Not long ago the American dream was to own a home with a yard on a tree lined street in the suburbs. Now that’s called ‘sprawl’ and Mayor Meeker and the urban correctness crowds have a solution. It’s called – glowingly – density. What it, in fact, means is high-rises crammed with apartments and condominiums.

Mayor Meeker is Raleigh’s biggest advocate of density. He says he wants Raleigh to be taller. To grow upward not outward. And not being one to sit on the sidelines he’s got the city working on a twenty-year plan – which no doubt will cost millions – to promote density.

Why liberals have suddenly come to loathe sprawl and love high-rises is a mystery. Listening to the almost evangelical way they praise density I’ve been inclined to think their infatuation with office towers is simply irrational. But there may be another explanation. Money.

The city is set to double or triple or quadruple Impact Fees on developers as soon as the new Council is sworn in. But what’s less known is the proposal may allow developers downtown – who have been among the Mayor’s loyal supporters – to pay a lower Impact Fee than developers in suburbs. In other words to buy a home downtown you might pay an Impact Fee of (hypothetically), say, $2,000. But to one in the suburbs you may pay (hypothetically), say, $10,000.

That may turn out to be a pretty hefty helping-hand the Mayor will be giving developers downtown in the name of density.

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