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Resident urges Wake County to enforce zoning near RDU, says quarrying activity violates residential zoning
Summary
A Wake County resident told commissioners that airport-managed land near the Odd Fellows area is being used for quarrying and commercial purposes that do not match its residential zoning, and urged the county to enforce state and local zoning law and require RDU to follow rezoning procedures.
Natalie Lu, identifying herself as a Western Wake County resident, used the general public comment period at the Jan. 21 Wake County Board of Commissioners meeting to urge commissioners to enforce local zoning around RDU-managed properties she said are being used for quarrying and commercial parking despite residential zoning.
"Odd Fellows is zoned residential 30/40 Highway District," Lu said during public comment, and she told commissioners that the Wake County GIS website reflected zoning established by 1982. Lu said she attended a July 2024 Wake County Planning Board hearing where RDU Chief Development Officer Bill Sandifer testified that the airport's Vision 2040 airport layout plan (ALP) changed zoning by virtue of FAA approval; Lu said she then filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Aviation Administration and was told the FAA "does not have any documents available that indicate an ALP is a zoning or rezoning document. The ALP is not a zoning document," she said.
Lu also told the board she had not seen public rezoning procedures followed for land she said RDU managed and that the airport authority must follow the processes in Chapter 160D of the North Carolina General Statutes if it were exercising zoning authority. "RDU has not done this," she said, and she asked commissioners to "enforce the North Carolina and Wake County zoning laws and rules. Make RDU follow the legal zoning and rezoning process." Lu said a quarry operation (identified in her remarks as Wake Stone) and tree clearing were occurring on land she described as residential and requested that the county stop Wake Stone until proper zoning is obtained.
Context and claims made at public comment
Lu said she had reviewed historical FAA material back to the 1930s and found no evidence that an airport layout plan is a zoning document. She said she filed a FOIA request to the FAA and received a response stating no FAA documents indicate an ALP is a zoning or rezoning document. Lu asked the county to enforce the zoning code and to require any rezoning or change of use to follow the public-notice and hearing requirements she cited from the state statute.
What the county recorded
The transcript records Lu's public comment and her request to the board; no county staff response or follow-up action was recorded on the public transcript during the meeting. Commissioners did not state an immediate enforcement action on the record at the time of the comment.
Ending
Lu asked the board to take immediate action to enforce zoning and to halt quarry activity on land she identified as residential until proper zoning is obtained.
