Local Politics

City, county leaders discuss challenges for Raleigh, Wake County

City and county leaders came together Tuesday to outline their expectations and goals and address challenges facing Raleigh and Wake County.

Posted Updated

By
Mikaya Thurmond
, WRAL reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — City and county leaders came together Tuesday to outline their expectations and goals and address challenges facing Raleigh and Wake County.

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane and Jessica Holmes, chairwoman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, boasted to members of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce about the population growth, the business expansions and the new retail opportunities the area continues to see.

But growing pains also come with all of that positive energy.

"It's keeping up with roads, keeping up with infrastructure. Everybody wants to talk about housing affordability – it's getting expensive to live here," McFarlane said. "If we have a million people moving here and we don't have a million places for them to live, then the price of everything goes up."

"It's absolutely putting pressure on things from our school system that have to accommodate children that move into our area, and it doesn't take a consultant to tell us that our commutes are getting longer and more stressful," Holmes said.

Both said planning is the key to managing the continued growth and the resulting pressures.

"It's a city. It's always good news bad news," McFarlane said. "But for us, the good news definitely outweighs any of the bad."

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