Charlotte, suburbs want new schools. Zoning rules make building them hard, CMS says

In fast-growing parts of Charlotte and the surrounding towns, residents want Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to build more and ease overcrowding. But complicated and widely differing zoning restrictions in the city and the suburbs can be a hurdle for CMS.

Approximately 60% of land in Mecklenburg County would require a conditional rezoning before CMS can break ground on a new school, district legislative liaison Charles Jeter told a school board subcommittee on Tuesday. That often means months of surveys, studies and hearings even after the district has acquired the necessary land.

Local planning boards told CMS that their rezoning process takes anywhere from three to eight months, depending on the town or city. But Dennis LaCaria, a former CMS director of facilities planning and real estate who has been brought back as a consultant, said that those processes can often drag on for much longer, throwing off anticipated schedules.

“There was a project recently where we got the rezoning the day before the shovels were supposed to start hitting the dirt,” LaCaria said. “That’s cutting it real close to where you’re facing a delay because we got the rezoning literally the night before.”

The rezoning process also requires CMS to complete traffic impact studies and subdivision sketch plans, as well as comply with various guidelines on requirements such as buffer zones, caps on mobile classrooms, and driveway access. Some municipalities impose architectural and aesthetic requirements, which can further drive up the cost of building with no direct improvement to the school experience.

Jeter used the example of a McDonald’s in Huntersville, which from the outside appears to have a second floor.

“It’s a fake window they’re required to build for aesthetic reasons,” he said. “Those are the types of things that we as a school district still have to adhere to. All those things cost time and money.”

The rezoning process gives municipalities the power to impose conditions for allowing a new development. After traffic impact studies are done, for example, Jeter said, schools are often asked to pick up the tab for road improvements to ease any changes to the traffic pattern there.

Schools of any type — public, private or charter — face these hurdles. Recently, Lake Norman Charter School was asked to invest $300,000 in road improvements as part of getting an expansion approved, Jeter said, which the town of Huntersville ultimately helped pay for.

These requirements end up holding CMS to the same standards as a for-profit developer, and board members questioned whether that expectation could be changed to expedite school construction, or whether certain requirements could be eased for CMS. Margaret Marshall asked how those conversations could begin.

Currently, numerous local municipalities are reevaluating their master planning processes, LaCaria said, updating guidelines and requirements for construction that are often dramatically outdated. That makes it the right time for discussing potential changes to zoning hurdles, he said, and board chair Elyse Dashew agreed.

“I do think this is a brief point in time where people really do want to work together,” Dashew said.

Board member Ruby Jones asked why municipalities have so many restrictions on where schools can be built. LaCaria said that often those decisions come down to concerns about property values.

“Different communities have different ideas about who they are,” he said.

This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 6:23 PM.