Raleigh is rapidly growing, and growth can mean growing pains. We met with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Adrienne Cole to discuss what work they’ve been doing to prepare for this level of acceleration.
When the news of Apple coming to Wake County broke, questions arose about housing costs, transportation, and other infrastructure changes that would come with the influx of such a large project to the area. While this project might have been breaking news to the community, planning for something like this has been in the works for years, Adrienne said.
“Leadership is looking not only at what we need today in our community, but what we’re going to need 5, 10, 15, 20 years in the future, because the reality is that the growth is going to continue,” she said. “We’ve got to be thinking about infrastructure as we move forward, and that was going to be the case, regardless of the recent announcements that we’ve had.”
About 6 years ago, the Chamber did an inner city visit to Austin, TX, a city known to have major transportation challenges due to rapid growth in the city. The leaders the Chamber spoke to in Austin told them that because they didn’t invest in transportation years prior, the city now couldn’t build its way out of the gridlock.
After coming back from the trip, the group pushed to pass the half-cent sales tax transit bond in Wake County that now generates $100 million a year for transit.
“It was sort of a wake up call and eye opening that making the right investments early enough to get ahead of the trajectory and what’s coming is something that we’ve got to stay focused on,” Adrienne said. “And it’s something that I think our leadership took to heart.”
In terms of housing affordability, that issue is a priority of most of Raleigh + Wake County’s elected officials, Adrienne said. The city passed an $80 million bond referendum in November to support affordable housing + the Chamber supported the effort through citizen rallying campaigns.
In addition to the areas that the bond encompasses, the city is also focused on zoning regulations that support more inventory to increase housing availability, Adrienne said.
Other infrastructure areas that Raleigh leadership have been focusing on include water + wastewater, the expansion of broadband internet access, and sustainability.
The Chamber also is aiming to improve its focus on equitable economic development + diversity, equity, and inclusion. The goal is to have a diverse pipeline of a talented workforce for these companies, and so the chamber is working to prepare the local community to access training for these high quality jobs, Adrienne said.
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