Year / 2015

by Leo Suarez

Municipography, 301 Hillsborough Street and Advent Church Building on Person Street

Municipography is a summary of current issues going through the Raleigh City Council and other municipal departments in the city. The point is to try to deliver any video, photos, and text associated with the discussions happening at City Hall or elsewhere. Since this is a downtown Raleigh blog, the focus is on the center of the city.

During this week’s city council meeting, the zoning request for the renovated church building at 501 South Person Street was discussed again. Also, a decision was made on how to sell the property at 301 Hillsborough Street.

501 South Person

If the video doesn’t load for you, click here and jump to minute 24.

This has been in the works for awhile. For a refresher jump to an older post about this.

After numerous conditions were included, it seems that both the neighborhood and the owner of the future restaurant came to an agreement. The rezoning was approved.

For more on this, I recommend jumping to “Prince Hall Rezoning Case Receives Council Approval” on the Raleigh Public Record.

301 Hillsborough Street

If the video doesn’t load for you, click here.

The discussion here was around how to sell the city-owned land at 301 Hillsborough Street.

There were some great points put out by Councilor Stephenson around our downtown plan and how the city should use the land to get some of the planned suggestions. (like a grocery store) However, the requests were very last-minute and most of council moved to approve the process of opening up the land for auction. In this scenario, there is no way to sell the land to a developer that presents certain types of plans.

It’s a money making endeavor only from what it sounds like. The money could then be used elsewhere. The current offer is for $3.1 million.

by Leo Suarez

Raleigh Union Station Construction, Summer 2015

Future home of Raleigh Union Station

This past weekend, I stepped out onto the end of Martin Street real quick to see if there was anything going on at the Raleigh Union Station construction site. The photo above was taken on Saturday and shows no visible signs of construction. (except the street barricades)

Perhaps last minute plans are still being worked before crews start making progress. I remember that the new station will be funded through a variety of funds coming in different directions so maybe that’s a slow process.

It just seems to be taking longer than expected seeing as how the first groundbreaking announcement was for March 2015 only to be delayed until May 2015. Here we are in July and still waiting.

Staying positive still at this point though.

by Leo Suarez

East Hargett Street Rezoning Case to Watch

title

Corner of East and Hargett

A rezoning request was submitted to the city for a few properties around the 400 block of East Hargett Street. This is directly north of The Lincoln apartments. (which is almost finished) It’s mostly surface parking and some bare land that used to be a small playground. In recent weeks, that playground and fencing has vanished.

Jump to the city’s development activity page for more.

Case Z-27-15 wants to have a zoning for neighborhood mixed-use with a maximum height of 4 stories. The urban limited zoning suggests buildings that go right up to the sidewalk with parking, if included, behind the building.

Not much else going on here but it’s one to keep an eye on. A little birdy told me to expect residential here. Given that the parcels in this request add up to only 1 acre, I would guess that townhomes similar to Peace Street Townes or The Ten could be it.

Click for larger

By the way, it’s a joy to see surface parking vanish also.

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Rezoning

Downtown Raleigh Proposed Rezoning map. Click for larger image or get the pdf.

Here’s a quick one while I catch up after a long vacation. Tonight’s City Council meeting has lots of good stuff in it but the highlight will be the Rezoning Public Hearing section under the new Unified Development Ordinance. Above is the downtown Raleigh section and below are some links to dive into.

by Leo Suarez

12-Story Hotel Planned for Wilmington Street Moves Forward

The Baptist Church Convention Headquarters on Wilmington Street.

The Baptist Church Convention Headquarters on Wilmington Street.

Back in January, we had several key rezoning requests (301 Hillsborough, Kane’s The Dillon among the others) come through the city and we’ve been watching them work their way through the system.

This week, the Raleigh Planning Commission approved the rezoning for a hotel that will go at the corner of Wilmington and Lenoir Streets. The rezoning is to allow them to build as high as 12 stories or around 146 feet.

Below is the video of the discussion. If you can’t see the embedded video, go here and jump to 59:00.

The controversy here is that the rezoning takes place within the Prince Hall Historic District and is inconsistent with numerous parts of the comprehensive plan. There are some that are also worried that a precedent may be set by approving this rezoning. There is also plenty of available land nearby that is outside of the historic district so why must this take place on this specific site, some argued.

First, a little bit about the site. Here is a snippet of a map of the Prince Hall District that includes the potential hotel site.

Prince Hall Historic District

Click for larger

Going from left to right (west to east) starting at the corner of Lenoir and Wilmington, we have the Baptist Convention Headquarters building, their parking lot and two historic houses. The next property is the driveway exit to the McDonald’s, which is mainly located on the southern half of this block.

The main argument, among others, for the rezoning is that the two houses are kind of “stranded” here around the activity of the McDonald’s and their parking/driveway. There’s little space around the houses and it is very difficult to make a case for renovation or saving these houses.

One of the conditions on the rezoning is that the developer will work with a contractor to move the houses more into the historic district as available land does exist for them. I think this is a good move as the houses could see new life when placed closer to the neighborhood compared to being alone here along Lenoir Street, surrounded by a fast food restaurant and other houses that are owned by Shaw University.

Historic houses along Lenoir Street could be moved.

Historic houses along Lenoir Street could be moved.

The Central CAC, members of the Baptist Convention, and owners of the historic houses were all in favor of this rezoning as well.

The rezoning passed with a 5-3 vote and will now go to city council for a final approval. That should take place in July.

by Leo Suarez

Rendering of The Dillon, Office and Residential in the Warehouse District

Rendering of The Dillon

Thomas Kenna, over at Capital Compass, has shared this rendering and package from Kane Realty. It contains a lot of information about The Dillon, the planned office and residential buildings for downtown’s warehouse district.

Take a look at the pdf yourself for more details on the project. There’s also a great photo of downtown Raleigh taken by yours truly in that brochure. ;)

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Charter Square south tower completes construction

Click for larger, wider view.

The south tower of Charter Square is having a grand opening today. From the press release:

The latest addition to the Raleigh skyline, Charter Square, officially opens this week. Located at the south end of Fayetteville Street, one of the most prominent addresses in Wake County, Charter Square is welcoming its new tenants to the building with an official grand opening celebration.

Eleven stories of stunning Class-A office designed for Platinum LEED certification, Charter Square towers above a sophisticated mix of premier retail, restaurants and metropolitan nightlife in the heart of a downtown district shining with a vibrancy.

There are still some construction fencing and barrels along Wilmington and Lenoir Streets as part of the final cleanup. The Lenoir Street closing notice isn’t on the city’s website anymore so hopefully the street will be open again soon too.