Been There, Done That!

“It’s become all too obvious: Raleigh is now a hot mess of backed-up traffic, endless construction projects, high-rise office and apartment buildings that block out the sun, huge, new homes costing in the high six figures, and rental properties for which the word ‘affordable’ has no meaning.

The city has grown enormously in the past few years, as people from all over began to recognize it’s a great place to live. But this growth was accompanied by absolutely no planning – or bad planning – which means we are now living in a helter-skelter atmosphere akin to a Third World city in which anything goes.

Along with this has come a lapdog attitude when it comes to the city council’s relationship with developers. Abominations like the 40-story office tower that Kane Realty (which has already built more than its fair share of ugly, overpriced monstrosities in the city) wants to build on Peace Street are approved without what seems like any thought to what they will mean to the neighborhood, the traffic, or the overall quality of life. 

Developers do not care at all about a city’s soul. All they care about is tearing things down and building bigger, more expensive replacements. The city council should care about this, but they seem to be in thrall to the taxes these beastly edifices can put into the city’s coffers.”

The above paragraphs may seem familiar to some of you. Those paragraphs were extracted from a guest editorial published in the News and Observer in May 2019, Raleigh’s Growth Has Become a Booming Headache. The only things that have changed since this was first published six years ago are the members of the City Council and the Mayor, issuance of policies supporting Missing Middle, and the removal of residents from the review process.

Developers have recognized these changes as well. Whether it be a rezoning that failed to get sufficient support from Council before or after a rezoning that failed but can now be “built by right” due to corridor policies, if those developers just wait long enough, they will bring those same applications back when the approval process is more favorable and likely to be  approved.

Please learn from the past. The proposed application for Z-12-25 is no more consistent with policy than that brought before Council and its committees previously.

This brings me to my primary focus, rezoning case Z-12-25. As noted in the above scenario, this rezoning was not approved when brought before a previous Council. Maybe that Council recognized that a property zoned for 12 stories was at the maximum allowed in the Comprehensive Plan after already being rezoned from 5 to 12 stories in 2015. It complied with the Urban Form map and the Future Land Use map. Maybe that former Council listened to the residents of the City that pointed out all of the policies that should have been applied to this site before making a final determination.

Don’t be fooled. The community benefits may have dressed this application up to make it look more appealing, but those benefits are not worth rewriting City plans for a 30-story building that is not in the heart of downtown and yet is still proposed as if it were part of the City Urban plan. Before, it was a contribution or partnership for a park that the City could not afford. Today, it is a monetary contribution for affordable units at a price that still is inadequate for construction, if they were to be built.

As Councilor Silver recently stated, “Follow the Plan.” Let’s hope that this current Council follows this same guidance.

PS – That Kane building cited in the 2019 article has a lot of similarities to Z-12-25. Affordability was a condition for approval with the stipulation that the affordable units were to be built in lieu of a donation to the City affordability fund. Again, as time passed, those affordable units in Smoky Hollow were never built, and a donation was made to the City against the stipulations of that former Council. 

Today, that portion of the building containing both apartments and a Publix grocery store is up for sale.

Larry Helfant,

A 45 year Resident of Raleigh

Please add this correspondence to the file for Z-12-25