Gucci Mayberry & Tree Cutting

👋 Good Morning, Apex! Today is Thursday, January 8, 2026 and this is the 53rd consecutive weekly issue of The Peak Weekly.

I want to start today’s email by saying thank you to the Apex Police Department. Tomorrow (Jan 9) is National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day (LEAD). I’m a day early but just want to say that the women, men, and K9 partners of Apex PD do an awesome job and you are appreciated.

For Apex to be growing as fast as it is, but to still be ranked consistently at the top for safety, that’s no easy task.

Check this out: in 1990, the population of Apex was about 5,000. By 2004, the population was 26,000 (420% increase). During this time, Apex began to modernize and some upscale boutiques started moving into the old historic buildings.

Some locals and regional media began calling downtown Apex Gucci Mayberry as a nod to its ability to keep its Andy Griffith-style charm while also offering high-end shopping.

(That’s a much cooler nickname than my hometown of Carmel, Indiana had when I was growing up: The Golden Ghetto.)

Here’s my point: Our town, Gucci Mayberry, had a population of 26,000 in 2004. Our population right now today - 84,686.

But the last staffing study for the Apex PD was in 2004. This study determined that 5 officers was the minimum number for 24/7 patrol.

And now, 22 years and 58,000 more people later, Apex PD’s staffing requirements are still based on that 2004 population data.

On one hand, Apex PD is still crushing it despite those limitations. On the other hand, that’s a lot of pressure to put on our officers who are operating at half of the FBI’s recommended number of officers to population ratio.

All of this was meant to be presented in a working session in November, but that was canceled for an unknown reason. But it will be back in view during a work session later this month. I say all of that to say: thank you Apex PD, happy National LEAD, and let’s make sure they get the resources and support that they need.

I also say this to say - my reporting on Flock Cameras last week was not a criticism of our police department; it was just bringing something that exists in our town to your attention. That’s what we do! I’m all for proactive policing but I also see that some very clear issues have come up around this software since it was implemented that puts us all at risk, and we should talk about it. But they (council & town manager) won’t because it doesn’t benefit them. So I will.

If you missed it, you can read about it in the newsletter from 2 weeks ago.

Next order of business - you know what you need to make 2026 the best year ever? A new dog or cat!

Through this Monday, Jan 12, the Wake County Animal Center, through its New Year, New Pet initiative, is offering dog adoptions for only $25 and cat adoptions for just $5. There are 98 dogs & 10 cats in the shelter with another 42 dogs and 47 cats in foster care. View the adoption gallery.

Lastly, before we get into a whole bunch of great updates for this week, I want to take a moment to let you know about a couple of the exciting events coming up for MLK weekend:

Friday, Jan 16 - Black Author Exhibit & Creative Contest

6:30pm: Join community members to meet and hear from Black Authors in an open exhibit at the Apex Senior Center (63 Hunter Street). K-12 Creative Contest Winners will also present their contest submissions for attendees.

This evening features:

• Poetry Fox

• Live Painting and Custom Take Images from Tatiana Thomas

• 12 Black Author Presentations

• Awards Ceremony for MLK Contest Winners

• Heavy Hors D ’Oeuvres

Saturday, Jan 17 - MLK Unity March & Breakfast Reception

8am: Gather for the Unity March at Apex First Baptist Church (serving coffee and hot chocolate from the Mocha Room)

9am: March begins and goes down Salem Street toward Town Hall

9:30am: MLK Commemoration Breakfast Reception at the Senior Center (serving a full breakfast from Zweli’s)

Miscellaneous Info:

🧾 Pay Your Property Taxes
Wake County phased out several payment centers, including Apex Town Hall. A full list of places where you can pay your property tax bill in-person are listed here along with a link to pay online.

🧼 MLK Donation Drive
Drop off donations at Apex Town Hall, John M. Brown Community Center, Halle Cultural Arts Center, Fire Stations 1 & 3, or Public Safety Station 5 now through January 19th. Location addresses and donation items needed are listed here.

⚖️ Lawyers in Your Library
Each Month, Wake County’s Lawyers in Your Library program provides free 30-minute consultations on legal issues such as landlord/tenant, custody, divorce, etc. They’ll be at Middle Creek Community Library in Apex on Nov 14 but you can attend any of them around Wake County each month. View the schedule here.

💰 Non-Profit Partnership Funding
Each year, Apex invests in specific nonprofit programs that help our community thrive; expanding access to services, filling critical gaps, and uplifting neighbors in need. The funding application for FY 2026-27 is now open through Feb 28.

⬅️ Dynamic Left Turn
There is a new dynamic left turn traffic signal now at Kelley Rd / Hwy 64 (installed by NCDOT). It can be a little confusing, so here’s a quick tutorial (Instagram video via Mayor).

🗳️ Upcoming Voting + Postal Changes
To vote in the upcoming Wake County Board of Commissioners primary, you must be registered to vote by February 6. Early voting will take place from Feb 12 - Feb 28. Election day is March 3. Note: a new rule just went into effect which clarifies that a “postmark does not necessarily reflect the date the USPS first accepted possession of the mail piece.” In other words, even if you drop off a mail-in ballot ahead of the deadline, it may not get postmarked the same day and could ultimately be deemed not mailed in time. This will mostly affect those in rural areas, but can affect anyone. Full story.

🚘️ Car Stolen From Locked Garage
An Apex resident urges us to be vigilant after her car was stolen from her locked garage in the Smith Farm Community. Video and story via WRAL here.

🚰 Wake County’s One Water Plan
The Wake County One Water Plan is a collaboration between the county’s 12 municipalities designed “to protect the water supply, reduce nutrient pollution, mitigate flooding, and promote equal access to these benefits.” The county anticipates its population will grow by 250,000 people in the next decade and is preparing to add more than 2 million residents by 2070. The plan requires every water utility in the county to expand to meet these future needs. It also addresses the need to develop guidance for data centers. It’s anticipated that the One Water Plan to will go to the Wake County Board of Commissioners in February. The full 105-page draft can be seen here.

🏫 Hilltop Needmore Elementary
The Wake County Board of Education has formally approved the enrollment plan for the 2026-27 school year. The headline for Apex families is the opening of Hilltop Needmore Elementary.

🏘️ Neighborhood Beautification Grant (last chance)
The Town of Apex Neighborhood Beautification Grant is an annual grant application that empowers neighbors to identify innovative beautification projects that could improve their neighborhoods. This grant provides direct funding to help neighborhoods enhance the physical and social aspects of their neighborhood.

Note: You must attend an information session to apply. The last information session is tonight from 6pm - 7pm. Good news is: you can do it in your PJs. It’s a virtual session so you can attend from anywhere. Click here to register.

Things to Do This Week in Apex:

Friday, January 9

👕 Mabopane Marketplace
7am - 12pm | 3913 Hwy 64W

👥 Face to Face: A Group Portraiture Exhibition
6pm - 8pm | Halle Cultural Arts
(runs Jan 9 - Feb 27)

🎤 Jake + Johanna Band
8pm | The Backyard Bar

Saturday, January 10

🧑‍🌾 Apex Farmers Market
9am - 12pm | The Depot

👕 Mabopane Marketplace
10am - 1pm | 3913 Hwy 64W

🎤 Live Music: Maverick Rose
6:30pm - 9pm | Southern Peak Brewery

🗣 Rudy’s Karaoke
9pm | Rudy’s Pub

Sunday, January 11

🍺 Bootcamp & Bubbly
10am - 11am | Southern Peak Brewery

🍶 Black Light Pottery Painting
1pm - 2:30pm | Southern Peak Brewery

🍲 Soup Cook-Off
2pm | Peakway Taps

Monday, January 12

🩸 Apex PD Blood Drive
Benefiting Special Olympics NC
12pm - 5pm | Apex PD

🐔 Zaxby’s Spirit Night
Benefiting Apex HS Bands
2pm - 8pm | Zaxby’s

Tuesday, January 13

🎤 Open Mic Night
6pm - 9pm | Oaklyn Springs Brewery

🤔 Trivia Night
7pm - 8pm | Abbey Road Tavern

Wednesday, January 14

🔠 Music Bingo
7pm - 8pm | Abbey Road Tavern

🔠 Music Bingo
7:30pm - 9:30pm | Rudy’s Pub

Local Business Updates

🍣 Taki Sushi Bar & Grill
To mark the opening of Taki Sushi, they are holding a $25 menu tasting event tonight with seating from 4:30pm - 6:15pm. It’s limited seating and you must stop by or call them to reserve. It might be sold out by now but if you see this and call them quickly, you might still be able to get a spot!

🏋 One Life Fitness Ribbon Cutting
Located at 1441 Beaver Creek Commons Dr, Onelife Fitness is now open. Their Chamber ribbon cutting event is today from 4-5pm.

🍔 Wendy’s is Closed
The Wendy’s at Lake Pine / Hwy 64 is now permanently closed.

🍕 Rosati’s Pizza
They’ve been temporarily closed for a bit now while they deal with some staffing shortages. A source tells me that they are now looking to sell the business with the intention that Rosati’s would re-open in the near future under new ownership.

🌶️ The Old Chili’s
Something is up here. The building is no longer listed for lease. I reached out to the landlord and they wouldn’t spill the beans but I’ll keep trying. If you hear anything, let me know!

🐻 Monroe Boutique Building
It looks like Bear Hands, the literary & mystic boutique, currently located at 305 S. Salem might be moving into the old Monroe Boutique building downtown at 209 N Salem St. No official announcement yet, but they did file a Certificate of Zoning Compliance for that address indicating that they are likely to move there. They do a lot of cool workshops too. If you don’t know them, check them out!

° Degree Wellness
Opening very soon in Sweetwater, Degree Wellness is currently offering discounted founders memberships. They offer red light therapy, infrared sauna, cold plunge, light facial, compression massage, oxygen therapy, cryotherapy, etc. Grab a founders membership here.

Civil News:

🚦 Traffic Signal Projects
The new stoplight with signalized crosswalk at Humie Olive & Richardson Rd is expected to be completed before the end of the month. The rapid flashing beacon will be removed. This project was funded by MI Homes as part of their zoning commitments for Friendship Station. And at Old US 1 / Friendship Rd / Holland Rd, where 2 new signals are being installed, construction has started and is expected to complete this summer. This project is a partnership between Town of Apex and Beazer Homes.

👷🏼 Upcoming Developer Roundtable
The event, officially titled “Partnering to Build Homes for All in Apex,” is not structured as a standard public hearing or a unidirectional presentation of new ordinances. Rather, it is designed as a strategic working session intended to break down the operational and financial silos that often exist between municipal planners, private homebuilders, and non-profit housing advocates. The session will take place from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Apex Senior Center. The insights gathered here will likely inform the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) amendments residents can expect to see proposed this spring.

Upcoming Rezoning Votes
This Tuesday, Jan 13, Town Council will vote on Rezoning Cases #25CZ11 and #25CZ13. They will then vote on proposal #25CZ17 the following Tuesday. Requested zoning of these 3 in order: Low Density Residential, Low Density Residential, Medium Density Residential.

None of these are big major projects. Just your run of the mill re-zoing requests. But just for the sake of illustration, here’s what these 3 small upcoming rezoning requests look like from above, before they are turned into residential areas:

Quick sidebar: It’s easy to pay attention to the big projects like Veridea which will clear-cut about 1,100 acres (equivalent to 10% of the total canopy loss from the entire county over a decade). But the “little ones” like these (which happen all the time) rarely get noticed. And I’m just saying - that’s 13 acres of trees. And they will most likely get passed unanimously and the trees will come down and the homes will go up.

Here’s a quick little timeline you should know about:

• 2018 - Apex participated in a stormwater study that said we need to increase our urban forest to better manage stormwater, reduce heat islands putting pressure on the electric grid, to improve air quality and to improve overall quality of life
  

• 2023 - Wake County released a report showing that Apex was the biggest contributor to tree canopy loss in Wake County from 2010-2020 (we lost 15% of our tree canopy during that time)
  

• 2025 - Despite these reports, the council dissolved Tree-CAP, a dedicated body of appointed citizens as our primary advocate for canopy preservation.

I get we have Plant the Peak and I know that the Planning Board is looking at the UDO about buffer widths and stuff. And I know certain council members campaigned on trees or put little trees in their logo to act like they actually care but then simultaneously take funding by real estate PACs and developers, but watch as they destroy our tree canopy some more with these 3 rezoning requests when they pass 5-0 and then the next ones come up, and the next. And then pretend like the RCA (with so many easy loopholes) or giving away a few free trees is helping this continued massive, rapid tree loss.

🛣️ Olive Chapel Road
The official DriveNC database and town updates indicate a target reopening date of February 10, 2026, at 5:00 PM. Earlier press releases had hoped for a late January 2026 opening, and while that remains possible if weather conditions are perfect, residents should plan for the closure to extend into the second week of February.

🚔️ Public Safety Work Session
On Thursday, January 29, Town Council will hold a work session at 3:30pm. No agenda yet, but the title of it is “Public Safety Only” so my guess is that they will be discussing those items from the November 18 Work Session that was canceled. Those items included things like the feasibility study for Fire Station 1, APD’s Culture of Wellness and staffing, like mentioned in the intro. You can see that agenda packet here.

🗓️ Upcoming Town Meetings

Today, January 8
Neighborhood Beautification Grant Info Session
6pm - 7pm | Virtual

Monday, January 8
Planning Board Meeting
4:30pm | Town Hall

Tuesday, January 13
Regular Town Council Meeting
6pm | Town Hall

Wednesday, January 14
Multimodal Transportation Board
4pm - 6pm | Town Hall

Thursday, January 15
Environmental Advisory Board
6pm | Town Hall

A Look Ahead

January 16 | 6:30pm
📚️ Black Author Exhibit & Creative Contest Presentation | Senior Center

January 17 | 8am
🍳 MLK Unity March & Breakfast Reception | First Baptist Church

January 17 | 10:30am - 12:30pm
🤪 SuperFun Saturday | Halle Cultural Arts

January 18 | 11am
🎼 MLK Worship Service | Apex First Baptist Church

January 19 | All Day (Town offices closed)
👑 National Day of Service 

January 21 | 10am - 12pm (Zootopia)
🎬️ Wednesday Morning Movie | The Halle

January 22 | 6pm - 8pm
🚨 CommUniversity: Community Safety | Senior Center

January 23 | 3pm - 4pm
✂️ Ribbon Cutting for Salon Hue

January 25 | 3pm - 4:30
🎸 Classical Concert Series | The Halle
The Guitar, a Historic Perspective with Duo Romantico

A Final Note:

Thank you for taking time out of your day today to read this week’s edition of The Peak Weekly.

As always, if you have any ideas of how to make this newsletter better, want to nominate a local business or organization to be featured, or anything else, please respond to this email or email me directly at [email protected]

See you next Thursday... 😘