Historic College Hill District vs. Student Housing , Zoning Battle in Greensboro Heats Up

The Historic College Hill district of Greensboro, North Carolina and it's neighborhood association are getting prepared for a huge rezoning battle . Below in red typeface is some information being sent around from the College Hill Neighborhood Association and also a website dedicated to this as well CLICKHERE

A student housing complex made up of 233 units (over 750 beds) proposed by out of state developer, Edwards Communities CLICKHERE, for Newman Machine and other industrial properties along Spring Garden Street from South Mendenhall to the railroad tracks, and Fulton and Houston Streets all bordering the College Hill
Historic District.

What are the issues?
· Quality of life in College Hill – the scale and quiet residential nature of our architecturally rich
neighborhood

· Property Values – tremendous gains have been made in the values of the restored single family homes

· 30 years of public and private investment to return rental houses to single family owner occupied
houses, one house at a time

· Parking – the development only plans to include parking for 90% of their tenants

· Traffic – over 750 additional residents depending on existing narrow roadways coming and going

· Loss of potential to develop a key property – this is a gateway to College Hill from downtown, with a great view of downtown Greensboro . It could be refurbished similarly to Wafco or Revolution Mills, or made into another Southside or something that could attract more committed long term residents

Need more information?
Visit: www.savecollegehill.org or
http://preservationgreensboro.typepad.com/weblog/2009/09/index.html

Come to the next College Hill Neighborhood Association meeting Monday, December 7th, 7:30 pm Presbyterian Church of the Covenant Fellowship Hall.
If you choose to do so, you can you help these College Hill residents in the following ways:
· Buttons and yard signs are now available. Wear the buttons, place signs in your yard to show your support for the preservation College Hill
· Attend the December 14th Zoning Commission meeting in Council Chambers, Melvin Municipal Building. Meet at 4:30, wear black and your Save College Hill button – now available!
· Save the Date to attend the January 11th 2010 Zoning Commission meeting.
· Save the Date to attend the City Council meeting January 5th or 19th
· Call, write or email Zoning Commission members – make your voice heard; tell everyone how detrimental this development is to Historic College Hill
· Call, write or email City Council Members – make your voice heard; tell everyone how detrimental this development is to Historic College Hill
· Make a Donation - Tax deductible contributions are greatly appreciated to help defray costs. Make checks payable to CHNA, place defense fund in the memo field and bring to the Dec 7th meeting .

This will be a very interesting zoning case with the newly elected Greensboro City Council getting sworm into office in december and this pitting the neighborhood against student housing needs of the universities in the area. If you would like to see a overall view of the property in question CLICKHERE , this is from the Preservation Greensboro blog with a title of the post"Large Project Concerns Historic District". This is a tough call because if you have ever traveled down spring garden street or cut through on fulton street to get to lee street you will see this huge eyesore of buildings called newman machinery. Eventually something was going to happen with this property in question but to see the density of over 700 students living in this area would make for a huge change in the neighborhood.

We have seen another neighborhood near the UNC-Greensboro campus get contacted about selling their properties in the glenwood area here is that post CLICKHERE , with a title "The Skeen Group's Puzzling Development Approach".

We also have a great student housing project that went up on the old Cotton Mill Square area called Spring Place CLICKHERE which is near the merritt drive and spring garden area of Greensboro. There is also a renewal of places on lee street where they are putting up student housing as well.Student housing is becoming very big business and we are seeing that with these out of town developers coming into Greensboro trying to make a difference.

Where does the universities stand on all of these student housing projects? Are they for or against it ? We just found out this week that the university police departments have the jurisdiction to patrol other areas surrounding their campuses. Will developments like these stretch the university police departments thin or will they be able to handle more problems that housing of this magnitude will produce.

This rezoning case will be one to take a hard look at when it comes to density of a project and the ramifications of this project right next to a historic district of Greensboro.

Will Edwards Communities hire King Zoning Stud Lawyer Henry Isaacson?

Will political guru Bill Burckley who lives near the properties has something to say about this zoning case?

Will we see a Protest Petition being filed by the neighbors who abut this property?

These are questions that will get answered in the future but with a case of this magnitude , we will probably see a few delays in this process for all sides to hash out their positions for and against this project before it goes to council for a vote.