Interesting up to 12 stories for the whole site. Would’ve guessed they’d have done PD zoning instead? Hopefully Boylan doesn’t fight this.
16 Likes
Really interesting, especially since the most recent plans I can find (from 12-18-2024 don’t show anything close to 12 stories. Maybe they’re thinking about that for the future phases.
PDF was too big to post. Click here and you’ll see the link under Plans, Flyers & Handouts
14 Likes
Checked that PDF and I am relieved to say they are now planning at least 1000 apartments, which is the absolute bare minimum for what would be acceptable on a site this big. Heritage Park Development - #50 by orulz
I note there are several site plans that respond differently based on what is done with the Dawson/McDowell/MLK interchange. Perhaps the plan that keeps the interchange as-is has taller buildings requiring the DX-12 zoning. Or perhaps they are keeping options open for upsizing future phases. That would be nice because while I can reluctantly accept ~1000 units, I would like to see them be more ambitious than that.
15 Likes
None of these have enough retail space planned along South St. - which should absolutely be considered a future retail corridor. Wipe clean and start again, please!
13 Likes
I don’t think I see this ever happening in this corner. You’ll have spotty retail/restaurants, but with Boylan Heights so close and the bordering by Dawson, train tracks, and western, a long road of retail would be unlikely.
I’d be happy to replace all empty lots with housing and convert all of the old storefronts into more usable spaces.
1000 apartments seems pretty okay for a city run affordable housing project, is that significantly more than the current setup?
1 Like
Yes – the current set up has closer to 150 or 160 units.
3 Likes
I am hopeful with Kane involved and all the massive amount of apartments coming, not to mention the new Red Hat and Convention Center, that South Street and nearby areas will draw in more retail. It is bound to happen.
4 Likes
Everything is dependent on funding and the partnerships involved, if there is a public-private partnership. Also, the state no longer incentivizes affordable housing and the NCDOT could easily say no with doing away with their interchange. Ambitious plans are great until reality sets in.
3 Likes
I personally don’t care for the “space between urban and suburban” that this design direction seems to signal.
3 Likes
South street doesn’t really matter anymore and is now much less useful as a future retail street, because council (with extremely vocal support from most of y’all) just voted to disconnect it from downtown in order to rebuild Redhat Amphitheater.
Don’t need to relitigate that one, per se, but South Street’s usefulness as a retail corridor took a big hit with that loss of connectivity.
1 Like
“Retail corridor” doesn’t need to be a highly trafficked vehicular street, at all. In fact, all the better if it’s more pedestrian oriented, as increased foot traffic is what will drive more retail success.
Currently, that section of South St (the section that Heritage Park abuts) has a ton of cool retail, and has actually increased retail offerings just over the past year, and the apartment project that will (FINALLY) fill in that useless pit on the opposite corner plans retail all along South St.
With that said, the more the merrier, as more retail offerings on a primarily pedestrian street will only increase visitation of all retail stores (though, get real dude, it’s not “disconnected” from downtown, it’ll just take a few extra turns to get onto South St from downtown lmao)
12 Likes
As a reminder, South St. isn’t a thru-street to the east of Downtown. In fact, it currently only extends uninterrupted to East St. itself. Lenoir is way more important for E/W travel and it’s only a half block north of South.
8 Likes
TBJ just posted an article about this development. They provided a more detailed rendering.
Says construction will start in fall of 2025.
22 Likes
Hold up, if you’re gonna post about the TBJ article, don’t leave out the new(?) details:
The phased approach would presumably help to make sure that current residents can still stay in Heritage Park (it’s prohibitively expensive to move if your income is limited, and… I can’t believe I need to spell this out, but the whole point of affordable housing is to not screw over low-income households). So it’s a long timeline, but it sounds reasonable and necessary here.
16 Likes
Damn, still such a suburban, underutilized layout. Glad to hear they’re going for more height but IMO still not enough height. There’s a 20-story apartment building right at the end of the damn block. And with only 2 planned retail spaces, what a waste of potential. They only really have one shot to get this right, and IMO this simply doesn’t go far enough.
5 Likes
It’s an improvement, honestly more of one than I expected given the Triangle’s general love of suburban layouts. Love that the parking doesn’t face the street. It’s fine.
6 Likes
Please read Keita’s comment before you complain, thanks!
3 Likes
The timeline can still be made to allow current residents can stay while first phase is built out… with a much more expansive and dense/mixed use phase 1. Then a more dense/mixed use phase 2 and so on. Everything proposed in Raleigh seems like nobody is thinking more than 3 years ahead while Raleigh continues to grow tenfold.
Don’t forget that funding is a big decision maker and the state no longer subsidizes this type of housing so… It’s important to keep in mind that each affordable unit is really expensive to build/maintain. Also, the FHA has “recommended/required” funding applicants, cities, to only build mid-level residential public housing to prevent the negative ills (too many people of a certain group) from tarnishing the neighborhoods, but maybe this has changed since it’s conception.
7 Likes
I am waiting to see what blowback happens from this rezoning request. It seems a little too good to be good to be true that this will actually make it through the process IMHO. But I guess we will see. I will say this…if not this location, where? What do we plan to do? Nothing? That doesn’t sound like a great plan either. Tent cities? Jails? Build more shelters? I can tell you that will go over like a lead balloon in any residential area. Hard questions. Harder solutions.
10 Likes