PM Neighborhood Chat

Many know that a modern streetcar is planned for Central Avenue, which is great.   But what I believe many don't know is that in order to get around the at-grade freight railroad crossing by Family Dollar, Charlotte planners wish to take the streetcar down local residential streets north of Central Avenue over to Hawthorne Lane.  Was the PMNA involved in this decision?  Obviously, streetcar tracks can't cross freight tracks, but were other alternatives considered?  I'm curious about the feasibility of extending Commonwealth to Hawthorne or redeveloping the huge Family Dollar site as transit-oriented development instead.

I don't think your statement "streetcar tracks can't cross freight tracks" is correct.  If you look at the streetcar map in the "2030 Corridor System Plan Summary" at http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/CATS/Rapid+Transit+Planning/Center+City/Center+City+Transitions.htm


the streetcar path does not cross into residential streets.  Can you provide a link to the documentation you are referring to?

I was curious about this and did a little research.  It appears that the streetcar route alignment will turn off Central north onto Clement Ave.  There are drawings of a redevelopment of the industrial area west of Clement on some of the city transit publications to accommodate the route.  The alignment map can be seen at: http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/CATS/Rapid+Transit+Planning/Center+City/Center+City+Alignment+Map.htm

I think there are only a few residences along Clement.  If you happen to live there, you are already looking at industrial development across the street.  Hopefully the city redevelopment will improve that view rather than make it worse.  It also looks like the road will extend all the way to Hawthorne once it is complete.  

I didn't see enough detail to cause me great concern about the route.  I might feel differently if I lived on Clement Ave.  I would hope that  the people who live on the route can be comfortable with it.  Also that the redevelopment includes some green space.  There is a lot of land in that area that would make a nice park.  Also a lot of trees that I would hate to see removed.

Yes, there are only six houses on Clement and they do face industrial property.  However, these six houses are in the protected local historic district (meaning they can't be demolished for new transit-oriented development), narrow Clement never historically had streetcar service, and the industrial property is the Barnhadrt complex which has been in the area for over 100 years and maintains defacto green space today on Clement as a nice transition.  Clement being so narrow, the introduction of streetcar tracks would mean losing on-street parking, plus any place to put your rollout trash can for that matter.

But if thinking outside of Clement, such plans also impact Central Avenue, since they require a turn in the streetcar tracks at Central and Clement.  Such intersection is not signalized, so does this mean yet another signal on top of signals already at Pecan, Thomas and The Plaza all one block apart?  Such turn is very close to the freight railroad crossing.  What happens when a freight train passes and cars start queuing back onto the streetcar tracks?  And finally, there is no way the tracks can make that tight of a turn without requiring additional land.  The strip center housing the former location of White Rabbit being turned now into a nice commercial development anchored by a high-end cafe with rooftop terrace will likely be impacted.

This link is to a newsletter that has more information on the Clement area.  From the looks of things, quite a bit of thought, if not engineering has already gone into the alignment.

...my link is the same as linked previously. I should have check that out.  My bad.

CATS says the street car can't cross the CSX line at grade--meaning they can bridge over it, tunnel under it or go around the tracks, but not have a crossing at the same elevation.

-tom

Right, CATS is trying to go the cheapest route and avoid building over or under the CSX crossing of Central Avenue.  However, as the newsletter design linked above shows, the route chosen down Clement will destroy the character of that historic designated street.  Forever gone will be all of its on-street parking, as well as its the quiet nature of the street that has remained undisturbed for nearly a century.

Instead, I'd recommend extending Commonwealth to Sunnyside through the Family Dollar site.  Though such alternative may require a more expensive bridge over the CSX railroad, it would also catalyze the redevelopment of this long-standing neighborhood eyesore along Central and Pecan in that underutilized strip retail center.  By comparison, a vehicle maintenance facility on Clement won't facilitate the redevelopment of the Barnhardt site into transit-oriented development, but instead, only add more intense industrial uses next to single-family blocks of historic homes in the neighborhood.

Does the neighborhood association even get involved in area redevelopment?  Are there ever presentations from private developers or city planners at neighborhood meetings.  Dilworth has a history of demanding quality design from developers, as well as fighting tear-downs within their local historic district.

I would suggest you start a petition and have all neighbors on Clement sign it.  Then you can present your petition to the PMNA Board, who can then write a support letter or take other actions.

Here are the contact info for all PMNA Board members:

http://www.plazamidwood.org/contactus.html

Good Luck,
Philip Chang
PMNA Volunteer

Thanks, as that's why it may have to come down to.  By the way, CATS has been very helpful, answering all my questions off-line.  As it turns out, CATS didn't want to impact homes, but felt that such routing was the best option at the time.  Back when the streetcar was being studied, Grubb Properties had proposed a redevelopment on Hawthorne that enticed planners to use that route, even though the CSX bridge over Hawthorne doesn't have enough clearance and that project is now dead.

Planners even went so far as to caution Councilwoman Kinsey about the homes, but allegedly she said she grew up in Plaza-Midwood and those "shotguns on Clement" aren't historic.  First of all, two-room-wide houses like my bungalow are hardly "shot-guns." Secondly, if 90-year old houses aren't historic for Charlotte, then nothing is here.  Sure, Charlotte isn't known for preserving its history, but I would have thought the council person representing not only Plaza-Midwood, but also Elizabeth, NoDa, and Dilworth wouldn't be so flippant.  And whether inside or outside the Plaza-Midwood historic district, I'm sure my immediate neighbors as well as those outside the protected district chose to live in a unique area of Charlotte where such history is one of its greatest assets.  It's what makes our neighborhood unique, valued and sustainable, as opposed to the many cookie-cutter subdivisions found elsewhere in Charlotte.

Anyway, the plans currently sit on the shelf, even though Friday's business journal had a cover story about City Council members wanting to push up the streetcar in priorities.  And more importantly, the project only went thus far to a level of ten-percent conceptual engineering.  In other words, final design, or even preliminary engineering similar to the stage for the Northeast Corridor (LYNX extension to University City) would hopefully open the process back up again to more extensive redesign and public involvement.  At the time, the dialogue will continue for both alternative solutions, if not a better design if this ultimately must be the route.

During the development of P-M, the original streetcar came down Hawthorne from the square to Central Avenue. At Central, the streetcar turned right until it came to the railroad crossing. The streetcar HAD to stop there as the city would not pay to cross the railroad tracks. I understand an "individual" paid for the streetcar to continue east on Central. Therefore, the railroad can be crossed. How, I don't know.
j on Mecklenburg

Streetcars can cross railroad tracks just as railroads cross each other at what is called a diamond.  In CATS case this may not be allowed by the FRA in the present era.  In the early streetcar days they were not owned by the city, but by private companies.  The streetcars came down many streets in Charlotte but were not all owned by the same folks at the inception.

Also, please remember that streetcars stop at traffic lights as do cars when they exist in a street setting.  The trolleys running on CATS are not in their home setting so to speak.  I do not know exactly how CATS plans to site the streetcar lines, but they don't have to be like railroad right of way.  In other words, in the past you had Central Avenue and in it were the streetcar tracks. It was still a major throughfare with cars.  That is what I hope to see for the most part in Charlotte's streetcar resurgence.


T