Debra Mullis Headshot
NC State is lucky to have many parks, green spaces and trees on campus. As you drive farther from main campus, however, the evidence of Raleigh’s growing urban sprawl and the environmental damage that comes with it becomes more evident. The new parking lot constructed last fall at the State Fairgrounds, adjacent to Carter-Finley Stadium, is one of the most recent examples of this damage.
Beginning in the spring of 2021, the State Fair desperately wanted more parking space for its fall event. Plans for a new parking lot were fast-tracked so the project would be completed by October, even though the new parking lot required the clear-cutting of several acres of trees and would cost $30 million, which would be paid partially by the government through a partnership with the private tech company Bandwidth. Bandwidth already owned the property on Chapel Hill road for its headquarters and agreed to expand parking to accommodate the fair.
Officials were hoping the fair would be back and better than ever with new parking needs after the State Fair was canceled in 2020. A letter from April from State Fair Manager G. Kent Yelverto to the deputy agriculture commissioner of the NC Department of Environmental Quality, David Smith, confirmed that the 2021 fair was expected to be “the largest ever.” When the 2021 fair ended in October, it reported total attendance over 100,000 under what it was in 2019. This was after the money was spent and the trees cut for the approximately 2,400 new parking spaces.
The new lot on 5900 Chapel Hill road stretches 19 acres. It is in very close proximity to the historic Westover-Mt. Vernon neighborhood and a sensitive part of the Neuse River Watershed. These two facts are what make the quick construction of the new lot so problematic.
The Westover-Mt. Vernon neighborhood has existed in Raleigh for as long as the State Fair. Every year residents have to deal with the increased noise, lights and traffic from the fair. The clear-cutting of the pines destroyed the barrier between their homes and the fairgrounds. Previously, residents used the wooded area to hike, walk their dogs and enjoy the fresh air.
When machinery rolled in May 2021, many residents said they were unaware the project was even getting kicked off. A meeting on June 3 for public comment was canceled once the city learned the neighborhood hired an attorney to represent their interests, according to Spectrum News.
Beyond being a barrier from fair activity each fall, the tree line surrounding the Westover-Mt. Vernon neighborhood helped to curtail damage from heavy winds and storms to their historic properties. There will also likely be an increased heat island effect from the parking lot, making this summer more brutal for residents. A 2015 reform to the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) bolstered by Republicans in the General Assembly allowed the State Fair to construct the parking lot with little public comment or a full exploration of the environmental impact of the project.
This January, the full damage of the project came into focus. It was discovered that discarded dirt and rock were illegally dumped into an unnamed stream that feeds into Richland Creek and the Neuse River. Richland Creek is classified as Nutrient Sensitive Water, which means there is a possible overgrowth of micro and macro vegetation. Restoration of the deposited sediment will be expensive and time-consuming because heavy machinery cannot be used in the sensitive ecosystem.
The Neuse River has a 50-foot buffer zone to protect its waters, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The buffer has now become slimmer with the parking lot’s deforestation, and the river may now be more vulnerable to stormwater runoff and powerful winds.
There are meaningful alternatives to new parking lots and for good reason. Tanglewood Park in Winston-Salem created a walking trail filled with native grasses where they formally had plans to construct a parking lot. The area sits along the Yadkin River watershed. Instead of possibly creating harm to the existing ecosystem, the trail is now beloved by birdwatchers.
The State Fair and the NC Department of Agriculture should have considered promoting ridesharing or improving public transportation options to the fair before constructing such a permanent, expensive and environmentally-damaging parking lot. Instead, GoRaleigh cut shuttles for fairgoers last fall under the stress of the bus driver shortage. Hopefully, attendance to the State Fair in future years will rise to a level that justifies the harm caused to nearby residents and the environment by its unnecessary parking lot.