Full name: Kristopher Vorren

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: https://www.krisvorren.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 Fuquay-Varina town board of commissioners?

I’m running for a seat on the Fuquay-Varina Board of Commissioners to promote smarter and more equitable growth within our town. Like many NC communities, Fuquay-Varina is experiencing exponential growth and so the decisions that the board makes today will have an impact for several decades. As a board member, I will ensure that our continued growth happens in a way that benefits all members of our town, not just those who see this growth as an investment opportunity.

Fuquay-Varina voters can entrust me with a seat on the Town Board because my motivation for running is simply to do what is best for our town. If elected, I will work in the best interest of everyone who lives, works, or visits here. My town strategy will promote neighborhoods–with a mix of homes, business, and third spaces–over subdivisions to strengthen the community within Fuquay-Varina. This strategy will give our town more character, will provide residents with more opportunities to come together, and will lead to growth of intracommunity serving businesses to stimulate an equitable local economy.

My background–living and working in several different small but rapidly growing NC towns has provided me with the prior experience needed to be an effective commissioner on the Fuquay-Varina town board. I understand the challenges that growing NC communities face, what has worked in other towns to address these challenges, and what didn’t work. To make the best decisions for our town as Fuquay-Varina continues to grow, I will draw on these experiences, meet town and community members where they are at to listen to their concerns and ideas, and work closely with the other board members, the mayor, and our dedicated town staff to move us forward in a smart, equitable manner.

2) What would your priorities be as a member of the board of commissioners? Please identify three of the most pressing issues Fuquay-Varina currently faces and how you believe the town should address them. 

As a member of the board of commissioners, my priorities would branch out from my root platform issue of smart, sustainable, and equitable town growth. Three of the most important issues are housing affordability, reducing traffic and congestion, and stimulating the local economy to provide family and high quality-of-life sustaining local jobs. My plan to build diverse neighborhoods is designed for the town to address each of these issues on the currently fast-paced timescale of new growth and development.

3) What’s the best or most important thing the Fuquay-Varina town board of commissioners 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 thing that the Fuquay-Varina town board did within the last year was finishing up the Downtown Generational Master Plan. This plan will attract more people to downtown, boost downtown businesses, and better connect Fuquay and Varina.

An issue the town should’ve handled differently was how they informed the voters about the parks bond at the end of 2023. This was a roughly $60 million bond for various park building and improvement projects. In promoting the bond to the voters, the town should’ve been more specific and thorough about what exactly the money would be spent on without having to dig up a report. The parks bond ultimately failed.

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 board of commissioners can or should do to ensure safe, welcoming communities for immigrants in light of these policies?

As a source of community leadership, the town board needs to ensure that everyone feels welcome. The town should continue to host events and festivals that celebrate our diverse immigrant communities and consider adding more events as we grow. The board, with the help of the chamber of commerce, should continue to promote businesses that highlight our cultural diversity.

Regarding ICE, the town should completely refuse to work with any unidentifiable individual or group claiming to be law enforcement–this is simply a matter of safety. The town government cannot legally refuse to cooperate with credentialed ICE agents, despite legal risks of doing so. To reduce the risk of legal liability for cooperating with ICE, the town should conduct a thorough 25-year review process for each request by ICE for assistance. No action should be taken by the town until the review is complete.

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. How would you like the board of commissioners to address climate resilience, particularly flooding? 

The town board does have some tools to improve climate resilience, including flooding. My platform includes a short-term goal to increase natural and artificial shading in places where people hang out including downtown and in parks. This is because heat is the deadliest weather condition. To prepare for flooding we need to reanalyze the floodplain boundaries and adjust building codes accordingly. Additionally, the town should do its best to follow the recommendations of the recently completed wastewater infrastructure study.

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?

The town must go to court to reinstate any funding that was illegally canceled by the Trump administration. Funding and budgeting prioritization decisions are the most complex and impactful decisions that any town board makes. The next town board will continue to use every tool available to solve funding issues and we must make every effort to keep the community informed and involved in the budgeting process. We will need to flex our political muscle a bit to ensure the NC General Assembly and Congress supports and funds county and municipal infrastructure, not just in Fuquay Varina, but across the state and nation.

7) Describe what sustainable growth and development mean to you as Fuquay-Varina grows. What is another municipality you believe has made smart decisions related to growth and development that could be similarly implemented in Fuquay-Varina?

Sustainable growth means building neighborhoods instead of just subdivisions. Neighborhoods should include commercial and other spaces where people can meet up and feel like they’re part of a community. We also need to balance infrastructure development with housing development. Apex has done well in this regard. Also, Chapel Hill shows that it is possible to have a good functioning bus system with high ridership in NC.

8) Fuquay-Varina is one of the only towns that has not adopted Wake County’s non-discrimination ordinance, which protects residents from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin, and more. Would you support the adoption of the ordinance? Please explain your position.

Yes, I support the ordinance. In today’s political climate, we can’t expect everyone to act in good faith and follow the intent of current non-discrimination laws and ordinances–we have to be more explicit. I don’t see any reason to not support it.

9) Fuquay-Varina’s community library is expanding to become a regional library thanks to the passage of Wake County’s 2024 library bond. What other amenities, civic infrastructure, or services would you like to see the town add next? How would you work towards those goals if elected?

I would like to see the town add a bus service similar to Chapel Hill Transit, GoApex, GoDurham, GoRaleigh, and GoCary. We need to continue to advocate for bus service with Wake County and GoRaleigh to bring more buses into Fuquay-Varina. The upcoming MicroLink service is a good steppingstone toward this.

10) With major companies expanding and investing in Fuquay-Varina, including Leviton, plus a new WakeMed Health complex and a new $70 million industrial park coming, the town will need more housing to support its workforce. What should the town do in order to provide this needed housing, especially for lower income families who will be working in service jobs in these facilities?

To improve housing affordability–especially for underpaid folks in service jobs–I’d like to see more diversity in the types of housing that are built in neighborhoods. Instead of building a development with all single family homes in one area or all apartments in a different area, we should build neighborhoods with many different types of housing in one place. This would include mixed use, SFHs, higher density apartments, and so-called missing middle housing. Removing areal based restrictions on the types of housing in each location opens more development options to spur additional housing growth, stabilize housing prices, and lead to development of more affordable housing.

11) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.

Comment on this story at [email protected].