Are 1800 Sq Ft homes “Cottages?”

A concerned neighbor who wishes to be anonymous emailed Livable Raleigh about a proposed “cottage court” development on Powell Drive. The builder has explained that each of the fifteen “cottages” would be 1800 square feet and cost $750,000. Brought to you by the Missing Middle ordinance that several members of Council have promised to fix, but meanwhile we’re still waiting…    

Imagine a leisurely stroll along a shady green street in summer, a cooling breeze rustling stately trees and banishing the stresses of the day. A thrush sings its lilting song in the woods, squirrels scurry up a nearby oak tree, a bunny lifts her head from the clover to watch you pass by. Life is all around, inviting you to relax, breathe deeply, and appreciate this place.

This is my street in the Sunset Terrace neighborhood of West Raleigh, just outside the Beltline. On the Google Maps satellite view, the green ridge between Powell and Grove is a wooded corridor for wildlife, stretching largely unbroken from the 5-acre City-owned forest near Western Boulevard (the former Jackson property), through Powell Park, to the forests of Lake Johnson. Sunset Terrace lies not far from Raleigh’s main attractions and yet far enough from the tall buildings and hubbub of downtown traffic to allow a place for Nature. It holds great value for its residents, human and otherwise.

But as much as we may treasure this green place, others covet it for its profit potential. Now imagine an army of giant machines preparing a 2.36-acre plot of this wooded and delightful land for construction of a mini-city. Along with tearing down and carting off two perfectly good homes and their outbuildings, they ruthlessly clear-cut every inch of the lot, removing 127 trees and everything else. Strangely and tragically, even the mature hardwoods that straddle the lot lines or stand just outside them in the neighboring yard are somehow marked “slated for removal.” All that is left untouched is a far less ecologically-rich small plot of mixed woods with many scrubby pine trees in a spot inconvenient to build on, designated the required “tree conservation area.”

Elsewhere on the site, the trees that cooled our street in hot summer, delighted our senses, and supported wildlife are eradicated, never to return. Fertile, absorbent topsoil is scooped up and removed from the site down to the impervious clay. When a heavy rain comes, copious red mud pours off the naked site and rushes down the street, overflowing aged storm drains, muddying Powell Park’s pond, filling the empty bed of a small lake (recently drained to keep run-off from earlier similar construction projects from overflowing onto the Beltline) and, if the storm is severe enough, reaching and polluting Lake Johnson.

To mitigate storm water run-off, a pit larger than half an acre is to be excavated beside the neighbors’ lot line and stuffed with around 1,375 four-module stacks of R-tanks. The expensive tanks are supposed to do a job previously performed for free by spongy topsoil and thirsty roots. The impervious area of two homes and their driveways and outbuildings will be more than tripled when FIFTEEN houses, along with their sidewalks and garages and driveways, are sardined onto the reduced building area.

No trees or shrubs will ever be allowed to grow on the 1/2 acre “Open Area” atop the R-tanks.

A formerly pleasant shady yard will become a boring expanse of concrete and sod, blasted with summer heat.

During the long months of heavy machinery noise filling the air and evening skies obscured by floodlights, wildlife will seek less disturbed habitats to the north and south. The wildlife corridor will be broken. Come summer, pedestrians seeking deep shade will avoid the hot front yards of eight mini-houses, as will those homes’ residents. Non-native crepe myrtles, with no wildlife value and which can only grow into small trees even if NOT slaughtered every year, will replace the mature hardwoods that used to arch out over the street to cool the hot pavement and pedestrians passing by. The shame of it is that, with no overhead electric wires to worry about, native hardwoods planted along this side of the street would eventually grow into well-shaped tall shade trees like those growing there right now, but they have been banished.

Small crepe myrtles cannot mask the glaring assault on this land. And the pine-rich mixed woods in the small outlying “tree conservation” square will be a poor substitute for the wildlife value of the extensive pre-construction intact forest. A White Oak tree supports more than 500 different native species, and there are many large ones slated for destruction on this site. Valuable mature trees will be lost forever and, with them, all their carbon-absorbing and ecological benefits. This is what WILL BE if this project, TOTALLY UNSUITABLE FOR THIS LAND, goes ahead as planned.

I am not so naive as to think there will never be anything new built on these lots, but the City’s current mad push for infill housing has led to some very bad developer ideas, and this project is definitely one of those, as is a  similar alternate plan for the site. If this land were treated respectfully, not clear-cut, and the mature trees protected, and if a small number of eco-friendly units with reduced footprint were built that wouldn’t look SO far
out of line with surrounding properties, the neighborhood would probably accept that. If that isn’t worth doing, then a property isn’t right for the project and it shouldn’t be allowed to proceed.

Stories like this one are happening right now, more and more, everywhere in Raleigh. As dense infill housing invades our long-established wooded neighborhoods, our gracious City of Oaks is becoming the City of No-Oaks, the City of Sterile Sub-divisions.

Is this what we want?

I would call on the City Council to follow the stated environmental and canopy protection goals of the UDOs that require developers to plant native trees wherever possible and increase the canopy. That is for the Future. However, the NOW requires we also protect and preserve mature keystone trees within a development. Existing mature trees are our best tool in combatting the looming existential threat of global warming, as they absorb and retain a far greater amount of CO2 than can young trees. Yes, DO plant many, many young native trees! But sacrificing a giant while offering a sprout is not a trade to accept.

We must all be aware of possible changes coming to our neighborhoods in time to weigh in. But since the developer is only required to notify the immediate neighbors, not the neighborhood, those living right next to a piece of land may be the only residents even aware (if they are) of a project being planned. Thus, any objections are likely to come only from those who know about and are affected by the project. It is unfair to label them NIMBYs! How is anyone else supposed to find out about it? Those who DO know must spread the word so neighborhoods can more effectively object, if necessary.

There is a perception that the fight cannot be fought, much less won. That hands are tied, that the project is a done deal. But perhaps we NEED to fight this one, a small skirmish in the recurrent uphill battle to reclaim our neighborhoods, to protect what drew us here and made us call Raleigh, the City of Oaks, our home.

Are you with me?