About 70 people packed a conference room at NC State University on Wednesday night to debate a proposed housing development at West and Peace Streets on the northern edge of downtown Raleigh, near the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood. Raleigh Development Company (RDC) wants to upzone the land and build a 30-story mixed-use development with retail, offices, and housing—a proposal that’s drawn fierce opposition from nearby residents.
The as-yet-undesigned development would add 800 to 900 market-rate rental units to Raleigh’s housing stock at a time when the city has a staggering 37,000-unit shortage. It’s situated around the corner from Glenwood South, next to the future Smoky Hollow Park, across the street from a Publix, and a short walk from a planned Bus Rapid Transit station. In many ways, it’s a great example of the type of mixed-use urban density city leaders say Raleigh needs.
It would also be dramatically taller than the buildings and homes nearby. With a vast 2.6-acre footprint and a maximum height of 360 feet, the development would cast a long shadow over the surrounding single-family homes and three-story industrial buildings. Even the 12-story Cortland Glenwood South apartment complex across the street—the tallest building nearby—would be dwarfed. A skate shop, a print shop, and a boxing gym, all one or two stories tall, currently occupy the site.
Neighborhood opposition to the “West Peace Assemblage” is loud and well-organized. A local advocacy group called Raleigh Neighbors United created a website and distributed yard signs depicting a hulking tower next to a modest house. “Tell City Council NO,” the signs declare. (In reality, the planned development is located about 240 feet from the nearest home.)
During the meeting—which the city requires developers to host before they apply for rezoning—residents voiced concerns about traffic, diminished property values, and unaffordability. But their loudest and most compelling argument was that the proposed development appears to be inconsistent with the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, the city’s blueprint for future growth and density. The plan prescribes the tallest heights and greatest density in Raleigh’s downtown core, with buildings gradually tapering lower as their distance from the city center increases.
In the Comprehensive Plan, the parcels at Peace and West Streets are part of a “Downtown Transition Area,” an intermediate zone between downtown and the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Inside a transition area, the plan recommends buildings “taper to be compatible with adjacent development.”
Many of the meeting attendees seemed to agree they could live with a 12-story building on the site, which the current zoning allows.
“Twelve stories, we can all agree, is density,” one neighbor said. “When people are happy with 12, you can’t say we’re against density.”
RDC interprets the Comprehensive Plan differently. Jason Barron of Morningstar Law Firm, who represented the developer at the neighborhood meeting, told attendees that the land in question is included in Raleigh’s central business district on the city’s Future Land Use Map.
That map offers the following guidance for land use inside the central business district: “Heights in the downtown could reach as high as 40 stories in the core, but would taper down to meet the adjacent neighborhoods at a height of three to four stories.”
“I’m not here to convince you that we’re right,” Barron told the crowd, which indeed did not seem convinced. “But I’m just letting you know, we believe that we satisfy the policies not only of the central business district but also of the transition area.”
RDC tried once before to get this rezoning approved. The city council rejected the application in 2023, with the majority of council members agreeing the existing 12-story limit was appropriate at the edge of downtown.
Two years later, the developer has modified the request slightly and is trying its luck with a new city council. They’ve agreed to shorten the back half of the development to 240 feet, or about 20 stories, while the portion fronting Peace Street will be 30 stories. They’ve also offered a $1.2 million contribution to the city’s affordable housing fund.
Those modifications were not warmly received at the neighborhood meeting. Attendees shrugged off the $1.2 million figure as inadequate. Even Barron acknowledged it wouldn’t go very far toward the production of affordable housing elsewhere in the city. Some in the crowd lobbied for the inclusion of income-restricted units inside the building, something Barron said was not on the table.
The meeting quickly devolved into booing and cross-talk. Neighbors became frustrated when Barron wouldn’t answer questions about what the building would look like or what the developers would do if their application is denied. Barron said they don’t yet have an estimate for how much the apartments would cost to rent.
“That’s difficult for us to believe,” one resident quipped.
After the meeting, Barron told the INDY that RDC and Morningstar would try to “work with the community, work with the city, and find a happy medium.”
Mayor Janet Cowell and council members Stormie Forte and Christina Jones were in the audience Wednesday evening. Jones told the INDY she was prepared to vote against RDC’s proposal, as she did in 2023.
“I’m a big no,” Jones said, “because the residents have done such an amazing job of making sure we understand the inconsistencies. It’s not about the emotion. It’s not about ‘Hey, let’s not build here.’ It’s about ‘Hey, it’s not following the plan.’”
Forte, who also voted to deny RDC’s rezoning request in 2023, said she’s “not locked in” either way at this point. Cowell is also undecided, she says.
“I definitely think we should be having this conversation,” Cowell told the INDY. “We’re not getting many projects coming forward at all, so when you do get a project that’s … near a lot of amenities and mass transit and bus lines and grocery stores, absolutely, let’s have this conversation.”
“I think the [concerns] around what is the appropriate density, height, and the affordability issue are all very valid,” she added.
RDC will host a second neighborhood meeting in the coming months before bringing their request to the planning commission and then the city council.
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Chloe Courtney Bohl is a corps member for Report for America. Reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].
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