CHARLOTTE, N.C. — What was once a place for students will soon become a place to live as county leaders tackle one of its biggest challenges: access to stable housing.
Mecklenburg commissioners gave details about the former Smith School site, which was purchased on April 7, near Collinswood Language Academy.
The school board approved the sale of the property to the county. Now plans to add more affordable housing is moving the idea one step closer to reality.
Their preliminary plan includes about 100-300 multi-family housing units with about 20% of those units set aside for teachers with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
The remaining units are prioritized for county employees.
"The county and CMS jointly agreed to pursue a path that would have a lasting impact on both organizations," a spokesperson with the county said.
As for what comes next, county leaders say demolition will be the first step.
After that ownership of the land will fully transition to the county, and staff will begin the process of selecting a development team to come up with things like timelines, designs and construction plans.
This is such a Stupid idea. This neighborhood barely manages the traffic from the school and the no left turn out of Flagstaff 24/7. They should have turned that property into line up for school traffic and get them out of our neighborhoods. City of Charlotte neighborhoods staff just called me a couple of months ago telling me they had numerous complaints about traffic in this neighborhood . They asked me what I had observed. I told them it was even worse before I suggested to Collinswood's Principal, and they agreed to route the evening pickups down Kentland, Londonderry to Chedworth, and then back down Chedworth. Prior it was spilling out into Tyvola both directions backed up, and cars driving down Londonderry the wrong way and even driving through our front lawns. Parked lane and two lanes of traffic on a 2 lane roadway. If they are going to do this crap they need to figure out a way to get the traffic out of Flagstaff on Tyvola with a traffic light. That might not even work because during certain times Tyvola backs up down past Baker from South Blvd. The commissioners get dumber every year. What a mess of county / city government. I did see one commissioner does not agree with the project. Good for her.
