chuckyvt

A major part of the traffic study/mitigation in the proposal package is a new Dunbar to Howe street connector. This should be much welcome to help get cars, people and bicycles across August. I guess it can squeeze in between the row of homes on McHan street and the new ex-Scott Tower development. I assume Ella Mae Logan park will have to be relocated.

My wife is involved in the Sterling community association, and they were told the Burger King at Pendleton/Academy intersection is back on. Supposedly they redesigned the site to fit in the smaller Bank of America lot already zoned Commercial.

I always enjoy keeping up with Boeing and Airbus, and whats developing in the aerospace world. A couple days ago at the Paris airshow Airbus officially launched the "A321XLR" airplane. The A320/321 is the single isle workhorse airplane that is a competitor to Boeing's 737. With a listed range of 4700 nautical miles, the XLR is an airplane that I think the industry has been waiting for for a long time. 4700nm is a "still air" range, so don't expect a 4700nm route to show up, however 4000nm is probably entirely reasonable. See below for picture of 4000nm range from GSP from gcmap.com. Western Europe is there, and Munich just squeaks in at 4036nm. Anyway, to me it's exciting. If a carrier wants to roll the dice on a Western Europe, South Ameria, (Hawaii even?), there's an aircraft available that can do these flights.

I've pretty confident at this point, that nobody has any idea how to fix the issue. University Ride connecting to Vadry makes a lot of sense, however that intersection will still be terrible because of the at-grade rail crossing. This issue stretches back to removing the Camperdown Bridge over the falls. I think we all agree it was the right move, but it also wasn't a secret that it was going to create traffic issues, that weren't ever resolved. I thought our best shot would have been the city trying to negotiate for some of the land where the Scott towers were, once they were demolished to have a connector to Dunbar. But that opportunity seems to have passed as well.

I think there will be a niche for it, but I think the overhead of operating it may become too much for a small handful of events a year.

Boston; Not really a hub, but more of a focus city, but for sure seems like it would be viable. Have to imagine GSP officials have been talking to Jet Blue about it. MSP: Good one, forgot about that. LAX and SEA: I think this one is going to be tough in the near term to justify the operating cost of routes that length. Either GSP traffic would have to get significantly larger (Raleigh Durham type level), or Boeing build a plant in the upstate (like Charleston). Continue growth plus lower cost next gen jets probably make this more interesting longer term.

Near term, the best thing that could happen for international/Europe connectivity is getting Delta to add service to JFK. This is the last missing hub link out of GSP, now that American has added Miami, and United has added Denver.

I think a direct flight to Germany right now will be difficult. Due to distance it has to be a widebody jet, likely either A330 or 787. I just don't see GSP being able to fill those size planes on a regular basis without any connecting traffic. Longer term, something like a A321ULR or 797 makes this much more interesting. I would love to be proven wrong on the first point though!

The property owner is not necessarily the same as the business owner. If OJ's moves out or closes down, then Dino has a building that was built specifically for a restaurant with a drive through that has a big asterisk next to it for any potential tenant. "You might be able to operate a drive through here if the zoning commission approves it." Also, Pendleton Street has been historically an industrial district, where C-3 was appropriate. That being said, no doubt that it is changing quickly, and for what it's worth, I live a couple blocks away and very much support the zoning change. I just do understand where Dino is coming from, and it is basically impossible to make everyone happy. On a side note, I wonder if this affects the halfway house at Calhoun and Pendleton at all. They received a special exemption to operate in C-3, I don't believe RDV would allow it period? Also, since they're not technically operating yet, not sure if the 6 month grace period would apply.

Joey, long story short, some of the property owners on Pendleton believe the additional restrictions that come with Redevelopment District zoning will reduce the future income potential of their property. Currently Pendleton St is C3 which is a fairly "intense" zoning, think Laurens or Pleasantburg Rd. (ie almost anything can operate there). Redevelopment District had a good bit more restrictions. The property owners see it as reducuing the pool of potential tentants or buyers, thus reducing value. I think most believe this could easily be a net positive on prop values if Pendleton is redeveloped, but that takes vision to see. It's not all the different than Main Street businesses that opposed the Main St road diet years ago. They believed the reduced traffic volume was a negative, they couldnt visualize what Main Street would turn into. Dino is a bit of a special case, as his father was a business owner in the West End in the early 90s. The city used relatively heavy handed tactics to force property owners out for the River Redevelopment. While the results have been very much a positive, I believe the city would admit it wasn't their finest hour. So yeah, there are trust issues.

I thought the article was ok. Wasn't exactly how I would have framed it, but they did attempt to cover both sides. If you put yourself in Dino's position, he built the OJs building specifically for a restaurant with a drive through 20+ years ago when nobody cared about Pendleton St. With RDV zoning, a restaurant with a drive thru is conditional use, so he is concerned about the impact to his property. I do get his point. I wish there was a way to permanently grandfather in a restaurant with drive thru there. Also, at the community meeting, the person in this article, Dino, was fairly quiet and let everyone speak. It was another person (his business partner perhaps?) that was beligerant.

I've signed the community letter, and may send in an additional letter as well. I hope we can get this through. I do understand property owners being skeptical, but my guess is this will be a long term positive for property value along Pendleton. But it takes a little vision to see it.

I think this could be a real positive for long term development, hope it goes through.

I believe the space on the corner of Main and Perry was intended as a restaurant? Atleast that was what was discussed during the DRB review orocess (You can see it on the left side of SVLs first pic above). Anyone heard if that is still planned?

There will be collector lanes for both 385 and 85, to separate meging (slower) traffic from thru traffic. 385 will have 3 thru lanes per side, and 85 will have 4 I believe that should alleviate slowdowns for thru traffic.

Zoning change along Pendleton Street.

Hudson is supposed the be the main entrance to the new Westend Park. I'm sure they want flexibility to rework that road.

Exciting to see this come together! On the downside, Augusta at this intersection is going to be a train wreck. Really wish they could have worked with Scdot to get a left turn lane in at this stoplight somehow.

Has anyone else noticed how dark 385 is? Especially early morning when not much traffic is out. There are no streetlights, and practically every sign light is burntout. Who do we complain too to get the sign lighting repaired?

Unfortunately they don't have a left turn lane for Harris at this time, just the center turn lane. People seemed to be hesitant to use that this morning and Augusta was still backing up. These are temporary lines until the road gets repaved, so hopefully it will get added.

Not sure if anyone is on "Greenville SC Natives" Facebook group, bit someone posted pictures of this building. Apparently the building was the Chamber of Commerce as early as 1962. Kinda sad it was torn down.

Very exciting. I think the "gathering hall" is sorely needed. Currently, if an event isn't big enough to close mainstreet, there really isn't a good event space in Downtown. Fluor Field has been used, but it really isn't ideal.

Traffic flow, pedestrian access, aesthetics, it's all important, you don't get to pick just one. Due to poor road layout and planning, the traffic flow in this area is already more than the side streets can handle, and this development will double the daily volume of traffic.

I think the way the have rerouting down Thruston and dead ending at August is basically the same mess we have today. We just trade the cluster at Harris and Augusta we have today for a cluster at Thruston and August. It needs to be reworked somehow to meet up with Dunbar or Vardry with a traffic light to make it an efficient intersection.

The West End is in need of a pizza place, so glad to see one announced for Markley Station.