INDY Week, please stop referring to me as anti-development. You refer to me as “Livable Raleigh co-founder Stef Mendell, who ran on an anti-development platform.” This has got to stop. I am not and have never been anti-development. And neither is Livable Raleigh. Let’s try to work together and find reasonable ways to accommodate appropriate development. Labeling individuals or groups as anti-development only furthers polarization.
Homeowners being sued by a builder in Woodcrest. This lawsuit is made possible by the City Council which allows major developments without neighborhood input or process and rezoned the missing middle without providing protections in established neighborhoods.
Livable Raleigh and other proponents of Missing Middle best practices have lobbied Council for years to engage in a community conversation toward adopting Missing Middle infill improvements on the books in other peer cities that actually promote affordability, compatibility and walkable transit access. The latest, and perhaps best rules so far, have been adopted by Sacramento, CA.
No one wants to be told their street is going to transform in the next five years, and there’s no way for them to even voice their thoughts and concerns. This pattern of transformation is going to take place, how we guide it is what’s most important. By adapting the zoning code to ensure that everyone comes together, working for the MUTUAL benefit of our city and its housing supply is not some far fetched ambition, but should be the baseline; the bare minimum respect shown to Raleigh’s amazing people. Transparency and working together is what is needed for beneficial growth. It is what the people of our city want.
Possible Missing Middle “tweaks” being discussed by Council include tree preservation and consideration of character impact of high-density housing on existing neighborhoods. These minor tweaks would amount to putting lipstick on a pig. Council was able to make controversial decisions on moving Red Hat Amphitheater and closing a traffic artery into downtown within about two months. You’ve had two years to massage and wrestle with Missing Middle, and nothing has been accomplished.
If this lawsuit succeeds, then any subdivision with or without a homeowner’s association will be at risk. The only winners will be those charging legal fees, and the losers will be homeowners who purchased their single-family homes with certain expectations related to the future of their property.
Raleigh builder is suing a whole neighborhood to have their restrictive covenants removed to enable him to build a development of 12 townhomes on two lots that are/were two single-family homes. District C Councilor Corey Branch, who represents the neighborhood, promised to do everything in his power to fix this. Branch has done nothing.
Wake County Superior Court judge, in a memorandum decision, indicated the City of Raleigh Board of Adjustment (“BOA”) erred last summer when it approved the City staff’s approval of the application to build a Missing Middle compact subdivision comprised of 17 townhomes at 908 Williamson Drive.
As a city, we are currently not doing a very good job on two fronts: having a strong and aggressive program educating citizens and the building industry on the importance of tree preservation/protection, and, having some common sense regulations in place that will result in a better outcome for trees in the city.
Tim Niles submitted a Letter to the Editor of the N&O in response to an Op-Ed from the Director of WakeUP Wake County on the topic of the New Bern Avenue upzoning proposal. The LTE wasn’t published so we are printing it.