Is Charlotte a development whore?

[ChiefJoJo]

With few exceptions the city does not maintain roads used by commuters so that is a moot point about Dilworth. One could also argue that part of the city takes more than its fair share of taxes given the age of the infrastructure there and such things as canker worm elimination. Seems to me there was a problem a few years ago of rats coming up through the toilets in Dilworth homes due to broken sewer pipes and the city had to rebuild the sewer system.

In any case, I take it from your definition then and this is differs from your first comment on this that it isn't sprawl as long as it is an expensive place and that annexation of these places is a good thing. I disagree with this of course and point out that sprawl is sprawl whether it be a cookie cutter house in a starter neighborhood vs a Mansion in Piper Glenn.

[Justadude]

Conversely, a city with weak annexation powers must invest more resources in it's existing community to promote economic growth.

[pazzo83]

Can you give us a recent example of a city in which this has been successful?

[Raintree21]

As an additional note on this...on July 1st, Concord is gaining ~3k residents via the Highland Creek subdivision which rests partly in Mecklenburg County. All of the residents will be part of the City of Concord but will have a Charlotte mailing address until the post office decides if they will receive a Concord mailing address instead.

The article was published in Concord's paper a couple of days ago, but it does point out that it can and is happening.

SOURCE

[MTSUBlueraider86]

I wish Nashville were like Charlotte and Atlanta. To build anything in Nashville, it is a major beauracratic undertaking involving the State Legislature, the Metro Council, The Board of Zoning Appeals, The Nashville Metro Historical Commission, The Metropolitan and Development Design and Review Committee, The Metro Development and Housing Authority, The Civic Design Center, The Metro Planning Commission, and a few others.

In Nashville, local officials think 10 stories is a tall building and 20 stories is a skyscraper! Most have never lived anywhere else except in small tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Mobile, Alabama which is considered a tier 3 city has a 750 foot office tower, Nashville has one 617 feet. Mobile has two convention centers bigger than Nashville. Nashville is way behind the curb in development except condo's of which every tier 2 and tier 1 city are building. Mobile is building a 30 story condo tower downtown too. Nashville most important developments in the past couple of years is the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Downtown Library, and the Civic Plaza in front of the Courthouse. We still can't build an office tower over 13 stories right now until the Pinnicale is builtat 28 stories and 432 feet.

Be happy Charlotte is a development whore! I wish Nashville were.

[dan326]

What a lovely name for a thread.

I think development is good,I'd rather have an amenity in the burbs then to not have it at all.

[nowensone]

I wish Nashville were like Charlotte and Atlanta. To build anything in Nashville, it is a major beauracratic undertaking involving the State Legislature, the Metro Council, The Board of Zoning Appeals, The Nashville Metro Historical Commission, The Metropolitan and Development Design and Review Committee, The Metro Development and Housing Authority, The Civic Design Center, The Metro Planning Commission, and a few others.

In Nashville, local officials think 10 stories is a tall building and 20 stories is a skyscraper! Most have never lived anywhere else except in small tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Mobile, Alabama which is considered a tier 3 city has a 750 foot office tower, Nashville has one 617 feet. Mobile has two convention centers bigger than Nashville. Nashville is way behind the curb in development except condo's of which every tier 2 and tier 1 city are building. Mobile is building a 30 story condo tower downtown too. Nashville most important developments in the past couple of years is the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Downtown Library, and the Civic Plaza in front of the Courthouse. We still can't build an office tower over 13 stories right now until the Pinnicale is builtat 28 stories and 432 feet.

Be happy Charlotte is a development whore! I wish Nashville were.

[ChiefJoJo]

Can you give us a recent example of a city in which this has been successful?

[atlrvr]

I really started to topic to cover both urban and suburban issues. While downtown condos are great, should we be allowing things like EIFS, or should we require more solid material that drive up the price. Should a high-rise developer be responsible for improving public infrastructure? Right now, the city is so happy for development, they actually put in the supportive public infrastructure to support urban development, whereas in other cities, the developer is not only responsible (and required to provide) such upgrades, but is expected provide additional amenities such as providing affordable housing within the property, or an equal cash contribution to the city's housing agency.

Certainly this suburbs have worse issues caused by development, and items like Impact Fees, school land donations, and road widening could all be shifted to the developers, but urban development can have a detrimental impact on the areas long term sustainability if the city is too eager to encourage growth.

[monsoon]

As pazzo said, the point I was trying to make is that if a city cannot annex its way to "economic prosperity" as cities have attempted to do here in NC, they must focus resources on infill... this often means transit investments and other, more urban infrastructure improvements.

Anecdotal evidence shows me that there are many cities (Raleigh and Charlotte here in NC) that have liberal annexation laws and have some of the worst sprawl anywhere. I'm not convinced that liberal annexation laws are a good way to prevent sprawl. In practice, I think the opposite may be true......

[Raintree21]

I really started to topic to cover both urban and suburban issues. While downtown condos are great, should we be allowing things like EIFS, or should we require more solid material that drive up the price. Should a high-rise developer be responsible for improving public infrastructure? Right now, the city is so happy for development, they actually put in the supportive public infrastructure to support urban development, whereas in other cities, the developer is not only responsible (and required to provide) such upgrades, but is expected provide additional amenities such as providing affordable housing within the property, or an equal cash contribution to the city's housing agency.

Certainly this suburbs have worse issues caused by development, and items like Impact Fees, school land donations, and road widening could all be shifted to the developers, but urban development can have a detrimental impact on the areas long term sustainability if the city is too eager to encourage growth.

[atlrvr]

It seems like city staff and developers are still battling it out over urban street guidelines. This is one of the most important initiatives that the city has under-taken in years, mostly because the effects are binding, unlike most of their plans.

This article in the Observer touches on the most contentios points.

Bill Daleure, who chairs the Charlotte Regional Chamber of Commerce's land-use committee, said his group is not seeking to change all the guidelines, just a few points.

...

Shorter Blocks

[atlrvr]

I was flying US Airways last week, and as was mentioned in another thread, they did about a 50-page profile on Charlotte. All in all, it was very positive and high-profile (though the cover of the magazine highlighted Zurich).

Anyway, I thought of this thread after reading a couple of quotes by Debra Campbell (our planning director) on what she likes about Charlotte.

She had this to say:

Because we're growing, we can truly be selective about what development we allow. We ask, does this project really have the long-term potential to enhance the quality-of-life?

We're a lot more selective about development at our outer beltway interchanges - unlike Atlanta, which allowed development to adversely impact how its beltway functions.

[voyager12]

^ Now when people ask me about Charlotte's development ethic I can say.."we are expert at building sprawl as far out as possible". Perfect.

[cltheel.sdl]

Thought this article might be interesting to many of you. It's a CNN article on how the mounting foreclosures in the suburbs are leading to crime and poverty on the outskirts of cities. This is happening while the idea of the "American Dream" is changing and inner cities are becoming more popular. Many planning experts believe that eventually many suburban areas will become ghetto, while the wealthier citizens will live conveniently close to their jobs in the city. Cities need to improve connectivity and mass transit in the suburbs, as many poor people can't afford cars.

Article:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/16/suburb.city/index.html

[JayGee]

I was flying US Airways last week, and as was mentioned in another thread, they did about a 50-page profile on Charlotte. All in all, it was very positive and high-profile (though the cover of the magazine highlighted Zurich).

Anyway, I thought of this thread after reading a couple of quotes by Debra Campbell (our planning director) on what she likes about Charlotte.

She had this to say:

[Raintree21]

I mean, they said the average temperature in the summer is 76 degrees! What's up with that? I like the climate here, but I don't know about that one.

[DCMetroRaleigh]

The average June to August temperature in Charlotte is about 76 degrees. The average high ranges from 84 on June 1 to 90 degrees on July 19 . The average low ranges from 64 on June 1 to 71 degrees on July 19. By August 31, the last day of meteorological summer, the average high drops to 86, the average low is 64.