Charlotte Center City 2020 Vision Plan

[cltbwimob]

Here are some ideas that I would like to see implemented.

A Queen Charlotte statue in a public square like AirNostrumMAD stated. Maybe even make a traffic circle with a very small park and this statue in the middle.

A large reflecting pool like the one near the Washington Monument in the Mall in DC

Some other people on this forum have said it, and I will say it again...A waterway. This can be a manmade canal or a development along Irwin Creek. It would be similar to the Riverwalk in San Antonio or Bricktown Canal in Oklahoma City. It could have shops, walkways, green spaces, parks, restaurants, attractions such as an Aquarium, as well as water taxis. To add to the character of the canal, the bridges over the canal can be made to look architecturally similar to famous bridges worldwide such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge (although certainly not the same size). While in other places, I have posted a less feasible idea of building a canal through creekbeds all the way to the Catawba, I think a mile long man-made river (or redeveloped Irwin Creek) through Uptown similar to the man-made Bricktown Canal in Oklahoma City would be great and probably a lot more feasible than a canal all the way to the Catawba River. Here is a quick link to the google images of the bricktown canal.

[Jim856796]

The American Legion Memorial Stadium may possibly be crumbling, so how about you add this to the priorities: a new 30k-capacity stadium to replace the existing stadium. The Charlotte 49ers are possibly going to have a college football team in the Division 1-AA level and they are looking at the site of the American Legion Stadium or a new on-campus stadium built from scratch.

[Niner National]

The 49ers' stadium will be on campus. It would be a complete 180 from their previous stance if they suddenly decided to go off campus. If it is unsafe and crumbling, I'm sure CPCC could use the land.

[AuLukey]

I'm not sure why the location of the 49er stadium is being debated. I can say with 100% certainty that if/when Charlotte does build their new stadium, it will be on its main campus and, barring a setback in the current athletics program/campus plans, should break ground in the next three to four years.

As far as Memorial Stadium, it is currently closed for major renovations, so it isn't going anywhere anytime soon either unless there is something major I missed about the renovations.

In response to my earlier post about the strolling areas underneath the highway, I didn't take the elevation differences into consideration. I stand corrected. Although I think creating room under the interstates could help out near the stadium, the area outside the stadium facing 77 and 277 feels very dark and closed off after games.

[Jim856796]

If that new on-campus stadium is complete, the American Legion Stadium should still be demoed. The Grady Cole Center should, also.

[InitialD]

If that new on-campus stadium is complete, the American Legion Stadium should still be demoed. The Grady Cole Center should, also.

I don't see any reason to destroy a historic stadium. That's like saying the Duke theater at Blumenthal should be torn down now that the Knight theater is open. In addition to high school and occasional lower-division college games, Memorial stadium is used for Oktoberfest and Red, White, and Boom. If it isn't already, it could be used for various community sports training camps, and possibly as a practice facility to visiting teams playing in BofA stadium (Meineke Car Care Bowl, 2010/2011 ACC championships, etc.) The stadium is a valuable asset to the city.

[nonillogical]

^ plus there's a new deck being built around it right now to, i assume, help support more events there. tearing down a place like this is a great example of what we DON'T need to keep doing in Charlotte.

[Spartan]

I don't see any reason to destroy a historic stadium. That's like saying the Duke theater at Blumenthal should be torn down now that the Knight theater is open. In addition to high school and occasional lower-division college games, Memorial stadium is used for Oktoberfest and Red, White, and Boom. If it isn't already, it could be used for various community sports training camps, and possibly as a practice facility to visiting teams playing in BofA stadium (Meineke Car Care Bowl, 2010/2011 ACC championships, etc.) The stadium is a valuable asset to the city.

Well, it's old, and thus of no value to Charlotte. :/

[CLTNative]

CCCP is holding the second community workshop for the 2020 Vision Plan. It will be March 31, 5:30 at the Convention Center. From what I understand, the consultant team will be covering individual aspects of the plan (mobility, urban living, economic vitality...) They will also discuss some possible focus areas of the plan. Should be pretty interesting. There is a link below to RSVP.

2020 RSVP

[tozmervo]

Charlotte 2020 has released an "Existing Conditions Memo" that includes a fair amount of CLT history and lots of really nice maps and diagrams of the center city area.

http://www.centercity2020.info/docs.php?oid=1000000153&ogid=9999

Also: the second workshop is coming up tomorrow (or today, depending on when you read this). Wednesday evening at the convention center. Be there... or don't.

[tozmervo]

Workshop #3 is tomorrow evening. The draft plan will be reviewed, and feedback for refinement will be taken. I wish I could go, but I have travel obligations. It should be good!

[Urbanity]

According to Mary Newsom, three items to be presented tonight:

1. More of a higher education presence uptown
2. Addressing the lack of retail uptown
3. Network of parks and green spaces

I'll be interested in what else is discussed, but I'm particularly interested in the retail question. It seems the biggest missing amenity in the city.

[Spartan]

Just to recap, the presentation was pretty well done. The representative of MIG (the consultant hired to create this plan) talked of an hour straight and inhaling maybe twice. They had a lot of pretty basic concepts in the plan and then a few "big fish" ideas. Plus tons of pictures of other places that are way cooler than Charlotte. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense... Charlotte just desperately needs some base-level changes. The only new idea that I found new and interesting was their idea to create a "Big Dig Charlotte" and bury the Brookshire at at least between Graham and the Independence interchange. Creating a more formalized 'North End' was also mentioned, but I don't think of that as a new concept.

I lumped ideas into the following three categories:

Basics

• More retail - focus on Trade Street and Tryon St near term, acknowledged Brevard St between NASCAR/Convention Center and Arena long term
  
• More parks/improve existing parks (remember this includes everything in center city, not just uptown)
  
• Connect Wards to each other, ped/bike focus on Davidonson, MLK, Poplar, 9th; auto focus on McDowell, Stonewall, Graham, 11th/12th
  
• Connect 1st ring neighborhoods to uptown - could be new streets, greenways, other ped/bike connections; they included improving the underpasses with snazzy lighting, artwork, and façade additions to make them feel less sketchy for the average person. Showed pictures of some underpass in Tokyo.
  
• More residential, density in SouthEnd, Uptown, Elizabeth (west of Hawthorne/Queens), and West End/Five Points
  
• Encourage more transit use, bike and walk more
  

Big Fish ideas

• Convert Overstreet Mall to 'business support services' (my personal favorite)
  
• Big Cap & Dig
  • Big Dig Charlotte: bury the Brookshire and allow development on top
    
  • Cap the Belk - same as 2010 Vision Plan, but in phases
    
  • The Cap and the Big Dig would work together to seamlessly tie in and reconnect uptown to the neighborhoods to the north and south while still preserving the utility of I-277. The idea is to hide as much of I-277 as possible, and remove some of the on/off ramps per the existing Center City Transportation Plan.
    
• Higher education
  • UNCC/JCSU/JWU could work with PLCMC to create a biggerbetter research library open to all
    
  • Lots of collaborative opportunities with CPCC, Queens College, Kings College, JCSU, JWU, and Carolinas Medical School (at CMC) all located within Center City
    

[*]High density mixed-use in Second Ward - build out Brooklyn Village, use I-277 Parcels and redevelopment to fill in Second Ward with Gateway-style development

[*]North End - create research/high-tech industrial area in the North End area along Tryon/Graham/Davidson streets between 30th St/Matheson and the Brookshire including a new ped/bike or full street connection at 24th St across the switching yard (probably a bridge).

[*]Parking system that includes real-time parking space availability in each deck

[*]They had lots of pictures of Millenium Park in Chicago, of the Pearl District in Portland, and of downtown Vancouver.

Stuff we know about but have relatively little control over

• Streetcar/Commuter Rail
  
• Gateway Station
  
• Ballpark
  
• New high school in Second Ward
  
• Romare Bearden Park
  

This is just the list off the top of my head based on the presentation last week. There are some things I'm probably leaving out, plus nobody has seen the final report yet (at least not outside of the Planning Dept). MIG said they will post the presentation and the final report on the website sometime soon (http://www.centercity2020.info/docs.php?view=all). As of this morning it was not up yet.

[Urbanity]

^^^Thanks for the overview. I'm glad that there seems to be a focus on some basics (parks, retail, existing collaborative opps between higher ed institutions) As those items are necessary regardless of any big ideas.

[tozmervo]

Convert Overstreet Mall to 'business support services' (my personal favorite)

Hear hear! Closing OM got applause in the first workshop, I'm glad that notion didn't get lost in all of the other work. I think this idea could have the most profound effect on Uptown of everything mentioned.

[15895]

Basics

• More retail - focus on Trade Street and Tryon St near term, acknowledged Brevard St between NASCAR/Convention Center and Arena long term

What about South College?

I'm Glad to see Trade Street getting some love. Hopefully Gateway Village can be nicely connected down to The Arena and CPCC via Street Car from the Bus Station. Getting to Gateway Village by walking on West Trade is a little annoying with the sea of parking lots. To get more retail on West Trade, would they just focus on existing facilities to incorporate retail in, or would any new buildings be built to accommodate Retail?

[southslider]

^I actually don't mind Overstreet, where the "mall" has external visibility and/or access to street-level sidewalks. For example, recent Founders Hall renovations have greatly improved public accessibility with a street entrance on Trade and College. Epicenter also gave me reason to walk through Bank of America Plaza. Now, if only Omni could provide vertical circulation and street-level presence similar to its opposite corners.

Overall, I think the "mall" is okay to remain, just use new street-level retail to improve visibility and access. I think Epicenter works best (having both street-level and mall-level activity), while the BB&T building of Overstreet works the worst (mall completely hidden from street). All other blocks are somewhere in-between. Perhaps, the strategy of business support services makes sense for hopeless blocks of Overstreet, like BB&T. But elsewhere, I wouldn't mind more retrofits similar to Founders Hall.

[Spartan]

What about South College?

I'm Glad to see Trade Street getting some love. Hopefully Gateway Village can be nicely connected down to The Arena and CPCC via Street Car from the Bus Station. Getting to Gateway Village by walking on West Trade is a little annoying with the sea of parking lots. To get more retail on West Trade, would they just focus on existing facilities to incorporate retail in, or would any new buildings be built to accommodate Retail?

The City has a document called the Center City Retail Strategy, which is where the 2020 VIsion Plan is pulling from. I've not read any of it, but from what I've seen it calls for the retail activity on Trade St to be focused in the first few blocks near Tryon St (at least initially). There's really not a whole lot that can be done on Trade St because every block has a massive service entrance or two for some building and cannot physically hold anymore retail unless those service entrances are relocated.

All that is needed to connect Gateway Village to Uptown is a few more buildings on the block between the railroad bridge and Graham St. The train station will help tremendously, especially if it has street-fronting retail spaces.

South College Street wasn't mentioned specifically in the presentation, but keep in mind it was an overview. The actual plan may call it out. It seems like a no brainer that the west side of the street needs to be converted to retail somehow.

I think that generally speaking, if someone has an idea on how to cram more retail into existing buildings in uptown, the City wants to find a way to make it happen from their end. That's the vibe I get anyway.

[atlrvr]

To me, the only place that a real retail (as opposed to restaurant) shopping district could go is North College. Everywhere else is too broken up with buildings or uses that doesn't allow for "strolling".

North College starting at 5th already has decent street feel, and past 7th, it is a blank slate all the way to 11th.

[Urbanity]

When is the final 2020 plan presented to the city for adoption?

[AuLukey]

North College starting at 5th already has decent street feel, and past 7th, it is a blank slate all the way to 11th.

There is always hope that some of those buildings could redo their ground floor to accommodate for street level activity. Although I'm still holding out for the Omni Hotel's street level improvements that were proposed way back when.

[caterpillar2]

There is always hope that some of those buildings could redo their ground floor to accommodate for street level activity. Although I'm still holding out for the Omni Hotel's street level improvements that were proposed way back when.

believe that a Steinmart would be the perfect starter dept. store and/ or anchor for a ground floor shopping venue.

[Urbanity]

Although I'm still holding out for the Omni Hotel's street level improvements that were proposed way back when.

Which does raise a related question of 'what exactly is going on there?' The reason I ask is the fountain has been off since last spring (before?) which I know was originally because of the drought, but all the other fountains are back on in city center. They need to do something on the corner as the old, dusty and unused dark fountain is the wrong visual centerpiece for the Square.

[tozmervo]

Anybody know what happened to the 2020 process? Are they waiting until then to release the final plan?

[tozmervo]

Hey, check it out. They didn't wait. The draft plan is finally available:

http://www.centercity2020.info/Content/10037/Draft_Center_City_2020_Vision_Plan.html