Nathan2

Why is CATS still treating this as a commuter line instead of a regional line? CATS even addresses the fact that riders wouldn't necessarily be following the traditional commuting schedules because of the new reality of working from home. Hourly frequencies outside of peak hours will push almost everyone to their car. As someone who works in Huntersville but lives in Charlotte the proposed schedule just would not be reliable enough to use.

Then the city should start looking at how we can allow and incentivize all building types closer to uptown and maybe limiting building types farther out towards the exurbs. This would be a political win for all parties by giving density in areas that have the infrastructure and grid and limiting it in areas where politics is risking the UDO for everyone.

That's even more moronic. Why cherry-pick housing types? There's no rhyme or reason to it, just allow more middle missing. Allow what the market will bear. The questions we should be asking are why are we so afraid of specific housing types and why is our government leaders bending to the suburban scare tactics where none of these housing types are allowed anyway because of HOAs?

Should be big news!

Is Charlotte ever going to redesign its streets so they are safer for all users? Some of the most walkable areas in Charlotte are overrun with cars and wide roads, the only thing that will make these places better is redesigned streets. It's absolutely frustrating that the City continues to do almost nothing on this front. They continue operating on the idea that pedestrians should just wear hi-viz and watch out for cars. God for bid drivers have to tale an extra 20 secs to travel somewhere.

The river district is a car-oriented strip mall sprawl, they just put a little lipstick on it. Honestly think the river district is an ecological disaster. The last bit of forested land by the river should've been saved. This whole development will inflate VMT and clog roads.

I mean high use or not. It still will need to fit a drive-thru which greatly impacts the design of the site especially given the small footprint. Seems like a wasted opportunity for a low-traffic use.

Agreed. I do have concerns that the board had no objections to a drive-through being permitted on-site. Levine sold this as a pedestrian-focused development, which is not possible with a drive-through. Commonwealth has increasingly become unsafe for pedestrians because of the increase in traffic, mixing with lots of curb cuts and parking along property frontages. Cars will always be present but I have always thought that a public garage on the outskirts of the business district would help reduce these problems.

It amazes me there are never speed traps or DUI checkpoints along Central. The number of speeding and drunk drivers on that road every weekend is astounding. I see a drunk driver crash into other cars at least once a week here.

Has anyone else ever wondered how many homes and businesses could be added here if the Ary Reserve site was moved elsewhere? The base is right in the middle of a thriving neighborhood alongside a nice park, adding a dense walkable development would really help to knit the neighborhood together and provide more housing. Doubt the Army Reserve Base would ever move, especially since they've spent that past year upgrading the site.

I am personally not a fan of the silver line alignment as it follows highways instead of penetrating deep into dense neighborhoods making it harder to pull in higher ridership. That being said, I think having a transit connection to Mathews is needed to reduce car trips along Independence. I do think the silver line needs to be split up into two phases in order to get the most important sections built now at a lower cost. The first phase from the airport to Albermarle rd and the second phase extending to Gastonia and Mathews.

You can argue what middle missing is supposed to be all day long. The reality is that more housing creates more options for people no matter what income bracket they are coming from. As someone looking for housing in Charlotte right now, it's fairly slim pickings out there. We would kill for more options in established neighborhoods. Is Dilworth truly historic? Historic enough to protect people's existing artificially inflated housing values and artificially deflate the housing supply here while preventing more people from being close to a transit-rich neighborhood? Forcing multifamily units to be along major roadways is a problem within itself, Multi-Family dwellers shouldn't have to be subjected to increased noise and car pollution. People deserve options and deserve to be able to live in Charlotte.

At this point is there even a need for a parking deck here? Why is the city involved in adding more parking to an already overparked area?

Are there any triplexes popping up? I haven't seen any duplexes or triplexes go up since the UDO passed. Where is the wave of character destroying missing middle housing that politicians cried about?

Yea after COVID it looked like Charlotte was ready to make some radical changes. So far they have shown they don't care. We have a UDO that doesn't do much and they want to still gut it further, they have gotten rid of all pedestrian street trials, removed bus-only lanes, all but effectively canceled future transit expansion, and made housing extremely unaffordable. Not feeling any hope for the future here.

https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2024/02/05/udo-development-regulations-eliminating-single-family-only-zoning-city-council What is going on with Charlotte's leadership obsession with dismantling the UDO, which hasn't even shepherded a massive increase in missing middle? Have they forgotten that we are in a housing crisis or do they only listen to wealthy single-family homeowners? Between this and the new "roads first" initiative I am wondering why I and younger people would ever view Charlotte as a place to put down roots. Younger generations want somewhere to live that doesn't involve being forced into a car paying large amounts of money just to drive to a grocery store while paying exorbitant amounts of money in a rental because we can't afford anything else.

The intersections at chesterfield and Shenandoah need a paint treatment to slow turning cars. Also, How is parking behind Villani's allowed here? The sidewalk is falling apart, muddy and this area has become incredibly hostile to walk through as you now have to dodge cars on both sides of the sidewalk.

People drive aggressively fast on this stretch of road for some reason. Villani's is also located right at the end of a bend in the road so I guess people loose control there. Most of these incidents have happened at night.

If this is true and we could change the law to put this money to better uses that benefit the city and not line billionaires pockets then we need to do that now. It's embarrassing that we haven't, especially if they have known they could do this. Updating stadiums should be at the bottom of the priority list after transit, housing, and recreation.

A car ran into Villani's bakery last night. This is the 4th time in the past two years that a car has hit a business, home, or a power line at this spot on Pecan. Maybe CDOT will wake up and realize a change is needed to slow cars down. This area is bad enough with the gravel parking lot. Cars are constantly parking and driving over the sidewalk here.

Steve Harrison has always seemed like he has a hard-on for crapping on transit in Charlotte. Weird reporting or not, It feels like CATS is still very far away from providing more reliable and frequent service.

The Commonwealth Development office tower is rising fast. Was able to snag this while stuck in traffic.

While the frontage directly in front (as long as you don't look up) is not the worst in the world. The massing and scale of the screening affect the pedestrian experience at the station and on Camden by making you feel small and inferior. It does nothing to invite you in and make you want to enjoy your surroundings. The building itself completely ignores its surroundings and that's what makes it stick out so badly. " blank walls kill sidewalks and suck the energy out of urban life". https://www.safegrowth.org/blog/purge-the-scourge-of-blank-walls

That's absolutely your opinion and I respect that. But that is not the opinion of most of the people in the group and the people I know when showing them Charlotte. If that is a crap ton of effort, then I am scared of the future of architecture and design. Screening does not automatically equal good. I do appreciate all you have done for sharing development news and being part of the Planning Committee but your opinions don't always represent everyone. Having the "biggest" voice does not invalidate everyone else's opinions and concerns or make you the voice of reason. The point of being on a committee is to hear out everyone and consider those concerns when making recommendations.

I think the problem is people like you who act like you can determine what is and isn't criticism just because you have your "ins" with developers. Everyone can have an opinion whether it's negative or positive, that is the point of a site like urbanplanet. Some of us don't like to rollover to every proposed development in the city and know that Charlotte deserves better. Maybe the constant negativity from people on new projects is a sign that Charlotte isn't getting great development. Growth for the sake of growth isn't always a positive.