October 6, 2020 will go down in Raleigh history as one of the worst days for environmental conservation, as the Raleigh City Council voted 7 to 1 (Cox dissenting) to destroy Azalea Falls, one of only a handful of state designated Natural Heritage Areas in our entire city.
![[UPDATE: Council’s 7-1 vote snuffs buffers] More zoning buffers could be voted away: more folks living in the shadows.](https://livableraleigh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/50-Feet-e1647793454618.jpg)
Council’s vote will hasten the trends of gentrification and teardowns in older Raleigh neighborhoods, especially our historically African-American neighborhoods. It’s a money grab, pure and simple.
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.
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.
After 1916, Oberlin Village was a textbook case of white gentrification of a formerly black community. Dial ahead 100 years: The gentrification of formerly all-black Southeast Raleigh is history repeating itself.
After months of encouragement, City Council finally offered a small commitment toward meeting the most pressing needs of Raleigh’s growing affordable housing crisis. Livable Raleigh continues to encourage the Raleigh City Council to commit at least 50% of annual housing funds to the critical documented needs for households at or below 30% AMI.
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.
In the current issue of INDYWeek, Courtney Napier challenges the Raleigh City Council to center their Affordable Housing Bond on our city’s most pressing housing needs rather than on development profits.
“My quick analysis is that the recommendations are better than nothing, but they fall far short of what’s needed to help those in the greatest need. … Raleigh, we STILL have a problem.”
City Attorney clarifies that developers may meet with CACs
Unless you act, voters will be forced to guess what the bond is for, because you will have failed to tell them. Specifically, how will the $80 million help Raleigh residents with the greatest need for safe, affordable housing?
Now is an opportune time for Mayor Pro Tem Branch to spearhead an effort which results in Raleigh’s City Council presenting a unified front, advocating at the proper levels of North Carolina state government, for changes in state law in order to allow inclusionary zoning.
The City is on the verge of changing our rules about residential infill, and not in a good way. That’s our short take on TC-4-20, a “Text Change” that would amend and loosen the city’s zoning code – the so-called Unified Development Ordinance, or UDO.
Speculation, of course. But would Ruffin quit with Raleigh in turmoil, the city looking to him for leadership, and no new job in sight, unless his working conditions were intolerable?