A North Raleigh rezoning has brought up questions about the use of urban design guidelines in very suburban parts of the city.<\/p>\n
The Planning Commission Tuesday approved a rezoning for an 8-acre property on T.W. Alexander Drive near the Durham County line. Commissioners Adam Terando and Erin Sterling Lewis voted against the rezoning in the 6-to-2 vote.<\/p>\n
While the developer of the property doesn\u2019t currently have a user, it will likely be used for a high-end grocery store in the future.<\/p>\n
The developer also plans on building a 300-townhome community geared toward seniors and older adults. The properties to the north of the site, under Durham\u2019s jurisdiction, already have approved plans for similar residential communities.<\/p>\n
If City Councilors approve the plan next week, the property could house retail, such as a grocery store. Jarrod Edens, the engineer representing the property\u2019s owner, said a grocery store would be welcomed in the area, which only has a Food Lion nearby.<\/p>\n
However, the plans don’t comply with the city’s Urban Design Guidelines. Edens said the area is heavily suburban and borderline rural, with cows grazing just a few miles away. Following the guidelines would make the project incompatible with the rest of the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis area is not especially urban,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Much of the area is zoned by Durham. Edens said any other development would also fail to follow the city\u2019s design guidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be a more urban area,\u201d said Terando, who urged for more compatibility with the guidelines, particularly the requirement for maximum setbacks.<\/p>\n
Maximum setbacks would insure a more pedestrian-friendly environment by discouraging the use of a large parking lot in front of a building.<\/p>\n
This is the only time the Commission will have any say in the future development.<\/p>\n
Terando wanted to defer the vote until the developer could work with staff to come up with some creative solutions that would encourage a walkable, urban-inspired project, but give the eventual user some flexibility.<\/p>\n
Edens said the developer intends on complying with as many guidelines as possible and intends to make the project pedestrian friendly, but doesn\u2019t want to limit development before a business for the retail property is found.<\/p>\n
The Commission ultimately recommended the rezoning for approval without any further restrictions.<\/p>\n
Southeast Raleigh Family Dollar Approved<\/strong> The 8,300-square-foot building will be located on a 1.5-acre site between Interstate 40 and Sanderford Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Developers question urban guidelines in Raleigh\u2019s most suburban areas and a new Family Dollar store is approved for Southeast Raleigh. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24029,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23],"tags":[31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24029"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA new Family Dollar store is slated for Southeast Raleigh. Planning Commissioners unanimously approved a site plan for a new Family Dollar on Rock Quarry Road.<\/p>\n