The Ten really coming along on Person Street.
East Hargett Street Rezoning Case to Watch
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.
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.
- UDO – Zoning Remapping via City of Raleigh
- July 7 City Council Agenda Preview via Raleigh Public Record
- The UDO itself
12-Story Hotel Planned for Wilmington Street Moves Forward
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.
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.
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.
Rendering of The Dillon, Office and Residential in the Warehouse District
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. ;)
Pic of the Week
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.
Following Comments on RalCon
A website detail that I missed all these years is to provide a comments RSS feed URL. If you’re into the comments on this site or at least want to follow along the conversation, here is the RSS feed for comments only.
https://dtraleigh.com/comments/feed/
I’ve put a link on the sidebar for them as well.
Pic of the Week
Bank of America Plaza is currently renovating their lobby and the facade facing City Plaza.