PLANNING

It is exasperating that, once again, North Carolina homeowners face the prospect of losing the ability to file a protest petition in rezonings. The most recent effort – a bill that has passed the N.C. House – represents the third time in less than three years that our state has been threatened with the loss […]

Can the buildings, streets and sidewalks around you change your health? Richard J. Jackson thinks they can. Jackson, professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, has made the creation of healthier environments his life’s work. He’s the author of books including Urban Sprawl and Public Health, published in 2004, which examined the connections between […]

After three years of citizen engagement and the creation of a Regional Growth Framework for the 14-county Charlotte region, the CONNECT Our Future initiative moves into the implementation phase, to assist local governments in their individual efforts to realize the goals and objectives of that framework. One element of the implementation phase is a collaboration […]

For years subdivisions have been filling acres of farmland in Union County. Yet developers there are looking longingly at missed opportunities for restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores. Unincorporated Union County is dry. That means no public sale of beer or wine. No liquor stores. No liquor-by-the-drink. “I know there is interest in an upscale […]

Do you have a favorite Main Street, greenway, or historic rehabilitation? Join in this year’s competition to nominate and vote on your favorite North Carolina places. More information Visit www.greatplacesnc.org for more information, nominating forms and past winners. Great Places in North Carolina is an awards program created in 2012 to highlight North Carolina’s Great […]

We hope you’ve enjoyed our offerings during the past year. In case you missed them, here are some of the PlanCharlotte.org 2014 articles that attracted the most readers. Cherry neighborhood rezoning sparks gentrification study After the approval of a controversial rezoning this spring in the Cherry neighborhood, one of the city’s oldest historically black areas, […]

Since the late 1990s, Charlotte has experienced a major policy shift toward creating more walkable streets. The evidence is seen in infrastructure investments that are making Charlotte a better place to walk. Yet the city still faces significant challenges: a legacy of our decades of auto-oriented development. On Monday, I gave a presentation to the […]

Since the first U.S. zoning laws in the early 20th century, one of their essential principles has been separating uses. Houses, stores, apartments and offices were kept apart from each other. One unintended consequence was more traffic, as people needed to drive from place to place. Another was that, as jobs and work changed, zoning […]

The first comprehensive survey of Charlotte historic resources in 30 years recommends reducing the areas of several of the city’s historic districts, saying development has reduced the historic footprint in those neighborhoods. Among the findings in the first phase of Charlotte’s Historic Resources Survey: In the last 30 years, 37 percent of Charlotte’s potential historic […]

In cities and counties surrounding Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, tensions are swirling over the rate of new residential development, what it should look like and – especially – how to pay for it. Those aren’t new challenges in a metro area that’s been one of the nation’s fastest growing in recent decades. But many communities, […]