Scooters, Airbnb, ADUs: New Raleigh leaders begin undoing work of last City Council
The newly elected Raleigh City Council spent its first meeting Tuesday afternoon undoing the work of its predecessor.
It put rules for short-term rentals like Airbnb on hold. It said requirements for backyard cottages could change.
And it wants another crack at shaping rules and regulations for scooters — to encourage more of them.
“The scooters, the (backyard cottages), and short-term rentals are the low-hanging fruit,” new Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said. “Those are the things that we want to get off the table and address in our first 90 days. The housing affordability issue? That is a big issue.”
It’s one the council will discuss in a special meeting Dec. 17 when Durham Mayor Steve Schewel will talk about the Bull City’s successful $95 million affordable housing bond campaign.
Baldwin proposed a “quality of life” bond of an unspecified amount during her swearing-in ceremony Monday night to help fund Dix Park, parks and greenways and to address the city’s affordable housing shortage.
The flurry of proposed changes Tuesday came toward the end of the meeting with the council members each tackling a different topic. The changes were all approved unanimously.
Short-term rentals
The former council created short-term rental rules that would have banned most people from renting their entire homes on websites like Airbnb, and would have required the homeowner stay at the house while a room was being rented out. Those new rules came after years of debate and would have gone into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
Baldwin asked that the city not enforce rules until the council’s Safe, Healthy & Vibrant Community Committee revises them.
Backyard cottages
Also, after years of debate, the City Council approved rules to allow backyard cottages, but only after going through a rezoning request and asking one’s neighbors for permission. Supporters said it protected neighborhoods from unwanted density, while critics said it was a de facto ban.
“The council was trying to balance neighborhood concerns with the benefit of providing a new, more affordable housing option,” said council member Nicole Stewart. “Unfortunately, nearly a year later, no (cottages) have been constructed.”
She requested that the city change the law to allow backyard cottages, called accessory dwelling units, by-right and without a rezoning. The change will have to go through the planning commission, have a public hearing and be voted on by the council before being finalized.
Scooters
After electric scooters arrived in 2018, the city responded with some of the most stringent requirements in the country. Now, a more scooter-friendly council is taking another look.
“Scooters are just what is happening now,” said council member Jonathan Melton. “It’s going to be something else in six months, a year, two years, a hover board, a moped. I don’t know. I want Raleigh to be ready. I want Raleigh to be innovative. I want Raleigh to be forward-thinking. I want us to be a place that leads on micro-mobility.”
He asked that the rules be placed in the transit committee for review and proposed revisions.
Immigration, race and equity
Tuesday’s meeting didn’t entirely revolve around trying to undo what the previous council had done.
Baldwin expressed interest in creating a Commission on Hispanic and Immigrant Affairs, and asked staff to bring back options the city could pursue.
Council member Saige Martin asked that racial and gender equity training be required for all council members and possibly top city staff and the city’s boards and commissions.
He also asked that the city review its language accessibility and if translators could be available at meetings.
“Raleigh is home to so many (for whom) English is not their native language or they don’t speak English at all, and I think a goal of this council is to increase access in so many ways,” he said. “One of the biggest barriers that we have, though, in this council chamber is there is no access to translation services for those who do not speak English.”
He also asked that the city look at more accessible meeting times that would encourage the public to attend.
And council member David Cox asked that the city try to improve its ranking on the Human Rights Campaign municipal index, which evaluates how inclusive policies are for members of the LGBTQ community.
Organizational changes
The look of the city council chamber was also different during the council’s first meeting.
Instead of the traditional center chair, Baldwin sat at the far end of the council table in the seat she used to occupy as a council member. The podium where city staff and the public speak to the board was moved to the left-hand side to “open up” the chambers.
Council member Corey Branch will remain the mayor pro tem next year, while Stewart will be the mayor pro tem the following year.
Baldwin’s recommendations for the council’s various committees weren’t as eventful as former Mayor Nancy McFarlane’s recommendations in 2017. The mayor normally assigns council members to one of four committees but McFarlane’s recommendations were replaced by former Council member Russ Stephenson’s recommendations that shifted power two years ago. None of the four boards will have a majority of council members on it, also a shift from the last two years.
The council unanimously voted Tuesday to appoint Branch to the GoTriangle Board of Trustees after Stephenson resigned from the board 11 minutes before the start of Tuesday’s meeting.
Baldwin had served on the board when she was a council member but was removed and replaced with Stephenson by the former council in the middle of her term. Baldwin had frequently criticized the former council majority and called the move “political payback.”
Cox and then-council member Stef Mendell both said at the time they wanted a current board member to sit on the board and that the move wasn’t personal or political.
After months of a split vote, the council also voted Tuesday to reappoint Sepideh Saidi to the Raleigh Durham Airport Authority. Her reappointment had been stalled after the council split over the proposed quarry on airport property, which Saidi voted for.
This story was corrected at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019, to reflect Russ Stephenson’s resignation from the GoTriangle board.
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 3:54 PM.
