I think it's a good thing.

I think we have uh one item to pull off the consent agenda, which is B seven D.

And then we have another item on the consent, which is the donation of a canine from the um to the Raleigh police department.

So we're in just a moment um have someone come up there, but why don't we go ahead and approve the remainder?

Move for approval.

Okay.

All in favor of the motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

Move to recuse councilwoman um for it from the item people.

Okay, from these.

Okay.

Um so all in favor of the council contingency item, aye.

Mayor, I think we're vote on recusal first.

Oh, I have to vote to recuse.

Okay.

All right.

So everybody in favor of Mayor Pro Tem Stormy Fort recusing herself from the item.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

All right.

And now we will vote on the vote for approval.

Second.

Okay.

All in favor of the motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

All right.

So that passes.

Thank you.

And I know she was going to say it, but she's on the board for one of the organizations, so that's why.

All right.

Uh so next we'll have the representative from the police department who is accepting the canine donation.

Good afternoon.

Uh thank you.

I'm Lieutenant David Davis, and I work for the Raleigh Police Department's public affairs office.

First, I want to thank our city leaders uh for allowing us to publicly express our appreciation to Miss Theresa Langley.

Thank you very much.

Any funds dedicated to helping us better serve and protect our uh the people of Raleigh represent a meaningful investment in public safety and in the partnership between our department and the community we serve.

This is uh property at the on on North Bloodworth Street.

And then you do have one item scheduled for your evening meeting on December uh second, which is Z 11 on South New Hope Road.

Three items coming out of Planning Commission.

We are suggesting a December 2nd uh public hearing for one on Grove Avenue, one on Sandiford Road, and another on Hodge Road.

The first item is uh Z 2725.

This is two lots on Grove Avenue.

The request is less than three acres going from a residential six district with the special residential parking overlay district to an R 10 district, which would allow more residential units with some conditions and keeping that overlay.

The request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and the future language map.

Planning commission recommends approval.

Uh Commissioner Otwell on this request was opposed.

He preferred that they use the uh transit bonus rather than rezone to get their density.

Again, a suggested public hearing here of December 2nd.

I have heard from the applicant that he would like for you to hold this at the table until your next meeting.

Defer until your action until the next meeting to set the public hearing.

That would mean it would come back to you as a special item, and we would talk to you about it again next time on the 18th.

Uh this next item, Z 2825 on Sandiford Road, again, three acres going from R 4 to R 10 with conditions.

That was a residential four district to a residential 10 district with zoning conditions consistent with a comprehensive plan on the future land use map, planning commission recommends approval.

Exact same issue here for Commissioner Otwell uh in terms of how the uh transit bonus might be applied.

Again, a suggested hearing of December 2nd.

And then finally, this is a two-acre parcel uh on Hodge Road 2816, Hodge Road on the uh west side going from would go from Wake County R 30, uh which is a residential 30 district.

It requires about three quarters of an acre per lot to residential 10 with conditions.

The conditions on this request uh essentially ensure it will be used as open space.

They have prohibited building types here.

Uh annexation AX 2525.

You well, once you set the hearing for this, you would see that on your consent agenda to match the public hearing date.

This is consistent with the comprehensive plan on the future plan use map.

Planning commission recommends approval and again suggested hearing date of December 2nd.

What questions can I answer for you before you set hearings or defer?

Questions for Ms.

Walters.

Hi.

Can you speak to the um FTDO options on those other two cases?

Like what could they do if they utilize the FTDO versus what they are requesting?

Oh, um, so the that's a great question.

I'm gonna phone a friend because somebody else wrote that email that you got about that.

Um there is a fair amount of density viable with the overlay.

Let me let me come I I'm sorry, I I I read that email and it has gone right out of my head.

Uh but there is there is a greater density allowed as a result of the FTDO in both instances.

Yeah.

I have a question after the deliberate about cases that were heard at I'll wait for us to vote and then I'll have a question for you.

Okay.

Uh if there's no other questions, do you want to make a motion to are you fine with a setting hearing?

Yeah, I think that's a good question.

Or do you need your question?

Sorry.

It sounds like the one applicant asked to hold at the table, so I'm fine with that.

And we can set the hearings and get this information afterwards.

Okay.

So I move to set the public hearing for Z 2825 and Z 3025 for December 2nd.

Second.

Okay.

Any other discussion?

All in favor of the motion.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

Right.

So that is unanimous.

Yeah.

And then I'll move to hold the Grove as a special item so that we can set it at our next meeting.

Okay.

So all in favor of holding Z 2725.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

No.

Are you a no?

No, I'm I'm an aye.

Okay.

All right.

I just wanted to add that I appreciate the applicant and worth your team just working on conditions and making sure that we're ready to go when the case comes forward.

Thank you.

All right.

Just had one.

I can answer Councilmember Patton's question if she if you would like.

So R 10, which is what's being requested in the Grove Avenue request.

That's a minimum lot width of 45 feet compared to 50 feet in the FTDO on R6.

So they're getting us a the request would result in a smaller lot width.

R 10 would also permit uh 45 feet and three stories.

Uh whereas the FTDO option would be 40 feet and three stories, so they're getting a little bit more height, a little slightly narrower lot, a little bit more height.

And then the uh FTDO R6 requires only 1,200 square feet per unit versus the 2500 square foot required by R 10.

So a little bit larger.

That's really gonna matter in the townhouse option.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Uh and then R 10 compared to the FTDO with R R 4 in the Sandiford Road request, uh 45 feet in R 10 versus a 65 foot lot width.

So a narrower lot allowed.

Um the same height difference that the uh R 10 would allow a little bit taller building versus the FTDO in the lower density district.

Um and then the R 4 with the FTDO, so 2,000 square foot uh lot width lot area compared to 2500 in R 10.

So a little bit smaller uh lot in the current zoning.

I'm sorry, I did not I should have had that at the ready.

I knew you were gonna ask that.

I apologize.

Counselor Silver.

Um I just have a question about uh the Planning Commission of the 28th.

There's a zoning case in my district.

I assume since it was heard on the twenty October 28th, it would come before us on the 18th to schedule for public hearing.

That's right.

Just want to make sure uh they reached out to see if it's possible it could be done this year.

So I'm just wanting to make sure it comes back to us on the 18th, so it's heard because I believe we're at recess after the December meeting, correct?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Right.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh next we have special items, rezoning Z925, and we have Matthew Clem from planning and development.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Uh you first saw this item at your last meeting on October 21st and held it uh to allow for the council member to speak with the applicants.

Um I believe that has occurred.

Uh no changes have been made to the case since that time, uh, and it's ready to be scheduled for public hearing.

Okay.

Yep.

Yeah, I just um wanna say on this case, I remain concerned about the removal of the SHAD, so that's the highway overlay district.

Um the applicant at this time does not plan to make any changes.

Um so you know, fine to set the public hearing for December 2nd.

But with the loss of the SHOD, what that means is it'll be a 50-foot tree buffer that does not exist.

So 440, this property will be right up to the edge is my understanding.

So there won't be any tree buffer.

Um and I don't think that's a a great great idea.

So um I put that out there.

Um I also want to note that because of uh, and you'll always have to correct me.

I'm like the FTDO.

Um we could get a lot more height here.

So by requesting 20 stories, they could go up to 30 um if they did affordable housing.

So they are not planning to do that as far as I understand, but I just put that out there that the heights can always be a little bit different because of some of these incentives that are out there.

Okay.

With that, I'll motion to set the public hearing for December 2nd.

Okay.

All right.

So we have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

If not, all in favor of the motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you.

I do have one question.

Okay.

Sorry.

Um the DOD.

Can the height bonus can be triggered with affordable housing, but there are other circumstances that can allow for it too, right?

There are other things.

Yes, that's right.

Affordable housing is not the only increased uh height that is in the DOD.

But we can bring back more specifics about what those options are at the time of public hearing.

Okay.

Thank you.

And then next we have rezoning Z2325 Gorman Street, Hannah Recall.

Good afternoon, Hannah Recau, planning and development.

So this request, Z2324 on Gorman Street, was on your report of planning commission at your last meeting.

You delayed taking action to set the public hearing.

But it's back.

No changes to the request.

A suggested hearing data of December 2nd.

Yeah, I just want to note I've had some good conversations with Isabel on this case.

And so my recommendation is actually that we set this hearing for November 18th so that then conditions can be added for if we need another meeting December 2nd, because there's still some work to be done exactly on the wording.

And otherwise we just might not have the time if we uh hold it or wait or just set it right now for nothing can be changed.

So my motion is that we have the hearing on November 18th.

Okay.

I have a quick question.

18th, I think is what she said.

I just have a question for staff.

Will we meet the notice requirement?

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Perfect.

All right.

So we have a motion and a second for November 18th.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

All right.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you.

All right.

Next, we have report and recommendation of the city manager.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Um one item and then one employee spotlight this afternoon.

The first thing is a small scale rental development funding opportunity, and we have Annie Ballman Mitchell from Housing and Community Development here to present this item.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Annie Bauman Mitchell Housing and Community Development.

As our city manager mentioned, I'm here to provide our funding recommendation for our small scale rental development program.

Today I will provide a brief overview of the program itself.

The small scale rental development program was funded through the 2020 Affordable Housing Bond.

The goal of the program is to provide missing middle housing throughout Raleigh.

This year is the fourth year of the program where we made available $3.44 million to support the rental development through GAP financing.

And we also made available 31 city-owned lots to support the creation of additional or conclusive or combined affordable rental developments.

The notice of funding availability required that at least one-third of all units be set aside to households earning no more than 60% of the area median income, which as of 2025 for a family of four is $79,000, or for a single individual is about a little over $55,000.

And the remainder of the units would be restricted to households serving up to 80% of the area median income, which this year for a family of four is 104,000.

We received a variety of applications that we followed the evaluation criteria set forth here to determine which applications would move forward.

As you'll notice, these criteria are very similar to many of the items included in our other rental development programs.

Those are the bonus points.

The first being the bonus points for applications that provided deeper income targeting.

So more than one-third of the units were set aside to households earning less than 30% of the median income.

They could receive bonus points.

Additionally, there were bonus points made available to proposals that included a partnership between an emerging developer and an experienced developer.

The city has recently started piloting additional bonus points to encourage these types of partnerships and encourage capacity building among emerging developers.

One proposal submitted an incomplete application that was not reviewed further.

A second application has advanced through our initial review process and remains under staff evaluation.

We're consulting with multiple departments to ensure a comprehensive review and performing all of our due diligence.

A funding recommendation may be brought forth at a later time.

Today we are recommending council fund one of the proposals, which was received from Healing Transitions for their forward together development, which I will describe in a bit more detail on the next slide.

The proposed development will consist of 17 two-bedroom and four-bedroom units with one of the units dedicated to an on-site manager.

The development is designed to support wellness, peer connections, and recovery.

It offers a variety of communal spaces that were aimed to foster stability and family reunification.

The property is located on Healing Transitions existing women's campus, which is off of Glen Royal Road and is adjacent to grocery pharmacy and an elementary school.

Healing Transitions has engaged with WM Consulting as their project manager.

WM Consulting has extensive experience with commercial and residential development.

Additionally, Healing Transitions is completing their work on the men's shelter expansion that received $3 million from the city of Raleigh.

This project builds on Healing Transitions 20 plus years of experience providing trauma-informed peer-based services to address the growing need for recovery housing for women in Wake County.

And with that, we would request that council approve our commitment of 2.2 million dollars to healing transitions and authorize the associated budget transfer for the 2020 affordable housing bonds.

Thank you for your consideration, and I'm happy to take questions.

Thank you.

Uh questions.

No?

Do we have a motion?

Okay.

I think it's in your district.

It is.

No, no, it's fine.

It's fine.

Go ahead.

You're fine.

All right.

Do you have the second?

Second.

Okay.

Trying to give you lots of credit here.

Any further discussion?

If not, all in favor of the motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

Great.

See healing transitions out there.

Thank you guys for all the work you're doing.

Congrats.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And last thing on the manager's report today is just a shout out to one of our amazing employees in fleet services.

At its recent North Carolina chapter of the American Public Works Association conference in Hickory.

So if Rick can walt down, please tell me he's here.

I'll shoot Michael.

Oh, okay.

Well, we'll thank you for that.

We'll still acknowledge him in his absence.

With over 40 years of experience, Rick's leadership has led to significant progress in fleet sustainability, including the city's ongoing transition to electric vehicles and the integration of renewable diesel.

His leadership and innovative approach have positioned Raleigh as a leader in public fleet innovation.

And not only is he the North Carolina fleet manager of the year, he is being nominated as the National Fleet Manager of the Year at the National Conference.

And we'll find that out next year.

So hopefully, once he wins that one, he'll be here to accept that recognition.

So, Rick, I hope you're watching.

Please tell me I'll tell the man to watch it, right?

Okay.

So Rick, if you're watching the meeting today, congratulations and we're super proud of you.

And as you know, our fleet is everything from a pickup truck to golf carts to fire trucks and solid waste services trucks.

So our our fleet is pretty massive, and this is an amazing award.

And that concludes my report today.

All right.

We will wish him luck on the national championship.

Okay, next we have the report and recommendation of parks, recreation, and greenway advisory board.

Good afternoon, city manager, mayor, and members of council.

I am Kimberly Saran, project manager with the Parks Recreation and Cultural Resources Department.

Here to talk to you today about the neighborhood and community connections project.

I have with me Graham Bruns is uh with McAdams Engineering, our consultant for the project.

So I'll talk about project background and go through the four site locations.

One in Southeast Raleigh connecting to Sandraford Road Park.

And then in the western part of Raleigh Branch connection to the existing Water Creek Trail.

I'll go through community engagement.

Graham will take the schematic design review and then I'll talk about schedule and next steps.

Our project scope is Greenway Trail Connections at four sites.

There'll be easement acquisition, the standard width of the trail being asphalt between 10 and 12 feet.

There will be a few boardwalk structures at grade road crossings, and then the new city's wayfinding package will be implemented.

This is a 2022 bar park spawn project and with a funding for design and construction of four million.

So the four sites, as I mentioned, there's two in the eastern side of Raleigh, the Village Lakes community connection to the existing Noose River Trail, the Chastain community, which will provide a connection to Barwell Road Park, Southeast Raleigh Creek Road, connection to Sandraford Road Park, and then the Bushy Branch Creek, which will provide uh a connection to the existing Walnut Creek Trail just west of NC State.

So drilling down the first site, the Village Lakes community connection to the existing Noose River Trail.

There'll be about 240 households within that 10-minute walk circle.

Site two, the Chastain community to Barwell Road Park.

There'll be about 523 households within that 10-minute walk and providing that connection to Barwell Road Park.

In Southeast Raleigh, uh the Sanderford Road Park, Creek Road connection.

There's about 150 households within that 10-minute walk, and then also includes students coming from Southeast Raleigh High School over to Sandford Road Park.

There is evidence now that the students do traverse that way through the natural surface trails that are existing in Standerford Road Park.

Fourth site, again, just west of NC State, between Avon Ferry and Gorman Street, the Bushy Branch connection to the existing Walnut Creek Trail.

There's about eight apartment complexes within that 10-minute walk.

So our community engagement, the public participation goal was consult, where the public is informed of and can provide feedback on our alter alternatives.

We held one public open house and one public meeting.

There was about 1,200 postcards that went out to property owners, 21 yard signs.

The information was all provided in flyers in both Spanish and English languages and advertised on all the digital sites as well.

So the first public meeting was held at the Wanna Creek Wetland Center back in September.

It was a weekday afternoon.

All four sites were available for review, and there was about 20 people.

Thank you, Kimberly.

All right.

So uh like Kimberly said, we are designing connector trails that connect to uh larger Greenway, uh the larger greenway system.

Uh so the schematic there at the bottom, which may be hard to read, it's 10 to 14 foot, that's the city standard.

So we're mostly targeting 10 uh with the shoulders, uh, and we go up to 12 on one or two of them, but uh that's kind of the standard width.

Again, this is serving the neighborhoods, uh not necessarily the the larger public uh as through trails, but uh uh building those connections.

Uh our design is also going to include the signage and wayfinding, uh talking about the etiquette and regulatory stuff.

Um, and then we've also uh taken a look at uh preserving as much as possible the trees and some of the uh existing uh uh natural surroundings that we've got.

So I'm gonna walk through each one of these.

Uh again, the first one, this is at the end of Centipede Trail, and this uh formalizes one of the HOAs trails uh that uh uh goes through uh HO8 uh property uh and connects it out to the Noose River.

So the Noose River is there on the right.

Uh we do uh cross a small tributary and some wetlands, which are shown in blue and red there.

Um so that's an opportunity for a boardwalk.

Uh again, this will be a little bit steeper than what we typically like, um, but it's a short section and it does provide the connectivity uh with a paved surface.

Uh our second uh connection, uh this is from Marsh Lane Way uh to the existing uh natural surface trails there in uh Barwell Road Park.

Uh this uh is uh it follows the the creek there, uh not in the sewer easement.

We did want to uh get uh a little bit further around from the sewer easement and uh back to the houses there on Arbar uh court.

Um and we have met with uh transportation to talk about uh the connections across uh Marshall Marsh Laneway um and future connections out to Loose River.

Uh but this is uh uh again, just so that the neighborhood can connect into Barwell Road Park, uh, which there's not a direct connection today.

Can you just tell us how far the trail is from those houses?

I'm just curious how many feet.

Uh anywhere from a hundred to uh we I think we get down to about eighty feet there at uh one of them.

But uh there is there is a tree buffer uh beyond the sewer easement.

So a lot of folks thought that the sewer easement was where we were going, which is in the backyards.

Uh so we're beyond that.

And we we did meet with uh several folks that had that concern.

And once we told them it wasn't in that easement, they were like, oh okay.

Uh the uh I won't say there wasn't any concerns, but that that was their main concern.

Okay.

Um site number three, this is connecting uh Creek Road to uh Sandraford Road Park.

Um and there is a community center there in Sandiford Road Park, uh Kimberly had mentioned uh that the uh high school students there at Southeast Raleigh uh are currently walking uh making their way into the park uh through this uh church parking lot here, kind of the top uh middle of the screen.

Uh so we're formalizing uh this is one of the 12 foot wide connections and uh doing a uh crossing of Creek Road as well.

Uh we did meet again with transportation and we're exploring uh extending this crossing all the way up to the intersection there at the very top, that's a quartz uh quartz circle, I think.

Um, and the uh driveway that the buses are currently using uh for um uh the school.

So uh there's some challenges there with some of the grades and going that far north.

Um we are looking at either uh a hybrid beacon or a rectangular rapid flashing beacon uh with a pedestrian refuge on Creech Road.

Um and uh we have uh some warrants that support uh the rectangular rapid flashing beacon.

So that's uh that's the current recommendation, but we're exploring uh again going up to the intersection and uh connecting across into Sanderford Road Park.

Question.

The property that we're going across is owned by who?

That is owned by the church uh on the north side, so they own both those lots.

Uh so that's uh kind of our next steps is uh having those right-of-way uh engagement uh conversations.

Um there's been some preliminary discussions, but nothing formal yet with any uh anyone that we need the easements from.

Okay, but there has been already conversation with the church in it.

There's been preliminary ones, yeah.

We we haven't presented them with anything just yet.

All right, thank you.

All right.

Our last one, uh this is probably a longest section and that connects uh you can see Walnut Creek Trail is just on the bottom of the screen there.

Uh we do have uh we actually don't connect into Avant Ferry or uh Walnut Creek directly.

We tie to the existing sidewalks on Avon Ferry Road, and there is an existing uh uh hybrid beacon uh there at uh uh kind of halfway between uh Brigadoon Drives uh there where they connect in.

Um this follows the uh east side of the creek uh up and around uh this first apartment complex.

There's two tributaries that we cross uh on the north of the screen there, and those will be with a boardwalk.

They're very small connection or small crossings, um, and then we'll connect up to Gorman Street.

Um there are uh this is a tight corridor, and we will be working with the apartment complex on how to best make these connections.

Uh some of it will be back a curve of uh parking and a driveway, some may be in the driveway itself, and again, those are conversations that are uh going to happen with uh these uh uh property owners that we'll need easements from.

There have been some preliminary, like I said, uh conversations with this apartment complex, the big one around Brigadoon there.

Um and there has been indication that they are willing to work with the city.

And I believe that should be it for me.

It will probably be for next time.

Yes.

Was there any public comment?

I notice that you are going down the block to cross over and back.

Then any of the residents press concern that people are still going to cross directly over since the greenway is directly across the street versus going, I am assuming east and then south and then west.

Yes.

The residents have not had that specific concern, but transportation and us as the designers have been talking about that since the beginning.

This does not uh there is a guardrail, uh, which I don't know if I can draw on here.

Uh there is a guardrail right where uh the walnut creek comes out on Avon Ferry.

Um so there have there we have had those conversations of do we shut down this little connection and push everyone down to the to the signalized crossing and make them use uh the sidewalks.

Do we reroute that little connection on the south of of Avon Ferry as part of this project?

Again, yeah, the safety piece of that is you're gonna get folks who are going to run across five lanes.

And it's hard.

No matter what we do, they're gonna do that.

Uh so how do we design this so that that's not the first thing that people want to do?

So we have your radar screen to address it.

We haven't got a solution today, but that's one thing that we are working on specifically.

I am just I am asking again about the feet between some of the residences here, like what's the distance from the greenway to the to the residents?

Uh this one uh we are somewhat further.

Well, it it may not appear the scale is a little bit further out on this one.

Um if I could point, I wish I could point here, but um, that's not gonna work.

Um I want to say the closest we come is kind of right there in the middle, uh, those two buildings that are cornered in there.

Yeah.

Uh we're probably about 80 to 100 feet from them.

Yeah.

Uh there is a driveway that goes behind.

We're basically right at back of their driveway through there to access the parking on the back.

It also looks like at the very top, I can't tell if those are townhouses up there.

Maybe you are just showing the lot lines, but by the sort of Gorman's 1947 Gorman Street, that pink line goes right by the white.

Yes.

Yeah, that that's um that those are townhouses up there.

Uh it's probably about the same 80 to 100 feet.

And we are kind of down, uh we will be climbing up uh to meet Gorman, so we're kind of down below the elevation of those houses.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

Yeah, and can you just um on this particular one, how many private properties potentially do we have to go through?

Uh this one specifically, I think it's four.

It may, it depending on how you slice it, this um Kensington Park apartments has a couple parcels.

Uh so it may be at it it may be less property owners, uh, but it's it's not a huge number.

Okay.

And it sounds like there is at least one property owner in the prior and maybe an HOA in the first one, but nothing on the second for private property?

Correct.

Yes.

So there is uh one property owner, uh, two properties on site number three here.

This one is all uh city-owned property.

Um yeah, the first one is HOA and City.

And for the budget, does that include property acquisition costs, or will that be in addition to the park spond budget we have for this?

Uh the budget will need to cover the cost of easements, yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Thank you.

There's no other questions.

I can quick talk about the next steps.

So spring of next year, the design and the permitting will be complete.

Summer is when we expect to bid, and then construction will take about a year from fall of 26 next year to fall of 27.

Counselor Silver.

So it's fair to say on the last one, the Avon Ferry will get to see that design before it goes forward.

I just want to see how that connection crosswalk was resolved.

It seems like it is an ongoing conversation, correct?

It is an ongoing conversation.

As far as I know, this is the only time we formally present to council.

Okay.

If there would be a request, I am sure that could be accommodated to see the more detailed design.

Clearly, you know, I I trust staff is just, I am concerned, as both Graham and you had stated about, you know, even though there's a desire to cross at a protected crosswalk, my concern is people always look for the shortest distance.

Correct.

And so want to discourage that from happening.

Not sure why there is a barrier there.

I'm assuming there may be a slope as reasons for it, but I trust staff is has safety top of mind, and that that potential for people crossing is somehow addressed.

Either there's a crosswalk there or some other mechanism to prevent people from crossing five lanes.

Yeah.

And as Graham mentioned, we um are actively talking about that and trying to come up with solutions with transportation visit vision zero, et cetera.

Um yeah, thank you.

Yeah.

Any other questions or you had some next steps, right?

Yeah, so I briefly went through them.

Is there any other questions regarding timing or schedule or construction?

It's great work.

It will connect what sounds like I mean if you do all the math, thousands.

Yeah, absolutely.

Just quit so the plans have all four completed in the same time frame.

Correct.

Okay.

Yes.

There will be four separate projects, four separate submittals, but they're all together.

Yes, in one contract.

Okay.

All right.

So we have a motion and a second to approve the schematic design.

All in favor of the motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

Unanimous, thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Lauren Reed with Parks and Rec to talk about the South Park Heritage Trail.

I almost said good morning.

Hello.

How are you, Council?

Uh Madam Mayor and City Manager.

My name is Lauren Reed.

I am a Capitol Project Supervisor with Parks Recreation and Cultural Resources.

And I am here to present the schematic design for the South Park Heritage Trail.

We will do a quick overview, a summary of our community engagement, review the schematic design, and I'll talk about the estimated implementation schedule.

Our project scope is the creation of a heritage trail through the historic South Park neighborhood.

The budget overall budget is $4.5 million, with $3 million coming from our 2022 Parks Bond referendum and 1.5 million coming from a federal grant.

We also have 120,000 dollars allocated for public art.

Our design consultant on this project is Design Workshop.

And our concept design community engagement was done in conjunction with the Chavis Aquatic Center and the John P.

Top Green African American Cultural Center mostly last year.

And then our schematic design phase for just the South Park Heritage Trail had uh community engagement in September and October of this year.

Uh a little project background.

This was originally a community-initiated project.

The South Park East Raleigh Neighborhood Association or Sperna, Ms.

Lynette Williams, community members and other stakeholders worked with the North Carolina State uh University College of Design to produce the South Park Heritage Report in 2014.

And that report was the basis for our South Park Heritage Trail.

What is a heritage trail?

A heritage trail is a collective of features within the streetscape and other public spaces, which may include interpretive elements, art, signage that tell the area's history from the perspective of its residents.

And our goals are to celebrate the culture, history, and legacy of this special South Park community and through that strengthen the community relationships and access to resources through enhanced mobility, connectivity, and improved accessibility and safety for all users, and hopefully that will promote healthy living through exercise and education.

This is our South Park Heritage Trail route.

There are some starred locations to of landmarks to help orient yourself on the map.

The largest star is over our John P.

Top Green African American Cultural Center, which is also a 2022 Park Spawn project, and we'll be serving as the trailhead for the South Park Heritage Trail.

If we were to go west on Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard, we could then loop down Person Street towards the former Carolina Trailways terminal, and then go back up Blunt Street.

At that point, you could either take a the spur over to Fayetteville Street and the Mount Hope Cemetery, or continue north past Shaw University, up Wilmington Street to the Pope House, continue a little further north to uh Hargett Street, which was the former Black Main Street of Raleigh.

If you go east on Hargett Street over to the City Cemetery and John Winters Park, uh travel down Chavis Way past the former Carolinian newspaper locations, and then through the west part of the John Chavis Memorial Park, you can loop back to our trailhead at top green.

We have four different types of signage.

The first type is a decision point or directional signage, and there will be about 17 of those located throughout the trail.

Some of them will come with additional information panels.

The signage type number two are our perforated panels.

Those uh have a lot of flexibility for uh different types of images and text, and there will be about six of those.

Our third type is a branded pull banner.

These are actually going to be made of metal and located in our more urban areas of the trail where there's a little more visual competition along the sidewalk.

So uh people will be able to look up and see that they are still on the route.

And our fourth type are these informational pedestals, and these are able to be used alone or in conjunction with other elements.

These are renderings of the uh signs in actual locations along the route.

Uh I just want to note that the pink was just to match my outfit and is not indicative of the uh final colors of the project yet.

Those have not been determined.

Um other interpretive elements along the route will be uh certain items storytelling benches.

Uh these will be etched with words or images to help uh tell the story of our route.

Uh there'll be a natural stone bench over on Chavis Way.

My personal favorite is the viewfinder, which will be uh etched plexiglass that you'll be able to look through at a location and see what it looked like in the past.

We'll have some decorative pedestrian railings and uh metal medallions that will be inlaid in the uh sidewalk, and these are about two feet in diameter.

We have more renderings of what this might look like.

I just want to take this time to note that there are some pink trees.

Those uh are representative of the almost 30 trees that we'll also be adding along the route.

Uh we are also uh improving the sidewalks and connections.

We're going to be improving or adding up to 42 different uh curb ramps uh along the way and improving crosswalks.

So we have a public artist, that's Stacey Utley.

He is proposing three to four uh storytelling beacons along the route.

His storytelling beacons are going to be figures filled with historical images from the South Park community's own family photos, his school yearbooks, and other artifacts from the city archives.

Uh and oops.

We have a uh rendering of what this is, I believe the one that he's proposing near the Carolina Trailways uh location and what it might look like along the route.

Uh so our estimated schedule.

Uh we will be going into design development phase this fall through spring of next year.

The National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA Environmental Assessment Preparation will be will begin this fall and could potentially run through summer of 2027.

Uh construction documents and permitting will go from next spring through summer 2027.

Uh then we will bid and have contracts with construction starting in the fall of 2027 through the spring of 2029.

We have some significant schedule considerations.

Uh this project includes federal, state, and city of Raleigh permitting.

Uh and it is over three miles of linear project that is mostly done in the right-of-way.

So we have substantial interdepartmental and inter interagency coordination along with residential property coordination for the work.

We recommend the approval.

And I will take questions.

Questions from the question.

I just want to thank the community that started this process many years ago and continue to be involved and uh look forward to us trying to complete this project while some of them are actually still here with us.

So definitely look forward to council um approving this at the appropriate time.

Right.

Yes, Councilor Silver.

Two questions.

One, uh we know Federal grants, a lot of conversations about what's going on.

Is this one secure or is there a date certain when a project has to be completed to ensure we maintain a 1.5 million in federal funding?

I believe all of our money has to be spent by the and by November of 2029.

2029.

Yeah.

And no NEPA.

The Environmental Protection Act can be a painful process.

You're showing two years.

Is that a fair estimate?

Because it seems like you can't start construction until you get your certificate after the NEPA.

Is that a reasonable estimate?

Usually transportation project, I can see two years.

This one seems to be a little bit different.

So is that a fair estimate, or do you think that could be shortened?

We're not sure yet.

Okay.

My last question.

I was here while we were involved in the current wayfinding system.

I just want to know who is going to own the signage system.

Is it going to be uh I guess this is a question also for the city manager?

Is parks, recreation, cultural resources, is the Department of Transportation, because I know over time our current wayfinding system has leaning polls, the one entry sign coming in off of Capitol near Long Leaf that was hit and never replaced.

So I just want to understand, you know, it's key to have it, but who is going to maintain it over time?

So do we know what agency is going to be the owner of the system?

Is it Parks Cultural Resources?

And what is the maintenance expectation because things happen in the public realm?

Primarily it will be the city.

Um and ultimately will be under the leadership of Parts of Recreation and Cultural Resources, because it touches to her point of local, state, and federal, we will have some interagency coordination to be able to be responsible.

But since it's our project, at the end of the day, there's probably the expectation, and I am sure all of our project managers and folks in the room would say that the majority of maintenance and upkeep will fall on the shoulders of the city.

All right, thank you.

So I have uh two questions.

Just because this is near Fayevill Street, and we're talking about Fayetteville Street connections to Wilmington Street and uh Councilor Lambert Melton's committee.

And then we also have the strollway.

Um I'm just wondering as we think about signage art and you start introducing one pattern here, like how do we coordinate the efforts between these three projects to make sure that we're not creating a hodgepodge of signage design, et cetera.

This guy's kind of call a friend.

That's an excellent question, Mayor.

One of the things we are doing is this is going to be the basis design for the strollway as well.

So the look and feel might be a little bit different, but when you are walking, you'll know you're on a Raleigh cultural trail.

Though it might be a different embedded emblem, but uh you'll realize uh whether it be an LGBTQ monument or a strovaway monument or one of these that you're on a Raleigh cultural trail.

So that's an excellent question.

Well, and while you're there, so my second question was about Oberlin Village, where we have done just incredible work uh honoring the history and had so much citizen engagement there.

And if correct me if I'm wrong, but there is not a physicality to that currently, like this is being proposed.

So uh and I understand this was a bond package, this is funded, you know, we've got uh all sorts, and Oberlin Village has not been, but I'm just wondering if there's some lessons or could we piggyback on some of these efforts to then bring a more physicality to the Oberlin Village Trail and history?

Yeah, I think because we're creating a I want to say a template but a basis of design, this could be replicated as we identify other cultural trails throughout the city.

So getting this right was really important, and now we're working with engineering and transportation on strollway and uh RHDC on the LGBTQ plus monuments as well.

So great.

Thank you.

Okay, so we need to make a motion.

Move for approval of the schematic design of the South Park Heritage Trail.

Okay.

Any other discussion?

If not, all in favor, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

Uh and that passes unanimously.

Right.

Uh next we have the report and recommendation of the Raleigh Commission for Persons with Disabilities.

And I believe we will also have uh someone with the American Sign Language Interpretation coming for this segment.

Raquel Gill with economic and social advancement, and then uh Philip Woodward is the Commission co-chair.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

My name is Raquel Gill, and I serve as the community relations supervisor for the Department of Economic and Social Advancement.

I'm honored today to introduce Mr.

Philip Woodward, the co-chair of the Raleigh Commission for Persons with Disabilities.

Mr.

Phillip will present to you today the annual report for the fiscal year 2024 and 2025, the annual work plan for 2025 and 2026.

In addition to these two items, he will also present information regarding a requested exception to the RCPD bylaws, which we which will be presented to you at a later date this year.

I'll turn it over to Mr.

Phillip.

Thank you very much, Rakel.

Good afternoon.

Can everybody hear me okay?

All right, perfect.

I'm hard of hearing myself, so I want to make sure nobody has any trouble.

I will talk about the Riley Commission for Persons with Disabilities annual part and annual work plan.

I am Philip Wardward, the vice chair of the Commission.

Dr.

Ricky Scott is our chair, and he asked me to be available to present today.

So the Riley Commission for Persons with Disabilities works to address the needs of people with disabilities and their families in Raleigh.

The formation statement is up here for you to read if you would like to.

I want to go over a few annual report highlights from fiscal year 2025.

We hosted the following events.

The first was an employer resource day event in celebration of the Americans with Disabilities X 34th anniversary on July 11, 2024.

And then a month later, we hosted a transportation town hall on August 19th.

And then in October, we had an awards banquet in celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month on October 28th.

That was last year.

And we just had another one in October 20th this year.

It's great to have Mayor Janet Carroll and several of our city council members attend and participate.

I would like to share some issues and goals for fiscal year 2026.

The Commission works to make Raleigh more accessible for residents, employees, and visitors with disabilities under the five focus areas.

Focus area number one is community and transportation assets.

Focus area number two is education and employment.

Number three is health, wellness, and recreation.

Number four is housing.

And number five is public awareness.

And I want to make a comment about number four.

And we are supporting that commissioner to attend the inclusive housing summit, which hope North Carolina, one of our recent award winners, will host in Chapel Hill later this month.

But we have not planned a specific project around housing yet.

The slide shows some issues and goals that the commission plans to focus on fiscal year 25 and 26.

We work with the City of Raleigh Transportation Department to ensure that the ADA paratransit system for people who are unable to drive will go and work and operate as smoothly as possible.

And other issues of concern for the commission are affordable and accessible housing, which I just pointed out.

Opportunity for competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities.

And ensuring the crosswalks, community parks, and other public spaces are accessible to everyone.

I mentioned the awards banquet that just occurred on October 20th at the McKeman Center, where many of you are there watching and participating.

The goal of the event is to recognize organizations, businesses, and individuals who make Raleigh a more accessible place for people with disabilities.

And our strategy in hosting it is to solicit nominations from the general community and host an award luncheon with the keynote speaker.

A second event that we would like to plan would be a developmental disabilities awareness month event.

The goal would be to promote awareness of people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities during March, which is National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month or some other type of similar observance in 2026.

And then authority event, which is one of our long-time signature events, is the Employer Resource Day, which we foresee hosting in the spring or summer of 2026.

The goal is to assist employees, employers, and better understanding strategies and best practices in hiring, accommodating and retaining employees with disabilities.

And our strategy would be to have a person with a disability speak or a panel of people with disability speak to educate employers in attendance on the topic.

We have some community outreach ideas that would involve in participating in the Engage Raleigh Expo to educate participants about the Raleigh Commission for Persons with Disabilities and his mission and to recruit new members.

We participated in this event in 20 September 2024, but not this year.

And we also want to take advantage of media opportunities, such as the recent opportunity that Dr.

Ricky Gott and I received to interview on my Carolina on CBS 17 on October 10th.

That was the cover photo you saw earlier featuring me and Ricky.

So this has budget line item where we would like to propose using $6,000 to provide scholarships for students with disabilities in higher education.

$3,000 to plan and host our employer resource day event.

$8,000 to plan our and host our awards banquet.

$5,000 for ADA accommodation, such as American Sign Language Interpreters, captioning, Bell Large Print, and other accommodations that help people with disability fully participate in meetings and events.

$1,000 for public outreach materials.

$1,500 for recreation to provide opportunities for low-income children with disabilities to attend summer camps like camp friendly for people with disabilities.

And $500 for a conference fund to help Commission members participate in conferences relevant to our work plan.

I want to point out that the Commission is working on updating its bylaws or will work to update them.

And we would like to seek guidance from the City Council on two items.

Item number one in the work plan would be guidance on potential term limits.

Bring both experience and institutional knowledge that's valuable to the commission that we do not want to lose.

And we would like to seek guidance on potential membership residency.

The Commission over the years has benefited from members who may not reside in the Raleigh City limits, but who reside within the metropolitan area and who work for Raleigh-based government agencies or own businesses in Raleigh.

I want to thank you all very much for your time and your attention today.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Do we have uh questions for Mr.

Woodward?

Not necessarily a question, but um definitely I'm looking at the bylaws questions they have in the membership residency.

I know for some of our other commissions, if we had individuals who worked in Raleigh, they we did do some appointments if they had a item of skill or profession that would help address that matter.

So I would just say if we can hand this over to our city attorney to look into that and look at what some of our other commissions have done to see where we can find some common ground here.

Yeah, and I'm I think the city attorney, but also Evan Raleigh, since he was working so closely on the citizen advisory uh might have insights.

Yep, Councilor Patton.

Yeah.

And to to build on that, um kind of to to speak to both of these comments.

Um I think part I think some of what we would need to inform us is historical information on how much either of these things are in play.

So historical information on um past membership, like how many members in the past have been these not these folks not residing in Raleigh, but having other ties to the area.

Um then on term limits.

I I if I had to guess, I would suspect that like there are many tenured members of the commission right now, and the fear is that if term limits are imposed, some of folks would roll off very quickly, which I think we would want to allow for an off, you know, an off-ramp so that you can build your succession plan, but perhaps not um just sort of immediately jumping to a full cloth exception.

So I think we might look to staff for historical information on both of these.

Um that hasn't isn't yet compiled because this hasn't been a commission of the council until very recently.

I guess I would have another question, which is I appreciate the budget and the the specific breakdowns there.

Do we have past information on budget, or maybe you can even tell me is that similar to what you had last year, or is that the change?

In recent, yes, the commission has received 20,000 per year.

Okay.

And so the budget breakdown I presented to you is similar to reason you just put the $5,000 extra brought out.

Okay.

I will also I I really appreciate the work you all are doing and the awards banquet was impressive.

Um thought is I have recently um visited um, as did Councilor Branch, the Saw Your Road yesterday, where I know there's a number of units dedicated for folks with physical disabilities.

And then I was also at Grosvenor Gardens, which is another city uh supported project, which was uh has targeted units towards uh folks with intellectual and uh developmental disabilities, given that you have some focus area there, there might be um opportunities to collaborate with some of the individuals that are actually living in city housing and advocates for these areas, yep.

I have a question.

The term limits issue, was that a recommendation that came out of the special committee on boards and commissions?

Uh we revised all the charters to standardize and right now under the new standardized uh language, everybody has term limits.

So that's why I think Councillor Patton is suggesting that we want to make sure they're not having some cliff roll-off of a lot of valuable members, but I think we're we don't want to revert to no term limits since we just instituted sort of a uniform uh new set of charters.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

I will add I well I wasn't on that committee.

I will just add that for um specific commissions like this one, where um, you know, I think there are very specific members of our community that can serve on this commission that the term limit may present a more significant burden than to some of our other boards and commissions.

So I think we ought to be considering that as well.

Um but I also, you know, I I trust the recommendations of the working groups.

Yeah, and we also just uh counselor Jones and Patton and I were on our uh talking about this and also said we need staff input on this because we understand this is a fairly, you know, it it is a unique uh advisory board and we want to make sure that we are accommodating, you know, if if they need that uh exemption.

Yep.

Um just curious, um, Mayor, are you the liaison for this?

Or do we have it's okay, Councilmember Patton.

Um and then also curious for budgets.

Do we have any guidance or limits for any of our boards and commissions, or is it really variable?

Do we have any?

We will bring that back in the first early part of the spring when we bring forward budget recommendations and we kind of look at last year's actuals and kind of what had been the trend.

So as you mentioned, in the years past it's been 20, and this is a $5,000 increase.

So we will take all of that in consideration as we look for each one of the boards that we financially support.

And so if we approve the report or the plan, are we approving the budget or no?

No, you would approve it, and the budget would be contingent upon your overall approval of the FY27 budget.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

And it sounds like I mean here the recommended action is receiving the annual report as information.

So I don't think we're voting today.

All right.

Anything else?

It sounds like we have a number of follow-ups because you have posed many good questions in this report.

Yeah.

So, Philip, thank you so much for being here.

Um thank you for all the work that you and your other commissioners do in our community making our city more accessible for for all our residents.

Um we really appreciate that.

I will I'll also encourage you uh on that step four of housing.

I know this is an area of great importance.

So if a project occurs to you or if an opportunity for a housing-related project bubbles up, please seize the opportunity and come back to us with a an update to your work plan, and we'll be happy to support it.

And then we'll ask for additional follow-ups from our staff related to these um exceptions to the bylaws that you have requested.

So I guess we don't need a motion, so just thank you.

This is Philip, yeah.

I learned some things in the affordable housing presentation earlier that's happened and that immediately caught my interest.

So I wanted to get our slider.

Thank you.

Thank you again.

All right.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at Nick Yajoide Banquet again.

Thank you.

Mayor, they did.

Um didn't they have as a part of their presentation their annual work planning?

So we need to we would need to say we have to approve the annual work plan.

Yep.

Move to approve the work plan.

Second.

All right.

All in favor of that motion.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Okay.

Thank you, uh City Attorney.

All right.

Uh next we have the report and recommendation of the Stormwater Management Advisory Commission, and we have uh Wayne Miles with Engineering Services and Graham Smith, the Commission Chair.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to come talk to you about the stormwater management advisory commission's annual report and work plan.

I am Wayne Miles, Stormwater Manager and Engineering Services.

I have with me today two members of SMAC, Graham Smith, who is the chair of SMAC and is a practicing landscape architect, familiar with green stormwater infrastructure.

Um he was the principal designer on the city's Wooton Meadows project, which was a collaboration between parts and stormwater that won a Sir Walter Raleigh Appearance Award.

Um also have with me the SMAC liaison to the planning commission, Samantha Crop, and she is uh with an environmental nonprofit, has a background in water quality and environmental advocacy.

With that, I will turn it over to Graham who will present today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of council.

Um let's go through this.

We um ten people kind of representing a variety of voices and somewhat expertise um but passions across the city.

Um all of our smiling faces, we look happy at that meeting.

Um we do have a mission and a vision um associated with the department and division.

Um we're there to support and advise the management program, the stormwater management program as they seek to manage stormwater preserving, protecting life, you know, supporting healthy natural resources, and and complementing that sustainable the idea of sustainable growth in the city.

Um we have a vision once again tying to this the uh overall program's vision of of working with them to create the smartest stormwater program um that is economically unfairly um uh to achieve the mission.

With that, the annual report, I'm not gonna read all of this.

Um we do a lot of things in this situation.

Um we do a lot of listening, providing feedback.

You see the level of of improvements that are being done every day across the city.

Um there's some new financing that's coming on board that the that the program is coming through, and so we're seeing a lot of active work in the community um with the drainage assistance programs, the stream stabilization program, which is relatively new, um, getting a lot of work there, and then just general capital improvements.

So in that we're not approving, we're just reviewing and providing feedback.

Can you go back just for this stream stabilization program?

2,000 live stakes.

What is could you just explain that?

Yeah, those have been that's what you see the small picture there, the little green uh they look like little flags sticking out of the burlap there.

Those are live stakes, those are willow stakes basically stabbed into the ground.

Um they're sticks from uh native plants that once wet, they repopulate the bank and grow into woody plants.

So thank you.

And that's in one year that the live stakes have been in the last year have been installed.

Yep.

Uh we do approve uh some component of the Raleigh rainwater rewards, and don't know if this is a record, but it was a significant amount, over half a million dollars last year, 35 projects.

Um there have been you see a project here, uh Gateway Plaza, um, 10 cisterns capturing 900,000 gallons of stormwater rain off runoff, and that's immediately adjacent to the pigeonhouse creek.

So there's some large scale efforts, particularly around Pigeon House Creek that are happening, um, but also multiple projects across the city.

So it's been a really nice spread.

There's been a uh effort by the city staff to spread the drainage assistance, the stream stabilization on the Raleigh rainwater rewards projects across the entire city.

Um so it's uh it's nice to see that.

Uh water quality projects you see that the staff has been working internally, and we review these, but don't fund don't you know acknowledge the funding or any of that.

Um but we do review what's happening, green stormwater infrastructure in front uh projects at Worthdale Park, Lyons Park, um the stream restoration at North Carolina Museum of Arts, and then some work at Gibson Play Plaza.

So that's a lot of the internal work that staff is doing, and we're here to support that and review that.

Um the capture at art contest, that's a fun thing for us, uh tied to the um environmental advisory board.

When they have the Earth Day celebration at it's been at Dix Park the last few years.

Um we receive entries from high school, middle school, and college students.

Well, not college students in this in this category, uh, but the art contest, their videos and and uh still art, and so it's really awesome for us to see that, and then we kind of do some uh secret polling and and go through that process.

So that's organized by staff, but great to present to the students.

And that was in the lobby here, too.

I think all of this stuff was put up afterwards here.

Um of the uh work that we're reviewing, uh, some of the GSI work, they've the new GSI maintenance team that's been stood up between parks and stormwater.

That's that's uh we've interacted with that staff.

Um the utility fee rates that did change a little bit for fiscal year 26.

Um operational social impact strategy stuff that we've been working on.

Um we've really dove into a bit of rezoning cases uh based on feedback from council, but also at you know, at of course our liaison works, Samantha works directly with planning commission in an advisory role.

So when we're asked to be participate, we participate from the planning commission.

Um stormwater control, um, there's some maintenance reimbursement process, some new stuff there with private private lands and and public dollars and things.

Um the new stormwater design manual took a long time staff working through that, tying that back to the new state program.

Um, so that's been effective for about a year.

And the class five community we but the flood insurance thing, which you guys maybe heard about that before.

Um, so the 25% discount on flood insurance.

So some great work uh being done by the program.

We do believe that we align with your um some of your strategic plan initiatives, and here are four of those providing uh more access for residents to the climate resiliency programs, working to keep neighborhoods safer from flooding.

We uh definitely seek to implement smarter green stormwater infrastructure and supporting residents who are living in flood plone areas, flood flood-prone areas.

Moving forward, um we went through a uh kind of a facilitated internally facilitated process of a couple meetings, and we came up with about 14 different work priority items, distilled that down to 10, and these are our top 10 moving forward, and as we kind of categorize those.

Um number one priority moving forward and 26.

Uh working with planning and development cases of stormwater interest, once again, when we're asked to participate in those in the planning commission when they're have a stormwater um component to them.

Our liaison and staff are bringing those to our meeting, and we're having a representation and discussion about those cases.

Um continue to advance Raleigh's floodplain management program.

We were all pretty excited about where it's gone and the next steps that it's going to take.

We've received some really good information lately.

Um we'll continue to review the operational on CIP budgets and then also possible uh any fee rate proposals and kind of be a sounding board for staff on that.

Um advance the flood early warning system, um, once again tied to the floodplain management approach.

Review new drainage assistance on stream stabilization projects.

There's given the new funding approach that the program is coming out with.

We um there's there'll be a and some staffing that they've done, there'll be more uh DAPs and stream stabilization projects moving forward.

So we'll see a lot more activity in the city.

Um the sixth priority would be support watershed planning and public engagement.

Staff has done a lot of that across the city.

Um we're continuing to see that and encourage the um the engagement process and make sure that everybody is informed of of their impact and their role in watershed planning.

That's kind of a large-scale effort.

Um we'll review major CIP projects.

We love the field tours, we get out and see things.

Um we've we've gotten our our shoes muddy um quite a bit, and it's been really good.

A rainy day is a great time to see a stormwater project, so it's it's nice to do that.

Um hopefully continue to advance the green the GSI action plan, green stormwater infrastructure, um, and then repairing and stream buffer programs, continue to get feedback about that across the city.

And supporting the pilot pipe and public engagement program.

That's kind of an asset management approach that's internal to the city, so we're um learning more about that and how we can support that across the city.

A lot of old pipes in the city, and uh city is continuing to document that as um and there's a really nice way that they're organizing that.

With that, I'm here to answer questions, as is Council uh Commissioner uh Crop and Wayne.

So thank you for that report.

Questions, yeah.

Um not so much a question, but I just want to say thank you to the SMAC uh committee, and uh it's been an honor to attend the meetings and learn alongside you.

I also like the field tours that we do afterwards.

Um and the work that you guys are doing is is instrumental, especially in our rezoning.

I've really appreciated your feedback uh and being part of that process.

So um thank you for allowing me to sit in with you and to learn.

Um but you guys are doing a phenomenal job, so thank you.

Thank you.

Other commentary?

I would just say, I mean, this is incredibly important work and moving to a five on the community flood rating scale is a big deal.

So appreciate that.

And um you've got a lot of irons in the fire here.

So thank you for it.

Sounds like you're all all full-time employees based on all of this.

It's an amazing program, we're just supporting.

So I hope Wayne's injury is not work uh work related.

On the heel.

Okay.

Awesome.

Well, I move to approve the uh stormwater advisory commission's work plan.

Any other debate, conversation?

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Thank you all.

Okay, next we've got the report of the Economic Development Innovation Committee, uh, Councillor Lambert Melton.

Thanks.

Um I have a few of two motions.

Uh first, the EDI committee recommends the following.

One, uphold staff's recommendations with certain amendments for phase one of the Fayetteville Street streetscape enhancements estimated at 1 million dollars, and authorize the city manager to appropriate proceeds from the dis the disposition of the city owned property at 10 wet South Street for this purpose.

Amendments to the staff recommendation include modify rather than remove horizontal planters and emphasize incorporation of art and artistic elements in the new streetscape features.

So moved.

Second.

Any discussion or questions?

If not, all in favor, aye.

Aye.

All oppose nay.

Uh second, we recommend that uh sorry.

Uh we I move to direct staff to bring back funding recommendations for the design and construction of a band stage at City Plaza and for permanent art installations on the City Plaza pedestals.

Funding recommendations for these items can be identified via a budget note during the fiscal year 26-27 budget development process, so moved.

Any other discussion or questions?

In the presentation, they mentioned a water feature of the city plaza.

Um how was the conversation there?

We we have pivoted from a water feature to the band stage.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

All right.

So that is unanimous.

Thanks.

And so just for clarification, you're asking for a budget note on that item.

Yes.

The second item would be a budget note during the fiscal year 26-27 budget development process.

Okay, thanks.

For the band stage and the plaza pedestals.

And Mr.

Raleigh has this because he prepared it for me.

So that was the only item we had in committee, and we will not meet again until the new year.

All right.

Thank you for that.

Next uh growth and natural resources.

Uh no report, no items pending.

Okay.

And then Safe Fibrant and Healthy Community Committee.

So one item to report out around our commercial trash pickup.

Um we had a great conversation.

Um I want to thank the community members that showed up, the vendors that showed up, as well as our city um attorney for her work and working with all of them and bringing us to, I think, a good point.

We are not going to recommend an ordinance at this time, but we do have some recommendations that I will read here.

And my motion is that we remove this from committee with a recommended changes to direct staff to review the site plan process regarding dumpster placement, create a database for citizens' complaints related to commercial trash pickup, and bring a report on how our weather citizens' complaints were addressed, which were brought to count council at some point in the first quarter of 2026.

So move.

Second.

Yep.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Council Branch?

Okay.

All in favor of that motion.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

All right.

So that passes unanimously.

And the last thing is there will be no meetings scheduled based on calendars for the safe vibrant healthy community for the rest of the 2025 calendar year.

Okay.

And then we have the Transportation and Transit Committee.

Yeah.

Transportation and Transit Committee has one item pending regarding citizen initiated street closures for calendaring reasons.

We too will not meet until the new year.

So our tentative uh date for taking this up is January 22nd from 3 to 5 in council chambers.

Okay, thank you.

Uh next we have report of Mayor and City Council, and we will start with Councillor Jones.

It's time to switch it up instead of starting at the end.

Throwing me off.

All right.

Um I just have two things.

Our next district E community meeting will be on Thursday, November 13th at La Cucina Italian restaurant from 6 to 8 p.m.

Due to Veterans Day.

Public comments will be held during our normal meeting time on Wednesday.

So we have rescheduled for the following evening.

And then our decoding democracy book club will meet on Saturday, November 15th at Oberlin Regional Library from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

We are continuing our discussion of Article 6, which begins to delve into all of our departments.

Thank you.

Okay.

I didn't know which way you were going to go.

So just two things.

One to all of our veterans, thank you for your service.

Please enjoy your veterans' day and every day.

Again, thank you for everything that you've done for our country.

Also, I would mention that our next district C meeting and the final district C meeting of this calendar year will be November the 17th at Lions Park at 6.30 P.M.

Yes.

We will also have a district D town hall meeting.

That will be on Saturday, November 22nd at 9.30 a.m.

at the Carolina Pines Community Center.

We will have affordable housing and public safety topics and staff there presenting and offering answers to resident questions.

Okay.

Mayor Pro Tem, do you want to First I want to thank staff and I thought I saw Bill King slip in, but he may have slipped out.

I attended an event downtown on a Saturday about two weeks ago.

And um had an opportunity to see all the lighting that y'all have put up down there.

And there are folks from out of town who were very impressed with the lighting features and all that on Federal Street.

So just wanted to give you some kudos and feedback that folks think that's pretty cool when they walk through downtown on the weekends on um Federal Street.

Um and it's a conversation about zoning and development.

And Councilmember Silver has graciously agreed to be one of my panelists.

And I've got um several other folks from the community, Vet Homes, uh James Montague and Terrell Midget that would be panelists as well.

So feel free to come out and have an open conversation about zoning and development.

No report.

Um lots of community meetings being announced.

I also have a meeting on um Thursday the 6th at Marsh Creek Community Center at Town Hall from 6 to 8 p.m.

Topics will be uh traffic, trees, and taxes.

Um so we'll have short comments from our staff to open us up, and then there will be um folks can move around the room to get more individualized answers to their questions at to add tables.

Um that's my update there.

Um good things we did through the consent agenda today.

Uh we made a we created a partnership with um between Marsh Creek Park and Raleigh City Farm to um further the community garden work at the park and and further the impact of Raleigh City Farm.

Um so really excited about that.

Um two items I have.

One, I um we received a request from the American Heart Association to modify our ordinances to be uh aligned with state statute, um particularly with uh with updates related to e-cigarettes and tobacco.

Um e-cigarettes and vaping.

So I'd like to ask the city attorney to uh circulate to us some information on how we might go about um being responsive to their request.

Um and then I've for the manager, I've received some resident inquiry related to pickleball at Honeycutt Park.

I know we were um provided some information about the pickleball plan brought more broadly, but I wonder if staff could provide us with a little bit of analysis on usage of the existing basketball court and demographic information service use, et cetera, for pickleball at Honeycut Park.

And that's all uh I had a uh district A community meeting last week.

It was well attended.

About of those that showed up were asking questions about the Old Wake Forest Road and the Dixie Forest Road Improvement Project.

I was very delighted to share that the Syria city is currently working on permitting.

So while their anxiety was relieved, they did invite me out to fully understand all the traffic issues and concerns around Middle Book High School around this project and Lichford.

So I will go out for a site visit and I'll report back to staff uh some of their concerns.

But they were very gratified to know that the funds from the Six Forks uh reallocation project went to expedite this project.

So their concerns were alleviated uh once I shared that.

And again, half of those that showed up came specifically uh to talk about this project.

I will not be having another district a meeting.

I usually have it at end of the month in November or December.

And so I look forward to re-engaging residents in January.

Uh that is it for my report.

Okay.

I uh just wanted to recognize some of our local restaurants.

We all know we've got a great food and beverage scene here, and we have a very strong set of entrepreneurs uh that that make it so vibrant, and Michelin just named and recognized some of our restaurants.

So I just want to read through some of those.

Um the ones in Raleigh, so we know barbecue has got to be in the mix, and it was the pit, barbecue, and Sam Jones.

Uh we had pools downtown uh for American brewery bavana for Asian, St.

Rock uh for seafood, oysters and bar on Wilmington Street, Crawford and Sun, American, Jolie for French, Stanberry American, Malapata from Mexican, Brodetto for Italian, and Tamasha for Indian.

So those are that's a list of some great restaurants uh here in Raleigh, and just want to celebrate them uh and congratulate them on being recognized.

And that is it.

Okay.

So then next we've got appointments.

Good afternoon.

All right.

First is Board of Adjustment, one alternate vacancy, no nominees for that.

So that will be coming back.

Next is design review commission, one alternate vacancies, again, no nominees, that'll be coming back.

Planning commission, one regular vacancy.

Adam Walters received eight votes, so would be appointed his term, I believe December after um uh Miss Miller uh terms.

Police advisory board, one regular vacancy attorney slot, no nominations, so that will be coming back.

I just wanted to um these this is I think the third meeting that we've had three um uh of these boards come with no nominations.

And I know that I've looked through Granicus and I'm struggling, so I'm just wondering, is there uh a goal that we as council, I don't want to leave those seats.

I feel like when we do this and we let the the boards struggle with with how I don't know if any of these are dealing with quorum issues, but um is there a plan that as we as council want to take on, can we assign someone to help?

Like how how are we gonna move forward so we can get people uh nominated for these seats.

It's a good question.

Um I don't have an immediate answer.

Right.

Okay.

I and maybe just food for thought something to think about, we can talk about later, but I I just wanted to highlight that the it's been three meetings that we've had these three.

And one a couple thoughts.

One, sometimes we we've asked communications to do a push in the social feed, so maybe it's time for one of those to just see if we can get some more organic recruits through uh to apply through the website and then um for police advisory board where we're looking for an attorney slot, perhaps our our friends who might have access to a higher concentration of attorneys.

Um they're not interested.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, sounds like social media might be the next step.

And then if not, but I appreciate you raising it.

Yeah.

And maybe another thank you for that idea.

That's really great.

Well, I know we're gonna have a uh graduation from Raleigh Neighborhood College and Citizens Leadership Academy this month, so maybe if we can do a push there as well to gain some feedback that might be positive as well.

I'll just add, and I don't know who can do this.

Um we may want to reach out to the Way County Bar Association, particularly the Young Lawyers Division for the attorney slot.

Um Mayor Prochem Fort and I have we have uh moved on from the young lawyers division, and so there may be folks outside of our networks that that may have interest in serving thank you.

Staff will certainly take that feedback and work with our communications um friends on that.

Um next is nominations.

First arts commission, one regular vacancy term of Carl Wilkins is expiring, he would like to be considered for reappointment.

Move to reappoint.

Second.

Uh all in favor of that motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Okay.

Next is bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission, one regular regular vacancy term of Celia's Bravo Taylor is expiring.

Um, would like to be considered for reappointment.

So moved.

All in favor of that motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Okay.

Next, uh Raleigh Transit Authority.

Uh terms of four individuals are expiring.

All would like to be considered for reappointment.

We hadn't officially heard from Mr.

Daniels, however, the transit authority chairperson did reach out to staff this morning indicating he does wish to be considered and offered some additional attendance details.

Um so we have four.

That's Christian Daniels, uh, Leo Suarez, Mark Teague, and Latonia Williams.

Move to reappoint.

Are those attendance details in here?

Yeah.

Okay.

It's seven out of eighteen.

So the um the email that was shared uh cites that this member had some health issues at the beginning of the year and that their attendance has improved in the second half of the year, and that they've been a according to the chair, been a valuable member of the board.

Great.

Thanks.

Okay.

So you made a motion to approve all three point all four.

Do we have a second?

Okay.

All in favor of that motion, aye.

Aye.

And all opposed.

And that is unanimous.

Okay.

Um, sorry.

Okay.

Yep.

Um, lastly, substance use advisory commission, five regular vacancies.

We have the terms of four members here that are expiring.

Um, and as a reminder, we did have one resignation a while back that was announced bringing your total to five.

Um all of the four wish to be considered for reappointment.

Um, Mr.

Parada um ended up submitting an application yesterday.

So um, and also additional attendance information was provided by Mr.

Gibson in the agenda packet.

And uh this is one of my boards, and I just wanted to give some background on uh Mr.

Chris Gibson.

Uh he works in the field, has been really uh supportive of the um organization and helping us get out into encampments, and so some of his attendance has to do with him being in the field helping um people on the ground.

So um I'm really excited that he is still interested in in being reappointed.

So I'm I feel big yay for him.

I'm I'm happy he's there.

And then for that empty seat for Alicia Taylors, uh I think uh Mayor Cowell and I had nominated Ryan Haasfeld, but then we held it because of the commissions.

So if we can if you're still if we can place uh Ryan Hosfeld and his application should already be in Granicus.

Okay.

We'll bring um I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

So we can go yes, other than uh if we can get Ryan Hosfeld onto the ballot, and then for everyone else, I would move to reappoint all four.

Second okay, and Mayor, I'm comfortable if Council Jones wants to.

I I know we held the nominee.

I'm comfortable just voting on it today at the table to fill it.

Yeah, that would be great.

So moved.

All right.

So then uh cool.

Here we go.

Okay, so uh we're voting on all one big uh we voted to reappoint the four, and I I made a motion to just I guess suspend the rules and go ahead and get the nominee appointed as well.

Okay, so we'll take that as one big motion.

All in favor, aye.

Aye, all opposed, nay.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all.

Report and recommendation of the city attorney.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of council.

Many of you have been uh were contacted regarding Durham's the uh uh ordinance that Durham recently adopted a tenant protection ordinance.

And so I wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about what we have in Raleigh and what we as a staff are doing uh as a result of that.

So first, uh just very briefly, the ordinance that was adopted by Durham was intended to give tenants additional protection when a dwelling is considered imminently dangerous to health or safety.

Under the ordinance, landlords are prohibited from collecting rent when those dangerous conditions exist and even face misdemeanor charges for noncompliance.

Examples of the conditions that were included in the ordinance include things like unsafe wiring, structural instability, lack of potable water, and no functioning heat during the winter months.

Here in Raleigh, our minimum housing code already establishes a robust set of protections for tenants.

In fact, uh we regulate nearly 800 uh specific housing conditions, including uh structural safety, sanitation, weatherproofing, and pest control.

So, in many ways, our ordinance uh we believe meets or exceeds uh the Durham ordinance, but certainly tenants who encounter unsafe conditions can report violations through code enforcement.

The number is up on the screen, as well as they can go to our website uh and use the Ask Raleigh platform.

In addition to uh reporting those violations, state law already provides tenants with a private right of action against landlords who knowingly rent unsafe or unhabitable units under the unfair and deceptive trade practices act.

That statute allows tenants to pursue remedies directly without requiring the city to become involved, but we also have a number of resources here in the city of Raleigh.

Uh first and foremost, on our website currently, there is a tenant information page through our housing and neighborhoods, which I forgot our new name.

Housing and community development.

Thank you.

Already as a part of that, we have on our website a tenant information page, which had which has basic information uh for tenants and renters.

There's also a tenants' rights and obligations handbook that was developed several years ago by our Fair Housing Board.

It also includes information on renting, uh requesting repairs from a landlord, evictions, those type of things.

The city partners currently supports and partners with the housing justice project at Campbell University's Blanchard Community Law Clinic, which provides legal advice and representation to income qualified Raleigh residents facing eviction as well as helping with eviction uh prevention funding.

Also, at the courthouse, uh there is the Wake County Legal Resource Center, uh, which also provides assistance to tenants facing it eviction.

My staff has already begun working with code enforcement to review our minimum housing code to determine if there are changes that need to be made to our ordinance or our processes, and I've also already begun working with corporate I'm sorry, communications to develop an education and notification uh campaign so that tenants can better understand what resources are out there.

Uh that is my report for today.

Thank you.

Any questions for the city attorney?

Appreciate that update and report of the city clerk.

Mayor and Council, good afternoon.

You received with your agenda materials uh minutes from the October 21st work session and regular session.

Move for approval of the minutes, second.

All right, all in favor of the motion, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

Passes, thank you.

All right, next uh we have a motion to enter into closed session.

Uh the motion is uh pursuant to general statute 143 318.11A3 to consult with the city attorney in order to preserve attorney client privilege and general statute 143 318 1185 to establish or instruct the city staff or negotiating agents concerning a position to be taken by or on behalf of the city in negotiating the terms of acquisition, acquisition of real property by purchase option, exchange or lease.

So moved.

All in favor of the motion, aye.

All opposed, nay, and that passes.

All right, we are in closed session.

I think it's a good thing.

I think it's a good thing.

Okay.

So the council met in closed session and has nothing to report out.

And we are adjourned.

Until we are recessed until seven PM.

Yeah, you can't do it.