Tonight was the presentation for the Carlisle Redevelopment Plan. It is quite detailed so I took as many pictures as possible so people can parse over them & evaluate them on your own time. Each element on the map is coded to a grid. I took pictures of both so hopefully you can match up corresponding items for more detail. Overall, the presentation was well done and we now have to see how the developers and borough responds. A few things that I thought were particuarly nice were the connected greenspaces over the developments. They are designed to have walking/biking paths through them. It would connect memorial park to hamilton school through these paths. They still reinforced that grocery and hotel options are the best fit for the Carlisle Springs Road property. A variety of housing was also recommended up to 250 units.
The borough now needs to look at the plan and decide not only how they want Carlisle to adopt some of these but what they want Carlisle to be known for. It would be great if Carlisle wasn’t just looked at as another shopping destination but a sustainable, connected community where people want to move to. Retail is obviously an aspect of this. Do we want to see a Sams Club or a Trader Joes as the grocery store? Is there still room to think about a Broad Street Market type co-op that would give more small businesses an option into this new marketplace. There are lots of questions we need to keep asking but this process is very promising so far.
One thing that I did take away is that this whole process takes into account what residents want but the big parts will always be in the hands of larger entities. That doesn’t bother me, but it does make me hope that the people here in our neighborhood don’t just wait for the developers to do it all for us. We can to make our community stronger and more connected even while these changes are taking place. We are still planning on adopting the Heberlig Palmer Tot Lot to upgrade facilities and grow food for our community there.
Carlisle West Side Neighbors 