Park Woodlawn Area Plan - Charlotte-Mecklenburg County

Part 1:Concept PlanNatural EnvironmentPark Woodlawn Area PlanNatural EnvironmentCharlotte-MecklenburgPlanning DepartmentGOAL:Preserve and protect the naturalenvironment, parks, treecanopy, open space, and naturalresources. Promote measuresto minimize the adverse effectsof new development on land,air, and water quality, andencourage the use of sustainablebuilding practices. Increase thetree canopy in the plan areafollowing the City’s adopted 50/50Tree Canopy policy, especiallyin the mixed use activity centerwhere the tree canopy is lowest.The Park Woodlawn study areais full of thriving neighborhoods;flourishing, well attendededucational, religious, and civicinstitutions; and highly successfulretail and business destinations.While these activities are essentialto the vitality of the area and toCharlotte as a whole; air, landand water resources must also beprotected in order to promote ahealthy balance and co-existence ofthe urban and natural environments.Improved access to the Little SugarCreek greenway and neighborhoodparks (Marion Diehl CommunityPark and Park Road CommunityPark); protection of the tree canopy;and impacts of redevelopmentactivities on impervious surfaceand storm water (including possibleflooding of Little Sugar Creek) weresome of the concerns expressed byarea residents and property ownersduring the planning process.The Area Plan seeks to recognizethe natural environment as anessential part of the community’scharacter, as well as to promotepolicies that serve to protect andDRAFT January 15, 2013Protection of the existing mature trees and increasing the tree canopy is a high priority inthe Activity Center as redevelopment occurs.enhance these resources. Creative,quality and responsible developmentsthat address the concerns of arearesidents, and are sensitive to thenatural resources in the area are keyto creating successful sustainablecommunities. The tools toimplement these goals are found inthese policies, intended to minimizethe impacts of land developmentand redevelopment activities on thenatural environment, while at thesame time allowing for continuedeconomic growth.Land QualityLittle Sugar Creek generally serves asthe eastern boundary for the studyarea. Little Hope Creek and otherstreams are also located within theplan area (parks and greenways areaddressed in the Infrastructure andpublic facilities section of this plan).The Park Woodlawn area enjoys amature tree canopy especially inthe wedge neighborhoods (48.1%52canopy coverage). However inthe mixed-use activity center it isa different story with a scarce treecanopy (13.0% canopy coverage).This is partly due to the fact that themajority of development in the areaoccurred prior to 1970- before treesave measures were put in place. Themixed-use activity center is impactedby development, redevelopment,and a general lack of green spaceand street trees. The environmentalbenefits provided by trees includeimproved water quality, a reductionin ground level ozone and otherforms of air pollution, and carboncapture and sequestration. Carboncapture and sequestration is a meansof mitigating the contributionof fossil fuel emissions to globalwarming, based on capturing carbondioxide from large point sources.