news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Building a city used to be so much simpler.

Houses went here. Stores went there. Offices went somewhere else. And factories went way, way, way over there.

That’s how it went for more than half a century after World War II.

Downtowns gave way to strip malls. Sidewalks became turning lanes. The walk home from school vanished, replaced by a line of cars waiting for the bell.

Then things got complicated.

Separating everything meant a lot of driving. Even if you wanted to walk, it was too far or you had to cross wide roads. And some people actually wanted to live near places where they could work or play.

Enter the mixed-use development, planner-speak for building something that looks more like the Main Street and surrounding neighborhoods of old than the parking-lot-and-subdivision sprawl of today.

In short, it means putting homes next to — and sometimes over — offices and shops.

The concept is hardly radical. The developments are modeled after long-established neighborhoods that include a mix of uses and a walkable feel, such as downtown, Tate Street and College Hill, or Lindley Park.

The new developments include apartments, condominiums and houses. Sales prices and rents vary, although they tilt toward the more expensive side of the market, with rents typically starting around $700 and rising to $1,500 or more for larger, fancier apartments.

The trend is growing in Greensboro, with several major projects under way or recently finished. Ultimately, they could create mini downtowns in the suburbs.

Or, to put it another way, when it’s 10 at night and you want ice cream, you’re just steps away, said Tracy Watson , who lives in a mixed-use development on Pisgah Church Road.

“I love being able to walk to the grocery store,” she said. “It is a very cool environment here.”

The residents

When John and Tracy Watson looked for an apartment to live in while he attends Elon University’s law school in downtown Greensboro, they knew what they didn’t want.

Basically, most apartments in Greensboro.

They didn’t want six or eight medium-size buildings surrounded by parking lots, requiring a drive to shop or eat.

So they chose to live in the Village at North Elm , a mixed-use development at Elm Street and Pisgah Church Road.

Apartments, some over shops, mingle with a Harris Teeter, restaurants, even an art gallery. Brightly colored awnings lean out over sidewalks where residents can easily stroll to restaurants and bars.

“I don’t want to be in the traditional apartment,” Tracy Watson said. “You don’t have the lifestyle like this. You don’t have everything right here. It’s not half as appealing.”

Watson misses the yard of her single-family house — but not much else.

Several nights a week, she and her husband walk to a restaurant or to the grocery store. Nightlife flourishes, as well, including monthly girls’ night out events at the art gallery and live music.

The development’s narrow, sidewalk-lined streets make walking, not cars, the dominant mode of transportation.

It’s downtown, except with a grocery store.

Although most residents seem to be in their late 20s and early 30s, there are exceptions.
Esther Osman and her husband, Robert, both retired, live in an apartment overlooking the street that leads through the heart of the development.

“It’s nice to be within walking distance of things,” she said. “We just prefer this.”
On the street below, the Osmans might see shoppers strolling along, or diners heading back from a meal, or a young couple sitting by the fountain.

“We can often sit there in the evening and watch the world go by,” she said.

How we got here

For thousands of years, the development of cities maintained more or less the same pattern.
By necessity, they were designed for people to get around on foot.

The market was close to homes, which were close to places to work, which were close to churches and schools.

A hundred or so years ago, trolley lines led to the development of the first residential suburbs. But the biggest force altering the urban landscape rolled in from Detroit.

The mobility of the automobile allowed cities to rapidly spread across the landscape. Mortgage subsidies and the pent-up housing demand that followed the Great Depression and World War II set in motion the creation of modern suburbia.

The suburban boom introduced a new pattern of development.

Spurred in part by poor conditions in overcrowded tenements and health considerations created by residents living amid factories, cities wrote zoning laws that separated uses and lowered densities.

Intoxicated with the possibilities created by the car, planners assumed everyone would want to drive everywhere.

Stores abandoned downtowns in favor of strip shopping centers and malls.
But that pattern is changing.

Increasingly, residents want alternatives to traditional suburban development, said Sue Schwartz, a planner with the city of Greensboro.

Residents include a range of demographics: Young, single professionals, empty nesters and young families.

“They want a close, community feel,” she said. “There are a lot of choices in the conventional suburban areas. What we’re seeing is more choices in a more urban lifestyle.”

One of the first major mixed-use projects in Greensboro was Southside, which includes shops and residences along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive just south of downtown.

Buildings front the street, with parking tucked behind, giving the development a strong urban vibe.

The initial development, built several years ago, proved successful enough to generate new apartments and more planned commercial space nearby.

Tim Jones , 30, who lives in one of the new apartments, said there is a generational element to the move to more urban areas.

“A lot of people around this age group tend to want to live in urban areas,” he said. “I really didn’t see anything I liked in a lot of the suburban complexes.”

Southside’s success helped break open the doors for similar projects, Schwartz said, once developers and lenders saw it could work.

“They didn’t know how to deal with something that was part residential and part commercial. Now it’s a little more common,” she said. “When you see what it is, that the mix of uses is complementary, it becomes more acceptable.”

Besides the Village at North Elm, major projects under way or planned include Willow Oaks, at the former site of Morningside Homes; redevelopment on South Elm Street; the high-rise Center Pointe tower downtown; and town houses planned at the new Shops at Friendly Center.

Other efforts include projects on Aycock Street near UNCG, at Pisgah Church and Martinsville roads, and in Ole Asheboro along Martin Luther King Drive.

For decades, there were no other choices. Developers had little interest in trying something different, and zoning codes prevented it if they did.

In essence, building South Elm Street would have been against the law.

But zoning laws have changed to allow projects with a mix of uses, and developers are realizing more people want to live in an urban atmosphere than there are homes for.

Some figures suggest that 10 percent to 15 percent want that kind of environment. But in Greensboro, only 4 percent live that way now, Schwartz said.

Although Southside and Center Pointe are downtown, many of the new projects are in the suburbs, often at major intersections that could become the hearts of small downtowns.

The trend will only strengthen, Schwartz said.

“We’re actually a little bit behind the curve here in Greensboro,” she said. “You’ll see more and more like that.”

In other cities, projects have included not only new developments, but also efforts to remake failed or abandoned shopping malls into vibrant mixes of homes and shops.

The movement is growing nationally as the rise in gas prices changes the economy of traditional sprawling development.

The Congress for the New Urbanism , a group that promotes walkable, mixed-use development, notes that homes in those areas are faring much better in the housing downturn than those among traditional sprawl on a city’s edge.

“With gas prices rising, sprawl is becoming a real risk factor in real estate,” said John Norquist, the group’s president. “Walkable, mixed-use new urbanist neighborhoods offer relief.”

Developers’ perspective

For so long, developers were timid about trying new styles of development. They knew plopping down a subdivision in a corn field worked. They knew putting big-box stores at busy intersections worked.

But thriving mixed-use projects are fading that reluctance.

“That’s kind of what Southside did; it proved there was a market,” Schwartz said.

Todd Doerner , whose project on Aycock Street across from UNCG includes apartments over a coffee shop, said mixing the uses makes retail and residential units more appealing.

“It’s just kind of a match made in heaven. You’re kind of killing two birds with one stone,” he said.

Entrepreneurs like having customers nearby. And residents experience an urban allure.
“They want to live in the building above Port City Java,” Doerner said.

Planning a mixed-use development, particularly one with apartments on top, can be more complicated.

Details matter: Trash disposal. Parking. Ventilating restaurants. Making sure the uses don’t conflict.

“You have to make sure you don’t have partying going on upstairs or downstairs that interferes with the other,” said Ron Mack, executive vice president for retail at the Koury Corp., which built the Village at North Elm.

A lot of developers just don’t have the patience for the added complexity, he said.
Plus, demand continues for strip malls and traditional subdivisions, Mack said.

“I don’t think everything’s going to go this direction,” he said. “It’s easier to go out to the edge of town and grow horizontally rather than vertically.”

The future of cities

If you want to see the future of American suburbia, look to the sands of the Middle East. Or, more precisely, look under the sand.

Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline can change the way Americans decide where to live. A smaller residence closer — or next to — the workplace and shops becomes more attractive than a 45-minute commute.

“There’s a lot to make people think about changing their travel habits,” Schwartz said.

But the shift goes deeper than gas prices. UNCG urban geography professor Keith Debbage said his students don’t want to live where their parents live.

“They’re suburban kids, but they’re bored with it,” he said. “These kids ... are embracing a sense of place.”

Charlotte and the Triangle have seen more of the projects than the Triad, Debbage notes.
“It’s a little tougher to pull off in a manufacturing town that has struggled with job generation,” he said.

For now, new developments are aimed at an affluent crowd. Whether that will change is unclear, Debbage said.

“That’s the $64,000 question,” he said.

Regardless, development hot spots in the Triad — such as the Heart of the Triad area between Greensboro and Winston-Salem — should incorporate significant mixed-use elements, he said.

Research Triangle Park is a fantastic economic engine, Debbage said, but the traffic there is terrible.

Ultimately, the momentum is behind a new style of development, he said.

“We’re still new to the game and the learning curve is still very steep,” he said. But in the future, “I think we will see more of this, not less.”

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com