Raleigh City Council Public Comment Session - November 12, 2025
Raleigh City Council Public Comment Session - November 12, 2025
A public comment session was held on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, to gather citizen testimony on various city matters. Mayor Carroll and Councilmember Silver were absent and excused. Twenty-six individuals signed up to speak, addressing issues ranging from the Big Branch Greenway project and zoning changes in Oakwood to affordable housing, employee welfare, and community safety initiatives.
Consent Calendar:
- No specific consent agenda items were recorded in the transcript; the session proceeded directly to public comment and discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
Opposition to Greenway Project (Big Branch/Anderson Forest):
- Helen Kervin expressed firm opposition, stating the city plans to condemn one-third of her property and a 39-year-old conservation easement. She argued that the proposed route within the 30-foot riparian buffer would cause permanent harm to Big Branch Creek, exacerbating flooding and erosion, and violating NC Division of Water Quality standards.
- Elizabeth Scott stated strong opposition, asserting the city lacks the legal right to build a greenway on the easement due to its 1986 restrictions. She accused the city of public manipulation through photoshopped survey imagery that hid flood risks, tree removal, and safety fencing requirements.
- Cabin Curtain argued the project is a serious environmental, financial, and legal mistake. They criticized staff for using unproven justifications, fabricating data, and failing to address the grossly overbudget costs of Segment 1B.
- Taylor Stewart expressed concern that the city misled the public regarding the existence of a construction easement. They highlighted safety risks, including crossing a dangerous stretch of Six Forks Road with a 35% higher accident rate, and projected a poor user experience due to required fencing and manholes.
- Jane Hubbin argued that City staff's decision-making was biased, noting that nine of 14 Parks Board members voted against recommending the Route 1B streamside option. She cited undisclosed environmental risks, the lack of riparian protection, and the use of inaccurate survey imagery that failed to show actual site conditions.
Support for Oakwood Preservation:
- Matthew Brown (for Chris Crew) expressed support for the Oakwood neighborhood, noting its value as a cultural and historic asset. He urged the council to deny three proposed rezonings that would convert homes to offices, arguing this would decrease housing supply and reduce neighborhood vibrancy.
- Chris Crew expressed gratitude for recent preservation victories but strongly opposed the ban on participation by children under eight in the Raleigh Christmas Parade, arguing it threatens the tradition's future.
- A speaker identified as Chris Crew (continuing) expressed strong opposition to the current state of the Glenwood South area, citing specific incidents of crime and property damage in surrounding neighborhoods. They described the area as unsafe and criticized the so-called "vibrancy" fostered by the city.
Housing and Employee Welfare:
- An unidentified speaker (identifying as an unhoused individual and student) expressed concern regarding unsafe Airbnb conditions, describing mold and structural issues, and questioned city regulations on Airbnb inspections.
- Octavia Rainey expressed deep concern that city employees receive SNAP benefits and child care assistance due to inadequate wages. She urged the city to step up and support its "family" of employees, contrasting current efforts with past initiatives from her tenure.
- Mark Spankate (representing neighbors) expressed strong opposition to the upzoning of 101 North Bloodworth Street (Z25-101). They argued the request violates neighborhood sentiment, threatens the family-friendly nature of Oakwood, and sets a dangerous precedent for further residential-to-commercial conversion.
Community Support and Environment:
- Paul Geigel (representing Roots Initiative) expressed deep gratitude to the council for contingency funds, stating the investment helped transition three individuals from homelessness to stable housing and fostered peer leadership.
- William Hurst (representing the Outlanders) expressed thanks for the support received through partnerships with Roots Initiative and the Laza Park, sharing his personal story of overcoming homelessness.
- Athena Wallen expressed concern regarding rapid stormwater creek erosion in Brookside and other neighborhoods. She urged the council to implement an advisory hold on parcels adjacent to creeks, citing the compounding effects of development and erosion shifting property lines.
- Richard Hahn (Coach High) invited the council to support a "Coaches vs. Cancer" health screening event at Southeast Raleigh High School, emphasizing the need to address prostate and breast cancer in the community.
- An unidentified speaker at the end expressed a desire to change the narrative regarding the city's bioenergy project, advocating for increased transparency about water quality and EPA compliance.
Discussion Items
- No formal discussion items, reports, or board deliberations were recorded in the transcript. The session was conducted entirely as a public comment forum with no formal council responses or debates captured in the text.
Key Outcomes
- No decisions, votes, or directives were recorded in this specific transcript segment, as the event was a public comment session. Mayor Carroll and Councilmember Silver were absent.
- No specific next steps were mandated during this session, though multiple speakers requested future actions regarding zoning denials, greenway route reconsiderations, and policy changes on employee welfare and Airbnb inspections.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, thank you for joining us tonight for our public comment session. Uh it is Wednesday, November the twelfth. Uh Mayor Carroll and Councilmember Silver are absent and excused this evening. Um before we get started, we would like to acknowledge the uh Boy Scout Troop 104 that have joined us this evening for a civic engagement project. So thank you all for being here this evening. We have 26 people that signed up to speak tonight. Each speaker will have a total of three minutes. When it's your turn to speak, um I will call your name. Please come to the podium and speak into the microphone. If you have materials to be distributed to the council, please put them in the basket next to our clerk. Um a timer will be when you're three minutes are up. And uh as you can see on the right, there's a list of uh folks who signed up to speak so you can kind of track where you are on the list. Our first speaker tonight is Helen Kervin. Good evening. My husband and I built our home in 1993. The Raleigh Parks and Rec department is proposing to condemn at least one third of our property, as well as condemn a 39-year-old conservation easement that provides trail construct that prohibits trail construction to build a greenway less than fifty feet from our house and only twenty feet from the stream bank. For thirty-two years, we've seen what happens here after hurricanes or even just two inches of rain. And the flooding and erosion that worsened after the city removed seven trees and vegetation in our backyard for a sewer project. We urge you to listen to us who know this land firsthand, not to those who have only seen it on a map. Proponents of this route say greenways are routinely built in floodplains, but that misses the point. The city wants to build this greenway segment almost entirely within the 30-foot zone one reparian buffer, the area most critical to protecting water quality and stream bank stability. The North Carolina Division of Water Quality explains why this buffer matters. Quote repairing buffers protect water quality by filtering runoff, providing flood control, absorbing excess nutrients, moderating water temperature, controlling erosion, and stabilizing stream banks. Removing trees and root systems in zone one harms these functions. Please don't make a decision that will cause permanent harm to big branch, our neighborhood, and the city's credibility on environmental protection. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Kevin Guam. Hello everyone. Firstly, I want to express my concern on the undercover reporting approach by some media on the DEI issue in the city. We have thought this closing it in the video. So this is a very important matter because things have changed since February. The first thing I want to talk about is the new thing that you just released today in the media that about the 10,000 letters you're gonna send to Roddy Roddy's customers about the putting the one thousand dollar or four feet for the people one thousand dollars to be in the uh assembly in January and February. I think this is a good idea, but one thousand dollar on f on four forty hours. Do you need that much time to engage for the next comprehensive plan on transit only? This is a lot of time. And the second meta is that uh Radio duty customer is a good representative uh good representative, but you do not include people who ran their home from a public compasses. They are not Raleigh customers. So I think there's a real way for you to reach out of those people. Um I read the Raoul news an hour ago say you have one thousand that go to people with public s when we told those people need to think about who use the transit. Thank you very much. Thank you. Lisa Huggins. Good evening. I want to begin by expressing my deep disappointment with the public hearing for Z twelve twenty-five last month. My comments tonight are not directed towards Councilmembers Jones or Harrison. It was hard for me to process the complete lack of interest or support for the concerns repeatedly raised by residents. Countless emails, phone calls, meetings, and petitions were met with crickets. I'd like to know, did any of you actually visit the Glenwood neighborhood? Did you drive down Devereaux, Tilden, or Cleveland?
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