News
July 1, 2009
City Begins New Fiscal Year Charting Accomplishments
(Throughout the fiscal year that covered July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009, City of Raleigh officials balanced an array of priorities. The following is a brief listing of the City’s accomplishments during the just-concluded fiscal year in the areas of economic development and sustainability.)
JULY
- ADDRESSING HOUSING NEEDS – Budget included nearly $20 million for the first phase of the City’s Housing Program.
- SWEET MUSIC -- Enhanced relationship between the City and the state’s official orchestra. Extension of the North Carolina Symphony’s lease by a dozen years and doubling City’s financial support to $200,000 annually.
- HILLSBOROUGH IS A DISTRICT – Approved the establishment of a municipal service district (MSD) on Hillsborough Street to help revitalize areas along the street.
- INITIATING REUSE – Began construction on a multi-phase project to implement a regional reuse water distribution system.
- SCHOOL HOUSE – Approved the temporary refinancing plan for the former Murphey School property that has 51 housing units for the elderly.
- TARGETING PROGRESS – Enhanced funding to the Raleigh Area Development Authority (RADA), a non profit corporation organized to provide and stimulate economic development in Raleigh’s most underdevelopment communities. Also, authorized the creation of an economic development division with the City’s Planning Department.
- COMMON GOAL – Continued to work with Wake County and other local governments to develop water supply watershed protection measures for the planned Little River Reservoir as a future drinking water source.
- BALANCING PRIORITIES – Allocated more than $700,000 in human services funds to 28 non profit organizations.
AUGUST
- NOT UP STREAM – Opposed the potential location of the National Bio-Agro Defense Facility in Butner.
- ROCKY’S RESTORED – Completed the Rocky Branch Stream Restoration and Greenway Project.
- CASA PROJECTS – Funded two proposals from CASA to provide affordable housing – seven units at 701 E. Franklin St. and 26 units at George’s Mews at 615 and 625 Washing Street.
- HOUSING FOR ALL – Formed the Affordable Housing Task Force.
- INTERCITY EXPRESS – Established Wake Forest-Raleigh express bus service.
- MORE PLACES TO PARK – Opened City’s Blount Street Parking Deck adding 1,232 additional spaces.
SEPTEMBER
- PROTECTING RESERVOIR SITE – Opposed the extension of the Town of Rolesville’s extraterritorial jurisdiction into the Little River water supply watershed.
- IT’S OPEN! – Opening of the Raleigh Convention Center.
- EVERY DAY; ALL THE TIME – Put permanent everyday water conservation rules in place.
- EIGHT MORE MILES – Began construction of the eight-mile section of the Upper Neuse Greenway Trail between Falls Lake dam to the Capital Area Soccer League soccer fields on Perry Creek Road.
- PRIMIPING UP SOUTHEAST – Approved a façade rehabilitation grant program for businesses and commercial properties in parts of southeast Raleigh.
- YOU BUILD IT; WE WILL COME – Approved a new service that offers building inspections after normal business hours.
- MAKING WATER SOURCES REDUNDANT – Agreed to an interlocal agreement with Johnston County for emergency water services during times of need by either county. The agreement reduces vulnerability and provides more redundancy in water supply sources.
OCTOBER
- BRING TREES TO ‘CITY OF OAKS’ – Planted 1100th street tree delivered and planted through the NeighborWoods Program.
- DOWNTOWN’S CENTER – Began work on City Plaza.
- LEDS HIT THE STREET – Continued development of Raleigh as U.S.’s first “LED City” by installing 23 LED streetlights on public streets that surround the new Raleigh Convention Center.
NOVEMBER
- LITTLE RIVER EIS – Approved a $1.375 million contract for an Environmental Impact Study, an in-stream flow study, evaluation of potential mitigation sites and development of a mitigation plan for the development of a work plan for a permit application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Little River Reservoir Project.
- PROTECTING TOMORROW – Rezoned approximately 5,000 acres in the Richland Creek watershed.
- KEEPING IT REAL – Reclassified Horseshoe Farm Park from a community park to a special park with a focus on environmental stewardship.
- REBUILDING COMMUNITIES – Created a program that offers loans of up to $135,000 to qualified residents to reconstruct their homes. Applicants must meet include guidelines, be the owner-occupants of the dwelling and reside in one of Raleigh’s low-income census tract areas. The loans carry a fixed-interest rate of either 0 percent or 3 percent depending on household income adjusted for family size.
- MAKING PROPERTY OWNERS RESPONSBILE – Expanded the Probationary Rental Occupancy Permit (PROP) ordinance to address rental property owners whose property is found to violate minimum housing, zoning and nuisance laws or have demonstrated a pattern of criminal convictions for noise and nuisance party violations.
DECEMBER
- WORKING WITH NC – Approved an agreement with the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources that addresses growth and water management.
- URBAN PROGRESS ZONE – Approved a resolution requesting the designation of more than 20 square miles of Raleigh within 23 census tracts and census block groups as an Urban Progress Zone (UPZ). The State of North Carolina offers a business tax credit program to economic initiatives within these zones.
- MAKING HOMES AFFORDABLE – Approved revisions to the City’s investor rehab loan program to assist with rehabilitation of rental properties of one to four units for the purpose of renting to families and individuals with modest incomes earning at or below 60 percent of the average mean income, adjusted for household size.
- SINGLE-STREAMING – Transitioned to single-stream recycling collection, removing the needs to sort recyclable materials between paper products and containers.
- URBAN OASIS – Completed construction of a water garden and wetland features at Fred Fletcher Park.
JANUARY
- ‘CAT-ING’ TO SCHOOL – Extended transit service to Wake Technical Community College.
- SUNNY WATER – Installed a solar thermal hot water heating system at Fire Station No. 15.
- BUILDING A GREEN TEAM – Following the City’s Council’s 2008 decision to mandate that all new City of Raleigh construction and additions of at least 10,000 square fees must achieve silver-level certification of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) rating system, three City of Raleigh employees became LEED accredited.
- INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANSION – Expansion of the wastewater treatment plant’s capacity by 15 million gallons per day (MGD) to bring it to 75 MGD.
- CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP – Approved a reviewed agreement to extend the City’s original agreement with the Conservation Trust of North Carolina (CTNC) to work cooperatively to facilitate strategic land purchases aimed at protecting the Falls Lake water quality. The City has provided $3 million through the work with CTNC for these land purchases, which with funding from it and other Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative funding partners, has resulted in more than 17 miles of stream buffers and 1,700 acres of land being acquired in the watershed.
FEBRUARY
- KEEPING ON OUR TOES – Approved a 10-year rent-free contract that makes Fletcher Theater at the Progress Energy Center for the performing Arts, Carolina Ballet’s new home and continues the City’s $250,000 annual grant.
- CONSERVATION INCENTIVE – Created a tiered water rate structure to provide a financial incentive to conserve water similar to what other North Carolina water systems have implemented.
- GETTING READY – City joined with Progress Energy and Advanced Energy to pioneer an initiative to prepare the Capital City for the availability of electric plug-in and hybrid-electric vehicles that are to be produced in significant quantities in 2010. Raleigh is one of three U.S. cities that are participating in Project Get Ready.
MARCH
- PLANNING TO SHARE – Approved an interlocal agreement with the Town of Holly Springs for emergency water services during times of need by either the City of Raleigh or the Town of Holly Springs.
- CRABTREE VALLEY’S FUTURE – Authorized a transportation study for the Crabtree Valley area. The objective of the study is to develop a long-range transportation strategy for the area.
- WAYFINDING SIGNS -- A way-finding system was installed Downtown to help direct visitors from Raleigh’s major entryways to Downtown attractions and parking areas.
- HILLSBOROUGH ST REVITALIZATION – Approved $50,000 for the new Hillsborough Street Community Service Corporation to manage the City’s municipal service district that was created to revitalize areas along Hillsborough Street.
APRIL
- TRANSIT INFRASTRUCTURE – Received more than $11 million in federal stimulus funding for the construction of the $22.5 million Capital Area Transit maintenance facility on Poole Road.
- TOILET REBATE PROGRAM – Established permanent funding for a water conservation incentive initiative. The first initiative to be funded is a gravity-flush toilet replacement rebate program.
- BICYCLE PLAN – Approved the bicycle plan to serve as a planning tool to improve the cycling system by offering an assessment of existing infrastructure, plans, policies, programs and maps that influence bicycling throughout Raleigh.
- PROTECTING FALLS LAKE – The Upper Neuse clean Water Initiative (UNCWI) has acquired 3,896 acres of stream buffers since 2005. It is responsible for protecting natural buffers along 44 miles of streams in the watershed. The trust is supported by funding from the City of Raleigh and other local and state government entities.
MAY
- HOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY – Approved funding in the amount of $1.2 million for the construction of Meadow Creek Commons, an apartment complex that will feature 48 units for the elderly.
- JOINED JORDAN LAKE PARTNERSHIP -- Joined the Jordan Lake Partnership, a conglomerate of local municipalities, jurisdictions and water systems in the area that have joined to plan for the future expanded use of the remaining unallocated available water supply in the lake.
- COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN – Allocated more than $11.6 million in federal and local funds to fund projects in the College Park/Idlewild, New Bern/Edenton, Garner Road and South Park areas. The Action Plan also includes $1.9 million for rehabilitation, rental and community housing development organizations. More than $4.6 million of the funds were allocated for affordable housing through the 2005 bond project.
- NEUSE QUALITY PLAN UPDATE – Sent letter to North Carolina Environmental Management Commission expressing concerns about a planned update to the Neuse River Basin wide Quality Plan. The City expressed that the plan does not adequately address nutrient reduction for Falls Lake and Franklin County’s proposed inter-basin transfer of water from the Neuse River Basin to the Tar River Basin.
- PARTY NUISANCE ABATEMENT – Amended the City’s nuisance party and noise ordinances to include civil penalties.
- TRAFFIC SIGNAL SYSTEM UPGRADE – Approve nearly $4.5 million contract for the first phase of the citywide traffic signal system upgrade.
- WORK BEGINS ON HILLSBOROUGH STREET – Broke ground on the Hillsborough Street Roundabouts Project that will help revitalize one of Raleigh’s most historic and vital communities.
JUNE
- MOORE SQUARE REDESIGN – Approved open public competition to redesign Moore Square into a world-class public space.
- ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECTS – Approved list of energy efficiency and conservation projects that cover six major areas. The projects are to be funded with a $3.82 million U.S. Department of Energy grant. The projects include a climate action plan, plan implementation projects, a weatherization program, residential and commercial energy efficiency loan program, Green Builders certification program, and sustainability training and education programs.
- NEIGHBORHOOD STABLIZATION –Using a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to stabilize the communities of Long Acres and Apollo Heights. The program will purchase foreclosed houses that will be rehabilitated for resale or demolished so that new homes can be built on the cleared lots.
- ST. MONICA’S SCHOOL REHAB – Approved grant of nearly $350,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development stimulus funding for the rehabilitation of St. Monica’s School and its conversion to a multi-purpose facility. Built in 1930, the school was used to educate African American children until 1967.
- RAINWATER HARVESTING – A federal stimulus loan/grant of more than $465,000 will be used to harvest rainwater at a dozen locations.
- SOLAR LEDS AT PARKS FACILITY – Completed the first City outdoor lighting project that combines light emitting diode (LED) technology with solar renewable energy in place of traditional electricity. The project is at the City’s Parks and Recreation Department’s Marsh Creek remote operations facility.
- TRANSPORTATION PLAN MEETS STANDARDS – The U.S. Department of Transportation determined that the 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan for the Triangle region meets air quality emission standards. This is the first year a unified plan was drafted by the region’s two transportation planning agencies – Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization.
- BUDGET CUTS SPENDING; MAINTAINS SERVICES – Adopted an operating budget for the coming fiscal year that is nearly $2 million less than the previous year and maintains services.
- SUNFLOWERS ARE CITY FARM FUEL – Sunflowers are being harvested for the oil the seeds produce. The seed oil is processed into biodiesel fuel used to operate the farm equipment.
Prepared by:
Jayne Kirkpatrick
Director
Public Affairs Department
For More Information Contact:
Jayne Kirkpatrick
Director
Public Affairs Department
222 West Hargett Street
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-996-3100
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