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North Hills / Midtown area developments


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On a trip to Trader Joe's, I saw that construction is underway at Midtown East, the site of the Wegmans shopping centre.  It's still a long way from completion, though, and the only major progress that could be seen was the parking deck.
 
EDIT:  Also, does anyone know what is going on with Hodges Road where it ends in the Hanna Imports parking lot?  The road is closed after entering the lot, and it looks like a trail has been cleared behind it, perhaps for a road extension.  I don't see anything about it on the City's website.
It is a sewer project. The Crabtree Branch Interceptor or somesuch.
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21 minutes ago, orulz said:
2 hours ago, Merthecat said:
On a trip to Trader Joe's, I saw that construction is underway at Midtown East, the site of the Wegmans shopping centre.  It's still a long way from completion, though, and the only major progress that could be seen was the parking deck.
 
EDIT:  Also, does anyone know what is going on with Hodges Road where it ends in the Hanna Imports parking lot?  The road is closed after entering the lot, and it looks like a trail has been cleared behind it, perhaps for a road extension.  I don't see anything about it on the City's website.

It is a sewer project. The Crabtree Branch Interceptor or somesuch.

Indeed. And a good year behind schedule because the contractor didn't dewater the trenches correctly before laying the lines and did't achieve the correct grades. City got close to firing them but I guess they made good on correcting the mistakes. 

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On 10/26/2018 at 10:57 PM, RALNATIVE said:

I wonder if First Citizens is planning to be the main tenant or at least lease space in the Walter tower? That may explain why Kane is not wasting time getting this project off the ground.

I doubt it, it wouldn't really make sense for them to lease space when they own almost all of two blocks, totaling  more than 10 acres, immediately north of NHE. They could possibly redevelop around their 9 story building at 4300 Six Forks and perhaps raze the round branch and start from scratch there.

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Kane has invested millions into the project but the streetscape on Six Forks looks like scheisse.  DOT, Kane, the City couldn't figure out a better way to make the pedestrian crossing more....well, pedestrian friendly?  It's nearly as bad as trying to get from hotels on the north sid e of glenwood to Crabtree.  Kane spent a bunch of money on the decorative columns and lighting, but it's lost in the tangle of overhead wires and telephone poles.   Any plans to "fix" these issues?  

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10 hours ago, MACyr said:

Kane has invested millions into the project but the streetscape on Six Forks looks like scheisse.  DOT, Kane, the City couldn't figure out a better way to make the pedestrian crossing more....well, pedestrian friendly?  It's nearly as bad as trying to get from hotels on the north sid e of glenwood to Crabtree.  Kane spent a bunch of money on the decorative columns and lighting, but it's lost in the tangle of overhead wires and telephone poles.   Any plans to "fix" these issues?  

I think there's only so much he can do as he doesn't exactly own Six Forks Road.  At one point there was talk of a tunnel between the two North Hills under Six Forks and I even think I remember seeing it on a plan somewhere.  No idea what happened.

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There is also a complete redo of Six Forks that is being discussed to death. Goes from just south of 440 to Spring Forest/Lynn. The big wrangling is over whether to make it a slower, pedestrian friendly stretch, or enhance it's high volume automobile artery status. To their credit, City staff seem to be trying hard to somehow achieve both. 

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49 minutes ago, Jones_ said:

There is also a complete redo of Six Forks that is being discussed to death. Goes from just south of 440 to Spring Forest/Lynn. The big wrangling is over whether to make it a slower, pedestrian friendly stretch, or enhance it's high volume automobile artery status. To their credit, City staff seem to be trying hard to somehow achieve both. 

Due to how North Hills has been developed thus far, I think they need to make it more pedestrian friendly.  Creedmore and Falls of the Neuse are both parallel to Six Forks between 440 and 540 so there should be plenty of roadway to accommodate vehicular traffic on those roads.

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12 hours ago, DPK said:

I think there's only so much he can do as he doesn't exactly own Six Forks Road.  At one point there was talk of a tunnel between the two North Hills under Six Forks and I even think I remember seeing it on a plan somewhere.  No idea what happened.

Developers, and cities, pay for upgrades to public infrastructure including roads, all the time.  NCDOT will give you basic features, but if you pay for it, will gladly upgrade.  Same for utility lines.

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3 hours ago, nicholas said:

Due to how North Hills has been developed thus far, I think they need to make it more pedestrian friendly.  Creedmore and Falls of the Neuse are both parallel to Six Forks between 440 and 540 so there should be plenty of roadway to accommodate vehicular traffic on those roads.

From my experience over 30 years, all thee are equally jammed with traffic. I don't know what the traffic counts actually are but I lean pedestrian friendly too. I'm not sure if the other two can actually handle more traffic, but most of north Raleigh is commuting somewhere to work (downtown, RTP or a university). Will be interesting to see what they go with. 

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I live off Creedmoor Rd, and I'm not keen to get a share of the traffic on Six Forks -- especially with the mess at Crabtree Valley Mall, which I doubt will ever get properly fixed. We already know that NC 50 will be four-laned as far north as NC 98, and it's only a matter of time until Granville County sees the kind of building boom that Chatham and Johnston Counties have already seen.  

In other words, I don't want the City to do to Six Forks what they did to Hillsborough, forcing traffic onto adjacent parallel streets.

Edited by ctl
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1 hour ago, ctl said:

I live off Creedmoor Rd, and I'm not keen to get a share of the traffic on Six Forks -- especially with the mess at Crabtree Valley Mall, which I doubt will ever get properly fixed. We already know that NC 50 will be four-laned as far north as NC 98, and it's only a matter of time until Granville County sees the kind of building boom that Chatham and Johnston Counties have already seen.  

In other words, I don't want the City to do to Six Forks what they did to Hillsborough, forcing traffic onto adjacent parallel streets.

Points taken, although I'm not sure I understand the part about Hillsborough?  I drive through there a couple times a month, and while there is usually a good bit of traffic, it flows pretty well due to the roundabouts everywhere.

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2 hours ago, ctl said:

I live off Creedmoor Rd, and I'm not keen to get a share of the traffic on Six Forks -- especially with the mess at Crabtree Valley Mall, which I doubt will ever get properly fixed. We already know that NC 50 will be four-laned as far north as NC 98, and it's only a matter of time until Granville County sees the kind of building boom that Chatham and Johnston Counties have already seen.  

In other words, I don't want the City to do to Six Forks what they did to Hillsborough, forcing traffic onto adjacent parallel streets.

While I agree to an extent, I don't really have the same gripes with Hillsborough Street.  Every street can't be auto-centric and Hillsborough really should cater more toward pedestrians.  It's unfortunate that upgrades to infrastructure can't all happen at once, but I'd rather them do it when they can than not at all.  If anything I feel like Hillsborough Street is rather painless now to get through.  I used to swear a lot more traveling through there before the rework.

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Hillsborough is pretty stand still at peak, which is fine by me...I usually take Clark/Peace nowadays...Wade currently because that stormwater culvert is being replaced by the Raleigh apartments. 

I think Six Forks pedestrian environment can be vastly improved without hurting traffic flow at all. Planted medians, bulb outs at intersections, and an integrated traffic light control system (like Capital Blvd has) to move along things all at once, and stop them all at once, would do wonders. 

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6 hours ago, Jones_ said:

Hillsborough is pretty stand still at peak, which is fine by me...I usually take Clark/Peace nowadays...Wade currently because that stormwater culvert is being replaced by the Raleigh apartments. 

I think Six Forks pedestrian environment can be vastly improved without hurting traffic flow at all. Planted medians, bulb outs at intersections, and an integrated traffic light control system (like Capital Blvd has) to move along things all at once, and stop them all at once, would do wonders. 

I'll dig up the design i worked on when I was with the City for the Six Forks and Strickland Small Area Plan in the late 1990.  I agree with you.  BTW,  One of the most egregious examples of pisspoor City planning is at Six Forks and Saw Mill.  There used to be a public library  branch on Horizon Drive surrounded by housing where residents could see the library but had to get in their cars, go onto Sawmill and then onto Six Forks to get to the library.  Effective separation of uses but crappy mobility planning, forcing cars onto roads when better pedestrian connections could have saved AADT.

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7 hours ago, MACyr said:

I'll dig up the design i worked on when I was with the City for the Six Forks and Strickland Small Area Plan in the late 1990.  I agree with you.  BTW,  One of the most egregious examples of pisspoor City planning is at Six Forks and Saw Mill.  There used to be a public library  branch on Horizon Drive surrounded by housing where residents could see the library but had to get in their cars, go onto Sawmill and then onto Six Forks to get to the library.  Effective separation of uses but crappy mobility planning, forcing cars onto roads when better pedestrian connections could have saved AADT.

I'd be super interested to see that. I used to cut through Saw Mill to Crabtree coming from Wake Forest back in the early 90's. The whole Saw Mill, north Leadmine area is the peak of separation of uses planning. Very similar to Highwoods Blvd from the same time period. Back when an Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer was the bro-iest of cars a north Raleigh high school kid could have. 

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Sawmill has curves between Creedmoor and Lead Mine that naturally limit speed. I think Ammons took care that the layout through the subdivisions he was developing didn't turn Sawmill into a racetrack. His combination of senior living, single-family residential, shopping, and institutional (school/church/daycare/swimming) has held up well. Unfortunately the parties that planned Sawmill between Lead Mine and Six Forks were less enlightened. Worse, there was no recognition of the amount of traffic that Mourning Dove would bear, and that led to an eventual street-calming project with dubious design features.

And then there is the ridiculous design of the shopping center in the southeast quadrant of Six Forks and Sawmill/Mourning Dove (where Vinnie's is). Don't get me started on that. The only more unfortunate layout in north Raleigh that I can think of is Pleasant Valley Promenade. 

Edited by ctl
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Really wish they would turn this area into green/ park / open space.  Or even a plaza with water features, trellis, picnic tables, beer garden, shuffleboard, ice skate rink, futsal court, something more pedestrian and public oriented since this intersection will really become the focal point of north hills east district.  I think they show a hotel here on the master plan, but that could easily go  to east of tower 4 - even stack on top of  another residential/office building for more density there to free up this land.

nh.JPG

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51 minutes ago, Green_man said:

Really wish they would turn this area into green/ park / open space.  Or even a plaza with water features, trellis, picnic tables, beer garden, shuffleboard, ice skate rink, futsal court, something more pedestrian and public oriented since this intersection will really become the focal point of north hills east district.  I think they show a hotel here on the master plan, but that could easily go  to east of tower 4 - even stack on top of  another residential/office building for more density there to free up this land.

nh.JPG

Mind providing a link to the OxBlue construction cam for this site?

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