Go ahead and send it to CityCouncilMembers@raleighnc.gov, especially as a resident. The at-large councilmembers also represent you directly!
I sent mine at 6:29 and @anon8787296 responded at 6:45
It’s probably too late, but I just sent an email to all city councilors about it. Wish I could be there but I’m out of town for work.
Good luck to everybody speaking tonight!
These planners are doing well with this presentation so far. They’ve stated countless facts on why supporting TOD is the right decision to make .
I’m sure the council members outlooks are full of emails so I’ll email them tomorrow or Friday.
Confirming I sent an email, as well. Fingers crossed…
Oh is the vote not happening tonight?
lol her asking for studies that disagree with TOD. Nope.
Yeah just what I thought, the city council of no members have already made up their minds and are looking exclusive at things that support their view. They’re not looking facts, they have made up their facts and are looking to filter out data and find any scrap to support their views. This would be considered academic fraud in a science/school setting.
The amenity effect is more about amenities. We’re asking for zoning to add more places to live, not to add more amenities (that are typically found at the ground level).
Not sure how the amenity effect applies to this rezoning case at all. Amenities are parks, stores, schools, etc.
So yeah, I don’t get the research Mary Black says she did. It doesn’t apply here.
Were there 2 speakers or 3 for the against side? I’m pretty sure I just watched Octavia completely butcher that clock talking about a lot of things that had nothing to do with the TOD and completely railroad someone on her side.
I really hope that the people leaving are not proponents smh.
That’s the thing about NIMBY logic: it’s always just motivated reasoning, grasping at straws to find buzzwords that fit their feelings – because the facts don’t.
“Community-benefit agreements foster a crony capitalism of the left.”
“There’s gold in them thar hills and/or TODs, I’ll tell you!”
I can’t remember if I said it in this thread or another, but NOT upzoning these areas in concert with BRT will assure that we will continue to have rapid SFH and townhouse gentrification moving eastward with prices that will only accelerate.
For side speaking? Yeah I’m going to take a bathroom break–city council of no. This has to be the most predication meeting ever.
Minds have already been made.
All the Pro speakers have done outstanding. But the fella representing the Transit Workers Union was my favorite. Amen, sir
Having them show support was a nice unexpected bonus
The supporting comments went much better than I expected. Well done to those from here and thanks to everyone who spoke up or wrote in. I imagine there will be more to come.
Christina Jones said something completely asinine – (paraphrasing) “what if we buy an extra-large sweater when what we really need is a medium.”
Zoning is nothing at all like buying a sweater; it bans anything larger than a certain size from ever existing. So when such time comes to buy a size L, if you’ve “zoned for” M then you’re just entirely out of luck.
Plus, a house costs 10,000X more than a sweater to make, lasts decades longer, and is legally prohibited from expanding in many ways (e.g., you can’t just add another floor). If you buy the wrong size now, you don’t get another chance in months or years for a do-over.
A better analogy is buying sweater manufacturing equipment, i.e., setting the sizes that other people are allowed to buy/make sweaters in. If you’ve zoned for size M, you’ve only bought equipment capable of making size M. You have to start from scratch to make a size L or XL.
The developer in this analogy is the one buying the sweater, and deciding how large of a sweater is needed to fit the customer (child). Not the city setting rules for the developer.
(The sweater analogy was not entirely out of the blue. A pro speaker began his speech by referring to his 3-year-old son in the audience, who was outgrowing his clothes quickly, as an analogy for a growing city or something. Goes to show that cute stories are far more memorable than facts, figures, etc.)
The council of no is known for making stupid asinine phrases. I remember when I sparred with Megan Patton on the Shaw rezoning she said (paraphrasing) “if we put a donut shop around development, well that donut shop do well?” Comparing Shaw development too a Dunkin’ Donuts.
They voted 5-3 on the comp plan amendment, which was the lesser talked about part. But deferred till March the TOD rezone. Sounds like they’re gonna nitpick the residential part but should easily move forward on the commercial parts, as well as basically everything east of WakeMed.
But keep those emails coming. We got two months to push them!
Megan Patton, District B had a pretty reasonable statement and motion hopefully this means the TOD rezoning has a chance to pass in some fashion that encourages more housing and not just the McMansions that are currently being built on New Bern.