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When Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop dropped into the Southeast Raleigh Citizens Advisory Committee meeting last week, she was there to talk about rezoning on behalf of Partners for Environmental Justice.

What she walked away with was an appreciation for the growing momentum of citizens advisory committees.

“They used to be a formal kind of group under the City of Raleigh and would provide formal endorsement on rezoning cases. That would be part of the information councils would consider,” Samantha said. “Now, council doesn’t formally look at what citizens advisory committees say, but they should because it’s a really cool, local demographic model.”

At last Wednesday’s meeting, the county sheriff and a Raleigh police officer spoke about public safety; Raleigh Parks and Recreation talked about upcoming events; Partners for Environmental Justice Executive Director George C. Jones Jr. spoke about the history of the Walnut Creek Wetland Center and PEJ, while Samantha, as chair of PEJ’s rezoning committee talked to community members about a rezoning application for a development on New Hope Road — a floodplain-heavy proposal, she said.

“The citizens advisory councils are an important opportunity for community members to learn about issues affecting them and meaningfully engage in discussions about them,” Samantha said. “They talk about issues like access to food resources, community safety, flooding, pollution and a lot of land-use practices — they talk about rezoning cases and weigh in on them because those cases impact neighborhoods, water quality and quality of life.”

In years past, citizens advisory committees formally advised the Raleigh council. Any resident of a committee’s community had voting power, and it proved an effective way to present feedback from constituents to council members.

“At some point in the past, that changed,” Samantha said. “They don’t have the same advisory authority as they used to have, but they’re trying to change that. The big takeaway is that they were taken away, and now they’re back and going strong, and southeast Raleigh is one that’s going strong.”

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