Posted 07 July 2007 - 10:19 PM
Spartan's Review: The Master Plan - Chapter 2 Intro & Analysis
The master plan is a very infromative and exciting document to read. The Executive Summary does give you the general idea of the rest of the document as it should- but in order to really understand what's being suggested (and what will hopefully be adopted in full) you need to read the rest of the chapters.
So whats' in Chapter 2? If you want to get an good idea about Spartanburg's history, specifically relating to downtown, and its many planning and development related efforts and issues over the past 200 years or so, then you should read this chapter. The first 20 pages or so give you a very good overview, then the next section gives a much more detailed account of Spartanbug's history. It covers every plan that Spartanburg has had since the 70s.
The good stuff comes from the analysis section. It gives an outline of what's to come in the following chapters, but it covers many other areas as well. One of the more interesting maps is on p12. It gives you an overview of all of the projects that have occured downtown since 2000. Its quite impressive (albiet a little hard to read at their font size).
What I learned from this chapter is that Spartanburg has indeed had a history of paying money for plans that rely on the big fish idea, but usually the big fish never bites, and more frequently the City has dropped the ball and not made any moves on the plans it created. The good news is that more recently, the city has been more likely to actually use the plan and not let it collect dust. You can see though the discussion that over time, more and more of the plans have been followed.
The last downtown plan, Share the Vision (1998) is almost entirely complete. It called for many things that we now enjoy and benefit from including: Barnet Park, Zimmerli Amphitheater, Rennovated Memorial Auditorium, the Marriott, a conference center, rennovate the train depot, turn Belk Building (aka Palmetto Building) into apartments and establishing a farmers market. The items that haven't been completed yet are- rennovating the Montgomery Building (several attemps have been made, and it sounds like this will happen now) and building a golf center, among others.
This gives me a good vibe about the current plan and the desire to use it to really get something done.
On p41, they give some conclusions about Spartanburg. They make a lot of interesting points, and I highly reccomend reading it. I'm not going to go into too much detail about it, except to comment on 2 things:
1- They suggest dense residential developments between the commercial district/CBD and the surrounding neighborhoods. This is vital to the next point-
2- Promote Strong Neighborhoods!! I have been saying this for quite some time, as have many others here on UP. Spartanburg has so many great neighborhoods right around downtown, but most people only know about Converse Heights, and now Hampton Heights (due to the restoration effort).
Other neighborhoods like North Converse Heights, Park Hills, South Converse, North Dean, Beaumont, and Midtown Heights are all integral parts of the downtown restoration, because these are the areas that should be targets for people to live while the work, shop, and play downtown. All of these other neighborhoods lack the sense of identity and place that the other two have. This needs to be corrected (especially with Park Hills and the neighborhoods to the west of there). There is a lot of confusion or apathy (or both) about where the neighborhoods are, and also what they are. I think that a major component of reestablishing downtown as a significant center is to include the surrounding neighborhoods too. I'll add a disclaimer that I haven't read the entire plan yet, so they may delve into that a littel further. I still think this is one fo the most important things for Spartanburg to work on.
I realize that many readers here may not know Charlotte very well, but what I have learned so far is that one of the best parts about my new city is not "Uptown" but the areas surrounding it. They are not dissimilar from the neighborhoods surrounding downtown Spartanburg in terms of age, style, and attractiveness. Charlotte has made them into places "to be" and has (based on my limited experience) made them into palces with an identity of their own. Obviously the dynamics here are a bit different than back home- but I think that Spartanburg should apply the same principle. The in town neighborhoods should once again be highly desirable places to live, not places to avoid.
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I'm not sure what the other site was, but I liked it.
