Nonprofit eyes S. Main 'gateway'
Apr. 24—HIGH POINT — A High Point nonprofit is spearheading an effort to try to transform part of S. Main Street into a "gateway" corridor.
The Southwest Renewal Foundation plans to use a $250,000 grant it was just awarded by the city to hire experts to design "complete streets" that would add features like wider sidewalks and environmentally friendly infrastructure.
Executive Director Dorothy Darr said having detailed engineering plans in place for the 1.5-mile stretch from U.S. 29/70 (Business Interstate 85) to W. Green Drive will make the city competitive in seeking future grants to implement the improvements.
She said the foundation is seeking another $250,000 in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant funding to hire urban design firms to develop the plans.
"The city of High Point approved the foundation leading this planning process," said Darr.
In her grant application, she described the rationale for the project:
"With buildings set back from the street, wide travel lanes, and limited opportunities for pedestrians to safely walk along the corridor, S. Main Street divides the community as an auto‐oriented, strip‐commercial highway."
The goal would be to revitalize S. Main Street and two streets that connect the corridor with the Guilford Technical Community College High Point campus and adjoining neighborhoods: GTCC Place and Vail Avenue.
Darr noted, "This investment in planning will take partners one step closer to reconnecting disadvantaged neighborhoods to S. Main Street and GTCC, which have been separated for decades by Main Street widening for automobiles and by the decline of adjoining industrial parcels, as High Point's furniture and hosiery manufacturing industries shifted abroad."
