REBIC – Letter to Charlotte’s New Mayor

From REBIC - 6/23/26

Dear Mayor Harrington,

On behalf of the Real Estate & Building Industry Coalition (REBIC), I want to extend our warmest congratulations on your selection by the Charlotte City Council to serve as the 60th Mayor of Charlotte. As a deeply respected civic leader and an accomplished attorney, your reputation for listening, building consensus, and fostering collaboration is precisely what our city requires during this critical 18-month transition. As the legal and civic “bridge” guiding Charlotte through December 2027, you take the helm during a period of immense growth and equally substantial economic challenges.

The real estate, development, and construction industries serve as the foundational backbone of Charlotte’s economy. To ensure our city remains a vibrant, competitive, and livable place to build a life and a business, we believe it is vital to immediately bring several high-stakes issues to your attention.

Our coalition stands ready to collaborate with you on the following pressing challenges:

• Housing Affordability: You have rightly identified affordability as Charlotte’s most pressing structural hurdle. To combat the severe deficit of both workforce and affordable housing, we must aggressively re-examine local land-use policies, maximize public-private partnerships, and incentivize diverse housing types. True affordability cannot be solved by the public sector; it requires a regulatory environment that allows the private market to build efficiently and affordably.
• Permitting and Inspections Process: Long-standing inefficiencies, backlogs, and unpredictable timelines within the city and county’s permitting and building inspection systems act as a hidden tax on all forms of construction. These systemic delays artificially inflate development costs and directly stall the delivery of critical commercial projects and affordable residential units. Streamlining these administrative bottlenecks must be an immediate operational priority.
• The I-77 Controversy: The ongoing, complex friction surrounding the now scrubbed I-77 expansion project requires a steady, analytical hand. We need proactive leadership that aligns regional transportation planning with real-world infrastructure demands and reasonably disperses the financial burden without stifling regional commerce. Your assistance in bringing parties back to the table for additional conversation followed by specific action is desperately needed now.
• Data Centers: The growth of data centers across the Charlotte region brings significant economic investment but also presents intense challenges regarding land use and zoning. We must establish a balanced, forward-looking strategy that accommodates advanced technological infrastructure with appropriate planning for future energy and water needs brought on by a growing population. We have the opportunity over the next five months to establish a regulatory framework that protects the interests of the community but also allows the continued use of technology on which many of us depend on a daily basis.
• The Charlotte Douglas International Airport Lease: The economic vitality of our region is inextricably linked to the operational autonomy and growth of Charlotte Douglas International Airport. We must ensure the airport remains a premier global hub capable of supporting a booming regional logistics, commercial, and tourism ecosystem.

Your background and experience equips you with the exact toolset needed to navigate these multi-faceted, high-stakes challenges. REBIC is fully committed to acting as a resource, providing data, and working alongside you and the City Council to craft balanced, pragmatic solutions to these complex challenges.

We look forward to scheduling a time to meet with you in the coming weeks to discuss how we can collectively move Charlotte forward. Thank you for your willingness to step into this vital role and for paying your success forward through your commitment to the community.

Sincerely,

Rob Nanfelt
Executive Director
REBIC

Rob’s Take: Let me start by expressing my appreciation to Vi Lyles for everything she has given to this city and region. Her investment of personal capital over time has been significant. Prior to serving in elected office and for nearly 30 years, she served the city in a different role, initially as a Budget Analyst and then ultimately as Budget Director. I’m happy she can move on to the next phase of her life on her terms, and I’m certain her grandchildren are thrilled they will be seeing more of her in the very near future. Moving forward, we are looking forward to forging a new relationship with Mayor Harrington and collaborating on solutions to aggressively and urgently solve some of the city’s biggest pain points.