Side by side, or stacked on top of each other?
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Side by side, less parking space and multi-family 
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City is soliciting proposals for developing rental housing on two sites. One in the Prince Hall district, one just outside. Both zoned for 3 floors.
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423 S. Blount goes up to the Planning Commission tomorrow
https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/the-raleigh-wire-service/748/2232?u=oakcityyimby
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PC recommended denial of this rezoning case. Interesting argument but I’m not sure I entirely agree which probably comes as no surprise to anyone. I’ll drop the video here starting at the presentation by the owner, who is Souheil Al-Awar who you might know behind The Saint townhomes as well as the bar Clockwork on North Street. There are renderings if you’re into that. 
From the lady who spoke :
“This application really is about the continued systematic dismantling of the first historic overlay district that was dedicated to the recognition protection and celebration of the cities black history culture and heritage”
Now do we see what we’re up against? This is a vacant lot, one block from our central business district, that was asking to rezone to 12 stories? Amazing.
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It’s such a historic vacant lot though. Frankly, it sounds pretty problematic that you’d even consider building a 12 story building on it 
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But when actual historic buildings are slated for demolition… 
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Exactly. I mean, someone wants to build on a vacant lot and the next-door neighbor, the Masonic Lodge, supports it, as a partner. There are no immediate neighbors at this time also.
Again, I do think we get distracted by what they want to build versus the fact that this is a rezoning case, not a project approval case. I wonder if you could make people feel better with a condition that if the owner changes hands then the zoning falls back to it’s previous one.
You also have a case where a local developer wants to build and Souheil has a good track record. If the local guys can’t do it then you’ll get a building like the one next to it; the freakin’ Marriott TownePlace Suites. Which would you rather have?
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The existing property owners of the empty parking lots in Prince Hall are going to sit on their vacant lots until they can be rezone and then they can sell them/develop them to their full potential. The planning commission today mentioned that they will be looking into the Prince Hall district further at a meeting potentially in August. I believe to address the items highlighted by the State Historic Preservation Office.
So, even if this gets rejected (and I don’t know a whole lot about the process), I don’t think this is completely dead in the water. The planning commission appeared to want to address the root cause of pulling lots out of the district. Which makes sense. If you just start approving everything to be removed, then the district doesn’t mean a whole lot.
So, hopefully, they address this en-masse for all vacant lots and we’re done with this process.
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Thank you for highlighting that letter which I read this morning as it was appended to the staff report. Thought the staff did a good job assessing the Comprehensive Plan issues including noting the consistencies with the written goals and policies within the Comp Plan. It’s not just about mapped boundaries.
This rezoning is at least temporarily hung up on the district boundaries change aspect (and hurt feelings re: previous district reductions). Releasing all vacant lots and really preserving historic buildings is seemingly the way to go. But may take a while to get there.
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just curious, did the speaker in some way, if not exactly articulating it, desire for the vacant lot to be utilized for a black developer in town or in some way a function to benefit or enhance black raleigh history? i bring this up because there seemed to be a lot of shaw u discussion recently.
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I love this house so much. I’d love it so much more if it wasn’t a SFH one block from our Main Street.
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The lady who spoke literally held up a picture of this exact house as an example of what she would like built on the vacant lot on Blount St. We’re doomed if we allow every single persons objections to be spoken as gospel.
The next guy who spoke was complaining about the building on the lot previously and how there was no recognition to the old building in the new rendering. Here is a picture of the old building in 1996:
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I’d have no problem if they built the same style building as a 4-plex or small apartment building. Material wise the money probably wouldn’t work but I just don’t understand why some view anything other than a big SFH as bad.
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That was infuriating when I watched it. What provides more economic value to the city? Which one does Raleigh need more?
- One single-family home
- A boutique hotel with 70 rooms
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Yeah it’s not SimCity/Cities Skylines, what we want built is pure fantasy only the property owners can decide what they ultimately do with their property. That is why that zone UDO change that defined building heights in Raleigh is such BS. The downtown center of activity is not Fayetteville Street it’s Glenwood South/Warehouse District.
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The irony is not lost on me that a White woman who lives in the district is speaking about the possible destruction of a historic Black district. Is Karen now the new White Savior?
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There is a thing going on where lots of white homeowners along New Bern are all speaking against the TOD. This reminded me of that situation.
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