Durham residents packed City Hall to speak out about a rezoning request—but never got the chance.
DURHAM, NC — In a dramatic and unexpected twist at Monday’s (Aug. 5) Durham City Council meeting, Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay abruptly withdrew its controversial rezoning request of a 10-acre property in the historic Hayti neighborhood—leaving the project’s future uncertain and the community reeling.
The site, known as Heritage Square, sits just south of downtown Durham along Fayetteville Street and Lakewood Avenue, adjacent to the Durham Freeway. Once home to a bustling shopping center, the land has remained vacant for years and was slated for redevelopment as a sprawling life sciences campus and residential complex. However, the proposal had drawn fierce community backlash over concerns about gentrification, displacement, and a lack of affordable housing…