BREAKING: Apex APPROVES 2025-2026 Budget (first in Wake)!

A long, contentious Town Council meeting on 5/27, Grace Christian moves forward, Town Hall meeting scheduled for next week, Utility bill recalculation request page LIVE

This past Tuesday we had a long, packed Town Council meeting. With 13 public hearings, it was probably the longest agenda I’ve ever seen (lightened only by the absence of closed sessions or New Business). We got done around 11:30.

By far the most impactful thing of the evening was the approval of the 2025-2026 Town Budget.

Apex Approves Budget

Key Take Away: Apex approved a solid budget that keeps the tax rate flat beyond a required tax increase for the bond, but still delivers on key priorities of the town for the upcoming fiscal year. We are the first town in the area to complete our budget process.

We are the first municipality in Wake County and one of the first in the state to approve our annual budget. I think this is a testament to the long, thorough process we have in place and the hard work by staff members and Council Members in gathering and responding to community feedback. I am proud of this budget and what it accomplishes, all while keeping a flat tax rate*.

Listen to my comments (and the rest of my colleagues) on this budget below, prior to us voting to unanimously approve.

This budget positions Apex as the lowest cost municipality in Wake County.

Here is a summary of where your tax dollars are going.

*flat tax rate, except the voter approved 1.6 cent increase for the 2021 Transportation Bond

With that done, the meeting got more contentious.

Grace Christian School Votes

Key Take Away: Grace Christian annexation was approved, but a transportation amendment to remove a planned pedestrian bridge was denied.

We then considered two items related to Grace Christian, a new school complex being built on Tingen Road by the US1 bridge. It’s important to first acknowledge they already have the legal right to build this school. These are not rezoning requests, but rather an annexation request and a transportation amendment request. Still, CM Zegerman and myself pushed back on both, with mixed results.

Important context here is that a development (Seymour PUD) located to the North, which was scheduled to deliver numerous traffic and transportation improvements to the area, is no longer moving forward (at least, not anytime soon). Also important context: as a school, under North Carolina state law, we actually can’t require any transportation improvements from them.

Much of the transportation analysis of Grace Christian assumed improvements from Seymour being there, now that they are no longer there, I believe it warrants reanalysis.

The annexation passed 3-2, with Mahaffey and Zegerman dissenting. Grace Christian is moving forward.

Next we considered the transportation amendments related to Grace Christian. Because the site plan now places everything on the east side of Veridea Parkway/Tingen, they proposed 1) Adding a roundabout, 2) Removing a grade separated pedestrian crossing, and 3) Shifting sidepath to the east side. 1 and 3 passed easily, but here again Zegerman and myself pushed back. I wanted to keep the grade separated ped crossing in the transportation plan, in hopes of at least getting the right of way dedicated so it could eventually be built when the west side of Tingen develops. Here, we were more successful, and denied the removal of the crossing 3-2 with CM Killingsworth joining us. That means the pedestrian bridge stays in the plan.

To Be Continued

I’ll finish up the rest of the meeting in another newsletter later this week, as this email is already getting a little long. But major other items include an affordable housing proposal, a grocery store coming to New Hill, and a 55+ Community on Wimberly.

Town Hall Scheduled for Next Week

Just a reminder, we have a Community Town Hall event scheduled for next Monday, June 2nd. We’ll give an update and take questions, that sort of thing. It’s at the Halle at 5:30. You can RSVP here. If there is enough demand, we’ll start doing these regularly.

Utility Bill Recalculation Request Form Live

As I noted previously, the Apex Town Council voted to set up a process where residents can request a recalculation of their utility bill by the 3rd party review firm, BerryDunn. Their conclusion is that most customers will see a bill increase by their calculation due to missing base charges, but some customers with very high water usage may see a bill decrease. You can request a recalculation here.

-terry