Photo credits: robryant
Over 30 citizens gathered on the evening of Monday, September 26, 2011 for the Renaissance Park candidates forum. The event was focused on this years City Council election, happening on October 11, 2011. The Raleigh Public Record has a voter’s guide that includes details on the housing bond, transportation bond, school board, mayoral races, and more.
If you missed our live tweets, these notes from the forum should be helpful.
Renaissance Park resident, Maurice Johnson, was the host for the evening and started things off with, “this forum is not only a chance for us to learn about you and your platforms, but for you to learn about the gateway for Southwest Raleigh.”
In attendance were uncontested District D representative Thomas Crowder, at-large candidates Mary-Ann Baldwin, Paul Fitts, and Russ Stephenson and mayoral candidates Nancy McFarlane and Randall Williams. Mayoral candidate Billie Redmond could not attend due to a prior commitment.
During the introduction, Johnson painted the financial impact for the Southwest gateway—the area South of MLK Boulevard, rail corridors to the East and West, and the city limits to the South. There are $370M worth of residential tax value and over $600M in commercial tax value. Along South Saunders, there are over 60,000 vehicles that pass by each day. “Can you imagine if Renaissance Park could capture 1% of this traffic? Consider the tax revenues for the City of Raleigh if we could capture that.” Johnson said.
Editor’s note: we tried to capture the essence of what each candidate said during their opening remarks and when they answered questions. If you were in attendance or are a candidate reviewing the following notes, please contact us to report any inaccuracies. We want this to be as fact-based as possible to allow citizens to make informed decisions for the upcoming local elections.
Opening remarks
Each candidate make some opening remarks.
Crowder’s opening remarks:
- You have the opportunity to influence four seats on City council
- It’s important to get out and vote, to be informed about the candidates, and how they can help your neighborhoods and the rest of District D
- We are about to kick off a branding and economic development initiative for Southwest Raleigh, all are invited to participate—the real estate community needs to be re-educated about our assets
- District D had the highest concentration of PHDs in the region, over time that has changed
- Vote for the bond referendum, one of the two road projects is Tryon Road
Stephenson’s opening remarks:
- Proud to be back at the forum
- Has planning commission experience and now an at-large councilor
- Over the last 10 years, with Meekor’s guidance, Raleigh has a great team, despite the economy
- The new comprehensive plan defines how we grow and how we protect the environment
- Renaissance Park is on the leading edge in building community with common space, green space, and a networked grid
- On debt – S&P says our overall debt it low to moderate, compared to other large cities and municipalities; Raleigh maintains a AAA rating
- Tryon Road improvements are needed and the debt shouldn’t impact this type of spending
- Supports the economic development and branding initiative Crowder mentioned
Note: Stephenson left the forum early to attend a prior engagement with a Citizens Advisory Council (CAC)
Baldwin’s opening remarks:
- Three proud accomplishments:
- Youth collaborative program with private funding – connect kids in needs and families in need with the proper agencies, creating efficiencies, not new organizations
- Spearheading the Rise up Raleigh concert
- Establishment of the cities’ economic development office
- Three goals for the next council:
- Small business / entrepreneurial office
- Dix park
- Improving transit, bus services that will lead to light rail
- The Southwest gateway is important, support and vote for road and housing bonds
- Talked about other corridor studies such as New Bern Avenue and Capital Boulevard
Fitt’s opening remarks:
- On Raleigh’s debt remarks, he thinks the past Councils choose wants vs needs. He cited things like if we needed round-a-bouts on Hillsborough Street?
- Three main goals for the next council:
- Public safety
- Focus is on finance
- Job creation
- He thinks Raleigh is not doing enough to recruit businesses
McFarlane opening remarks:
- Has lived in Raleigh for 30 years, and has been on Raleigh City Council for 4 years. During that time, she learned a great deal on how the city operates.
- Three main goals for the next council:
- Planning for good growth
- Maintaining our quality of life
- Maintaining our sense of place
- The Comprehensive plan is setting the tone for all three of these goals. “We are where we are now because of our planning.”
Williams opening remarks:
- “When I think of Raleigh, I think it has character.” He contrasted this statement and talked about Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), and Superintendent Tata having trouble recruiting teachers.
- On growth, Williams said the Raleigh has picked the low lying fruit, the next 10 years are going to be challenging.
- Three main priorities for the next council:
- Jobs are important
- All candidates agree on Dix being as a destination park, wants to help the governor deal with how we fund mental health
- Growth – it’s going to be more difficult, we need to preserve the quality of life
Questions & answers
What is your vision for the southern Raleigh Gateway corridor?
Crowder – What is the communities vision? As Mary-Ann Baldwin mentioned, there were several corridor studies and this is one equally as important.
Used car lots and tow lots are underutilized. There are several opportunities to redevelop. Many of these areas were identified by District D residents during the Comprehensive Plan update.
The key for this corridor is to get the stakeholders together.
McFarlane – Echo’s the need to understand the business community and involve all stakeholders
Fitts – Talked about an opportunity for a school on Dix.
What can you do to promote the SouthWest area and capture tax revenues going to neighboring municipalities?
Fitts – Sees this area as a Brier Creek in the making. Perhaps a plaza style is possible.
Baldwin – A gateway study would help formulate the strategy (based on assets).
Williams – Talked about the Hawthorn Effect, and referenced Boston and Palo Alto as income sources for investment firms.
What is your stance on issues like student housing, front yard parking (FYP), and the PROP that impact our quality of life?
Baldwin – FYP should look at a University District, not a city-wide implementation. PROP, in some ways, is unfair. Talked about problem tenants; how do we deal with students – “how to be a good neighbor”
McFarlane – On student housing, we need to figure out how to incentive the student housing we want, make it sustainable, and have developers build on existing transit lines.
Williams – Would default to Crowder since he know the district best.
Crowder – On student housing…under the new UDO, all plans like GH-1-11 would be admin approved. This type of housing, which is basically a private dorm housing, is marketing to students and it’s rent by the room. Raleigh should have a private residential category for this type of housing. Other cities are already doing this.
During the Comprehensive Plan, we identified areas where this type of density should occur, and we need some economic incentives.
Planning says we can do it with added parking, but we really need have these facilities closer to campus. As Captain Niemann said to the Budget and Economic Development (BED) committee, off campus student housing is in “direct conflict with neighborhoods.”
What are the next steps for Raleigh’s CREATIVE district?
McFarlane – The Southwest Economic Development and Branding plan that was presented [By NCSU] was great, to get NC State’s buy-in was tremendous. The creative pulse is one of the a leading factors that helped us survive through this rough economy
The arts are an important part of who we are.
Crowder – Charlie Lefler, was key. It’s hard for NC State to recruit Fortune 500 to Centennial Campus if they have to drive through a ghetto.
In Southwest Raleigh, we’re 5-10 minutes away from cultural amenities, downtown, and the countryside.
On PROP, as an architect, he has to pay numerous fees for his businesses, but the landlords don’t have pay business license fees, etc.
We need to educate the real estate community and spell out the amenities that what we [Southwest Raleigh] have.
How do we accelerate Tryon Road improvements?
Williams – Supports the bond. Thinks the job of the council is to guide city staff on what needs attention.
McFarlane – Supports the bonds. As Mayor, you have to prioritize projects all over the city and public safety is a key factor.
If you could bring a technology like SeeClickFix to Raleigh, what area would you focus on?
McFarlane – Communications. We need to fix the way we communicate with our citizens.
Baldwin – Communications about Raleigh.
Williams – Electrification to digital / less paper.
Fitts – Reduce paper and go digital.
On the commercial property [in the Southern Gateway] , many residents want to avoid big boxes and promote walkability. What influence do we have on it?
McFarlane – We can influence transit stops.
Williams – Developments like this need a critical mass for density; We’re not there yet, but we’ll get there soon.
How do we influence the development for amenities that we need/want?
Fitts – Talk to the developers.
Crowder – The economic, development, and branding study is important for this influence to happen.
Baldwin – 1) planning, transit, 2) Office of economic development for the city (We have the Chamber of Commerce, but they do not focus on recruiting retail) 3) Marketplace demands
We need to change the mindset of the development community.
Comments on the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)
Crowder – We have big brush issues, like height and transition, but the devil is in the details. We need more citizen involvement.
Williams – It’s complex and should be a work in progress.
Baldwin – Also thinks the UDO should be a work in progress, the UDO should move forward and have a grace period.
After the forum, residents mingled, chatted with the candidates and enjoyed refreshments provided by Wakefield Development.