archiham04

Welcome to Urban Planet @Lyz!

Deleted "bottle shop/deli" on Central (now LuLu's) Changed the Levine land assemblage footprint on Commonwealth Added Fire Credit Union Project on corner of Commonwealth and Plaza Added Plaza Towns on the PLaza Added the Plaza Presbyterian property currently being marketed. Added the Midwood School redevelopment

I think Reflection Studio used the church building for a period of time as well... not sure if any albums of note were recorded in that era or not... or if they officially "moved" their operations into the church. They might have just used it to get a different sound?

I used to rent one of the houses on Runnymede near Selwyn. The story we heard from some neighbors was that our landlord had purchased the homes soon after Fairfax had been widened and extended to Barclay Downs as a part of the NCDOT #4 road project. It got me curious and I looked into the history and found that Fairfax originally looped into Selwyn twice as a contained little development . Fairfax connected down to woodlawn, and what is now Michael Baker continued down to Barclay Downs. http://maps.co.mecklenburg.nc.us/historicmaps/

I like your idea and agree that Tryon could be better, but remember Tryon was 6 lanes at one point. The city invested millions to extend and enhance the sidewalks, plant trees and create pedestrian amenities. It is one of the cities greatest investments in terms of long term impact and return on investment (in my opinion). I like to see Tryon shine as it is, and would like the city to concentrate on other streets to accomplish similar goals.

Given the international reputation of the institutions in the area they are also likely to attract residents from international cities that are used to living in an urban environment.

Section looks like it will have decent street presence. Would be better if retail were 18' floor to floor and deeper- 60' or so (making it more viable for wider variety of businesses) but other than that, good on them from tucking the parking underneath and not putting the garage at street level. All that said, I wonder if this section is a worst case or best case scenario?

They might need land adjacent to their property so they could be buying similar properties around the neighborhood as an offer to trade or sweeten an offer to buy

The whole "neighborhood boundary" issue is funny, contrived and not always exact. Plaza-Midwood was a neighborhood name that was coined during a down-zoning and highway rejection effort. Several subdivisions created a Neighborhood Association to advocate for issues, many of which included initiatives in the CBD area like retaining a branch library. I think when the city "drew" neighborhood boundaries and designated PM as separate from Commonwealth and the PM CBD it was an issue of convenience in communication and using streets as boundaries. I don't think anyone has referred to the shops on Central Ave as "the Commonwealth neighborhood" in the past 50 years. I don't think it is at all a misnomer to refer to anything in the PM Central Business District as Plaza Midwood. That area is as much if not more "Plaza Midwood" to most people than the majority of the residential area, and legitimately so. All neighborhoods are really "feelings" anyway. They sometimes follow formal subdivision boundaries, but when the city made official designations they actually polled people on where they identified with and what neighborhood they thought they lived in... Very subjective.

I had a very similar thought just yesterday when I took this photo while waiting for my kids' bus

Not sure if this is true for the other districts, but The Historic district in Plaza Midwood is pretty small compared to their overall neighborhood ... only about 1/5 id say is designated historic.... so I'm not sure I'd say it is untouchable. Further, I think there was recently a new duplex built to historic district standards in the PM historic district on a former SFH lot. 1510 Kensington Dr

Southern Strain Brewery is going forward, in this location, from my understanding.

View from 3rd floor rocks.

I think that neighborhood is going to trump car access in the coming years. Office markets in NoDa and Plaza Midwood are picking up. Several are in the works.

Sad to see Atrium break the streetscape on their campus and not plant any trees in the planting strip between the sidewalk and the street.... I assume the city made an exception for the Hospital because..... Hospital. ... but it is sad to see one of the city's few planned street designs fail.

Welcome @EastGuy4884!

It is a pedestrian counter

WELCOME TO UP @Poo Diddy!!!!

I am not going to go into the details or argue about parenting in a city... my point is that on-street parking is not bad for neighborhoods, families, safety or traffic. Streets can be used everyday by everyone... Not just cars getting from point A to point B. I am trying to provide an alternate viewpoint to the Euclidean notion that uses should be separated and children protected with driveways and cul-de-sacs.

My neighbors intentionally park on the street to slow cars down, so that our kids can play in the street. The worst part about these driveways is the width... a typical intown driveway (without a two car garage in front) is about 10-12 feet wide. This allows for a 35-40 foot long planting strip to plant a tree or two and create a streetscape. These things look like they are 20feet wide on 30 feet of frontage leaving a 10 foot long flavor saver.

Most likely the parking ratios are out of date, and they are working to reconcile. We have seen several of these types of rezonings that appear to make legal, the existing Parking situation.

Somebody needs to do a drone video of the route, similar to the one that Balfour made of the North leg of the Blue Line as they were completing it.

unintentionally blends in with its context.

"Chatham estates" refers to the subdivision that includes Pecan, Thomas , Plaza and Nassau. Plaza-Midwood is actually a neighborhood name for three real estate subdivisions: Country Club Acres, Midwood Estates, and Chatham Estates... it has grown recently to include Plaza Hills.

Based on the most recent transportation masterplanning effort, it is my observation that the prospects of a full buildout of the streetcar line are much better than prior to that effort: The new plan does not really consider a lot of new (not previously conceived) mass transit lines. It is heavy on new High Density Bus lines, and Bike/Greenway connections. That makes me think that there will be increased pressure to make the sure that the currently planned Mass Transit lines are built in order to feed the special sauce for infill development that the city needs for their property tax coffers.