Charlotte’s growth plan under fire from unlikely alliance of developers and activists
First, Charlotte City Council voiced concern about a long-term plan to guide the city’s growth, casting doubt on the possibility of approving it next month. Now, opposition and calls for a delay are building from communities across the city.
Just weeks ahead of the scheduled vote in April on what’s known as the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, the proposal is encountering resistance from nearly every stakeholder group: developers, affordable housing advocates and neighborhood leaders.
Some of the calls for a delay stem from criticism of one of the plan’s key provisions, which would allow for duplexes, triplexes and in some cases quadraplexes on single-family lots.
Housing and some neighborhood advocates want to ensure the community plays a role in development.
“Those longstanding, marginalized neighborhoods where displacement is happening — those neighborhoods and representatives from those neighborhoods really need to be at the forefront of what’s going on right now,” said Ismaail Qaiyim, chair of the Housing Justice Coalition’s political education committee.
Meanwhile, the area’s primary real estate lobbying group is pushing for the plan to be delayed by a year. Its leaders say the city needs to conduct further economic analysis, that their input isn’t being taken into account and that there are questions about the legality of several ideas in the plan, among other concerns.
The community outcry follows a heated City Council meeting this month, where a majority of council members were critical of how the process unfolded or of some of the plan’s measures.
In emailed responses to questions from the Observer, Planning Director and Assistant City Manager Taiwo Jaiyeoba said that City Council will hold a hearing March 22 and then determine the timeline for adopting the plan. The city will also host a series of small group listening sessions next week which are not live streamed, as well as convene a panel of community leaders about the plan on Tuesday from 12 to 1:30 p.m.
Jaiyeoba said city staff is still compiling comments on the plan, and will release a revised 2040 plan document after the public hearing.
If the 2040 plan is approved, the city will come up with development regulations aimed at achieving the goals outlined in the plan.
Why developers are concerned
REBIC, the Charlotte Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, has been circulating a list of talking points and meeting with council members to discuss its concerns, much to the chagrin of some community advocates.
REBIC chairman Alan Banks said some of the plan’s goals are in conflict with each other, such as having wider sidewalks and maintaining the tree canopy.
The city conducted a study to determine the fiscal impact of the plan on local government revenue. But REBIC is pushing for a broader assessment of how the plan could affect the economy.
Late Thursday, a surprising partnership of organizations released a joint statement: REBIC and Equitable Communities CLT, a group that advocates for addressing affordable housing and economic disparities.
Together they called for postponing the vote and asked the city to release the next draft of the plan as soon as possible, hold group meetings on its key issues and produce additional educational documents for proposed strategies.
Still, both supporters of the plan and even some of its critics say that powerful groups like the real estate lobby are using their influence to derail any attempt to give more power to those who have been marginalized.
Shannon Binns, founder and executive director of nonprofit Sustain Charlotte, which supports the plan, said the ”disproportionate” influence developers have had in Charlotte has created many of the social and environmental problems the city faces today.
The Housing Justice Coalition released a statement this week in response to REBIC’s talking points, stating that REBIC “stands against the interests of historically marginalized and economically neglected communities.”
Banks disputed that, saying that the group is worried that the city is promising policies that are illegal.
Affordable housing and impact fees
REBIC is questioning the legality of several ideas from the comprehensive plan that create additional costs for developers.
That includes impact fees, a requirement for affordable housing in new development and community benefit agreements, which are a contract between a developer and a community to provide an amenity that the community wants, such as a childcare facility.
The plan does not directly propose adopting any of those measures, but uses language like “explore” or “research.”
In North Carolina, local governments can only exercise power explicitly granted to them.
The state has not given municipalities the power to mandate affordable housing in new development, and impact fees in other North Carolina municipalities have been overturned by the courts or state lawmakers.
Local governments also are not granted the authority by the state to require community benefit agreements, said Larry Shaheen, a local real estate lawyer. Jaiyeoba said the city wants to explore the idea of using the agreements, but said development agreements between landowners and developers are already allowed.
Jaiyeoba said while the state legislature may not allow for all of those policies now, the plan aims to look 20 years into the future at potential solutions to managing growth.
“There is nothing illegal about proposing aspirational tools,” he said.
Community’s role in equitable growth
Neighborhood leaders also say their concerns have not been heard. And they say while the plan gives lip service to racial equity, there are few specific strategies outlined to actually ensure that development occurs in an equitable way.
“Just having general language does not equate to real power,” said Rickey Hall, board chairman of the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition.
Hall is helping organize a new group called the Charlotte Community Benefits Coalition. The organization is asking that the city convene a panel of residents and community leaders who are being threatened by displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods that would advise about the 2040 plan.
They also want the city to strengthen the language around community benefit agreements and create a formal process for neighborhood leaders to work with developers. Giving residents a say in changes to their neighborhoods will help democratize the development process, they say.
Qaiyim is also a member of the Community Benefits Coalition. In a news conference Friday announcing the formation of the group, Qaiyim said the 2040 plan and subsequent rewrite of ordinances is an opportunity for development to go in a different direction in Charlotte.
“It’s a chance for some of these broken promises for communities in west Charlotte, north Charlotte and east Charlotte, for these broken promises to actually potentially be ameliorated and addressed,” he said.
Jaiyeoba said the city robustly engaged with the community during the 2040 planning process, including with those who are lower-income, immigrants and people of color.
He said the city also focused on hearing from people who live in the crescent, areas in west, north and east Charlotte where many of Charlotte’s minority communities are concentrated. Jaiyeoba said residents expressed a desire to have equitable growth and a voice in the process, which is why community benefit agreements are included.
“The plan was driven by equity,” he said.
Single-family zoning controversy
The provision in the plan that has generated the most controversy would allow for duplexes, triplexes, and in some cases quadraplexes on any single-family lot.
Zoning historically has been used as a tool to perpetuate segregation, and policies like deed restrictions kept Black residents out of single-family neighborhoods.
Allowing for a range of housing types in single-family neighborhoods is one of many strategies to address Charlotte’s ranking as last out of 50 cities for economic mobility, Jaiyeoba said. And he said it is necessary given the city’s projected population growth.
Charlie Welch, president of the Myers Park Homeowners Association, objects to allowing multifamily housing anywhere in the city without guidelines. His organization is leading an email campaign urging council members to vote no on the plan.
“People look to the city to provide zoning and provide guidelines as to where certain things can be built,” he said. “And just to open it up to say you can build multifamily anywhere is of concern.”
Roma Johnson-Durham, vice president of the Howie Acres Neighborhood Association, doesn’t believe allowing duplexes and triplexes in single-family areas will reduce segregation in Charlotte. She pointed to the pushback from neighborhoods like Myers Park.
“When you have an entourage of high-profile attorneys that some of the affluent areas of Charlotte have to fight against this, they get what they want, but the little people, the working class... they’re going to end up having the (quadraplexes) in their neighborhood.”
Others question whether those additional housing types would be affordable without requiring it.
For example, a developer could tear down an owner-occupied single-family home and build a quadriplex that is expensive, said Mimi Davis, president of the East Charlotte Coalition of Neighborhoods.
J’Tanya Adams, program director at the Historic West End Partners, said the rules need to be written so that residents can, for example, build an additional unit on their property for a family member.
“It needs guardrails,” she said. “It cannot be slanted towards the developer.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 1:04 PM.
