Greenville Area Developments (Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham: photography, degrees, allowed)
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I was thinking that as well. I think it would be more appropriate on the other side.
Maybe there isn't enough space for the Ballpark on that side? With the railroad tracks cutting right through part of the LoDo area...it may be better to have it in a different spot. I don't have a problem with it really.
A pedestrian bridge can be built to get people from one section of this corridor to the other. This preliminary vision looks great. I'd love to see some 3d renderings of what it could look like. This will be a very big project. Of course some things may be taken out and/or added in.
Here's more from the paper on last night's meeting:
Quote:
Dickinson Avenue needs revival, but residents, city staff and consultants still are working on how to make that happen — and what it will look like when it does.
More than 50 people attended a Dickinson Avenue Market and Planning meeting on Tuesday at City Hall to discuss the future of Greenville’s former tobacco district.
Ideas ranged from art districts and mixed-use to pedestrian plazas and outdoor dining to a ballpark and high-density residential.
An over-arching focus was the need for a strong company or organization, such as East Carolina University, to get a foothold in the area and become an anchor for development.
“You just need those first few strong tenants to bring the others in,” Economic Development Officer Carl Rees said.
Coupled with securing tenants to begin establishing Dickinson Avenue as a revitalized area of the city, staff and consultants said they wanted to see some of the historic buildings around Dickinson preserved and re-purposed. Meeting attendees echoed that sentiment, especially when funding was discussed.
Several attendees expressed concern about how the revitalization would be funded. Consultants explained that plans are in preliminary stages, so it may be too early to discuss particulars of funding, but government grants and private investment are key, they said.
One of the biggest concerns raised was preserving the character of the Dickinson Avenue area. While consultants and attendees cited examples of areas to aspire to or perhaps borrow from, such as Durham and parts of Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio, attendees seemed firm in their belief that the Dickinson corridor should remain unique to Greenville.
Consultants said that the attraction to the area likely will be small to medium-sized businesses that “really like these funky old buildings.”
Staff and consultants said that to make the area more marketable, select streets may be removed and new streets added to create better connectivity around Dickinson Avenue and to break up some of the irregularly shaped parcels of land left over from the area’s industrial past.
Consultants also identified potential zones along Dickinson, including a 10th Street Gateway, an innovation zone and a development core, to help guide development.
Landscape framework also is in the plans to help increase pedestrian traffic and the aesthetics of the corridor to create a “streetlife corridor” along Dickinson. Some suggestions included play areas for children, interactive water fountains and pedestrian plazas.
Consultants said their long-term goal is that people will come to see Dickinson Avenue as a cohesive, integrated community.
Residential opportunities focused mainly on mixed-use developments with retail, office, parking or other uses at street level with residential above. Consultants said these developments are increasingly popular, and North Carolina was a leader in the country for the development concept.
Arts and entertainment were a priority for consultants and meeting attendees alike, with a focus on infusing Greenville’s arts and music culture into the Dickinson Avenue corridor.
Attendees also suggested that the city proactively craft policy to allow special uses, like micro- and nano-breweries, rather than creating the policies after entrepreneurs come forward with plans for development.
After gathering public input, consultants and city staff plan to come back with more targeted project suggestions. Consultants said they would come back with a “cookbook for implementation” that would attempt to utilize the area’s buildings as a framework, suggest signature projects and draw on other areas’ success stories.
The city paid $220,000 to Brian Wishneff & Associations to conduct the Dickinson Avenue Market and Planning Study, according to the 2013-14 fiscal year budget
Couple of observations about the article and to clarify my statement about "bad idea's".
First of all there was no mention of "naming" the area, which has been well received here by multiple posters. Dickinson Avenue goes all the way to Memorial Drive and then some...this plan is really talking about the corridor from Downtown to about 14th St and, we know that there is a West Greenville Revitalization Plan in place for this corridor as well. I referenced the LoDo name (using it from a similar area in Denver's downtown). Giving it a name will give it an identity and help establish itself.
That being said, the 10th St connector is really the physical dividing line between what can be considered downtown and not. Most of the properties past 10th St on other streets are used for residential purposes...think Evans and Charles...and Dickinson was this way previously. Remember when there was a Frat house on the corner of 14th and Dickinson? I made a statement about just removing dilapidated buildings...that's what needs to happen FIRST from the 10th St to 14th St intersections. What goes back, IMO, depends on the success of the neighborhood revitalization and the impact the 10th St connector has on the neighborhood. My understanding is that there will be NO DIRECT ACCESS from Dickinson Ave to 10th St...which will limit the potential uses (like say a new Bojangles or something). The access would be at 14th St and 10th St.
A ballpark on the other side of 10th St would not have the same economic impact on downtown and the LoDo area as a ballpark inside 10th St...and as I said there would be access issues. This leads me to believe that the area on the 14th St side of 10th St would be better utilized for small business, residential and maybe most importantly just green space....to provide a buffer to the downtown area. We need to keep in mind that West Greenville is a RESIDENTIAL neighborhood. The goal is to make it a better residential neighborhood. Its residents need green space and access to downtown, but there should be a buffer. The Imperial Site and the 10th St connector can be that buffer and, IMO are best used as green space. In the MLK corridor revitalization, it talked about removing businesses from the corridor and replacing them with residential uses...the same thing is at play on Dickinson after you go under the new 10th St bridge.
I believe a ballpark is best suited on existing Town Common property to help revitalize the 1st St corridor...trying and incorporating it into the Imperial site area would be 3rd best and trying to incorporate into the Beach Bingo area (adjacent to the Ficklen Warehouse, which could be renovated into mixed use) would be 2nd best. The other side of 10th St is a bad idea.
What is most confusing is that this map shows a parking deck at the corner of Dickinson and 10th St...and then Green Space along 10th St. As I said, put green space on the other side of Dickinson and 10th and put the ballpark where they are listing as green space...as you come down off the bridge on 10th St (toward downtown) you would be looking at a new corridor with the Historic Millennial campus on the right and a parking deck and then ballpark on the left...with the ECU business building at the Evans St intersection. The ballpark would be up against the revitalization areas where everyone is talking about small businesses. Plus the 10th St location puts the ballpark within easy walking distance for ECU students down 10th St or up Evans...and keeps it closer to downtown's existing businesses....in summary put the ballpark within WALKING DISTANCE to as much as possible, especially if you are going to have a parking deck in the area.
Reading all the updates about the Dickenson redevelopment is very exciting. I realize it will take many years to come to fruition especially with all the historic people hollering about tearing down things.
I left Greenville 17 years ago for Raleigh and vowed to not come back. 6 years later I returned & really enjoy the city now. I only miss a real downtown area to visit like so many other cities have. Cities like Charlotte, Asheville..what do I love about them, their downtown area. I really, really look forward to living in a city with an actual downtown (uptown) that I want to park, walk around..shop & eat for hours. I hope that within the next 10 years this will come to fruition.
People that oppose the improvements to downtown have no real clue what it can do for the city, the hospital & the University. The quality of people you can recruit to work will only get better when you have a city that people want to live in. Having a vivid and active downtown will give Greenville something it is in dire need of, an identity. Right now we have little to offer outside of Medical care, Education, Mattress stores & Chain Restaurants. We need an area in town that you can park & actively live/work/socialize/play in. Uptown can be that unique area for Greenville over the years. Hopefully I'll live long enough to see it happen.
Extending the LoDo area down to 14th street will not hurt, IMO. Might as well incorporate both sides of the 10th street connector if we're going through all the trouble of building it. with ECU building a "Millennial" campus (going to assume it's a technology hub) on that side of the LoDo, there will be a chance for growth in that immediate area.
This is also just a preliminary plan and can easily be revised. I think it's a good plan and once more things are fleshed out, it will make a big difference.
I also found a pdf online of the process this consulting firm has gone/will go through with dates regarding the study and plan for the area.
Extending the LoDo area down to 14th street will not hurt, IMO. Might as well incorporate both sides of the 10th street connector if we're going through all the trouble of building it. with ECU building a "Millennial" campus (going to assume it's a technology hub) on that side of the LoDo, there will be a chance for growth in that immediate area.
This is also just a preliminary plan and can easily be revised. I think it's a good plan and once more things are fleshed out, it will make a big difference.
I also found a pdf online of the process this consulting firm has gone/will go through with dates regarding the study and plan for the area.
There are multiple problems with extending it to 14th St...
1) The access issue I brought up earlier. The two intersections along the 10th St corridor are in front of Sadie Saulter or at Evans. There is no access from 10th to Dickinson Avenue going forward.
2) You just extended this area to incorporate long standing Public Housing. IMO, what that public housing could use is GREEN SPACE next to it....so the kids have a place to play. Institutional uses (Millennial campus) would be on the other side of that Green Space (across the RR tracks). The nice thing about the 10th St connector is that it created more buffer from the houses to the road....keep that buffer going until you get to Dickinson/RR tracks.
3) It invades on the residential nature of the area...which should be the key. What the 10th St connector did was rid Greenville of useless commercial type buildings...the W Greenville plan should be implemented to further reduce/limit the commercial component of the area, which is well known to be the center of crime activity. We want the businesses downtown, not on or near 14th St. Make that area more residential.
Not getting on you MB, just offering up some insight....the city is spending $220K on some firm that likely has little knowledge of Greenville. I thought it was well stated that the area should be developed UNIQUE to Greenville. I actually love the way the Connector project highlighted the triangle building on the corner of 9th and Dickinson...that's a good looking old building.
The RR tracks is a dividing line (along with 10th St)...green space/residential on the other side of the RR tracks, develop on the East side of the tracks. Putting a ballpark right in the 9th St/Pitt St intersection area along 10th St with a parking garage next to it would do everything you want to do for downtown Greenville.
Maybe there isn't enough space for the Ballpark on that side? With the railroad tracks cutting right through part of the LoDo area...it may be better to have it in a different spot. I don't have a problem with it really.
A pedestrian bridge can be built to get people from one section of this corridor to the other.
There will already be a large bridge there - the new 10th St. That bridge will create a hard boundary that most people (who are already leery of downtown) won't be interested in crossing. I still like the idea of a ballpark where the area where the food bank was, with the Ficklen warehouse in view of fans enjoying a game.
We just have differing opinions . The "Access" is simple. Traveling on Farmville Blvd./10th Street...People turn right onto 14th Street, then left onto Dickinson Avenue. the intersections are less than 500 feet from each other. Since Dickinson will become a major thoroughfare for LoDo, and it is such a small road, I don't see a need for direct access. That would cause more traffic. It's better that this area's traffic enters and exits at larger, easier intersections. (Such as 14th & 10th and 10th & Evans.
You are right that extending LoDo south would include a Housing Project...but you are missing that the much larger plot of land ECU is developing for their Millennial Campus. It's a Technology and Research Hub that is sure to being jobs and more students/people that will want to live near there.
The Public housing area can torn down/bought/sold.. Once the connector is built, there are going to be people that will want to be close to it. That's going to raise value for all areas surrounding LoDo. People will be selling land and that is the perfect time for new mixed use developers to buy in and develop that land.
I just don't think there should be much trouble with adding essential 2 blocks to the "LoDo" area. But, as it says, this is a preliminary plan and not the final product. We don't know for sure what's going to be included yet.
Might I ask what the PDR and TOD zones stand for? I'm not educated on all this planning lingo. And does anyone know what the Millennium Campus might consist of?
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