Speak up on Raleigh’s growth plan

If you have a concern about the way Raleigh is growing, the city wants to hear from you.

City planners are preparing to make revisions to the Raleigh’s comprehensive plan adopetd in 2009 for growth through 2030. There will be a series of public meetings to discuss the plan starting today at 6:30 p.m. at the Carolina Pines Community Center. The plan covers land use, but also addresses other areas, including environmental protection, transportation, housing, parks and arts and culture.

So far, the comprehensive plan is working well. It anticipated Raleigh’s growth as the city’s population roses from 388,926 in 2009 to 439,884 today. The has has helped channel most of the growth into denser development in designated growth area. That has put a check on sprawl, but also raised tensions in and near neighborhoods as development fills open spaces and smaller buildings are replaced with taller ones.

The shift to density shows up in the numbers. From 2010 to 2014, 61 percents of new residential units were apartments and only 21 percent were homes. Two thirds of those new units went into the city’s designated growth areas. But the problems with density is it needs mass transit. Raleigh is just getting started on that. Eight in 10 people commute by car alone. Only 2.2 use public transit.

Other meetings on the comp plan are: Thursday, April 28, John Chavis Memorial Community Center 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Monday, May 2, Brier Creek Community Center 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Thursday, May 5, Millbrook Exchange Community Center 6:30-8:30 p.m. There’s more information at the update webpage at www.raleigh.nc.gov

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Speak up on Raleigh’s growth plan."