One of the more significant development projects in recent Carrboro history may reach the Board of Aldermen soon- the Lloyd Farm property. Located across NC 54 from Carrboro Plaza and just west of the Carrboro Post Office, this is one of the largest contiguous areas of mostly undeveloped land left in Carrboro. Here’s the location in question:
On September 11th I attended a meeting on the project at Town Hall. Late that night, I forwarded some thoughts to the development team. Having not heard back from them, I’m not sure what they thought of those comments, which were mostly about how to make changes to the organization of the buildings on the site that tried to allow for maintaining the overall building program, but organizing it into a more urban pattern, as opposed to a suburban pattern.
The more I think about the site plan that has been proposed, however, the more I think an outcome similar to what the developer is currently proposing is going to be a missed opportunity for Carrboro.
Let me start simply- if this parcel is going to develop (and it is) then it should develop in an urban pattern. In the plan proposed by the developer, the project is largely organized around a very parking lot. None of the other buildings have any substantial relationship to each other; instead they have relationships to the car circulation features. This is a suburban layout.
Lloyd Farm Site Plan
The Carr Mill parking lot in front of Harris Teeter and CVS is a good example of what you might get here with the large parking field.
Carr Mill Parking Lot from Greensboro St Side (click to enlarge)
What would an urban layout look like? More like one of these locations below. Forget about building height for right now. Just look at the relationships of the buildings to each other, and the spaces they create or frame. I chose these locations because the Lloyd site is about 40 acres. Where I could ballpark estimate the acreage of the commercial core of these projects, I did.
North Hills, Raleigh – 21-acre core, 850,000+ sq ft. Apartments also.
North Hills, Raleigh
North Hills Beach Music Series
American Tobacco Campus, Durham- 22-acre core; 1 million sq feet office space, 10 restaurants, 90,000 sq feet of apartments
American Tobacco Campus
American Tobacco Musical Event
Birkdale Village, Huntersville, NC – 52 acres; 300,00 sq ft, 320 apts
Birkdale Village, Huntersville
Birkdale Village Streetscape
Birkdale Village Fountain
The Piazza at Schmidt’s, Philadelphia – 8-acres: 500 apts, 50,000 sq feet office space, 80,000 sq foot public space
The Piazza at Schmidt’s, Philadelphia
Piazza at Schmidt’s, Market Day
Piazza at Schmidt’s – From Above
Biltmore Park, Asheville – 42-acres: 276 apts, 270,000 ft class A office, 283,000 sq feet retail.dining/entertainment, 65,00 sq ft YMCA, 165-room hotel
Biltmore Park, Asheville Layout
Biltmore Park Event
Biltmore Park Main Street
I have additional more detailed thoughts on how we’ve arrived where we are with the Lloyd project, but big picture stuff first: What do you think of these places as inspiration for the Lloyd property?
I realize that it’s hard to get a feel for a community with images, especially areal ones. But the picture of the Birkdale Village Streetscape reminds me of a divided 4 lane highway that allows parking on the shoulders. It would be helpful if you could be more specific in directly comparing features of these other communities with what you are seeing in the Lloyd Farm proposal.
My opinion is that any new developments in Carrboro should be designed from the ground up with pedestrian and bicycle access in mind. New development should be giving clear priority to non-car mobility. I know you say that development of this property is inevitable. But is this development really in keeping with the stated aim of Carrboro 2020 to create high density accessible retail and commercial developement integrated with residential?
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