In Charlotte’s North End, some want to ‘sound the alarm’ for parks, affordable housing
Drive through South End today and the number of new buildings or high rises under construction is tough to miss.
The neighborhood continues to see a lot of growth, thanks in part to the city’s investment in the light rail line. One thing you won’t find too much of? Green space and parks.
Some residents who live near Charlotte’s North End, which developers and others believe is poised to see high growth over the next several years, think there’s a chance to weave together new development and open, green space.
Enter Queens Park.
The lofty vision to bring a central park to Charlotte has been talked about for years. Those pushing for the 220-acre park near the North End and NoDa make it clear the planning is still a vision. A group of residents pushing for the park face a major hurdle in a roughly 100-acre rail yard that belongs to Norfolk Southern.
But there are efforts to start with a smaller chunk and build from there.
If you look at the parks close to uptown, many are 5 acres or smaller, Eric Spengler, a Charlotte lawyer and director of Friends of Queens Park, told The Charlotte Observer. It’s not until you get to Freedom Park near Dilworth that you can find one larger than that.
“It’s a real shortcoming for Charlotte,” Spengler said.
But Norfolk Southern does not appear interested in sharing or letting the group use its rail yard as a park.
The yard is still an active and critical part of the company’s operation, supporting numerous rail shippers in the Charlotte area, Norfolk Southern spokesman Connor Spielmaker told the Observer in a July 2 email.
Spengler is hopeful his group can find the right incentives for Norfolk Southern to give up or share that space as a rail yard.
In the meantime, the group is focusing efforts on a 27-acre park in the area of 36th Street and Cullman Avenue, close to North Tryon Street.
Lessons to learn
Spengler thinks there are lessons the North End can learn from the South End, the booming area that has seen lots of economic development over the past decade or so.
There are bars, restaurants and yoga studios, Spengler said, “but there’s not a patch of grass in the whole of South End.”
“If the city or county had a re-do on the South End, they probably would want to devote some of that area for green space,” Spengler said. He also points to a lack of affordable housing in fast-growing parts of town like South End.
“We are basically trying to sound the alarm that the North End is an opportunity to do it right,” Spengler said.
If built, Spengler sees Queens Park as the centerpiece of the North End. It would better connect Camp North End with the hopping Optimist Hall site as well as the neighborhoods in between that historically have been separated by Norfolk Southern’s rail yard, which he described as the “gulf” of an industrial site.
That industrial site serves as a big wall essentially separating residents from easily getting to the light rail.
Spengler acknowledges much of Charlotte’s growth is tied back to the railroad. His group wants to be respectful of Norfolk Southern but think there can be a compromise.
He pushes people to not ask why this should be a park, but rather can this remain a rail yard with all the development going on around it?
He points to the city’s planned multi-billion dollar investment in the 29-mile, east-to-west silver line with city plans showing a stop at the edge of the rail yard near 11th Street. The proposed silver line would intersect with the blue line, meaning a connection and likely lots of development popping up in the vicinity.
He can’t see it making sense to having an industrial site five blocks away. “It can’t work that way,” Spengler said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
