‘Stop the madness!’ Charlotte residents, developers tee off on major city growth plan
To some, the rewriting and consolidating of Charlotte’s zoning and land development ordinances was a “great” step toward future growth.
To others, the effort has been a “gross” and “over-arching” attempt to deny personal property ownership.
“Stop the madness!” wrote a Dilworth resident opposed to allowing duplexes and triplexes in the neighborhood — one of the more controversial aspects of the plan.
Those were just a sampling of the more than 1,200 public comments in response to the city’s first draft of the Unified Development Ordinance. The 608-page document, released in October, will become the rules for what can be built where in Charlotte for years to come.
It’s a crucial document around development that will ultimately need to be approved by the City Council, likely in July.
The Observer reviewed over 500 pages of public comments posted to the city’s website. People pointed out everything from typos to gripes about parking regulations to clarifications on where small corner stores are allowed.
The majority of comments are still under review by the city. But around 14% have been recommended as changes to the next draft, according to the Observer review.
What does Charlotte’s UDO cover?
The document has drawn a lot of discussion around topics like stricter regulations around tree removals on private property and short-term home rentals.
The UDO also acts as the regulatory tool behind city policies like building denser housing, such as duplexes and triplexes, in areas previously zoned for only single-family homes.
“For neighborhoods (the UDO is) not enough. For developers it’s too much,” said David Walters, a UDO advisory committee member and professor emeritus of architecture and urban design at UNC Charlotte. “The fact that they’ve got lots of comments from both sides means the city has probably got it just about right.”
The city ended its first round of public comments on March 18. It will now revise and update the document before it will be open for further public comment this spring. The second draft could be released in two months.
Scrolling through the pages of the UDO can make the brain hurt for the average citizen who’s never heard of a setback or nonconforming lot. There are a total of 40 articles, ranging from rules about building gas stations to how much exterior lighting is required on certain structures.
City officials want to make the language easier to understand for everyday Charlotteans and developers alike, with images to help visualize development jargon. It’s also an attempt to consolidate current ordinances that were written at different times over the last 30 years.
Public input can help city officials as they figure out what direction Charlotte wants to go on certain big topics like protecting the tree canopy, said Alyson Craig, interim planning director.
“We’re trying to create predictability for both the development community as well as the neighborhoods,” Craig said. If a proposed regulation in the document isn’t practical, the city wants to know.
To a certain extent, though, the document has to keep its technical prose. It isn’t a novel, by any means, Walters said. “It has to withstand legal scrutiny,” he said.
One builder, 300 comments
Since October, there were 1,264 total public comments on the UDO. One Charlotte-area home builder and land developer Karla Hammer Knotts says she is responsible for 300 of them.
Knotts estimates she spent around 100 hours reading over the document and submitting comments. A large number of her comments were referred to the city attorney, she said, while about 15% were recommended as changes to the next draft.
Knotts worries that by the time the next draft comes out, there won’t be sufficient time to review the city’s changes before the UDO comes up for a vote. She also feels that certain articles contradict each other.
“Our industry comments are important because we do this for a living,” Knotts said.
While Knotts was eager to discuss her recommended changes, the city’s published comments don’t make it possible to see who commented — or whether the person was in the development industry or was a resident.
Of all comments, 363, or 29%, were not recommended as changes to the UDO, while 172, or roughly 14%, were recommended. The majority of comments, 719, are still under review by the city. Craig hopes to have responses by early April.
These numbers come with important caveats: there were not 1,264 separate commenters, as some people left multiple comments. Sometimes, people simply asked a question, rather than provide a recommendation. The city still recorded that as a not recommended response even though it was a question, not a recommendation.
Short-term rental regulations
By far, the section that drew the most comments was on short-term home rentals.
Current ordinances lack clarity around such rentals in what has been a growing part of Charlotte, according to a listening session on the topic held by city staff earlier this year.
There are about 3,000 short-term rentals in the city, according to AirDNA, a site that tracks vacation rental data. People have raised concerns about loud noise, trash and parking to City Council, according to Charlotte officials.
One way the city is seeking to regulate these rentals is by requiring that they be separated by at least 400 feet from any other short-term rental in certain neighborhoods. The UDO draft also includes rules around off-street parking and liability insurance.
Short-term rentals like Airbnb help to bring in more tourists and drive people to local businesses, supporting the local economy, especially during the pandemic, some who support the industry commented.
Forcing rentals to stay separated by 400 feet could create hostility between neighbors who both might want to operate an Airbnb, one commenter wrote.
“Additionally telling any one single family homeowner/landlord how or who they can rent out their own property is a major government overstep and infringement on our personal freedoms as property owners,” the person stated.
Another said they have eight or so short-term rentals around them. The situation has become “unbearable” as they have different people renting from Thursday to Sunday each week.
“It’s PARTY ON all four days,” the person stated. “All kinds of events, as many friends come to party, drugs , vehicles blocking streets, you name it, it happens. Theft, burglary, trespassing etc. etc. We are in our 3rd decade of living where we are.
“Finally get to retire and enjoy the grand kids. But these companies come in, lots of money, then convert the homes on acre lots to party central.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "‘Stop the madness!’ Charlotte residents, developers tee off on major city growth plan."
