ITB Insider: City Market Wants to Add Parking Lot Dining
From this week's Development Beat...
“A new outdoor dining option could soon come to downtown Raleigh — and this time, it won’t be at the expense of the city’s sidewalks. The owners of City Market, a collection of shops and restaurants that sits adjacent to Moore Square, have filed a case with Raleigh’s Historic Development Commission that would allow them to transform an old parking lot into a new space that would include both parking and outdoor dining.
According to the application, the 6,100 square foot parking lot in question is located at the intersection of South Blount and Wolfe Streets — it’s the one that backs up to Big Ed’s. The asphalt lot is set to be removed and replaced by two different surfaces: “decomposed granite on the east of the site and new asphalt on the west.”
This renovation has been given the name of “The Backyard,” by the owners, with the goal of enhancing “the functionality and aesthetics of the space to create an engaging pedestrian experience and outdoor dining experience” for patrons of City Market.
The application also contains more information on decomposed granite material than you could ever possibly want. For example, they’ll be using Chapel Hill Gravel, a “beige material with a muted clay tone,” that has been approved for use in other historic districts, but not yet Moore Square.
The case won’t be heard until later this month, and even if it’s approved, we can’t imagine work starting on it any sooner than this summer. ...”