Supporting New Growth

We should regularly revisit impact fees to ensure they are addressing the costs of a growing Raleigh. We should exhaust alternative methods of addressing the cost of growth before increasing impact fees. Ideally the city should work towards graduated impact fees. This plan would implement low fees for transit-oriented and affordable housing communities while charging maximum rates on traditional sprawl development.  Currently Raleigh is the best value and boasts one of the lowest property tax rates in the region—we should continue to take all necessary steps to maintain our quality of life.

Raleigh Arts Development

While Raleigh needs to build a larger philanthropic base to support the arts, we should also celebrate our rich volunteer performance heritage. Our community theatres are the source of many of Raleigh’s annual traditions.

We should establish the West Raleigh Theatre District to help promote the work of Theatre in the Park, Raleigh Little Theatre, and the student arts programs at NC State University and Meredith College.

Water Conservation and Supply Development

Raleigh’s water supply system will not be able to meet the needs of our growing community if we do not invest in conservation and supply development. We should encourage conservation through innovative methods such as storm-water runoff and roof catchments on new facilities. New neighborhoods should have access to catchments and reclaimed water for irrigation and other suitable needs.

Additionally the city must focus on new supply. Unfortunately, the Neuse and Cape Fear river basins offer limited capacity for additional resevoirs. Further, building supply is a huge civic undertaking, and should be done on a regional and statewide basis. Raleigh should join with the NC League of Municipalities to launch a feasibility study to investigate the possibility of providing desalinated water from the coast to enhance our water capacity. Any effort to increase supply from this method should consider the safety to the community and our local ecology as the first priority.

Waste Management

Raleigh and Wake County must get out of the business of building and expanding landfills. Raleigh has taken steps to move toward curbside rolling bin recycling. This plan should be accelerated to new neighborhoods first, and incrementally through bin replacement to other areas of the city. In concert with these moves, the city should grow its list of items accepted through curbside recycling.

Urban compositing is a viable way to reduce waste in Raleigh. We should work through the NC Cooperative Extension service to increase compositing participation citywide. Compost materials provide excellent feed for flowerbeds, and backyard vegetable gardens. This material also retains moisture better than many landscaping products, which reduces city water use.

Dorothea Dix and Central Prison Properties

It appears that for the near future some mental health and DHHS offices will remain on the Dix campus. Raleigh should continue to work with the state to develop portions of the campus into a public park with connections to Pullen Park. We should develop a phased plan to grow the park, as well as building mixed-use spaces on the property as land becomes available. Particular attention should be paid to linking road and transit connections to NC State University’s Centennial Campus.