Charlotte's North Tryon Vision Plan Focuses on People, Not Cars

The North Tryon Vision Plan is moving the city of Charlotte creating a new model for planning in the downtown core compared to the car-centric mode of the 20th century planning.

"In a part of town that houses old churches, the main branch of the library and the NFL and NBA stadiums — plus all the surface parking lots that come with that — the city has designated a 60-acre, 50-square block area as a place for modern, urban redesign, dubbed the North Tryon Vision Plan," according to Daniel J. McGraw.

"The plan prioritizes walkable areas, a shrunken complete-streets grid, limited underground parking, play parks, and other small gathering places built for people and not their cars."

According to McGraw's take on the North Tryon Vision Plan, the city of Charlotte is working to do accomplish less than the reversal of historic trends that moved bedroom communities and office parks to the periphery, while leaving only office buildings, devoid of live in the evenings, in the central city. According to an Urban Land Institute study completed in November 2016 [pdf], Charlotte is the 50th most walkable city in the United States.

As noted by McGraw, the plan was released in 2015, but is still playing out for specific developments, such as the Hal Marshall Center and Spirit Square.