Raleigh Seeks to Stake Claim to 6,000 Acres
City officials want to reserve several swaths of land north and east of Raleigh for future growth.
The six locations singled out by the city's Planning Department stretch from Capital Boulevard to Rock Quarry Road and could eventually add 6,000 acres and as many as 35,000 homes to Raleigh.
"This change will allow Raleigh to better manage what happens on this land than having it be driven on a parcel-by-parcel basis," Planning Director Mitchell Silver said.
The Planning Department has studied extending Raleigh's extra-territorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, boundaries for more than a year. ETJ areas are located outside of cities limits but are controlled by municipal zoning regulations.
The areas being eyed for ETJ inclusion are as follows:
- 2,079 acres between the Neuse River and Rock Quarry Road along Auburn-Knightdale Road
- 2,058 acres between Mitchell Mill, Watkins and Buffaloe roads
- 975 acres between Louisburg Road and the ETJs of Wake Forest and Rolesville
- 665 acres off Capital Boulevard near the Wakefield Plantation development
- 150 acres off Louisbury Road and Blackley Lake Road
- 73 acres off Old Milburnie Road
The City Council, which was expected to review the proposal Tuesday, must request the ETJ boundary extension from the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
"In the short term, if the county grants that extension, the first thing the city will do is place zoning on that property. Right now, there's county zoning. It would have to be city zoning on that property," Silver said.
As the land is developed over time, the city would look at annexing parcels, adding to the tax base and creating a responsibility to provide infrastructure and public services like police and fire protection.
"It's advantageous to bring that land in now so that, as you start to connect roads and sidewalks and sewer and water, it now satisfies the city standards and (the city is) not having to retrofit county structure to city structure."
