Knightdale Town Council Meeting

All right. Good evening. Good evening everyone. We are going to go ahead and get started with our May town council meeting and we will start with our invitation by Mayor Pro Tim Evans.

All right. Good evening. Uh we invite any of you that wish to pray with us to enter into prayer at this time. Lord, we come this evening in a spirit of humility for the trust that has been placed in us to serve the members of our community. We ask that we shall not betray that trust and we shall divorce ourselves of any bias or personal interest as it pertains to the work that we do. We ask for the blessing of protection around all of those who show up to serve and that our judgments be made right and our tensions intentions be true. We ask that the judgments and the decisions that we make this evening shall be for the betterment of those in the entire of our Nightdale community. For these things we ask, Amen. Thank you all for joining us tonight. We are pleased to highlight Ansley Trip, a senior from Thales Academy who will be graduating in just a few weeks. Ansley is truly a part of our Nightdale family as she is the daughter of assistant town manager Dustin Trip. During her time at Thal's Academy, Ansley was on the varsity cheerleading team. After graduation, she plans to attend Meredith College where she will study mathematical engineering. We are so proud of you and we know that you will go on to do great and amazing things at Meredith College and beyond. We wish you all the best. So now everyone, let's give it up for Ansley as she makes uh well as she leads us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the

United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much again. We can't wait to see what the future holds for you. All right. Now, we are going to have the adoption of the agenda. Are there any changes to tonight's agenda? Questions, comments, or motion to adopt.

Motion to adopt.

Second.

All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We will go with the agenda as is for the evening. Starting with our presentations, recognitions, and awards. First is recognition of Lady Knights. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have some champions in the room with us. From the very beginning, the Nightdale Lady Knights flag football team was built on hard work, dedication, and trust. What started as a group of athletes learning the game and finding their rhythm quickly grew into a family determined to make history. Through

every practice, through every challenge and tough matchup, they discovered that winning isn't just about talent. It's about believing in each other, communicating, and playing as one unit. This twotime championship team earned every victory from the ground up. They grew together. They pushed each other to improve. And they never backed down when adversity came their way. Every player contributed. Every coach invested in their growth. And every moment helped shape a championship culture built on discipline, resilience, and unity. More than trophies, this team represents growth. They represent sisterhood and the power of coming together for a shared purpose. They proved that with when individuals unite with one goal and one heartbeat, greatness follows. Two championships down and the legacy of the Lady Knights is only just beginning. As proud members of the Nightdale Football Association, these athletes carry forward a tradition that has served the youth of Nightdale since 1968. For more than five decades, KFA was built has built character, confidence, and community through youth sports. And its girls flag team stands as one of the strongest and most inspiring representations of what that program is all about. Please visit www.nightdales.org to learn more about the Lady Knights and the Nightdale Nightdale football association. So to the Lady Knights, to all of the coaches, we congratulate you on your accomplishments thus far. We are so proud of what you have done and proud of what you will do going forward. We wish you all the best in nationals. Make us proud. Thank you so much for being here.

And now if you would all come forward In case anyone wants to help us, there's a QR code right there. Congratulations. All right. Thank you again for being here, for sharing your story. We're so proud of you. Congratulations. and we can't wait to see what's going to happen. Just sharing again, they could use some additional support. So, if anybody is willing to help support them as they uh go towards nationals, I think that information was shared. Please be willing to do that because we'd love to see what they're going to do in July. So, awesome.

Next is our recognition of student volunteer, Miss Morris. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Lauren, you come up here and join me. This evening, we're going to recognize Lauren. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about why we're recognizing her. And don't everybody stare at her. She's a little shy, okay? But when I read about her, you will understand why we are recognizing her for the wonderful person that she is. And I do want to give a special thank you to Councelor Latius Morris and working with us to make sure that we can recognize Lauren. So Lauren, in recognition for her outstanding leadership, dedication to service, and commitment to making a positive impact in the community. I'm going to tell you a little bit about a few of the things that she has done. Lauren is a participant of the Delta Academy of the Nightdale Wake Forest chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and just recently completed her reign as the chapter's 2024 Little Miss Jabawwok Scholarship Queen where she raised over $32,000.

Lauren has a given heart and tries to find ways to help others who are less fortunate. From December of 2025 to February of this year, Lauren received donations to purchase items for care bags that she prepared and passed out to individuals who were homeless. The care bags included sleeping bag, tarps, hats, gloves, scarves, socks, hand warmers, and snacks. She and her mother were able to make a distribution drop off at the homeless encampment in Wake County. And in addition to that, they distributed items as far away as Charlotte. Ever since she was a Girl Scout, she has donated Girl Scout cookies to individuals who are homeless or displaced. She regularly donates to the Salvation Army's Women and Children's Shelter of Wake County and to date has

donated close to 1,200 boxes of cookies. But not only that, she recently hit the mark of was it 12,000 cookies? That 10,000 plus cookies that she has sold to date since she's been a Girl Scout. Lauren also believes that we should think about how to save the environment. As a bronze award winner of Girl Scouts and she's working towards her silver award, two of her cadets along with herself are working on a project called Carry with Dignity. This project will provide duffel bag luggage to middle school children who are in foster care. Now, I don't know if you guys know anything about kids in foster care, but she's working to raise awareness that foster care children often do not have anything to carry their personal items in. One of the things she wants to do is she's hoping that the luggage will provide them with some comfort in addition to giving them some items so that that it will allow the foster care children to carry their items with dignity. Lauren, out of all the things that she does, is a middle school student at Wake Forest Middle School. She's a member of the National Honor Society. She's a member of the track team. She plays bass guitar, keyboard, and violin. Where you find the time? One of the things I want to say, her passion for service and community leadership serves as an inspiration to us all. The town proudly recognizes her contributions and wishes her continued success in all of her future endeavors. Lauren, I'm so proud of you. Look, come on up here. Give me a little love, girl. I ain't going to bite you. Look.

And now, we're going to invite Mayor Day down to take a couple of pictures with you. I told y'all she's shy,

but that heart is not shy.

Let's give Lauren a round of applause. What an amazing moment to be able to recognize one of our youth that is doing such great work and somebody that's doing something not for recognition, but to be able to take this time to um recognize and say that we see what you're doing and we appreciate it. So, thank you so much. Um thank you to mom because if it wasn't for you, um Miss Bridget Wall Linen, it wouldn't happen without your support. So, thank you for your support for her as well. Um and thank you to the father as well because if it wasn't for you, then it wouldn't be your support as well. So, thank you as well. And uh I want to thank Miss Morris for that beautiful presentation and thank counselor Morris because thank you for bringing this to our attention to give us this space and this opportunity to be able to share this with the community. So, thank you all. Next is recognition of outgoing board member Mr. Brown. Good evening, mayor, members of the council. A few months ago, I stood before you and introduced this mythical concept of the advisory board hall of fame. And I'm so happy to be here tonight to introduce a new inductee into

that um as we recognize Chris Parker as he um comes off of the board of adjustment. Um, Chris has served on several advisory boards for the town over time, including the parks and wreck advisory board, the land use review board, and the board of adjustment. He's also held leadership roles in each one of those stints with those advisory boards. um helping to guide the council and advise the council on different items from parks and wreck to land use decisions and was certainly part of some of the largest land use decisions we've made in the recent past that really will have an impact on Nightdale today but also tomorrow. Uh it's it's very uh bittersweet uh to see Chris go as we know he is uh leaving for a professional opportunity and promotion. Um, but I know the legacy he has left in Nightdale and want to make sure I honor that tonight and recognize him for all of his time. Um, all the hours his family gave to the town as he was away in the evenings. Um, and also recognized that he's uh been a Nightdale resident uh majority of his life and uh, you know, sometimes we had those tough decisions. He always kind of said said to the to the to the residents, you know, I'm one of you. I'm here with you. I understand what you're saying, but I'm here to do what's best for Nightdale. And so for that, we will wish the best for Chris in his future endeavors and want to recognize him tonight with a plaque um that reads in appreciation and recogn recognition of your dedicated service to the citizens, staff, and elected officials of the town of Nightdale for his time on the board of adjustment from 2022 to 2026. Uh Chris Parker

Thank you again for your service. Um, thank you for taking your time. anytime we get a chance to thank one of our board members. Most of the time it's not seen, but they are taking their time to share and to support the town. So, we appreciate all that you've done and wish you the best going forward. Next is introduction of storm storm water inspector Mr. Button. Good evening, Mayor Council. I'm really excited to uh introduce to you tonight Daniel Pierce. Daniel joins our storm water team, is our sediment and erosion control inspector. Uh this is a position that we've looked for for a good while. Uh Daniel's originally from Wisconsin, moved to Raleigh here uh before high school, graduated from UNC Chapel Hill. Um but he spent the last several years working for a very prominent engineering firm as a third party inspector. And so we're really bringing someone in with a lot of experience, a lot of certifications that we can certainly put to use immediately. So we're really excited to have him on board. So, mayor council Daniel Daniel mayor council

welcome.

All right. And next, introduction of planner and planning tech. Mr. Brown.

Once again, mayor and council, it's not often I get to come up here and introduce two employees. So, first I want to thank the council, the town management for the investment you've made in the development services department this fiscal year. Uh recent census data last week showed Nightdale

as the uh ninth fastest growing municipality in North Carolina, 27th fastest by population increase in the United States of America for cities and towns over 20,000 people. So uh we certainly need the help and we are certainly glad to have um Tina and Dylan with us. So Tina Torres uh comes to us with a multitude of experience uh from a very uh broad range of uh different industries including technology firms uh hospitality and uh most recently banking. Um she like uh most people decided that the best career path would be to be a planner when she uh could choose and so she is currently enrolled in the uh Arizona State University uh to obtain a degree in urban and regional planning. She will graduate this fall. We are very excited to have her with her background in uh customer service. Uh she has really hit the ground running providing us uh support and planet technician role. So welcome Tina to the town of Nightdale. Uh next we have Dylan uh Yur. Dylan is no stranger to Nightdale. I know we have our internship program uh that works very very well and we now know how extraordinarily well it works when we get a welcome talent back into these walls. Um so Dylan was previously one of our management interns while he was pursuing his uh masters of public administration at North Carolina State University. Uh he also got his undergraduate degree from Campbell. Uh he came to us uh most recently serving time with the town of Irwin as their planning and zoning administrator. He is a certified zoning official and comes to us with a lot of skills, knowledge, and mostly a desire to be here in Nightdale. So, we're certainly glad to welcome Dylan back. Uh so, welcome Dylan to the town of Nightdale as well. All right. Thank you so much. Welcome. Glad to have both of you as well. And next is police officer introduction and oaths. Chief Caps.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. We always appreciate you giving us an opportunity to recognize and honor the men and women who choose to serve, not just in this profession, but who choose to serve here in Nightdale. As you heard Chris mention, this is a rapidly growing community. And we know that police officers, law enforcement officers, they have a choice about where they can serve. And so when they commit to serve with us, we want to take a moment to celebrate that and to recognize that. This evening, it is my happy pleasure to be able to introduce to you Mr. Rayan Wilson as he is making his way to the podium with his lovely fiance Hale Lima. I want to say a few words about Rayan. He is no stranger to service. He has spent the last four years serving with the Cecil County Sheriff's Office in Maryland. He is also a specialist uh in the United States Army Reserve. And so brings with him a sense of service, a commitment to people, a commitment to the public, and I know we're going to be able to leverage that for the advantage of not only our department uh but for the people here in Nightdale as well. Mayor, I believe that you're going to be helping us out with the uh oath of office. All right, if you're ready, if you want to lift your right hand, put your left and then you just repeat after me.

I, and then state your name. I person

do solemnly swear

that I will support and defend

the Constitution and laws of the United States

and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina

the Constitution and laws of North

and that I will faithfully discharge

and I will faithfully discharge

the duties of my office

as police officer is awesome.

So help me God.

Congratulations. This may stand before the podium to her. See, Ran, if you'll stay with me, please. As is customary with us, it's important to issue a very important public challenge. Uh, when our officers stand here and they take this oath, they are making a public promise. And with that public promise comes very important expectations. Now, Rayan and I have already talked about these extensively uh from the time that he and I met during the hiring process uh and recently during a a lunch together where we emphasized those core fundamental principles that uh serve as the framework for the culture of our organization. What we affectionately refer to as the five rules. Rule number one is simply this. The mission comes first. And our mission, Raan, is about other people. Always put the mission first. Everything that you do is secondary to the mission. Rule number two, everything that you do, the way that you engage, the way that you behave, the decisions that you make must be aligned with our organization's core values. Those core values represent the things that we believe in the most. They are ident they are identity. And so it's important to make sure that your behavior, everything that you do aligns

with those core values. Rule number three, tell 100% of the truth 100% of the time. Honesty really is the best policy and it's the best way to make sure that you protect your reputation, the reputation of this agency, and the reputation of this profession. Rule number four, remember this oath. In this oath, you didn't swear allegiance to any person. You didn't swear allegiance to me. You swore an allegiance to the constitutional principles that hold our republic together. You swore a pledge to protect and serve the people of this community. Never betray that oath. And rule number five, simply this. Give everything your best effort. No matter what the situation, no matter how much you know about the situation, no matter your resources, just give everything your best effort. And I'm firmly convinced that if you'll put those five rules in front of everything that you do, everything else has a way of taking care of itself. We're proud of you. Glad to have you on board. Welcome. One, two, three. So many great moments today and another great moment anytime that we're able uh to add new staff members. We um are excited and looking forward to the great work that they're going to do here in the town of Nightdale. So next is commit to civility award

recognition Mr. Summers.

Thank you Mayor Day. So, we find ourselves at that part of the program again where the room empties out and we do the business of the town at hand. So, I asked the mayor if I could have the privilege of talking about an award and a recognition that you have received recently as a town council. As a credentialed manager, the International County City Management Association recognizes that a lack of civility is the number one threat to local government administration. That sentiment is echoed by many national and and state agencies here. It is the problem. It is the elephant in the room. How do we serve communities when we can't serve one another? Incivility leads to polarized communities, toxic public meetings, staff burnout, and high turnover of vital institutional knowledge. And most importantly, it degrades the public's trust in our ability to hold these positions and do this job. As one of the fastest growing towns in North Carolina, one of the fastest growing towns in the United States of America for our size, you have every right to fight and argue and disagree. This is the perfect breeding ground for conflict because the resources are so scarce and the pressure is consistently so very high. yet you choose not to do that which I think is not only a wonderful reflection of you, it's a wonderful reflection of the staff and the citizens who choose to call this community home. So you were awarded the commit to civility award at the city vision conference two weeks ago. There are approximately 553

municipal governments in the state of North Carolina from the biggest to the smallest. By my estimation, only 12 communities have chosen to make this commitment to serving their community in a way that their citizens would be proud of. Nobody wants to see elected officials fighting, managers making poor decisions, staff not serving well. You are the tip of the spear. It begins with you, right? I am a reflection of your will and your expectations. and the staff is a reflection of my leadership expectations and what I want from them and operational commitments, but it always begins with you. So, if I look at this program, and I'm sorry I brought it on my computer because my eyes just don't work anymore. This is what the League of Municipalities says about what you have said signed up to do. Civility is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one's preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with deeprooted and fierce disagreements. Civility is a prerequisite for civic action because healthy communication helps government officials, staff, and constituents maintain mutual respect. Efficiency and effectiveness are critical to the governing process. Different opinions and views are critical to a healthy democracy regardless of whether opinions are shaped by race, class, age, or ideology. So the pillars that you have agreed to voluntarily of your own accord are that you will embrace courtesy and consideration. You will acknowledge your colleagues respectfully welcoming feedback. You will embrace active listening. You will prioritize empathy among one another. You will ask questions. You will be kind. You will seek impact over intent. You will practice self-restraint. You're not going to take it personally. And you will call out incivility when it rears

its head. What a bunch of no noble traits here that you're willing to do. You don't have to do this, right? But the reality is you choose to do this. You are one of less than 15 communities in this very wonderful fast growing state who has said we'll raise our hand. We always do. We're happy to step in this space and lead by example. The example in which you have consistently led does show that we're an organization to be proud of. We consistently get very high marks. Thank you. on the citizen surveys, the employee satisfaction surveys are very high and it goes beyond what we pay our employees, the facilities we provide them. It just is a culture of serving other people and being humble and grateful to stand in this space. So, I get to experience Mayor Days when she reads the resolutions, right? So, this is like crazy. I'm like visiting in this space and I always tease her because like when we give her these resolutions that are like three and four pages, I'm like, "Oh man, that one was rough. I don't know how she got through it." But I want to read your resolution, right? And I want to extend my gratitude toward each of you as a representative of 185 employees. And if the budget gets passed, we're going to be 195 in a couple weeks. But we are grateful, right? And you should hear it from us as a staff because I know you also hear it from the citizens. This never goes out of style. And this never goes unnoticed. More importantly, so your resolution reads as follows. And I forgot my reading glasses, but I think I can make this work. This is a resolution you were awarded from the North Carolina League of Municipalities. Whereas civilities is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one's preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. And where civility requires hard work to stay present, even those with deeprooted and fierce disagreements. Because we recognize that different opinions and views are crucial to a healthy democracy, regardless of whether opinions are shaped by race, class, age, or ideology. And whereas civility is a prerequisite for civil action, healthy

communication, helping government officials, staff, and constitu constituents maintain mutual respect, efficiency, and effectiveness are crucial to the governing process. And whereas the League of uh North Carolina League of Municipalities commit to civility certificate program engages and challenges municipal officials to embrace civility throughout the course of their work within their communities. And it equips leaders with the information and skills needed to maintain composure and move through emotionally charged situations with a respectful and solutionsoriented approach. And whereas the commit to civility uh certificate program requires at least 75% of the municipal governing board to participate in the program's training, sign an individual pledge committing to conducting municipal business with civility and courtesy to others and adopt a resolution pledging to practice and promote civility within the municipality. And whereas the town of Nightdale accepts the tenants of civility and has completed the required steps of the commit to civility certificate program as described above. Now therefore, it be resolved that the North Carolina League of Municipalities through the undersigned do name the town of Nightdale a city of civility and it was signed May 7th, 2026. You were doing this before somebody gave you a resolution, right? You were the cool kids before we had to go and get the get the award at at the big lunch. But you're good and you're worthy and I'm really proud of you if it means anything coming from me. And what I want selfishly is I want to capture this with you in a picture and then I want to find a place in these council chambers to hang this resolution as a reminder to anybody who comes in these council chambers what the expectation for decorum and decency would be in serving our citizens. So let's give a round of applause to our elected officials.

I'm so sorry. I I forgot to tell you that part.

That's unfortunate. I think I think Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Mr. Summers. Thank you for the um words that you shared. Thank you for taking the moment to recognize that this did take extra effort and extra time. So, I thank the council members that went um thank you all for going through this and committing through this process. So, next for mental health awareness month, we have a proclamation.

Mental Health Awareness Month serves as an opportunity to increase understanding of mental health conditions, reduce stigma, encourage treatment and recovery, and promote access to resources and support services. Mental health challenges affect people of every age, race, background, and socioeconomic status. More than one in five adults in North Carolina experienced mental illness in the has experienced mental illness in the past year. Youth mental health remains a concern with more than one in three North Carolina high school students reporting feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Research shows that positive social interactions, access to quality education, social and emotional skills, decent work, safe neighborhoods, and strong community ties can significantly improve mental well-being. So therefore, I, Jessica Day, mayor of the town of Nightdale, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim the month of May as mental health awareness month in the town of Nightdale. And I encourage residents to support one another to have open conversations about mental health and promote awareness, acceptance, and hope throughout the community. Next on the agenda is our public comment period. This is a time for anyone who wishes to speak to the council on any item that is not currently on the agenda. If you would, you may come forward at this time. All right. Then we will move to report on citizens inquiries. Are there any reports on citizens inquiries?

I did just want to mention it during the uh comment period that we had all received an email uh regarding the Mingo

Creek Trail and some of the practices that we have in maintaining the Mingo Creek Trail and that had been shared with everyone. shared with staff to follow up. Um, and that uh you probably the start of a larger conversation.

Thank you for sharing that.

I just want to make a note that uh there's been a lot of um work uh regards to parking and signs at Popular Creek subdivision. uh their community has been truly engaged about making sure that we figure out new and improved ways to uh monitor their uh traffic speed.

Okay, thank you.

Any additional All right. If not, then we'll move to the consent agenda. Any questions or comments about the consent agenda? or motion to approve.

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Second. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We will move to our old business with ZTA-1-26 crash safety data text amendments. Mr. Fully. Good evening, mayor and members of council. I'm here tonight to present the proposed ZTA-1-26 staffled text amendment for a final vote tonight. Here we go. So, where we at, where we're at in the process is this was brought to you at the town council work session back in April and joint public hearing as well um and last week to LERB. Um and tonight it is here for a final vote with uh the recommended advisory statement from LERB. So the text amendment deals uh entirely with just chapter uh 12.3 of the UDO uh

which is the development standards specifically subsection J which contains anything and everything related to the transportation impact analysis process. This text amendment is further amending the UDO to allow for the requirement of performing crash data analysis as part of that TIA process. Uh so the purpose uh of this is to continue the town's commitment to safety in vision zero as well as uh check off an item from the safety action plan from 2024. Um this in part with a text amendment that was done back in 2024 um accomplishes this action item from that plan um further emphasizing safety and giving us additional opportunities to identify uh safety issues around town and and rectify those. So, a summary of the public engagement. Uh, there was a public hearing last month. There was no comment received from the public. There was some discussion um had between staff, town council, and lur members, which is kind of summarized on slide here. Um, this was just clarification regarding the process and how it might work. This did not lead to any changes to the proposed text amendment. Um, and uh, lurb last week, uh, there was unanimous recommendation for approval. As uh you all know um North Carolina general statute requires that a a governing body advise and provide a written recommendation on whether a proposed action is consistent with a comprehensive plan um and adopt that statement prior to any action. So with that the forwarded recommended advisory statement from the LURB I'll read for the record um was in favor of the text amendment. It reads, "The proposed zoning text amendment is consistent with the Nightdale next 2035 comprehensive plans goal of determining effective public policy that provides an ongoing framework for informed and directed public investment in private development. Further, it is reasonable and in the public interest as it aligns the town's unified development ordinance with the stated goals of the NITO safety action plan and aids in establishing a safe multimodal transportation system and aids in considering land use and

transportation investments together. With that, that concludes my presentation tonight. And it is staff's recommendation to adopt the LURB recommended advisory statement, adopt ordinance 25-05-20- 0001, and approve ZTA-1-26. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Any questions or comments?

I I look forward to these starting to come through. I think it's a good move. and thank staff for really working hard to to get this put in place and said really really looking forward to it. So thank you.

If there's no others, I'll I'll make a motion to adopt Lur recommended advisory statement adopt ordinance 260520 001 and approve ZTA 1-26.

Second.

All right. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed?

Majority approves. Motion carries. Thank you so much.

And next is ZMA-4-25 Overlook on Old Cruise. Mr. Lewis.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you uh for the opportunity to present an update for Overlook on Old Cruise. Um as a reminder, this is a 30 acre parcel off of Old Cruz Road at 1712 Old Cruz Road. It's currently zoned rural transition. Um, and it is currently uh being used as a residential parcel. As I mentioned, zoned rural transition. Just to the east is another parcel zoned rural transition. To the north is the Copart site, which is zoned manufacturing and industrial. And to the west and south are uh phases of the Brio subdivision that are currently under construction, zone GR3 and NMX.

Uh the applicant is proposing a resoning to general residential 8 with a planned unit development um which would allow for up to eight units an acre. Although the site is uh showing a 4.3 unit per acre uh design uh with 131 residential lots and about 13 almost 14 acres of recreational open space spread throughout. Uh and we find ourselves tonight at the end of the uh general project timeline with town council decision. Um but to rewind a little bit, a joint public hearing was held last month on April 16th and we we received comments on public infrastructure design, comprehensive plan consistency, uh the design of lots and the density and recreational open space. And we'll go through all these in just a moment. on May 11th. Uh so just a couple weeks ago, the land user review board reviewed this case um and discussed compre the comprehensive plan future place type guiding principles within the comprehensive plan uh recreational open space and greenways. Um they voted by a vote of 4 to one to recommend denial of their case and forwarded this advisory statement uh that reads the proposed zoning map amendment is inconsistent with the Nightdale next version 2 2035 comprehensive plan while the property is located within a designated target growth area intended to serve as a new vibrant activity center for the entirety of Nightdale. The proposal fails to meet the character guidelines of the neighborhood center place type. Specifically, the proposed site plan does not orient the activity center toward an internal main street or public square that serves as a dedicated gathering spa space for patrons and visitors. Furthermore, the proposal lacks the required frequent and widespread mix of housing types necessary for this designation. It violates the uh standard that blocks of

the same housing type should not extend more than two blocks in any direction failing to ensure an integrated environment with both retail and residential uses. The request is neither neither reasonable nor in the public interest. It fails to align with the guiding principles of the night del plan specifically concerning townwide placemaking community character and housing variety thereby failing to provide an intentional highquality development as envisioned for this target growth area. Uh with that in mind, just wanted to run through some of the uh specific elements of the plan that were discussed at the joint public hearing and with the land use review board and some of the uh responses and changes uh that have been made to the plan. Uh first is public infrastructure. Our UDO requires that where collectors and arterials intersect, a roundabout is required. Um due to the topography of this section of Old Cruz Road where the uh entrance it will be located um a roundabout is unsafe and difficult to build. Uh and therefore they are requesting uh a site development allowance from that. Also we talked about some of the dead-end streets and alleys within this uh neighborhood. Uh the applicant redesigned the eastern portion of the site to remove a deadend alley to provide better circulation for residents and for service vehicles. Um they updated the avenue crosssection or the cross-section of the main street that runs through the site to be more consistent with the town's avenue cross-section I should say and remove uh reduce the on street parking provided along that to be again more consistent with the requirements of the UDO. uh comprehensive plan consistency. This is a neighborhood center future place type which is primarily commercial or mixed use. Um and while this site is does not contain any

non-residentidential uses, there are a number of site design elements as described in the future place type definition for a neighborhood center that this proposal is consistent with. And again, we'll go over those in just a few slides as well. Uh when you zoom out and look at some of the surrounding neighborhoods, particularly Brio to the west and south, um this proposal is consistent with the um design of those neighborhoods. The housing types are very similar. Um and they provide a diversity of housing opportunities within this area, not just on-site, but um when you zoom out again and look at the surrounding neighborhoods, they provide additional uh diversity. Um, we talked about recreational open spaces, um, and the possibility of this neighborhood potentially becoming part of the HOA with Brio that is under construction now. Um, that remains a possibility in the future. Uh, but that HOA is controlled by a separate entity. Um on site, this master plan does provide uh uh recreational open spaces that exceed the minimum requirements and provide unique amenities throughout that are again unique to this um proposal uh and provide that mix of active and passive recreational open space requirements that are um UDO uh required. uh the rural preservation corridor. Uh this is an element in the urban small town framework map that Old Cruz Road is designated as. Um the applicant is committed to providing enhanced landscaping, a multi-use path along Old Cruz Road, hardscaping and fencing um consistent with what is under construction along Old Cruz Road on the Brio frontage. If you've driven along that corridor recently, you have seen the beginning elements of that and that

will continue along the front edge of this site as well. Uh and then buffers and separations between this site and surrounding sites. So to the north uh there is again the Copart Copart site which has an existing buffer and screen uh screening on their site. There's a 20 foot buffer along the north side of this property. Um on the east side of this property, there's a 100 foot stream buffer that runs along the property line. So 50 feet on the site of around the side of the site and 50 ft on the uh neighboring site. Um road A is pulled back. The UDO requires that those street stubs be continued all the way to the property line. due to that uh stream buffer and the wetlands in that area that continuing that makes it um difficult to construct and uh almost impossible to get permitted by uh state and federal officials for the environmental impact. So they have pulled it back. Um so that uh stream buffer will remain undisturbed and the closest residential uses are about 800 feet away from any existing residential uh structure adjacent to this site. They are proposing a planned unit development with a base zoning district of general residential 8. Um and uh you can as council requests but now require additional conditions. Um they are asking for a few site development allowances. Some of those we have touched on already including dimensional standards for setbacks um and driveway lengths. Um building type standards with uh town home designs and the required distribution of uses. The applicant uh submitted architectural conditions and example elevations that are consistent with surrounding

neighborhoods and other uh reasonzoning petitions that have been approved in the recent past. Uh so again zooming out looking at what the comprehensive plan says. As with any reasonzoning, prior to adoption or rejection of that amendment, the governing board shall adopt a statement describing whether its action is consistent with a comprehensive plan and explaining why the board considers the action to be reasonable and in the public interest. Uh the first map in the comprehensive plan that we look at is the intentional growth areas map and this uh area is identified as a future or a target growth area. Um this proposal is within an area in Nightdale where growth is expected and encouraged. Uh we talked about the rural preservation corridor along Old Cruz Road that this ele this uh master plan is u achieving. U this is also within a neighborhood activity center. And as we mentioned, uh while there's no non-residentidential, there are a number of characteristics that are being uh carried through in this proposal. Um and some of those in particular u would be the street block street and block pattern, a gritted street network um with uh uh connections to surrounding parcels, open spaces and natural resources. Um over half of the site is uh intended to remain undisturbed or minimal minimally disturbed with recreational open spaces programmed within those um building types and massing. They are providing missing middle housing. Um that that is defined in the comprehensive plan. Uh again, transportation improvements and commi consistency with the transportation network uh and sustainability with again promoting and protecting the natural environment uh of the comp comprehensive plan

guiding principles. This proposal is consistent with the home and neighborhood choices planned and orderly growth and inclusive and livable t uh town guiding principles and their definitions as seen here. Um, and they are also consistent uh with the affordable Nightdale plan by um committing to creating more missing middle housing and uh creating livable neighborhoods and providing uh a payment uh at the time of final plat into the town's affordable housing trust fund $200 for each residential unit. Uh when looking at the strategic plan, there are a few elements within that in including ensuring resources are aligned with growth community needs. Ensuring multimodal transportation choices, encouraging quality development that ages well over time, and executing the Nitel next comprehensive plan. Uh and this is also within the uh service areas of Wakestone Athletic Park, Nightale Station Park, and the community park and recreation center. Um, so all that considered, our staff recommendation would be to uh approve the resoning, adopt the uh uh ordinance and to uh adopt the advisory statement that reads the proposed zoning map amendment is consistent with the Nightdale next version to 2035 comprehensive plan as it is within a target growth area and addresses several of the guiding principles such as proactively planning for growth and promoting uh the elements of an inclusive livable town by expanding home choices. Furthermore, the proposal creates a rural preservation corridor and includes elements of the neighborhood center future place type. The request is reasonable and in the public interest as it aids in developing a vibrant, sustainable, and safe community design in which people not only desire to visit but also live, work, and play. Be happy to answer any questions about the proposal or our staff analysis if there

are any. Um, and again, look at the LURB recommended advisory statement. Um, and that is our recommendation. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

Questions or comments?

Well, thank you, Kevin. I think that was good presentation. I think um this is a sort of a challenging project to say the least, you know, with a lot of the the concerns with environmental constraints. Um you know, for me it seems like I'm picking up a little bit that it's it's not necessarily 100% there for us. Um I I think it would it might make sense that we u sort of think about it a little bit. Um you know, maybe continue the case to our next meeting. um is is sort of what what I would think we we should do in this particular case.

That's certainly an option as well.

And so I think for discussion with other council members or we could make a motion if you feel strong enough to make a motion.

Let me say this before we get into the motion. I I sympathize with the developer. I know this is a very tight um area in terms of the environmental constraints. Um, I think that, you know, and I expressed this during the joint public hearing, it seems considerably um constricted to me. I would like to see some way, if possible, some type of rendering that provides some type of landscape design. And I know that on the cruise road side, you're keeping in theme with what I think Brio has, but something that breaks up or gives some articulation within the development because it just feels exceptionally like

like limited and very asphalt and cement um sort of restricted in terms of the housing um connection. So that's I I think I just need that visualization because looking at the the plat and looking at the design that we have right here before us. It just doesn't quite give me enough comfort in sort of where we would land or where I would land on this right now. Um I want to make certain that we have livable housing uh and that missing middle and all of that that is conducive and also ages well within the scope of all the remaining communities that we have here in in Nightdale. and I believe in the ability of this developer to give us a little bit more meat on this bone.

I would fully agree and, you know, kind of add in there, some of my concerns have been, uh, you know, we've been focused so much on the density and how we're kind of not, you know, it's not quite vibing. um that you know we haven't had an opportunity to talk about some things like sustainability features in houses that you know might make this a unique product cuz you know we kind of keep hearing the theme seems to have been well this just matches everything around it which has wound up concerning me that we've got so much of this product that's already approved. um you know whether it's you know what is going to make this unique, what's its selling point? Uh whether that's leaning into that neighborhood node or it's leaning into you know leaning into the green features, the pre preservation stuff, the sustainability things that could be included in homes layout. I just feel like we need more time. So, Council Morgan, I know you had mentioned as far as needing more time was your recommendation or

Well, I uh I can make a motion that I I think we should continue this until our next regularly scheduled council meeting in June.

I will second.

All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We will continue. Next we will do jump into new business starting with introduction of bond order. Mr. Morrison.

Good evening Mayor and council. We are here as you know we're looking to hold a bond referendum this November. We began the process last month which is a long process. You'll see listed here. So the first set of actions have already occurred. We've adopted the resolution um to notice of intent to apply to the LGC. You approved that last month. They have acknowledged the um the application and as well as the adoption of the resolution authorizing the for us to apply. And so all that's come back. We've noticed we put out the public notice of intention. And so now we're here for the second set of actions for the bond process. So, we are here tonight to introduce the bond order as well as to request that the council adopt the public hearing resolution as well as the disclosure of filings. And so within the bond order, what we're doing is stating the amounts of the the the proposed bond referendum as well as introducing what we intend to issue or we're requesting the public to vote on, which is a parks and recreation bond referendum. Um, in the public hearing that's given the citizens the opportunity to come speak, we will ask that you call the public hearing for the council meeting in June. And then the disclosure, it gives different information. We're going to see that on the next page.

So, the bond order, I already went through the bond order. It's for parks and recreation um for the construction design, improvement, acquisitions, what have you. the re recommend authorization is $55 million uh referendum which is where what we're looking to hold. Um prospective projects the new community center which we've spoken about um passive active parker park building renovations skate park artificial turf war replacement and other parks and recreation related projects. So, these are the things that we could potentially spend the um authorization on if if approved. And again, the public hearing date we're looking at is June 17th within um the going back to the two different things. The statement of debt that we have to file. So, we'll be filing a statement of debt which just lists all of our debt which includes the um proposed referendum that we would like to hold in November. And in within that statement, we list our valuation. We list the calculation of what we think the debt to um assessed valuation will be. And then we will also be filing the or posting the statement of disclosure. And so in the statement of disclosure, what we're listing is information related to the potential estimated interest cost, the estimated interest rate, um the term of the bond, which will be 20 years, what we're looking at. um the bond amount again which is the $55 million which we're looking to hold the referendum for. The we disclosed the planned issue dates and so we're planning for a 28 and a 30 if approved um debt debt issuant dates as well as any um tax rate impact. All that is laid out in the statement of

disclosures that we will have to file with LGC as well as post And so the recommended actions for tonight, we're going to ask the town clerk to read the bond order into record. And then once she has read the bond order into record, we're going to ask council to authorize a motion to adopt the resolution calling for public hearing on the bond order directing the publication of the notice of public hearing as well as filing a statement of debt and the statement of disclosures. Any questions?

If not, turn over to you. All right. Good evening. So, tonight I wanted to share bond order authorizing the issuance of 55 million general obligation parks and recreation bonds of the town of Nightdale, North Carolina. Whereas the town council of the town of Nightdale, North Carolina, has asserted and hereby determines that it is necessary to pay the capital cost of designing, constructing, improving, and renovating parks and recreation facilities, including but not limited to the design and construction of a community center. Improvements to existing parks and recreation facilities. the acquisition and installation of furnishings and equipment related thereto the acquisition of land right ofway and easements and land required therefore and related public infrastructure development. So this bond order has now officially been read into the record at the May 20th, 2026 Nightdale Town Council meeting.

Thank you, Miss Smith.

Is there a motion? I will make a motion to adopt the resolution call for a public hearing on the bond order and direct publication of the notice of public hearing and filing of statement of debt and statement of

disclosure.

I'll do another excited second.

All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Morrison. Now, communication strategy update for the bond referendum. Miss Morris. All right, I'm going to make this as sweet and painless as possible. What I'm going to offer tonight is just a brief overview of the plan. This will include some things that we will be asking of you all. So, get your Tik Tok shoes ready, get your outfits ready. Uh we're going to make a couple of Instagram reels and things like that. I'm just joking. Not really. But don't say I didn't warn you ahead of time. Okay. So, tonight we're going to talk about why this bond matters. We're going to talk about our target audience and messaging and then also looking at our marketing channels and tactics and the marketing timeline so you have some idea of how everything is going to actually move forward. Now, of course, we all know why this bond matters, but some of the things to think about is that we have 20 plus programs that are weight listed due to the lack of programmable indoor space for us to use in parks and wreck. We are one of two Wake County municipalities that does not have an actual standalone community center and as of right now we have a future park survey that is active. So as of Monday at about 10:00 uh we had 817 responses. One of the questions on the survey actually says how are you willing to pay for this future park site? And so those options are a project specific bond taxes and then also would not support any bond or tax increase for this project. Um according to our numbers we were a little over 65% that were in support of a project specific bond for that. Um when we look at why this community center impact is so important for us, expanding our educational programs, job training opportunities, youth activities, senior services, wellness

opportunities, also a place to encourage physical activity, a place for um to provide a safe space for our youth and then also to attract visitors and local investment. Um we do know what a community center can provide and also what it can open up for us when we look at local investment. with possible tournaments and other events that could potentially come to the Nightdale area. So, we're really excited about that. Um, looking at our park site master plan and marketing, all of this ties in together. So, we're in the process of working with McAdams, which you all met them at a previous council meeting. Uh, they were selected as a firm for the future park site master plan, which includes marketing and public engagement for the master planning of the park site where the potential community center would be located. And as I mentioned, we have over 870 plus responses, which blew JP's goal of 300 out the water, honestly. Um, when we look at our information sessions that we've had, we had the Latin American festival on the 26th. We had two virtual focus sessions on the 13th. We had one at noon and one in the evening. We also will they will be out at the African-American festival. We have a community town hall event on the 10th. They will be at the farmers market. and then also the parks and recck advisory board meeting on the 27th. Now the company that is working with us on our bond referendum marketing specifically this company were chosen because they have previous experience of working with other man municipalities who have been successful in their process. um looking at Granite Sky Creative Group. They do a number of things, but one of the things they do really well is capturing the response from the community, that community engagement and helping us turn it into something marketable when we look at reaching out to the community. So those public sessions, those forums, they actually were a part of those and were listening in so that they can hear directly from the community what it is that they wanted to see and also they will be provided with the survey data,

the raw data so they can look at that process and creating this moving forward. Looking at our target audience and kind of our key messaging, we're looking at families with children, young adults 18 to 24. I missed it by a year. um adults 25 to 55 and then our seniors at 55 plus. Those are our target audiences when we look at breaking them up on how we're going to market to them. Our marketing channels and tactics include digital and social media. So that's Facebook and Instagram ads. You're looking at the town website. We will have a dedicated website specifically for the bond to provide information for people. Also, we will email bond information newsletter out to our rec desk andgov delivery subscribers. Also looking at reals and short videos from council and prep. Okay, it's in the record. We already put it out there. Okay. Uh looking at our print and direct mail, we're looking at a full color mailer to all night do households. We're looking at between two to three mailers, yard signs distributed through PRAB, also posters in town facilities and businesses, and thenformational brochure at town facilities. Our community engagement, we're looking at a town hall information forum, possibly two, uh Q&A sessions at existing park and wreck events, uh presentations to PTA, so that will build in our connection that we have with the schools and reaching the PTAs because a lot of families will be interested in the park. at also looking at HOAs, block parties, a booth at the fall festival and the farmers market, our media and PR that includes a news release to our local news outlets, interviews with key persons, working with PEG to create an educational segment, and then also radio spots on local TV to actually provide educational information about this. Um, how that marketing timeline lays out of the things that I mentioned in July, you're looking at launching the website. Uh we're also looking at our social media. When we get to August, this is where our awareness comes in. You're looking at that possible first mailer, our digital ads begin, and then event

booths. Uh particularly looking at arts and education festival. Uh September, we're looking at our engagement, so town halls, um yard signs out, our next mailer. October, this is when we mobilize, and that's when you're looking at your get out to vote push. You're also looking at your block parties, the mailer wave radio ads. And then November is when we want looking at the vote. And so when you look at those things, when you think about, okay, what are we going to do when it comes to our block parties? What are we going to do at our event booths and things of that nature? Our goal is working directly with PRAB so that we can have those community partners to help us be connected to the community. So when we look at, for example, our block parties, we all have ideas on things we want to do. We got boots on the ground, we got some fan pop and all that other good stuff. What we ask council to do is to take those recommendations to council Morris as our prayer representative so that we can bring it back to that group and we can have it in one place for that. Uh also we are working with PD and fire and public works to include them in the process when we look at some of this community engagement and getting out reaching people. So this will serve as an opportunity not only about the bond referendum but also about us being able to reach the community and kind of going out to them so they can meet us and know who we are. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for the update. Any questions or comments?

You you sped by that real fast. People are supposed to reach out to me.

Yes, ma'am.

So, I just want to say this is exciting and I I appreciate your work. Um, you know, I've I've been a part of bomb processing and and making sure the public's aware and this is uh really five star. So, this is this is going to be something that uh I'm truly truly looking forward to being a part of.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm excited to support the bond referendum, support you in this effort. Um, the first bond I remember voting for in the town of Nightdale was for Nidel

Station Park, and I think that one turned out okay. So, this one should be good. So, what I heard was you're going to put all this stuff together in a nice pretty bow and send it to us to copy paste whatever.

Yes, we will make sure that once we get to the point of where we have approved bond language, that's going to be key for us of what will be on the ballot. We will provide you with talking points. Um, those talking points will be provided to Pr, also to our staff and to you all. One of the things if you've ever heard us talk about one band, one sound, that's really important for us. We want to make sure that we're consistent. We also want to make sure that our goal is to be educational. That's our thing. We need to be educational to provide people with information and make sure they understand this is what this bond is about.

I think the other thing too for us to make sure we're paying attention to is, you know, it's only in town residents that can vote for the bond, but anyone can support the bond. And so I mean I assume the area is going to be utilizing our parks like they do now. And so it's something that we can all

support. And also um I hopefully the uh the Tik Tok videos that you're going to be having us in. You'll do the dance instruction.

We have quite a few actually.

That's great.

And matching outfits. I'm most

so about um and maybe you don't have this answer but I would assume part of this that makes it very successful in a digital format would also be maybe some renderings or some imagination you know of what it could be h how does that align with this time

so this all falls within the renderings when we'll get the first one will be around August maybe the end of July into August. So, we've talked about that. That won't show on our marketing timeline. But that's why our dates are the setup the way they are. So, by the

time we get to July when we're building that site, we've already talked to McAdams and said that this is what our plan is. This is what we want to happen. So, we matched up everything across the two. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you for all the same. Um, thank you for all of the work. This, um, is very exciting to see and I look forward to the one band, one sound, the messaging, uh, that we're able to put out there um, to see this come to fruition. So, awesome.

All right,

FY27 budget presentation. Nothing like presenting the budget after the fun of discussing a bond outreach campaign. Okay, friends, try to keep this under control. I've got about 76 slides and I'm going to move through this with some pace. Kidding. All right, it's kind of funny. All right, so this is the FY27 budget recommendation. So, step two in the process for us, we'll talk about that as we go through it. It's going to be an encapsulation of the budget work session we had. Uh no real structural changes to it, but you're going to see per state law, this is an important and required step. So, this is a the FY27 budget recommendation for the fiscal year that will start on July 126 and conclude on June 30 of 2027. So, quick process overview here just as a reminder of how it works and what we're supposed to do in this place. So there is a collection of state statutes in North Carolina that are referred to as a local government budget and fiscal control act. Um these are codified in article 3 chapter 159 of the general statutes. And really what is very important at its core is we can't do anything financially without a budget being adopted. It is very expressly uh

outlined in state statutes and it very clearly says that you can't do anything until your budget ordinance is adopted. What I have coached elected officials on over the last two and a half decades is literally this is one of the very most important activities you do every year. You're adopting a 12-month ordinance here under state law so we can function financially as a local government agency. If we look at the couple very important dates here that are founded in that statute. Um requests and revenue estimates are due to me as the budget officer for this organization before April the 30th. That is when we kind of huddle up and we start really putting a budget together. There are a series of meetings that happen in there at a staff level and at an elected official level. But really where we get to is this place we are tonight where the budget and the budget message will be presented. We'll talk about those in just a minute. And then really July 1 is the big date that we all know. You must adopt the budget before July 1st or no later than July 1st in order to continue functioning as a local government. The budget or the budget itself really is comprised of two major components. One is the budget message and this is my responsibility as a town manager and under state law I'm also our budget officer. I am supposed to outline organizational goals, important features of the budget, any major changes in fiscal policy just basically the narrative that the average citizen and elected official can navigate. This is what we're my recommendation is and this is what this budget would be. The ordinance, the legal document itself, it can be in any form under state law, but typically you see a very traditional ordinance structure that serves at the foundation. In today's local government world, we put them in budget books, these very, very comprehensive documents, but at the core of those budget books is the actual ordinance itself, which is the 12-month law that you adopt. And it really outlines revenues, appropriations by department. It has everything in there. So, we are being very transparent in in how we are handling the public's uh money as well as their trust. This is

where we are right now in our budget adoption process for this year. So, where we are tonight is per general statute 15912A is we're going to I'm going to give you a budget recommendation and once this recommendation has been made, it will be open up to for public inspection. Beyond this, there are three major milestones that we have to accomplish after this. Um the clerk Heather will go ahead and advise the media that the budget recommendation has been made. She will make them aware that it is available, not just the media, but the public as well. She will set the public hearing date, which we have already set for June the 1st. Um and make sure that that is advertised appropriately so folks will know when you're going to receive their comments. The budget must be open for at least 10 days after presentation to the council. Um, and that will happen from the period of now through June the 1st of the public when we have the public hearing itself. And then we are anticipating that unless there are some major changes here, we will put it on your June 17th town council agenda for consideration of adoption. So those are typically the pieces that we mine out of the state statute that highlight where we are and how we've gotten here. Questions on budget process and responsibility. Okay, hang on. about 63 more slides to go. So this is the actual budget recommendation itself and it is going to be consistent with what we talked about at the budget work session. So the most important thing here, the one thing that everybody wants to know is I am not recommending a property tax increase this year. Um this is no change from the previous year. We will my recommendation is to remain at 44 cents per $100 of assessed valuation of real property. So, we always kind of want to know in Wake County, and this is such an area of such contention and conflict right now with all the conversations around property tax reform and all of these challenges that we see. Well, where do we think governments around us are going to be? Everybody to date in Wake County has made their budget

announcements announcements except for the town of Zebulun. We are going to be in a comfortable group of governments that are not recommending property tax increases, but we do see some big movement. Garner's going to make some uh adjustments upward. Apex, Kerry, Fugquway, City of Raleigh, there'll be some there will be some budget movement this year. And the question always becomes why, right? Why why do you have to do this? Well, the reality is very simply, there's three things here that my peers in the other communities are really just challenged with. Number one, the continued cost of goods and services is extraordinary. Um, it is very, very difficult. We are not spared from those cost as public agencies just like our private citizens aren't as well. There's competition for people in these organizations. There are so many talented local government and state government officials in our backyard. You have to fight to retain your talent. Um and then there's this huge population influx. We heard the numbers earlier tonight. We are one of the fastest growing communities in this state and in this country. That is a recipe for advanced cost. But my recommendation is to hold that tax rate at 44 cents for another year. At 40, our total assessed valuation currently is just north of $5 billion. So with that valuation at a tax rate of 44 cents, you are looking at a property tax levy next year of about $22.2 million in revenue. So if we take a look at our budget, right, one of the most important things in North Carolina that is not unique, but is the foundation of our state's financial success that we have had historically across the board is general statute 159-8 says the budget must be balanced. um it must be balanced at the time of adoption and it must be balanced at the close of the fiscal year. So our budget this year is going to increase by about 11% which is roughly what it increased by last year. This is the impacts of growth. You can see your general fund is going to be around $39.4 million. And if we go down to the bottom the the the total budget is a $50.4

million product. If we take a look at the general fund revenues, the things that we really pay very very close attention to because most of the government services compete in this space before we even look at it on the right hand side you can see dependency on property taxes for our revenue stream. Once again we see about 50 cents of every dollar that comes into this organization is being generated by property taxes. So the top line up there is the ad valorum tax rate the formal term for property taxes. We can see in FY26 that we generated uh $20.4 million in property taxes. This year we're going to generate uh 22.2 million growth of upwards of 9% in the property tax revenue alone. This is the construction coming to market. This is the new revenues being generated through the development approvals. As we kind of navigate our way down through this, you can kind of see things here that make a lot of sense. One of the things that really stood out to me as I was getting briefed on this and we were looking at the numbers is under permits and fees. Well, my goodness, we're going to go from $65,000 to one uh a little over a million dollars. What that tells me is the manager there's a whole lot of construction coming our way and we anticipate to really feel a big brunt of it in the upcoming year. Another number that stands out to me based on what Rachel just said to you about the bond outreach package is recreation is going to grow by 32%. Um, and we know that that 32% growth rate there could be much higher if we had the adequate facilities to house the the needs of our citizens. So, what we see here is total financial growth in the general fund of just under 10%. Going from about 40.5 million to about 44.5 million. General fund expenditures. Where are we spending our money in the general fund? Well, on the right hand side, we can see of the 44 million about 24.45 45 million goes into our people. A little over nine million goes into the operation

provisions. Their professional services in here at 28 2.86 million. We've got some capital outlay projects coming in at a little over 2.7 and debt service for the upcoming year is going to be $5 million. If we look at the departments themselves, these numbers will change, right? The one number in here that does stand out, we had said that we were not going to do the funding of the uh new debt service model. So if you look at that interfund transfer out going from 1.14 million down to 305,000, that's the reason for for that decline in that space. But once again, seeing an FY27 budget pretty consistent across the board with where the dollars and cents will be spent. Um growth at 9.86%. 86%. If you want to look at it through this graphic, you can see what we've always seen. Number one, what I love about this graphic is it really doesn't change. Um, I like stability. I like predictability. I like for things to be consistent year after year. The the the huge levy of who we are as an organization is police, fire, and public works. That is where the bulk of the investments of our citizens tax dollars go. Now the remaining uh departments are extraordinarily important but the the levy of who we are as a municipal local government in North Carolina is provided in our frontline services and for the town of Nightdale that is defined through police, fire and public works. Another way to look at it is like this. For every tax dollar that we receive, how does that tax dollar get divided up? Well, 22 cents on every tax dollar that comes in next year will go directly to the police department. 22 cents will go to the fire department. 14 cents will go to public works. Seven cents will go to recreation. 10 cents on every dollar next year will go to our debt service. And then all of the other remaining services combined, we typically call them collectively support services. 25 cents will fund their operations. But that is a literal representation of what the tax dollar division will look like in the upcoming fiscal year. And if we were to go back last year and the year before, you'd see consistency, right?

you see marginal changes on the edges with where the tax dollar is invested. So the people are the most important part of the organization. It's where we spend the mo the the bulk of our money and they are obviously the experts and the servants who really take care of this community at this level. So we start with them like we do every year. So in the upcoming budget I'm recommending funding 10 new positions. No change from when we had the budget work session. This will this will encompass an administrative assistant in human resources department. We will welcome our first IT manager uh to the town of Nightdale. Um we will have an accounting specialist in finance, a maintenance worker in public works. And we will welcome six new employees to the fire department, three lieutenants and three firefighters. Those six positions are foundational to prepare for the final company of firefighters that will come online this fall. Let's not forget we have two very large fire trucks that'll be here in the next couple months to kind of continue our legacy and our commitment to public safety first. In addition to the 10 new position request, I'm recommending the reclassification of four existing positions to kind of meet the way our organization is growing. So, what this really comes down to is about five and a half% workforce growth, which is pretty consistent, right? We we've had some big years and we've had some years where we haven't quite grown that much, but we are seeing a continued growth of our workforce. Things that I want you to be aware of, um, COLA and merit are recommended. So 3% cost of living to offset the cost of of the increased cost of living. It helps to keep the salaries as as relevant and market fresh as they can be. Uh, merit funding is pay for performance. We do up to a 4% maximum. We have historically always done that under my tenure both cola and merit and recommending them again. Drivers of the budget where cost is getting expensive. The mandated retirement contributions continue to go up. So general employees will go from 14.3 14.37%

to over 15% in the upcoming year. And our law enforcement officers will continue to see their retirement contributions increase from over 16% to now 17.1%. One number that we are very fortunate on, grateful to Suzanne and Marshy for working hard in this space, is our health insurance premium cost will only increase 7.4% in the upcoming fiscal year and we will maintain all of the benefits in our current provider. There will be no change in that space. What we will do to compensate for that increase in the health insurance premiums is our monthly uh health insurance credit per employee will go from 750 to $780 per employee per month. What this means essentially is this is at local government we are fortunate that we have a legacy of providing benefits at no cost to our employees. We will continue to do that for the employee. Um and then we have options where you can add dependence. Obviously, that is not fully funded at our cost, but we will continue the investments in providing for cost of living, providing pay for performance for high achievers, making sure we meet our commitments to retirement, and then we will make sure that we provide insurance 100% for the employees of this organization. That is the bulk of where the money will be spent in FY27. But there are other things that roll some serious consideration as well. The major capital projects for FY27 typically those projects that live in a project ordinance and they can flow from fiscal year to fiscal year. We've got several of them out there. Actually realized I think we might have omitted. We probably could have put the fire trucks on here as well considering the tiller and the engine haven't been delivered. But regardless, what you're seeing is a continued investment in infrastructure and public safety. The law enforcement center is rapidly coming to the first phase of its completion. I guess is the best way of looking at that. When the police side of it will be done and then by Christmas uh maybe winter, we'll see the fire side of the administrative wing

for the fire department be done. But that building is still a major capital project that we're working under. We have major pedestrian underway right now on the boulevard and Old Knight. Those improvements are currently under construction and will be a portion of what we what we have in FY27 as well. We're going to continue to invest heavily in fire like we have the community center and the replacement of fire station number two are two of our highest facility priorities that we have. Um relocating that station from downtown into a modern fire station which has become who we are is very important. So that project hopefully will come online in a construction level phase sometime in the upcoming fiscal year. We are going to uh do some exterior improvements to fire station number three. That was a station that we inherited um and took over as a part of the merger. Um the inside's awesome. It's been totally renovated. The outside's still not what we do for the excellence of our facilities. We're going to get that station to where it needs to be. And as exhausting as it sounds, we've got money in this budget because we need to find property for fire station number five, which is a handful of years out in front of us from now. We have two major uh transportation projects here that are going to come into play as well. the wide waters extension that rail bridge over the railroad remains the highest transportation priority for us as a local government. Um it's clearly identified in our CTP. The design work will be done in the upcoming year for that project. And then we have additional design and rightaway acquisition for sidewalks on Smithfield and First Avenue. So looking at about 3.6 million in major capital investments. If we look at the CIP program, we're looking at things that are more than $10,000 that will be completed within the upcoming year. This is an area where we have made good investments, right? There's a lot of really good work that gets done year in and year out here. This year, next year, the recommendation is 2.1 million highlights, not all of

it, public art, which has become a really uh a big part of who we are. It's well received by our citizens. There is a boulevard study that we will provide the financial match that Campo will provide the bulk of the financing for. There is money in here for the affordable housing trust fund. There's money in here for the vision zero trust fund as well. Vehicle acquisitions in the major departments. Um most notably here public works and absolutely police on the other side of the ledger. A new dump truck. Lord knows they get more expensive every year, but this one's going to come with a plow and a spreader. Excellent. One of the things that never fails, every year the budget comes out, somebody asks for something. I have no idea what they're talking about. This year's winner was the articulating loader. I thought Philip was joking. I was like, "Man, are you being serious?" He's like, "Yeah." So, there's an articulating loader coming. Please don't get me to try to explain what it is, but it is one of the top uh equipment purchases that public works needs. We have the Centennial Clock Tower, which is under contract now. That will be a part of our our 100red-year anniversary that we will celebrate next year. We've got comprehensive equipment replacements that it just it's hard to list out everything in the space. And we have Harper Park improvements coming. So, we have the property in which we will destroy the house, expand the parking lot, and we will be resurfacing the tennis courts in the upcoming year. I mentioned the vehicle additions to police in addition to the vehicle replacement program that they have. And then we have one specific vision zero program that we're recommending at the budgets start which is improving the bus stop for Mcnite Drive. So if we take a look at where general fund restricted which is typically the repaving program we've got $622,000 that is a restricted fund where we're going to do our our portion of paving local streets and street repairs in that program. State pass through fund from the gas tax. Um, that is a program that we we stay in front of as best we can. Storm water, which is our only enterprise fund at this stage, we're going to invest an additional roughly $1.6 million in that program. Highlights

will be this. The lower pond at Nightdale Station Park needs to be rehabilitated. Um, that will be one of the projects we will accomplish. We still have two major storm water projects outstanding that we want to we want to complete. We've got two or one recently completed and one under construction. Now going into FY27, the improvements on Popular Street and the improvements on Flower Street will be major storm water investments. We will uh complete and adopt our first storm water master plan as a community and then there is a need for some uh a wash station uh at the park for and the storm water is a very very uh eligible funding source for that as well. So, you know, it's a lot, right? You know, you look at the budget books these days, like the budget books are like, 150 pages long. They're just these huge documents. They're very data rich, but they're just hard to really navigate. And every year I'm trying to challenge myself like if I'm the manager of this organization and I'm trying to carry out the will of this council and and look out for the operational needs of this staff, how do I help the average citizen understand how we take your tax dollar very seriously in the delivery of our services to you as an organization? So the best place to go in Nightdale, the best place to go for any local government is to your core values. The strategic plan here identifies five core values, focus areas, as we like to call them. We're going to be safe. We're going to be connected and inclusive. We're going to be sustainable. We're going to be active and healthy. And we're going to have the organizational excellence. The right men and women working for this organization that know what they're doing. That is the foundational blueprint of who we are and who we want to be. It is what our citizens have told us is most important to them year in and year out. Okay. Well, let's dig into this and see what we're doing. commitment to service delivery, uh, organizational excellence. We're going to meet the operational needs of these departments. While we can't meet every single need of every department, what we will do is we will meet operational

needs in a way that will ensure that we can continue to meet the challenges of growth and what we see around us. We're going to welcome 10 new employees and we're going to take care of the men and women who work here through cost of living adjustments and merit. We're going to maintain our commitment to public safety, that safe value. We're going to finish that law enforcement center. We're going to acquire land for a second to relocate station number two. We're going to make sure the police department has their fleet that they deem they need to keep our citizens safe. And we're going to welcome two great big fire trucks here um in just a couple months. Quality of life investments, commitment to pedestrian improvements on the public dollar as well as through the exactions of the development community, and a growing commitment and investment in the public art space. If we look at the local economy, right, this is a big part of what we talk about in inclusivity and being a part of a community. We'll continue to support our own commerce alliance. And this year, I'm recommending that we bring back the grants and aid program. There's $25,000 in there for uh financial support to area agencies that advance the values of who we are as a community. Um, and if you want to fund that, then I will walk through program dynamics with you after the budget is adopted. But that's your program, who you choose to award, and then at a staff level, how we make those awards and then track that the dollars are used in accord commitment to inclusivity and accessibility. We've got a real emphasis here on our future transportation priorities year in and year out. And then finally, environmental stewardship. That storm water program continues to grow year after year, and we're starting to see demonstrative impact of it keeping our community safe. We welcome a new employee tonight in that program. So, a lot of good things in this space, things that I think as elected officials, as staff, we should be proud of and I'd hope that our citizens would share share that as well. So, as we hit slide 76, Councelor Evans, u this is where we are.

This is my recommendation to you. It is based on your strategic retreats, my conversations with you, what I think your goals and priorities are as a council. It is based on internal conversations that we have the different departments, their departmental retreat and the things that we hear they need. Once this budget is presented to you, it is now open for public inspection. The media can can ask any questions they would like of me as well. But really, I'll answer any questions you might have tonight. But the next big milestone for us will be June the 1st when we hold the public hearing in this room um ahead of consideration of adoption on June the 17th. What questions?

So when you're talking about this is going to be opened up for the public. So you're saying that most budgets have 150 pages. What will what will the public see? Is that sort of boil down or

Yeah. I'm real proud of our communication strategy here. Right? There's a budget book, right? Let's be clear. Like this is the most important thing we do as local governments, right? But you can't just hide everything in a budget book. Now, Antoine does a great job on the budget book, and it's exceptional. And I don't how many pages is that thing? Do you know? There's a lot. Um, it's a lot. I was looking at the counties today, and I was like, whoa. U, but we will also have it broken out into subcomponents. There is a web page dedicated to this budget where the manager's message will be separate, the ordinance will be separate. We will put things out in a way that is logical and self-explanatory. But for people perhaps like yourself who would like to read the entire budget book, you can uh have at it.

All right. Any additional questions?

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Mr. Summers. And next is advisory board and committee reports. Are there any reports on any advisory board meetings or committees?

All right.

Just one quick note. I heard at Campo today if anybody's maybe not as many of us travel down towards uh Old Garner Road um that section but as it sort of crosses where 540 the continuation of 540 is that's continued being under construction uh that's due for a road closure a 45day road closure and there'll be some detours set up uh so I know probably not a lot of us go in that direction but just sort of FYI There'll be a detour, but it just, you know, that thankfully that job's continuing to move along.

Right. Thank you for the update.

All right. If there are none others, um, at this point, may I have a motion to adjurnn.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. We stand adjourn. Thank you all this evening.