Manuals and Metrics

Building on the Equity Atlas developed in Phase 1 of the Comprehensive Plan effort, a methodology for measuring access to essential amenities, goods and services has been developed to help identify areas where residents and businesses may not have access to essential amenities, goods and services. The measuring of access to essential amenities, goods and services is closely linked to the bigger Plan concepts related to complete communities and 10-minute neighborhoods. The metrics to measure access to essential amenities, goods and services will primarily utilize data associated with the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer (QLE) tool that looks at the social, housing, economic, environmental and safety conditions in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The following measures are proposed to measure access to essential amenities, goods and services.

Access to essential amenities, goods and services is analyzed using seven measures:

• Proximity to Childcare and Early Childhood Education;
• Proximity to Parks, Open Space and Trails;
• Proximity to Community Facilities;
• Proximity to Fresh Food;
• Proximity to Health Care & Pharmacies;
• Proximity to Financial Services; and
• Access to Internet Service.

Data: Grid cells that meet the “opportunity” criteria for each of the 7 metrics are scored with a 1, while those that do not meet the criteria receive a 0. Scores are added to create a final Access to Essential Amenities, Goods, and Services score. The primary housing data source is Mecklenburg County tax parcel data (2019). Data is reported at the parcel level and aggregated to grid cells based on the centroid location of the parcel. The amenities, good and services data is from a variety of sources and is outlined in the data inventory.