Breaking the Promise on Transit
When Raleigh set out to construct our first Bus Rapid Transit service, or BRT, along New Bern Avenue, the city pledged to protect the historic neighborhoods there, including the many small, affordable homes and apartment buildings.
Adopted city policy, called “Equitable Development Around Transit,” anticipated that the BRT would spur the construction of new apartment buildings near station stops. The promise of Equitable Development was that each new apartment building, if it required a rezoning – and most of them would – should include affordable units in the mix of housing offered. Each new rezoning application would be carefully considered, case by case, to assure that it was compatible with the area’s history and African-American lineage.
But now, with BRT construction about to start, the current City Administration and Mayor Baldwin want to toss the Equitable Development policy into the trash heap. They’ve proposed to preemptively up-zone 744 lots – virtually the entire New Bern Avenue corridor – without asking for ANY new affordable units. Buildings as tall as 5 stores, 7 stories, and in some locations 12 stories or 20 stories would be allowed by right – no case-by-case consideration at all.
If their egregious zoning case, Z-92-22, gets a positive vote from City Council, it will usher in the worst kind of Urban Renewal:
Affordable homes will be scraped off, to be replaced by luxury apartment buildings that only the affluent can afford to live in. Picture a stretched-out North Hills, replete with restaurants and bars – and parking decks – but with no room for the working-class.
Z-92-22 is nothing less than a wrecking ball aimed at Southeast Raleigh.
City Council must be persuaded to reject it, adhere to the adopted Equitable Development policy and stand up to Mayor Baldwin and her “anything goes” development practices.
Future development along the New Bern Avenue BRT route must occur with care for the people who live there, NOT the utter disregard of Z-92-22.
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