The Raleigh City Council held public hearings on three rezoning cases on May 5, 2026. The meeting included discussions on Z3825 (Trailwood Drive), Z5225 (3470 Blue Ridge Road), and Z0126 (307 West Martin Street). Key decisions included the denial of Z3825, unanimous approval of Z5225, and a unanimous continuation of Z0126 to a future meeting.
Z3825 – Trailwood Drive Rezoning
Z5225 – 3470 Blue Ridge Road Rezoning
Z0126 – 307 West Martin Street Rezoning
Welcome everybody to tonight's public hearings. We've got three cases scheduled. And I will start with Binum Walter to introduce Z3825. Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of Council Bynum Walter, planning and development. This is a new keyboard. This is Z38. And I just will note before I start that the property to the south of the request here has been rezoned since this map was made. And the this parcel is now R10. So this is a request to rezone just under 14 acres from a combination of R6 and R4, a portion with conditions, all with the special residential parking overlay district to a combination of uh residential mixed use with a three-story height limit and conditions and then residential 10 with some conditions. This is consistent with the comprehensive plan, but inconsistent with future language map and the urban form map and planning commission recommends approval. So you can see the site here uh located on both sides of Trailwood Drive. They have offered a uh variety of conditions here. So the first uh limits the total uh square footage of disturbance uh permitted with the within the hundred-year uh floodplain, and then they have also committed to pursuing a no-rise certification in accordance with the city storm order design manual. Uh they have uh offered a build to along Trailwood Drive and also offered that parking areas would not be located between those building, the building facade and trailwood. They've offered a street-facing pedestrian entrance on the west side of Trailwood, uh, and then along the limit of disturbance adjacent to regulatory water course buffer, they have offered a brand name, uh protective fencing of super salt fence uh prior to grading our construction. And you can see the flood hazard areas here. Uh and the site is outlined in yellow, so the flood hazard is all on the west side of Trailwood. The uh change in entitlement here is going to increase the maximum number of residential units that's allowed. The um setbacks also change. This, as I mentioned before, this is consistent with the comprehensive plan, but inconsistent with future land use and urban format. So consistent with uh policies around compact development, connectivity, capitalizing on transit access, uh very heavily related around housing supply. Um I'll leave it at that. Um then a couple of inconsistent policies here. Uh one tied to the inconsistency with the future language map, and then the other two tied to fire response time standards for this location. Uh Planning Commission recommends approval, and then uh there were concerns from a couple of members who voted in opposition about the floodplain protections, and I will note those have been revised to address the enforceability concerns that were raised previously. And a rezoning here would amend the future latency map to moderate scale residential similar to what is on the property to the south here already has been has resulted from that previous rezoning. What question uh I will note the applicant would like to defer uh your action to your next meeting if possible. And any questions I could answer for you before the public hearing. Questions for Ms. Walter. Okay, but go ahead and do the hearing tonight and then just keep it open, right? Okay. So I will open the hearing for Z38, and we have four people signed up in support. Anoj Matal, Molly Stewart, Daniel Watley, Jason Meadows. Thank you, Mayor Cow, and members of council, Molly Stewart, Morning Star Law Group, on behalf of Floresta LLC, the applicant. Uh as you heard uh from staff, we do request a furlough this evening. And uh based on some new suggestions and new feedback that we've received recently. Uh, we would like to make significant changes to the case. We are still evaluating those. Um and so we would like to bring those back. Um if we could reserve the remainder of our time, uh we would very much appreciate that. Uh it is probably unhelpful to go through what we had planned for this evening, as uh likely the changes would be quite significant. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh we did have anybody want to ask anything? Okay. Um as we said earlier, we have so many cases on May 19th.