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Smart Growth In Action: Southside Neighborhood, Greensboro, North Carolina
 The Southside neighborhood, a 10-acre revitalization project, is one of Greensboro, North Carolina’s first significant mixed-use, infill projects. The city’s Department of Housing and Community Development developed a Traditional Neighborhood District Ordinance to assist Southside’s redevelopment. The revitalization, just one-and-a-half blocks from Greensboro’s historic main street, transformed a blighted area into a thriving, attractive district. The community capitalized on a rich stock of historic buildings and public spaces to restore this downtown neighborhood.
A five- to ten-minute walk from the central business district, the development includes 30 single-family homes, 10 two-family homes, 50 townhouses, 10 restored historic homes, and 20 live/work units where business owners live upstairs from their shop or office. Some residences include studio apartments above rear-detached garages, providing another housing choice.
Southside incorporates a square as the civic center of the neighborhood and features a rotating schedule of public art. The neighborhood common, used as a community park, retains a canopy of mature trees. Greensboro contributed to the revitalization effort by installing new sidewalks, historic streetlights, decorative brickwork, and landscaping.
The neighborhood is a market success. Not only did all the rehabilitated and new homes sell out, but the neighborhood generates significantly more tax revenue for the city. Before redevelopment in 1995, Southside produced $400,000 in tax revenues. When the redevelopment is complete, the total tax revenue generated from the neighborhood will be over $10 million.
A new resident captures one reason for the redevelopment’s success: “Southside was the type of neighborhood we had been searching for-it provides us with the sense of community we crave within walking distance of all the services and amenities downtown has to offer. When we built our house two years ago we felt like urban pioneers, but now, with the neighborhood nearly complete, we know we made the right choice.”
Success is not limited to the Southside neighborhood; redevelopment initiatives, including housing and mixed-use projects, are expanding into adjacent neighborhoods and downtown. For example, the city received a Brownfields Economic Development Initiative grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to redevelop an area near Southside. These successes contribute to Greensboro’s downtown revival.
The EPA recognized Greensboro’s success by awarding the Department of Housing and Community Development its 2004 Built Projects Smart Growth Achievement Award.
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Conservation: An Investment That Pays from Trust for Public Land is intended to help agency personnel and community conservationists make the case for conservation as a long-term economic investment.
Based on the National Building Museum's exhibit, Green Community is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health.
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