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Hillsborough & Morgan St


Beth Y

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^ It is extraordinarily dumb to continue to design streets with only cars in mind. Many of the systemic energy and economic problems we are experiencing today are the direct result of 60+ years of doing just that. Most of the people who complain about road diets and traffic calming are the same ones who would argue that the best transportation policy is to simply continue to widen roads that slice through neighborhoods and build new far-flung freeways that draw more sprawl, and drain government resources on the taxpayer's dime.

I am not going to argue that a roundabout in this location is necessarily the best solution--a signal might work fine--but the overall goal, I think, is to make the intersection a bit safer, accomodate pedestrians and bicyclists, and provide a way to facilitate both the Morgan two-way conversion (over to St Marys St) and create a better environment for the adjoining land use to redevelop into a more cohesive, pedestrian-friendly, urban environment.

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I'm happy about the rest of West Morgan becoming two-way. Not really sure if a roundabout is the best way to do it yet.

And I'm really not sure about taking away another lane on Hillsborough yet...though I certainly hope they use the space for better on-street parking and bus stops.

However, they should definitely keep a turn lane for westbound traffic turning left onto Mayo Street...otherwise you'll get cars backed up all the way to Boylan while someone waits to make that turn!! :ermm:

Hopefully they won't mess with the buildings that contain Royal Food Mart, Irregardless, or Charlie Goodnight's. I don't really care about the Cycle Logic/Jade Garden buildings, but the businesses they hold are great, so I'd hate to see them go too.

I'm sure Irregardless and Goodnight's are safe due to being very successful businesses. The Royal Food Mart building, and the apartments above, I think could be considered historic. (Just look at the architectural detail on the upper half...quite nice!)

And I agree Cycle Logic is a great business for the area...if roads in the area are being made more urban and less car-centric, then more bikes is always a good thing. :shades:

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The less "drive-able" downtown is, the easier it is to sell the $3 billion for transit.

The point is to make downtown more livable, and that means mitigating the negative effects of cars on the lived in environment. You have said you live ITB, why is this approach a problem? To appeal to [one faction of] the conservative mindset, the net positive effect of all projects in and near downtown does surely raise your property value.

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BTW, I recently found out that FMW, owners of the Bolton property, does not own the properties facing the corner of Hillsborough & Ashe, so they will remain where they are for now. These include Pipes by George, a piercing place, Chinese restaurant, and a bike shop & convenience store. Many of these serve the neighborhood and I'm glad to know they will stay.

Also, if you have been following the comp plan, you know that the Bolton property now owned by FMW is the topic of a big debate about how it should be treated in the Comp Plan's Future Land Use map. The parcels are now listed under the CBD or downtown designation, but some in the nearby Cameron Park, Pullen, and West Morgan neighborhoods are fighting to have this designation reduced to high density residential mixed use, or some other lower tier designation. The Indy's Bob Geary covers this in some detail this week.

Some are arguing that the FLUM is a defacto zoning classification, while others say it will be part of the equation in determining the basis for a future rezoning classification of a parcel. Some have also said that FMW has no intention of building anything on the parcel, but rather to flip the property once it's rezoned. As far as the actual parcel is concerned, I do think it should be fairly dense, and much more so than the surrounding properties. This can be done with good design and adequate transitions between the development and the surrounding neighborhoods. I do think that some of the hubbub about the CBD designation may be unjustified and reactionary, as the FLUM does not directly determine the rezoning category, and the residential densities in the DOD cannot easily be achieved without meeting some stringent benchmarks.

It will be interesting to see where this goes...

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BTW, I recently found out that FMW, owners of the Bolton property, does not own the properties facing the corner of Hillsborough & Pullen, so they will remain where they are for now. These include Pipes by George, a piercing place, Chinese restaurant, and a bike shop & convenience store. Many of these serve the neighborhood and I'm glad to know they will stay.
I think you meant "Hillsborough & Ashe"....but I agree it's good those buildings will stay. (I'm sure the folks in the upstairs apartments would agree too.) And I personally can say that bike shop is one of Raleigh's best! :thumbsup:

Last time I passed by, though, the convenience store appeared shut down? Not sure...

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  • 3 weeks later...

The city council decided to remove the comp plan CBD designation from the FLUM for the Bolton property. The property will be designated a special study area, and a small area plan will presumably be developed to apply there. FMW has said it would like to develop the site at approximately 150 units/acre, which I think is about the density of the West condos.

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The bottom line is FMW doesn't give a flying s&*& about developing anything. They only are assembling land, upzoning it and reselling it later when the market improves. The fact that the revised comp plan ever showed this was probably due to their input.

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The bottom line is FMW doesn't give a flying s&*& about developing anything. They only are assembling land, upzoning it and reselling it later when the market improves. The fact that the revised comp plan ever showed this was probably due to their input.

I'm going to have to agree. I don't think FMW is going to do anything outside of eventually selling this property.

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  • 2 months later...

The roundabout project at the Hillsborough & Morgan intersection is now under construction.

Yep! They were out there doing surveying the past couple weeks and now this week all the cones/signage are up, making it officially a construction zone.

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Roundabouts take up a lot of space. This kind of struck me while looking at the new roundabout going in at Hillsborough & Pullen. The roundabout there is perhaps 150' wide. In contrast, the sidewalks next to the roundabout look like they're about 6 feet wide. Being that narrow, wedged between the asphalt and a big brick wall with no planting area,, those sidewalks are sure to be unpleasant to walk on.

I hope they do a better job with the final design at Hillsborough/Morgan..

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The huge oaks right at the point where Morgan and Hillsborough diverge (in the yard of that enormous house) are doomed, aren't they?

I remember going to the city project meeting back when they had the bypass lane, and I recall the big oak on the corner was to be removed. Under the new plan, they are dropping the travel lane that was to have been continued as the bypass lane before, so the roundabout may have been able to be shifted over to avoid the big corner oak tree... but I'm not sure about that. There are some stakes out there marking the limits of the right-of-way I think, very near that tree. IMO, in the so-called "City of Oaks," a 48" mature oak tree such as this one, is the reason we have the tree ordinance, but that applies to development, and not public works projects. Still let's hope we have some people within the city that can understand the balance between the natural environment, providing transport for people, bikes & cars such that they found a way to squeeze the roundabout within the existing footprint.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This link could just as easily go in history of the triangle but I think its also worth thinking about this stretch of Raleigh and is it really as blighted and underutilized as the well-heeled might like to frame it.

Green House Link

Sure the Bolton property is vacant but I like this stretch of leafy historic mid-density west ITB location more or less in its existing framework. Fill in the vacant lots with homes or townhomes. Make Bolton into office space ala Lulu or build apartments or condos there, but I don't see some massive commercial and apartment destination center that is being insinuated as the likely selling point for the area pitched as a single developable tract. Call me a NIMBY and that would be incorrect. I smell a selling pitch on the order of what The Wade has become....

To be clear FMW is assembling this land and does not intend to actually develop it, only sell it to a potential developer at some point...

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^ I hope something can be done to save it. Is there a way to support the effort?

There are some stakes out there marking the limits of the right-of-way I think, very near that tree.

I walked by the roundabout stakes (which appear to delineate the edge of the proposed curbing) over the weekend, and I'm pretty sure the footprint of the roundabout is well inside of the larger oak tree at the corner. When the project was redesigned, the elimination of the bypass lane must have pushed in the project limits and saved the tree, either by happenstance or purposefully. Along with the sidewalk widening projects downtown, the Hillsborough St road diet by NC State, maybe this is another small, but symbolic turning point for the City of Oaks to eschew it's recent suburban road-building past and begin to take a more comprehensive approach to transportation planning and city-building, at least within some of the older, more urban neighborhoods. Let's hope this approach is expanded to the rest of the city as well.

BTW, Ashe Ave @ Hillsborough St will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday night, so be warned.

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Sounds like IHOP will not come down until Phase II. Phase I is all the property east of Ashe St.

I wish they would buy the Jade Garden/Cycle Logic parking lot and strike a deal so JG can use some spaces in the new parking deck. It would suck to have this whole new development and then have the most prominent lot facing the roundabout, be taken up by a parking lot too small to redevelop.

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