A parcel of land behind Little Rock AME Zion church in Charlotte, North Carolina, remained mostly empty for nearly a decade before the congregation approached the city with a proposal.
The land sat unused while housing prices climbed and locals were being pushed out of their neighborhoods. So, the church proposed in 2018, why not develop housing there?
About six years after the project was approved, Varick on 7th opened 105 apartment units, half of which were designated as affordable housing.
“Little Rock has been a staple in this community for years addressing needs, not just affordable housing,” said the Rev Dr Derrill Blue, a pastor at Little Rock. “So we knew, because we had a longstanding relationship in this First Ward community, that this could be the next avenue we could take to address a community need.”
Little Rock is just one of several faith-based institutions in the US that are developing their underutilized land at a time when the country faces a deep housing shortage.
I’m inclined to say it has to be in Texas, but it’s likely in China.
It’s in Canada apparently, at this mall! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Edmonton_Mall
It has garage parking.
China has pretty good public transit. Although its cities have elevated highways and wide roads, they also seem to almost get a subway system automatically at a certain size (they apparently standardised one station design across the country, making construction simpler and faster, and have good geology for tunnels) and even smaller cities and towns have decent buses.
I mean, everywhere has better transit than the U.S.