Overview

The Alston Regional Activity Center is located around the interchange of N.C. Highway 55 and Interstate 540, at the southwestern edge of Research Triangle Park. The Alston area will someday attract people from throughout the region for shopping, offices, housing, parks, and other public spaces. In March 2006, the Town Council adopted a special Mixed Use Overlay District and an associated Activity Center Concept Plan in order to proactively plan for and pre-zone this area for state-of-the-practice mixed-use development.

Adopted Plan

Part I (Introduction, Allowable Uses and Development Limits, Design Standards)

Part II (Design Standards continued)

Part III (Appendices - Illustrative Diagrams, Project Background and Definitions)

The adopted Alston Concept Plan includes specifications about land use types allowed, including development limits for commercial, office, and residential space. In addition, the plan includes detailed design guidelines that address public streetscapes, building placement, public spaces, the roadway network, trails and open space, and public art. The plan’s design guidelines apply to both development plans submitted under the Overlay District and those submitted under existing base zoning.

Two years after the adoption of the Alston Activity Center Concept Plan, it came up for its first re-evaluation. The Alston community and Town staff embarked on an eight-month review of the Alston Plan, resulting in a list of amendments approved by Town Council on December 11, 2008. Some of the major amendments included identifying responsibility for residential unit type mixes, limiting single-loaded main street segments, adding an artist-designed seal to the Streetscape Entry Features, and clarifying public art opportunities in the Alston area.

In December 2012, the Town Council amended the Alston Activity Center Concept Plan to replace the vertical mixed-use design standard with a more general mixed-use design standard. This mixed-use design standard applies to main streets in the Town Center, Neighborhood Center, and Special District Design Zones.

History

The 2002 Northwest Area Plan called for a mixed-use regional activity center at this location. In late 2004, the Town Council approved a process to proactively create a detailed Concept Plan and Overlay District for Alston.

An Activity Center Concept Plan (or ACCP, also known as a Mixed Use Sketch Plan) effectively “activates” specific types and amounts of uses in a mixed-use overlay district. Land owners within the Alston overlay district can develop their properties either under the pre-existing base zoning or under the Alston Activity Center Concept Plan. In either case, future development will adhere to the design guidelines outlined in the Alston ACCP.

The Alston Regional Activity Center is the last of Cary’s four regional activity centers. At 960 acres, it is larger than our other regional centers: Cary Towne Center, Crossroads, and Harrison Square Shopping Center/SAS Institute campus.

Contact

For information, dial 311 in Cary or (919) 469-4000 outside Town limits, or email 311@townofcary.org.