Two For Tuesday | April 18, 2023
1. UDO Goes Into Effect June 1 – Four Text Amendments Reviewed
During last night’s meeting, the Charlotte City Council held a hearing on four text amendments related to the soon to be implemented Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). Since these were introduced several weeks ago, REBIC representatives met with Planning Staff and suggested revisions to the proposed amendments, some of which were accepted, some were not. This is the first round of changes that will likely be made over the course of the next couple of years. Here are the details:
- Text Amendment to the Charlotte Tree Ordinance – (1) Adds new requirements for collected civil penalties to only be used to further the purpose, intent, enforcement, spirit, and requirements of the Charlotte Tree Ordinance with regard to the use of collected funds; (2) Corrects numerical and roman numeral sequencing in Articles; and (3) Deletes two unintentional words in one sentence.
- Text Amendment 2023-056 – Amends the UDO for the use Landfill, Land Clearing, and Insert Debris (LCID) by (1) deleting it as a use permitted with prescribed conditions in all zoning districts except ML-2; (2) modifying the use in the ML-2 zoning district as a use requiring a conditional zoning that complies with the prescribed conditions; (3) increasing the distance between an operational portion of an LCID landfill to 50 feet from any property line; (4) adding a requirement that the actual fill area shall be located at least 300 feet from any Neighborhood 1 or Neighborhood 2 Place Type or an existing residential structure in any other place type; (5) deleting collector streets as a permitted primary vehicular access; (6) adding limited hours and days of operation for the use; (7) adding a requirement for a geomembrane liner and leachate collection system subject to state standards that is equal to or exceeds the state criteria for municipal solid waste landfill units; (8) adding a requirement that the use shall comply with the state groundwater well and surface water requirements for a municipal solid waste landfill; and (9) deleting the requirement for a zoning permit for the use.
- Text Amendment 2023-057 – Amends the UDO to allow Multi-Family Attached and Multi-Family Stacked development in the CG and CR zoning districts under certain conditions, and to modify the prescribed conditions for the principal use Drive-Through Establishment and the accessory use Accessory Drive-Through (formerly Drive-Through Facility) to limit their use in Centers Place Types.
- Text Amendment 2023-058 – This is a broad “clean up” amendment that corrects errors in the adopted ordinance and will improve functionality. This is the first of many such amendments that will be proposed over time. Click this link for a Summary Memo that describes the proposed language changes.
A final vote on the amendments will likely be held prior to Memorial Day as the originally adopted ordinance becomes effective on June 1st.
2. Adaptive Reuse Commercial to Residential Conversions Picking Up Steam
We definitely see growing momentum around the country related to adaptive reuse. In some cases, this involves office-to-residential conversions and in others office to other institutional uses. You may recall we started beating the drum on this back in November as one of our six strategies related to housing affordability, with the mindset that increased production of housing units would be a positive outcome.Since that time, we have had an opportunity to talk to a lot of folks who agree that we should see if we can make it work.
One architectural firm in particular, Gensler, has put a ton of effort into the concept. Click the links below to learn more about how these ideas could become reality.
Gensler Blog – What we Learned
Gensler Blog – Converting Class C Office Space
Gensler Webinar
Calculator Presentation
Rob Nanfelt
