The Historic North End

With an area chosen, our next step was to envision what the North End could look like, with time and effort.  Several residents from North Third Street joined the group, and at LHOP's suggestion, Columbia contracted with architect Doug Phillips to create a vision of what these blocks might look like in the future.

Doug created a wonderful set of images and 3D models based on the actual buildings on these blocks.  He gave us tons of possibilities to think about, and some ideas for bridging the larger challenges.

On March 18, the Housing Steering Committee and Doug held a public meeting to share this vision with the town.  It was a packed house!

Doug made two points that really struck home to us:

• As head architect for Charter Homes, Doug gets paid a LOT to design new homes that look like the ones we already have. Our historic character is a real asset, and we shouldn't lose sight of that.

• Most of the houses in these blocks are solid; they just need the "three Ps" - porches, plantings, and paint.  

You can see the 3D walkthroughs of the corridor on YouTube here.  There are some big dreams in there, but that's what visioning is all about!

The other thing that this meeting solidified is that this neighborhood has to stay affordable.  There are lots of home owners in the area who will benefit from some rise in property values, but it's important that selling prices stay within reach.  Affordable housing is hard to come by in this county, and we don't want to lose what we have.