Raleigh City leaders voted to approve to clear the final hurdle that stood in the way of the Amphitheater's relocation one block south, which will close a half-block portion of South Street starting early next year. While the city had approved plans to close South Street last month, it still needed to update its 2030 Comprehensive Plan to account for the street's closure. Earlier this month, the Raleigh Planning Commission voted against changing that plan, 5-4, casting doubt again about Red Hat's future.
"Everyone's been talking about how we need to revitalize downtown, we need to re-imagine downtown," said Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. "This is the biggest thing we could do. So it's absolutely essential and I think a lot of our downtown businesses are breathing a major sigh of relief today."
Tuesday's vote to ultimately go against the Planning Commission and change the city's comprehensive plan passed 6-2, with Councilors Jones and Black voting against it.
Raleigh bar owner Rusty Sutton has been a vocal supporter of plans to relocate the amphitheater from the start.
"We stood up, we know how important this is for our city and for our businesses," he said Tuesday.
Sutton said it's been a nerve-wracking couple of weeks since the Planning Commission's vote, and said it was frustrating that the matter needed to be brought to council again amid uncertainty.
"It was a waste of tax dollars for us to be here to discuss it again. I think it was a waste of time for us business owners to have to be here again. But we're resilient," he said.
But he, and other business owners, admitted they thought the process was imperfect -- and understood frustrations that some had about a lack of opportunity for public input.
After Tuesday's vote, the mayor praised the decision and defended the process.
"We did have public information sessions. We did have meetings. We did have outreach. I think that we did the best we could under the circumstances. But we are under a tight deadline if we are to make this work," Baldwin said.
It wasn't the path business owners like Sutton may have envisioned, but he hopes it serves as a cautionary tale for the next high-stakes city vote.
"I hope the citizens and business owners will come together and with the city council members and go, 'let's not let this happen again'. Let's get the word out. Let's get this engagement then. Then we don't have any trouble," Sutton said.
South Street is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2025.