FAYETTEVILLE -- Housing prices and homelessness predominated among a variety of issues addressed in a candidate forum in Fayetteville's Ward 1 City Council special election.
The League of Women Voters of Washington County and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce hosted the discussion with the four contenders Wednesday night at the public library. At least 50 people attended.
The special election to fill a vacancy on the council is set for Nov. 14.
Rising housing prices are at the "forefront of everyone's mind," candidate Katy Sager said when moderators raised the topic. Fellow candidates David Phillips, S Robert Smith and Bob Stafford agreed.
Forum moderators pointed out how rising housing prices created the need for the special election. Sonia Harvey resigned from the Ward 1 council seat in June when she moved to another ward to find suitable housing she could afford.
Smith said rising housing prices are a citywide problem requiring more multiuse development so businesses and residences can develop in closer spaces. The city's 1970s-era zoning rules are increasingly outdated, he said.
"We have to build more," he said. "If we don't get more housing, prices aren't going to drop."
More housing in any part of the city will relieve price pressure in Ward 1, he said.
Phillips favors updating of older homes because building newer homes is so expensive and also favors revising the city's zoning laws. City housing plans note there are federal funds available for home modernization and he favors that approach, he said.
Stafford also said the zoning laws "have not been significantly upgraded in 50 years." The city needs more density of housing where appropriate rather than the more spread-out subdivisions favored in the 1970s. He also argued the City Council takes too long to approve new construction. Time is money and delays add to developers' costs, he said.
Sager said the affordability issue is tied to income. What people can afford depends on their income. More business growth offering better pay would help relieve the problem, and the city needs to partner with businesses and residents to encourage such development, she said.
Fayetteville has more than its share of unsheltered residents living here compared to other cities in the region, the candidates said. A concentration of the homeless population in Ward 1 has become a health and safety concern, they said.
Phillips said the city needs to "find out who's there and how they can reintegrate. We need to talk to these individuals and assess what the actual need is."
Generalizations about homelessness are not addressing the problem, he said.
Smith and Stafford said the city needs to work more closely with nonprofit groups in the city that address homelessness. Sager said the problem is complex but could be mitigated in the short term with improved lighting and a beefed-up police and security presence to make residents and businesses feel safer. The long-term solution needs coordination and cooperation with other cities in the region to address homelessness as an overarching issue.
"Finding a solution to this goes beyond what the city of Fayetteville can do," she said.
Ward 1 covers most of the southern part of the city, including 15th Street, South School Avenue, Huntsville Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Notable landmarks include Walker Park, Lake Sequoyah, Kessler Mountain Regional Park, Fayetteville High School and Ramay Junior High.
City Council members serve four-year terms and earn $16,214 per year. The positions are nonpartisan. Only voters who live within a candidate's ward can vote in the special election. The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Harvey's term, which ends Dec. 31, 2026.
A runoff election, if needed, will be Dec. 12, according to Washington County Election Commission Director Jennifer Price. A runoff in a municipal election is required when no candidate gets more than 40% of the vote, she said. Even then, the next closest candidate must get a share of the total vote that is within 20% of the leader's share. For instance, if the leading candidate receives exactly 40% of the vote, the next-closest candidate must get 20% of the vote plus at least one more vote to force a runoff, she said.
Election dates
Early voting in the special election to fill a vacancy on the Fayetteville City Council Ward 1, Position 1 seat begins Tuesday. Election Day is Nov. 14.
For more information, go to:
https://bit.ly/fayward1specialeln2023