World famous urbanist Jane Jacobs said wise city planning begins by looking at the fabric of the community. But Council has signaled that highrise tax revenues are more important, and therefore, approving very tall buildings near Raleigh neighborhoods is the right thing to do.
In his recent North Hills rezoning, developer John Kane said that in return for arranging the same number of units vertically (37 stories) instead of according to the community’s adopted height caps (12 stories), he’d kick in cash for affordable housing. A Council majority said Kane’s offer outweighed the community’s own Midtown growth plan: https://raleighnc.gov/midtown-st-albans
Does anyone think Kane kicks in extra cash for more height out of the goodness of his heart? The simple business logic is that taller buildings add enormous profits to Kane’s bottom line. It’s just the cost of doing business to offer a small cut of his added profits to get his rezoning approved over the objections of impacted neighbors and conflicts with the community’s Midtown growth plan adopted by Council only a few years ago.
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs would be dismayed to see Raleigh’s future decided by highrise profits that sell short our community-based plans for reasonable densities and reasonable heights, and instead put individual interests ahead of our community fabric.
About Jane Jacobs and Community-Based Planning – https://www.pps.org/article/jjacobs-2
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