It would be nice if they were both 40 stories, but only if the other lots get zoned for 15-20 stories.
Wouldn’t Kane had indicated this in the city council meeting? Surely making it clear that he’s not planning on going the full 40 stories would have been a selling point since some of them were fretting over the height outside the urban core. These folks may not be able to swallow 40, but 25-30 may have been more palatable. I just don’t see why that would have been held back from Kane when it could be the difference between an approval and no.
If you’ve ever gone through an arbitration, you know that you never go with what you’d settle for. Once that cat is out of the bag, it then becomes the new ceiling to the negotiation.
If he says 40 floors and 500 ft, he has room to come down if he really wanted 25 and 350 feet. If he states what he really wants, they’d beat him down further.
Of course, this is all speculation on my part with no proof, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the play.
It could also be that he will take whatever he can get and let the market determine how much of it he builds when the time comes. Things may be very different in 3+ years from now when something on phase 3 is likely to be delivered.
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I agree with @John. And, to further this remember the traffic study that is due after design is complete. Let’s say it comes back and says it will exceed whatever cars per day or whatever the BS measurement is. Bonner said that they would try to resolve any issues by changing / updating ingress and egress, etc. but if that wouldn’t do it they would have to address it by lowering the height. All makes sense to me.
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It’s still not enough for some people. The gentleman in our building (will rename nameless) approached me this past weekend while we were at the pool and went right at discussing Kane Phase III and traffic. I told him the stat that downtown traffic has increased on average 0.14% year over year from 2003 to 2017 (by the way, that study was done by DRA, not Kimley Horn as I originally thought). He then dug in to semantics of what “average” meant and that it didn’t appropriately account for rush hour, etc, etc, etc. Essentially, nothing is going to please him. He faces north and doesn’t want his view impacted and traffic is the only thing he can hang on to.
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Well if the city would allowed Kane to develop taller on the west side… it wouldn’t look like that. If they would allowed for phase II to be at least 20. I love the gateway on this… but as mentioned before… without any sort of height in phase I and II it looks silly
What of note does the north view give him that he’s worried about protecting? For a good while, that view north has been pretty darned ugly!
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Barren and lifeless mostly. There is so much more benefit from having those developments RIGHT THERE than losing some horizon. It won’t impact the sunrise, or sunset, and there won’t be a shadow on The West. 
Classic NIMBY. City of Raleigh letting one side of one building hold back the progress of an entire city. Hope he enjoys his view of the AC units and white roof on phase II.
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Maybe he wants to see how busy the Speedway gas station is, or whether there are any U-Hauls to rent?
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@John… don’t forget the view of all the new storage buildings that have gone up. The red glow from the signs at night is breathtaking
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@OakCityDylan you can ignore “MC”. He complains about everything. I face north and I had much rather look at a Kane building than Capital Blvd, Uhaul, etc beyond the benefits that we have all expressed.
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One thing that has always kept me motivated to go to meetings is to counter those types that also go to these meetings and are against everything. It’s almost a fact of life. THEY will be there, they always will.
Because there is always a reason NOT to do anything, someone will be there advocating for the “do nothing” option.
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The thing is, being on the 6th floor of the West (only the 2nd floor with units due to the parking pedestal) our view is much more impacted than this NIMBYs will be and we’ll likely end up with a really good view of the side of the parking deck and apartments. It won’t be a better view. I’m still 99% for the Phase II project and Phase III project as it will increase the walk-ability and amenities immediately next door to us. There is way more to be supportive of there, than the 1% of me that won’t exactly be excited about the change in view.
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And I seriously admire your attitude and thoughts on this. Before I bought I looked at the zoning of the adjacent land (12 story) and it realized it could be rezoned. I admittedly have some NIMBY in my DNA as I would have hated to lose my view. But, that is the “straight on” north view and I would still have east and west. Admittedly, I’m glad it worked out like it did.
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That raises an interesting question. How high above the West’s parking garage does phase 2 rise? In the renderings, it’s not terribly clear, but it also doesn’t look like it’s too much above of it.
Also, I can make an argument that I’d rather look at the side of the building, than be just above it & look at all the rooftop crap.
An advantage for West is that the only side that can have another building immediately adjacent to it has the tower separated by the garage.
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I’m not sure. I’d have to dig into the plans and pull the drone out. 
My estimation is that we’ll have maybe one floor above our garage which means we’ll be around eye-level with the top of the structure.
The geek that I am likes looking at all the “roof stuff”. But I had rather look at a tower at the corner of Peace and Capital (or two).
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Depending on the angle and location, your view might change from a skyline view, to street experience view. There is some value to people watching. I find it interesting anyways. When I’m at the beach, I spend more time on the balcony watching what people are doing on the beach than the ocean horizon.
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