Downtown Charlottesville continues to evolve.
No matter how you name or brand it, the West2nd, neé Market Plaza, is going to reshape Downtown Charlottesville. More information on the project is here.
We noticed the sign yesterday morning when walking from Nest to a meeting; one of the benefits of walking and knowing an area is being able to note new things.
Sean Tubbs with Charlottesville Tomorrow, naturally, has the detailed story, and I’ll unfairly pull one quote from the story … bolding mine.
In late 2013, councilors voted to ask developers to submit plans for how they would use the site while maintaining public parking spaces and providing a new space for the market.
Four proposals were received and the council selected the one from developer Keith Woodard in June 2014.
Signer said the use of the land as a parking lot was not in the city’s best interest long-term.
“It wasn’t adding to the cultural base of our city,” Signer said. “It wasn’t adding much to our revenue picture and wasn’t helping with our housing shortage.”
Ok.
One thing I know is this – the congestion of downtown Charlottesville is going to 1) force people to walk/ride bikes to the Charlottesville City Market and 2) said congestion is going to provide opportunities for other farmers markets, such as the one about which I’ve heard good things in Stonefield.
Before we moved to Charlottesville, we made a few exploratory trips. One Saturday we decided to check out the downtown farmers market. This was about 5 years ago. We were totally flummoxed. The area is very unwieldly to visitors; our GPS trying to direct us to streets that didn’t really go anywhere, no indication of where to park, congestion preventing us from turning around. Once you kind of have a handle on the place, it’s not too bad, but that first visit remains a vivid memory.
I think that’s a reasonably fair assessment of Downtown Charlottesville … once you figure it out, you’ve got it, but it’s awfully intimidating for those unaware.
I had clients about 15 minutes late last week because signage and one-way streets were so confounding. I can see how that experience could be enough to deter someone from making a return trip.
I can see that … I had a client last week who was 15 minutes late getting to my office downtown because of the poor street signage and one-way streets. I can see how that experience could be enough to deter someone from returning.