I was not up to speed with the LR opposition to the Lorimer development. They’re up to their usual tactics of fear-mongering using ludicrously inaccurate/exaggerated renderings.
I asked chat gpt to update the rendering based on the distances depicted in the site plan. It added an extra story and probably isn’t very accurate, but you get the general idea… if LR was actually honest about proposals they’d lose half their audience.
tough one…. Google Maps center left are a number of two story apartments. farther left are SFH with backyards that back up to the parking lot of the modest apartment complex. some loud mufflers, a little bit of trash thrown over the (6 foot) SFH fences….and a bit of pot smoke drift. 3 stories and further setback maybe?
Not sure this is the right place to put this, but there’s a huge affordable housing angle to it. This video content is pretty long (like 30+ minutes), but it’s an interesting/concerning topic around property tax revenue and how it relates to appeals, naturally occurring affordable housing, & brownfield tax exemptions/loopholes that exist that basically siphons money out of the city’s coffers, and how the state is slowing down the process to resolve.
I know that I am butchering this and doing a disservice to the entire topic, so please jump in and course correct me.
They’re not actually going to push for the bond beyond these articles about it. They just want to go on record so they can continue using it as a shield. Affordable housing has only ever been used by them as a means to procedurally delay development efforts of any kind.
Procedurally delaying things always works to their advantage. The longer something takes, the higher the cost. The higher the cost, the more scaled back the design will be. Sometimes to the point that the project is no longer monetarily feasible.
One can argue that the problems DT has with Nimbys on its edges stems from the fact that the edge neighborhoods were desirable before downtown’s resurgence. These neighborhoods came into vogue when downtown was sleepy, state workers predictably shuffled in and out of it 5 days a week, and nights and weekends were predictably sleepy: save for the seasonal events and limited number of festivals. Edge neighborhoods that become desirable because of a downtown renaissance have a much different relationship to their core because it’s the success of the core itself that made their neighborhoods desirable. We are stuck with an opposite situation where folks think that their neighborhoods will be destroyed by changes to downtown, not enhanced by them.
Chatham Estates Mobile Home Park in Cary, 27 acres, 144 unit mobile home park was sold. Residents were notified in late December 2025 that they must vacate by June 30, 2026, for a redevelopment project led by Toll Brothers to build new apartments and townhomes. Approximately 600–700 residents (many families, seniors, and immigrants) are losing affordable housing, with lot rents previously around $400/month.
Not that developers don’t have a right to develop and the owner, who is in his 90’s, has a right to sell. But damn, 600-700 displaced residents who need affordable housing. How do we ever get ahead of this crisis?
…more housing, yesterday. Unfortunately, we only have today onward. But the answer is: more housing.
EDIT to add: even more unfortunately for these folks, that land that currently houses 144 mobile homes can likely house triple that number of residential units (be it apartments, townhouses, or a mix of both) with denser development, which will more than likely be the case when redeveloped. IMO, mobile-home parks should exist out in the boonies where denser development is not as necessary nor cost-effective.
To live in a mobile home, with a lot rental of $400 a month in Cary is likely the most ideal situation for a low income family in the entire state.
It doesn’t surprise me that it’s being redeveloped, but it does surprise me that the mobile home park lasted as long as it did.
My comments are not to diminish the situation that these residents find themselves in.
FWIW, I can’t find the park by that name on the Google Maps. Is this one of the parks near the intersection of Chatham and Maynard?
Interestingly, Livable Raleigh is not up in arms over this loss of affordable housing. Aren’t they worried about loosing the CHARACTER OF THE TRAILER PARK?
I guess this is in technically in Cary, but affordable housing impacts the entire region.
Good points. And I agree that more housing can help no doubt about that. But when we don’t buy into dense development and build taller structures we forgo many of those housing units that could have have been built. IMHO. Also the days are always numbered on these mobile home parks. You are living on someone else’s land. No shocker that the gravy train ran out. But mega sympathy because there isn’t another easy $400 alternative out there. Not even a $1000 alternative. Especially in a place like central Cary. Or central Raleigh. Or anywhere else that is central. So the point of mobile home parks out in the boonies is true but even there, most zoning codes don’t want any new ones coming into the county.It’s a dying form of housing that while affordable is not sustainable long-term. And the whole area now gets up to 600 or so new potentially unhoused individuals or at the very least several hundred hanging on by a thread. It is sad. But it was predictable.
I have to wonder how many of the businesses at the corner and along Chatham are connected to folks who live in the two parks? The removal of the housing may be just the first shoe to drop.
Don’t know if I agree with you on this. Yeah, it’s not the most ideal land use. But it’s naturally occuring affordable housing, close to jobs and other resources for the community. Pushing them out further into the “boonies” where they will no longer have access to those resources can create long term damage to those being displaced. I also find it tough to swallow when we have dying office parks and strip malls throughout Cary and Raleigh that are not being turned into housing. It’s unfortunate that a neighborhood with families had to be demolished instead of those commercial areas.
There is no agree or disagree. While I’m with you in wanting more dying office parks redeveloped, the reality is that this land (where the trailer park sits) will be inifinitely easier and less expensive to develop (once the trailers are *moved [nothing to “demolish”], it’s literally just empty land ready for new construction) and just as @svp pointed out - trailer parks are, themselves, a dying form of housing - especially in a much more dense, suburban to urban environment like Cary. I feel for these folks, but the harsh reality is that they only own their trailers - not the land they were leasing. Whenever renting anywhere - one should NEVER expect to be able to stay there indefinitely. We’re in a housing crisis because we (we being the city and surrounding suburbs) failed to produce ample housing supply over the past 40ish years, and are now playing severe catch-up. When there’s a prime plot of land, ripe for dense, urban development such as this - it WILL be redeveloped at some point. So that’s why I say there is no “agree or disagree” - we don’t own this land, nor does anyone currently living on it - the apparently 90ish year old person that does own it has decided to cash-in, as is his/her right with land he/she owns. What happens now is what would’ve inevitably happened, and it WILL result in even more housing units than what currently exists. Will it be “affordable?” … Hell no! But the “luxury, new-build” housing of today is what becomes that “naturally occuring affordable housing” of 20-years from now. We simply weren’t building enough of that 20-years ago.
None of this is said with any disdain for the folks that live in the trailer park, but simply from a place of reality - which can sometimes be harsh.
Bingo. This is the problem. Wake Co is playing catch up to a huge deficit with a projected 110,000 unit shortage by 2029 due to rapid population growth. So even what we are building isn’t enough to catch up. Demand is still outpacing new construction. High interest rates and economic conditions don’t help with developer enthusiasm. There are additional challenges with taking over office buildings and other older motel buildings for affordable housing. I know the City and County are trying where they can to do affordable housing units. And I think it is a harder problem than anyone one organization can fix. Developers are in the game to make money and affordable units don’t work in their ROI. So that leaves the taxpayers on the hook for AU and the natural occurrence of the marketplace to put up more units. More units, more units, more units.
this was an AI query i did for Ranoke, VA. In 2019, the median rent in Roanoke City was approximately $950 to $965 per month across all property types. (If you looked specifically at Roanoke County, the figures were slightly higher, with multi-family buildings averaging closer to $1,150 at the time).
In 2019, the median rent in Roanoke City was approximately $950 to $965 per month across all property types. (If you looked specifically at Roanoke County, the figures were slightly higher, with multi-family buildings averaging closer to $1,150 at the time). Since 2019, the Roanoke area has experienced a significant apartment construction boom to combat an emerging housing shortage. According to commercial real estate data and city housing reports, approximately 1,100 new apartment units have been successfully delivered to the market.
As of April 2026, the median rent across the Roanoke area is sitting between $1,109 and $1,125 per month. 2019 Population: ~99,216–99,229 2026 population: 96,919 to 98,008
So, the city shrunk in population and the city added rental units? It’s a wonder that the prices actually went up.
I just checked the county too on the Census website, and it shrunk a bit too.
Also, Raleigh’s median household income is 30K more than Roanoke’s.
This is sort of an apples/oranges comparison.
Transportation is a problem for the people whose incomes steer them into trailer parks. Push those residents far enough away from rising property values – into Harnett County, for example – and you’re destabilizing their job and childcare situations, not to mention what’s probably a lower standard of social services compared to Wake County. I feel for them although I can’t deny the inevitability of redevelopment of that parcel.
In any event, the next time your meal in a trendy Cary restaurant takes longer because they can’t find enough wait staff or kitchen staff, ask yourself how many of those vacancies came from people who used to live in the trailer park.
