Mecklenburg County wants affordable housing for teachers at former school site
Mecklenburg County wants to build affordable housing for teachers and government employees on the troubled site of a former south Charlotte school.
Staff pitched county commissioners at the board’s Tuesday meeting on the idea of building 100 to 300 multi-family housing units on about 8 acres of land that formerly housed Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ Smith Family Center off Tyvola Road.
Earlier this year, parents raised concerns about the state of the empty building.
Tuesday’s presentation included limited details on the timeline for the project and how much it will cost, but commissioners were largely supportive of the pitch.
“I know this is not going to solve the affordable housing crisis, but it’s just one little step to what we can do,” Commissioner Laura Meier, whose District 5 includes the site, said.
History of the Smith Family Center
The CMS board voted in late April to approve selling the property to the county for $4.5 million to be redeveloped for affordable housing, with an agreement that 20% of the new housing would be for teachers. The agreement also says the county will pay CMS up to $2.5 million for demolition costs.
The center, which sits on the same piece of land as the Collinswood Language Academy, was shut down in 2021 due to health concerns, years after it was converted into office space after previously housing the Smith Academy of International Languages. Staff who worked in the building reported an unusual number of cancer cases, and asbestos was found in the structure.
Initial plans to sell the property and demolish the structure never came to fruition.
Collinswood parents reported debris, drug paraphernalia and people trespassing at the abandoned building earlier this year. CMS said at the time the district would install “No Trespassing” signs and increase CMS police patrols and daily checks by the district’s building services team.
Mecklenburg plans affordable housing for teachers, county employees
Mecklenburg wants to designate the rest of the housing built on the site for county employees, county real estate management director Jacqueline McNeil told commissioners Tuesday. Any unfilled units would be made available to the public, according to the presentation.
“Our commitment as an organization is to do our part to position those who serve to rest their heads where they serve,” McNeil said.
The next step is for the district to demolish the existing structures on the land while the county looks for a developer and other partners to collaborate with on the project. The county doesn’t yet have specific designs or a cost estimate, McNeil said.
At-large Commissioner Arthur Griffin, a former school board member, called the plan so far a “phenomenal” approach for unused district property.
“It’s been a long time coming from my perspective,” he said.
District 6 Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell offered a more tepid response, saying she could ultimately support the idea but calling it a “band-aid” as many in the community struggle to keep up with rising cost of living.
“We should be paying teachers and county workers salaries that they can live on in our community … It’s kind of like a backwards solution. But I recognize that other solutions are very, very hard to come by,” she said.
Observer reporter Rebecca Noel and former reporter Anna Maria Della Costa contributed reporting.
