A well-established professional with a nearly 30-year career in aerospace focused on flight safety, Alex Lewis is a resident of the Roanoke Park Historic District in Five Points. She enjoys DIY home projects, time with family and friends, and community engagement.
Alex spoke to City Council June 9, 2026:
Madam Mayor and City Council Members, thank you for providing this time to speak about a pressing issue in our gem of a neighborhood, Roanoke Park Historic District in Five Points.
Hanover Street and the streets bordering the park — Greenwood and Cherokee — comprise just 50 lots. Surrounded by Bickett Boulevard, Fairview, Roanoke Park Drive, and tucked a few blocks off Glenwood, this is a community where neighbors support one another through life’s joys and challenges, children ride their bikes and play, with events that fill the park year-round.
Our neighborhood is a microcosm of Raleigh’s traditional neighborhood values married with new development. It is regarding one such development, Trophy Brewing, that we seek your assistance in addressing issues created by the removal of minimum parking requirements.
Trophy, located directly across from this historic neighborhood, has been a welcome addition, transforming a vacant warehouse into a vibrant, family-friendly microbrewery next door to the award-winning restaurant Ajja. However, its success has created unintended but predictable impacts as a direct result of the elimination of minimum parking requirements. To better understand the impacts, a core group of residents conducted a survey over this past Memorial Day weekend. The survey, results included in your packets, achieved a 50% response rate, with most replies received within the first 12 hours.
Hanover Street, like the neighborhood, is a mix of Craftsman, post war cottages, and scattered new development. Unlike the rest of the neighborhood, 40% of the lots do not have driveways, and 28% only have a single car driveway. A full 68% of residents rely on the on-street parking. Trophy’s 250-plus seats and planned expansion quickly consume available parking. Residents often return home unable to park near their homes or unable to leave during the evening without risking losing a space.
The other adjacent streets face different challenges. Greenwood and Cherokee border the park and are heavily used by residents and visitors. There are no sidewalks on these streets. Since Trophy opened, increased traffic and speeding from patrons searching for parking has raised safety concerns, particularly for the children, walkers and pets in and around the park. Speeding and related traffic issues have increased on Bickett Blvd and along Roanoke Park Drive. The closer the residence is in proximity to Trophy, the more severe the impact on quality of life due to traffic.
We have met with Tony Howard of Transportation and have follow-up meetings with his leadership tentatively scheduled. However, because each street faces unique challenges, we respectfully request City Council’s support for protected resident parking on Hanover and tailored traffic-calming measures around the park and Bickett Boulevard.
Thank you.
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