The 10 Arros project is probably, to the best of my knowledge, the first project in recent history to tackle our need for residential infill along the New Bern-Edenton corridor that’s not a single-family home. Just outside of downtown, this corridor is becoming a bit of a modernist corridor.
With New Bern - Edenton planning to be a Bus Rapid Transit corridor in the next 8 or so years, infill at higher density will be important. However, zoning that represents today’s density, as well as more restrictive neighborhood conservation overlay districts from the 1990s, exist in this corridor.
I predict a controversial debate in our future that say, “How do we upzone New Bern Avenue from downtown to WakeMed?”
Just last week two new projects of similar density were posted to the city’s website.
608 New Bern Ave. and 908 New Bern Ave. Replacing an older single family home and the Disabled American Veterans building. One offers 18 units while the second adds 24 units, and according to the plan descriptions both developments consist of only 1 bedroom condos? Either way both developments add the much needed density Leo was referring to along New Bern Ave.
SR-54-18 & SR-60-18
Much needed density on the east side. The market will be hot in this area in the future and I’m sure there will be more high density projects in the near future.
Most importantly, East of East St is completely free of any natural and man-made barriers, grid streets, and relatively flat meaning there’s a completely seamless transition into Downtown proper.
Yikes. 908 New Bern looks horrible and not very well thought out. Where are the front doors? How do you get to the doors? Seems to assume everyone will enter/exit by car into the garage. All the views are facing the neighbor houses? Most of the stuff they’ve done has been amazing but not so sure about this one.
It seems to me that this is Raleigh’s aesthetic. Personally, I like it. We can never be a city filled with block after block of historic buildings, and I prefer that we try not to pretend. Having this type of architecture weaved into the existing built environment makes Raleigh much more interesting, and it differentiates the city from others. It reminds me of how Raleigh has a wealth of mid-century housing because of NC State’s Design School. For me, this is just the natural evolution for the city. @Mike, yeah, where are the doors? Maybe there’s going to be skywalk the hovers so that visitors can enter from those rooftop doors? LOL
Any idea what the plan is for the lot occupied by exploris elementary? That’s a massive plot of land near downtown. Between that site and the dmv site there’s a ton of potential for that area.
Technically deeded as condos to get around the overlay restrictions. Also Woodpile owns that huge lot on New Bern and currently it’s being used by Exploris Elementary School, the owner of Woodpile, being part of Exploris’s founding. My guess is it won’t get touched until the new Exploris campus is completed.
So the folks who developed 10 Arros (Five Horizon’s Development) are doing 608/908 New Bern Ave. as well. I didn’t see any elevations for the 608 submittal but I’m assuming in will be in the modernist style.
Personally I am quite happy with the prospects here. I have always disliked the Disabled Vet building because it is completely out of character with the area. I like the density these projects are bringing. This is great news as far as I’m concerned.
The Woodpile property will be a big one. It is currently within the New Bern - Edenton NCOD which limits it greatly. In other words incentives the developer to build single family homes. (to the best of my knowledge)
If they seek a rezoning, it’ll easily be a hot topic for this council.
10 Arros went up against the overlay and were told ’ no townhouses’ so they just deeded the mas condos. Technical loophole, but it worked. Condos ala Towhouses.
I can appreciate some neighborhood overlays, but this one seemed to founded on absolutely nothing.
I also wrote about this. The developer confirmed that I got it right. I highly recommend this read so more people are caught up when the next episode hits on this topic.
the claim that this text change is some sort of watershed event is a load of BS, by fear mongering NIMBY types. The proposal addressees a segment of the population that are being priced out by new construction and their only other option is low-end rentals if they want to be close to the City. Russell Allen understands this need and is proposing an option to remedy this gap. We all know the East Side has been in desperate need of a makeover for years and this sort of proposal will help make the ‘math work’ for developers to build something that isn’t $750,000 every single time they purchase a tract of land.
I think Stef has good intentions but I just don’t like this “developers are bad” mantra that she, and a lot of others, are reinforcing. Developers are responding to what the market tells them and how they must operate under current code. Therefore, today’s market and code results in teardowns.
It’s a knee jerk reaction to put overlay districts in place and treat them like they are set in stone. The New Bern- Edenton NCOD was put in place in the early 90s. Here we are almost 30 years later. I think a responsible city should review the need for these every now and then.
I simply don’t think the NCOD has any effect on home prices in either direction. If the residents in east Raleigh…or anywhere really, are concerned about prices, this is not the tool that will get you there. I, personally, think the answer is building more downtown like areas…zone them that way, lay the streets out that way and provide transit and all of a sudden all the people looking for true downtown-like experiences, have more areas to choose from. Right now, the gook everywhere outside the beltline, is constraining everybody who wants that life, to a very very small area. To-date, everywhere that is described that way, is not very close. Briar Creek? Ha. North Hills? Eh, no. Carpenter Village? Almost, but no. These are the guts I want to see Raleigh display…not 60 story buildings. Build more functional City for crying out loud.
