I was at the Central CAC. The rezoning request for the CAM block was pretty well received. It was general info. they expect to be back next month with more specifics and to ask for a vote.
The site just north of Fairweather (currently 5 story, seeking 12) was approved by something like 17 to 9. Developer said that this would likely be a good site for a hotel due to parking limitations.
General comment – LOTS of talk about affordable housing.
Kane project - came in seeking a vote. Long tory short, Boylan Heights neighbors didn’t think they were having a vote, so it didn’t happen. It sounds like there will be a lot of BH residents at the next meeting.
I personally think they have a great plan and have made a lot of nice accommodations for the area. It is absolutely going to be developed. the Kane team is trying to lessen the impact directly to SF homes. I’m sure it is not perfect, but it will never be perfect in the eyes of those that simply don’t want the site to be developed.
Thanks for the recap Denny. I have some notes that might duplicate some of your info but I’ll post those to the respective threads. I would have said hi if I knew you were there. Next CAC I’m at I’m just going to ask if anybody there knows Leo. (@dtraleigh)
Council just effectively abolished the CAC system. Sounds like they will hear rezoning cases for the next 45 days and that’s it. The city will also hire a consultant to help establish a Citizen Engagement office.
Wow, seriously?! I mean, I’m personally really excited about this, but I bet that’s gonna irritate a bunch of people. It needs to happen tho; it makes no sense as it is currently laid out.
Also saw they’re implementing a citizen review board for the police. Don’t want to derail the topic with that, just adding that is an additional bold and potentially controversial move today.
This is going to piss off the average of 10 people per CAC that attended regularly, and David Cox. Let’s figure out what the % of the population is on that one. We at the DTR CAC aren’t sad to see them go to be honest (I’m speaking for myself, lol), but, at least now we can consider a name change and it won’t be because we were pressured by the CACs!
No Civic Engagement Boards, that where the Nimbys at large members citizens in Nimby cholthing could strike that’s bad. There should only be in interaction area for that kinda like this website nothing else.
I was recently at several CAC meetings in the N Raleigh area and it seemed like Cox was there to give a short presentation each time. It almost had the tone of a campaign visit.
It was a good opportunity for him to do outreach and garner support so I’m sure he’s disappointed. I did feel it was a little inappropriate for him to be using the meetings that way.
I know people who have been going to CACs since they were started, and I know they will be disappointed. I’m not sure they could objectively see that in many cases they had just become sounding boards against development. Most land use attorneys I’ve worked with considered them as a place you had to go and listen to angry neighbors vent, and take your lumps in order to get through the process.
Martin, Baldwin, and others have long argued that many CACs aren’t representative of the city’s population and give an outsize voice to a vocal few who have the time and resources to attend CAC meetings.
Cox bristled, arguing that this would hurt the city’s disadvantaged communities. Martin called Cox’s point “asinine.”
The vast majority of Raleigh citizens don’t know what a CAC is. I think the most people I’ve ever seen at a meeting was maybe 50.
The challenge for council is now to figure out an engagement process that is in fact better and gets more people involved. This won’t be easy because many people are apathetic about local government until someone threatens their cheese or their cheap parking.
Something needs to be put in place to get community input. But I never had the chance to make any of these CAC meetings. Always have other stuff going on.
Hence part of the problem. I read a Facebook response that commented people with social anxiety never/rarely go. Those of us that don’t necessarily have social anxiety probably don’t ever consider that. The same goes for the current public hearing system.
This is part of the reason I don’t go plus I can’t go to a ton of public events anyway due to other reasons, add in people with kids or people that work non-9 to 5 jobs and the CAC system was deeply flawed. I don’t know if getting rid of the whole system was the right move especially this quickly and without a ready made solution in place. Any new system that doesn’t have a strong online/ remote presence will be just as bad, I’m interested to see the details/mechanics of the new system.
