Village District Developments

Spero · July 13, 2022, 1:27pm

TedyDuchamp · July 16, 2022, 6:16pm

Construction fencing is up around 615 Oberlin, I don’t remember hearing anything about this site, does anyone know what is going on?

Jake · July 18, 2022, 12:42pm

Noticed this last night! Hoping they knock that ugly building down and put at least 6-7 stories there.

Samuel · July 18, 2022, 1:07pm

1 story bank with drive-thru.

oakcityyimby · July 18, 2022, 1:11pm

Welp, they did manage to find something less inspiring than the current two-story office building, so that’s… special.

Jake · July 18, 2022, 1:47pm

OMFG WHEN WILL THEY STOP DOING THIS SHIT?? Why is everything surrounding Cam. Village becoming such a waste of valuable space???

Deekay93 · July 18, 2022, 2:16pm

They’ll realize it in 15-20 years when downtown keeps sprawling outwards.

atl_transplant · July 18, 2022, 2:27pm

Until zoning just flat out doesn’t allow auto oriented things in urban areas, we’ll continue to get that because it’s cheap and low hanging fruit.

They did good with the missing middle and transit text but next step needs to be more-so what shouldn’t be allowed such as drive throughs etc.

Nonnative · July 18, 2022, 2:32pm

Who goes to a physical bank branch anymore? I don’t remember the last time I needed to go to a bank and would be happy to never have to step foot in one again. It is just to cater to business customers? I don’t believe they’re running services like wealth management or investment services out of these branches so I’m genuinely confused. Feels like one of those signs that these large banks are behind the times by investing in standalone brick and mortar locations.

Jake · July 18, 2022, 2:38pm

I mean… at the rate we’re going, it won’t even be another 5 years before these lots start becoming more enticing to developers when everything in the immediate downtown area is bought and redeveloped. In my unprofessional opinion, everything down Clark and Oberlin that immediately faces The Village should eventually become 5-6 story apartment/retail buildings at minimum (like many of the smaller-footprint, parking-in-the-back apartment buildings that have popped up on Hillsborough St lately)

Anti-carAction · July 18, 2022, 4:38pm

Raleigh needs to follow Minneapolis’ lead and ban drive throughs.

oakcityyimby · July 18, 2022, 4:48pm

Oh lord, that’s not getting through outside the Beltline. I’d start with DTR and immediate outlying areas and go from there.

John · July 18, 2022, 5:44pm

Let’s start with banning drive-thrus in the downtown footprint.

haus_of_chad · July 18, 2022, 5:54pm

I mean… depending on what you classify downtown as, are there not only two? McDonalds on South St and McDonalds on Peace St? The next closest would be the Chikfila in the Village District (ayyy back on topic) and then the ones on New Bern (Bojangles & CookOut).

I mean tbh, that’s not that many… The only one I think is out of place is the McDonalds on South St. I’d like to see it in a non-free standing retail space instead. The other one I could be convinced of is the Chikfila in the Village District, but all hell would break loose haha.

John · July 18, 2022, 5:56pm

Maybe only two now, but who’s to say that there won’t be more of them?
This is the time to ban them so that it doesn’t get out of hand.
The Village District, while close to downtown, isn’t downtown. Its entire model is based on the car. It’s likely a couple of decades away from TVD being car independent, or at least significantly less car dependent.

Anti-carAction · July 18, 2022, 6:03pm

IMO, places can be car dependent without being auto-oriented. The village district (excluding chick-fil-a) itself is a great example of of walking that line. There is just enough parking, not too much, wide sidewalks, and slow-moving streets. Banning drive throughs is just one of the steps that I think the city should take to encourage other car dependent developments to create similar environments.

Jake · July 18, 2022, 6:46pm

You’re only mentioning the fast food drive-thrus though - this is a bank, and there’s TONS of banks with drive-thrus in the downtown area (so many of which located in The Village)

apple3feet · July 18, 2022, 7:07pm

Krispy Kreme has a drive thru, right?

John · July 18, 2022, 7:32pm

Yes it does! Good catch.
In addition to all the banks, TVD also has a drive thru pharmacy and a drive thru cleaners.
What others are lurking out there?

haus_of_chad · July 18, 2022, 7:33pm

Honestly this was more of a challenge of my memory of restaurant drive-thrus in and around downtown, and you got me, I forgot good ole Krispy Kreme! Would be perfectly happy with it losing its drive-thru, but I also do think that it being a destination restaurant for a lot of Raleighites that it might would make sense to keep it with one. I am more interested in the restaurants around downtown that aren’t destinations that we should be encouraging people to walk to in their neighborhood instead of drive to. I kind of put Krispy Kreme in a different category. The two McDonalds downtown, I don’t.