Clover Lane

SIGN THE CLOVER LANE PETITION:

https://chng.it/VbcM2WSYTJ

Join us:

Contact us: cloverlane@mordecaicac.org

Leads:

Clover Lane Rezoning Committee

Council Vote:   April 4


City Council voted to approve the Clover Lane Rezoning on April 4.

Thank you to the neighborhood committee who worked so hard for over 11 months to advocate for Mordecai residents.

The owners filed final conditions on Friday March 24.  Plans call for a 55 foot tall, 4 story, 280 unit apartment building to be constructed on the site of the current Mordecai on Clover property. 

Reach out to cloverlane@mordecaicac.org or join our Slack channel for more info.


Overview:

An application for rezoning was filed on May 8, 2022 to rezone the Clover Lane parcel, located in the center of the Mordecai Community on Wake Forest Road. The property is currently included in the Mordecai II NCOD.

A community committee was formed in April 2022. They met weekly and had ongoing discussions on Slack and email for nearly a yearIf you have questions please contact neighborhood leaders Catherine Clodfelter, Brian Lee, and Sara Merz by emailing: cloverlane@mordecaicac.org

City Council voted to approve the rezoning on April 4, 2023. 

Committee Mission Statement: 

The Clover Lane Rezoning Committee will channel neighborhood feedback about the Clover Lane rezoning options to advocate for the interests of property owners and residents.

Timeline:

From the chairs:  "We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to come and discuss concerns or ask questions. Even if you are happy with the application, the only way we can make sure the neighbors are all heard is to show up and talk. The applicant will write notes about what gets said at this meeting and that will be filed and submitted to the City as part of the application. So, regardless of your viewpoint about the proposed application, come and share it. That’s the only way we can work toward making sure any redevelopment addresses everyone’s concerns." 

Thank you to everyone who attended the Raleigh City Council meeting on January 24 and to the four community representatives who spoke on behalf of the Clover Lane Rezoning Committee.

We estimate that there were about 45 Mordecai neighbors in attendance. That’s an amazing turnout and a great way to show council how many people in the Mordecai community feel strongly about this rezoning case.

The case was deferred until February 21 and was then continued to March 7. The attorney and developers have been having discussions with neighbors to work on conditions. Neighbors have expressed concern about access, height, setbacks, traffic, affordable housing, resident displacement, stormwater, and parking.

Please continue to follow our MCAC social media channels and this website to get updates about next steps. 

The above renderings from January 2023 depict the project’s parameters that were communicated to the citizen’s group. They are preliminary modeling of the proposed buildable space.

These renderings show 2 views of a mass model and the buildable area the owner is asking for (in green).

One is a "birds eye" view looking from Watauga towards Wake Forest Road.

The front, at Wake Forest Road, has a height of 65 feet. The rear view shows a 75' tall structure which includes a slope of the site of 10 feet. That is 65 feet plus the 10' slope. 

Three of the setbacks are shown at 100 feet from the survey lines, with one closer setback at the Wake Forest Road side. 

This information created the "buildable space" generated and depicted. 

Residences are shown as mass models too, with most of them having a total height of 25'. Some homes are taller and are shown at 30 feet.

The Rear elevation shows the 75 foot height of the project, a human being, and the size of the existing homes to get an idea of the scale of what is being proposed.









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Past notes:

CLOVER LANE: Clover Lane apartments were built in 1968 and sit on a 5.37 acre property with 57 two-story units, many with rental prices which are considered affordable. The "Mordecai on Clover" townhome property (405 Clover Lane) is currently zoned R-10, NCOD Mordecai II, which permits up to 90+ homes with a maximum building height of 35 feet.

Zoning application Z-43-2022  originally had the potential to put a five story, 65-75 foot tall, 310 unit residential building on the site of the Clover Lane Apartments on Wake Forest Road in the center of the Mordecai Community.

A committee of neighbors was formed by the Mordecai CAC in April and has been meeting since then. Community representatives have met with the developers and attorneys multiple times, and have stressed neighborhood concerns about access, height, setbacks, traffic, affordable housing, stormwater, and parking. The rezoning application is currently very broad and does not have "real plan" to address many of the neighbor concerns.  The committee would like to see more reasonable conditions written into the application and urges council to require them. 

The first Clover Lane rezoning hearing was held on January 24th at 5pm. Neighbors met with all but one council member before the New Year, and heard supportive comments about what reasonable changes to conditions could be suggested by the owners.  

Although we encourage folks to express any and all opinions you have about the rezoning to City Council, even if they do not align with what we have talked about as a group, the Clover Lane Rezoning Committee asks that people consider underscoring the things we have been asking for as a group:

NOTE-  The asks below were from December 2022:  

Since this rezoning was filed, we have been asking for more information about stormwater impact and impact to Wake Forest Rd. In lieu of information, we need stronger conditions.  A high level description of these suggestions are:

 

Individual council member emails (for each member, click on their names under pictures near the bottom): https://raleighnc.gov/city-council

Email to all city council members at once: citycouncilmembers@raleighnc.gov

Resources: 


Mordecai Place Neighborhood Plan/ NCOD: 

In the early 1990’s, the Mordecai Neighborhood decided it wanted to participate in a city supported neighborhood planning process. In early 1994, the Raleigh City Council appointed 12 residents to a Mordecai Neighborhood Planning Task Force. Input was gathered from CAC residents at monthly CAC meetings as well as from “special” community meetings. From start to finish, the planning process took approximately nine months, culminating with approval of the Neighborhood Plan by City Council in September 1994.

The Mordecai Neighborhood Plan established the framework for the CAC seeking and obtaining two Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts (NCOD), a rezoning of part of the CAC from R-10 to Special R-6, and a listing of part of the CAC in the National Register of Historic Places. Considerable work has been done on a variety of other issues identified in the Neighborhood Plan, including pedestrian and vehicular traffic concerns.  View the PDF document and maps here.  

NCOD for Clover Lane:

Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts (NCODs) are generally limited to lot size, front setback and heights. This is the NCOD for Clover Lane according to the UDO.  Note: the parcel is currently non-conforming.  The apartments were built in 1967 before the NCOD was implemented. 

Mordecai Neighborhood Plan NCOD, R-10:

b.Conservation District 2 (east of Wake Forest Road, south of Cedar Street and portions of Courtland Drive - see Mordecai Plan boundaries)

i.Minimum lot size: 7,260 square feet.

ii.Maximum lot size: 14,520 square feet.

iii.Minimum lot width: 50 feet.

iv.Maximum lot width: 100 feet.

v.Front yard setback: Minimum of 15 feet; maximum of 25 feet.

vi.Maximum building height: 35 feet. 

This is not the first time Mordecai residents have been concerned about this property.  The above newspaper articles are from 1965 when the Sims family first rezoned the property and the Clover Lane apartments were built.