JHP served as lead urban planner for the Northside Neighborhood Transformation, partnering with a redevelopment team led by Columbia Residential under a HUD Choice Neighborhoods Grant to support comprehensive neighborhood planning in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The approximately 400-acre historic textile mill community, located just north of downtown and adjacent to Wofford College, was shaped through a community-driven process of workshops, design charrettes, and stakeholder interviews. The resulting master plan provides a reinvestment framework that respects historic character while introducing strategic street reconnections, traffic calming, and context-sensitive mixed-use development scaled to the neighborhood.
Northside Neighborhood Transformation
Project Details:
Client:
Spartanburg Housing Authority, Northside Development Corporation,
City of Spartanburg, and Purpose Built Communities
Location:
Spartanburg, SC
Project Data:
- 400.0 acres
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Challenge
The Northside Neighborhood faced long-term disinvestment, fragmented street networks, and infrastructure conditions that limited safety, mobility, and access to opportunity. As part of a HUD Choice Neighborhoods Transformation effort, the challenge was to create a comprehensive planning framework that could guide equitable reinvestment while honoring the neighborhood’s historic character and community identity.
Solution
JHP led the development of a community-informed master plan that translated resident priorities into a clear urban design and implementation strategy. The plan focused on restoring connectivity through selective street reconnections, introducing traffic-calming strategies, and identifying context-sensitive opportunities for mixed-use and mixed-income development calibrated to neighborhood scale.
Impact
The Northside master plan establishes a shared vision and actionable roadmap for revitalization. By reinforcing neighborhood character, improving mobility and safety, and enabling inclusive redevelopment, the plan supports long-term reinvestment and positions Northside for a more connected, resilient, and opportunity-rich future shaped by community input.
