What's The Continuity of our Neighborhood?

The new 2040 Charlotte UDO promotes "continuity" of neighborhoods. 

In other words preserve the character of our existing neighborhoods. Continuity the key word, can be further defined by style of homes, period of construction, streetscape look, type and age of trees and other factors.

One of the best ways to measure a neighborhood is by population density.  Charlotte's SouthEnd has 10 residents per acre whereas Mint Hill has an average of only 1 resident per acre. Clearly a defining characteristic (continuity) of both areas in the population density.

You would expect SouthEnd or NoDa to be densely populated and Mint to be lightly populated.

Using that same measurement based on the Neighborhood Profile Area (NPA) data for the neighborhoods surrounding the Gillespie Property we can quickly determine that the average density is 3-4 residents per acre. The total number of residents in 2020 was 16,565 living on 4,534 acres which calculates to 3.65 residents per acre.

The Gillespie Project proposal started at 1,100 units and 2,928 residents on 53 acres or more than 54 residents per acre. The developer then lowered the size of the project to 644 units which would generate 1,655 residents on 53 acres for a factor of 31. That is 31 residents per acre.

Keep in mind that the most densely populated apartment complex just outside the immediate area is The Arboretum Apartments with a factor of 11 or 1,497 residents on 136 acres. 11 residents per acre.

The proposed Gillespie Project nearly ten times more densely populated than the surrounding area. In fact it is even 3 times more densely populated than Charlotte's SouthEnd.

And that is hardly maintaining the "continuity" of our twenty eight surrounding neighborhoods that makeup the Piper Glen area.