January’s first LDC Luncheon (HBAGC’s Land Development Council) was packed with industry members all clamoring to watch and listen to an informative and valuable session given by Shannon Frye, Director of Charlotte Development Services. Her comprehensive overview helped clarify some of the changes being implemented and acknowledged some of the challenges developers and builders have been running into over the past several months. We are working to ensure that the City of Charlotte’s goal to simplify project submittals comes to fruition. Review and download the power point presentation here.
By clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each sector for county and city reviews, she outlined the key changes happening with the UDO Residential permitting process. Attendees were offered detailed illustrations in an effort to clear up questions and open a clear communication channel to support future engagement. This presentation even included an org chart to help make sense of the changes in roles and responsibilities. They’ve even created a central resource to locate “how to” guides and training videos!
Attendees were also pleased to see more details on the DSTAC changes, which acted as a refresher course and an educational mother lode of details.
Finally, a refreshed vision, mission and set of values courtesy of City Manager Marcus Jones was shared:
Our vision is to be connected, safe and empowered with opportunity for all.
Our mission is to be committed to exceptional service every day.
Our values, who we are, are to be collaborative, inclusive, trustworthy, reliable and forward thinking.
After a strong question and answer session, the meeting moved onto a presentation by Ward Marotti from Spangler Environmental who explained the WOTUS (Waters of the United States) new rules.
Review and download the power point presentation here.
My Take: Shannon gets it and jumped in with both feet as she wowed a crowd of builders hungry for clarification and information. Bravo to the City for their hard work in re-tooling the Design Center processes and being so transparent in the presentation. Shannon’s excellent understanding of the subject matter is only exceeded by her ability to translate it into logical, digestible details. In reality, Shannon along with Marcus Jones, and Alyson Craig have been eager to work with REBIC and we look forward to this leading to a better residential approval process. If you have any feedback after watching the PowerPoint, please, let me know!!!
Don’t get comfortable. The days are whizzing by and now that all primary candidates have filed for office, it’s time to dig in and learn. Here is a list of competitive primary races in our area for you to review, copy, and to share.
Candidate List – 2026 Primary Election
County Commission
(*Denotes Incumbent)
Mecklenburg County
At Large (3 seats):
Leslie Allen (D)
*Leigh Altman (D)
Nichel Dunlap (D)
Toni Emehel (D)
*Arthur Griffin, Jr. (D)
Sharif R. Hannan (D)
Heather Morrow (D)
Olivia Scott (D)
Felicia R. Thompkins (D)
*Yvette Townsend-Ingram (D)
District 1:
Jessica Finkel (D)
Morris (Mac) McAdoo (D)
Adam Pasiak (D)
District 2:
Monifa (Mo) Drayton (D)
*Vilma D. Leake (D)
District 3:
Phil Carey (D)
*George Dunlap (D)
Iredell County
At Large (3 seats):
*Scottie Brown (R)
*Bert Connolly (R)
*Brad Stroud, Sr. (R)
Brent Goddard (R)
Angela Wokatsch Matthews (R)
Lisa Meier (R)
Cabarrus County
At Large (3 seats):
*Ian Patrick (R)
James N. Bailey (R)
David Conrad (R)
Cason Gardner (R)
Alexis Hughes (R)
Krushani Patel (R)
Barry G. Richards (R)
Kristel Swayze (R)
Gaston County
Dallas Township:
*Cathy Cloninger (R)
Dennis James Stines (R)
Union County
At Large (3 seats):
*Melissa M. Merrell (R)
*Brian W. Helms (R)
Wyatt Dunn (R)
Sam Harris (R)
Elizabeth Lee (R)
Patrick Tyson (R)
NC House
(*Denotes Incumbent)
House District 89:
*Mitchell Setzer (R)
Lisa Deaton Koperski (R)
House District 95:
*Todd Carver (R)
Michael Thomas Kubiniec (R)
House District 99:
Veleria M. Levy (D)
*Nasif Majeed (D)
Tucker Neal (D)
House District 105:
*Tricia Cotham (R)
Kelly VanHorn (R)
House District 106:
Vermanno Bowman (D)
*Carla Cunningham (D)
Rodney Sadler (D)
NC Senate
(*Denotes Incumbent)
Senate District 34:
*Chris Measmer (R)
Kevin Crutchfield (R)
My Take: Many of these races will be decided in the Primary Election either because the opposite party fielded no candidate or because the voter registration numbers favor one party’s candidate so heavily that there really is no contest. That’s why immersing yourself now in the process and gaining a better understanding of the candidates is so crucial at this juncture. We’ll be back in touch with more information on specific candidates as we move closer to Early Voting which begins on February 12th, if you can believe it.
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