Got a letter in the mail this weekend that the New Bern Station Area Planning will hit Planning Commission on Apr 26. I am seriously considering showing up to this one and speaking in support. No agenda posted just yet.
I do wonder though, as they have opened it up for online comments where property owners can request being removed from the rezoning, is it as simple as that? Ask and you shall receive? Wouldn’t that go against the intent of this whole thing?
I would strongly encourage everyone to do so. There’s a lot of NIMBY opposition here coupled with sincere (but incorrect) concerns about the rezoning accelerating displacement along the corridor.
Typically for design build projects like this, the city would have had another consulting design firm come up with an engineering estimate and if the other company’s bids are much higher, they will have a time to go back and try to find out why that is the case, then make adjustments after that and select the winning bid. The bids are graded on a technical score and each provide a total cost estimate. They then have an adjustment based off how well a technical score is and gives an adjusted cost (this is how creativity and good problem solving can be rewarded). It will be interesting to see what the bids come in at for this project.
There were a few requests either way for the Western TOD rezoning, staff responded with a mix of yay/nay, and council followed staff’s recommendations. One notable nay was Plaza West, whose owners want to update the shopping center without a complete redevelopment. I think they should just do that, but can sympathize a bit since it’s well below the road and there’d be topographical challenges involved with building something with Western street frontage.
I’m not sure why any property owner would opt out, other than to make a show of it. Why not keep your options open for the future? It’s not like rezoning forces them out.
Here’s the planning commission meeting for the New Bern Station Area planning item. It’s the only thing on it for the April 26 meeting. Starts at 4pm. Get in touch with me if you can make it out, I am most likely going.
I know when I drive down New Bern, I’m struck by the “beauty and history and character” of the built environment on either side. It reminds me of walking up Bloodworth in Oakwood or Lenoir in Boylan Heights, he’s nailed it.
Whereas Therefore WTAFH…
TOD (re)zoning would allow property owners to upzone to include density along a future transit route…Correct me if I’m wrong, but no one would have to sell their home. Full stop. No history would be immediately lost. Full stop. The FEAR of vanishing affordability is really based on speculation. Full stop.
Does anyone here really think that every homeowner in Oakwood, Hungry Neck, Longview et al is going to cash out collectively? To flip this another way, why the hell should the rest of the city pony up for this transit investment in ONE area if it doesn’t level UP and support more people across the soci-economic scale? Diversity is by definition different and inherent of change. Change can be difficult and especially so when you don’t control everything, but news flash — none of us controls everything!!! Every structure out here isn’t worth preserving in amber and who the hell are these folks to say that it should be…? Geez
Why am I getting the same vibe that I did when Abe Jones claimed that letting some guy in Cary bet on the Canes on DraftKings would turn the state into a brothel.
Well, some landlords may decide to sell once the land is upzoned and evict their tenants in order to prepare for that sale. So, we need to be mindful of renters for whom development presents a threat of displacement. I think we probably agree that upzoning is necessary for affordability in the long term but there can be short term disruptions that legitimately upend people’s lives. (I’m totally open to hearing that’s not the situation in this exact case. I don’t know how much of the land in question is occupied by renters or what the rules are on eviction.)
100% fair. We should factor renters and we should factor property owners and we should factor the civic benefit to making these moves that disrupt the status quo…As always, its nuanced.
Therefore 
WTAFH…