This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Dr. Michael Sanera, John Locke Foundation research director and local government analyst.
Most Raleigh residents believe city planners are their servants, not masters. Planners should write plans that help them fulfill their desires. Unfortunately, Raleigh city planners, like most planners nationwide, believe it’s their responsibility to tell citizens how and where to live, the size and location of their homes, and what mode of transportation to use. Raleigh’s planning department has rolled out the draft of its new comprehensive land-use plan, Planning Raleigh 2030. If City Council approves it later this year, this plan would use governmental force to implement planners’ vision of how Raleigh should develop over the next 20 years.
The vast majority of Americans want to live the American dream of a single-family home with the privacy offered by a backyard. They want freedom to use their auto to take kids to soccer practice, shop for bargains, attend church, and travel to and from work.
But Raleigh city planners have declared war on the American dream. The plan they have developed envisions residents packed into overcrowded housing downtown and into seven “city growth centers.” Their plan purposely increases road congestion by eliminating road improvements, using roundabouts inappropriately, and converting one-way streets to two-way streets.
Why do planners want to increase road congestion? Congestion induces people to use mass transit, including expensive, slow-moving, 19th century rail transit. Ironically, planners justify archaic rail transit by arguing it will reduce traffic congestion. Nationwide, urban commuters are turning their backs on rail. Rail’s market share has declined in 20 of 25 rail regions since their systems began. But this fact does not deter planners who want rail transit for the Triangle and an increase in the sales tax to pay for it.
Empty rhetoric about “21st century planning” will not hide the fact that this is a reactionary return to overcrowded, mass transit-dependent 19th century cities.
Planners argue they are following wishes Raleigh residents expressed in public forums earlier this year. But sparsely attended public meetings do not represent the desires of the vast majority of Raleigh residents — especially when narrow economic and ideological special-interest groups had the inside track to influence the plan in small-group meetings. Planners euphemistically call special interests “stakeholders.” A partial list of these special interests includes “environmental and sustainability” advocates, “affordable housing” advocates, and “Wake County home builders.”
These groups and others had preferential treatment during the draft plan’s development. Their views matter because planners know that without their “buy-in,” the final plan is unlikely to gain necessary political support from City Council. Taxpayers, homeowners, small businesses, and property-rights advocates are conspicuously missing from the list. These groups have little political power, thus their views don’t matter to planners.
When the council approves the comprehensive plan, it will provide planners a powerful political tool. According to the Planning Department’s Web site, “It is a document adopted by the Raleigh City Council to guide public decision-making regarding physical development, redevelopment, and public investment.”
But the Comprehensive Plan is far more than a “guide.” According to state statutes, all future zoning decisions “shall be made in accordance with a comprehensive plan.” Not just a “guide,” it is a hammer planners use to override thousands of individuals who have their own plans for the future.
Cameron Village-area homeowners who recently fought unsuccessfully a high-rise condo project in their neighborhood should get used to it. “Cameron/University” is designated as a “city growth center.” High-rise projects in Cameron Village and in the other six city growth centers will be approved on a fast track. Stopping destruction of these well-established neighborhoods will be difficult — perhaps impossible. High-density, i.e., crowded, development is targeted for these areas.
In the final analysis, the Raleigh comprehensive plan is not about planning at all. It is about raw political power. It is a Trojan horse used by a small number of planners and special interest groups to impose their plans on thousands of individuals in Raleigh. In a News and Observer story, Mitch Silver, Raleigh’s planning director, stated that if elected officials want to deviate from the plan, they must give a rationale for doing so.
This is the democratic process turned upside down. Elected officials must justify their decisions to the unelected planning bureaucrats if they want to pass a measure that is inconsistent with the planners’ comprehensive plan.