I urge you finally to do the right thing, in the right way: declare a moratorium on the Missing Middle until it can be repealed and start over or make major changes that address serious unintended consequences.
FEBRUARY 7 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
HIGHLIGHTS Mayor Baldwin and Councilor Melton both absent and excused from afternoon meeting; Mayor Baldwin also absent and excused from evening meeting $50k unanimously approved for Wake Legal Support Center One community center in each District will be made...
Pouring Gasoline on Raleigh’s Affordable Housing Bonfire
Raleigh’s highly promoted public information sessions about Missing Middle Housing rules got off to a rocky start last Wednesday evening, being held a year and a half late, after the city’s neighborhood densification rules began going into effect.
City Council Work Session – January 10, 2023
Planning Director Pat Young states that a driver for Missing Middle is housing affordability, but Raleigh’s Missing Middle ordinance doesn’t seem designed to achieve affordability unless you believe in trickle down and their metrics haven’t looked at affordability.
Are six better than three?
To paraphrase Myrick Howard of Preservation NC, you can’t tear down an existing structure and expect to get affordable housing in its place. If we continue this process of tear downs, Raleigh will become a city where only citizens working in the professions and other highly compensated tech workers will be able to live.
Trickled on by the Missing Middle
Whatever aspirations Raleigh has for the Missing Middle, affordable housing is not one that will be realized. As a principal catalyst, the Missing Middle in other cities has shown the opposite effect—higher taxes, less affordable housing, higher land costs, rent increases, and higher house prices.
Single-Family Zoning is not Exclusionary nor is it Discriminatory
Missing-Middle development grants serious money-making potential to developers, while single-family neighborhoods get nothing in return. Developers need to give something back, and the previous City Councilors — especially those who were re-elected, should logically support a strong inclusionary ordinance.
City Council is caught up in their own echo chamber
If you were asked what lessons you have learned from the Missing Middle, as a mayor and council, I have no idea what you would say. Never mind, here are the lessons for a new mayor and council
November 1, 2022 City Council Meeting
HIGHLIGHTS Many public hearings scheduled for November 15 afternoon meeting despite a question about whether mailed notice would arrive in time and despite Councilor Cox bringing up concerns about it being difficult for members of the public to attend afternoon...
Silencing Raleigh’s Neighborhoods
The council must have a procedure which contains advance public notice, public opportunity to respond, and a required city procedure for neighborhood preservation and respect for existing neighborhood architecture.