Lineberry Alliance Blogs

District D Neighborhood Alliance (DDNA) meeting (Raleigh, NC) — Over 20 citizens from around District D attended the monthly District D Neighborhood Alliance (DDNA) meeting on the morning of Saturday July 18, 2009. The group, lead by Councilor Thomas Crowder (District D), meets on the third Saturday of each month to discuss issues in our neighborhoods and matters from City Council that impact our neighborhoods. On this months agenda, 2030 Comprehensive Plan Draft update, text changes (including Front Year Parking), and neighborhood concerns.

Meeting Notes

2030 Comprehensive Plan update

The Mayor recently put out a memo to council members on the upcoming process for reviewing the Comprehensive Plan. Currently, two public hearings are proposed for the South West and North East. Thomas is preparing a memo that he wants to propose a clear and transparent process that includes a public hearing for each district. As the DDNA group has discussed many times, the 2030 team leads have recommended that the Greenprint map be the foundation for the plan.

The 2030 focus groups have made recommendations on transit, transit systems, zoning, and have prepared a preliminary district view of what we would like implemented. DDNA will make that available as a PDF as soon as it’s finalized.

One question came up around the current review of the Comprehensive Plan by the Planning Commission. Has the planning commission drafted a policy on transition? Noone was completely sure about the latest draft, but the planning commission has come up with a proposal. We believe the latest versions includes looking at an edge area map and for community protection. Either way, this is something concerned citizens should keep on eye on (how the transition proposal is drafted).

Next we talked about text changes TC-1-09, TC-1-08, and TC-5-07. The three text changes seem to be related / could potentially impact the 2030 Draft Comprehensive Plan and are about open space, public input, context, and remove many restrictions. Currently the text changes are not related or integrated into the draft comprehensive plan.

TC-1-09, TC-1-08, and TC-5-07

These three text changes were very complicated to comprehend, particularly to those who are not familiar with some of the language, area-to-floor ratio, set-backs, step-backs, etc. A follow-up email sent to the group helped to explain the interconnectivity of these proposed text changes.

Below are links to the Text Changes discussed at our Saturday Meeting.

• O&I Districts Intensity Limitations
• Building Lot Coverage for O&I Zoning Districts
• Site Plan Approval Standards
• Parkway Corridor Overlays

Be sure to write, or e-mail the Mayor and City Council with your concerns regarding the O&I Intensity Limitations and Building Lot Coverage text changes, which if passed would allow property owners density entitlements in Office and Institutional Zoning Districts without added public benefits, such as streetscape and building design standard, or urban amenities such as open space, or location of onsite parking in relationship to the street.

Also express your concerns regarding the Site Plan Standards text change, which if passed would delete the requirement for Comprehensive Plan Compliance for Planning Commission and City Council Site Plan Approvals. Currently one of the 10 site plan standards used to measure site plan design requires the use and elements are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

Understanding how a text change works

How does a text change work? A text change can be initiated by staff, City Council, or by a citizen. Once initiated a draft is completed and continues through the process. The current process requires the text change proposal to go to a public hearing, but does not require it to go to the Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) groups. Most text changes start in the planning department.

TC-7-09 Front Yard Parking (FYP)

• Front Yard Parking Text Change

The group then learned about the FYP text change. The proposed text change only impacts family detached dwelling and does not impact back yards. Cars would be required to park single file. Existing driveways do no need to be improved. The text change will go to public hearing (July 21), then to the Planning Commission and will most likely be put into committee by council. The Appearance Commission has already submitted comments to the Planning Commission. The current text change aims to clarify an existing ordinance by defining a driveway.

Reasons to support the text change include positive environmental impacts (including water quality), quality of life issues, and real estate curb appeal. Some concerns from the group included enforcement (which would be under Inspections / Zoning), defining parking in the back yard, and concerns about steep inclines.

Questions about how the text change is written came up. (See link above.) Underlined text is new. Text with a strike-through is the old ordinance language that is no longer valid. Italicized texts refers to an existing definition in Raleigh ordinances.

Announcement: Starting August 1, 2009, PROP violations for nuisance parties and loud noise become civil penalties.

Around the Horn

• Lineberry: Still dealing with parking issues (in no parking zones), RPD has been very helpful for repeat offenses. We have asked RPD for a recommendation to extend the no parking zone from Trailwood Drive down along Lineberry Drive to address the repeat violations.
• Fairview Acres: Dealing with transit issues and got Xebec park into the Comprehensive Plan. Focusing on crime prevention.
• Cameron Village: Has a single family home area designated as R-10 and are currently in the process to down zone to R-4 and special R-6. Looking at the draft comprehensive plan, the R-10 zoning would be classified as medium density.
• Glenwood Brooklyn: Concerned about Institutional (i.e. mega churches) impacts for the comprehensive plan which would be classified as Office and Industrial. Phil also mentioned that he discovered there were only about 100 unique people who contributed comments to the Limehouse portal for the draft plan (as told by Ken Bowers).
• Ridgewood: Concerned about future development along certain portions of Wade Avenue. Interested in getting a petition together from neighbors to protect the concerned area.
• Method: Shares the concerns about Institutional impacts mentioned before. Mentioned that St. James AME Church is achieving historic status. R Bethea also promoted the upcoming Operational School Supply drive for the community school-age kids.
• Wade CAC: Covering the Comprehensive Plan at the next CAC meeting.
• Lake Johnson: Things have been quiet.
• Greenbelt: Dealing with HOA board transitions.
• Avent West: Preparing for an upcoming candidates forum.
• SWCAC: Has a proposed pumping station at Eliza Poole Park that was a topic at the last CAC meeting.
• Caraleigh: Has an energetic new neighborhood leader, welcome Ron Danley. The neighborhood is looking at integration of their Hispanic community and focusing on an EASL (English as a second language) program for their neighbors. Looking to host dinners and cookouts to help community building. They are also looking at the adapt a park program and hosting a fall carnival. They have recently adopted Fuller Heights into the community watch area.
• University Park Homeowners Association (UPHA): Support Hillsborough Street. Despite the new construction (of which many people are excited about), Hillsborough Street businesses are open and parking is available on NC State campus (after 5:30 pm in many lots). The neighborhood and businesses are trying to eliminate a parking perception problem that does not exist, when in fact, ample parking is available for evening enjoyment. There is an event on July 25, where Mayor Meeker, Councilors, Baldwin and Crowder, will help neighbors hand out flyers promoting Hillsborough Street businesses. (Councilor Stephenson was invited and wanted to attend but had a prior commitment.)

Attendance

• John Keadle, Fairview Acres
• Will Allen, Cameron Village
• Phil Poe, Glenwood-Brooklyn
• Daniele Simoelli, Whitehurst (Lineberry)
• Anne Puryear, Ridgewood
• R. Bethea, Method / WCAC
• Lana Dial, Lake Johnson Harbour
• Jim Paumier, Fairview Acres
• Steven Yoho, Farm Gate (Greenbelt)
• Mark Vander Borgh, Avent West / WCAC
• Mary Belle Pate, Fairway Acres / SWCAC
• John Reaves, Jr., Caraleigh / SWCAC
• George Alder, Cameron Park
• Ron Danley, Caraleigh / SWCAC
• Joseph Boisvert, University Park / UPHA / Wade CAC
• Caleb Smith, Stanhope
• Ted Shear, Avent West / WCAC
• Elizabeth Byrd, Avent West / WCAC
• Louise Griffith, Wade CAC
• Sophia Kathariou, Ridgewood
• Jason Hibbets, Lineberry /SWCAC
• Thomas Crowder, District D

Tags: district D, front yard parking, neighborhoods, raleigh, text changes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 12:11 pm and is filed under DDNA, Raleigh City Council. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.