I just went on a run from downtown up Capital to the new Wade Ave ramp and then come back around from St. Mary St. (I’m dumb to do this in the heat) Saw at least a dozen Sullivan signs. There were a couple Francis signs as well.
Is there a site where I can compare views of different candidates against each other? I’d like to put some signs in my yard since I live on a busy road.
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It doesn’t have District D!
I could not decide which area to put this in, but I decided here. This was the update I got from Stef today. I’m not even going to offer an opinion, but rather see what you guys think. Especially the last sentence.
Update from September 3 Raleigh City Council Meeting
- Council voted unanimously to approve the rezoning request from John Kane to build a 40-story building on Peace Street, near Capital Boulevard. It was a difficult decision, but after Mr. Kane agreed to include affordable housing in the development and to alter the plans as necessary, depending on the outcome of a traffic impact analysis, we approved the request. As one member of the Planning Commission described it:
Congratulations to everyone involved in this case, but especially to the four City Council members who pushed for a better project – and got it.
Bottom line: (1) Raleigh gets the density we want on a future bus-transit corridor; (2) we get vitally important affordable housing units included in the mix; and (3) we get an improved design. (Hiding that giant parking deck, for one thing.)
Most important, we establish the precedent that developers, when seeking an up-zoning, can help to meet our need for affordable housing. Even though – by state law – the city isn’t allowed to demand it.
Credit goes to Council members Russ Stephenson, Kay Crowder, David Cox and Stef Mendell. They never said no, but they didn’t say yes either until the project was improved and affordable units offered. The final Council vote: 8-0 in favor.
This is a case study of how Raleigh’s rezoning process should work!"
Yeah but at least we know not to vote for Kay already…
Is she talking about the fact that Phase 3 will hide the deck from Phase 1 (which isn’t improved design), or that they got some concession about not having a giant parking pedestal for Phase 3? Or that they got an agreement to have it screened better? In any event, they mandate parking and then don’t like parking decks… 
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I was in a debate today on another website about the upcoming election. When I used the term “Council of no”: somebody appeared to take offense. :-). They said that the current city council has passed 97% of all the zoning requests that have come before it in the last five years. Of course there’s so much more two governing a growing city than just zoning requests but does anybody know if this statistic is accurate?
While I cannot be sure, I think she is talking about the required screening they are putting on phase 3 parking deck in the massing model.
IMO, I think that this is not a fair statement without the actual proof. IMO if I or anyone says…“blah, blah” then THEY should have to back it up, and not the other way around. IMO
Yep, I’d concur with this. My response personally would be “Source?” If they can’t provide a link to the claim, assume it’s invented.
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That stat may be true. However, the term “Council of No” from my perspective comes from when someone or some company wants to do something and their first reaction is “No!”.
It’s when that someone or some company does NOT compromise but instead has to pander to the Council of No in order to get that passing vote. The Council of No is not interested in seeing things succeed, they hold everything tight, and act like all new things must go through the few constituents that they listen to.
The Council of No is not interested in long range plans for the better of Raleigh’s future. They are not working to improve the climate for small businesses, upward mobility, and are only making things worse for our housing affordability.
Sure things pass eventually but the Council of No is complacent and is holding power so that the city overall doesn’t change as fast as they like. THAT is my definition of the Council of No as I see it.
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I totally agree. There is so much more that goes into effective governing then just zoning laws and permissions. Several things come to mind like adu’s and even dockless scooters. More recently the underground trash bins. No no and no.
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Well, my husband has submitted a Landscape plan to Development Services. He continues to receive comments back from different sections of DS. They blame turnover, & different reviewers giving different comments back. Why doesn’t the Council address this? I’ve also heard this (disorganized review process) from a friend whose been developing small projects for 30+ years.
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To me this is a case study of a transactional process (what do I get if I give you X?) with no overarching policy guidance and no evidence that this deal will do anything to truly address the affordable housing issue.
The Council of No gets the ability to provide lip service towards having done something on affordable housing while staying true to their real agenda of preserving the “character” (whatever that means) of SFH neighborhoods, especially those ITB.
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I got the same email. Stef is wasting no time to pad her own shoulder on this. Also she sounds more pro density in this email than in previous responses. Kay and Stef need to go IMO
Affordable housing dollars go a lot farther if developed along the BRT lines rather than create another hurdle for the few developers that are bold enough to build on spec
Btw Durham does not have the BRT but shows us how Affordable housing is developed!
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I so wish that someone could publish the letter in the N&O and add commentary as to what the city council is REALLY up too…
Except they share her narrative. I wish we actually had investigative journalism here instead of crime stories from Fayetteville, headlines without any details, and this lazy reporting about downtown Raleigh development.
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Hey, the local section of the N&O is more than just crime stories from Fayetteville!
They also have stories from Charlotte, too!
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Or a company can just have a validation agreement in place, and only hand those out to the employees on the days that they actually present a ticket received when parking.