Apex works through community to make transformational investment

The message of the American Rescue Plan from local governments has been resoundingly clear: when cities get support, they get the job done. Few places exemplify that more than the Town of Apex, whose structure and strategy has allowed local leaders to quickly and effectively employ more than $16 million towards the community.

Apex’s approach is not a new one to the Town. Rather, it’s an extension of its larger philosophy, already very much in place: understand community needs and work to address them.

"Our process has put us in a good position towards the comprehensive, large-scale projects," said Brian Murphy, Budget & Performance Analyst for the Town of Apex. "It definitely changes the situation for some of these communities."

Some issues are easy to see, such as the significant growth that Apex is experiencing. Just since the 2020 Census, the community has grown by an estimated seven percent, creating capacity issues as it relates to infrastructure, primarily water and sewer. Other concerns can be harder to identify and may vary among the local population. Apex finds them through a series of community engagement endeavors. Bringing it all together is the long-term strategy overseen by forward-looking local leaders.

Towards ARP, the Town took all of the above into account. The result is a list of projects that meet both short-term needs and long-term goals, all aligned under a strategy informed by the community members themselves.

The Town of Apex held multiple listening sessions for community members, both virtual and in-person. They also partnered with Wake County on a county-wide survey. From these efforts, leadership received more than 600 total responses, almost 200 more responses than last year’s annual budget survey.

"From those public engagement sessions, we were able to see what the public was interested in supporting," said Murphy.

With community input received, Apex’s ARP team worked with city department directors to turn those requests into tangible projects, specifically looking at potential investments that had previously been evaluated and identified as important, but had not yet received funding. Apex then prioritized the list to ensure it met the Town’s overall goal for ARP funds, which, as Murphy said, "was to address the impacts of COVID on the Apex community, as well as set the Town up for future growth."

The result is a list of projects that comprehensively cover the town. Towards large, macro issues such as infrastructure capacity, Apex made significant investments into its water and sewer capacity, public spaces and downtown. The Town also addresses affordable housing – another offshoot issue of population growth – with additional funding directed towards local nonprofit organizations.

The full list of projects can be seen here:

"A lot of these projects we've wanted to tackle for a while," said Murphy. "Without these funds, they would have been a serious challenge. Now we’re in a position to pursue them."