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City's master plan: Restaurant row, arts
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Published: September 21, 2009
The name of the two-inch thick document is not particularly exciting.
But there's plenty of buzz surrounding the Statesville Downtown & NC 115 Streetscape/ Land Use Master Plan.
The plan, which would cost more than $28 million, involves the creation of eight different districts – from Center Street's North End to the Gateway near the intersection of (a re-configured) Amity Hill Road and Shelton Avenue. The districts focus on the arts, office space, retail, mixed and residential space and include a restaurant row.
Statesville City Councilman Michael Johnson's enthusiasm about the plan is quickly apparent as he starts discussing it.
"This is a very dynamic model and we've estimated everything down to the last brick," said Johnson, who chaired an advisory committee on the plan.
"But," he added, "this thing reads like 'War and Peace.' "
Johnson's comparison to the lengthy and complex Tolstoy novel was an allusion to the comprehensiveness of the plan.
But as it moves along the reference might also serve to describe reactions to implementing it.
The early estimate on the plan's total cost is $28.2 million, which is more than Statesville spends in a year on general operations and is more than one-third of the city's entire annual budget (which is just under $80 million for the 2009-10 fiscal year).
At a special city council meeting on the plan last Monday, city Finance Director Lisa Salmon explained that if the city chooses to borrow all of the money needed for the plan, repayment in 10 years would be about $36 million, including interest.
If approved, the plan, taken in its entirety, would be the most costly undertaking in the city's history.
"But this isn't going to happen overnight," Johnson said. "And no one is proposing we go out tomorrow and spend $28 million."
Johnson explained that the plan is broken down into a seven phases and subphases to be incorporated over decade. He envisions the first part of the actual groundbreaking of the plan – Phase 1A – to be the refashioning of West Broad Street, from Mulberry Street to just east of Center Street. Phase 1B would continue down Broad to just beyond Tradd Street.
The estimated price tag for those two segments of the plan is just more than $4.7 million.
But Larry Pressley, Statesville's public works director and assistant city manager, said a good portion of the money involved in the downtown portion of the plan would have to be spent soon regardless of city leaders' revitalization aspirations.
Pressley said sewer and water pipes running beneath the city's streets were installed in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Some of them, he said, are very close to the point where they will need to be replaced and others will be in that condition soon.
"It really is time for us to consider designing new water and sewer lines," Pressley said. "They are in a state where we should not build a new street over them."
But the project is an ambitious one and, just on Broad Street, includes for example, $22,000 worth of benches, $79,000 for trees, $100,000 for art and $250,000 for two fountains. Money will also be spent on burying electric line and changing traffic flows.
But Councilman Cecil Stallard, who was also a member of the plan's advisory committee, said expenditures should be looked at in the context of the expansiveness of the plan.
"I don't think you want to get caught up in how much it costs," Stallard said. "The first consideration should be, 'Is this what we want?' "
Stallard equated the plan to a family purchasing a new car. "The first thing you want to make sure of is that you have the right vehicle," he said. "Then you can get into whether or not you can afford it. If it's the right one, you can talk about financing it. If it's not, you look at another model."
One goal of the work along Shelton Avenue is to erase the line that implicitly exists between Statesville's downtown and southern portion, where most of the city's blight can be found.
Indeed, Johnson said, the advisory committee decried the use of the term, "South Statesville" as divisive.
"There is only one Statesville," Johnson said. "And we're all in this together."
Statesville Housing Authority Executive Director David Meachum applauded that view.
"We are one city," Meacham said. "And we have this corridor connecting it."
Skip McCall, president of the Statesville Branch of the NAACP, said the plan is a good start in bringing the city together.
"This is not the total answer," he said. "But this is a significant piece."
Most who have spoken out about the plan have been supportive of it. But there has been some resistance to the profound changes the plan would bring to the streetscape of downtown Statesville.
Mitchell College President Doug Eason spoke out against the "aesthetic redesign plans."
Eason also said he did not see how the money the city puts into the project could be recouped by private investment.
But Bob Dooley, owner of downtown business Lake Norman Pool & Spa and former board chairman of the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation, refuted that notion.
"Ask any city that has had major rework done and they will tell you the same," Dooley said, "No regrets."
Dooley also borrowed from the movie, "Field of Dreams" when he predicted how the plan would attract new business.
"If you build it, they will come," he said.
Councilman John Gregory said he was not sure he was in favor of transforming Statesville's central business district so that it looks "like every other downtown."
But Councilwoman Bonita Eisele, an advisory committee member, praised the Statesville Downtown & NC 115 Streetscape/Land Use Master Plan.
"It's the most exciting thing I've been involved with during my two years on the council," Eisele said. "And we have put a lot into this."
Johnson said his hope is that the plan will be put before the council for a vote as soon as possible. If the council approves the plan within the next month or two, it is possible that the Broad Street portion of the project would be completed by Christmas 2011.
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