Good question. Ideally, they still support growth but with a more public process. That might drag on rezoning meetings a bit. We’ll see how “tough on developers” they are in their first terms. What I’d hate to see is that they vote against projects for the simple fact that a developer can’t make “guarantees” on things like affordable housing, open space, or height, for example. It always seems like the battle is in the rezoning conditions.
One thing that I would be shocked to see is the rolling back of the previous councils policy. I’m hoping missing middle and no minimum parking reqs stick as they are policy now. These don’t seem like the big items that the newcomers want to dismantle.
Isn’t it true that a deadlock almost guarantees that there isn’t a rollback of the previous council’s work?
Personally, I do think that the council should put some more demands on developers for things that impact QOL. One specific issue that I have, and @OakCityDylan is well aware of, is the elimination of pedestrian access throughout the lifecycle of a dt project. It didn’t used to be this way either. For example, when 500 Glenwood was built (Carolina Ale House, et al), the developer provided a protected passageway for pedestrians on Glenwood. Today, and as downtown has more pedestrians than ever, pedestrian access is automatically cut off for nearly the entire lifecycle of a project. If this new council found common ground on issues like this, it could be a good thing.
The irony is that we approved over a billion dollars of city bonds That will now be paid back by city taxpayers, and we elected council members that will fight to ensure we don’t add more taxpayers into the city limits
For the amount effort, disinformation, and vitriol LR, Wake County Housing Justice Coalition (a misnomer in their case) and the Hayes Barton folks put in, I think their return was pretty small. You would have thought MAB would be burning on a stake today with all the ink, shouting, and pure hatred that was directed at her, but alas. I wonder if she played some Eminem at her victory party.
I am really new to politics here in Raleigh. But…it would seem to me that the die has been cast with respect to development. We have many, many projects in place already that have now set a precedent. It seems that some projects could be held up or more conditions added. Maybe a few denied with the right reasoning. But the Comp Plan and the Future Land Use Plan are in play. I think it would take more than a split Council to outright change the trajectory we are on. Just my two cents.
I agree with what several people have mentioned above, that the last 2 years allowed for a considerable amount of current/future development that will take us through this next term of council members that, at worse, will be a lock and not much is accomplished. I don’t see a lot getting approved and I don’t see anything getting turned back. Maybe it’ll be a good couple of years of “compromise” from the NIMBY “progressives” (can that be a thing?) and we come out of it wondering what really got done.
My hope is that the new council members actually do something about their rallying cries of affordable housing, environmental excellence, and equitable growth.
Narrator: “They won’t.” lmao - these people have not a clue how (specifically) our city’s government works, nor actually legitimately care about “affordable housing” - it’s all smoke and mirrors to win this campaign and attempt to “slow down” growth - which is simply a fantasy at this point. My assumption is that they will actively make things worse and we’ll get a repeat of last election where NIMBYs are once again voted out in droves. Kinda f*king stupid how we just keep flip flopping between two extremes every election…
The new members policy proposals and NIMBY slant are a bit antithetical to at least the housing part and subsequently the equitable growth part. Continuing to keep housing density only downtown and out of their own neighborhoods, that are also on transit lines mind you, is a good example of this. Ruth and the other candidates that touted Housing First hadn’t bothered to find out that it’s exactly what the city-county and other agencies and non-profits here are doing (even using that same term), but you can’t house someone if there are no units…
Thankfully, the housing bond is/will doing more than any other policy decision the city council, especially in NC, can do - by far.
Hopefully they can figure out how to incentivize some off-market housing developments or coop apartment buildings. Those things along with stronger tenant rights and NOAH protection are what the far-left is crying for as they somehow side with LR and NIMBYs.
One interesting outcome from this election could be further densification of the South side of Raleigh where there are less Livable Raleigh residents. Unfortunately this is where actual gentrification could create displacement.
At least in southeast Raleigh in the beltline where I live, gentrification and some displacement is already happening. Densification could help prevent that (why buy an over-priced flipped house if you could buy a brand new house?)
I’m not convinced that any of the new council members have any idea of exactly how sticky a problem affordable housing actually is. If there were simple solutions they would’ve been enacted. The current council has already taken major steps to address affordable housing, but it’s not something that gets resolved overnight.
J. Melton has talked about needing to further incentivize missing middle and other forms of affordable housing now that they have been legalized. I completely agree with this. For example, I could build an ADU, or maybe subdivide my property and build multiple units, but how much debt do I want to go into to build affordable housing when the short-term rental market is more lucrative? So further incentivizing these housing options makes sense to me, but I will be very surprised if the new members of council go along with that.
It will also be interesting to see how rising interest rates impact the rental market. I suspect rents will increase as fewer people buy and demand for rentals increases.