The year 2030 is over 20 years away, but Raleigh’s plan on how to grow and where to focus that growth is wrapping up. If you remember back in January and February of this year, citizens from all over Raleigh were participating in public forums, briefings, and reviewing the 2030 Draft Comprehensive Plan. Our input was heard. It was reviewed. And now a new copy of the draft is ready.
If you visit www.planningraleigh2030.com, you’ll get a sense of how the public review process was handled:
The deadline for submitting comments to the draft Comprehensive Plan was extended to February 28, 2009. All comments received by January 31, 2009 were considered as part of the revised draft for the March 19, 2009 Public Hearing. Comments received between February 1 and February 28, 2009 have been documented and will be presented at the March 19, 2009 Public Hearing as a special report. The City Council and Planning Commission will consider the revised Comprehensive Plan draft and all comments received after January 31, 2009.
That’s this Thursday. So if you want to get a last word in, review the change log, which is about 215 pages and attend the Public Hearing on March 19, 2009. The first part of the change log includes highlights to the plan and the bulk of the change log is each of the ~1200 comments submitted to the Limehouse portal.
So what are the major changes to the plan?
The devil is in the details, but from what I’ve been able to review so far, the changes are generally positive. The list of comments includes a column on what changes were made to the plan, so you can see exactly how the feedback impacted the revised plan. At the public hearing on Thursday, I would look for the following items to be highlighted:
- Additional policies on transitions and density
- Updates to the Central Business District (CBD) boundary and how it interfaces with surrounding neighborhoods
- Enhancements to the Growth Framework narrative and how this map is to be used
- Updates to the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) designations in and around downtown
- Clarity on transportation issues including mention of the STAC plan and updated finance wording
- Additional policies on environmental issues and habitat/natural area preservation
- Enhancements and clarifications on Parks and Recreation issues
- Additional actions regarding how the corridor designations would be implemented through overlays
Public Hearing information
Joint meeting of the Raleigh City Council and Planning Commission
Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Council Chambers of the Avery Upchurch Municipal Building
222 W. Hargett Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
Links
- http://www.planningraleigh2030.com/
- Comprehensive Plan – Change Log
- Comprehensive Plan – Public Hearing Draft
One slight correction / point of clarity from Mitch Silver:
“Just an FYI. The growth framework map has no policy value at all. The map is an illustrative tool to better communicate how the city may evolve over the next 20 years. This is similar to maps used in Charlotte (centers and corridors) and Dallas (also centers and corridors). Both cities are using this illustrative map to guide transit investment and planning.
On March 17, the Planning Department is requesting that the Council authorize a public hearing on a series of text changes associated with the Comprehensive Plan. One text change is a major clean up of the code so it can be consistent with the 2030 plan. The other text change deals to the new corridor overlay districts. Our recommendation is that these changes be adopted with the Comp Plan.”