Elizabeth Projects (7th St, Elizabeth Ave, etc)

[Victor28204]

Tarhoosier, my home was built within the last 5 years. The home that was in its place prior was a dilapidated shack that was ill maintained and not exactly something that was conducive to renovation. The “historic” part people reminisce about in this neighborhood are poorly constructed and poorly maintained 900sqft homes. I would totally agree with your “irrevocable” comment if you were talking about Charleston single homes, but most of the previous homes in cherry were not worthy of being renovated and were cost prohibitive at renovating. 

[videtur quam contuor]

I used the single remaining small unhistoric house as synecdoche for the neighborhood. Whatever was historic about Cherry, unlikely the architecture, has changed irrevocably.

[Guest]

if anyone in the neighborhoods have quotes for my article please PM them to me. I'm turning in this article tomorrow morning.

[KJHburg]

From an UPer, defense of the proposed Baldwin 3rd 20 story building.  https://www.charlottefive.com/midtown-tower/

And remember some of the people against this were upset there was no affordable housing in the proposal (where of course NO housing of any type or any  price exists now) 

If this 20 story building building was proposed at the corner of Main and S. Torrence I would be opposed to it or  at the corner of E 5th and E Laurel dittos.   But it is not it is an existing commercial corridor 1 block away from the trolley line where yes potential workers could ride the LYNX uptown then a short jaunt on the trolley to their office.   Anybody from Elizabeth is too far away from this project to object it when they can't even see it for the major hospitals between it and them.      I hope this passes and gets built. 

Edited April 23, 2018 by KJHburg

[DMann]

Yeah buddy!

[deleted]

I also don't get the argument that the streetcar has failed to deliver on the promised development so for that reason we are opposing this development...huh?

[J-Rob]

Awesome article!  Thanks @ricky_davis_fan_21 for including the email addresses for convenience.  I just sent everyone on the list this email:

"As a resident living on the edge of Grier Heights and Elizabeth, I ask that you support the proposed 20 story Midtown tower.  The city spent millions of dollars building the streetcar; which has seen little to no development built along its path.  Why did we build a streetcar if we didn't want transit based development?

The Midtown Tower is a mere 500 feet from the streetcar, offering great connectivity to Uptown for business needs, as well as great connectivity to several high traffic residential areas for potential workers.  This project, which is incredibly better looking than our influx of stick built apartments and other cheaply built development, should represent the exact reason the streetcar was built!

 

Currently, the streetcar services lifeless institutional development (Novant and CPCC).  Aside from one stretch of restaurants on Elizabeth, I hardly ever see anyone walking around the area.  It certainly isn't heavily trafficked by foot.  As long as Grubb sits on undeveloped prime property along the streetcar, the city will have to rely on projects just like this Midtown Tower.  

 

It is in no-man's land, in that it isn't really Cherry or Elizabeth, and doesn't really affect either neighborhood other than traffic, which will inherently increase anyway.  Why not allow a building that will also utilize the Gold Line to ease those traffic concerns?

 

The city is growing.  We know that.  We need the other light rail lines built yesterday, but until that happens, the city needs to utilize the Gold Line.

 

Thank you for your consideration."

[tozmervo]

6 hours ago, J-Rob said:

Currently, the streetcar services lifeless institutional development (Novant and CPCC).  Aside from one stretch of restaurants on Elizabeth, I hardly ever see anyone walking around the area.  It certainly isn't heavily trafficked by foot.  As long as Grubb sits on undeveloped prime property along the streetcar, the city will have to rely on projects just like this Midtown Tower.  

It's a nice letter, but I would push back on this statement. CP and Novant employ hundreds of people, and thousands of students and patients flow through both campuses every day. It's one thing to be there after hours, but during the day Elizabeth is about as busy with pedestrian activity as any street in Uptown. 

[J-Rob]

18 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

It's a nice letter, but I would push back on this statement. CP and Novant employ hundreds of people, and thousands of students and patients flow through both campuses every day. It's one thing to be there after hours, but during the day Elizabeth is about as busy with pedestrian activity as any street in Uptown. 

That is fair enough, but I just don't see it.  I do see some people from Novant/CPCC hopping on and off streetcar from time to time, but that is about it.  There is little to no pedestrian interaction (retail) generating "buzz".  It is just people quickly filing in and out of buildings for mostly utilitarian purposes.  When I am around the area midday it seems pretty dead other than the one section where Earl's, etc. is (which I did try to give them credit for in my email).  I appreciate your feedback though.

Edited April 23, 2018 by J-Rob

[Victor28204]

Has the city council said when this building rezoning vote is going to happen or did they just say the final decision is delayed with no formal date? I looked, but could not find.

[dubone]

Hopefully you give some voice to the pro-development community, which is most of the city.   Especially when it is outside the proper neighborhoods.  Those are the corridors that the NIMBY's have pushed development, and that is the compromise we have decided as a city, that the major corridors are the places we will put transit and density.   100% for this, especially if it helps adds office to help support denser residential in the area.    

Elizabeth Avenue used to have big plans for it, but about the most we've gotten is a Bojangles with a drive through and further institutional expansion (and landbanking, as Clay has reported on before).     $200M of investments in CityLynx pretty much demands that we should see densification and height in this exact vicinity.  Look at the other streetcar stations:

- 7th and Hawthorne: Can you imagine a proposal for anything going to after what Elizabeth did to Faison?   

- 5th and Hawthorne: Entirely Novant land banking. 

- Torrence to 277 is exclusively CPCC and even tore down the pre-existing retail and restaurants at Charlottetowne.  

So pretty much the blocks bound by Queens/Hawthorne, 5th, Torrence, and 3rd are the prime development blocks, minus the old retail buildings that will hopefully have a place between the densification. 

 

 

[archiham04]

This argument translates to the "Redevelopment Potential" around an MLS teardown for Memorial Stadium.  There is essentially no potential for market based improvement within the vicinity of the stadium.  Too much institutional holdings.

[navigator319]

I sent my two cents to the city on this.  btw @ricky_davis_fan_21 typo in the email address of  [email protected] 

I am writing in support of the current proposal by NAI Surthern for this site.  Why am I writing and speaking up you may be wondering?  Well frankly it is because I am dismayed by some comments of this counsel as to why this proposal should be approved.

 

I live less then a mile away from the site.  This IS urban Charlotte.   The city has and is investing over $100 million in the streetcar, which I also support, and FINALLY a developer comes along with a proposal that is taking advantage.  This counsel should be doing more to support this type of development in our inner neighborhoods.

 

Charlotte needs more proposals of this caliber, not less.  It is concerning some on this counsel seem to dismiss what could be built as of right here.  What could be built as of right would be a scar on the urban Charlotte landscape.  The developer took pains to point this out in its presentations to illustrate this.

 

We need leadership and vision to help build Charlotte.  We need our local government to not buy into false choices.  We need to make it easier for developers to builder higher quality, not make it easier for them to appeal to the lowest common denominator of ROI.  We need to encourage higher density by our rail projects otherwise what is the point.  We need to ask the right questions and not sink to buzzwords. 

 

In closing, I simply encourage this counsel to elevate their thinking.

 

Kind Regards,

[Bikeguy]

^ council.  

 

[navigator319]

29 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

^ council.  

 

eh its ok.  Spelling, gramer, punctuation is so mid 20th century it no matter.  

Doesn't everyone use the 'pardon typos sent from iphone' on all their emails?  Greatest thing ever.  Spelling get out of jail free card.

[JacksonH]

2 hours ago, navigator319 said:

eh its ok.  Spelling, gramer, punctuation is so mid 20th century it no matter.  

Someone following the example of the president's tweets over the weekend might be inclined to make that same spelling mistake.

[J-Rob]

Looks like the Charlotte Independence/Hounds took over the spot that The Spoke Easy vacated when they moved across the street.  This is next to Luca Italian Kitchen, which is now closed, so I am glad the Independence/Hounds moved in so there aren't two empty parcels next to each other.  I assume this is just offices, but looks pretty cool, and caught me off guard as I was passing this morning.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, J-Rob said:

Looks like the Charlotte Independence/Hounds took over the spot that The Spoke Easy vacated when they moved across the street.  This is next to Luca Italian Kitchen, which is now closed, so I am glad the Independence/Hounds moved in so there aren't two empty parcels next to each other.  I assume this is just offices, but looks pretty cool, and caught me off guard as I was passing this morning.

it has a bar in it as well :-) 

[sakami]

Just now, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

it has a bar in it as well :-) 

Here’s an Agenda article about it. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/121543/charlotte-independence-to-open-jacks-house-a-full-fledged-soccer-bar-in-elizabeth-this-spring/

[Scribe]

The NAI Surthern has submitted updated site plan with more details....

[J-Rob]

58 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

it has a bar in it as well :-) 

 

58 minutes ago, sakami said:

Here’s an Agenda article about it. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/121543/charlotte-independence-to-open-jacks-house-a-full-fledged-soccer-bar-in-elizabeth-this-spring/

Ha!  I guess I should pay attention.  I literally thought it was team offices.

[11 HouseBZ]

1 hour ago, sakami said:

Here’s an Agenda article about it. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/121543/charlotte-independence-to-open-jacks-house-a-full-fledged-soccer-bar-in-elizabeth-this-spring/

Jeez who poured those beers?!

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, 11 HouseBZ said:

Jeez who poured those beers?!

hopefully Bruce & Jim aren't the bartenders lol

[Victor28204]

Diane Takata Powell, one of the residents that spoke against this development, sent a response to the article to charlotte5 and posted in the Cherry Facebook group stating that she doesn't feel the writer conveyed her position on the rezoning petition correctly. She really believes low income housing should be integrated to this project, which again, is ridiculous. Traffic concerns are a weak argument because the center of the Cherry neighborhood is 1 mile from the center of the city at the Trade and Tryon intersection. When you live in the city, traffic is part of the agreement. The residents of Cherry she speaks of in her rebuttal that "worked" with the city and the developer did not represent the entirety of the neighborhood, but rather the pack of well connected NIMBYs and their cohorts that will have an issue with any development that isn't low income housing. In particular, the development they hate the most is that in which would cause property appreciation in Cherry. I am tired of the renter NIMBYs from Cherry speaking on my behalf. Per the instruction on the original article, I am going to write the city council. 

https://www.charlottefive.com/cherry-resident-midtown/

[cjd5050]

21 minutes ago, Victor28204 said:

Diane Takata Powell, one of the residents that spoke against this development, sent a response to the article to charlotte5 and posted in the Cherry Facebook group stating that she doesn't feel the writer conveyed her position on the rezoning petition correctly. She really believes low income housing should be integrated to this project, which again, is ridiculous. Traffic concerns are a weak argument because the center of the Cherry neighborhood is 1 mile from the center of the city at the Trade and Tryon intersection. When you live in the city, traffic is part of the agreement. The residents of Cherry she speaks of in her rebuttal that "worked" with the city and the developer did not represent the entirety of the neighborhood, but rather the pack of well connected NIMBYs and their cohorts that will have an issue with any development that isn't low income housing. In particular, the development they hate the most is that in which would cause property appreciation in Cherry. I am tired of the renter NIMBYs from Cherry speaking on my behalf. Per the instruction on the original article, I am going to write the city council. 

https://www.charlottefive.com/cherry-resident-midtown/

the first comment was awesome on the blog:

A few comments:

1. If you care so much about affordable housing, why did you purchase a $648,500 house, further exacerbating value inflation in the Cherry neighborhood? You sound like a hypocrite when you lecture people on an issue that YOU contributed to as part of the problem.

2. Your 2015 new construction house in “Historic Cherry” has less historical relevance than my 2011 Grand Cherokee. “Historic” is merely a title your seems to abuse. Other than an old school and few original houses left (due to people like you), its not a very appropriate title. Besides, Historic Dilworth has a 310′ pink thing next to, at least with this you’re getting a well designed project.

3. Stating traffic increasing 139% the way you write is misleading. 3rd and 4th street, according to the NCDOT, currently have traffic volumes of 20,000 and 30,000 VPD respectively. The impact to these roads will be substantially less than 139%.

Yours truly,
Greg