Council Quickies: Balancing Housing Need with Traffic Impacts

Charlotte City Council held its monthly zoning meeting Monday night. 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.

With Marjorie Molina, Tiawana Brown and Tarik Bokhari absent, the council was slim on Monday night as they discussed topics ranging from whether housing should be built near the airport to cumulative traffic impact of all proposed development. 

Below, we’ve included some notable examples of both decisions and hearings from Monday night’s meeting.

On the Agenda:

• Zoning Decisions
• Johnston Oehler Hearing
• Zoning Hearings

Zoning Decisions

After pulling the petition from the consent agenda for a separate vote, LaWana Mayfield opposed a proposed development of more than 300 apartments to be located between Tuckaseegee Road and Queen City Drive in west Charlotte.

She cited its location in the airport overlay district and the potential that renters won’t be informed of the noise levels before moving in. She said she saw potential for another mass displacement event there somewhere down the road. 

As reported by Queen City News, the developers behind the proposed project were named in a lawsuit from NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson in January for conspiring with other developers using AI machines to raise rents on tenants, violating antitrust laws.  

Renee Johnson and Dimple Ajmera cited an email from district rep Tiawana Brown, which Ed Driggs later read into record, in which she supported the project. 

Despite originally sharing Mayfield’s concerns, Brown said developers and residents have worked together to address concerns, committing to installing extra insulation in the buildings closest to the airport to help with noise abatement. 

That rezoning was approved.

Council approved a rezoning that will allow for the construction of 38 duplexes (76 units) on Harris Houston Road between Astoria and Kempsford drives in northeast Charlotte near the Cabarrus County border.

Before moving into hearings, Dimple Ajmera brought up a disturbing incident that she said occurred to her on Monday before the meeting when Feven Negash, a developer for one of the petitions that was supposed to be decided on Monday night, showed up to her home “unannounced and uninvited.”

“This visit was startling for my children and my family members. I ask that going forward that everyone respects the privacy of each one of us that serve as we conduct the work of the people.” The petition in question was a last-minute deferral and did not go in front of council on Monday night.

Johnston Oehler Hearing

Council got its first look at a proposed development with up to 145 multifamily units on Johnston Oehler Road in northeast Charlotte. Based on community feedback, developers increased setbacks and buffers, decreased the number of units by 20, and committed to including for-sale options in the development. 

One neighbor showed up to oppose the development, citing traffic impacts and height among other reasons. He claimed that many other neighbors oppose it but either couldn’t make it or didn’t think it would matter because it will likely be approved regardless.

“The property owner and developer want to make as much money as possible, our motivation as a community is to keep the community [how it is] and I think it’s your responsibility as a council to act as an arbitrator for that,” said the resident. 

He added that it seems to him and many of his neighbors that the council’s priority is often with the people who are coming to Charlotte rather than the people who are already here. He also cited existing lawsuits against the potential builder, Mungo Homes.

James “Smuggie” Mitchell said he found it “disturbing” that a traffic impact study wasn’t triggered for the development, which is expected to increase the amount of trips generated from the property from its current 40 trips per day to more than 1,000.

A staff member said it would take 1,500-2,000 newly generated trips to trigger a traffic impact study, as per the Unified Development Ordinance.

Renee Johnson brought a map of all the development projects happening in District 4 to emphasize her ongoing point that council should be considering the cumulative impacts of all proposed developments rather than on a case-by-case basis.

She asked how many trips have been generated by all of the developments approved in D4 since 2022. A Charlotte Department of Transportation staff member said he didn’t have those numbers on hand, but, “We do have some measure of how much traffic has changed over three years … it has risen along Johnston Oehler.”

“I hear the residents that have emailed me, we’ve received numerous emails and the residents want to be heard because they’re not able to get out of their communities. So what do we as a council do in that situation?” asked Johnson “And it’s not holding the developer hostage, it’s what we’re called to do.” 

Johnson said she will continue to mediate the discussion between the developer and neighbors.

Other Hearings

The next rezoning petition involved the Bank of America Stadium property, with developers needing an “exception conditional rezoning” (EX) to carry out the upcoming redevelopment and expansion of the existing facilities.

EX rezonings are reserved for situations where “extenuating circumstances make meeting ordinance standards an undue burden” and are granted in trade for public benefit commitment in at least 2 of 3 categories: city improvements, public amenities, and/or sustainability measures.

Tepper Sports & Entertainment has committed to multiple public benefits in exchange for the requested rezoning including creating publicly accessible open space at a percentage above ordinance requirements to function as public plazas and festival spaces.

They’ve also committed to provide two pedestrian pathways: one between Morehead and Mint streets and another that is a continuation of a shared-use path from the practice facilities site that will extend from the existing tunnel under the railroad underpass to connect to Graham Street.

That petition was approved unanimously.

Council got its first look at a proposed Zaxby’s to be built on a vacant parcel in front of the Food Lion on Alleghany Street and Ashley Road in west Charlotte. The location would be similar to a Cook Out in that there would be drive-thru windows and a walk-up window.

Council also got its first look at a large-scale development proposed for David Taylor Drive in University City Research Park: 580 multi-family dwellings and a minimum 7,500 square feet of commercial uses on currently undeveloped land.

“I used to work in the Research Park area and I’ve just seen how that area has evolved in the past eight years with all the development,” said Dimple Ajmera, “so I can see how well this fits in with the other development that has gone [there] and it’s really become a job hub, not just for District 4 but for our entire city.” 

Discussing the final petition of the night with a petitioner who has had trouble soliciting community feedback, Renee Johnson suggested that the city could be doing more, starting with placing QR codes on the yellow/blue signs that the city puts on parcels that are up for rezoning so neighbors can learn more.