Raleigh City Council re-connects with Citizen Advisory Councils, pushes for more community engagement

The city of Raleigh is taking the first step to reconnect with the Citizen Advisory Councils that helped guide new development for decades.

The neighborhood groups started in 1974 to get people more involved in the city's future. In 2020, council blindsided the CACs by suddenly disbanding them.

Now, the city is working to give more people a voice in decisions again.

Christina Jones, now a city councilor, went to public comment 44 times during her role as chair of her CAC.

"I was there to make sure our voices were heard and they didn’t forget that we were still here," she says.

That was before she ousted the incumbent for the seat she now fills on council.

"I think we lost a really big chunk of community engagement when we dismantled or disfunded our CAC structure," she says.

In 2020, council stripped the CACs of their influence in recommending approval or denial of rezoning cases for new developments.

"Now rezoning cases are controlled by developers," says Michael Lindsay, chair of the Hillsborough-Wade CAC.

The CAC continued to meet virtually to discuss projects around their neighborhood.

"We were used to the city support, and that was yanked out away from us but we have kept it up," says Lindsay.

Now, they have a home to meet in-person again in the city's community centers. The city is opening the doors to one center in each council district for CACs to meet for free -- part of a bigger strategy to give more people a voice as the city grows.

"I grew up here. It’s a totally different city than it was growing up," says Tiesha Hinton, who manages the city's new Community Engagement Office. "And we want to continue to make sure we have diverse opinions and thoughts, experiences at the decision-making table."

Jones says this is just the beginning of getting people involved. She also recently held a community meeting alongside councilor Mary Black, allowing constituents to come meet, discuss issues and raise questions.

"We are elected to represent residents of the city, so if we’re not talking to you, not trying to get your feedback then we’re not doing our job," Jones said.

Later this month, a community engagement board plans to present some options to give more opportunities for people to comment at city council meetings.

Right now, there's no funding for all of this community engagement. That will come in the new budget in July.

The city hopes to be able to open the community centers to more groups then and provide resources for those meetings.

{A: TIESHA HINTON, RALEIGH COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER 1:02-1:13}