Triangle Community Coalition: 10 Years and Still Going Strong

The Triangle Community Coalition began in 1999 when a handful of Wake County citizens held a meeting regarding forming a local organization with one simple goal: "to create a diverse, broad-based group that would advocate for balanced growth to educate elected officials, community leaders and citizens about the virtues of growth and the protection of property rights." TCC is celebrating 10 years and I thought I might share with you their accomplishments over the years. Thanks to Charlene Logan of TCC for the information that I have quoted here:

􀀹 The TCC helped raise awareness about---and eventually kill--- a massive downzoning for property owners in the critical area of the proposed Little River Reservoir. The TCC worked to educate the Wake County Commissioners, landowners and others that the downzoning was unnecessary. We sent hundreds of letters and made phone calls to property owners to generate opposition to the downzoning. As a result of our efforts, and at the direction of Sara Robertson, the TCC managed to derail the effort. In a unanimous vote, the Wake County Board of Commissioners rejected the original downzoning in the Little River Reservoir. The final outcome resulted in protecting the water quality of the reservoir and the rights and interests of nearby property
owners.

􀀹 The TCC continued to press for reforms in the development approval process throughout the Triangle. The cities of Raleigh, Durham and the Town of Morrisville have all addressed ways to improve the process. In Raleigh, our efforts led to the creation of a new citizens’ advisory committee solely devoted to finding ways to improve the process---the Development Services Advisory Committee. In Durham, in an effort to streamline the process, Durham officials are proposing a series of detailed changes, outlined in an amendment to its “Unified Development Ordinance” (UDO).

􀀹 The TCC Helped Save Money with Lower Fees in Cary. The TCC generated a detailed analysis of impact fees throughout the Triangle. This study was the key data point to help convince several Cary Town Council members to keep a fee increase from skyrocketing. In addition, we generated 300 emails to each council person in a 24 hour period before the final vote on the fee increase. The council voted to hold off the vote and acquire more input on amount of the increase before voting. In April, the Cary Town Council voted on a lower than proposed impact fee increase for water and sewer fees--- and decided not to vote on the transportation fee increase---saving homeowners and businesses money.

􀀹 The TCC continued to advocate via our Web site and blog---“Growth Matters”: The TCC has a powerful,comprehensive array of communication tools, including a blog that has over 30,000 hits. The TCC website visits have increased over 37% since last year and over 157% since the end of 2007.

􀀹 TCC had several opinion articles and letters to the editor published in News&Observer and other publications.

􀀹 TCC hosted its eighth Annual Political Pig Pickin’ to provide a forum for members to hear from candidates running in the Fall elections. We had over 150 attendees, including 50 political candidates for the races in Wake, Durham, Chatham, and Orange Counties.

􀀹 TCC held quarterly informative Lunch & Learn events, each drawing 100+ attendees to each event.Topics showcased throughout the years have been: Growth & Water Quality, Public Private Partnership to Build Schools, Smart Growth & Its Effects, Restorative Development, Building for Tomorrow: Innovative Infrastructure Solutions, How Growth Management Regulations Impact the Local Economy, A Tale of Two Cities: How Clarke County, Washington & Portland Oregon Manage Growth, Transit Oriented Development, NIMBYism: Addressing the Challenges Developers & Neighborhoods Face Together, Making Development Process Predictable, Planning & Land Use Laws Have Changed: What does it Mean for the Triangle, Growth,Development and You?, Growing Greener, Smart Growth, How Growth Management in the name of “Smart Growth” has Backfired, Public Private Partnership Legislation: Now we have it…What do We do With it?, The Downside of Development Moratoria, Property Rights and Environment and finally our “Dinner and Dialogues with Cary’s New Elected Leaders, a forum with Gubernatorial Candidate, Mayor Pat McCrory to speak on where he stands on issues that matter to the Triangle and a forum with “The Three Mayors” of Raleigh, Cary and Durham, who spoke candidly with our members about growth in the region.

􀀹 The TCC Board created In the Know Live! The purpose of the new forums is to outline, in person and in real-time, the most recent version of the online In the Know, keep members updated on what is happening with growth, politics and other relevant issues across the region. These events were well attended, well received, and tremendously popular with our members.

􀀹 The TCC Board created a web-based weekly newsletter known as “The Monitor” that track the meetings & proposed code changes of local governments across the region. Subscribers could download weekly reports on city council meeting, planning commission meetings and other issues from Raleigh to Chatham County and everything in between.

􀀹 Released Growth Issues & Attitudes Poll in 2007. Informed the public and media about the positives of balanced growth in the region; raised the visibility of the organization as a thought leader on growth issues.

􀀹 Hosted “Partnership in Politics” Golf Tournaments inviting local elected officials to play with our members. The two tournaments rose over $29,000. for the TCC’s issue fund.

􀀹 Launched an Issues Advocacy Campaign Around Fall Elections raising voter awareness about important growth-related issues; helped get out the vote in region. In early November of 2006, we called more than 25,000 voters with information on growth policies and where local candidates and leaders stood on those issues. In 2002 the Coalition was the first in North Carolina to tap a new method for registering voters. We currently have the ability to allow anyone in the region to use our website to register to vote.

􀀹 Hosted Candidate Campaign Schools to help educate future leaders about how to run successfulcampaigns for local office.

􀀹 Promoted solutions for building & financing new schools by advocating for and helped pass statewide legislation to provide public-private partnerships to build schools. Our white paper entitled, “Thinking Outside the Box,” caught the attention of school board elected leaders and legislator alike.

􀀹 Keeping Fees in Check. The organization successfully showed that Chatham County’s proposed school impact fee increase was unsupported based on the methodology to calculate the fee. This study has been useful in a dialogue with county leaders to keep the fees fair. In Durham, when the Durham Board of Commissioners proposed a school impact fee (without legislative authority), the TCC teamed up with other
members in a grassroots educational effort. While the commissioners voted in favor of the fee, the Durham Citizens for Responsible Growth had a significant impact on the process – generating hundreds of phone calls and emails to the commissioners to vote against the fee.

􀀹 Mobilization around Raleigh Greenway Issue by sending direct mail to 1000 property owners affected by the proposed issue and launched a call to action using the TCC legislative action center on our website.

􀀹 Response to Wake County Growth Management Strategy (GMS): The coalition played a vital rose in convincing the Wake County Commissioners to allow the public to have input on the document. As a result,the county agreed to host four regional public workshops on the GMS.

􀀹 Wake County Air Quality Task Force was formed and the Wake County Board of Commissioners asked the TCC to participate. Working with other leaders from the region, the TCC helped craft a series of Practical and reasonable recommendations for Wake County to consider.

􀀹 Raleigh Storm Water Task Force: The TCC worked with neighborhood representatives to help write the rules and regulations that were adopted by the Raleigh City Council to set up a storm water utility.

􀀹 I-540 Debate: When several of the region’s elected officials attempted to slow or stop completion of the outer loop, the Coalition took charge and played an instrumental role in speaking out in favor of I-540. Using our extensive grassroots network, we sent alerts, emails and armed our members with talking points to relay to the elected officials.

For more information about becoming a member of the TCC, please contact Charlene Logan at 228-2599 or charlenel@tricc.org or visit us on the web at http://www.tricc.org/ and http://www.growthmatters.org/ .