The City of Raleigh Department of City Planning and Code Studio will hold a lecture on form-based coding from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. tonight, in the City Council Chamber (Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex, 222 W. Hargett Street).

In August, the City Council approved a contract with Code Studio to assist the City in the preparation of a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).  The UDO seeks to implement, through code requirements and standards, the type of built environment as set forth in the recently adopted 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The goal of the UDO is to prepare development regulations that address contemporary development and zoning practices that are easily understood by administrators, the public, and the development community and support the goals and policies of the new comprehensive plan.

Lee Einsweiler of Code Studio will present how urban form can be integrated in the UDO and what tools may be used in Raleigh at the neighborhood and citywide level.  Topics to be addressed include:

• What is a form-based code;
• What tools are available to achieve good urban form;
• What are some examples of us ing form-based code and tools in other cities; and,
• How might the code and tools be used in Raleigh?

Mr. Einsweiler is a planner with more than 25 years of experience in a variety of settings. As a principal at Code Studio, Mr. Einsweiler’s projects involve planning, zoning and plan implementation. Mr. Einsweiler  is experienced in both conventional zoning and new code approaches. He has prepared pure form-based codes and successfully incorporated form-based elements into conventional codes.

In the summer of 2001 I was eating at Pulcinella’s in North Raleigh. As we left the restaurant, it dawned on me: what if this L-shaped shopping center were reoriented to two parallel strips, and the facade where broken up to look like Franklin Street (in Chapel Hill)? At that point many in Raleigh were worried that the dying North Hills would be replaced by a big box store, a few outparcels, and sea of asphalt. The idea of a village-like shopping center excited me, so I put some thoughts together on paper and dropped them in new North Hills owner John Kane’s mailbox.

Kane kindly responded that wheels were already in place for a very similar project, which was a huge relief to my family. The letter became the seed for the Raleighing.com project, but has not made an appearance on gogoraleigh. So, to celebrate gogo’s 2nd birthday, here is what started the whole blogging thing for me:

September 7, 2001

Dear Mr. Kane:

I am ecstatic that you are interested in redeveloping the North Hills Mall property. I grew up in the mall’s back yard and always felt that it could do more for our area. It is GOOD to have local ownership again!

I am troubled by the recent events with Neal Coker’s Oberlin project, and fear the same from some of the similarly short-sighted neighbors of mine in the North Hills subdivision. When I hear of residents intending to treat the 100-foot buffer like a forest preserve, I worry that logic is being trampled by an emotional fear of change. North Hills Mall is a dump, and it is time to put something there that makes Raleigh a better place to live.

read more…

I ran across this sign yesterday and it looks like someone wants to build a large, mixed-use project high on the hill between I-440 and Crabtree at Glenwood.

map it

The owners of Tavola Rossa, the free-standing restaurant across the creek from the back of Hudson Belk, have converted the restaurant to the Crabtree Tavern. The new restaurant features a family-friendly sports bar theme with upscale food.

The chef, Aron Cremeans, comes from Restaurant Bateux in Beaufort, SC, and most recently Vines Bistro in Cary. The dinner menu (.pdf) features standard upscale tavern fare, but has enough range to be potentially a regular favorite. Prices are in the $8-$17 range, which is a price point for which this area, in this economy, is dying.

The restaurant will also host trivia each Tuesday (beginning 1/5) as well as competitions with Playstation and cornhole (I’m afraid to ask).

map it

The site plan (.pdf) for the downtown Raleigh amphitheater was submitted this week and it reveals some more details about the facility. The site is the vacant lot to the west of the Raleigh Convention Center. This lot is not a simply “empty lot”, though, as it contains the service access for the center via a sweeping, curbed driveway though the property.

According to the plan, the road will remain intact, and the stage will be set just inside the road’s arc, facing the SE (toward Memorial Auditorium). Also it appears that small, portable men’s and women’s restrooms will be placed at stage right.

At this point it looks like the center will not be convenient for visitors needing to use the restrooms. The other problems that will plague this facility is acoustics. The shimmer wall and a parking garage, both hard surfaces, will be directly uphill from the stage. Perhaps the design could be improved by rotating the stage about 20 degrees to the south, with a bias toward the stage right side of the audience instead of the planned bias toward the stage left side of the crowd. This would flatten the angle against the opposing hard surfaces and drastically reduce reverb.

While the facility will be smaller and not as nice as Cary’s Booth Amphitheater, the site is not meant to be used for very many summers. The long term plan for the site is for convention center expansion.

We still need a clever name for the tent-covered amphitheater….!

map it

The long-awaited downtown amphitheater will take a giant step toward becoming a reality tomorrow. City Manager Russell Allen will ask the City Council for a $1.6million appropriation for construction of a 4,200 seat amphitheater in the empty lot that once was home to Sir Walter Chevrolet, adjacent to the Raleigh Convention Center. LiveNation will operate the facility with the intent to bring 15 to 20 shows during the summer. For more information see WRAL’s story.

The only real question that remains is whether or not the Boylan Heights community will be tolerant of the city’s newest venture toward progress.

Today marks the last day for the temporary site of Aldert Root Elementary at North Hills East. The replacement school building, on Lassiter Mill Road, is complete and staff will make the move during tomorrow’s teacher workday.

The completion of the new facility frees up John Kane to begin construction on The Cardinal once the WCPSS moves their 5 MCUs away. Though nobody loves going to school in a trailer park, this has been a VERY smooth 15 months at the temporary site. The trailers were really nice and did their job perfectly. The only real drawback to the site was the lack of a gym and field for P.E..

The original plan was to move Root to a site that Wake County uses for displaced schools. IT is next to East Millbrook, behind Sweet Tomatoes out on Capital Blvd. During the summer of 2009, some people made some phone calls and “paved” the way for the site at North Hills East. Kudos to John Kane, his accountant, and the WCPSS for making it happen!

TBJ is reporting that the Raleigh Convention Center has earned silver-level LEED certification. It is one of seven such centers in the USA that have achieved some LEED certification. The article states that the building’s design reduces energy use, water use by 20%, and recycled much much of its construction waste.

At Noon on Friday city officials will be on hand to dedicate the new City Plaza. The plaza will not be open to traffic until Sunday morning, as it is the centerpiece for RWO4. The Collectors Gallery,  Krispy Kreme and Shishkabob will all open this weekend, while the fourth pavilion, the home for Jimmy Johns will not be open until December.