I know a group of the boy scouts left early in the middle of those speakers. Not certain if that was the reason or not.
I wonder if theyāre planning on raising the water line so that the creek is more like a river? A creek seems to imply only a few inches of water depth not much to safely navigate in a canoe like in the illustration.
Wait, non-Raleigh residents can speak at town council meetings? Iāve purposely never signed up to speak at a city council meeting because I donāt live within city limits. But if people are coming in from Cary and Wake Forest to speak about abortion, I would be positively delighted to sign up to speak about sidewalks and playgrounds and AAA-rated bike infrastructure and BRT and commuter rail and the CAM block rezoning and a ton of other stuff that is perfectly within the city councilās remit and would actually be an appropriate use of the city councilās time.
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Apparently yes.
Looking into this further Iām not sure that any of the 9 speakers last night were City of Raleigh citizens.
1 from Cary, 2 from Wake Forest, 3 from Garner, and 3 that did not list personal addresses but listed the address of their churches. Wake County Real Estate data does not turn up a personal address for the latter 3.
Back when Charlotte was passing their local ordinance with regard to restroom access for trans residents (the ordinance that led to the bathroom bill), all sorts of folks from outside Charlotte lined up to speak, and it went on for a long freaking time. Many of them were from the hinterlands.
Hmm. I attended a Durham council meeting last month and they required speakers to state their name and address. Surprised this isnāt the case in Raleigh and Charlotte.
They do ask you to state your name and address. This is how you know if the voices are coming from within the city or outside of it, but it doesnāt prevent you from speaking.
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I think the canoeist is there to remind you that there is in fact some surface water. No part of Rocky Branch is going to permit a canoe. Although there IS a wee little waterfall in this stretch of creek, not so much a waterfall as a slight correction of the streambed. Iāll take a picture on my way home today.
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Why are they speaking at council meetings? The council should kindly tell them to GTFO and go to their own local city/town/ or county council to push their agenda.
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Thereās about a foot of drop across the project so wouldnāt be any thunder even if water quality rules would allow it. I go to Rochester or Louisville for thundering water falls.
What was the outcome of the concerns about the internal street? Is it left as the developer proposed it? I have no feelings either way, just wondering.
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Still are concerns about the internal streets, namely vehicles queueing to exit, along with traffic concerns at nearby intersections. Merge seemed to imply they had solutions for these but didnāt present them at the meeting. They could either change the design of the streets or lower the amount of what they build which is sort of what Corey Branch suggested to the developers right around the vote.
These issues will come up during site review I believe when there are actual plans for buildings.
Behold, the Thundering Cascade of Rocky Branch. This is about 1/3 of the way along from S Saunders St toward the McDowell tunnel on that segment of the trail. Normally itās a bit more active but this creek segment has been a little flooded for the last month or so because a lot of branches and brush are damming up the entrance to the tunnel under McDowell. Need a good solid downpour to flush it out.
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Cannot wait to go whitewater kayaking there.
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I havenāt studied the flood maps and elevations butā¦ Where there is a trickle a body of water big enough to kayak on could be created with a simple dam
Not related to this project, but much to my surprise, Pigeon House has about a 2-3 foot drop hidden in the scrub up around Dortch Street. It created enough of a scoured pool to make a nice swimming hole for anyone willing to brave it.
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Going into Tuesdayās meeting, the southwest CAC had voted to recommend approval of the project 17-1, while the planning commission recommended denial 6-3, citing inconsistency with the cityās comprehensive plan.
Interesting. So the CAC voted for approval, but the Planning Commission recommended against. Iām not really up on the politics as relates to the Planning Commission. Anyone know the specifics of why this was considered to be unaligned with the Comprehensive Plan?
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Mitch - hate to see you left hanging here. You can watch the Planning Commission meeting here. This case starts at about the 2ā33" mark.
The short answer is that while most on the commission were generally supportive of the rezoning there were too many unanswered questions on the internal street, side walks, and design specificity for the commission to vote in favor.
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This is the typical chicken and egg conundrum. Planners want every detail worked out before they will approve a rezoning and the developers donāt want to pay to have all of the details worked out until they know they can get the rezoning.
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A tale as old as timeā¦
With so many buildings being proposed as a part of this project, I bet there will be maybe 1 or 2 tower cranes and 3 of the cranes used in smoky hollow phase 2 (please tell me correct term). This will be a fun project to watch play out!
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