Two For Tuesday | April 30, 2024
1. Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission to Consider UDO Text Amendment
Tonight at 5:30 pm, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission will take action on UDO text amendment 2024-043 aimed at curbing the use of Conservation Subdivisions for new development. This action will be to either recommend approval or denial of the proposed amendment. The meeting will be held in Room 267 of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center, 600 East 4th Street, Charlotte, NC. If you cannot attend in person, you can visit the City’s YouTube page to follow the action.
Passage of the amendment will effectively eliminate the use of this provision and is one of three interrelated matters currently before council:
- Conservation Subdivision Amendment – will result in less density and is currently scheduled for a May 20th council vote.
- Addressing the matter of Duplexes and Triplexes in existing neighborhoods – will result in less density, “Clean-up” Text Amendment 3 adds prescribed conditions to duplexes and triplexes in the N-1 zoning category (see page 15-2), public hearing scheduled for May 20th.
- Creation of a Compact Development category (to replace conservation subdivisions) – could allow higher density developments under certain circumstances, still conceptual.
We are encouraging Members of the Charlotte City Council to take action on these provisions simultaneously so they may better consider the big picture as it relates to housing affordability.
My take: I receive correspondence on a daily basis from members, colleagues, and acquaintances regularly pointing to one significant contributor to the housing affordability challenge we currently face – local zoning and regulations. Sure, interest rates are higher than they have been in recent years, but the median interest rate over the past 50 years has been 7.4% which is about where we are today. In our region land prices are up significantly but that’s a result of people relocating from other parts of the country where housing prices are even higher, crime is up, and putting up with all of that is just not worth it anymore. What we need to do is build more housing and increase density where we are able to do so. We also need to allow ourselves to be a little more creative as we consider how the future of housing actually looks. It’s time to get out of the two-dimensional planning world ruled by concepts and unimaginative design and enter the future. Here are three recent articles from varying sources across the political spectrum that illustrate exactly what I’m describing:
NPR – Housing Experts Say There Just Aren’t Enough Homes in the U.S.
Wall Street Journal – Young Americans Are Getting Left Behind by Higher Home Prices
Financial Times – What Texas Can Teach San Francisco and London About Building Houses
2. Around the Region Plus
- Mecklenburg County proposing development fee increases in FY 2025 Budget – In partnership with the HBAGC we are initiating meetings with key staff at Mecklenburg County to discuss the potential impact of these proposed fee increases. Here is the Land Use and Environmental Services Agency (LUESA) presentation that was provided to the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners on April 23, 2024.
- Gastonia Looking for Feedback on Micro-Transit Fares – The City of Gastonia will host a public hearing on a fare increase at its regular City Council meeting which begins at 6 p.m. on May 7, and will be held at Gastonia’s City Hall, located at 181 S. South Street, Gastonia. Additional information may be found here.
- Town of Waxhaw Proposed Land Reservation Text Amendment – The Town Board of Commissioners has introduced a Text Amendment 14-2024 purportedly to address reserving future school sites but could have the impact of curbing growth in an already difficult building environment.
My take:
- It seems like we go through this every year or so. Mecklenburg County proposes fee increases and points to the cost of delivering the service as the justification. What they don’t tell you is they never figure into the equation the fact that other members of the community, apart from builders and developers use services under that same umbrella and it skews the figures. It’s also more politically palatable to hike fees on development. If you agree this is good policy, see item #1 and consider re-evaluating your perspective.
- With the Gastonia item, we have another local government proposing fee increases. This time on transportation services. If you increase the cost, less folks are likely to utilize the service.
- We don’t know a ton about the Waxhaw text amendment yet, and we are in the field now working our contacts. What we do know, is that on the surface, it looks like this is another effort by a local government to exert an undue power to curb, slow, or stop growth without understanding the process and without regard for existing property rights. Call it what you want, but it limits the supply and drives costs up. Fact.
- The Tree Manual was posted less than a week ago, so we haven’t had a chance to conduct a full review. It does look like some of our feedback was accepted, which is a good thing.
- The recent ruling was a long time coming. Eight years to be exact. The fact it was unanimous among Justices with pretty varying perspectives, reenforces the fact that the leadership of the state with the world’s fifth largest economy, has lost their collective mind and this has unfortunately permeated down to the judicial branch. Today, the median sales price for a home in California is over three quarters of a million dollars. Dropping the mic now…
Rob Nanfelt
Executive Director, REBIC
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