Field Notes
Development
2 pieces
Development is the part of the Triangle housing market that moves slowest and matters longest. An ordinance passed this year decides what a street looks like in fifteen. A road project reroutes who is willing to consider a neighborhood at all. These pieces follow what is actually approved and built here — tree and buffer rules and how they change a streetscape, the road and transit work around Research Triangle Park, what a design center will and will not let you specify on a new build, and the gap between what a plan promises and what gets constructed. The interest is practical rather than civic: the same decisions that shape a town also decide which houses hold their value and which ones are competing against something better two years from now. Related reporting sits under Housing Data.
- 01At the design centerThe design center appointment is presented as the fun part. It is also where a large amount of money moves from structure into finishes, and the two do not hold their value the same way.Development
- 02The tree ordinancePeople describe Cary as green as though it were an accident of geography. It is a planning decision, applied consistently for decades, and you can read it off any arterial in the town.Development