University City Report (PDF) - Charlotte Chamber of Commerce

avid golfers can choose from The Tradition Golf
Club or Highland Creek Golf Club to fine-tune
their games.
With a top-notch health care facility
nearby and multiple options for every fitness
undertaking, a University City resident has plenty
of amenities to choose from when it comes to
leading a healthy lifestyle.
On the Fast Track
To the Future
One obvious signal of University City’s
transformation from farmland to fringe town is the
transportation infrastructure that has developed
to support it. With two major thoroughfares in
W.T. Harris Boulevard and North Tryon Street,
along with the development of the I-485 beltway,
University City is more accessible than it ever has
been. But even more changes are coming, and
they are changes that will position the suburban
community perfectly for the future.
Light rail arrived in Charlotte in 2007 and
has been hailed as a great success; ridership has
already exceeded long-term expectations. Now
the light rail service is on its way to University City
as well. The Charlotte Area Transit System’s (CATS)
LYNX blue line will connect the Queen City’s
uptown to UNC Charlotte, stretching almost 10
miles from center city to the campus.
Local employers, along with their employees,
will benefit greatly from the proposed expansion,
which is slated for completion in 2017. Soon it will
only take commuters a projected 22 minutes to
get from the university to uptown Charlotte. Aside
from the obvious business impact, University City
residents will also have a means of alternative
transportation to attend center city’s multiple
entertainment attractions, be it a concert at Time
Warner Cable Arena, a Carolina Panthers game at
Bank of America Stadium or a performance at the
Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. And students
will be able to travel easily between the main
and uptown campuses, while citizens living in
Charlotte proper who want to catch a 49ers game
will have a new transit option as well.
Eleven new stations are planned for the
expansion, which will extend from center city to
North Davidson, then follow North Tryon Street
(US 29) as it cruises all the way into UNC Charlotte’s
campus. With a cost no greater than the average
bus fare and trains running every day (and every
10 minutes during the weekday rush hour), transit
will be cheaper and more convenient than it has
ever been along the “Northeast Corridor.”
However, the blue line extension isn’t the only
major transportation change coming to University
City. The long-delayed completion of the I-485
beltway is another huge piece of the area’s
transportation puzzle. Budget cuts had delayed
construction, leaving a gap in the beltway in
northeast Charlotte. But construction to complete
this 5.7-mile void is already underway and is
scheduled for completion in 2014.
Along with finishing I-485, the construction
team will also tackle the widening of I-85 all the
way out to Cabarrus County and create a number
of new exchanges along the new section of the
beltway to aid the flow of traffic and improve
driver safety. The project will include cuttingedge
designs that have not been utilized before
in the state of North Carolina: a split diamond
interchange at Prosperity Church Road, a diverging
diamond interchange for Mallard Creek Road
and the conversion of the I-85/I-485 trumpet
interchange to a turbine exchange. Those three
endeavors will make entering and exiting I-485 a
breeze, keeping the flow of traffic steady on what
will certainly be high-traffic ramps.
Throw in the recent completion of the US 29/
NC 49 connector — which eased traffic for the
70,000 vehicles that pass through the quarter-mile
stretch of North Tryon Street between the end of
University City Boulevard and the I-85 exchange
— and an amazing transportation facelift has
already occurred in a short period of time. In
fact, the US 29/NC 49 connector project was
completed nine months early and under budget.
As stated previously, University City is exploding in
population and in the number of commuters and
visitors coming and going each year. Soon, all that
coming and going will be a whole lot easier.
Bright Lights, Little City
Whether you’re a resident living nearby or a
visitor passing through, you definitely will not be
bored in University City. The area has a multitude
©PatrickSchneiderPhoto.com
8
University City Report