Western Carolina University pitched carving out 35 acres from its main campus to create a “Town Center" for Cullowhee, in the Forest Hills/Cullowhee meeting last week. The idea is to create a new commercial hub that would bolster campus life, but being part of an "incorporated town" is essential for creating a "Town Center" development, Dr. John Bardo, WCU Chancellor told the meeting participants.
In the Town Center, building sites could be leased for mixed-use development, such as condos, as well as, retail shops, restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, and specialty-style grocery stores. The university would ask the new Forest Hills/Cullowhee town to adopt the university’s design for the Town Center. With blanket approval for "Town Center" as a “planned unit development” within the new city, the requested approval would be good for 20 years, thus eliminating the need for each new business or building to get individual approval from the town to build.
The "Town Center" concept is in addition to the revitalization efforts discussed for "old Cullowhee". If the town adopts either or both plans, the real winners will be the WCU students. They will finally get a college town.
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Hope this happens! This is exactly what Cullowhee needs and would help with our retention of students!
ReplyDeleteI think the town center would steal all the business away from the revitalization of the prettier though less convenient Old Cullowhee Road. Many in the community also think this though it is unpublished. The town center hides what the university really wants to do-bring in chain stores that local businesses can't compete or keep up with, thereby making it into a mall with condos/apartments. Many of us would rather see them pump money into Old Cullowhee Road because its prettier and would be more like a downtown than a mall.
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