Jennifer Truman, who lives in the study area, asked the council to approve the plan. “Dragging your feet and taking more time to have discussions doesn’t build affordable housing,” she said. “There are so many people here tonight to oppose this that constantly tell me and you that we need more housing that is affordable.”

INDY Week announced their endorsements for Raleigh City Council including Jennifer for District D.

The News & Observer asked readers again this year to submit their questions for the people looking to lead Raleigh. Here is how Raleigh City Council District D candidate Jennifer Truman answered the voter guide questions.

INDY Week asked each candidate 17 questions about current issues facing Raleigh.

Read Jenn’s answers here.

Jennifer participated in the Candidate Forum hosted by Wake UP Wake County and their partnering organizations. It was live streamed and recorded and is available to view on WRAL.

Watch the full forum or read the transcription here.

All eight seats, including the mayor’s, will be on the Nov. 8 ballot. The Raleigh City Council is a nonpartisan board with members elected to two-year terms.

The AIA Associates Award is given to individual Associate AIA members to recognize outstanding leaders and creative thinkers for significant contributions to their communities and the architecture profession. Jennifer is 1 of 3 winners recognized in 2022.

“How must architecture adapt and reinvent itself to tackle the big challenges of today?”

Architecture is an evolving profession. Each younger generation that becomes architects is increasingly diverse, cross-disciplinary. and aware of the systemic issues to which architecture can play a role to continue or choose to change for the better. For me, it’s critical that as a profession, we capitalize on the voices and perspectives shared by emerging professionals. The energy and ambition …

Jennifer Truman, who is running for City Council, spoke in favor, and said the rules before the council were a compromise that will help people.

“The rules that you can vote on today limit the worst case scenarios that have been imagined,” she said. “But they do encourage entrepreneurship, side hustles and small businesses by creating an objective standard with a simple permitting process for most small, home-based businesses to serve customers or clients close to where they live. And that’s the really other important point. We must welcome services and small businesses into our neighborhood corners to meet our climate goals. Whether that’s a popular opinion or not.”

Anna Johnson’s early look at who is running for Raleigh City Council.

The News & Observer’s Anna Johnson reports:
Developers won’t have to add parking to new projects in Raleigh, council says

“Parking spaces take up space that’s frankly better used by people than cars,” said Jennifer Truman, who backed the change.

“We’re consistently reminded that we need radical changes to meet our climate goals,” she said. “So when people resist change like this as too much, I think it’s important to remember that we really do need to change the default. If we want a different and less carbon-dependent future, then it depends on us, as designers, as citizens, on you as policymakers to make different and better decisions.”

The American Institute of Architects named three recipients of its 2022 Associates Award, recognizing these "outstanding leaders and creative thinkers" for their "significant contributions to their communities and the architecture profession," according to a press release from the Institute.

The AIA Associates Award is given to individual Associate AIA members to recognize outstanding leaders and creative thinkers for significant contributions to their communities and the architecture profession.

Few young designers are as deeply engaged in bettering the profession and their communities as Jennifer Katherine Peeler Truman, Assoc. AIA, who channels her background in architecture and civil engineering to demonstrate the need for true citizen architects. A champion for small businesses and healthy, sustainable food systems, Truman uses architecture as a means to enhance places for people to enjoy, play in, and admire.

Jennifer Truman, who lives in the Dix Edge Area, said her growing family moved to southwest Raleigh six years ago.

"There's a lot of need for that change that's been pent up," she said. "We need affordable housing. We need to preserve what’s here, which might be possible, but we also need to build more."

Interview with Leigh Tauss, Indy Week

You seem to do a little bit of everything in the world of #ralpol—from being a City Council shortlist candidate for the District D appointment, to more recently being appointed to the Raleigh Transit Authority.

I usually describe my involvement in Raleigh politics as choosing to have an opinion and be loud, because I think too many people think things in the city will just take care of themselves. But the reality is if you don’t speak up, things just stay how they are. A lot of my work in an architecture firm ties into the city ordinances, so I work with the code every day and I’m familiar with how it affects small businesses firsthand.

This text change legalizes missing middle housing that used to be legal and helped build Raleigh’s “most charming neighborhoods,” said Jenn Truman, an area architectural designer, during the public hearing Tuesday night.

“Gentle, incremental density” makes neighborhoods more climate-friendly, slows gentrification and can keep houses from being bought for large apartment complexes, said Jenn Truman, an area architectural designer. “It builds small equity for more people, but also builds small businesses for the small developers and small tradesmen businesses,” she said.

Article by Leigh Tauss, Indy Week

“It was very clear the city wasn’t prepared for farming inside of the city,” Purdue says.

Dissatisfied with that answer, Purdue took matters into her own hands. With the help of urban agriculture advocate Jenn Peeler Truman, Purdue crafted a citizen petition requesting a text change that would alter the definition of a community garden to allow farm stands in residential zones, and brought her request before the council last August.

Last week, in record time for municipal government, the Raleigh City Council unanimously approved the change, which permits urban gardens throughout the city to sell on-site what they grow.

For Truman, who has long advocated for the expansion of urban agriculture throughout the city, the change is just the beginning. She plans to bring more requests to the council in the coming weeks.

Community members for and against Downtown South's rezoning proposal expressed excitement and concern during Tuesday's meeting.

"This part of town needs a grocery store, needs a pharmacy, it needs parks and amenities that would come with the projects like this," said Jennifer Truman.