FAQs 1 — Latta Park

Who is the developer of Latta Park?

Crosland Southeast has led the master-planning and rezoning for the 30 acre property and will be constructing all of the offsite roadways and master infrastructure. Crosland Southeast will also build and own the 10-acre commercial component that includes a Publix grocery store, 13,000 square feet of shops, and the greenspace at the corner of Guess Rd & Latta Rd.

Tri Pointe Homes, a leading national homebuilder, is excited to announce plans to open 176 townhomes in Summer 2024. Prospective buyers can learn more about Tri Pointe and other Tri Pointe Homes communities by visiting their website at www.tripointehomes.com/raleigh.

Are you really adding a neighborhood feel?

The Latta Park plan has been designed to be pedestrian-friendly and welcoming to the surrounding community. The plan includes a publicly accessible park space where neighbors can come together, adjacent to vibrant restaurant and retail businesses.

A prominent, unifying element of the design is the preservation of the existing natural tree canopy along the corner of Guess Rd and Latta Rd. Natural surface paths will connect through the canopy to the communal greenspaces where local restaurants will provide generous outdoor seating in a parkside setting.

Will Latta Park help address the affordable housing crisis in Durham?

The Latta Park residential component has been rezoned from 2 units per acre to accommodate higher density townhomes. This plan will use the land and infrastructure much more efficiently to provide more affordability by design. Additionally, we have made a legally binding commitment that a minimum of 5% of the residential units shall be Affordable Housing Dwelling Units as defined by Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Section 17.3. These units will be designed with similar quality and blend with the surrounding residences. Yet, they will be financially subsidized by the Latta Park development to provide long-term affordability for qualified households.

How do we know the developer will honor promises made about design, open space, and overall quality of the Latta Park community?

The approved development plan contains a long list of commitments, officially called “text commitments” and “design commitments”. When the rezoning was approved by City Council, these commitments became legally binding on the Latta Park property. The commitments do not only apply to the initial development and initial developer but for any future owners or re-development of the property in the future.

Will gas stations, car washes, fast food restaurants, and dollar stores be built at Latta Park?

No. The development plan includes a list of prohibited uses. As explained in the FAQ above, that means these prohibited uses would not be allowed initially or in the future. Below are uses that are usually allowed in the non-residential CG zoning district, that we have chosen to prohibit:

In addition to the above uses, our plan prohibits certain other uses that are subcategories of retail and not specifically identified in the CG Use Table, listed below:

What will the developer do to address traffic issues?

The site is bordered by Latta Road to the north and Guess Road to the west. As a condition of the rezoning, the project will include major improvements to the existing roadways. The cost of the developer’s offsite roadway improvements is approximately $2.5 Million.

These improvements include adding a second westbound left-turn lane on Latta Rd at Guess Rd and extending the existing left-turn lane. The TIA (traffic impact analysis) indicates that these improvements will reduce delays at the intersection enough that the waiting time at the intersection will be significantly less than the 2022 condition, even with additional traffic from Latta Park.

The list of roadway improvements proposed per the TIA are as follows:

Guess Road – Latta Road: 1) Provide an additional westbound left-turn lane on Latta Road to provide dual left-turn lanes with approximately 275 feet of storage and appropriate tapers. 2) Modify the traffic signal to accommodate the recommended laneage

Latta Road – Autumn Drive/West Site Drive: 1) Construct a full-movement site driveway with one ingress lane and two egress lanes on Latta Road opposite Autumn Drive. 2) Construct an eastbound left-turn lane on Latta Road with approximately 75 feet of storage and an appropriate taper. 3) Construct an eastbound right-turn lane on Latta Road with approximately 100 feet of storage and an appropriate taper. 4) Construct a westbound left-turn lane on Latta Road with approximately 100 feet of storage and an appropriate taper

Latta Road – Green Oak Drive/East Site Drive: 1) Construct a full-movement site driveway with one ingress lane and one egress lane on Latta Road opposite Green Oak Drive. 2) Construct an eastbound left-turn lane on Latta Road with approximately 50 feet of storage and an appropriate taper. 3) Construct a westbound left-turn lane on Latta Road with approximately 50 feet of storage and an appropriate taper

Guess Road – Left-Over Site Drive: 1) Construct a right-in/right-out/left-in site driveway on Guess Road approximately 870 feet south of Latta Road 2) Construct a northbound right-turn lane on Guess Road with approximately 100 feet of storage and an appropriate taper. 3) Construct a southbound left-turn lane on Guess Road with approximately 150 feet of storage and appropriate taper

Guess Road – Right-in/Right-out Site Drive: 1) Construct a right-in/right-out site driveway on Guess Road approximately 340 feet south of Latta Road. 2) Construct a northbound right-turn lane on Guess Road with approximately 100 feet of storage and an appropriate taper.

The analysis indicates that with the recommended improvements in place, all of the study intersections are expected to operate at an acceptable level of service at project build-out. No queuing issues are expected at any of the study intersections.

Can you share more about the Townhomes?

The 176 townhomes will in a highly walkable arrangement. The plan includes an internal active greenspace and generous buffers along existing adjacent property boundaries.

Our zoning plan provides significant commitments to design, variation, and quality. For example, the plan includes binding commitments for block length, 50% of the residential units to be alley loaded (for nicer curb appeal, placing garage in rear), and 50% of the units will have a front porch or covered stoop. These design commitments among others provide better overall quality of life in addition to more affordability through higher density.

Prospective buyers can learn more about the builder, Tri Pointe Homes here.

What kind of retail tenants will be in Latta Park?

We have space for 13,000 square feet of shops which will be mostly restaurants, with some additional retail services. Our goal is to have mostly local and regional tenants. The retail experts at Lee & Associates are leasing the project. You can view the property flyer here.

What commitments are being made with regards to quality architectural design for the commercial buildings?

In the design commitments section of our development plan, we have created rigorous and detailed standards that will govern the design, as follows:

1) Non-residential buildings will be constructed with 50% brick minimum and flat roofs with parapets. 2) There shall be no parking located between any nonresidential building and guess road.

Any non-residential building façade facing guess rd and/or serving as a primary customer entrance shall be considered a primary façade and meet the following standards:

1) Materials: primary façade materials shall be primarily brick, stacked stone, stone, or stone masonry units, wood clapboard, cementitious fiberboard, exposed heavy timber, architectural concrete masonry, or glass curtain walls (transparent or spandrel glass). exterior insulation finishing systems (eifs) may not exceed 25% of a primary façade wall area. 2) Material colors: primary façade colors shall be of low reflectance earth tone, muted, subtle, or neutral colors. building trim may feature brighter colors as an accent material. the use of high-intensity, metallic, fluorescent, day glow, or neon colors shall be prohibited. notwithstanding commercial tenants shall be allowed to use a full range of colors in their signage so long as those colors align with their corporate branding/logo. 3)Articulation: primary façades shall be divided into architecturally distinct sections or bays with each section taller than it is wide. sections or bays shall be visually established by architectural features such as columns, ribs, pilasters or piers, changes in plane, or an equivalent element that otherwise visually subdivides the wall through at least 50% of its height. 4) Expression of entries: any doorway on a primary façade, including a service entrance, shall have a clearly defined feature including 1 or more of the following: canopies or porticos, arcades, arches, wing walls, and/or planters. 5) Utilities: no wall-mounted building utility service equipment (e.g. electrical house panel boxes) shall be placed on a primary façade. fire department connections or other code-required equipment may be on the primary façade if necessary.

How will you address stormwater drainage and concerns?

The stormwater control measures will include 2 retention ponds that capture runoff from the site and reduce the peak stormwater flows from the project to pre-development levels. The post-development peak runoff leaving the project boundary from stormwater control facilities within the PDR zoned area shall not exceed pre-development levels during the 100-year, 24-hour storm event. The post-development peak runoff leaving the project boundary from stormwater control facilities within the CG zoned area shall not exceed pre-development levels during the 25- year, 24-hour storm event.”

The ponds are also designed to remove 85% of total suspended solids and to remove a minimum of 50% of nitrogen and phosphorous pollutants. These flows will be dispersed to different points with the non-residential portion of the project conveying runoff to the NCDOT storm drainage infrastructure in Guess Road. Also, we have made a text commitment to increase the erosion control sediment basins from 3,600 cu ft per disturbed acre to 5,000 cu ft per disturbed acre, a 39% increase above code requirements.

Does the public infrastructure have capacity to support this development?

As an infill site well inside the suburban fringe, Latta Park is suitably located so as not to require the upgrade of any adjacent water or sewer utility infrastructure. The City has public water mains and gravity sewer mains located in both Guess and Latta Roads. The City has also recently upgraded the sanitary sewer interceptor along the Eno River which would collect sewer flows from this project.

What will be done to reduce light pollution from the non-residential project?

In addition to establishing generous buffers along neighboring property boundaries, we made a design commitment in our Development Plan that any parking lot lighting will be limited to 25’ max pole height with “full cutoff” fixtures (no light emitted above horizontal).