{"id":18376,"date":"2013-03-06T09:15:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T14:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=18376"},"modified":"2013-03-07T14:21:28","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T19:21:28","slug":"an-exit-interview-with-a-veteran-planner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/editors-notebook\/2013\/03\/06\/an-exit-interview-with-a-veteran-planner\/","title":{"rendered":"An Exit Interview with a Veteran Planner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect Raleigh’s geographic area as 142 square miles. <\/em><\/p>\n

Since 1986, Raleigh\u2019s population has grown by more than 220 percent, and the city itself has grown from 80 acres to about 142 square miles. Raleigh has grown out, adding suburbs upon suburbs, pushing the city toward the county line in every direction. In recent years, Raleigh is struggling with growing pains, adding density and abuzz with phrases like \u201curban form.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Greg

City of Raleigh <\/p>

Greg Hallam. Photo by City of Raleigh.<\/p><\/div>\n

Greg Hallam worked with the city through this change. He started working with Raleigh\u2019s planning department Sept. 8, 1986. His retirement began last week. Hallam has, in his words, \u201cbeen in the trenches\u201d these last 26 years\u2014rezoning properties, writing new laws, navigating the politics and, at times, the heated emotions of change in a growing city.<\/p>\n

Hallam is one of the people who actually took those applications to put up a big building in your backyard or create a new subdivision. His job has been to make sure it complies with the city\u2019s land use laws and shuffle the project through what he calls an increasingly politicized process. He\u2019s seen a lot of change in the process and in the way city government works.<\/p>\n

In the most practical ways, Hallam said when he started, \u201cyou could smoke at your desk.\u201d Then smokers were moved to the snack room, then the stairwells, and finally outside. One of the biggest changes, Hallam said, was getting rid of the snack bar in City Hall. That used to be the place to get work done in a more informal way, and people from across departments could get involved in the conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there\u2019s no face-to-face conversation. It\u2019s all over email now, not even talking to each other on the phone,\u201d Hallam said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost anonymous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new dynamic of doing city business by email has made the city\u2019s departments, in Hallam\u2019s words, \u201cmore territorial.\u201d He said, \u201cThere used to be a lot more compromise\u201d between departments and on zoning cases.<\/p>\n

The re-zoning process itself has gone though a lot of change. Hallam points to when the city started broadcasting the Planning Commission and City Council meetings on public television. He said the meetings became a soapbox.<\/p>\n

Hallam said Councilors and Commission members began to \u201cbelittle staff to win favor with their constituents.\u201d He wouldn\u2019t point to specific examples, but he said members of the planning staff would catch flak from all sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never used to find myself in the middle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While presenting new projects in public meetings, Hallam said he and other people on the front lines of the Planning Department would find themselves in the midst of heated arguments.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would want to know: who are you with? Are you with the neighborhood side or the development side?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hallam said another major change he\u2019s experienced has been with the makeup of the Planning Commission, a public body set up to review new building projects and re-zoning requests. The Commission members are appointed by members of the City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanning Commission appointees are more and more moving from a citizen board to one in the development field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to some members who have day jobs in the development industry or land use attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in development see it as a way to advance their careers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Life Beyond Retirement\u2028<\/strong>
\nWhat do you do after 26 years in municipal zoning? Just because he\u2019s retiring from the city doesn\u2019t mean Hallam plans to stop working. Hallam recently finished bartending school (he had a coupon) and he\u2019s already picking up shifts behind the bar at PieBird on Person Street. And he\u2019s recently been accepted to Wake Tech\u2019s culinary program.<\/p>\n

PieBird is a short work from Hallam\u2019s home in the Oakwood neighborhood. The restaurant specializes in, as the name implies, pie. But it\u2019s also one of the few bars within reasonable walking distance of his neighborhood.<\/p>\n

PieBird has never really had a dedicated bartender. Hallam hopes his new found time and his new certificate in bartending can help fix that, and give a place for neighbors around Person Street to come together, meet each other and create more community in the area.<\/p>\n

Learning from his decades in city planning, Hallam said, \u201cA neighborhood bar is a vital function for happy lifestyles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Hallam retired last week after 26 years working on planning and zoning in the city. He said the re-zoning process has become more politicized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24002,"featured_media":18377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1123],"tags":[1186,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}