Here We Go Again.

👋 Good Morning, Apex! Today is Thursday, August 20, 2026 and this is the 85th weekly issue of The Peak Weekly.

You already know we gotta talk about it. Probably the longest intro to date. But it matters. Hear me out…

I want to show you a photo. This photo was taken on May 20, 2015.

That little red rectangle is where about 50 Apex Friendship High School students have parked every school year since 2015.

Miss Annie, living in an ETJ area of rural Apex for many years, offered up part of her land to help solve a need that existed in 2015 and still exists today: safe, convenient parking for students attending school.

Here’s what Miss Annie’s place looks like now:

Here's what changed in between.

In 2016, two subdivision plats were recorded on the land around her: Parkside at Bella Casa Phase 13A in February, and Phase 13B in May. The townhomes went up in 2016 and 2017. Every single home that touches Miss Annie's property today was built after students started parking on her land.

Now the Town of Apex is suing HER for bothering THEM.

And now Mahaffey is doing his press tour telling you all about why they have to do this with zero evidence, zero proof and zero references besides just “trust me bro” - as usual. And now I’ll explain it in honest terms, with receipts and references, as usual.

About the law she’s accused of breaking

I pulled the Town of Apex Unified Development Ordinance as it existed in March 2015 - all 458 pages of it. The phrase "student parking" does not appear anywhere in the document.

On July 21, 2020, the Town Council added it. Section 4.2.1(I), "Prohibited Uses in Residential Districts," added student parking onto a list that until that night had consisted of slaughterhouses, acid manufacture, and asphalt refining. It passed 5–0.

Now look at the Town's own letter to Miss Annie, dated April 14, 2025, and attached as Exhibit C to the lawsuit. It says:

July 2020. The same month the Town created the rule.

Five years of about fifty cars parked in plain sight across the street from a high school, and the Town's first documented objection arrives the month it wrote the prohibition.

That is not catching someone breaking a rule. That is writing one.

“We literally cannot do that.”

Here’s what Law Enforcement Officer Council Member Terry Mahaffey said last November, explaining why the Town had no choice:

Here is what Apex's own ordinance actually says, in Article 11:

“The Town may use any combination of the following actions and penalties…”

May revoke. May issue a warning. May extend the deadline. May institute an action in court. Penalties may be imposed. The only things the Town shall do are investigate and determine whether a violation was corrected. There is no duty to punish anywhere in the article.

Before this lawsuit could be filed at all, the Town Manager had to personally sign a written authorization. He signed it on July 20, 2026. That was a choice.

The Mayor proposed amending the ordinance to avoid all of this last year. Council said no. That was a choice too.

What Mahaffey said this week

Speaking to CBS 17 on Wednesday, Mahaffey described what Miss Annie would have to do to comply. The property would need to meet commercial parking standards, he said, which "probably means paving the lot," plus curb stops and striping.

Paving.

That matters more than it sounds. Apex's ordinance defines a "parking lot, commercial" as a paved area used for off-street parking for profit. That definition has been in the UDO since at least 2014, unchanged. Miss Annie's lot is grass, dirt and gravel. It has never been paved.

The Mayor Pro Tem just confirmed, on television, that her property does not meet the definition of the thing the Town keeps calling it.

Then he explained why rezoning is difficult: the lot is "adjacent to a row of houses, and typically we don't allow commercial lots adjacent to other properties."

Apex's ordinance says a commercial parking lot "shall not be contiguous to lands in the residential zoning districts."

I pulled the Town's zoning map. Miss Annie's property is not contiguous to a single residential zoning district.

Her lot is Rural Residential. Every parcel that touches it is PUD-CZ (Planned Unit Development), which the Town's own use table files under Planned Development, not Residential. The nearest residential district sits across a street.

She is the residential district. The Town rezoned everything around her.

Mahaffey either has no idea what he is talking about or - more likely - knows exactly what he is talking about but expects none of us to fact check him or know any better.

What it's costing you

The Town is suing Miss Annie for $3,700 in civil penalties, plus $100 for every additional day.

To collect it, Apex hired Poyner Spruill, a Charlotte law firm. I asked Mayor Gilbert what the Town has paid them to pursue this. He told me, “…through June (the most recent invoice) it’s almost $15,000.”

Why on earth would we pay $15k (and much more to come) to collect $4k?

Here’s what Ed Gray said about it:

“If there were only somebody who can help decide…oh yeah, they're called judges. So, if we need to do that, we can always do that.”

Oh sorry Ed I don’t remember you asking the people you represent if that’s how we wanted you to spend our money. But, as you said, this is your last term. You don’t need to pretend to care anymore, do you?

So the lawyer has no issue pushing this to court with your tax dollars and the computer programmer is playing lawyer on TV. And the long-time resident - who is the only person in Apex to offer any sort of solution to the parking shortage (other than the Mayor who got shot down by these guys) is getting attacked by high power attorneys paid by your tax dollars. Got it.

By the way, I also asked Mayor Gilbert whether there had been reported incidents at the property. "I don't recall any reported major issues regarding her property last school year," he said.

The lawsuit itself doesn't identify any either. It alleges "irreparable harm" to the Town and its citizens without describing a single accident, injury, or complaint of injury anywhere in its 75 paragraphs.

Miss Annie's house was built in 1975.

The homes the Town says it's protecting were built in 2016 and 2017.

Anyway, back to your tax dollars being spent to harass Miss Annie. The complaint was filed August 12. Vosburg signed the authorization to sue on July 20.

So nearly $15,000 was spent on this before the Town had even authorized filing, let alone filed. That's not the cost of litigating; it's the cost of getting ready to litigate. The actual case hasn't started billing yet.

You can think whatever you want about the parking. Maybe you think she shouldn't charge, though the school charges $200 and the church across the road charges too. Maybe you think the kids should ride the bus, though the district confirms buses don't serve every neighborhood. Fine. Those are opinions, and you're entitled to them.

None of them are what this is about.

This is about a town that watched something happen for five years, wrote a rule to stop it, told the woman doing it she was already in violation the same month the rule passed, waited another five years, and then spent almost $15,000 of your money (and is prepared to spend much more) on a Charlotte law firm to take her to court over $3,700 - all while a hundred students sit on a waitlist at a school the district says is already full.

Whether you like the parking lot has nothing to do with whether that's how the Town of Apex should treat somebody.

Miscellaneous Info:

🏘️ Neighborhood Leaders
The Neighborhood Leaders Program launches on August 20th and seeks community champions eager to build stronger neighborhoods. Program participants will receive the resources needed to serve as ambassadors to their community, keeping their neighbors updated on happenings around Apex, and representing their neighborhoods on key issues. 

🚧 Closures and Renovations
The Apex Senior Center is now closed until September 7th for floor renovations. GoApex Route 1 will continue to provide service to the Apex Senior Center bus stop (#16093) during its temporary closure. The first floor of Town Hall is also currently undergoing renovations to relocate the HR department.

💡 Think Apex Day Volunteers
Think Apex Day is a day dedicated to giving back to the Apex community by volunteering in ways that positively impact the town and the people who live here. See how to get involved here.

🏞️ Pleasant Park Access Study Open House
The Town of Apex is exploring ways to improve vehicle access to Pleasant Park. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), in partnership with the Town of Apex, is studying the feasibility of up to 5 options for potential vehicular access points to Pleasant Park. A public open house will be held at Apex Town Hall on September 3rd from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. 

📝 Apex Youth Council Applications
The Apex Youth Council is an independent organization run by local middle and high school students to enhance the local community through leadership and service. By becoming a member you will gain experience in planning and participating in Town and community events, as well as developing organizational, social and professional skills. Applications close on Sunday.

💊 Drugs Uncovered: What Parents & Adults Needs to Know
Parents, caregivers & youth advocates - join the conversation this evening from 5:30pm - 8pm at the John Brown Community Center. Drugs Uncovered, presented by the Poe Center in collaboration with the Mayor’s Substance Misuse Task Force. This is a free, adult-only, event to help stay informed and protect our youth.

Things to Do This Weekend in Apex:

Friday, August 21

🐝 The Great Southeast Pollinator Census
11am - 3pm | Apex Nature Park

🎟️ On the Steps Concert Series
7:30pm | The Halle

🐻 Wildlife Trivia Night
6:30pm - 8:30pm | Black Dog Bottleshop (Holly)

Saturday, August 22

🧑‍🌾 Apex Farmers Market
8am - 12pm | The Depot

🧩 Summer Puzzle Exchange
9am | Apex Police Department

🏃‍♀️ Run Club Apex
Meet at 9am | Foxtail Coffee

🦊 Zootopia 2
At dusk | Nature Park Amphitheatre

🎸 2Digh4 LIVE
7pm | TapStation

🎸 Maskell Freeman Band
8pm - 11pm | Peak of the Vine

Sunday
Burgers, Banjos & Brews | Salem Street Pub

Monday
Game Night | Bottle Theory

Tuesday
Music Bingo | Bottle Theory
Garden Work Day | Simple Gifts Community Garden

Wednesday
Doherty’s Pub Trivia | Doherty’s Irish Pub
Wine-Down Wednesday | Southern Peak Brewery

Next Thursday
Live Music: Jim Morgan | Salem Street Pub

Local Business Updates

✋ Bear Hands Gifts Reopening Soon
They will be reopening on September 26 and making an entire magical weekend out of it!

🤷‍♂️ And while you wait for them to open, here are some other random local businesses to support

Civic News:

🌐 Hughes Street Site
In February 2025 the Town of Apex bought roughly 13 acres of Town-owned land at Hughes Street and Perry Road to build a mixed-income, mixed-tenure community. It is a Town-initiated development: Apex owns the land and is running the planning, rezoning, and developer search itself. To date, two community input sessions have taken place and the land will get officially annexed at next Tuesday’s hearing.

This is an interesting project. So I decided to track it from start to finish. From gathering all public input to monitoring all stages and vendors, to where every dollar is spent - which by the way so far is a $3.2M purchase price and then a $307k planning contract (paid for out of the Affordable Housing Fund). You can learn more about the project and follow along at this dashboard I created.

(It’s a mediocre design right now but I will make it a little nicer and easier to use when I get a little more time to dedicate to it.)

💰️ Speaking of Tracking Spend
Last week, Town Manager Randy Vosburg gave an update on Apex’s P-Card usage “for transparency.” He referenced Cary - our neighbors caught in a big spending scandal - assuring us their spending was “a much bigger number.”

Let’s look at 2024 (our only year with complete P-Card data for both). Cary staff spent $13,151,830 on town-issued credit cards. Apex spent $4,932,535.

He’s right. Cary’s number is bigger. Know what else is bigger? Cary’s population.

2024 population: 179,306 (Cary) and 75,977 (Apex). Per resident, Cary spent $73.35. Apex spent $64.92. We spent just 70 cents less per resident per month than a town in a major spending scandal. That’s just a 13% gap.

In FY25, Apex staff charged an average of $688 per business day to Town cards for food. Total spending dropped 1.8% from the prior year, but food spending spiked 89%.

Policy requires routing charges to a department head by the 5th of the next month. Yet $65,553 cleared without review - 40% skipping that step. And of $171,464 spent on Amazon, 25% had no manager review. That’s $34,918 spent on Amazon by town staff without a second set of eyes.

Remember what actually got Cary in trouble. Not the number of cards. Not how much went to Amazon. The key finding was lack of oversight and documentation.

So across everything in FY25 - Amazon, food, every other vendor - 5,303 charges worth $1,879,473 cleared with no manager sign-off.

I put FY23-FY25 into an online dashboard. If you want to explore it, you can do so here.

Story developing…

🏫 Back to School with WCPSS Superintendent
Curious about what’s ahead for Wake County students this year? Join CommUniversity on August 27th for this month’s session where Wake County Public Schools Superintendent, Dr Robert P. Taylor will discuss the district’s upcoming priorities and answer any questions from families.

Upcoming Meetings:

Thursday, August 20
Environmental Advisory Board Meeting
6pm | Town Hall

Monday, August 24
Tree Canopy Subcommittee Meeting
4:30pm | Mason St. Municipal Building

Tuesday, August 25
Town Council Meeting
6pm | Town Hall

A Look Ahead:

August 27
Triangle Environmental Symposium | The Halle
Rooted in Justice - Growing Healthy Communities Panel Discussion featuring The Reverend Jemonde Taylor, Alexandra Valladares, Ryan Emanuel, and Sarah Brim

August 27
Back-to-School Community & Conversation | Wake Tech Cary Campus

August 28
🎟️ Neon Nights - Silent Disco | The Halle

August 28
End of Summer Party | JDs Tavern

August 29
Meadow Melody Makers | Kelly Road Park

August 29
Rhythm & Reels: Ol’ Joey Scrums | Nature Park Amphitheatre

September 2
Sip, Stroll and Socialize | Sweetwater Town Center

September 3
B4 Lunch Event: The Planning Department | The Halle

September 3
Triangle Environmental Symposium | The Halle
From Wasteland to Wonder with Basil Camu

September 10
Paws & Rec Kick-Off Event | Apex Community Park

September 10
Triangle Environmental Symposium | The Halle
Forests from Around the World with Meg Lowman, Chumpi Washikiat, and Godi Gadar Moteke Molanga

September 11
Patriot Day Ceremony | Fire Station 1

September 12
Think Apex Day | Multiple Locations

September 12
Apex Underground Market | Sweetwater Town Center

September 12
55+ Health & Wellness Fair | Apex Senior Center

September 12
AHS Band Mattress Sale Fundraiser | Apex High School

September 13
Classical Concert Series: Thron-Larkin Duo | The Halle

September 17
Triangle Environmental Symposium | The Halle
Gardening for the Planet Documentary Screening with Joanne Hershfield

September 19
Festa Italiana | Hunter Street & Town Hall Campus

September 24
Explore S’more | Apex Nature Park

September 24
Family Fire Safety Workshop | Apex Fire Station 3

September 26
Latino Arts Festival | Town Hall Campus

A Final Note:

Thank you for taking time out of your day today to read this week’s edition of The Peak Weekly. If you love it, please forward it to a friend. If you don’t love it, please unsubscribe.

And, 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... 😘