This Week/Next Week at City Hall
June 5, 2017
Community SCALE wants you to be aware of what’s happened/what’s coming up at City Hall each week.
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Week of June 5
Here are some of the events planned for the week of June 5. It’s always helpful to have community members attend to show interest in these topics, ask questions, etc. If you plan to attend any of these meetings, we’ll be glad to include your meeting summary in future articles.
Tuesday, 6/6
- Short-term residential rental task force report
- Request for Oberlin Village Historical Overlay District
- Transportation Bond
- Six Forks Corridor Study
- Several rezoning cases
- Citizen Engagement – a number of community members have signed up to speak on behalf of the CACs in light of the recommendations of the Citizen Engagement Task Force. Community SCALE encourages those interested in supporting the CACs to attend the meeting and/or email City Council Members to voice your support for the CACs.
- FY 2017-2018 Proposed Budget
Wednesday, 6/7
- 7 – 8:30pm – Comprehensive Plan Update – LOCATION CHANGE: Carolina Pines Community Center, 2305 Lake Wheeler Road. The theme is resiliency, an operational philosophy that seeks to identify challenges before they arise and effectively prioritize strategic investments and community capacity building. The goal is to better adapt to, respond to, and recover from unforeseen events.
Thursday, 6/8
Week of May 29
Community Engagement – On 5/30 more than 60 people attended a joint meeting of the Wade and Hillsborough CACs to discuss community engagement. City Council members David Cox, Kay Crowder, and Russ Stephenson participated in the discussion. Attendees expressed serious concerns about the recommendations of the Citizen Engagement Task Force, especially with regard to the role of CACs with regard to rezoning cases. Overwhelming consensus was to recommend that Council start over on this initiative and engage citizens in the process before moving forward.
Growth & Natural Resources Committee – The committee met on 5/31. They voted to schedule a public hearing for Construction Safety Barrier Fencing (TC-15-20). Staff presented information on tall building heights in response to a citizen petition requesting the City to reconsider height limits on tall buildings (TC-15-16). Currently the UDO sets height limits of 90’ for a seven-story building, 150’ for a 12-story building, 250’ for a 20-story building, and 500’ for a 40-story building. According to the presentation, state-of-the-art design standards for commercial buildings require greater floor-to-floor heights and would mean that a 500’ tall building would actually only be able to accommodate 34 stories rather than 40 stories. Many other cities only specify a limit on height or number of stories while Raleigh specifies limits for both height and stories. City staff feel that a height cap in feet is appropriate for three, four, and five-story buildings next to residential areas, but seemed amenable to taking some kind of action with regard to the taller buildings. The Committee voted to keep the matter in committee for further discussion, including with staff, and will bring this item back to their next meeting on June 14.
Stormwater Management Advisory Commission – The 6/1 meeting featured a detailed presentation of ideas under consideration to incentivize commercial and single family residences to implement methods/devices to reduce Stormwater runoff.
The most interesting section of the meeting featured photos depicting “before” and “after” of stream restoration projects. Some have been on the priority list since 2011. City Council has approved a larger budget so they anticipate doing more projects every year.
There will not be a SMAC meeting in July. The next meeting will be on Thursday, August 3rd.
All meetings at Raleigh Municipal Building, 222 West Hargett Street, unless otherwise noted.
