Neighborhood Planning Process
What is a neighborhood plan? It is the official City policy regarding the future of a neighborhood. A neighborhood plan contains recommendations that are devised by the neighborhood itself and then adopted by the Raleigh City Council. After adoption the neighborhood plan becomes part of the Raleigh Comprehensive Plan.
Why have neighborhood plans? There are many opportunities for change in neighborhoods, especially when development pressures and property values increase. Often the changes take the form of infill, or new development taking place on previously vacant property within the neighborhood. Other times the new changes take the form of redevelopment, when older structures are torn down and replaced with new houses. Infill can alter the nature of a neighborhood. The neighborhood planning program is an attempt to work through such infill questions constructively and promote stability in neighborhoods, while realizing that over time some changes are inevitable.
How a neighborhood plan gets started There are two ways that a neighborhood plan can be started. First, the residents of a neighborhood may request the City Council begin the preparation of the plan. This may be done by talking with a council member or submitting a petition to the Council. The Planning Department should be consulted about the process, neighborhood boundaries and the reasons for doing a neighborhood plan. In the second instance, the City Council may initiate a neighborhood plan all on its own.
The task force The Council authorizes the preparation of the neighborhood plan. The planners will ask for suggested membership for a task force that will represent the neighborhood during the preparation of the plan. The task force should be representative of all interests in the neighborhood. The Council appoints the task force to advise the planners while they prepare the neighborhood plan. The planners are responsible for the plan; the task force is an advisory group that disbands after the public hearing on the plan. The task force appoints a chairperson and hold regularly scheduled meetings until the draft plan is sent to the Council. By law, all of these meetings must be advertised in advance and open to the public.
Planning process phase one: Background information and issues The plan preparation roughly takes place in three phases. First is the gathering and analysis of background information. Public meetings are used to hear neighborhood concerns and identify issues and problems, while extensive analysis is done of lot sizes, setbacks and other aspects of the neighborhood.
Planning process phase two: Making recommendations The planners, with the advice of the task force, write draft recommendations which address the issues and solve the problems that were identified in the first phase of the planning process. The recommendations should reflect the neighborhood's own desires for its future. Land use and zoning within the neighborhood, setbacks, building height, lot sizes, lot frontage and orientation of houses to the street are all within the scope of neighborhood plans. The location and size of drives and parking can be discussed. Road and greenway width may be modified. However, architectural styles, building maintenance such as painting, landscaping and its upkeep, grass cutting, the appearance of private parking areas and storage sheds, and drainage on private property are topics, like land use and zoning outside of the plan area, are best handled by the neighborhood on its own outside of the planning process.
Planning process phase three: Implementation techniques After the recommendations have been drafted, the neighborhood planners and task force discuss how to best implement the recommendations. There is a set group of aspects of the neighborhood which the city can protect and regulate. Zoning, subdivision and capital improvements are typical implementation topics. The neighborhood plan can also recommend a change of zoning. One zoning change option is the Neighborhood Conservation overlay district, which was created especially to work with the neighborhood planning process. No houses or lots are made nonconforming by this overlay district. This overlay zoning has many specifics which are featured in the City Code. It is important to remember that the conservation district is a tool for achieving neighborhood goals, and should be considered as an implementation technique. Other residential zoning districts might be considered also, if it is determined that the existing zoning is inadequate.
Public Hearing on the Neighborhood Plan and Implementation When the neighborhood plan draft if complete, the planners arrange for the plan to have a public hearing before the City Council and Planning Commission. Before the hearing, a draft plan will be mailed to all property owners in the area. The plan is reviewed by the Planning Commission and Council and if adopted becomes part of the Raleigh Comprehensive Plan. If the neighborhood plan recommends a zone change, the neighborhood should apply for the zone change as implementation of the plan.
Intent of the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District Neighborhood planning must be done for one of these overlay districts to be applied. This zoning district cannot be used unless a neighborhood plan is underway or has been adopted. Each neighborhood conservation district is different from all the others, and the regulations are customized to the character of the particular neighborhood. No existing structure or lot is made nonconforming by a conservation district; the emphasis is rather on making new construction be similar in character with the existing neighborhood. The residential zoning districts as they currently exist are geared to development types as they have evolved in the past twenty years: very suburban in nature, with an emphasis on single family houses on quarter acre lots on the one hand, and garden apartments on the other. There are, however, two very common types of older residential development in Raleigh that do not fit this suburban model: single family houses on lots larger than a quarter acre, and single family houses with small setbacks on small lots. These are often the subjects of our neighborhood plans.
A Neighborhood Must Meet These Criteria to be a Conservation District The area must have begun development at least 25 years before, be at least 75% developed, be at least 15 acres in size, and possess a unifying, distinctive character. A neighborhood may be the subject of a neighborhood plan without meeting these criteria, but the criteria must be met for the use of a Neighborhood Conservation overlay district. In addition, a neighborhood plan must be either in process or be adopted for a neighborhood to file for this zoning.
Applying for NCOD: Zone Change Request by the Neighborhood Check with the Zoning Division of the Planning Department at 516-2626 about filing deadlines for rezoning. The zoning petition requires extensive information, especially names and addresses of property owners in the area to be rezoned and adjacent properties. Neighborhood representative may file for the zone change during the planning process, if they are certain that they want the conservation district. They follow the usual rezoning procedures. The zoning petition must be signed by a majority of the property owners. The actual, customized NCOD regulations, however, cannot be included in the zone change request until they are determined during the preparation of the neighborhood plan. The zone change request can be timed to permit the public hearing on the zone change to occur on the same night as the hearing on the neighborhood plan. Otherwise, the neighborhood can file the rezoning request after the Council adopts the neighborhood plan. The filing fee (see zoning petition) and the filing of the petition are the responsibility of the neighborhood.
For More Information Contact:
Martin Stankus
Senior Planner
Planning Department
One Exchange Plaza, Suite 204
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-516-2661
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