Luxury townhome development in Raleigh neighborhood would demolish mansion, launches lawsuit

Now, some of them are suing the developer and the city.

This lawsuit was filed by three families who live on Williamson Drive. It claims the city illegally approved missing middle housing policies.

The fight to "Save Our Neighborhoods" is moving from the curbside to the courtroom.

"One good way to get folks to listen to you is to sue them, so that’s what we’ve done," Gordon said.

That's allowed by the city's "missing middle" housing policies.

"They have changed the zoning for many, many people in this town, and a lot of people don’t even realize it which is what’s really sinister about the way they proceeded," Gordon.

City council approved the first round of changes to development rules in July of 2021. More changes came in May of 2022.

The lawsuit asks the court to force the city to get rid of the missing middle policies.

"I think there are a lot of people across the city who now understand – wow, this is dramatic and it affects me and I don’t even know what my zoning is any more," Gordon said.

For now, the city has several weeks to respond to the lawsuit which is filed in Wake County Superior Court. The city said it cannot comment on pending litigation.

WRAL News has also reached out to the developer of the Hayes Barton project and their attorney for a statement. So far, we have not heard back.