Raleigh city council should move to bigger space for major public hearings

As elected officials, members of the Raleigh City Council presumably are adept at assessing when an issue is resonating strongly and how it will affect public input. But on Tuesday evening, the council members appeared clueless about the depth of public concern over plans to rezone a third of the city.

The widely advertised public hearing on the plan drew a crowd that swamped the city council chamber, filled an overflow room and prompted many citizens to go away unheard after public comment was cut off at 10 p.m. A continuation of the public hearing is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday July 21.

‘People were not happy’

George Farthing, a North Raleigh resident who opposes land being rezoned for large-scale commercial use near his neighborhood, got there at 6:15 for the 7 p.m. meeting. He got a seat, but from inside the chambers he could hear the anger of those left out.

“It was raucous loud, and people were not happy,” he said. “It was definitely a bit of a madhouse.”

In one sense, the spectacle of the council being overwhelmed by a surge of people provided a fitting metaphor for a city struggling to accommodate nonstop growth. But the image was not encouraging. If the city council can’t properly plan for a crowded public hearing, how will it plan for an increasingly crowded city?

That point was not lost on Farthing, who said in a Facebook post: “Remapping has been the planning department’s primary focus for more than a year. Yet, at the single most important moment, they can’t execute a meeting about it. We’re supposed to entrust them now to execute on the remapping itself?”

There is no excuse for people being turned away from a public hearing because of lack of space. That was a frequent and disheartening tactic of the Wake County school board when Republicans were in control and under fire for their efforts to eliminate diversity as an element in establishing school attendance zones. The school board meeting room would quickly fill, and others who wished to speak wouldn’t get a seat or a chance. It reduced the number of angry speeches, but it didn’t serve democracy.

Now the city council has created the same scene and the same failure to serve democracy, though not intentionally. This is a product of poor planning. City staff considered moving the hearing to a larger venue such as the Raleigh Convention Center but decided that many people might have problems parking and that some would be unfamiliar with the building. They decided to stick with the council chambers, which has a capacity for 244 people.

The decision is as puzzling as its effect was frustrating. It was clear that a crowd of a thousand or more could be coming, given the breadth of the rezoning. In addition, a group campaigning for affordable housing also announced it would be bringing people to press the council. But it was still decided to hold the hearing in council chambers while the Convention Center sat empty.

Council’s responsibility

Staff made the call, and no doubt will be blamed for it, but the fault ultimately lies with city council members. They should have known the level of public interest and made sure that the turnout could be accommodated.

The hearing will be continued in two weeks, though the opportunity to speak unfortunately will be limited to those who’ve already signed up to speak.

For the next hearing, the city council should make sure the space is large enough for all to hear and be heard. It’s called democracy. Plan for it.

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Raleigh city council should move to bigger space for major public hearings."