Back when we lived in Garner our neighbor, mayor Don Rohrbaugh, tapped me to sit on Garner’s land-use rewrite committee. Over the ensuing months I learned more than my fair share about zoning rules and planning. While educational, the whole process made me question the value of zoning and appearance laws. How does one even measure their success?

Raleigh’s neighbor Cary is known for strict appearance rules. The stores that populate Cary’s strip malls all must look the same. The many neighborhood homeowners’ associations mindlessly dictate mailbox dimensions. Even a shiny diner can put the city into a snit. With this in mind, I found Cary’s latest push to be highly amusing. Cary has finally decided that more of the same isn’t necessarily good. While most people can see the wisdom in that, the way Cary is going about it is what I find amusing: they’re going making more rules! Town planners are actually drawing up anti-monotony rules.

I’ve got two questions about this whole process. Number one, did it ever occur to Cary’s leaders that maybe the reason the whole city (er, I mean town, though this “town” happens to be the third largest in the state) looks the same is because of its stuffy planning rules? Might a better approach to be … oh, I don’t know … maybe to get rid of some rules, rather than create ones that contradict the previous ones?

Number two, are there really people in Cary who are just now figuring this out? Cary’s been this way for years and a lot of Caryites seem to like it this way. If you don’t want a cookie-cutter house complete with an approved mailbox, why in the world did you move to Cary? What did you expect?

Now there are some cool neighborhoods in Cary where houses don’t all look the same. Its the newer neighborhoods that give it a bad name: large subdivisions with each house looking the next in a cul-de-sac hell. Its going to take more than more silly rules to fix that.

Happiness is fresh chain grease on your leg.

I put out some feelers for work this morning and then hopped onto my mountain bike for a ride along the greenway. When I passed Durant Nature Park, I decided to take a detour, and wound up biking the perimeter of the park.

With the news that the Raleigh City Council decided to plop a community center adjacent to the park, I asked a fellow park visitor – one who spends lots of time in the park – what he thought about it. His response was neutral. The community center plans apparently won’t affect the nature park much, which is a good thing. Still, I’m curious why the city has to be in a big rush for this when next year the North Wake Landfill will be available for joint city-county projects. At least Horseshoe Farm seems safe.

After my Durant detour, I rode to the end of the greenway before making the return trip. Total time: 45 minutes.

Now to connect with Tanner and Scott on their rides, so long as they take it easy on me! Its been so long that I’ve ridden anywhere other than the neighborhood trails that I don’t even know if my existing Yakima bike rack will fit my current car.

I just got this note in from Jennifer Smith, who is active in my neighborhood’s events:

To: Windsor Forest Neighborhood
From: Jennifer Smith
Re: Meeting on Wed 5/2 6:00-8:00
re: the 40,000 sq ft gym proposed for Durant Nature Park

I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the proposal for Durant Nature Park and the meeting for public comment. The City Council is proposing a 40,000 sq ft gym and multi-use courts (no tennis courts or basketball courts as were proposed earlier) be built south of the playground that backs up to Astwell Ct (off the bottom of Hobhouse Circle). The entrance will be from the south (I would assume the South Entrance for Durant Nature Park which comes off of Gresham Lake Road).

I talked with David Shouse, the City of Raleigh contact on the letter that was sent to some WF residents notifying them of the meeting. He stated that the building would be 600 feet (or two football fields) from the houses on Astwell Ct and the bottom of Hobhouse. If you are interested in commenting on this plan, the public meeting will be this Wednesday, May 2nd from 6:00-8:00 PM at Campbell Lodge. It’s an open house format, so you can stop in as you have time and they will show you the plans and answer your questions. If you can’t come, you can email your comments to richard dot lee at arcadis-us.com (the plan developers). Thanks!

When I first learned of the City’s plans, I was a bit concerned. I expected Jessie Taliaferro would be bulldozing over all the trees of our wonderful neighborhood nature park. Fortunately, the law keeps her from doing that: due to the federal and state grants used for its purchase, Durant Park must by law remain natural. However, an adjacent, 15-acre piece of city-owned property has no such restrictions. It is for this site that the proposed park is being discussed.

Folks in Windsor Forest have informally discussed among themselves adding possible common area amenities like a playground or a clubhouse, and this exact piece of city-owned property has been eyed for just this. The discussed plan was to purchase the property from the city and build the clubhouse using homeowners’ fees.

While I was opposed to putting a gym in the middle of our beloved nature park, when I found out that

• Raleigh may wind up building our rec facilities for us.
• Our homeowners’ fees won’t be paying for it.
• The gym will not be in Durant Nature Park, but next to it.
• The gym will be within easy walking distance to the neighborhood.

…well, now, I’m much more interested in this proposal!

The only real question I have regards the North Wake Landfill. Its long been proposed as a site for recreational facilities once it closes (if it ever does, that is). Does Raleigh need two large recreational facilities right next to each other? Why can’t a Raleigh gym wait to be placed on landfill property? If building a gym at Durant makes a park at the North Wake Landfill redundant, how else will the landfill property be used once it closes?

Thanks to everyone who donated to our team for this year’s March Of Dimes WalkAmerica. Thanks to your generosity we raised close to $1,700! This money will go toward research to prevent premature births, a cause we hold quite dear.

We feel privileged to have such generous friends. While we were just short of our goal this time, thanks to you we pushed our total higher than any other year.

Thanks for your donations, as always. It’s nice to know that together, we can make a difference.