At the October 6 Raleigh City Council afternoon meeting, David Knight led a spurious, yet successful effort to destroy Azalea Falls, one of Raleigh’s designated National Historic sites. As usual, the development-driven Council majority voted 7 to 1 (David Cox being the lone dissenter) to perpetrate another environmental disaster in our community.
(This is the full version of the abbreviated op-ed published in the News and Observer on October 2, 2020) Azalea Falls is a hidden Raleigh gem that has recently been designated by the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources as being an ecological habitat of...
The steeply wooded hillsides above Azalea Falls are, as detailed in the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources designation of statewide ecological significance, INTEGRAL to Azalea Falls’ unique forest ecology and aquatic habitats. No wooded hillsides, no Azalea Falls.
Despite overwhelming evidence that this upzoning should not go forward, this Council seems determined to approve the destruction of our most precious environmental assets for the insignificant benefit of one of the largest construction conglomerates in North America.
Weasel Conditions. This is a case study of how the Z-41-19 zoning applicant and complicit Councilors falsified the meaning of zoning condition #8 to create a misleading narrative, suggesting it offered significant environmental protections, when in fact, it did not.
Based on the collaboration of neighbors facing the upzoning Z-41-19 near Shelley Lake Park, here are 7 Actions developed by WeLoveShelleyLake that you can implement to make your collective voice known to city leadership and advocate for responsible, equitable development of our city.
Even though Shelley Lake neighbors were joined by literally thousands of Raleigh residents in petitioning the Council to protect Shelley Lake Park, Council, by a 7 to 1 vote, continued its pursuit of density wherever profitable, regardless of the impacts. Here are 5 lessons the Shelley Lake neighbors learned, and what neighbors of future upzonings can expect from this Council: