A crowded corner in the heart of North Raleigh is about to get busier.

North State Bank won approval this week from Raleigh's Planning Commission to build a new branch at the intersection of Falls of Neuse and Spring Forest roads.

The new two-story, 20,413-square-foot bank will go up on 1.73 acres in the front parking lot of the three-story North Ridge Office Building -- which houses the bank now.

It's next to the North Ridge Shopping Center, which includes a Harris Teeter grocery, an ACE Hardware store, Debby's Hallmark, Cafe Tiramisu, and North Ridge Pub.

North State paid $2.2 million for the site last May, according to county property records.

Groundbreaking is expected soon. It'll be a tight fit.

New parking will have to be created around Anthony & Company's 27-year-old, modernistic office building, which will keep some of the bank's operations.

It's the same spot where neighborhood opposition, business competitors, and concerns about traffic blocked a proposed Walgreens drug store five years ago.

But the bank will bring improvements, too. It's meant to blend into the surrounding development and will have a low sign.

A new right-turn-only lane will channel traffic from northbound Falls of Neuse Road onto eastbound Spring Forest Road.

Two sidewalks will connect the new bank branch to a sidewalk along Falls of Neuse, and from it to one along Spring Forest.

The site will include a city bus stop and shelter.

Rain and recycled cooling water will irrigate the landscape.

And the plan, which the Planning Commission approved unanimously, puts the bank building near the street corner, with parking on both sides and drive-through lanes in the rear.

"From an urban design standpoint, it's got a lot going for it," said Brian Starkey, the project's landscape architect. "North State wants to do a quality project."

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Rex Healthcare, which has family-practice and urgent-care clinics in North Raleigh's Wakefield development, plans a $150 million outpatient facility across from its main hospital in West Raleigh.

And Rex wants to build up to 160,000 square feet of four-story medical offices nearby on about 17 acres off Edwards Mill Road, just south of Duraleigh Road.

The Planning Commission postponed acting on the plan this week, rescheduling it for March 11.

Among the things the hospital promises not to put on the property: a cemetery.

That's comforting, I suppose.