The City Council today approved the master plan for the North Hills East development. The site directly across Six Forks Road from North Hills will contain a retirement community, 1,800 residential units, 850 hotel rooms, over 500,000 square feet of retail space, and 1.3million square feet of office space.
The meeting revealed some interesting notes. The City Council seems overwhelmingly impressed by developer John Kane’s work with North Hills, even though its hotel project is still in limbo (might a bigger, better hotel plan be in the works for NHE instead of one at North Hills?) Both Mayor Charles Meeker and Councilor Thomas Crowder stated how impressed they are with the North Hills redevelopment. The mayor even went so far as to call North Hills, "North Hills West" – (in my humple opinion) implying an assumption that NHE will be built as planned.
What is absolutely shocking is the plan’s request of zoning approval for buildings along Six Forks Road up to…365 feet! That’s the equivalent of 30-stories, and it is absolutely unfathomable that the planning commission and city council of just 3 years ago denied the proposed 10-story buildings that would have lined the Six Forks Road edge of North Hills.
What’s happened in this city? In just a few years we’ve gone from neighborhood groups shredding Neil Coker’s dense infill ideas to possibly approving something drastically bigger and denser. Russ Stephenson was one of the most vocal "Coker Towers" opponents, yet today, sits on the city council and voted for NHE without verbal reservation. Just a few years ago, North Hills’ resident neighbors to the east were counting birds and documenting nature in the plaza buffer in their last ditch effort to squash Kane’s original plan. Today the NHE project, after having been clearly explained to potential neighbors , has been very well received. Mr. Kane even got a standing ovation at a recent CAC meeting. Amazing.
Have we learned that dense infill can work? Are we full of regret after seeing what eventually sprung up on Coker’s old site? Has the momentum of downtown’s revitalization made those in the burbs want a more urban environment in their own backyards? Has the design of Streets of Southpointe opened people’s eyes about outdoor, walkable retail? Just what is going on?
There will be an enormous traffic impact by the project on I-440, Six Forks Road, and Wake Forest Roads. Raleigh’s Planning Director Mitchell Silver carefully explained that worst-case scenarios have been considered and found to not overwhelm the existing street network. There was a small amount of talk about future mass transit integration into the NHE project. Mr. Kane proclaimed his desire for the North Hills to one day have a transit stop (that is if the TTA can ever get its act together).
To be fair, Mr. Kane was present and explained that he and his team are "just asking for maximums" and have not yet determined the exact market. There has been talk of buildings probably being somewhere in the 15-ish story neighborhood, but this is unprecedented leeway given by this city council. The typical pattern in Raleigh has been to ask for more and build smaller, however some recent projects have actually flowed in reverse.
Only Councilor Thomas Crowder voted against the NHE plan citing concerns about the height given a lack of comprehensive planning for transportation, and uncertainty for how dense we want our regional centers. Mayor Meeker immediately retorted that while he is concerned about 365 feet, Meeker feels that given Mr. Kane’s track record, he will
"figure out how to use this flexibility in a good way".
