Fiscal Year 2019 City of Raleigh Strategic Plan Year-End Performance Report
Arts and Cultural Resources
Embrace Raleigh’s diverse offerings of arts and cultural resources as iconic celebrations of our community that provide entertainment, community, and economic benefit.
Raleigh’s arts and cultural amenities not only enhance our quality of life, the data show arts and culture also enhance our economic well-being. The two objectives within the Arts and Cultural Resources key focus area seek to:
Position Raleigh as a nationally recognized entertainment, cultural, and tourism destination.
Identify, protect, and develop places, traditions, and activities that celebrate Raleigh’s history and cultivate innovative and diverse arts, cultural, and tourism opportunities
Arts & Culture Marketing Campaign for “Southern Capital of Arts and Culture”
City staff have continued to promote Raleigh’s vibrant arts and cultural offerings to the local community, with additional efforts to expand the reach to the national scene. Raleigh has received recognition for the arts from national news media including US News & World Report, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Forbes. Departments have also worked together to implement civic art projects throughout the city to raise awareness, solve problems, and reach community members. One example is the storm drain murals project which helped raise awareness about water pollution in a fun and creative way. Not only do these projects benefit the general community, but artists have shared feedback on the professional benefits they have experienced from the publicity.
Identify Raleigh’s Unique Places, Experiences, and Traditions
The City of Raleigh partnered with the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau to build and launch a web page that highlights Raleigh’s unique places, experiences, and traditions. This interactive web experience was launched with a movie trailer that was shared with the public during an event at the newly-reopened Moore Square in August. The web page, known as the Raleigh Locals Guide (RaleighLocalsGuide.com), is intended to be interactive and encourages the public to submit ideas for additions to the web page.
Develop Historic Assets Vision
Work on this initiative has involved creating an inventory of historic assets that are managed by the City of Raleigh. Staff are evaluating options for a database to store and manage the asset inventory. In May 2019 staff presented Raleigh’s Historic Resources & Museum Program Strategic Plan to City Council, which outlines strategies to steward places that tell stories reflective of Raleigh’s diverse populations; strengthen partnerships for increased programming capacity and impact; broaden the reach of education and activation of public spaces throughout the city; increase accessibility of its programs, sites, and collections; and create and maintain welcoming spaces for residents and visitors to learn, engage, and play.
Dorothea Dix Park Development Plan
In February 2019, City Council unanimously adopted the Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan. Prior to adoption, over 65,000 area residents were engaged in the creation of the plan. Now, focus will shift to implementing Phase 1 of the master plan. During FY2019, Dix Park successfully served as host site for one its largest events to date, Dreamville Festival.
Support and Enhance Arts, Culture, and Tourism throughout All of Raleigh
The Pop-up Studios program concluded in Fiscal Year 2019 having served 2,181 participants at eight locations throughout Raleigh. Staff are using lessons learned from this program to inform future community center programming. The initiative team also developed an arts and facilities matrix and will now begin working to inventory and map existing arts and culture activation's throughout the city. This information will help the City make informed decisions about future placement of arts and programming.
Arts Community & Local Tech Community
Multiple creative projects were initiated through partnerships between art and technology including projection mapping with OMAi and SEEK Raleigh at Dorothea Dix Park. Through these events, community members were able to showcase their talents in arts, music, storytelling, and technology. Staff is continuing efforts to expand partnerships both internally and externally and presented information about local projects during the 2019 SXSW Conference
Economic Development & Innovation
Maintain and grow a diverse economy through partnerships and innovation to support large and small businesses and entrepreneurs, while providing employment opportunities for all citizens.
A strong economy benefits every aspect of our community life. The four objectives within the Economic Development & Innovation key focus area seek to:
Identify and enhance workforce development partnerships and efforts and actively serve as a conduit to residents, businesses, and resource partners to attract, retain, and engage a talented workforce of various ages, skill sets, and backgrounds to support a diverse and growing economy..
Cultivate an innovative and entrepreneurial culture based on shared strategic goals.
Establish a strong economic development program that utilizes strategic policies and a comprehensive tool kit of resources to strengthen Raleigh and encourages business investment in all parts of the city.
Maintain and develop amenities and infrastructure specifically attractive to economic development.
Economic Development Tool Kit
The Economic Development Toolkit has been an effective tool to encourage investment for competitive projects and a valuable opportunity to help small businesses add new jobs and grow their businesses. In FY2019, $30,000 in Jobs Raleigh Grants were awarded resulting in 16 new job announcements and 10 businesses were awarded Building Up fit Grants totaling $197,000. The City organized a cross functional team to participate in several local and national educational seminars and discussions around opportunity zones (IEDC, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond/State Dept of Commerce, NAIOP, Parker Poe, Trademark Properties, Ernst & Young, Cherry Beakart & Holland). Staff continue to remain engaged in connecting interested opportunity funds with relevant information.
Refine Development Review & Permitting Process
Staff continue implementing identified process improvements including the e-review process in Energov and building fee calculators for open space, facilities, and stormwater. Additionally, the Budget and Management Services Department worked with Development Services and City Planning to identify opportunities for enhancing the development review and permitting process.
Property Disposition & Acquisition
With the Downtown Land Disposition Strategy as guidance, staff continues to strategically dispose of City-owned properties to assist in meeting the City’s policy and financial goals and helping to shape and define the future of Downtown Raleigh. Staff are currently evaluating policy frameworks for strategic property acquisition and are holding discussions around how property could be acquired to further the policy goals of City Council, including use of land for affordable housing, transit-oriented development, or to support broader economic development goals.
Downtown Parking Strategies
Staff continue to pursue both short- and long-term downtown parking strategies. Staff relocated the Raleigh Police Department’s evidence from the Raleigh Municipal Deck which provided 185 additional spaces. Improvement to the South Salisbury Street surface lot resulted in 35 additional accounts while the elimination of reserved parking netted an additional 25 accounts. Staff held conversations with the State of North Carolina in hopes to better utilize existing state-owned lots. As part of longer-term strategies, staff are looking to pilot a Park and Ride lot within the belt-line. Staff continue to engage with GoRaleigh on park and ride options
Develop Strategies to Close the Digital Divide
Based on City Council's direction, this initiative team began participating in regional discussions to better understand the digital divide in Raleigh and the need for affordable broadband access. Staff from Housing and Neighborhoods and Economic Development + Innovation serve on the NC Digital Equity and Inclusive Committee under the North Carolina Department of Information Technology. The City also sent representation to the 2019 “NetInclusion” Summit. Staff’s primary focus has been to identify locations in Raleigh that are not connected and develop strategies to close those digital divides, including funding needs, partnership opportunities, and best practices implemented across the country.
Growth & Natural Resources
Encourage a diverse, vibrant built environment that preserves and protects the community’s natural resources while encouraging sustainable growth that complements existing development. Sustainable growth and preservation of Raleigh’s natural resources are important to ensuring a prosperous future. The four objectives within the Growth & Natural Resources key focus area seek to:
Develop and maintain adaptable services, policies, and a regulatory framework that protects natural resources.
Increase the connected network of green spaces that conserve natural resources and promote outdoor activity.
Optimize public infrastructure projects to address community resiliency, sustainability, and efficiency.
Facilitate improvements to the built environment that preserve and create neighborhoods of choice.
There are approximately 32.4 miles of streams within Raleigh that have regulatory water quality impairments. Protecting and improving surface water quality along with reducing hazardous flooding are prime goals of the City’s Storm-water Management Program. To help reduce stream water quality impairments, Storm-water manages and performs a wide range of programs, projects, and initiatives funded by the City’s Storm-water Utility Fee. The regulatory impaired streams listing is updated by the State and Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) every two years.
Tree Canopy and Water Quality
A consultant was selected to provide research and framework/ modeling guidance for assessing the impact of urban trees and riparian buffers on water and air quality within Raleigh. City staff, the consultant, and a technical advisory committee refined a framework for modeling air and water quality with respect to tree canopy coverage. The City’s consultant delivered a literature review synthesis of tree canopy effects on urban water and air. The consultant recommended a 3-phased approach that includes a current tree inventory of the existing tree canopy, using existing water- and air-shed models to simulate the effects of various development scenarios, and using these quantitative inputs as part of a decision-support tool.
Add Greenway Amenities
The initiative team completed data collection on greenway amenity locations. This information will be analyzed and incorporated into the Greenway Master Plan update, which will include recommendations on greenway amenities. Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources (PRCR) will receive trail utilization data through a partnership with NC State, who will validate and clean trail counter data and provide the department with analysis and quarterly trail usage reports.
Create an Open Space Plan
As a result of two collaborative, interdepartmental meetings, staff identified criteria for evaluating open space and developed an open strategy framework with a foundation in five focus areas, including a GIS open space model, policy and regulatory levers, and acquisition strategies. The backbone of this strategy is an internal, multi-departmental process for evaluating open space opportunities, which will be applied for future opportunities and supported by each of the five focus areas.
Green Infrastructure Policy
In FY2019 the Green Raleigh Review program was implemented, which is a plan review process providing incentives to add green stormwater practices to site developments. Currently being developed is a Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) costing tool to evaluate the costs of GSI alternatives to traditional stormwater control measures for public and private development projects. The team is also exploring options for expanding green stormwater infrastructure policies
Citywide Waste Reduction
Multifamily single-stream recycling was a key focus for this initiative team in FY2019. Seventy-five (75) multifamily communities participated in this program and 120 dumpsters have been placed. The team will continue to encourage the transition to dumpster service in multifamily communities and will evaluate the results of the residential curbside textile collection pilot project in FY2020.
Community-wide Climate Action Plan
The Climate Energy Action Plan (CEAP) recommendations are still underway and being operational or folded into other initiatives in the Strategic Plan. The results of the recent greenhouse gas emissions inventory in the Raleigh area identified that emissions are primarily coming from Buildings and Energy (56%), Transportation (42%) and Waste and other (including municipal operations 2%). While CEAP was primarily focused on municipal projects and actions, the Community-wide Climate Action Plan (CCAP) project is primarily focused on community-wide activities and actions to address these emissions. The City Council has also established a community-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of an 80% reduction by 2050 from the 2007 base year.
Optimize public infrastructure projects to address community resiliency, sustainability, and efficiency:
Area Plan Prioritization:
City Planning’s area plan prioritization tool was updated with fresh data for use during the FY2020 budgeting process to evaluate potential area plans. The remaining work of this initiative will be to complete one or more of the three area plans funded in the FY2020 budget.
Capital Improvement Program
This new initiative combines and aligns the efforts of several previous initiatives into a single comprehensive initiative. The key component of this initiative is an interdepartmental Capital Improvement Program Steering Committee which creates citywide standards for prioritizing capital investments. This group’s efforts have resulted in revised guidelines, inventory of capital needs, and an expanded CIP book with a project overview page per project. Part of the Committee’s work plan is to discuss funding strategies for the maintenance of streetscape, pedestrian, and neighborhood enhancement projects.
Facilitate improvements to the built environment that preserve and create neighborhoods of choice:
Adopt and Implement Complete Streets Policy:
Staff have begun incorporating the Complete Streets policy into the Raleigh Street Design Manual as part of an on-going update initiative. The proposed Street Design Manual updates will be presented to City Council in a coordinated fashion with the other design manual updates
Identify Opportunities to Improve Quality & Character of Infill Development
The initiative team has held two multi-departmental meetings on infill development and is coordinating updates to design manuals. The meetings analyzed the various elements involved with the resources, capacity, and regulations around infill developing, identifying critical gaps and preliminary ideas for potential improvements. The coordinated updates to various design manuals include some of these insights and provides a cohesive approach to these documents, ensuring consistent policies.
Safe, Vibrant & Healthy Community
Preserve and increase the supply of housing for all income groups, including those with supportive service needs:
Promote a positive level of real and perceived safety that reflects a thriving atmosphere in which to live, work, and play.
Preserve and increase the supply of housing for all income groups, including those with supportive service needs.
Endorse targeted redevelopment through walkable, mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods.
Enhance our citizens’ quality of life by providing a well-designed community that facilitates active living and healthy lifestyles.
Preserve and increase the supply of housing for all income groups, including those with supportive service needs:
Oak City Cares
Construction of Oak City Cares was completed, and it officially opened in April 2019
Partnerships for Permanent Housing for At Cordal Risk
City staff in partnership with Wake County, Alliance Behavioral Healthcare, and developers of affordable housing seeking gap financing, have begun to set aside a portion of units in each affordable housing development for supportive housing and Alliance clients. Over the past three years, there have been commitments for 140 new units.
Partnerships for Mixed-Income Housing
Significant progress has been made to advance the City’s mixed-income housing goals. To date, more than 44 lots have been sold to six home builders in East College Park with 30 single-family homes being sold (24 of which were sold during FY2019). Construction of the East College Park townhomes is expected to begin the winter of 2019; infrastructure work has already begun. As part of the Martin Haywood Project, 13 of the 23 homes have been built, and 10 have been sold. When complete, the East College Park and Martin Haywood projects will add 133 single family homes and 50 townhomes.
Implement the Affordable Housing Improvement
Plan The Mayor and City Council approved the Affordable Housing Improvement Plan in 2015 and subsequently approved adding one cent to the property tax rate to support affordable housing in 2016. In FY2019, more than 650 units were created or preserved through various programs. More than 25 owner-occupied homes were rehabilitated and repaired, and more than 50 first-time homebuyers were provided down payment and closing cost assistance.
Enhance our citizens’ quality of life by providing a well-designed community that facilitates active living and healthy lifestyles:
Support Strategies that Advance Healthy Choices
During FY2019, the initiative team partnered with the Connect Raleigh team (Transportation and Transit Initiative 4.2) to host a lecture on the role governments play in helping residents lead healthy lives. The lecture featured Mark Fenton, public health, planning, and transportation consultant/professor and former host of the PBS series “America’s Walking”, as well as a local panel which included Planning, Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources, Wake County Human Services, and Advocates for Health in Action. Additionally, the initiative team hosted a Senior Bus Expo at the Five Points Center for Active Adults. During the event, more than 60 seniors learned about GoRaleigh's services and were able to tour a bus and meet a bus driver. Attendees were able to apply for a senior GoPass, which allows seniors to ride buses for free, onsite; nearly 30 seniors received their senior GoPass. Additionally, the Office of Raleigh Arts received a grant from the National Guild for Community Arts Education to produce arts programming in all four quadrants of the city that supported older adults social and emotional needs through creative expression and social engagement. The program culminated in December as an exhibition that showcased participants’ work at the Borden Building in Fletcher. Lastly, Garden Corp, the 12- week inter-generational seed to plate gardening program that bring teens and older adults together, was a success. A graduation ceremony for the participants and program partners was held in June 2019.