The planning commission met Tuesday to hear a number of rezoning cases, including a phasing revision of the Edison Office building.
The Edison Office building is a 19-story mixed use building filled with retail and office space, currently standing next to the Blount Street parking deck. It is on a 1.3 acre parcel of land, on which a larger 23-story residential building is being constructed.
A possible rendering of the Edison Apartments along Davie Street.
Ken Thompson, a designer from the architectural firm for the project, said at the planning commission session that a retail establishment in the Edison Office building wished to stay on the ground floor until a similar space in the 23-story building is constructed.
“It is Reliable Jewelry’s request to stay in that location,” Thompson said.
The phasing revision was recommended for approval.
Two rezoning cases were approved for Bland Road. Tony Tate, the landscape architect and planner for both parcels of land, told the planning commission that he planned to build two office buildings on each parcel. The request was to rezone both parcels from residential to office mixed use. Both cases were found to be consistent with the future land use map and the comprehensive plan and were recommended for approval.
Bing Maps
This property off Wake Forest Road will be rezoned to allow for more development
Rezoning case Z-4-15 was held after the planning commission learned that the local Citizens Advisory Council had not yet voted on the case. The request proposed rezoning the parcel from residential to commercial mixed use. The change called for an increase in residential density, as well as increases in office and retail intensities. It was found to be inconsistent with the future land use map and the comprehensive plan.
Alexander Liems, representing the property owner, stated that they planned to put a car dealership on the property as well as an office building, but they had not yet received the CAC vote yet. Steven Schuster, the planning commission chairman, said that he’d rather wait for the CAC vote before making a decision and the item was held.
Rezoning case Z-8-15 was also held after due to a lack of a CAC vote. The case concerned a 13.84 acre parcel of land on Englehardt. The property is currently in the airport overlay district because of its proximity to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The request was to remove the airport overlay district designation and change the zoning from thoroughfare district to residential-6.
Michael Birch of Morningstar Law Group represented the applicant. Birch said that the desire of the applicant was to build a single family detached subdivision adjacent to the Woodlawn neighborhood. He used maps designated decibel levels of air traffic over the parcel to advocate for the removal of the airport overlay district. He also pointed to six other cases in the area where the airport overlay district designation had been removed to allow for development.
After Birch said they were presenting to the CAC that night, Schuster said that the planning commission vote should wait for two weeks to vote. The item was then held.
Editor’s note – a previous version of this article indicated that case Z-4-15 was found to be consistent with the Future Land Use Map and the Comprehensive Plan; it was found to be inconsistent. Alexander Liems was also identified erroneously as Alexander Means. We apologize for the error.
