If you’ve always wanted to own a highway cloverleaf, this is your chance.
The City of Greensboro is selling the 1.6 acre cloverleaf from Summit Avenue to Murrow Boulevard for development.
The cloverleaf for sale is in the 300 block of Summit Avenue, northeast of 351 and 357 Summit Avenue. If you’re coming into the downtown on Summit Avenue, you can’t miss it – the cloverleaf is right before the railroad underpass.
The city is finally taking action to fix one of the biggest transportation boondoggles in the history of Greensboro, which has quite a few transportation boondoggles. For a long list of bad reasons, Greensboro decided to take the intersection of two regular old city streets and treat it like an interstate interchange complete with an overpass and cloverleafs to get from Summit Avenue to Murrow Boulevard or vice versa. As part of all this Murrow Boulevard, which only goes a few blocks to what is now Gate City Boulevard, was built with a wide median to separate the two little-used travel lanes in each direction.
No doubt it seemed like a good idea in the 1960s when it was done, but it effectively cut off the Historic Dunleath neighborhood and North Carolina A&T State University from downtown Greensboro with a sea of asphalt.
The recommendation in the Summit Avenue Corridor Plan was to demoish the whole thing and have Murrow and Summit intersect like most other city streets. The demolition and construction were to be funded by selling the land that was currently taken up with the unneeded overpass and cloverleafs.
The city decided against that plan but is selling this particular cloverleaf and has issued a request for proposals for those interested in buying the property and developing it. The development plan will have to be approved by the city, before the site is sold, and the city has a long list of requirements on how the site should be developed including: “The site should contribute to an active pedestrian-friendly environment, including sufficient sidewalk connections, appropriate fenestration and setback, appropriate landscaping, and street trees where possible. The site should create a pedestrian connection, not a division, between the neighborhood, downtown and the Downtown Greenway.”
There are five other “Desired Site Characteristics.”
The curb cut for the site will be on Summit Avenue and almost anything that is done with it will be more useful than the cloverleaf that has been there for the past 50 or so years.
Put Nancy’s desk right in the middle of it.
The costs to develop it far outweigh any benefits to the property. What a brilliant idea.
It almost sounds like you blame her for it. Nancy was less than 10 years old when it was made.
If nobody buys it, then it’s a bad idea that changes nothing. If someone does buy it, then it’s a win-win situation.
Literally, the worst thing that can happen is nothing changes. This sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
No doubt there were more than a few folks who opposed its construction decades ago. I’m quite curious as to what old structures they had to demolish in order to put that asinine thing there to begin with.
Any of you Greensboro lifers out there know?
The reason for the cloverleaf was that was going to be the first inter loop around Greensboro. Thus morrow boulevard was made four lanes. The development of the road stopped at old Asheboro street because the city could not get enough right of way through old Greensboro to complete. Another part was spring street and edgeworth street that resulted in many historic homes being torn dow.
Check the dates. Did the stoppage of the project coincide with civil rights activity at A&T? I wouldn’t be surprised if the result of cutting off easy access to downtown (which was vital then) wasn’t part of the decision making process.
I bid 1 dollar
On a totally unrelated subject, I went to a big box retailer yesterday. They had stacked up a display of 9.5oz packages of cheese-flavored chips. Retails for $9.99.
The cost of a few oz. of wheat and flavorings is only a few cents. The packaging & shipping alone was more than the ingredients.
Anyone who spends ten bucks for 9.5 oz of flavored wheat can never complain about having enough money.
I just blow mine on travel.
Whose brain fart was THIS???
You must know someone on the inside. I can’t say “fart” in my blurbs, but you can. Maybe I should say “flatulate”.
I am a victim. Some free money and a special disfutation will make me feel better.
Happier now in NC