The Raleigh City Council last month approved a plan to revise the boundaries of the city’s Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs) for the first time since their creation 38 years ago. The vote was remarkably quiet, lacking even the slightest contentiousness.
That was exactly what the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council, or RCAC, had hoped for. The RCAC, which is made up of the leaders of the 18 individual CACs, had proposed the boundary changes after a long period of consultation and consensus-building.
Since the CAC boundaries were drawn up in 1973, Raleigh’s population has grown and shifted. Some CAC boundaries no longer made sense, in some cases dividing neighborhoods and in other cases separating neighborhoods that had much in common. CACs on the edges of Raleigh had become disproportionately large and unwieldy as the city limits expanded.
The RCAC was determined to move with care, says Chair Will Allen, who also chairs the Hillsborough CAC.
“We thought that the first time that we made a change it should be one that everyone was in agreement with, with no disagreement whatever,” he says. “The process of effecting the change was also going to be an experiment, and we wanted everyone on board. So we wanted it to be as positive an experience as possible for members, CAC officers and the support staff of Community Services. We took a crawl, walk, run kind of approach.”
Several changes are taking place in southwest Raleigh. Most notably, the Kirby-Bilyeu neighborhood will move from the Southwest CAC to the Hillsborough CAC, with which it is more aligned on development issues. Another neighborhood that had been partly in the West CAC and partly in the Southwest CAC will be moving entirely into the West CAC. The areas of Hope Cemetery, Hertford Village and Walnut Terrace will be moving from Southwest CAC to Central CAC.
When it came to dealing with the large size of some CACs, the RCAC members also moved cautiously. Several Raleigh CACs have populations greater than 70,000 – far in excess of the 14,000 originally envisioned. Under the plan approved by the City Council, only the huge Northeast CAC is being split in two. Eventually other large CACs may be divided, Allen says, though this partly will depend on the availability of support staff.
Two CACs – Falls of Neuse and Six Forks – will be merging to form a new CAC, tentatively called Midtown. This will unite the North Hills community into a single CAC; it had been divided by Six Forks Road into separate CACs. Another new CAC, tentatively called Atlantic, will be drawn from parts of what are now Falls, Six Forks and Northeast CACs.
The changes are taking place over the course of a year, and everyone who is affected will receive a letter explaining them.
In the end, Allen says, the changes are expected to make our CACs more effective. “That’s why we did it,” he says. “The reason for the CACs is primarily to provide a structured means of two-way communication between citizens and the City Council. Our vision is to perfect the citizen experience, and we think this will help.”
Of course, Raleigh’s CACs are more than lines on a map. Their effectiveness also depends on the involvement of residents. If you are not already familiar with your CAC, I invite you to become so. Sign up for your CAC newsletter, meet your CAC officers, and, make sure your neighborhood is represented at CAC meetings.
And if you have questions, be sure to call Community Services at 996-6100.