Shannon Baxter

Environment / Energy As our population increases, we need to not only make sure that we have enough green space to recreate in but also set aside enough land to preserve species. Trees are our best carbon sinks in this part of the country and without them our air quality and climate will continue to deteriorate. Saving greenspace is not just good for the environment, it is critical for our survival. Infrastructure / Transportation Not only do we have to find solutions for our growing traffic problems, we also need to provide alternate ways for people to get around. This is going to mean working with the County to get more bus routes, building roads for bike and pedestrian traffic, and installing traffic mitigation measures. Infrastructure / Transportation We will need to break ground on the North Arendell Widening Project shortly and that is going to require completion of project re-scoping as well as encouragement of CAMPO members for funding support. In addition, we will need to be more aggressive with stormwater improvements. All this is doable and we need to keep pushing to get it done. Housing Affordable housing needs to be discussed and while I am proud to say that I have started the conversation, we still have a long way to go. What HUD considers affordable in Wake County is not affordable in Zebulon. We need to work with developers to address this discrepancy and push for state and federal funding to aid us in finding a solution. Economy If we are going to bring the types of businesses to town that Zebulon wants and needs, we will need to take a more aggressive approach to Economic Development. This is going to look very different to how we have done things in the past. It may mean that we build sites so that they are investor ready, allowing us court the type of businesses that we want to move to our Community.