Plaza-Midwood Projects (Central, Commonwealth, The Plaza)

[charlottegirl]

I have a question, and this may be the wrong forum to ask it, but I am curious as to why Plaza-Midwood and Central Ave. streetcar has been pushed back for a decade, at least, in favor of building a light rail to North Charlotte. I was under the impression that a lot of the development along Central Ave. was, in part, encouraged by the proposed streetcar. Central Ave. has the highest bus ridership in the city and its population, as well as the property values, would be well served by this type of transit. Central Ave. all the way to Eastland is in need of redevelopment. This line will be the last, after Beatties Ford and Elizabeth. I just wondered if there were any thoughts as to why this particular line is the very lowest in priority for the city.

[atlrvr]

Conformity - I completed the survey (pretending I still lived at my old home in Charlotte), and thought that if the survey allowed the feature, two questions asking the surveyee to rank a set of choices. One would be to rank the desirability of certain Charlotte neighborhoods (based on where they would consider moving) The same list of neighborhoods for the current living situation should work fine. The other would be to have the surveyee rank what their consider most important to them. Price, Size, Location, Common Amenities, Unit Amenities/Finishes.

By getting those two inputs ranked, you could run a multiple regression analysis for a variety of scenarios (renters, married, income range, etc.) Just a suggestion.

Charlottegirl - The answer comes down to the likely availability of federal dollars to pay for it. The street-car has the lowest chance of the current lines to get federal dollars because it doesn't increase transit ridership by much (replacing buses with streetcar wouldn't add a lot of riders)....there are several other reasons, but that's the primary one.

[SpanishMoss]

I just passed by a new sign indicating a New Plaza Midwood Development off of Hamorton. The site is called Hamorton Place. Seems like another NICE addition to the "WOOD". Check out the link below...

http://www.highlandparkdevelopment.com/hamorton_default.asp

[Conformity]

Haven't been by it, but I believe this is the site that Paul Zarbatany is developing with property owner Tom Simpson. Paul developed Elizabeth Place at Clarice and 9th. Should be very nice.

[atlrvr]

^ It looks like a nice infill project. I believe the developer is Paul Zarbatany (who did Elizabeth Place on Clarice Ave.)....I met him once at Independence Park....super nice guy, a recent transplant from Pittsburgh (I think) who has fallen in love with the city, and is bringing some positive "urban" energy.

Edit. Damn Conformity....I was just saying.....great minds think alike

[geekUSA1981]

Will these be replacing those (sketchy-looking) townhomes along that street? Been a while since I've walked over there, and can't remember if there was any undeveloped land.

[Nandina]

Has anyone seen any updates on the Morningside development that Graham was doing? I know the demo was done this summer but have updated plans been released? All i can find are the original ones.

thx

[voyager12]

I was happy to see an advertisement for "Oak Park" in this week's Creative Loafing. The complex is advertised as apts on Eastcrest off of Central near the Plaza Midwood hub. Studios, 1 and 2 bedrooms with equipped kitchens starting at 399 . Someone is actually focusing on creating affordable apts for people who want to stay intown. We are out here ( waves to developers reading thread ) We need more reasonable attractive options for those of us who can't afford to buy into the "new style of living, naked flats, homes for the rest of us, chic industrial space" or whatever buzzwords are being used to sell the condos this week.

Edited November 2, 2007 by voyager12

[Raintree21]

I laugh every time I pass by the McDonald's on Central. There's a huge sign for "McDonald's: Coming Soon." Here I was expecting just a nice renovation and they go and tear the entire place down. Anyone know what the new one will look like? Will it be a more upscale McDonald's like the one in SouthPark or just a traditional one?

[rooster8]

I'm not sure, but this new design is what McDonald's corporate is pushing:

[Charlotte_native]

I'm not sure, but this new design is what McDonald's corporate is pushing:

Wow. How innovative and unique. Absolutely nothing like an old McDonalds with some new arches and a pillar facade.

[Andyc545]

Wow. How innovative and unique. Absolutely nothing like an old McDonalds with some new arches and a pillar facade.

There's a bunch of these actually popping up. I've seen them up in NY when there last year being built, and I know they are completeing one up in Huntersville near the SuperTarget. They have "Kids Health Workout Centers" instead of Playplaces

[voyager12]

I swore off fast food completely some time ago. The SouthPark Taj Mahal of a McDonalds has always seemed silly and pretentious to me. Although the "SouthPark" image is all about being pretentious so I guess they wanted to dress up the burger joint across the street from our upscale shopping mecca. I hope the new Central Ave Mcdonalds is more pedestrian friendly and lowkey.

[Conformity]

On October 16th, I put up the post below. In 30 days we have had 168 responses. We have a goal of 350 responses so we are nearly half way there. We do not expect those to come from UP and we are not requesting additional responses. Rather, knowing that many of you likely participated, I wanted provide an update as a courtesy. We will achieve our goal of 350 by using a number of other methods to solicit the balance of the responses we are after.

We will collect all the data the week before Christmas and then draw and distribute the Amex gift cards near the Holiday.

Some results so far:

• 
  

  The highest percentage start the survey on a weekday between 9AM and 10AM (these folks don't want to start the work day, apparently).

  • 
    

  Nearly half responded October 23rd for some unexplained reason.

  Okay.....seriously, I can't give away the real meat and potatoes to all the lurkers on the board, but here's one piece.....

81% of respondants list environmental issues as "Somewhat Important" or "Extremely Important".

Thanks for all the feedback UP. I'll update again when we are done and we'll announce the winners..

Here is the survey link UP:

Commonwealth and Pecan Market Survey.

Thanks again NEO for allowing me to collect information from folks who are clearly paying attention to our built environment.

Please bear in mind that the survey does attempt to verify that Commonwealth and Pecan is somewhere people actually would choose to live as well as what's important to them, etc. etc. It is a MARKETING survey after all. There are 5 AMEX gift certificates offered. They will be pulled randomly from the respondant list. If you do not see the offer on the page that first pops up....use the arrows to toggle back one page and you will see it.

If there is a higher visibility location for this effort that will not get me in trouble. I would appreciate knowing about it.

[voyager12]

I finally made it to Intermezzo last night. I really like the exposed beams inside and the laidback vibe and lighting. I thought the food was good but not outstanding. Also very happy that the place is open until 2am most nights. We always need more late night haunts in this town!

[sfmartin]

Crews working at the Morningside site all day - why the rush I wonder? For a project that has been progressing so slowly (which is fine), Saturday work seems rather odd.

[PlazaMidwoodGuy]

Crews working at the Morningside site all day - why the rush I wonder? For a project that has been progressing so slowly (which is fine), Saturday work seems rather odd.

I will say this about the Morningside project: they have cut down WWAAAYY more mature trees than I think was absolutely necessary and I'm not happy about that in the least!

[sfmartin]

I will say this about the Morningside project: they have cut down WWAAAYY more mature trees than I think was absolutely necessary and I'm not happy about that in the least!

The grade changes on the portion of the site N of McClintock, plus the commercial center going in there make it impossible to do something and not remove those trees - granted I had no idea there were so many grand trees in there until they were all gone.

[PlazaMidwoodGuy]

The grade changes on the portion of the site N of McClintock, plus the commercial center going in there make it impossible to do something and not remove those trees - granted I had no idea there were so many grand trees in there until they were all gone.

Sorry, I disagree that it was impossible to save them. Developers can find ways to accommodate trees if they want to badly enough, even if it means changing some of the footprints or designs of particular buildings within a project. They simply see them as "in the way" and mow them down.

And as you saw, these weren't little trees. We're talking mature 50-100 year old oaks and other hardwoods.

[geekUSA1981]

Pretty much every tree except for those considered part of the park will be cut down. That includes all trees along McClintock. The reason for this being the new street grid that will be incorporated with the village. McClintock is being widened to accomodate parallel parking on each side, and one lane of traffic in each direction. There will also be a few new streets added to create the new village grid. They will be planting new trees along McClintock, ones which are supposed to be at least 18inches in diameter. I believe trees will be planted along all new streets, as well. Since this is supposed to be a very dense multi-family-only housing development, the trees have to go to make way for the massive blocks of apartments, condos, townhomes.

[dubone]

I hope they strategically identified trees that fit with the new grid and building footprints. While it is a shame, it is definitely something that needed to be done to transform the area.

[sfmartin]

I hope they strategically identified trees that fit with the new grid and building footprints.

I'm pretty sure they did - They left numerous large Oaks in the sf area south of McClintock - The only area not subject to complete re-grading. As much as I love trees, I'd rather lose some here, to this development, than another 2-500 acres of farmland in an adjoining county.

[fz dogmother]

While we're on the subject of trees, I would like to see the developers of the Woodfield/Elizabeth project on Hawthorne band the several remaining grand old oak trees. Those trees have been limbed-up, and with the stress of drought and construction, I'm worried that canker worms will finish them off. To those who read these posts and who have a vested interest in the Woodfield/Elizabeth project, I say the following:

We are your neighbors, and we are watching what you do as well as listening to what you say! We'd appreciate being brought into the loop- as opposed to having to respond, "I don't know" when asked the question, "Hey what's with that bunker going up across the street from you guys?"

Now I wonder when or if those trees will be banded?

[aptman]

Of course the trees will be banded...any day now...if it has not occured already...just as we took the came precaution last year. We have been working with an arborist since we first began designing the project. We are making every effort to save these trees and would not go through the trouble of working around them throughout construction if we were not going to take the necessary steps to protect them. The locations of the existing trees actually drove the configuration of our building.

The "bunker" of course is our parking garage. I understand that it is not the most attractive work of architecture any of us have ever seen, which is exactly why we are completely enclosing the garage with our apartment building.

I would be happy to "bring you into the loop" if I knew the information you were seeking.

While we're on the subject of trees, I would like to see the developers of the Woodfield/Elizabeth project on Hawthorne band the several remaining grand old oak trees. Those trees have been limbed-up, and with the stress of drought and construction, I'm worried that canker worms will finish them off. To those who read these posts and who have a vested interest in the Woodfield/Elizabeth project, I say the following:

We are your neighbors, and we are watching what you do as well as listening to what you say! We'd appreciate being brought into the loop- as opposed to having to respond, "I don't know" when asked the question, "Hey what's with that bunker going up across the street from you guys?"

Now I wonder when or if those trees will be banded?

Edited November 21, 2007 by aptman

[SCLA]

About all those really big trees that were cut down at Morningside Village: yeah, I was pretty not-thrilled to see that too. Charming old houses can be, and often are, replaced with a few hours' push of a bulldozer followed by a few months of assembling 2x4s and Hardiplank..........trees like those are, simply, irreplaceable in the span of an adult's life.

But at the same time, (like all the other signs I see of this carefully-observed project), they seem to know what they're doing with the trees they ARE saving. Most developers naively try to protect saved trees with orange fencing (if they even take that precaution) that's hopelessly close to the trunks; they seem to think if they keep equipment from nicking the treebark that's all they have to do. The real damage is from compaction of heavy equipment, vehicles, and piles of junk over the root zone; this is one of the few places where I see they are actually protecting that zone far enough out from the trunks to be effective. Where the fencing comes closer to the trees it's at the edge of a basement, where the roots would've been naturally constricted anyway as they grew over the years. My faith in Graham's process remains high. All the trees that WERE cut were only done out of necessity, I trust (it costs money to cut them down too)..........while it may be that in some cases a building footprint could be shifted here & there to accomodate a really extra-ordinary specimen, it's true what someone mentioned that grading is the real issue.......to make a smooth transition between Point A & point B, grades simply have to change slightly over a wide area, and it only takes 3 or 4 INCHES of either backfilling or undercutting (esp. w/ our heavy clay soils) to kill a tree over a year or two's time. This is the unfortunate downside of high-density. And while it's sad to know all the Maples along McClintock are gonna bite the bullet too, they really aren't great specimens. (If I recall correctly they're Silver Maples, which are kinda "trash trees" --- fast-growing, brittle, and mis-shapen.) Someone mentioned the replacements will be at least 18" diameter; perhaps they meant to say 8" (a tree that's 9" caliper size or bigger nearly always requires a huge crane to move them).....if indeed they put in 8" cal. trees, that's a very respectable size for a large-scale street tree planting; a commitment to re-greening the neighborhood with trees that size should make everybody confident this guy's interested in not trying to get by on the cheap.

As an aside: anybody notice they've been taking bucketfuls of all those bricks & grinding 'em up in a hopper, then stockpiling it? Was curious about that (didn't think you could add it to soil and get proper compaction for building on top off).....but a neighbor [who was at the early n'hood presentation meetings] tells me the plan is to mix it into the new concrete sidewalks etc., so they already look 'aged' when they're poured instead of ugly raw-grey fresh concrete. Cool.