Downtown South development

keita · October 28, 2020, 5:49pm

I’m honestly not too surprised about this email, though (see above), especially since more State students live off-campus now and want to be good neighbors to the locals they live with. With that said, as weirded out as I am by the alarmist bend to Hwa Huang’s email, the actual letter template and attachments isn’t batshit crazy.

Click here for some key quotes from the letter template.

'Template for demands of DSP rezoning' (partial):

The proposed dramatic changes in land use and development densities associated with the DSP have the potential to have significant negative impacts on the adjacent historically Black neighborhoods and other underserved communities who’ve long been marginalized in Southeast Raleigh.

As was noted many times during the last Committee of the Whole meeting on Friday (10/23), there is a strong potential for flooding due to runoff from impervious surfaces […]

Communities such as Rochester Heights further downstream along Walnut Creek suffer from chronic flooding and the potential to further this burden would be inequitable to low-income and minority communities.

Considering the stakes, I find it worrisome that the Planning Commission, staff, and the public will only have a short amount of time to review Kane Realty’s downstream analysis before your next special hearing on Thursday 10/29. […]

Another concern I have is what appears to be an inadequate community outreach and engagement process associated with this rezoning. Based on the information that Kane Realty has made available to the public, it sounds like only 100-200 Raleigh residents have been engaged in community outreach - a very low number considering that this development will shape Raleigh’s growth and growth policies for decades.

More to the point, I am concerned that many residents in impacted communities outside of the 1,000 ft requirement for mailed notice are unaware of the ramifications of this development. In a canvassing of Rochester Heights on Thursday (10/22) led by St. Ambrose Episcopal Church and ONE Wake, the majority of neighborhood residents surveyed reported having little to no knowledge of the development.

Therefore, I urge you to only approve rezoning request #Z-13-20 with the following restrictions:

A Stormwater impact assessment must be completed by the developer, with protections and standards that closely follow the recommendations of Kris Bass Engineering in the report prepared for the Partners for Environmental Justice and hosted on the ONE Wake website here: https://www.onewake.org/downtown_south

Low-impact development and green infrastructure must be included in any present or future site plans at this location.

At least 20% of the housing must be subsidized for low-income residents.

A community benefits agreement or other legally binding agreement must be signed in order to protect the interests of current Southeast Raleigh residents.

Click here to see the attachments in the email

SERCESS presentation to Kane et al. about Community Benefits Agreement (776.6 KB)

PEJ presentation about environment screening (3.4 MB)

Flyer for City Council meeting (1.2 MB)

TL/DR: the email lists out some ideas -many of which we’ve also talked about (and agree on!) here on this thread.

Design Downtown South developments so they won’t worsen floods nearby.
The letter cites this letter from a Raleigh engineering firm to define what that means, and ask for “low-impact development and green infrastructure” to be a part of these plans.
Downtown South should include houses that are affordable for existing residents.
The letter asks for 20%+ of new residential units to be “subsidized for low-income residents”.
Kane must systematically ensure people are truly aware/approve of Downtown South.
“In a canvassing of Rochester Heights on [Oct. 22, 2020] led by St. Ambrose Episcopal Church and ONE Wake, the majority of neighborhood residents surveyed reported having little to no knowledge of the development.”

The last point is tough, since public outreach is really freaking hard (we have a thread for that now!). But the other two issues are not exactly stupid or pointless, right?