You’re talking about the Station Area Plan document for the New Bern corridor, right?
That report mentions LOTS of specific policy proposals, though. (click me!)
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Designating specific parcels to submit city-initiated requests to upzone and/or apply transit-oriented development overlays to certain parcels. This gives transit-friendly features the same legal standing as other zoning requirements. (p. 65-77)
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Use that same rezoning process to require specific features for yards and sidewalks. This would be just like how the city asks developers in rezoning cases for specific features in the public interest -except now, the city would take advantage of that process to mandate such features out of itself. (Also p. 77)
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Measure specific kinds of data to track how the city is meeting its own expectations in the realms of mobility, housing affordability, and community development (p. 80). This includes, among others:
- Vehicle and pedestrian crashes
- “Ridership trends by stop/station” (presumably ridership per local density?)
- Number of existing + projected numbers of naturally-occurring (i.e. non-subsidized) affordable units
- Market surveillance on developments built thanks to density bonuses
- Census on new local jobs, annual local investment etc.
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Establish a New Bern Business Improvement District
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Build specific trail, bikeway, sidewalk, and greenway connections to improve vehicle-free mobility, building off of upgrades for existing infrastructure (p. 51-55)
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Fill gaps in sidewalks, and change right-of-way usage patterns in existing local roads (p. 40-47)
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Build new road calming features like roundabouts, especially around Tarboro St. (p. 45)
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Acquire the former DMV property as a potential site for new affordable housing units (p. 29)
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Coordinate city-backed messaging of the historic legacy of Black communities along the New Bern corridor, presenting it as three walkable corridors. This may seem symbolic more than a practical solution, but it’s still significant given that… y’know… they weren’t paid much attention to in the first place. (p. 34)
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Requiring financial and technical support for existing businesses that may be negatively impacted by BRT (and presumably, other related infrastructure’s) construction (p. 27-28)
It’s also important to remember that this policy doesn’t live on its own. Other new changes like design standards for busway-streets are also being developed, and city staff will be expected to put the correct combinations of standards together for each neighborhood and development application.
If you look closely at the City’s Comprehensive Plan, there’s a placeholder for future Station Area Plans like this one. This means the entire corridor plan like this one would become city policy, and future rezoning cases etc. will be expected to be consistent to it (unless there’s a good reason) per state law, just like the rest of the Comprehensive Plan: