Rockway (formerly Park City South) - Saunders/Lake Wheeler Apartments and Retail

I’d say that they are also entitled. From the City-Data forum, you should hear people complain that they can’t go to Morgan Street Food Hall without abundant free parking right at its doorstep.

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Morgan Street seems to not care as its packed during dinner hours so let them complain.

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Oh, I totally agree.

Would be nice to have a greenway type of sidewalk on Lake Wheeler from the Farmers Market to Saunders. The same paved style they have further up Lake Wheeler just outside the beltline all the way to the Food Lion shopping center.

Then riding a bike or walking to DTR would be free of having to walk in the road.

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I agree. Even coming from the south up Lake Wheeler there is not good way to get to Maywood on foot or bike from the Centennial/LW intersection. You have to get in the road or on the grass/ditch areas for a bit.

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Most don’t know, but Lake Wheeler is actually a state-owned road, not city. So…any attempts of the city to improve pedestrian (as well as bike) access along it, has to go through an extra layer of bureaucracy via NCDOT approval…

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Not to mention that the city tends to not build sidewalks along a rode until it is built out to it’s projected lanes. It’s basically a waste of money to build sidewalks now until the road gets widened.

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Are there any plans to expand Lake Wheeler ?

The COR has done a corridor study on the part of Lake Wheeler Rd between I-40 and Tryon Rd back in 2013 but to the best on my knowledge there is nothing going on with the part closest to downtown.

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I didn’t think so… the lower section of Lake Wheeler, from Centennial to South Saunders needs some sort of pedestrian access. I don’t know how many times I see people walking along Lake Wheeler as I’m driving along. I’m shocked that someone isn’t hit almost everyday. Some sort of temporary sidewalk/path through the edge of the Dix property could be something until the city/state get their issues sorted out. I would be safer and not too expensive…

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How are sidewalks a waste of money? And why does Lake Wheeler need to be widened? So we are supposed to wait another 15 years before congestion gets to the point where the DOT decides it should be widened, another 5 for them to plan it, 3 years of construction, 10 years for developers to patchwork the sidewalk into their site plans, and then maybe the city/NCDOT will complete the damn street. What a joke this town is with infrastructure spending.

Well of course it would be a waste of money if you put in sidewalks and then had to tear them apart some years in the future whenever it does get widened. Future street plans for the COR has it as a two lane divided avenue. And speaking from experience sidewalks are not added until the road is upgraded and curb and gutters are installed. I think it would be more likely that maybe a greenway type trail might be added to the Dix Park side as part of the park plan. Just because we all agree that sidewalks would be great in this area does not mean that they will be installed any time soon. And infrastructure spending is costly. There is always a trade off of higher taxes in order to increase infrastructure spending.

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BikeRaleigh shows plans for a protected bikeway from Tryon to South Sounders along Lake Wheeler.

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Really? So whats the point of even paving the road? By your logic nothing should ever get done because at some point it might get changed…maybe. All urban roads should have sidewalks. All urban intersections should have crosswalks. It should be a requirement, especially when they are in such close proximity to a downtown area.

You are right about one thing - Raleigh is nothing but a tax haven.

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Thanks for sharing this. I had not seen these plans. They show a Seperated (sic) Bikeway along Lake Wheeler that somehow crosses I-40.

Wondering how you do a truly separated bikeway at an interstate interchange. Map shows a proposed greenway trail along the same route. Hmmm.

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It’s not my logic. It’s reality. Of course all city roads should have sidewalks and all urban intersections should have crosswalks. But in reality many roads were built years and years ago without sidewalks and/or crosswalks. The COR has a sidewalk program where they spend a lot of money each year putting in new sidewalks along those many areas of Raleigh where no sidewalk was originally installed. COR has a WalkRaleigh program where you can request sidewalks and they have a ranking system for determining which sidewalks will be built first. I think that a lot of infrastructure is happening all around that you may not actually be aware of…

https://www.raleighnc.gov/projects/content/PlanDev/Articles/TransPlan/PedestrianProgram.html

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Same. People walk with traffic on the side of LW and it’s a miracle they don’t get hit. And they have to widen on the side of Dix park because those houses are too close to the road as is.

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Golly I hope so. Hey sort of off topic but here’s some pics of the soon to be completed pocket park in my hood off lake wheeler - the Sierra Lineberry park.

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These parcels are in one of the four focus areas in the Southern Gateway study, called Old Saunders. Lake Wheeler is envisioned as having high density residential facing Dix Park and much better pedestrian facilities. You can read more here: https://www.raleighnc.gov/content/PlanDev/Documents/UrbanDesign/SouthernGateway/SGCSFinalReport.pdf

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I live on the other side of Lake Wheeler and drive by this park sometimes. Looks nice and seems to be almost complete.

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