I posted earlier this week about plans for a development on a large tract of land in the Aycock Historic District.  On Tuesday, architect Jerry Leimenstoll provided copies of the preliminary sketch plan to the neighborhood's Board of Directors to get it circulated within the neighborhood for comment in advance of our monthly meeting next week.

Jerry was kind enough to send me an electronic copy of the proposed site plan for the old Dunleath property, which is owned by the Deskalakis family.  For a clearer view of the entire site plan click here to bring up a PDF file.   On Wednesday this proposal will come before the Greensboro Historic Preservation Commission.  (agenda item here) That body must grant a Certificate of Appropriateness before the plan can be implemented.

Facing Chestnut Street are 16 two story townhouse units.  The townhouse layouts show a garage behind that is accessible from the rear drive.  Eight more of these two bedroom units are to the left of the planned park which extends all the way to the railroad tracks, which parallel Church Street beyond.  To the right rear of the development is shown a three story building housing 36 one bedroom condominiums.  The total number of dwellings in the proposed development is 60 units.

The property is Zoned RM-18.  Under this multi-family designation, the tract can be developed to almost twice the proposed density shown under the above site plan.  The entire plan, including building design, neighborhood setting, and open spaces must follow Greensboro's Historic District Guidelines. (PDF file)

Your comments and questions are invited.

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I just added Our World, Our View to my list of blogs.  I am reading it a lot.  Calvin Williams put up a post encouraging students to dust off their 'Vote or Die' t-shirts and pay close attention to the upcoming City Council elections. 

...guess what, this City Election is more important to your day-to-day life than any presidential election. Why do you ask, because these people are right here and they can listen to you...  A&T and maybe even UNCG are sleeping giants, 30,000 able voting bodies. Greensboro's population is only approx. 250-270 thousands. That is at most 12%, you think you can not cause change!...

He's right.  If college students would get organized and motivated they could have a major impact in local elections.  Bennett College has a saying around election time: "Bennett Belles are voting Belles".  And vote they do... the college even goes so far as to organize bus rides to the polls to facilitate the Belles' long-standing tradition of getting to the polls.

But Roch points out in the comments that A&T and UNCG's polling places usually have the lowest percentage turn out of all Greensboro precincts.  Calvin has his work cut out for him but I'm glad he is on it.

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N&R Update: Fire destroys apartment complex in downtown Greensboro

I know that Bill Agapion's (who? here and here) notorious Cedar Street flop house is probably home to some good people, but this morning's spectacular fire takes care of getting rid of one of Greensboro's most nagging problems.

I'm glad no one got hurt and hope that everyone this fire displaces finds proper shelter.  This suspicious fire has accomplished something the City has been trying to do for many, many years.

Personally, if I were an arson investigator, I would be questioning the City Inspections Department.  (kidding)

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Today's N&R carries an in-house (un-posted, grrrrr) editorial giving their take on the surprise announcements regarding the upcoming re-shuffling of our City Council.  They are not impressed with any prospects for real change: "Of course, this is more of a rearrangement than an upheaval..."

The editorial goes on to list three things that,"...the City Council race still sorely lacks...

"A worthy competitor for Mayor Holliday..."  True, true, but I don't see it happening.  Our mayor won so may points when he captained the successful push for no tax increases next year that even John Hammer of the Rhino Times will probably endorse him this go-around.

"A younger perspective..."  Although there is a dearth of the younger set in local politics, there are some good ones out there who ought to consider filing to run for council this time around. 

Notably, in my book: Jeff Nimmer who works for Kotis Properties.  Jeff ran a respectable at-large campaign last year and continues to stay up on local local politics.  Also, Zack Methany, is very active in Greensboro affairs and is an impressive guy.  Our own Ben Hwang is sharp, enthusiastic, involved and promising as a community leader.  My friend Dabney Sanders continues to do great things in the community and should get into poilitics up to her eyeballs.  Here in Aycock, Jacynthia Mitchell has expressed a desire to run for local office and will do a good job once she gets her feet wet by becoming more involved in local governance.

Fresh names and faces, which are few and far between...  Well now, here's a surprise.  "David Hoggard... may reverse an earlier decision not to run at-large."

Never let the editorial people at the N&R tell you they don't talk to the news folks for information.  After I made my Wednesday afternoon post on the shake-up, I called reporter Matt Williams to make sure they knew about the council reshuffling (I called the Rhino, too - but both publications were already on it).  He asked if these revelations might change my mind on whether or not to run.  I told Matt that the political landscape has surely changed to my advantage, but Jinni is still trying to get rid of cancer.

But, I won't lie to you.  I also told Matt that as soon as I heard of the game of musical chairs that some members of our city council were playing - I started re-considering my options.

Update:  I missed reading The Inside Scoop yesterday.  They provided and excellent overview of announced and potential city council candidates.  Also, we can now go back to believing that the N&R's editorialists don't talk to reporters... but they do read each other's weblogs.

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Our two local blogging TV photojounalists see a lot of bad stuff that happens in our community and admittedly become somewhat inured to much of it out of self preservation. However, a recent story they covered for their respective stations stunned both of them.  Lenslinger voices the hope that the couple who recently and brutally attacked convenience store clerk Marion McKinney needs to be put away for a long, long time. I concur. Warning: graphic violence and subhuman behavior depicted.

TVPhotoBlog here.    ViewfinderBLUES here

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Probably in an attempt at keeping me out of legal troubles on this here blog of mine, an attorney friend and neighbor sent me a link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Guide for Bloggers.  This plain English guide should be bookmarked by everyone who blogs as a handy reference.  Itmay have been posted around here previously, but even if it was, the guide is worth pointing out again.

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