Why planning/development is so bad in Raleigh

[miamiblue]

Someone ripped all of the Renew Raleigh signs out of the yards on Beechridge Road Tuesday night after city council. This just solidifies my opinion of how ridiculous these SCALE people have become. I spend a lot of my free time working for 2 inner city nonprofits - perhaps these people should consider doing the same thing with their free time instead of wasting my time fighting to keep my property rights. Seriously, ridiculous.

[breynold81]

Am I stupid? I just don't understand why people keep talking about SCALE's property rights?? Did people not buy in these neighborhoods under existing zoning laws with existing property rights? What exactly is renew raleigh trying to take away?

I understand these people now and there is no need to negotiate with them. This whole issue makes me wish I had moved into a neighborhood with more likeminded people, like CC Hills. Besides, I don't associate with thieves.

I wasn't going to get involved in this whole sick, sad debate, but what makes anyone think that the people who oppose Renew RaleiGh are fighting against property rights? Just like you, they are fighting to keep their property rights. Each side is trying to get their own way, seemingly without any willingness to compromise for the rights of each other. So who is really "right"? We ALL have to respect our neighbors, and sometimes that means adjusting from the "I want I want I want" and "I'll do what I want regardless of how it impacts anyone else's life" attitude that got this debate started to begin with.

"Can't we all just get along?"

[dmccall]

That's right breynolds. People who replace a house are not telling their neighbors that they have to change. The street looks different and maybe a house here or there has more shade, but last time I checked, the shade on my house is from trees in the neighbors' yards.

It is illegal to remove campaign signs for a reason. For that same reason, it is not appropriate to go onto someone's property and remove a sign that is not in bad taste (no bad language, racist remarks, etc).

Funny that we never see environmentalists' signs, bumper stickers, and cars ever defaced or stolen.

[miamiblue]

Am I stupid? I just don't understand why people keep talking about SCALE's property rights?? Did people not buy in these neighborhoods under existing zoning laws with existing property rights? What exactly is renew raleigh trying to take away?

I understand these people now and there is no need to negotiate with them. This whole issue makes me wish I had moved into a neighborhood with more likeminded people, like CC Hills. Besides, I don't associate with thieves.

[RaleighRob]

This is what I don't understand - why would someone buy into a neighborhood of homes that doesn't match their ultimate wants and desires and then expect the neighborhood to change for them, especially a neighborhood that was established and perfectly happy on its own?

[breynold81]

This is an extremely good point! The renew folks keep saying that they don't want anything imposing on their property rights, but they've been the ones doing the imposing all along....imposing their view of what a neighborhood should look like (gigantic, oversized mcmansions for the rich), in neighborhoods that were perfectly content with modest, decent middle-income homes.

If you want those McMansions...fine, live in Wakefield or Preston or whatever. There's TONS of neighborhoods in Wake County with these types of developments. Why must you ruin our older, modest, established middle-income neighborhoods with them??

[miamiblue]

Humm....Middle Income? I paid $500K for a house that is needs a serious addition or be torn down and rebuilt to be liveable for a family with 2 kids. Why would anyone aspire to keep their neighborhood middle income if property values keep increasing?

[ChiefJoJo]

It's hard to say for sure, but at least according to the N&O, most of the opposition to the text change (that would allow speedier updates to the conservation overlay zoning--NCOD--process) at the hearing were homebuilders. Why is it that homebuilders and developers scream 'property rights infringement' when zoning may be changed, possibly to their detriment (and this can't be proven), but when a developer wants to rezone a piece of property that may add density or potentially harm a neighborhood, it's deemed perfectly acceptable to do so? It seems that developers/homebuilders and some homeowners that want to try to cash in on their plot of heaven would have you believe that they have all the rights in these matters, neighborhoods be damned. Zoning is put in place to allow sensible, and well, planned development to occur that respects it's context, and I think it's fair to say there are times that it should be modified if certain conditions are met. Sometimes it may benefit you personally, and sometimes not.

Since this is all about establishing NCODs in these neighborhoods, why do we not hear any complaining about NCODs from the neighborhoods that already have them: namely Oakwood, Cameron Park, Mordecai, etc?

I am familiar with those neighborhoods, and from my view, it does not seem as though the NCODs have harmed those areas in either availability of a variety of housing stock or in property values. It seems ReNew Raleigh and their supporters would have you believe that NCODs will kill their property values, rob the people of their nest eggs, and so on (that's what I heard Tuedsay night). I don't believe that an analysis of existing neighborhoods that currently have NCODs would reveal those concerns to be accurate. I think most of the 'ReNew arguments' we've heard probably aren't valid, but the real issue is they don't want anyone to tell them what they can do with their property, for any reason whatsoever. That kind of thinking is ironic, though, since part of the 'social contract' of being a resident of a city is that you give up some of your individual rights for the many benefits of being in close proximity to jobs, entertainment, schools, parks, transport, etc. If you want totally unrestricted property rights, move to a ranch in Montana, not Five Points.

I don't think it makes sense to prevent individuals from making adjustments to their home; adding on a bedroom or garage, or sunroom, etc. But some of what has been occuring, in the views of many residents, is not in keeping with the character of the strong, viable neighborhoods that have existed in this part of Raleigh for over 50 years, and so it is appropriate now to take another look at how to protect them.

[Jones_]

Am I stupid? I just don't understand why people keep talking about SCALE's property rights?? Did people not buy in these neighborhoods under existing zoning laws with existing property rights? What exactly is renew raleigh trying to take away?

I understand these people now and there is no need to negotiate with them. This whole issue makes me wish I had moved into a neighborhood with more likeminded people, like CC Hills. Besides, I don't associate with thieves.

[ncwebguy]

Am I stupid? I just don't understand why people keep talking about SCALE's property rights?? Did people not buy in these neighborhoods under existing zoning laws with existing property rights? What exactly is renew raleigh trying to take away?

[miamiblue]

A public meeting on residential infill will be held by the Department of City Planning this evening at 6:00 pm in the Carolina Room at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, located at 2 E. South St.

City of Raleigh {sodEmoji.{sodEmoji.|}} Public Meeting On Residential Infill To Be Held Wednesday

From 2002 to 2007, 656 houses were constructed in Raleigh on sites created by the demolitions of homes previously at the locations. During this same period, a total of 24,187 new residential structures were built in the Capital City, including single-family houses, duplexes and townhouses.

[ChiefJoJo]

A revision to the zoning code that would assist (speed up) the process of creating neighborhood conservation overlay districts goes before the city council tomorrow. An overlay would restrict the types of construction permitted in the district, but would do it on an individual neighborhood basis, not one-size-fits-all... I don't see any downside to this method of dealing with the teardown issue--it's a pro-neighborhood ordinance.

TC-4-08 - Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District

This text change proposes to amend the Zoning Code and Subdivision Regulations by revising the process for individual neighborhoods proposing to establish zoning and lot size regulations specific to their neighborhood. The ordinance proposes to eliminate the lengthy Comprehensive Plan element (creation and adoption of a Neighborhood Plan) from the process and replace this with a neighborhood built environmental characteristics analysis. Additionally, the ordinance proposes to include within the Zoning Code the previously adopted and future built environmental regulations specific to the individual neighborhoods.

CR-11209 from the Planning Commission recommends that this text change be approved, as revised.

[only]

A revision to the zoning code that would assist (speed up) the process of creating neighborhood conservation overlay districts goes before the city council tomorrow. An overlay would restrict the types of construction permitted in the district, but would do it on an individual neighborhood basis, not one-size-fits-all... I don't see any downside to this method of dealing with the teardown issue--it's a pro-neighborhood ordinance.

[ChiefJoJo]

The city approved speeding up the NCOD process. The results should be interesting to follow.