Water color by Warren Burgess, Urban Planner and WatercoloristJune 10, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Signs of growth in Charlotte, NC…and Caution.
I look for ways other than numbers to illustrate the energy in Charlotte, NC. While we face different challenges than most of the country, we still have our set of consuming issues. Our town is changing…but how it is changing concerns many of us as we watch the great trees fall, the historic houses get raised and the McMansions sprout up from tear downs…it’s not all bad…there just has to be a way to achieve balance before what makes Charlotte special melts away.So there’s the issue of the tear downs, and then there’s the applause for the Lite Rail…and we had to fight each other for that…even to the point of a special referendum hard fought…and now, well, now, Charlotte is the visionary.And because we tend to be cautious and conservative, there are some delays in building particularly the downtown towers or close in town large condo projects. In this case one is builder is nixing condos in favor of apartments. Of course, I look to those very apartments to convert later to condos…I wonder if there building quality will be that of apartments or of condos. Might want to make a note.So here we go, some stories gleaned from the daily:
1.
Local neighborhoods could soon join forces to fight the spread of “McMansions,” newly built, giant homes that some people say damage the look and feel of older communities.
Residents from several neighborhoods, including Dilworth, Elizabeth and Plaza Midwood, are meeting tonight at the Midwood Baptist Church Fellowship Hall to discuss methods for stemming certain kinds of infill development.
Leaders are expected to focus much of the discussion on new city districts that would protect the established aesthetics of neighborhoods.
Tear-downs have become increasingly popular in the area. Developers buy small homes and replace them with large ones – with equally large price tags.
Last year in Mecklenburg County, 794 single-family houses were demolished. That's up from 697 in 2006.
2.
The developers of a 75-unit condo project in South End have stopped sales and will build it as apartments instead."We designed Chelsea South End with multiple strategies, and one strategy was a condo building," said Terrence Llewellyn, whose Llewellyn Development is doing the project with Dean Kiriluk of Kirco.
Since condo sales began there in November, home sales have slowed, financial markets have become more volatile, and lenders have tightened mortgage lending requirements.
3. Charlotte-Mecklenburg's business, civic and government leaders worked for years to create a plan to both improve traffic flow and provide alternatives to the automobile. Then they asked voters to approve a local sales tax to fund it. In 2002 county voters passed a half-penny sales tax for transit funding, along with a $100 million road bond referendum. Now the road system is being improved, bus service is expanding, the first leg of a light rail system is carrying even more riders than expected and Charlotte-Mecklenburg has become a model for urban areas seeking to shape their own transportation future.
Our challenges are easy to bear given what most of the country is experiencing. Ours are those trying to shape growth and balance.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Signs of growth in Charlotte, NC…and Caution.
I look for ways other than numbers to illustrate the energy in Charlotte, NC. While we face different challenges than most of the country, we still have our set of consuming issues. Our town is changing…but how it is changing concerns many of us as we watch the great trees fall, the historic houses get raised and the McMansions sprout up from tear downs…it’s not all bad…there just has to be a way to achieve balance before what makes Charlotte special melts away.So there’s the issue of the tear downs, and then there’s the applause for the Lite Rail…and we had to fight each other for that…even to the point of a special referendum hard fought…and now, well, now, Charlotte is the visionary.And because we tend to be cautious and conservative, there are some delays in building particularly the downtown towers or close in town large condo projects. In this case one is builder is nixing condos in favor of apartments. Of course, I look to those very apartments to convert later to condos…I wonder if there building quality will be that of apartments or of condos. Might want to make a note.So here we go, some stories gleaned from the daily:
1.
Local neighborhoods could soon join forces to fight the spread of “McMansions,” newly built, giant homes that some people say damage the look and feel of older communities.
Residents from several neighborhoods, including Dilworth, Elizabeth and Plaza Midwood, are meeting tonight at the Midwood Baptist Church Fellowship Hall to discuss methods for stemming certain kinds of infill development.
Leaders are expected to focus much of the discussion on new city districts that would protect the established aesthetics of neighborhoods.
Tear-downs have become increasingly popular in the area. Developers buy small homes and replace them with large ones – with equally large price tags.
Last year in Mecklenburg County, 794 single-family houses were demolished. That's up from 697 in 2006.
2.
The developers of a 75-unit condo project in South End have stopped sales and will build it as apartments instead."We designed Chelsea South End with multiple strategies, and one strategy was a condo building," said Terrence Llewellyn, whose Llewellyn Development is doing the project with Dean Kiriluk of Kirco.
Since condo sales began there in November, home sales have slowed, financial markets have become more volatile, and lenders have tightened mortgage lending requirements.
3. Charlotte-Mecklenburg's business, civic and government leaders worked for years to create a plan to both improve traffic flow and provide alternatives to the automobile. Then they asked voters to approve a local sales tax to fund it. In 2002 county voters passed a half-penny sales tax for transit funding, along with a $100 million road bond referendum. Now the road system is being improved, bus service is expanding, the first leg of a light rail system is carrying even more riders than expected and Charlotte-Mecklenburg has become a model for urban areas seeking to shape their own transportation future.
Our challenges are easy to bear given what most of the country is experiencing. Ours are those trying to shape growth and balance.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
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