Cary News JULY 7, 2015
Cary postones decision on Alston Town Center plan
BY WILL DORAN
wdoran@newsobserver.com
Cary postones decision on Alston Town Center plan | News & Observer News & Observer
CARY
Cary Town Council members don’t consider drive-thrus and seven-lane roads pedestrian-friendly, and they cited those concerns Thursday night in rejecting a plan for a new downtown-style development in northwest Cary.
Cary Creek, a Charlotte-based development partnership, submitted preliminary plans for the second phase of Alston Town Center. The site consists of 58 acres at the southwest corner of N.C. 55 and N.C. 540, directly to the north of Panther Creek High School.
The developers already have town permission to build a Whole Foods there. But the second phase is a much larger plan, consisting of a dozen retail and office buildings, a hotel and several mixed-use buildings that would have apartments on the second floor above stores, salons, galleries and more.
It was that second phase that the Town Council voted unanimously to table until a future undetermined date.
“I thank those here for their effort,” Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said. “I look forward to hearing from you again.”
The council chose to table the hearing instead of denying the project outright, since doing so would require the developers to wait at least a year before trying again. Representatives for the developers said the work is already a decade in the making.
The plan considered Thursday would have included about 345,000 square feet of retail space and 30,000 square feet of office space, as well as a half mile of “main street” space with window shopping, sidewalk cafes, plazas and other pedestrian-focused amenities. It was supposed to be an attractive, walkable area full of benches and public art.
Cary Town Council members, however, weren’t buying the pitch.
“I know what we’re going for, but I don’t think this is going to achieve it,” said Jennifer Robinson, who led the board’s opposition to the plan.
The H-shaped mainstreet area presented in the plans include a significant amount of space along a seven-lane road. Both legs were also anchored at one end by drive-thrus.
“That’s not a main street,” Robinson said.
“Drive-thrus at the entrance to a premiere town center project doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies, either,” council member Don Frantz said in agreement.
Jason Barron of Morningstar Law Firm, a lawyer for the developers, said his clients would agree to get rid of one of the drive-thru lanes and make sure that the other isn’t used for fast food. He said a bank wants to be on the site and would need a drive-thru.
Even after those concessions, though, the Town Council did not let up.
“This feels like a shopping center,” Lori Bush said, not meaning it as a compliment.
“I think it could be reworked,” Weinbrecht said.
Mayor Pro Tem Jack Smith was the most favorable toward the project but still voted to table it. He said he thought the rest of the council was getting too caught up in concerns over drive-thrus, and that he was more concerned about the planned residential development.
“I’m not trying to build another downtown Cary, not trying to build another (downtown) Apex,” Smith said. “We’re trying to build an urban feel. And that said, I don’t know how you can have an urban feel without drive-thrus.”
The site, as proposed, would have had 157 residential units, although most of them would have been hotel rooms. Because of special zoning rules, this is the only area of town where Cary counts hotel rooms as residential units.
The developers said they thought hotel guests would contribute to the pedestrian feel of the site, but Smith said out-of-town guests alone can’t be expected to prop up an entire main street area.
“It seems like they’re trying to impose this pedestrian feel on an environment that, except for the hotel, there’s no pedestrians,” he said.
Robinson said she also was concerned that the few apartments proposed for the site would be placed between a busy road and the back loading docks of some of the retail buildings.
Doran: 919-460-2604; Twitter: @will_doran
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Cary postones decision on Alston Town Center plan | News & Observer News & Observer
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