Residents urge Raleigh to halt streamside Big Branch Greenway route, cite conservation easement and flood risks

Residents of Anderson Forest and nearby neighborhoods urged the Raleigh City Council to reject the Parks and Recreation Department’s proposed streamside alignment for Segment 1B of the Big Branch Greenway, arguing the route would harm water quality, violate a 1986 conservation easement, and expose users and nearby homes to increased flood and bank-erosion risk.

“We urge you to listen to us who know this land firsthand, not to those who have only seen it on a map,” said Helen Kervin, one of nine nearby property owners who addressed council during public comment. Kervin said the city proposal would condemn roughly one-third of her property and intrude nearly entirely into the 30-foot Zone 1 riparian buffer, which the North Carolina Division of Water Quality says is critical for filtering runoff, moderating…