Council Quickies: Rail Trail Bridge Funding and Data Center Discussion
Council hears from residents at public forum
Charlotte City Council held its monthly business meeting on Monday night, hearing from residents during a public forum, voting on funding for the anticipated Rail Trail pedestrian bridge and discussing a potential moratorium on data centers.
Below, we bring you some of the notable decisions and discussions from Monday night’s meeting.
On the Agenda:
- Public forum
- Rail Trail pedestrian bridge and other business items
- Data center discussion
Public forum
Angelicka Crawford of Jumping Dreams, a local competitive Double Dutch and youth development organization, told council her team will represent Charlotte in a world tournament in Cincinnati in June.
She asked that the city provide financial support to help bring all of her jumpers, including those whose families can’t afford it, to the event. She added that the organization, currently in its eighth year, is looking for a permanent home.
“We’ll figure it out. We’ll work on it,” said Mayor Vi Lyles following Crawford’s speech.
Jeremy Lamb (not the former Hornets player but the current Charlotte Symphony cellist) asked council to address the rise of muffler cutouts that are attached to cars to produce what he calls “hellacious noise.” He played recordings he made in Uptown of cars with muffler cutouts that sounded similar to gunfire.
Matt Weschler, a member of the Bicycle Advisory Committee, complained that parents do not feel safe cycling with their children in Charlotte. He stated that cyclists are involved in 1.5% of crashes in the city but make up 29% of all fatal and serious injuries, well above the national average.
Weschler said a coherent citywide network is needed, asking that the city increase its budget for cycling infrastructure to $10 million annually rather than the current $4 million allocation.
Hugh Templeman, general manager at the Grand Bohemian Charlotte, said the number of travelers coming into Charlotte in the first quarter of this year is down 4%. He believes noise is part of the problem.
“One needs to understand that perception is reality. Not only is the noise the issue, it’s the perception of safety,” Templeman said.
He requested that the city implement sound-activated street cameras that would result in drivers being ticketed for exceeding a maximum noise level, similar to a program that’s been enacted in Philadelphia.
The next speaker was a worker at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) who said he makes $12.50 an hour helping airline customers who are elderly or disabled reach and board their flights. He discussed the poor working conditions he deals with.
He said missing one or two days of work due to illness can upend his entire family’s financial situation. He walks 10-14 miles per shift and is sometimes asked to “double push,” meaning to push two wheelchairs simultaneously.
Dorothy Griffin, 68, said she has worked for ABM, a contractor that provides cabin cleaners and other workers to airlines at CLT, for eight years.
“I am tired of making poverty wages,” Griffin said. “We give them our best because we love our job but half of our workers are homeless.”
Read more: Workers Rally at Airport Amidst American Airlines Lease Negotiations
The wife of a firefighter with the Charlotte Fire Department said her husband and nearly all of his coworkers are forced to hold second jobs to make ends meet. She spoke on Monday night in his place because he was at his second job.
“My husband loves his job, but I see all this risk and sacrifice, training and dedication, passion for serving the citizens of this city, while we cannot sustain even the basics of living where he serves,” she said before asking that all CFD employees be paid a living wage.
Rail Trail pedestrian bridge and other business items
Council voted unanimously to designate the Faires Farm silos on Faires Farm Road as a historic landmark.
Located at the entrance of the neighborhood of the same name in the University City area, the two Faires Farm silos are the last known extant structures of the 330-acre Faires cattle farm, operated during the mid-20th century by Frank and Viola Faires.
Built in the 1950s, the silos are architecturally significant as they are the only known silos within the city limits that demonstrate in such close proximity the two primary means of 20th-century silo construction, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmark Commission. One silo was constructed using large bands of poured concrete, the other comprises rows of interlocking concrete staves bolstered by steel reinforcement hoops.
Council voted unanimously to accept over $3 million in grants from the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization ($2,549,395) and The Queen’s Table ($511,529) to go toward the I-277 Rail Trail Bridge project, a pedestrian bridge years in the making that will connect Uptown to South End.
The project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2028.
Data center discussion
In council discussions before the end of Monday night’s meeting, council member Dimple Ajmera brought up data centers, which she wrote about in the Charlotte Observer last week.
She said the city attorney informed council that data centers are currently allowed by right in multiple zoning districts: Commercial, Industrial, Research Campuses, Mixed-Use Areas, and Uptown Core.
“Currently this feels like Wild West right now and we need some guardrails in place,” Ajmera said.
Mayor Lyles called for the topic to be placed on the agenda for discussion at the May 11 meeting, but Ajmera said she wants to see action taken, potentially including a temporary moratorium on any data center petitions until more research can be done.
Ajmera said she would like to see research to inform council on whether they need to enact limits or mitigation policies to address impacts on water supply, the energy grid, and quality of life for area residents.
Dante Anderson said she would like to see council have a more robust conversation and hear from experts with Duke Energy before making any decisions about a moratorium or pause on new construction.
Anderson pointed out that Duke supports data centers throughout the state so they will already have the research that city staff has estimated it would take three to six months to compile.
JD Mazuera Arias pointed out that Ajmera’s motion was simply for a public hearing, which would be needed before any moratorium could be considered.
“A public hearing would allow us to invite all stakeholders to the table — those that know the real harmful impacts of data centers in residential areas as well as those corporations that profit from data centers.”
Kimberly Owens repeated her earlier stated concerns that pushing data centers offshore or outsourcing them to other countries could make American residents vulnerable in a way that is more threatening than the impacts we currently know about.
She said she needs to do more research herself before hearing from community members at a hearing because she believes some people are anti-AI in general and use data centers as a reason to rail against the broader technology.
Mayor Lyles cast a tiebreaker vote on the public hearing motion, voting No. It will still be on the agenda for a discussion among council on May 11 but there will be no action on a moratorium for now as there will be no public hearing to precede it.
