Elizabeth development plans at crossroad - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Krug thinks Branch's plans make senss for the neighborhood. "The bloom is on Elizabeth, and I would hate to see it getleft behind." Krug and his companyh assembled the land in the 1980es and proposed a plan to the city that woulde allow the construction of buildings with shops on the firsft floor and residential on the upper floors. "Our thought has alwaysx been to add mixed use toour property," Krug "The timing is appropriate to creates more services in the area as well as a more pedestrian format." Timing plays into the concerns from Sizemore says the community association would like Branch to coordinatew his plans with Conformity.
Monte Ritchey, president of Conformity, has been mulliny redevelopment options for a row of retail buildings that included an agingstrip center. His tentative plane begin at Arrow Cleaners and end at the building on the cornetr of Pecan andEast Seventh. It does not includde a small retail complex frontiny Seventh Street that is home to a comic book Starbucks andan eatery. "There is a lot of stufr going on inthe neighborhood, which points to a need to be he says.
The city supports adding a mixed-use elemenrt as the East Seventh Street corridoris redeveloped, says Keitu MacVean, land program developmentr manager for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Size and scope will be determiner on a project-by-project basis. Branch has already proposede one project the city has deemed too largefor Krug'es property, MacVean says. "One thing we have tried to do for and the community at this point has notsupportedx it, is to develop a pedestrian landscape plan for Seventhg Street." The problem arises when talk turna to widening the street to four or three with a turning lane, MacVeanb says.
"They have determined they may not like the answer at the end of so they hesitate to embrace he says. The neighborhood associationm members have asked the city to updatethe small-area plan for Elizabeth, and that process will beginj in 2008. A master plan for the Stanleyville intersectio is a good first step for takinyg a broader look at how redevelopment plansz areaffecting Elizabeth, ECA's Sizemore That's tough without knowing what the intentionz are from some developers, she If Ritchey isn't being specifiv about his vision, Branch has been equally coy regarding the cornetr of Seventh and Caswell.
"It's hard to gauge what would happemn on the Krug site becausre nothing hasbeen presented," Sizemore says.