Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 07:42:41 -0500
From: Tom West
Subject: Meadowmont & Southern Village vs Pittsburgh
As Mike stated to the Pittsboro Town Board on August 12, 2013, he is not a Civil or Environmental Engineer.
Mike Watkins, who is a member of the small Pittsboro Matters group, did not like that the Lawrence group chose to “respectfully disagree” with his assertion that Preston Development is going to drop a Baltimore or Pittsburgh type city right next to Pittsboro.
What Lawrence Group went on to say is that Chatham Park is more in line with places in the region we are all more familiar with (ie Southern Village, Meadowmont, etc.)
As a Chatham resident my family and I have been to Southern Village to see a movie, eat in a restaurant, attend church, play basketball. We’ve also shopped at the Harris Teeter, eaten at the Five Guys, shopped and visted freinds in Meadowmont. None of these were nightmare expereinces.
The Pittsboro Matters group modus operendi seems to be to try and scare people. In this particular case, it is “OMG!!! There’s going to be a Pittsburgh right here in Chatham County!!!”
“OMG!!! There’s going to be a Southern Village or Meadowmont right here in Chatham County!!!” just isn’t as scary a concept to many Chatham County residents.
Let’s remember that Southern Village in Chapel Hill is comprised of 1150 residential units across 312 acres for a gross density of 3.68 units/acre. Some portions of Southern Village peak at 8 units/acre whereas other areas hover below 2 units/acre.
Meadowmont, also in Chapel Hill, is permitted for up to 1298 units across 435 acres for a gross density of 2.98 units per acre.However, the 22 million square feet of non-residential space requested is another matter.
To put this in perspective other large commercial development typologies:
* Regional Mall (e.g., Streets at Southpoint in Durham): –1.33 million square feet on 125 acres
* PNC Plaza Building in downtown Raleigh: 730,000 square feet
* Raleigh Convention Center: 500,000 square feet* Target General Merchandise Store: 126,000 square feet
* SuperTarget: 174,000 square feet
* SAS Building P (approved in 2013): 244,000 square feet
From the full Lawrence Group report at http://pittsboronc.gov/
BTW, Mike did anyone stop you from trying to move here from Raleigh? Did anyone tell you that a 2,450 sq ft home was just too big for you? Did anyone tell you that you needed to put some affordable housing on your 11 acres of land? Can we round up some people and come and picket outside your home? And despite the fact you pay your taxes and are probably an upstanding kind of guy can we start up a WatkinsMatters group to tell you how to live your life?