When a project has surface lots (ahem…North Hills), it stops being an urban development to me, and just a dense counterfeit.
Well that’s pretty dumb! Most of the surface lots at north hills are going to be developed it just takes time to build out such a massive area.
Do we know which ones specifically they are planning to redevelop?
Seems there have been plans shown to develop the parking lot’s along west side of sixforks as well as we know for sure there are plans to build on the ones around the JC Penny store area.
Thank you for personally calling my opinion dumb. I appreciate it.
I am happy to have you disagree with me, but I’m not changing how I see it.
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That’s fine I simply think a few surface lots does not exclude an area from being urban. Downtown Raleigh is littered with them.
I agree. The city went through a few decades of trying to suburbanize downtown to make it compete with the actual suburbs. It was a mistake, and it’s slowly being rectified.
That said, adding surface parking as a matter of course in a development that is trying to be urban today, is playing to that same suburban narrative.
I understand that cars are still a necessity in our city because enough viable options just aren’t there yet. IMO, resorting to surface lots reinforces a car oriented land use, despite its urban makeup.
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I see your point, and don’t get me wrong I hate surface parking. I think that given some more time many of the lots at North Hills and hopefully many downtown will disappear.
There may be planned obsolescence of North Hills’ surface lots, though I’m not aware of it. I’d have to see a long term plan of the overall site to comment. That said, my comments here are more about this particular project. I don’t see how these surface lots go away in the future.
Some of the current parking in the new section of North Hills is a temporary newer addition, and is being replaced by the Walter, etc. as they get going. That’s maybe what he’s talking about?
Most lots at NH have tentative plans, the large lot next to Advance auto parts has always been show on maps of a full NH buildout as having a structure. The same goes for the small lot next to the Hyatt hotel, the lot behind the Cardinal is where their tower is planned. In the main section of NH the new plans he released will eliminate that large open lot behind JCpenny and the two story parking deck back there. We also know Kane has long eyed the Exxon station and surrounding lots for a tower so this could happen in the future as well.
Sorry for the rambling response I just didn’t want to have to dig to get images of the maps and stuff.
The north side of North Hills (or is it east?) has been planned for the lots to become buildings since day 1. In the past 4 or so years we’ve seen 3 of those lots, one of which was never more than dirt, become buildings. I think there is one left. It doesn’t surprise me much that Kane has been more focused on that side. Once land runs out, the old North hills will go the same way, which is starting in the near future with JCPenney developments.
Beyond NH’s, that whole area is about to become a whole lot closer to urban. North Hills was very suburban to start and was by design to grow to be more urban as time went on. Honestly I think you picked a poor example, since parking lots are being torn up as we speak.
Sorry, North Hills is still suburban. It’s nearly exclusively accessed by car. You drive there and then you walk around. Sure there are people who live there and can walk around it without getting in their cars. Sure there are a few blocks of single family homes that are in walking distance, but they are walking their from their very suburban neighborhoods.
There’s no connection to an urban development in any direction, it sits on top of an Interstate loop, and is bisected by a major suburban artery that connects to that Interstate loop.
Is North Hills better than other suburban development? Absolutely. Is it urban? Absolutely not.
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It’s a glorified office park lmao 
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My point was, you’re not wrong, but that’s in the process of changing…very, very rapidly…
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Yep, I agree. Very dense suburban.
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So is Virginia Highlands or Buckhead in Atlanta…but most consider both quite “urban”
Then the misinformation campaign has been successful.
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