CACs differ on park plan

Horseshoe Farm Park vote puts advisory groups on opposite sides, but vote's fairness questioned

RALEIGH -- The North Citizens Advisory Council has voted in favor of restoring some athletics facilities to the Horseshoe Farm Park plan, putting it at odds with another North Raleigh CAC on the controversial issue.

The North CAC voted 19-4 on Oct. 5 in favor of putting the kind of athletic facilities that would draw large crowds at either Durant Nature Park or Horseshoe Farm Park. Many say Horseshoe Farm Park is too environmentally sensitive for such facilities.

The Northeast CAC last year voted 22-0 vote against putting such facilities at Horseshoe Farm Park. A citizens master plan committee that developed the plan also voted against large-scale athletic facilities.

However the city's Parks, Recreation and Greenway Advisory Board voted to restore a 24,000-square-foot double-gymnasium and outdoor basketball courts to the park plan.

CAC votes -- as well as park board votes -- are recommendations and are nonbinding. The final decision is up to the City Council.

Council member Jessie Taliaferro, who was instrumental in getting the North CAC vote, said the vote was a fair indication of public sentiment on the issue.

"I said, we need active recreation," Taliaferro said, recalling what she told North CAC members before the vote. "We've got kids that don't have places to play. We need active recreation out here. Here are the two places that council has been looking at."

But supporters of a more passive park complained that Taliaferro used unfair tactics to engineer the vote.

Bob Mulder, chairman of the Northeast CAC, criticized Taliaferro for showing up at the North CAC meeting unannounced. Because Horseshoe Farm Park was not on the agenda and was put on there by a last-minute request from Taliaferro, the presentation to the CAC was one-sided, he said.

"We had both sides there," said Mulder of his CAC's vote.

North CAC chairman Tom Slater declined to discuss whether the vote was fair. But Slater did say he didn't know what Taliaferro was going to discuss when he let her speak and that the usual practice is to have both sides represented.

"We'd have had a lot more people there and probably people supporting both factions," he added.

Mulder, who was not at the North CAC meeting, also criticized Taliaferro for working to get the athletic facilities restored to the park at a time when a council committee she chairs, the Public Works Committee, is discussing it.

"She's supposed to be an impartial hearing officer, but she's out pushing her own agenda," Mulder said.

Taliaferro denied any impropriety in her actions, and City Attorney Tom McCormick agreed that she did nothing illegal or unethical.

"This is not a quasijudicial matter," said McCormick. "[City councilors] can certainly advocate their positions."

However fair the North CAC's vote was, those who support more active recreation uses at Horseshoe Farm Park immediately touted it as a show of support.

Ron Kirschbaum -- an attorney and husband of Jan Kirschbaum, former chairwoman of the parks board and a strong supporter of the active facilities -- sent an e-mail to Slater the day after the vote, urging him to notify Mayor Charles Meeker and other city officials. Kirschbaum had been at the North CAC meeting and asked for the vote, Slater said.

"PLEASE let them know of the vote taken and the support voiced for active recreation," Kirschbaum wrote. "I think this is a critical time and Jessie is working very hard to make sure that the people of North Raleigh will have parks that they can use."