Raleigh to weigh zoning changes for NC State off-campus housing, new animal shelter
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- Council will consider rezonings and annexations affecting over 100 acres across Raleigh.
- Wake County requested rezoning of 24 acres to allow its $57 million animal shelter.
- Developers propose rezonings enabling hundreds of new housing units and mixed-use space.
The Raleigh City Council will consider rezonings and annexations Tuesday for new N.C. State student housing, a new county animal shelter and hundreds of other housing units as well as commercial areas.
The decisions will affect over 100 acres of land across different parts of the city.
The council is meeting at 1 p.m. in the City Council chamber room at the municipal building on West Hargett Street. Public comment signup for the council’s Tuesday meetings ends on Friday. The council’s meetings are livestreamed on its YouTube page.
NC State student housing
The council is being asked to rezone about nine acres off Avent Ferry Road near N.C. State University. The area, a total of 17 separate parcels of land, is mostly already developed with multifamily residential buildings, according to city documents.
The developer, Dominion, wrote in applications for the city that the additional units are for off-campus student housing.
The rezoning would allow 81 residential units more than the current allowance of 347 and increase the allowed building height from three to four stories.
It would also allow 8,000 square feet each of retail and office space.
Animal shelter
Wake County officials are asking the city to rezone 24 acres in the city’s southeast for the county’s new animal shelter.
The county approved designs for the new $57 million, 54,600-square-foot facility in January, and construction on it is set to start next spring. It’s meant to provide 50% more capacity than the county’s overcrowded facility on Beacon Lake Drive in eastern Raleigh.
The new shelter is planned at the corner of Battle Bridge and Auburn Knightdale Roads.
The current zoning designation is residential, allowing up to 124 units of housing, but the land is undeveloped. The revised zoning would allow the animal shelter to be built.
It would also technically allow for up to 520 housing units, but only if plans for the shelter fall through and only housing is built on the property.
Wake County is not planning for any housing on the site, according to county spokesperson Arevik Badalyan Drewek.
The city wanted to make sure that things like housing could still be built on the property, she said.
“If, for some reason, the County were to abandon this site after rezoning, the updated property zoning would still permit other uses, like residential, office, retail and even industrial,” she said.
Northeast Raleigh housing
The largest decision the council will make, both in terms of land acreage and housing units, is annexing and rezoning almost 60 acres on Ligon Mill Road at the edge of northeast Raleigh.
Wake County’s current zoning designation for the property would typically allow for about 1.5 residential units per acre. For 60 acres, that would translate to 90 residential units.
If the council votes to annex and rezone the land, developers could build up to 180 units of residential housing there.
The annexation is conditioned on 30% of the area remaining open, the developer contributing $20,000 to the fire department and a requirement for two “active recreation areas.”
State of North Carolina office space in North Raleigh
The owner of a property at 5601 Six Forks Road in north Raleigh is asking the city to rezone it to allow for over 400 units of housing and nearly 100,000 square feet of retail space.
According to the city and state government websites, the site was home to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services office spaces.
But the department in September 2025 started moving personnel out to its headquarters on Health Services Way near the North Carolina Museum of Art in western Raleigh and an office in Durham, according to department spokesperson James Werner.
The department’s employees completely moved out of the Six Forks Road buildings by January 2026, Werner said.
The rezoning would allow buildings up to five stories tall, up from three stories. Currently, the property could have almost 300 units of housing, but there aren’t any. The rezoning would allow up to 404.
The owners of the property, Virginia-based development company NGP Group, did not respond to The News & Observer on Monday. An attorney representing the company in the rezoning, Jamie Schwedler, also did not respond.
There are no development plans currently submitted for the area, according to the city’s development review map.
Other decisions
- An annexation petition asks the city to admit just over four acres at 511 Strother Road in western Raleigh, near Interstate 40. The owner is subdividing the land into 12 single-family home lots. Currently, it has one house, according to city planning documents.
- Developers are seeking to rezone a half-acre at 319 Heck St., near St. Augustine’s University. The site is currently home to a vacant 12-unit apartment building. The rezoning would remove neighborhood conservation design restrictions that set limits for things like building setbacks and height. It would allow for 52 residential units, buildings up to four-stories and 4,000 square feet of office space, according to city planning documents.
- A developer is asking the city to annex just over an acre in southeast Raleigh at 3800 Jones Sausage Road. Plans for the site include “three commercial buildings including a restaurant, car wash, and gas station/convenience store,” according to city planning documents.
This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 4:08 PM.
