Big Idea: Filling In Our Framework
- Filling in Our Framework
- Creating Great Places
- Becoming Car Optional
- Prioritizing Sustainability
- Building Community Connections
- Growing Economic Competitiveness
Filling In Our Framework is about land use and development: the pattern of buildings, roads, and other manmade parts of a city.
It includes both what buildings are used for, from residences to businesses to large institutions such as hospital and college campuses, as well as how buildings are placed in relationship to each other and to the street. It addresses Greensboro’s land use and development patterns with the intention to create mixed-use activity centers and build on and strengthen our existing mixed-use neighborhoods.
Why Fill In Our Framework?
To create the type of Greensboro envisioned in this plan, and to accommodate the future growth of the city, we will need to create opportunities for wider variety of neighborhoods, in particular more mixed-use areas and areas with greater density. If done in accordance with the plan’s policies this will result in a healthier, more prosperous, and more interesting Greensboro.
All cities and neighborhoods change over time, and healthy cities evolve and grow with development that adds value and benefits to their surroundings. Some areas need reinvestment more than others, and some are better able to incorporate new growth, and planning for change takes this into consideration.
Issues and Opportunites Addressed
- Preservation of Greenspace and Neighborhood Quality
- Housing and Neighborhood Options
- A Need for Distinctive Places
- Efficiency and Land Use
- Creating More Transportation Options
For more information see Chapter 4 of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
Current Implementation Activities
East Gate City Boulevard Study Area
More plans for specific areas will make GSO2040's Big Ideas come to life. The first will be the East Gate City Boulevard Corridor, which stretches from the southern border of downtown to the I-85 interchange on the eastern edge of Greensboro. The City is preparing to start public conversations about the area this fall.
The Existing Conditions Report is now available! Some key findings from the report include:
- Understanding the Area’s History Helps to Understand the Corridor. The report takes into account the history of the corridor when looking at data about the institutions and neighborhoods in the study area.
- Inconsistent Road Access, Limited Walkability. The corridor itself gives quick access to downtown, regional parks, and highways, but there is a lack of connectivity that hampers moving between neighborhoods and services in the study area.
- Rich in City and Community Resources. Several City facilities and historical community resources are spread throughout the study area.
- Predominantly Residential, but a Diversity of Uses. The corridor is most easily identifiable as residential, but has numerous examples of unique and creative land uses that are anchored by activity centers throughout.
Information about this project will be posted on our website, www.Greensboro-nc.gov/egcb. You can contact Hart Crane at hart.crane@greensboro-nc.gov with any questions. We look forward to talking to you about this project!
Making Neighborhoods Safer
The Greensboro Police Department has two innovative new programs that will improve their ability to respond to the needs of the community.
One is Community Connectors, a group of volunteers working door-to-door to assess community needs and connecting residents to existing resources. This includes a range of concerns such as food insecurity, job shortages, and mental and emotional wellbeing. This summer, the program matched 150 youths with summer employment.
The second is the Partner Referal Program. Where Community Connectors focus on providing services to specific neighborhods, the Referral Program is a path for Police Officers to connect residents to the services they need, for instance to help people experiencing homelessness or behavioural health problems. Police are often called to respond to problems not because a crime has been committed, but because people know how to reach them.
Missing Middle
The City is working with Opticos Design to identify ways we can increase our supply of Missing Middle Housing, the range of housing types compatible with single-family homes that expands housing choice and supports walkable neighborhoods.
What we hope to accomplish: We would like to make the adjustments necessary to enable new Missing Middle housing in the walkable places it has traditionally been built. As a first step, this report from Opticos shows parts of town that would most benefit from Missing Middle Housing and points to barriers we have in our development codes and policies. The subsequent Deep DIve report examines the zoning districts common in those walkable areas and makes some specific recommendations.
Capital Improvements Program
The Plan’s focus on infill development requires different capital investments than a growth strategy focused on outward expansion. These investments include water and sewer pipes and equipment, streets and sidewalks, parks and facilities, as well as heavy equipment.
What we hope to accomplish: Aligning our capital projects to meet the needs of ongoing infill investment and set the stage for future development.
Property Disposition
The City is working to improve the way we sell City-owned property and create opportunities for infill development.
What we hope to accomplish: Putting in place systems to better market the properties the City has to sell and creating opportunities to repurpose City property to catalyze infill development projects.
OUR GOALS AND STRATEGIES FOR FILLING IN OUR FRAMEWORK
Goals and strategies for filling in the framework of Greensboro’s built environment focus on appropriate infill opportunities, maintenance of a vital downtown, and preservation of the character of the buildings and neighborhoods that make up the history of the City.
Goal A
Greensboro is recognized and admired for its attractive, walkable, and compact mixed-use activity centers where people live, work, and enjoy life.
Strategy 1: Encourage mixed-use, walkable infill development throughout the City of Greensboro. Successful mixed-use infill development requires different tools and approaches depending on its size and context.
In historically underserved areas of Greensboro, create an infill program that supports and incentivizes walkable, mixed-use developments and coordinates with housing programs.
Focus areas include:
- Walkable, neighborhood-scale commercial development that serves surrounding residential areas, best done in an incremental manner that builds on the existing character of the area;
- Commercial corridors in coordination with increased, higher-frequency transit service;
- Large, underutilized or vacant sites in commercial or light industrial areas; and
- Along the boundaries of college campuses and other large, institutional uses.
Strategy 2: Ensure that mixed use projects both strengthen and add value to the community. Architecture and urban design should be of high quality and should complement existing development. Projects should be coordinated with transit services and offer multiple mobility options. Additionally, new services and housing should augment, not displace, existing neighborhood-scale commercial development.
Strategy 3: Identify areas for walkable, mixed-use activity centers for future study and land-use planning.
Goal B
Greensboro attracts world-class development to transform underutilized sites and buildings into valued assets that complement their surroundings.
Strategy 1: Maintain an inventory of key underutilized sites and structures and market them as opportunities to private industry and developers. Focus strategic public investment in adjacent community services, facilities, and infrastructure to attract maximum private investment. Reinforce economic development initiatives by coordinating them with federal and state funding directed to the revitalization of existing neighborhoods.
Strategy 2: Establish infill development guidelines that ensure revitalized sites will be of high quality and will complement existing neighborhood character. Collaborate with developers, the business community, and
residents to develop guidelines pertinent to better understand barriers to development, what investments help encourage additional development, and the elements of new developments that add value for surrounding neighborhoods.
Goal C
People choose to live in Greensboro because every neighborhood is safe and has convenient access to first-rate schools, services, shopping, parks, and community facilities.
Strategy 1: Employ a problem-prevention model to identify causes and solutions to neighborhood problems. Foster a formal process for collaboration and partnership between residents, City departments and community agencies to work together as part of the problem-prevention model and implementation.
Strategy 2: Invest in building and maintaining quality, accessible public recreation centers, libraries, neighborhood park facilities, and other amenities and services to sustain livable neighborhoods. Build on partnerships between the City, residents, and Guilford County Schools to ensure our public schools are able to provide the highest level of educational excellence.
"[The] built environment pays respect to natural environment, living and building with it rather than destroying and building on top of it.”