I love how the image they used is a 12 story building, which is conveniently what it’s zoned for right now.
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Z-12-25 Developer hosted Neighbors Meeting Wed 6/25 6:00 PM at the McKimmon Center. This is the SECOND of the two required neighborhood meetings. I am sure the NO votes will be out in force at this meeting.
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I was told there are renderings out there. I wonder if they will get posted here soon? 
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For the park or for the buildings surrounding the park?
According to the letter that I received from Raleigh Development Company, the parcel rezoning request is not a monolithic 30 stories across the entire assemblage, rather one “with height limits that vary across the property” (their words). The developers envision a project that’s taller along Peace Street where the site is lowest in topographical elevation, and shorter along the northern portion that’s closer to the homes. Even then, I struggle to understand the harm in having a tall building within Raleigh’s tiny downtown boundary and (gasp/pearl clutch) 240 from the closest home that’s separated from this assemblage by a street + ix3 parcels + a railroad corridor. It’s not a context that anyone would choose if they were interested in completely controlling a circle around them. This should not come as a surprise. My guess is that these folks want EVERYTHING their way. They want to live close to downtown’s walkability, be in a area that prioritizes their car, and then control everything that happens around them despite choosing to live in this context. #nosympathy
I think that I’ve mentioned this before, and by zoning entitlement, the properties just to the other side of the railroad corridor from their homes can be developed as industrial mixed use and 3 stories high. Not sure what the setback would need to be from the rear of the properties and how high they can go with that entitlement, but that sort of development would have much more impact on their homes than a tower that’s on the east side of West St.
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Emailed Christina Jones expressing my support for the rezoning and she reached out to schedule a meeting and said she’d been meeting with the developers - don’t think I’m going to accept but interesting that she’s open to hearing other perspectives than the Livable Raleigh folks’s.
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By no means am I under the illusion that this is what we’d actually get, but at least this developer is envisioning a connection from the Smoky Hollow Park to/through their assemblage. This is exactly what I want to see happen with this property. IMO, any approval of the rezoning should tightly hold the developer’s feet to the fire to deliver on this vision.
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While these are excellent illustrations and I fully understand why both you and the public expect the final product to closely align with them, it’s important to recognize that it’s unrealistic for a rezoning submission to reflect every precise detail or require a fully defined final design. At this early stage, critical components such as structural engineering and exact construction costs have yet to be determined. As a result, flexibility is essential. Advancing the development itself should take precedence, even if that means modifying or removing some prominent design elements that, while visually cohesive, may not be feasible when the project moves into actual construction.
If developers were held too strictly to the artistic renderings, I believe you’d either see very rudimentary designs presented or projects simply wouldn’t move forward because they couldn’t execute on the optimistic intentions shown at the conceptual stage as actual cost are discovered.
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Maybe go back and read what I wrote in my post?
Let me say it again. I am under no illusion that this is what we’d actually get…
However, I do think that the city should hold them to the connection to the park, and to West St. that they are envisioning with these renders.
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That feels like a vague statement, as even a simple sidewalk on the site could theoretically serve as a connection to the park.
I interpreted your earlier post as beginning with a caveat acknowledging that these renderings likely won’t become reality and ending with the insistence that the city should make them happen.
Maybe just ask for clarification?
If nothing else, that wide, “grand staircase” in the illustration should absolutely be made reality.
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The flip side is that developers can, innocently or not, show features that attract neighorhood support but somehow disappear during the project. I saw this happen with a residential subdivision plan for the neighborhood adjacent to mine. The plan presented for public comment included a street… which was never built. The explanation was that the developer did not actually own the (vacant) parcel where the street was to go and could not acquire it under reasonable terms. Well, in that case, why wasn’t the developer required to indicate which elements on the subdivision plan were speculative? I posed this question to City staff who could not answer it. Years later, a house was dropped onto the parcel where the street would have gone.
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This is weird, I googled Spanish Steps and got this similar looking picture.
Original article: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/spanish-steps-rome-sitting-fine
I couldn’t get a picture, but new NIMBY yard signs just dropped. It just says “Tell City Council NO to xx (whatever the rezoning request is)”. Sadly no deceptive scale skyscraper in this one.
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It’s that 20 and 30 story rezoning request (it’s currently 12 stories). There is a large organized group that does not want that to happen.
What a bunch of whiny babies lmao
Like just be happy with your $1.5 million house that’s a 5min walk from anywhere downtown and shut up 
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Our city government needs to stop taking these people seriously.
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Some people in here need to get into the yard sign game I’m just annoyed every time I drive on Glenwood leaving downtown
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