title
Commissioners Keigher & Johnson - County Manager - To Support the City of Gastonia Application to U.S. Department of Transportation's 2023 Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods (RCN) Grant Program
body
STAFF CONTACT
Dr. Kim Eagle - County Manager - 704-866-3101
BUDGET IMPACT
budget
N/A
body
BUDGET ORDINANCE IMPACT
N/A
BACKGROUND
The City of Gastonia is seeking community support for their application to the U. S Department of Transportation' s 2023 Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods (RCN) Grant Program to complete a feasibility study to cap the railroad ditch that runs through Downtown Gastonia, which creates a barrier to mobility, connectivity, access, and economic development to the transportation disadvantaged communities to the north. Over the last 30 years, the decline of the neighborhoods north of the railroad corridor is a direct indication of the lack of connectivity and accessibility. Postcard images from before the railroad was ditched show a level of development equal to that along Main Avenue today, but unfortunately, the character of this area today has been completely altered from its previous self. The range of uses that once thrived to the north of the rail corridor point to a vital and active collection of urban, mixed-use neighborhoods. The Downtown Gastonia Reconnector Project (Project CHANGE - Connecting Highland: Access, Neighborhood Growth, and Equity) was identified as a project in the NC-7 Corridor Study and Plan, completed in January 2018 by the City of Gastonia and community partners including the Gaston County Economic Development Commission. The Downtown Gastonia Reconnector Project is transformational and RCN funding is critical to advance this project by the completion of a feasibility study to understand the technical and financial feasibilities of capping the railroad ditch while looking to maximize public benefits by way of better mobility and connectivity and assessing various development opportunities.
Th...
Click here for full text