Moment of truth for single-family zoning in Charlotte. Plus: A timeline of how we got here

Minutes after a majority of city council indicated May 10 they’d like to keep some neighborhoods zoned single-family only, Republican member Tariq Bokhari wrote, “Small successes build into big wins.”

• A week later, that theory didn’t hold true.

Driving the news: City council on May 17 held straw votes on line-item revisions to the big 2040 comprehensive plan, and on the most controversial one — eliminating a section allowing duplexes and triplexes in what are currently single-family neighborhoods — the council reversed course.

• The controversial section 2.1 of the 2040 plan (found on page 103 here) moves forward intact.
• Council is scheduled to vote on the overall plan next month.

Why it matters: If you haven’t been following, the 2040 plan is a wonky topic that has a profound effect on your future. It’s a non-binding document, full of big ideas, that provides guardrails for how Charlotte will grow as it adds an expected 400,000 new people by 2040.

• Where will they live? Next door to you?
• And in what types of home? A treehouse in your backyard perhaps?
• And using what type of transportation? Scooters and skateboards, or something more formal?
• The plan tries to put a more serious frame around those answers.

But everything’s political: Council Republicans, along with a coalition of developers, homebuilders and neighborhood associations, have sought to delay and “pump the brakes” on the plan since March. They eventually raised enough doubt about the zoning change that several Democrats have joined them, for varying reasons.

• That means the May 17 straw vote on whether to axe section 2.1 was somewhat a larger question about the local Democratic Party: How progressive, really, is a city council that’s 9-2 Democrats if it upholds single-family-only zoning?

The big picture: Eliminating single-family zoning is viewed by many as a way to create more equitable states and cities. But others argue that’s short-sighted, and predict it will only exacerbate inequities because developers are more likely to seek out properties in lower-income neighborhoods for these multifamily units.

Of note: Minneapolis eliminated single-family-only when it adopted its 2040 plan in 2019.

• Our friends at Axios Twin Cities recently reported that it resulted in construction of just 16 new duplexes and 4 new triplexes last year.

What’s next: Each of the items receiving six or more votes at the May 17 meeting will be incorporated into the second draft that will be released for public comment on May 19, city manager Marcus Jones said in a memo to council members last week. Modifications will also appear in the final draft, which is scheduled for council adoption on June 21.

• Whenever a plan is adopted, Council will move on to the unified development ordinance (UDO) and place-type mapping processes.
• The UDO is essentially an overhaul of the city’s zoning policies. Making the proposals in the 2040 plan binding requires a separate vote on the UDO. [Go deeper]

It’s been messy: The May 10 and May 17 meetings were seven hours apiece. There’ve been multiple times when it was apparent some council members have a better understanding of the plan than others. The long delays were either political calculations or genuine misunderstandings: In any case, for the general public, it was immensely frustrating and impossible to follow.

• I’ve been a journalist for 20 years in Virginia and North Carolina, and in that time I’ve seen local public bodies with members who were blatant crooks, overt racists and sexists, and secretly slimy. Few boards have provided such tortuously long meetings as this one.
• Of course some of that is a product of virtual meetings and the pandemic, but in any case, the real outcome is that the public wears down and stops following.
• “Now we know why it’s been since 1975 since we last did one of these,” mayor pro tem Julie Eiselt said during last week’s meeting, as council members expressed frustration and confusion over the whole process.
• “I just don’t know what we’re doing,” councilman Braxton Winston later added.

PR campaigns have stepped in to fill the fatigue gap: Developers and homebuilders launched “Get it Right CLT” last week to try to stop the plan from moving forward as-is.

• The campaign came about a week after a group of influential housing advocates launched a campaign for signatures of people in favor of the plan called “Neighbors for More Neighbors CLT.”

The bottom line: More than 80% of residential land in Charlotte is zoned single-family, and no matter what happens with that policy, the city will have to figure out where to funnel all the new residents over the next two decades.

Here’s a timeline of how we got here:

• 1975 — Charlotte adopts a comprehensive plan. The population at the time was about 280,000. SouthPark Mall was five years old. Six of the current council members weren’t born yet.
• 2014 — A Harvard and Cal-Berkeley study ranked Charlotte last among major U.S. cities in terms of upward mobility.
• 2017 — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity report goes public. Among the recommendations: Increase supply of affordable housing, and reimagine public transit to make it easier for families that don’t have a car to access work and amenities such as grocery stores.
• 2018 — Charlotte hires Taiwo Jaiyeoba as planning director. One of his primary jobs is to develop a new comprehensive plan that leads to better opportunity outcomes.
• Early 2020 — “We don’t want to lose our waiters,” Jaiyeoba told Charlotte magazine in a story about the progress of the plan’s development, saying he wanted to ensure lower wage earners have a place to live near the heart of town.
• In the same story, the sternest critic of Jaiyoba’s draft was from someone who didn’t believe it went far enough.
• Oct. 31, 2020 — The city releases the plan to the public.
• Feb. 2021 — Neighborhood associations such as Myers Park start to circulate letters informing people about the possibility of eliminating single-family-only zoning.
• March 2021 — A seemingly simple council meeting about the plan devolved, as some council members clearly hadn’t read the plan, and those who did had concerns, saying it was moving too quickly.
• Late March 2021 — Mayor Vi Lyles and council agree to delay a vote on the plan from April to June, to give the public more time to consume and offer feedback.
• April 29, 2021 — The two Republican council members tell a meeting of young Republicans about their efforts to delay the vote on the current version plan.
• May 10, 2021 — The council goes through the plan and calling out concerns line by line, and any concerns that have a majority of council support will need to be address by staff.
• One of those concerns was section 2.1 on single-family zoning. A vote to consider pulling it out of the plan passed 6-5.
• May 17, 2021 — Council held contentious straw votes on the pieces of the plan that have caused concerns. One council member, Greg Phipps, flips, and section 2.1 moves forward.
• May-June 2021 — Staff will make the revisions.
• Late June 2021 — Council will vote on whether to adopt the plan.

Axios’ Katie Peralta Soloff contributed to this story.