In ongoing hearings, residents and city staff say Downtown South plans need to slow down
As the massive Downtown South project continues to be generate debate, its developers and Raleigh’s city Planning Commission stopped short of making progress in the project’s plans in a special meeting Thursday.
During the the second meeting held for the project, developers Kane Realty Corp. listed community benefits to the area from Downtown South’s development and addressed potential impacts to the area’s infrastructure and environment.
Kane Realty said they’re seeking to “create a district, not a development,” highlighting ambitious plans for which they’ve filed a rezoning request to allow buildings up 40 stories high.
After Raleigh residents gave public comments criticizing the project’s plans as being rushed without addressing enough concerns, planning commission members voiced the same.
“We’re rushing everything. I think the staff deserves to have the time to review the analysis to able to submit comments to be able get a revised [development] document back,” said planning commissioner Nicole Bennett. “Why are we rushing it? Let us just do what we need to do to allow the process to happen in way that’s transparent and that will allow the public to trust the process.”
The 145-acre sports stadium-anchored project is being developed by Kane Realty Corp. through a partnership with the North Carolina Football Club, and some land was purchased for it last Christmas.
Because additional land for Downtown South hasn’t been closed on yet, developers said in a previous meeting that they’re in a time crunch to get rezoning approved for the site, The News & Observer reported.
“Let’s just slow down”
“I don’t think any of us want the integrity of the process to be questioned, so let’s just slow down so we can have a product that has been vetted properly that everyone has had an opportunity to comment on,” Bennett said.
During public comment, Raleigh resident Bob Geary criticized city staff’s analysis of Downtown South’s consistency with development guidelines when specific design and construction size has remained inconclusive.
“This [rezoning] application continues to have no design details whatsoever combined with a maximum height asked for of 40 stories,” said Geary. “One of our friends yesterday said, ‘There is no plan for this.’ This is asking for a rezoning with no plan whatsoever for what will be built there.”
Other public comments included concerns about stormwater drainage and how it could impact flooding in surrounding neighborhoods, as well as its impact to the natural habitats of birds in the area.
Members of the Planning Commission echoed the concern of the development affecting the stormwater drainage.
The clergy of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, less than a mile from the planned Downtown South site, previously told The N&O that flooding is a concern for them and their Rochester Heights neighborhood, which is historically Black and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Community benefits and funding
The plans for Downtown South still rest on the availability of public funds, which would come from a tax increment grant to cover costs of providing community benefits.
Kane Realty listed those benefits at the meeting, separating them from those that would be possible through an approved rezoning request and those that can be attained through the grant.
The rezoning, they said, would allow things such as park space, cultural attractions, green stormwater infrastructure and transportation and parking improvements.
Benefits such as affordable housing and workforce development programs, they said, would need public funds.
“We are committed to community engagement and remain committed,” said Bonner Gaylord, managing director of operations for Kane Realty. “The engagement we have entered into this far has given us an array of requests from the community.”
Developers have had recent neighborhood meetings for Downtown South with good attendance, said Gaylord. An online survey for neighborhood and city residents yielded 2,268 responses with 10% of them coming from immediate neighborhood respondents, which he said was significant.
Further outreach is planned, including door-to-door canvassing from residents who haven’t accessed information on the development online, he said.
Discussion of the project will continue at upcoming Planning Commission meetings scheduled for 3 p.m. Nov. 5; 4 p.m. Nov. 10; and 4 p.m. Nov. 19 The meetings will be livestreamed on the city’s website and YouTube channel. And people can sign up to speak by emailing ira.mabel@raleighnc.gov.
