City leaders weigh density, development along Raleigh’s first bus rapid transit line
The city of Raleigh wants to rezone 726 acres to add density and walkability to the city’s first bus rapid transit corridor.
But supporters and opponents have clashed over if and how increased development along the New Bern Avenue route will increase gentrification through Southeast Raleigh and its longtime Black neighborhoods.
Raleigh leaders heard from the public during a specially called meeting Tuesday. Support and opposition was nearly equal with 34 people signed up in favor and 36 people signed up in opposition.
The city’s rezoning request spans properties from Person Street to Hedingham Boulevard, usually within a quarter mile of New Bern Avenue.
The Raleigh City Council didn’t take action on the rezoning Tuesday night and asked staff to return March 5 with smaller tracts to consider rezoning instead.
City leaders voted 5-3 to approve a plan that outlines how growth and development should occur on the corridor, efforts to mitigate displacement and make transit improvements outside the BRT. Council members Mary Black, Stormie Forte and Christina Jones voted against the plan because they wanted more time for discussion.
Home was a big investment
Lauren Johnson has lived on New Bern Avenue for nearly 30 years. The red brick house that she and her husband now call home was vacant and originally not on the market. They contacted the attorney who had possession of the house and made their case.
“It was a fixer-upper,” she said. “It was not aesthetically pleasing when we placed the offer. So we knew we had to put a lot of work into that. But it turned out to be a really good investment that we absolutely love. And that’s been our push to just preserve our residential area.”
Johnson spoke out against the rezoning to densify New Bern Avenue last summer during a city Planning Commission meeting.
She’s not against growth, she said, but it shouldn’t be forced into neighborhoods.
“I applaud the efforts of our city officials who see the need for growth,” she said. “But I just feel like we need to be methodical and strategic about where we’re placing high density growth.”
City initiated rezoning effort
Nearly all rezoning requests that come before city leaders are initiated by the property leaders. In this case, the city initiated this rezoning to ensure more people can live and work on the city’s first BRT line.
If approved, people would be able to build taller buildings and the Transit Overlay District would be added to the properties. The Transit Overlay District, or TOD, prohibits several types of car-centric uses like gas stations and drive-thrus except for pharmacies and car washes.
The TOD also originally prohibited single-family homes and duplexes, but that was later changed by the Raleigh City Council after concerns from residents.
Tuesday night, there seemed to be consensus among city leaders to rezone parts of New Bern Avenue with the Transit Overlay District but not at the increased height. They said they wanted to first focus on the commercial properties instead of the smaller residential lots.
Jennifer Truman spoke in favor of the rezoning request and believes the Transit Overlay Districts should be put along every BRT line. She ran for Raleigh City Council in 2022 and serves as the chair of the Raleigh Transit Authority.
“I understand why people have hesitation and fear around that kind of policy,” she said in an interview with The News & Observer. “But realistically when the city rezoned the whole city back in 2015, they underzoned a lot of the city and a lot of commercial properties. And if we want to see the kind of development that allows for affordable housing, allows for apartments and allows for that diversity of housing types, we can’t keep the zoning how it is.”
Zoning in the city and along New Bern Avenue has to change and get taller to reduce sprawl continuing out of the city, she said.
Raleigh builds a new kind of transit and prepares for development expected to follow
BRT construction has begun
Construction is already underway on the New Bern Avenue route, the first of four bus rapid transit lines in Raleigh and the first BRT line built in North Carolina. Ten stations will dot the route, spread from downtown Raleigh to New Hope Road, ending at a GoTriangle park-and-ride lot.
Riders buy their tickets in advance and board the bus on raised, covered platforms. The buses often travel in separate lanes and get priority green lights at intersections. On the New Bern Avenue 5.4-mile route there will be 3.3 miles of bus-only lanes.
The three other routes will meet in downtown and travel north, west and south.
It will cost nearly $100 million to build the New Bern route with a mix of federal and local money. That local money comes from a half-cent sales tax that Wake County voters backed in 2016.
Karen Rindge, former executive director of WakeUP Wake County, was instrumental in getting that ballot measure passed.
“We are one of the fastest growing places in the country, and we already have a lack of housing, and a transit system that is not robust,” she said. “Is that what we want to continue? Or do we want to actually create a 21st century city where people can get out of their cars and have greater access across the metro region.”
Portions of Raleigh, including along New Bern Avenue, have been gentrifying for years without bus rapid transit.
“There have been many tear-downs,” Rindge said. “And what’s being built are single-family, million-dollar homes. But if you have the TOD and we allow denser development, we’re going to see more apartment buildings, more townhouses, but primarily apartment buildings. That’s going to provide a wider array of types of housing that will come in at different price points.
What opponents say
Tolulope Omokaiye is former chair of the Raleigh Transit Authority. She has been outspoken in her opposition to the rezoning and concerned about development pressures New Bern Avenue will face because of the bus rapid transit.
“Gentrifying out our ridership is not good for transportation in the long run,” she said.
New Bern Avenue has the highest bus ridership of all of GoRaleigh’s bus routes.
“It’s not that I’m against the BRT,” Omokaiye said. “It is that I’m against the New Bern Avenue corridor being used as a guinea pig for this.”
Southeast Raleigh residents have asked for the city to invest in its communities but they’ve been ignored, she said.
“It felt like the city kept this area for a time such as this. When they can start squeezing people off their land that they kept for cheap because the city didn’t put in any investment in that community,” Omokaiye said. “Which is something that I know wouldn’t happen in any other part of the city of Raleigh.”
She would like to see the city pause this rezoning and restart the process, she said.
“Just because a lot of time and effort has gone into making a bad decision doesn’t mean you should invest more time and effort into seeing it through,” Omokaiye said.
