Dispute over proposed Raleigh high-rise presents Mayor Cowell with a tall test | Opinion

Things have gone smoothly for Janet Cowell since she was sworn in as Raleigh’s new mayor in December, but now she is facing her first obstacle. It’s a tall one – 30 stories high.

A developer is asking the city to allow a building as high as 30 stories at the corner of West and Peace streets. Building heights at the site are currently limited to 12 stories. The proposed building will house apartment units and ground-level retail, but many nearby residents oppose the project, saying it would violate the city’s comprehensive plan and is incompatible with the adjacent Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood.

A recent hearing on the project was moved to N.C. State University’s McKimmon Center to accommodate a crowd of more than 100 people. Cowell attended the event hosted by the developer, Raleigh Development Co., and she’s keeping track of her email on the issue – six in favor and more than 40 opposed.

Still, Cowell is inclined to support the project, although she thinks its height will need to be closer to 20 stories to win approval. The area is changing, with a high-speed commuter rail line and a bus rapid transit line planned along the nearby Capital Boulevard corridor. A different property adjacent to Capital Boulevard, but further removed from the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood. has been approved for a 40-story building.

“My sense is 30 stories is too high. I think you can go higher than 12. My gut sense from just casual conversations with council is people are more in the 20-story range,” Cowell said. “You’ve got a 40-story tower zoned over there and you’ve got 3- or 4-story residential over here, halfway in between is around 20,” Cowell said.

Cowell said residential neighborhoods should have a buffer between them and very tall buildings, but Raleigh has an acute housing shortage and can’t keep turning down projects that would provide hundreds of units.

“We want housing,” she said. “You can fight about individual projects – and I agree that 30 stories is too high – but Raleigh is going to be getting into a lot more 20-story buildings.”

Council member Jane Harrison, whose district includes the proposed building, voted with the council majority against rezoning the property two years ago. This time around, she wants to see the shape of the plan after it goes through the city’s planning commission.

“We definitely need more housing opportunities, but at the same time we have a duty to follow the comprehensive plan guidelines,” she said. “I need to be responsive to the residents.”

Cowell wants to be responsive to the residents, too, but she also must be responsive to the needs of the city as a whole. That’s the right approach at any time, but especially now that the city is coping with sidelined projects and a growing housing deficit.

Developers have held off on building some projects the city has already approved as they wait for interest rates to drop. Now President Trump’s tariff policy and his trade war with China have raised fears of a recession that could put even more projects on hold.

“We have approved a lot of projects and those projects we still have tumbleweeds blowing across an empty lot because of interest rates and now you got the tariff considerations. I think folks on all sides want to see a project go forward as opposed to empty lots with tumbleweeds,” she said.

Cowell said, “I had expected when I came into office that we were going to be at pretty high volume with lots of projects coming at us. Now, because of tariffs and all this economic uncertainty, I don’t think we’re going to get nearly as many.”

That’s why the city should make an effort to have the proposed building come to fruition.

“When projects do come forth, you want to have a serious conversation and give it a good effort to find something that works for the city, provides housing and adds to the property tax base but also honors the comprehensive plan,” she said.

Opponents of the project are leaning heavily on its noncompliance with the comprehensive plan, but that plan was approved in 2009 and the creation of a new plan is underway. The city has changed. There has been an emphasis on dense development and fewer restrictions on where it goes. That change has arrived at Peace and West streets.

Cowell said it’s important that the city shows that it’s open to ambitious projects.

“You want predictability that this is a city that gets projects done,” she said. “We need housing. We know everything takes too long. You don’t want to be a city where folks don’t want to do business. This is a very strategic site and we really want residential (housing) coming downtown.”

A developer is proposing a big project. Nearby residents are offering big opposition. And Cowell is facing her first big test on how the city should grow.