Mobile
Page 6 of 6
Planning staff give credit for the original idea to "try something different" to Walter Fields, a former senior member of the Planning Commission staff. The specifics of the task were handed to Warren Burgess, then Senior Urban Designer on the Commission, and now Planning Director for the Town of Davidson. Burgess recalls how he was sitting in a bar after work one day, discussing the project with Tom Low, lead designer in the Charlotte office of DPZ. Out came the sketchbook, and together the two designers drew a new concept, an urban village that straddled the freeway, with the normal four-lane thoroughfare split into three two-lane roads with parking. Each was a city block apart, setting up a traditional urban town grid that bridged the freeway and extended for several blocks either side before merging together again into a conventional highway.
Burgess' vision is maturing slowly in northeast Charlotte. Coordinating planner John Cock, who took over from Burgess, compares the process with completing a jigsaw puzzle; each private developer brings in a project that fits the master plan, with pedestrian-friendly buildings close to the street in traditional fashion, with screened mid-block parking. Piece by piece the overall design is taking shape.
To its eternal shame, the NC Department of Transportation has been the biggest obstacle to success, unwilling to consider any idea that isn't in their outdated rule book. It has taken personal visits to Raleigh by Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory to obtain even tentative acceptance from the state. It's probably fair to say that the biggest obstacles to smart growth in North Carolina are the state agencies. All the more credit to Charlotte planners for sticking to the task and pushing this avant-garde project to the point of final agreement. But this fine design is likely to remain an isolated phenomenon. There are no plans to repeat it elsewhere. Most other interchanges are sewn up tight with outdated concepts.
* At the opposite end of town, and coming from the private sector, is Ayrsley, located on 140 acres near the junction of South Tryon Street and I-485. Within its boundaries, this development follows the same principles of design as Birkdale and Prosperity Villages -- a tight network of streets connecting a variety of uses in the manner of traditional town centers. But here the developers had to work against Charlotte's sprawl-style planning regulations. In the words of Cambridge Properties Director of Business Development, Robert McMillan, "(Charlotte's) current zoning laws and traffic policies actually serve to promote sprawl and retard smart growth plans like Ayrsley. . .It would have been much easier to do another big box suburban project."
Designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk, the Ayrsley master plan illustrates a vibrant mix of uses shaped around a matrix of dense town center streets, similar to Birkdale, but larger and denser. It promises to be an excellent development, but like its two companion "villages," getting there demands a car. This is the great irony of these progressive developments: they're in the wrong place. They should be on transit lines, but the train is a long time coming.
In our auto-dependent society, development goes in locations easily accessible by car. These three projects are not perfect examples of smart growth. But they're very good designs, and bode well for a decade from now when such tightly knit, mixed-use developments can cluster around transit stations, with parks and low density housing in between.
Now there's a Utopia, a real-life, livable, sustainable metropolis. We have the pieces of the puzzle; we just need to collect them into coherent policies to promote that vision and resist sprawl. After years of fighting each other, key developers, urban designers and progressive planners are united. Let's make the big picture. Let's get it right. *
Latest in Cover
More by David Walters
-
So Long And Thanks For All The Fish
May 25, 2005 -
Repairer of the Breach
May 18, 2005 -
Dilworth Drama Redux
May 11, 2005 - More »
Calendar
-
Juneteenth: Queen City Comedy Jam @ Blush CLT
- Fri., June 20, 8-10 p.m.
-
-
Juneteenth: Queen City Adult Prom @ Blush CLT
- Fri., June 20, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.
-
-
Queen Charlotte Fair @ Route 29 Pavilion
- Mondays-Sundays. Continues through July 5
-
-
Coveted Luxury Watches
- Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Continues through Dec. 30
-
-
AllMachines
- Through Dec. 30, 12-9 p.m.
-
-
Diary of a CATS rider 10
The true tale of a commuter who ditched her car to ride public transportation for five days — and lived to talk about it
-
Fall Books
NC Lit Talent On ParadeCL Carolina Writers Night brings McCorkle, Gurganus and more
-
Inside the Secret World of White Supremacy 4
A visit to Laurens, S.C.
