PLANNING

Can innovative interchange plan survive suburbia?

With the long-delayed final leg of Interstate-485 set to open soon, residents near the new interchange at Prosperity Church Road are bracing for growth. The question is, what will that growth look like? A 15-year-old plan calls for an “urban village” of compact streets and walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods. When envisioned in the late 1990s, it […]

Charlotte leaders head to Copenhagen

How did Copenhagen become an international model of urbanism? Four leaders from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County government, philanthropy and real estate will find out next month on a six-day study trip. Brian Collier from the Foundation For The Carolinas, Assistant Mecklenburg County Manager Leslie Johnson, at-large City Council member Vi Lyles and Crescent Communities CEO […]

The Rowan Museum, housed in the "1854 Courthouse" building.

Talk of the Towns: Salisbury

In this new series, PlanCharlotte visits planners from around the 14-county Charlotte region. In this second installment, we head north on I-85 to Salisbury in Rowan County. Salisbury, population 33,612, is the oldest city in the region. Its roots date to the 1750s, when colonial authorities established it as a county seat. Historic preservation remains […]

South End Rail Trail vision gets boost for art

More than two years ago, the idea emerged from workshops sponsored by Historic South End to plan and develop a new system of parks and public spaces along the LYNX Blue Line. As of last month, the idea of creating more beauty and excitement in the area is closer to materializing. Charlotte Center City Partners […]

Cherry neighborhood rezoning sparks gentrification study

After the approval of a controversial rezoning in one of the city’s oldest historically black neighborhoods this spring, City of Charlotte officials are looking at the changing face of many of the city’s close-in neighborhoods. At a June meeting, members of the City Council’s Housing and Neighborhood Development Committee told city staff to study ways […]

Charlotte hits pivot point in vision for Eastland property

The old photo shocked me. I was researching Charlotte’s urban renewal, and amid faded images of long-demolished homes in and around uptown was a large old house on Dilworth’s now-affluent East Kingston Avenue. But in the 1960s parts of Dilworth were considered blighted. Dilworth was not demolished for urban “renewal.” Instead, young Baby Boomers moved […]

For a greener, cleaner Charlotte, look to Sweden’s example

Malmö, Sweden, may seem a lot farther away than Minneapolis, where a local delegation of Charlotte Chamber and other civic leaders recently visited to get ideas for urban development, but in today’s global culture, it is much closer than one might think. I spent a memorable week there during an 18-day study tour, exploring five […]

Talk of the Towns: Albemarle

In this new series, PlanCharlotte visits planners from around the 14-county Charlotte region. In this first installment, we head east to Albemarle. Much of the Charlotte region is fast-growing, but Albemarle’s population has remained flat. Keith Wolf has been with the city’s planning department since 2004 and planning director since 2011. He talked about economic […]

Neighbors fear lax oversight imperils Dilworth historic district

With the real estate market on the rebound, construction crews and renovators are hard at work in Charlotte neighborhoods. The city’s six historic districts are no exception. The number of applications for additions or renovations on properties within the historic districts, averaging about 200 a year, has risen every year since 2010. In 2014, says […]

Rama Road, transformed

PlanCharlotte.org is asking readers to nominate spots in the Charlotte region that need a design makeover. (See our first installment in this series here and our most recent installment here.) Urban designers Keihly Moore and Alex Borisenko have launched a website, www.completeblocks.com, where they’re proposing a series of urban design retrofits, many of them nominated […]