Shopping center promised access for buses

RALEIGH -- Six years ago, the vast shopping center at Brier Creek got Raleigh's approval on a condition from city planners: Allow bus access in the future.

Brier Creek's developers agreed to "reasonable" access in writing, but the firm wrote back four years later saying bus stops were a poor fit. That leaves some workers and customers with a quarter-mile walk across the asphalt.

The apparent turnaround is getting new scrutiny as Raleigh works to get buses inside shopping centers that prohibit Capital Area Transit. In hindsight, officials wish they had used Brier Creek's 2001 letter when the shopping center balked.

"Our staff obviously did not go and search that record," City Manager Russell Allen said. "If they'd found that letter, that would have helped us a lot."

American Asset Corp., Brier Creek's property manager, has not returned calls seeking comment Monday and for the previous two weeks.

Last week, Mayor Charles Meeker requested an extensive review of why four North Raleigh shopping centers prohibit buses, asking that the city find ways to get them admitted.

He weighed in after bus riders, particularly retail and restaurant workers at Brier Creek, complained of quarter-mile walks to work at the end of hour-long bus rides to the center on Glenwood Avenue near U.S. 540. Meeker asked specifically for a review of the original site plans for the four: Brier Creek Commons, Towne North and Brennan Station on Creedmoor Road, and Bent Tree on Falls of the Neuse Road.

Of the four site plans, only Brier Creek's mentions public transportation at all. More common are dense descriptions of parking, stormwater and traffic requirements.

Raleigh built along a more suburban model in previous decades, when the other malls were approved, several planners said, explaining a lack of bus discussion.

Other centers have said they fear buses pose a risk for pedestrians and fit poorly inside narrow lanes.

Raleigh's approval came with the condition that Brier Creek "provide the city a letter indicating willingness to accommodate future transit access needs on site in a location to be determined at the time access is provided."

American Asset's 2001 letter, written by then-Vice President James Broemer, agreed to "reasonable" access needs that both sides would hash out together. Written to Daniel Howe, now Raleigh's assistant city manager, it explains that it is being written to fulfill condition 18 of the city's approval notice dated May 2, 2000.

Bus service did not start to the Brier Creek area until 2005, and officials from Raleigh's Capital Area Transit and the regional Triangle Transit Authority asked American Asset to let buses on the property.

A 2005 e-mail message from Kandee Harrell-Bennett in property management for American Asset gave this explanation for the company's denial: "Parking is very congested most of day and at this time we do not believe this to be a good fit for the center."

In response, John Tallmadge of Triangle Transit Authority wrote back, "We had been led to believe that the American Asset Corporation would be a partner in bringing bus service to your retail center. We are now in a difficult position of having to adjust our routes."

City attorneys will discuss whether buses can be required at shopping centers in a report July 10 to the City Council. The city has no contract requiring buses at Brier Creek, Allen said, so he left the question of legality to Raleigh's attorneys, who are deferring until the meeting. But Allen added about the 2001 letter, "I certainly consider it binding in that it was a condition."

Density vs. sprawl

City Council member Thomas Crowder sat on the planning commission in 2000 when Brier Creek's plans were discussed.

He understood the mall would be a "regional center" or a spot meant for dense development, walkable and friendly to mass transit, surrounded by rings of less-dense development.

Today, bus riders wait on a public street where the bus stop has no shelter or bench. Many sit on the ground under a tree or on overturned shopping carts.

"If we had patterns of density rather than sprawling parking lots, you would have that type of development rather than a bus shelter on the edge of a thoroughfare," Crowder said.

Planning Director Mitchell Silver did not join the city staff until 2005, and he said he hadn't seen the agreement before Monday.

State Sen. Neal Hunt, a Raleigh Republican who led the city's Planning Commission in 2000, did not recall the specifics of Brier Creek's approval. He said bus access would not have been a front-burner issue, but he said, "I would think if it was in the zoning records they would be required to do it."