Preservation Greensboro News
PGI Opposes Large Project in District
26 October 2006 - A large scale project slated for the heart of the College Hill Historic District has met opposition from several community groups, including Preservation Greensboro Incorporated (PGI). The three-story, mixed use proposal includes retail, office, and residential uses on the corner of Mendenhall and Spring Garden streets. Four frame structures over 100 years old occupy the site and would be destroyed to make way for the new construction. An adjacent brick building, erected around 1895 as the West Side Fire House Company, would be retained.
The developer, Larry Wallace, has filed plans with the city of Greensboro for rezoning which would allow denser use of the land than currently allowed. He hopes to pass quickly through design review with the Greensboro Historic District Commission to begin construction in January. The building will contain 6,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, 12,000 square feet of office space on the second floor, and 20 apartments on the third floor. Two levels of parking would be provided.
"Though mixed-use development is a welcome addition to Greensboro, this project is out of scale to the College Hill district, and does not respect the existing historic buildings that give the neighborhood its intimate character and personality" says Benjamin Briggs, executive director of PGI. "There are four 100-year-old buildings on the site, and Greensboro has too few buildings of that vintage anymore. We just can't afford to lose any more, especially those located at the heart of our first historic district."
The College Hill Historic District was established at the request of neighborhood landowners in 1980 as Greensboro's first historic district. The neighborhood contains a blend of historic properties, including houses that date to the 1840s. The neighborhood is located between Greensboro College, UNCG, and downtown.
"This would be a very bad precedent, in my opinion, both on preservation and zoning levels," says Marsh Prause, a PGI board member, "because while quality, mixed-use infill is desirable from planning and neighborhood perspectives in the center city neighborhoods, it should be limited to sites where it does not displace existing historic, detached residential resources....this sort of thing could be done with far less impact on a number of vacant and/or industrial tracts within a stone's throw of this location..."
Preservation Greensboro Incorporated is a nonprofit membership organization that helps protect treasured historic and architecturally significant places. Established in 1966, PGI's programs range from educational seminars and walking tours to annual awards, children's activities and the news magazine, Landmarks. Its subsidiary organizations include the Preservation Revolving Fund, Architectural Salvage of Greensboro, Blandwood Mansion and Museum Shop, the Blandwood Carriage House, and the Blandwood Ball.