Prime numbers only! 
Meanwhile I’m approaching this from the other end. I see “40 stories” and get excited for something tall! Yet for all these rezonings, still no new 40 story buildings (or anything close). 
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Yeah, this is the psychology behind The Eastern in North Hills. It has many floors but is nowhere near the tallest building in the city. A 40 story building with a monumental first floor of like 15 ft., and subsequent floors of only 9’ slab to slab plus a flat roof would yield a building well under 400 ft.
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Then I propose we institute DX-39 and DX-49, both likely less scary than DX-40.
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Just gonna drop this here. Basically, a discussion about US vs European zoning laws.
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I’ve never really considered buying a house because I’ve never really known if I would remain in an area for very long. Today I found out a couple of coworkers have purchased houses a bit outside of Raleigh (around 30 minutes). One brought up the USDA Rural Development loan. Does anyone have information on this loan? I’ve wondering if this type of loan is something that encourages sprawl and for people to move further away from the city. Looking at the eligibility areas, it appears the entire city of Raleigh is ineligible. Wake Forest, Apex, and Holly Springs is ineligible but places such as Wendell and Clayton are ok.
Are there loans that allow people to buy within cities? I’ve wondered if this would encourage people to remain in the city vs moving further out.
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It sure sounds like a program that can be exploited on the edges of fast growing cities and metros.
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I bought in Fuquay with a USDA loan. From my understanding, FV is no longer in the zone. The loan is free. I actually made money on the purchase of my house, in a sense. At any rate, it’s a loan to help low to moderate income families to purchase affordable housing while also stimulating rural areas. It provides a very low interest rate and there are income requirements for approval.
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This basically shows the point. Are there any similar loans that you know of that would include these areas such as FV, Raleigh, WF, etc? Even though this may be cheaper on the house side, it would be beneficial to have loans with income requirements that allow purchases of units (including multi-family) within these “ineligible areas”. Instead the income limited families are pushed to the outside of the city which means that now we have to build additional transit.
Thank you for your response. It goes to show that this is not solely on the city side or individual side. There have been discussions that people move outside the city so they can “get more for their money”. I think people may also move outside the city because it’s their only option. If there is no similar loans within the city, then that would bring down demand within the city (lower income demand) and could be another part of the reason why the only things that get built are more expensive options.
There are FHA loans. One of the differences between the two is the down payment. USDA has $0 down payments FHA requires 3.5% down payment. I don’t know a ton about FHA loans other that fact.
There are zero interest down payment assistance programs available through the NCHFA and the CoR
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I wrote a short article as part of the “Development Jargon” series. This time about Density, and I gave the Community a shout out!
https://oakcitycre.medium.com/development-jargon-density-f40d2e37bd59
What other jargon did you find confusing as you learned about development?
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CoR’s Homebuyer Assistance | Raleighnc.gov
NCHFA’s NC 1st Home Advantage Down Payment | NCHFA
CoR’s may be updated in the near future to reflect market changes
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I think this is the best thread for this.
The extremely upper class suburb of Atlanta, Alpharetta, banned the construction of apartment complexes outside of mixed use developments a few years ago. I’d say it’s actually been quite the success thus far as their downtown and several dense mixed use nodes have absolutely taken off to the point where they’re almost stretching to morph into each other.
Now, the neighboring city of Roswell is looking to do the same. They’re facing harsh pushback of course. The dynamics of Roswell are a bit different - much more diverse income and racially, larger city limits, but closer to Atlanta.
I think this is something that the city of Raleigh and the Town of Cary could look at.
Obviously there are drawbacks:
- we’re in a housing crisis here and could basically use all we can get
- will apartment developers just construct less dense SFH and Townhomes instead of apartments
- by nature, garden style apartments outside of cores may be cheaper
- developers may look to further out municipalities without such rules
But overall I do think the positives could outweigh the negatives as they have in Alpharetta. It seems like a great way to try to induce more density and walkability.
I wonder how Roswell will fare. Also, when y’all do travel to Atlanta I must say it is worth the 20 minute dash to check out Alpharetta.
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I could think of worse ideas, but as long as the retail-to-residential ratio is low enough… like 5%. The demand for retail is a tiny fraction that of the demand for retail. Per-capita retail space in the US is ~25 sq ft, per capita residential space is nearly 1,000 sq ft, so about 1:40. Richer areas demand way more retail and only somewhat more residential. In a still-growing, rich area like Alpharetta, where retail is perhaps still underbuilt, this would mostly pivot future retail into mixed-use, and maybe incentivize apartments at strip malls – not bad outcomes.
Unintended consequences:
- The dividing line between townhouses and apartments, and offices and retail, isn’t anywhere near as clear as zoning codes make them out to be.
- Small infill developments would be most penalized. A 200-unit complex can easily set aside 5,000 sq ft for retail, but not an infill triplex.
- In more built-out Roswell, there’s not much scope for new retail and so this could serve mostly to restrict new apartments while making existing apartments pricier (by limiting competition). Which… could be the point. Many suburban towns try to maximize sales tax revenue while minimizing service costs (i.e., residents, especially with lower incomes).
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Passed City Council:
https://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CE3QGM6217B5
Cox was only vote no.
The Frequent Transit Areas map also passed
http://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CE2SMD7339F9
Cox and Knight voted no.
YouTube link to presentation / hearing:
Seems like lots of the usual misunderstanding about “affordable housing.”
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So, you can theoretically have a 1000 ft2 existing sfh home and put an ADU on your lot that’s larger. Am I understanding that correctly?
I have been thinking about the possibility in my neighborhood of buying an 800 sqft house on a large lot and move it to a back corner to become the ADU 
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Does the ADU have to be in the back, or can it be in the front?
Hallelujah… A no vote on this is unforgivable lol