REBIC – Charlotte Community Area Plans Slated for a Final Vote in April

From REBIC - 3/31/26

Several years ago, the City of Charlotte engaged in the process of developing 14 Community Area Plans. Seven were adopted last fall with the remaining seven delayed for additional review. Last week council held a hearing on the remaining plans and also adopted what was described as a maintenance amendment the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) aimed at providing additional clarity and resolving inconsistencies.

For the Community Area Plans, staff is recommending three policy changes and they are as follows:

• Managing neighborhood change – Policies that balance preserving valued neighborhood characteristics with accommodating growth. These policies support context-sensitive infill development.
  • Reducing environmental impacts – Policies that promote environmentally responsible growth and improve transitions between land uses, particularly where neighborhoods and manufacturing areas meet. These policies also encourage future projects and public investments to help reduce existing environmental impacts.
  • Ensuring infrastructure can support growth – Policies that align future growth with infrastructure capacity and commit the City to regularly reviewing how development affects transportation services.

• Minor additions and revisions that clarify language, strengthen policy intent, and ensure the plans more accurately reflect community priorities.
• Policy Map changes that incorporate community feedback while remaining consistent with the citywide mapping approach.

The Revised Policy Map and additional information can be found on the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan website

The text amendment that was adopted may be found here, along with the summary here.

My Take:  The Charlotte UDO became effective on June 1, 2023. As we near its three-year anniversary, it seems like a good time to reflect on where we are. So far, 14 text amendments have been adopted, with work in progress on at least a couple more. These kinds of changes are to be expected because while many text amendments to this point have been technical in nature, future changes will likely have greater policy implications.

However, the proposed new language to be included as guidance for the Area Plans gives me pause. With the passage of the UDO, council signaled it understood Charlotte was moving from being a “greenfield development” city to a community largely being redeveloped, and that higher densities were acceptable moving forward in order to handle a rapidly growing population. Unfortunately, since passage of the ordinance, the signals coming to us now are very mixed.

The proposed guidance language for inclusion within the Community Area Plans seems to take us in a direction that would hamper our ability to meet current and future housing needs. Tragically, it gives greater say to existing homeowners at the potential detriment of those seeking to become part of our community. That doesn’t seem all that neighborly to me. Is there only one voice and future voices don’t count?

I’d like to hear from you. What’s your perspective? Rob.Nanfelt@REBIC.com