As elected officials, it is your prime responsibility to support all areas of the City with smart development and infrastructure spending to support it. Follow the guidance that you have been given in both the Midtown area plan and Comprehensive Plan.
Nancy McFarlane served on Raleigh’s City Council from 2007 through 2019, as Mayor from 2011 through 2019. She sent an email to the current City Council expressing her views on the proposed rezoning of North Hills. “Now comes the difficult part for the city council. They have a staff report that claims the proposed rezoning is compliant with the comprehensive plan. One of the tenets of the plan is the transition from dense areas to the single-family homes around them. This request does not comply with that. It does not comply with the Small Area Plan.”
The applicant is requesting height everywhere that is inconsistent with the zoning recommendation of the Midtown area plan, which recommends heights between 4 and 20 stories, inconsistent with the Future Land Use Map, which recommends heights between 2 and 20 stories, and inconsistent with Table LU-2, which recommends height for Regional Mixed Use at a maximum of 20 stories. So, how can the staff review determine that this application is consistent with the Future Land Use Map, the Urban Form Map, and the Zoning map of the Midtown area plan, when it clearly is not?
As the downtown Raleigh skyline continues to grow upward to meet housing demand, a group of downtown neighbors is asking a judge to step in, arguing the city ignored its own rules and residents’ concerns when they approved a controversial rezoning in Glenwood South in October.
The core issues with this rezoning remain excessive height and insufficient conditions. This request seeks more than double the recommended height for these properties without providing the significant public benefits required by the Comprehensive Plan.
This is not the first time that this case is being presented. The only thing that has changed is the composition of the Council and Mayor. You are again being asked to judge the elements of the application with the same guidance that was in place when this case was previously presented five years ago. The same inconsistencies exist now that existed then. It is not a complicated case unless you choose to create guidelines beyond those already clearly defined in the Midtown – Saint Albans area plan and 2030 Comprehensive plan.
An Area Plan drafted by residents and approved by Council. This Mayor and Council need to be reminded that they unanimously supported the Midtown – Saint Albans Area Plan in December 2020 and have a contractual obligation with the public to support adherence to that policy!