Goal: Contribute to Charlotte’s economic viability by providing mixed-use urban places that include light manufacturing, office, residential, and retail.

Innovation Mixed-Use places are vibrant areas of mixed-use and employment, typically in older urban areas, that capitalize on Charlotte’s history and industry with uses such as light manufacturing, office, studios, research, retail, and dining.

Land Use

• Typical uses include office, research and development, studios, light manufacturing, showrooms, hotels, and multi-family residential.
• Uses in this Place Type also include retail, personal services, restaurants, and bars, and limited warehouse and distribution associated with light manufacturing and fabrication.

Character

• This Place Type is characterized by adaptively reused buildings and low to mid-rise single-use structures that are transitioning to vertically integrated uses in a pedestrian-oriented environment.

Mobility

• Innovation Mixed-Use places are accessible by higher capacity facilities such as arterials and may also include access from interstates and freight rail. Streets serve all travel modes while still accommodating large trucks along primary arterial streets. The local and collector street network is well-connected to serve sites directly and to provide good access to arterials. Truck traffic will use routes that do not impact neighborhoods or open spaces.
• Mobility hubs with transit stations, pick-up and drop-off areas, bike parking and share, and micro-mobility options should be provided within this Place Type to accommodate employees without access to a vehicle.
• Arterial streets support walking, cycling, and transit use by providing a safe and comfortable environment to reach transit stops, jobs, or nearby destinations.

Building Form

• The typical building in Innovation Mixed-Use places is an older industrial structure that has been adaptively reused.
• Newer office, residential, and mixed-use buildings typically have heights up to six stories in this Place Type. New buildings are designed with active ground floor uses to support a vibrant pedestrian environment. They have tall ground floors and a high degree of transparency using clear glass windows and doors.

Open Space

• This Place Type includes improved numerous open spaces such as plazas, patios, and courtyards that may include landscaping. Public open spaces such as small parks and greenways, and natural open spaces such as tree preservation areas, are also an important feature and should be included in Innovation Mixed-Use places.

Highlights

1. Active and passive community gathering spaces
2. Adaptive reuse of light industrial or underutilized buildings, embracing unique history and form
3. Regular rail crossings
4. Increased tree canopy