Full name: Haseeb Fatmi
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: haseebforwakeforest.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 board of commissioners?
As Commissioner, my goal is to take a pragmatic approach to policy and governance that balances between our vision of an ideal town and the realistic bounds of the Board of Commissioners. I cannot promise to end all crime and pave the streets in gold, but I can promise to use my knowledge of urban planning, policy, and economic development, and my experience as an advocate and educator to do everything in my power as Commissioner to listen and enact policies that benefit the Town and its residents.
Part of that means enacting policies and ordinances under the jurisdiction of the Board. But the reality is that the Board may not have jurisdiction over some of the issues that affect our lives, like schools, state infrastructure developments, and legislation in the General Assembly. That is why it is so important that we as Commissioners become true advocates for Wake Forest by working with other governing bodies, like the Wake County Board of Commissioners, the School Board, and our local representatives, to make sure the needs of Wake Forest are being represented at higher levels of government. To me, being a Commissioner doesn’t start and stop on the first and third Tuesday of the month.
My vision for a Walkable Wake Forest is a Town free of choking overdevelopment where we prioritize and invest in infrastructure for our current residents. It is a Wake Forest that is safe, accessible, equitable, and affordable. It is a town where we sustain our green spaces and natural resources, and invest in what makes Wake Forest unique. Wake Forest is its own vibe to uplift and preserve, not sell to developers. I want to utilize policies that make sense, like zoning, mixed used development, and land covenants, in ways that benefit our residents.
2) What would your priorities be as a member of the board of commissioners? Please identify three of the most pressing issues Wake Forest currently faces and how you believe the town should address them.
Overdevelopment: Stop the rampant overdevelopment and urban sprawl, and do not let our town be a rubber stamp for developers. Prioritize infrastructural upgrades over unchecked expansion. Focus on development that serves current residents, not just developers. Ensure new projects benefit the community. Rein in the rampant growth.
Accessibility: Every part of our Town should be accessible to every resident, including our senior residents. Ensure disability access to public and commercial spaces. Repair our sidewalks and streets. Extend the Greenway. Encourage mixed use to make our neighborhoods feel like communities.
Conservation: Protect our natural resources like our parks and the Smith Creek Reservoir, protect our tree canopy and discourage clearcutting. Create an office for Natural Resources.
3) What’s the best or most important thing the 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 accomplishment of the Board of Commissioners this past year is the approval of the 2025/2026 budget without raising the property tax, and while allocating resources for capital improvement projects. The Town’s budget is central to everything the Town can and cannot accomplish, and it is an enormous feat to allocate resources for much needed projects while keeping the property tax rate the same, ensuring the burden does not shift to our residents. On the other hand, the Town could have handled the rescission of the Pride Proclamation much differently. As a Town, we pride ourselves on our community and our diversity. I firmly believe that civil rights are human rights, and celebrating each community is a celebration of all communities.
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?
The first step is to understand the legal intricacies of the issue. The NC General Assembly recently passed HB318, which mandates that all local law enforcement abide by certain ICE directives, against not only undocumented persons but also United States citizens and legal residents, regardless of the Constitutional validity of those directives and the impact on established due process rights, while curtailing remedies that US citizens and legal residents (again, not just undocumented persons) should have. The Board of Commissioners can work directly with local law enforcement to ensure that HB318 is not used to infringe on Constitutional rights, nor is it used to harass or abuse, so that we are properly, fairly, and legally executing the law. The Board can also work with its legal staff to ensure that we utilize our judicial remedies. For example, laws like HB318 open the Town open to Bivens lawsuits, and so we need to make sure that our staff and employees are properly trained in the law. We can also work with business and community groups to ensure that our residents are aware of their Fourth Amendment rights. At the end of the day, we want to make sure that our local law enforcement has the tools and capability to effectuate the law and keep our Town safe, while at the same time ensuring that those same laws are not misused against law-abiding residents.
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?
By protecting our green spaces and natural resources, especially the Smith Creek Reservoir. I am against clearcutting, and while the Board of Commissioners cannot legally outlaw clearcutting, we can work with developers, as well as our Public Works Office and Planning Board to protect our greenspaces and encourage a greater tree canopy, while discouraging developments that are predicated on clearcutting. This is especially true for the Smith Creek Reservoir. Wake Forest has the opportunity to protect the last remaining forest in all of Wake County, but has plans to incorporate the land into Wake Forest proper and develop it with more houses. The Board should work directly with the property owners as well as key community organizations to protect this land. That is why I would like to see an Office of Natural Resources in our Town government.
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 city council can prioritize competing funding needs, close funding gaps, and balance the financial burden on residents?
We need to work extensively with community and neighborhood groups, as well as offices within our local government, to ensure we properly prioritize the Town’s needs. We should prioritize the basic necessities that our current residents depend on, and that means working with our Public Works and emergency services departments. That also means working with the Town’s Budget Office throughout the year–not just once a year in June–to ensure that current and future budget needs are being met efficiently without waste. It also means encouraging growth in a sustainable way, and understanding the interplay between growth and funding. By far, the largest source of revenue for the Town is property tax revenue. More people in Wake Forest means more revenue, but the Town must also spend to accommodate population growth, and growing too fast means budgetary needs are not provided for. Therefore, the Board of Commissioners must work not only with Planning but also our Budget Office to account for shifting revenues and expenditures over time in accordance with sustained growth.
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 Wake Forest? How can Wake Forest manage its rapid population growth while ensuring affordability and quality of life?
Sustainable growth and development mean acknowledging and accommodating the inevitable growth that Wake Forest will see, ensuring that we sufficiently invest in the needs of current Town residents, while ensuring we do not accelerate the rate of population growth. That means working with community groups and paying attention to residents’ needs, and focusing resources in those areas. For example, clearcutting and adding new, dense housing developments can accelerate our growth, which exacerbates the problems we’re seeing. Right now, we’re seeing rampant overdevelopment and tremendous financial strains. We need more jobs, and therefore more commercial development in strategic areas, and to alleviate overcrowding and traffic congestion while focus on access to resources, including water, utilities, and emergency services, and to make sure that those necessities keep pace with population growth.
Wake Forest’s population is slated to double in size yet again. Analyzing different cities across the country, cities like Vancouver, WA and Boulder, CO appear to be appropriate examples on how to deal with a population that has just reached over 100,000. Key strategies we can use for Wake Forest include utilizing our Community Development Plans, protecting surrounding rural lands while thoughtfully developing our land and ETJ with in-fill development, scrutinizing new housing developments, and working with the NCGA and Wake County.
8) How would you like to see Wake Forest address issues of traffic congestion and transportation access as the town grows and adds density?
We need a systemic and multi-pronged approach as outlined in the Comprehensive Transportation Plan. That includes working with NCDOT, our neighboring municipalities, and our county, state, and federal elected officials to ensure that infrastructure projects are funded and prioritized. Work on road development including connecting throughways. Focus on multi-modal transportation, not just cars, including micro-transit like e-scooters (and lifting the ban on e-bikes and e-scooters). The Town should heavily scrutinize and discourage building new, dense housing developments in already crowded areas, and instead focus on commercial development in strategic locations to encourage traffic flow away from the most congested areas. We also need creative solutions to traffic flow patterns, like utilizing AI to synchronize our traffic lights.
9) Downtown Wake Forest was selected as a future site for the S-Line passenger rail system, connecting to Raleigh, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. A mobility hub is planned for downtown Wake Forest; what amenities do you think should be included?
We should include indoor and outdoor waiting areas with seating and overhead awnings. Facilities including restrooms, bicycle and scooter locking stations, ticketing kiosks, and a ride-share drop-off area. We should ensure the hub is accessible, including a pedestrian walkway to cross the tracks, wheelchair ramps, and both hearing-impaired and visually-impaired accessibility features. Also include real-time train information.
10) How do you feel about the rollout of Wake Forest’s social district? What is your overall vision for downtown development in Wake Forest?
I’m all for it. Overall, I want to see a walkable, accessible, and vibrant downtown. That means encouraging public transportation and micro-transit throughout the city so that all residents can travel to and access downtown, ideally leaving their cars behind. Parking is a huge issue, and so I would like to see non-car dependent methods of getting to downtown. We should encourage pedestrian walkability but also accessibility–after all, wheelchair accessible locations are also stroller accessible, which promotes accessibility for persons with disabilities, our active aging population, and families with young children. I want to see new shops and restaurants while preserving Wake Forest’s historic and cultural vibes. It should be a place where small businesses thrive and people regularly meet day-to-day, mixed in with larger Town events.
11) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
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