Tuscan development and The Vyne

Background and opinions are flying about the planned Tuscan development, Duo at CBC, at the Merry Oaks Google group. The development has gone back to the drawing board because the city wants an extension of Briar Creek Road through the property, according to Tom Poston, Merry Oaks Neighborhood Association president.
Try Urban Planet forums as well if you're seeking details about other nearby developments. Posters there are discussing The Vyne, also at Central Avenue and Briar Creek, and how it has billed itself as a gated community.
The quote from The Vyne's website, under "Specifications":
--social space for gathering on the hilltop.
--Opportunities for unstructured play and other activities like picnicking, sunbathing and reading.
--South of The Lawn are lushly planted gardens with plants of a human scale that provide seasonal interest.
--The perimeter edge is softened with hedgerows informally planted with redbuds and dogwoods within a field of wildflowers.

Development updates along Central Avenue, from the Merry Oaks newsletter

The following development report is from Nancy Pierce, neighborhood advocate for Merry Oaks, in the winter newsletter:

The Renfrow property at 3200 block of Central Ave., across from Briar Creek Road intersection: The former Renfrow property, 8.9 acres across Briar Creek Road from Central Avenue, is being held after foreclosure by New Dominion Bank. A bank spokesman says there is an interested purchaser, but he can’t reveal who that entity is. The orange-ribbon wrapped trees are part of the land survey process. Basically, the potential buyer is ascertaining how many trees would have to be saved under the City tree save ordinance (not many). The property is zoned for apartments. Given the current economic situation, development is unlikely any time soon.

The Vyne at 3220 Central Ave.: The developer of the Vyne on Central at Briar Creek is out of business, like many other developers. Underground infrastructure is in for Phase Two (you can see the pipes) but plans for Phase Two are off.

Birchcroft Apartments at 3143 Central Ave.: Some Merry Oaks homes on Cosby back up to the Birchcroft Apartments on Central Avenue.
In October 2008, Birchcroft was sold to a real estate investment group identified by property management as “Alpha Atlantic Company” in Florida. It is being managed by LoMax properties in Greensboro (336-275-6212). Office manager on site during business hours is Kim at 704 536 3520.

Image from Google Maps, showing the intersection of Briar Creek Road and Central Avenue. Birchcroft is on the left on the north side of Central Avenue; the Renfrow property is immediately to the right of it. The Vyne development is not shown in the aerial. It is on the southwest corner of the intersection.

The Vyne: An update in photos

The Vyne, a complex of 99 flats at the corner of Central Avenue and Briar Creek Road, is becoming reality.
The photos with trees were taken on Jan. 12, from Central Avenue. Photos without so many trees (the top five in this post) were taken on Jan. 20. The top two are from Central Avenue; the following three are from Briar Creek Road.
Elevation map from Terraserver.com
Aerial photo from Google Earth, with the old Plummer house highlighted by a red square.

The Vyne: Update II in photos

Feb. 3, from Central Avenue (above).


Jan. 19, from Central Avenue (above).

Photos shot Feb. 3 detail continuing work at The Vyne at Central Avenue and Briar Creek Road. I've tried (amateurishly) to match a couple of the February photos with those from the same angles from Jan. 19, with two bonus photos from Feb. 3 at the end. Grading and other site work has continued since that date; that's why the bonus photos at the end are interesting. The old Plummer house sat on a bit of a knoll, as is clear from the Terraserver image in an earlier post. The site is more level now, with some elevation for that skyline view perhaps lost. Still, you can catch a bit of downtown's buildings framed by the dirt mover in the last photo. Big water or sewer pipes are stacked at the site now as well.


Feb. 3, from Briar Creek Road (above).


Jan. 19, from Briar Creek Road (above).


Feb. 3, from Central Avenue (above).


Feb. 3, from Briar Creek Road, with a bit of skyline (above).

Trees tumble at former Duo property on Central Avenue at Briar Creek Road

Here's a quick slideshow of some of the construction at 3223 Central Avenue, at the intersection of Briar Creek Road. The wooded property, once owned by the Renfrow family, will become a nursing home. No rezoning was required. The photos are from June 1.

It's important to take a good look as the Charlotte City Council considers a new tree ordinance. The property across the street, once heavily wooded with an old farm house, was redeveloped recently for The Vyne, which cleared land for three condo buildings. Only one building was built before construction halted.

Background:
February, 2010, news of the Duo property sale, including a Google aerial map of the property at 3223 Central Avenue.
History of the Duo and Vyne properties, including photos at maps of the topography.
A Charlotte tree study, from the Charlotte Business Journal.
Charlotte's tree loss, from The Naked City.
Pushback from developers, in response to tree ordinance discussions.

Briar Creek and Central Avenue: the land

Two images here show the topography and an aerial view of the land at Briar Creek Road and Central Avenue, where two new developments are going. Briar Creek (the creek) is in the upper left corner of each image.
A third development is nearby, at the corner of Briar Creek Road and U.S. 74 (Independence Boulevard).
Two highlights:
1. Road connectivity from the back of The Duo (outlined approximately in red) to Cosby Ave. in the Merry Oaks neighborhood would seem to require a heavy investment to cross a creek bed. It appears mostly dry this year, but a bike and walking path would live much more lightly on the land than a real road. The right of way is there already, for electrical lines serving the property. The developed area to the left on the aerial map is Birchcroft Apartments. Developer Rip Farris has reached an agreement with the owners of that property and says he'll announce plans for it later. It's lower in elevation than the Duo; the existing swimming pool there sits about where a pond was back in the day, old-timers say.
2. Specifications for The Vyne (outlined approximately in yellow) suggest sunbathing and picnics at the corner of Central Ave. and Briar Creek, within one's own fully secure gated, green community.

The development websites:
Industry 29 at Independence and Briar Creek. Slow-loading, Flash-heavy website. Large square footage compared to the other developments, close to a highway, relatively smallish parcel of land.
The Vyne, on the old Plummer property. Small condos, "green," gated community. High elevation in general.
Duo at CBC. Large parcel of land, heavily wooded and sloping. "Green" duplexes planned with more development later.

Images courtesy of Terraserver.

Update: The Vyne in pictures

Notes:
1. Photos were shot from Central Avenue and Briar Creek Road on April 12.
2. There are two car outlets, three lanes each. The one pictured comes out on Central Avenue.
3. The photo of two bulldozers has a teeny downtown building just above the horizon between the trees.
4. The largest tree had some leveling around it, reducing the original elevation of the property. Vines grow on that tree, perhaps suitable for the name of the property but not necessarily good for the tree.
5. A couple of willow oaks also remain on the property. They're slow to leaf out, probably because of last year's canker worm damage.

Update on the proposed Eastway division police station in Merry Oaks in Charlotte

Property on Central Avenue at Merry Oaks Road is being considered as a site for a police station for the Eastway division of the Charlotte Mecklenburg police department.
The department is aiming to build visible new stations and parking lots for divisions. Work has begun on a new building for the Providence division, on Wendover Road next to the Grier Heights community, and city council member Andy Dulin shared his opinion and a photo on Twitter recently that showed the work on the lot.



Without photos of the land before clearing began, it’s hard to gauge the cost of green space and trees.

So here are a few photos of the properties under consideration at 3517 Central Ave., 3507 Central Ave. and 3501 Central Ave. No rezoning request has been filed yet, but city officials expect to file in March with public hearing and a decision this spring and summer.

(Top photo: two lovely willow oaks at 3507 Central Avenue, likely outside any street buffer zone for the proposed police station. Next photo: Overall street scene, including oaks at Woodmere Condominiums, which are not affected by the proposal. Final photo: 3517 Central Ave., showing the old Phifer house.)

Merry Oaks and surrounding neighborhoods have lost tree cover in recent years because of development at the intersection of Briar Creek Road and Central Avenue, just a block or so away from the proposed police station. Photos and posts about that loss are in background links at this post.




Background:
Map and details from Merry Oaks neighborhood meeting, Feb. 17
More photos about the Eastway police station proposal on Flickr.
Photos from 3223 Central Avenue and the loss of trees during the development of a nursing home.
Photos from The Vyne, a condo development at Briar Creek and Central Avenue that stalled after the building of one building and the removal of trees.

Development updates

Steve Lyttle in The Charlotte Observer gives an update on development along Central Avenue and talks with neighborhood leaders and developers here.
(Link will die in two weeks likely).
Synopsis:
1. Sunnyside development at Hawthorne, (270 apartments) and future Faison development next to it (high-rise luxury condos).
2. The Vyne and Duo at CBC. Lyttle talks with Rip Ferris of Tuscan, but there's no mention of plans to change the design of Duo because of city requirements to extend Briar Creek into the land. Word has it that plans for Ferris to buy Birchcroft Apartments have stalled or ended.
3. John Nichols of The Nichols Company says the Plaza Midwood definition is spreading out toward Briar Creek Road.
4. Morningside Apartments: Not much new here.

Interesting stats:

"In Charlotte's 2006 Quality of Life Study, the Commonwealth-Morningside area was rated as a community on the rise. House values had climbed 15.7 percent since 2002, compared with a 1.2 percent increase for the city as a whole. Student performance statistics and crime were problem areas.

The student dropout rate in the neighborhood was 17.5 percent, compared to 4.2 percent for the city. And the violent crime rate was four times the city average."

Community police officers probably would be quick to give context to the violent crime numbers. The school numbers are another more complex matter.

Saving Charlotte’s trees: A Civic By Design forum

Charlotte’s Civic By Design forum plans a meeting from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10 at the Levine Museum of the New South to talk about how people can work with government and developers to preserve trees.

The event is free, with free parking at the Seventh Street parking garage.

The meeting planners list a series of events that have focused attention on Charlotte’s tree canopy, including the loss of the last remaining forest stand in Southpark and the removal of large shade street trees along Park Road for sidewalk replacement.

Closer to Merry Oaks and surrounding neighborhoods, the tree canopy has been whittled away through development at the intersection of Briar Creek Road and Central Avenue, with first The Vyne condominiums and then a nursing home.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police have also proposed a new police station at an entrance to Merry Oaks, on properties with stately willow oaks that are at least 80 years old.

No rezoning application has been filed for the Merry Oaks property yet.

Civic By Design, founded by Tom Low, is a monthly forum on growth issues in the Charlotte area. The Levine Museum is at 200 East 7th Street in uptown Charlotte.

Photo: Andria Krewson

Briar Creek and Central Avenue development update

Renfrow property
Doug Smith of The Charlotte Observer updates what's happening at Briar Creek and Central Avenue here. The link won't last forever, so here are a few highlights, from his reporting, with some background from The Merry Oaks neighborhood newslettter and neighborhood discussions:
Ray "Rip" Farris III of Tuscan Development has come to terms with the owner of Birchcroft apartments at 3143 Central Ave. next to Tuscan's planned development on 8.5 acres on the northeast side of Central Avenue, backing up to the Merry Oaks neighborhood. The first phase of Tuscan’s $17 million development – Duo at CBC – will be 58 duplex condos. The 8.5-acre site’s second phase of condos will “push the architectural envelope," but details won’t be unveiled until duplexes sell out, he said.
Farris said it's too early to be specific about plans for the Birchcroft site, but “I can say our project is getting ready to triple in size and offer a diverse range of elements.”
Of course, a Flash website has been created for the project. It just provides a form to sign up for email alerts.
Details: two-and three-bedroom duplex condos. Five have been sold. Price: $200,000 to $240,000, Building exteriors mainly in natural wood. Extensive use of sustainable materials, “rain chains” instead of gutters, optional upgrades of bamboo floors and carpet tile from recycled materials. Architect: BB+M Architecture. Tuscan will start building a model unit in two weeks and finish it in the third quarter. Buyers are to begin occupying condos in about 12 months, Farris said. Sales: My Townhome Realty. Reservations to be taken starting June 13. Sales event planned for June 21 at The Watermark, 1355 Greenwood Cliff.

Topography: the front part of the Renfrow property is high, offering possible skyline views, as the Plummer property across Central Avenue could have done. A small branch, barely a creek, runs through part of it. Birchcroft is low, and back in the day included a pond, before the apartments were built, long-time Merry Oaks residents have said. It appears the pond was near where the apartments' swimming pool now sits. How that will affect development remains to be seen, but one could hope that if the project is "green," runoff and topography will be considerations. Briar Creek is within a mile of the development, and has been getting cleaner because of past commitments from the residents of Merry Oaks.
Interested folks can look at the area with Google Maps.
Connectivity: Questions remain about Tuscan's plans for connectivity with the Merry Oaks neighborhood. A right-of-way called "Myrtlewood" street or avenue previously went through the Renfrow property, connecting to Cosby Avenue in the Merry Oaks neighborhood. With beautiful new biking and walking trails near Merry Oaks Elementary and at the Merry Oaks Greenway, the development offers opportunity to continue that focus, so residents across Central Avenue and in the new development can access existing trail investments. In addition, safe, walkable paths for children would enhance the attractiveness of the elementary school to nearby residents. Several of the new bikers and runners of the Merry Oaks trails have been from the other side of Central Avenue or from Plaza Midwood.

Update on The Vyne, a 99-unit project priced from the $120,000s to the $180,000s, across Central Avenue: Citiline Resortline Development and Construction has sold 20 of 66 first-phase condos, said Citiline’s Tim Crawford.