Harvey Gantt, an architect, urban planner and former two-term mayor of Charlotte, N.C., was in Jacksonville Tuesday for a repeat performance of a presentation he made last year to the delegation that traveled to North Carolina on the annual JAX Chamber trip.
He addressed a joint meeting of the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and NAIOP, the Northeast Florida Commercial Real Estate Development Association of developers, owners and professionals of commercial, industrial and mixed-use real estate.
“You heard something in Charlotte you wanted me to say again,” said Gantt.
Upon graduating in 1965 with a degree in architecture from Clemson University, Gantt was hired by a firm that had a contract to develop a master plan for Charlotte’s urban renewal.
The plan was delivered a year later, he said, and Charlotte has revised its plans about every 10 years since.
Gantt said one key element of Charlotte’s success was involving the business community in the effort.
“It was important to get the movers and shakers to buy in,” he said. “If you’re a business enjoying the benefits of the community, you’ve got to keep it going.”
The 1966 master plan and subsequent plans led to a population growth from 200,000 in 1966 to more than 2 million in a 14-county metropolitan area.
Gantt said Charlotte maintaining its AAA credit rating allowed the city to issue bonds for infrastructure improvements, aided by federal and state subsidies. Building a 10,000-foot runway at Charlotte’s municipal airport in the 1960s also contributed to the city’s success.
“If you’re not growing, you’re dying,” he said.
One of the lessons learned is that creating a thriving Downtown is crucial for any city’s success.
“The core is the identifying element of any community. It’s the living room of your region,” Gantt told the audience at the Omni Hotel.
Mistakes were made along the way, however.
Gantt said after Charlotte’s Downtown retail migrated to the suburbs in the 1970s, members of the chamber of commerce visited Minneapolis to observe that city’s urban planning.
The group “became enamored” with a two-story shopping mall in Downtown Minneapolis, brought the idea home, and built one in Charlotte, he said.
It bombed. It turned out the concept kept people indoors in the urban core and actually degraded the shopping atmosphere.
“The mall denuded vitality and diversity on the street. We were left with second- and third-class retail space,” said Gantt.
He also pointed out that plans can greatly evolve between concept to completion when it comes to community acceptance. Gantt cited Charlotte’s light rail system as an example.
“When light rail ran over budget by $150 million, people hated it. They love it now,” Gantt said.
Based on Charlotte’s growth the past 50 years, he advised Jacksonville’s real estate and business communities to continue to work toward urban improvement. “You can’t expect to succeed all the time, but you have to keep trying. I can see the same thing happening here in Jacksonville,” he said.
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