by Leo Suarez

Municipography, Food Trucks and Raleigh Bikeshare

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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.

No embedded videos this week as for some reason, the city’s streaming video service is auto-playing the videos. I’m not into that.

Two long-talked topics were approved at this week’s city council meeting. The food truck debate has been a long one and a new pilot program will be rolled out to see how they operate on public property in and near downtown. Also, Raleigh will get its first bike share system in the coming years.

Food trucks

To watch/hear the discussion, click here.

The latest in the food truck saga is over the mobile food businesses operating in the public right-of-way. The plan is to designate five “zones” where the trucks can operate during the lunchtime hours. (10am-3pm) First Fridays will extend those hours to 8pm.

The five locations include:

  • The Warehouse District
  • Polk Street near the State Government Center
  • South State Street near the NC DMV
  • Bloodworth Street between Martin and Davie
  • The northern end of Moore Square

At this time, the Moore Square zone was dropped due to all the construction from the GoRaleigh Transit Station and Moore Square renovation.

The plan with the four zones passed unanimously and the new food truck pilot could be in place in 2-3 months.

Raleigh Bike share
To watch the video, click here and jump to around the 48th minute.

We talked about bike share in Raleigh recently and after a work session earlier in the day, the council decided to vote on it.

The plan was approved after a few brief comments. While councilors recognized that the city has needs outside of funding a bike share, the opportunity to have 80% of the installation costs covered by a federal grant was one they felt had to be taken. There was also lots of interest from the private sector to sponsor the system and the bike community was very vocal about their support.

“It’s up to you guys to use the system,” said Councilor Thompson. After three year, the system will be evaluated. It will most likely take two years to finalize the details and roll out the bike share system.

by Leo Suarez

Hargett Place Planning Townhomes on East Hargett Street

400 Block of East Hargett Street

Corner of East and Hargett, March 2016

New development plans for Hargett Place, a 19 townhome project, were submitted to the city. After a successful rezoning in July 2015, the plans are moving forward to wipe out the surface parking lot on the 400 block of East Hargett.

The one acre lot will consist of 2-bedroom units spread across four buildings. The site plan below shows the makeup of the townhome buildings.

Hargett Place Site Plan

The plan doesn’t show much but I want to say these will be similar to Peace Street Townes, at least in the building configuration. Vehicle driveways will be on Hargett and Bloodworth. As Hargett is identified as a key bicycle route, having the vehicle driveway doesn’t quite make sense. At the same time, 19 townhomes probably won’t generate that much traffic to make a difference so for me, not too worried about it.

Not much else here, except to reiterate the fact that I love seeing surface parking disappear. Bring it on.

by Leo Suarez

Food Hall and Market in the works for Warehouse District

Former Buckhead Saloon space.

Empty warehouse at 117 South West Street.

This week, the folks at the Hibernian Company announced plans for a food hall and market in an empty warehouse on West Street. This space was formerly the short-lived Buckhead Saloon but was really made popular when Jillian’s was in there for (I think??) over ten years.

There’s no name for the spot yet but the new market will house a variety of food vendors, a food court, and event space across the 21,000 square feet of warehouse. The group is hoping to open in Spring of 2017.

by Leo Suarez

Stone’s Warehouse Goes Mixed-Use With Townhomes and Retail Space

Stone's Warehouse

Stone’s Warehouse, February 2016.

Plans are surfacing a bit on the future of Stone’s Warehouse, the former bus repair facility and senior health care center located at 500 East Davie Street. The future mixed-use site will include retail across both the existing warehouse building and a new construction building. 15 townhomes will also be built on the site.

If not familiar with the site, pan around it here on Google maps to see Stone’s Warehouse and the former Rex Senior Health Care Center buildings. The warehouse will be renovated while the white building where the health center once was, will be removed. To the south, the open area will contain a public plaza and new building for additional retail space.

View of Stone's Warehouse from Google Maps

View of Stone’s Warehouse from Google Maps

Looking at the plans, I see some smart, urban aspects to the layout of the buildings and how the plaza incorporates into the fabric of the neighborhood. The Administrative Alternate Request that was submitted for this project shows the public plaza and crosswalk creating a connection through the block from the Chavis Way greenway on to East Street. From the request:

The pedestrian access will physically and visually connect Chavis Way and the adjacent greenway to the plaza amenity and through to East Street through a series of cross-access agreements, effectively segmenting the parking where an island would normally be located. The plaza will be open to the public as well as tenants and is supported as an approporiate use of an urban open space for a mixed-use proprty by City of Raleigh through their RFP process.

Trees that are currently at the site will be moved to align with this plan, as shown in the sketch below.

Pedestrian Cross-access planned for Stone's Warehouse.

Pedestrian Cross-access planned for Stone’s Warehouse. Click for larger.

The 15 townhomes will line Chavis Way, built in sets of five resulting in three separate groups of units. The plans appear to show garages for the townhomes so residents won’t have to compete for parking. 52 parking spaces will be included as well to support the retail buildings.

This is a great, unique project in a transitional area. Residents in the core should have an easy time walking to the site while those in neighborhoods should not have difficulty getting here by bike or car. It’ll be great to watch the renovation take place.

by Leo Suarez

Time Warp 2016 Rolls Back to the 1950s at the COR Museum

Time Warp 2016

The City of Raleigh (COR) Museum’s biggest party of the year, Time Warp, is coming up and I want to invite all readers to save the date for April 23. This past year, I have joined the Friends of the COR Museum and am helping with raising awareness of the museum and working towards enhancing the membership experience.

I’m having a great time working with passionate folks on the board and I think the best way you can support our city’s museum is to come to Time Warp. There will be food, drinks, music, and an auction, all around a 1950s theme.

You can find out more information as the event team releases it at this page: Time Warp 2016.

Let me know if you’re coming. The toughest decision for Time Warp? Letterman or leather jacket, fellas?

2016 Time Warp

Date/Time: Sat., April 23 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
COR Museum
220 Fayetteville Street
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601