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The City of Charlotte Planning, Design & Development Department released its 3rd Annual Charlotte Future 2040 Annual Report. The annual report tracks the progress and efforts toward implementing the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan within Calendar Year 2024.
The report is organized into the following sections:
Charlotte Fast Facts – summarizes Charlotte’s population growth and new development.
The Vision – highlights the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan vision, guiding principles, and goals.
The Impact – reports on the progress our partners and their supporters are making to implement the 2040 Plan.
The Future – provides the short-term policy recommendations expected to be completed within five years, along with the associated goal and status.
For more information, please see the Annual Report website.
My Take: The City of Charlotte has released an annual 2040 Plan report every year since its adoption. Following the passage of the plan, city staff engaged the public in a two-year process to develop and approve 14 small area plans. Last month the City Council met and approved 7 of those plans and deferred action on the others stating that community engagement had fallen short and that additional consideration was warranted. Well, the fact is in this day and age, even with all of the technology and tools that we have to reach people, if folks don’t want to participate, they simply won’t. Apathy seems to be at an all-time high which may be part of the reason only 8% of voters across the state turned out to vote in the Primary Election and less than 20% showed up to vote in the General Election. So, holding up the adoption of plans because some residents don’t want to weigh in is not the answer. It’s time to move on. I’m looking forward to working with a new City Council to achieve passage of the remaining plans and to continue to work on ways to improve the development and building process in order to meet our growing housing needs.
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Details taken from the Charlotte Observer.
The Metropolitan Public Transit Authority (MPTA) board is now mostly in place. As of Friday morning, only Governor Josh Stein had yet to make his pick for the Authority.
The 27-member MPTA establishment process began following the passage of the referendum this last November which increases the county’s sales tax to fund future transportation projects. The legislation authorizing the referendum called for the establishment of a new board to take over governance of the Charlotte Area Transit System from the city of Charlotte and Metropolitan Transit Commission.
The legislation called for appointments to be made by and from the city of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, the county’s six towns, local business and philanthropic groups and state leaders. Appointees are required to have experience in law, finance, engineering, public transportation, urban planning, logistics, government, architecture and/or economic development. Board members will generally serve four-year terms, but the inaugural board will include some two-year appointments so that terms are staggered.
The MPTA will hold its first meeting this Thursday, December 18th at 6:00 pm. Here is the list of final appointments:
Todd Collins, CEO of investment and development firm Red Hill Ventures
Frank Emory, executive vice president and chief legal officer for Novant Health
David Howard, former Charlotte City Council member, chief deputy secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and associate administrator of the Federal Highway Administration
Jocelyn Jones-Nalley, chair of the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP
Cameron Pruette, Executive Director of the Freedom Center for Social Justice
Katrina Young, former Planning Manager for the city. Pruette was the only city finalist who described regular use of public transportation in their application.
Charles Bowman, former North Carolina market president for Bank of America
Christy Long, a former Wells Fargo executive
Wyatt Dixon, developer and REBIC member
Lucia Zapata-Griffith, architect
Peter Pappas, developer and REBIC member
Mike Bryant, Mecklenburg County Manager The county’s other picks were:
Julie Eiselt, former Charlotte City Council Member
Alysia Davis Steadman, small business owner
Justin Harlow, former Charlotte City Council Member and dentist
Ken Schorr, retired attorney
Clayton Sealey, transit rider
Bob Menzel, retired businessman (Cornelius)
Matthew Walt, financier (Davidson)
T. Anthony Lindsey, real estate agent (Huntersville)
Dana Stoogenke, town transportation planner (Matthews)
Brad Simmons, former Mayor (Mint Hill)
Jeffrey Robbins, CleanAIRE NC Executive Director (Pineville)
David Longo, CEO of CBI Workplace Solutions and chair of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance Board (appointed by the NC Speaker of the House Destin Hall)
Ned Curran, developer (appointed by the NC Senate President Phil Berger)
Here’s the link for details on the inaugural meeting: BOCC Special Meeting MPTA – Inaugural Meeting | Public Notices and Meetings Calendar
My Take: This whole project has been an incredibly heavy lift. Did you realize it took Nashville two tries and Austin three tries to pass similar initiatives? We are thrilled that we have gotten this far, but there is much more work to be done. Going forward we will be tracking and reporting on the progress of the Authority. When we think they are getting things right, we’ll tell you about it. When we think they are getting things wrong, we’ll tell you that, too. This is a huge opportunity for the residents of Mecklenburg County and ultimately the region. Let’s go!
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