What About Cedar Street ? ?

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Where have the talks gone? Where have the plans gone? There was much ado with planning sessions and maps and citizen suggestions and city staff presentations. Then. . . . . . .What?

Who knows what a Conservation District really is? I have heard the term tossed around, but never defined. There is a neighborhood near downtown commonly known as The Bellemeade District or the Cedar Street Area. What one calls the area depends on what one wants to happen to the area. The developers call it Bellemeade. The preservationist call it Cedar Street.

Some people seem to define the Cedar Street area as the run-down burned out apartment complex on the corner of Cedar and Friendly. Local developers really want that piece of property. Some people define the area as the location where a downtown development called Bellemeade Village is being built. Greensboro City Council seems to want to really help one area and just talk about helping the other. I'm confused.

The terms seem to talk about different places, but they both refer to the same general area between Friendly Ave. and Battleground Ave. from Eugene Street to the old train tracks that run between Cedar and Wilson streets. The planners say it has the potential to be considered a "conservation district". This is some kind of overlay zoning. I am not sure anyone knows exactly what the term means.

Many residents of old neighborhoods bristle at the thought of being designated an 'historic district". We know the meaning of that term. So, I suspect that the new designation will be similar to the historic district, without the restrictions on tear downs and new buildings. Sounds like a developers dream. But maybe not.

So what does it mean to "retain the character of the neighborhood"?

I found a site that describes the Chapel Hill definition of a conservation area. It seems pretty restrictive to me. Look at Chapel Hill's rules for aConservation District.

What do you think?


http://www.ci.chapel-hill.nc.us/index.asp?NID=144#DesignationCriteria