RALEIGH, N.C. — On Tuesday afternoon, the Raleigh City Council decided to move forward with two rezoning requests that could add two high-rise buildings to Hillsborough Street.
Some argue those buildings will change the landscape and impact legacy businesses in the area. The public still has time to weigh-in before those rezonings become official.
The city council scheduled a public hearing on both developments during its session on October 4. These proposals come as people in other neighborhoods voice concerns about rezoning efforts in their communities as well.
What You Need To Know
The Raleigh City Council decided to move forward with two proposals for rezoning on Hillsborough Street
The rezoning requests have the potential to add two new high-rise buildings to the area
There will be a public hearing about that rezoning on October 4
Meanwhile, residents of the city’s Five Points neighborhood are concerned about construction and changes in that area of Raleigh
The Hayes Barton Historic District in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood is made up of mostly single-family homes and is just a five-minute drive to downtown, but some in the neighborhood are worried things are going to change. As Raleigh continues to grow, developers have their sights set on the city including the possibility of a lot in Hayes Barton becoming a spot for more than a dozen townhomes.
“Raleigh has had unique growth. It has retained its charm, and it retained this feeling of almost like being a small-town big city,” said Margie Case, a resident of Five Points since 1985.
Case is trying to preserve her neighborhood as developers scope out a historic home on Williamson Drive as well as the land it’s on.
“If somebody buys it, and they want to tear that down, we understand. But it’s quite different to tear it down and then fill this with town houses or apartments when there is nothing around here that even comports with that,” Case said.
Case and other neighbors have been working to put yard signs up encouraging people to speak up about rezoning efforts all over the city.
“We are not against apartments. We are not against higher density in the right place. We are not against developers or development. We just think it ought to be done in the right way,” Case said.
Case loves Raleigh and knows why so many people want to move there, but she’s worried how the city is navigating all that growth.
“All of Raleigh’s neighborhoods are of concern to us, and I know there are a lot of people who are upset about higher buildings in higher places, and I have not been personally involved with that, but again there are neighborhoods with all sorts of concerns about just how development is being done and where,” Case said.
Case and some of her neighbors attended Tuesday night’s Raleigh City Council meeting in order to voice their concerns. Case says she just wants to be heard by the people who have the final say in the city’s future.