Raleigh approves Olde Towne rezoning tied to possible grocery store

Raleigh approved a grocery-anchored rezoning in southeast Raleigh, but the central question for Olde Towne remains unchanged: what legally forces a grocer to open, and what happens if no store ever follows.

The Raleigh City Council unanimously approved the rezoning on Tuesday, April 8, 2026, covering roughly 54 acres in Olde Towne. The ordinance ties extra housing density to approval of a grocery site plan, allowing up to 625 homes if that plan is filed and approved. Before that happens, only 450 housing units can be built. The measure also lifts an older cap on two-bedroom apartments, limits building heights to four stories within 150 feet of nearby neighborhoods and blocks bars, taverns and nightclubs within 250 feet of existing communities.

That structure reflects a long-running tension in southeast Raleigh. Residents in this part of the city have long had to drive elsewhere for basic groceries, and many welcomed the idea of a grocery-anchored development. But approval of a rezoning is not the same as forcing a retailer to sign a lease or break ground. The city’s rezoning process allows public comment to staff, the Raleigh Planning Commission and City Council, and Raleigh requires a neighborhood meeting for rezoning requests involving five acres or more or height increases to five stories or more. Finalized cases are then tracked by the City of Raleigh Planning and Development Department.

For neighbors in Olde Towne, that leaves a credibility gap. The promise of a store may help justify denser housing, but residents also know a plan can stall, change or disappear before construction starts. Some worry the city could end up approving more homes and still not get the grocery access that helped sell the project in the first place.

Raleigh has seen versions of this debate before. In 2016, a proposal for a 100,000-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center at Falls of Neuse Road and Raven Ridge Road drew concerns about drinking water sources. And in 2021, a News & Observer editorial described the city as trying to crack zoning barriers that contributed to the demise of the corner store. The Olde Towne vote fits squarely inside that larger policy struggle, where the city is trying to trade density for daily-needs retail, while residents are left waiting to see whether the grocery is real or just another zoning promise.