Shifting Ground

American cities, towns, and rural areas are suffering growing pains.

The symptoms are obvious. The remedies are not.

Shifting Ground is a public radio series that examines the difficult choices confronting communities as they cope with change and try to shape a better future.

Today's broadcast had a surprising twist on the protections provided by conservation easements; apparently they don't cover mineral rights below your land. That story can be found here.

Just goes to show you, it's always something. ...

Sign of the Times

Here is a Raleigh resident who is asking the right question about the redevelopment activities in his community.

Oberlin Village

The News & Observer published a focus on re-development activities in Oberlin Village in today's paper.

Most of Oberlin's early settlers came in the 1860s, with the emancipation of slaves after the Civil War. Hundreds of former slaves bought modest tracts cut from farmland.

The village thrived. Residents planted gardens and reveled in one another's company. Chickens scratched around dirt streets. Watchful mothers fussed at any child making mischief in their sight. Residents named the neighborhood Oberlin, after the college in Ohio that was the first to regularly admit black students.

When newcomers started to arrive, about a decade ago, many of them moved into the modest bungalows lining Van Dyke and Bedford avenues. They passed up larger homes in the suburbs for a neighborhood flanked by N.C. State University, Wade Avenue and Cameron Village. They planted landscaping, painted the bedrooms and installed new cabinets.

Century-old Oberlin Village homes now fetch well over $200,000. But for the newest buyers -- developers -- the homes are the least attractive part of the purchase. Termites have eaten some; others sag with neglect.

It's the land they want. As buildable lots inside the Beltline disappear, developers are making their own, knocking down modest homes to make room for 3,000-square-foot bungalows with hardwood floors and custom cabinets.

This is such a dilemma. As our city loses the valuable history that makes Raleigh who she is today, do we have the collective will make real planning decisions, or are market forces the final answer?

As the streamlined NCOD hits the streets, we will find out whether a neighborhood under re-development can protect itself. Note that the NCOD only covers building, preservation is only available through Historic Overlays. And that gets difficult the more a neighborhood loses of its original character.

LIght, Air and a Lawsuit

Hello, lovely new home: Keillor moving a few blocks

The author-radio host and his family are planning to buy a house on Summit Avenue overlooking St. Paul.

Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

The Georgian Revival house on Summit Avenue in St. Paul that Garrison Keillor and his wife have offered to buy was built in 1919, designed by the noted Boston architectural firm Thomas, Parker & Rice, designers of many historic East Coast buildings. It sits on a bluff overlooking the city on a half-acre lot.

By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune
Last update: March 4, 2008 - 11:34 PM

Are you in the market for a seven-bedroom house with 14-foot ceilings and a sweeping staircase reminiscent of a French chateau, in a bustling and historic neighborhood in St. Paul?

Would it help that one of the sellers is writer, storyteller and radio host Garrison Keillor?

The star of "A Prairie Home Companion" and his wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson, listed their house in the Ramsey Hill Historic District with a real estate agent this week. The asking price: $1.65 million, according to www.realtor.com.

Keillor and Nilsson sued their next-door neighbor, Lori Anderson, in January to stop her from building a two-story garage-and-studio addition to her house, saying the project would "obstruct the access of light and air to [their] property."

But the dispute isn't the reason Keillor and Nilsson are selling their house and buying another, said real estate agent Mary Hardy. Keillor wants a large, airy first-floor studio where he can work, she said. Keillor and Nilsson made an offer for a house in the 200 block of Summit Avenue that has about 4,000 square feet more space and sits on a half-acre lot on a bluff. While its listing price is no longer public, the house's taxable value was listed at just under $1.6 million.
The lawsuit that Keillor and Nilsson filed was settled through mediation about a week later, but terms were not disclosed.

Since then, however, new drawings have been submitted to and approved by the city, said Robert Humphrey, assistant to the director of the city's Department of Safety and Inspections. The new plans, Humphrey said, call for the addition to be built away from the property line. Otherwise, the project is essentially the same.

On Tuesday, it appeared that construction was underway.
Keillor was out of town and had no comment Tuesday, said his spokesman, David O'Neill.

Keillor and Nilsson's current house in the 400 block of Portland Avenue was built in 1915 and designed by Emmanuel Masqueray, the same architect who designed the St. Paul Cathedral. The house has more than 5,000 square feet on three finished levels, seven bedrooms and two fireplaces.
"Very, very livable," Hardy called it.

The stately house that will become the couple's new home, a few blocks away, isn't too shabby either. The 9,000-plus-square-foot house in the 200 block of Summit Avenue has six bedrooms and four fireplaces. It was built in 1919 and sits behind a wrought-iron fence and gate.

No one is likely to block the air flow or scenery there. It sits on a half-acre lot on a bluff.

"Gorgeous," is how Hardy described the house.

Be the first on your block

... to read the NCOD text change proposal from the City of Raleigh Planning Department.

According to my sources, this is one aspect of the Planning Department's Infill Study, which has been resumed by the new staff person.

There are some key differences with the old way. Do you think this is enough to protect your home in your neighborhood?

York on Raleigh

The State of Things interview of Smedes York on WUNC-FM is still posted. It contains a wealth of information about the history of Raleigh. Here is the link for those of you who missed its broadcast.

Fallonia finds the big picture ironic, that she would find perspective in the words of a "development" mayor. (And rapid-fire growth under a neighborhood mayor).

(paraphrased for context) There are a lot of great reasons why people want to move here, and these are the same reasons why the people who live here want to stay here. ... We are going to grow, and the only reason we would not is because we mess it up ... and the problem with that is if we mess it up, we mess it up for the people who live here as well.

Monday, November 05 2007
Smedes York knows a thing or two about being part of a family business. His grandfather, C.V. York started The York and Cobb Construction Company in 1910, and his father, J. Willie York, developed Raleigh's Cameron Village. But his involvement in the community extends far beyond the multi-generation family construction business. He has established a long record of civic involvement that includes serving as Raleigh’s mayor from 1979 to 1983. Smedes York joins host Frank Stasio to discuss the family business and how the Yorks have shaped Raleigh's development.

ITB Award for Leap Day

bravely going where no one has gone before...