Two advocacy groups join forces to encourage everyday citizens to shape tomorrow’s Raleigh | Opinion

The new year could bring new insight into how Raleigh shapes its future.

Two advocacy groups – RaleighForward and WakeUp Wake County – are partnering to increase public awareness of how the City Council will set priorities, draw its new comprehensive plan and approve or deny proposed developments.

“We want to be in the conversation early and be a voice to improve the policy and, at the end, come out and support it,” said Eric Braun, a retired land use attorney and former City Planning Commission chair who founded RaleighForward in 2021.

The alliance could bring sorely needed clarity to how Raleigh will handle a boom in development. The City Council’s 2020 decision to end the network of Citizen Advisory Councils – a decision that has been reversed – and the fog in communications brought on by the COVID pandemic fueled anger that the public was being taken by surprise on neighborhood rezoning decisions and the approval of major projects.

I recently met with Braun and WakeUp’s Executive Director Roberta Fox and Thomas Barrie, WakeUp’s board chairman. Fox owns a design firm and is a member of the Raleigh Planning Commission. Barrie is a NC State professor of architecture and director of the university’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Initiative.

The three advocates represent something akin to a kitchen Cabinet to the City Council and new Mayor Janet Cowell. They have experience in advising the council and expertise in design and planning and a network of community contacts. They hope the alliance will attract others who want to play stronger citizen roles in shaping what Raleigh is and is becoming.

“We want to bring people together,” Barrie said. “People are thirsting for this.”

The two groups held their first joint programming event Dec. 5 at Artspace in downtown Raleigh. The event featured remarks by Vicki Been, director of the NY Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. More than 80 people attended.

Linking the efforts of the two groups was a natural step, Barrie said: “Why should we be in our own separate lanes when we align in so many ways?”

WakeUp’s IRS nonprofit status is a 501(c)3, which allows limited lobbying. RaleighForward is 501(c)4, which has more lobbying leeway. (RaleighForward is not connected to Carolina Forward, a statewide progressive advocacy group.)

The two groups’ agenda for 2025 includes early involvement in the drafting of Raleigh’s new comprehensive plan, a focus on promoting affordable housing and dense development, protecting and expanding Raleigh’s natural environment and encouraging the development of mass transit as well as responding to a growing homeless population.

What is distinctive about the groups’ common approach is that it’s not about protesting what the city does. It’s about getting involved in understanding and shaping what the city can do.

People who don’t show up at City Hall until the first public hearing on an ordinance or an issue are arriving after many decisions have already been made, Braun said. The better approach is to get involved early and work with council members.

“If you are knowledgeable and patient, you can have a big impact on what happens in the city,” he said.

Despite its growth, Braun said Raleigh is still a small city, but also one that has grown into separate parts, such as Brier Creek, Wakefield, North Hills and Southeast Raleigh. “We do need to knit back the city,” he said.

The city needs to launch more big ideas, such as Dix Park, that will draw more people to be involved. RaleighForward and WakeUp will work with the National Civic League to offer lessons on civic engagement and open ways for more people to play a role.

Raleigh has grown a great deal, but with a strong national economy and trend toward growth in urban centers that combine universities, medicine and government, another big wave is coming.

“The issue is not: ‘Can I stop it?’ “ Fox said. “It’s how do you make it beneficial for everybody who is here?”

That’s the question. Now RaleighForward and WakeUp want to get more people involved in the answer.