That’s in their plan, too. Their slide deck includes this map of grade separations. Grade separations seem to be spaced out at every 1/4 mile, and they’re all envisioned to also have protected bikeways, 12’ sidewalks, and shorter crosswalks.
This means the “mini-city” area in the rendering should also have two pedestrian paths to cross Capital Blvd.: one along Calvary Dr., and another across Millbrook Dr. It looks like they just didn’t make it onto the 3D rendering since it’s just supposed to be a conceptual illustration.
Calvary to Millbrook is 2000’ which is too long. There needs to be another crossing at the midpoint between them if they really want to load this area up with midrises like the 3d rendering shows.
The difference between 2000’ and 1000’ (or even 1/4 mile which is 1320’) is quite a lot when you’re on foot.
I’m looking forward to this project. It is much needed to help redevelop underutilized areas along the corridor while reducing pressure to continue sprawling outward. The growth of North Hill would seem to point to demand for more dense walkable environments. I’m particularly excited about Mini City. It won’t be easy but there is so much potential.
I recently also did my own version of the study which has some similar Greenway components but also focuses heavily on the street grid in the area as well as trying to drive development along this corridor of nothingness. Connecting Downtown Raleigh Part Four – North – Phil Veasley
This is a great plan! It’s been sitting collecting dust though for the most part. It would be wonderful to see these connections implemented to begin a greenway along Pigeon House Branch to connect into our downtown core. There are of course some longer term plans for Devereux Meadows, but it would be really a gamechanger to connect in neighborhoods north (along Capital) via a greenway into our urban center.
That would be awesome. It’s 5 miles from my house to downtown. That is easily biking distance. But currently, there is no safe way to get downtown with a bike. I could do it on my own. But no way I’m taking kids down Atlantic ( even with the new bike lanes).
For as well thought out most things seem to be here, and as many greenways that the city and region have in general it does seem that we’ve neglected making downtown accessible and even commutable (is that a word lol) via bike.
With the rise of E bikes and such, I think we should be shooting for the sky for bike infrastructure.
We should also be shooting for as much connectivity as possible grid wise in and out of Downtown to really get some added density right outside of our core. I feel like there’s so much opportunity which is why I set out to do the Connecting Downtown series.
Separating the greenway plan from the rest of it, I don’t understand why this one hasn’t be done yet. It’s creek side so that should be a bit easier to implement.
I think about this every time I drive down Capital Blvd into downtown why didn’t the city plant some trees, or shrubs or something after all the road construction was completed. As one of the main the entry points to downtown this has always felt like a huge miss. Are there any plans about this?
There’s a capital blvd plan from 2012 that touches on a lot of that. When they redid the Peace to Wade Ave part I’m thinking it was 100% state / federally funded. Any landscaping / lighting improvements that are above and beyond what DOT typically do would need to be funded by the city.
I’m thinking / hoping the city will do something soon. It may be time to completely redo the Capital Blvd study since it’s been 10 years and a lot of things urban wise have changed since then. That - or they could just go with my plan above and call it a day lol
It’ll be a phased approach much like how North Hills has evolved over the years. Currently there are two buildings planned to break ground soon.
No word on when (or if) 40 story buildings are coming. Also, the stadium is not funded and won’t be for a while. Much more on DT South in it’s thread. Downtown South development
The Planning Commission recommended most of the Capital Blvd. North corridor plan, with the exception of changes to the city street plan for that area (which the commission just didn’t comment on, rather than (dis)approving it). The other maps, including upgrades to BRT, bike lanes, denser land uses etc. were still endorsed, too.
The contentious 4-3 vote and the awkward omission is not exactly because commissioners are against walkable developments and local street connections that are bus, pedestrian, and bike-friendly; even the commissioners who voted against the motion still supported those ideas. Instead, the three “nay” votes (plus a failed motion to deny a recommendation) were more like protest votes because literally everyone overstates how much power the PROPOSALS for new roads on city maps have on actual city decisions -and it only does more harm than good.
Click to see what I mean.
As commissioner Jennifer Lampman put it, it’s clear that even just proposed road changes can piss off local residents and businesses. Even if these plans are just educated initial ideas, the authority of those lines on a plan get blown way out of proportion by literally everyone else.
But not only that, developers also think those proposed changes are exact, precise gospels that must be followed to a T (and they tend to not be able to secure funding unless such plans are in place). As commissioner Brian O’Haver put it:
It’s these sorts of anxieties that have produced multiple comments that criticized the corridor plan proposal.
Let’s be real: City Council will probably approve this plan (it’ll probably come back to the council later this month or in March?), anyways. But we still have a real, underlying problem of people drawing the wrong conclusions about their living conditions today due to land use plans years into the future. This issue will keep festering, at least, unless our new efforts to simplify the zoning process and educating people on it comes into play.
So that’s an opinion that’s weirdly getting attention -but isn’t the opposite true here? I thought the idea of gathering up pedestrian and bike traffic into defined, shared-use paths would make it safer to cross Capital Blvd. without a bike?
It would be wonderful to see these connections implemented to begin a greenway along Pigeon House Branch to connect into our downtown core. There are of course some longer term plans for Devereux Meadows, but it would be really a gamechanger to connect in neighborhoods north (along Capital) via a greenway into our urban center.
that greenway connection would be AMAZING.