Raleigh Public Record (https://theraleighcommons.org/raleighpublicrecord/tag/udo/page/7/)
While some people are content living in the hustle and bustle of a mixed-use district, others – primarily in residential districts – prefer a buffer between their backyards and higher density. Transitions must be used when a mixed-use district is within 50 feet of a boundary of residential district.
We see frontages every day, but never seem to give them much thought. A frontage is the way a building addresses the street, including how close it is to the road, if it has landscaping and where the parking is located.
Currently, there are no hard and fast rules that dictate the maximum height of a building in a particular area. The larger the lot, the taller the building could be. The UDO would change all of that, by giving each mixed-use district a height designation.
Last week, we skipped ahead to Chapter 11 so we could learn who’s in charge of making all of these decisions, but today we’re back to the beginning and taking a look at Chapter 3, which deals with mixed-use districts.
Photo by abbyladybug – Downtown Mixed Use would be a mixed bag of retail, commercial and residential housing, exactly like what we see in Downtown Raleigh today.
The last two days we paused in our cover-to-cover read of the new Unified Development Ordinance to jump ahead and look at the changing duties for city staff. There’s one more question we should answer before we get back to reading through the UDO: What’s missing?
Thursday we began a conversation with Greg Hallam from the Planning Department about what is changing in the approval process for site plans, special use permits, rezonings and all that other fun stuff that goes through the planning department and city boards for an official yes or no. In a nut shell, the new zoning code aims to “take the politics out of it,” Hallam said.
One of the questions we were unable to answer Tuesday was how the new infill projects would be approved. We found some answers from the Planning Department’s Christine Darges.
Right now, backyard apartments are not allowed in residential zoning districts. But the new code will allow the accessory apartments in all zoning districts.
Lot sizes will be changing in the new zoning code. The new code has two options for lot sizes, conventional and conservation. The conservation option cuts the old lot sizes nearly in half across the board for residential districts.
The city released its new zoning code for public comment this week. We are reading the new code cover to cover and write about what we find. Today is Day 2, we’re reading through Chapter 1, legal definitions and provisions.
