On Tuesday, City Council voted to make some big changes to the Charlotte St. corridor in North Asheville. The biggest shift? The four-lane road will become three lanes north of Chestnut St., and a bike lane will be added. Other additions include sidewalk rebuilding, closing non-operational driveways, and creating new crosswalks to improve pedestrian safety.

The project is slated to kick off officially in July, but a new crosswalk will be added at the intersection of Baird/Broad St. with Charlotte St. by the end of this month. Read the full details of the plan here (final two documents).

The Charlotte St. corridor was named an Innovation District in 2014, which means that it was marked for redevelopment to spur economic growth. The City now wants to focus on it as a site of multimodal transportation development + livability.