Raleigh Downtown Living Advocates

Category: City Government (Page 11 of 15)

DHIC: Developing Affordable Housing in Downtown Raleigh

November 16, 2010 /

You may have noticed a common theme among many of the interviews the DLA has included in its “Faces of Downtown Raleigh” blog posts.  Small business owners are happy to set up shop in the Downtown and support the ongoing revitalization efforts, but are concerned that many of their employees cannot afford to live Downtown.  It’s agreed that affordable housing is at the core of creating a vibrant, diverse and livable city environment.

The DLA shares this concern, and sees the diversity of residents as a defining element to Downtown (in contrast to suburban pattern living), providing an important liveliness and character to our environment.  Wanting to find out more about the key issues in maintaining and supporting a diverse Downtown population, I met with Gregg Warren, the President of DHIC (formerly known as the Downtown Housing Improvement Corporation).  The DHIC is a non-profit developer of affordable housing and a promoter of home ownership.

Gregg Warren, DHIC PresidentHaving just celebrated his 25th year with the DHIC, Gregg understands the need for “workforce housing” better than just about anyone.  “I believe strongly in the importance of people having the opportunity for choice and options in their housing,“ he says.  Gregg got his Masters in City and Regional Planning from UNC and says he’s always been an advocate for social change and believed strongly in an equitable distribution of wealth.  His driving force has always been diversity and opportunity within neighborhoods, with a healthy mix of income levels.   

Among DHIC’s goals is providing quality affordable rental housing for individuals with modest incomes, and increasing home ownership among first-time home buyers through education and counseling.  Two well-known properties developed and managed by DHIC in Downtown Raleigh are the Praire Building Apartments, and Carlton Place.  Gregg is also very proud of the new Brookridge Apartments.  Located just 2 miles south of Downtown, the building just opened with 40 studio apartments available to lease for single men and women, many of whom are formerly homeless.

When I asked Gregg to share a story that exemplified the work done by the DHIC, he told me about the Murphey School Project that was seeded about twenty years ago.  Raleigh’s oldest school, built in 1917 and located on North Person Street, the Murphey School had become fodder for the Joni Mitchell song: the state had decided to demolish the building and “put up a parking lot”.  The DHIC enlisted the support from neighboring Oakwood residents and joined forces to save it with Smedes York, City Councilors Charles Meeker and Ralph Campbell Jr., and Dan Blue, who was Speaker of the House at the time.  The building was saved, and now serves as affordable housing for seniors – Murphey School Apartments.

Contacting the DHIC

Most of DHIC’s apartments are reserved for households earning 60% or below Area Median Income (AMI).  To find out whether you qualify for a specific DHIC property, contact the apartment manager listed on the DHIC property page.

The DHIC offices are located in the Prairie Building, 113 South Wilmington Street in the Moore Square District of Downtown Raleigh.  The Prairie Building, one of Raleigh’s oldest and most architecturally significant buildings, was designed in the 1870s by prominent local architect, Joseph P. Prairie.  Visit them on the web at www.dhic.org

Praire BuildingCarlton Place CourtyardBrookridge Apartments

 

 


Re-Imagining Capital Boulevard

November 2, 2010 /

Picture this.  It’s a rainy, dark evening and our family has driven two cars all the way from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Raleigh, our new home.  I advise our son in the front car to stay in the right lane as we drive south on Capital Boulevard into the city, since we don’t know the lay of the land.  It isn’t long before we’re confused.  With every mile, our lane disappears and we’re forced to the left.  This is the strangest traffic pattern we’ve encountered in a long time, and we ask ourselves, This is where we’re going to be living now?

Capital Boulevard has presented an array of problems that have challenged planners over time, and last week, another – hopefully final study was initiated to brainstorm about possible alternatives to recreate the entry into Raleigh from the north.

The Capital Boulevard Corridor Study’s Public Design Workshop was held this past Saturday and I attended the morning session, where the 75 or so in attendance broke into small groups, each focusing on one of four topics:

  1. Land uses and economic development
  2. Urban design
  3. Transportation
  4. Ecology

Click to enlarge

Here is a map of the area included in the study.  It includes the north-south section of the road from the Belt Line to Peace Street, as well as the area that runs east-west between the rail corridors. 

Anyone who has ever driven down Capital Boulevard understands the need for major improvements.  And the city recognizes the need to improve safety along the corridor, replace the worn-out bridges and interchanges, and to do something about the ongoing flooding and water quality concerns.  

 

 

Key themes arise in any discussion of this heavily traveled area.

One goal is to create new vehicle connections into and across the corridor. 

The rail lines that form the east-west boundaries of the study area are clearly major obstacles to vehicle connectivity.  Though trains were an important part of the corridor when it was mainly industrial, today heavy industry has all but disappeared, and the rail lines effectively block the adjacent neighbors from getting into and across the corridor.

Solutions discussed

  • Redesign the boulevard into one-way paired streets with separate frontage roads that would handle new intersecting streets to / from surrounding neighborhoods.
  • The rail corridor on the east side of Capital Boulevard has been designated to support passenger (light) rail.  Find a way to consolidate or reconfigure this corridor for continued freight operations, such that the existing freight rail corridor on the west side of Capital Boulevard could be relocated to a less densely populated area.

Another goal: slow down the traffic!

Given that there are presently few other options for vehicles traveling from the north to Wade Avenue / I-40, and into Downtown, Capital Boulevard handles an unavoidably large volume of traffic.  The high volume of traffic and lack of east-west connectivity has stunted significant mixed use development despite general proximity to North Raleigh’s office parks and the Downtown government and commercial area.  Traffic congestion is already a problem, and the projections are for traffic to increase by 40-70% over the next 25 years.  

Solutions discussed

  • Plan for handling an increasing volume of traffic with new options for vehicles to get into the Downtown other than on Capital Boulevard.  Examples include new connections to Blount Street on the east side, and on the opposite side, extending West Street to meet Wade Avenue (at grade), and then onto Fairview Road.
  • Slow the traffic and narrow the street at the southern end of the corridor, between Wade Avenue and Peace Street – the boulevard becomes a parkway.
  • Create new “roundabouts” at the corridor’s intersections with and along Peace Street.

Next: bring back Devereaux Meadows

The scale of this project offers a unique opportunity for the city to create needed green space while addressing the water pollution of Pigeon House Branch.  Devereaux Meadows, site of a former minor league ballpark was once an important entertainment area for Raleigh residents, though today it’s covered up by under-used industrial and distribution buildings that sit along the corridor.

Solutions discussed

  • Open up Pigeon House Creek and create a stream with associated green space for residents.
  • Turn Devereaux Meadows into a park, and create new access points for pedestrians via a bridge from Seaboard Station / Peace College.

And also: Create a multi-modal corridor (cars / trains / buses / bicycles)

The South Eastern High Speed Rail (SEHSR) corridor will route through either the east or west side of Capital Boulevard, and the rail corridor on the east side of Capital Boulevard has been designated to also support passenger (light) rail.  By next year the specific routes will be determined, along with station locations and associated bus connections.  The corridor also includes an east-west greenway along Crabtree Creek that offers the opportunity for new pedestrian and bicycle connections.

Solutions discussed

  • Design the vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle connections to fit with the new train and bus stations once they are defined next year.
  • Connect the Crabtree Creek Greenway and the Downtown with a new 3-mile greenway that would also cross the corridor over a new pedestrian bridge between Devereaux Meadows and Seaboard Station.  See map for a possible route.

This is an especially opportune time to finally address the concerns raised by past studies and echoed again in this latest public design meeting.  Raleigh is positioned well for significant growth and it’s critical that we all support plans that re-vitalize the northern gateway into Downtown Raleigh by integrating Capital Boulevard with the coming passenger rail and opening up new development opportunities, while promoting sustainable land use practices.  

 

I invite others, especially those who attended the workshop to add their comments.


Don’t Let the Train Pass You By: Public Workshop Coming Up, and This Time It’s Not About High-Speed Rail

September 11, 2010 /

Join me in the vision: commuter rail carrying workers from Downtown Raleigh to RTP and government workers from their homes in Cary/Apex to Downtown Raleigh; and light rail taking shoppers from Downtown Raleigh to Triangle Town Center, and transporting visitors from Cary/Apex to Downtown Raleigh.

With all the press lately about high-speed rail, it’s easy to get confused about the various transit initiatives.  (See Buses,Trains and Automobiles.. All Aboard Raleigh’s Public Transport Network for a review of the different transport initiatives underway in Raleigh.)

There’s a  Public Workshop coming up on Tuesday, but no talk about high-speed rail pathways here.  Instead, this workshop will be about the Triangle Regional Transit Program (TRTP) that focuses on the vision for enhanced bus services (in separate, dedicated lanes), commuter rail corridors (on existing freight tracks), and light rail (on new tracks) that will serve residents in Wake, Durham and Orange Counties.  Click here for more information on the various types of transit technologies.

The Downtown Raleigh workshop will be held on Tuesday (September 14th, from 4:00-7:00pm at the Chavis Community Center, 505 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Raleigh (map).

Why so much discussion about new mass transit options?

With all the transit projects  designed to support our area’s growth, there is a critical need to coordinate these efforts. .  Commuter and light rail will share some portion of the rail corridor with the Southeast High Speed Rail Project and this is also where Union Station plays an important role as a multi-modal center for bringing together all forms of public transportation.

Click to enlargeThe TRTP study views the area as three corridors: 

1. Wake County Corridor

2. Durham/Orange County Corridor

3. Durham/Wake County Corridor

 

Wake County Corridor

Click to enlarge

The Wake County Corridor begins in the vicinity of the Triangle Metro Center in Research Triangle Park (RTP) and follows the existing North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) corridor to Downtown Raleigh where it turns northward, continuing on the CSX corridor to near Triangle Town Center.

The Wake County Corridor could also include future extensions from Triangle Town Center to Wake Forest and from Downtown Cary to Apex.

 

Durham/Orange County Corridor

Click to enlargeThe Durham/Orange County Corridor begins in Chapel Hill in the vicinity of the University of North Carolina Campus and roughly follows the US 15/501 corridor north to the City of Durham, where it turns eastward to follow the existing NCRR corridor to approximately the Triangle Metro Center in RTP.


 


Durham/Wake County Corridor

Click to enlargeThe Durham/Wake County Corridor would involve a study of transit corridor options that follow the existing NCRR corridor from Durham through RTP and Downtown Raleigh toward the Wake-Johnston County line.

There are lots of decisions to be made, including transit modes, routes and station locations.  All our critically important.  So become educated about the various options by attending workshops like the one coming up on Tuesday.

Your input can make a real difference, and help shape our city for years to come.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Considering Raleigh’s High Speed Rail Alternatives: The New NC4 Avoidance Alternative Needs to be Studied.

September 6, 2010 /

You probably notice the signs posted along Glenwood Avenue in the neighborhoods around Five Points that vehemently oppose the option of NC3, and if you talk to neighbors in Glenwood South, you’ll hear them just as emphatically speak in favor of it.  

Writing not as a DLA member, but as an interested and informed Downtowner, my main objective at this point is to say, let’s take time to consider an option that offers a livable alternative for both Five Points and Downtown.         

While we were all focused on the debate between the two alternatives for Raleigh as presented by the SEHSR Project Team at the public hearing back on July 26th, a new option suddenly surfaced.  This new option, initially identified as the ‘NC1&2 avoidance alternative’ at the more recent public hearing on August 31st, is now being called ‘NC4’.

New street connections enhance Downtown livabilityA group of citizen advocates and engineers first shared their maps and information on the NC4 option with me just 3 weeks ago.  I was skeptical at first that such an 11th hour option could possibly be seriously considered, particularly one that required a new set of elevated tracks to follow a new route from Capital Boulevard to West Street.  

 

 

But as I took more time to study the plans I became convinced that this option would address the principal concerns expressed by all residents, and could actually serve to enhance our Downtown livability. 

NC4 is simple in concept and would enhance Downtown Livability

Actually it’s not really a totally new option, but a hybrid of the NC1&2 option.  It is simple in concept and the new rail section only impacts an under-developed 4-block area on the northeast corner of Glenwood South.

The NC4 Avoidance Alternative has a long list of benefits and is likely to cost less than NC3, due to the dramatically reduced impact to homes and businesses.  Additional tax revenue would also accrue from the new redevelopment opportunities.

Please click the link below to see an illustration of an urban viaduct, maps and a satellite photo of the NC4 alignment, as well as an overview of the primary benefits. 

http://www.livingstreets.com/blog/20100904_sehsr_nc4/

The City Council will consider its recommendation on the rail pathways at their 1:00pm meeting tomorrow, September 7th.  They may decide to endorse one of the existing alternatives or request the NCDOT to study this new NC4 Avoidance Alternative.

Neither the public nor the City Council can vote on this new alternative until further study by the NCDOT has been completed.  I encourage you to contact the City Council and urge them to request the NCDOT to take the additional time now to study this new alternative.  

This decision is too important to rush.  




The DLA is Proud to Announce CAR SHARING! Now available in Downtown Raleigh

July 20, 2010 /

 

Is your car is gathering dust in  a Downtown parking garage because you use it so occasionally?  

Go ahead!  Dump the extra car, put that cost to much better use and start car sharing!

 

Though car sharing programs normally begin when big businesses or universities get involved, (offering their cars when available to nearby residents as a way to offset their costs), the DLA recognized the benefit for residents, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to get things going and went about finding a sponsor.

And, we did it – car sharing in Downtown Raleigh starts today!

Ann-Cabell Baum Andersen, a board member of the DLA and owner of Glenwood Agency, is sponsoring the initial two cars for the program.  On behalf of all Downtown residents, we thank her for stepping up and making it all happen.  

“I’m confident that other downtown businesses will want to join me in supporting a car- sharing program that provides alternative transportation options for their employees,” said Baum Andersen. “The people in the downtown Raleigh community have always supported my business and I wanted to give back to the community. What better way than to help launch a car-share program?”

The city government agrees that this kind of alternative transit option is needed, and now that the service is here, we expect other businesses government agencies, and possibly even local universities to jump on board.

“Providing a car-sharing option to the residents and business community in downtown Raleigh is a step in achieving our mission of supporting balanced and sustainable growth for downtown”, said Mayor Meeker. “Offering residents and downtown workers an efficient and convenient transportation solution through WeCar, makes using other methods of transportation a more viable option for day-to-day commuting.”

 

What is Car Sharing?

Car sharing is a group car rental program in which members share a common vehicle, each reserving the vehicle for specified periods of time, paying a $10 per hour (fuel included) for the use of that vehicle.  The cars sit ready and waiting 24/7 at convenient locations in the city.

To take part, members simply go online and reserve a car for as long as they need it.  The process is fully managed online, and vehicles are picked up and dropped off at designated locations.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car located at 431 S. MacDowell Street is the service provider under their car sharing service known as WeCar.  One car will be parked on their lot, and the other located in Glenwood South (off West Street, next to the Mirage Night Club).  Both locations are conveniently located, just a short walk from stops on the Downtown Circulator, the R-Line.

Advantages of Car Sharing for residents – Save Money!

  • Rent only for the time you need the car
  • Allows Downtown residents the option of forgoing the expense of owning a second car 

And, car sharing has the potential for making Downtown living more affordable as multi-unit building owners begin to uncouple parking from the cost of the unit for those residents who forego a car.  And likewise, developers may be encouraged to construct buildings with fewer parking areas and pass on the savings to reduce housing costs.

 

Come celebrate the launch of car sharing in Raleigh at our DLA Mixer tomorrow tonight (5-7pm) at The Mint,

. . where DLA members can take advantage of a members-only promotion. 

 

 

Note: The DLA is a volunteer organization and is supporting this service for the benefit of Downtown Raleigh residents.  The DLA receives no financial benefit from Enterprise or WeCar for their support.

 

 

 

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