rjgeary

I hope you all will take a moment to pull up Crescent's rezoning application and go to the final page (pg. 7) where massing is shown and the actual building envelope is depicted. The application is NOT to build the structure shown in the pictures you've been looking at. The application is quite clear about that: "building shown within envelope is conceptual only and subject to change," it states. So what's my point? Simply this. The application IS to amend the streetscape plan that applies to Cameron Village, removing the existing height standards that apply to this portion of CV and replacing them with a "building envelope" that essentially allows a 13-story building on most of the site. 13? Not 9? Well, don't take my word for it, look at the massing sections. The headline on your item says 200-plus units, I believe. Actually, Crescent has been very clear that they want to build 290 units on the 2.6-acre site. That would require (they say) a five-level parking deck with two towers of up to eight residential levels built on top of it. All of this parking would be above grade at the low point on the site, which is behind the Carolina Cafe and the stores adjacent to it along Daniels Street. existing stores and Carolina Cafe. Crescent's "conceptual" renderings indicate that the deck and units can be shoe-horned onto this site without occupying the full building envelope for which they're applying -- which begs the question, then why are they applying for it? I don't have an instant answer to the question of how tall or how dense the development of this site should be. What I do think, however, is that we need to model the future development of Cameron Village together with the future development and redevelopment of the rest of this area of Oberlin Road to determine how much traffic (ergo, how much density) it can finally handle. Actually, that task was undertaken four years ago when a group appointed by the city (I was a member, as were several folks representing Cameron Village's interests) wrote the small-area plan for the Oberlin-Clark vicinity. The final plan, adopted by the city as part of the comprehensive plan, calls for the redevelopment of Cameron Village to proceed in accordance with the standards for village centers set in Raleigh's Urban Design Guidelines. The UDG's call for building heights of 4-8 stories, with the highest levels in the "core" of a village center and no more than 4 stories at the edges. Crescent could comply with the small-area plan and the UDG's without seeking to amend the streetscape plan at all -- without this rezoning case, iow. But instead, they've sought to rezone in a way that would allow them to build a rather massive building on this edge of Cameron Village, setting a precedent for more, and much bigger, projects in the core. They SAY it won't be so massive. But they've refused, so far, to change their application in a way that would back up those assurances with some legal limits. And meantime, they acknowledge that the renderings they've shown may or may not look something like what they'll eventually want to build. By the way, the next shoe that drops on this corner will be a proposal from another developer to put up a hotel of unspecified size and a major office building across from Cameron Village. Which may make perfect sense, if you're rooting for Oberlin Road to be the next Six Forks Road. If you're not, then the scale of these various projects should be of some interest to you.