There is little question that downtown mixed-use developments in North Carolina’s largest cities present some of the most complex planning issues. Without proper planning, developments can create significant backlash from existing residents.

However, large buildings with a mix of residential, office and retail space create a range of livability and transportation needs for new residents, workers, shoppers and business owners, as well as existing owners and users of adjacent properties.

Even against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, people continue to be attracted to the lifestyle and vibrancy of a flourishing urban landscape. It has been the case in the state’s two largest cities, Raleigh and Durham, but increasingly so in some smaller city downtowns anchored by a brewpub or an athletics park and bringing condo and apartment developments that once seemed unlikely.

In Raleigh, the northern end of its downtown is the latest area to see an explosion of mixed-use development. This has been made possible only by the city’s investments in infrastructure and planning that is taking into consideration the range of transportation and other needs of residents. To a large degree, those investments and that planning are about protecting the community character that made the entire downtown attractive as a place to live, work and play in the first place.

The approval of a 40-story building planned by a developer, Zimmer Development Corp., illustrates the point. Working with the city, the developers agreed to allow a city bike-share station on the property and a bus-rapid transit stop; city officials note that city-led pedestrian improvements and a new nearby park will create a more walkable community.

That planning follows a massive, phased mixed-used development by Raleigh developers Kane Realty Corp. and Williams Realty & Building Co., Smoky Hollow, that is already sparking the transformation. That development includes two apartment complexes and a mixed-use office tower, with a downtown Publix grocery store as an anchor tenant, and more phases of development planned.

For city-owned property, planning has begun to turn a 14-acre city maintenance and utility vehicle facility at a key intersection into a park. The property, once known as Devereux Meadow, may see a return to its past as a place of recreation, having served as minor league ballpark in the 1950s and ’60s , where the likes of Carl Yastrzemski, Al Oliver and Ken Singleton began their professional baseball careers.

The result will ultimately be the complete transformation of one of the city’s streets, Peace Street, into a walkable corridor. In the end, it will connect and unify residential, business and mixed-use areas in and around the capital city’s downtown. And much more is on the horizon, figuratively and literally.

In some ways, the change has been underway for a good while. It is a continuation of the growth and vibrancy that flows through the old warehouse district in southwestern downtown, and then into the Glenwood South’s mix of restaurants, unique shops and studios.

“It is exciting as a small business owner,” said Brian Burnett, owner of Glenwood South Tailors & Men’s Shop. “Everyone is getting on board with the idea of having these 40-story (mixed use) office towers, and you see the vibrancy. The Glenwood South district is really changing the downtown revenue mix, the night life, the foot traffic.”

Burnett’s business benefited from a $7,500 Retail Up-fit Grant from the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, awards designed to attract more retail shops to the area while helping owners improve the properties. While investing in commercial real estate in Rocky Mount himself, he sees the benefits of these types of incentives, and business owners and city officials pulling together in the same direction to allow for manageable growth.

The native of southeast Raleigh also hopes that city officials and the larger business community recognize the importance of smaller retail business owners to the vibrancy of downtowns, and that development takes place with an understanding that creating affordable housing cannot be just given lip service.

“It is extremely beneficial to have small businesses, and small business owners who are here. We utilize each other for services,” said Burnett. “As someone who grew up in southeast Raleigh, I see affordable housing as a moral imperative, but it also means a diverse mix of customers so that more businesses can thrive.”

Similar sentiments were recently echoed by Bonner Gaylord, chief operating officer at Kane Realty and a former Raleigh City Council member, who has been a vocal advocate of creating more affordable housing mixes.

“We can either grow out through sprawl, or up through urban density. We are not making any more land,” Gaylord said.

With cities like Raleigh attempting to balance so many needs as they grow, Gaylord has spoken before the North Carolina General Assembly in the past regarding the need for the flexible approaches to mixed-use development that can only occur with local – rather than state – regulation.

While infrastructure and other city investments are crucial to manageable growth, so are the flexible planning tools that Raleigh has employed to make this complex development work in ways that make sense for developers and residents.

That flexibility has included changing zoning requirements to allow taller buildings in an area once not considered. It has involved developers and city planners working together to ensure that the building and surrounding infrastructure layout would be walkable and attractive. It has allowed for input from residents and existing business owners so that they would have a say in an outcome that worked for as many people as possible. And it has led all parties to work toward a result creating neighborhood and community character that people would gravitate to.

That is not a result that comes without local people working with local knowledge to achieve a local vision.