‘There won’t be a Smithville’: Cornelius’ historic Black community dreads gentrification
Throughout her 86 years, Edith Summers has watched her Smithville neighborhood, a place she’s called home for decades, go neglected.
The historically Black neighborhood nestled in Cornelius is off Interstate 77. Tight-knit and friendly, many homes and streets have aging infrastructure that need upgrades. Lead pipes in homes need to be replaced. Storm runoff drainage is poor.
A proposed $75 million project called the Smithville Revitalization and Workforce Housing Plan aims to fix some of those problems and modernize the historically Black enclave. The project is managed by the Smithville Community Coalition, but some homeowners don’t trust the group, nor do they believe it fully represents the neighborhood or their interests.
The project leaves Summers and other longtime homeowners wary the project could ignite gentrification, instead. Summers worries about her neighborhood’s future.
“I really think there won’t be a Smithville,” she said.
Karen Monteith, 64, who grew up in Smithville, used to attend coalition meetings, but has lost faith in it.
“They’re talking about preventing gentrification,” Monteith said. “To prevent gentrification you preserve what’s in the neighborhood.”
The coalition’s plan calls for acquiring 40 parcels and building a mix of townhouses, affordable apartments and new single-family homes in the town’s only Black neighborhood. In addition, it seeks to buy 25 homes to make room to build anew. The coalition also says it will improve the older homes of the residents who remain.
But residents of Smithville are skeptical. While potential growth surrounds them, those with the deepest roots want to ensure their homes and supporting infrastructure aren’t forgotten.
“And not just have it given to the people they’re buying the land from and building theirs up to sell at a high price,” Summers said.
Balancing needs
The project was envisioned in 2016 when the town wanted to find a way to decrease congestion near the Smithville neighborhood, says Willie Jones, a member of the coalition who is leading the revitalization efforts.
Cornelius and the state Department of Transportation came up with a solution to build a road through Smithville, he said.
The idea sent tremors through the largest intact Black neighborhood in Mecklenburg County, according to Jones. About 32,000 live in Cornelius, and about 7.4% of the population is Black, per 2020 census data. Around 200 people live in Smithville, according to neighbors.
By 2017 the now multi-million dollar plan to change the neighborhood started to really take shape. The coalition outlined a blueprint to balance the infrastructure needs of current neighbors with new housing for future residents.
“The foundation of this plan is, how do we have significant change and then protect the rights of the people who exist here now,” Jones said.
In June, the Cornelius Town Board approved the proposed plan, Cornelius Today reported. The project will be reviewed by the town’s planning board next, and then appear before the Cornelius Town Board for final approval, he said.
The coalition hopes to raise $8.7 million in public funding for the project, according to Jones. The figure would cover infrastructure upgrades and land acquisition costs, he said.
Mecklenburg County Commissioners and the Cornelius Town Board of Commissioners both approved $3 million in COVID-19 relief funds for the project, Cornelius Today reported. The coalition also has reached out to U.S. Congresswoman Alma Adams’ office to assist in finding additional funding, Jones said.
In sum the plan calls for adding 85 rental units and more than 100 single-family homes or townhomes, Jones said. The housing would be for people making between 30% and 120% of the area median income, or around $25,000 to $100,000 a year for a family of four, according to Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region.
The housing will be for public employees like teachers and police as well as Smithville residents who choose to stay, Jones said.
Twenty of the rental units will also be dedicated to the elderly. Current residents will be offered a Right of First Refusal loan for up to $10,000 from the coalition for their house, Jones said. The first phase, set to start next year, includes rehabilitation of three existing homes and ground breaking for 42 new units, he said.
Gentrification coming, ready or not
The project’s goal of bringing in the new and preserving the old concerns many — mostly if more people come, taxes will rise, Summers said.
The makeup of the coalition leading the project also makes some residents uneasy, Thurman Ross, also a Smithville native and property owner, says.
“At the onset, it was more community involved and more neighbors represented on the board,” Ross said. “I’m not sure when that switch was where you’re having less residents on the board.”
Jones, who doesn’t live in Smithville, said the coalition earlier in the year interviewed for new members. The 12-member coalition is comprised of business owners, Cornelius residents and four members from Smithville, he said.
Among those four is Raeford Miller, 69. Born and raised in Smithville, Miller supports the project because a key component involves addressing infrastructure needs. Another reason why Miller is in favor is because investors also have set their eyes on the aging community.
“It’s a very favorable thing, but I don’t know if it got started soon enough,” he said of the revitalization efforts.
Smithville has long been a neighborhood for working class people. The affordable units planned in the project will ensure working class people can continue to live here, he said.
“That way we can restart our legacy so that it can continue being what it’s been for all these years,” Miller said, adding more education how the plan will help may alleviate neighbors’ concerns.
The coalition has tried to keep the density for the new housing as low as possible while ensuring the project remains financially viable, according to Jones.
But the project has to consider future residents, not just the current neighbors, he said.
“Those are the difficult questions you have to work with,” Jones said.
Preserving a neighborhood
Monteith remembers a vibrant neighborhood when she was growing up in Smithville. There were summertime programs in the now closed recreation center that provided field trips for kids and a community baseball team.
Children would attend school together in the morning. In the afternoons, they would play in each other’s yards. Parents would sit on porches watching over the community as children played, she said.
“Not only did you know your friends, you knew their grandparents, aunts, uncles,” she said. “One thing I didn’t appreciate then that I have come to appreciate now — that sense of community.”
Even today there are residents who take out the trash for the elderly, Monteith said.
Monteith left the neighborhood in 1982, but returned in 2020 to take care of her mother. After her mother died she took over ownership of the home.
She stopped attending the coalition’s meetings as the project moved into a direction she disagreed with, including the number of units being built.
But more accountability and transparency was needed throughout the project to keep the trust of residents, Ross said.
With a thriving housing market, the coalition should at least educate homeowners more so they understand their options, he added. The coalition also should be forthcoming about what the end goal of the project will mean for current residents.
“What are you preserving? If it’s going to outnumber the folks that are currently here (then) the only thing you’re preserving is the name,” Ross said.
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
