News
Majority of Wake County Supports the Transfer Tax
Public Policy Poll released a new Poll about Transfer Tax support in Wake County. Among likely voters in our rapidly growing county, a Transfer Tax is supported 49% to 40% opposing. This makes sense with the heightened awareness of growth problems in the area. As our green space is gobbled by sprawl, our infrastructure needs reinforcement to handle our burgeoning size. That is not disputed by either side of the debate. See What is Disputed below the Fold
Restaurant, Nightclub or Church
At the corner of Dawson and Cabarrus Streets in the Warehouse District is a fantastic building that has been occupied by various tenants over the years. A restaurant called The Warehouse used to be in the space a couple of years ago and the most recent tenant was Paul’s Catering. It has large open plan spaces, a dance floor and various other highly sought out amenities. It reminds one of the spaces that big city mobsters may meet at night for cigars and whiskey. Paul’s seemed to be having business problems and today’s evidence proves that. A real estate sign has been placed on the sidewalk adjacent to the front entrance and it simply states: Available Restaurant, Nightclub, or Church. Oh, the irony. Read more
Too Big?: Guess We’ll Find Out In January
The proposed text change (05-2007) that would adjust the zoning standards for new residential buildings and renovations in Raleigh has been postponed until January. The new Raleigh city council will be voting on it at that time. The text change will probably have a better chance of passing at that time since the new council could be more progressive than the current. Click here for more info.
Raleigh Property Values Jump 49%
It has been 8 years since the last assessment of property values in Wake County and it shows via the new numbers that were released this week. Various news outlets are producing different numbers for the county average as a whole, but one thing is certain; Raleigh-proper led all surrounding towns with a 49% increase. See More Dollar Signs Here
Too Big?: City Council Might Say So
On Tuesday city council will hold a public hearing to debate a significant adjustment to the Raleigh residential zoning regulations. If approved, new houses won’t be able to be as big as they are now. The proposed change would decrease the maximum residential building height from 40 feet to 32 feet, increases the minimum side yard setback from 5 feet to 10 feet and increases the minimum rear yard setback from 20 feet to 30 feet. Essentially this means that a property owner will have less space in which to build or renovate. Read more…
Planning Raleigh 2030 Workshops Tonight, Tommorow
Sometimes I slip on my civic duty and that certainly happened this week, please excuse the late reminder. Tonight and tomorrow are the second and third of the first set of Planning Raleigh 2030 workshops. November 14, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. McKimmon Conference and Training Center, NCSU 1101 Gorman Street November 15, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. North Raleigh Church of Christ 8701 Falls of Neuse Road Read more here
The Hurricane, Blazin’ Saddles, and Soho East: Closed
After three years of vacancy the Raleigh Depot was occupied by three nightclubs owned by a New York based developer. A few months after opening- all three have closed overnight. The clubs each targeted their own demographic but were marketed together both traditionally and non-traditionally with a blazing spotlight shot into the sky. During the club’s tenure several successful block parties had been thrown- with large crowds teaming in the streets for the surrounding blocks. Drama in da Club, Below the Fold
Pardon Me for Reading
Marketing. In most cases it is important to selling a product. Marketing can determine a product’s success or predict its downfall. After flipping through the most recent edition of The Downtowner, the following advertisment was found on the back cover. The ad is for the condo building under construction just east of Glenwood South, West at North. New Raleigh did not add the phrases “killer views”, “white picket fences”, and “bed, bath, and whatever” for impact. This is the exact paragraph and full marketing ad that appears on the back cover. Disclaimer: Read this with a circa-1985 Los Angeles Valley accent at your own risk. Full Advertisement and More Below The Fold
Five Points: Changing Faces?
Five Points might be the hippest, most authentic mixed use neighborhood in Raleigh. Authentic, because it has had a chance to mature and evolve over many years without some major development intervention or overhaul. Hip because of places such as Lilly’s Pizza and Third Place, and because of the close proximity of daily activities to houses and apartments. One could spend hours discussing why this area lends itself to urbanity. The highlighted area in the image above consists of three parcels, with a house on each, owned by Bobby Lewis. It has been rumored for some time that Mr. Lewis, principal of Raleigh Development Company, plans to tear down these houses and build something else. Read on…
Hillsborough and Morgan Roundabout Hearing: Round 3
New designs will be presented at the third hearing on the Hillsborough and Morgan Street roundabout tommorow today, November 7th at 1 p.m. at 222 West Hargett Street in council chambers on the second floor. Animation of the traffic design below the fold
Smedes York on WUNC’s The State of Things
Regardless of your opinion of Smedes York and his company York Properties- both have huge influence and power in this town. A former Raleigh Mayor, Smedes and his family have a long history in the area and York properties has control of huge portions of the city. Today WUNC’s Frank Stasio interviewed Smedes about his family business, development, growth, drought, transit in the greater Raleigh area. Listen to his personal take on the future of growth in the Triangle. Smedes York on the State of Things and the MP3 here
Hue Adds to Condo Alley
How did the newest condo building in downtown Raleigh get it’s name? “‘Hue’ was easier to type into a cell phone, said Jenny Martin, King’s business development director. “How hard is it to text ‘The Dawson on Morgan’?” she asked. “BFF. Hue. You do the math.” (FYI: Its initial name was The Nash, which would share the name with the public square that is located across from the construction site and itself only has 4 letters, but it seems not “hip” enough). Nevertheless, from this statement, an assumption can be made that Hue, the latest addition to Condo Alley, is attempting to cater to a younger crowd. The warehouse district seems to be slowly devoured by this type of development. Hue will add color to the area, but will it add character? What will its cornice twin neighbors think? And what about this marketing video that has made its way to Myspace and YouTube? More on Hue Below the Fold
Planning Raleigh 2030 Kick-off Event
Planning Raleigh 2030 Event Information From the City’s Website There will be short presentations made and background information available. This is a chance to meet and talk with the City Council, the Raleigh City Planning Commissioners , City Planning Staff, the project consultants, and the members of other City boards and commissions. Public input workshops will be held in three sets of three meetings each, for a total of nine public meetings. This first set of workshops, which will focus on the overall vision for the City’s future, will be held on November 13, 14 and 15. Each of these first three meetings will have the same format, function, and background information provided. Eventually public workshops will be held in all parts of the city.
Raleigh City Council Approves Oberlin/Pullen Roundabout
Hillsborough Street sucks. That’s why the Raleigh City Council voted to approve the first step in rejuvenating Hillsborough Street: designs for two roundabouts that would work to fluidly connect Oberlin Road with Pullen Drive. Why this is a significant planning move…
Rejected: Hillsborough and Morgan Roundabout Plans
Not surprisingly Mayor Meeker and the Raleigh City Council rejected the Hillsborough and Morgan Street roundabout design. The engineers decided to once again pitch the same flawed scheme even after receiving strong opposition during the first public hearing. More…
Follow Up: Zoning Hearing
How many egoists does it take to prove they are unconcerned with the destruction of Raleigh’s aesthetic and environmental integrity? Just one… but three can really screw it in. Rallied by undeserved applause, unifying t-shirts and the very audible comment of “she’s a socialist,” the re-zoning opposition group banded together to show their true colors—a zoning opposition based solely on the individual property owners’ right to as large a fiscal return on their property as possible. This large fiscal return would come from selling or renting of a property (hopefully NOT zoned R-4 in their opinion) as multi-unit dwellings or to have another behemoth mansion playing king-of-the-hill. More below the fold…
Public Realm and Walkable Cities Lecture
Need answers to these questions? What does it mean to be pedestrian friendly? Why is pedestrian friendly important? What characterizes a pedestrian-friendly city? How do we create a pedestrian-friendly city? What is the connection between design, development, and sustainability? This week you may get them! As part of the Raleigh Department of City Planning’s Designing a 21st Century City Lecture Series, Adrienne Schmitz, Director, Residential Community Development, Urban Land Institute , and author of various books including Creating Walkable Places with Walter Kulash, P.E., Principal and Senior Traffic Engineer for Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, of Orlando, Fla. will speak about The Public Realm and How to Create Pedestrian-Friendly Cities this Thursday September 20, 2007 at Kennedy Theatre in The Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. More Lecture Info Below the Fold
Lulu.com Relocating Headquarters to “Yellow Bulldozer” Building on Hillsborough Street
I received a tip this morning that Lulu.com may be relocating their headquarters to the “Yellow Bulldozer” site. Earlier this year the company’s founder, Bob Young, purchased the site. While Young’s original plans have continued to evolve, it looks at this point that he is considering moving the headquarters there, a scenario that was originally ruled out. If things go as planned the site would be redeveloped to meet Lulu.com’s needs and become the new North American headquarters for the company. That part of Hillsborough Street is very much a college area. Up until recently Google kept a Satellite office on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. This kind of strategic locating of offices allows company’s to build brand awareness and encourage local recruiting. It is assured that Lulu and NCSU graduates would benefit from this location. With Lulu acting as one of the few public facing, Web 2.0 style companies here in the Triangle, Raleigh’s downtown would benefit immensely from its presence. The number of startups in the area is only rivaled by silicon valley. Increasing the profile of the Web startups locally can only help enhance our image and encourage more of the “creative class” to move here rather than away.
Fallon Park, Five Points Rezoning Public Hearing
As the teardown issue continues to steamroll across the public eye via blogs, articles and community groups a critical juncture is forthcoming. The public hearing for the possible rezoning of the Fallon Park and Five Points area is tomorrow, the 18th at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber of the Avery Upchurch Municipal Building. More below the fold.
Follow Up: Raleigh Condo Market
From Housing Bust, Credit Crunch Hurt Jobs by Jeannine Aversa, AP [Monday September 10, 2007]“The first significant crack in the economy’s foundation appeared when a government report last week showed employers cut jobs for the first time in four years. But what’s going to happen next?... Q: What happened with housing? A: After a heady five-year boom, the housing market went bust more than a year ago. Sales cooled and so did home prices. The housing slump—the worst in roughly 16 years—has been the biggest weight on the national economy.” Since mid-2005, there has been much speculation of a nationwide real estate bubble, particularly in the residential housing market. Of course, each part of the country, and each city for that matter, has its own unique set of demographics, growth patterns and economic circumstances which factor differently into various financial ratios and economic indicators that help economists forecast numbers and trends in housing markets. For instance, median home sale prices in Raleigh rose a whopping 8.3% in the second quarter of this year, earning Raleigh the status of one of the Best US Housing Markets. More forecast and analysis below the fold.
