Planning for multi-purpose greenways in Concord, North Carolina

Small towns across the southern Piedmont of North Carolina are experiencing rapid growth and encroachment from larger neighboring municipalities. Many of these communities are confronted with the tough issue of preserving the quality of the environment, while at the same time allowing development to occur. Greenways are an excellent mechanism that balances needs for both conservation and growth. Once considered to be just a vegetated linear area for preventative purposes, greenways have evolved into a resource that can meet the public’s needs for recreation, environmental protection, and alternative transportation. There has also been a shift of focus in greenway planning: from a single-objective paradigm of environmental protection or natural conservation to a multi-objective process that allocates greenways as a resource to satisfy the public’s demands for all three benefits. However, these exciting developments bring a serious challenge to greenway planners: how to delineate future greenway corridors so that all the many functions are properly incorporated and the potential benefits are maximized? In this paper we demonstrate, through a project for the City of Concord, North Carolina, that such a challenge can be met by using a systematic approach to greenway planning. With this approach, we identified future greenway corridors within the City of Concord that best serve the multiple objectives of environmental protection, recreation, and alternate transportation. These alternative greenway scenarios will later be used by the local communities, public officials, and planners as an information basis in their pursuit of a well-connected and balanced land development in the city. It is hoped that the results will be integrated into the city’s comprehensive land use plan.