By Mia Khatib
mia.khatib@triangletribune.com
RALEIGH — Following the New Bern Avenue Bus Rapid Transit System’s groundbreaking earlier this month, local activist group Livable Raleigh hosted a Zoom call last week to express its opposition to the city’s plan to rezone the surrounding area. The group says the rezoning undercuts equity and breaks Raleigh’s previous transit promises.
The application, Z-92-22, upzones 744 parcels along the transit line en masse with no affordable housing requirements. Host Bob Geary, who is a former member of Raleigh’s planning commission, said this contradicts the city’s policies on equitable development around transit as presented in a 2019 BRT report.
“We have never seen a massive rezoning case of this kind before, and, what’s worse about it is, it’s not the 744 property owners seeking the rezoning, it’s the City of Raleigh itself,” he said. “We discriminated against these communities for many, many years… and they are now under the gun of potential gentrification if we don’t take care in the kind of development that we allow.”
If the rezoning is approved, certain areas could see up to five-story buildings, and a Transit Overlay District bonus to build eight flights would be available for developers that include affordable units. But Geary said he doesn’t think anyone will opt into the bonus when the city is already upzoning them to a significant degree without requiring any affordable units.
“Eight stories does not fit the character of anything in this neighborhood,” Wanda Hunter said. “What does that mean for the new homeowners that thought, ‘I’m coming to an affordable neighborhood, homeownership, generational wealth for my family, and now all of these apartment complexes run the tax bill up, and now I can’t stay here anymore.’”
Guest speaker Tolulope Omokaiye, Raleigh Transit Authority chair, added that the original proposal denied families from rebuilding single family homes if theirs is destroyed. She said the wording of the proposal has since changed but remains concerned.
“This is a community that is often taken advantage of in this way; then you’ll reword things and down the line, it turns out to be the exact same measure you were trying to push originally,” she said.
Affected property owners can request to be removed from the rezoning application, and Omokaiye said the Raleigh Country Club was already excluded. She believes the BRT’s intention of increasing ridership is a guise for the gentrification of the historical African American community.
“Transportation is important, but it’s also often systematically used to disenfranchise the same people that it’s supposed to be serving,” she said. “What it feels like is Raleigh is trying to become an exclusive city that buses in its workers on a bus rapid transit and buses them out because they can’t afford to live in the city anymore.”
Many attendees shared similar sentiments. Resident Donna Bailey referenced the city’s $30 million investment along Hillsborough Street, another frequent transit corridor. She said it successfully attracted $500 million in new investment with no additional upzoning and the same can go for New Bern Avenue.
“Imagine the effect of [that investment] times three,” Russ Stephenson, former city council member, added. “Why in the world do you want to drop this 744 parcel upzoning bomb on top of a corridor that is already going to see amazing growth, just as a result of the $100 million BRT investment?”
Livable Raleigh urges Raleigh City Council to scrap the rezoning application entirely. Geary said the Council has set a special public hearing on the matter Jan. 30.
Mia Khatib, who covers affordable housing and gentrification, is a Report for America corps member.
