Hot Buttons and Live Wires: Inside Raleigh's Zoning Code Debate

Jane Porter reports on the lessons available from a process to rezone the city of Raleigh, following a contentious City Council hearing earlier this month.

"Convinced there's some jiggery-pokery going on in the city's planning department, or on Council, or somewhere, one resident after another railed (in two-minute bursts, lest they run afoul of Mayor Nancy McFarlane's merciless timekeeping) for three long hours against increasing density just about anywhere in the entire city," according to Porter.

"Despite the furor, this remapping was neither new nor unexpected. In fact, the city had been building up to it for years—first with the comprehensive plan in 2010, then with the Unified Development Ordinance in 2013. Now the city is determining which areas fall within the new zoning districts created by the UDO," reports Porter.

The main point of the article is to list ten things Porter learned at the most recent hearing. The list provides commentary on every side of the debate. So, for instance, on item notes that the "city has a communications problem" and another says "Oakwood people are high maintenance." Couched in the commentary, however, are lots of observations about the nitty gritty proposed by the zoning changes meant to implement the UDO.

One thing the article makes clear: the slightest hint of density is a live wire in the debate over Raleigh's UDO. For more insight into how the city of Raleigh is approaching its continuing growth, Planning Director Ken Bowers recently spoke with Josh Stephens as the latest installment of Planetizen's "Planners Across America" series.