Knightdale Town Council Meeting

All right, good evening. Good evening, everyone. We are going to go ahead and get started. Thank you so much for joining us for our March town council meeting. Uh we are going to start our meeting with the invocation by councelor Busussy.

Let us pray. Dear heavenly father, we come before you today with gratitude for the opportunity to serve our people of Nightdale. Thank you for this community, its families, its business, and all those that call Nightdale home. We are grateful for you for trusting us in a place to lead with integrity and purpose. Lord, we ask for your wisdom as we make decisions that impact our town. Guide our thoughts, our words, and our actions so that reflect fairness, compassion, and commitment to the greater good. Help us listen with our open hearts, respect different perspectives, and work together in unity. Grant us with clarity in times of challenge, patience in moments of disagreement, and encourage to do for us to always do what is right. May our efforts tonight contribute to the strong and vibrant Nightdale for all. We also ask that you continue to protect our first responders, our town staff, and all those that serve our community daily. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

All right. And next, we will have our pledge of allegiance. Tonight, we are pleased to have some incredible young artists in the room with us. We look forward to recognizing these talented individuals for their participation in the Creek Week art contest in a few moments. But at this time, I would like to invite our youth up to the podium to

lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I know you ready. Okay. One, two, three. Let's go. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Thank you so much for leading us and we will hear more in just a moment about them. Next, we will move to our adoption of the agenda. Are there any changes to tonight's agenda? Questions, comments, or a motion to adopt?

Motion to adopt.

Second. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We stand with our agenda as is presentations, recognitions, and awards. So, now we will hear about our Creek Week art contest winner, Miss Smith Morris.

All right. So, the wonderful thing about Creek Week is that our Creek Creek Week art contest is for K through 12. We had quite a few submissions from prek and so it would be wrong of us to disqualify them because they are prek. So I am going to recognize our young environmentalist awards for all of our prek submissions. So when I call your name, if you're here, you're going to come up. The mayor is going to give you your certificate and we're going to have you stand up here. And then we're also going to give you a little token of appreciation, too. Okay, we ready? So, first we have and I'm just going to show you their artwork. Look, Jessica, you can hit the button for me.

Look. Okay, put that first. We have Laya M. Is Laya here? We have Michaela C. We have Florence, Ezra, Ariana, and Riley R. Any of our young environmentalist awards winners here? None.

I know. I was say I know one is here. Is that right?

Ezra. Oh, this was a good one. Ezra's all the way down in the middle. Yeah. Keep clipping.

Give you this. Okay. Have you go stand up there?

Yep. That's it.

Mhm. So, we're going to have him his certificate. Uhhuh. Artwork is behind it. Good job.

It's working now. Okay. It's okay. It's okay.

Good job. So, next we have our contestants who actually did win the award. So, next we have our rain guard award which is Kayla Gao. And I'm going to read what the description is. The water cycle or how water turns into clouds is displayed on the left and the places water can end up traveling in a cloud are displayed on the right. So, this gave us a true description of where our rainwater goes because that was one of the categories. Next, we have Nature's Helper, which is Charlotte Norton, 6 years old. She won for when when it rains, animals can survive because they will be fresh water for them to drink. The rain water also helps people so that they can wash off their veggies. Charlotte, I know you're here. Come on up, babe. You see hers get the point.

Okay.

What was the name? We do have another prek winner. We have Michaela here. This is Yeah, I got it. Oh, okay.

Is Kayla here? Here we go.

Okay, that's that's okay. Look, that's okay. We'll take what we get. Look, we take We appreciate it. Oh, daddy, get her. Okay. And we do have our rain guard award here. Kayla, hold on. I'm have Mary Day come get you. My god.

This is Kayla. Come on, let's go up and take a photo. Come on, baby. On three. One, two, three. Next, we have our wildlife and water award. We have Charlie Chaplain. Kaplan Wildlife and Water Award. Rain, two ponds, two waterfalls with animals and glitter. Congratulations. Next we have our creative rain journey award, Charlotte Walker. Charlotte's artwork is nice and relaxing creek. A beautiful view. You can hear crickets from the streams and mushrooms feel like fluffy clouds.

Congratulations, Charlotte. Our next award winner is our colorful conservation award. Alvin Inis, who cannot be here tonight, but his mother is accepting in the place. The drawing symbolizes how if you don't keep water clean, it can result in harming animals as well as the environment. Congratulations. Come on up, Mom.

Go get a picture. Mom. And our last award is our people's choice award. Jack Moore, 10 years old. Was he? And Jack could not be here with us tonight, but we did say we would make sure we recognize him. His award act or his artwork had the highest score of all of the artwork submitted. He's 10 years old. His picture is about rain falling in the mountains and taking his journey to a river and the animals that rely on it. He said, "Also, there's a man who's fishing." Congratulations to all of our Creek Week winners. Let's give them all a round of applause. All right. Thank you. Thank you again to all of our participants, everyone in the audience, all the great work. We appreciate it. You did a great job. Congratulations again. We are so proud of what you were able to do and share about the importance of water and connecting that with our creek week. So

next we will have our introduction of maintenance worker Mr. Button.

Good evening, mayor and council. It's uh it's kind of hard to follow that. It's pretty awesome. It's one of the fun parts of my job this creek week. So, um, Alfonso, come on up. Boy, I messed up now. There we go. Uh, I would like to introduce Alfonso Diglio. Alfonso joins us. He's got quite a bit of experience, about 25 years in landscape and equipment maintenance. It's really nice when we can hire people that have experience. We don't have to train them. He's already hit the ground running. He's been working with Jason on our grounds team for about two weeks now, something like that. Yep. Um, Alfonso lives in Wake Forest with his wife and his daughter. And we're really excited to have him, even if he's from Long Island. So, we we love the accent, though. So, uh, Alfonso, mayor and council, mayor, council, Alfonso. Hold on. You need a picture. Thanks, Mike. See you tomorrow morning.

Thank you, Mr. Button. Next um is going back to Creek Week, our Creek Week proclamation. So, I will pass it back to Mr. Button. Thank you again, mayor and council. Again, this is uh one of the more uh fun aspects of my job. Um Creek Week every year. I think this is the fourth year that we participated in this program. Um I really need to give a lot of credit. Um really give a tremendous amount of credit to Ike Archer uh and Mike in our department. They spend a lot of time preparing for this event, a lot of logistics that go into it. Um coordination with the library and some of the other things that we do. And so I really need to give him a lot of credit for this. But this week we've got a lot going on. Um our Creek Week story walk is something that's happening back here behind the library. So this is a really nice interactive event. Our Creek Week art contest, which you just saw the winners from that. We had a lot of submissions this year. I think that's probably the most we've ever had. Our shred event will be this Saturday morning and that will start at 9:00 a.m. um until the truck is full. And so we we try to limit it to three bankers boxes per vehicle. And we'll have a new traffic plan this year, which I'll show you in just a moment. We've also on Saturday got our litter sweep um that goes from 900 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Those participants will be meeting at the Veterans Memorial to kick off that. And then we also have a seed giveaway. We learned some things last year that not all butterflies, particularly monarch butterflies, eat the same thing. So this year we did a little extra research. We have the specific cultivar of orange milkweed that monarch butterfly babies will eat and we are giving away seed packets this year. Um, and so you can plant a whole field of it if you want. Um, so again, give a lot of credit to Ike and and the staff for really digging into that and finding the the right thing to give away. Our story walk, the book this year is called A Place for Rain. Um, it's

written by Michelle Schwab and this is a neat interactive walk. It really encourages parents to get out with their children and kind of walk around and stop at each of the stations in the environmental park, kind of read all the elements of the book and then they can finish the book while they do it. Um, our our story walk is a really nice story because we've reached over 1500 residents since we started this program and I think that's really neat to say in what we're doing. our litter sweep. Again, this is another part of of the thing that I really enjoy. Traffic trash is a huge problem in Nightdale. It is something that we struggle to keep up with. Um, but this is an opportunity for local residents and other volunteers to get involved with this. Um, since 2022, since we started this program, we have removed over 17,000 pounds of trash. So, that's a lot. The volunteers put a lot of effort into this. you know, my staff is there just to protect for safety. It's really the volunteers that that do the work. And so, again, really proud of that effort. Our activities this year will all take place at the park just like last year. So, again, the leader the litter sweep meeting location will be at the stage. We'll do our milk seed milkweed seed giveaway at up there at the stage as well. And then our shred truck though is moving back to closer to the YMCA parking lot. This is a much more convenient way for folks to get in and out. We had a lot of success with it in the fall. Um, a lot less traffic jams and snarls and so we're excited to to put that there. So, with that, I think we have the proplation.

Yes, we do.

So, thank you for sharing. I know a lot of exciting things coming up. We look forward to a lot of the things that are happening this weekend. So, hopefully many will be able to come out and participate. Uh now I will read a little bit of the proclamation. Regional Creek Week started by the NC Clean Water Education Partnership is a special week where local governments

work together to celebrate and steward local creeks and streams. Creeks, streams, rivers, and other waterways support outdoor recreation, healthy lifestyles, and safe drinking water supplies. Healthy waterways support biodiversity, natural beauty, and provide critical habitat for aquatic wildlife. The town of Nightdale's Creek Week alone has removed over 17,000 pounds of trash from the waterways since its first celebration. As we heard, as we just heard from the town of Nightdale will celebrate Creek week with opportunities for the public to engage in a variety of events. So therefore, I, Jessica Day, mayor of the town of Nightdale, do hereby proclaim the third week of March as Creek Week in the town of Nightdale. And I encourage all citizens to celebrate Creek week and support efforts to protect our creeks and our streams. Thank you again, Mr. Button. And next is our Arbor Day proclamation, Miss Goodman. Good evening, mayor and members of council. Um before the Arbor Day proclamation is shared, just wanted to share a couple um couple things about this coming Arbor Day and our Tree City application. Um I'm happy to confirm that our application was once again approved uh earlier this winter. This marks the 25th time that the town has been recognized as a Tree City USA community. As most of you know, um, in order to qualify as a Tree City USA community, you have to meet four standards. The first one is having a tree board or department. Our land use review board serves in this capacity as our tree board. Um, also we have to have a public tree ordinance. This is something that both the town code and our unified development ordinance has regulations

pertaining to public trees. And then third, you have to spend at least $2 per capita on forestry. This past year, we spent just under $233,000. Um, which equates to $9.64 per capita. Um, that was a little elevated. We bought a vacuum truck for leaf removal, but even without that purchase, we would have met that um $2 per capita requirement. And then last is having an Arbor Day proclamation and observation. So once again, I believe this is the fourth year we've partnered uh with the public works department to hold Arbor Day during Creek Week. So this Friday, March 20th, at 2 PM, um we will gather out back in the environmental park and have our annual tree planting ceremony. We'll have a member of the North Carolina Forest Service there to recognize our reertification as a Tree City USA community. Um this has been advertised on social media. It is open to the public, so we invite and encourage any and all to attend. So, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, but staff's recommendation tonight is to proclaim Friday, March 20th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the town of Nightdale.

Thank you so much, Miss Goodman. Now, I will read the proclamation. Arba Day was founded in Nebraska in 1872 and serves as a special day to plant and celebrate trees. Trees reduce the erosion of top soil, lower heating and cooling cost, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. Trees are a renewable resource, giving us countless important paper and wood products for our homes and businesses. Trees beautify our community, increase property values, and enhance economic vitality of businesses of business areas. As we just heard, the town of Nightdale has been recognized as a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day

Foundation and desires to continue its tree planting practices. Nightdale's Arbor Day coincides with regional creek week and will be celebrated by holding a tree planting ceremony. Therefore, I, Jessica Day, mayor of the town of Nightdale, do hereby proclaim Friday, March 20th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the town of Nightdale and encourage all residents to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees, our woodlands, and urban forest. Thank you again, Miss Goodman. And hopefully we'll have um residents coming out on Friday as well. Next is recognition of outgoing advisory board members, Mr. Brown and Miss Morris. Good evening, mayor and members of the council. The town's advisory boards are uh completely voluntary boards that residents of both the town limits and our extra territorial jurisdiction serve on and they uh advise the council on subject matter such as community relations, parks and wreck, the veterans memorial, land use, and we have a board of adjustment as well. And so I have the distinct pleasure tonight of recognizing two outgoing board members. The first from our land use review board. Our land use review board, as Donna just uh mentioned, serves as the town's tree board, but also serves as the planning board advising on land use matters and as the town's appearance commission. And so tonight, I get to recognize Alan Smith, who has served on that board since 2022. Um Allan has all those traits you want from a board member. Uh he's dedicated, inquisitive, genuine, supportive. He truly understands the town's vision for growth and will be greatly missed on that board. Allan

participated in reviewing some of the most transformational projects in Nightdale's history. Uh he should be proud of the fingerprints he has left on the community. So I'd like to welcome Allan up and please join me in congratulating uh Allan and thanking him for his dedicated service to the town. Just three. One, two, three. You have one group picture at Dan. So um next I get the uh pleasure of uh recognizing one of our outgoing board of adjustment members. The board of adjustment is one of the advisory boards that's required by state law and they actually are one of the only boards that make final decisions on matters. And um tonight I get to recognize Rita Blackman for her service on the board of adjustment. I'll say if there was a hall of fame for advisory board members. Rita would definitely be a first ballot inductee. She has served the community in various capacities over the last several decades. She has served on the Oldtown Oversight Committee, the Oldtown Advisory Committee, and I think the Oldtown Advisory Board as well. Um, she also served on the land use review board, the parks and wreck advisory board, and most recently the board of adjustment. Like I said, since 2022. A few years ago, I got to stand up here and say uh we how much we'd miss Rita on the land use review board and how I couldn't imagine a land use review board without Rita. And now I'll say the same about having Rita on no advisory boards

in Nightdale. I can't imagine a Nightdale without Rita's um wisdom uh in a board. But with that, I want to recognize Rita for her many years of dedicated service to all of our advisory boards, but most recently the board of adjustment. And please join me in uh recognizing Rita. Thank you. On three. One, two, three. The community relations advisory board or also known as crab actually has two uh people tonight but one could not be here. Uh Miss Anika Miss Anika Turner could not be here this evening but we will make sure that we get her award to her. But I do want to say publicly we thank her for her expertise. We also thank her for her baking skills because she also made sure that she bought something to every meeting for everyone to eat. Uh, one of the things that's interesting about her is she wanted to serve on this board because she was interested and how the town grows and also how she can add her area of expertise in higher education to the community. She is a professor at Dartmouth. So she wanted to make sure that she one was a voice for higher education in the community and she also has participated in our planning and also has done other volunteer opportunities throughout town. So can we give her a round of applause?

Our last but definitely not least recognition for the community relations advisory board is Councilman Busussy. I know you like what is she going to say about me at that podium. So, one of the things that we want to recognize him for is his dedication as the chair of the community relations advisory board from 2024 to 2025. Grady has played or Councilman Busy has played a pivotal role during the special time as 2024 marked the initial launch of the community relations advisory board. His leadership helped lay the foundation for the board, guiding his early direction with vision, collaboration, and a deep commitment to our community. While we're sad to see him step away from this board, we're incredibly proud and excited to see him continue his service as an elected official. This next chapter reflects both his dedication and his commitment to serving the community of Nightdale. On behalf of the community relations advisory board, we thank you Councilman Busy or Grady uh for your service, your leadership, and lasting impact that you have made. And we look forward to the work that we'll continue to do in your next role. on three. One, two, three. You want

three? One, two, three. And uh thank you again, Mr. Brown. Thank you, Miss Morris, for sharing. I would like to acknowledge the advisory board members who were unable to join us this evening, but who have been a tremendous asset to our town and ha and uh have now completed their terms. Um we heard the um information from Anika Turner from community relations advisory board. Very thankful for her being willing to serve on the board. And then we have two members from our veterans memorial advisory board, David Foster and Pete Mangum. We are thankful for all of their dedication, their service, and their commitment to our community. So can we give them a round of applause, please? very thankful for any of our residents that are willing to sacrifice or to give their time to make their community better. So, thank you for every minute that you served, that you shared, that you gave um insight and information to help make our town great. So, thank you. Next is our public comment period. Uh, is there anyone here tonight who wishes to address the council? If so, I'll share a couple of comments. Public comment is an opportunity for individuals and groups to bring potential topics of interest to the council's attention. It is important to note that it's not a discussion. The council will receive information and take it under advisement. Respectful communication is expected and

appreciated. For anyone speaking tonight, please make sure you have signed in on the speaker sheet located at the entry table. Comments are limited to three minutes and the timer will indicate when the time has expired, which we do have a timer here. Uh, large groups are asked to designate a spokesperson. When at the podium, please be sure to state your name and address for the record.

Hi, good evening. My name is Giana Buff. I am serving as Miss Wake County 2026. So, I will be competing for Miss North Carolina this upcoming June, which I am really excited for. So, first of all, thank you guys for having me. Thank you, Mayor Day and the entire Nightdale Town Council for allowing me to speak this evening. I'm going to speak just a little bit about the importance of the Miss America opportunity as well as my community service initiative. So, what I'm advocating for during my year as a title holder. So, just to start off, um the Miss America opportunity is a lot more than just a beauty pageant and wearing a crown and sash. It's the nation's most iconic platform for women to rise, lead, and inspire. So, it's really rooted in service, leadership, and community engagement, which is what makes this opportunity so special. On top of that, the educational opportunity and benefits that these young women receive is amazing. So, the winner of Miss North Carolina receives a $20,000 cash scholarship as well as a car for their year of service. And the Miss North Carolina organization gives over $150,000 in scholarships. So, many young women graduate college debtree, which is a big reason why these women get involved in this opportunity. And now to speak just a little bit about my service initiative. So my platform is called building balance and it's all about supporting wellness and empowering confidence. And a little backstory as to why I chose this. So I am a sophomore in college at NC State. So being a college student and being in a sorority, I see firsthand how many young women struggle with finding that balance in their life.

So I really just want to teach that health is not about perfection or restriction, but it's about balance, consistency, and growth. So, a few things I've done in our community so far, I hosted a wellness drive and I was able to donate over a hundred um self-care items to the Women's Center of Wake County to provide those women with basic wellness essentials um because they otherwise don't have access to them. I also have a wellness Wednesday series on my social media where I just share practical tips of how I build balance in my life and some mindset moments and I highlight other local title holders as well. And I've spoken to multiple organizations in schools including the Cardinal Gibbons Dance Team, the Rotary Club of Garner, um the Garner League of Women, and NC State College of Science faculty and staff members and the Garnertown Council as well. So um looking ahead, I have a percent of purchase event with Blend Nutrition on Hillsboro Street. So 20% of all the transactions made that day will be going to the NC State wellness center to give back to the students and support wellness at NC State. I also am in the process of planning a fundraising event that will be held in May and all of the proceeds will be given to School Meals for AllNC which is a nonprofit organization benefiting nutrition education and food access for children and families across North Carolina. So, I believe wellness begins with access, education, and community support. So, giving back to this nonprofit means a lot to me, and I'm excited to continue to work with them throughout my year. So, again, thank you guys for having me. I hope to bring home the crown for Wake County, but either way, I've already won because the value I've gained from this experience has truly been amazing. So, thank you guys. Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you for sharing a little bit more

about you and a little bit about your mission. Uh is there anyone else here tonight who wishes to address the council? If so, you may come forward at this time. All right. Reports on citizens inquiries. Are there any reports from council on citizens inquiries?

All right. Hearing none, I'll move to the consent agenda. Any questions or comments on the consent agenda or motion to adopt?

Motion to adopt. Second.

All in favor?

I I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We will move to our public hearings for the evening. First is A&-9-25 Hopkins Farm Annexation. Mr. Smith.

Thank you, Mayor Day. Good evening, council. Uh, the first public hearing item is, as stated, A9-25 Hopkins Farm. It's a voluntary uh voluntary annexation petition. Uh it's a it's non-ontiguous. Uh the uh proposed annex area is a little bit over 51 acres. Uh currently the uh the property is uh used as residential uses. Um however, if you recall from uh last fall, uh there was a uh the Hopkins farm plan unit development. Uh that development was approved in uh September of 2025 and that allowed for um 171 residential units um broken up between single family and town homes. So here's a quick look at the master plan um to remind you of it. It's on uh the north side of Pool Road um east of Bethlehem. And then on the left is the annexation

plat. And then on the right is just a little bit more zoomed in of that 51.55 acres. Um, as a reminder, it is a voluntary annexation petition, non-ontiguous. The town clerk has certified this petition and town council adopted uh resolution number 20 2628001 to set this public hearing and uh staff also gave uh adequate uh public notice to hold this public hearing for this annexation. Um so we did our typical staff did our typical costbenefit analysis to see um you know the impacts um of the 171 residential units. Uh so overall the projected net revenues about uh $79,500. Um we uh in the staff report and in the council packet uh there's the full breakdown of this costbenefit analysis. Happy to dig into it if you guys wish. Um otherwise, uh we'll just continue moving on, but there is a uh projected net revenue of over $79,000. Um couple other things just to uh remember from this proposal that was approved. It's uh considered a conservation subdivision. The way um the comprehensive plan identifies uh the the location and kind of the the nature of the the the development and the amount of um green space saved. The project's also going to be constructing a decent amount of public greenways and and side paths throughout the neighborhood and also um building a couple public collector roads. Um but with that concludes my presentation. As always, I'm happy to to answer any questions and go over anything. Um, but it would be my recommendation that after receiving public comment that council makes a motion to uh close the public hearing and adopt ordinance number 26318002 effectively annexing this area. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Bring it to council for any questions or comments.

All right. This is a public hearing item. So at this time we will open the floor for public comment. Is there anyone here tonight who wishes to speak on this item? If so, you may come forward at this time. Just as a reminder, which probably no, but please make sure you have signed the speaker sheet located at the entry table. Comments are limited to three minutes and the timer will indicate when your time has expired. Please be sure to state your name and address for the record.

Thank you, Mayor Day. My name is David Bergmark. I'm a planner with McAdams, 620 Hillsboro Street in Raleigh, North Carolina. Here on behalf of the applicant, just in the event there's any questions that you wish to direct my way rather than staff. Just want to let you know I'm available and very grateful for all the coordination support up to this point by both the council and your staff. Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else here tonight who wishes to speak on this item? If so, you may come forward at this time. If not, I'll bring it back to council. Any final questions, comments, or are we ready to make a motion?

I'll make a motion to close the public hearing, adopt ordinance 260318002, effectively annexing the area.

Second.

All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We'll move to our next public hearing item. N-3-26 Allen Park phase 2B. Mr. Brown.

Uh, good evening once again, Mayor, members of the council. I have a unique uh, annexation public hearing in front of us tonight. Um, this is part of the Allen Park subdivision. So, Allen Park is situated on Old Mill Bernie Road kind of at the 540 uh, overpass. U, most of phase one of this development is complete at this point. It's been constructed by Garmin Homes. Uh, phase 2A is uh, turning right along. that's being constructed by Ryan Homes. It

consists of both ranches and single family homes. But there's one portion of phase 2b that's just over three acres that was part of a uh kind of a slice of another parcel that was uh previously in the town's extr territorial jurisdiction that needs now to come into the town limits in order for them to record the plat for phase 2b. So what I'll present to you tonight is kind of the standard annexation uh information but do understand the overall costbenefit analysis is not for this 3 acres but for the overall Allen Park subdivision when complete. Um so again this is for that portion uh just the 3.3 acres of phase 2B. Uh this is the annexation plat of the area to be annexed. Uh this is a voluntary contiguous annexation. The town clerk has certified the petition and the resolution was adopted uh to set the public hearing for this evening. Uh again, the projected revenues and expenditures, as you can see, we updated the numbers because this was last done in 2022. There was not any significant change, but the overall Allen Park subdivision is expected to create net revenues of uh over $695,000. Again, our recommendation tonight is after receiving any public comment, a motion to close the public hearing and adopt ordinance number 26-03-18-003, effectively annexing that uh parcel. And happy to answer any questions you have.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Are there any questions or comments for Mr. Brown?

All right. Once again, this is a public hearing item. May come forward at this time. Good evening, mayor and council members. Beth TJOS with Fox Rothschild. I'm here tonight on behalf of uh Ellen Park and Nutelli communities. And I have with me Jonatelli um here to ask for your support of this annexation petition just adding that small 3acre remainder uh that will complete this project. So, we would appreciate your support. I forgot to sign the sheet, but I will do it on

the way out. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here tonight who wishes to speak on this item? If so, you may come forward at this time. All right. If not, I'll bring it back to council. Any final questions or comments?

Oh, we're ready for a motion.

I'll make the motion to close the public hearing. Adopt ordinance 26318003, effectively annexing the area.

Second.

All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries.

That's our last public hearing item. So, we will move to our new business. First is the future park site master plan contract. Mr. Lefver.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Thanks for having me tonight. See, I'm here as usual to talk about something fun with you guys and that's what you know my emmo is at this point. Um the future park site master plan is a very exciting project that we're working toward. I'm going to give you a little um kind of background in the selection process that we've gone through to get to this point. We had a request for qualifications that was issued on December 19th of 25. A statement of qualifications were due by February 13, 2026. Um a wonderful number of 18 firms submitted responses to the RFQ. Um after a thorough uh review of all the submissions, the selection committee narrowed that list down to five to get to the interview and presentation stage. Um John R or John McAdams Incorporated earned the highest score based on a weighted scoring matrix that considered the SOQ as well as the interview and presentation. Um with the timeline here looking for completion of the master plan by August 17th of this year. Nick Adams is here with me tonight and they will give a wonderful presentation and give you a lot more information of their capabilities and I'm going to hand it over to them for a few minutes.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council. It's exciting to be here today. These are fun projects and uh real excited about what this project means for the town of Nightdale and and really pleased to be here today. I am Jason Galloway. I'm a project manager with McAdams. I'm joined today by Julie Young who's a landscape architect with us as well. Uh we both work for McAdams. We're a multid-disciplinary firm uh with over 550 uh professionals across the southeast. We're headquartered here in Raleigh. Uh but we are predominantly made up of landscape architects, planners, and civil engineers. A couple things that we bring to this project. Um we are familiar with Nightdale. We like I mentioned we are headquartered here in Raleigh. Uh we're members of the community. We do a lot of work with you all uh both on the development side but also working with you all as clients uh we work with several projects with you all. So we understand your process uh what matters to this community uh and how to make uh a project success successful. Additionally, we're knowledgeable about the project. Uh Julie's going to speak a little bit more to that here in just a moment, but we've done some research on it uh and we know this project type very well. We also have an integrated team. Uh we do have some subconultants uh with Davis Kane as our architectural consultant uh and Falcon Engineering for our environmental and we do have a cost consultant as well. Uh but otherwise our team is all inhouse. It helps us collaborate well. It helps us deliver um projects on time uh and really helps us be efficient uh across the the full project timeline. Then finally we're park planning specialists. We love parks. I these are my favorite project type to work on. Uh we specialize in it. Our team uh really just focuses on civic uh projects um and we focus on parks primarily. A couple things our approach uh we did split this into three different milestones. Our first being information gathering. So our survey, our environmental research. Uh second to that is our milestone 2 which is consensus building. So reaching out to the community, understanding what they need and what the community would really like to see on the site. And then third our deliverable production. So putting

together the plans, the graphics, uh really communicating the ideas to the community, uh which is going to be a key component to the success of this project. So we're going to go through those three milestones uh fairly quickly here. The first being managing our constraints and understanding the site. So this is the site here. Uh in our in our review of it, we understand that we have um railroad tracks, we have transmission line easements, we have several uh environmental features on the site. So our first step is really understanding what is available out here. Uh what do we need to do to bring this project uh to the point where we can develop it further into uh the vision that um the community seeks.

Hello, I'm Julie Young, uh landscape architect. You already introduced me, Jason, but I'll speak to the community engagement. This is a big component of our information gathering um part of the project and um two main goals that we have for community engagement are um customization creating a plan of for community engagement that fits the town of Nightdale and and reaches the most people. And the second part of that community engagement is we we meet the people where they are. So we will create a targeted approach to um this is mine a targeted approach to engage in uh already planned community events so that we can reach out to the most available people to get input on the future of this uh park site. Oops, I went backwards. So I'm a landscape architect and I'm part of a team of landscape architects. some people that and our our I have team members that specialize in park planning. Um this site um let me back up a second. Nightdale slogan is start something. This site is going to start something because it is such an exciting opportunity for the town. Uh in this in this quick sketch we did you can see that it is strategically located on a future greenway. It's located in the

eastern part of town, which uh a community park of this size is perfect for this location as the eastern part of Nightdale continues to grow to provide this amenity to the community. Um it's an amazing site. It has flat open areas that are conducive for um certain needs, specifically the community center that has been already um explored by the Davis uh Kain team. But then there's also a really cool opportunity to create natural experiences in a part of the site that's more wooded and has access to a a cool pond. So there are some amazing opportunities here and we are excited about um pursuing this opportunity with the town to create um a master plan for this site. Again, I mentioned that Davis Keane is on our team and they the value of having them on our team is they have already done some looks at this site to figure out how to site this future community center which would be the phase one to deliver this to the community. So, we've already have one step in the door of creating this plan and um moving it along expeditiously because we know that there's there's an aggressive timeline that we need to meet to deliver this master plan. All right. So, um, we've looked through some of what we wanted to show in these slides. Uh, we put together some slides with some master plans on it, but really, uh, when we got into it, we really wanted to share with you guys our video capability. A plan speaks a thousand words, a video speaks a million. It's very easy to understand what the project site looks like. Uh, when we do it this way, and it's really easy to communicate with the community. Uh, so you'll see here in just a minute, there's about three or four other of these parks. Uh, this is Pearl Street Park just outside of Charlotte. our team worked on. Um, but we're moving in here now. This is Heritage Park and Hope Mills. Uh, this is on the site of the old Hope Mill just below the dam. Um, that concrete structure that's through there was the old flume. Uh, so water would drain from the dam, flow through it, hit a turbine, spin it, and power

the mill. We repurposed that into a storm water control measure. Uh, brought people out to the site and took the floodgates that used to hold that water back and turn them up into shade structure. So now this becomes a heritage space for the community and it's really an amazing gathering space. Uh, additionally we have sister teams in our Charlotte and and uh Winston Salem metros. This project was done by our team in Charlotte. So uh we know we have a tight timeline. So if we need to, we can really lean on them as well to help develop these projects. This is Burge Road Park. Uh it's a playground. Had to deal with several slope um conditions there that that they really had to work through in a creative way. Uh, another park project we like to highlight here is Jurgen Park that's located in Garner. Uh, it's currently under construction. This phase one of the park which delivers um some athletics fields and a really unique um stage structure, restroom building and also a slope playground to um deal with some of the issues we had with grading on site. Again, this is going to be delivered in June uh this year. Uh and it explain it it shows how we can take a master plan and take it all the way through to CDIS to deliver a successful part of the community. And one thing Oh, you want to go ahead and talk about Lee County?

So, this is Lee County athletic park down outside of Sanford. Um this project just completed in September. Uh it's it's primarily an athletic park, but there is this community space. That landing picture in our first slide is actually that playground right there. So, um, we've been able to see this master plan evolve and turn into a space that, um, well, I got to take my kids out there and watch them play on it. So, that's really fun to do. Um, so yes, that's this is typically how we like to do our process. Um, we do start with our plan graphics, but communication wise, we like to build in a 3D model, uh, put together a video that really helps us design and understand the site in three dimensions. Um and we've shown um that

this is this process really um communicates the process well and and turns into a very beautiful uh final product.

And I might and I will add that our our graphics and visualization specialists are also in house at McAdams. So we are working the landscape architects designers are working with our graphic specialists to create these videos and these graphics to really portray the play the park as it will be when it's developed gives it the vision.

Thank you all for your time. This is uh again a very exciting project and we're excited for you all. All right, we'll go to staff recommendation. Um, we would recommend to motion to authorize a town manager to award and sign an engineering design contract with John R. McAdams Incorporated pending legal review and to not exceed $400,000 for design and master plan services for the future park site.

All right. Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? I'll say congratulations. Great job. Um out of 18 applicants, I'm glad we we had that number that that were interested in Nightdale. Also thankful for having that land donated to the town to really work with. So um unless there's anybody else here, I'll make a motion to authorize the town manager to award and sign an engineering design contract to the John R. McAdams, Inc. uh company pending legal review not to exceed $400,000 for design and master plan services for the future park site.

Second. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yeah.

Thank you again. Next, we'll move to commit to civil um civility resolution. Miss Smith. Good evening, mayor and members of the council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight about a new program that the town has decided to participate in. So, quick overview. As you know, the town of Nightdale is a member of the North Carolina League of Municipalities. This is an organization that supports cities and towns across the state and provides a variety of services. And recently, the league has launched a commit to civility program that aims to educate elected officials about their role in civil society and provides them with the information and skills to help maintain composure in emotionally charged situations. And the requirements to participate and complete this commit to civility program include three steps. The first is you have to have at least 75% of your elected body attend the commit to civility training course. And so I'm happy to say that we have accomplished that step so far. You have to have your elected officials sign an individual pledge. We have done that as well. And the final step is to adopt a resolution showing our board's commitment to civil discourse. And that is what we are asking for this evening. And so with that, I would like to turn it over to Mayor Day to share the resolution. And then I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. It would be our recommendation that we adopt resolution pledging to practice and promote civility within the governing body. And once we complete this final step, we'll be able to submit all of our paperwork to the League of Municipalities and hopefully be recognized at their annual conference in May.

Thank you, Miss Smith. And um now I will read the resolution in its entirety. Resolution 26318004

pledging to practice and promote civility in the town of Nightdale. Whereas the Nightdale Town Council, the governing body for the town of Nightdale, North Carolina, the municipality, recognizes that robust debate and the right to self-expression as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution are fundamental rights and essential components of democratic self-governance. And whereas the Nightdale Town Council further recognizes that the public exchange of diverse ideas and viewpoints is necessary to the health of the community and the quality of governance in the municipality. And whereas members of the Nightdale Town Council as elected representatives of the community and stewards of the public trust recognize their special role in modeling open, free and vigorous debate while maintaining the highest standards of civility, honesty, and mutual respect. And whereas Nightdale Town Council meetings are open to the public and thus how local officials execute their legal duties is on public display. Whereas civility by town officials in the execution of their legislative duties and responsibilities foster respect, kindness, and thoughtfulness between town officials, avoiding personal ill will, which results in actions being directed to issues made in the best interests of residents. And whereas civility between town officials presents an opportunity to set a positive example of conduct and promotes thoughtful debate and discussion of legislative issues, resulting in better public policy and more informed electorate while while in while encouraging civil behavior between residents. And whereas civility between town officials is possible if each member of the elected body remembers that they represent not only themselves

but the constituents of the town. Whereas in order to publicly declare its commitment to civil discourse and to express its concern for the common good and well-being of its residents, the Nightdale Town Council has determined to adopt this resolution. And whereas at least 75% of the Nightdale Town Council has completed the NCLM commit to civility program requirements and has signed an individual pledge committing to uphold the pillars. Now therefore be it resolved as follows. The town of Nightdale pledges to practice and promote civility within the governing body. The elected officials of the Nightdale Town Council enact this civility pledge to build a stronger and more prosperous community by advocating for civil engagement, respecting others and their viewpoints, and finding solutions for betterment of the town of Nightdale. This pledge strives to ensure that all communication be open, honest, and transparent as this is vital for cultivating trust and relationships. This pledge strives to show courtesy by treating all colleagues, staff, and members of the public in a professional and respectful manner, whether in person, online, or in written communication, especially when we disagree. The pledge strives to ensure mutual respect to achieve municipal goals, recognizing that patience, tolerance, and civility are imperative to success and demonstrates the Nightdale Town Council's commitment to respect different opinions by inviting and considering different perspectives, allowing space for ideas to be expressed, debated, opposed, and clarified in a constructive manner. on this day the 18th May the 18th of March this resolution

at this time may I have a motion for the resolution I make a motion uh to share and adopt resolution 26318-004 pledging to practice and promote stability within the governing body.

Second.

All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. Thank you again to the council. Thank you for everyone who participated and thank you for your commitment to this by approving this resolution. So, next is advisory board committee reports. This is an opportunity for council members to share updates from recent advisory board meetings. Does anyone have any updates to share?

Mayor, I have some transportation updates. Um, so I think at last council meeting I mentioned that there were going to be some nightly lane closures along I 87 near the uh 540 interchange u starting this month, but actually been put off until um next month uh April 6th and 7th um for one lane and then April 9th and 10th. I think there's going to also involve some detours. Um, and so anyway, that's uh that's been delayed a little bit. I I know our communication staff has has all of that information. Can share that out. So, anybody traveling that area at night, just be aware. I think there'll be plenty of signs to to make folks aware. Um, also a little bit of an update on the um bus rapid transit uh the BRT. Um, we've been hearing about that coming forever. it's going to start, you know. But anyway, um construction has actually started. The contract has been let um and there's been some price escalations and some other things where they've had to sort of go back and sort of figure out which parts can get under underway. Um the actual it's sort of in three phases now.

The first phase is is really more downtown Raleigh around the bus station. Um the entire BRT that's going to be built along that corridor will actually come from the the bus station to go Raleigh bus station in Raleigh uh and end at New Hope Road. Uh so to actually ever get all the way out here that's going to take a while, you know, for the north and the west and the south pieces of it to be built, I would imagine first. Um, it will include 10 new stations along that route when it's complete, seven new buses and some of those cool articulating buses. And, uh, they will get signal priority, uh, which is sort of neat. So, on once it gets underway, if they are running behind, they can sort of get those signals to align so they can stay on schedule or get back on schedule. Um uh so they're starting downtown Raleigh with some u the the town the streets and utilities having to be moved out of out of the way. Um and then that next phase that will bring it all the way out to New Hope Road will be advertised this summer and construction uh should probably get underway probably early next year. They they hope to get a contract executed by the end of this year. And then um and I can follow up with staff on this too, but u the Wake Transit uh work plan updates. Um so there's a community funding area program that we've taken part of and I'm I'm not sure of all of the the projects we we've been a part of, but there's an increase in funds going to that of $6 million and a decrease in matching funds from the municipalities from 50% to 35%. So that that really helps us uh and and again for anything that we we take a part of and there is a comment period open for that. Um again it has to do with transit and and you know our interest in transit in this area at waketransit.org and uh that uh comment period is open now and I think it closes in just a couple weeks. So that's all I had.

Thank you for those updates. Any additional

uh mayor? Um point of information uh in terms of um with our LURB um committee they um they actually reviewed our facing reserve development and after u true discussion uh they recommended for approval uh of the development uh 3 to2. Thank you for that update as well. Any additional? All right. If not, then I am told that we need to go into closed session. So, may I have a motion to enter into closed session pursuant to NC General Statute 143-318.11A5?

So, moved.

Second.

All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We will move into close session. Thank you to everyone that joined us this evening. Have a good rest of your evening.