Zoning and Density

That video is TL;DW but basing on your comments, putting towers for tens of thousands of new residents at places like the Western Blvd K-Mart is a Good Thing. But so are things like ADUs and incremental density in neighborhoods.

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In actuality, there is housing at that general KMart site already with Westgrove Tower.
While I completely agree with redeveloping that site with mixed use including residential, I am not aligned with putting thousands and thousands of residential units at that site because there’s a BRT stop. I would have a different opinion of that site’s potential if it were a highly active rail transit site.
These immediate DT adjacent SFH residents don’t want their immediate neighborhoods touched and they don’t want DT proper touched because of, you know, shadows. It would seem that they want push downtown’s potential to create dense suburban corridors that can “visit” downtown. What about the NIMBYs in those corridors? Where will they want to shove the growth? Johnston County?

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My co-worker lives at Westgrove Tower and bikes to work downtown.

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All I can say is if North Hills was a good site for thousands of units, this is a good one too.

The NCDOT and Gregory Poole Equipment Co land south of the fairgrounds would be an even better one, too.

I do think it’s time Raleigh opened up the spigot and started allowing towers by right outside of downtown.

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The amount of taxes paid into the kitty might suggest that is true.

Yes…more towers that you have to drive to.

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Not sure which conversation to drop this video, but this one is as good as any since it has a relationship to zoning. How to design a great street - YouTube

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Speaking zoning and density the appearance Commission has to go…

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Okay if another Fortune 500 company were to set shop in Downtown Raleigh and they want a building, they don’t need to worry about what the building looks like they just want one yes good and modern-like with Windows but c’mon first design proposal and zoning and give them the permit and it goes.

The city beautiful blogger did a live stream Q&A last night and talked about his PHD thesis. He said it was about looking at suburban streets, oaths, and connections. I commented that he should look at the Greenway in Raleigh, and he replied to the comment that he was actually using Raleigh a lot in his Thesis because we had the best data. He also said that a big part of his finding is that the trend for suburbs is that they have been becoming more connected withing a development or community, but at not actually becoming more connected between different communities.

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Livestream on youtube?

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Yeah, it kind of popped up as a notification while I was watching another youtube video. I think because I am subscribed? Looks like it did not become a video that you can just watch now. Was pretty neat. He talked about his background and what he is doing then took a lot of questions from the chat. Also walked through a street view of a great street he liked from studying abroad in Italy.

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Darn it! I wish I had been on YouTube when that happened! Maybe he’ll choose to post that video. I checked when I read your previous post but it wasn’t there. Is he more relaxed and less robotic in his live videos? Don’t get me wrong, I really like his content and I think he’s really good at presenting; it just comes off as stiff some times with his end-of-sentence inflections.
FWIW, he talks about that city in Italy in his most recent video. It’s the one with the protected colonnades for sidewalks?

It was free form for sure. He was still very sharp with his answers. Which did seem almost to robotic to me. So maybe his off the cuff answers and his produced self are not that different. It was a street with 4 story buildings and very skinny streets, but no trees. He was going to show more streets, but there was too much lag, so I would not take that area as every example for a great street. People kept asking him about all kinds of cities and he didn’t want to give opinions on ones he had not visited. He said two cities he really liked where DC and Minneapolis. He likes the density for heavy rail that DC has and its being built on a historic plan. And he liked the direction Minneapolis/ St. Paul is heading

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I think this goes best here:

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I hope someone builds a big skyscraper here and keep the current buildings and just incorporate them into the building. This lot should be saved for a 600+ story building

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Love this picture and I hope that it never gets torn down :blush:

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image
This would look nice somewhere downtown, preferably near smoky hollow or one Glenwood

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The only thing missing is “does it cast a shadow from a mile away?”

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Phase 3! Bring it on.

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