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Danmire

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There is a 5-day Design Charrette taking place starting next Thursday January 8 and finishing up Wednesday January 15 for a Master Plan for the Haywood Road Corridor

There will be a public meeting Thursday night at 7:00pm to kickoff the Charrette.

Friday morning at 10:00am we will be doing a site walk using the Greenville Drive Downtown Trolleys to ferry everyone around the corridor and look at the existing conditions.

Saturday at 10:00am we will be conducting a Public Workshop where we will break out into groups of 8-10 and actually look at some solutions and ideas for the corridor and put them down on sketch paper.

Then the Charrette will wrap up Wednesday night at 7:00pm with a public presentation of what has been developed over the 5 days during the Charrette.

This is all taking place on Haywood road itself in Unit 12 in the Haywood Plaza shopping center. It's a vacant unit right in between TJ Maxx and Plato's Closet.

I encourage anyone who can to attend as much of it as possible.

Spread the word. the more participation we have form the public the greater the success of the Design Charrette

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There is a 5-day Design Charrette taking place starting next Thursday January 8 and finishing up Wednesday January 15 for a Master Plan for the Haywood Road Corridor

There will be a public meeting Thursday night at 7:00pm to kickoff the Charrette.

Friday morning at 10:00am we will be doing a site walk using the Greenville Drive Downtown Trolleys to ferry everyone around the corridor and look at the existing conditions.

Saturday at 10:00am we will be conducting a Public Workshop where we will break out into groups of 8-10 and actually look at some solutions and ideas for the corridor and put them down on sketch paper.

Then the Charrette will wrap up Wednesday night at 7:00pm with a public presentation of what has been developed over the 5 days during the Charrette.

This is all taking place on Haywood road itself in Unit 12 in the Haywood Plaza shopping center. It's a vacant unit right in between TJ Maxx and Plato's Closet.

I encourage anyone who can to attend as much of it as possible.

Spread the word. the more participation we have form the public the greater the success of the Design Charrette

How far does the Haywood Road Corridor go? My office is technically on Howell Road but it's all the same stretch of road or will this mainly be the area bwtween Laurens Rd. and Pelham?

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How far does the Haywood Road Corridor go? My office is technically on Howell Road but it's all the same stretch of road or will this mainly be the area bwtween Laurens Rd. and Pelham?

It goes from Pelham road to Laurens Road and out as wide as Halton Road. It will take in the Patewood Medicalcampus as well.

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Just a reminder that we will be kicking off the public portion of the Haywood Road Corridor Master Plan Design Charrette tomorrow night at 7:00pm in Unit 12 at Haywood Plaza just up from TJ Maxx.

Friday morning there will be a site walk on the Greenville Drive trolleys from 10-12 and then Saturday morning at 10am we will be conducting the Public Workshop.

It's a good opportunity to have your say in how you would like to see Haywood Road improve and develop. What's Greenville missing that could be accommodated on Haywood Road.

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Just a reminder that we will be kicking off the public portion of the Haywood Road Corridor Master Plan Design Charrette tomorrow night at 7:00pm in Unit 12 at Haywood Plaza just up from TJ Maxx.

Friday morning there will be a site walk on the Greenville Drive trolleys from 10-12 and then Saturday morning at 10am we will be conducting the Public Workshop.

It's a good opportunity to have your say in how you would like to see Haywood Road improve and develop. What's Greenville missing that could be accommodated on Haywood Road.

How was the turnout last night?

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How was the turnout last night?

We had 35-40 at the kickoff meeting Thursday night. Disappointing turnout for the public workshop this morning though. We had 14 there but we came up with some good ideas.

Wednesday night at 7:00 will present graphically what will have been produced over the course of the 5 day charrette.

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The Master Plan went well. We had about 50 there Wednesday night for the powerpoint presentation including the Mayor and 4 City Council Members.

We came up with what I think is a good plan going forward. A PDF of the powerpoint will be available soon and I'll post a link to it.

We are looking at some big picture ideas but also some immediate action items that can be done immediately to help bring focus back to the area. One of these efforts will be in the branding of the area. It appears that the area will start to be known as "Uptown"

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The Master Plan went well. We had about 50 there Wednesday night for the powerpoint presentation including the Mayor and 4 City Council Members.

We came up with what I think is a good plan going forward. A PDF of the powerpoint will be available soon and I'll post a link to it.

We are looking at some big picture ideas but also some immediate action items that can be done immediately to help bring focus back to the area. One of these efforts will be in the branding of the area. It appears that the area will start to be known as "Uptown"

That's good please post a link!!! Greenville should call the I-85 corridor of Greenville uptown, and keep the Haywood area as Midtown... :mellow:

BTW what ever happened to the urban transit village called Linky or something like that?

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That's good please post a link!!! Greenville should call the I-85 corridor of Greenville uptown, and keep the Haywood area as Midtown... :mellow:

BTW what ever happened to the urban transit village called Linky or something like that?

I believe Linky Stone Village or whatever is still in the works. It's on South Pleasantburg Dr.

Do the plans call for it to become more of an urban environment? The Hilton would be a great anchor for one end...

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There will be a public meeting next Thursday April 23rd at the Hilton form 5:30-8:00pm to present the draft master plan for the Haywood Area Master PLan.

5:30-6:30 will be an open house where you can make comments about some of the concepts shown on boards around the room.

6:30- 7:15 We will show a power point on the Master plan

7:15-8:00pm will be open time for questions comments etc.

If you have time I woould encourage you to attend. This Master Plan has been a great Public/Private partnership between the city and several Business/Property owners in the Haywood area.

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Not to be a smart aleck, but I think attempting to sell the Haywood Road area as "Uptown Greenville" is a mistake. It has virtually no components of a downtown. It's as car-dependent an area as there is in the region. The parking lots in "uptowns" do not take up more space than the buildings they serve. Uptowns are not exclusively retail, much less exclusively CHAIN retail. The Haywood Road is just that, save for a few apartment complexes on Halton towards the Laurens Road end and Fluor Daniel, which has a campus more like an office park than a downtown. Uptowns have retail, parks, historic buildings, greenspace, room for outdoor concerts, residential space, office space, and high density.

IMO, Greenville should not try to copy Atlanta by trying to have multiple downtowns. One genuine, historic downtown is more than suitable for this city. Besides, if Greenville needs another downtown option nearby, there are many alternatives. Augusta Road has always felt like the city's second downtown more than any other place. West Greenville was once a bit of a village unto itself and is now being revitalized. There's also Greer, TR, and Simpsonville, each of which have true downtowns.

I do like the idea of offering more transit options as well as better landscaping. I look forward to hearing more information about the corridor's plans. I'm really happy to see that the city is being pro-active in planning. It just needs to be realistic that Haywood Road is no uptown and never will be.

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Not to be a smart aleck, but I think attempting to sell the Haywood Road area as "Uptown Greenville" is a mistake. It has virtually no components of a downtown. It's as car-dependent an area as there is in the region. The parking lots in "uptowns" do not take up more space than the buildings they serve. Uptowns are not exclusively retail, much less exclusively CHAIN retail. The Haywood Road is just that, save for a few apartment complexes on Halton towards the Laurens Road end and Fluor Daniel, which has a campus more like an office park than a downtown. Uptowns have retail, parks, historic buildings, greenspace, room for outdoor concerts, residential space, office space, and high density.

IMO, Greenville should not try to copy Atlanta by trying to have multiple downtowns. One genuine, historic downtown is more than suitable for this city. Besides, if Greenville needs another downtown option nearby, there are many alternatives. Augusta Road has always felt like the city's second downtown more than any other place. West Greenville was once a bit of a village unto itself and is now being revitalized. There's also Greer, TR, and Simpsonville, each of which have true downtowns.

I do like the idea of offering more transit options as well as better landscaping. I look forward to hearing more information about the corridor's plans. I'm really happy to see that the city is being pro-active in planning. It just needs to be realistic that Haywood Road is no uptown and never will be.

Greenville does things a little different, thats why it stands out.
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Its ironic how most the people commenting on this article at the bottom of the page don't like the idea. It seems readers of the Greenville News are always complaining no matter what it is. I think its great! It will help that area look more like a planned urban corridor than just something with no planning. I like the idea of making it pedestrian friendly and re branding it as Uptown. When are they supposed to hang the signs up? I think it would be nice if we done more down here in Simpsonville. Georgia Rd. near downtown needs some pruning, although it does make my neighborhood stand out.

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The problem with the amplitheater idea is that it would compete with the already struggling Bi-LO Center. The other ideas seem good, but I don't see the need to pick a new name, like Uptown. Just call it what it is already called, Haywood. The prevalence and quality of the signage and branding matter more than the name, IMO.

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The other ideas seem good, but I don't see the need to pick a new name, like Uptown. Just call it what it is already called, Haywood. The prevalence and quality of the signage and branding matter more than the name, IMO.

I agree about the name. While I want to see the area become more midtown in feel (buildings close to sidewalks, less surface parking, more parking decks, density, etc). I do think just calling it Haywood is good. BUT, I want to see Haywood banners / signage throughout the entire area so people don't just think of the mall. Maybe the opinion is that Haywood is too identified with just the mall? :dontknow: I do like the word/name "Haywood" and it is very unique to this region, with Haywood County just across the NC border. I"ve lived throughout the South and Haywood definitely is not a common name found in other areas.

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The problem with the amplitheater idea is that it would compete with the already struggling Bi-LO Center. The other ideas seem good, but I don't see the need to pick a new name, like Uptown. Just call it what it is already called, Haywood. The prevalence and quality of the signage and branding matter more than the name, IMO.

Agreed! I also think the it would have to compete with the nearby apitheater at Heritage Park, so I don't see the need for one on Haywood.

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I think the scale of the amphitheater has been a bit mis-represented. The idea with an amphitheater is to have an outdoor public venue that you could have Downtown alive scale events at that bring people into the area to "Hang Out" with a true mixed use development around it with retail, residential and commercial. It's definitley not on the scale to compete with teh Bi-Lo Center or Simpsonville, it's more like a few hundred people, an urban scale open space.

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So, does this plan address how to deal with the growth, densification, etc of what could be a result? Right now, with the sea of asphalt and low connectivity, we have an artery that everything feeds off of. But, if vast parking lots were taken out with mixed uses being brought in, a new road system would need to be in place. If there is not, we're going to have an increased density and greater use of the same infrastructure that already exists (as well as buildings that are not served by streets in an urban fashion. It seems that a grid system would be the best option, with its layout being based on important institutions that would be around after any transformation, and ones that would be most beneficial to the effort.

Example: The Hilton-- A new street brought within 30' of the Hilton's front door, selling the hotel on the idea by building a City-funded parking structure to serve it and the other area hotels, and providing retail at street level to the garage to generate the area's first new pedestrian area. The hotel would become even more attractive to travelers.

If something isn't laid out now for later implementation, can we really expect much to come of this?

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I think the scale of the amphitheater has been a bit mis-represented. The idea with an amphitheater is to have an outdoor public venue that you could have Downtown alive scale events at that bring people into the area to "Hang Out" with a true mixed use development around it with retail, residential and commercial. It's definitley not on the scale to compete with teh Bi-Lo Center or Simpsonville, it's more like a few hundred people, an urban scale open space.

That makes a good deal of sense. The symphony, pops, etc......I could see something the size of Piazza Bergamo.....more a gathering spot. Mizner Park in Boca Raton does this well. An amphitheater, movies, etc. all adjacent to the shops, restaurants and green spaces.

http://www.miznerpark.com/html/AttractionDetail.asp?aid=2132

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So, does this plan address how to deal with the growth, densification, etc of what could be a result? Right now, with the sea of asphalt and low connectivity, we have an artery that everything feeds off of. But, if vast parking lots were taken out with mixed uses being brought in, a new road system would need to be in place. If there is not, we're going to have an increased density and greater use of the same infrastructure that already exists (as well as buildings that are not served by streets in an urban fashion. It seems that a grid system would be the best option, with its layout being based on important institutions that would be around after any transformation, and ones that would be most beneficial to the effort.

Example: The Hilton-- A new street brought within 30' of the Hilton's front door, selling the hotel on the idea by building a City-funded parking structure to serve it and the other area hotels, and providing retail at street level to the garage to generate the area's first new pedestrian area. The hotel would become even more attractive to travelers.

If something isn't laid out now for later implementation, can we really expect much to come of this?

Part of the plan looks at how to establish a grid on the area to create a street network that breaks down the big blocks to smaller blocks. This will help with creating a denser core that allows more true mixed use type development to occur at street level. With retail, commercial and residential located together. Part of the plan is to establish other ways of getting to and through the Haywood Area, not just 385 to Haywood Road and then access eveything off of Haywood Road. The article focused more on the juicy bits of the master plan. But there is definitely a focus in the Master Plan on pedestrian ways, bike paths, upgrading roads (Woods Lake, Woods Crossing, Mall Connector, Transit Drive) future areas of development, adding outdoor spaces and pocket parks, better connectivity between the key nodes within the haywood Area.

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Part of the plan looks at how to establish a grid on the area to create a street network that breaks down the big blocks to smaller blocks. This will help with creating a denser core that allows more true mixed use type development to occur at street level. With retail, commercial and residential located together. Part of the plan is to establish other ways of getting to and through the Haywood Area, not just 385 to Haywood Road and then access eveything off of Haywood Road. The article focused more on the juicy bits of the master plan. But there is definitely a focus in the Master Plan on pedestrian ways, bike paths, upgrading roads (Woods Lake, Woods Crossing, Mall Connector, Transit Drive) future areas of development, adding outdoor spaces and pocket parks, better connectivity between the key nodes within the haywood Area.

Thanks! That's great to know! :shades: I hope we see some true results from this plan...

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