See the entire May 5 city council agenda below, and follow council meetings in real time with the Raleigh Public Record’s live Twitter feed.
Affordable Housing
The Raleigh City Council’s Budget and Economic Development committee will bring a recommendation to the full council to fund one joint venture for 48 affordable housing units at MeadowCreek Commons. The units will be for elderly residents at the Downtown Housing Improvement Corporation‘s MeadowCreek subdivision on the corner of Raleigh Boulevard and Rock Quarry Road.
The committee rejected two other proposals for affordable housing developments because, the committee’s April 28 minutes say, there is only funding available for one project in Wake County. The chair from the Southwest Citizens’ Advisory Committee expressed concern over one of the affordable housing developments in her area that was not approved, according to the meeting minutes.
Northern Wake Landfill Redevelopment
City Manager Russ Allen wants guidance from council as the city tries to negotiate with Wake County to buy part of the Northern Wake Landfill. The county doesn’t use the dump anymore and the city has been negotiating to buy part of the landfill along Durant Road that was never used to for burying solid waste. The city wants to develop the site as a school and park, but the county has said it wants the city to give exclusive use for the athletic fields to the North Raleigh Athletic Association.
In a memo to council, the city manager writes that giving exclusive use to the non-profit NRAA would be an “unprecedented private use of public facilities.”
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker has suggested a compromise to give the NRAA partial use of the fields until more athletic fields at the site.
Read the memos from the mayor and the manager below.
From the Consent Agenda
Items on the consent agenda can be passed with one vote, or councilors can pull items to discuss individually.
The state has approved $3.25 million in federal stimulus money for the city to construct the Upper Neuse River Greenway. The money coming from the state’s stimulus allotment will cover about half of the project. Council needs to authorize the city manager to make an agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the funds.
The city asked the Downtown Raleigh Alliance to manage day-to-day operations at the new City Plaza scheduled to open in October. The one-year agreement needs to be approved by council.
The state Division of Water Quality is getting ready to update its Neuse River Basin Water Quality Plan, but city staff says two issues have not been adequately addressed. The plan, which the state updates every five years, examines current water quality and projects water trends for the future. The Division of Water Quality uses these plans to set conditions for future water-use permits and rules. The two main issues, as laid out in a letter to the state from Raleigh Public Utilities Director Dale Crisp, are nutrient problems in Falls Lake and Franklin County taking water from the Neuse River Basin. Crisp needs council approval to send the letter.
The Jordan Lake Partnership, made up of the City of Durham, Wake County, Cary, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority and five other towns, recently asked Raleigh to join the partnership. The committee is working with the Triangle J Council of Governments to plan for Jordan Lake water use. Council could authorize a memorandum of agreement to join the partnership.
Council could approve $586,000 to cover half of the pre-construction work for the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center. Earlier this year, council gave the go-ahead for the city to hire Clancy & Theys/Archer Western Join Ventures to start working on the project. Council could also authorize another $2.1 million for Kling Stubbins, the architectural firm working on the design, to move forward with the plans.
The city’s getting a new website. Raleigh-based RedHat could design the new web portal based on its open-source software and train city staff to work with the new system. The city’s IT department has the nearly $450,000 for the agreement in its budget, but needs council approval to move forward with developing the new site.
May 5 Raleigh City Council Agenda
