Greensboro pushed downtown renewal plans

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Greensboro Pushes Downtown Renewal Plans
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Bond Issue Votes Scheduled
Federal Approval Is Sought
Journal and Sentinel state editor Jack
Trawick has talked with planning people
and city government officials at Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem about
what these cities are doing for their downtowns. This is the first of three articles
about downtown development in the Piedmont Triad. -*
GREENSBORO PUBLIC LIBRARY
By Jack Trawick
GREENSBORO—After several
false starts, Greensboro
has organized its forces for a
major push to get a downtown
renewal effort under way.
Twice since 1964, when a
downtown plan for Greensboro
was completed, there have been
abortive efforts to undertake a
downtown urban renewal project, with federal assistance. At
least one effort to get private
enterprise moving on a major
project has failed.
Greensboro's hopes for action
now rest primarily on two
things:
—Voter approval of city and
county bond issues for new governmental buildings. Both bond
votes are set for March 5.
— Federal approval of a proposed downtown urban renewal
project.
There is optimism here on
both counts, despite the fact
that voters around the state
have been reluctant in recent
months to approve new bonds
or taxes, and despite the fact
that the Department of Housing
and Urban Development has
said that for the time being
there is no money left for downtown urban renewal projects.
The forces urging downtown
improvement — and they are
widespread throughout the community — are waging a steady,
methodical and determined
campaign to get the downtown
effort moving.
Committees at Work
Detailed information on buildings in the downtown area is
' being compiled with painstaking
care. Committees and organizations are working to inform the
public of what is going on, and
to gain support from those who
will be directly affected or involved in the downtown overhaul.
The current push for action
began early this year when the
Redevelopment Commission of
Greensboro began preparing a
General Neighborhood Renewal
Plan for 635 acres, including
the entire downtown core.
The history of planning for
downtown renewal here has
largely paralleled that in Winston-Salem. First there was the
development of a downtown
plan, following expressions of
concern by civic and business
leaders. That plan, prepared by
consultants, was made public
in the spring of 1964. Then
there was much talk of efforts
to accomplish the job through
private enterprise. Then there
was a gradual development of
feeling that private interests
could not do the job alone. And
now there is the move to accomplish something with the assistance of urban renewal.
The significant difference
here is the abortive urban renewal efforts, one of which
came soon after the downtown
plan was completed. That one
never got beyond the City Planning Board, which refused to
certify an urban renewal project area, as required by state
law before a project can be undertaken, on the basis of in- .
formation gathered by its own
staff.
Information at Issue
The board said the staff did
not have adequate information
to show that the area under
consideration was blighted.
In November 1965, then Mayor William L. Trotter Jr. and
the City Council decided it was
time for the city government
to take the lead and try to get
an urban renewal program under way. The council directed
the redevelopment commission
to apply for federal funds to
prepare a General Neighborhood Renewal Plan. The application was not approved until
early this year, and the study
began m February.
The study is still in progress,
but the first project in the area
— 151 acres in the center of
town — has already been approved by the planning board.
City Council is expected to approve the project area this
month, and to direct the redevelopment commission to apply for funds to carry it out.
The project area is bounded
generally by Bellemeade and
Church streets on the north,
the Southern Railway tracks on
the south, Eugene Street on the
west and Forbis Street on the
east.
fllta
V
Staff Photo by Frank Jones
A city beautification area on the northern edge of downtown Greensboro.
The estimated cost of the
first project is $18 million, of
which $12 million would be in
federal funds if the project is
approved. Of the local share of
$6 million, all but $300,000 will
be in the form of credits for
governmental facilities and public improvements, local officials say.
Robert E. Barkley, executive
director of the redevelopment
commission, says he is confident that Greensboro can get
federal money, despite the new
federal guidelines on downtown
urban renewal projects established last fall.
In those guidelines, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development said that because
of a shortage of funds for urban
renewal and increased demand
for the funds available, residential projects would be given
primary consideration.
Barkley is placing his hopes
on a clause in the guidelines
which says that if a city can
show that it has made significant strides in improving residential areas, then downtown
projects may be considered. He
feels that Greensboro's urban
renewal program has been balanced, and that significant progress has been made in residential areas.
The city and county governments will play a significant
role in the proposed downtown
redevelopment. The city is planning to build a new six-story
office building, and the County
is planning a six-story courts
building, both to be part of a
government center developed
around the existing Guilford
County Courthouse.
On March 5, city and county
voters will decide jointly whether to issue about $10 million in
bonds for the proposed courts
building and renovation of the
ourthouse. City voters only will
decide on issuing about $14 million in bonds, including $7,750,-
O)0 for the new office building.
The government center has
been part of Greensboro's downtown planning from the outset,
although the concept has been
modified. The current plan calls
fife development of a "super-
Mock" involving most of the
;irea between Market and Washington streets on the north and
south, and Eugene and Greene
streets on the west and east.
The small block east of the
< ourthouse, where the Morrison-
Neese Building stands, would
riot be involved.
Other government buildings
a id parking facilities are
I aned for development in the
I (vernment center later. Some
I ^rking would be provided now.
It is hoped that the govern-
i |ental spending and building
i ill  spur private  development
that will make comprehensive
downtown renewal a reality.
The city has already undertaken some programs which tie
in with downtown renewal.
About half of the street improvements and changes recommended in the 1964 downtown
plan have been completed. A
small park has been developed
in front of the YWCA at the corner of Church and Davie
streets.
Perhaps the most significant
undertaking has been construction of a $1.3-million parking
garage along the west side of
Davie Street between Market
Street and Friendly Avenue.
The garage, opened last month,
has spaces for 404 automobiles,
and involved clearance of most
of a block. The city is planning
additional parking facilities
in other sections of downtown.
Earlier, as the old downtown
plan was being prepared, a new
county library was built at
Friendly Avenue and Greene
Street.
There have also been some
significant private developments that tie in with the general downtown plan. Wachovia
Bank and Trust Co. has built a
seven-story building at the
northwest corner of Elm Street
and Friendly Avenue. First Union National Bank has purchased land, and is clearing it
now, for a new building at the
southeast corner of Friendly
and Elm, diagonally across
from the Wachovia Building.
This general area, including
the site of the present City Hall
at Elm and Greene streets, was
tabbed in the earlier downtown
plan for development as a financial district. This is largely
what it is becoming.
Move Westward
If the proposed plan is carried out, the governmental facilities will move westward to
the area of the courthouse, and
the present site of City Hall
and two adjacent city office
buildings will be available for
inclusion in the financial district.
Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co. has purchased additional property in the same
area, and is contemplating an
expansion. North Carolina National Bank is considering a
new building in the area.
There have been other smaller new buildings in the downtown area in the past few
years, and some retail stores
have undertaken major renovations.
As in Winston-Salem, the
original downtown plan called
for a great deal of clearance
and some rehabilitation of existing buildings, and the emphasis
has now shifted to rehabilitation with a small amount of
clearance.
Sentiment Cited
City Manager George Aull
and Barkley with the redevelopment commission feel that
the general attitude about
downtown renewal has changed
since the earlier failures. Both
feel there is strong sentiment
now that Greensboro has talked
about downtown renewal long
enough and should now get
moving.
There is some feeling here
that the earlier efforts failed
because they were attempts to
improve only small segments of
downtown, and that more support has been generated for a
comprehensive plan that v/ill
include virtually all of downtown before it is finished.
The planning board, the city
council,   the   city   administra
tion, the redevelopment commission and the Chamber of
Commerce are all actively involved in the current planning.
Several groups, other than
governmental agencies, have
been organized to promote and
publicize the downtown renewal effort. These include:
—The Downtown Development Association, a group of
downtown merchants and property owners, headed by Hutson
Moody, a businessman.
—The Downtown Development Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, headed by
Lester Carter of Southern Life
Insurance Co.
—The Mayor's Downtown Renewal Committee, headed by
Councilman Walter Cockerham.
—Operation DARE (Downtown Area Renewal Effort),
headed by L. Richardson Preyer, a vice president with North
Carolina National Bank.
Of these, the broadest in
scope is Operation DARE,
which is a group of civic, business and industrial leaders organized by the redevelopment
commission.
Barkley says that because of
the history of downtown renewal efforts, the redevelopment
commission felt it necessary to
achieve as high a degree of citizen participation as possible in
the current planning.
5 Major Committees
There are five major committees in the DARE organization,
one each concerned with the
business aspects of the planning, the design aspects, the
legal aspects, public and private investment and financing
in general, public relations and
information.
The 80 members of DARE
represent a wide cross-section
of the community, and include
representatives from many organizations such as the Merchants Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Business
and Professional Women's Club
and the Board of Realtors.
The old plan for downtown,
called the "Rogers Plan" because it was developed by the
consulting firm of Rogers, Taliaferro, Kotritsky and Lamb of
Baltimore, Md., has not been
closely followed. Neither has it
been entirely thrown aside.
The general feeling here is
that it was, perhaps, too ambitious and impossible to accomplish. It has been used as a
general guideline for what has
followed.
In Monday's Journal: High
Point is pushing downtown
redevelopment.
1
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