Raleigh city leaders vote to rezone Shaw University’s campus for taller buildings

Correction: The story was updated on June 21, 2023, to remove CAIR's references to a planned protest. The protests have already occurred.

Buildings as tall as 30 stories will be allowed on Shaw University’s campus after a divided Raleigh City Council voted to rezone the downtown campus Tuesday.

Raleigh leaders voted 5-3 after a contentious debate. Council members Mary Black, Megan Patton and Christina Jones, who all joined the board in December, voted against the rezoning.

“This has been a very challenging case, from so many angles,” said Mayor Pro Tem Corey Branch, who voted in favor of the rezoning. “I have worked to try and listen to everyone’s point of view.”

This rezoning is a part of a plan to “ensure a sustainable future” for the historically Black college, said Shaw University President Paulette Dillard.

“One of the specific initiatives is enhancement to infrastructure and leveraging real estate in order to continue to provide a quality education, to attract and retain students and do what Shaw University has been doing for 157 years,” she said. “We believe that the university’s presence in the neighborhood demonstrates its commitment to being an anchor institution for the Black community here in Raleigh, North Carolina.”

The 26-acre campus was zoned for buildings three stories to 12 stories tall. Now, buildings on some parts of the campus will be able to go up to 30 stories.

Some alumni said they don’t trust the university to redevelop the campus after what they call years of mismanagement.

Confusing vote

Tuesday’s vote confused some in attendance at the meeting. Branch made a motion to approve the rezoning and, after 15 seconds of silence, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin seconded the motion for approval.

Baldwin then called for a vote. Branch and Baldwin raised their hands. Council member Jonathan Melton voted next. As people in the audience started clapping, Baldwin said, “Wait a minute.”

Then, nearly a minute after the initial motion, Council member Jane Harrison said she had a few things to say. She read a statement from a community member.

Harrison called the rezoning “the hardest case this council has seen.” She was one of four new council members to join the board in December. She said she hoped Shaw would continue to work with the community and that she would vote in favor of the rezoning.

“You have affected what this case looks like,” she told those in the audience. “You have affected me. There are many points of view on this one.”

After the vote, the council took a 10-minute recess, and Interim City Attorney Dottie Leapley clarified the vote when council members returned.

As community members left, some sarcastically wished council members good luck on their re-election campaigns and called some of the members “evil.”

New conditions

In June, Shaw submitted three new conditions in an attempt to address opponents’ concerns:

• New development shall include a university use “in the form of housing (faculty or student).”

• If any portion of the property is sold, it must be rezoned. Shaw has repeatedly said it doesn’t plan to sell the property.

• Shaw will be required to hold quarterly community meetings for the next three years.

Other zoning conditions include preserving Estey Hall, Tupper Memorial Hall, Leonard Hall and Tyler Hall, and the “retention or relocation” of the Charles Frazier House and the Rogers-Bagley-Daniels-Pegues House.

One of the zoning conditions requires vibration-sensitive equipment to be installed inside the halls when new development occurs within 100 feet. Shaw adjusted that condition so that the readings will be sent to third-parties, including the city of Raleigh.

Some community members said they fear this rezoning will be the end of Shaw University.

“I do believe eventually Shaw is going to be lost,” said Leroy Mitchiner, who spoke against the rezoning case. “It just seems like every ethnic group has a chance to thrive except the Black community.”

Eugene Myrick, a Shaw alumnus, spoke against the rezoning and said if the City Council voted against a rezoning last month because it didn’t meet the city’s policies, it should deny Shaw’s request as well.

“If every one one of you stick to policy, this thing gets denied,” he said.

Mosque concerns outside rezoning rules

None of the rezoning conditions addresses concerns about the campus mosque, which closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

City leaders and the city attorney have repeatedly said the mosque falls outside the scope of the rezoning request.

Nigel Edwards, an attorney for the King Khalid Mosque’s governing board, previously spoke against the rezoning and asked city leaders to ensure that Shaw works with the mosque.

Baldwin said she encourages the university to work with the Muslim community, no matter the outcome of the rezoning.

“They won’t,” an audience member called out.

Baldwin continued, “To ensure access to mosque and then try to work out the other details.”

Shaw and the mosque are in the middle of negotiations of a leasing memorandum about using the campus mosque. The mosque was built in 1983 with a $1 million donation from King Khalid of Saudi Arabia, and community members say part of the donation agreement was that the mosque would remain open to the public.