On Tuesday, February 15, 2011, I presented to Raleigh City Council about concerns on the proposed GH-1-2011 project, Lineberry Student Housing. GH stands for Group Housing and the project is being administratively approved by Raleigh City Planning. You can read a detailed description of my presentation on my personal blog and view the slides I used during my presentation. [PDF]
Future Land Use Map
While the student housing project got me to petition city council, I’ve learned that it’s not effective to just show up with a complaint. I showed up with a solution. Not only did I provide a vision for what GH-1-11 should be, I proposed a solution that Raleigh should explore for the long-term sustainability of our neighborhoods. It fits nicely with the 2030 Comprehensive Plan and the current Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) that is currently being drafted.
My vision for the 7.2 acres on the GH-1-11 project is to have a mixed-use development that would have retail on the ground floor and living above. This would not only help make our immediate community walkable, but it would give something back to our community: retail that we desperately need.
Why do we have a 2030 Comprehensive Plan that designates this property as Neighborhood Mixed-Use and we’re going to allow student housing to go in? We have a good plan for the future, but we don’t want to allow that vision to happen. This is a good project in a bad location.
WTF – What’s the fix?
How do we control the sprawl of NC State and other institutions? Should we consider medical institutions like REX and WakeMed, that have fairly large footprints and impact the surrounding area?
Why are we allowing student housing further away from campus when there are plans to have residential halls on Centennial Campus in less than two years? And what happens when the market for student housing changes in 5-10 years? Our community is stuck with a lost vision and 72 4-bedroom apartments leased by the room.
There are planning tools already implemented that can help with these concerns. I did some research on how other cities handle these types of issues. I found two great examples in Minneapolis, MN and Seattle, WA. I shared this research with the Mayor and City Council.
University District Zoning and Planning Regulatory Review
Minneapolis, MN has implemented a University District Zoning and Planning Regulatory Review (ZPRR). The purpose is to “address land use and development concerns facing neighborhoods in the University District area, including the neighborhoods of Cedar Riverside, Marcy Holmes, Prospect Park, Southeast Como, and University.” The issues Minneapolis was looking to solve are similar to the challenges Raleigh faces. The issues include “parking, occupancy, design standards, zoning, inspections, and public involvement in the development review process.”
Source: University District ZPRR
Major Institution Overlay District
University District, Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA has a Major Institution Overlay District. The purpose is to regulate Seattle’s major educational and medical institutions. The purposes listed for Seattle caught my attention because they look very familiar. Raleigh should consider this in the UDO. It would not only apply to our major education institutions like NC State and Meredith College, but other institutions with large footprints like REX and WakeMed. The first three points talk about impact around the development and protecting surrounding neighborhoods:
- A. Permit appropriate institutional growth within boundaries while minimizing the adverse impacts associated with development and geographic expansion;
- B. Balance a Major Institution’s ability to change and the public benefit derived from change with the need to protect the livability and vitality of adjacent neighborhoods;
- C. Encourage the concentration of Major Institution development on existing campuses, or alternatively, the decentralization of such uses to locations more than two thousand five hundred (2,500) feet from campus boundaries;
- The list continued from D to M.
Source: Major Institution Overlay District http://bit.ly/g2yAUx
Citizen Petition Results
The results of my request to have a University District or Major Institution Overlay District in the UDO was put into the Budget and Economic Development (BED) committee for further study. I brought forward some valid concerns and showed that administratively approved projects need to have a way for public input in certain cases.
My closing remarks to the Mayor and City Council highlighted the fact that the South West CAC is not anti-development, but we are eager to have successful businesses. I personally want to support new business in our area and want them to be succeed. However, a key factor in new developments being successful, means having the support of the community.
Who else is better to advocate a business or development than the community that surrounds it?
What do you think? Is it worth our time to explore how a University District or Major Institution Overlay District could positively impact South West Raleigh and provide a better quality of life for residents and students?
Jason,
Great presentation, and thoughtful perspective. Having attended the UW for grad school in he 90’s, and considering how student housing is being handled here, what strikes me is our thoroughly suburban approach to the issue. I don’t recall the students at UW being particularly destrucive to neighborhoods surrounding the campus- much of this, I think, is because the urban from was an established grid, where various scales of development, lots of on street parking, and other mechanisms could diffuse impacts and assure a mix of uses. There is also a huge stock of bungalow style housing and mixed scale apartments that lterally speads out for miles around the campus- far more opportunity for diffusing students than we enjoy here.
The site plan you showed is a throwback- nothing along the lines of a surface parked apartment complex on a dead end site would be possible in Seattle’s dense urban grid. But this is not an unusual pattern for Raleigh, where we are slowly overtaking a quasi-rural residential district with development that is one step up the food chain and little more.
NCSU’s growth and population impact is an identifiable factor. The University has long range enrollement goals, etc. that can be anticipated and planned for. No state university houses all of its students-it is financially impossible for a state insitution to do so. And as we know, many studens prefer an off campus setting anyway.
So, we can identify future needs, and the role the campus can play in accommodating its’ part. The challenge is to find areas where dense housing- preferably of mixed types, along with other uses- can be developed, to keep the ‘creep’ of increasing demand from fanning out into the district.
Higher density housing can support structured parking, and enough of it will also support services, offering a more integrated urban development parttern, without the land-eating low density apartment style approach that the current proposal offers. Of course, higher density also tends to reduce auto use, and so as more dense housing is allowed, auto dependence actually drops- green and civil, and better use of land. So, yes, a University District- lets’ envision a dense, urban one that pulls the students closer to campus where they would like to be, and thus offers relief to our neighborhoods.
Best,
TVD
Great insight Ted. Thanks for sharing.
Jason