Councilor Branch steps up, maybe

Ann Sun lives in Raleigh’s Woodcrest neighborhood. She spoke to City Council about the unintended side effects her neighborhood will experience from the Missing Middle policies.

We reported on this issue previously when another Woodcrest resident, John Kitto, spoke to council earlier this year. Watch here: Missing Middle – Unintended side Effects

Well, Ms. Sun’s comments show that the project has gotten worse. The developer has purchased the adjoining lot and the project has been amended to grow from 7 townhouse units to 12 and from 35 feet in height to 41 feet.

Both residents said in their comments that Councilor Branch had met personally with the neighbors of Woodcrest. And he acknowledged this was an unintended side effect, this project, and he would do everything he could to stop it from happening.

We commend Councilor Branch for recognizing that the Missing Middle policy is not working as intended and that there are problems with it that need to be fixed.

We challenge Branch’s fellow councilors to join with him to take positive action to stop these undesirable, incompatible projects. Start the conversation now by directing staff to bring forward preliminary ideas for amendments to the Missing Middle policies to the next Growth & Natural Resources Committee meeting that:

1. reduce or eliminate the unintended consequences on Barksdale
2. stop incentivizing the destruction of existing affordable units
3. start incentivizing the preservation, revitalization and production of affordable units

We challenge Council to follow the lead of Councilor Branch by starting a conversation about positive change now, rather than continuing to do nothing and wait for more Barksdale debacles.

Watch the video of Ann Sun delivering her comments to Raleigh City Council

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