Comments on: More Density May Come to Cameron Village

By: chickenlittle

chickenlittle — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:26:13 +0000

Jim Anthony runs a good shop and can be expected to do the best as anyone with this site. The unfortunate fact here is that this 616 Oberlin rezoning/redevelopment is a much better project than the 401 Oberlin project approved last year amid controversy — not only for traffic, but also for neighborhood compatibility, preservation, planning and highest-/best-use of the location. But the 401 Oberlin project was approved first and is under construction. Many neighbors would welcome additional mixed-use retail at this location adjacent to Cameron Village but with ill-advised approval last year of the 401 Oberlin project, adding more retail traffic just doesn’t seem wise, at least until the dust settles from the 1,000 new residents a couple blocks away at the corner of Clark and Oberlin where two new apartment complexes are under construction. Lesson learned: keep the big picture in mind. Scarce infrastructure capacity on Oberlin Road and similar locations inside Raleigh’s urban core is much better allocated to underbuilt locations such as 616 Oberlin than to destroying a perfectly good multistory office building that serves as a convenient work location for nearby residents and offers decades of future continued use. Under even the most wildly optimistic “green” projections from the mass transit/density increases that the 401 Oberlin Road redevelopment might generate, we will nowhere near recover all the wasted energy represented by the premature loss of just the building materials that the demolition of the former 401 Oberlin office building caused.

By: Russ Jones

Russ Jones — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:02:47 +0000

Thank you Jim for the clarification! Otherwise, this article inflames what is, by all measurements, a supported project.

Good luck with it.

By: Jim Anthony

Jim Anthony — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:37:59 +0000

Sorry, but this article is so full of errors, I must offer some corrections.
First of all the PC approval and zoning request was for up to 275 apartments OR 90,000 sf of office. Not both.
Secondly, the Hillsborough CAC AND University Park neighborhood groups voted to support the project zoning.
The Cameron Village Neighborhood Association voted in a closed door session with no presentation by the developer to oppose the project. Once neighbors meet with us to hear directly about the project, they generally support it.
No one, developer or neighbors, wants retail on the site, so none was requested.
Daniels Street operates far below traffic design load capacity.