The Missed Chance to Rezone Northgate Mall

Image credit: Walltown Community Association

Between December 2018 and June 2024, Durham missed its chance to shape the redevelopment of Northgate Mall. A window of opportunity opened when Northwood Investors bought the 60-acre site, stayed open while the mall sat empty for years, and closed when Senate Bill 382 took retroactive effect.

The city needed to do two things: write a Small Area Plan for the Northgate site, then rezone the area to implement the plan. Only the first step was completed, and not until August 2025. A rezoning could have regulated uses, included density bonuses tied to affordable housing, required a green-space connection to Walltown Park along Guess Road, and disincentivized a big-box store ringed by hundreds of parking spaces, among other tools.

The Walltown Community Association worked for years to push the city into action. The group engaged hundreds of residents, formed a seven-neighborhood coalition called the Northgate Mall Neighborhood Council in 2020, and held press conferences to press its demands. In April 2021, the WCA published a report called Building a Place for All People: A Community-Centered Vision for the New Northgate Mall which laid out six design goals and three sample maps based on community engagement [1]. In May 2021, the WCA and NMNC sent a letter to the council asking them to "explore rezoning the property so that the developer has to comply with achieving both high density and public goods" [2]. When Northwood proposed a life sciences campus in August 2022, the WCA responded with an alternative plan in February 2023 [3].

Durham’s city council leaned pro-developer throughout the window of opportunity. The clearest evidence comes from 2024, when Bull City Public Investigators counted every vote on annexations and rezonings and found that the council approved almost all developer requests, often by a 4 to 3 margin [4]. No similar count exists for 2018–2023, but news coverage and council minutes from those years frequently show the council saying yes to developer proposals even when the Planning Commission was saying no [5 - 2019], [6 - 2020], [7 - 2021], [8 - 2022], [9 - 2023].

In November 2025, developer Regency Centers announced its plan for the Northgate site. It is aiming for a project called Ellerbe Square with a Target store, five smaller shops, and more than 700 parking spaces. Because the plan fits current zoning rules, Regency’s doesn’t need council approval to build it.

The pro-developer majority on Durham’s city council has been durable, persisting over the years despite shifting council membership, and splits into two tendencies. One camp, made up of business-oriented figures like current mayor Leonardo Williams and former member Mark-Anthony Middleton, often seems to see little different between developer interests and the public interest. The other camp, including current members Javiera Caballero and Carl Rist and former member Jillian Johnson, argues the city can't do much to influence developers without scaring off investment, breaking the law, or pushing landowners toward worse projects that don't need a rezoning.

In August 2022, Northwood Investors floated the idea of a life sciences campus for the Northgate site, which would have needed a rezoning. The WCA and NMNC encouraged the council to use any public hearing process extract community benefits, such as proffers of affordable housing that are difficult to secure otherwise. However, Northwood never pursued the rezoning request.

Jillian Johnson, who sat on the Durham city council member from 2015 to 2023, addressed the calls for rezoning in a September 2022 interview with Indyweek. “You can have a city-initiated rezoning”, she said, “but once a property is in the process of being developed, that becomes legally complex and is not generally a good idea … for us to try to use the rezoning authorities - there would be a lawsuit and we would lose.” [10]

In 2025, Middleton said there was "nothing" residents could do if developers ignored the Small Area Plan's advice. He told residents to focus their efforts on city-owned land, not on using zoning power over private land. Middleton said, “If you believe [the government] can tell other people what to do with their money and their land, then what do you think we can do with our own money, with our own land as a government?” [11]

The fear that a rezoning would lead to a successful lawsuit doesn’t appear well-founded, at least prior to SB 382. The relevant legal framework, called ‘vested rights’, only protects a developer that has spent a significant amount on the project (aside from purchase price), gotten a site plan approved, gotten building permits, filed formal applications, or started construction. Between 2018 and 2024, Northwood Investors never got far enough along to gain any of these protections [12].

A rezoning coming on the heels of an established Small Area Plan would have put the city on even firmer legal footing. Courts looked more favorably on rezonings emerging from an open planning process, since it shows the city acted deliberately and for clear public reasons, rather than rushing to single out one developer.

Nate Baker, a Durham city council member, said in September 2022 when he still sat on the Planning Commission, “They could have done a small area planning process on that site and then used the power of zoning to implement that.” He continued, “We can regulate uses: what is or is not allowed on the site, the arrangement of what’s on the site, the infrastructure. Creating new city blocks that weave into the existing fabric of surrounding neighborhoods on that site, for example. [The council] had plenty of time that the neighborhood was asking for help, long before this subdivision was submitted.” [10]

Northwood held presubmittal meetings, a required step with the Planning Department before a rezoning request can be submitted, in August 2022 and May 2024. In the May 2024 meeting, the developer proposed rezoning the Northgate site to Commercial General with a development plan, allowing research and lab uses alongside offices, shops, homes, and park space. Northwood never pursued this option, but when Regency Centers bought the site and revealed its Ellerbe Square plan in November 2025, it used a similar layout to the May 2024 proposal.

In December 2024, local governments in North Carolina lost control over many basic planning powers when the state passed SB 382. According to the News and Observer, the law “restricts municipalities from initiating downzonings, like reducing the density or number of uses of a property, without getting written permission from all affected owners” [13]. SB 382 went into effect for actions dating back to June 2024, closing the window of opportunity to rezone Northgate Mall.

Works Cited

1. Walltown Community Association. Building a Place for All People: A Community-Centered Vision for the New Northgate Mall. Apr. 2021, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60172f212e514a5b86eda855/t/608401f56a87341dd3dacf40/1619264025196/Northgate+Mall+Redevelopment+Survey+Report+%284.24.2021%29.pdf

2. Action Network. "Stand with Walltown on Northgate Mall Redevelopment." Petition, Walltown Community Association, 10 May 2021, actionnetwork.org/petitions/stand-with-walltown-on-northgate-mall-redevelopment.

3. Walltown Community Association. Walltown’s Alternative Deesign for Northgate Mall. Feb. 2023, drive.google.com/file/d/1pI_5IuroUek4_UYH6ghg4sMzB5UESmQH/view.

4. Constantine, Lucia. "How Durham City Council Voted on Development in 2024." BCPI: Open Sources, Bull City Public Investigators, 17 Dec. 2024, bcpi.substack.com/p/how-durham-city-council-voted-on.

5. City of Durham, North Carolina. "Regular Meeting Minutes, December 16, 2019." Durham City Council, 16 Dec. 2019, www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_12162019-1412.

6. City of Durham, North Carolina. "Regular Meeting Minutes, June 24, 2020." Durham City Council, 24 June 2020, www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_06242020-1495.

7. "Council Approves Multiple Developments Despite Objections." Spectrum News 1, 3 Sept. 2021, spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triangle-sandhills/politics/2021/09/03/durham-city-council-annexations.

8. "Hundreds of New Townhomes Headed to Eastern Durham after Tense 4-3 City Council Votes." AOL, 8 Sept. 2022, www.aol.com/hundreds-townhomes-headed-eastern-durham-205753448.html.

9. City of Durham, North Carolina. "Regular Meeting Minutes, April 3, 2023." Durham City Council, 3 Apr. 2023, www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_04032023-2408.

10. Geller, Lena. "Northgate Mall’s New Owner’s Plan Doesn’t Include Housing, But Durham’s Council Still Has Leverage Over Its Future." INDY Week, 7 Sept. 2022, indyweek.com/news/northgate-mall-durham-rezoning-walltown-plans/.

11. Johnson, Kristen. "Durham Adopts Neighbor-Driven Road Map for Northgate Mall Redevelopment." The News & Observer, updated 21 Aug. 2025, www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article311760620.html.

12. Lovelady, Adam. "Vested Rights." Property Owner Protection and Rights, LRC Study Committee, UNC School of Government, 3 Mar. 2014, webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewDocSiteFile/33865.

13. Gordon, Brian. "The NC Zoning Law No One Saw Coming (Including Many Who Voted for It)."The News & Observer, updated 20 Feb. 2026,www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article314745867.html