Jump to content

Devereaux Meadows redevelopment/riverwalk concept


Justin6882

Recommended Posts

Improvement to the grid doesn't nescessarily have to include extending dawson and mcdowell st. As I've thought of this, I think improving the interchange at peace street would help alot. Instead of the half cloverleaf, the eastern side should be a diamond exiting right after the bridge allowing for a connection to johnson st. and then to peace st. That are could definitley use some development. If the sanitation department is removed harrington st. should be extended across peace st. (instead of ending at west st). Harrington could extend to west st. north of peace as it nears dortches st. A full flow intersection with wade and west would improve the connectibility which could also feed into fairview. I kind of strayed from the the peace st. interchange but the west side should be a mirror image of what it is now. The loop would feed directly into the grid with johnson st and harrington st. Maybe i'll draw a picture, I've done plenty in my spare time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

  • Replies 99
  • Created
  • Last Reply

According to Bob Geary of the Independent, the City intends to sell Devereux Meadow, the large tract on the northwest corner of Peace St. and Capital Blvd. currently used as parking for the garbage truck fleet and some other city vehicles. This was once a City park known as Devereux Meadow, where Raleigh's baseball team played.

The City plans to sell this in two or three years. It is certainly a wise decision, as that land is far too valuable for its current use. The trucks could be parked on much cheaper land.

But what would be the best use for this land? Mixed use is what comes to mind these days. It may not be particularly desirable for residential use, however, as it is very low-lying land bordered by Cap. Blvd on the east and West St. on the west. Both roads are lined with offices, warehouses & light industry, with railroad tracks on the other sides. But much of that could change, too.

It would be a great spot for the Raleigh Municipal Zoo, wouldn't it? Just kidding. No, I'm not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw this topic posted, and went back through the archives and merged the old "riverwalk" topic with this one. They are essentially one and the same "project" (2-3 years away) based on the concept that the city plans to move it's solid waste fleets away from the old Devereaux Meadows site (NW of Peace St & Capital Blvd), and the remaining land would be redeveloped. The land might include a potential riverwalk-type of development that could emphasize the creek as an amenity and simultaneously improve the water quality of Pigeon House Creek.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does Pigeon House Branch have two forks? There is the Devereux Meadows/Glenwood South/Cameron Village segment, but what is the stream that was channelized and shoved off to one side when Wade Avenue was built through to Capital? That stream flows through from Pigeon House Branch at the capital/Wade interchange, along Wade to the Glenwood/wade interchange, and then alongside Williamson Drive between Glenwood and St. Marys, where I guess it disappears into culverts (?). There is another urban stream that flows through Fred Fletcher Park, under Glenwood at the bottom of the hill by Washington Street, under those awful apartments, and then (I think) dumps into Pigeon House Branch just north of Devereux Meadows in a kudzu covered wasteland (this is the one that is proposed to be dammed up at Glenwood and turned into a stormwater retention small lake/big pond at Fletcher Park. So there are more uncovered portions of these urban streams than you think...

The old ballpark site is a goldmine...you don't see the potential right now, given the shabby rundown structures along N. West site overlooking that site, not to mention the grubby solid waste operations. If any of those old houses behind the cycle shop along West Street overlooking the ballpark site came available, that would be a great investment, but I bet real estate speculators/slum lords already hold all of them...

*edit* according to the online Wake Property records, a developers group has already assembled four small parcels on the East side of N. West Street, backing up to the culverted stream that runs between the city property and the parcels along West Street. Basically, Flythe family (bike shop people) have the first three parcels on East side of N. West, and the developer group has the next four. The plumbing business between Flythe and the city solid waste department site on Peace Street sits on a very large parcel, and that guy, too, is sitting on a gold mine. Of course the wild card here is environmental contamination...those warehouses/light manufacturing sites along West Street have probably generated some soil and groundwater contamination from their activities over the years, but nothing a determined redeveloper couldn't overcome...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

North of the Capitol/Wade intersectioin, does the stream east of Capitol that starts/ends near the old Harris Wholesale site, then re-daylighs by Dunkin Donuts/Milner Inn/Foxy Lady, then goes under Capitol to the Indoor Flea Market side up towards the creek the greenway runs along, over to the "lake" on Raleigh Blvd have any significance?

The Cameron Village "branch" seems to end going west near the "bend" in Peace at the bottom of the hill down from the library. Going east, it goes underground at Boylan and daylights for a small segment on the west side of West Street, behind the parking deck of 510 Glenwood.

The west side of North West near the old ball park is right up against the train tracks and really narrow, but there could be some neat reuses of the buildings there as well. That side widens and goes downhill to the north approaching Wade, so there could easily be some 3-5 story structuctures there.

They wouldn't be any worse than the cement mixing site there now. That could be moved near the Cargill site south of downtonw, since the need for concrete downtown appears to be constant for the next decade or so.

It would be nice if this could somehow be tied to the industrial area on the west side of the tracks on the west side of Capitol between Wade and Wake Forest Road, but the area was designed so that Wade/Capitol traffic stops for nothing. Maybe tunnel under to re-emerge at the "service" road parallel to capitol, then taking bickett blvd west.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll be interested in seeing what could go up in this area. ( doubt it'd ever be a zoo though, seeing as North Carolina's state zoo is the best in the nation and part of the reason for that is that there are no smaller city-run zoos competing for resources or visitors.)

And if the city is going to sell it, I doubt there'll be much of a park there either?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

North of the Capitol/Wade intersectioin, does the stream east of Capitol that starts/ends near the old Harris Wholesale site, then re-daylighs by Dunkin Donuts/Milner Inn/Foxy Lady, then goes under Capitol to the Indoor Flea Market side up towards the creek the greenway runs along, over to the "lake" on Raleigh Blvd have any significance?

The Cameron Village "branch" seems to end going west near the "bend" in Peace at the bottom of the hill down from the library. Going east, it goes underground at Boylan and daylights for a small segment on the west side of West Street, behind the parking deck of 510 Glenwood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found this powerpoint on the city webpage that confirms that the Devereaux Meadows facility will at the least be closed. It also has some renderings of new facilities and their locations and lists "vacate high-value real estate in downtown Raleigh" as an objective. The traffic engineering field office downtown is also listed as being scheduled to close.

http://www.raleighnc.gov/publications/Admi...udy-April06.ppt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made a post about this elsewhere on UP (not sure where). It is so very very beautiful along Pigeon House by the garbage truck lot...steep cliffs, deep pools of water with swift rocky segments...I walked it from Peace to Wade a couple weeks ago. Racoons, cats, many birds and even some fish still cling to life around Pigeon House. At Wade the two forks come together right in front of the cement facility. From that point, on a Sunday afternoon, if you keep your gaze low, you can almost imagine what it used to be like there....the water poors out of the culvert and over some sedimentary rock formation into a large deep pool (likely scoured out by the culvert flow), with river birch hanging all around. The views from West St toward downtown are equal to the best in the city. Looking toward the Cotton Mill, only Capital Blvd (and garbage trucks) ruins an otherwise postcard view of the plain below. At one time one of the decendants of the Mordecais had a plantation on Deveraux St near where it used to tie into West. It is obvious, their plantation (removed for the Glenwood neighborhood) was situated here for the view.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

The city has purchased the replacement site for the solid waste facility north of Peace St at Devereaux Meadows. It will take a few years for the city to move out and the city wants the tract to "ripen" with some time. It will attract significantly more interest once more sites are filled out. If you look at the area between Glenwood South and the State Govt. complex (north of "West" condos), there are a ton of small, low-rise offices and parking lots waiting to be redeveloped. That being said, the Devereaux site obviously has some unique potential in that it's quite large (16 acres) and it fronts Pigeon House Creek, a stream that's been eyed for restoration and could be an amenity. I'd love to see a developer take advatage of the ballpark history somehow, even though the structure is gone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great news. :thumbsup:

This isn't just a good thing from the view of downtown development and infill, but also a win for the city. Raleigh Blvd is a nice, wide 4-lane road with little traffic (for the most part) and nearby access to 440. This will be easier to get the garbage trucks in and out than the current location, which is more congested and narrower.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

little bit of a history vs nature clash here.....Pigeon House is culverted under where the bleachers used to sit. I want to daylight the creek and preserve something of the old bathrooms still there. This is a huge oppurtunity for downtown to have a nice park with a water feature close to all the new condos going up. Oh if Capital Blvd would go away the swath from Glenwood to the Cotton Mill could be so pretty, urban, whatever..so long as Captial wasn't there...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I know there has been a topic in the past for the "Riverwalk" idea for Raleigh. I can't seem to find it. But anyhow it seems the city is wanting to make this concept a reality! I personally love the idea, welcome any change to try and bring excitement coming into to downtown from Capital Blvd.

Here is a link to the story:

http://wral.com/news/local/story/2780291/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I drew this up at the "big idea" event at Tir na Nog. A small portion needs daylighted north of Peace St but there is a lot of Pigeon House creek under ground south of Peace as well. Immediately south of Ornamentea is a small stretch that is visible and immediatly north of Glenwood Lofts (former Tucker St project) is a daylit culverted portion. My idea was to realign Harrington back N/S to connect to Peace. While the area is torn up, daylight Pigeon House Branch south of Peace to Glenwood (it doglegs west after it goes under the carwash). Then nicley developed office buildings and restaurants around the creek (which has pretty good flow) could function like the real River Walk in San Antonio and not just be a park between Capital Blvd and the Glenwood neighborhood. You might could even get Clean Water Trust Fund grant money to help with this since its Neuse Basin waters....the Neuse being on the EPA's top ten most endangered rivers list and subject to Total Maxium Daily [pollutant] Loads too. Then raise Peace St up enough so pedestrians can pass under it along a greenway trail that connects the northern and southern stretches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't like it.... I don't want Raleigh to become a Mr. Me Too! "Honey the Jones got a Lexus & I want one too" Attitude!

But I got some ideas...

How about a indoor village "theme park" with underground parking

site 1:

A Roller Coaster, Laser Tag Room, Commercial Chain restaurants (Buffalo Wild Wings, Donut shop)

site 2:

Giant Slide, an Elevator drop zone (that takes you out the build & you can see the downtown Raleigh skyline), with indoor beach!

site 3:

Japanese Night Club (karaoke night), arcade room, Ice cream shop

All in one build kind like this but not so tall just wider! (& it takes up very little of the green landscape)

Video examples:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't like it.... I don't want Raleigh to become a Mr. Me Too! "Honey the Jones got a Lexus & I want one too" Attitude!

But I got some ideas...

How about a indoor village "theme park" with underground parking

site 1:

A Roller Coaster, Laser Tag Room, Commercial Chain restaurants (Buffalo Wild Wings, Donut shop)

site 2:

Giant Slide, an Elevator drop zone (that takes you out the build & you can see the downtown Raleigh skyline), with indoor beach!

site 3:

Japanese Night Club (karaoke night), arcade room, Ice cream shop

All in one build kind like this but not so tall just wider! (& it takes up very little of the green landscape)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I drew this up at the "big idea" event at Tir na Nog. A small portion needs daylighted north of Peace St but there is a lot of Pigeon House creek under ground south of Peace as well. Immediately south of Ornamentea is a small stretch that is visible and immediatly north of Glenwood Lofts (former Tucker St project) is a daylit culverted portion. My idea was to realign Harrington back N/S to connect to Peace. While the area is torn up, daylight Pigeon House Branch south of Peace to Glenwood (it doglegs west after it goes under the carwash). Then nicley developed office buildings and restaurants around the creek (which has pretty good flow) could function like the real River Walk in San Antonio and not just be a park between Capital Blvd and the Glenwood neighborhood. You might could even get Clean Water Trust Fund grant money to help with this since its Neuse Basin waters....the Neuse being on the EPA's top ten most endangered rivers list and subject to Total Maxium Daily [pollutant] Loads too. Then raise Peace St up enough so pedestrians can pass under it along a greenway trail that connects the northern and southern stretches.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I love the idea. I spent a week in San Antonio last summer, and never left the Riverwalk. My hotel, all of my meals, each night's entertainment... all within walking distance. If we had something similar downtown, my wife & I would frequent it, without question.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.