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A new public space opened on Tuesday in the Beatties Ford community.
The community space is built around a signature tree — a 16-year-old Nuttall transplanted from the banks of the Catawba River — located at the Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library and
Community members are welcome to use the space to relax, enjoy nature, have meetings, eat and more. The area includes a deck, fixed furniture, moveable seating and a swing. It also features a mural.
The project is part of the city’s Corridors of Opportunity initiative to invest strategically in six areas throughout Charlotte.
The Beatties Ford community, Charlotte Urban Design Center, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supported opening space.
In 2021, Beatties Ford Road corridor residents worked with the city to create a playbook that would identify the community’s needs, in which the community asked for an open space surrounding the library.
The Knight Foundation awarded the city of Charlotte a $225,000 grant to make improvements at the library and the intersection at Beatties Ford Road and LaSalle Street.
The space — roughly the size of an eighth of an acre — will also feature a sculpture.
A new pathway has also been installed to connect Holly Avenue to the Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library’s front door.
Charles Thomas, director of the Knight Foundation in Charlotte, says the space intends to serve as a “third space” for the Beatties Ford community.
“Open spaces are crucial to neighborhoods and districts like the Beatties Ford corridor,” Thomas told QCity Metro. “They let people gather [and] they provide a safe space for people to spend time together.”
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