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City examines Highway 115 corridor's future
Bruce Matlock photo
Statesville is considering its options for the Highway 115 corridor.
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Published: January 22, 2009
Residents from all parts of Statesville offered suggestions for improving the look of the Highway 115 corridor during an ideas-gathering session Tuesday night at the Statesville Civic Center.
Fountains, outdoor dining and pocket parks were some of the many proposals made during the three-hour event.
Several residents also said that adding trees and other kinds of flora — and maybe a turn-about or two — would go a long way toward creating an attractive streetscape for the corridor, which runs approximately from Stockton Street to Amity Hill Road and comprises both Center Street and Shelton Avenue.
At Tuesday's event, the project was divided into four main areas, including streetscape. The other three were: circulation and parking; development, redevelopment and in-fill opportunities; and open space and connectivity.
Todd Lange recently moved to downtown Statesville from Huntersville.
He said he sees the same kind of thing going on in Statesville that he saw in Huntersville — where he served on the planning board — over the course of the past decade.
"You have people who don't want to see the town change and you have those who do," Lange said.
But Lange sees great opportunity for change in Statesville and a new kind of branding for the city.
"A lot of people, all they know about Statesville is Exit 50 (off Interstate 77) and JRs," he said. "But this could be part of something like a new wine country. It could be like Lodi, California. But I would like to see a real meeting of the minds between all the different sides of this."
Shaun Ferguson is an urban planner with the Charlotte firm LandDesign, which was recently hired by the city to assist with the project.
He said one of the things Statesville's downtown area needs is an "anchor."
"One idea that I heard was for a movie theater," he said. "But my thoughts were of a kind of alternative theater that shows independent films and foreign films as the kind of thing that would be unique enough to bring people to the city from other places."
Ferguson said the theater idea was only one of many that could help define Statesville's identity.
"If not a theater, then some other kind of anchor," he said. "Something that would draw people to the city."
Ferguson said there are several places that stand out already as having the potential to be built upon. Among them, he said, is the Depot.
"That has the potential for a number of things," he said, "including as a depot for rail use."
Ferguson said his group is not out to reinvent the wheel in redeveloping the downtown and its main corridor.
"The plan is to build on past efforts," he said. "We're not repeating any steps in the process that have already been taken."
The redevelopment project is being overseen by the City of Statesville and the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation, which a year ago created the Downtown Master Plan Committee.
The ambitious effort is still very much in the visioning stages, according to DSDC Executive Director Marin Tomlin.
"It's amazing to see everything that's involved in making a change like this," she said.
One step involves rezoning the land in the corridor redevelopment project.
To that end, the city held an open house last November in the council chambers of City Hall to inform the homeowners, landowners and business owners in the affected area that the entire area would be rezoned under a new code called H/115.
Statesville Assistant Planning Director Sherry Ashley said things on that front have gone mostly well.
"We had a lot of positive feedback," she said. "I won't say it has all been positive, but most of it has."
Iredell County Commiss-ioner Steve Johnson, who owns Johnson's Parts & Supply on Shelton Avenue, said his business is currently in a "nonconforming" status but when the rezoning ordinance is adopted — over a period of two city council meetings in February and March — he will be conforming.
Johnson said there may be some stops and starts in re-making the 115 corridor but that it will eventually be beneficial the the city.
"Long-term, this will be a good thing," he said. "But they'll have to reach out to some local businesses and not make it too rough on them in the interim."
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