At our council meeting this past Thursday we unanimously
approved the Urban Drive Townhome Rezoning. This request rezones one lot along
Urban Drive from Medium Density Residential (MDR) to Mixed-use allowing for the
construction of five townhomes that will be integrated into the Chatham Walk Condominium project at the corner of Chatham and Urban.
The Chatham Walk condominium project did not require council
consideration as the use is already allowed under the existing zoning which was
put in place in 2001 with the adoption of the Town Center Area Plan (TCAP). The
Chatham Walk Condominiums would still be built whether or not we approved the
townhomes.
So while we technically weren’t considering the condominium
project, we were considering a component of it – separating the two was
difficult as the proposed townhome layout relies on the condominium site for
access, parking and stormwater management.
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| Computer rendering of Chatham Walk Condos and Townhomes |
The image above was generated to demonstrate scale and
transition. That is NOT what the townhomes will look like 😉
Downtown residents expressed both support and opposition to
the proposal with the majority of residents along Urban Drive in opposition.
Concerns included building height, neighborhood character, transition, building
set-backs and stromwater/flooding.
Zoning conditions offered by the applicant in an effort to
address neighbor and council concerns included:
1) Stormwater runoff from the roof and driveways of any
townhome building constructed upon the property shall be diverted to the
existing stormwater system within Chatham Street.
While this clearly won’t in any way solve the stormwater
problem downtown, it won’t make it worse either and may actually help a bit as
runoff post-development will be mitigated vs no stormwater mitigation
pre-development. Cary’s stormwater requirements now are MUCH stricter than in
years past.
2) The applicant has also offered conditions related to
building design and architecture. These
include locating the principal entrance on Urban Drive for any townhomes with
frontage on Urban Drive, providing a minimum percentage of masonry material on
building facades, and limiting the use of vinyl siding to soffits and
architectural accents. The intent of
these conditions is to provide an architectural transition between the existing
single-family homes and condos and respect the residential front door feel of the
neighborhood.
3) Conditions were also offered to provide a six-foot tall
fence or wall within ten feet of the boundary line and a ten-foot building
setback from the southern property line (the same set-back requirement that
exists with MDR).
The townhomes will be three stories tall with a maximum
height of 45 feet - the same height that could have been built by-right under
the existing MDR zoning. That deserves repeating - a 45 feet tall residential
building could have been built on this site today without any council
consideration or citizen input. The primary difference between the existing
zoning and that requested is the number of units and access/parking.
And while I appreciate the resident’s concerns regarding
transition, we will have to agree to disagree. I believe that three-story
townhomes do provide a good transition from a four-story condominium building
into a single-family neighborhood downtown. The Cary Community Plan – our community’s
vision document speaks to this – “Heights should step
down to adjacent lower story buildings where necessary, or otherwise provide
acceptable transitions.”
The townhomes will also better shield the condominium’s
parking lot from view along Urban Drive.
Another concern raised by area residents was “development
creep” – that by approving this proposal we are opening the door for the rest
of the neighborhood to be redeveloped with townhomes or other high density uses.
That is not the case.
While some parts of our downtown neighborhoods may see change
over the coming years – especially those areas close to Chatham Street, Academy
Street and Harrison Ave – the majority of downtown neighborhoods are planned to
stay the same – except of course for remodels, additions or other improvements
performed by homeowners – which is happening a lot these days!
The vision for the Central Chatham Sub-area as described in
the Cary Community Plan is, “A vibrant mixed-use corridor with shops,
restaurants, breweries, studios, and sidewalk vendors. The street will be a
corridor, where people move between adjacent subareas. It will be Cary’s
primary destination for dining, entertainment, and shopping. And it will be a
neighborhood, a downtown community with a variety of living options where
residents can obtain their daily needs within a short walk.”
Here is an image of all the downtown sub-areas as well as the Central Chatham Sub-area where the site is located.
From the Cary Community Plan – “The shaded areas on
this map highlight some of the general locations that might offer particular
opportunities for future infill development, redevelopment, or re-use that
could help to achieve the vision for Central Chatham. Change is anticipated to
occur slowly over time, as individual property owners elect at their own
discretion to undertake changes to their properties to better align with this
vision. Additional sites not highlighted in this subarea are expected to be
maintained as is, or not change significantly, over the planning horizon.”
So the bottom line is that if your neighborhood isn’t
highlighted, it isn’t expected to change much nor do we plan for it to. If it
is highlighted, change might occur if property owners choose to do so.
I appreciate that change can be difficult for folks, I
really do. But change is coming to downtown and for the most part this is a
great thing. The condominium and townhomes above might look out of place today.
They won’t look out of place in 5-10 years. A similar project is already in the
works on the eastern corner of Urban and Chatham and the land on the northern
side of Chatham St. has been assembled for redevelopment. A number of other
projects are also in the works downtown such as the townhomes along Park St
across from the downtown park, the mixed-use development at the corner of
Harrison and Chatham and private development at the downtown library parking
deck.
As new development occurs, we will continue to work to
ensure that it is done in a manner that is consistent with our community’s
vision for downtown and respects the character and charm of surrounding neighborhoods.
I can’t say that I ever thought I’d dedicate an entire blog post to
five townhomes, but the reality is that this case was much bigger than that. It
was about striking a balance between existing residents and new development and
sticking to the vision laid out in the Cary Community Plan. As downtown continues to evolve we will surely face similar challenges. I look forward to it.
Thanks for reading!
