The new land use plan, termed Hickory By Choice, and the codes that will be based upon it is one of the most important discussions the City will have in this generation and it’s very important we get it right. It seems that over the past few years that we have often had ideas and concepts that don’t fit what’s on the ground with the result being that Council and Planning have tried to put a square peg into a round hole. BROAD CITIZEN INPUT IS IMPORTANT, MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
There are a couple of things I don’t think have been completely thought through and need to be examined further. First is the neighborhood core concept. The idea is that we have a “core” that will have employment such as offices (doctors, accountants, insurance, etc.). Surrounding the core would be high density housing, ie: condos, apartments, townhouses, which would be surrounded by lower density development like single family residences. This is a beautiful idea and if we were looking at a large field and thinking about what to do with it a core would be great. We already have facts on the ground and it seems that it will take a great deal of tear down and rebuilding which will be expensive so question one is: how viable is the idea?
Many questions come to mind? Do we want manufacturing in the core? If not where will manufacturing go? Is a big box store going to be in the mix? What happens when certain retailers want 100,000 square feet to be viable? Is this going to be in a core or a corridor? Are people going to go to the doctor in their core or the doctor with the best reputation in town? What about specialists? We can't put every specialty in the core, can we? Do you want to use the Dewey, Cheatham and Howe accountants in the core you happen to live in or maybe you still want to use your brother in law? Will a Baptist become a Jew because the synagogue is in his core? The point is that we may be making too many assumptions about the lifestyles and choices people make and when the government plans for us they often miss the mark.
One specific thing that seems to keep coming up is putting up a multistory building with retail and restaurants on the ground floor and residences on the upper floor. There are a couple of places in Hickory where this has absolutely bombed. Do you really want to hear the pizza delivery coming and going at 1:00 am? Do you want to park your car in the parking lot that the geriatric doctor is using to have the 80 year old, half blind crowd using? Some cities have apartment and condo buildings that have parking on the ground level with the residences on the upper floors. This seems to be much more appealing. People will still want to drive. Many want to drive less but will still want to drive to other areas of the City as well as out of town and out of State trips. The car is going to be around a long time and it doesn’t seem to be properly thought out in what people seem to be conceiving at this point.
My opinion is that public transportation has been ignored and should actually be a focal point. Mobility is increasing not decreasing. We need to create density in Hickory so that using public transportation becomes viable. We can still have “cores” but what we are discussing now seems more like “enclaves”. If we have a public transportation spine, connecting to the centers that people go to (shopping, work, doctors, services, etc.) we can have cores but we will be able to go where we choose to and have a walk more/ drive less lifestyle that many desire. My fear is that we are overplanning people’s lifestyles and when it's all said and done we will spend the next twenty years still trying to put that square peg into the round hole and arguing incessantly. Please, please, please, join the dialogue. We need to put our heads together and get this right.
