Durham is updating their Comprehensive Plan, just like Raleigh did in 2019, and is seeking feedback for potential city policies. It lists a lot of policies, but you can just comment on one or more categories of bullet-point summaries if that’s more of your jam.
This is a survey about Durham, so yeah it’s obviously weird that I’m posting this in a downtown Raleigh forum. But I’d argue that it’s relevant for Raleigh-lovers, too, because Durham’s needs and weaknesses (plus how they respond to them) are directly relevant to Raleigh’s future.
This is because the way most market researchers define metro areas has forced the two cities to look like separate markets even where it makes more sense to talk about “the Triangle” as a whole. This statistical quirk may have long-reaching, unintended consequences like missing huge job opportunities, needlessly duplicating transit planning, misrepresenting the threshold for who needs public help for housing, and self-perpetuating a chasm that makes regional collaboration in everyday local policies harder to do.
But I think it may be possible to take advantage of those rules and convince federal statisticians to bring the Raleigh and Durham urban areas back together. Properly unifying the Triangle requires denser, more walkable, affordable housing and mixed-use developments in both sides of the Wake-Durham county border, though, including in Durham’s side. A rewrite of Durham’s comprehensive plan is one of many steps that could help us get there; this survey is an opportunity to advocate for that.
If you also understand this isn’t a zero-sum game and you think a better-working Durham also helps make downtown Raleigh better, this survey may want to hear your thoughts by June 30.