Participate in the Citywide Learning and Review Sessions on
Same meetings, different locations for your convenience.
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With the new year starting, I thought it was a good time to find out what’s going on at Raleigh’s Department of City Planning for 2010. Lots of folks spent countless hours on the 2030 Comprehensive Plan last year and Raleigh’s New Development Code is ramping up. I sent Mitchell Silver, Director, Department of City Planning & Urban Design Center and Ken Bowers, Deputy Director, Department of City Planning the following questions to see what’s on tap for 2010.
1) Why is Raleigh’s New Development Code so important?
Planning and development regulations should be regularly reviewed and updated due to such things as new development trends and new environmental legislation. Although the City’s Zoning Code and Subdivision Regulations have been (more…)
PUBLIC HEARING SET TO DISCUSS CONDITIONAL USE ZONING PROCESS
On January 19, 2010, the Raleigh City Council will hold a public hearing to discuss a proposed text change to the City ’s conditional use zoning process. At Wednesday ’s Council meeting, the City ’s planning staff was directed to review the 25-year history of the process and draft a text change.
The proposed text change will require that the neighborhood meeting for rezoning petitions take place prior to an applicant ’s submittal of the petition and include other benchmarked dates regarding submittal of conditions. The January 19 meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber.
We reported earlier when the 2030 Comprehensive Plan was approved by City Council. Last week, the plan was amended and adopted.
COUNCIL AMENDS AND ADOPTS THE 2030 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
The Raleigh City Council on Wednesday [October 7, 2009] adopted the 2030 Comprehensive Plan after agreeing to make three minor amendments to the document.
The first amendment changes the Wilmont/Vann/Lundy Drive area from moderate density to low density residential on the future land use map. The Council also approved an amendment to the Cameron Village area that will allow retail on both sides of Oberlin Road between Clark Street and Everette Street. The amendment requires a lower intensity of use on the west side of Oberlin Road. Finally, the Council approved minor edits to the text of the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Element.
The Council considered amending the designation of a parcel of land located at Women’s Club Drive and Glenwood Avenue that is designated Neighborhood Mixed-Use. However, the Council made no changes.
Source: http://bit.ly/1cxTJy
A crowd of around 25 citizens joined at Carolina Pines Community Center to participate in the October 12, 2009 meeting of the South West Citizens Advisory Council (SWCAC). The special guest for this evening was The Honorable Senator Josh Stein, who provided an update from the most recent legislative session and took questions from the audience.
The meeting started off with an update from Officer Upchurch. Over the last month there were 724 calls between September 15, 2009 – October 12, 2009. The calls only cover the SWCAC area. There was a lot of concern about a drug search at 2420 Voyager Circle where we didn’t get a lot of details. Officer Upchurch said that this was a fairly normal search warrant by the Selective Enforcement Unit (SEU), we just usually don’t see SWAT-like officers in our area very often. Some residents were concerned for their safety and believe that things are being kept quiet because NC State students are involved. Other calls of interest included: (more…)
Just when you thought the 2030 Comprehensive Plan process was closing up, it’s time to give the plan more teeth and re-write / update the development code that will support the future growth in Raleigh.
Example Zoning
Hopefully, this new code will set high standards for Raleigh growth as we look to become more urban and focus on several things like transit-oriented development.
Just like the 2030 Comprehensive Plan review, I’m sure that District D Neighborhood Alliance (DDNA) will be very active and involved throughout the entire process. Find out more about some of the upcoming public sessions where you can learn more. Information from the City of Raleigh website:
The City of Raleigh will hold three public listening sessions and a series of stakeholder meetings in October to begin the process of drafting a new development code. The citywide public listening sessions and stakeholder meetings will allow citizens to learn more about the process of updating the development regulations, ask questions and provide input. Comments will be collected and compiled for the public record.
PUBLIC LISTENING SESSIONS
The public listening sessions will be held:
- Monday, Oct. 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at North Raleigh Church of Christ, 8701 Falls of Neuse Road;
- Wednesday, Oct. 21 from noon to 2 p.m. at All Saints Chapel, 110 S. East Street; and,
- Wednesday, Oct. 21 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Meymandi Concert Hall lobby at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, located at 2 E. South St.
All three sessions have the same program format: A brief presentation will be followed by breakout table discussions on the City’s current zoning and subdivision code, suggested changes, and questions about the new code development. Each table will report out to the larger group before adjourning.
For event planning purposes, attendees should RSVP to NewCode@ci.raleigh.nc.us. Indicate which session you plan to attend. On-site registration will begin half an hour prior to the start of each session.
For more information including a schedule of stakeholder meetings, please visit http://bit.ly/gKM14
At last evenings candidates forum, September 27, 2009, hosted by Renaissance Park in their cozy club house, almost 50 citizens attended to learn more about Raleigh City Council District D and At-Large candidates for the upcoming election on October 6, 2009. Each District D candidate gave a brief introduction to themselves and why they are running for City Council. Moderator Moe Johnson then presented each candidate with five questions. At-Large councilors were then introduced and provided their platform. Questions from those in attendance followed.
Disclaimer, the following is my best effort attempt to capture the questions and answers from the candidates. I invite anyone in attendance or the candidates themselves to post any updates or corrections by contacting me or in the comments. The questions (after the first five) are paraphrased to get right to the topic.
Opening remarks from Renaissance Park resident and moderator, Moe Johnson. Renaissance Park is a new neighborhood, which means they are new at community activism. There is a desire to get involved in city government and this is one of the first projects to start that involvement for their community. (more…)
On September 8, 2009, the City of Raleigh website reported City Council Conceptually Approves Comprehensive Plan. I want to first start by commending Mayor Meeker and City Council for approving the plan. Next, a round of applause to the city staff, particularly Mitch Silver and Ken Bowers from the Planning Department, for their dedication and numerous hours put into this project. I was extremely impressed with the level of engagement from the District D Neighborhood Alliance (DDNA) and the expertise, patience, and perseverance they provided during the entire 10-month process.
City Council approved the 2030 Comprehensive Plan
However, I was not impressed with recent News & Observer coverage of the 2030 plan which belittled the free consulting work that DDNA provided over the past 10-months to City Council and the citizens of Raleigh. (Reference: Council adopts new vision for growth, Late tweaks add conflict to city plan)
These articles fail to mention that the DDNA group was following the process made by the planning department and city council. We presented our recommendations at the public hearing on August 13, 2009. Then we finalized those changes at our August meeting and submitted them to Councilor Crowder per the process the Mayor prescribed at the conclusion of the public hearing.
Unlike the N&O, I’ve been providing updates for DDNA on our participation with the 2030 Comprehensive Plan. This started in December 2008 when DDNA started to organize into citizen lead focus groups to review the plan. This was shortly after the plan was being rolled out and numerous public sessions were in the works. We started setting dates to meet, taking advantage of the many public sessions. We set milestones for the short time frame we had to review the plan during the holiday season. (more…)
Raleigh City Council has started to review the Draft 2030 Comprehensive Plan during a retreat this week A public hearing will be held for South West and District D residents on August 13, 2009 in City Council Chambers at 6:30 PM to allow residents to weigh-in with any last comments. Additional details regarding the Council review process are below. (more…)
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