The City of Charlotte hosted a panel of national experts provided by the ULI Rose Center January 11th – 14th. The panel included land use and transportation planners and real estate experts from cities like Sacramento, Denver, New York and Houston. The ultimate goal of the ULI’s Daniel Rose Center is “To encourage and support the excellence in land use decision making. By providing public officials with access to information, best practices, peer networks and other resources…”

Throughout the week, the panel travelled the Independence Blvd and Monroe Corridors, visited the intended Central Avenue Streetcar Route and rode the South Corridor Blue Line. Their transportation suggestions were as follows:

• Build a streetcar along Monroe Road, in addition to Central Avenue’s, with hopes to connect the two.
• Highway Light Rail Transit
• Local and Express Bus Transit, for long distance commuters
• Combine HOV lanes with High Occupancy Toll lanes, creating new revenue dedicated to Charlotte transit

In turn, the panel believes these suggestions will bring transit-oriented development to the Independence Corridor.

• For the team’s full presentation, click here.
• Click here for “Can the hated boulevard be tamed?” by Mary Newsom, Associate Editor, The Charlotte Observer