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Will the University City area ever be cleaned up?


jb4563

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I was looking at the 2025 road plan on the Chamber website and it indicated the portion from Neil Rd west to the Graham St. extension, and the Graham St. extenstion are funded projects. I have not seen any construction activity but maybe it will start soon.

It looks however that the complete project will not be finished until 2020 or so. That would say that a road in NC that gets put into the plan in 1985 doesn't get finished until 2020. That's 35 years. Amazing.

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I believe that it fell out of the 7 year construction plan, as did many other projects that we all thought were good to go. Last year, NCDOT pulled back funding from Charlotte and Raleigh because they were correcting past 'overspending' in these cities based on the funding formula.

Here is the TIP entry:

CITY BOULEVARD EXTENSION, RELOCATED MALLARD

CREEK ROAD (U-2507) TO US 29-NC 49. FOUR LANES

DIVIDED, PART ON NEW LOCATION.

R-2420

$34825000 $28125000

PART UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY CITY - PART COMPLETE

RIGHT-OF-WAY STP $950000 POST YEARS

CONSTRUCTION STP $5750000 POST YEARS

http://ncdot.org/planning/development/TIP/...s/pdf/div10.pdf

The "Post Years" indicates (as you probably know, but others might not) that it is not funded in the 2006-2012 budget.

Happily, though, the Mallard Creek Rd widening and relocation (to align to Graham), from Sugar Creek to Mallard Creek Church Road looks like it will be paid for in 2009. That means it should be built roughly around the time frame as the North Commuter Line, which will have a stop in Derita near these changes.

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I wouldn't go overboard in that assumption. UC is a clashing patchwork of bad planning, but if you like proximity to new retail and the 485 exits, it can be convenient.

What people here are concerned about is the long term future of the area. If it isn't compelling and distinctive, then people won't "care" about it, and the area will go down hill.

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..... Should I regret it?

Well that really depends upon what you are looking for. For example if you were a UNCC student or worked in the general area I don't see anything wrong with it over much of the rest of Charlotte. University City for all its faults listed here, is a relatively in-expensive place to live, the crime isn't bad, and you have to admit that all the roads do give it a lot of connectivity. Since you are renting, it will give you a good idea to make your own decisions but not tie you down to a particular area. Honestly much of the rest of Charlotte is very much similiar to University City.

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I rented in UC during my first year in Charlotte and it left me with a pretty negative image of the place. I guess it's a common mistake. Interstates, retail...these things give off a comfortable vibe to newcomers. But like metro said, it's not really a big deal since you were smart enough to rent. I'm constantly amazed at how many people move to a new place and think they have to buy something ASAP.

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The main thing that I was concerned about was crime and safety. We are moving from Memphis where one street will be great, 1/2 million houses and the next street over is ghetto and it seems like this will be an upgrade no matter what. I will be attending UNC in August for MBA so we picked the area due to convience.

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Another aspect of this is that people seem to overly associate an area as being part of University City. I think you will find people near NorthLake, near Blockbuster Pavilion (Where you seen to be), near Hidden Valley, near Highland Creek, and near Hickory Grove all describing their area as in the University area. They can't all be right. And certainly that whole fifth of the city won't have the problems described in this thread. But I agree with metro, if it meets your needs, great.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is a summary of the road projects in University City and Derita.

http://www.charlotte.com/multimedia/charlo...ucityroads.html

Apparently, the state wants to make the same mistake it has made all along with this part of Charlotte, making every single roadway project a limited access road. The city is fighting to keep the new Mallard Creek Rd from being another limited access road like Harris Boulevard. That concept is madness, and maybe further proof that NCDOT just does not have a clue how to build roads in urban areas.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times where limiting access helps traffic flow. But in University City, almost every thoroughfare is already pretty much limited access. It ends up contributing to making those thoroughfares route monopolies.

I'm happy, actually, that Derita is getting so many new streets and connections. That will be the station on the North commuter line, so the new streets could help it be a 'downtown' for this otherwise-placeless quadrant of the city. That is, as long as NCDOT doesn't mess it up as usual.

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It all depends on what type of neighborhood you are comfortable with. I love urban neighborhoods where you can walk to eat,shop, workout etc. On the other hand more spread out areas like UC offer convenient access to highways and less expensive rent and shopping options. And while UC gets a bad rap for being ugly and not well planned I also agree that much of Charlotte is similar. The majority of South Charlotte is just as sprawly but since its an affluent section of town and looks pretty no one regards it as such.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The main thing that I was concerned about was crime and safety. We are moving from Memphis where one street will be great, 1/2 million houses and the next street over is ghetto and it seems like this will be an upgrade no matter what. I will be attending UNC in August for MBA so we picked the area due to convience.

Ok, first off my man, the school you will be attending in Charlotte is UNCC not UNC. Learn this as it is detrimental to your survival in UC. Also, never use the "UNC" in UNCC when referring to the school orally to people on or around campus, they will hurt you. Ok, not really, but you might get an ugly glare or two. Stick to saying "Charlotte" and you won't have to worry. Say you live in University and you go to Charlotte. If I am wrong and you are going to UNC, you may want to consider a different location to live. Honest mistake.

Next, roads in University. Yes, they are horrible in design. I drive on all four of the U-Charlotte border highways every day. Literally. In some ways having four four lane highways hurts the image but helps with traffic flow. The main issue with the area is that it has 150000 people working and living in it and most of them commute to work one way or another. So UC is built to be a people mover. If you compare this area to say, South Park, it is never at a dead stand still, cars are always moving unless sitting at a light. So while there are a lot of cars, once you get used to traffic flow, you can get anywhere in the general area in under ten minutes (trust me I've tried.) Only exception to the rule is when NASCAR races are in town; don't bother leaving your home those weekends, especially if you're headed northeast.

If you look at the road system that truly constitutes the "border" of UC it looks like a pizza pie. That is derived from I-85, N Tryon (29,) and University City Blvd (49) with the Cab County line being the crust. People that live in the sugar creek area are in the area as well, but not in the heart of it. Kind of like saying you live in Uptown if you live in Southend. It's proximity. If you go up Harris to 77, Northlake is in no way part of UC. I feel like you cut yourself out of UC once you've hit Eastway Blvd on 29/49. That said, it is easier to describe UC if you know what areas are truly included.

Crime is like most areas in Charlotte, not perfect but there aren't weekly shootings either (again depending on how you define UC as far as the general area.) When watching the local news, University City normally gets one report a night on crime. Which in an area of 150000 people, I feel pretty safe with 365 crimes a year.

There are a lot of things that the university is doing to try to get the area to look better. First, street lights should be seeing UNCC logos on them in next few months, the Charlotte Research Institute is going to fill almost the entire block of 29 from the hospital to the new retail center they're building at the intersection with Mallard Creek Ch Rd. On 49, the University will be redesigning its entrance as part of its Master Plan which will locate it further south down 49 and will be much grander.

http://www.charlotteresearchinstitute.com/....asp?level1Id=2

http://fmbld02.uncc.edu/news/combined.pdf

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Actually most people I know that go to UNCC say they go to Charlotte.

Thank you rjp. If you were actually a student metro, you would know that nobody calls it UNCC when referring to it verbally. Go to the university and ask students what college they go to. Probably 95% of them will say Charlotte. It doesn't have that community identity outside of the University Area, but it does to its students and the people that live near it. You should help out the cause and start calling it that too. The name change probably won't happen, but Charlotte will probably become like The University of California, Berkeley.

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Thank you rjp. If you were actually a student metro, you would know that nobody calls it UNCC when referring to it verbally.

Hmm. All of the students that we hire from there refer to the school as UNCC. I don't think I have ever heard it referred to as Charlotte as the phrase "I go to Charotte" can mean so many things in this community.

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Hmm. All of the students that we hire from there refer to the school as UNCC. I don't think I have ever heard it referred to as Charlotte as the phrase "I go to Charotte" can mean so many things in this community.

Maybe when speaking professionally they say UNCC, but when talking to friends they say "I go to Charlotte"... especially friends who go to other colleges that may know what they're refering to...

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Thank you rjp. If you were actually a student metro, you would know that nobody calls it UNCC when referring to it verbally. Go to the university and ask students what college they go to. Probably 95% of them will say Charlotte. It doesn't have that community identity outside of the University Area, but it does to its students and the people that live near it. You should help out the cause and start calling it that too. The name change probably won't happen, but Charlotte will probably become like The University of California, Berkeley.

Most people I know actually call it UNCC, but I call it Charlotte myself.

The name change probably won't happen, but Charlotte will probably become like The University of California, Berkeley.

That's what I think, and hope, will happen.

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In the Northlake thread people are talking about University City big boxes closing. What do you guys think?

I don't feel that the University area big boxes are closing down in general. I think there are enough people in the University area to keep the Walmart, Target, HT (in the middle phases of moving to a larger location in the same shopping center,) Sams, Best Buy and Dicks. Circuit City may move uptown but may alternately relocate to the future retail center planned on N Tryon south of WT Harris. Its biggest issue is location, there isn't much visibility for it or the stores around it. I actually think it is the only big box in jeopardy in Uni right now. It does sufficient business for now though, it's when they open the store in North Meck that will hurt its business. CC reported it was the number one store in its district (including all the Charlotte metro locations) for budget goal in March. It may not be doing so bad after all. Time tells all. Their big wigs were in town a couple months ago visiting Charlotte area stores and made the trip up 77 to look at Northlake and Mooresville to look at potential sites for their planned superstore. This led to the belief that the University Store (the only store actually IN Charlotte) would be dealt its final blow (as was the belief when their location in Concord Mills, a mere 4 miles away opened.) I doubt they will locate the store much closer to downtown. However, I would love for there to be a major electronics chain in uptown. The best buy in South End is not planned to be a superstore but a higher end smaller store.

I'm still curious if anybody knows what is going in the two Mallard Creek Ch/N Tyron corners. There is one shopping center set for 200,000 sf and the other has 30,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

I haven't heard anything about this development since this CO article in February.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news...ty/13770577.htm

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The right lane then ends in an extremely bad place, just past the entrance to the Grand Promenade shopping center and literally right before the interchange with Highway 49. There's probably about 500 feet or so between the end of that lane and the ramp for 49. However, it can't be extended to the exit ramp because of an entrance to the Home Depot/Circuit City shopping center that's over there. The entrance essentially serves as a way to enter the shopping center without driving on Highway 49. That might sound like a good idea, but it's at an odd angle (image of ramp to shopping center) and it brings you in to the back of the shopping center. One might think it would be a good truck entrance, except for the kink in it. If that entrance were to be straightened, the lane could turn into an exit-only lane for 49.

I honestly didn't mean to ramble that long about that particular stretch of Harris, but it's a perfect example of the problems I see in University City. The infrastructure has been sacrificed to allow developers to do what they want. That ramp to the shopping center could be eliminated without truly affecting anyone, and certainly it could be straightened. To me, the safety of drivers should be the first priority for road projects. The next priority should be doing the most good for the most people. Both of those would be accomplished by removing or straightening the shopping center entrance. However, the developer's needs were put before those of anyone else's. Or maybe I'm just biased against that shopping center. I went to Discount Tire there, which is right of Tryon. I figured I'd go to McDonald's while I was waiting for my car. It's not the longest walk in the world, but you really get the idea of just how sprawly that shopping center is. Especially since there are no sidewalks. I don't understand how development like that exists.

The reason that exit ramp was initially designed that way was to prevent large trucks from coming through that back entrance and also to slow speeds using the "kink" from the 55mph on Harris to the pedestrian friendly 15mph in the complex. That entrance also saves me about five minutes in my trip to work, so I vote it stays. If it was so important to get the lane (and I still don't get why they designed the extra lane to go that far in the first place) to go all the way to the exit ramp to 49, they should curve Harris to the left on that side right after the intersection ever so slightly to allow for the extra foot or two needed to extend that lane.

I keep hoping that light rail will help, but the truth is that with how far away it is, this area stands to end up in really bad shape before that happens. I'm not entirely sure what the solution is. It's amazing to me that the city keeps approving nearly every project that's proposed. There are more apartment complexes than you can count in the University area, which isn't a good thing. I don't have a problem with apartments in particular; I've lived in one near Harris and Mallard Creek for two years now. However, they keep building more and more apartments, even as there are plenty of vacancies in existing complexes. They also keep building grocery stores. Within a few miles of my apartment, there are four Harris Teeters, two Lowe's Foods, two Blooms, a Food Lion, and a Bi-Lo. Again, I don't have a problem with grocery stores. People need food. However, the market just seems slightly saturated around here.

The reason there are so many shopping centers that include grocery stores is to the serve the 150,000+ residents living and working in the University Area. When you think about it, 10 shopping centers make it one per 15,000 people. Kannapa-cord has 110,000+ residents; they have 12 major chain grocery stores that I can think of, probably more; making it less than 10,000 per store. I, for one, appreciate not having long lines at the register either way. With the University area growing so quickly with temporary residents (apt dwellers) there will soon be need for more groceries. They just finished a new complex on McCullough Dr. and another on Berkeley Place Dr where they have extended that road and are building both office space and more apartments. The vacancy rate stay relatively unaffected by new complexes about a year after they open. That is why they keep building new ones. The university is forecast to increase in attendance from 20000 to 30000 in the next decade. Developers know most of that influx won't be living on campus either. You also have the job market increase from the Research Institute and Univ Research Park expansions. You're right, UC needs more of an infrastructure, and it is too spread apart and too dependent on the major highways. But quality of life isn't all that bad. You have anything you could possible want to do within a ten minute drive in almost all directions and in some cases a walk away. Golf, theatres, an art gallery, high to low end shopping, golf, fitness centers, coffee houses, YMCA, ample housing and apartment market, and as stated before, ample grocery options.

I wish there were roads, but at the same time, I'm glad our traffic isn't like South Park's.

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