June and July meetings summary: mobile retail, Shaw, BRT
Happy Summer! City Council is on "break" until mid-August, but I'm back with updates from our June and July meetings.
1. We approved the appointment of members to the Southern and Western BRT (bus rapid transit) station area planning leader groups. The city is planning 4 BRT routes (think "light rail on wheel"), with the first route down New Bern Avenue beginning construction this year. As part of the BRT planning, the city has formed groups of leaders from the communities surrounding the BRT routes to help provide feedback and to assist with the station area planning.
2. We approved new rules for mobile retail and food trucks. These new rules make it easier for mobile retail and food trucks to operate in the city, including, increasing the number of mobile retail and food truck vehicles allowed in a location, reducing the amount of separation required between mobile retail/food trucks and other food service businesses, allowing signage for mobile retail/food trucks, and allowing mobile retail/food trucks to operate in more places.
3. We accepted $3 million in federal funding for construction of strollway connecting Chavis Park to Dix Park. The strollway will be essentially an urban greenway connector, offering a multi-modal route through downtown from Chavis to Dix. The strollway will also celebrate Raleigh's history, as it makes its way through historic downtown neighborhoods and Shaw University. These funds must be obligated by 2025 and spent by 2030. Hopefully we'll all get to enjoy the strollway soon!
4. We approved a rezoning for parts of Shaw's campus. Shaw University requested the rezoning to facilitate redevelopment of parts of their campus to help connect it to downtown and provide revenue for the university; they're calling it "The Shaw U District" https://www.theshawudistrict.com/ As part of the rezoning, several historic structures were required to be preserved and Shaw is required to build student housing.
5. We leased more city-owned land to a non-profit housing provider for construction of 27 low to moderate income rental units. The proposed development will be constructed across 10 city-owned lots, and at least 1/3 of the units must be reserved for extremely low income households.
Our next regular City Council meeting is Tuesday, August 15. As a reminder, beginning in September, our public comment periods will occur a 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month, and 1 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month.
jonathan.melton@raleighnc.gov
