Council Quickies: First Look at New Brookhill Village Plan

Charlotte City Council held a zoning meeting on Monday night, approving a few large-scale developments and hearing proposals for other votes to come in the future.

Zoning meetings are split into two parts: zoning decisions, in which they vote on whether to approve or deny petitions; and hearings, during which developers are able to present their plans, residents are able to speak in support or opposition, and council members are able to discuss before the decision is scheduled for a later date.

Monday night’s meeting included some quick decisions before moving into Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority Board appointments, then onto hearings, which included a first look at the new solution that aims to get something going on the long-vacant Brookhill site.

On the agenda: 

• MPTA Appointments
• Brookhill Village Rezoning
• Other Decisions and Hearings

MPTA Appointments

Monday night’s meeting started with the city’s first appointments to the new Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority Board, which will be in charge of choosing what transit projects get prioritized over the next three decades in Mecklenburg County.

The board has 27 positions serving four-year terms. The city is assigned with appointing 12 of those seats; the mayor appoints two, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance (CRBA) appoints another two, the Foundation for the Carolina (FFTC) appoints one, and Charlotte City Council appoints the remaining seven.

On Monday, council quickly approved the appointments coming from outside council: Wyatt Dixon and Lucia Zapata-Griffin (CRBA), Peter Pappas (FFTC), Charles Bowman and Christy Long (Mayor Vi Lyles).

After the first round of interviews with candidates who applied for the council-appointed seats, there were four applicants with six or more endorsements from council: Frank Emory, David Howard, Todd Collins, and Jocelyn Jones-Nolley.

Jocelyn Jones-Nolley checks the box for the minimum one transit rider that needs to serve on the board. Another of the candidates is a small-business owner, which is also a mandate according to the PAVE Act.

Tiawana Brown voiced her disappointment that nobody who was up for a vote on Monday was opposed to the transit tax referendum before it passed earlier in the month.

Council approved the appointments, with Brown casting the only No vote. They will vote on the final three appointments during an upcoming meeting.

Brookhill Village Rezoning

Council on Monday considered a unique rezoning petition in Brookhill Village on South Tryon Street. The 42-acre site is under a 99-year land lease that doesn’t expire until 2049, which limits what sorts of development can happen there.

While The Harvest Center has already renovated a number of units on the eastern portion of the site, the majority of the site to the west is vacant. Nobody wants to build on it because the land lease is up in 25 years so they can’t make any long-term investments but temporary uses like farmers markets, sport courts, etc. are not allowed by the current zoning. The new proposal would fix that.

The proposed Brookhill Village Overlay district would be created specifically for this situation, allowing for a mix of temporary uses that could be removed in 25 years. This would include “outdoor seasonal sales, temporary outdoor sales, and temporary outdoor entertainment.”

The city wants more improvements to be included, as many of the streets and other infrastructure on the property has been neglected for years, but the current lease holders don’t want to pay for it because the temporary development they put there won’t generate the type of revenue to justify that sort of spending.

Developers are working with city staff to find a compromise.

Though avoiding the construction of long-term facilities, the petition does commit to providing 100 residential units on the site that would be income-restricted to households earning 80% or less of the average median income (AMI) for the duration of the land lease, which expires on Oct. 31, 2049.

There are currently 89 renovated housing units on the site, rented out by The Harvest Center for around 30% AMI. Most of those tenants have lived in Brookhill for 20-25 years and are in their sixties. They will remain and any new units built will likely rent for closer to 30% than 80%, according to attorney Collin Brown with Griffin Brothers Companies, which manages the property.

Dante Anderson, who grew up in Southside Homes and lived in Brookhill for a short time, said the fact that the site has sat vacant for so long does not bode well for the people living there and around it, including Southside.

“I’d like to see something there within the 25 years left that can be dynamic and bring some energy and vibrancy that the community can utilize,” says Anderson. “We’ve gotten Eastland over the finish line, we’ve done that for east Charlotte, I would love to for us to do something unique here that will get this site over the finish line for the next 25 years here.”

LaWana Mayfield, on the other hand, said she would like to see specific language around anti-displacement measures as gentrification creeps in all around Brookhill from South End, Wilmore and LoSo “or whatever people are calling it now.”

Tiawana Brown said she’s excited to see the land finally get put to use but echoed concerns voiced by Mayfield and Renee Johnson about the 80% AMI commitment, which currently refers to a family making more than $90,000 a year, not all that affordable by most people’s standards.

Other Decisions and Hearings

Included in the consent agenda, council approved a petition from a nonprofit called Tunnel to Towers Foundation to convert a Sonesta ES Suites hotel on Forest Point Boulevard off West Arrowood Road near the airport into 117 apartments.

Tunnel to Towers provides mortgage-free homes to families of Gold Star veterans and fallen first responders with young children, building specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders while also providing housing to homeless veterans.

In hearings, council got its first look at a development that will include 73 townhomes and 324 apartment units across the street from Julius Chambers High School. Staff is not recommending approval because developers have increased the unit total greatly from the 157 duplex, triplex and apartment units originally approved in 2020.

They now want to build 397 townhomes and apartments, “reflecting significant increase in density … not compatible with adjacent residential developments and CMS multi-school campuses.”

A group showed up to voice opposition to the project not due to its density but because it would lead to clearcutting of the tree canopy at the site.

District rep Renee Johnson seemed supportive of the petition, saying that even with the increased destiny she thought the petition is more in line with the complexes that surround it than the original petition was when approved in 2020 due to development that’s occurred since then.

Council also saw a petition to build a Dutch Bros drive-thru coffee shop on vacant lot at the eastern end of the Hidden Valley neighborhood on North Tryon Street at Orchard Trace Lane. Marjorie Parker with the Hidden Valley Community Association was there to speak in support, saying, “We want economic development.”

California-based furniture retail chain Living Spaces wants to open a 165,000-square-foot showroom with a 2,000-square-foot accessory restaurant on Tyvola Road at the I-77 interchange. It would be the first Living Spaces location in the Carolinas. Council seemed supportive of the petition.