On Tuesday city council will hold a public hearing to debate a significant adjustment to the Raleigh residential zoning regulations. If approved, new houses won’t be able to be as big as they are now. The proposed change would decrease the maximum residential building height from 40 feet to 32 feet, increases the minimum side yard setback from 5 feet to 10 feet and increases the minimum rear yard setback from 20 feet to 30 feet. Essentially this means that a property owner will have less space in which to build or renovate.
Recently, a similar proposal by the group CommunitySCALE was shot down by the Planning Commission. This effort was largely in response to the infill development happening in the Fallon Park, Anderson Heights, and Five Points area.
Critics of the Raleigh “McMansion” infill trend consider the imposition of these looming structures as inappropriate development that doesn’t respond properly to the historic and current qualities of the neighborhood. The local blog Over The Top / Inside The Beltline has done a good job of documenting a lot of the infill going on.
A letter has been circulating through the web and is a good indicator of the views of the developer community that is opposing this zoning change. A portion below:
We have heard over the past month that current and newly elected Members of the City Council ( including Mayor Meeker, Councilman Stephenson and Councilman Crowder are planning new rules for all new construction and renovations in the city of Raleigh. This has been tried before but overwhelmingly defeated. Unfortunately, the politics on this subject have changed in light of the recent elections, and there is now a real chance these new rules can be passed….These rules are being pushed by a small minority of people who do not like the redevelopment of property in North Hills, North Ridge, Brookhaven, and inside the Beltline. (My opinion is that this redevelopment is supported by the majority of the people in these neighborhoods.) There is currently a process called a “Neighborhood Conservation Overlay” that allows a majority (51%) of the residents in a neighborhood to pass more restrictive covenants to keep the neighborhood in its current state. Neighborhoods do come together and use this at times, as they should, however most of the time the majority does not want to restrict the limits of their property. It is my experience that people want to be able to have the most use of their property and the highest value, not the opposite. The increase in value of our City’s property has allowed older and lower income families to make more money by selling their homes, pocketing the profits, and have a higher quality of life than they ever thought possible.
It’s individual investment potential vs. community quality of life. The last zoning debate highlighted these disparate views.
Really there is more to this debate than just the size of new houses and property owners’ rights. If the zoning change is passed there will still be the environmental and historical appropriateness problems… except the house will be smaller. Could more sustainable development practices and an emphasis on long-term home energy efficiency help to control the size of these houses? What are other solutions that will preserve the identity of Raleigh’s neighborhoods while acknowledging the rights of property owners?
The joint meeting of the Raleigh City Council and Planning Commission will be held on Tuesday, November 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the second floor of the Avery Upchurch Municipal Building next to Nash Square downtown. The public is encouraged to attend and anyone that wants to speak will be permitted. It should be a fierce debate.
Welcome to New Raleigh. We welcome your participation in the ongoing discussion. Before posting we ask that you read our Comment Policy and we invite you to register with our site. If you want to keep up with the news on our blog, subscribe to the RSS feed or get emailed every time we post.