Research Triangle Park, NC (Oct. 1, 2019) – The Raleigh City Council voted Tuesday to approve a rezoning request that will allow GoTriangle to proceed with its plans to build a bus transfer facility that together with Raleigh Union Station will create a multimodal hub that vastly increases travel opportunities and access for passengers.
“I would like to thank the City Council for supporting this important project and our vision,” says Shelley Blake Curran, GoTriangle’s interim CEO and president. “This is another important step in working with our city partners on a project that will provide critical transit connections in this rapidly growing area. We want to ensure our community has even greater access to jobs, education and health care.”
In December, GoTriangle won a $20 million federal BUILD grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help build the facility, known as RUS Bus, which will connect to Raleigh Union Station on West Street. The grant process requires that construction be underway in 2020, prompting GoTriangle to file the rezoning request in May.
Union Station, which opened in 2018, is served by 10 trains a day. Once the RUS Bus project is complete, people will be able to take an Amtrak or even commuter train to Raleigh and then hop onto a bus to get to their final destinations.
A 37-mile commuter rail project is included in the Wake Transit Plan, which was approved in 2016 by voters who also chose to invest a half-cent sales tax to invest in the plan.
In addition to expanding transit options, the RUS Bus project will include market-rate and affordable housing options, office and retail space, and perhaps a hotel. The approved rezoning will allow up to 40 stories on the property.
The residential units would include affordable housing of the greater of 20 units or 10 percent of the overall residential units for households earning 80 percent of the area’s median income for no less than 15 years.
GoTriangle has already started the process of choosing a developer to move forward with the transformational project and plans to be submitting site plans as soon as possible.
“Whenever we can put transit connections together with housing and jobs, the community wins,” Curran says. “It’s going to be exciting to see all of the ways RUS Bus contributes to improving the quality of life we enjoy in the Triangle.”