Supporters of the Ignite High Point Initiative have put their imaginations to work lately.
They have been working to implement the revitalization ideas of Miami-based urban architect Andres Duany and his team of planners, engineers and other professionals.
Representatives of The City Project on Thursday showed the City Council several architectural renderings for possible uses of “the pit” — a vacant parking lot on W. High Avenue across from the High Point Depot that has drawn interest as a possible public gathering space.
The drawings — by High Point architect Peter Freeman — depicted an all-purpose site that could accommodate public events, artists and craftsmen.
“The idea is to create an incubation space for young people so we can entice them to come to the area when they decide where they’re going to live after university, and have an exciting place with night life and an arts district,” said City Project board Chairman Richard Wood. “We’re trying to put the infrastructure in place to make it a safe space. Pottery, art work, craft beer — there are all sorts of things folks may want to show and sell.”
The site would need a lot of work to make it suitable for just about any use. Currently, there are no plans to do anything with it. It’s one of several ideas The City Project is working on in advance of the Duany team’s master plan, which will lay out recommendations for revitalizing Uptowne, the High Point University area and the furniture market district.
“The idea is to really do this at a high level and engage students from the design schools and universities to come in and do competitions,” Wood said of the proposals for the pit.
He said the organization also is planning to solicit proposals from firms that could study the concept of “dieting” a portion of N. Main Street to one lane of traffic in each direction between Montlieu and Farriss avenues.
“It’s going to be a long study. We don’t know how quickly that will happen. The funds are available to bury the power lines and extend the sidewalks a little bit,” he said.
The city has not committed to doing anything with the road dieting idea, but some leaders expressed support for the general concept.
“If you’re going to generate that traffic we’d like to see in Uptowne or even downtown, for that matter, I suggest we look at the road dieting before you try to bring in all these businesses and then say, ‘We’re going to tear up the road,’” said Mayor Bernita Sims. “My suggestion would be, let’s really look at that road-dieting piece and how that would happen.”
Wood said another priority is to develop a master plan for landscaping the area in front of the High Point Neal F. Austin Public Library into a public gathering place.
Wood said the High Point Regional Association of Realtors has contributed $15,000 to commission a study of the concept and that the city may be asked to allocate $4,000.
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