The Midtown-St. Albans Area Plan in the City of Raleigh identified specific improvements and policies to guide future investment and development in an area that had seen rapid and significant change over the past decade. Midtown Raleigh is a rapidly emerging district that serves as an example of a suburban place retrofitted and redeveloped with plans to create a walkable urban center with less dependence on vehicles. VHB led this corridor planning study for the project with a focus on multimodal transportation, land use, redevelopment, urban design analysis and recommendations, and public participation and outreach efforts.
VHB developed a set of land use and transportation and traffic solutions for the corridor and created a supporting package of integrated land use and urban design strategies and policies intended to balance economic vitality with community stability. The final report for the area plan summarized the study assumptions, methodologies, findings, and recommendations.
In addition, VHB deployed a comprehensive public engagement process that included regular interaction and feedback with the community, a citizen advisory group, and municipal staff. This included six large open houses, multiple advisory committee meetings, presentations to elected officials, support for smaller community pop-ups with bilingual staff, community-wide online surveys, and community-driven project prioritization. VHB partnered with the City of Raleigh to clearly communicate the project’s background, updates, and next steps to community members and invited feedback.
