Triangulator

It debuted in draft form on December 1 -- online -- which was at least a month behind schedule and hard against the holiday season. Printed copies of it are scarce to this day. The Raleigh Planning Department conducted three public briefings on it just last week, which was the first time that most of the folks who came -- about 400 total -- had ever seen the new Raleigh comprehensive plan.

And even there, what they saw was an outline and some broad-brush maps, not the thick document itself with its hundreds of pages of analysis, policy recommendations and minutely detailed land-use plan for the city.  Folks listened politely, asked a few questions, and when the briefings ended they had a chance to grab a department staffer and pose an additional question or two, which many did.

But four members of the Raleigh City Council think the public's had far too little chance to digest the plan, let alone discuss it with their neighbors in small groups and compare notes, as the official public comment deadline of January 31 approaches. Nor have any of the city's 18 Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs) taken up the comp-plan draft to this point -- though in theory the CACs are the principal avenue for citizen participation in city government, especially planning.

So at this afternoon's meeting, Councilors Thomas Crowder, Rodger Koopman, Nancy McFarlane and Russ Stephenson voted in favor of Crowder's motion to extend the official comment period to the end of February. Four is not enough, however, on the eight-member council. The 4-4 deadlock meant the motion failed.