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1. Planning for Integrated Restoration
The New American City is the
product of many minds with a shared vision for the future – to
create a vibrant, health city embracing its heritage and
celebrating its role as community, ecosystem and marketplace.
This vision is based on concepts embodied in the “Sanborn Principles,” a
set of goals established by a group of urban-design visionaries in the 1990s
as a foundation for sustainable communities. These characteristics balance
social, economic and environmental well-being, while recognizing the importance
of beauty and the need for continuous evolution in a changing world. Another
fundamental component of the vision is the “Values of Place,” a
set of precepts embodying the essence of timeless design, human-centered building
and personal responsibility.
2. Regenerative Land Use
Like many American cities, as North Charleston expanded,
its population density decreased and the everyday processes of life became
increasingly segregated – areas
for shopping, business, residences, recreation and civic functions were increasingly
grouped together and separated by distances that demanded car travel or other
transit options.
The Noisette plan encourages increased density, walking-distance access between
neighborhoods and city/commercial resources, improved and integrated city/regional
transit options, reduced and slower traffic flow, expanded open space and recreational
options, and reestablishment of community links to major environmental assets
like the Cooper River.
3. Restoring Natural Systems
The long-neglected ecological systems that exist in the Noisette project site
are to be restored, enhanced and in many cases, expanded. The plan is based
on the ecological balance that existed for millennia before the arrival of
European settlement. Goals include restoration of a healthy watershed, reintroduction
of native plants most suitable to the natural scheme, and introducion of innovative
features to control run-off, expand habitat, and integrate the natural world
into the everyday life of residents.
Features of the plan include things residents can do, like establishing backyard
rain gardens, reusing collected rainwater, and reestablishing “bio-buffers” of
native landscaping. Other aspects include converting drainage ditches to water-filtering
bio-swales, minimizing impervious paved areas, integrating roadway buffers
and median green-spaces, and allowing “reclaimed” marshlands to
revert to their natural state.
4. Restoring the Connections
Two major watersheds are the 4,700-acre Filbin Creek
and 1,400-acre Noisette Creek. Through efforts outlined in the Natural Systems
section, citizens of the community will become stewards of the environment
who promote the “green
infrastructure” for the use of people and wildlife.
In addition, establishment of multi-use recreational trails, a major river-side
park and a green space network will provide a natural link between neighborhoods
and the myriad of community destinations: schools, commercial areas, workplaces,
parks and the Cooper River. Other aspects of the plan will help integrate utilities
for more efficiency, expand transit options to reduce car use and pollution,
reduce and recycle waste, and build communications links to help connect the
area with the rapidly changing future of the information age.
5. Neighborhoods as Catalysts for Change
The Noisette planning team worked exhaustively with
representatives of neighborhood groups to develop plans that would define and
restore neighborhood character while expanding community resource access and
strengthening overall cohesiveness. Some neighborhoods will see substantial
change, like the Century Oaks area. This city-owned collection of pre-fab shacks
was built as a short-term solution to house the influx of shipyard workers
during World War II. These decaying structures will be replaced by a totally
new, “green-house” neighborhood.
Other neighborhoods will be little changed, although each will benefit from
activities like infrastructure improvements and restoration of natural systems.
Commercial areas will evolve into more pedestrian-friendly centers. Small commercial
additions will bring shopping closer to isolated neighborhoods. In general,
wide, high-speed corridors will be restructured to encourage neighborly interaction,
community commerce and enjoyment of green spaces.
Schools and municipal buildings will also see changes. By integrating functions,
each will assume a wider role in the community. Schools will become community
centers supporting adult education, libraries, meetings and other off-hours
activities in addition to their current functions. And the services that connect
neighborhoods to these centers will also be integrated – for example,
school bus routes and other mass transit options will merge into a service
network serving people of all ages.
6. River Center at Noisette
The 400-acre parcel of the old Navy base, transferred to the Noisette Company
in exchange for their overall master planning efforts, is the only area of
the project over which the company has direct responsibility. It includes many
historic structures, river-front access and major environmental features scheduled
for restoration.
Under the Master Plan, the company will develop this property into a high-density,
mixed use residential/commercial/civic center that will serve as both an economic
engine for the community and a social/cultural center. Commercial tenants will
be aggregated by similarities of need, size and style. This will provide both
an exciting, innovative environment for company growth, as well as a magnate
to attract new entrepreneurs and jobs to the area.
7. Project Phasing
The Master Plan timetable stretches well into coming
two decades. Funded by mechanisms like tax-incremental financing, the city’s portion of the
plan will proceed at a pace dictated by city planners, budgets and initiative.
Funded through TIF and other sources, the Noisette Company’s development
of base properties will proceed on an independent timetable.
8. Initiatives and Strategies
This section details strategies in arts integration, high performance schools,
historic preservation, economic revitalization, TIF utilization and other initiatives.
It outlines the institutional framework that will drive long-term plan implementation
and it reviews some of the challenges of economic revitalization that are already
at work in the Noisette community.
9. Benchmarks
Creating a livable, sustainable community with sound
economic prospects and a strong relation to the environment is a process measured
by many yardsticks. Concepts linclude quality homes, environmental/energy design
and a “learning
organism” that improves its performance as each decision is made and
implemented.
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