What Will Southeast Raleigh’s Former DMV Site Become?

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Good morning, readers.

When Anthony Pope looks out the front window of his Swain Street home in Southeast Raleigh, he’s dismayed by what he sees.

“I’m looking at 25 rental units, single-family homes,” Pope told me over the phone last month. “They’re so close together, you can literally reach out the window and touch the person that lives next to you. They’re renting for $3,700 a month … On the other side of those, there are 12 three-story townhouses that are selling for $1.3 million.”

Pope is a retiree, a lifelong Raleighite, and a proud homeowner. He’s keenly aware of the rising prices and accelerating displacement in his neighborhood—and he’s got plenty of free time. Those two factors led him to volunteer for a city-run working group tasked with deciding the future of the former DMV site on New Bern Avenue, a short walk from his house. The 12-member group will make a recommendation to city officials this spring about what to build on the six-acre parcel.

Pope (and many of his fellow working group members, and a sizable chunk of the 400 local residents who filled out an online survey) hopes the site can be redeveloped to create some truly affordable housing options for longtime residents of the area.

“In Raleigh, anywhere inside the Beltline, there’s nothing really affordable anymore,” Pope says.

With the former DMV site, the city has an opportunity to meaningfully influence the development of the New Bern Avenue corridor, which cuts through the historically Black, rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods of Southeast Raleigh. Community members have big ideas for the site: they’ve asked for affordable housing, a grocery store, retail options, a neighborhood gathering space, a job training center, and a health clinic. The working group is responsible for distilling those dreams down to a few achievable priorities.

You can read more about the volunteers’ work to reimagine the former DMV site here. Have a good Wednesday.

 —Chloe

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