unhoused and urged the city to remove HMIS requirements, arguing the system infringes on privacy and harms marginalized people. She also highlighted Juneteenth celebrations.
- Mamakai Sanders asked the city to host a meeting to pursue the 2026 All American Cities Award, outlining seven focus areas including funding, affordable housing, sidewalks, and support for city staff. She expressed strong support for focusing on children and youth.
- Matthew Brown criticized the development industry, arguing that more housing units do not lower prices and that the city should prioritize quality of life over developer profits. He cited over 10,000 apartments for rent on Zillow and over 30,000 approved but not yet constructed.
- Robert Blank scolded the council for endorsing a toll road on Capitol Boulevard, calling it a bad idea and presenting an alternative boulevard plan costing $250–300 million versus $1.3–1.6 billion. He referenced DOJ cases against wasteful federal spending.
- Athena Wallen urged the city to redefine policies for stormwater creeks, advocating for collaborative restoration strategies and an advisory hold for creek-lined properties to address erosion and development impacts.
- Helen Tartan supported Athena, expressing concern about redevelopment near Brookside Drive’s creek and requesting that the stormwater department mitigate problems from oversized new homes.
Discussion Items
- Planning Commission Report: Staff presented four rezoning items scheduled for public hearing on June 17, 2025:
- Z-14-24 (Tarheel Clubhouse): 80 acres from agricultural to R6 with conditions; split vote due to concerns about density and location.
- Z-44-24 (Avent Ferry Road): Over 2 acres, consolidating R4 and R6 with overlay; split vote over fence condition separating residential uses.
- Z-16-24 and Z-06-25 (Globe Road): Two adjacent parcels, each about 1 acre, from rural residential to R6 with conditions; unanimous approval from Planning Commission. Council set public hearings as recommended.
- Special Items – Council Contingency: Mayor Cowell requested funds for Rise Collective; Councilmember Silver requested for Raleigh Housing Fund (Amos House). Approved unanimously.
- City Manager’s Proposed FY2026 Budget:
- Total proposed budget: $1.78 billion, with $657.1 million general fund, no tax increase.
- Key investment: $35.8 million for classification and compensation study implementation, fully funding raises in September 2025: 9% for exempt employees, 11% for non-exempt and public safety, 5% for temporary/part-time. Starting salaries: police $61,417, fire $56,825, ECC $49,100.
- Public safety accounts for 40% of general fund. Dix Park investment $11.7 million for programming and maintenance.
- Capital budget: $616.9 million, including $18 million for advanced planning fund. Bond proceeds included for first time.
- Utility fees increase $4.33/month for median household (0.3% increase).
- Budget work sessions begin June 2 at 4 PM; public hearing June 3 at 7 PM.
- Council members praised the no-tax-increase budget and employee raises. Councilor Patton asked about affordable housing demand; staff noted double-digit projects unfunded. Council requested future bond strategy discussions.
- Public Hearings (Matters Scheduled):
- Nuisance abatement at 1227 Falls Church Road: Owner unresponsive; approved.
- Demolition lien at 605 Bragg Street: $13,965; approved.
- Annexation AX-32-24 (Carlswood Court): Under 1 acre, single-family home; approved into District E.
- Annexation AX-04-25 (Durant Road): 13 acres, church; approved despite fiscal concern (negative $538,000 over 10 years) due to nonprofit status and service obligations.
- Annexation AX-06-25 (Rock Quarry Road): 9.35 acres, undeveloped, proposed self-storage. Continued to June 3 for further discussion.
- Rezoning Z-19-24 (Edinburgh Road): Three parcels, request for office mixed-use with conditions (model home/design center). Continued to June 3; applicant offered to reduce commercial use from 10 to 8 years.
- Rezoning Z-47-24 (Barwell Road): 45 acres, R10 with conditions, 125 units max. Continued to June 3 to add environmental justice conditions.
- Rezoning Z-54-24 (Louisburg Road): 3.65 acres, R10 conditional use. Continued to June 17 to add stub street condition for future connectivity.
- TC-10-24 (Cottage Court Garages): Text change from gross floor area to conditioned space (max 1,800 sq ft conditioned, 500 sq ft unconditioned). Approved unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda approved unanimously.
- Council contingency approved unanimously.
- Budget presentation received; work sessions scheduled.
- Public hearings set for June 17 (Planning Commission items).
- Nuisance abatement and demolition lien approved.
- Annexations AX-32-24 and AX-04-25 approved.
- Annexation AX-06-25 continued to June 3.
- Rezonings Z-19-24 and Z-47-24 continued to June 3.
- Rezoning Z-54-24 continued to June 17.
- Text change TC-10-24 approved.
- Appointments: Several appointments made; some vacancies carried over. Helen Sporkin elevated to Human Relations Commission. Paul Killins nominated for Substance Use Advisory Commission.
- City Attorney guidelines for TEFRA hearings approved.
- Minutes approved.
- Closed session entered for attorney-client privilege and personnel matters.
Note: The meeting was adjourned after closed session. Councilmember Silver was absent.
Meeting Transcript
Oh no, I'm not sure. Let's go to the cake thing. To the city council meeting. We will call it to order. As first, I will say that uh Council Silver is out of town and has an excused absence, and uh we will say the Pledge of Allegiance, and I'm gonna see if Councillor Patton will lead us to my United States of America. One nation, under God, individual liberty and justice for all. Right. Next we have the consent agenda, and I don't believe anything was pulled, so uh I would entertain a motion. Move for approval of consent agenda. Any other discussion? If not, all in favor of the motion, aye. All opposed, nay. All right. So that passes, and we then move on to public comment. Um as all of y'all know, this is uh your chance to address counsel, so we won't necessarily uh respond to this, but uh and each each speaker has uh three minutes, and the first uh speaker is Nikki W. Um, good afternoon. I pray all are well and getting there. If I may first direct your attention toward the screen, well, hold on. Um I had a presentation, but if it's not here, it's okay, yeah. We don't have visual presentations anymore, but you can send them to us and we can see them, you know, and I said something. Okay, it's in our agenda. Yeah. It's in your agenda. Oh, okay. I apologize you can't see, but what it said was um, so I set up a sign-up genius for because there are um I'm asking for assistance to supply food and water for the unhouse. And even though there's a thought there's thought that there is an up being done in City, there's not, I can attest to this personally. And so I set up a sign-up genius, and if you go on there and scroll down to search email, you can put in the T H E 5252 Good G-O-O-D Shepherds, S-H-E-P-E-R-D-S.com, and sign up for a date and time and for more information. Thank you. Next, I like to make mention that Juneteenth is coming up. June 19th was made a federal holiday back in 2021. Please keep in mind, prayer um President Biden a prayer. It commemorates the day, as you know, in 65 that the last slaves in Texas became aware that they had been freed two and a half years prior in January 1963. Raleigh always celebrates at Dorothy Adicts Park. This year it will be five days early on June 19th from 12 to 6. Um, as it recognizes the day the last African Americans were slay uh freed, it recognizes a day that all U.S. citizens were officially free. Amen. So I ask that in the future we might also consider parade down Fayeville Street, maybe to bring awareness and morale. And in thinking about uh a prolonged freedom, I am reminded of my own journey. Some of you may remember me speaking about blockades to assistance with housing due to my refusal to consent to be in place in HMIS uh share systems specifically for the unhoused. This is a case for many others as well, resulting in years without housing and sometimes death. You may also have heard about ICE targeting and writing homeless shelters in search of undocumented persons disclosed or revealed by HMIS. Though presented as a system to present to prevent redundancy, it was always meant to be a tracking system, monitoring the actions and movements of marginalized people in basis to many who have done no wrong and to those who have served their time. But homelessness is not a crime. Unhoused people are not convicts. They should not be subject to surrendering their personal, most personal and private information to a slew of people they don't know and receive no services from, and my opportunity to take advantage of that. So why then it is required to make it over available to a stranger somewhere within the state who you've never met. So signatures vow and privacy rights and laws seem to mean nothing right now, so we can't trust that. So I asked the city, county, and community to join me in a fight to remove blocks to save me uh life-saving assistance such as housing. One prefers to exercise their rights to safeguard that information.
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