Town of Cary, North Carolina

Mixed Use Sketch Plan Data Sheet

07-MU-07 Richard Drive Property

Bob Benfield, Case Manager

Request

The applicant is requesting that Town Council approve a Mixed Use Sketch Plan (MUSP) to allow for 108,000 square feet of office space, 22,000 square feet of retail space, 94 multi-family residential units and a hotel containing 90 rooms at the northeast corner of North Harrison Avenue and Richard Drive.

The purpose of the Mixed Use Overlay District is to enable the development of land in areas designated as mixed use centers on the Land Use Plan Map in accordance with the guidance of the Comprehensive Plan and individual mixed use sketch plans.  It is intended to promote higher-density, mixed-use developments of varying sizes, as an alternative to lower-density separate-use suburban sprawl-type development.

Mixed use sketch plans are conceptual documents that address the general density, mix of uses, and development patterns within a mixed use center.  They are less detailed than the plans required for full site plan review.  The intent is to provide sufficient information to determine consistency with the Comprehensive Plan and the Town’s Design Guidelines.  Specific development issues must be addressed for compliance with existing requirements specified in the Land Development Ordinance (LDO) when the site plan is submitted.  All such requirements can be found at http:vic.townofcary.org.

 
Sketch Plan Index

Background Information

* Future meeting dates are tentative

PROPERTY OWNER INFORMATION

Consistency with the Comprehensive Plan

A.   Land Use Plan:  The subject parcels are located within the SAS Regional Mixed-Use Activity Center, which calls for a pedestrian-supportive mix of retail, office, and high and medium density housing within the overall activity center.  The Land Use Plan recommends that there be a reasonable balance between commercial/retail and office/institutional uses within an activity center, and that there be at least one housing unit for every 1,000 sq. ft. of nonresidential floorspace.  While there is a wide range in the total overall nonresidential floor space within Regional Mixed Use Centers in Cary, the Land Use Plan provides a general guideline that one might expect about “+/- 1,500,000 sq. ft.” (shown on parentheses below).

The amount of development already built or approved within this activity center along with the new totals that are proposed to be added by this case are as shown in the following three tables:

As depicted in the tables above, the total amount of non-residential floor space within this activity center falls within Land Use Plan guidelines, however the number of supporting residential units is low.  (Note: This activity center’s 495 rooms (539,724 sq. ft.) of hotel/motel space is not included within the residential or nonresidential totals; rather, the hotels are counted as support service for the Mixed Use Center)  * The Residences at the Arboretum (case 05-SP-025) contains 228 multifamily residential units currently under construction.

B.  Growth Management Plan:
The Growth Management Plan includes the following three Guiding Principles that are relevant to this case: 

1. R1 Guiding Principle: Ensure that adequate infrastructure and services are available concurrently with new development.
2. L1 Guiding Principle: Concentrate growth near existing and planned employment centers and available and planned infrastructure to minimize costly service-area extensions.

C.  Affordable Housing Plan: 
The Affordable Housing Plan goals are not applicable to this case.

D.   Transportation:

      N. Harrison Avenue
Existing Section:  5 lanes

      Future Section:  4 lane median divided

      Road Improvements:  widening to meet Comprehensive Transportation Plan requirements

      Sidewalks Requirements: both sides

      Bicycle Requirements: wide outside lanes

      Transit Requirements:  None

      Traffic Analysis:  A traffic study (08-TAR-279) was conducted by Martin Alexiou Bryson.  The study evaluated 94,000 sf (94 apartments) of residential space, 72,000 sf (90 rooms) of hotel space, 115,000 sf of office space and 30,000 sf of commercial space. 

      The following are preliminary recommendations from the study for this development:

      North Harrison Avenue and I-40 Westbound Ramps

• Construct additional WB left-turn lane on the I-40 WB off-ramp to form triple left-turns.
• Construct additional southbound lane along N. Harrison Avenue to provide three receiving lanes for the left turns (i.e. widen the bridge).

      North Harrison Avenue and I-40 Eastbound Ramps

• Construct an additional southbound through lane along N. Harrison Avenue.
• Convert northbound right-turn lane into a free-flowing movement and widen the I-40 EB on-ramp to allow two receiving lanes.  The two-lane segment will merge to a single lane prior to the I-40 eastbound merge.  This conversion will require that a concrete channelization island or other type of barrier be constructed at the entrance to the I-40 on-ramp to control this movement.

      North Harrison Avenue and Weston Parkway/Richard Drive

• Construct an additional southbound through lane along N. Harrison Avenue.
• Construct a northbound right-turn lane with at least 150 feet of f