SteveFromFuquay

Sorry, I think I confused Wendell Falls and Chatham Park, I think Wendell Falls is just going to have the one town center, not the village centers too.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying? Walkable and urban aren't necessarily the same thing, a lot of streetcar suburbs are very walkable but not exactly urban. Wendell Falls (and Briar Chapel in Chatham county, same company) will have like 4 villages of 1,000 houses or so, with little village centers, and then a larger town center inside the four villages. It makes a lot of sense from a walkability standpoint because it creates multiple commercial districts that will primarily serve the local residents. At the same time, it delivers the product: big, relatively cheap houses with small yards, that is really in demand around the area. People obviously want detached houses, so we might as well try for as much walkability as we can given that constraint. Better suburban design could do wonders for the Triangle.

Indeed, it's a big step for eastern Wake and east Raleigh because Wendell Falls is actually between Wendell and Raleigh. But, I'd point out that if this development really tripled the size of Wendell that means it (Wendell Falls) would be home to 12,000 people, which would be like 7K/square mile, making it much denser than Raleigh as a whole, and I think they said the development might have up to 6 million sq ft of commercial development. This company is also really emphasizing walkability in their promotional materials so this is a much much better suburban development than we usually see. If we're going to see a lot more suburban development (which we will) I hope more of it looks like this.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. Might be moving to Durham after business school. Anyway, here's an interesting project proposed for Brightleaf. 7 - story condos on W Main St. This is about a block from the new Solis Brightleaf. https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/12/19/new-luxury-condos-planned-for-downtown-durham.html