How tall is too tall for new development between downtown Raleigh and historic homes?
MaryCraven Poteat headed out the door to flyer homes along Whitaker Mill Road near the Five Points and Hayes Barton neighborhoods.
She and others had already papered the historic neighborhoods around downtown. Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell’s Boylan Heights home was hit twice.
Glenwood-Brooklyn residents, like Poteat, are fighting a potentially 30-story tower proposed next to their historic neighborhood bordering the northern edge of downtown. And they want other historic neighborhoods to know if it happens to them, they could be next.
“It’s the same big, tall building, and it’s just too much,” she said. “It is too much for all of us. It really is.”
Northern gateway to downtown
Raleigh Development Co. owns the 2.6-acre lot at the northeast corner of the Peace and West streets intersection. The land is zoned for buildings up to 12 stories and houses businesses like the Endless Grind Skate Shop, Knuckle Up Boxing Gym and Oak City Printing.
It shares 800 feet with city-owned land set to become Smoky Hollow Park and is located across the street from the 12-story high-rise that houses apartments and Publix.
The News & Observer left phone and emails messages but was not able to speak with the development company for this story.
“Future plans call for multiple mixed-use high rise buildings oriented toward the future City of Raleigh park,” according to the developer’s website. “This project will transform the northern gateway into Downtown Raleigh while serving the community with a one-of-a-kind activation of the interface between the future public park and private mixed-use development.”
The company wants to rezone the land for buildings up to 30 stories tall and to change the zoning to downtown mixed-used, allowing more retail, office and residential options.
It’s the second time they’ve made the request.
Previous rezoning request denied
It’s rare for the Raleigh City Council to deny a rezoning request.
Requests typically get approved outright or after rounds of negotiations with community members and developers. In some cases, developers pull cases before they can be denied to avoid having to wait two years before they can resubmit.
In May 2023, the City Council denied Raleigh Development Co.’s first attempt to rezone the downtown edge property. Only former Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin and council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton backed the rezoning.
That council’s denial came after an election that brought into office new members who had criticized the previous council’s relationship with developers and how it had managed growth in the city.
Two years, and another election later, the case is back after the City Council voted to waive the two-year waiting period. The three members who voted against waving the waiting period — Jane Harrison, Christina Jones and Megan Patton — also voted to deny the rezoning two years ago.
Cowell, during the February meeting to waive the waiting period, acknowledged the precedent this case could set for other historic neighborhoods that surround downtown.
“I know this was one of the more controversial cases from the last administration,” she said. “This is one of the most strategic pieces of land in the city.”
Future park complicates matters
The future Smoky Hollow Park has complicated the rezoning request.
In 2023, the developers were in negotiations to “essentially take over the construction of the park” to help cover a budget shortfall.
“The intent of that was to be able to manage the construction of the park and the construction of the development as a single, unified project that would then be delivered on a single schedule,” said Ken Bowers, the city’s planning and development deputy director.
“At the time, there was a budget gap between what was allocated in the bond funds and the full cost of everything that was shown in the park master plan,” he explained. “[The] developer was going to make a financial contribution to fill that gap.”
Since then, the city has been awarded an $8.6 million federal grant to cover the shortfall. The money’s not in hand, however, and there have been significant cuts to federal funding since President Donald Trump began his second term.
“I am a little worried about our grant funding now,” Lambert-Melton said. “I don’t want to put it into the universe, but it’s the elephant in the room.”
Neighbors want protection
Roy Attride moved to the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood about 25 years ago, after first arriving in Raleigh after attending N.C. State University.
“I love Raleigh,” he said. “I love the thriving place that it’s becoming. We’re definitely for smart developments. We know we need more housing. We know we need more affordable housing. We want this park. These are things that everybody can get behind.”
Attride, an engineer, spoke out against this development two years ago and again recently against the waiver.
The existing zoning, he said, is appropriate and serves as a middle ground between the up to 40 stories allowed in downtown and the single-family homes in Glenwood-Brooklyn.
“I want [Raleigh] to be a jewel of the South,” he said. “I want more people to move in. I want housing prices to come down. I want affordable housing. It just doesn’t have to happen at the expense of all of our neighborhoods that have helped make Raleigh great for so long.”
A neighborhood meeting, a required step of the rezoning process, originally set for April 2 at Pullen Community Center has been moved to a larger space at 6 p.m. April 23, at the McKimmon Conference and Training Center at NC State University.
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM.
