Latest Charlotte growth plan draft includes changes to single-family zoning proposal
Charlotte leaders unveiled the latest draft Thursday of a plan designed to guide how the city develops over the next two decades, with changes to some of the most controversial provisions.
The 2040 Comprehensive Plan, first unveiled in the fall, outlines a series of goals, from preserving tree canopy to access to transportation, and strategies to implement them.
But the plan has drawn the ire of developers, who say they are worried that some of its proposals will increase the cost of development.
A number of residents, though, are worried about a provision that will allow duplexes and triplexes in single-family areas, which could accelerate gentrification or affect the character of their neighborhoods. Meanwhile, a group of housing and neighborhood advocates has pushed for neighborhoods to have more of a say in the development that impacts them.
The draft released Thursday includes clarification and changes to some controversial items in the plan. City Council members approved some of the modifications that made it into the draft in straw votes Monday — including the duplex and triplex policy, by far the plan’s most contentious proposal.
The revised document is available at cltfuture2040.com. City leaders are taking feedback until June 3, and will host a community conversation about the plan on May 27 at 5:30 p.m.
Here are some of the biggest changes to the 2040 plan.
Single-family zoning
The draft of the plan originally called for allowing duplexes and triplexes on all single-family lots, a proposal met with immediate pushback from neighborhoods. But its proponents say it will help increase the supply of affordable housing and reduce segregation.
On Monday, Charlotte City Council members narrowly shot down an attempt to drop the duplex and triplex policy from the plan. But they did approve changing the language from allowing those multifamily units on all lots to all “place types” where single-family housing is permitted.
Similar to zoning districts, place types guide land use in a particular area. The plan outlines a number of place types, such as neighborhoods, commercial and manufacturing.
The draft includes the wording council members voted for on Monday.
In addition to the place type wording change, it states that such housing types would be subject to site development standards such as residential lot size, setbacks, height, scale and parking. And it says that when the policy is implemented in vulnerable communities, the city will also complement it with anti-displacement measures.
In addition, the zoning will not change existing codes, covenants and restrictions associated with homeowners’ associations, according to the plan.
Preventing displacement
In the second part, which outlines strategies to implement the plan’s goals, city staff added a section addressing how Charlotte can mitigate displacement in areas experiencing gentrification.
The city acknowledged the role that the plan could play in contributing to gentrification and involuntary displacement. After the plan is adopted, the city will:
- Establish an anti-displacement stakeholder group, comprised of housing advocates, neighborhood leaders, community organizers, developers and residents threatened by displacement. The group will spearhead a study of displacement, which will look at the consequences of current and future public and private investments on neighborhoods vulnerable to displacement.
- Develop an anti-displacement strategy, including new and existing tools with greater participation from the community to address housing needs and protect businesses and residents threatened by displacement.
- Establish a displacement dashboard, which will include data on current and planned neighborhood change and vulnerability to displacement.
- Track and update equity metrics, outlined in volume three of the plan. They include access to amenities and essential goods/services, access to housing and employment opportunities and environmental justice.
The draft lists a number of potential tools to combat displacement, such as community land trusts, land banking, tax and foreclosure assistance as well as loans to help landlords and homeowners make renovations.
In a press conference the city held Thursday, Taiwo Jaiyeoba, planning director and assistant city manager, said the goal of the anti-displacement commission is to ensure that those who live in vulnerable communities where low-income and Black and brown people live are not displaced as a result of the plan.
“There are a number of tools in the Comprehensive Plan that we believe can actually protect communities from gentrification or involuntary displacement,” Jaiyeoba said.
Public benefits
The updated plan also provides more insight into several controversial strategies designed to create more public benefits in new development.
The original draft included language that allows buildings to be as tall as 20 stories in uptown, “or when developed with community benefits such as public space and amenities or affordable housing.”
Developers and some council members said the limitations could hamper density.
In the press conference, Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt said the council requested changes be made so that the plan wasn’t requiring a legal document for developing high-rises uptown.
“Of course we want new businesses to feel that they can move to Charlotte and build a building and employ people,” she said. “So in that language we wanted to make sure that it was expressed in the form of incentives would be desired instead of spelling out a community benefits agreement.”
Now, city staff has updated the document to say that buildings that are above 30 stories uptown “should” be developed with community benefits, and the same for those above 20 stories for other dense, mixed-use areas.
The real estate industry also opposes the plan’s suggestion of implementing community benefit agreements, which are contracts between developers and neighborhoods in order to secure public benefits such as childcare facilities or open space.
But a group of housing advocates and neighborhood leaders supported strengthening the community benefits provisions to ensure that people who have historically not had a say in development coming to their neighborhoods can participate in the process.
In the new draft, the city said it will create a Community Benefits Coalition to further study and “champion” community benefits. The city will work with that coalition to develop a menu of benefits that could be supported with community benefit agreements or incentives in a development project.
Developers have argued that community benefits are illegal in North Carolina. But Jaiyeoba said they are allowed as long as they are contracts between neighborhoods and the developers.
He said the city will not play a formal role unless public land is involved.
“We will have a facilitation role in terms of making sure that a community knows what’s coming,” he said. “So that they will feel that something is being done with them rather than to them.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 3:11 PM.
