Evidentiary Hearing for North Hills Tower II – Please Plan to Attend

Design Review Commission Evidentiary Hearing for North Hills Tower II (DA-09-2026)

An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, August 6, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber, Room 201, Raleigh Municipal Building.

The rezoning of North Hills was approved by the Council in January. Several provisions of the Midtown area plan regarding building heights and transitions were ignored, and applicable sections of the UDO inconsistent with the application were not followed. The assumption was that site plan review would address these issues.

Tower II, the 20-story building (reduced to 15-story) at 4100 Lassiter Mill Road (ASR-024-026), is the first building to undergo site plan review.

Those reviews are listed as attachments and accessible through the permit portal at: https://raleighnc-energovpub.tylerhost.net/apps/selfservice#/plan/b7246980-2334-4643-92ee-e090b2f8d4c6?tab=attachments 

The specific UDO issues of Transparency and Building Massing that will be addressed by the Design Review Commission that are unresolved at this point are based on the following claims by the applicants:

North Hills Retail Expansion Owner LP and North Hills Condominium Owners Association Inc., the property owner, request design alternates from UDO Sections 1.5.9 and 3.2.6.F. Specifically, they request complete relief from the 50% ground story and 20% upper story transparency requirements on the building facades facing Lassiter Mill Road and Interstate 440. Additionally, they request complete relief from the 12ft building stepback  requirements along Lassiter Mill Road and Interstate 440 to construct a mixed-use building on the approximately 1.02 acre property zoned CX-20-CU-SHOD-2 located at 0 Lassiter Mill Road (ASR-0024-2026).

The developer’s proposed Design Alternate for Transparency places the building’s back, which includes placing a loading dock facing Lassiter Mill Road, is completely inconsistent with the UDO. Building Massing regulations are required to mitigate the impact of tall buildings near a public right-of-way (Lassiter Mill Road), requiring stepbacks to avoid a canyon effect which would limit access to light and air at street level and mitigate wind impacts. Previous shade studies, using the proposed building heights for North Hills, showed that the excessive building heights, whether 15 or 20 stories, cast shadows over nearby neighborhoods for much of the day. The canyon  effect, which predates the UDO ordinances, is already evident in North Hills East between the 17-story CapTrust building and the 7-story AC hotel.

Enforcing the appropriate UDO sections and denying the developer’s requested relief will benefit the neighborhood. These issues weren’t resolved by site review and were moved to the Design Review Commission for a quasi-judicial hearing.

This is a unique quasi-judicial proceeding, different from a typical City Council public hearing. The commission must follow the law on such proceedings, especially regarding evidence.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 6, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber, Room 201, Municipal Building.

The agenda presentation details are available at:

https://pub-raleighnc.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=15272

Please attend to show community support.

Our goal is to demonstrate that the request for relief will harm the local community and that the commission should follow the UDO sections for managing the impact and appearance of tall buildings, especially those near single-family neighborhoods and the public right-of-way.

We’re compiling a list of potential speakers. Any property owner within 100 feet of the proposed 15-story building at 4100 Lassiter Mill Road, as listed in the notification, can speak.

The committee must follow the law on quasi-judicial proceedings, which are different from legislative matters such as those before the City Council, particularly with respect to evidence. Every member of the public who wishes to speak at the hearing may request the opportunity to do so. Since it’s a quasi-judicial hearing, speakers may only speak at the commission’s discretion. Those of good standing, directly impacted, or experts can be recognized.  Those providing evidence must be aware of potential questioning of their evidence and credibility.

Council’s impact and legislative participation ended with the rezoning approval.

Signage is installed on Lassiter Mill Road, and mail notification was sent within the required time frame prior to the hearing. Those that cannot use or have difficulty reading the QR code on signage can use the following link:

https://raleighnc.gov/planning/services/current-development-activity

During the rezoning, I asked the developer’s attorney why buildings facing Lassiter Mill weren’t conditioned like those facing Rowan. They said they didn’t include conditions for items addressed at site plan review that would be required by the UDO. They now feel differently and asked for relief from these sections.

Larry Helfant