RALEIGH - Community SCALE, a new organization dedicated to preserving Raleigh neighborhoods, has petitioned to rezone portions of the Fallon Park, Anderson Heights and Bloomsbury neighborhoods. These are established, highly desirable neighborhoods developed from the 1920s to the mid 1960s.

The petition to rezone 141 parcels to their actual developed density of R-4 (allowing up to four single-family dwellings per acre) continues neighborhood efforts to maintain character and viability through correction of the area's original zoning. That zoning dates to 1959, when the city assigned zones in older neighborhoods at higher densities and with more intense uses than the existing development, in part to avoid nonconforming uses. However, this set the stage for redevelopment and conversion of existing structures out of character with the existing neighborhoods.

Community SCALE thinks it is not in the public interest to allow and encourage such redevelopment of sound neighborhoods. On the contrary, the public interest is served through preservation and conservation rather than redevelopment.

Many older neighborhoods in Raleigh have experienced teardowns, with modest homes being replaced with much larger houses, usually by speculators maximizing the potential building envelope and hoping to also maximize their profits.

Some of these new houses are reasonably compatible with their immediate neighbors, respecting typically generous front yards and side yards. Others dwarf their neighbors, and, where zoned R-6 or R-10, can be as close as 5 feet to a neighbor's side lot line and 20 feet to the street right-of-way, in contrast to the neighboring yards.

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LAND AND PROPERTY VALUATIONS in the rezoning area are projected to increase substantially with the 2008 property revaluation, as much as 300 percent for land values and more than 100 percent for total property values according to Emmett Curl, Wake County's revenue director. This reflects the overall Raleigh real estate market and the unique desirability of the Fallon Park, Anderson Heights and Bloomsbury neighborhoods.

However, this desirability is threatened by the practice of clearing lots of mature trees, replacing modest homes with huge houses and adding paved parking areas, patios and other impervious surfaces where there once was green space.

What has made our neighborhoods so coveted is being destroyed by those seeking to profit from it.

It has been long established that zoning is not a "taking" of private property as long as there is a reasonable use for a property. The increasing land values and the rapid turnover of houses in existing R-4 areas such as Country Club Hills and Coley Forest demonstrate that R-4 is not decreasing or taking value in our neighborhoods. Zoning should not be based on a guarantee that speculators can maximize their profit from redevelopment of already developed property to the detriment of immediate neighbors and to the larger neighborhood.

The petition includes rezoning Fallon Park and the Crabtree Creek greenway at Anderson Drive to R-4 to assure that the current R-6 zoning not be used to justify rezoning adjoining R-4 parcels to R-6 to allow denser development that would increase stormwater runoff into Fallon Park and Crabtree Creek. A Conservation Management District would probably be a more appropriate way to assure that these public areas remain open space and are not considered as justification for rezoning adjacent properties.

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COMMUNITY SCALE MEMBERS BELIEVE measures in addition to rezoning are needed to preserve the character of our neighborhoods and the investments that residents have made in our homes. Zoning reflecting existing development is the first and the only immediately available tool to utilize while Raleigh officials revise the city's Comprehensive Plan.

The city planning staff anticipated being unable to assist neighborhood planning efforts leading to Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts until after the Comprehensive Plan is completed, probably two or more years. The City Council approved an increase in the planning staff in lieu of consultant services for more immediate assistance for "infill" issues.

Much can happen under the existing zoning prior to completion of a neighborhood plan and implementation of an overlay district for our neighborhoods. Correction of zoning that does not reflect existing development is an essential first step to assure the continued viability of our neighborhoods.

(Philip S. Letsinger is a member of Community SCALE. A public hearing on the rezoning request before the Raleigh City Council and Planning Commission is scheduled for Tuesday evening.)