Two For Tuesday | May 7, 2024

1. Recap and Takeaways of the Northern Mayor’s Transportation Summit and Forum

The recent REBIC hosted Mayor’s Transportation Forum held on April 9, 2024, which introduced the non-profit civic cooperative: The Partnership for Regional Cooperation, brought together 5 mayors from the northern Charlotte region, to participate in an open discussion. The Partnership, a newly created non-profit civic initiative, supports our purpose to encourage a collaborative approach to transportation solutions.

This first panel included Mayor Chris Carney (Mooresville), Mayor Christy Clark (Huntersville), Mayor Woody Washam (Cornelius), Mayor Rusty Knox (Davidson) and Mayor Bill Dusch (Concord). All of whom voiced positive support about healthy growth and the need to engage cooperatively on transportation issues. Touching upon a wide range of subjects, the mayors highlighted their opinions and priorities regarding their own local land use planning, bus rapid transit, fixed rail, and inter-jurisdictional collaboration.

The focus of the questioning surrounding the I-77 Express Lanes, which were privately financed and built – allowing the NC Department of Transportation to make major improvements to 26.2 miles of I-77 roughly 20 years of ahead of schedule, helped underscore the need for advocacy around private funding. It should be noted that in response to a question from the moderator, it was evident that many drivers are still unaware that I-77 Express Lanes can be used free of charge for HOV3+ in a registered vehicle.

REBIC feels it is in the interest of our members for us to stay committed to increasing the public awareness of managed lanes as a benefit for high occupancy vehicles on high volume traffic corridors and will continue to keep you abreast of advancements on this front.

To review the entire panel discussion, click here. Our intention is to continue to host these regional mayor forums. Stay tuned for the announcement of the next forum.

About The Partnership for Regional Cooperation
The Partnership for Regional Cooperation is a non-profit civic cooperative whose resources are dedicated to providing the advocacy, partnerships, and funding needed to address transportation solutions and support healthy economic development in the greater Charlotte region. www.theregionalpartnership.org

My take: We had a fantastic turnout for the event and with it came strong engagement. Transportation, which quite simply is just getting people and products from where they are to where they need to be, is one of the biggest agenda items as we continue to grow as a region. We need to remember that proper transportation solutions free us up to spend more time creating better quality of life for all.

2. Conservation Subdivision Option Debated, Compact Development Concept Moving Ahead

Yesterday the City of Charlotte’s Transportation, Planning, and Development Committee met to receive presentations from Brent Cagle with the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) and Alyson Craig with the Charlotte Planning Department. Craig provided a presentation that outlined the three-phase plan she is promoting to address certain deficiencies within the current Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). They have been broken out accordingly:

Phase 1, Conservation Subdivisions – Staff is concerned about the types of plans they are receiving and want to limit the amount and types of developments that utilize this development option even though this remains as the sole option to produce market rate attainable housing. Since the original amendment was filed, language has been added to increase the affordable housing incentive. Here’s the current version of the text amendment.
Phase 2, Compact Development Concept – This is being promoted as a “modern housing supply tool” with smaller lots and higher density development. The purpose is to increase housing supply to make up for the loss that will occur with the proposed changes to Conservation Subdivisions. Here is an early draft but additional changes are likely. A presentation will be provided to the UDO Advisory Committee on Thursday, May 9th and if all other future modifications are agreed to, Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the provision on June 24th.
Phase 3, Residential Supply – Additional proposals are being generated with future stakeholder gatherings in July and August which will likely include designers, builders, developers, neighborhood representatives, and other members of the community. Topics to be discussed will be more flexibility for cottage courts, more flexibility for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and greater allowance for stacked quads (2 up, 2 down) and townhomes. A text amendment that encompasses these elements could be ready for Council consideration by September or October.

During the course of the discussion, Douglas Welton, Chair of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission was asked to address the group and provide an update of the Zoning Committee’s action taken on the Conservation Subdivision text amendment referenced above. He informed the group that the committee had voted 7-0 to defer the measure until June 4th because they felt, as did many in the industry, that addressing Phase 1, 2, and 3 separately was not prudent and that all should be considered simultaneously to better understand the bigger picture. Council Members did not seem moved by the argument and plan to proceed with a vote on May 20th to accept the proposed changes to the Conservation Subdivision option.

My take: I appreciate the efforts being made by Planning staff to address some of the affordability challenges we have been bringing up for years. But, I still think priorities are misplaced here. I mean think about it in these terms. Phase 1 – Eliminate the singular best choice to create market rate affordable housing within the current constraints of the UDO. Phase 2 – React and quickly create a way to get things to look more like the Planning Department wants them to and provide more density so builders can still actually build and then sell their product. Oh, and while we’re at it, maybe those forced rear entry garages weren’t such a great idea after all. We should probably fix our driveway standards. Phase 3 – I guess townhomes, as the industry has suggested for quite some time now, are highly sought after products that provide an opportunity for those seeking homeownership. Let’s make it easier to build them.Housing attainability is a big picture problem with many different interrelated factors. Doing this with a piecemeal approach will lead to other unforced errors.

Rob Nanfelt

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Two For Tuesday | May 7, 2024

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