Plaza Midwood's Biggest Rezoning in Years Put a Streetcar Station on the Map. How Close Is It Really?
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
On September 21, 2026, Charlotte City Council approved Rezoning Petition 2026-028. It covers about 21.25 acres at 1100 Hawthorne Lane, the long-running Barnhardt Manufacturing Co. campus east of Hawthorne Lane, north of Central Avenue and west of Pecan Avenue. The land moves from heavy industrial zoning to Neighborhood Center. The approved plan also requires a new public street that will carry the CityLYNX Gold Line and leave room for a future Hawthorne Station.
That last detail is the one people are likely to repeat: a streetcar stop is coming behind Central Avenue. The documents support a narrower claim. The city has secured the land where a station could go. Nothing has scheduled a train to reach it. A buyer comparing homes near Hawthorne Lane should treat these as two separate facts. They may play out decades apart.
The approval comes with conditions written into the plan. Some are firm requirements. Others are left open on purpose.
| Locked in by the approved plan | Not addressed anywhere in the approval |
|---|---|
| Allowed uses include stacked apartments, office, retail, restaurants and bars, personal services, and fitness studios | Number of apartments |
| At least 20,000 square feet of nonresidential space | A developer or buyer for the land |
| Banned uses include gas stations, enclosed vehicle rental, and minor auto repair | Start date or delivery date |
| A new public street between Hawthorne Lane and Clement Avenue on a 73-foot right-of-way | What happens to the existing mill buildings |
| At least one acre of publicly accessible open space | When manufacturing ends on the site |
The right column is not an oversight. Barnhardt filed the petition itself and is both owner and petitioner. Bridget E. Grant of Moore and Van Allen represented the company. When WFAE reported the filing in May, company leaders described it as the start of a long-term planning process. Chairman and CEO Tom Barnhardt said operations would continue as normal for now, at a site the company has occupied for 125 years. Speaking on WFAE's BizWorthy segment, Ashley Fahey of The Charlotte Ledger said the leaders were quick to note they had made no firm decisions. She also called the filing significant. We found no reporting after the September vote that changes that position.
That leaves a site owner with a new set of permissions and no stated plan to use them on a particular date. Fahey described the full Barnhardt holding as 35 acres. It sits right behind Overton Row, the apartments built around the Thirsty Beaver Saloon on Central. In her words, an assemblage that large is something "you just don't see that anymore in Plaza Midwood or really any of the urban neighborhoods around Charlotte." Owners of land that rare rarely need to hurry.
The city's staff analysis, dated August 21, 2026, says the planned Gold Line Phase 3 extension will run through the site and that a future station will sit inside it. The same document calls Phase 3 a six-mile extension with 17 more stops. It lists the extension as being in planning, with completion marked TBD.
Funding is the next question. On November 4, 2025, Mecklenburg voters approved a one-cent sales tax increase, 52.28% to 47.72%. Forty percent of the new revenue is set aside for rail. CATS projected that the tax would raise $19.4 billion over 30 years and listed the Gold Line expansion among the rail projects it would fund. Being on that list secures the Gold Line a spot in the plan. It does not set a date.
When the vote passed, WFAE reported the rail projects in this order:
The same report said construction timing depends heavily on Federal Transit Administration grants, which are not guaranteed. It added that rising costs could push projects out of reach and that the full plan will take decades. CATS' adopted 2055 Transit System Plan describes the Gold Line extension as running from Rosa Parks Place to Eastland. Its public summary gives no opening year.
Put those together and the Hawthorne Station stands behind two larger projects. The first of them was given a best-case window of nearly a decade when the tax passed. That order reflects the plan as of late 2025, and it could change. Still, no source we reviewed puts the Gold Line ahead of it.
A transit map is hard to turn into a date. The neighborhood's recent projects are easier to read, because their delays are already on record.
| Project | What was announced | Where it stood at last report |
|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth, Central and Pecan avenues | Phase one by Crosland Southeast and Nuveen: The Rowe's 383 apartments, a 150,000-square-foot office building at 1710 Commonwealth Avenue, and about 100,000 square feet of retail | The Rowe was reported delivered in late 2024. WFAE said in May 2026 that construction had recently finished. |
| Commonwealth phase two | Another office building, more retail and parking, and a boutique hotel | As of September 2025, it depended on an unnamed office tenant signing |
| 1817 Central Avenue, former Midwood school | Ares Management bought the site for $18.5 million in October 2025 for a seven-story apartment building, with completion forecast for 2028 | The Charlotte Observer reported in June 2026 that the old school was being torn down |
Both of those projects had a named developer, financing, and a public plan. Neither had to wait for a rail line. Commonwealth is now drawing tenants. Scout Motors is putting its headquarters there, and in September 2026 the Charlotte Business Journal reported that a roughly 4,100-square-foot Postino is part of the project. Even so, its second phase was still waiting on a lease at last report. The 1817 Central project shows how loosely early numbers hold. The Observer put it at 314 apartments. Multi-Housing News, reporting on the same $69.4 million financing, said 341.
The Barnhardt site has none of those pieces in place yet. There is no developer, no unit count, and no financing, and it has a rail dependency on top. Fahey also noted on WFAE that the whole Commonwealth project covers less than half of the Barnhardt acreage. A site more than twice that size, with fewer commitments, is unlikely to move faster.
Some parts of the approval have already been settled, and a buyer can rely on them.
At the petitioner's June 23, 2026 community meeting, 53 people attended. Staff described neighbors as generally supportive. They raised concerns about design quality, preserving green space and historic elements, future transit and redevelopment impacts, reusing buildings, traffic, connectivity, and how long Barnhardt would stay.
The open space requirement changed after that meeting. The August 20 revised plan committed to half an acre of publicly accessible open space. The approved plan, dated September 4, requires at least one acre, either as a single pocket park or as a series of smaller public spaces. The plan also bans on-street parking along the future Gold Line street to protect streetcar service. It requires Barnhardt to coordinate with CATS on the alignment and the station platform.
These terms are attached to the zoning now. Whenever the site is built out, it will have to include an acre of public space, at least 20,000 square feet of nonresidential uses, a street wide enough for a streetcar, and no gas stations or auto repair shops. The approval answers what the site can become. It leaves open when that will happen.
For a buyer, the useful step is to separate what the rezoning guarantees from what it only allows. Here is a practical way to weigh a home near the site:
Is the Barnhardt site in Plaza Midwood being redeveloped now? Not according to anything published so far. The September 21, 2026 approval changed what the land can be used for. No developer, construction start, or delivery date has been announced.
Does the approval guarantee a Gold Line station at Hawthorne Lane? It guarantees the right-of-way and requires coordination on platform needs for a future Hawthorne Station. The streetcar itself depends on CATS' Phase 3 extension, which the city lists as in planning with completion TBD.
Did the transit tax fund the Gold Line extension? CATS lists the Gold Line expansion among the rail projects the November 2025 tax is expected to support. When the tax passed, the extension was third in priority, after the Red Line and the Silver Line.
What is the public benefit that is already locked in? At least one acre of publicly accessible open space and a new public street linking Hawthorne Lane and Clement Avenue, both required by the approved plan.
If you are considering a home within walking distance of Hawthorne Lane and want to work out how much of its value rests on today's block and how much on a future station, Jessica Grier can go through the petition documents with you, home by home, before you write an offer. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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