Selective Policy Emphasis and a Disregard for Neighborhood Protections

Lisa Hughet has lived in Raleigh for nearly 30 years and says “my activism really kicked into high gear during the pandemic. Ironically, coinciding with a new City Council who appears not to have the residents of Raleigh as their highest priority. I’m also active in affordable housing matters and animal rescue.”

Lisa Hughet delivered the following comments to Raleigh City Council on September 9, 2025:  

I’m here tonight because I oppose the Planning Commission’s approval of the West Street tower. That approval was based on selective policy emphasis, a disregard for neighborhood protections, and a failure to provide meaningful public benefit.

Let’s begin with neighborhood protections. This site is a designated Neighborhood Transition Zone, formally codified in February 2024, and creates specific requirements for new development to be compatible with existing residential areas. Transition zones are clearly defined and protected throughout the UDO, the Comprehensive Plan, and the EDOT. These policies exist specifically to buffer historic neighborhoods from intense development like this.

It’s bonkers that staff completely omitted this from their analysis. Instead, we heard the developer describe a ‘step-down’ from 30 to 25 stories as a meaningful transition. But that claim falls apart under scrutiny. The so-called ‘step-down’ is a mirage. The height decreases north to south, not east to west where the neighborhood sits. Plus, the site’s topography erases any step-down illusion. This isn’t a transition—it’s a 360-foot wall looming just 167 feet from historic homes.

So I ask: How are we weighing policy consistency here?

Are we just counting which policies are convenient for a project and ignoring the ones that aren’t?

If you objectively compare the applicable zoning guidance, it’s clear this rezoning violates the intent and spirit of multiple city policies designed to protect neighborhoods from exactly this type of overreach.

Perhaps this is a convergence of unintended consequences where the realities on the ground necessitate a re-examination of following a short list of policies. This case was denied 2yrs ago for these very reasons and there is even more evidence to oppose this rezoning today.

Case in point – The previous rezoning delivered Smoky Hollow Park. This one delivers $1.2 million for affordable housing. That sounds good until you realize the developer could have built up to 18 stories by-right with affordable units on-site. Instead, they chose to build none.

If this is a fight to provide housing near transit, then I’m going to continue to fight to build affordable housing near transit. I’ll remind you that in all the years this condition has been around, it hasn’t produced a single affordable unit.

This isn’t about stopping growth, nor is it nimby-ism. Our existing zoning already allows nearly 550 units.

It’s about rejecting a project that ignores codified transition areas, disregards protections for historic neighborhoods, and offers no real public benefit for on-site affordable housing.

Our policies matter, but so do our neighborhoods.

There is a petition opposing the West Street Tower. You may sign it here:

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