Plans for Cary’s South Hills Mall advance after rezoning. Here’s what could be coming.
Cary could join Raleigh and Durham with skyscrapers over 20 stories tall after the Town Council agreed to rezone the town’s oldest shopping area, South Hills Mall, for a mixed-use development.
The approval comes three years after Raleigh-based real estate group Loden Properties bought the property in 2021.
The mall’s 44 acres along Buck Jones Road could become a hub for concerts, sports and other events, preliminary plans show. There could be a 350-room hotel, over 1,700 apartments, a research lab and, if voters approve a bond referendum next week, a multi-million dollar sports and recreation center.
South Hills Mall opened in 1972 and is home to Grand Asia Market, Roses, a Division of Motor Vehicles office, a donut shop and other small businesses. About half of the area is used for parking. The company told The News & Observer last year it plans to include current businesses in the redevelopment, which could take five years or more..
“The key concepts have not changed with this project” since Loden Properties first sought the rezoning nearly a year ago,” said Katie Drye, the town’s assistant planning director. “Changes have focused primarily on strengthening the existing commitments and clarifying certain concepts,”
Before construction begins, the Town Council will discuss a development agreement to firm up details for the new South Hills site.
Rezoning will allow residential uses
As a commercial space, the South Hills property was allowed to have businesses such as a bank, car wash, hotel, kennel, night club, pool hall, theater, funeral homes, and a wellness center.
The mixed-use rezoning allows those but also residential, office and industrial space, like a research lab, apartments and a nursing home.
The buildings will be constructed in three height zones, Drye said.
The first zone, on the western side of the site, can have buildings up to six floors. The second zone, along Buck Jones Road, can have up to 15 floors, and the third zone, facing U.S. 1, up to 23 floors.
Affordable housing at South Hills
Affordable housing was one of the issues that slowed the rezoning process.
Over the past 10 years, Cary has lost about 4,000 affordable housing units that cost under $1,000 a month to rent. On average, renters pay over $1,500 a month today, according to recent U.S. Census data.
Initially, the developers designated 5% of the future rental units for workforce housing, or priced for households making 80% of the area median income, which is about $63,500 for one person or $90,650 for a family of four. This commitment was for only 10 years.
After pushback from council members, the developers increased the years the units would remain affordable to 30.
Councilwoman Lori Bush appreciated that but said, “I always feel like there’s something a little bit more we can do.”
“I get that compromise is in between bad and great,” she said. “But the opportunity in front of us is to take an area that’s turning into a blighted area and make it something that can really come out of the ground and reinvigorate that whole area.”
Concerns of traffic and congestion
The new development will be the first project in Cary to have a transportation management program, a type of program for large, mixed-use projects that gives travelers different ways to travel and reduce congestion. This could include ride-sharing, biking, or public transportation.
The goals of the program include “making sure there is a staggering of times for employment within the site, or if there’s a big event, making sure employers are working with an event sponsor to look at management of traffic,” Drye said.
“It’s going to be incumbent upon the town that we are on top of this,’ said Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson, “and that we’re investing in our transportation network all around, so that we don’t end up in a situation where people don’t want to come here because it’s so mired in congestion,”
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 12:23 PM.