Raleigh Downtown Living Advocates

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What if the City of Raleigh had “an app for that”

May 6, 2011 /

It’s no secret that the web and mobile apps have made our lives more convenient.  From banking to maps to the totally unnecessary but fun apps like Ocarina – many people can’t imagine their life without internet access or apps.  So what’s missing?  Why doesn’t Raleigh have more apps?

Think about what bothers you most about your neighborhood.  Have you done anything about it?  Why not?

Stick with me here.

When most people think of government, they think bureaucracy and politics.  At the city level, they pick up your trash, clean up your parks, maintain the sidewalks, and all the things that you encounter on a weekly, if not, daily basis.

So what if those little things could be made easier?  When things DO go wrong, wouldn’t it be so much easier to “have an app for that?”  Going back to why you probably haven’t attempted to solve what bothers you – we’re hoping to find ways to make solving those problems easier through more open government.

Let’s walk through a typical day and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

 

Jump over to Downtown Raleigh Digs for the rest of the article.


Saturday Market Opens at Rebus Works in Downtown Raleigh

April 25, 2011 /

Rebus Works is pleased to announce The Saturday Market.  The Market will bring together farmers, crafters, food trucks, brewers and more every Saturday from 9am-2pm beginning April 23rd and continuing through November 19th, and will take place in the area surrounding Rebus Works.

So far we have Part and Parcel farms, Double T Farms, Veggie Barn, New Grass Gardens and Terra Soul Farms selling produce.  Some of our other vendors include Locals Seafood, Escazu Artisan Chocolates, Nahualli Trading Co, Two Pounds Mustard, and Sweets. Zass Design, Bordeaux Lane Studio and Jm Design are just a few of our crafters.  To keep posted on current and future Market happenings, LIKE The Saturday Market on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.  They are continuing to accept applications for vendors.  Find out more by visiting their website www.rebusworks.us.

Rebus Works is a small gallery located in the Boylan Heights neighborhood in Downtown Raleigh.  Established in 2003, the gallery is operated by artists for artists.  Map it. http://goo.gl/maps/wKAB.

UDO Open Houses to education residents about proposed new development regulations

April 20, 2011 /

To help you become more informed about the new development regulations (UDO) proposed for the City of Raleigh, the open houses are designed to give you variety of educational opportunities,

including:

  • Large display boards highlighting major sections of the new regulations
  • Maps showing the current zoning for all areas of the City
  • Charts comparing the difference between the current and proposed zoning districts
  • Results of test cases from recent CAC workshop
  • Resource tables for the following…
    • 2030 Comprehensive Plan
    • New residential districts being proposed for the City
    • Mixed use centers, an important new form of development proposed for the City
    • Mapping, a process that will convert  the existing zoning districts to the new zoning districts
    • Various types of streets and building frontages
    • New transition regulations to help protect residential areas

Approximately halfway through the open house, Code Studio, the lead consultant writing the UDO, will make a presentation and then give you the opportunity to ask questions.

These workshops are all about helping the City get the “right rules in the right places” so the City can grow better, not just bigger. Details for the 3 open houses are available here.

You’ll want to check out the RaleighUDO website and follow them on Twitter to learn more.


Cuegrass Festival 2011: BBQ Plus Bluegrass Jams Equals One Big Block Party

April 4, 2011 /

Gather your portable lawn chairs and blankets, pack up some sunscreen, bring the kids and the dogs, and head over to Davie Street in the Warehouse District for the Cuegrass Festival 2011. Presented by Raleigh’s popular barbecue restaurant, The Pit, Cuegrass Festival 2011 rocks the city block with a slate of live bands on Saturday, April 16 for a full day of music, craft beers, and The Pit’s famous Eastern North Carolina-style barbecue.

Jump over to HelloRaleigh.com for more on the Cuegrass Festival.


Two month window for public review of UDO: what you need to know about upcoming workshops and web resources

April 1, 2011 /

You may have attended one of the neighborhood meetings or offered feedback in the fall of 2009 when the city initiated the process of rewriting long standing development codes, in an effort to codify a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).  (We first wrote about it on this blog back in November of 2009.)  

This has been a huge effort, since many of the current regulations were put in place fifty years ago, with hundreds of individual code updates since then resulting in an overly complicated development process.    

Now this process is at the point of being wrapped up, and this is what makes your renewed attention critical: 

“what is allowed in the new UDO will be allowed to be built without any public review, or comment”.

This all started with the city’s major initiative launched four years ago to update its comprehensive plan – here’s the original timetable.

But unlike the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, which is a guide for future development in Raleigh, the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is LAW, dictating allowable heights, setbacks, land uses, transitions, landscaping buffers; etc. across the city.  

So what does all this mean . . . Raleigh City Councilman Thomas Crowder puts it this way.  “The large majority of new development in the future is being recommended by the Planning Director to be staff approved, rather than approved by the Planning Commission and/or City Council.  In other words, what is allowed in the new UDO will be allowed to be built without any public review, or comment”.

And, what’s happening now . . An initial consolidated draft of the UDO will be released on April 6.  The public will then have two months to let the City know what it thinks.  An open house for the Public Review of the UDO draft has been set up at different times on April 20-21.  

In addition to the three sessions offered by the Department of City Planning, the Triangle Community Coalition will sponsor a UDO workshop and lunch on April 21st starting at 11:30am at the Urban Design Center.  Register here.

Philip Poe, a DLA Core Group member, is representing the interests of residents on the UDO Advisory Group.  Philip has just released several web based tools to help residents get engaged in the process.



RaleighUDO.com: This website will help you learn about the UDO and give you an opportunity to add comments to content publish on the site. 

RaleighUDO on Facebook and RaleighUDO on Twitter: These web tools will be used to alert the public about upcoming events, special announcements and new posts on the website. 


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