A small stretch of Ashe Avenue between Pullen Park and NC State University could soon look very different, as a rezoning request moves toward the Raleigh Planning Commission next month. The proposal covers roughly 0.3 acres at 111 and 113 Ashe Avenue and 0 Wakefield Avenue, and it would swap residential zoning for mixed-use zoning that could open the door to a small-scale retail business, such as a coffee shop or bakery.
According to WRAL, the rezoning request is currently in an early stage of Raleigh's approval process and will eventually go before the Raleigh City Council after the planning commission weighs in. Per official City of Raleigh planning filings, the case is designated Z-25-26, and it proposes changing the site from Residential-10 to Neighborhood Mixed Use up to three stories with Urban General frontage, a designation known formally as NX-3-UG-CU, according to City of Raleigh planning records. Legal representatives from Morningstar Law Group said work on the project could begin as early as 2027 if the rezoning is approved, and the developer has said the existing homes on the properties would remain, per WRAL's reporting.
No Parking Required, By Design
One detail likely to catch neighbors' attention: the rezoning proposal does not include off-street parking. That's not an oversight — it's the law. In March 2022, the Raleigh City Council voted 7-1 to eliminate off-street parking minimums citywide, letting property owners and developers decide how much parking to build based on market demand rather than municipal mandate, according to Triangle Blog Blog. The policy shift is about to get statewide backing, too: the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 369 in July 2026, eliminating mandatory off-street parking minimums across the state beginning January 1, 2027, per Walker Consultants.
That regulatory backdrop hasn't eased everyone's worries. The rezoning proposal raises questions about where retail customers would actually park, and neighborhood growth in the area is already raising concerns about transportation, parking and pedestrian infrastructure, WRAL reports. Arthur Gordon said parking has become more complicated and costly as Raleigh has grown, and he described the neighborhood's earlier condition as a dirt road that eventually became Central Prison, telling the outlet the neighborhood has been adapting to change for decades.
A Corridor Built for Transit, Not Cars
The Ashe Avenue site's zero-parking design fits into a larger regional vision. The corridor lies along the planned Wake Bus Rapid Transit Western Corridor, a regional transit line intended to connect Downtown Raleigh, Pullen Park, NC State University and Downtown Cary, according to the NC Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Raleigh has envisioned the area becoming more pedestrian-friendly and better connected to transit, and city leaders are seeking stronger connections among downtown, Pullen Park and NC State University, per WRAL. Josh Wells said having destinations within walking distance has benefited the neighborhood, the station reports.
The site sits directly next to Pullen Park, at 520 Ashe Avenue, which was founded in 1887 through a farmland donation by Richard Stanhope Pullen — making it the oldest public park in North Carolina and, according to Reserve Party Bus, the 16th oldest operating amusement park in the world. Development around Pullen Park is reshaping the area, and the city's required second neighborhood rezoning meeting for Case Z-25-26 was held Wednesday at the Pullen Community Center, located at 408 Ashe Avenue, according to Livable Raleigh.
Guardrails on What Can Move In
The conditional rezoning application filed with the city explicitly rules out several types of businesses from ever operating on the site. Detention centers or prisons, vehicle fuel sales, vape and tobacco shops, and electronic sweepstakes parlors are all prohibited under the application filed with the City of Raleigh.
The Ashe Avenue case is one of several rezoning pushes reshaping the corridor between Pullen Park and NC State University. Hoodline previously reported on Gilbane's 7-story tower near NC State, a proposal known as Case Z-14-26 that would replace older apartments on Gorman Street with up to 483 units of student housing. Nearby, developers filed Case Z-07-26 in March 2026 seeking mixed-use rezoning up to seven stories at 3911 Western Boulevard, part of a broader commercial transformation along the same corridor. Those pressures track with regional housing costs: Wake County median home prices reached $465,000 by mid-2026, a 47% increase since 2020, a trend that has sharpened municipal focus on neighborhood-serving commercial and missing-middle residential development.
For now, the Ashe Avenue proposal remains in its early stages, with the Raleigh Planning Commission expected to take it up next month before it heads to the City Council for a final decision.
