pgsinger

The link below will take you the Accela site (Accela is provided so the public can track the progress of rezoning applications and view the submitted plans.) for this development. You can expand the "Attachments" category to access the filed plans. For this one, click on the last PDF to download the approved site plans, which includes (on the last page) a rendering of the final project. Personally, I think this one will either be amazing or really bad. I like the use of blue and red, and the originality in the design. However, it will be completely different from everything else in the area, which will be bad if it is not a great looking building (in my opinion at least). You can also go back to page 75 of this topic and read some discussion about it. You can also find a rendering there, but being new I thought you might find the Accela link helpful. Generally, I think the consensus was very positive for this one as it is replacing a decrepit single family house and adding some density further down Central than we had seen to that point. The downside is that there will be no retail and only a lounge/coffee area for tenants will be fronting Central, in addition to the garage entry. However, this far down Central and having a relatively small frontage, people considered it not that bad. https://aca.accela.com/charlotte/Cap/CapDetail.aspx?Module=LandDevelopment&TabName=LandDevelopment&capID1=14LDU&capID2=00000&capID3=00029 Also, since you are new to the group, you may find this map helpful as well. It is incredibly useful and the people on here that maintain it are incredibly generous to share it with us and work so diligently to keep it up to date. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zVkgech8oPvQ.kAkwm8EIn_7Y Finally, and I really don't mean this to come off as rude, but the search function is incredibly useful. Many of these developments have been discussed a lot elsewhere in the forum. So you may be able to find a ton of info on a specific project by running a search on the project name. In this case you probably couldn't do it as easily because I don't think you knew this was called Marvel Apartments. Anyway, it is a useful tool, and search engines are not always as useful in forums.

This just brings us all the way back to the argument of form based zoning versus Euclidean zoning. I started a thread several months back that got a couple weeks of good discussion then it died (there probably wasn't much more to discuss). One of the points was the impact of minimum parking requirements versus maximum parking requirements. An example of this in PM is likely Legion Brewing. If they didn't need more parking due to zoning, they might not be buying up the lot next to them and exchanging two buildings (albeit it crappy buildings) for a surface lot. PM needs an extension of the PED Overlay (revised to require true retail along Central, and IMHO parking maximums as opposed to minimums) beyond the HT. Exchange true retail on the street for some of the buildings like Tommy's, the auto shops next to it, the restaurant at Tippah Park, the strip of buildings from McD's to Morningside (Sorry Nick's), and everything on the Veteran's Park side between the Army Reserve and Morningside.

Good to meet you guys! Enjoy the holiday. I'll try to schedule my next trip back with another meet up.

Gray shots and a maroon(?), maybe grape, shirt.

Got it...definitely confused me. Not hard to do though. I will try to be there at 1:30. I have a shaved head...easy to spot.

I am in. 1:30 at Birdsong? Tomorrow 5/22.

I can go. Anyone else?

I cannot like this enough. Hilarious. I have nothing against "hipsters", but for the leader of the protest about this building to claim that the artist deserve space to live when she did not to provide for poor residents while she "built" the neighborhood is just hypocritical. Interestingly, I do NOT (edit) see this woman standing up for the remodeling of the Aurora Apartments or Birchcroft Apartments. The rental increases of these locations and others like it will continue to price their current residents out of the neighborhood which could lead to the loss of restaurants and shops like Pho Hoa, Dim Sum, and the various Pupusarias and hispanic and asian food markets along Central. Actually, there is even more irony here because these apartments are probably going up in rent to the point where the artists she is referring to will actually live in them. More importantly than the discussion of hipsters is what can be done to support this project, that I think most on here agree is a positive for the neighborhood.

Also, how about these genius quotes: "We're the last neighborhood in this city that cares about artists." and this one "Jenna Thompson, said, 'Development is going to happen no matter what, and that's okay. But I feel like we have to do it in a way that everyone-- particularly the people who built this neighborhood out of a horrible, scary place to be-- they need to be able to stay here. They need to be able to afford rent. They need to be able to afford their property tax."' I am sure she cared about the "scary" minorities and older people that lived here before she and her cohorts "built this neighborhood." I don't see much in the way of affordable housing for those people. This complaint really hits a nerve with me. This protests is clearly being led by people that do not understand much, if anything, about development.

And you will probably lose the retail and get a fitness center of small lounge for residents in the front. Couldn't the developer (ignoring financials) just do two 35 unit projects on either side of Tommy's without a rezoning? The neighborhood ends up with nearly the same number of units, at a higher cost due to being slightly fewer units and in two different structures, but loses the retail. Then the Tommy's closes anyway because of the inevitability of increased rent in the neighborhood. Or is the bigger issue the Brownsfield designation limiting what can go here?

Watch this end up just like Solis Dilworth. Anti-development people complain about a project that is not that bad (or in this case good), so the developer builds something worse the complies with current zoning. I think it will still pass. Patsy Kinsey has been in close contact with PMNA, and I think she will value their opinion over these protesters. I sure hope so at least.

I would love to see 1 beige 6 story midrise apartment building covering the whole area. They could put a massive gym and lobby on the ground floor fronting the street to engage the street.

My understanding is the PM Neighborhood Association supports this project. As for contamination, a release of hazardous substances would generally limit the use to industrial or commercial, no residential. However, just because there was a gas station, does not mean there was a release. Also hydrocarbons breakdown relatively quickly compared to some other substances, so time can remediate minor releases as well. As I recall there were not monitoring wells or venting systems on the property prior to the demo for the current project, so I would guess that any contamination was below dangerous levels a long time ago.

I agree with RDF and Midwoodian. This project is great, and I really want to see it. It expands density down Central, and adds people to the area. We need a higher density to continue to support a robust CBD and additional retail. Also, this site is small enough to prevent it from being a massive full block complex like the ones going up near Louise. In terms of the petition, it seems to be against any additional multifamily development and fails to set forth what type of MF it would support and what aspects of this development (other than it being MF) are an issue. While it claims no research has gone into the potential of over building MF, they provide no evidence that MF is being overbuilt. This petition has 588 signors, there is no way to tell how many of those live in the area. Those of us that support development should go to the meeting to support the project. THe sad thing is this is probably one of the better projects in the area, people are just anti-development and progress.

Does the entrance to Hatcherland (Bistro, HHM, FD, etc.) need to be aligned with Clement to put a light there? I have seen other intersections with slightly out of alignment streets that work just fine. It seems that they are close enough to make it work. And speaking of traffic, I think they should put a left turn signal in for West bound traffic on Central turning onto Pecan. That would help accelerate the movement of traffic through PM proper. Also, eliminating the bus stop or moving it to the other side of the intersection would help as well. There is stop in front of the library and in front of Midwood Smokehouse. Those two stops more than service those blocks.

Hopefully that is for the restaurant that has been in the works for two and a half years now.