Council Quickies: CATS Safety, Affordable Housing and Historic Landmarks

Charlotte City Council held a quick public forum and business meeting on Monday night, continuing a new model that began this month in which council does not hear action review presentations before the meeting but rather discusses whatever issues are on their mind with the city manager and each other to close out the meeting for a segment called Council Topics.  

Council voted on a couple of affordable housing developments and discussed public safety following a couple of high-profile assaults on CATS vehicles, including the stabbing death of a woman on the light rail on Friday and the attack of a 57-year-old man by a group of young people on a CATS bus earlier this month. 

On the Agenda:

• Public Forum
• Historic Landmarks & Affordable Housing
• Council Topics

Public Forum

To start the public forum, one speaker proposed the city run a 311 database program he created to help residents know whether their car’s been towed and by whom while another suggested the city implement a tiered fine structure to penalize folks who litter local roadsides with “spam signage.”

Alden Picard with the NC Wildlife Federation asked that the city amend the city’s overgrown vegetation ordinance to allow for naturalist gardens and add a height exemption for naturalistic landscapes. He says the current ordinance discourages and even prohibits local residents from practicing wildlife stewardship on their properties. 

Another advocate for amending the city’s overgrown vegetation ordinance to allow for naturalistic gardens says doing so would be WOKE: Wildly Open to Kindness and Empathy. “Let’s be WOKE in the most meaningful way.”

Tyler Kotch of PIE.ZAA Pizza in South End asked that the city crack down on unpermitted food vendors, who he says make things tough for brick-and-mortar business owners in the area and risk public safety. He suggested that the city expand its NoDa street vending pilot program to South End.

An 18-year-old Providence Day School student gave a speech about Dillon Rule, which limits the powers of local government to those expressly granted by the state, and asked that council push back against the NCGA to fight for more power to make decisions about their own city.

Historic Landmarks & Affordable Housing

Council designated the Dr. Charles W. and Vivian L. Williams House (est. 1963) in Hyde Park Estates as a historic landmark. The house is significant for its association with surgeon Dr. Charles Warren Williams and his wife Vivian, an educator with CMS.

Williams’ accomplishments include integrating the NC Medical Society and Charlotte Memorial Hospital, establishing the community health center that bears his name, and his involvement in such Black-centered developments as the East Independence Plaza/Walton Plaza office tower.

Also a newly minted historic landmark: The Ziglar-Bowers House in Wesley Heights is a locally significant historic and architectural resource as one of only two surviving Craftsman-Colonial Revival residences in Wesley Heights and a symbol of the impact of redlining/urban renewal.

From the city’s information sheet: “The initial development of Wesley Heights targeted white-collar workers and their families like the Ziglars. Redlining in the late 1930s led to a shift to white working-class residents like the Bowers family. Urban renewal and blockbusting practices in Wesley Heights subsequently accelerated the neighborhood’s demographic transition from overwhelmingly white to Black in the 1970s. Thus, the Ziglar Bowers House is also significant for its associative history of Charlotte’s mid-twentieth century urban demographic transition.”

Council voted on whether to provide $600,000 in federal HUD dollars to go toward developing the $15-million Oak Hill Apartments project, a 46-unit affordable housing development located on Blackwelder Drive in Davidson. The town of Davidson is putting $500,000 toward the project while the county is expected to vote on adding another $600,000.

The Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds are meant to be used on collaborative regional affordable housing initiatives in all Mecklenburg towns. Council members Renee Perkins Johnson and Tiawana Brown cast the only two No votes for the project because it’s not in Charlotte. 

Council voted unanimously to approve $2.6 million in ARPA funding to go to DreamKey Partners for the purchase and renovation of Nu Wesley Apartments on Avalon Avenue in Enderly Park. The 58-unit development will include a 30-year deed restriction for the preservation of 11 units at or below 30% of the area median income (AMI) and 47 units at or below 60% AMI. 

Council Topics

With business items taken care of, council opened up the floor to broader discussions during the Council Topics portion of the meeting. Dimple Ajmera brought up safety issues on public transit. “Clearly our current safety policies are not enough,” she said, adding that she wants steps to be taken before the transit tax vote in November. 

LaWana Mayfield pointed out that elderly Charlotteans in senior-living facilities and neighborhoods are some of the most vulnerable to raising rents and are being regularly priced out of said facilities and neighborhoods. She’d like to see the city provide protections for them by holding affordable housing partners accountable.

Mayfield also shot down reports that a new police chief has been chosen to replace Johnny Jennings upon his upcoming retirement. She said someone in media had published a name but city manager Marcus Jones said he doesn’t know what that name could be because they are still early in the process. 

Edwin Peacock addressed recent violence on public transit, requesting more information on the victim and suspect, plus data and trends related to criminal activity along the light rail over the last 36 months.

“All I know from my experience living in Washington DC and having a lot of friends in Atlanta is the moment the transit system starts to become something that is not considered to be safe is the moment when you begin to lose riders and lose the momentum that you want to keep,” said Peacock. 

Renee Perkins Johnson said she would like to see a presentation from city staff on the company that is contracted out to provide security on CATS properties to hear what action they are taking, if any, to prevent these violent incidents on CATS vehicles and learn more about their contract.

Read more: VIPR Team Deployed in Charlotte, Muddling Up CATS Policing Further (2022)

City manager Marcus Jones said that Animal Care & Control has been transferred out from under CMPD’s oversight and into the General Services department, a move that has already cut down on a lot of the red tape involved with adopting an animal from the shelter.

Charlotte City Council will meet again for committee discussions on Tuesday, Sept. 2, as the preceding Monday is Labor Day.