cooperdawg

Yeah, unfortunately the build-out would take a long time for many of us to see it's use, but I'm all for it. I have given up the car recently and enjoy the ride to Durham quite often to visit my sister who lives there. I've been looking for alternatives to get to Atlanta without hitching a ride with a friend, but that departure and arrival time by train is a killer. While those trains may be full passing through, I can't see a lot of travelers getting on in Charlotte heading in that direction, but I could be wrong. I do like the idea of adding additional lines departing at reasonable times between here and Atlanta, I think they would get a lot of use. If there was even just a daily early morning and mid-afternoon departure arriving around noon and dinnertime in Atlanta, and vice versa in the other direction, I suspect ridership would be fairly high, and likely very high whenever gas prices shoot up again.

I believe the on-site portion of the trail system within this project will be built by the developer, the connectivity to the surrounding system will be funded by Parks and Rec.

With Birkdale Village though, all traffic must exit and enter via Sam Furr Road. In fact, almost all residents of Birkdale Village are funnelled out the Birkdale Commons Parkway exit. With City Park, you'll have multiple means of ingress/egress to access the site via the realigned Yorkmont Road in both directions, a connection to Billy Graham Parkway, and Tyvola Road with multiple access points. That's five or six connections to major thoroughfares versus funnelling the entire development out one exit.

I know little when it comes to legal issues, but what's the anticipated time Reese and his lawsuit could further delay this project? I anticipate his lawsuit to eventually be thrown out, but should I expect something else to happen there?

Welcome tunedmassdamper.

That seems far more optimistic to me than being a long ways off. To finish that project in four to five months and hit a june/july deadline, or even just a large section of it enough to open and have customers just isn't feasible given the extent of the work done on site. October at the earliest seems somewhat reasonable, but I'd think it would be closer to the end of the calender year. I usually allow for four to six months for a project of this size to open once the exterior shell is done, and they're not close to that yet.

The uses within the project I'm fine with, the design as discussed is lacking in many spots. But, in terms of evolution in design, I think we're seeing a progression towards better development. This project is still leaps and bounds better than anything developed on Independence over the past 30 years. Taking it a step further, Lowes began their design development after this project was in the permitting stages, so we saw another step in the right direction (I really like how this project is shaping up, Lowes that is.) Hopefully the Lowes project sets a higher standard the city can recognize and demand of their developers and therefore the City will no longer settle for a development like The Met knowing a better product is available to them. It would be refreshingly nice if the City put forth these demands on their own dime rather than forward thinking developers showing them a better way, we should demand better development such as altrvr's mention of Boston's new standard for 50K buildings. The Wendy's flat out blows. I wonder if it has been discussed among the project team of possibly converting the parking lot to a deck and front Kings with tenable space either as residential or commercial in a future second phase of development? Would be a nice step in correcting the most glaring short-coming of this project. I'd think probably not, but you never know.

Yeah, the Kings Drive facade is the overwhleming shortcoming of this project. Had that been handled better I doubt so many of us would have as many reservations about this project.

Totally agree, I work in Plaza-Midwood, live in Wesley Heights, I'll hit-up the Met for some household item I'm sure on a weekly basis. On weekends I'd bike over to the greenway and use the trail system on down through Freedom Park and back, stop for lunch at a restaurant along the greenway, if I'm not too sweaty. I'm only one consumer, but there are thousands like me that commute to Pineville for the same items. Anything Charlotte is doing to provide consumers goods inside the area bounded by Route 4 I find a good step. Parking will always be a demand of retailers like this, I think the biggest issue is finding innovative ways to handle the parking requirements for these types of stores as well as locating these stores in close proximity to Mass Transit. I think the South End Lowes w/ the parking on the roof was a very innovative idea, although it will cost a ton more in infrastructure to build a rooftop to support vehicular traffic, it's good to see a company like Lowes stepping up to take measures to best suit the neighborhood around them. The Met is not perfect by any means, but it's good to see the big corporations at least beginning to take steps in the right direction in terms of smarter development.

In regards to this particular corridor, the Greenway/Park Development for the Little Sugar Creek Corridor is in various stages of design development through multiple firms. The Kings Drive corridor is being developed by LandDesign (construction document stages) while ColeJenest & Stone has developed the Midtown Site and Greenway (under construction) with Land Design developing the CPCC green parcels (site development/construction document stages) within the context of these previous master plans. ColeJenest & Stone has already developed and built the Liz Hair Greenway south of Morehead. Again, not speaking for all corridors, just this one.

Thanks, I'm sure you posted it before, but didn't want to re-read 39 pages to find it. I would agree that the city would have been better served to build this project along an LRT line, that would have made much more sense esp. in taking any and all measures to minimize vehicular traffic. I wonder if exception was taken in regards to allowing this development given the close proximity to the Center city and the strong desire to do something with the land other than keeping the Midtown Mall. I'm guessing the city saw a compromise in having a destination point at the confluence of several transit ways (I-277, Kenilworth, Independence, Greenway) coupled with a series of smaller parks along the Little Sugar Creek Greenway. In my estimation, the city likely feels the visibility of that land is too valuable to just be deemed open space, especially with the constructibility of the size of the parcel. The CPCC and Midtown/Kings Drive Master Plans do have extensive green space incorporated in their plans. CPCC Opportunity Plan Midtown/Kings Opportunity Plan

Fine, what's the solution to this issue in your opinion because I'm not seeing it. Not build it, re-design, different retailer? Personally, I feel the design partially works, but I would have focused the parking required into an interior parking deck lined with street level retail, esp. on the Kings Drive side of the project. I'm glad to see the creek daylighted and if the parking could have been focused internally, I would have been happy with this design concealing multiple large retailers in an urban neighborhood setting that has yet to define itself.

So, are you saying we should tell the residents of the Urban Core to get in their cars and hike it to Pineville if they want inexpensive goods from large retailers like we are now? Rather than the "This design completely stinks approach," how do we make it better while catering to the demands of the community? I'm asking not to be a pain in the butt about this, but I am a designer (not for this project in particular) and just curious to hear feedback on incorporating this type of retail in an urban setting.

Are you kidding me? These stores make most of their money on lower to middle income families. You think Mrs. Bank VP Housewife shops at Target or South Park Mall? Yes, there are some very high income neighborhoods in the area, but there are also many low-income neighborhoods as well within close proximity. This is a highly visible area that can cater to all spectrums of the population and if we're making any effort at all to bring affordable housing into the urban core of Charlotte, these types of stores will support that demand. I consider myself middle income and will use the heck out of all of these stores given their location and so will most of the people I know. If Charlotte is surrounded by Ballantyne, South Park, and Union County to the South, Lakefront Neighborhoods to the West, high-end towns like Huntersville, Davidson, Cornelius to the north where do you actually think this low to middle income population in Charlotte resides? It exists in numerous pockets in close proximity to the Urban Core extending east, northeast, and southeast of Uptown, all locations by and large far from existing retailers of this type.