Full name: Shane Reese
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: https://www.shanereese4apex.com
1) In 300 words or less, please give our readers your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What prior experience will make you an effective member of the Apex town council?
Apex is more than just a place to live, it’s my home. I’m Shane Reese and I’m running for Apex Town Council because it’s where I went to school after moving from Ohio over 30 years ago, and it’s where my wife of 16 years and I’ve been raising our kids (ages 14, 12, and 10) for the past decade. I’m an Apex High and NC State graduate, small business owner, longtime community advocate, and the past 20 years of my career have been dedicated to leading communications and public outreach initiatives that work toward the greater good, from fighting to end gerrymandering and get big money out of politics, to working for clean energy projects and highway safety initiatives.
I believe voters should entrust me with this position because I didn’t wait until this campaign to start serving our town. When I began renting my office on Salem Street in January of 2014, I immediately got to work – connecting, listening, and collaborating with the downtown business community. I helped boost small businesses, retail, and restaurants as president of the Apex Downtown Business Association, and worked alongside the downtown community to initiate the Downtown Master Plan & Parking Study (then appointed to the Steering Committee), which has driven nearly $30 million in private investments in the heart of Apex. I’m also proud that we revised the ordinance to ensure retail shops and restaurants thrive on Salem Street, proposed the Town’s successful Small Business Emergency Loan program, and partnered with the police department to improve pedestrian safety. And while serving as a Steering Committee member for the Town of Apex’s 2045 Land Use Map & Transportation Plan, I advocated for building new parks, expanding greenways, increasing walkability, and coordinating with NCDOT to improve traffic flow, while protecting Apex’s small-town character amid development pressures.
2) What would your priorities be as a member of the town council? Please identify three of the most pressing issues Apex currently faces and how you believe the town should address them.
Ensuring responsible growth: I believe we need to promote sustainable, well-planned growth, including rejecting slash-and-build construction and encouraging homes at a variety of price points. Also, our trees are more than just scenery – they help cool our town, help us conserve energy, reduce stormwater runoff, and absorb pollutants – so a key component of responsible growth is holding developers accountable to the 35% resource conservation area (RCA) ordinance, which is the strongest tree protection policy in the state.
Boosting business and promoting downtown: Boosting business in town is a top priority for me so we can rebalance our 82% residential/18% commercial-industrial tax base. I believe we need to expand our highly successful LaunchAPEX program to better meet the needs of tech startups. We also need to offer our Economic Development Department every tool they need at their disposal to recruit and capture the vendors and startups that will serve the NC Children’s Hospital, a once-in-a-generation economic development opportunity. Inside the Peakway, I believe we need to fast-track the Downtown Plan so we can enhance the heart of Apex as an economic hub for our entire community.
Protecting our small-town character: Maintaining the neighborly spirit and sense of belonging that makes Apex the “Peak of Good Living” by building more greenways, expanding parks, and extending sidewalks, creating spaces where families can gather and neighbors can connect. In addition to my strong support for more community infrastructure, one issue I’ve campaigned on as part of protecting our small-town character is the opportunity for the town to purchase land – as an example, the Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Master Plan calls for 65 acres to be purchased and protected as conservation lands. Especially if these purchases are made closer to Jordan Lake, it will also help protect our town’s main water source.
3) What’s the best or most important thing the Apex town council has done in the past year? Additionally, name a decision you believe the town should have handled differently. Please explain your answers.
The most important action taken by the Town Council in the past year is approving the FY2025-2026 budget, which appropriates funds for major infrastructure and capital improvements like transportation, utilities, public safety, greenways, and downtown revitalization. The budget is built on a flat tax rate, aside from the 1.6-cent increase approved by 2 of every 3 voters as part of the 2021 transportation bond, which means Apex still maintains the second-lowest tax rate in the county while providing essential services.
Regarding a decision I believe the town should have handled differently, I’ll first say hindsight is 20/20, however, the unfortunate sequence of events of the (1) cybersecurity attack, (2) utility rate increase (that was passed along by Duke Energy to the town), and (3) transition of the utility billing to a new system and the associated discrepancies, has been a crisis communications challenge that I believe the town could have identified earlier. Again, it’s easy to look back now, and we will learn from it, but if a similar scenario occurs in the future, we must immediately ramp up both constituent services and communications plans to ensure community trust. Rebuilding that community trust is underway now, and it is my position that the town should prohibit all utility cutoffs and guarantee no-interest repayment plans.
4) President Trump is working to ramp up deportations and curtail visas. At the same time, the state legislature has passed laws requiring agencies to cooperate with ICE. What do you think the Apex Town Council can or should do to ensure safe, welcoming communities for immigrants in light of these policies?
First and foremost, we must follow state law while also staunchly standing up for our neighbors, making it known – through public action, one-on-one conversations, and sustained commitment – that this town welcomes all, respects all, and values all. As a candidate for Town Council since January, I believe it is important to be present and actively participate in community events, and so I have ensured my presence is known, in person and through digital media, in order to demonstrate how we in Apex treat our neighbors well. I believe Council members should be present and active at each one of these community events, and it is important that Town communications continue to communicate widely – via social media, newsletters, public forums, and media appearances – the inclusive nature that we are building and protecting here in town. I also believe this is where Apex’s cherished small-town spirit enhances our ability to welcome folks by hosting more than 50 community events throughout the year, offering a wide variety of activities, and building parks and public spaces where neighbors can connect.
5) As climate change leads to more intense rainfall, communities are at greater risk of inland flooding, such as the historic floods in parts of the Triangle this summer, including the 200 year storm that collapsed Olive Chapel Road. How should the Apex Town Council address climate resilience, particularly flooding?
The storm that collapsed Olive Chapel Road demonstrated how vulnerable our infrastructure is, and the need to prioritize climate resilience planning. We can hand-wave away climate science, or we can take it seriously and develop climate resiliency plans now for future 200-year storms – but either way, more high-intensity storms will approach Apex in coming years whether we prepare for them or not. And those storms negatively impact our town budget as well as our local economy, because every closed road, whether due to flooding or collapse, likely leads to more infrastructure costs, limited commercial transportation, and reduced residential traffic flow. The Olive Chapel Road collapse also speaks to the need to support more green infrastructure, like constructing rain gardens and working with nonprofit partners to re-plant trees across town so we can absorb water naturally and reduce runoff.
6) Federal funding cuts this year have hit the Triangle particularly hard, from cancelled grants to layoffs, and local government officials are having to make difficult decisions about what to fund and how. What are your ideas for how the town council can prioritize competing funding needs, close funding gaps, and support impacted residents?
I will first ensure we have open lines of communication with our local members of Congress to anticipate and prepare for funding instability. That said, this is a town council position, not a campaign for Congress, so my priorities will be focused on solutions for Apex like managing growth, addressing pressing transportation and infrastructure needs, making sure we have safe neighborhoods, and that we invest in our quality of life while protecting our small-town character.
7) Describe what sustainable growth and development mean to you. Additionally, what is another municipality you believe has made smart decisions related to growth and development that could be similarly implemented in Apex?
Sustainable growth and development means regulating against slash-and-build construction, and it also means strong tree canopy and buffering standards because too often, we see large areas cleared and replaced only by small saplings and border trees. I’ll advocate for stronger requirements that preserve a meaningful percentage of existing canopy — not just around the edges, but throughout the site — and push to require the planting of larger, native trees that provide true green space, noise buffering, and build climate resilience, as covered in my response to the question related to the Olive Chapel Road collapse.
8) In 2021, a consultant’s report identified “deeply entrenched” racial bias in the Apex police department’s culture. What progress has been made in rooting out racial bias in the Apex PD? What measures have been taken, what else should be done?
I’m aware of the report from four years ago, and know that Apex Police Chief Ryan Johansen, appointed in February of this year, takes seriously racial bias and has committed to ensuring the department serves our community effectively. In the years since the report was developed, it’s my understanding that internal standards have been strengthened, recruitment practices have been expanded, and more training has been introduced to improve cultural competency. I’m confident in Chief Johansen’s 20+ years of law enforcement experience and extensive education, and believe the Apex Police Department is on the right track.
I will support our Chief of Police and the Apex Police Department in their efforts to broaden the workforce and continue improving channels of communication with our residents. I believe that demonstrating trust in Chief Johansen and support for APD will go a long way toward department confidence to ensure they can protect and serve our community.
9) Apex has identified a need for 13,000 new homes over the next 10 years, including 3,600 affordable units. While Apex’s 2021 affordable housing plan has made some progress in providing affordable housing, the town hasn’t been able to keep up with an influx of new service workers. What should the town do in order to provide housing for lower income families, especially those who will be building and eventually working in the upcoming NC children’s medical facility?
I think it’s important we address one of the elephants in the room head-on: The phrase “affordable housing” is a relative term and can lose its meaning when considering what’s “affordable” in another part of the state or even the county, compared to what’s considered “affordable” in western Wake County. What I mean by that is, for example, some of the “affordable housing” available in Apex right now via the Raleigh Area Land Trust (RALT) are listed for sale at $316,000 to $346,000 price points, respectively, so a family of four purchasing a $316,000 home may earn up to $104,200 per year, and a family of four purchasing the $346,000 home may earn up to $132,700 per year. I believe this further confirms the relative nature of “housing affordability.”
I support the town’s recently approved Community Land Trust initiative, similar to the RALT model above, that will acquire property directly to de-link land costs from home prices in locations where it makes sense. One of the most direct ways to ensure new developments include housing that meets our economy’s workforce needs is to contribute land to development deals. Homebuyers lease the land at nominal rates, keeping their monthly housing costs stable even as property values rise. I support exploring opportunities to allocate funding and work with county and state partners to secure ongoing financial support, as limited as those funds may be going forward. This also is one way to help mitigate material prices and labor rates, although we’re likely to continue facing market-force headwinds, like many regions across the country.
I also think one of the critical issues in Apex is not only supporting housing that’s “affordable” but also boosting “attainable” housing, i.e., housing availability for those who can afford a mortgage and have credit scores that make them eligible buyers, but are still priced out of the market.
10) The Town of Apex has annexed more than 5,000 acres of land into town limits since 2013. It has also taken property by eminent domain and recently lost a lawsuit after it tried to obtain an easement for a sewer line on behalf of a private developer. What are the ethical, environmental, and quality of life considerations town leaders must take into account when acquiring property for the town’s growth?
Having not served on Council, I can’t speak to the history of the legal dispute, but to answer the question directly, my take is simple: Do the right thing. Do what’s right, what’s fair, what’s legal, and what’s ethical.
11) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
Last month, I announced that I will not accept campaign contributions from political action committees representing homebuilders or other development interests. This is not a decision I made lightly, and I want to explain why I believe it is the right choice for our community. At a time when growth and development are front and center in conversations across town, I believe it is essential that voters can trust that their Town Council works exclusively for them – the residents of Apex – and not for industry funders with their own agendas. I believe the best way I can demonstrate that commitment is by refusing PAC money from organizations that have direct financial stakes in how our town grows.
Let me be clear: This is not about taking a position against growth, nor is it a rejection of dialogue. Apex is growing, and developers and residents both need to be at the table, because managing growth is a shared responsibility. However, the table where development decisions are made must be built on a level playing field where every community voice has equal standing.
By rejecting these contributions, I’m sending a clear signal about my priorities: I will work for the people of Apex. Our town deserves leaders who approach development decisions with balance and objectivity, and I believe removing the perception of financial bias is a good place to start.
This decision reflects who I am and the kind of transparent, community-first leadership I want to bring to the Apex Town Council. I believe in earning voters’ trust not just through my words but through my actions.
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