Essential reading on Raleigh oil spill, comprehensive plan comments

Over at the New Raleigh website, columnist Peter Eichenberger has posted a story about official efforts to downplay the recent oil spill from N.C. State University's central heating plant into Rocky Branch Creek. After reading the News & Observer's initial report that NCSU prevented the spilled oil from reaching the creek, which runs through the West Raleigh campus, Eichenberger did some old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting and went to the creek himself, where he encountered "a heavy odor of fuel and black tarry residue." Eichenberger also reports on the planned restoration of the creek.

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Today's New Raleigh also has an important piece by regular contributor Betsy on the confusion regarding the comprehensive plan public comment process. As I reported recently, representatives of various citizens' groups had asked the city to extend the comment period through February, but Mayor Charles Meeker along with council members Philip Isley, Mary-Ann Baldwin and James West voted against any extension. However, the city is still accepting comments, though it's still unclear what will become of them.

In fact, city officials have scheduled a meeting for Feb. 11 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Council chambers with leaders of the city's official Citizens Advisory Councils to further discuss the plan -- this after the Planning Department declined to give presentations to individual CACs while the comment period was still officially open, citing time constraints.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I serve as secretary for the East Raleigh CAC, was involved in requesting a Planning Department presentation for our CAC that was rejected, and have been invited to attend the Feb. 11 meeting. However, I have not committed to attend, because it's unclear what impact our feedback will have now that the official comment period is over. Also, it strikes me as democratically problematic to ask CAC leaders to participate in a discussion of the plan and to offer feedback when we won't have a chance to go back to our organizations to get broader input before the comment deadline is up.

Since the draft plan was released shortly before the winter holidays, I've spent several hours studying it, with a special interest in the environmental provisions. But there are many, and in all honesty I simply have not had enough time to digest what I read and submit thoughtful comments prior to the official deadline. I imagine many of my fellow Raleigh citizens are in the same position. I think Betsy is correct when she writes:

The Comprehensive Plan is a very important document to guide growth and development for the next 20 years, and we need to get it right. Citizen commentary and feedback is a key part of "getting it right." As a professional planner who has been through this process many times, I know that the key to a successful plan rollout is buy-in -- and a big part of buy-in is making sure people feel that they have been fully heard.