Your roundup from RaleighForward

Eight articles we found interesting this week:

1. Today in some parts of the country there is hardly anything on the market for under $300,000 resembling the American starter home of the last 70 years. In Raleigh, N.C., entering this weekend there were 17 such single-family homes with at least two bedrooms listed for sale. Read more, via The New York Times.

2. Taller Towers, Fewer Homes, via The New York Times

3. How to Change Minds? A Study Makes the Case for Talking it Out, via the The New York Times

4. August 2022’s Median Price of Wake County Real Estate drops $11,000 to $455,000, via Wake County

5. Can DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park Lift Up a Neighborhood? Spectacular urban parks can drive up real-estate prices and force out low-income neighbors. The designers of this $92 million project are trying to break the cycle, via Bloomberg

6. Four things I wish I’d known about Charlotte’s housing market before I started writing about it, via UNC Charlotte Urban Institute

7. 2021 Income Inequality Increased for First Time Since 2011, via the US Census Bureau

8. Lennar Slashing Home Prices in Raleigh, Other Markets as Interest Rates Rise, via Triangle Business Journal

Other items of interest:

• City announces new Community engagement portal, found here.

• Staff provided a comprehensive update on the city’s community engagement effort during its September 20, 2022 meeting. Here is a link to the presentation made to Council.

Here is what we will be watching this week:

Planning Commission meets on Tuesday, September 27, 2022.  These are the agenda items we found most interesting:

1. A minor adjustment is being sought to the conditions approved as part of a previously approved (and controversial) rezoning case for townhomes near Shelley Lake (Z-41-19).  The case for adjusting the zoning conditions is TCZ-33-22 and the companion rezoning request (Z-33-22) for an adjacent 2.8 acres seeks to add allow and additional 8 residential units.  Then net effect of the proposals would increase the potential development for all six impacted parcels by a total of 8 residential units, from 114 to 122. It’s worth noting that Shelley Lake was developed by Wake County decades ago as part of a regional stormwater system in anticipation of urban development.  Though some citizens complained about the environmental impact of this development proposal when it was originally approved in 2020, Shelley Lake was never intended as a nature preserve.  It was designed and built to accommodate future urban development in this area.  It is part of a larger system that is connected to Lake Lynn.  

2. Rezoning Z-43-22 is an infill property located on Wake Forest Road across from the old Gables Motor Lodge property is seeking an upzoning from R-10 with Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District to Residential Mixed Use-5 stories-Green-Conditional Use (RX-5-GR-CU) and Residential-6 (R-6) with NCOD (partial).  This case has the potential for impacting naturally occurring affordable housing at 80% AMI, but will add the ability to build up to 329 new residential units within a City-designated frequent transit area. 

3. Finally, zoning Z-10-22 is another infill request to rezone approximately 5.9 acres from Industrial Mixed Use-3 Stories with the Special Highway Overlay District-2 (IX-3 w/ SHOD-2) to Commercial Mixed Use-20 Stories-Conditional Use (CX-20-CU).  The property is currently a used car dealership located adjacent to a Raleigh greenway on Ratchford Road.  The property is located within a transit emphasis corridor and would allow for a mix of residential, office and commercial uses.

Council Committee Meetings:

1. Council’s Safe, Vibrant and Healthy Community Committee meets on September 27, 2022.  The Committee will continue discussing the feasibility of establishing a Municipal Service District (MSD) in the Midtown area.

2. Council’s Economic Development and Innovation Committee meets on Tuesday, September 27, 2022.  Staff will provide a report regarding the proposed use of ARPA funds for the proposed $800,000 investment in the Pathways Center Investment proposal for Digital Connectors program.

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